To the Smelly Boy Apartment It Is! (Story 2 of Sev & M)

Chapter 29

"SEVERINE! SEVERINE! NO! ANSWER ME! COME ON SEVERINE! PLEASE, PLEASE ANSWER ME!" Marcus yelled and begged into the phone until he was hoarse.

"You two don't have anyone to blame but yourselves," said a deep voice.

"What did you do to him! Where is he?" he demanded.

But it was no good the line went dead. He vaguely noticed Nora and Zandra had come into his room. He felt Nora climb onto the bed with him and put her arms around him.

"What happened?" she asked.

He shook his head to clear it, "Severine called. He must have snuck into one of the rooms in the house to use a phone. He said his father broke his phone. We were talking and his father came in. I think...I think Severine tried to get away from him but couldn't. I heard him fall, it was really quiet after that, he wouldn't answer me. He wouldn't answer me but I kept yelling for him."

"I'm sure he's fine. The way you two talk about him, how could he not be?"

He looked up, surprised that it was Zandra who had spoken. He stared at her for a moment, then nodded. As always she steered the conversation back to businesses.

"What did he call for?" she asked.

"He said he overheard his father and Issac talking. Issac is going to make a move against me tomorrow. He called to warn me," he said.

Nora sucked in her breath and stiffened beside him, he put his hand over hers and squeezed it reassuringly. Before he could say anything he was again surprised by Zandra who said:

"There's nothing to worry about Evanora. If he does make a move tomorrow you both will be fine. I'll make sure of it."

"She's right, we'll both keep you safe. You should go back to bed now, it's late and you have to work tomorrow," he said.

She nodded, he could see she wanted to argue something but had decided against it. She headed to Severine's room. Once he heard the door shut he turned to Zandra who was still standing in his doorway.

"You will take Nora to work tomorrow and stay with her the whole shift. You are not to let her out of your sight no matter what. Do you understand?" he asked.

Zandra stayed completely still in the doorway, staring at him hard. He sighed, "Zandra do you understand what I'm asking you to do or not?"

"I get it so chill," she responded rolling her eyes, "Evanora will be safe."

He nodded. He really hoped Zandra would take this seriously. He didn't need to be worried about Nora when he had literally no clue what condition Severine was in now. He picked up his phone and started scrolling through contacts to find Jana's number, he was just about to punch the call button when Zandra cleared her throat. He gave her a questioning look.

"What about you?" she asked.

"What do you mean, what about me?" he responded, annoyed. He needed to be calling Jana, not be having pointless conversations.

"Who is going to keep you safe tomorrow?" she asked.

"I can keep myself safe. We don't even know for sure if he is going to come after me. Severine could have heard wrong. Something could come up. Either way, I'm prepared," he said.

She stared at him for a moment then turned and went to the living room. He rubbed his temples then picked his phone back up and called Jana. He was surprised when she answered. He filled her in quickly on what had happened. After demanding that she find out what happened to Severine and having her repeatedly promise she would once they hung up, he asked what she thought they should do now. She asked if Nora would be safe and he explained Zandra would be with her the whole day. She had seemed surprised about Zandra's willingness to help and he was still baffled about it himself but they didn't have the time to figure it out. After much pleading and a few low blow comments from Jana it was decided he would stay in the apartment all day tomorrow, or at least until Zandra returned with Nora after her shift. He lay in bed for several hours after hanging up the phone before finally falling back into a fitful sleep.