Lennon.
The backstreet alleys and dark roads soon turned into a neighbourhood, which should be featured on a reality housewife show. The journey had remained at a constant silence, the engine and the car powering through the streets produced the only sound. He didn’t try to make conversation – not even to tell me where we were heading, and I didn’t attempt to speak either out of fear of being shot down. He didn’t seem like someone who would be strictly honest.
It took over half an hour before we turned towards a house, however there was a massive iron gate halting us in our tracks. A chill breeze drafted through the car as he rolled down the window and typed something in on a keypad. The gates swung open afterwards allowing us inside, slamming shut quickly after.
The car trundled up the drive, which was littered with several other cars. All of them had blacked out windows much like this one. Many were Range Rovers, others ranged from top of the line sports cars to minimum wage affordable ones. The amount of cars around was a little daunting to come across. I mused whether there was going to be lots of people, or one really rich person in this house.
“Is this your house?” I questioned, looking up at the mansion in front of us and then to Harry who was about to climb out the car when he stopped briefly.
“No.” He bluntly spoke before exiting the car without another weird.
I watched him in the windscreen, eagerly waiting for me to join him. He wasn’t going to be a gentleman and open the door for me – not like I expected it anyway; it was a little far fetched. He looked tired and annoyed, crossing his well-built arms over his chest. He was faintly lit by the front porch light as his hair casted a shadow across half of his face. He looked even more hostile than he did in my bedroom.
I climbed out the car hesitantly, my hair was still wet and the coldness erupted shivers over my body. I matched Harry and crossed my arms over my chest as I began to follow his footsteps towards the door. It occurred to me I was about to enter a stranger’s house for an unknown reason, which could result in a fatal outcome, and I still hadn’t tried to escape yet. I froze, turned around slightly, and then noticed the massive brick wall and gates blocking any sign of an exit.
“Don’t even think about it.” I jumped almost literally out of my skin when I spun my head back around to find Harry’s only centimetres away from mine. He held my gaze with a piercing stare before grabbing my forearm and pulling me up the front steps.
He didn’t knock or ring the bell, he waltzed straight through. I didn’t know what to be awed by most; the incredible marble floor which reflected the light impressively well or the massive chandelier hung from the ceiling several floors above. My mouth hung open, much to Harry’s pleasure.
Voices of a group of people soon flowed through the house. By the sounds of them, there appeared to be a fair few of people on the premise. I shuddered at the prospect of who may be lurking around any corner. I couldn’t hear a single female voice, which worried me even more. I hoped and prayed this wasn’t some illegal sex house or slave trade dealer headquarters.
“Haz!” A guy who was probably a similar age to ‘Haz’ practically swan dived through the air until he was feet away from us. He was Irish, a very cliché Irish at that. He had the accent – of course, a pint of Guinness in his hand, pale skin – which is often a sign, he was predominantly drunk – nothing to say that this was an Irish trait though but the giant shamrock on his shirt was also a big give away. (Mainly the accent though, it was probably more prominent due to his intoxicated state).
“What you doin’ bringing a lass back ‘ere? Somet’ing wrong with your place?”
Harry smirked. I frowned in distaste.
“Worn out your bed or something?” He continued to slur.
I scowled at him and at Harry who was stood at my side, hopefully looking out of the corner of his eye at my displeasured reaction. In all of thirty seconds of being inside the unknown location I had discovered Harry Styles was a man of many ladies – and that’s putting it politely. I had to bite my tongue to avoid saying anything that could cause drastic consequences. Something tells me Harry Styles doesn’t take to being insulted too well, I wasn’t about to push his boundaries.
“Or is she t’share?”
Harry laughed, full on howled with laughter before grabbing my arm again like I was some rabid animal. I tutted, he ignored it, obviously. The drunk Irish man was left giggling to himself like a school child after we civilly pushed past him.
“She’s all yours!” Harry finally replied just as we were about to turn a corner back at him. I snapped my arm away, which immediately got his attention.
“You’re disgusting.”
“What?” He chuckled, looking annoyingly amused. “Just because I have an active sex life doesn’t make me disgusting.”
“Yeah that wasn’t what I was referring to.” I grunted, slapping his arm much to my avail it had little to no effect on him, other than his hand clutching hold of my arm again. He was about to speak but I sharply cut him off. “You can’t just offer me around to your drunken friends as if I have the emotional capacity of a brick.” I whispered furiously. Once again he chuckled, that infuriated me even more.
