TWO
I drove to my second and last stop. Thankfully there was free parking so I didn't have to worry about leaving my car on the curb side and getting a ticket.
I stepped out the car, making sure to grab my purse from the passenger seat. I closed the door, locked my car and started walking towards the lawyers office. But when I got to the door, there was a clear sign that said "closed".
"You serious?" I said out loud, slightly agitated and annoyed. This meant I couldn't possibly finish all the paperwork today and make my way back to Brighton.
I stomped my ass back to my car, yanking open the door and throwing my purse back inside. I sat down behind the wheel and pulled out my phone.
I rang the lawyer's number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello," he finally spoke after several rings.
"I'm at your office. It's closed." I started to say.
He informed me that he was on his lunch break and to come back in an hour. I tried my best to not show how annoyed I was and told him I'll be there in an hour.
I threw my phone back in my purse and drove back to the play centre. I might just well pick up Joy and feed her. And then she can stay with me until I'm done with the lawyer.
I walked in on her playing with some girl at the sand station. I gave her a few minutes, watching as she was building something with her new friend and talking animatedly about something.
"Joy!" I called out to her. She looked up at her name and caught the sight of me. Completely careless about me standing there, she went back to playing.
Mrs E came to stand next to me. "She can play for longer if that's better." I had told her about the situation by the front before I walked inside.
"A few more minutes won't hurt I guess." I said back. Considering she was in year two, she was always working back in school and not exactly playing as much. This was probably one of her best days.
"She is amazing."
I beamed at Mrs E, proud at any praise my daughter would receive. I loved her more than anything in this world. "She is." I agreed, not giving a toss whether I sounded like a typical Mom who always dotted over her child.
"She wasn't at all hesitant to get going with the others. Absolutely fantastic!"
"She's always been like that." I told Mrs E, still smiling.
So I gave Joy a few more minutes to carry on playing before I had to actually go to where she was and tug her away. She wasn't happy but she complied nevertheless.
"You'll be back tomorrow!" I told her.
She put on her coat, waved goodbye to her friends and Mrs E and started to walk ahead of me towards the door. I grabbed her small hands in mine before she got out the door. She knew the rule. When walking outside, holding my hand was important.
We got to my car and I opened the door for her so she could go inside. "Put your seatbelt on," I told her as I closed the door for her.
I got in behind the wheel and turned around to see her all strapped in. She was still not happy, since she had a slight frown on her face. I knew how to get her to smile.
"So, what do you want to eat?" I asked Joy as I started the car.
She was quiet for a few seconds, thinking about what to eat I hoped. "Tuna sandwhich." She finally said.
"You sure?"
"Yes," she mumbled.
"Cool!" I tried my best to hide my laughter in my voice. "I'll get you that but I don't think I want a sandwhich."
She was quiet. I carried on.
"Yeah, I'm thinking more of a... pizza."
I heard her small gasp from behind her, ever so dramatic and I burst into laughter.
"You can't have a pizza and I have tuna!" She sputtered out. I looked into the driving mirror and saw her small mouth still open.
"But you said you wanted tuna!" I said back playfully.
"Stop tricking me," she huffed out, crossing her small arms around her chest.
I stuffed in my own giggle at her and started the drive for my favourite pizza spot. It wasn't something big, but damn did I miss the cheap pizzas that were filled with flavour - that I couldn't possibly find in Brighton. I know I went against my rule not to venture past the required spots, in fear of increasing my chances of running into someone. But I wanted pizza, and my daughter wanted pizza. We were going in and out. We weren't even going to dine in.
The seven or so minutes drive to the spot was filled with Joy filling me in about her day. She was a clever young girl, outstanding in every subject matter and especially in maths. She, whoever she inherited the trait from, was a maths whiz. Top of the class. Bright as they could come.
Man, wasn't I a proud mother.
She was going to make something good out of her life. And I was going to do everything in my power to give her all she needs to make that possible.
"Did you make any new friends?" I asked her when we arrive at the pizza restaurant and got out the car.
She grabbed my extended arm before she started to speak. "Yeah!" She beamed, looking up at me with a huge smile across her face. "She is called Mary and she has a brother that has three cats."
Another thing about Joy. Her love for cats was frightening to say the least. If she could, she would probably have every cat in our whole street living with us. Her love for them was so strong that it wasn't unusual for her to carry a small packet of cat treats in her pocket and give it to any cat she saw on the street. I don't know how she managed to convince me to buy treats for her to feed the cats but somehow she did. And she had named them all, even though they probably all had names already.
