Illusion

Chapter 24

Harry's POV

It's been a week. A week of avoiding her texts. A week of muting her calls.

Like now for instance. The incessant ringing sounds around me and I begrudgingly fish it out of my tight jeans pocket just to hit ignore and replace it.

Louis and I have been tracking down a target, purposefully leaving Avery out of the equation. She doesn't need to be involved in this just yet.

Maybe she thinks I'm not answering her because I'm mad about her getting back with her boyfriend. Well I'm not. I just don't need her right now, so why bother talking to her? Why bother listening to her amble about nothing, or talk with that serious tone she puts on when she's determined.

Her melodic voice rings in my head as memories pass through my thoughts. Why was she stuck circling my brain?

I was extremely struck when she kissed my cheek last week before she left the car, my body not knowing how to process her intimate action. I thought she hated me? Why did she act so affectionate, if only to say sorry?

My body seems to react to her presence in a way I've never experienced before. Normally I'm able to shut off any emotion when it comes to my job, not needing to prepare myself before I see anyone, just following through on orders. But this is different. Everytime I see her, it's like I need to take a breather before I talk, forcing myself to appear unaffected by her being.

I don't understand what she's doing to me. It's as if my actions are working without my brain, moving on their own accord.

What the hell is wrong with me.

I'm going to need to see her again at some point. Maybe even sooner rather than later if Louis and I end up getting the information we need. But despite that looming possibility of seeing her in person, my glazed over eyes can't stop seeing her standing with him.

Tristan.

What did she see in him anyway. The last time we talked about him I got the distinct impression that she was scared of him in some way. Has he ever hurt her?

She always seems so shy whenever he's brought up. Actually, she seems timid whenever anything about her past is brought up. I wonder if she's scared of something bigger, or if she's just anxious about revealing her secrets to a near stranger.

And her nightmare...

She's so secretive that she wouldn't tell me what she was dreaming about. But I know she remembers.

There was something so wild, so crazed, in her eyes that night that I just knew there was more to it than a dream.

'Harry! For fuck's sake!'

Louis' aggressive voice rings through the empty space of the back of the van and my thoughts snap back to the present. His angry face is looking at me with confusion and I shake my head in a non-responsive answer, not wanting to give away why I hadn't been paying attention.

My eyes flick over the bloodied body laying in a crumpled heap at Louis' feet, gag tied securely around the man's mouth while his hands and feet are bound. Blood is heavily pooling on the ground around his temple. He's probably dead. I may have been slightly too aggressive when torturing him earlier. The other man is sitting up, shaking, tied with the same restraints, his features destroyed, but his mind still conscious.

We'd been torturing them for over two hours, neither having given much away other than that they were Alex's men.

'Now,' Louis' head turns back to the wide-eyed, tremoring man, 'are you going to answer me? Or would you like the same consequence as your friend here?' Louis looks at me with an insinuating look, giving a small grimace at the fact that I already killed one of the captives.