How to Rob a Billionaire

Rob B. Illion

I opened the Cronos. Half past twelve in the afternoon.

"How is she still asleep?" I muttered.

"There are many mysteries in this world, Sir," Secretary Coy answered while his eyes remained on the flood of emails on his tablet.

The leather of my chair groaned as I leaned back from my desk. I turned toward the wall-length window of the office and stared at the cityscape.

"Is she still alive?" I asked.

"Is there a reason she wouldn't be?"

I turned to face my work again. Documents lay piled across my glass desk — most of them caused by rival companies who have banded together. Complications, I preferred to call them.

"You seem concerned," Secretary Coy commented.

"At this rate, she'll sleep through tonight's task," I scoffed. "Enough is enough. I'm waking her up."

"As you wish, Sir."

I left my office and headed up the stairs toward the bedrooms. Black marble tiles, seamless gray walls, and slatted dark wood panels stretched throughout the penthouse.

I knocked on Miss Corday's door.

Silence followed.

"Miss, Corday, I am coming inside."

With no response yet again, I opened the door and carefully stepped through.

The curtains were drawn, and the room was too dark to see much. I stepped further in and the light from the door behind me revealed a scene of nightmares. What had been a perfectly tidy room just yesterday somehow turned into the aftermath of a battle. Pillows lay scattered across the floor... and the bed...

I never knew a person could find themselves so thoroughly tangled in bedsheets that they might not be able to free themselves.

"Miss Corday?"

I walked to her bedside and leaned closer, listening for any sign of life.

A faint murmur came from her lips.

Alive then, I thought.

I studied her sleeping form. Her brows were slightly furrowed and soft lips parted as if she were holding her breath. There was nothing remarkable about her, really. Just an ordinary face. Even with my sharp memory, I failed to recall her features after the company party.

And yet seeing her like this... I wondered what she was dreaming about. Why did a woman with so much arrogance show such a vulnerable face?

"Ghe-ow," she mumbled, her eyes still closed.

"Excuse me?"

"Ghet-owt."

"Miss Corday, it is very late already," I said, straightening up.

"Get out!" she ordered.

Unqualified in dealing with this nonsense, I walked over to the control pad on the wall and tapped it. The curtains slid open, letting sunlight flood the room.

"Gah! Take it back!" she squealed and buried herself deeper under the blankets.

Any resemblance of a woman with the world on her shoulders disappeared. What was I thinking? There was nothing but thievery and sleep on that one's mind.

"Lunch will be ready in the kitchen. I expect you to be dressed and presentable within the hour. We have much to discuss for tonight's task."

Incoherent grumbling followed.