I tactically changed the subject since I also knew that any mention of the c-word, it would soon start her quest to convince me to get her one. Or a dozen.
"Is she going to be there tomorrow?" I asked Joy, because if I completely changed the topic she would catch on and actually call me out on it.
Trust me, she did it before numerously.
I could see from the distance we had left to actually get to the restaurant that it wasn't so packed. Two people sat on the high chairs pressed against the table by the window and another two were at the till. Relief washed over me as my hope of going in and out quickly looked like it was going to happen.
We took a few more steps when this strange feeling wafted over me. I couldn't quite place my finger on it but I felt the need to suddenly be alert. Following onto that feeling, I carefully started looking around my surroundings without being too obvious. As we carried on walking, the feeling intensified and my heart started feeling heavy.
Something was wrong.
As soon as I told myself that, I spotted them.
It was the same two men I saw earlier at the petrol station.
They were standing a few feet in front of us. And they were staring right at me. I gripped my fingers around Joy's petite hand when it previously was wrapped around hers loosely.
"Yeah. She comes everyday after school because her mum goes to work." I heard Joy say but I couldn't fully register the words since all my focus was on the two men before us.
I slowed down our pace, receiving a questionable tug on my hand from Joy. That, and her speaking reminded me that I wasn't alone. And that I was with my kid who didn't need any of whatever this was.
And I wasn't stupid. These men emitted all sorts of bad vibes. And then they further proved they were anything but good when the slightly taller man who was standing on the right side moved his jacket to the side a few inches.
My blood ran cold at what I saw. As clear as daylight, the man put his gun in my point of view. A fucking gun.
"Joy." I said, grabbing her attention immediately. I tightened my grip on her hand further, hearing her slight gasp of pain. "This is serious Joy. You're going to keep hold of my hand and if anyone touches you scream as loud as you can. We are going to turn around and go back in the car. Do everything very quickly, as quick as possible. And don't let go of my hand."
Joy knew I wasn't playing around. "Okay mum."
"Don't let go of my hand." I repeated to her and then made a swift turn.
Joy was prepared. Her small feet followed my quick haste to get to the car. It was panic and the thought that everything I feared was happening again. I was getting fucked over all over again, but this time against two scary, gun-wielding men who somehow knew my name and wherever I was.
But this time I had a daughter. And she was too precious to be in this fucked up situation.
With shaky fingers, I pulled out the keys from my pocket and unlocked the car. A quick - probably stupid, I didn't know - glance behind, I saw the two men slowly start to make their way to us.
My heart went into overdrive and I quickly, almost furiously opened the door and literally threw Joy inside. She landed on her side in an odd way on the passenger seat and I quickly followed suit, plummeting my ass in my seat. I slammed the door shut and quickly pressed the lock button.
This way those knobends had no chance of opening the doors.
He had a gun Orianna! He could bloody shoot your head and Joy's without opening the door!
I didn't wait to find out whether that scary thought could potentially happen as I started the car and gassed it.
****
Calm.
Something I tried my upmost to be but all attempts failed as I whizzed by the cars like a madwoman. I had stalled the car more than once in my madwoman frenzy and every second I would look in every mirror to see if we were being followed. I wasn't taking chances.
Joy, waiting for no order, had put on her seatbelt and kept quiet the whole ride. Smart girl.
I only knew to go to one place. And it was closer than the police station.
I parked by the curb, not giving a toss whether I would get a ticket or not. I grabbed my purse by Joy's feet and got out the car, all the while keeping my eyes on Joy and on the street. It was probably unheard of doing such things at the same time, but I sure managed to do it.
I grabbed Joy's hand and got her to carefully, albeit quickly, to walk over the seats and get out from my door. I slammed the door quickly, locked my car and picked up Joy. Then, I kid you not, flew up the stairs.
"Wow mum," I heard Joy say in small voice.
I walked inside the building, holding Joy as close to my chest as possible. The fact that she was a heavy girl now and that I was wearing heels and that I was juggling my purse on my arm flew over my head. All I wanted was to keep her safe and close to me.
I saw the same receptionist girl - if that's what she called herself - looking at me closely. I was a madwoman right now and didn't halt when I came to her desk, but instead walked briskly by it.
