Stolen Love: Rafe Adler v Sam Drake: A Love Triangle

Chapter 9 - Auction Part 2

Rafe began walking towards Nadine and Victor who were chatting for a few minutes before Jayne caught sight of them. She was not really looking forward to being there when Rafe confronted Victor; she knew he would clue into the fact that Sam and Nathan were there, that they had their sights on the cross and didn't have the money to bid for it. Whenever it came to that treasure, Rafe turned into a total monster and she hated it.

"Rafe. Just...hang on! It's hard to walk in these damn shoes." Jayne tried pulling her hand from Rafe as he let go slightly, his sights set on Nadine and Victor. She saw him get closer and straighten out his tux, run his fingers through his hair and tug on his bow tie before interjecting. She wasn't quite in ear shot as she fixed the strap to her shoe and smoothed down her dress before slowly walking over to the now threesome.

"Victor Sulliven!" Rafe said with a deep chuckle and a wide grin. Jayne began sauntering over to Rafe.

"How the hell are you?" Rafe smirked out before extending his hand, almost pleasantly, to shake Victor's.

"Rafe." Victor said as he reteived his cigar from his mouth. Nadine saw Jayne making her way up behind Rafe and she slightly shook her head to tell Jayne to not come, but Jayne being Jayne doesn't take orders from Nadine and just narrowed her eyes before touching Rafe between the shoulders with her hand.

"Victor. You remember Jayne." Rafe said as he took hold of Jayne's hand and pulled her gently beside him, his arm slinking around her waist as she nodded to Victor. She extended her hand to shake Victor's, but he did the utterly gentleman thing and placed his lips gently on the back of her hand.

"How could I forget Jayne Gregory. Still cooking up fine cuisine, I hope?" Victor asked which made Jayne blush and nod slightly.

"She is. And it's Adler now." Rafe corrected the older gentleman much to Victor's surprise as his eyebrows raised. "Huh. Well, congratulations you kids."

"So. How long has it been, Victor? 10 years? 12?" Rafe asked through a chuckle.

"15." Victor responded. Boy, did that make Jayne feel damn old.

Rafe gave a low chuckle. "It's amazing. All these years gone by, here we are, we're still haggling over dead people's junk."

"Really?" Victor mused. "Aren't you running your parents' business?"

"My business now. But yes, that is my day job."

"Ho, ho. That is one helluva day job." Victor said with a nod and a grin. "You could probably afford to buy up everything on the block tonight."

Ugh. Don't give him ideas, Sully. Jayne thought to herself.

"Well, sure, but what would be the point in that? These days I'm only looking for the good stuff....big scores."

Victor nodded as if he concurred with Rafe. "Any advice on what I should pick up tonight?" Rafe asked nonchalantly. Victor turned his attention to Nadine as he snickered. "Ha, yeah. Like I'd want to bid against him." Victor shot a wink over to Jayne as well which caused her to blush, but she knew that he knew that she was fully aware of the situation at hand.

"But um, just between you and me ... I did notice they changed the order. I think somebody might be trying to rig this auction."

Rafe looked quite thoughtful - not angry about this but almost like he was processing what Victor said. Jayne held back trying to roll her eyes, but she knew Rafe was just being Rafe.

"Well, remember where we are. This crowd didn't get rich by playing fair."

Nadine moved from Victor's side and over to Rafe's which really pissed Jayne off.