Beauty And the Grifter

Chapter 2

                        Two years ago.

Mila allowed the breeze of Autumn to consume her as the clock struck midnight. She tightened her grip onto the bottom hem of her Nike tech hoodie, even though she knew it was autumn Tampa was unusually cold this night.

Mila couldn't wait until she could finally leave this place and go to California in just a few months from now. She'd be free of protective brothers and obsessive ex-boyfriends.

Her breath caused a cloud of smoke to surround her, at this point she questioned her decision for being there. But he had made her promise to come over for 'closure' on their relationship.

Mila knew it might come to this someday between her and Malek, he'd be tired of someone like her and finally met his true love. Men like him usually don't seek to make Mila wife material, Its not because she didn't have the qualities because she was more than worth it but they lived two different lives, she could not take up those responsibilities that came with being Malek's wife and Malek knew he could not be the man Mila needed.

Although the coolness was the least of her worries. Mila was antsy surrounded by the darkness of the night.

Standing ten feet away from her gated neighborhood she leaned against a lamp pole. The light shinned dimly in the night but gave a sense of security.

Knowing her brother Drew, he was somewhere lurking in the night as the sneaky brother she knew him to be. But she'd known better than that, the minute her brother finds out It would end right there.

Drew made it truly clear he does not want Mila near the Meek.

If he wasn't her Ex-boyfriend, her brother didn't approve of it. Somehow he was deadest on him. She almost wanted to just tell her brother to date him, she wasn't that brave.

Bright lights shined down the street and Mila stood to attention, pushing away from the lamp pole with hasty steps to avoid the breeze and stopping at the curb.

"Hop in"

Those bright headlights had been from the hero she knew would save her at the end of every stressful day. The relief she felt was immense just from the tone of his voice.

She obliged gracefully, instantly feeling the warmth submerged her chilled body in his heated seats. Meek did not pay any attention to her as he drove in a hurry onto the next destination of the night. His home.

"You need the heat?"

"Seats are warm enough. I'll be fine"

Silence consumed the car once more neither spoke of the actions that took place just hours before this meet up in the middle of the night. Mila could feel the coldness radiating from Malek as he drove, as the car whipped every which way the silence made Mila fear what would come next.

Would he really take what Drew said to heart?

Thoughts invaded her mind while he zipped through traffic carelessly. She knew better than to fear his driving skills, the man had mastered this skill long before they met.

Still, she felt safe always in his passenger's seat, others might have been afraid but her, she enjoyed the wind as it whipped her hair in different directions, the wind chipping at her skin. She sought the thrill but nonetheless trusted her driver.

A journey that should have taken an hour, took all about thirty-five minutes to reach the modern styled home of Malek.

He pulled into his garage and waited until it slide down fully.