Beaten By Love

Chapter 5

I closed the cash draw with a slam – else it wouldn't close – and sighed. It was a quiet evening, as per usual. It had just passed 10pm and Alfonso had just left for the evening, leaving me again to work the shop and lock up at the end of the night.

The bell hanging above the door jangled as it opened, a young man walking in and heading towards the confectionary shelves. His clothing was loose on him, his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. I carried on busying myself, keeping an eye on him, just in case he tried to pull some funny business and stash some chocolate bars into his large jumper pocket...

Fortunately, he picked out what he wanted and came to the till. I scanned them through, a Hershey's chocolate bar and a few other items. Seriously? Didn't he have standards?

"That'll be £3.10 please, would you like a bag for those?"

That was when he removed his hand from his pocket. I'd noticed it stayed in his pocket the whole time, which I thought was a bit odd but didn't think any more of it. Silly me.

No – in his hand he held a gun. A fairly big one at that – must be heavy. Why am I thinking about how heavy the gun is that's now pointing at my face?

"No, I don't want a fucking bag. I want the money from that till now. All of it. Don't keep me fucking waiting and don't try and pull some alarm shit on me because you'll be dead before you even know it, you hear me?"

He moved the gun closer to my head, intimidating me by leaning towards me.

"Alright, I'm going to open the draw now, okay? "

I tried to level out my breathing. God I'm having a bad week...

I opened the draw and started grabbing out handfuls of notes, hoping he wouldn't care about petty change too.

As I looked back up with my hand outstretched with the money, a fist impacted the man's face, throwing him off balance, dropping the gun to the floor. The suddenness of it forced me to flinch back and covered my face with my hands, dropping the money on the floor.

I heard another punch, and then a body falling to the ground. A familiar voice broke the silence.

"Why the hell am I always saving your god damn ass all the time?"

I withdrew my hands to see Jace, of all people, leaning on the counter on his elbows.

"Jace? I...I don't know...he pulled a gun...I didn't know what to do...what did you do?" I looked down at the passed out body on the floor.

"What? Oh, him. He wasn't hard to knock out cold. When are you supposed to close up?"

"Um...in just under an hour"

"Well, fuck that. You're locking up now. We'll drag him outside and leave him a few yards down the road and then I'm taking you home. "

And with that, he straightened up before picking up the gun and shoving it down the back of his jeans.

"What are you doing with that? We need to take him to the police"

"Nah. Too much paperwork" He sneered at me. Ugh.

He got the man by his ankles and started pulling him out the door whilst I hurriedly cashed up and got my things together. After locking the shutter, I turned to see Jace walking back towards me, the man slumped on the ground a few feet behind him.

"I'm parked just up the road" Pointing behind my head.

"You don't need to take me home. I can take care of myself, you know."

He laughed. He actually laughed.

"I have literally saved your life. Twice. In the last week. I don't know how you manage it but you're prone to danger. Now get in the car. Before I drag you by your feet too."

My mouth dropped. Would he seriously do that? Not waiting to find out, I hopped into the passenger seat and strapped myself in.

The journey was short and sweet. We didn't say anything. He pulled up outside the apartment building and turned the engine off.

"Um...thanks, again, Jace. I don't know what I would've done if – "

He cut me off. "I didn't do it for you."

What? "Who did you...do it for...?"

"It doesn't matter. You still owe me by the way."

"Wait what? What for?"

He sighed. "For the money I lost when I ended up saving your sorry ass the other night. Luckily, I haven't missed anything tonight so your debt is at a minimum."

"Jace I don't have the money you want...I can't...I don't have any way of paying it..."

"Shut up," He laughed dryly. "I don't want the money back. But you owe me a favour, at least. I'll come and collect one day, I'm sure."

I remembered the notes suddenly and my reason for wanting to find him.

"Hey, you weren't in school today"

"You say it like it's an uncommon occurrence"

"Well, it's just that I wanted to find you to talk to you about something weird that's been going on"

He actually looked over at me for the first time since being in his car. His eyebrows drew together in confusion. I took his silence for an invitation to continue.

"Well, last night, I think someone broke in to my apartment. But nothing was taken, only a note was left."

I rummaged through my bag to find the first note and handed it to him.

"Shit"

"Do you know what it means? I didn't know who else to ask. I thought maybe the 'j' was addressed to you but I don't understand why they'd break – "

"Look, I've got a few enemies who'd like nothing more than to find my weak spot and use that to take me down. I'm guessing, someone saw me drop you home the other night and thought there was something going on between us"

He sighed and swore again under his breath, running a hand through his messy hair.

He looked back over at me. "Is that all?"

"Um no..." I handed him the second note from earlier today. "A man barged into me outside my brother's school and dropped this. Jace, I'm scared. Are they going to hurt him?"

His tone was completely serious, empty of any snide comments he might have made."I don't know. I'm sorry I got you involved in this. You're not safe here anymore. Is there anyone who can look after your brother for a few days?"

"What? I look after him. He only has me"

"Who is he with now?"

"Our neighbour. Why? Jace, what are you thinking?" I didn't understand where he was going with this.

"How long can she have him for?"

"Um...I don't know. A few days, I guess. At the most. She has him pretty often" 

"Is your dad around?"

"Um...no. I...I don't know where he is."

His eyes seemed to soften momentarily, as if understanding what I was saying. That he was a drunk who went missing for days on end, and I'd be left wondering when he'd return home, if at all.

"Look. I think right now you're the main target. So I want you to come and stay at my place for a few days, stay low until this all dies down"

My eyes bulged out of my sockets. Was he being serious?

"I know what you're thinking but I don't want to see anyone get hurt, especially because of me. Now, go in there, ask your neighbour to have your brother for a few days because you've got some problems with your dad which you need to sort out. Then pack a bag of things you need and come back to the car, alright?"