Without Her ✓

Keys

"No, but I want you to search the area and tell me if you find something" He said giving me a piece of paper with something written on it.

It was the same area I'd met Tessa in.

"Nate will come with you. You're going there tonight after it gets dark. We don't want anyone seeing you"

"Got it, boss"

He rolled his eyes at the name, "How's your "personal stuff" going?" He asked leaning back on his chair.

I was smiling before I even knew I did and Ares noticed and gave me a smirk. I cleared my throat and hid my smile, "Good" I said firmly.

"Someone has a little crush?" He asked.

"Did I hear something about a crush?" Nate asked walking in, "I know you got it bad-"He said pointing at Ares, "-but you too?" He asked in shock now pointing at me.

Ares and I both rolled out eyes, "I don't" We said at the same time.

"Right" He said chuckling before walking out.

__________

"Found anything yet?" Nate asked.

"No, did you?"

"Yep" He said taking something from the ground.

It was a pair of keys.

"We don't know if that's from one of them or if it's some random stranger's though" I said walking closer to him to see the keys.

I heard something and saw something from the corner of my eye.

"Did you hear that?" Nate asked.

"Yes, I'll go check it out. Keep searching" I said and walked to the direction the sound came from. It was really dark and I kept going and going. I couldn't see a soul here. If there was someone here, they definitely didn't want to be caught and that meant they were a threat to us.

I acted like I was walking back to where I came from and hid behind a wall to see if someone would come out. I smirked when I heard footsteps.

Got you.

I saw a figure pass by me, checking if someone was there and before they could see me, or walk away. I grabbed them and pinned them against the wall so that they couldn't move.

But who I saw shocked me.

"Tessa, what the fuck are you doing here?" I asked relaxing my hold on her.

"Leo" She whispered, she sounded relieved but her face was a mix of fear, shock and panic.

To my surprise, she wrapped her small arms around my torso and buried her face in my chest.

I'd never seen her so vulnerable.

I stroked her hair with one hand and hugged her back with the other, "Hey, what is it?"

She was panting but tried to keep quiet, "I thought they'd gotten me" She said, "But it's you"

"It's so late. Why aren't you at your house?" I asked. I was genuinely worried, everything else was out the window right now. All that mattered was her, but I couldn't see it yet.

"I came looking for my keys and the bad guys are usually here. If they find me-"

Her keys.

"Hey, it's okay. I'll take you home, okay?"

"But my keys-"

"Shh, don't worry, I got you" I said.

I called Nate, still having her in my arms and he picked up immediately, "I searched the whole place, didn't find anything" He said.

"It's okay. Turns out what we heard was just a cat"

"Well come over here and let's go" He said.

I wanted to go and take Tessa's keys, but she was terrified, holding on to me for dear life and Nate couldn't know about her yet.

"You go, I'll stay a little bit more and search around the area" I said.

"What about the car?" he asked.

"You take the car I'll take a taxi or tell you to come pick me up" I said.

He sighed, "Sure" he said and hung up.

"Are you okay?" I asked Tessa who was still gripping my jacket really tight. She didn't respond.

I noticed she was shivering and took off my jacket and put it around her, "It's okay, sweetheart. It's me. You're safe" I said stroking her hair.

"How am I supposed to get home? My dad is asleep and he'll kill me if he finds out I sneaked out and didn't lock the door on top of that" She said.

I thought about it for a second.

Fuck, I should've taken the keys with me when I could I am such an idiot.

"Where am I going to go now?" She asked, her grip on me now tighter.

"You can come to my apartment" I said without thinking.

Her gaze snapped up to me, "What?"

"You can come to my apartment if you want and you can tell your dad that you left early because you were going to get coffee with your friends before school" I said quickly making up the excuse.

"What about my bag and my homework? How will I go to school tomorrow? What if he sees my bag?" She said clearly panicked.

"You can say that one got dirty and you took another one with you" I said.

Damn I'm good at this.

"Okay" She said firmly, "I'll come"