“No offence but he won’t even remember your face by the time he sobers up, let alone wanting some from you.”
“Well thanks for you lovely kind words and concern, now would you do me the pleasure of telling me why the fuck I’m here in the first place. If it’s to sell me off to some slave trade or sex business, I’d rather you didn’t. You said yourself I was pretty good at making cakes.”
“Are you sure you aren’t a comedian with that humour of yours?” He spat back sarcastically. “Slave and sex trade? We’re busy people but this is much more dangerous.”
“So am I allowed to know what the heck this place is and what you do?”
“No.”
“Of course.” I smiled painfully; my reply was far too sarcastic to be taken seriously hence his confused face. “Invade a girls home, drag her out of her house and force her to some random mansion and then not tell her why or where she is. Not illegal at all.”
“The cops won’t do anything, trust me.”
“I’ll do anything but trust you.”
“Good thing I’m not looking for your trust, now get in there.”
I was pushed through a door with no warning beforehand. I tripped awkwardly on my own feet, managing to catch my balance before I face planted the floor. It appeared to be an office; a large desk, client chairs, and a large swivel chair however, the two firearms on the wall behind the desk was slightly more alarming than the rest of the furniture. I turned to face Harry as he coughed slightly.
My attention soon turned back towards the large chair in the room as it slowly spun and revealed a middle-aged man sat comfortably. What the heck had I just walked into? Much to my surprise the figure staring back at me wasn’t a complete stranger.
“We’ve met before.” He seemed surprised, as was I.
“Briefly.” I concluded.
“You know her?” Harry interjected, walking in the gap between Paul, and myself or as I knew him Mr Smith.
“Harry, could you give us a couple minutes.”
He didn’t look too happy about being asked to leave but instead of replying with a snarky comment he let a small grunt, squinted his eyes one last time at me and then left, slamming the door behind him.
“Lennon, please have a seat.” I smiled meekly and followed his instructions. The circumstances we were meeting in were very different than the last time. “Cherry’s room mate, am I correct?” I nodded.
Cherry was his daughter, my roommate at university for the two months I was there. We didn’t get on too well. She was into techno music and insisted on playing it all hours of the day and night, I suffered severe headaches but she vowed it helped her focus - never saw her complete one assignment though.
“Let’s cut the small talk anyway. I am a very busy, important man.” He moved forward in his chair to lean on the desk, his eyes flickered briefly up towards the weapons, fear soon filled my body more than before. “You were in the bakery the other day when I visited?” It was less of a question more a statement, but he still looked like he wanted an answer. With a means of killing above his head, I felt the need to tell the truth instantly.
“Yeah,” I sighed, regretting trying to act like some spy. Why did I have to be so forgetful?
“The things you may or may not have heard could put you in severe danger. You’re an innocent girl living in London with far too much information in your head. You don’t know what London is really like.”
“So I’ve been told.” I cut him off, referring to the time Harry had patronised me about my knowledge of London.
“There are people worse than criminals. They will want you. Want to know what you know. Want the inside information. They will do anything for it. And yes anything does mean kill. You have a family?”
“Not in London exactly.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’d be dead and you in a matter of hours if you let something slip. If you let something slip, I wont even hesitate to do it myself.” I gulped. A man had just informed me he wasn’t afraid to kill me without a second thought and I didn’t doubt him for a second. “You can’t forget what you have heard but I’m hoping my little warning has stopped you even thinking about opening that little mouth of yours. Don’t even write it down, don’t think about it. Don’t nothing. It’s your life and ours on the line.”
“Ours?”
“Half of London.”
I gulped again. The fate of other people could potentially be in my hands – not what I wanted at the tender age of nineteen.
“I don’t exactly have many people to tell anyway.”
“if you’re seen with Harry or any of my men, believe me a lot more people will want to get to ‘know’ you. As pretty as you are, they won’t be interested in you at all.”
“You guys are just full of compliments aren’t you?”
“And you’ve got a slight attitude, a bit of spunk. Bet that doesn’t sit well with Harry.” He mused to himself whilst I remained straight faced. “You do understand what I’m saying though, don’t you?” He leaned further over the desk.
“Yes.”
“Good, now one more thing. This special talent of yours?” I quirked an eyebrow out of misunderstanding. “What do you study?”
“Nothing.”
