Katya turned on her heels to face the source of the voice, only to find it belonging to a man who had her arms around the shoulders of an amused looking Emilia.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Katya vigilance displayed both in her voice and her body.
From behind the man two other walked in and as all three of them turned to face her her eyes narrowed. All three of them were very attractive, the man at the forefront with his arms around Emilia, being especially prominent. He gave her a once over with a lazy smile and then turned back to Emilia.
"You must go through a lot of trouble to keep this gang together," he said letting his arm rest at his side.
"It is a chore," answered Emilia nodding and Katya felt like going up to her and kicking her in the jaw.
They…she had no idea who this was and one of her lieutenants was just casually chatting with him.
"Kovit!" she turned to her right hand with an exclamation, Kovit who seemed dazed suddenly stood at attention. "Is this the man you were talking about?"
"Uh…yes," he answered weakly.
Katya gritted her teeth and walked up and then proceeded to step right in between the man and Emilia and she then proceeded to eye the man with all predatory instincts she could muster. He however instead of flinching let out a whistle. He took a light step back and then let out a chuckle.
"I apologize," he said raising his hand. "You must be the boss, Xander?"
As he said that he turned to eye the shorter of the man next to him, the one who seemingly had no expression on his face. The man nodded as if in affirmation and he turned with the same lazy smile back to her.
"My name is Touya," he said extending his right hand for a shake.
She purposefully ignored the outstretched hand and raised herself up to her full height, still only coming up to his shoulders.
"I'm Xander," she replied in her very gruff voice and he raised an eyebrow at that, as she saw it, her breath caught in her throat.
"That's interesting," he said but the lazy smile never left his face as he held his poker face.
"What is?" she asked nearly letting go of her role as Xander.
"You are a conundrum to me," he said. "That's never happened before."
"What?"
"Nevermind," he replied. "I'm going to continue."
Katya suddenly held out her hands, she didn't like his arrogance one bit, she never liked anyone's arrogance but this man, his face ticked her off.
"How did you get in here in the first place?" she asked. "Answer that before we get to business."
Touya raised an eyebrow as if again judging her, "Through the front door?"
Katya turned to look at Emilia who let out a shrug with a wry smile. She then whipped around to face Kovit with double the force glaring down on him and he gulped again.
"They all let me in," said Touya coming closer to her, so much so she was forced to take a step back.
"I'm a very friendly person," he said leaning over and eyeing Katya who nervously adjusted her hood.
She turned her head halfway right not directly facing Touya and in her gruff voice she asked, "What did you want to talk about?"
Touya held the pose for several seconds until one of the men he had come with coughed and then he straightened up as if coming out of a daze.
"Oh yes," he said. "I own a building nearby, it's a resort, pretty large…La Fleur."
Katya's eye widened, large was an understatement, it was a literal skyrise and it was all owned by the man infront of her.
"What about it?" asked Katya.
"It's apparently got your seal on it," he said while letting out a yawn. "I need your permission to reopen it, it's the general gist of what I found wherever I asked."
Katya turned towards Kovit who seemed to be looking extremely uncomfortable just standing to the side and doing nothing. As soon as her eyes landed on him, however he loosened up.
"Kovit, how is that place?" she asked.
"It's in good shape," he said. "No illegal gang activities, nor is it any gang's turf, it's all good."
She then turned to Touya who had once again turned back to Emilia and was giving her a lazy smile, something that irked Katya.
"I can remove the seal," she said and immediately his attention was back on her as he raised an eyebrow.
"There's a 'but' coming isn't there?" he said with a light chuckle.
"Just one," she replied. "How much?"
He scrunched his forehead as he eyed her carefully and once again she felt her stomach jolt, her identity was her primary concern and this man, something about him didn't sit right.
"You're asking for money?" he asked.
"Yes…money," she said, she had been quite low on funds and if this man was rich enough to own an entire sky-rise and she would milk him for all he was worth.
"How much do you want?" he asked and suddenly one of the men behind him slid forward and whispered something into his ears.
The shorter inexpressive man however stood as still as a statue making Katya wonder whether he was actually a human as she hadn't seen him move since he came in and stood in that very spot.
She stood still hoping to hear their secrets through the whispers but this only raised the tension in the room.
***
Of all the things Touya was expecting out of the infamous gang-leader of the prowlers money was fairly down on his list but as he thought about it further it made the most sense which then led him to wonder why he had expected something else. He was questioning his own perception when Ly behind him stepped forward to whisper into his ear.
"Giving money is a good choice," he said. "But for some reason I don't feel right?"
