"Carter?" Femi's formally-toned voice echoed through the Museum, "Carter, will you stop larking about and help me with this crate?"
Seconds later, Carter's head popped round from the corner of a large, wooden box that had many fingers of straw poking out of its corners. There were many others just like it set about the open hall but they were in difference sizes, obviously holding other packed objects of great value. The hall was longer than wide, stretching out so far until it slowly curved around a corner. The ceiling was low and the back wall was made of wide windows to present the view of the enormous racing course outside. This was a private estate, hired for a day of auctioning for wannabe-treasure-hunters and eager collectors.
"How's about a break, Femi?" Carter cheerfully and craftily grinned while strolling towards her like a sneaky cat.
Femi threw a cluster of polystyrene at his head, "No."
Alex chuckled lightly from behind Femi, "You heard the lady, Carter. There's no tellin' what she'll do next when she starts throwin' the dangerous packagin' about."
"Will you two stop it?" Femi angrily scolded the two chuckling men, "the more you insist upon mocking me and lazily jesting about, the longer it will take to unload all this and we really haven't the time to dawdle."
"Why does Jonathan get to slack off?" Carter mumbled on the way to a crate, dragging his feet like a spoilt child.
Femi stopped unwrapping to look at him inquisitively, "What do you mean? Jonathan should be outside bringing in the crates from the van."
The three of them looked round at each other holding the same enquiry in their heads: where was Jonathan? Alex rolled his eyes, huffing, and lifted his hands in defence.
"I'll go." He volunteered with no joy at all.
Femi threw her hands up in distress, "We have less than an hour to set up our stalls until the auctioneers start to arrive. We're never going to make it at this rate!"
Other sellers who were busy setting up their own stalls heard Femi's frantic exclamation and sent her odd glances. She was becoming rather flustered, as she took this very seriously.
"I'll sort it baby, don't worry." Alex held up his hands in defence as he backed away.
So, Alex wandered off to find his useless uncle while Femi and Carter remained at the crates, unwrapping and stacking. This really was going to put them behind if Jonathan didn't help to pull his weight about. Femi was, after all, even paying him and Carter twenty pounds for each hour to help set up and sell the merchandise... then again, perhaps that was their sneaky plan, to take as long as possible.
"Johnny?" Alex called tiredly, "Jonathan, you dumb dog, where are you?"
Alex passed by some other stall-men and women on his way out into the reception of race-course and sent them polite nods and subtle smiles of welcome, even though he knew that he and Femi were going up against them today. He walked out into the parking area where he saw their hired black, shiny tractor sitting as it was in the corner by the large oak tree; boxes sat at the base of its tail where other boxes and bags were still stored and the front passenger door was wide open from where Alex could hear Jazz music on the radio humming. He sighed, knowing exactly what was going on, but walked over nonetheless to take a look to make sure. And just as he had suspected, Jonathan was fast asleep in the seat with his feet up on the dashboard and his head tilted back so that his jaw hang low and allowed him to snore most intrusively upon the peace. Alex smirked to himself and moved round to other side of the car; beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, went the horn, under the force of Alex's wicked palm.
"They made me ride the swan, Lucy!" Jonathan blurted out in a daze, bolting awake.
"Swan, ey? Sounds exciting," Alex smirked through the open window, "get up, unc. Femi needs your help - and if you don't work, I get her mouth yapping all the way home, k?"
Jonathan rubbed the back of his head as he lazily climbed out of the car, "Crickey, all I did was doze off for a second. I had a late night last night, you know."
Alex smirked at the irony of his statement, "I wouldn't have guessed."
"Old man?" Jonathan stood tall and proud, following Alex back towards the entrance, "I'll have you know, young sir - this body may have it's wrinkles but it is by far a youthful body of glory at that! Even with such a hangover!"
But Alex had already disappeared into the entrance... so Jonathan ran along after him, to make sure he wasn't left behind like a loser... And the rest of that morning, amazingly, went just as Femi had hoped for due to the fact that the three men with her held up their promises to work hard and help her set up her stalls and sell the objects. Statues, pendants, scrolls, decorations, clothing, candles, coins, religious items - so many historical artefacts that Femi was making money out of for the London Museum of Antiquities. It was being shut down, due to lack of investors, let alone tourists. It was a hard time for Femi, as she adored working there so much, but at least the manager had given her the responsibilities of finding a new home for them all to other investors and rich collectors. It was all about the money, unfortunately.
