Lesser Evil

11| The Princess

You are worth it.

My heart dipped at his words even if it was not the time. But when he asked me to trust him? I realized that I did trust him. If he said he would get me out of here, he would. I just knew it.

It was an effort to keep the silly smile off my face as Shaz looked down at me, an unfamiliar intensity in his gaze. His leather glove-clad hand rested flat on the car beside my head, my tied up hands between us. Even with rounds and rounds of duct tape capturing my wrists, I didn't feel helpless or defenseless. I believe Shaz would be all the protection I needed from these people.

When and how had I come to trust him so much, I didn't know.

Shaz shuffled away abruptly, hand going over his head and wrapping around the back of his neck as he sighed and looked at me once again through his long lashes. "Give me one second." He said and rounded the car until he was opening his door and pulling something out.

A gun. But I wasn't scared this time, I knew it wasn't for me. And maybe I was a fool to trust him so much even when he held a gun in his hands, but I did.

Before he could get back to me, a car drove in and stopped at least a fifteen feet away with a screech that had me wincing.

I stilled my breathing when two men came out, both dressed in t-shirts and jeans and looking like gangsters. I guess because they were gangsters. I curled into myself when one of them looked me up and down, smirking when his eyes reached my tied hands. I didn't want to know what filth was running through his head.

"I can see why Boss made such a big deal out of her." He commented, taking a step forward. I would have backed away if I didn't have the car pressed to my back.

In a flash, Shaz was beside and then in front of me when he too noticed how that man was looking at me. Shaz's figure was big enough to completely cover me and I think I heard a sound of disappointed from the other man. The second one out of them two stayed silent like a statue.

"I believe we have a deal." The second man said, narrowing his eyes at Shaz and then me if he could see me.

Shaz dipped his head once, hands casually sliding into his pockets. Meanwhile, I was losing my wits. He said he'd get me out but these were two men, just as big as him and just as well equipped as him. I could see the bulge of their guns in their front pockets, probably there to make a statement unlike Shaz whose gun was securely tucked behind him.

"We do have a deal, but I'm calling it off." His body language might be laid back but his tone suggested enough to know that he wasn't here to joke. I would have quaked in place had I not known... him.

In seconds, two guns were pointed at him, at us. "What the fuck? You can't just call it off!" The first guy said, shaking his gun for emphasis.

"Why can't I? As far as I remember, I made the deal with your boss, not you both. You're just pets, aren't you? So put those guns down." None of them did.

"Shaz..." I called out, fear settling in when they pulled back the safety of their guns.

He only spared me a glance over his shoulder with a sly smile. "Trust me, princess."

He wiped off the smile before he faced forward again. How he could stare down the barrel of a gun was beyond me.

"Now, we can do this the easy way where you both put down your guns and silently drive back to your boss and tell him what happened here, or we can do this hard way where your boss learns what happened here after he finds your dead bodies."

None of them backed down, unfazed by the threat. And I just knew that this was going to get messy.

In a flash, Shaz's gun was out and the sound of bullets piercing through the air, disrupting the calm. I turned away, eyes tightly shut.

I only opened my eyes when silence ensued. Deadly silence.

Surely, those men lay on the floor in pools of blood and Shaz...

"Shaz!" I almost screamed when I saw him hunched over with his hand clutching his opposite arm.

"I'm fine, the bullet only grazed my arm, don't worry. You're okay, right?" He inspected me, even when his hand came back bloody when he removed it from his arm. I helplessly stared at the wound, hands still tied up.

"A-Are they dead?" I'd never seen dead bodies before and I couldn't get myself to care. To not when these people were who had killed my father, not when these people were the cause of Shaz's injury.

"Yes." He gritted out, breathing turning sharp with each second. Sweat drops coated his forehead, even in the middle of winter. "I'll unbind your wrists, just give me a minute."

I nodded mindlessly, eyes still glued to his arm. That was too much blood for the bullet to have only grazed his arm, but he knew better than I did.

Shaz straightened and immediately winced when he did so but he passed me a crooked smile. He was pretending to be alright when I could see how much pain he was in. It hurt me.

I didn't protest when he pulled my hands towards him, slowly unwrapping the tape and going even slower when he reached the last layer where the tape directly touched my skin.

"You have to do something about your wound," I told him, eyes flicking to his arm before looking up at him again.

"I know, but there are more important things I need to do first."

I assumed he was talking about the bodies. How the hell was he planning to transport them with an injured arm? It would only worsen his condition. "What important things?" I still asked, just to be sure.

"Like you drop you home."

What?

"What?" I voiced out my thoughts, only barely succeeding at keeping my voice stable.

He held eye contact as he repeated his words with more emphasis this time, "Drop you home, Ayat."

Home was now a place where I would be alone forever, with my father gone. I don't think I wanted to be alone.

I resisted the urge to ask if I had to go home. Of course, I did. Where else would I go?

He eyed me like he knew I wanted to say something more. "You can't be involved with me anymore, Ayat. Fariz would come after me for backing out. There is no way I will willingly put your life in danger."

For some odd reason, that irritated me. "You're saying it like you hadn't put my life in danger by kidnapping me."

His hands that had been stroking the tape marks on my wrists stilled. He stilled, completely froze.

"What?"

I yanked my hands from his hold, feeling cold— not because of the weather but something else entirely. "Isn't it the truth, Shahzad?"

"You still think that." It wasn't a question, but a statement. It poked at my heart but I steeled my emotions before I could break.

"Because that's what happened! You kidnapped me, and dragged me into this mess where I can't live my life peacefully anymore! I don't even have a life to live anymore, it's all ruined!" I exploded, just like that. My breaths turned heavy and my eyes burned.

"Trust me, Ayat. I've been in that dilemma long enough. On one hand, I would do anything to take back what I did to you. On the other... On the other, I know I wouldn't have met you in any other way."

What did he mean by that?

"Your so-called 'dilemma', Shaz, doesn't justify that you kidnapped me! I begged you to let me go thousands of times but you didn't listen! If you were even a little sorry about what you did, you would have let me go." I sighed painfully. "Maybe then I would have been able to be with my father before he died." I whispered the last part to myself only, angrily wiping away whatever tears fell out.

"I regret it all, Ayat. I really do. But I can't say that I won't do it again, I wouldn't have met you if it hadn't happened. We—we're two worlds apart, princess. There would have been no other way for our paths to cross." He suddenly looked up at me, inching closer. "And I won't apologize for something that made me feel."

My breaths stopped at his words. "Feel what?" I mumbled, scared of whatever his answer was going to be.

"Love."