Page 34

I knew that hiring a private investigator wouldn’t be enough. I need some security. At least for my peace of mind. I called Daniel to ask his father a favour but he redirected me in a very interesting direction.

“Cole. Thanks for coming here.” I invited him to the Italian place near his place.

He is dressed casually. Denim jacket and jeans with a white tee. Classic. “No problem.”

He takes a seat in front of me. I am more nervous than ever. I don’t feel even 1% of this nervousness with James. Marcus. Because obviously, I trust him and more than that, I knew that we still– No. Don’t go there.

“So…” Cole takes a sip of his water. “What was the favour?” He flashes me an uncomfortable smile. Telling me that he isn’t feeling any different.

“Let’s order food first.”

Twenty minutes later–

I have exhausted every topic from my small talk jar. Cole is the worst at small talk. That I’m sure of now.

He gets straight to the point and I am wondering why I keep straying off the topic. Maybe because he will ask me ‘Why?’. And I’m not sure if I will want to answer. “I’ve eaten well. Now will you tell me what favor do you need? Is it really that bad? Do you need to take care of a body?” I see his big gulp travel through his throat as his adam's apple bobbed.

“Well…” Just ask him already! It’s not like I am not going to pay! I am just asking for a simple service request… “You got one part of it down.”

“What?!” Cole sprouts out of his seat. Scared.

I recalculate my words and what he had said before and quickly realise my mistake. “No. No. No. No. Not like that. Please sit down.” I look around and there are a lot of eyes on us now. Stupid Cole. I’m sure Marcus would never react like this.

What?! How did he come into all of this? Clear your head Riya!

Cole calms down and sits down. His entire attention is on me.

Now is the time to spit it out, but I don’t know why I’m hesitating so much. I didn’t feel any of this when asking for help from Marcus. Maybe because I didn’t feel like I was burdening him or as if I didn’t have a right to ask him. But with Cole…

“I need security. Could you ask your brother?” I blurt it out.

“What?” Did I say it too fast?

“I said that I need to hire a bodyguard and I heard that your brother, well your step brother works in a security firm and he could help me.” I explain properly.

I am unable to read his face. I am not sure if he is angry or disappointed or both. “I heard you clearly I meant to ask how did you know all of this? And why do you need a bodyguard? Is everything okay Riya?”

I don’t bring Dan into the conversation, given how he and Marcus are best friends and Marcus and Cole have a history. That’s a pond I’m never going to dip my toe in. And I already have enough on my plate. “I just want to know if you will be able to help me or not. I just need a bodyguard for a few months. Just let me know if it is possible for you to do it or not Cole.” I don’t want to beat around the bush anymore. Now that the cat is out of the hat, it is time to be straightforward.

He hesitates a bit. “I know you don’t get along with your brother that–”

“Half brother.” he corrects quickly.

Maybe this was a bad idea. “Half brother…that well. I’m sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you with any of this. I will find someone else. Sorry for wasting your time.” I get up to leave. There is no point in pushing him. I don’t want Cole to do something that makes him uncomfortable.

“I’ll do it.” Cole takes his jacket and puts it around me. “I’ll talk to my brother.”

“Thank you so much. It means a lot to–”

“Only if you tell me what is going on.” He completes. There is no way in hell that I am telling Cole what has happened. At least not until I process it myself.

I take off his jacket and give it back to him. “I guess that means that I will have to find someone else to do the job then. Thank you for your time, Cole.” I walk out of the restaurant without any regrets or having nothing to look back to.

“Riya…Wait…” Cole calls my name as he is out of breath. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to Quaso. I’ll see what I can do. You don’t need to tell me anything.” He wraps a cashmere scarf around my neck. I’d completely forgotten to grab that on my way out.

“Thank you Cole.”

A wide smile stretches across his face. “At least let me drive you home then.”

“It’s fine I drove here anyway.” And I don’t have a home anymore. I almost tell him. But there is no need for him to know those details.

◆◆◆

If you keep the heater of the car turned on the entire night, the car runs out of battery. I learned that the hard way. Halfway through the night, the battery died and I slept through the cold in the parking lot of my new apartment. Thankfully there were almost no passersby and the parking spot for 402 is in the corner, secluded from others. Sorry 402 for taking your parking spot and thank you for not having a car or being out of town.

