Scars

Chapter 9

Navy blue dress pants, a white button up shirt stretched over his broad chest and a gun in his hand, his black hair a mess and eyes hard as ice.

Jayden Elliot Carter.

My eyes widen as it sets in. I look down at the man he just killed back to him in confusion, then back to the blue eyed devil.

“What the actual fuck?”

He starts walking towards me, stepping over the dead man, “Are you okay?”

His eyes run from my head to toe and back up, checking for any visible injuries, soft as a caress and I felt a shiver down my spine due to his intense stare, despite the million reasons against it. Instantly I felt anger surge through me again, this time the anger was for him as well as me.

“What the heck are you doing here?” I whisper harshly, masking my quickened heart-beat, not sure about the source of my conflicting feelings.

“Saving my damsel in distress, of course,” smug as he was, the grin he threw my way gave me a glimpse of the carefree boy I knew for years, the one that made me fall for him, making my heart lurch. He continues before I can get out of my stupor, “You see, my girl is too independent for my liking, thus actually getting a chance of being her knight in the shining armour is not something I get often. So, why would I let that pass?”

His words fill me with anger. How dare he act as if everything is ok, minutes after killing the man he sent himself to get me killed? Trying to kill me for the second time that is.

However, the anger was not the only thing I felt. For some, unexplained reason, I felt a streak of love shoot through me. For a second, I feel love, passion and on top of the world. Though I catch myself, holding on to the anger.

“How noble of you!” Sarcasm dipping, I spit, “Give up your act, Carter. Sending your men to kill me, and then killing them to seem like the bloody hero? What are you trying to do? Playing with me again? That’s fucking low, even for you.”

All the casualness left the man in front of me. His walls, the one that make him unreachable for his men and all, get up again. His eyes losing his softness and he steps back, looking around the bodies and the blood in the hallway.

“They are not my men,” he responds curtly, “And I don’t know why you would think like that, nor do I care, but I will tell you this once, and for the bloody last time. I. Won’t. Do. That. To you. To any and every one else, yes but not to you.”

A humourless laugh left my lips, “I will not buy this again, Carter. Because this won’t be the first time you would do something like that.”

He looks at me blankly, his stare too unnerving for me to continue to looking at him. We stand there for a few minutes, not speaking, just standing. Few minutes later, he snaps out of it, whatever it was, and takes out his cell phone.

“I will be right back, how about you take this time to check my words,” he speaks coldly to me, before leaving the apartment.

Determined to make him eat his words, I crouch next to the one near me, and yank the collar away. I falter, not finding the intricate tattoo of I expected to see. I get up again and make my way to the other dead man, checking him as well but finding no tattoo on him as well.

Confusion clouded my thoughts as I am unable to come to any conclusion. Going as far as getting some men from out of his gang to kill me is not something that he would do.

  Honestly, killing me is not something he would do, period.

  But he did try once, didn’t he.

  I close my eyes as different feelings run through me but I fail to reign them in. I choose to focus on what is important for now.

  I get up right as he returns.

  “I have called some of my men. They will take care of the bodies and the blood, because from what I observed, your red head friend has no idea about anything related to gangs.”

  It is a statement, an observation too precise for my comfort.

  “Uh… Thank you.” I hesitate for a second before speaking, not sure if I should thank the man that may have been behind this attack. Though his responding nod was curt.

  “Too bad we couldn’t get answers out of dead people.” He nudges the dead man’s shoulder with his foot while muttering.

  I hum in agreement before my eyes widen as a fact registers in my head, “I actually left one alive.”

  “Huh?”

  “The one in the kitchen. I just knocked him out.” I say as I lead the way to the kitchen where the first man is still knocked out. He switches on the light to look at the man, chuckling quietly, “Nice handy work.”

  I smile sheepishly, shrugging before I can stop myself. Straightening myself as he leans down to observe him, I ask, “But where are we going to keep him and interrogate him?”

  “My apartment.”

  “Ha! Saying as if taking a body down this apartment, in your car and then to your apartment is a piece of cake, right?” I speak sarcastically, and before he can reply, I question again as another detail comes in my mind. “How the hell are you here anyway?”

  He stands up casually, leaning on the counter, “Apparently, while buying this building, there was a clause that I am to live here for the first few weeks to ‘get along with the tenants’,” he bites his lower lips in an attempt to stop his laughter at my dumb folded expression, “So as of now, I am living next door for the about two months now, Princess.”

