𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬

Chapter 24 - land of light and darkness

Peter's POV

"We have to go." Aiden shouted as he burst into the room.

I gave him a once over and it took less than a millisecond for my face to turn from worry into horror.

"Peter! There's a car downstairs. We have to- what?" He asked as he saw me staring at him.

There was a large stain on his shirt. It was growing in size. Turning the once baby blue dress shirt a sickening shade of dark red. His hand was barely applying any pressure on the bullet wound.

"Oh. That. You should see the other guys." He said and laughed painfully. "Now let's go! Through the fire escape now Peter Argent."

I gulped then ran towards the window which connected to the fire escape. The girl I was with appeared from the bathroom and Scott was trailing after her.

"Let's go." I said and helped her through the window.

We all made it safely down to the vehicles waiting for us.

Once we were safely inside them, I turned to the blonde.

"I'm sorry. I didn't get your name." I said as politely as I could.

She laughed and rolled her eyes, "Casey."

"Casey? Okay," I said, "I need you to listen to me Casey. Can you do that?"

She picked up on the seriousness of the situation and nodded her head.

"Now, those men that shot my friend, they're going to be looking for me. They don't know you were with me. They don't even know you were there. So if anyone ever approaches you and asks about me, you tell them you don't know anything. Understand?" I asked her softly.

She looked terrified as her doe-like eyes met mine, "yes." Her voice cracked under the fear.

"So what do you say?" I asked her.

"I don't know anything." She repeated.

"Good. That's good. Now you just tell my driver where I can drop you off and we'll be on our way. I don't want you staying with me longer than you have to. You might get hurt." I told her.

She gave me an address and we parked a couple of blocks away from it. One of my other bodyguards escorted her to the door and we left.

Before we were at full speed. The car stopped and I was worried that they had found us. When the car door opened and Aiden jumped inside.

"You scared me." I breathed.

He had taken his shirt off and his wound had presumably been cleaned and looked to be tightly bandaged. Now all that separated him from the cold was his flimsy suit jacket. I inwardly rolled my eyes and tossed the jersey I had put on under my suit jacket to him. He caught it and put it on.

"Thanks," He replied, "Peter-"

"The Italian mafia. That's who they are. They're after me because I helped someone with something a long time ago. I guess they finally got bored of waiting." I knew he was going to ask, why waste the oxygen.

"Waiting for what? Who did you help?"

"Waiting to kill me. In their eyes I ruined her life. Abandoned her. Left her to fend for herself with that good for nothing boy." I spat.

"Her? Isabella?" He concluded, the only girl I had ever been properly tied to.

I nodded. "She was pregnant with the man she cheated on me with. She is also part of the Italian mafia. Or at least a family member of the reigning family. I made her lie to them and say that I abandoned her and the baby so she wouldn't be punished for getting pregnant."

"Oh Pete." Aiden sighed.

"They've been after me for years now. Always following. Never attacking. Until this morning. You know what this means." I said coldly.

"You need to disappear. For as long as they still have an interest in killing you." He finished.

"Exactly." I said and smirked. "Effectively, I need to die."

-

"Got the paper?" I asked Aiden as he walked into the room.

"Want me to read out the head line?" I nodded, "Peter Argent officially announced missing after-"

"That's all I needed to hear." I grinned and then glanced around the room. "It sucks here Aiden, you should visit more often."

"Ah, well we wouldn't want anyone to get suspicious now would we?" He replied and chuckled.

"I guess not."

"Why here?" He asked, "Why Iceland."

"It is said to be the land of light and darkness. Anything can happen here. Also I bought a chateaux here years ago. No one knows I own it, no one knows I'm here." I replied.

"I'm only here for three days on official business." He made air quotations when he said 'business', "so don't get used to it okay."

"You'll come get me when they're gone?"

"I'll come get you when they're gone Pete. Take care of yourself in the mean time." He replied.

-

"Morning Sunshine." Aiden said cheerfully as he drew the curtains in my room.

I groaned, "what are you doing here?"

"Happy anniversary." He said as he sat down on the bed.

"For what?" I asked skeptically.

"It's been two years since you went 'missing'." Again with the air quotations.

"Catch me up Aid. How's the twins? My parents?" I asked him excitedly.

"They'd be a lot better knowing you're alive." He pointed out.

"My father knows. And if he thought it was in the best interests of the family to know where I was, they'd know by now." I replied rather matter-of-factly.

He hummed as he stood up and took out a package.

"This was on your kitchen counter when I went to your apartment a few weeks ago. I don't know how long it's been there since no one has entered your apartment since we left for London." Aiden said as he handed it to me.

I opened it and in it was a stack of pictures, a keychain with a coffee cup on it and a letter.

"I'll leave you to it." He said as he left the room.

It was pictures of me and Dae. At the ball. At the café. We were laughing, we were happy. The keychain linked to the note and revealed that it was there to remind us of when we first met. The note was unlike anything I had ever read before. It was full of raw emotion and longing.

It was from Dae.

________________________________________

sometimes people don't come back,
and sometimes that's okay.

- k.azizian

________________________________________

a/n - it's been a long time since i wrote about/in this story. nevertheless, i hope you enjoyed it.
don't forget to like, comment and share ! 💘
- j x