"Thank you - have a good day!" Femi smiled sweetly at a leaving customer.
Then, excitedly, she turned to face Alex in a moment of joy, "People really like our stalls. Oh, it's fantastic!"
"Well, we've got some good stuff on show. That, and your brother keeps flirting with the ladies." Alex pointed over her shoulder.
Femi looked over to, indeed, spot her typical brother already charming three elegant ladies in their long, chequered skirts and tight, classy shirts and waist-jackets. Femi simply rolled her eyes and began organising the remaining items for sale.
"I swear, that man will never know the true meaning of chivalry." Femi scowled aloud.
Alex smiled to himself, entertained, and slipped his hands onto Femi's waists to stop her from working away. Feeling his strong grip, she leant up right away and turned in defence to send him a disapproving glare which highly disagreed with the idea of flirting in the middle of business.
Alex tilted his head in light observation, "You're pretty when you're mad, you know that?"
Femi narrowed her merciless eyes at him, "And that's why you argue with me so much?"
"Maybe." Alex smiled and pulled her to him, planting a sweet kiss upon her forehead.
It was moments such as these that made Femi forget any issues or questions that she may have held concerning her relationship with Alex, or even her life, the world. All worries faded and she knew only her warmth for this cocky, irritating, charming, sexy man and how honest he was with his love to her. She knew he cared for her... even if he wasn't ready to marry just yet.
"I hate it when you do that." Femi whispered with her eyes shut.
Alex watched her in admiration, "What?"
She let out a soft giggle, "Manage to make me forget why on earth I'm so impatient with you, Mr. O'Connell."
"Excuse me," A customer interrupted, "is this missing its partner?"
Unfortunately, Femi was forced to leave Alex's loving hands to deal with her customer and make sure they were satisfied fully. And as she worked and politely interacted with the middle-aged woman, Alex watched her from afar. She was such a special lady - the way she smiled, the way she appreciated a person's eyes and their voice and how she responded to them. This woman had stolen his heart for sure.
"Alex," Carter spoke from beside him, "have you seen Johnny about?"
But now that Alex was thinking about it, he actually couldn't remember how long ago it was since he had seen that lazy slacker. Looking around, he couldn't spot him anywhere. Oh, dammit, where was that idiot?
"In fact, dear lady, I know for certain that these green jewels do not even compare to the deep complexity of your own glassy eyes." Jonathan purred elegantly to the lady before him.
The redheaded woman giggled with her friends in flattery, "Stop, Mr. O'Connell..."
"It's true," Jonathan smiled flirtatiously, but also quite childishly, "never have I quite been captured like this before, just from one glance."
"He's quite the poet, Ruth." One of the woman's friends giggled into Ruth's ear excitedly.
Jonathan was feeling quite confident and proud of himself. The naive player was already thinking of the next romantic thing to say when, out of nowhere, catching him completely off-guard, an arm snatched out and gripped him by his upper arm quite ruthlessly.
"A-a-ah!" Jonathan panted with a jump, "I say, chap, what's with all the"-
Jonathan cut himself off in mid-sentence once he had turned and seen who his attacker was. To his surprise, it wasn't Alex or Femi. The man himself was relatively normal-looking in his explorer hat and beige hiking attire, but it was the pen-knife that he had secretly held to Jonathan's gut under his jacket. No one else could see it, but Jonathan could definitely feel it.
"Remember me, old friend?" The man spoke threateningly.
Jonathan grimaced nervously, "How could I forget that breath."
The man sneered in offence, "I bet you never thought you'd see me again, right? Snatching the gold then running off like the fox you are. Pity you're not as cunning as one."
"Actually," Jonathan held up an erect finger, "foxed cannot hop, Carl. You should know that at your age."
Carl angrily moved the tip of the blade closer, "Don't mock me, Johnny. You know what I came for - so you're going help me out, aren't you, like a good chap."
Jonathan gulped nervously - how was he going to explain this to the ladies? Nervously, he looked over his shoulder to send them a casual little chuckle so to excuse himself.
