You Belong To Me

37

• L o r e n z o •

I sat in my living room with a beer in hand waiting for my front door to knock. It's been two weeks since I'd slept properly. Two weeks since I'd been outside. Two weeks since I'd seen Annabella. The last time I saw her I was a broken man. She left me in my apartment barely breathing, with Ripper.

Just thinking about that scumbag made me feel anger that I've never felt before. My hands tried to ball into fists reminding me exactly what had happened here. The bastard broke my fingers. He ripped the hair out of my fucking head. 

He took Annabella.

I took a swig of my beer trying to dull the pain that I felt inside and out. The swelling on my face had just about gone down. I'll have a cast on my hand for 4 more weeks. Who knows when my hair will grow back properly.

The first few days after Ripper had been here I wallowed in my own pity. Feeling sorry for my self, hell for a second I even blamed Annabella but she's not the problem here, he was. He did this to me. He'd forced Annabella to be with him when she clearly didn't want to. He had the audacity to call me a pervert when he's an abuser and a killer, the worst of the worst.

When I finally stopped pitying myself I started to feel sad. Sad was an understatement, I was depressed. The only girl I've ever genuinely cared about had been taken away from me, forced to be with a psycho. I told myself again and again that I shouldn't have been with Annabella any way. She was my student. My 17 year old student and I was a 28 year old man. A 28 year old man encouraging a completely illegal relationship.

The only problem is, I don't care about any of that. When I see Annabella walk into class genuine happiness engulfs me. She so smart, smarter than most of her classmates. She's mature, she never threw herself at me like the other girls in class. Not to mention she's beautiful. She is the definition of a red rose, the most beautiful flower of all. Whenever we were together everything just felt right, natural. I know she felt the same, she told me she did. But Ripper thinks she's his, his to objectify, his to bully, his to manipulate.

I drained the last drops of my beer, thoughts of Annabella clouding my mind. Is she okay? Is she safe? Does she miss me? She probably thinks I hate her but I don't. I want to help her, I'm going to help her, I'm going to put a stop to Ripper and his antics finally.

As if right on cue the front door knocked meaning James was finally here. "WOW Maxwell what the fuck has happened to you man?" I roll my eyes at James' loud tone and opened the door wider so he could come in. 

"Hello to you to." James grabbed me in a quick hug pulling back to inspect my face.

"Lorenzo mate, what happened?" James looked worried and I didn't blame him. We'd been friends since college and he's never seen me this way before. I walked into the kitchen grabbing a couple of beers before taking a seat back on the sofa.

I let out a deep sigh wondering where do I begin. "So I need your help." 

He narrowed his eyes at me. "That I can see but first you need to explain exactly what's happened."

"So there's this girl-"

"I knew it, there's always a bitch involved when anything like this happens, what'd she do get her ex on you?" I took another sip of beer I was a little nervous to say I'd been involved with a student but if I expected help then I needed to be honest.

"She's my student." I look at James to see his expression and I couldn't quite tell what he was thinking. There was silence so I carried on explaining the story. "I fucking know it's wrong so I don't need a lecture from you. I didn't mean to get involved with her but I couldn't help it man. She's out of this world. She ticks all the boxes and that's why I'm screwed."

James took a few big gulps of his beer before settling down in his chair. "Okay so you've been banging you student and what? Did her dad do this?"

"I haven't been banging her, I told her I wouldn't until she was 18 but that's not the point. I like this girl I really do, she likes me too but there's just one fucking problem."

"Okay well done for your willpower, what's the problem?"

I finished my beer slamming it onto the table. "Ripper Blackwell, he's my problem." James sat up from his lounging position with a certain fire in his eyes. 

"And what does that son of a bitch have to do with this? Has he taken her?"

I filled James in on all details Ripper related. From him riding into school, taking her away from the police station, up until the other week in my apartment. 

"Oh you don't know how long me and the boys have been trying to get our hands on this lowlife. WHY ARE YOU NOW ONLY JUST TELLING ME?!

"Look I didn't want to get you involved. I didn't think telling the FBI that my illegal girlfriend was being hounded by a criminal would be the best idea, but he's taken it too far. I don't care if I get arrested as long as he goes down with me."

James nodded his head a smile forming on his face. James works for the FBI and they've been trying to get their hands on this guy for a while but he's basically impenetrable. 

"We need proof of some sort, documentation, CCTV anything we can get our hands on. And- I need to speak to the girl."

I snapped my head in his direction not liking where this was going. "We're not involving Annabella do you hear me? I don't want her near anything that goes down. We get him fair and square, I know where their murder house is."

James started pacing my apartment I couldn't tell if he was drunk or just high on the possibility he might be able to get his hands on Ripper. 

"Fine we leave her out of it, I'm telling the boys we have a base and we'll plan. Don't contact her about any of this, we only have once chance to get this fucker."

A deep sigh left my body. I felt as though all the stress I'd pent up over the past few weeks was finally worth it. "James I appreciate this, I owe you big time."

"Don't sweat it. If he thinks he can lay his hands on you like he has, he can think again. And Maxwell don't you worry about anything happening to you, I have friends in high places." I nodded my head at James and got up to let him leave.

I sat back down on the sofa when James had left and did something I'd never done before. I prayed. I prayed everything would be okay, I prayed Ripper would get what he deserved and I prayed Annabella would be safe after all of this.

A/N —

Guys at this point I'd love to know who everyone is leaving towards. Who do we think Annabella should be with??

-xoxo