He Claimed Me (On Hold)

Chapter 11

It was about 5 pm when I decided to make dinner. I walked into the kitchen, pulling out some ingredients for beef and broccoli when the front door opened.

"Marianna?"

"In here, dad!" I shouted back.

"Hey. How was the rest of the day?" He asked, loosening his tie, and setting his briefcase down.

I blushed thinking of kissing Xavier, but that's not what he meant.

"Not good." I responded, chopping the broccoli.

"What happened?" He asked, worry evident.

"He knows who I am. I made a dumb mistake. He came over to me and talked to me about grandpa's new shipment in Spanish, and I responded. I'm nervous, Dad."

"I have something to tell you. I may have left Hells Riders, but I never actually left Hells Riders."

"Woah, slow down. What do you mean?"

"I was gonna tell you this, but it wasn't going to be until much later. Once your mother died, I couldn't stay in Miami anymore. Everywhere I looked, I saw her. It hurt my heart so much. I decided to leave for Los Angeles. My main purpose was to help Hells Riders branch out, go global. We already had places in Mexico, Italy, France, and Russia, but not a lot in the USA. The plan was once I got it up and running, and once it was sustained enough, I would have you moved out here to live with me. Somehow along the line I had heard that the Devils thought you had died with your mom. It was my only chance to give you the life you wanted, not the life you were born into. Your grandpa and I decided it was best if you stayed there. You could still train and participate if you wanted, but you had a certain freedom nobody else had, whether you realized it or not. A couple of months ago, I found out that they knew you were still alive, someone saw you with a supplier. I figured that now was my only chance to get to know you before it was too late. The LA branch of Hells Riders is still very active, I'm still the leader, but I needed to get a corporate job to cover all of my bases."

Somewhere along the line, I had stopped cutting the beef, and I stood with my mouth in a large 'O'.

"Can I show you something really quick?" He asked.

"Sure, let me finish this up and we can go in a moment." I finished cutting the beef and broccoli, throwing it all in a pan on the stove with the sauce.

"Alright, lets go. We have to be back in 20 minutes, so the food doesn't burn though." I followed him into the library.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"This is our panic room." He spoke as he closed the door.

He moved a picture frame out of the way, and a fingerprint scanner came into view. He placed his thumb on the scanner, and all of the sudden all the door locked, and a bunch of screens came down, a camera in every room. One of the bookshelves opened, and we were met with hundreds of guns, ammo, and self defense items.

"Wow." I spoke softly, running my hands across all the guns.

"Don't worry about the cameras in your room. The only way they work is if you are in the panic room, otherwise they are always off."

"Okay." I smiled.

"Let's go eat dinner, and I'll show you the rest afterwards."

We walked back to the kitchen just as the 20 minutes were up, and dinner was ready.

"Hey dad, I have some friends coming over around 9. They're coming in through my entrance though so it won't bother you."

"Okay, honey." He smiled as we dug into our food.

It was about 7:30 when we finished eating, and did the dishes quickly.

"Alright. Ready?"

He led me to my room.

"What are we doing in here?" I questioned.

We walked over to my bed, and on the wall, a photo of my mom and I were centered over the bed. It was the first thing I noticed in my room. He looked at her picture fondly, as though he forgot what he was doing for a moment.

"Dad?"

"Oh. Sorry. Got a little distracted." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. I never knew a lot about their relationship, but I was always told about how great their love story was.

He placed his hand on the side of the frame, and pulled. The picture frame left the wall and another fingerprint scanner was present.

"In this safe is your gun. If there ever comes a time where you can't make it to the panic room, enter the code 214 and your room will become its own panic room. Wanna try?"

"Sure."

I pressed my fingerprint against the glass, and we registered it as mine. I hit the code 214, and all of the sudden, wall came smashing down, locking in place. My room had access to the cameras as well, and I got a notification every time someone used my entrance.

"If you have an option, go for the panic room, you have supplies in there to last about a year. If you're running out of time, put your room into effect as fast as possible." He spoke. I nodded my head in understanding.

Suddenly, the beeping sound of someone using my entrance went off. Our heads shot to the surveillance screen.

"You know him?" My dad asked.

"Oh fuck. I forgot he was coming early." The screen showed him walking up the stairs.

"Quick, disable the room." My dad yelled.

I ran over to the wall.

"What the exit code?" I shouted back as he put my gun back into its spot, making sure everything was n its place.

"Exit is 827."

I punched the codes in, and the equipment shot up. The moment they were gone, Xavier turned the corner.

"Hey, Apple." He smiled.