Ariana froze up a bit, realizing that it was not good that Tahira was so very aware of the dollar amounts raised. But she couldn't think about that now. She had to get on with the plan.
"A million? Really? That's it?" she said, trying to sound both concerned and amused.
Everyone looked at Ariana as if she were speaking in tongues. Even the bodyguards changed expression for a split second before returning to their disinterested glares.
"What do you mean, that's it?" Tahira snapped, lifting her palms so that her gold bangles clinked together. "Did you not hear what I just said? We've already broken records."
"Oh," Ariana said faux-innocently. "It just seemed like Brigit's idea would have raised twice as much. Don't you think, Brigit?"
Everyone looked at the Norwegian princess. Her jaw dropped slightly at having been put on the spot, but then she glanced at Tahira and assumed her defiant stance. "Probably," she sniffed. Ariana widened her eyes at Brigit, telling her to be strong. "Definitely, I mean. I definitely would have raised more. And I wouldn't have had to rely on the fame of one of my fellow students to do it."
"Girls," Lexa said in a warning tone. "Do we have to do this here?"
Unfortunately, yes. It has to be here, Ariana thought."Oh, really?" Tahira said, ignoring Lexa and walking around the table. "So tell me, what were these brilliant ideas that would have raised zillions?" she demanded. "Because apparently Palmer didn't agree that any of them were better than mine."
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Ariana bit the inside of her lip. This was going even better than she'd hoped. She picked up her hobo bag from under the table. It weighed a lot more than it had when she'd arrived.
"I still have to go to the bathroom," Ariana whispered to Lexa, a pained expression on her face. "Do you mind?"
"No! Go! Go ahead," Lexa said, shooing her away. "Adam will stay with me and help keep the peace, right, Adam?"
Put on the spot, Adam hesitated. "Uh, sure."
"That's because Palmer thought it would be amusing to put his buddy Landon in the spotlight for a night," Brigit said to Tahira. "All you did was play to the boys'-club mentality. That's why he went with you. Did you have your little boy toy Rob whispering in his ear too? Can you get anything done without a man helping you?"
Tahira let out an indignant gasp. "T
ake that back!"
"What are you going to do, have your male bodyguards beat me up?" Brigit shot back.
As Ariana walked away, total commotion exploded behind her. Lexa grabbed Brigit's arm as Tahira lunged forward. The bodyguards attempted to hold the Dubai princess back, but somehow Brigit and Tahira ended up on the floor, grappling with each other as Adam tried in vain to coax Brigit up. Girls screamed for a whole new reason, and a couple of boyfriends who had been dragged along whipped out their phones to take pictures. Ariana was halfway to the "bathroom," which was conveniently located right near the bank room, when Brigit's security guard came rushing out to help her, leaving the money unattended.
Perfection.
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Ariana had known that Brigit's bodyguard was going to come in handy. Any random security guard might have stuck with the money, but Brigit's personal guard couldn't stand by and let his princess get drop-kicked by Tahira. Rudolpho would definitely be occupied for the next few minutes.
Her heart pounding at an insane beat, Ariana slid behind the coat-check counter and paused. At her feet were no fewer than five canvas money bags stuffed to their brims. Part of her wanted to just grab one and run, but if one of the bags went missing it would be way too obvious. Checking to make sure the riot was still in full swing, Ariana dropped to her knees, whipped the collapsible duffel bag from the inside of her hobo, and loosened the strings on the first canvas bag. She reached inside and grabbed fistfuls of cash, stuffing them into her duffel. When she felt like she'd made a dent, she quickly reclosed the bag and opened the next one, following the same pattern. Once she had gotten through three bags, she felt she had done all she could without both screwing Team Gold into the ground, and making it totally obvious that there was money missing. She zipped up her duffel, peeked over the edge of the counter, and froze. Order had been restored. Rudolpho was checking Brigit over to make sure she was unharmed. Any second they were both going to realize that the money was not being watched.
"Damn," Ariana said under her breath.
She slid out from behind the counter and ducked down the hallway just as Brigit pointed toward the coatroom. Ariana didn't wait to see whether Brigit or her guard had noticed her. She simply kept moving,
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down the hall, through a metal door, down a set of stairs, and out to the alleyway, feeling the whole way that at any moment someone was going to grab her shoulder. It wasn't until she was through the door and it had slammed behind her that she started to breathe again.
Kaitlynn stepped away from the far wall. Ariana was momentarily startled, but she recovered quickly. She didn't even give the girl a chance to speak.
"Here," she said, dropping the duffel at her feet on the silty ground. "Here's your money. Now leave me alone."
Kaitlynn wore black leggings, an oversize flannel shirt, and a torn denim jacket. She nudged the bag with the toe of her clunky black boot as if she was checking to make sure it wasn't full of snakes.
"It's all there?" she said dubiously. "One million dollars."