7. Hunt You Down

I gave Rhea a final encouragement before handing the microphone back to Sam. Instead of guiding Arthur, Sam will guide a very nervous Rhea today.

We set Rhea up at a table in the centre of Golden Spots. We made sure Arthur has to walk all the way over to finally see her. Her back was facing the entrance just in case Arthur decides to turn away at the sight of her. He was after all prepared to meet Rayleen Scott the microbiologist not Rhea Wright, his long estranged bestfriend.

Sam cued me when Arthur showed up. I'll be lying if I say I am not nervous.

"Why are doing this again?" Mia asked from next to me.

"She wants to reconnect with him" I told her "I want to help the poor girl"

"And since when are we doing charity in business?" She asked

"It's not charity" I explained "She has known him for years. She has a greater chance of getting to him. They are both available as of now. Isn't that good for our business?"

"And did you ask him how he feels about the arrangement?"

I don't know. Will he be happy to see her? Why is he holding a grudge this long when it's not even her fault? Did he really feel something for her? Is he still in love with her? Is that why he isn't attracted to me?

I shake my head to get rid of unwanted thoughts. "No mom" I glared at Mia "I'm sorry I'm doing something that's not righteous"

She rolled her eyes and turned to concentrate on Arthur who was currently walking towards Rhea with that fake polite smile of his.

I held my breath in anticipation when he took the final step o come face to face with her.

His brows scrunched in confusion at first before his golden eyes widened in surprise. Rhea stood up and smiled at him. She said something to him but he stood rooted to his spot.

"Is he angry?" Mia whispered "I think he is angry"

"Tell him to give you ten minutes of his time" Sam instructed Rhea over the microphone.

We saw Rhea suddenly take a hold of his hand and say what I assume Sam instructed her. That seems to have broke whatever trance Arthur was in because the next moment he violently shrugged her hand off and turned to walk away. Rhea rushed to hold him again and he shrugged her again. The entire restaurant was watching them at this point.

My heart thumped hard against my chest when he yelled something out loud before storming out of the restaurant despite Rhea's pleas.

Sam pulled her headphone away "He just threatened to kill you" she said with a sigh.

"What?" Mia questioned as I quivered inside. I know I'm going to be a dead food to Arthur soon.

"Mr. Leoline just said" Sam explained "I'm going to f*cking kill you Amelia"

As if on cue my phone started ringing. 'The Devil' lit up on the screen.

"You named him 'the devil'?" Mia took a hold of my phone.

"Don't pick it" I warned her

"Why does he even have your personal number?" she frowned.

I shrugged and walked out of the control room to my office. I need to lie down. I screwed up bad.

Spirits! What am I going to do now?

I am so dead.

__________

It wasn't even ten minutes of me lying on my beloved office couch when Jasmine barged in.

"You got a call from the Leoline office Amy"

"Tell them I took an early leave"

"Oo...k" She hesitated before walking away to probably do as I instructed.

My phone buzzed up again for the z+1th time. I switched it off and tossed it away.

.

Half an hour into my death sentence, Mia barged in.

"He's here" she declared.

I jumped from the couch "Here?" I yelled in panic.

Sophie pushed past her to stand in front of me "What the hell did you do to have Arthur Leoline at our door swearing to destroy us?"

"Why did you automatically assume it's me?" I glared at her.

"Tell me it's not you" she challenged.

"It is" I surrendered "Get me out of here. He's going to kill me"

"Just climb down the window" Mia shrugged as if jumping down a third floor window is no big deal "That's what I did all my childhood to escape mom"

"Mia, my love" I touched her shoulder "what am I?"

"Amy?" she frowned.

"No" I shook my head "What's my animal?"

"A mare?"

I nodded "And yours?"

"A monkey?" she offered.

Sophie sighed at Mia, "Mia you can climb down this window we can't. So find another solution"

"Oh!" she nodded finally understanding the pain of not having superpowers "Let's find a rope then. You can climb down with a rope, can't you?"

I nodded with a grin "Jasmine" I yelled calling for my secretary.

She came huffing in two seconds later "You have three minutes to get out of here. They are finding it hard to hold him back" she informed breathily.

"We need some sheets" I told her "you know long pieces of clothes" I've seen it multiple times in movies.

"Why?"

"She's going to jump down the window" Sophie supplied. She sounded excited as if I was going on an adventure.

"Oh" Jasmine frowned "I have ropes in the prop room. Will that do?"

"Spirits! Yes please" Mia nodded hurriedly

So Jasmine brought the rope. We tied it firmly at one end of my couch and let the rest flow down the window.

"Hurry up" Sophie pushed me towards the window "I can hear footsteps"

"Spirits Soph! You will kill me before he does" I huffed before proceeding to put one foot out of the window. The three of them peered down to watch me as I went down.

"I'll see you guys soon if I survive this" I bid them good bye.

Sophie rolled her eyes. Mia nodded understandingly. Jasmine was probably busy wondering who among the two of my friends will be her new boss.

I had just crossed the first floor when the door to my office banged open. I hastened my pace. The three of them turned away from me simultaneously to look at the intruder.

No guesses there, it's my volcano of a mate whose face I had the opportunity of seeing just as I planted my feet firmly on the ground. He was peering down angrily at me.

