Capture Me

You Don't Start Something You Wouldn't Finish

"I went home after that, ready to take you away far, where no one would be able to recognize us. But when I opened the door, it was dark, and empty. And you were gone. I convinced myself that it was for the best, you wouldn't get in trouble when you were not with me, but I still got the feeling that somebody might follow you from the cases we took. Using that as an excuse to see you, I tracked you and found you living in a shitty apartment, on a dangerous part of the city. After that, I followed you everywhere."  He got up from the headboard and nuzzled my neck. "I had to punch a lot of bastards but it was worth it." He murmured.

           

I pushed him away. "You were the one who punched Aaron?" On our third date, he left early that night, because according to him, some crazy bastard suddenly right-hooked him in the men's room. That I have a stalker and he didn't want to be a victim of jealousy rages. Turned out he was right.

"He was finally gonna take you to his play room along with three other girls and ask you to do a ménage with him." I shuddered. "I should've cut the bastard's small dick." He growled.

Wait, if he followed me that means he knew everything—like, everything. "You knew I was working as waitress." I did not question him, clearly he knew, judging from the look he just did.

"Yeah." His husky voice kind of sucked the air out of the room. I braced myself from his looks of pity as I stared in his eyes, but I didn't see it, instead, I saw the look he always gave me before we fell asleep, before he left for work, before he said he loves me. Love.

"You knew about the loan, the other jobs I took." The more I tried to get out the words stuck in my throat, the more it was harder to breathe. "You knew about how my boss treated me," I sobbed.

Why didn't you come and saved me, when you knew everything all along! I wanted to shout, to pound his chest and drill some of my hurt in him.

It took a few seconds before he answered. His eyes looked somber as they gazed at mine. "I was afraid and doubtful, that if I came and helped you, you would act rebellious and did anything to prove that you didn't need my help."

I waited for a more elaborated explanation, but nothing came next. That was it?

"That was it?" I whispered, the silence swallowed my words.

His nostrils flared and flush crept up his neck. Instant fear washed over me that he would throw me or slap me any second because he looked like it.

"You were the one who left, Nara, and seeing that you started to date, clearly stated that you were not happy with me, but I still loved you, so I just stayed at the side lines and could only background-check and beat every man you were with, because you fucking left, if that was not clear enough that you wanted nothing of me in your life, then I don't know what was! I wanted to go, believe me, to beg you to come back to me—hell, I would crawl and beg you to come back—but I have my pride too, Nara."

I was speechless, my hands on his chest slowly receded and fell limply on the mattress as his words took toll on me.

"As for the leach that you called boss, I never fu—" He breathed in sharply, and slowly and shakily let it out. "Fuck, the moment you told me about him, I wanted to go out and hunt him down, but instead I fucking calmed myself and be rational, to get you to notice that I have some good changes in me too, in the past five years that we were apart. I wanted you to have a reason to stay with me, because I'm not letting you go whether you want me or not." He momentarily broke eye-contact and dashed something on the outer corner of his left eye with his thumb.

Ryder's pale-blue orbs were glassy when they came back to mine. "This situation brought you back to me, and I will be fucking sappy and call it fate, but you stay with me. You will stay with me, baby, and I'll fix us."

Uncomfortable silence sat with us, the songs of the crickets outside were the only ones to fill it.

I was debating whether to talk or not, and then I remembered the other topic at hand. "But you told me not to call her a whore," I whispered.

Ryder sighed and looked as if he recovered from his anger. "She's not just a whore. She's the female version of the devil. She's the 'White Queen' the big shot drug dealers called. Rebecca Alastair, she's the head of everything bad. From drugs to smuggling, to child abuse to mass murder. We are still looking for her, the bitch blends in like a chameleon in every place she goes."

"I thought you're not a cop anymore."

He brushed his lips against mine. "Nope. Not 'nymore. I am now a successful businessman." His deep voice rasped all over my towel-clad body. My emotions couldn't keep up with how fast he changed his, and currently in disarray.

"Businessman? You just killed a man earlier! Do you get paid for killing people now?" I got up only to be put back down on his lap.

"Think of me as Batman. Businessman by day, vigilante by night."

I looked at him, my confused feelings turning into want. His jaw, the bobbing of his adam's apple when he swallowed. His chest down to his sculpted abs, to the thin trail of hair that disappeared in the bands of the towel around his waist. I swallowed.

"Nara." His voice, so deep that it sent vibrations in the places that ached for him. "Don't start something you won't finish."

Well, he was a Batman. Mine. Whoops. Where did that came from. I continued to stare at the towel hindering the sight I wanted to see.

"Nara,"

I trailed my finger to the cloth wrapped around him, and felt him grow under me. My breathing became erratic from the thrill of being able to touch him like this again.

"Ryder. Ryder I—" A ringing and vibrating phone cut me off.

Ryder hissed a curse. He reached out to the night stand and grabbed his phone. "Colton."

I eased away from him as he got up and went out, his phone pressed to his ear.

And then, like an ice-cold bucket of water, the momentary interruption  brought me back to reality—my reality—I had to go.

•••

AN: Colton is Ryder's last name. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. (: