Mr. Lawson's Assistant

Chapter 64

People poured out of every theater room, crowding the hall almost instantaneously. I blinked, realizing what I'd just done. Quickly, I turned back to where David and the two men had been, but all three men were gone. Mentally, I yelled at David for being such an idiot, as I started to follow the crowd out of the theater. On my way back, I couldn't find my shoes in the rush of people. It didn't surprise me that someone had likely picked them up on their way out of the theater, but I was still disappointed that I'd only gotten to wear them once.
Who wouldn't grab a pair of shoes like that if they were just laying around? They're ridiculously expensive shoes!
I pursed my lips, now annoyed at Damon.
Damon!
I craned my neck, stopping suddenly to try to catch sight of Damon or Kenya. I knew they had started following me out of the movie, but I hadn't paid attention, because I'd been focused on David.
A man in a police uniform appeared on my right, gently taking my shoulder. "Ma'am, you need to exit the building now, please." he began ushering me towards the front doors.
I withheld a short remark and faced the cop. "I need to find my brother and-"
The officer cut me off, "We'll have everyone outside in a few moments, ma'am. You can find your brother once you're outside the building." He gave me a gentle push towards the door. I narrowed my eyes at the cop, but turned and headed for the doors anyways. Once outside, I pushed through the crowd of people and made my way around to the back entrance of the door. I hoped that David and the men had gone through the back exit when I'd triggered the alarms.
To my relief, David was standing by the door, holding his right fist in his left palm. When David saw me, he started to say something, but I held up my hand to cut him off.
"We'll talk later. We need to find Damon and Kenya."
David nodded quietly and started to pace himself beside me as we rounded our way back to the front of the building. There were still hundreds of people outside, but they were slowly filing back into the theater, ushered by more police officers that had shown up.
David elbowed me and pointed towards the edge of the crowd. "There's Kenya."
When Kenya spotted us, she rushed in our direction, and by the time she reached us, she was already talking too fast to understand.
David stepped in and waved his bloody hand in front of her face. "Where's Damon?"
Kenya's mouth dropped open, "What happened to you-" David shook his head and waved her question away.
"Oana will explain in the car. We need to leave because..." David threw his thumb over his shoulder to where two policemen were glancing suspiciously in their direction.
Kenya's face clouded in confusion, before her eyes widened. Understanding, she nodded quickly, "Damon left to grab the car." She pointed behind her just as Damon pulled the car up to the sidewalk and unlocked the doors. This time, I climbed up front with Damon and Kenya and David squeezed into the back.
"You alright?" Damon turned back to face David as he slid into the car. David nodded. Damon's gaze switched to me.
"I'm fine." 
I reached for the seatbelt, checking my shoulder as Kenya pulled her door closed.
Kenya also grabbed at her seatbelt, patting the center arm rest between the two front seats. "Let's go!" She sat back, and by way of the rearview mirror, I saw her turn to David and hold out her hand. He smirked and set his bloody hand in her palm. Kenya grimaced and clicked her tongue. "Can you ever take him anywhere?" Kenya looked up at me with a small frown.
I tried to force a small smile, but I don't think it convinced anyone. "Never."
David sobered and he focused his gaze on me as we pulled out of the theater parking lot. "Why those men were tailing you in the first place?" David clenched his injured fist, flexing it back and forth, his jaw tightening with the slight pain that accompanied the action. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, and even though Damon was driving, I knew he was glancing over at me too.
"Sara met me in the bathroom," I started, and both Kenya and Damon stiffened. "She threatened me, I disregarded it, and when I left the bathroom the two men started following me." I recapped the story quickly and without great detail, hoping to keep it as least dramatic as possible. However, seeing that David was injured and knowing that he was unaware of who Sara was, not to mention that I was probably being looked for by the police, it had already gotten dramatic.
David frowned, "Who's Sara?"
Kenya glanced at me and mouthed 'He doesn't know?!'
