The Lilly Within the Ashes

Ch 8

Happy Valentines Day! -Cantbother099

Lilly

At first he didn't say anything for awhile but just looked in deep thought. His unsure look and slow response started to scare me. Since the beginning , I thought his intentions were to kill me. Now with these talks, he has reassured me and showed me that that is no longer the case. But now I'm not sure anymore.

"Can I take you somewhere?" His voice breaks the silence that engulfed the room only moments ago. I nod my head slowly, too afraid to speak since I'm sure all that will come out of my mouth would be a squeak.

Suddenly my hand is vanished into his giant, gentle hand, and he guides me through the hallways of the house that I still seem to get lost in. After awhile of walking hand and hand, we reach the backyard at an unfamiliar gate that Maria never showed me during the house tour. "My mother made this garden for me once I moved in. She told me I needed to add more of a homey touch." he chuckled. "It's more or less a safe place that I go to if I ever need to be alone and to just have some quiet time."

Once he opened the gate, my mouth completely drops to the floor. The most exquisite flowers and sculptures I have ever seen were right in front of me. Due to the small entrance, I was not expecting this garden to be the size of almost a football field. In the center of this massive garden stood a gorgeous fountain with Aphrodite as its center piece. It was just euphoric.

"You like it?" Looking over at the beautiful man next to me, I was able to see nervousness and want in his eyes. It was kind of comical seeing this macho man look a little scared. "It is absolutely beautiful." I blurt out. But I don't care anymore on how I choose my words. This man has put in all of this time and effort to make me trust him and I feel like I can now.

"You are like this garden Lilly. Stunning, breath taking, and most importantly strong." I give him a confused look. I'm not entirely sure on where he was going with this. "What I'm trying to say is, the reason why I care about you and want to get to know you is because I didn't see just some girl hiding in a fridge, scared to death in the ashes of her family home. I saw a beautiful strong woman. You saw your parent's die in front of you and you still had the will-power to live. You are laughing and talking only a month after the incident. If that doesn't deem you as the strongest and most perfect person I know, I don't know what does."

Tears are starting to roll down my face. "And Lilly, if there was anything I could of done to prevent your parent's death, I would of done it." By now I am sniffling and the tears are blinding my sight. "Right now I have my men looking into your parent's death to see who did it."

I sit down on a nearby bench. So much information has been thrown at me in such a short period of time, that sitting down was the only thing that would prevent me from collapsing on the ground. "Did you know my parents?" I ask once I made sure my voice my voice would not stutter.

"Yes." Just a yes. No explanation to why or how. Just a yes. "Do you know why they did this to them? They were asking us where the money was, but I don't know why they were asking for that. My parent's don't owe anyone any money." By now my voice is a soft whisper. The information given to me with in the last couple of minutes have just been too much. "I'm not sure." I know he is lying, but I decided to not push it.

Jason

Regret is not an emotion I feel very often. But to say a bulldozer just dumped a pile of regret on top of me right now would be the best way to describe how I'm feeling. I know I should of told her that her parents have borrowed money from apparently multiple gangs. But if I told her that, she would of been able to connect the dots that I am also one of those gangs that would of killed her parents for not paying their dues.

I just got her to trust me enough to be able to accept me being in the same room as her and even being able to touch her every now and then. So telling her that I was going to do the exact same thing, would just put me back to base one with her. My patients was barely there in the beginning, that starting over would just be bad for literally everyone in the same vicinity as me.

As I'm standing in front of her seeing her cry, I'm not sure what I should do. I hate seeing her so upset, but comforting someone has never been my forte. Before I could think of some kind of comforting method, tiny little arms wrap around my waist. Looking down, I see my Angel hugging me with her face smashed into my chest.

I am so shocked that I don't move until she starts to back away. I quickly grab her and pull her back into my arms, tucking my face into the crook of her neck and sniffing the shit out of her addicting sent. A giggle escaped her lips and I have never felt so much joy course through my body. "Jason, you're tickling me!" she squeals. I slowly and unwillingly let her leave my arms.

"Thank you for everything." she whispers while shyly looking through her damn perfect lashes. I send a quick you're welcome and grab her hand to lead her back into the house.

I take us to one of the kitchens and make us some grilled cheeses and tomato soup. It was one of her favorite foods and lucky for me, it was easy to make. Once she somehow ate a third grilled cheese into her tiny body, I took her to bed.

"Goodnight Sweetheart." I say to her once we stood in front of our room. As I am walking away I hear her call my name. I turn around and see her hesitate. "You can tell my anything my Angel." A blush crawls up her face and she takes a large breath. "Jason, you can sleep your bed tonight. I feel bad that you are sleeping in a hard chair." She looks like my decision to sleep in a chair was her fault. "Lilly, you are sleeping in my bed sweetheart." The blush darkens on her face. "Oh! I am so sorry! I will ask Maria to come get my stuff and put it into another room so you may have your room back."

She moves into the closet and was about to grab her clothes, but I quickly stopped her. "Lilly it's ok. Besides, I am kind of like your body guard. I'm sleeping in the chair to watch over you and to keep you safe."

Liar.

Ok so maybe I just wanted to be near her all of the time and to watch her sleep like a creep, but I was also protecting her. My gang and I don't know who we are up against and when they find out that Lilly is still alive, they will not hesitate to kill her.

"Well thank you Jason. I really appreciate that." She steps out of the closet and tucks herself into our bed. "I will be back up in a bit Sweetheart. I have some more work to do. Sweet dreams beautiful."

With that, I leave my Sleeping Beauty.