Locked in chains

Chapter 6

The car arrives in the parking lot and neither of us dare to speak a word. I'm waiting for him to get out so I can follow him inside and tell him my mind once and for all. I can't take his mood swings 24/7 anymore. He needs to grow the fuck up.

He looks at me for a few seconds and finally decides to get out and go straight inside the house. I stay in the car for a moment to take a deep breath before getting out myself. I open the house door and slam it as hard as I can. I see him starting to climb the stairs, maybe trying to get out of this situation, but trust me, he isn't getting away this time. "COLE JAMES!" I shout as I follow him up the stairs. He doesn't even acknowledge me and continues his way. How dare he? I hurry up the stairs and stand in front of him before he can enter his room.

"Get out of my way" he spits out.

"No" I reply.

"Damn, you're such a pain in the ass" he retorts.

"And you're a moron."

"Oh really?" he says, tilting his head.

"Stop avoiding me and answer me."

"Avoiding? Me?" He laughs at my comment as if it was the most absurd thing I could've said. He approaches me dangerously until our faces are just a few inches apart from each other. My back is touching his bedroom door, so I have no other option than to stay in this position. I have no way out of this one. "Still thinking I'm avoiding it?"

"You're hiding something from me," I say, trying to keep my composure.

"Why do you think that, Leila?"

I could feel his breath on my skin, his eyes were looking straight at me, it almost felt like our proximity to each other was illicit. His rage from earlier disappeared for a moment and the atmosphere shifted, what's happening?

"I just know it" I reply between breaths.

"Mmh... Do you now?" he asks, "I think you're only trying to find something to talk to me about." He says with his gaze becoming increasingly more intense.

"What are you playing at?" I ask, looking him straight in the eyes. He doesn't answer me and continues to stare at me intensely. I try regaining what I have left of my composure and continue what I want to tell him. I started to get a bit distracted here...

"You have to stop treating me like a child, Cole."

"Leila... Leila... if only you knew." I see him move closer to my ear. I can even feel his breath against my neck. What kind of game is he playing? We've never been that close, except when he wants to show who's the boss. "You should leave now before I do something stupid," he whispers.

"What would be stupid?"

"Don't ask dumb questions, I think you know."

Our eyes are still locked into one another, and my heart is beating so fast at this instant. I don't even know where I'm finding the force to push against him slightly on the chest to move away, but I do it. I thought he would let me go, but he moved closer and removed the space I just created.

"I thought you wanted me to leave," I say, staring at him.

"Yeah."

"Then can you move?" I ask him. He looks at me, tilting his head to the side, and moves away. I step away from the door and walk towards the bathroom nearby, before entering, I turn back to look at him but he's already in his room, the door shut. I then open mine and lock myself inside. What just happened? What was all that? I put my hands on my face while letting myself fall against the door. I stay in this position for a few minutes before getting up to turn on the shower. I needed to cool my head down a bit, a cold shower will help with that. I undress myself and get into the shower without thinking about the coldness of the water running down my body. I'm trying to get rid of this feeling inside me, thinking about how my body reacted to Cole's proximity confused me. What was his goal? Why did I let myself be this close with him? I hear a knock on the door and assume the guys have returned from the meeting. I get out of the shower and put a towel around me before getting out of the bathroom.

"Finally!" Kyle exclaims.

"Can't be alone for 5 minutes in this house!" I reply as he pushes past me to get into the bathroom. I go to my room and close the door. I put on a linen shirt and the first shirt I see in my drawer. I'm finally ready to go to sleep, this day drained me but before I fall into the arms of Morpheus, I take my phone to call Emma.

RING... RING... RING...

"Leila!"

"Emma!"

"How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"L... What's going on? You never call me at this hour."

"So... you and Enzo are finally starting something?" I say changing the subject.

She bursts out a laugh and understands the change of subject, knowing well enough that I'll tell her what's going on when I'm feeling ready.

"I'm supposed to see him in 3 days." She says with a small voice. Probably a little shy about admitting that something is going on between them. So cute!

"That's great! I'm happy for you Em."

"Enzo is a good person! I'm really happy."

"Yes, but if he hurts you, I'll kill him."

She laughed at my remark and told me what was going on in her life and not long after, we hung up. I wanted to talk to her about what happened earlier in the evening, but I think I'll keep it to myself for a little while longer. I turn off the lights and fall asleep in Morpheus' arms at once.

10:00 am

We're all waiting in the living room because Marcus showed up without warning to talk to us. Great. He never beats around the bushes when it comes to telling us things, which I learned to like, I hate when people are not direct or honest about things.

"I'm here to tell you that the last two missions were poorly executed, and It isn't acceptable. It's pissing me off and if something like this EVER happens again, I'll make sure you won't ever conduct another mission ever again."

"If the next mission doesn't go PERFECTLY, there'll be consequences. Hard consequences." He says with an icy tone. "UNDERSTOOD?"

"Understood," Cole replies.

No one dares to speak. Marcus has a way of creating this atmosphere in a room. When he speaks, people stop talking, there's no noise, not even the sound of a bug flying around. Marcus finally nods and looks at me, he approaches me very slowly but at the same time, he looks determined. If I thought I had seen worse in someone's eyes, I had never seen HIS eyes. They're so black and dark, he looks possessed. He takes my jaw in his hands, putting so much pressure that I thought it was going to break. Why is he doing this what the hell?

"Leila Scott." He spits out.

I say nothing, paralyzed by fear, but I can't show him though. He lifts my jaw so that I have no choice but to look at him.

"You screw up another mission." He takes a pause, "You disappear. Capisce?" He says in a cold tone.

"CAPISCE?"

"Yes..."

He lets me go suddenly and leaves as fast as he came this morning. I get up from the couch and rush to my room, slamming my door. It was so humiliating, why did Marcus do that? When it's one of the guys that screws up, he doesn't react like this. I haven't known him to be violent with me, but today he showed his true colors. Cole and Marcus are similar when it comes to being aggressive with me, but Marcus has a different look, he scares me.