"About giving the money?" Touya asked and Ly gave a light shake of his head.
"You felt something off as well right?" Ly asked in reply.
"I did but…I can't tell," Touya said. "I'll just give him what he asks for?"
He looked towards Kyler wondering about his opinion but the man just gave him a bland look causing Touya to chuckle and Ly to sigh.
"Maybe bargain with him?" said Ly giving a suggestion.
Touya narrowed his eyes as he stared Xander again and suddenly those cold blue eyes crossed his and he felt an abnormal rhythm to his heart causing him to frown.
"How much do you want?" he asked and at this Katya let out a short smile and he frowned again and touched his chest.
He looked towards Ly who looked as clueless as before and then towards Kyler who always looked the same.
"25 mills?" he said putting a tentative offer on a board and suddenly there was various choking coughs all around the room.
He looked around puzzled and then towards the leader. Katya had her mouth wide open as she heard the offer and even Shade behind her froze.
"Ex…excuse me?" she asked momentarily she had let go of her gruff voice.
"25 million," he repeated blinking puzzled, as to why they were acting so out of sorts, he turned towards Kyler who again shrugged blankly and then towards Ly who seemed to be suppressing a smile.
He took several steps back towards Ly even as he watched all the frozen figures in the room.
"Did I quote too low?" he asked.
"No…no, I think this effect is the opposite," said Ly.
"Too high," concluded Touya and Ly nodded.
"It's a fair price I think," said Ly shrugging. "At the same time we could just do this forcibly."
"Hah…if I wanted 'forcibly' I would have brought Quedell in here," said Touya and Ly let out a chuckle.
He turned towards Katya again who seemed to break out of her daze.
"You're giving us 25 million to break the seal and let you operate it?" she asked in disbelief, she had however managed the gruff voice properly.
"Yes…unless you want more?" he said eyeing her as he let out an innocent smile, behind him he heard Ly's sigh.
"Uh…oh no," said Katya pausing for a moment as 25 million rolled around in her head.
She shot a glance at Shade who seemed to be in a similar state of shock to Kovit and the rest of her gang. In fact the only one on her side that wasn't all that shocked was Emilia which she could understand considering her background.
"25 it is then?" said Touya in more of a questioning tone extending his hand for yet again for a shake.
This time she had unconsciously clasped it.
"Small hands you have there," he said with a chuckle and Katya hurriedly ripped it out of his grasp.
"It's a deal for 25 million," she said ignoring his previous statement.
She needed to get out of here, there were too many strange things happening, she had almost revealed her identity several times more in this past minute, than she had in her entire life as Xander. She turned to Shade, she had intended to have him manage the rest of his business, best she avoid too many public outgoings and talks, there were too many ways her identity could be revealed. As she was about to speak to Shade, suddenly out of the corner of her eyes she caught a haggard figure cutting a sorry shape as he stumbled in. The only thing was she had never seen this particular person in her gang before. It wasn't all that much of surprise, she probably didn't know half of the people that she led, those matters were given to Victor Kovit and Emilia Pardo, her two lieutenants.
"B-boss!" he cried out as he stumbled, tripped and fell at Touya's feet and then clung onto his legs as he got back up.
Touya helped him stand back up and then he looked towards Katya who luckily had the same cold face on, instead of looking clueless as she felt in her mind. The man turned towards Katya and he looked like he would throw up any second.
"What is it?" she asked in her coldest gruffiest voice.
"I-I have a message from Dr. Ramachandran," he said. "It's urgent."
She raised an eyebrow, Kriti, one of her best friends and also someone that knew her identity as she played the role of the gang leader, this was presumably who this man was referring to.
"What's the message?"
"Help!" he exclaimed. "23rd Street, Northeast."
With that he collapsed onto the ground at her feet causing her to take two steps back in shock. She grit her teeth as she ran through the message.
"Kovit," she called out and her lieutenant stood at attention. "Get this man to a hospital."
She then turned towards Shade who nodded and with that she bolted, jumping straight out the window.
"What about the deal ?" asked Kyler speaking for the first time since entering this house.
"Maybe afterwards," said Touya with a chuckle. "Quedell's outside right?"
Ly nodded and Touya stepped out similar to how Katya had jumped out through the window as the rest of the prowler gang stood there in shock.
"Where are they going?" asked Kovit, unable to make heads or tails of what was happening.
"It's not our concern," said Shade and then he nodded towards the man that had fainted. "He is though."
Ly and Kyler elected the traditional method of exiting through the front door, the same way they came in.