"You can't-" I heard her say after me but I ignored her as I made my way towards the door I had just an hour ago walked through. I knew where to go.
My pace didn't slow even thought I knew, deep inside of me that I was probably as safe as I could be in this building with Lucian and all his men. Those men would be knobends and fools if they tried to come here guns blazing. Lucian's men would take them down like pesky flies.
All of that didn't fully assure me enough to slow down my pace. Until I got to Lucian's office. I walked in without knocking. The madwoman was still here.
He was standing by his window, his back to me and barking into his phone. The other hand he used to lean into the window. His shirt clung to all his back muscles and if I wasn't in such a mess, I would have probably took a second to admire it.
The door closing behind me made the sound that lead to Lucian snapping his head back to me. I saw his angry features twist into surprise then something akin to relief.
"Never mind." He muttered into his phone and hung up without saying anything else.
"Am I interrupting?" I asked him.
He ignored me and dropped his eyes to Joy who had twisted her head to look at Lucian. She was analysing him, just as she would any other person she found worthy to analyse. He was something new to her since he didn't fit in the typical teacher profile person she was accustomed to.
"She your kid?" He asked me, ignoring my question.
I put Joy down, since she was getting heavy to carry and I knew with Lucian here, those men couldn't get us.
"Yeah."
He had his eyes glued on her which made me very uncomfortable. He was analysing her right back.
"You going to stop staring at me?" He asked. It took me a second to realise he was talking to Joy.
She shook her head. "Not until you do."
Lucian's lips twitched ever so slightly. "I say after three we both stop."
"All right."
How Joy, a small six year old who was way to clever for her own good was literally challenging this alpha male was beyond me. She probably knew that he wasn't playing around with her but she wasn't backing down regardless.
"One... two... three."
You would expect her to break her stare on three but instead gave it another second or so before she slowly turned her head to me. From what I could see, she wasn't panicking and crying. She was probably holding it together way better than I was. In that moment, she was my anchor.
"She's a strong one." Lucian commented.
I turned my head to look up at him and remembered why I was here. And it wasn't for him to meet Joy.
"Lucian, it's messed up what-" I started to say but was cut off when the doors behind me opened and in came the girl from the desk.
She opened her mouth to say something but Lucian cut her off. "She's fine here. Close the door and make sure no one comes in."
The girl nodded and turned back on her heel, going back the way she came from.
When the door closed again, Lucian spoke to me. "Tell me what happened."
I didn't want to tell Lucian what exactly happened since Joy was here. And I didn't want her to hear that about those men. And I definitely didn't want her to hear about the man flashing his gun. She knew something was up but I was going to make up something less scary and probably tell her that I exaggerated.
He probably sensed my internal struggle since he picked up his phone again and waited a beat until he spoke into it. "Do you mind coming back and looking after Orianna's kid until-"
"No!" Somehow I had flown across the room and leaned over his desk to grab the phone by his ear. This flying skills of mine that I somehow seem to have probably came along with this madwoman frenzy. I hadn't quite reached the phone in Lucian's hand but my intention was clear.
I leaned back to dig into my purse and pulled out my phone, along with some headphones. "Here Joy. Go sit on that couch and watch a movie."
She looked up at me as I handed her my phone. "Can I watch YouTube instead?" She asked me.
I nodded at her and turned her towards the direction of the couch. We waited until she was seated and engrossed fully in whatever she watching before I turned to tell Lucian what happened.
He indicated for me sit on the chair near his desk. I obliged and plummeted down on the seat. The adrenaline was washing away and I could feel my feet trembling at the loss of holding me up. My hands were trembling too and I couldn't do anything to stop all the shaking.
"What happened." He said it again and this time I laid it all out on him.
How I saw the men first at the station. How they knew my name. How I dodged them. How I then saw them at the pizza place I was heading to. And how I saw one of them flash their gun at me.
"I have Joy now." I breathed out when I was done explaining everything. Lucian didn't need me to further explain why having Joy made everything ten times worse for me. If this was happening, whatever the hell it was, I couldn't do it alone. My pride and selfishness was put aside anytime my daughter was concerned.
"Where you staying?" Lucian asked me.
"Some house I'm renting for a few days near Old Mason." I quickly told him with no hesitation.
Lucian nodded. "Right. One of my men will take you to a safe place and you'll be watched until we can get the situation handled. But don't worry, they won't come near you like that ever again."
