Autumn grabbed her computer and notebook and jotted down her thoughts. This was something she had always done when she felt anxious or overwhelmed. Right now, she was feeling all of it.
"Oi," Rowena yelled a little louder.
"What?" Autumn put her pen down and turned to Rowena.
"Been calling you for the last 5 minutes. Where are you lost?" Rowena pulled the notes closer to her body to see what Autumn was writing.
"Grateful for life? Really Atty?" Rowena threw the book back onto the table.
"I am just reminding myself that there are good things to be happy about, that's it," Autumn slid the book back to her side.
"What you need," Rowena grabbed Autumn's phone and pulled the store app onto the screen, "is a man in your life," she pushed the phone toward Autumn to sign onto the dating app she was using.
Autumn took her phone back from Rowena and closed the app. The thought of dating someone didn't really sit well with her. If Nicholas found out, she would be in huge trouble, and she didn't want that. Letting that man control her life wasn't something she liked, but what could she do? Nothing.
"Seriously, Att, you should think about it. You are 20," Rowena rolled her eyes, grabbing her bag. Autumn shook her head, threw things into her backpack, and closed the zipper.
"I will," she responded to Rowena, knowing very well she won't.
"Let's go," they both stepped out of the library.
"We haven't heard anything from any of the companies we applied to. That is what is on my mind right now," Autumn adjusted the belt around her waist. It was making her chest pop, which she hated. Her cousins and family were always critical of her, and the poor girl was always nervous about it.
"Stop fumbling with the belt, Autumn. You are fine. Nobody cares how you look like. You just have to be comfortable in your own skin," she adjusted Autumn's belt to the same position where it was earlier.
Autumn struggled with self-esteem. Lack of interactions with people made her very self-conscious about her appearance. She struggled with it all her life. Her confidence took deep plunges, especially in social situations. She wasn't the best at it and would cower in discomfort whenever someone looked at her.
"But..." she pouted.
"No more words, Atty. People aren't thinking about you the way you think they are thinking about you," she smoothened creases on Autumn's clothes, "let's go. You need to get some milk and groceries," Rowena grabbed her wrists and started dragging her towards the store.
She purchased necessary items and neatly organized them in her paper bags. Briskly they walked toward Rowena's house. As soon as she opened the gate, Peaches jumped on her. She carefully put the groceries down and smothered her goldendoodle puppy in her arms.
"I missed you too. Let's go home," she wrapped his leash around her wrists and picked up the paper bags. Rowena put the puppy in her backpack and zipped the bag.
"Bye, Mrs. Archer," she bid goodbye to Rowena's mother, but the woman ignored Autumn as usual.
Zyler got ready to finish his task. He pulled up the address Trevor sent him. He decided that whoever stepped into that house would be dead. He hit the accelerator, urging his car forward to the destination. He knew this would be easy and wouldn't take longer than firing a couple of bullets into her body. It was almost evening when he got to that spot. The neighborhood wasn't dirty, but it wasn't precisely high-end either. It is very much like a place where all poor people come to repent, "why did I expect something more," he scoffed.
He fisted his cigarette out and dragged a couple of puffs. He opened the window, leaned on its rim, and inhaled a deep breath pumping the nicotine all over. His eyes narrowed into slits and set on the entrance to those row houses set like train cars.
A ding in his phone interrupted his insane thoughts. He swiped the screen and answered, "hello, Cole," he nestled the cigarette between his lips and dragged another breath of toxicity inside.
"I heard Liam Hart is coming back home," this made Zyler's ears perk up. Liam Hart is a senator. The man is known to be a monster than Zyler in the underworld. His family comes from a long line of those power-hungry wolves who would do anything for domination. While Zyler is famous for his businesses, Liam took another route and became a senator.
"Why now?" Zyler closed his eyes, imagining the many ways he could kill Liam.
"His dad is about to die," Cole smirked.
"You mean his dad is about to be killed at the hands of his own son," Zyler knew what kind of a bastard Liam was. After all, he had been hunting this man for almost a decade.
"Do we want to try and successfully kill Liam this time?" Cole chuckled. He knew how much this man wanted to take revenge on Liam.
The senator rarely steps into the States. He is supposed to live where he says he lives, but he doesn't. He created papers to prove he lives where he says he does, and that was about it. He changes locations daily, so nobody knows where he lives anymore.
"No, we need to take him down politically and kill him. Let this slide for now. I will come home and decide what to do with it," Zyler was about to say something, but his eyes caught a figure walking toward him with a puppy in her backpack.
"I will call you. I have to go," he pressed the red button and threw the phone in the passenger seat.
Her light feet touched the ground, and the brown paper bags covered her face. Zyler opened his glove compartment and grabbed his gun. He cocked it, ready to fire that bitch into that girl's head.
But something stopped him. He noticed that she twisted her neck and rubbed her cheeks with the puppy's, and Zyler was disgusted, covering his mouth. Who knows where that snout had been? How in the world do people kiss a sloppy animal?
Her long dark locks blew in the wind, the gentle breeze touching her ever so lightly. He wanted to go over there and bury his face in those free-flowing strands. He imagined what she would smell like. His is what she would smell like when he is done with her.
He couldn't tell whether those strands were black or brown. The evening sun cast a hue that changed colors as her strands curled and flew as free as autumn leaves playing in the mid-summer night.
