Protecting Daniella

4- Meeting her

Silas' P.O.V.

I headed to California after I talked with Robert. I've been here for the past three days and Daniella has yet to show up at her coffee shop.

Since she owned the place, it didn't necessarily mean she worked there. None of the employees name tags matched and the description Robert gave to me didn't fit anyone's profile here either. Most of the employees were older ladies and then a few male and female college students.

So I sat, watching this place day and night, waiting. If Daniella lived upstairs like I found in her records, no one has gone in or out since I've gotten here but every night at 6pm when it was starting to get dark, a light would turn on upstairs and at 11pm the light would shut off again.

This was a classic hack people would do when they went out of town so others would think someone was home in hopes they wouldn't rob the place while they were gone.

I get this is Los Angeles but the security system this chick had in and out of the coffee shop was excellent which made it harder for me to try and sneak up to her living area to scope it out while she was gone and come out unnoticed. Even the other businesses around the area didn't go to this extreme.

But I must say... I was impressed.

I knew asking her employee about her wasn't going to do me any good and might spook her into deeper hiding if she was actually hiding. I decided to just keep watching and planted a small camera that pointed towards the door going upstairs and listened if they talked about her. Then I started asking around at different businesses around the area to see what they had to say but everybody said the same thing about her... 'The owner was a wonderful and friendly woman that would help anyone'.

Doesn't help me.

After I showered at my hotel, I stopped and ordered some food at a bar a few blocks down from the coffee shop and ate quickly before heading back to my car.

I rolled down my window as I lit another cigarette and texted Nico back. I was rewinding some of the footage taken inside the coffee shop when I heard a scream in the distance and then a man yelling.

I opened the door so I could hear better, took another drag off my cigarette and looked around my surroundings. Everyone else was going about their business not paying attention to anything except what was going on in their own little world.

I knew evil was always there, everywhere you turned and I heard enough screams to realize something was going down in the alley to my left.

I put out my cigarette and ducked behind the building wall, walking slowly as I assessed the situation. My eyes narrowed in on some fucking punk as he cornered a petite woman next to the wall of the building. I had a hard time seeing her over his larger frame but knew he had at least a hundred pounds on her.

He whispered and I heard her whispering, almost angrily back. As I moved closer, I brought my gun up and hit him hard over the head with it, knocking him out cold.

She gasped and turned towards me quickly. Our eyes locked in with one another and it was the first time I noticed how incredibly beautiful she was.

Her hair was a red color with gorgeous shoulder length curls. Her mesmerizing eyes were wide as she raised her hands up in front of her in a panic. "Please don't kill me!"

I couldn't help but notice her chest rising and falling faster than it needed to be. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you, Sweetness."

She was still staring at me, looking over my face probably trying to figure out if I was serious or not. I pointed at the guy on the ground. "Who is that guy?"

She shook her head, her eyes never leaving mine and whispered. "I don't know."

I was about to ask her what he said to her when I heard a gun that had a silencer go off and a bullet soon after hit the wall behind us.

Guns are my life. I can tell you every make, model, caliber, gauge, which direction it came from to how far it was shot and whether or not it has a silencer.

My instincts kicked in and I shielded this red headed fox, spinning her out of harm's way and unloaded two shots into both guys coming towards us, killing them. The punk on the floor that I knocked out woke up, raising his gun up at us but he didn't have time to shoot before I shot mine, killing him.

I looked around quickly, seeing there were no others around to bother us before turning my attention towards the woman again. "Are you alright?"

She quickly looked down and over her body. "Yeah, I think so."

I couldn't help but be drawn in by her eyes. "What's your name?" I asked as gently as possible so I didn't scare her more than what she already was.

She looked up at me with those doe eyes of hers again and knocked the wind out of me with one word.

"Daniella."

The smile I had on my face, faded. The attraction I had for her in that split second was now gone. "Daniella Colby?"

The hint of a smirk she was given me faded and her eyes narrowed at me. "Yes?"

I backed away but kept a tight grip on her elbow. "I've been looking for you. We need to talk."

"What?" She screeched. "Why have you been looking for me? Who are you?" She demanded, trying to fight back as I pulled her towards my car.

I stopped suddenly and turned towards her again. "My names Stone. We're going to my car. You're going to get in my car and wait for me so I can clean this mess up. Then we're going to a place where I can figure this all out. Do you understand?"

"No?"

"Good. Get in my car and stay put. If you leave, I will hunt you down and you better hope another hunter doesn't find you first."

"A hunter? What the fuck does that mean?" She asked before I closed the back door of my car. I got in and moved my car closer to the alley we exited from.

"Give me your hand."

"No!"

"Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be." I reached back and swiftly put her hands in cuffs and cuffed her to the backrest of my seat. "I'll be back, don't make a scene because like I said before, we need to talk."

"What if more of those men come when you're gone? Or they kill you? How will I protect myself when I'm chained up like a dog?"

"Don't be ridiculous, dogs have collars." I chucked at my comment, watching her sexy lips pout when she sat back and huffed.

After I cleaned up the mess in the alley and got the men loaded in the back of my car, I got back in the car and took off.

"Here are the keys. I'm warning you though, if you try anything... you will be handcuffed for the rest of our time together."

Now there's an exciting thought. Shaking away that thought, I looked in the rear view mirror at her. She looked scared, "So, are you going to tell me who the guy was?"

"I told you, I don't know."

I didn't have time to respond when someone hit the side of my car, making Daniella scream. I got control of the car again and looked up. She turned around, panicking as the asshole nicked the back of my car again.

"Who's that?" She questioned.

"Someone trying to get our attention."

"Well, they're doing a mighty fine job."

"Hold on." And I took a sharp turn down another alley.