AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As we took our seats, I watched other couples chat and laugh with one another. It made me long to be like them. To be able to just enjoy the moment with your lover, no worries about lost lives or broken hearts in your mind.
I watched the screen amazed as the people actually moved on it. Although there was no sound, it was easy to see what the actors were feeling and saying by their facial expressions and their hand gestures. I had never comprehended something so marvelous actually being possible, and I watched the whole thing with rapt attention, mouth open wide in disbelief. I could feel Landon's eyes on me, a mixture of amusement and curiosity present in his gaze. Surely my expression wasn't that different from other people going to a movie for the first time? It was beyond my comprehension how anyone could react with anything other than awe at such a marvel.
As we walk out of the theater I continue to gush about what we just saw. Landon says very little, his eyes scouring his surroundings like he's looking for someone to jump out and attack us. And maybe he is. I wonder what exactly he does for a living that requires such vigilance. I obviously have my suspicions, but it's become an unspoken agreement between us that we won't discuss what he does for work.
Landon helps me into the backseat of the Rolls Royce we're driving in again, and we set off to return to the deli.
"You know I've never seen anyone as excited about something as you were back there," he says, loud enough to be heard over the roar of the engine.
"Hmm," I say non-committedly, looking out with interest at the buildings that we are passing, not wanting to talk about all the ways, or the reasons, that this new worldisnew and exciting for me.
Landon drops the subject, moving on to other topics that people ask in the get to know you stage. The fact that he's trying to do small talk even though it's against his nature is charming to me.
We get to the deli and I hesitate, knowing I should head inside. He gives me a knowing smile and then I crash towards him awkwardly, my fingers diving into his hair. We kiss, hard and deep, long strokes of his tongue against mine, and I want to demand more. Shocked with my reaction to him, I rear back and scurry out of the car, sending an embarrassed goodbye over my shoulder. I can feel his eyes on me as I hurry into the safety of the deli.
For the next month, almost all my nights are filled with Landon in some capacity. Although I rarely see him during the day, he occupies my mind until I feel like he has become an obsession.
It's almost 3:00am when Landon brings me back to the deli after a night out at one of his clubs. I'm so busy trying to devour his lips that I don't notice that the glass on the front door is shattered until we're standing right in front of it, and I hear the glass crunching under my heels. Landon immediately pushes me behind him and pulls out the silver pistol he always carries under his suit coat. He barks an order to the suits that are waiting by the car, and they immediately jump to attention, stalking towards us and brandishing their own weapons.
"Stay out here," he barks at me, and I just glare at him in response. This is Clara, and Clara is one thing that he's not allowed to order me around about.
"Stay behind me at least," he says in frustration, and I nod my head in agreement.
My heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest, it's beating so fast. I don't know what I'll do if something happened to her.
Landon walks through the door. I can't help but gasp as we survey the damage that's been done to the deli. A tear falls down my cheek looking at how our home, and Clara's livelihood, has been torn apart. Tables have been turned over and the chairs look like they have been beaten against the walls until both the walls, and the chairs have been smashed into pieces. The cash register is lying open on the ground, clearly empty. The glass displays where Clara lovingly lays out her baked goods have been shattered as well. It's almost unrecognizable.
The suits fan out, one going up the stairs to Clara and I's living quarters, another going into the kitchen. My whole body is shaking as I look around. If the store looks like this, what does Clara look like. At that thought, a shout from upstairs has me rushing towards the source. Landon grabs my hand before I can take more than a few steps and pulls me back behind him.
"Stay behind me," he growls, as he strides toward the stairs with me following behind him.
We get to the top, and I almost barrel into Landon who has suddenly stopped. He looks at me over his shoulder, his face such a mixture of rage and pain that I immediately push past him, knowing the reason that he looks like that.
When I see her, it's so terrible that I end up falling to my knees and crawling the rest of the way to reach her. It feels like I can't breathe.
Clara is laying on the floor, her face almost unrecognizable from the bruising that is flowering all over it. There's a large gash on her forehead where a steady trickling of blood is flowing. Her nightdress has been ripped and when I see that Landon's guard has placed his jacket on the lower half of her body, it feels like someone has literally grabbed my heart and ripped it from my body. In that moment the fear I have is not that she'll die, but that she'll live and never be able to recover from what's been done to her.
The guard has two fingers on her pulse. "She's alive," he announces to us soberly.
"Go call Dr. Winthrop and get help. Gather the others after that," orders Landon and the guard immediately runs down the stairs to do his bidding.
I grasp Clara's hand, feeling the painfully slow beat of her pulse in her wrist as I do so. I want to pick her up, but her body looks so broken that I don't think I can touch her without causing her severe pain.
In what feels like an eternity later, but what is most likely only half an hour, a man who I assume is the doctor walks up the stairs carrying a black medical bag. Just like all of Landon's associates, he's dressed in a sharp suit and has an air of authority that surrounds him.
When he sees us, he stops short and swears.
"Get up here," he orders to someone down below and I hear the clatter of footsteps as two women come running up the stairs. The man walks towards me and bends down next to me.
"I'm going to need you to let go of her," he says kindly, and although my ears register the sound of his voice, I feel frozen. It feels like if I let go of Clara then she will die.
"Baby," says Landon urgently, gently pulling my hand from its grip on Clara.
I can feel the inquiring, surprised look from the doctor at Landon's term of endearment, and I muster enough energy to give him a glare to do his job. He and the two girls he called up here begin to work on Clara. After only a few minutes he gives us a grim look.
"She has to go to the hospital, sir. She's bleeding internally," he tells us, and I begin to cry uncontrollably.
"Get an ambulance then," barks Landon, and the doctor jerks to attention, running downstairs.
