by Holly Rayner
Aurora took one last look around her quarters, resisting the temptation to bury herself between the covers refuse to leave. “It has to be done,” she told herself firmly, adjusting her bag on her shoulder and striding towards the door.
She left the cabin and made her way through the hallways, feeling the shifts in the yacht’s movements as they approached the marina.
Khaleel was standing out on the deck, watching the ocean behind them. When Aurora emerged from the interior, he turned to greet her. “Are you sure that you want to go back?” he asked. “I mean, I could just get someone to refuel the yacht and we could go somewhere else.”
“I’m sure,” she said, smiling ruefully.
The weather had changed; thick clouds obscured the afternoon sun, and and a squally, cold wind blew around her, making Aurora shiver. Her skirt and blouse—the same outfit she’d been wearing when she boarded—were not meant for the stiff breeze and chill air.
Khaleel frowned at the sight of her shivering and shrugged off his jacket. “Here, take this.”
“No—no, please,” Aurora said, forestalling him. “I’ll be fine once I get inland.”
“I insist,” Khaleel said. “I have a thousand more just like it.”
He draped the jacket over her shoulders and Aurora bit back any argument, thinking that if nothing else happened, she at least had a memento of one of the kindest men she had ever met. Aurora slid her arms into the sleeves, pulling the jacket closer around her body; it smelled of Khaleel’s cologne and soap, and she breathed in the scent as surreptitiously as possible.
A moment later, acting on impulse, Aurora threw her arms around Khaleel, briefly pressing her face to his shoulder in a hug of gratitude, feeling the tingling burn in her eyes as her emotions overwhelmed her. Khaleel’s arms wound around her, holding her close, and Aurora thought that if she could somehow manage to just not let go of him, everything in her life would be all right. She pressed her body against his, savoring the contact, storing the feeling of his heat in her memory, to save for a moment when she might need the comfort.
Then she broke away, stepping back from him as one of the crew announced that they were at port. “I can’t keep running,” Aurora said, her throat tightening with a mixture of sadness at parting from Khaleel and fear at what lay ahead of her.
“I understand,” Khaleel said, giving her hand a squeeze. “Good luck to you, Aurora.”
Aurora swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, turning away from him before her eyes could betray her. She felt the tears welling up, and hurriedly walked away from Khaleel, finding the ramp that led down to the dock and walking down it without allowing herself to glance behind her.
When she was fairly certain that she couldn’t be seen from the boat, Aurora rubbed at her eyes, wiping away the few tears that had managed to slip free, and took a deep breath. I’ll probably never see him again, she thought sadly. There's over a million people in this city and the only person I want to see will be out of here in a few hours. She sighed and reached into her bag, finding her phone. She had to go forward with her plans; it was now or never.
THIRTEEN
Aurora found the phone number that Jon had called her from and took a deep breath, walking away from the docks and tapping the “call back” icon. She decided that if she were going to go through with confronting the loan shark, it would be best to do it as quickly as possible. If I’m going to get beaten up, the sooner it happens, the sooner it will be over.
“Hello?”
Aurora started at the unfamiliar voice. “I’m looking for Jon,” she said quickly. “If I have the wrong number…”
“What do you want with Jon?”
Aurora’s hands trembled, but she kept her voice level. “My name is Aurora Evans,” she said. “I need to meet with him.”
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 pulle
d 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.
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.”