  I scoff, unable to hold it in.

  “I should have known.”

  About an hour later, I lock the door of my apartment and slip the keys in my back pocket of my now changed shorts. My place has been cleaned and the knocked out man is now held captive in Jayden’s place where I am heading.

  The door was open already so I make my way inside. The build of the apartment is same as mine, but his décor of white and various shades of grey made it more modern and sleek.

  Trudging forward, I found myself in one of the guest rooms, the very one that has the man we captured.

  Now that I look closely at the tied man, he looks young and the mid twenty something man had black, greasy hair that come to his shoulder. And from my past observations, he seems quite unexperienced in these things, again, not someone Jayden Carter will have any sort of association.

  So who exactly is he? And who sent him?

  A knock breaks me from my thoughts and I turn to face the man responsible for all my confusions. He is a friendly face for me, familiar as my own, the man I used to think I can always fall back to. But he is also the man who features in my nightmares and the man who is the reason for the hideous scars on my thighs.

  Who exactly is Jayden Carter? This or the one in the past?

  Why does it feels as if the one in front of me is not really different from the one in my past?

  “What is it?” his voice was husky, his attention fixed on me. I shake my head in a ‘no’ sign and glance back at the tied up man in front of me.

  I hear his footsteps come near me and his warm hands turning me back to face him again. He brings one of his hand up to my forehead before using his thumbs to ease of my furrow lines. The gesture, so simple yet the warmth it brings wrap my senses.

  I clear my throat as he steps back, awkwardly trying to ignore the tense atmosphere. Before anything can be done or said, the unconscious man groans, alerting us and snapping us out of the whirlpool of emotions.

  “Well.” Jayden’s eyes run over my face before looking at the man, suddenly grinning in a very sadist way. He goes to the bedside table that I just notice was equipped with a toolbox and a glass of ice cold water.

  He picks it up, coming back to stand in front of my attacker and throws it over his face.

  “What the hell was this for?” I ask in disbelieve as the tied man splutters and groans, waking up.

  Jayden just shrugs, keeping the glass back in its original place and picking up the tool box, answering me as well as taking his time in taking out a plier from the tool box, before keeping it back.

  “We cannot let him have a peaceful sleep. We need answers and fast, so that you can stop blaming me for something I never did.”

  I snuck in a breath, realizing that he is hell bent on proving himself. What makes matters worse is, I feel as if he may end up doing just that.

  “W-why the hell am I here?” he rasps out, still taking in deep breathes.

  “You are about to tell me who ordered you to do what you did? As well as what was your target.”

  The man struggles against the binds for a minute before calming down, “Where are my friends?”

  Jayden comes up to me and takes my hand to guide me to sit on the bed, speaking in a cold voice, “How brave of you to think that you are the one who can asks questions.”

  He leans down till his lips graze my ear, whispering huskily, “I will hold back on this torture, my love, because I am not ready to scare you off especially with your near death experience. But make no mistakes, if there are more of these attacks, I will lose my shit, whether you are there to witness it or not.”

  I swallow audibly, feeling my cheeks heat up as his lips leave a peck there before he moves back to stand in front of his hostage.

  The change in him is noticeable the moment he takes his position in front to the man. His relaxed body movement are replaced by his tense and alert muscles, his previous calm and easy aura is replaced by something dark and sinister that send shivers down my spine. His voice, that was soft and warm, almost loving, is placed by his business voice.

  Cold. Emotionless. Hard.

  “Who sent you?” Jayden’s hard voice made me wince at the raw power in it.

  “Nobody. I swear. Just tell me where my friends are.”

  A second later, a snap echoes in the room, following which the tied man yells, making me stand up from my place and run to the two men. My eyes widen when I see Jayden broke one of the man’s finger.

  I kept silent as the process was repeated for few more minutes, coming to the conclusion the Jayden must have got his place sound proofed when I don’t hear anyone trying to knock his door.

  “S-STOP! I will tell you e-everything damn it!” The man cries, breaking down after having his nails pulled out and three broken fingers.

  “Speak.” This time, it was me who questions him, wanting answers so the picture could be clear for me. I feel Jayden turning to me, his face passive, but his eyes shining with surprise.

  “T-there is…” he takes a deep breath to help his pain before continuing, “There is a price on her in the market. Half a million for her dead, a million and half for her alive.”