The Assassin & The Mercenary

Chapter 7

We turned and walked the couple blocks between the Flatiron Building and the Park Central. Moxis wanting to sniff everything with James and I trailing at a steady pace behind her. James looking around at everything with Moxis and I being the main focus.

"James, can I ask you something?"

He hummed with intrigue and looked towards me before responding to my question with a "sure".

"How do you feel about being drafted? And i mean really feel. Not that bullshit 'it's my duty and i should do it because its my job'" I looked over at him as I finished and saw the torn emotions swirling around on his face.

"Honestly?" He looked at me and I nodded "I'm terrified. I don't want to do this. I never wanted to serve on my own accord so being drafted is fucking terrifing. I'm the sole provider for my sister as of now and it terrifies me that I might never come back and she won't have anyone but Steve."

I looked up and saw that we were two blocks away from the cafe. Moxis was hanging back side by side with James. I looked towards James and debated whether I should tell him.

"I don't know if this will help but you can't tell anybody I told you this" I looked around to make sure no one was listening before continuing. "I'm actually going to be working in a couple different camps over in Europe. I can't tell you any details but I looked and saw I'm going to be in a lot of the same spots as you. So you'll have me out there. Found this out last week actually but I had my suspicions".

He looked over at me with his mouth agape, staring at me with shock. I could see the words he was trying to form into coherent sentences thanks to Moxis. I looked up to see us approaching the door to the cafe. James must have noticed too since he closed his mouth and stepped in front of me to be able to hold the door for me and Moxis.

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After we ate our lunch, we decided to go to Luna Park and have fun for a while. We stayed for two hours and turned towards Central Park to sit and relax on the grass by a pond since both of our feet were sore from walking all day.

"Hey Lizzie?" I looked up towards him with curiosity before nodding for him to continue "I have to go grab something real quick. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"I'll be here when you get back" I looked over at him with a small smile on my face before he kissed my cheek and got up to go grab whatever it was he needed. Moxis decided to go with him. 

A minute later I heard an aggressive sounding throat clear behind me and I looked around expecting to find James. I looked up to see James before I realized it was not James I saw. It was my ex Stan. We broke up 4 years ago after I found an opportunity to escape the relationship that was way past the point of toxic.

"Elizabeth. I've been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been? I was worried after you up and ran the last time I saw you. You know how bad you could've gotten hurt by doing that and you proved me right."

I subtly looked around to see where James was and if anyone could see what was going to happen. I saw people walking by while keeping and eye on the situation going on.

"Stan. We broke up years ago and you need to leave before we do something regrettable. We don't want to disturb anyone elses day".

"You're right. We don't want to mess up anyone's day" as I was still sitting on the grass, he crouched down and tightly grabbed my wrist so he could pull me andsneer into my ear "so why don't we go back to my apartment so we could deal with this without disturbing the peace".

I squeaked as he twisted my wrist to a borderline painful position. He used the vocalization of my pain as an excuse to pull me up off the ground. As soon as he pulled me up and started to drag me away, someone yelled at us.

I recognized the pitch of his voice and let out a silent sigh of relief while Stan looked towards the voice. James marched up to us and tried to assess what was going on.

Stan assumed he was a bystander so he responded to him "I was just taking my girl back to my apartment. I saw she was missing and I got so worried that she would get hurt so I had to search around before I found her over here by the pond".

James saw through the bullshit excuse so he looked at me to see my stress and panic. We were in a public space so there weren't many options on how to handle the situation without being arrested. James looked back at Stan before speaking.

"Well, seeing as I am the one who brought her here and the one who set up this date, I don't believe you. Seeing as you're gripping her wrist tightly enough to leave a bruise, I doubt she wants to go anywhere with you" looking at me he finished with "Lizzie why don't we finish what was planned before this punching bag came to disrupt our peace".

I swallowed deeply and saw Stanley slighly pale out of the corner of my vision. He knew he was caught and unexpectedly gave up. Excusing himself before speed walking away.

When he was finally out of view I looked to see James looking at me with a protective softness. He turned back to the spot we were laying on and softly put his hand on the dip on the small of my back so he could lead me back to continue our day.

As we got back to our spot I spotted a slightly overfilled wicker basket sitting next to a laid out blanket. Moxis laying on the end of the blanket nearest to the pond, the sun setting visible from the location. I looked over to say something to James but stopped when I saw a small smile and a pink blush on his cheeks.

"Jamie, I honestly didn't expect this. I don't know what to say" .

"Well Liz, I thought it would be a shame if I didn't treat a gorgeous Doll like you right. I also said that I would plan the end of the day, didn't I?"

A blush ran down my neck as Moxis decided to bark to break the increasing tension between us. I chuckled at her and took James' hand as we sat down to eat.