Hidden Truths

Chapter Siete

I woke up the next day with a fresh set of orders from Xavier instructing me to clean the dining room and the game room.

Considering the fact that I slept so late last night, I hadn't awoken till around 1pm and the rest of the day was spent cleaning the dining room. I took a break to have dinner with Alex, before going off to clean the game room.

I had now been in the game room for a few hours, picking up empty beer cans and, ew, was that someones g-string? When did this even happen? Alex gave me a tour of the place not long ago and this room looked spotless. Then again, the place was so big you probably wouldn't even be able to hear if there was a rave going on in another room.

"Need some help there?" I jumped at the sound, looking back to see Elijah leaning against the door, arms crossed.

"Jesus, give a girl some warning next time" I uttered, before turning back to pick up the remaining rubbish.

"I actually came to apologise for my behaviour in the library, but it looks like you've got your hands full so" he smirked and began to turn around.

"No!" I dropped the rubbish bag, "I wanna hear this, go ahead, what's mr tough guys excuse for being so damn rude?"

"Mr tough guy? Really?" He responded, almost amused by the nickname. I rolled my eyes at him, waiting for his actual response.

"Look I'm sorry but I was just angry and letting it out on you, frankly I'm a light sleeper and I don't like my sleep being disturbed, especially not after the rough night I had just had, and you did exactly that. So, I was unreasonably grumpy already, and when i went to go the library for some peace and quiet, i found you there and... I'm sorry, truly" He rambled on, yet seemed sincere in his words.

"Here let me help with that", he picked up the garbage bag before I could respond and started throwing away some of the lingering beer cans.

"Thanks, and uh, it's fine, I'm sorry about that night, didn't mean to wake you, but you can't really blame a girl who had just been kidnapped to start yelling" I reminded, in case he had forgotten I was here against my will.

Elijah took in a deep breath and sat down on one of the chairs. Well so much for helping me clean the place.

"We're not bad people you know, this whole" he swirled his finger in the air, "this whole kidnapping thing, there's a solid reason behind it, it's just not my story to tell."

There it was again, a so-called story behind my kidnapping. Everyone seemed to know this story, except for me.

I sat down in a chair opposite Elijah and sighed. "I just wanna go home, I wanna see my friend, I wanna be able to go back to work, real work, I don't want to be couped up here cleaning up after a bunch of guys that can't do it themselves" I spilled, hiding my face in my hands. I was really fighting back the tears now. The emotions of the last couple days were catching up to me. But I didn't cry. Nope. I did enough of that in my teen years, so the moment I turned 21, Sky and I made a vow to never feel sorry for ourselves again. I was doing a damn good job up, until now.

Eli stood up and walked over to me, crouching down to me, "hey, hey, look at me", he moved my hands away from my face, placing them on my lap and holding onto them, "we're not going to hurt you, you know that right? It's just a little housekeeping until we get some things figured out and then hopefully Xavier will let you go okay?" He began unconsciously rubbing circles on the the back of my hand as he spoke, while his eyes stilled on mine.

"Now come on, you should go get some rest it's late, you can finish this up tomorrow" He said, as he stood up, pulling me up with him.

It suddenly dawned on me how close we were. My hands were on his chest as his hands still held mine. I looked up at him, at this height I could perfectly see his neck tattoo. It was beautiful. A prominent lotus flower on the base of his throat with intricate details spiralling upwards. I had a sudden desire to reach out and feel the tattoo, but obviously decided against it.

Eli let out a little cough and let go of my hands, while I took a step back.

"Well, I'll uh, see you tomorrow?" He said as he started scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I'll see you around I guess... night" I replied and begun walking towards the door before things got anymore awkward.

"Goodnight" I heard Eli mutter something else, but I was too far out the door to hear it.

I began making my way to the kitchen to get a glass of water before going to bed. It must have been really late because most of the lights throughout the house had been switched off already.

When I entered the kitchen I found a set of dimmer lights and switched them on, considered the other set of lights were too bright for me to handle right now.

I filled a glass of water from the fridge and made my way to the island table. I let out a deep breath. What had my life come to? As if I wasn't struck with enough bad luck throughout my life, the one year things were stable, I had to get kidnapped?

It could have been a lot worse Mia. You could have been kidnapped by cannibals!

I almost laughed aloud at my own optimism.

I set down the now empty glass when an arm slipped around my waist pulling me back into someone's chest.

"What the fu-" I began to turn around to see who the idiot who thought it was okay to just grab me like that was, but they placed a hand over my mouth and began to whisper in my ear, "be a good little girl and do as I say"

I started to wriggle in his arms trying to let myself free but his hold on my waist just tightened. He was beginning to hurt me so I lifted my foot and slammed it into his.

"Aah you piece of shi" I heard him say.

I turned around and pushed him off me as hard as I could, noticing it was Mason, except now his eyes were bloodshot red.

I began to move away towards where I knew the knives were, but he didn't give me enough time before he grabbed my arm and slammed me into the cabinet.

"You don't know what you've just done"

"what the hell are you on about, you psycho" I tried loosening his grip on me, but it just tightened instead. My breath came out in shaky intervals as I observed his crazed state.

"Mason! Let her go" I looked over Masons shoulder to see Xavier standing there, clearly not impressed but yet not surprised by Masons actions.

"Saved by big brother" he whispered in my ear, a sly smile across his face as he began to back away and exit the kitchen.

I began breathing deeply, attempting to control myself when Xavier placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I apologise, I'll make sure he never troubles you again" He said. I simply nodded in return and quickly made my way out of the kitchen and upstairs into the bedroom, closing and locking the door behind me.

♡ ♡ ♡

Authors Note: Welp. It looks like Mia might be in more trouble than she first thought.

On another note, I thought it'd be a good idea to let y'all know that I'm Australian, therefore I might use some Australian slang words throughout the book without realising; so if there's any words/phrases that need explaining, feel free to ask me!