Page 40 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 9
But it was too late.
Ash flipped the button over and pushed it.
HoHoHo - Chapter 10 – Pornstar at a Christmas Rave
Christmas Eve, 2013
I held my breath and waited for the glass atrium to turn into a giant fireball.
I hated to die so young. But at least I was going to look hot as hell doing it. I mean…I was totally slaying this bikini. I just hoped that a security camera caught me walking in here so that everyone would see how fabulous I looked when I got incinerated.
But… Nothing happened.
“Huh,” said Ash, looking down at the big red button. “Why didn’t it work?”
Oh thank God!Ash must not have hit the button hard enough. It was a Christmas miracle!
“Put it down slowly and back away,” I said.
Instead, Ash held it up to her ear and shook it. And then she hit the button again.
No!
The floor started to shake as the sound of heavy metal gears grinding together filled the air.
I was about to take off running, but then Slavanka said, “That sound like big ass bomb.”
Good point.There was no sense running. Because if the bomb was as big as it sounded, it was probably going to take this whole freaking mountain down. So instead I just posed real sexy to ensure I went out in style.
“You guys are being so paranoid,” said Ash. “It’s not a bomb. It’s a secret door!” She pointed to a portion of the floor that had slid open to reveal a hidden spiral staircase. The banister was wrapped in red and green Christmas lights and I thought I heard the faint sound of Christmas music playing at the bottom of the stairs.
“Lead the way,” I said to Ash. There was no use trying to get her to give up this chase. And I was beginning to think that maybe thiswasn’tthe work of Crazy Isabella after all. Don’t get me wrong, this whole thing was still extremely creepy. But if she wanted to murder us, she’d had like twenty opportunities. She could have shot us on the balcony. She could have cut the ski lift cables. She could have gunned us down in the dark atrium. And she could have blown us up with that button. Why would she pass up all those opportunities just to lead us down some secret staircase?
I didn’t have an answer. Maybe we really had spotted Santa. And this was all just a ploy to distract us while he slipped away into the night.
The Christmas music got louder and louder with each step we took down the spiral staircase. And eventually we found thesource of it: a shiny brass gramophone surrounded by six-foot-tall candy canes in the middle of a big round room.
I jumped as a machine to our left sputtered to life. Gears spun and valves hissed and steam shot out of it. And then the smell of hot chocolate filled my nose as the machine simultaneously filled three mugs to the brim. More gears whirred and the nozzles over the glasses shifted. The new nozzles sprayed a perfect little dollop of whipped cream onto each mug. And then mini marshmallows rolled down a tube and landed gently on top. A red and white striped straw dropped into each mug and the machine fell silent.
“Santa is really giving us the VIP treatment. Whipped creamandmarshmallows? He’s a genius.” Ash grabbed one of the mugs and took a big sip. “Oh my God. It’s so good.”
Why the hell not?I grabbed a mug too. And it really was good. It tasted a lot like Teddybear’s hot chocolate. Which made me wonder. What if Teddybear…
“Look!” said Ash, pointing at her name on the wall. It was spelled out in big white letters trimmed with green Christmas lights. Below it looked like something you’d see in a changing room for a Christmas movie: a big mirror, a vanity fully stocked with a full assortment of brushes and make-up, and a rack of green outfits with white fur. “I think Santa bought me a whole new wardrobe,” gasped Ash. “Although I’m not sure aboutthat.” She pointed at a knit green ski mask pulled over a mannequin head. “Why is the top of that mask missing? It looks like someone tried to rob a bank on Christmas and got scalped by an overzealous security guard.”
“That’s so that we can wear it and still show off our hair,” I said. “And also…no. This isn’t a gift from Santa. This is definitely a gift from Teddybear and Ghostie.” Now that I’d seen the ski mask, I was sure of it. It was exactly like the one I’d drawn last night.
“Huh?” asked Ash.
“They must have found the plans we drew up. For the present delivery competition.” They said they’d handle the Isabella issue. It made sense that they used our plans for it. We’d come up with some top-notch ideas.
Ash stared at me like I was crazy. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Last night. We were brainstorming ideas of how we could stop Isabella. And we devised a plan where we’d have a competition to see who could help Santa deliver the most presents to the soldiers staying here. And my team would be composed of me, a Locatelli, and a Chadwick. We’d win by a landslide, and then they’d see how well we all worked together and then they’d happily agree to form an alliance against Crazy Isabella.”
Ash took a big sip of her hot chocolate. “Hmmm… Not ringing any bells.”
“Seriously? We were going to each be on a different team…” I pointed to Ash’s changing station. And then I pointed to the stations on either side of it. “Why else would we all have different colored clothes?” Ash’s name was lit up in green and all her clothes were in green. Mine were red. And Slavanka’s were white. It was clearly three different teams.
