by Holly Rayner
There was the sound of muffled conversation on the other end of the line. “He’s a busy man,” the stranger on the other end said. “Where are you and when can you meet?”
Aurora glanced at the screen to check the time. “That depends where he wants to meet me,” she told the man. “I’m…” she pressed her lips together. “I’m not all that close to downtown.” Again she heard the muffled speaking on the other end; she couldn’t make out what was being said.
“He says he’ll meet you by Vagabond at five,” the man said finally. “If you don’t show…”
“He’ll just track me down anyway, I know,” Aurora said irritably. “Why would I call to set up a meeting if I didn’t intend to show?”
“It happens all the time,” the man on the other end said. “Just be there.” He ended the call and Aurora sighed, thinking that, at the very least, she was one step closer to finding the way out of her situation.
She found the closest bus stop and waited, wondering what Khaleel was doing; whether he’d simply sailed away again, or if he was staying somewhere in the city. Aurora hugged the jacket closer to her as the bus approached, and felt something clunk against her leg. That’s strange, she thought, shifting the fabric of the jacket. There was something in the left pocket, she was certain of it. Aurora glanced into her purse and saw that she hadn’t put her phone in the pocket; what could be in the jacket then?
Aurora paid her fare and walked to the back of the bus, lost in thought. The bus lumbered into motion and Aurora sat down heavily, breathing shallowly to avoid smelling the exhaust and other odors.
She reached into her pocket, glancing around to make sure no one was watching her, and her fingers closed around something. It was a medium-sized jeweler’s box, and Aurora’s confusion deepened. She glanced around furtively, and then, turning so that the box was concealed from any prying eyes.
Aurora opened the box to reveal a watch—not just any watch, but the very one she had considered stealing from Khaleel, not two days before.
She stared at the watch in confusion for a moment, wondering if somehow the Sheikh had forgotten it. The fact that it was inside a jeweler’s box implied that he had put it in the pocket intentionally. But what could Khaleel have wanted for her to do with it? He gave me this jacket—he insisted on it. He had the watch in there the whole time. If it hadn’t been cold, would he have just given me the box? Aurora smiled slowly as she realized that he had meant it as a gift. She had told him about the situation with Jon, and he had known that she had been tempted to steal the forgotten watch. He had given it to her as a means to get herself out of trouble.
The sadness she’d felt at parting from Khaleel deepened exponentially, and for a moment Aurora was tempted to stop the bus, run back to the docks—however far away they were—and try and find the Sheikh to thank him, and beg him to let her run away with him, wherever it was he intended to go next. She dismissed the idea; Khaleel had given her the possibility of a way out. She couldn’t try and make him give her anything more than that, and she had decided to take care of her troubles head-on before she had had any inkling of the gift.
She put the watch back into the pocket and shifted in her seat, taking another slow, deep breath and steeling herself for the meeting that awaited her.
FOURTEEN
It took three buses for Aurora to make it to Vagabond, on the outskirts of the downtown area. By the time she walked up to the entrance of the hole-in-the-wall club, she was concerned that she would be late.
She checked the time again and again, absently wondering if Jon was toying with her and had no intention of meeting her as arranged. Or maybe he's somewhere else, trying to collect from the wrong person, she thought with a shiver, looking around and walking away from the entrance. The club’s owners wouldn’t appreciate her talking business with a man like Jon right in front of their club.
She ducked into an alleyway behind the club and waited, thinking that if Jon was smart, that was where he would go as well. Aurora fidgeted, hugging the jacket close to her body, her heart beating faster and faster as the minutes dragged on.
Just when Aurora would have abandoned any hope of the meeting, a car pulled up to the entrance of the alleyway. Aurora told herself that it was probably just someone who wanted to get into the club from the back; but a moment later a familiar face emerged from the car, and she spotted Jon climbing out. Behind him came two other men, dressed in less flashy suits but broader in the shoulders, more heavily built. Aurora’s stomach lurched inside of her and she tried to keep her face calm as Jon and his two flunkies approached her.
“I thought that you were too busy for me,” Aurora said. “You’re late.”
“It’s important for you to be on time to a meeting with me,” Jon said, coming to a stop a few feet away from her. “I can show up when I want to.” He looked her up and down slowly, a bemused expression on his face. “That’s a nice jacket.”
“A friend loaned it to me,” Aurora said, shrugging.
“So, are you paying up or just wasting my time?”
Aurora shook her head. “I can’t. I need more time, Jon.”
Jon’s haughty expression deepened into a scowl. “What kind of a fool do you take me for?”
Aurora glanced at the two men flanking the loan shark; neither of them looked even slightly inclined to take it easy on her.
“You went to my job,” Aurora pointed out. “You have to know that there’s no way I can make enough at a job like that to pay you thousands of dollars right out of the blue.”
Jon shrugged. “That’s not really my problem, darlin',” he said. “You got thousands of dollars from your boy. He got thousands of dollars from us. If you couldn’t pay it back, you shouldn’t have taken the money to begin with.”