I nodded at him. I didn't care that this made me seem unable to take care of my daughter. I needed help and whether I shied away from it all those years ago, this time it was different. Like I said, my pride and selfishness was put aside.
"I have a kid Lucian, I can't let everything happen all over again." I repeated again in a small voice, hearing my own voice breaking.
Lucian held my eyes, understanding filling his own. "Don't worry Orianna. Both of you will be safe."
There was something about Lucian that made me not regret going to the police. Heck, I could go further and say he would probably keep me safe better than the police would. He was good, and his men were good. I knew about their reputation since I did some quick research on them before I left. If you looked for the definition of badass in the dictionary, you'd see Lucian's name under it.
I knew he would keep us both safe.
"Thank you. How much?" And my research also told me they charged a hefty price for their security services."
"Consider this paid."
I certainly wasn't going to accept their services without paying them. That was too much. I opened my mouth to protest but stopped any words from coming out when I saw his hard look levelled on me.
Right. I'll just find another way to pay them back.
Lucian, deciding there was no further discussion going to happen picked up his phone again. I watched him as he spoke into it, asking for a guy named Mace to come into his office.
"I'll just take Joy and myself to the bathroom before we leave." I said to Lucian when he put his phone down.
He lifted his head in affirmation. "Turn right out the door and it's the second door on your left."
I stood up and walked to Joy who was definitely engrossed in the YouTube clip she was watching since she was biting her lower lip. It was a habit of hers which I told her numerous of times to chill out on doing.
I tugged on her headphones and after several beats, I saw her small finger pause the clip and saw her eyes look up at me, without moving her head. The attitude that oozed out of her in that moment was laughable.
"Let's go to the bathroom."
She frowned at me and took off her headphones. "I don't need the toilet."
"Well you'll need it when you stand up."
"That doesn't make sense mum." I watched in fascination as she rolled her eyes at me. Freaking rolled her eyes!
"Did I just see that?" I asked her.
She caught my tone instantly and I saw her quickly sit up and put my phone down next to her. She got up off the couch and told me with everything she could that she was going to the bathroom and she didn't roll her eyes at me.
I picked up my phone and put it inside my purse. "Let's go." I clipped at my daughter. Her newfound ways to throw attitude at me surprised but I wasn't going to show her that.
"Go straight out the front. Mace should be waiting for you there." Lucian told me before I left his office. I thanked him again, knowing that it wasn't going to benefit him in any way but still, I wanted him to know I was immensely grateful.
We head out for the bathroom, her close to my heel and me not saying a word to her. She wanted attitude? I'll show her a real woman's attitude.
I wasn't surprised to see Joy use the toilet. I waited for her to finish before I went inside after her. I did my business and came out to see her drying her hands. Still ignoring her, I went about washing my own hands and drying them next to her.
"I'm sorry mum." I heard her small voice say next to me.
"I can't hear what you saying." I said back, knowing well that I was being a pest.
She lifted her small hands to move her hair out her face as she creeped closer to me. I watched her face lose all that attitude she had before and go back to my innocent little girl. "I said I'm sorry mum," she said it again, this time much louder.
I quit being a pest and engulfed her small body in my arms. "It's okay honey. Next time, no attitude."
I felt her nod into my stomach. "Okay mum." The words were muffled but I still could make them out. I pulled her head up slowly and wiped her already clean face clean. Leaning in to plant a kiss on her forehead, I heard breathing out.
"Let's head on out."
I held her hand again as I walked out the bathroom, my mind far away into thinking about how I was going to explain to Joy what happened when I heard a deep, strangely familiar voice carry out into the hallway.
"You're telling me some men are doing this shit to her and you don't call me first?" It was a man's deep growl which probably made the whole room shake in fear because I certainly felt it in my bones.
"Calm down Link-" I had heard Lucian say, those three words swimming in my head as I dragged Joy out the double doors.
I high tailed it out of the building, ignoring what I heard Lucian say because I really couldn't handle that person if it was really him.
I could see a man who I guessed to be Mace instantly since he jerked his head at me and was talking to the desk girl. I quickly climbed down the stairs to where Mace was leaning against his shiny Audi.
"Let's go." I ordered him. This time I was in a hurry for whole new reason and it had do with a certain someone's growl I heard loud and clear.
/////
> longest chapter I've ever written.
> Link's POV next chapter? Debating whether I should or not so let me know what you think.. :)