Chapter 16
After dropping us off at the safe house, Daven and two other guards went back out to change the bursted tires and bring back the car while I headed inside the house along with Lucas and Aria behind me.
On stepping into the house, Lucas headed straight for the kitchen while I told Aria to sit on a chair in the sitting room before I head into the kitchen too. There I met with Tristan who was slicing something with a kitchen knife and a chopping board.
Lucas took a beer from the fridge and exited the kitchen, giving Tristan and I the privacy we needed.
“Hey man,” I started to say.
“Hey,” Tristan paused before continuing.
“So, I heard you brought someone else home with you today.” Tristan started to say without turning around from what he was doing.
“This is totally different, actually.” I started to say.
“Okay.” Tristan replies. The fucker, I hated when he gets this way.
“Look, you know I told you about the hot secretary that started working for me on Monday, she’s the one.”
“Oh, so you brought her into our secretive life because she’s hot? Okay.” Tristan drawled out while laughing humorless.
“No, because well, she got dragged into this mess because of me, she got manhandled by those men that attacked me at the office, she also almost got pierced with a knife, I’m sure if she isn’t with me right now, she’d have been dead by now and you know it… I can’t let that happen to her, Tris.”
I ended softly, my eyes cast down while my mind traveled back to the whole scene that took place this morning, at the office… the part where she started crying in fright because she thought she was going to die, and the part where she thought I was going to kill her, when I think about that part now, a quiet chuckle escaped my lips, brave of her to think I had it in me to hurt her, and the part where I had a finger hooked under her chin and…
“Auden, Auden? Why are you smiling like a dummy?”
I lifted my head up and clamped my lips tight against each other, wondering how the hell I was able to zone out that deeply without realizing it.
“I’m not smiling,” I grunted out as I headed over to the fridge to drink some water.
“Okay.” Tristan agreed with me like I was sure he would.
I drank a full bottle of cold water, the water dribbling into my parched throat and into my stomach.
“Why did you do it?” Tristan asked softly. m
“Huh?” I asked.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
“Why do you care?” He rephrased, giving me a long look.
“I think I like her,” I started to say the moment I got a hang of what he was insinuating then paused before continuing, “I think I like her… like, like-like her.”
“Whoa, ooouuuuuuu.” Tristan cooed and I glared at him immediately which made him stop.
“Yeah, and I’d talk to her after all these, I’m sure she’s going to keep her mouth shut.” I continued.
“She had better.” Tristan mumbled before turning back towards the vegetables he was slicing.
“Where’s Nicole?” I inquired, I’ve missed my baby girl so much, and it hasn’t been up to three days since I’ve last seen her face, same goes for Nicolas.
I’m coming for you tonight, buddy.
“She’s in the movie room, upstairs.”
“I’m going to go see her, then I’m taking Aria into my room here, since there isn’t a lot of free room here.” I said but Tristan chuckled before replying, “Of course there isn’t enough rooms here, I believe you.
I ignored him as I stepped back into the sitting room only to find Aria still in the same spot she was in before I went into the kitchen, her fingers fiddling with each other on her thighs.
“Hey,” I announced my entrance.
“Hey.” She replied after whipping her head up immediately.
“Come here,”
She hesitated before pushing herself up and walking towards me.
She stopped before me, her head barely touching my chin with her high heels still on. I buried my right fingers into her hair and pulled lightly on her curls until she was staring into my eyes with her lips parted on a quiet sigh.
“Are you scared?” I asked quietly.
“Yes.” She replied, her eyelids fluttering unconsciously.
“Don’t be, my brother’s harmless, so is everybody here, except when it comes to bad guys, that is.” I explained to her as I stroked the roots of her hair with my fingers.
“Yeah?” I continued, waiting for her reply.
“Yeah.” She agreed with me, swallowing emptily. I glanced down at her neck and bent down to drop a light kiss on the working muscles without thinking, the sound of her sucking her breath in faster than normal, I grinned before lifting back up to my normal height.
“Hey shawty.” Tristan’s lazy drawl drifted right towards us from his presence in the kitchen’s entrance.
Aria tried to jerk away from my hold on her curls but I wasn’t having any of it. Sliding my fingers out of her curls, I trailed it downwards until it wrapped itself around her neck and pulled her closer to me. I grin widely at the dazed expression on her face before releasing the firm but light grip I had on her throat.
She shook her head a little from side to side as if to clear her head of whatever haze it was in before turning around until she was backing me and facing my brother, Tristan.
“Um, hi?” She started.
Tristan chuckled, “I’m Tristan, shawty and I’m not as harmless as my brother claimed I was right there, but because short girls like you are pretty and innocent, you’d be in my list of good people so I’m pretty harmless to you.”
Aria moves her weight from foot to foot without saying anything at first, I knew then that it was probably because of the emphasis on her height.
“Stop calling her ‘short’ Tris, she doesn’t like it.”
“But she is short,” Tristan argued, giving me a look that screamed ‘Hello? Do you have eyes at all?’
I gave him a resigned look which screamed ‘Stop being dumb, Tris’ before replying, “She isn’t. She’s petite…”
“And short.” Tristan finished my sentence for me.
“I’m not short,” Aria finally spoke up, I couldn’t see her face but I had no doubt that she was glaring daggers at my brother who was deliberately looking over her head at me like she wasn’t there at all, something I’ve come to figure infuriated Aria a lot.
“Of course, darling.” Tristan agreed with her immediately before continuing, “You look a mess by the way, along with my brother up there.”
“It’s all his fault.” Aria filled in quickly, jerking her thumb backwards in my direction.
“I figured, he’s gonna show you where you’re gonna be sleeping in until all this is over. I bet you’re hungry, shawty?” Tristan continued, his gaze fixed on Aria’s curls.
“I am, and it’s Aria not shawty.”
“I know, but shawty seems more fitting.”
“Well, I don’t like being called that,” Aria stated in a irritated tone.
“Too bad,” Tristan states quietly but definitely not quietly enough since we heard him just fine.
“I’m going upstairs to check up on Nicole, then we’re gonna set up the system to receive a call from you know who, then we plan.” I said to Tristan who nodded his head in understanding before heading right back into the kitchen.
“C’mon Aria, let’s go upstairs.”