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Chapter 20 ~ The Big Man

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Aaron called Ana early the next morning to catch her before she went into work. They planned to do the same thing they had done the day before—wander the streets of town. This became an everyday routine for the two. After Ana got off work they would spend the evenings doing whatever they could find to entertain themselves around town. 

It had been almost a week since they began seeing each other every afternoon and Ana still hadn't gathered her nerves to introduce Aaron to her mother. She had a haunting feeling that her mother wouldn't like Aaron or trust him, and ban her from seeing him anymore. It wasn't that Aaron was a bad guy or anything,— quite the opposite actually— he was charming, polite, and devilishly handsome, it was just her mother didn't want her daughter to have anything to do with any other man besides her high school boyfriend, Eric. The thought disgusted her. Ana also knew that she could not follow her mother's wishes if she told her to stay away from Aaron. 

Ana would think about Aaron throughout her day and every chance she got. So many questions ran through her mind, that just seemed too personal to ask him. He didn't like to talk about himself at all it seemed. Perhaps he was a serial killer that had escaped from prison and was trying to begin a new life away from civilization? Maybe something had happened in his life that was too painful for him to think about, and he wanted to forget about it? Ana hadn't the slightest idea, and was always surprised at how uncomfortable and irritable Aaron would become when she brought up something about him. I mean, she had to get to know him somehow, right? If he didn't tell her, she might as well ask. So far he had only told her that he was born in Mississippi and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He had been in the army once, his hard-working and loving mother had died and his dad remarried, he was a surviving twin, and that he had once worked as a truck driver. He had also mentioned once that he had been married before, but that his wife left him and they divorced. But that was it. That was all Ana knew about Mr. Aaron Sley. She had tried asking what he does during his days, or what he did for a living, but he didn't really answer her questions and had begun to distract her when she would bring up a subject about himself or his previous life. At this point, she had given up the idea of knowing anything more about his past, and just decided to focus on the time that they spent together. She looked forward to seeing him most everyday. There was no denying that she was incredibly attracted to him. He was everything a girl could ever want in a man. He was gorgeous, charming and he made her laugh like no one else ever had. Aaron was the first man, or first person actually, who seemed to truly understand her. He didn't laugh at her or tell her that her dreams were stupid, that they would never happen. Instead he would encourage her to do what she was passionate about and to follow her dreams. He actually believed that she would be an actress one day. Boy he was crazy, but having someone think her dreams were realistic was a breath of fresh air. She loved the way he made her feel—free. 

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Elvis found himself thinking about Ana all the time. He felt like a lovesick school boy. She was just addicting. He couldn't get enough of her. Maybe it was the lack of pleasurable company in the stuffy old cabin, the boys were beginning to get on his last nerve. He hadn't introduced Ana to the gang yet, because he was afraid they would make him look like a fool and embarrass him. That was something Elvis just would not stand for, so he decided against bringing Ana up to the cabin. 

They were becoming closer by the day. Ana told him everything about herself. She really is an open book, he thought. It took everything in his power not to tell her about himself. She asked so many questions that he just could not answer. He knew that she caught on to him avoiding her questions, but he just couldn't. Ana was unlike any girl he had ever met before in his entire life. She was natural, innocent, honest and breathtakingly beautiful inside and out. They had become close friends over the course of the week and it seemed that this was just the beginning. When she told him of her hopes and dreams for the future, he knew that he would do everything in his power to make those dreams become reality for her. Maybe it was the lack fame and attention he had been getting used to lately, but he began to feel almost like a normal man. He no longer wanted the screaming girls at his feet begging for a one-night-stand. He wanted something lasting and something real, something unlike what he had experienced with Pricilla. The more he saw Ana, the more drawn to her he felt like he became. She seemed to understand him like no one else, and he didn't want his time to end with her anytime soon. 

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*Elvis POV*

It was a Sunday. A day Ana had told him that she would have to spend with her mother. Elvis roused himself out of bed sometime after noon. He could hear lots of commotion going on down the hall and he sleepily wandered what the Nick and Lance were up to, perhaps Neil had made it back. Without bothering to change out of his night clothes, he trudged down the hall to the living room to find Nick and Lance cleaning windows and washing dishes while Neil surveyed the room picking up anything that seemed out of place. 

"What's goin' on fellas? Why all the sudden cleaning?" Elvis yawned. 

"Aaron! What the hell are you doing still in your pajamas!?" Neil exploded. 

Elvis stepped back a bit, "Whoah, man, what's got your panties in a wad this mornin'?" 

Neil spun around to Nick, "You two didn't bother to tell him?" 

"Uhhh, well. Guess we haven't gotten around to it yet." Nick shrugged. 

"You two—" Neil began, but was interrupted by a firm knock on the front door. "Oh damn. Lance you get the door! Aaron go change!" 

"Why? Who's at the door? What the hell is going on?" Elvis demanded as Neil pushed him back towards the hallway. 

Nick took over, leading Elvis back down the hallway and into his room. "It's the big man. He's here to get a look at you, and see if we've been doing our job." Nick explained. 

"Bradley? Oh, then why all the fuss?"

"No-no.. Well Bradley is here, but he is bringing the man who hired us. The big man," Nick explained seriously. "He's checking up on you. Well, and us. But Bradley's threatened our lives to make sure this place is spotless when he brings our employer up here."

Elvis understood now. This peaked his interest — the man who arranged to have him kidnapped. 

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