Can I Be Your Girl

27

My eyes kept themselves tightly closed as I hunched further every passing time. When I could grasp my surroundings once again, only then did I realize the silence from the complete absence of flying bullets.

A light pat on my arm compelled me to look up. With widened eyes, I stared fearfully at Yvanna. She assessed me, taking in my distress with worry. Around her free hand was a gun which I thought should be thrown away immediately.

"Get up Grey."

She tightened her hold as she helped me on my feet. Shaking scared and confused, I was at a vulnerability I'd never experienced before. The floor where I last saw Avram bathing in his blood was empty of his body but the image of his death-like position was a haunting and livid image in my head. My gaze followed the trail of red drippings that lead to the sofa and found him lying there, head wrapped in white cloth.

"Is he dead?" I asked Yvanna without cutting my eyes off him.

"No, he isn't."

Someone cursed behind me and I jolted forward. I held my breath as I turned to see Mario working on the wheel and barking orders to his phone.

"They managed to board the yacht without us noticing." Yvanna spoke in somber voice

Cold sweat ran past my back as I shivered in fear.

"It's alright. We took care of them." Soft warm hands on my back tried to calm me down. I focused on Yvanna's touch. Then I remembered her there, at the deck, fighting men thrice her size into unconsciousness and wielding a gun with the ease of an expert. That couldn't have been simply flight or fight response.

"Where are they?" I asked, puffing my cheeks out. Yvanna followed my gaze and understood who I was referring to.

"Downstairs. Go check on them."

Thinking of my friends and how utterly defenseless they were as I was gave me a modicum of strength and the availability to worry for them. My friends. F*ck, I hope they're fine.

The first door towards the left of the stairs was locked when I tried to twist it open. I knocked hurriedly.

"Kris? Gerard? Tatiana?!" I called, continuously knocking loudly.

"It's me Grey."

The door swung open. Kris' wide eyes and disarrayed hair greeted me; his naked chest heaved with the remnants of sweat glistened.

"What the f**ck happened Grey?" he asked as I entered the room.

"F***k if know. Where are Gerard and Tatiana?" I scanned the room. The bed sheets were rumpled.

Kris walked past me towards the wardrobe. "Tatiana's here. I hid her."The door opened and there she was, shaking while wrapped in a comforter she tightly clutched as if it held her life.

"It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay," Kris gathered her around his arms and pressed a kiss on her head. We exchanged looks when she didn't stop rocking and apologizing. Tatiana whimpered, blank eyes staring at space.

The noise from the threshold caught our attention, and there stood Gerard with his fists bleeding and his hand clutching his side.

"I almost got killed, " he rasped.

*****

I washed my hands again and again, hoping it would stop them from shaking. But they wouldn't, so I washed them some more—fervently, as if it was my sanity slipping away. Kris, Gerard and Tatiana were in the bedroom huddled on the bed while Mario and Yvanna stayed upstairs in the cockpit. I glanced outside the rectangular window above the restroom sink, the darkness draining my spirit further. All I wanted now was to leave this thing. As seconds passed the more I felt trapped and cornered.

Pulling my hands from the automatic faucet, the water flow slowed then stopped as I pulled a pristine towel from the cabinet and dried my hands. It had been half an hour or so since I left Yvanna and Mario to stay with my friends.

Throwing the towel inside the hamper near the door, I walked past my friends, sparing them a reassuring smile when they asked me where I was going.

"Just leave it to them Grey. Yvanna said it's safer here."

I ignored Gerard and quickened my ascent, almost running up the stairs, and when I reached the landing Yvanna was tying the feet of the last man out of the three that she and Mario took down.

"We've already spoke with the coast guard and border patrol, and an airlift is coming to transport Mr. Moldovan to a nearby trauma center. You can go back and rest Grey."

"Even if I want to I can't. Can I help you with anything?"

Mario shook his head. "There's nothing we can do now but wait. These bastards did a good job breaking the control for this thing. I'm already sorry for your dad," he said and kneeled down closely beside Yvanna who was tying a second knot as if she intended to decapitate the unconscious goon.

"Better to repress these giants while we can," she said, and afterwards clucked her tongue.

Less than half an hour, Avram was being strolled out the lounge area with a gurney, and together with my friends, I was taken to a speed boat with grim faced officers bidding us a stiff nod.

*****

"That will be all. Thank you Mr Powell," the petite, blonde detective said as she scribbled the last information she got from me.

I was sitting upright in a gurney along the hospital hallway, few wounds cleaned up and wrapped in gauze. Tired and a bit worried after a frantic and hysterical call from my mother who was on her way to take me home. The rush of fear subsided, and now I was blanketed with a sense of culpability knowing that it was due to me that we were attacked and resultantly it harmed my friends.

Mario stood by my side, not offering any opening for conversation which my tired state is thankful for. I didn't think my body had any energy left to talk or even ask the questions I had been dying to ask since the incident. To him and Yvanna. The silence was broken with the firm strides of the girl heading our way. We locked eyes, my exhausted ones receiving warmth from her assessing eyes that stared back.

"The attackers have been taken downtown for questioning. We're hoping at least one of them spills," she told Mario who then added saying, "Forensics will be calling as soon as they recover files from their phones."

"Hopefully we can find incriminating messages or phone calls."

"Messages with the suspect's name is too much of an irrefutable evidence. I doubt they're that reckless."

"Still, we need to sweep all promising evidences clean."

Clenching my teeth, I hissed. "I want this fucker to suffer and rot in jail." I sent Yvanna a meaningful glance, hope and trust I fully hand down to her. She replied with a smile and promising smile.

Mario uncrossed his ankles as he pulled away from leaning to the wall and stood straight. "Even if we can't get useful information from the phones, we still have those three. I heard agent Maxfield is doing the questioning. That man can scare the child out of the depth of Satan's ass I tell you. This kicker turned out good for us."

"Let's hope he turns those boys' fate into hard cheese. We can't have your killer walking under the sun so freely much longer. Their getting closer as time pass by," Yvanna mutters.

*****

I sincerely apologize to all of you who have been patiently following this abysmally incoherent plot line up until now. I've tried my best to create a story that is interesting and well put up, too much that I obviously missed and unintentionally snubbed many character and plot details that I know are important to their build up. As the author, it unsettles me to have published such poorly done work. I've been reading back and realized that I've completely gone out of the line and I want to correct my errors.

That is why I'm apologizing to everyone who has been keeping up, because I will be changing and erasing some details that are not in line with the narrative. All mistakes are my own and I'm willing to improve from my short-comings.

Thank you so much.

-Bubble