Spotlight |h.s|

Seventy Five

Harry Styles

It's our last full day in New York, and Aubrey's a bit bummed out about not being able to see the city under our odd circumstances. Our guards and the police know who to look out for, especially since we're almost positive that Ian is roaming around here somewhere, but we don't want to take any sort of chances. The city is also huge, so there's no way to know if Ian will actually be found before he's following us back to LA.

Zayn insisted on getting Aubrey a new phone so we wouldn't have to go out, everyone else sitting at the suite while him and the guard attached to his hip went to the store to buy it.

That leaves her and I with not much else to do, her head being in my lap as she lays back on the couch. One of my hands rests on her torso as the other is knitted in her hair to try and make her more comfortable. She plays with the rings littering my fingers, her fidgety self needing something to hold onto to occupy herself. Her whole point in sitting here like this was hopefully falling asleep as a sort of distraction, but she's too anxious to do that. She's gotten close a few times, but something always stops her from truly sleeping.

I totally understand her fear, though. I don't like her or Ruby going anywhere without me or Niall being close by. Aubrey hasn't left my sight since the afterparty, and Ruby only has when she was in the presence of Niall along with multiple guards provided with detailed descriptions and photos of Ian and Thomas.

I've been in denial of Thomas's involvement with all of this since Gloria told the story of my mom, but now that there are too many connections for it to be a coincidence, it's all I've thought about for days. I know what he's capable of, and I'm terrified of myself and the people I care about being targets here. Absolutely fucking terrified.

I also hated the look on Ruby's face when she realized that he most likely knows where we are now. Thomas is both my and her biggest fear. After 12 years of our childhood being taken from him, hearing anything in relation to him has chills running down our spines and sweat building on the back of our necks. Ruby can't say his name or ever see intimacy in the same way as everyone around her, and I can't be reminded of him or be touched by more than a select group of people. Those things are all the result of the man who brought us into this world. The man who now has his eyes on both of us along with Aubrey and who knows who else in our lives.

I don't know if he has a hold over Ian that's making him participate as well, or if they somehow found each other and decided to team up and ruin both mine and Aubrey's life in the blink of an eye. They both have absolutely no care in the world for us, Ian having already attempted to kill Aubrey while Thomas showed just how much he hated me every day until I turned 18 and ran away from his abuse. Did they simply see the headlines when we got together for PR and want us gone for being successful, or is there something I'm not seeing here? Are there parts of their seemingly elaborate scheme that I'm missing?

My thoughts come to a halt as Ruby bounds her way down the stairs while rubbing her eyes, very obviously just waking from a nap or something. It's about 5:00 pm, but we won't have anything to eat until Zayn gets back. He's getting all of us some sort of dinner while he's out to get Aubrey's phone.

She sees the two of us on the couch, pointing to Aubrey and sending me a look to nonverbally ask if she's sleeping. I shake my head no, which makes her nod as she steps closer to us.

Instead of sitting down on the perfectly free couch beside us like a normal person, she steps into Aubrey's view and holds her arms out like she's asking for permission before wrapping her up in one of her signature hugs. Aubrey's grip loosens on my hand, pushing it off of her to allow Ruby the space she wants.

Ruby then lays down on top of Aubrey, their touchy selves hugging as I act as a pillow for Aubrey's head. I breathe out a laugh and shake my head at them as Aubrey's chin rests on top of Ruby's head.