Prologue

It's been several months since I started working at the Tres Spades London. I was running late, normally I would always try to be on time for my shifts. This morning, as soon as I woke up I was cuddling with my fiancé and one thing led to another and I ended up leaving the penthouse late.

I thought he'd go easy on me since it was first thing this morning, but no. It's been like this almost every morning, not that I was complaining of course. At least Eisuke did my hair for me this morning, so all I needed to do was getting changed. I ran into the locker room, went to my locker and started to get changed.

I then heard Erika's clicky heals as she came over to me. "Good morning Erika." I said out of politeness.

"Can't you come in here a little more quietly? You still have plenty of time before your shift starts."

"Sorry, I'm running late. I'm not used to getting here this late."

"Manners are very important here in England. Don't you know that yet?"

"Of course I know that. I'm not stupid, now leave me alone." I hissed back at here, making her walk away in a huff.

I changed my clothes, felt my hair and made sure it felt tidy when I noticed that I was still wearing my ring. I wanted to keep it on, mainly so I could make Erika jealous but I wasn't allowed. I pulled it off, slipped it onto the chain that I kept round my neck and tried to fasten it back on. I struggled with the clip on the back of the chain, but I couldn't get it hooked and the chain slipped from my fingers.

"No no no no no." I said frantically and started crawling around on the floor desperately searching for my ring. I heard it bounce but I didn't know which direction it went in.

"Honestly Freya, you need to take better care of such a precious thing." Chisato said. She walked over to me and put the ring in my hand.

"Oh my god, thank you so much." I said and stood up.

Chisato had got married in London and had been on her honeymoon but now she was back and she was working in London. She had already met my friends, we had all been out several times for dinner and drinks. Other then Chisato and Erika, there were no other regulars working here.

"Make sure you keep your ring on." Chisato said. "You'd be devastated if you lost something that important."

"You're right, thank you so much." I gave her the chain and she helped me fasten it around my neck. "Thank you."

"Let's go."

"Ok." I said.

We left the locker room together and headed for the morning staff meeting. After the morning meeting, I went to the storage room with Chisato and told her all about Eisuke proposing to me.

"Congratulations. I can't believe you're getting married."

"Well, we haven't actually spoken about the wedding yet. I didn't realise how much it involves. How did you cope?"

She giggled "You'll be fine, you always are. But admit it, this is the happiest you've ever been."

"Yes, I am."

"I mean, you two are already in loves but I'm sure now it feels ten times better."

"Is that how you felt when you got engaged?"

"Yes, but the hard part is still to come." She said, her voice went from cheerful to serious and stern.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, meeting the parents, wedding planning, honeymoon, post-wedding life. It's hard work. And I'm sure you both will have very different opinions on each other's job. You should be careful."

"Is it really that hard?" I asked.

"I was naïve too. We got engaged because we were attracted to each other. But we fought a lot the night before we got married." She said.

I bet it was tough, I could tell by the tone of her voice. But I was convinced me and Eisuke would be fine, we had already been through so much plus we argue a lot anyway. That certainly wouldn't change.

We got what we needed and as we left the store room, we heard someone arguing in Japan.

"Are those guests Japanese?" Chisato asked.

"Sounds like it. We should stop them." I said. We placed our supplies on the floor and found a Japanese couple arguing in the corridor.

"Why? You told me I could keep working once we got married." The woman shouted.

"Well, I'd rather you stay at home." The man said. "We're going to have kids soon, and there's the housework to think about."

"We talked about this already hundreds of times." The woman shouted.

"Uh-oh. They're fighting about her working after they get married." Chisato said.

"I remember them. They're here on a pre-wedding vacation. They seemed fine yesterday when I gave her a beauty treatment. She was very excited to be getting married." I said.

How could things change after one night? At any rate, we stepped in and stopped the fight.

"Please, calm down." I said.

"Why don't you go back to your room and discuss this calmly?" Chisato suggested.

"Absolutely not. He's telling a completely different story than he was a few days ago. And unless you change your mind, I'm not going to marry you." The woman shouted angrily and stomped down the hallway, pushing pasts us.

Now it was really awkward, just standing here with the man who let out a big sigh.

"See, this is what happens when I say how I really feel. That's why I kept it to myself till now." He said.

"I understand how you feel. I'm sure your fiancée will come back in a while." Chisato said.

"Why don't you wait in the hotel café? It's by the lobby so you'll be able o see right away when she returns." I said.

"Thank you, I'll do that." he said and walked away.

Could me and Eisuke end up like that couple? We always did argue and it's not like we were always on the same page either. Chisato seemed to pick up on my mood and tried to cheer me up.

"Hey it's ok. You'll be fine. You guys have been through so much and you've always gotten through it, right?"

"Yeah I guess." I said. But lately it seemed that whenever we solved one problem, another would arise. And we hadn't even really discussed the specifics about our future together either. My penthouse pager then buzzed, breaking me from my train of thought.

"Do you have to go?" Chisato asked.

"Yeah."

"That's fine. I can take care of things here and I'll bring your stuff to the spa." She said.

"Thanks." I said and went up to the penthouse.

I knocked on the door and see the usual group in the penthouse. Including the new additions from Dubai, Hishikura and Hikaru. They seemed to be fitting right in.

"Don't just stand there. Make me some coffee." Hikaru barked. "That's the only thing you're good at, right?"