The move into my apartment was a smooth one. But more than half of my stuff was still at my old place. I’d already called Sid and Daniel to help me get it and they are on their way to my apartment right now. I get my battery recharged and drive back to that nightmare of a house. I pull up near the entrance with my empty car to load up my stuff and I see a black Jeep parked right ahead of me. No one inside.

My blood pressure shoots up and panic sets in. I run up the stairs without caring to close my car door or waiting for the elevator.

I was right. Blood. There is blood on the couch, the kitchen top, James’s knuckles and Jake’s face. I run towards them and pull James away from Jake. Broken nose and probably a broken jaw and definitely a broken arm and those fingers…his right hand is completely shattered. “No. James! Let him go! James. Baby, look at me.” His eyes are not the usual mellow and calm. They scare me to my core. It's like a storm in the ocean. Dangerous. As if it could swallow everything within.

James gets away from him and hugs me. I can feel his heartbeat. Mine still beats faster than his. I take one more look at his face and his eyes melt. If I were wearing my Taylor Swift glasses I’d be able to see the hearts in his eyes. “Please don’t hurt yourself anymore…Please.” My voice breaks. And now when I look at him, there are tears in my eyes which I’m not scared of letting go. As long as he holds me, I’ll be fine.

“Didn’t think that you would weasel your way back into this house like a slut.” Jake huffs. And I immediately tighten my arms around James. Because if I don’t hold him back, he will kill Jake. And I am not exaggerating whatsoever. “A snake can shed its skin, but it’s still a snake.” Jake’s evil laugh prickles my ears.

“That’s what you got wrong Jake.” I wipe my tears and face my worst fear. Jake. Eye to eye. “I’m a porcupine. You picked me up thinking that I was cute, now you will see how I will dunk my quills into you. Now I will show you what real torture is.” Jake looks battered up. His face is swollen and purple already and his nose looks disfigured.

Jake takes two steps closer to me and before I can even blink, James is standing in front of me. “I guess that wasn’t enough of a lesson for you, huh bastard? If you even dare to breathe the same air as her, I will fucking kill you. And I’m sure that by now you know how capable I am of doing that.” James holds my hand and leads me out of the house. I don’t say anything. I simply follow his lead.

He walks me to my car and finally stops. “You stay here, we’ll go get the stuff. Sid and Daniel are on their way here anyway.” I can’t help but caress his cheek.

There’s a small cut on his lip. I bet that stings. A small bruise on his cheek, which is darker than the colour of his eyes. My eyes fill up again. “Don’t cry for me Riya. I don’t even deserve your tears.” He pushes my hands off his face and walks away. Leaving me confused again. Did I do something wrong? Did I say something wrong again? I thought we were past this. I thought that we could again…

Sid and Daniel are here in the next two minutes. They don’t ask me a lot of questions either, except for what furniture they need to pick up. I give them a list and within 2 hours, I have all of my stuff packed in three cars. I go to take one last look but I stop outside the main door. I can’t go in there. And I cannot believe that I am leaving Justine with a rapist. Don’t worry Justine, I will unmask him in front of you.

When I come downstairs, the black jeep is gone. I walk towards my car and find a note with a number and a name. It’s James’ handwriting. Must be the P.I. I told him to look into it. But he could’ve given this information to me himself. “Are you ready to roll?” Daniel loads up the last of my designer bags and closes my car door.

“Yeah.” I shove the note into my bag and get in my car.

The boys unload all of my stuff into the new apartment. And I see Daniel checking out all the rooms and windows. “Okay…creepy Daniel! What are you looking for?”

He opens and closes the window several times. “There are no locks on the windows. And your door has only one lock. There is also no proper lock on the bathroom and the lock on your bedroom is pretty loose too.” I did not notice that all, because I was sold on the security in the building. Facial recognition cameras, no one allowed inside without my permission and residence privacy.

“Okay Mr Bodyguard.” I taunt him. Since when does he care about all that?

“I’ll be right back.” Daniel rushes out without hearing another word and I hear Sid crash on the couch. I almost thought that he broke it. “It’s not broken.” he shouts from the living room as if he read my mind. I lock the door as Daniel leaves and head to the living room.

I nudge Sid, poking him, urging him to get up. He lets out an annoyed sigh and stands up. I walk towards the kitchen ahead of him. “You’re helping me arrange the plates.” I start unboxing everything. He saunters into the kitchen groaning again.

