TWENTY-ONE
It was a strange situation, almost as though I was having an outer-body experience. Never in my life had I imagined to be sitting in a upscale restaurant where they served five meals, fine drinks with Link Dane in front of me. It seemed like someone crafted this image just to laugh at the bizarre mix up. Something like this should never be happening but alas, here I was, dining with Link Dane.
And we had finished our meal and now we were just sitting and staring at each other. It was like neither of us had any shame. "I could stare at you all night." He said out loud.
I shot him a smile.
"But we both know I'm not wasting my night with you like that." He carried on, his other intention becoming very obvious. I saw him glance down at my shirt several times during the night, each time becoming harder for him to keep himself together. With the amount of sudden moves and inability to sit still gave him away.
"You're awfully confident you'll bed me tonight." I told him with a laugh. "I don't put out on the first date."
Link smirked. "We already had sex. More than once. We skip the normal steps."
A heated blush overpowered my face. Talking about sex in public was never something I could do. Call me old-fashioned, away from the sheets I was a lot more shy than I made it seem. And Link was taking advantage of it. "How about we try my bedroom floor this time?"
I placed my cheek in my hand, attempting to mask the furious blush as I answered him. "How about we have a normal conversation people have on dates?"
"We're not normal, are we though?"
I reached for my water and took a sip.
"We're parents to a beautiful daughter. Only thing we need to do now is get married."
Water sputtered out of my mouth and all over the table. "We are not getting married." I choked out.
Link smiled his usually curly smile at me. I suddenly found myself hating that smile. "When do you have to get back to work?" He asked out of the blue, ignoring his comment like it didn't matter as much.
"Erm, I'm kind of self-employed but I have to get a set minimum of hours in soon to be on top of it. Or else, I'll b drowning in so much work that it'll be near impossible to come out top of it. " Too much detail that I'm sure Link had no interest in.
"So you can work from here?" He asked casually.
I nodded. "As long as I got a laptop and my files, I can pretty much work anywhere."
"That's good. You can move here then."
Another choke. "Excuse me?"
Link looked at me and repeated his words slowly even though I heard him loud and clear the first time. "You can move here."
I let out a small laugh. "You're really funny tonight."
"What? I'm just saying."
"I'm not moving back to this city. In fact, I'm leaving in the next few days. Benji got his guns, he'll be off my case and I got the papers of my Father's Will nearly concluded. I think I might be gone tomorrow even!"
I was babbling again but I noticed the second Link's eyes darkened. "Benji's guns?" He repeated coolly.
Shit. I didn't want him to know about that!
"Hm?" I said, looking around the whole restaurant expect at him.
"What guns?"
I waved my hand at him. "No guns! I'm just-"
"Ori. Talk now."
"You're really not listening. There is no point because there's nothing about guns! You must have misheard me."
He slammed his fists on the table. "Talk."
I acted as though I wasn't fazed by him when in fact, I was slightly trembling in my seat. I don't think I ever saw him this angry. I opened my mouth to talk but slammed it shut when nothing came out. I just screwed myself over and for what? Nothing. Expect that I just ruined our whole date.
Link didn't wait for an explanation. He stood up and dug a whole stack of cash from his back pocket. He dropped a few on the table and motioned for me to stand up. I grabbed my little purse and stood up. He grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the restaurant.
To everyone looking at us, it looked like a man was dragging out a woman out of the restaurant to see to his needs. Little did they know what really was going on.
We both got in his parked Audi and as expected, didn't wait for my seatbelt to be on before he raced back to the house.
***
I opened the living room door to see Joy and Lexie sprawled on the ground, their hair curtained around them. Lexie jumped at the sight of me walking into the living room. "Back already? To be honest, I wasn't expecting you back at all."
I looked over my shoulder and saw Link hadn't come in yet. "I let it slip about our little treasure hunt before." I said carefully, making sure Joy hadn't caught on. She was so engrossed in the Tangled movie that she still hadn't realised I was behind her.
I walked over to her and crouched down. "No sleep?" I said softly.
She jumped up at my voice and wrapped her small hands around my neck. "Mum! You smell like sweets." She said after planting a wet kiss on my cheek.
That's the moment Link walked in. "Lexie, Lucian is outside for you."
Lexie looked surprised. "Me? I didn't know I had any plans to see him." She said, the tone of her voice saying a whole different story. Did she plan on seeing him whilst I was out?
If this wasn't such a tense situation, I would have laughed at her high school antics.
Without saying another word, she hightailed it out the door. She was most likely not going to come back tonight.
"I'm going to sort something out with Lucian and the rest of the guys. Vlad and his partner will be with you."
Just then a tall, dark haired man came inside my living room. "Vlad." he introduced himself with heavy soviet accent.
I nodded at him. "Orianna. This is Joy." I pointed at her since she was back to watching the TV.
Link reached over and grabbed my hand. He gave it a slight tug and I followed him out the living room and into the kitchen. "Get dressed into something else. We both know you got dressed like this for me. No point Vlad enjoying it more than me."