Then he heard a soft laugh in the most seductive voice he had ever heard. She was giggling like the finest cathedral choir on a Sunday mass. It calmed his nerves, the perfect sound, a soul-touching symphony. His headache dissipated in a minute. That laugh tickled his brain perfectly. The voice oozed happiness, vivacity, life, warmth, and innocence. All of the things that he is not. She felt like a magnet, inching him to her closer and closer by the minute. Like the moon's pull on the ocean water or the force of the earth toward the sun. It was intense like his soul was tethered to her, like he couldn't separate it even if he wanted to.
He wanted to see more, see what her face, lips, and the rest of her body looked like, but those damn paper bags wouldn't leave her hands. While he was lost in his thoughts, she reached home. Skillfully, she moved the paper bag to her left hand and fisted her keys, unlocking the gate. She set the paper bags down on the table. She unzipped her bag and picked the puppy up.
He had the urge to walk over to her and yank her to him. A deep feeling emerged inside his heart. What was it? He was unsure, but one thing was sure, whoever she was set his mind and spirit on fire.
His eyes latched onto her, moving with every little movement she made. She climbed up the flight of stairs in her sundress. His eyes stuck to that cute ass he wanted to spank until she begged him to stop. He smiled to himself. Oh, she would be praying all right, his mind told him. "She has a great rack," his mind pointed out. He didn't want to admit it, but she did.
Autumn was facing the other way, her thick dark hair covering her buttocks and flowing past. Her hands were full of stuff. It was impressive how she carried her laptop, two bags full of groceries, and that nightmare of an animal. The little thing jumped, lunged, licked, and kissed her, which made him angry to the point, he wanted to stuff him in a shoebox and never let him out.
Not noticing the eyes on her, she began climbing those steps. She didn't see that Samantha had watered their plants and that the steps were wet. He assumed that she would make it, but unfortunately for her, those faltered, and she fell face down. Luckily her bags prevented her from getting hurt. He hissed as she fell on her face. The uneasiness about going over and picking her up was riling him up. But he didn't. Instead, he sat in his car laughing at her clumsiness, "cute," he admitted to himself.
She got up and turned around, and that's when he saw her entire face. If god existed, he would shoot him and then bow down to him for creating a fucking perfect creature. Her face was a fucking artwork. That heart-shaped face made his pants sport a tent.
She was the embodiment of beauty, the kind that wasn't written about yet. God carefully handcrafted every part of her, like he knew he was sending her down to fuck with the minds of men. His eyes roved her body, drinking in all the details, inch by inch, square by square. And goddamn those eyes, he wanted to thrust into her, make her look into his eyes every single time she took him in.
She stood there rubbing her cute little nose. She scrunched it and sneezed, a cute sneeze like a mouse biting on a piece of cheese, and then another followed. Every time she sneezed, she would rub her nose, and then another one came out. Her heart-shaped face, fuck, that face is seductive, "I will willingly bow down to this goddess," he admitted to himself again.
"Will you?" his manipulative mind asked him.
"I might. I want to taste her, burn in her warmth once," he had no idea how he came up with that poetic shit, but it sounded good to him. This girl is messing with his sanity.
Her nose was red, and she looked like she was pissed at herself and the bags. She bent down, picking the spilled stuff up and inspecting each one of them. The amount of heat that he felt creep up his body was too much. The move was innocent as it can be, but to him, it was fucking arousing.
"My fucking good little girl," he mumbled, biting his lips. He hissed, clutching the center console tight like he was strangling it, killing it for not having this girl in his arms right that minute. The girl, completely unaware of his intentions, took off her scarf, leaving her in a sleeveless dress, her chest slightly puffed due to all the bending and getting up she was doing. They spilled out of her dress lightly.
He forgot what he came there for. He had no idea what to do next. For the first time in his life, he wanted something pure and innocent for him and him only. Was this little thing who wrote about him? Does she know what she did? Does she have any idea whose attention she got?
She is his, his black dahlia, extremely rare and owned by only a select few. And if anything, Zyler had an addictive taste of owning the rarest of items. That is when he opened the email Trevor sent him, her picture and name. Autumn Willow Wraith, what a beautiful name for a fucking good girl. His black dahlia was just as pretty as her name. He darted his tongue and swiped it over, imagining her under him. Involuntarily, he stepped out of his car and walked up to her, keeping his distance.
He noticed that the puppy was fussing now, jumping onto her. She was in her own little bubble. She picked up all the fallen pieces and put them in her bag. She turned her attention to the little dog and picked him up, holding it to her chest, the place that he aspired to be, the place that he wanted to nestle into on a cold winter night, seeking the warmth of her body.
She rocked the nightmare animal back and forth like it was her baby. Her caring attitude made her look even more attractive and seductive. He wondered how she would treat her own children.
His eyes spat fire when he noticed the dog settle further into her neck and yawn. He had the urge to cook that wretched thing and feed it to the wolves. How dare the thing? She put the dog on her shoulder and rocked it, and the puppy enjoyed every bit of it. The little dog had no idea, and for a brief minute, their eyes met. The thing barked at Zyler, and he wanted to return the bark with the same intensity but decided against it. Reacting would make his presence known. He didn't want that. He wanted to watch her in silence when she was in her own world. Unaware of the things happening around her.
He hid behind a tree and watched her with his wide eyes. The curve of her waist, the dip of her hips, the sway of her body. Everything was enticing him, teasing him, making his body burn in fierce desire. And that minute, he understood. It doesn't matter if she says no. It doesn't matter if the world laughs at him. She was his.
"Is she yours to take?" his sadistic mind questioned him. "Doesn't matter. I will take what's mine by force or by fire," he answered to himself. And that is how Autumn Wraith's fate got caught in the talon-like hands of the devil.
Well, there it is, he met her.... What do you guys think he will do next? Will he whisk her away, or will he hide her in his house? She has no idea....