“You have two plates.” he picks up the plates. “And they are paper plates.” he tosses them towards me. An annoying frown appears on my face.

My patience snaps when he picks up the paper plates and throws them in the trash can. “Why would you do that?” I shout at him. He is taken aback by my sudden change in behaviour. I shock myself too. I rarely snap like this. He quickly takes out the plates out of the trashcan and places them in front of me. Both of them had small holes in the middle that I hadn’t noticed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout at you like that.” I mellow my tone.

His hand finds my shoulder and gently taps it as if to console me. Console me of the pain he doesn’t even know about. “Is everything alright, Riya?” He asks me after a minute or two of silence.

I ponder over who to tell and how much to tell. Of course Sid is someone I trust, he is like a brother to me. “No.” I managed to say.

“You can tell me whenever you think you’re ready.” There’s a faint smile on his face and I am glad that he chose to give me space. We unpack the rest of the stuff in silence and about twenty minutes later, the bell rings. Chills run through my body as I am back in Justine’s room. Jake on top of me and Justine knocking on the door. If she had knocked even a second late, I know Jake would have forced himself inside me. One second. I was saved by that one second.

“I’ll get that.” Sid scooches past me and opens the door for Daniel. There is a huge plastic bag in his hand. He empties it on the kitchen island. There are locks and screws and screwdrivers. So many of them.

“What is all that?” I ask him.

He looks at me with a guilty face. I know that expression very well. It is the same expression James used to have when he did something that he didn’t want to do but was forced to do. “Did he put you up for this?” I ask Dan.

“What?” Dan screeches in a high pitched voice which was high enough to compete with Ariana Grande.

“Where is he?” Dan's eyes wander around as fast as a bullet train. “Is he downstairs?” I walk towards the window and peep outside to see if I can spot his car. He is standing outside his car in the cold. There was a sudden temperature drop yesterday night! And he’s without a jacket.

I rush outside the door and down the stairs not giving a damn about the elevator or stopping to listen to what Daniel had to say. He’s staring at his shoes and then back up at my window.

“Marcus!” I shout from a distance. His head immediately jerks up. And I see a slight smile on his face. Or maybe I just imagined that.

I rush downstairs and run towards him and we meet halfway through. “What are you doing here?” I ask him. Stupid question. I realise.

“Daniel said he needed help.” Lies. I can tell that he’s clearly lying because he pouts his mouth and does not look me in the eye.

I take a deep breath, contemplating whether I should say the next words or not. But I say them anyway. “I want us to be on one team, Marcus. I don’t want there to be this much awkwardness between us if you are going to help me. And…” I am tired of repeating the same thing again and again. “I want you to tell me. If something I do or say bothers you, I want you to tell me right there.”

His eyes meet mine and there is an innocence in them. “Why did you meet Cole yesterday?” That was not what I was expecting at all.

“How’d you know?” he does not answer and goes back to staring at his feet that he kicks slightly in the ground. “I was looking to hire security.” His brows furrow and he finally looks at me and there is concern on his face. “It was for my peace of mind. So, I reached out to Daniel and he told me that Cole’s brother–half-brother works in that field and could help me out.” A deep sense of relief washes over his face.

“You could’ve–”

“I know. But you have already helped me a lot. In ways you don’t know. Even with the PI. I didn’t want to be a burden on you. Now that I don’t have any right on you. Now that there is no…us.” I dared not to look in his eyes after saying that, but I feel the chills of disappointment coming from him. It isn’t the sudden spring cold, it is a wave of sheer disappointment.

He holds my hands in his and I still cannot look into his eyes. His hands warm mine and his gentleness warms my heart. “Even if there is no us, you have every right on me. Because…even if you…” I feel the lump in his throat.

He grabs my hands and gives them a soft gentle squeeze. It feels so good. So warm. “Even if you ever fall out of love with me, you are it for me, Riya. I love you. I always have and always will. And I ask you only one thing in return, not your love, but your hardships. You keep all of your happiness and let me help you carry the hardships.” It was that easy to break me now-a-days. Because as soon as his warm words reach my brain and are configured by my heart, I am already crying.

And among those sobs, I kept saying three words, “Thank you…Thank you James.” Not Marcus. James…