Argylle - The last chance

Chapter V

A sharp pain shot through her body as she felt a fist crushing into her stomach.
Suddenly she wondered why she had done that. Why she had started to fight. She hated Aidan, she was mad at Alfie, she didn't know this Rachel girl – why didn't she just go with the bad guys and was their victim. That would prevent her from being killed in the streets.
But no, instead she had to be a fool to her displacement activities and fight against seven full grown men that were trained longer than she lived.
A great idea this is, she thought and clobbered her arm into one of the men's faces before kicking another one's knee. He stumbled and fell to the ground where she smashed his head. For a second, she was afraid of herself for killing a man so effortlessly, but in the next heartbeat the man who she had been talking to pulled her down by her hair and she screamed in pain.
"This was very stupid, girl," he barked.
She closed her eyes but still felt how they started to fill with tears. But in the second when she wanted to answer him, she suddenly felt him let go off her hair. So, she opened her eyes again and saw her brother fight against two of the seven men.
"I thought you might need some assistance here," he exclaimed before smacking one of the men down. She didn't answer but continued to fight for her life.
In the end, at least three of the men were dead and the others had lost consciousness.
"How did you find me?" she asked breathlessly.
"Well, Alfie called me and said that you were in danger and because I had been following these bastards anyway, I wasn't far away."
She nodded, waited a second to regain some breath, and stepped over one of the unconscious bodies.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" he asked and followed her.
"Away."
"Isn't this attack proof enough that you need help? That your life is threatened?"
"I never said it wasn't," she uttered, "I just don't want to stay where we had a fight. You know, in case the men choose to wake up. I don't think they would be too happy."
He reached her and side by side the siblings walked down the street. Tamara didn't really want his company but even she had to admit that he saved her life in this case and that it would only be fair if she took him to a hotel.
"So, where are we going this time?" he wanted to know after a while of walking through the almost empty streets.
"You will see," she answered shortly. She needed a moment to think and would have preferred to be alone, but since that was not possible, she only hoped he would be quiet for a while. They walked through the city silently, until Aidan continued to speak.
"Do you know any of these men?"
"Which men?" she sighed.
"The men that almost got you killed. The men that are hopefully not following us and are still lying on the ground."
"Oh, these men. No. I don't know any of them."
"Did you know the men at the subway today?"
"No, I didn't."
"Well, for someone who claims to not be followed by someone there are a lot of people following you, Tam."
"For someone who claims to be a brother you were no brother for a pretty long time!" she snapped.
"Oh, sorry tiger. Keep calm," he raised his hands to signal that he meant no harm. "I didn't mean to judge you. I was just... surprised."
"Of course," she scoffed.
"Well, what I wanted to say anyway, was-"
"Could you please just shut up?" she interrupted him angrily, "I need to think which is impossible if you keep talking to me as if I cared what you wanted to say!"
His gaze hardened, "Alfie said you cut him off earlier, so you might want to call him back," he said in a monotone voice.
"Yeah, I might will," she ended their conversation and continued to walk for around ten minutes. Then they arrived at a beige house in the middle of a less wealthy-looking part of the city. "This is the 'Casa Celeste', a hotel where you can stay for the rest of the day," she explained, "I can book a room for you now, they always have a free room."
"What?"
"I am sure that you can't catch a flight today, can you? But I am also sure that you don't want to sleep on the streets. So, I am offering to get you a room in this hotel," she repeated.
"No, that's not a good idea. I mean, thank you. But I need to stay close," he replied, "And we walked something like ten minutes here, that's not close enough to come to you if you need to be saved."
"They sure as hell won't attack me today after what we did. And from tomorrow on it's none of your business anymore."
"Tamara..." he started, but she interrupted him.
"No, I meant it when I said that I don't want you back in my life. You must accept it, Aidan."
He sighed. "Okay. Let's just face the facts for a moment: You don't want me around, got it. But you are in danger. In the last three hours you have been attacked twice and I have helped you twice. And now you want to leave me in a hotel and go out there to die, or what exactly is your plan?"
"No..." she murmured, "I don't really have a plan, so far."
"But you have to admit that I did save you. At least once."
"So what? I can tell you a thousand times when you didn't save me, and I saved myself!"
"That is not the point, Tamara," he reminded her, "The point is that I would ask you to stay with me, so that tomorrow we can go to Alfie and have him explain to you, what we should do. Because I don't have a plan either."
"I am not leaving my family! Forget it!"
"You don't have to leave them. Just... take a break."
"Taking a break, or how other people would call it: Leave them!" She looked at him angrily.
"Call it what you want, Tam. And besides, by going back and staying with them, you're only putting them in danger too. Do you want them to be attacked?"
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, I am not. I'm warning you. Because that is exactly what is going to happen. They will be in trouble if you stay with them for too long."
Deep inside she knew that he was right. And it was hard for her to admit it because she didn't want to think about the consequences. She didn't want to think about what would happen to her foster parents and her two foster siblings.
She sighed heavily. "Alright" she said, "We go back to my house, and you can stay for the night. You can sleep on the sofa in the living room... if my dad allows it, which I can't promise, even if I wanted."