"If you'll bear with me one moment, ladies - I have some short business to attend." He stated with a cheesy wink.
The women waved goodbye to their handsome friend, but once his back was turned to them his expression of wisdom and grace immediately formed into fear and panic. What was going to happen to him?
Jonathan let Carl start leading him away through the crowds, "You have to understand Carl, old chap - it might already be on its way some place else. I-I might not be able to"-
"Don't spill me that rubbish," Carter snapped, on the edge of some panic now, "you'll give me back what you stole or you can be a dead man just like I'll be. You get it? If I go down, you go down with me."
"The boss not too happy eh?" Jonathan gave a careless little chuckle, "didn't I tell you to be your own manager in this business?"
Carl pushed him angrily, "I mean it, Jonathan, don't test me. I haven't got any time to waste on your ridic"-
"Unc?" Alex's voice interrupted the intense moment.
The two men whipped their heads round just in time to see Alex stop before them with an inquisitive, wary confused across his tanned face. He seemed to already be suspecting something unfriendly taking place because of the way that Carl was holding Jonathan so strictly, but Alex didn't make his thoughts too obvious for cautious reasons. The three men exchanged glances with each other - Alex studied, Jonathan pleaded for help, while Carl's eyes revealed nothing but warning and bitterness. It was totally clear what was going on.
"This a friend of yours, unc?" Alex suspiciously asked as he walked towards them.
"Johnny boy never mentioned me?" Carl stared at Alex with mistrust, "now I'm hurt."
Alex studied him in dislike, "I just bet you are..."
Carl was actually quite refined-looking. Not scruffy, tall, carried himself well. He wasn't like the typical thugs that ended up chasing Jonathan for one reason or another; this man looked more part of a school than anything else! Carl narrowed his hazel eyes threateningly as he tried to think-out a quick plan of action before it got too messy. It was just him against this young-looking chap, who didn't seem all that tough. Carl was thinking about taking action when Carter stepped into the scene and came up beside Alex, folding his arms authoritatively. Now, it was two against one.
"Carter!" Femi's breathless, scolding voice exclaimed, and she soon was approaching him, "and Alex? What on earth do you both think you're doing running off like that for so long? Do you know how many customers a single woman can serve at once? I didn't even"-
Carl took Femi's arrival as an opportunity to flee, so he suddenly threw Jonathan towards them all, where he clumsily knocked straight into Femi and they were both sent crumbling to the floor with light yelps; Carl took off to the right in an escape which caused a few innocent bystanders to be knocked aside or down to the floor. At once, Alex and Carter sprinted off after him through the gasping, gossiping auctioneers and their customers but tried to be a little more considerate to their health by not bashing into them as often or as harshly. This man was quite a quick runner, but not quick enough. Alex and Carter steered round to the right and came out onto the balcony of the building which over-looked the miles of racing courses that spread over the grassy land - but their attention was on something more important.
"That way!" Alex exclaimed to Carter and pointed.
Carter followed his direction and re-entered the auctions through a passing entranceway, while Alex continued racing along the balcony to the end glass door which led him down a spiralling set of concrete steps. Down, down, down Alex zoomed, his feet moving so fast that he was amazed he didn't trip over them! The last set of ten steps arrived around the next corner and Alex took a mighty leap to save himself time, and he landed at the door just as it had swung shut after someone (clearly Carl) had just run through it.
Alex ran outside with a chest of anger and bravery and a hell of a lot of energy - but when he saw Carl, standing with a group of at least six other tough-looking, truck-driving business men, he sort of nearly tripped over his feet again in his sudden attempt to stop in his tracks. Wow. Things had suddenly become a lot more complicated... Carter burst out from the main entrance doors and, at also noticing the uneven numbers opposing him and Alex, he jumped back to blink cluelessly.
"Very well." Carter muttered to himself, in his now nervous state.
Carl just smiled; he had trapped them.
Sneak Preview at Chapter 3:
Carter and Jonathan looked a little embarrassed; Jonathan spoke, "Ok, so maybe we had a few to drink..."
Alex snickered cynically.
"But we were speaking truth," Carter jumped in persuasively, "we don't know much about this artefact... but the man who gambled it used it to try and prove his cocky confidence. Silly fool. He was bound to lose it. It's worth a lot, I know it."