He roared as I grinned stupidly at him and put up my middle finger for him to see before rushing to my car which all thanks to Jasmine's quick thinking was efficiently waiting for me at the entrance.

_______

"So you are skipping work because you are too much of a chicken to face your client" Sophie huffed over the phone "Where on earth are you anyways?"

"I'm at Harvey's place" I informed her.

My brother lives in a condo at the heart of the city so it was convenient for me to come to him. We are twins so he's by default my crisis manager. I earned that right at birth.

"How long are you planning to hide in there" Sophie hissed over the phone "It's been two days Amy. I need your signature on bills"

"I am working from home" I informed her "I've worked so hard all these years. I deserve a break"

"That's not how breaks work. You gotta inform me at least a week ahead" she said "Anyways. I'm sending Jasmine to you with some papers. Sign them"

"Sure" I nodded stuffing my mouth with some more lettuce leaves. I love those.

"Anyways" she huffed "It was clever of you to leave. That lion's crazy. We are replacing the broken furniture in your office. It will take another day or two. It was weird though he didn't direct his anger towards the rest of us. It was like you personally pissed him off"

"He was dropped a lot as a child. Don't mind him" I chewed out.

"I don't understand you either. Why did you introduce Rhea Wright to him if you knew he was going to react this way?"

"I didn't know he would react this way" I groaned "I thought he just needed the push you know. I thought he missed her"

"You are stupid" she muttered disconnecting the call.

________

"When are you leaving?" Harvey asked on the fourth day of my occupying his house. He has just returned from work while I spent my day sprawling all over his couches, hopping from one to the other trying to find a comfortable spot.

Harvey's an orthopedist. I got Noah Waters a discount when Harvey treated him. That was the least I could do for the poor stallion. I have decided I'll give Harvey a discount too when he asks me to find him a mate. He's my brother after all.

He has no interest in finding one though. Mom's been bugging us for years. Harvey for some strange reason has commitment phobia while I can't commit even if I want to. I guess Harold is her only hope now.

"I don't know" I replied sipping on the tea he made me.

He groaned "What did you do this time?"

"Me?" I looked at him incredulously "It's not even my fault"

"It's your fault ninety percent of the time Amy"

"Well this time it's not" I defended myself.

"I don't even care. Just go to mom and dad" he rubbed his temple.

"Is this how you treat your only sister?"

"My only sister who barged into my bathroom without warning this morning" he reminded me. Yeah so I really needed to know where he keeps his pineapple jam.

"Big deal? It's not like I haven't seen you naked before" I shrugged "I've seen you naked half your life brother. Don't worry your secret is safe with me" I winked at him.

He scrunched his nose "Just go and leech off mom and dad okay"

"I can't" I huffed and dropped my head lazily on his shoulder "I'm running from someone"

"And that person knows our home?" he asked.

I nodded

"So it's a friend" he hummed

I shook my head.

"Did you borrow money?"

I glared at him.

"What is it then?"

I ignored him and yawned loudly "Shut up. You ask boring questions. Gotta go finish my beauty sleep"

_________

One week should be enough for someone's anger to cool down right? The coast should be clear by now. Hell he probably gave up right away. I'm sure the Leoline heir has better things to do than let out his anger on me. It was kind of silly of me to put my job on hold for a silly reason.

"Yeah I'm home" I told Mia over the phone as I parked my car "I'll be there early tomorrow" I walked up to the front porch of my house "Afraid? What I've never been afraid of a damn thing...." I scoffed adjusting the phone between my ear and shoulder to pull my house key from my purse "Oh please he's all meow and no teeth. I'm not afraid of him" I informed her as I pressed the key to my door and pushed it open.

Everything I saw after that was a haze because before I realized it, I was screaming my lungs out. The phone slipped out of my grasp and landed on the hard wood in three pieces.

Doesn't matter, I'm still screaming.

"Shut up" a voice boomed over my scream.

I don't shut up. How can I? Lying across my couch with a half eaten box of pizza on his stomach watching NewsNetwork is the one person I've been running away from for seven days.

Arthur Leoline.

No. I don't stop screaming because added to all those information is also the fact that he is naked. No not totally naked. He has a towel wrapped around his waist. His wet hair informs me that he has just taken a shower.

He puts the box of pizza on the couch and stands up with an irritated sigh. The nerve of the man. I yell some more and cover my eyes.

"What will you take to shut up?" he asked pinching the space between his eyes "I don't want to disturb the kind neighbors. Mrs. Willow even shared her apple pie with me last evening"

That shut me up "How long have you been living here? Why are you wearing my towel? Did you bring meat to my house? Why are you socializing with my neighbors?"

"Do you want me to answer them all at once?" he asked.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before shaking my head "Wear some clothes first" he raised a brow at that so I added a small "Please"

"And then we will decide what we should do with you" he said calmly "I want you to wait here and count your stupidities"

He glared at me one last time before walking leisurely towards the stairs. He took them one at a time. He looked so at home that he could easily convince the authorities that I am the burglar here and not the other way round. How long has he been living here?

I was such a fool to assume that his anger will subside after a week. He clearly is all set to punish me. I wonder if he really doesn't know where Harvey lives. Or was he waiting for me to show up so he could corner me when no one's around.

I slumped against the front door, exhausted with all the screaming. I watch him walk past the guestroom, my parent's room, my study and enter........my bedroom.

____________