Prophetic: I'm feeling loved! No longer am I the depressed evil bitch I was! This is the kind of stuff that makes a sistah update!

Eli: I'm feeling all confident and stuff. *Grins* You like me! You really like me! I am so happy. Alexander is going to be Super-Ian, because Ian is beautiful and is the best-est, most hottest, protector in the whole wide world of Bob.

Chapter Three:

The Party - Part One

Natalie wasn't used to this kind of thing. Formal events weren't on her agenda at all. She would much rather sit at a bar and drown in her grief. When she received the invitation to Kenneth Irons' Vorslag Industries party she laughed. How did they even know who she was? The cyber crime unit wasn't well known. Their funding had nearly been cut four times in the years since she had joined. How did one of the richest companies in New Greenwich know who she was? It was unreal.

Her friend Angie was no help either. Lacking a dress was Natalie's excuse for not attending the opening. Angie, when she heard this excuse, took Natalie to Nu Barney's a derivative of the famous, or in Natalie's eyes, infamous store, and promptly picked a dress out.

The slinky black number that set Natalie back a good three hundred pesos wasn't what she would normally call formal wear. Seeing the clothing other women wore changed her mind. The thin material made Natalie itch.

"Beauty is… discomfort," Angie said when Natalie complained.

"Beauty my ass. It's too damn cold for this."

Natalie sighed as she sipped the Martell her new partner, Cheryl Jones, had given her.

Getting faded wasn't one of her top priorities.

Natalie sighed exasperatedly. Irons was yet to be seen.

She looked at the excessively decorated gala and prayed that she wouldn't have to use the gun in her leg holster. Not comfortable, but the compact, against regulations, weapon was her favorite.

A tall man entered the room and wasn't noticed. He clung to the walls-hiding in the shadows. Great, Natalie thought. Security guard.

The security guard turned slightly in her direction. A vague shift in the way his mouth was set changed his appearance greatly: longish black hair that curled behind his head in a thick braid; his deceptively innocent eyes held a childlike glee when he saw her and pursed his full lips. Good Lord, Natalie thought, this man is beautiful.

The next entrance drew more attention. A pale man with equally pale hair entered the ballroom. Versace suits are not uncommon in this circle, so it wasn't his expensive taste in clothes.

"Welcome the reason behind this celebrations," the Master of ceremonies announced from the slightly elevated stage. "Kenneth Irons."

Natalie flinched slightly at the applause. So this was Irons.