I shook my head slightly and turned back to face the road. "The guy who kidnapped me for randsom," I glanced back at David, he nodded slowly, "his daughter." I pulled down the visor in Kenya's car, absently fixing my hair, but really watching David's expression. He frowned, and lifted his eyes to meet my gaze in the mirror. He wasn't an idiot. He'd known me for years, and he knew when I was hiding something. To my relief, he said nothing. The ride back to my apartment was quiet, save for Kenya and David's quiet exchages every few minutes.
When Damon parked the car out front of the apartment, I reached for the car door, but Damon reached out and set his hand on my left arm. I stopped to look at him, and he nodded at Kenya and David. Kenya paused to glance between the two of us, but when she looked at Damon, she gave him a tight smile and closed the car's back door.
After they'd gone, there was an awkward silence. I knew Damon had something to ask me, but he was saying nothing. He wasn't even looking at me. His green eyes were trained down on where his palm still rested against my forearm. Finally, after another moment, he spoke.
"What did Sara say to you?" His voice sounded strained yet somehow gentle.
I sighed and shrugged, "She told me that if I touched her, she'd have her dad's guys kill me," I paused, staring at Damon's hard expression.
His eyebrows rose. "Did you?"
I scoffed. "I wish." I felt the surge of anger that I'd had in the bathroom resurface, but I kept the emotion at bay. "I didn't touch her." Damon's hand shifted forward on my arm, gently making small, rhythmic patters on my skin as the quiet settled over the car. "I don't think she was expecting to see me there. She looked surprised when she saw me," I added, after a moment of thought. In fact, she hadn't gotten agressive until I'd mouthed off. Maybe she hadn't planned on trying to kill me until I sassed her.
Right. She wasn't originally mad because you had her dad put in jail.
I shook my head once, and Damon watched me quietly, waiting for me to speak. The feeling of his hand rubbing small circles on my arm was drawing my attention, distracting me. "I'm not worried." Watching Damon's fingers message around my wrist and wind their way back up to my elbow, I let out a breath. When his movements faltered, I glanced up. He was staring at the parking lot in front of us, his eyes reflecting in the street lights. My movement brought his attention back into the car and away from whatever he had been looking at, and his fingers started to move once more.
Damon looked at me for half a moment, before his gaze dropped down to where he was drawing patterns on my arm. "There's so much that's happened to you because of me." He said softly, his voice rough and barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry..." His head shook once, and he lifted his chin to look me in the eyes.
I narrowed my eyes on Damon and pulled my arm away. "Stop it." My voice sounded exactly as harsh as I had intended. When I saw Damon's brows crease, I continued. "I don't want or need you to feel sorry for me, Damon Lawson." I could just make out half of his facial features by the light of the parking lot. His jaw clenched. "You're not responsible for me, I'm a fully grown woman, and I can take care of myself. I made the choice to open that envelope, to stay at the beach house with you, and to keep working for your company after this whole fiasco," I straightened, "I made those choices."
Damon shook his head. "You're not responsible for all of this-"
"I didn't ask you for your opinion."
His lips tightened, but he held back whatever words he wanted to say.
"I appreciate everything that you're doing to protect me, but I refuse to have you feel sorry for me." I reached out and pulled my dress back over my knees where it was riding up.
He stared at me for a moment, and the silence that blanketed the car was deafening. I wondered for a split second if I had spoken my mind too freely, but denied the thought any further room in my mind. If Damon couldn't handle the truth, then I didn't know him as well as I thought I did, and there would be another problem. I had always been an overly honest person, and while Damon had figured out how to coat his honesty with a bit more charm, he was just as honest a person as I was.
"Alright." Damon's voice cut the silence like a a knife. I stared at him, waiting for a but, but none came. I looked at Damon long and hard, reading his expression, before I nodded. I felt the understanding between us, and that was enough for me. Turning, I opened the car door and climbed out.