I looked up into his dark eyes. There was nothing in them. The usual dark glint in them was long, replaced by a much cooler one. I didn't like this Link. This Link could be the ending of you.
I placed my hand on his cheek. I wasn't the first one to usually touch him but I sought the Link I had a few hours ago. Even a glimpse of it.
"Link, I'm so-"
He shut me up with a harsh kiss. "Not now."
And then he walked out of the kitchen, straight out the house. I let out a deep sigh.
"Joy!" I called out her name as I started making my way upstairs. "Let's go. Time for bed!"
***
I was out of my clothes and changed into a soft camisole and shorts pyjama set. I was too tired to jump into a shower and, to be honest didn't feel so comfortable doing so with a stranger named Vlad sitting downstairs. Although I did hear him at one point, leaving the house to probably talk to his partner.
I hoisted Joy onto my bed, wanting her warmth with me right now. "Can we read one story before bed?" She asked before she passed my phone back to me. I had given it to her whilst I was sorting out the room and was getting changed.
"Sure," I said, putting my phone in charge. "Do you know what you want?"
She bobbed her head at my excitedly. "Go and get it then."
She jumped off the bed, her little legs running out the room and into hers. As I watched her from my bedroom door, my mind drifted off to Link and his whereabouts. I didn't know what he was going to do with the information he got tonight but it wasn't going to be anything pleasant. The thought of him risking himself and confronting Benji made my stomach churn tightly.
My mind was busy with all those thoughts that it took me a few seconds too late to realise there was someone upstairs with us. I could only see his back frame, all dressed in black with a gun in his right hand as he crept towards my daughter's room.
Instinct and my fight mode took over as I ran, faster than I ever ran before and jumped onto his back. He let out a surprised grunt, as I tightly wrapped my whole body around him, and started attacking him with all my might.
A women's way of fighting was dirty and I made sure I used all of the dirty tricks Mother nature equipped us with so we were prepared for any situation.
My teeth clamped down on the side of his nape tightly, the metallic taste of his blood reaching my mouth. I spat it out and went in for another bite and all the while, digging my fingernails into his exposed skin.
He let out a guttural sound and started reaching me from over his head. He grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled on it. I stopped biting and let out a scream which promoted Joy to come out of her room, a book in her hand.
She let out a cry the second she caught sight of me.
"Joy, run to my room now!" I screamed at her. She didn't move as she started crying on the spot.
"Now!" I screamed which caused her to jump in fear and run past us. The man managed to get me off my back and into his face. That's when I caught a glance of his look.
His face was contoured into angry features as he breathed out heavily. "You're going to pay for that, bitch." He snarled at me. I quickly went in for the kick in the balls, but he stopped me as he grabbed my knee. "Don't think so." He spat out.
His fingers dug into my knee and I screamed out in pain. How did that hurt so much? I didn't give any time to dwell on it.
I reached out with my hand and grabbed his whole groin. His eyes widened when he realised that he was screwed, and I gave it the best tug and pull, and twist history ever seen.
The sound this man let out would forever be burned into my brain. He let out a jarring sound as he doubled over, his whole face frozen in pain. I took that moment to bolt past him and into my bedroom door. I grabbed Joy as I ran past her and into to the bathroom, locking ourselves in.
I peeked out the open crack of the window and blinds, hoping to catch Vlad or anyone else but instead saw a few black cars lined up in the street, each of them surrounded by several guys dressed the same as the one I violated in the hallway. And in front them all stood Benji, with two bodies in front of him.
I recognised one of the bodies and let out a small cry, covering my mouth so they wouldn't hear me. Benji gave one small kick to Vlad's limp body and let a cheery smile overpower his face. "They're both down for the count." He said, sounding all to happy about it.
I leaned away from the window and glanced at Joy. She was staring at me with her big eyes, tears streaming down my face. I put a finger to my mouth.
She shook her head at me and jumped on me. I clung onto her, whispering comforting words in her ear. "Don't worry. We're just going to wait here until Link comes and then we can read our story."
"Okay, mama."
I looked up, forcing the tears to go back into my eyes. I could not crumble in front of her. Not when she needed me at my best.
I slowly got her off me and placed her in the bathtub. "Sit here."
I quickly pushed all the furniture I could move in the bathroom against the door. This way, anyone that would try to come through here would have a lot of things to get through first.
I heard Benji speak again outside and I quickly etched towards the window, going back into my position. I saw him reach for a gun from his side pocket and start to walk towards the house.
"Keep an eye on the rest of them. I'm going inside to say hi to my friend and her little puppet."
////
> Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am! I'm ending this soon, pretty sad but I rather end it when I'm in the spirit for it rather than drag it and end up never finishing it.
> But! Lucian's story is up! Lucian. I'll be working on that right now but it will be the main focus after Ending Link ends. Check it out on my profile!
> And for something different, a shortstory KEVIN is also on my profile <3