Race (18 page)

Chantelle felt a little hurt by what Ronan said, because the romance felt so real to her. She actually thought that Ronan had feelings for her. "So, what do I have to do?" Chantelle sighed, long and hard.

"You're going to have to marry me then, aren't you?" Ronan grinned, his face fixed with an untrustworthy look.

Chantelle looked shocked. There was no way that she wanted to get married to Ronan now, especially after everything that had just happened, all in a rush.

"Don't worry," Ronan said, interrupting her thoughts. "This wedding will be just like a business deal. It'll be nothing serious."

"And then?" Chantelle pushed on.

"First things first, baby. Are you in?" Ronan asked with a devilish smirk.

Slowly but surely, Chantelle nodded her head. She had nothing left to lose. "I'm in," she confirmed.

Noah went home after being released from the hospital. He went to Ronan's bedroom and opened up his wardrobe, searching frantically for any information that he could find. When he opened up one of the drawers in between all of the massive piles of clothes, he found a piece of paper. He opened it up, and saw that every piece of the information was about Chantelle. He looked through it, scanning the pages, wondering how on Earth Ronan had managed to get hold of this information, when the pair of them had never even met before.

“And now, to my brother’s safe recovery!” Ronan roared to the cheering crowd, as he drank more alcohol. Noah grinned modestly. He’d been released from the hospital and was better now. The crowd were wild for Noah. They were all hugging him and congratulating him, happy that he was better now. Nobody imagined life without Noah.

Above all the cheering, Ronan broke away from the crowd to go and get a drink, but then - something caught his eye. Something beautiful, something powerful, something irresistible.

Chantelle was walking through the crowd, dressed in a pink top with a blue denim skirt. Her hair fell over her shoulders like a lustrous shiny waterfall. Her eyeliner complimented her eyes, making her look cat-like, bold and  utterly gorgeous.

Noah stared at his brother Ronan, wondering what on Earth he was staring at so passionately. Then, Noah saw Chantelle, and smiled, instantly distracted.

“Hey babe,” Noah said softly, hugging her as they kissed each other’s cheeks.

“Hey Noah,” Chantelle replied, smiling at him widely. “I'm so sorry I’m late."

“Those who I wait for end up being worth the wait,” Noah reassured, his voice still just as soft.

"I've missed you. The minute I found out that something happened to you, I couldn't bare it -" Chantelle began, wanting to speak to him alone, but then someone cut her off her sentence.

“And those who are late end up being Noah’s treasures,” Ronan added to Noah's sentence stupidly, still awestruck.

Chantelle laughed at him lightly.

“This is Ronan, my younger brother,” Noah explained.

“Hi. Pleased to meet you,” Chantelle said, shaking Ronan’s hand.

"Pleased to meet you too," Ronan rejoiced, making the most of touching her hand.

“And this is Alice, my secretary,” Noah indicated, and Chantelle and Alice shook hands. “This is my friend, Chantelle,” Noah said to Ronan and Alice, not wanting to give them too much information.

“Noah, the announcement’s about to start,” Alice told Noah, indicating the podium.

“OK. I’ll see you a bit later guys,” said Noah, leaving with Alice. Ronan and Chantelle were alone.

“Can I get you a drink?” Ronan offered, his voice a little too enthusiastic.

“Erm … soft drink,” Chantelle smiled, nodding, because she didn't drink alcohol. They began to walk.

“Now I know why Noah doesn't drink. When he sees you, he doesn’t need anything else to be addicted to,” Ronan grinned. He had certain charms he would use with the ladies. Now he'd seen Chantelle, he wouldn't stop trying to woo her until he had her.

Chantelle laughed at him half heartedly. “I think you’re over exaggerating.” Her voice was modest.

“If you look from my eyes, then you’ll realize that I’m really not,” Ronan said seriously. He tried to take things further. “Anyway, what do you think about love at first sight?”

“Hmm … it saves time,” Chantelle smiled.

“Ha ha! It saves time! That’s a good one,” Ronan answered in appreciation, chuckling. “Do you know what I like about you?” Ronan paused. “Hey, Noah never mentioned you to me. How long have you known each other?”

“Quite a while,” Chantelle admitted, blushing.

“Wow … seriously?” Ronan didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Please don’t say yes! Don't say yes!”

Chantelle continued to laugh. “Why are you asking me these things?”

Ronan paused, trying to think of something to say. “Hey, wait one minute,” Ronan told her finally, and walked away from the huge crowd, leaving Chantelle alone.

Noah and Alice came back from the crowd to join Chantelle.

“Where’s Ronan gone?” Noah asked.

“I don’t know,” Chantelle shrugged, smiling. “He went off to do something.”

“Oh.”  Noah frowned.

“You know, Noah. There’s one big difference between you and Ronan. Ronan is a lot more confident when it comes to pulling girls!”  Chantelle joked, because Ronan and her had only just met yet she was certain that he'd taken a fancy to her.

The three of them began to laugh. Then, they heard music. Guitar strumming. 

Ronan had bounded on to the stage, and began singing, girls dancing around him whilst he gazed at Chantelle. Everyone in the crowd was dancing, Chantelle with Ronan and Alice with Noah. They were all just lost in the guitar strumming around them, not caring what they were doing.

