Be Mine, Always

chapter Twenty one

Melody’s POV~ Present day

        Is this crazy? Probably. Am I invading Xander's privacy? Yep. But over the last week he has gotten more mysterious calls. When I ask what they're about he simply shrugs and says it's work.

        Today he's gone out and when I asked who he was meeting he said work colleagues. He's barely looked at me and when we cuddle he seems elsewhere. I haven't let him make love with me again. Anytime I suspect he's going to make a move I pretend to be asleep. 

        It makes me sick to avoid him, but until I've seen that he hasn't broken my trust again I can't give him my body. It would hurt so much more to grow closer to him, only for him to disappoint me. 

        So, that's how I ended up here, hiding behind a bush, staring at Xander. He just ended a conversation with two people in suits, a man and a woman, then as if it was planned, they leave and Evan takes a seat across from Xander. I'm close enough to hear but I have to strain to listen due to the din of laughter and talking as would be expected of this pop up cafe on a Saturday afternoon. 

        "Hey man, surprised you got away," Evan says, leaning back in his seat. He's lost a lot of weight. Now he's nothing more than skin and bones. As a teenager he was a pudgy boy with a round face. Now he looks like a skeleton. 

        Xander's face remains impassive. "She trusts me." My stomach turns and tears prick my eyes. What a fool I am!

        "Why'd you go back for her?" Evan asks skeptically, his eyes have a glaze and there are small pin prick marks on his arms that remind me of the small rash I get when I play volleyball for too long. 

        Xander pops his neck to the side. "Because, she's mine. Don't even think about her." His voice is little more than a feral growl. 

        Evan chuckles and raises up his hands. "As long as she doesn't come between us again, I don't care. Though I'm sure your father will be disappointed not to have her around." A lewd smirk crosses his face, revealing a chipped tooth. "He's had a fascination with her ever since you introduced them. It was hard keeping him from going to her house and taking her." He pauses and I can feel the anger radiating off Xander even from a distance. "He claimed it would've been a gift for you once you got out, but I knew what he really wanted." 

        Bile burns my throat and my chest heaves in anxious pants, my palms sweating and skin grows clammy. Xander's father considered taking me. And I know what he would've done without Xander there to protect me. Before, I'd never thought about his father coming after me, but now I realize that was a big mistake. 

        Xander snarls and slams a fist down on the table between them, paying no mind to the curious glances his way. "Shut your fucking mouth. No one is to touch, Melody. Not you, not my father, not the gang. No one, Evan. And if anyone even thinks about it again, I will fucking gut you all." His words send a chilll over my skin and make my blood turn to ice in my veins. 

        He has made threats before against the gang in my defense, but things are different now. He went to prison, got an added sentence for continuous fighting and the feral look in his steely gray eyes has me seeing him differently. Should I be scared of him? 

        Never before has he ever made me scared of him. Even when he showed up unannounced in my house I was shocked, not scared. I banish the feeling in my belly and listen in once again. 

        Evan chuckles. “She better not become a problem, Xan. Your father wants you in, I want you in. She’s become an obstacle in the past and you know what he does to obstacles.” That’s a brave statement to make when a man twice his size has already threatened him.