Their Demands

Chapter Four- Aria

I sit back in my seat, still the only plate on the table is in front of me. Aled and Dacre were still there, waiting, as if they knew I would be back.

As I sat on the chair I crossed my legs (A habit I do when I'm nervous). I grab the glass of water and sip It before looking back at Callum once he sat down.

"So, as I was saying, last night was traumatic for you. With the first guy and especially the second. So one of the reasons your here is we wanted to make sure you were ok, that no other instances repeated after the first two. It was just bad luck two of them happened within the same half hour. We didn't want to risk another one." He explained.

I look between him and the two other men. "And the other reason?" I ask, my voice a little husky from the panic attack.

The three of them looked at one another. "Well, I'm sure you remember what happened after we stepped in, just before you blacked out." I nodded, and still confused.

"We just..." He hesitated and looked at the other two men. "We can't risk you running to the cops. So we decided, until we could trust you, you would stay...well, here." He said it sincerely, as if not trying to worry me. Yet the worry had set in.

I rose from my seat. "Fucking keep me here? Like I'm your fucking prisoner or something?" I yelled. My body shaking. I felt dizzy and sat down again before my body got tired.

"No, nothing like that." Aled said.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way. But especially after last night, there might be people looking for you." Callum shifted in his chair.

"For me? But your the guys who shot him."

"Yes, but we know how to handle it. You don't."

"What do you mean I don't? I can handle myself." Sitting up in my seat.

"Sweetheart, I'm sure you can with everything but men and guns." Callum said, his eyes piercing mine. I mean he was right.

"So what? I just live here? What about my job? My apartment that I rent? My friends?"

"All of that can be sorted. I know this is hard but-"

"Do you? Really? Being taken to some random persons house and being told you have to live here until these unknown people trust you." I yell.

Dacre's fists clench on the table. He sees that I noticed and looks away, relaxing his hand.

"I do. It's gonna take a lot of time to trust each other. But this is what has to happen." I don't know how to handle this. My body starts shaking again, my breathing starting to become uncontrollable.

Aled sees my panic, gets up from his seat, picks me up into his arms and carries me. He walks through the dining room to a door. The door, old and a little rustic, but gave the modern mansion a little something extra. It was massive, the door I mean, whilst the house was bigger than anything I had scene.

He opens the door somehow with me in his arms, and the door leads to a living room. The room was modern, but had a cute fireplace in the corner.

He gently places me down on my side, onto a soft blue couch. He squats down.

"Deep breaths princess." I make a mumble of a noise in response, the breathless wheezes not letting me talk.

He tucks a hair behind my ear and walks to a coffee table. He grabs the remote and goes to Netflix on the tv.

He must've read my fucking mind or some shit, because he did not just put on my favourite show.(Stranger things or whatever show you want it to be).

My eyes glue to the screen and he must've pulled a chair to the end of the couch where my head rested. I felt his hand gently stroke my head, softly pushing my hair out of the way.

I focussed on the tv, and my panic attack was slowly suppressing. Aled kept brushing over my hair for about 20 minutes.

The strong footsteps approach again. Callum came into view. He put a bottle of water in front of me, I sat up to take a sip, my throat sore from the attack.

Callum pulled over a chair and sat in front of me, Dacre walked in and paused the show and sat on the end of the couch. Aled still brushing his fingers along my hair as Callum talked.

"Aria, this will be hard. But we all have to come to terms with it. Ok?" My head nods slightly telling him I'll find a way to understand.

"Here's what's going to happen. Us three will pay off your rent and we-" I cut him off.

"You can't do that, I can't let y-"

Aled cuts me off. "Just listen Aria, let him finish ok?" I stay silent.

Callum continues. "You've seen this house, we can easily do that. And as for your job, you will take 3 weeks leave, I have already called them up and told them."

How the fuck does he know where I work?

"After those three weeks, if we still can't trust you, you will work for my club or Dacre's restaurant. But otherwise you can still go back to your normal job. The decision will be made when the time comes." I look over at Dacre then Aled. Do they own the entire city or some shit?

"As for friend, you can call, FaceTime and text, and we will think about letting them have contact. Tell them you are dealing with family issues. Like sorting out the will of a grandparent. Any questions?" He says sitting back in his seat.

"So I will be locked in here? For weeks?" I sit up, Aled moves his hand to my thigh, rubbing his thumb.

"Not necessarily. We have a massive back yard, you can go shopping, out for dinner, anything like that as long as one of us is with you." Aled explains, assisting Callum.

"But how will I go shopping if I'm not earning money?"

"We will pay for everything."

"This can't be real. This can't be real." I sit back and think it through.

"I know it seems that way, but this is just how it has to be. You know we arn't bad people, even though you don't trust us, we saved you and protected you. All we ask is you lay low here for a while. The more we trust you and you show us that you won't run and tell people, the shorter the amount of time this will take. Ok?" That should be a rhetorical question as they are forcing me to stay here, but he was genuinely asking.

"Ok." I sigh. Finally accepting it. "But trust is a two way street. If you want me to show you can trust me, I expect the same from you."

"As long as you don't try to run, we have a deal." He says.

"So do we? Do we have a deal sweetheart?" Callum asked. A hidden smirk on his face.

"Deal."

"Good girl."