The Highest Bidder

❊ Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Tᴇɴ ❊

I was lost. I mean, I didn't care that I was lost, but I was lost nonetheless. I left the guard chasing me behind and I weaved one too many times through the mass amount of trees surrounding the home. I wanted to believe that I'd end up somewhere if I just kept walking straight. But the truth was, I didn't know where I would end up or when I'd end up there. I didn't know how far the trees went in either direction.

I sat down and leaned back on a thick trunk of a tree, closing my eyes. The tears had finally stopped flowing and I was breathing slow and heavy. I pushed the memories away and replaced them with all of the things I accomplished before and after that date.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before the sound of shoes crunching along the grass met my ears. My eyes slid open to a setting sun and I realized belatedly that I had fallen asleep next to the tree. I waited, not speaking to the person coming up to me. I only looked in his direction and blinked tiredly at the unfamiliar face. He was probably about forty years old, give or take, with a large build.

He pulled out a walkie talkie and put it next to his mouth. "I found her, boss."

He slid it back into his pants. He knelt down and surveyed me with bright blue eyes and a smile on his face. "You're a fast runner, Eva."

I shook my head at him, remembering him as the one who threatened to take me down if I didn't stop running. "You're just slow."

He laughed and slid down to sit next to me. He ran his fingers through his short blonde hair, his eyes never once leaving me. He was searching me for something and I wondered if Enzo told him about why it was I ran to begin with. It wouldn't have surprised me in the least. I was sure the entire mansion knew of it by then.

"Bring her back, Thomas." Enzo's voice crackled through the speaker at his hip. "Is she okay?"

The man, named Thomas, eyed me with a cocked eyebrow. "Are you okay, little lady? Or should we screw with him a little bit?"

He became my favorite with that one little question. My grin was enough to tell him what I wanted him to do and he was more than happy to oblige.

"She ran again," he yelled into the walkie talkie. "Permission to shoot?"

I raised my eyebrows and searched him for a gun. He had a pistol resting on the ground beside his other hip, but it looked like it had never been used. I wondered if he ever asked to use it before.

"No," Enzo yelled. "Don't you dare shoot her!"

I covered my mouth to hide my giggle as he brought the walkie talkie back to his mouth. "Sorry, boss. She's down."

The laugh that escaped my mouth made him elbow me in the side. He shushed me as he eyed the walkie talkie curiously. It was taking Enzo quite a while to reply - long enough for my laughs to die down. I wondered what it was he was doing.

And then he spoke.

"She's...down?"

Thomas flinched. Those two words had so much venom in them that even my body went rigid.

He brought the walkie talkie back up. "Ah, boss...I didn't-"

"Now, Thomas. What did you mean when you said she is down," Enzo growled through the speaker.

Thomas seemed to blank on what to say next, his eyes pleading as he looked at me. There was real fear in those eyes, and I wondered once again what it was Enzo did for a living. Especially to make a grown man like Thomas look so frightened.

I grabbed the walkie talkie away from Thomas and pressed the button. "Jesus Christ, Enzo! I'm fine! He was trying to make me feel better."

There was a long silence again and I could just imagine him staring down at his walkie talkie with narrowed eyes. I wanted to tell him that he deserved a little bit of a heart attack for what he did to me at lunch, but I didn't. I kept silent and stood to my feet, following Thomas back to the house.

"You have ten minutes to get back here and into my office." He enunciated each word slowly and carefully, as if speaking any faster wouldn't register in our minds. But the way he said it made Thomas break out into a sprint, his hand reaching back to take mine as he went. He knew what Enzo would do if we weren't there in ten minutes, even if I didn't. And if the look on his face was any hint, it wouldn't be good if we were even a minute late.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before we burst into the front doors and to the staircase near my bedroom door. Thomas didn't even knock before bursting into Enzo's office. He leaned down, resting his hands on his knees, and breathed heavily. But while he was struggling to get air in his lungs from the run, I was struggling to get air into my lungs because of the look on Enzo's face.

He sat in his chair, his elbows resting on his desk and his fingers steepled together in front of his lips. His eyes were shimmering with anger as he searched his sweaty intruders.

Thomas stood straight and gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry, boss. She was looking down in the dumps and it was making her laugh."

"Out." Enzo's eyes narrowed at his guard. "Now."

Thomas turned his sheepish smile on me before turning and exiting the room, leaving Enzo and I alone.

I stared at him, my face a mask of any emotion. I wasn't sure how long I had been gone, but I guessed it was a pretty long time since the sun was setting and my stomach felt like it was eating itself whole. I didn't let on that I was hungry, either. I just stood silent by the now-closed door, my eyes locked on Enzo's.

"Come over here," he ordered.

I sighed and walked to the chair across from him, but he shook his head and pointed to the spot beside him. I rolled my eyes before moving behind his desk to stand beside him. He turned to face me and looked up and into my eyes, fury still dancing within them.

His hands moved over my exposed arms and he ran his thumbs over a few cuts that I got while running. He didn't speak, nor did I. He only surveyed the mess I made of myself out in the woods surrounding his house and I allowed him. His fingers were warm against my cool skin as he found another scratch.

"I'll ask again." He looked back up at me. "Are you okay, Eva?"

"They're just scratches." I pulled my arms out of his grip. "They'll heal quicker than the damn bruise on my cheek."

"That isn't what I'm asking about."

"Do you want an honest answer," I questioned, taking a step away from him so that I wasn't looking down on him. He was too close to me for comfort and the way his hands kept reaching out to touch my arms, as if to see if I was truly okay physically, only made me squirm. I wanted out of his office.

He nodded once.

"I will be. I always am."