“I thought I was borrowing from my ex, from a friend,” Aurora insisted. “I thought that I’d have more time to pay it back.”
“Well, that kind of sounds like your problem to me,” Jon said. “That money was supposed to be paid back a month ago, and I'm no sexist—I can’t give you any more of a break just because you're a woman.” Jon’s lips twisted into a smug grin, and Aurora was torn between terror and wanting to slap the expression off of his face.
“How is beating me up going to get you your money back? If I can’t make money, I can’t pay money.”
“We’re a bit beyond that now, peach,” Jon said, shaking his head with a mock-sad expression on his face. “You’re a month late. I have to make sure nobody in the city thinks I’m soft on people who owe me. Guys will send their girlfriends to get loans, and I’ll never get paid back. You understand what I'm saying? No one will take me seriously.”
“But isn’t your money more important than your—your pride?” Aurora glanced at the two men behind Jon. “Pride without money isn’t going to serve your business.”
“Oh—I still expect to get my money back,” Jon said, grinning. “But first I have to set an example.” He gestured to the two men and they stepped out from behind him, moving towards Aurora.
“Wait! Wait.” She remembered the watch in the coat pocket. “I have something else from my friend.” Aurora reached into the jacket pocket quickly and withdrew the jeweler’s box, opening it and showing its contents to Jon. “It’s not money, but it has to be worth at least as much as I supposedly owe you.”
Jon looked into the box, one eyebrow raised. “A watch?” He shook his head. “My game is money, girl—not accessories.” He reached into the box and took the watch out of it, and Aurora stepped back, her heart pounding in her chest. Jon examined it in detail, frowning at the face. “Cartier huh? I just bet it is.” He clucked his tongue against his teeth and shook his head again. “There’s no way of me knowing how much this is actually worth until it’s appraised,” Jon said.
“But you—you could call those guys off, take some time to find out. If it’s not enough then we could talk about how much more I owe,” Aurora suggested, trying to keep her tone light.
&n
bsp; Jon chuckled. “And in the meantime you leave town and I have to take time out from my business to find you,” he said. He shook his head. “No. No deal.” He hefted the watch in his hands, looking at it with an admiring gaze for a moment. “Grab her, guys.”
Aurora shrieked, stumbling backwards, feeling almost as frozen as she had in her nightmare two nights before. Before she could collect herself enough to attempt to run, a screeching sound announced the arrival of a pair of SUVs at the end of the alleyway.
Aurora stared in shock, and the three men who had come to meet her stopped in their advance. Men began to pile out of the two vehicles; most of them at least as big as Jon’s two hired hands. They were dressed in crisp suits, looking almost as though they might be law enforcement. Aurora’s shock deepened as the last man emerged from the SUV. She recognized him immediately: it was Khaleel, dressed in a different suit, but looking just as impressive as he had on the yacht, and now he was advancing into the alleyway with a cadre of burly men.
“Who the fuck are you?” Jon yelled.
Aurora glanced at Jon, delighted at the sound of fear in the man’s voice, the uncertainty she saw in his body language.
“I’m the son of a bitch who’s telling you to get the hell out of here,” Khaleel said to Jon, his voice bold and thundering. “Whatever you had in mind, it’s done and over with.”
Aurora watched as Jon looked at his two thugs, and then looked at the collection of men that Khaleel had brought with him. The Sheikh stood facing him, looking as unaffected and coolly confident as if he had been the king of the city, instead of a businessman. “If you don’t walk away in the next thirty seconds, we’re going to have a problem.”
Jon needed no further prompting; he nodded to the two men he’d brought with him, handed the watch to Aurora and hurried away, barely even glancing in her direction as he beat his retreat.
As soon as the loan shark disappeared around the corner of the building, Aurora turned her attention back onto Khaleel. He smiled slightly, glancing around him as if the situation were nothing more than a prank.
“Who are those guys?” she asked Khaleel, gesturing to the men who stood behind him. “How did you know I was even here? And—and why did you come?”
“First,” Khaleel said, reaching out to take the watch from her numb hand, “I came to retrieve my possession.” Aurora blushed, wondering if he had set her up the way he had when he’d called her into his room and told her about the “initial evaluation.” “I tracked you using the GPS embedded in the watch.” Khaleel’s voice rippled with amusement. “One of my favorite anti-theft features.” He slipped the watch into his pocket and gestured to the men hanging around the alley. “These guys are just some desk jockeys at the Miami office of my company. They wanted to earn some extra money, and I thought they looked impressive enough.” In spite of the cool arrogance of his demeanor, Aurora couldn’t suppress the rush of gratitude and relief that she felt at his appearance.
“Thank you,” she said. On impulse, she strode forward, throwing her arms around Khaleel’s shoulders, burying her face against his chest. She trembled in the aftermath of her adrenaline rush, so happy at the fate that she had avoided thanks to his interference. She wanted to cry, that she wanted to curl up at his feet and sob until she’d exhausted the last nervous energy in her body.
Aurora shuddered, fighting back the tears that welled up in her eyes. “Thank you, Khaleel. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this.”
The Sheikh took her shoulders in his hand and carefully pulled her away from him, looking down into her face. “For now, I’d say you can repay me by coming with me,” he said, smiling slightly. “This is no place for you to be hanging out right now.”
He glanced at the other men he’d brought with him. “Gentlemen, our mission is accomplished. I’ll be taking Miss Evans with me; the rest of you are excused to go back to the office. The overtime will be in your accounts in forty-eight hours.”
The men started to move towards one of the SUVs and Aurora let Khaleel claim her hand in his own. She was so relieved, so grateful, and so overwhelmed by the way he had arrived, that she followed him without even a moment’s hesitation.
Khaleel opened the back door of the SUV and helped her climb up into the seat, giving her a moment to settle herself before he climbed in after her.
Aurora took one final look around the alleyway and shook her head at the sheer volume of luck that she had experienced. All of this happened because I decided to try to stow away on a private yacht, she thought as Khaleel gave the order for the driver to pull onto the street and take them to “the apartment.”
FIFTEEN
Aurora had seen the huge, glittering building Khaleel’s driver stopped in front of at least a dozen times since she moving to Miami, but she had never once thought she would get to go inside it.
Khaleel got out of the SUV first, and offered her his hand to help her climb down from the seat. She saw that the other SUV was gone; its occupants were doubtless on their way home. Khaleel held onto her hand and gently tugged Aurora towards the entrance of the building, giving her a quick reassuring glance.
She followed him into the building and looked around, taking in the marble and brass that decorated the lobby, as they both walked towards the elevators.
“Hello, Lucy,” Khaleel called out to the woman at the front desk.
“Good to see you again, Mr. Al-Mohammedi,” the woman called back. If Aurora hadn’t seen Khaleel’s yacht, if she hadn’t already been exposed to the almost absurd level of wealth in his life, she thought she would have been staggered by the grandeur of the apartment building’s interior. Khaleel stopped at the elevators and gave her hand a squeeze.
“Almost there,” Khaleel told her lowly.
Aurora couldn’t help but wonder; at what Khaleel wanted with her, what he was going to tell her, why he had helped her. He had been all but silent on the drive from Vagabond, making small talk with the driver, commenting on the always-horrific Miami traffic.
“You look pale, Aurora. Under the tan, at least.”
Aurora smiled wryly, peering around the lobby as they waited for the elevator to arrive. “I think I’m still pretty high on adrenaline,” she admitted.
The elevator chimed, and when the doors opened, Aurora’s wide eyes took in the subdued splendor of the car: wood paneling, gleaming brass rail, and marble floor tiles in an intricate mosaic. She stepped into the elevator car, still holding Khaleel’s hand, and watched as he selected the Penthouse floor. A soft, feminine voice asked for his access code, and Khaleel slid a panel aside to enter it quickly.
Moments later they were walking down a short hallway, and then Khaleel was unlocking and opening a door, and they stepped into his apartment.
Aurora kicked off her shoes, pushing them with her foot towards a spot that bore an engraved chrome sign saying “shoes here.” She looked around, and realized after a moment of taking in the plush couches, thick rugs, and wood floors, that the penthouse was decorated in a similar way to the yacht.
The penthouse was more luxurious than Aurora could have imagined an apartment ever being. It was, she thought, possibly as large as her parents’ actual house; certainly the living room seemed to be larger than her entire apartment.
Khaleel told her to take a seat and strode in his socks into the open kitchen at the other end of the space. “Let me make you something to drink—you look like you need it,” he said.
Aurora sat down on one of the couches in the living room and took in the details of the room; she recognized the subtly Arabic theme that Khaleel had incorporated into the space with the patterns on the rug, a few scattered pieces of artwork.
Her nerves tingled, her skin going hot and cold as she waited for Khaleel to reappear in the living room. She could hear his movements in the kitchen, and occasionally caught glances of him walking around, reaching for something in a cabinet. She couldn’t quite escape a feeling of being an interloper, of being the country bumpk
in in the big city—a feeling she hadn’t had in Miami since her first week of med school classes.
Finally, Khaleel emerged, holding a small tray with an ornate teapot and a low, squat bottle, along with two delicate-looking cups. “You could use something warm to drink, am I right?”
Aurora smiled and nodded. “I could, definitely,” she agreed.
Khaleel poured tea into one of the cups, and added a shot of amber-colored liquid from the bottle, handing it to Aurora before sitting down. Aurora took a sip and sighed with appreciation; the tea was sweet and spicy, full of flavors she couldn’t quite identify. The secondary heat of the alcohol made something in her stomach relax.
“You’re looking better already,” Khaleel said, pouring his own drink and sitting down in a chair close by.
Aurora smiled. “There’s something I’ve been wondering, ever since you showed up. You didn’t actually answer my question from before: why did you help me?”
