Annalise

Chapter 28: The Run Around

"Annalise Saint, I've been dying to get you alone," indisputably said a male, using a low and soft voice, a softness welcoming someone into the arms of a stranger when one knows not to be fooled, but somehow, someway, they always get caught by the trap.

I always did.

It was the moment he spoke when recognition shot an arrow to my head, striking me with all the heart-rending stories that followed with this person, forever lingering just behind him, like a shadow that's permanently cast on people since the moment they are born into the world. Never will it leave, no matter how far you run from the sun, no matter how far you run from the revealing light, because even in the darkness, it stays, forever.

Hazel eyes patiently held eye contact with me, awaiting a response to pass through my sealed lips. His face was peacefully calm, a teasing grin tugging up the corner of his pinkish, plump lips. The tips of his bouncy curls didn't dangle before his eyes, they now retracted in its position, hanging much more near his head, displaying his prominent haircut.

"No," I shook my head vehemently, condemning any further interaction that would surely arrive.

I was just saying to Asher how I cut off communication with him and how we weren't dating. I was not going to contradict that.

No. Not now. Not when things are getting intense, not when my bff refuses to tell me what Tate has on her, not when the recruitment is happening or when the resistance is starting. Not when I can't figure out what's exactly going on with Hayley. Just not now.

Not when things are getting... overwhelming?

"Jeez, feels like we're strangers. How long has it been since we had a decent conversation? A week and a couple of days?" His deep voice asked, much like an old friend catching up with an old buddy.

His words were mutually acceptable to anyone who was clueless to his world, of his title and his enemies, but I wasn't hidden in the dark anymore.. at least not completely.

Communication with him was communication with the Mortes gang, which was like flipping the bird to the Imperishables as I rode off into the sunset with his rival.

No.

But wouldn't it be fun? Chuckled my inner dark self.

No. Not in the slightest.

"It's actually been a week and three days," I blankly replied, lacking any type of emotions.

Meaning it's been one week and three days since Asher's hand was put into a cast. One week and three days since Ricky smeared the blood on his hands to my face, since the day I was in the club gunshots were ringing out.

"But we last saw each other when Tamara made an appearance," I mentioned quietly. "She's very pretty," I added.

"Yes, she is. I guess good looks run in the Esposito's bloodline," he smirked, taking one step closer in my direction, which meant his body and the office door were trapping me.

But there was still a comfortable distance between us.

I tore my eyes away from his playful ones, rubbing my arm awkwardly as I decided to keep my eyes lowered to the floor. I couldn't find it in me to stare at him directly for this.