Kidnapped

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

-TATUYANNA TORRONO >

Minutes go by with Heathe trying to calm me down while Vanessa quite literally tells the gawkers around us to piss off. Then from the corner of my eye, I notice Ares jogging up to me, his hands instantly on my face, checking the injuries with a deep frown on his hard features.

Teeth clenched, I shove him away. "Where were you?" I grit. "Where the fuck were you?" A hot surge of acid seared through my veins. Burning and annoyed.

A shadow passes through hiz gaze.

"Our whole security suddenly disappeared. Every single one of them. I got suspicious and did a perimeter check. Tried to make sure we were safe." He explained, his hands now all over me again. Still checking for injuries.

It irritated me beyond anything and the throbbing of my face and ribs didn't help me calm down at all. He speaks after I push his hands away from my body. "I'll get a first aid kit." He decides, then walks away without acknowledging my wrath.

Everyone else left, saying they'll help with public damage control. But I didn't care about what people saw. I haven't felt this abandoned since that incident in Ares' penthouse.

"You're a disappointment."

He halts.

I don't even realize the silence around us. But eyes. So many eyes on us, and I didn't even notice. I couldn't notice. My anger blinded me.

"You keep refering to this as 'our'?" I make a gesture between the two of us, even though he couldn't see. "There is no 'our' and there's no 'we'. There's only me. Mine. You had ties with my father. You worked for him for a long period. That was it. He's dead now. You've mentioned it enough. Reminded me enough. It's time for your reality check now, Ares. He's gone." I spit.

He stands without turning, frozen in place.

"I get that you protected me for some time. That was your job. I could always defend myself. But even so. You failed him and me once before, and now again. So because he's dead now, you no longer feel obligated to protect me. Is that it? Playing protective and all. You didn't even want to. Never wanted to. Saying that you'll protect me now that he's gone. . . Was that for the sake of your ego? To make yourself feel better?"

Silence.

Before I could continue, I hear a deep chuckle. The sound was eery for the completely dark night, save for the single streetlight behind me that illuminated the parking lot. All I could see was the rough outline of his tall, lean-built form in front of me. His hair got longer. Definitely darker than I remember, and it wasn't because of his dark halo.

This was unusual, he hadn't said a thing yet, and I already felt attacked.

"That was it?" He suddenly breaks the silence in the air, his voice low and threatening. "Is that what you just said?" He turns around, and a single glare shoots through my chest like a thousand knives.

"Tatuyanna," He drawls, tilting his head and shaking his head.

A lump forms in my throat. It was the first time, he'd said my name. I've never heard him say it in years. I got used to the nickname. There's no denying that. But who cares? I shouldn't have gotten attached in the first place.

He takes steps closer to me. "Did you forget?" he towered over me, hands in his pockets, a look of instant hatred in his hazel eyes. "The late boss and I had ties way before you came along. You think our ties aren't deep? Don't forget who you found first in the main mansion when you randomly showed up, lost and alone like a dog without an owner. If you didn't notice, he was a father to me too." He growled, intimidation and lethal anger rolling off his chest and eyes like waves of an angered ocean.