Prince and the Pauper

Chapter Forty

"Dev." Harry demanded my attention as I practically leaped from the car onto the sidewalk.
"Devonne." Harry repeated, his voice louder this time. My hair whipped in my face as I tore up the streets, the chilly wind igniting a shiver up my spine, the sensation a stark contrast to the wild fire burning inside me. My dad was in town. No letter, no call, no explanation. It was the exact same circumstances as when he had left. No warning sign or even an offset, just a drastic action. The day he had abandoned us he had stopped being a part of my life, he didn't get to come back into it now. He didn't get to start fighting in my battle. Sam was a huge part of the reason I was in the battlefield to begin with. He didn't just abandon me in it, he threw me in it. We were not allies, and from the anger swirling inside me like a wild storm, there would be no waving of a white flag either.
"Dammit Devonne!" Harry growled, his large wrist snatching at mine and yanking me into his chest, halting me. I cursed and pulled back, but Harry fought against me, seizing both of my wrists with one of his large hands, and using the other to practically drag me off the street and into an alley way, where I was firmly pinned up to the wall, stuck between the wall and Harry.
"You don't understand-"
"No, you don't understand!" Harry snapped. Truly snapped at me, for the first time since we met. Yes, we'd had our fair share of fights, but this was different. Everything was on the line this time. Not just a lovers squabble, not just bad blood between his family and mine, or even Geordie. This was life or death. Literally.
"You're supposed to be dead, Devonne." Harry lowered his voice, but not the intensity behind it. His eyes were ablaze, like mine, and our heavy breathing was mingling and we stood face to face, our bodies pressed together, chests heaving up and down.
"Everybody in town believes you are dead. Not for fun, not to get a fresh start. To save your life, Devonne. There are at least two people, whom if they knew you were still breathing, would do their best to fix that. Dante even attempted it. There is a  gravestone in the local cemetery with your name on it,  and I have taken legal guardianship of Geordie. Do you not get now serious this is? Do you not understand how incredibly foolish it is for you to grab my keys off the counter and get in the car and drive here?" Harry implored, his eyes wide with furry. I huffed but remained silent, and Harry took this as his chance to press into me even further.
"What if I hadn't jumped into the damn car before you drove off, and stopped you from storming into the police station? I'm sorry Dev, but you don't have the power or money that could possibly begin to wipe that away with the authorities. Had you gone in there you  could have  been arrested, maybe even imprisoned! And with your background they wouldn't have done you any favours. I wouldn't even put it past them to put you in the same prison as Dante instead of a women's prison, just to spite you for the fuss you threw over Geordie's attack. I'm not saying it was wrong defending him, but the media storm but them in a bad light, they didn't take lightly to that, and would happily lock you in a cell with your near murderer. Is that what you want, Devonne? Huh? To be Dante's cell mate?!" I clamped my mouth shut at the mere thought, and Harry released an exasperated sigh as he ran his fingers through his  unruly hair, tugging at it slightly.
"You can't be this irresponsible, Devonne." Harry shook his head. "You can't be this reckless, this is not just your life, but mine too. You're reckless, you jump into things without letting the thought process finish, and you don't give a damn about what I think about in what should be a agreed decision between us." My heart lurched at his harsh words, and I swallowed thickly, looking down at the ground. I knew what he was saying was true, but it hurt to hear it from him. All my life I had been told my faults, my flaws, how I failed everybody. Harry had been the first person to show me I had some good qualities, and now he was playing on my biggest fear. That my bad outweighed my good.
"Bloody hell." He cursed, stepping back and pacing up and down the alley way, checking both ways for a sign we were spotted, but we hadn't been.
"Well?" Harry pressed when I refused to speak. His eyes cut to mine. "All that rash action and now you have nothing to say?" I looked up at him, and then meekly shook my head. I let my back collapse against the brick wall and tilted my head up staring at the cloudy sky.
"I don't believe it." Harry laughed shortly. "Something it going on in that head of yours. I can see it. What made you think this was remotely a good idea?"
"Tell me exactly why you're mad at me." I demanded with a quivering voice, and Harry barked a deprecating laugh with a bewildered look.
"Because," he slowly licked his lips, "I went through a lot of effort for our plan to work. I lied to the police, I lied to my friends and family. I broke the damn law. All this effort because I see it as necessary. Crucial. Why in the hell should I be okay with you throwing that all away because somebody whom means absolutely nothing to you anymore enters this mix? Don't you think I'm entitled to get pissed off about that?"
"Exactly." I nodded my head.
"What?" Harry said.
"My dad." My voice faltered. "He did exactly that. He went through a lot of effort to lie to me and Geordie, to drop off the face of the earth and leave our lives. To be dead in our eyes. Then I'm nearly killed, and although I clearly mean nothing to him since he abandoned us, he goes and shoots Trace. Don't you not think I'm entitled to be pissed off about that?" I threw his words back at him. He paused, and his lips thinned whilst his jaw clenched. Heavy breathing was the only sound in the empty alleyway, and Harry ran both hands down his face slowly.
"Devonne, I-what-" he laughed humourlessly, shaking his head, "what is it you want?"
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"Sam. Your dad. Why are you so determined to see him? I thought you hated the man, and with good reason." Harry added the last part softly.
"He shot Trace, Harry. My father, he was- is," I corrected myself, " selfish, cold-hearted, but more than that, he's a coward. My mother hit me, but Sam never did. He's not the violent type. Shooting a man is just so out of his character. I'm not saying he has a good character, he's filth, but...he's not...my mom." I sighed, shaking my head. Harry's eyes softened, and for the first time since I had seen Sam on the TV, I saw Harry trying to calm himself down.
