Rush

Chapter 11

Nate let out a loud sigh and rubbed his flat stomach.

"Ms. Hills that was delicious."

"Yeah, that was great."

"How many times do I have to tell you two to call me Ana or if you insist on being formal, Anastasia?"

Jacob laughed a little before he spoke.

"It's a hard habit to break, Mr. Rush and all other clients prefer to be called in a formal manner."

"Well I'm not them so call me Ana."

"Yes ma'am."

"And drop the ma'am too."

They spoke in unison this time.

"Yes Ana."

"Good, we're making progress."

  Our conversation was interrupted by an unhappy CEO.

"I believe I pay you to act as security, not to play best friends with Ms. Hills."

"Our apologies Mr. Rush, it won't happen again."

I couldn't let them take the blame for this, I was the one who demanded that they sit and eat.

"Um, Mr. Rush, it was my fault, I told them to sit and eat, they were only doing what I told them."

He sent a stone cold look my way and I unconsciously shrunk back into the counter. His voice held a hint of anger when he spoke.

"Don't let it happen again, I pay these men to protect you not for you to play friends with, do you understand?"

I felt like a child being reprimanded by her mother. Apparently I didn't answer fast enough because he barked his question at me again, louder this time.

"I've told you I don't like repeating myself Ms. Hills, do you understand?"

I hesitated, but that was clearly a mistake.

"Answer me!"

I flinched at his tone, it was one I was all too familiar with. I didn't want to make it worse so I quickly nodded my head but that clearly wasn't good enough for him.

"What are you a child, use your words."

His words were harsh and I wanted him away from me so I spoke as well as I could while fighting back the lump in my throat.

"Yes, I understand."

"Good, I'm off to work, one of you set the alarm and clean this mess up Ms. Hills."

He turned and swiftly walked out, the slamming of the front door the only thing signaling that he had left. I looked over at the two men who still sat at the counter, shock written across their faces. No one said anything and I turned back into the robot I had been for so many years. I went about clearing up the breakfast mess while fighting back tears. I heard the alar beep and then a tissue was waved over my shoulder. I grabbed it and dabbed at my eyes and turned to see Nate standing behind me, a concerned look on his face.

"Are you okay?"

I wasn't but I nodded my head anyway. I went back to cleaning and caught sight of a furious looking Jacob.

"That's no way to speak to a woman."

"What the hell crawled up his ass?"

I had stopped washing the dishes because my hands were shaking so badly and Nate's big hands took the plate away from me, sat the plate in the sink, and guided me by my shoulders to sit at the breakfast bar with Jacob.

"You don't need to be doing this Ana, you're pregnant, rest we'll take care of this."

Jacob nodded in agreement and got up to help.

"No, I can't let you guys do this."

"It's okay Ana, just chill, relax."

It took me a few minutes to pull myself together. I wasn't going to lie, I was now officially afraid of him and I wasn't sure if he was the best person to be trusted with my safety. I watched the two big men clean up the mess from breakfast, feeling guilty the entire time. I wasn't sure how well they knew Alexander, but I wanted to know more about him.

"Is he always like this?"

Jacob had just put away the last dish and he was the one to answer.

"In all the years I've known him, I've never seen him raise his voice at someone like that for no reason before."

"How long have you known him?"

"Since high school."

This took me by surprise, did he treat all of his friends this way?

"He makes his friends call him Mr. Rush?"

Jacob let out a little laugh.

"It's just a front he puts up for professional reasons, but I've never seen him this way before. I'll talk to him if you want me to."

"No, I don't want you to lose your job because of me."

Both Jacob and Nate let out laughs this time.

"Ana, we own the security company. The only thing we would lose if he fired us is your company."

I stared at Jacob in amazement, shocked by his words.

"You own the security company? Then why aren't you two sitting in a fancy office in the city wearing a suit right now?"

"We like to get out of the office every now and then and we heard you were a friend of Cameron's, so we figured we'd handle this ourselves."

"Well, thank you for taking out the time to help me."

"Any time Ana."

Alexander's POV

To say I felt like shit for yelling at her was an understatement. The look on her face had me ready to beg for her forgiveness. She looked so scared. I knew what kind of environment she had escaped from and yet I yelled anyway. I knew I should apologize to her, but apologizing was something that I didn't do. As I settled at my desk my phone chimed, signaling that I had a text message. It was from Jacob.

What the fuck is wrong with you man? Why did you yell at her like that? She was just trying to be nice, she needs a way to keep herself busy because you've put her on lockdown and if feeding us makes her even a little happy then you need to let her do that, it's not hurting anybody.

What is she doing?

She's crying man, you made a pregnant woman cry and I don't know how to deal with a crying woman.

Do what you have to do to make her feel better, I'll fix it when I get home.

You better, she's a sweet girl, she doesn't need to be treated like this.

It's safe to say that once I did get home, I didn't fix anything.