"Excuse me? You're missing word there. It's the word, please." I hissed back. It was weird having Hikaru up here, especially since he was nothing like the person I worked with. When I worked with him in Dubai, he was nice, sweet and I really enjoyed working with him. But now that he was an auction manager, I saw him for who he really was. A jerk. A big jerk.

"You tell him Freya." Baba laughed as I told Hikaru off.

I refused to make coffee till he said please, but even than it was a very reluctant please.

"So what should we do? How does that day sound?" Soryu said.

"Fine with me." Ota said.

"What do you think, Mamo?" Baba asked.

"Since there's security guards in the area, police patrols are gonna be light. Sounds good to me."

I guessed that they were planning the next auction, thought I didn't see why Hikaru had to be involved. Why was he even here in the first place? Eisuke should just fire him. I went to the kitchen and got the coffee ready.

"Hmm. I'm really bored lately. I need something new and interesting." Ota said.

"Yeah, I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, too." Baba said.

"We'd get more guests if something happened to boost our publicity." Eisuke said.

"We don't want anything too scandalous, though." Soryu said.

"Eh, I'm sure Eisuke'd be able to take care of just about anything that came up." Kishi said.

I idly listened to their conversation as I waited for the coffee to be done, when I felt someone stand next to me.

"Sexy bones, you look so beautiful today." Luke said, making me gasp and jump in fright.

"Luke, oh my god. Don't do that." I said and took a moment to steady my racing heart. I almost jumped out of my skin. He always did that, he had this annoying ability to be able to sneak up on me without me hearing him move. It was so annoying.

The others must have seen us as they started to laugh.

"How about we put Freya up for auction again?" Ota suggested. "We can say she's a maid who can clean even the dirtiest guests to satisfaction and give you any beauty treatment."

"Oh very funny Ota." I said and brought the coffee out.

"Imaginations of perverts never cease to amaze me." Hishikura said.

"If Sexy Bones' collar bones were for sale, I'd buy them." Luke said.

"Well, you'd win 'cuz you'd be the only damn bidder." Kishi said.

"Why don't we have a competition at the auction?" Hikaru suggested. "And the prize could be Freya."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, they were teasing me just like usual, so I decided to ignore them. "Ok, your coffee is here. Anything else?"

"What do you think, Boss?" Baba said, ignoring me.

"I'd be curious to see how much someone would pay for her."

Not Eisuke to. I left the room quickly, not wanting to put up with their teasing any longer.

One night, before the I.V.V and the auctions, we were all sat in the penthouse lounge and I made everyone coffee.

"Thanks Freya." Baba said.

"Just put it down on the table." Ota said.

"Yep, I was right. Your coffee is the best thing about you." Hikaru said.

"Oh geeze, thanks." I said sarcastically and sat down on a sofa.

Just then, Soryu rushed into the room. "Eisuke, I'm sorry."

"What is it?" Eisuke asked.

"I can't come to the next auction."

"Why?" Baba asked.

"Let's just say a tiny mistake has turned into a huge problem. And I have to go take care of it before I gets out of control."

"A tiny mistake?" Ota questioned. "Wait, don't tell me…"

"Yes, it was Inui."

No one seemed surprised. Inui was one of Soryu's men, not the most efficient but he was a nice guy.

"Do you think you can settle it on your own?" Hishikura asked.

"Yes, that's no problem. I just won't be able to make the auction." Soryu said. "I can still send my men to be guards though."

"It'll be rough with you here." Hishikura said.

"How are we going to make up for Soryu being gone?" Ota said.

"Should Kishi leak some false information to divert the police's attention?" Hikaru suggested. "And I can help the bodyguards."

"But who would fill in for you, Aihara?" Eisuke asked.

"Yeah, its not realistic." Baba said.

"Uhh, I wasn't going to say anything but, my folks asked me to come home that day."

After everyone started having a go at Kishi, Baba interrupted.

"Yep. Honestly, there's a treasure I wanted to steal and the best chance for me to get it is the day of the auction." He said.

So now Baba and Kishi won't be there either? Without the three of them, it would be awfully hard to pull it off.

"Maybe we should reschedule." Ota said.

"Yeah, that's all we can do." Kishi said.

"I don't care either way." Hikaru said.

Hishikura agreed with him.

But what about the invitations? They had already been sent out to the patrons, I waited in suspense when Eisuke stood up.

"Looks like none of you care very much about the auctions, then."

"Eisuke, I'm sure it's not like that." I said.

"What else can we do? Everyone has plans." Ota said.

"It's not like we can't reschedule it." Baba said.

Eisuke didn't sound impressed "If I would had known I was teaming up with slackers, I never would have done it. Today marks the end of our partnership."

"What? You're not serious." I said.

The atmosphere in the room turned to ice.

"Then there's no reason for me to be here anymore." Hikaru said.

"So we're done? Damn, never though this day would come. It's a miracle." Kishi said.

"Apparently, I came all the way from Dubai for nothing." Hishikura said.

Everyone left the room, I just sat there bewildered. How could this happen? They all got on so well and made such a good team. Well maybe not Hikaru but everyone else.

"No, I can't let this happen. I don't want everyone to leave over something so stupid." I said to myself and stood up with determination. I needed to talk to Eisuke and change his mind.