NURA

Chapter 25

Nura

Sept. 2014, New York

"I am too pretty for this," Nura mumbled while putting the tray overflowing with dirty glasses on the bar for Aria to wash.

She watched her take them with a slight smile, immediately starting to scrub them in the sink, which made her shiver at the thought of touching them herself.

She will never understand how Aria could do that so easily, but she guessed that's why she was the bartender and Nura, a waitress.

So here she was, working the Friday night away, and in most cases, Nura would have been having a blast, but she hadn't felt okay the whole day, and all she wanted at that moment was to go home and cuddle up to Nate until morning.

She had been feeling anxious about her safety since Jon had died, but she could somehow push it to the back of her mind. With everything that had happened with Nate, the thought that someone was maybe out there waiting for the right moment to take her and make her pay for helping to bring down the slavery ring was always at the back of her mind.

Since leaving her house that morning, Nura's anxiety grew bigger with each step she took as the feeling that she was being watched kept her on her toes.

One of the things she learned when she went through what she'd been through was to always be on her guard. She could never relax and keep her eyes closed for too long because she never knew who was coming to get her.

Whether it was Bear coming to reprimand her for whatever reason or the client getting a bit too cocky for anybody's liking, it didn't matter; Nura still needed to be prepared.

So, suddenly, getting that same feeling of being watched again after almost three years made her skin crawl, and she was left feeling all jittery and agitated.

She'd tried telling herself that it was just her overactive imagination running wild. Still, the scary thoughts and unwanted flashbacks of Morocco kept running through her mind until she was on the verge of an anxiety attack, which she thankfully avoided through several breathing exercises that Jasmine had taught her.

"Hey, Curly." she heard Ash say, pulling her out of her thoughts, and she threw him a grateful smile even though the boy wouldn't know the reason behind it.

They were currently in the changing rooms, and Nura was never more grateful that a shift was over than at that moment.

"Yeah?"

"Some guy gave me this packet for you. He said it was important to give it to you as soon as I saw you, but tonight was so busy that I completely forgot until now." Ash said as he slid the brown package toward her across the bench.

Nura frowned in confusion, unsure who would send her that, but still took it. There wasn't a return address or a clue about who the sender was on the plain package; only 'Nura' scrawled across one side in big, black letters, and her frown grew bigger.

"Okay then, I am off; I'll see you next week, Curly!" Ash chirped and left, but she only managed to wave him off, her eyes still glued to the package.

She quickly opened it, hating to see her hands shaking, but this newest mystery definitely wasn't helping her anxiety.

There was a letter inside, and as she pulled it out, something else fell to the ground, making her realize there were other things in the package.

She snatched up the fallen items, but as soon as she saw what they were, they slipped out of her hand and landed on the ground again.

Pictures, at least a dozen of them, lay on the ground beneath her feet, all of them of Nura. Some were taken while she was walking down the street, some with Nate or Aria, but the worst was her sitting alone in her apartment.

That one appeared to have been taken from outside through a window, and just the thought of someone being out there, watching her, taking her pictures, and God knows what else, sent her into the worst anxiety attack she had ever experienced.

Her whole body started to shake, sweat breaking out of her pores and dark spots blurring her vision until she fell from the bench face first into the ground, the tears streaming down her face getting soaked up into the soft carpet beneath her.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there, crying and shaking like a leaf, before finally calming down and gathering enough strength to sit up.

Her eyes immediately flew to the letter, still inconspicuously lying on the bench, and she grabbed it harshly, almost ripping the paper apart in the process.

There were only five words on it, written in Arabic, but it was everything Nura needed to know as she read them over and over again, as if she could make them disappear by sheer will alone.

Rule number five, Nura...

Bear