“Hobbies?”
“Reading and baking… What do you mean special talent?”
“You profile people? You can read their personalities, traits, secrets just by looking at them for a minute or too.”
“Did Harry say that?” I questioned seriously. He leant back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “Does he seriously think I’m a psychic?” I laughed out of disbelief.
“You’re not? You don’t read people?”
“If I could read people do you honestly think I’d be sat here right now? I’d be out solving crimes with my amazing talent or at least doing something useful with it.”
“He said you were staring.”
“He was a grown man covered in tattoos and clad in skinny jeans picking up a baby shower cake. It was an odd sight. He needs to get over himself.”
“I’ll inform him of that, I’m sure he’d be pleased to know. And for the record the cake was for my baby.” I had already figured that part out earlier in my mind as I sat down across from him. When I first met Paul he was extremely friendly, probably too friendly come to think of it. And now here he was threatening me. Small world though.
“Now like I said, I wanted to keep this short. I’d escort you out but I have business to attend to. Harry will drive you back. It was a pleasure seeing you, but I hope it doesn’t happen again. Have a nice life Lennon.” He waved me off with that as a dismissal and turned back around in his chair.
“You too Paul.” I rolled my eyes at his back, which was facing me before sliding the chair against the marble floor and sauntering out. It would have been at least a slight bit respectful if he had opened the door, but apparently that was too much effort. And no offence to him either, I wasn’t in a rush for another visit.
Exiting the room I realised I had no idea where I was supposed go or where Harry was. Retracing my footsteps from what I could remember I ended up outside the room where all the commotion was coming from. Standing outside the door, the howls of laugher from inside concluded several males and possibly a female inside. I sighed when I heard Harry’s booming voice. I was tempted to just walk out the house completely but I had no idea where I was or how to get home.
I knocked on the door twice and followed up by opening it without waiting for a reply. I just wanted to go home, I didn’t care about the stares of strangers in the room. I was correct with my analysis At least eight men and three females. I recognised threw of the men; Harry, Louis and the intoxicated one.
Silence fell upon the room, their emotionless faces staring back at me. I looked directly at Harry, flicking my eyebrows up, I was trying to indicate what I wanted but either the message to convey properly to him or he was trying to annoy me even more.
“You’re to take me home.”
“Say’s who?” He smirked.
“Say’s your boss.” I smirked back. I had only assumed Paul was his boss by the way he followed his orders, or I could have just made an idiot out of myself.
Harry mumbled something under his breath before hauling his arse off the sofa. I took one look around the room, noticing the men with girls protecting them with their well-built arms. Besides medalling with illegal stuff, hooking up with girls, I’m sure the rest of the time they all spent it in the gym.
Since they were all staring gormlessly as Harry put a jacket on, I decided to have some fun. I chose a target and stared back, without blinking or moving. Everyone in the room had noticed our interaction and I watched him shy back into his seat. I was pretending to ‘read’ him, little did he know I didn’t know a single thing about him, not even his name. But by the way he was responding I was assured they had all been informed about my ‘psychic’ powers.
“I think she likes you Luke.” The Irish one went to whisper to ‘Luke’, but it was hardly a whisper, more of a shout.
“We’re leaving before you freak him out.” Harry forced me back out of the room and into the foyer where he led me out of the house.
“What? Is he twelve or something?”
“No, you’re just weird.”
“Thanks and you’re just rude.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know babe.”
“Don’t call me babe.”
“I’ll do what I want.”
The ride back was silent once again, although it felt more awkward. I couldn’t wait to get home, in fact I was oddly glad Harry was driving at least fifty over the speed limit. I felt more in danger in his presence than in a speeding car.
When we finally pulled up outside of my apartment I was quick to unbuckle myself and yank the door open. I didn’t want a goodbye but apparently I wouldn’t get a choice as he pulled me back to look him in the eyes.
“For the record. I don’t share, especially my girls.”
“It’s a good job I’m not your girl then, exactly like you said.” I snapped firmly.
He smirked and went to speak, but the glint in his eye said it all. I shook my head, disgusted at him. “In your dreams.” I left the car swiftly after, slamming the door shut with no regards to the paint job.
He didn’t wait for me to walk inside or anything considerate, he sped off into the darkness to which I stuck my middle finger up as he disappeared over the horizon. Harry Styles infuriated me but I was ashamed to admit he intrigued me even more.