Before Emma could ask about his intentions, Asher strongly covered her mouth with his hand.
Emma's eyes bulged as her breathing hitched. Cold sweat trailed down from her forehead.
She struggled to shake Asher off her but to no avail.
Just as she rose her foot to hit Asher's leg, she was frightened by the scene she saw behind Asher's back.
Asher increased the pressure on his hand as he hugged Emma and almost crushed her small body to the back wall.
Since he was wearing black, his back completely hid Emma who was stuck between Asher's chest and the wall.
Emma became still as she peeked from Asher's shoulder. The scene horrified her and she held Asher's coat tightly.
"I think I saw two people coming here," A thick voice was heard from the corridor. It was a bulky man who wore a black sailor uniform and looked over to the corner where Emma and Asher were standing.
"Your eyes must have seen wrong. There's no one here." Another guy standing beside him commented as he slid the unconscious body of a man across the floor and patted him down to look for something.
"Maybe." The bulky man said as he looked back at his partner. "No need to treat him with so much care. He's not going to get up and thank you." His irritated whisper blew into Emma's ears.
Emma slowed her breathing but refused to close her eyes as she observed their actions.
"There it is. He had hidden it under his vest." The other man joyfully said as he took out a pass from the unconscious man's inside pocket.
"The other had hidden it in his underwear. This one's much better." The bulky man said in a rough voice. From his pronunciation of words, he seemed to be a rural man.
"Including this one, we have 6 passes. Ask the team above how many have they managed to obtain?"
He opened the door of the cabin next to the stairs and proceeded to throw the unconscious man in it.
The room was dimly lit and showed the senseless bodies of many people. Some of them were even women.
Emma's fear reached a new level as she saw the scene. She glanced up at Asher who had maintained his posture and didn't try to look back.
He had casually rested his head along the wall over Emma's shoulder.
His calm breath touched Emma's exposed shoulder every now and then, sending a shiver down her spine.
She tried to regulate her thoughts and compelled herself to watch their next actions.
Her pupils shrank as she saw another two men carrying a lady who looked asleep.
"Have you taken the pass from this one?" The first man who seemed to be the leader asked the incoming men.
"No, she doesn't have it." The man answered respectfully.
"Then why did you take her? Don't you know that we are only supposed to take the people who have tickets with us? What are we going to do with this?" The leader was infuriated by their carelessness and almost screamed.
"We know, boss. But she saw us drugging the man and taking him from the elevator. She had hidden on the 57th floor. We thought that she might cause problems later, that's why we took her with us."
Emma's mind blanked at the revelation. She hastily glanced at Asher only to find him in the same position.
He had lightened his hold on her mouth but didn't let go and now her lips were touching the palm of his hand.
Emma blushed at their closeness but then remembered why they were like this in the first position and her eyes became cold.
It looked like someone was manipulating the people who had tickets but didn't take precautionary measures.
As they were standing there, she witnessed 4 more people facing the same fate. Robbed of their tickets and thrown into the cabin.
"Let's go. It's 5:43 pm. Most of the people came out to go to the auction. I don't think there's anyone left." The leader said in a dialect as he directed his men to go back.
Emma and Asher had been standing like that for almost an hour. Emma was tired but she didn't lose her vigilance.
When the last man went away, Asher still didn't let go. He waited for a good 5 minutes before slowly raising his head.
In the process, his lips lightly brushed across Emma's shoulder.
Emma was startled but attributed it to coincidence as she doubted Asher would deliberately do something like this.
Although he had a smart mouth that loved to spout nonsense, he took care of her boundaries and didn't behave lecherously.
Asher slowly removed his hand from Emma's lips which had stuck to his palm and lightly brushed the strands off her face.
Emma was taken aback by his tender actions and blushed deeply. This man was so handsome yet seductive. It should be a crime.
"Now you can fight with me," Asher said in a low voice as he straightened his clothes.
Emma remembered that she wanted to yell at him for talking rudely to her but he had only meant to protect her so she felt ashamed.
But this didn't mean that she would apologize to him. It was his fault for not explaining it to her.
He should have taken care of these things. However, now wasn't the time to have a brawl with him.
Worried, Emma asked, "It is 5:48 pm. How can we make it to the auction?"
"It's fine." Asher didn't sound concerned about the matter. He took Emma's hand naturally and came out of the corner.
"Do you exercise regularly?"
Emma was baffled by his question. Why was he asking her if she exercised when they were supposed to be worried about how to get to the auction before 6 pm? Emma couldn't comprehend how his mind worked.
"Doesn't matter. Let's just go." Asher didn't give her a chance to understand his words and began climbing the stairs.
Emma's eyes widened. 'Don't tell me he is going to climb up all 67 floors?' Emma's inner thoughts were a mess.
Unwillingly, she began to climb the stairs with him. It was fortunate that she had worn black shoes instead of high heels. Otherwise, she would have broken down on the second floor.
Only Emma knew how they managed to climb 10 floors in 5 minutes. Asher ran like an animal while Emma was panting on the 1st floor.
When on the 10th floor, Asher opened the emergency door and went to the elevator.
"Wait, it's dangerous."
"Now, it's not. There are only 4 minutes left until the doors close. They will not stand here if they want to attend the auction." Asher reasoned as he pressed 67 on the elevator pad.
Once the elevator doors closed, Emma leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath.
She also couldn't help but be impressed by Asher's stamina as he didn't even take a deep breath looking as if he had not run up 10 floors just a moment ago.
"Have you ever seen a gym before?" Asher tried to hide his smile and asked concernedly.
Emma glared at him after catching up her breath. Her whole face was red and she didn't have the energy to retort so she decided to ignore his presence lest she would end up boiling her blood.
"You need to work on your stamina," Asher advised as he saw Emma tucking her hair while looking in the reflective elevator wall.
"Did I ask for your kind advice?" Emma was irritated by his behavior. If he knew the problems lying ahead, why didn't he tell her in advance?
Why did he wait for her to make a fool out of herself? Emma wanted to chew this man out for his weird habits.
Before Asher could answer Emma, the elevator dinged indicating that they had arrived on the 67th floor.
Coming out of the elevator, Emma was surprised by how eerily quiet the floor was.
Looking at Asher she wanted to deny the fact that they had arrived late. She looked at the wall clock displaying 6:09 pm.
Her heart dropped at the sight.
"Asher, we're late," Emma said in a sad inaudible voice.
Instead of answering, Asher took her hand and went toward a door.
When he pushed the door open, Emma was astonished at the crowd.
There were a lot of people who were getting their tickets checked and walking through a scanning machine.
While Emma was checking out how busy it was when Asher said in a sheepish voice, "I forgot to tell you that the entry starts at 6 pm. The true auction starts at 9."
Emma's fury rose to the skies. With his words, it was clear that they could have gotten here just fine even if they didn't run up 10 floors.
She didn't know what to do with this shameless man who was smiling at her.
Emma gritted her teeth wanting to yell at Asher for his outrageous actions but stopped when she saw someone walking towards them.
Surprised, Emma voiced her thoughts, "What is he doing here?"