Ronan laughed, but then almost passed put in shock when he saw Chantelle stride into the room too, looking beautiful and fresh.  Alice gasped because she thought that Frank had killed her, but he hadn't, and then Ronan just tried to shrug it off. Chantelle sat down next to Noah and put her arms around him.

"I'm sorry, Ronan," Chantelle smirked. "The man that you  gave the contract to of killing me, died himself, the poor bastard." Her face was outlined with a devilish grin.

Chantelle's eyes went wide in shock. "Frank?" she gasped. She rolled over on to her car and Frank hit it. The car flew into the air and dropped back down with a massive shatter on to Frank's car, and then bounced off with a thump on to the ground. Chantelle began to run for all she was worth, and Frank slowed down since Chantelle's car had smashed his window. That didn't stop him though. He revved up the engine again, and Chantelle was at a dead end. There was nowhere else that she could run. She held on to the barrier for her dear life, praying that this wasn't the end.

Somebody was running up on a higher building, seeing that Cchantelle was in trouble. He was wearing a red shirt with blue jeans and a white jacket.

It was Noah.

Noah began to run, faster and faster, and saw Frank's truck driving towards Chantelle. Noah jumped for his life, and caught hold of a crane wire, and then slid down it. A whole load of heavy steel and aluminium and titranium construction materials fell smash in front of Frank's car, and Noah landed right at the front of Frank's car. Frank came to an abrupt stop.

"Run, Chantelle!" Noah shouted. "Run!"

Chantelle nodded, and began to run back in to the Royal  Parking. Frank was now incredibly angry and Noah was still on top of his car. Frank spun the car around in an attempt to reverse it and began to drive, harder and faster, the revving of his engine deafening. He drove faster and faster to the inside of the Royal Parking where Chantelle was running. Bending around countless twists and corners, Noah tried his best to hold on to the truck. He began to smash the front window of Frank's truck with his foot, so that the glass would shatter completely. He finally did it and jumped inside the truck, fighting for the steering wheel. Frank began to struggle, and then Noah started hitting Frank with all of the force that he had. Bothered, Frank got himself back up whilst they both continued to fight over the steering wheel. Frank flashed a night out of hic pocket and made to stab Noah but Noah began to defend himself, grabbing Frank's hand in an attempt to push the knife away from himself. There was a loud and deafening scream as Frank struggled in pain, his shirt soaked with blood and he was clutching himself as Noah had just stabbed him. The car began to lose control as it went down a hilly part, and Chantelle had to roll over in order not to get run over by it. She got back up on her feet and ran - but she was now at another dead end, and the truck was still driving towards her. She gasped, tears streaming down her cheeks, but Noah grabbed hold of the brakes and pushed them down. The car came to an abrupt halt, and Frank lay dead on the steering wheel.

Ronan chuckled. "Think of it as a gift from my way," he grinned.

Noah folded his arms as Chantelle continued to smile. Alice did not manage to say a word.

"And you're still alive right now," Noah began, "because I want to know why you so badly wanted to hurt me. When I found out that your plan was worth one hundred million dollars, I turned that plan into two hundred million dollars.  In the eyes of people I was all ready dead and you got your one hundred million dollars." Noah lifted up his gun again. "So if I killed you as well then there'd be two hundred million dollars in the bag for me." He put his gun down. "But what I thought is that I knew you were too smart for this." He got up on his feet. "I never even knew that you and Alice had met before. Then after I died you even put this thing up that Alice was my wife, so that the police wouldn't interrogate you or have anything against you, and then all of the money would have gone in to Alice's bank account." Noah stared at Alice's guilty face. It reminded him about what Harry said about eating flowers.

It was the end of Noah's funeral. Everybody was dressed in black, and Alice was sobbing as she watched everybody depart. Chantelle and Ronan walked up to her.

"Alice!" Ronan called. He was wearing a black suit with black sunglasses, and Chantelle was wearing a black mini dress, completely inappropriate for a funeral.

Alice stared at him as if she'd just been slapped. "How DARE you come here! You took the life of my husband, and now you're here to show me sympathy!"

"Alice, Noah was my brother," Ronan said innocently.

"It's because of you that he died!" Alice shouted. "I don't wanna see your face! Just get out of here! Get out!"

"Calm down," one of the passing nuns whispered, putting her arm around Alice and leading her back inside the church. She was wearing a long black gown with head covering.

Ronan shrugged, not bothering to take the subject any further, and he and Chantelle made their way down the churchyard path way.

Harry and Mini were waiting at the end of the path way for the pair of them to arrive.

"Mini, is there something that you've observed?" Harry asked Mini. Harry smoothed out his brown hair and his suit.

"Yes sir. Today, you've eaten half a kilo of strawberries!" Mini exclaimed. She was wearing black too to pay her respects, although she was also wearing a mini dress like Chantelle.

"What an observation!" Harry said dryly.

"Thank you, sir!" Mini said proudly.

Ronan and Chantelle arrived.

"Hello, Mr  Ronan!" Harry said cheerfully.

"You're here too now, are you?" Ronan snapped, mumbling something about Harry Rodgers being there wherever he went and he had no privacy anymore.

"It's a general thing. Dogs and policemen always stay behind each other," Harry grinned, smiling, saying that Ronan and Chantelle were the dogs and he and Mini were the policemen.