"He never defended me to Mia, he didn't stop her, but he made sure he never became like her. If he saw I'd been hurt, he wouldn't hug me or fix my wounds like a father should, but he'd make sure I had an excuse  to get out the house with Geordie. If he knew Mia had been drinking, he'd order me to go get groceries. My father wasn't a good man, but deep down he wished he had been one."
"You think him shooting Trace is his way of apologizing?" Harry stated with a combination of bewilderment and contemplation.
"Maybe not apologizing, but perhaps a last ditch effort to be a better man." Then I let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Albeit shooting a man."
"Thank God." A man breathed as he raced into the alley. Harry and I both froze, but relaxed when we saw it was Zaiden and one of his men, Nox.
"You, my dear, do not make my job easy." He teased as he raced up to as and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"You do get you're supposed to be in hiding?" Zaiden asked playfully, and Harry rolled his eyes and made a gesture to me that said 'I told you so!'
"I need to talk to him." I said to Zaiden, but Harry spun around from pacing and looked at me like I'd gone insane.
"No." He refused outright, cutting off Zaiden. "No way in hell."
"Talk to him, or yell at him?" Zaiden asked me with a smile.
"he abandoned us!" I yelled. Everybody stopped talking, and I ran my fingers through my hair.
"Who does that? Who ups and leaves their children like they're nothing? He-I know I was a product on a one-night stand, and after I was conceived they stayed together for money-compensation from the government to fund their own addictions. I get that. But didn't at some point, in my fifteen years he was there, I do one thing  right to earn some small, scrappy but important piece in his life?!" Three sympathetic eyes landed on me, and I hated it. Hate how small it made me feel. Like I was that young kid again entering her brothers room to tell him we were on our own.
"Sweetheart, I get you need some closure," Zaiden spoke up, " but Trace isn't dead, the bullet wounded but didn't kill him. He's now got more reason than ever to want you dead. We still need to go through with our plan until he's locked up."
"And by the time we get evidence to prove he knew of Dante's plan, my father could be gone again. And I will miss my one chance to tell him everything I have held in all these years. " I countered, and Harry made a wild sound of frustration.
"He doesn't deserve that Devonne! He left you!"
"You think I don't know that?!" I growled, raising my voice enough to make Zaiden and Nox pull me forward and practically smuggle me into a black car with tinted windows. Harry climbed into the van next, sitting next to me and turning to angle his body to me. Nox and Zaiden were in the front, looking more relaxed now that I was out of the open again.
"Dev." Harry breathed in my name like it was a drug, closing his eyes as he said it. "I can't let you go in there and turn the media and court  for that matter, into turmoil." He was calmer now, his voice returning to  normal, but his eyes still held a storm.
"I need to know why he shot Trace." I demanded, and Harry made a strangled moan of frustration in the back of his throat.
"He's a selfish, irrational man, that acts out impulsively. There, there's your closure, Devonne. Now drop it." Harry grabbed my hands in his, holding them tightly.
"Harry, she deserves answers." Zaiden cut in gently.
"I know that, but sometimes what he want contradicts what we need."
"Sometimes you talk out of your ass, but I let you finish your sentence anyway." I retaliated immaturely, and Harry scoffed incredulously.
"Oh so you can let me complete a sentence, but you can't complete a thought process of some reckless action that could get you arrested?"
"Are you calling me stupid?" I growled.
"No, I'm pointing out your rashness."
"Well you're a misogynistic asshole! "
"Oh?" Harry laughed sourly. "Do you even know the correct definition of misogynistic, or did you blurt it out the minute it entered your fickle mind?"
"You son of a bitc-"
"Enough!" Zaiden roared, and both Harry and I froze.
"What has gotten into you two?" He implored. "Harry, that is no way to speak to a woman, especially your  woman, and certainly not to Devonne who is anything but fickle or stupid.
"And Devonne, I think we both now after all Harry has compromised upon that he is far from misogynistic or sexist." Harry and I glanced at one another, and guilt radiated between us.
"However she was rather accurate on him being the son of that bitch, Drake." Nox mumbled under his breath. I made a choked laughing sound the same time Harry cracked a smile, and Zaiden leaned back humming a sound of amusement. A count of silence passed and then we all burst out laughing.
"Touché." Harry laughed as he exhaled slowly, and hesitantly he reached over for my hand again.
"I'm sorry." He whispered delicately, and I nodded. "I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. It was in the heat of the moment and not accurate to your character at all." He offered softly, and I smiled gratefully.
"I'm sorry I acted so selfishly. I suppose I could learn to stop and think sometimes. Or a least listen to you." I apologized, and Harry cracked a grin.
"Never thought I'd see the day Devonne Abel said sorry." He teased.
"Never thought I'd see the say I was wrong." Harry let out a breathy laugh, and pressed his forehead to mine. He brushed his nose against mine gently, and I smiled into his lips as he gently kissed me.
"How about a compromise?" He suggested, and I tilted me head, signalling I was listening.
"I talk to Sam, I go in to see him, but I arrange for a way for you to secretly listen into the conversation? You can even give me a list of questions you want answered." He suggested, and I thought upon it.
"How do I know you won't sugar coat things I don't want to hear? Or hold back something altogether?"
"That would be an issue," Zaiden agreed, "If we weren't looking at the man with the best security company in all of London, with access to top of the security equipment. Say, hidden microphones and cameras." Harry and I shared a glance, and his fox smile said it all.
"Looks like I'm going 007."