Elliot POV
Hazel is getting dressed, and I watch her. I can’t believe I am doing this. I close my eyes for a few seconds, and when I open them, she is watching me.
“Where are we going?”, she asks, walking to me, and I take one step back. Her eyes locked on mine as she frowned. I lick my lips, gaining the courage to spill the beans. I can’t believe I am about to do this. How am I going to tell her she is leaving, she is leaving, and she will never see me again?
“You’re going somewhere safe”, I say, walking past her and grabbing her suitcase. She grabs my arm as I walk past her, and she stops me. I keep my back turned to her.
“Don’t you do this to me? Look at me”, she says, and I look down, taking a deep breath and putting her suitcase down. I turn around to face her and she takes one step closer to me.
Hazel POV “When am I going to be able to call Elliot?”, I ask Edgar and he looks at me with the kindest eyes I have ever seen. He is a lovely man but quiet. I barely speak to him. I spend most of my days sitting outside in the garden reading. I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I left New York, and I never thought I would miss it this much. As he has no answers for me, I walk into the small kitchen and pour myself a cup of coffee. I rest my hands on the counter in front of me, and I look at the beach in front of me. The sunset is beautiful. I grab my coffee and put on a cardigan before walking outside into the garden. I wrap myself in the jacket and walk down the small path to the private beach that is at the end. I sit on the sand and dig my feet in the warm sand. The sun is just setting, but it has been a warm day. The sand is nice and warm. I close my ey
Elliot POV “It’s been one month, and we are exactly in the fucking same position we were before. I can’t do this anymore, and I need to have her by my side”, I say as Killian and Theo look at the screen of their laptops. I just sent them the threat that Pavlov sent us. He has been taking down all of our small businesses, small fires, robberies, he is taking our money flow down, and Killian is about to have a fucking heart attack. We know he has helped, and we know who is helping him, but we can’t get to them. “I should’ve killed him whenever I had the chance”, I let out, and Kill’s eyes meet mine as he sits back on his chair and shakes his head as he strokes his long beard. “Problem is the fucking deal”, he says, and I take a deep breath. I hate that fucking deal. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Don’t you think he would put a bullet in any of o
Hazel POV “Dinner is ready, dear”, Mrs Amber says, and I smile at the thought of her food. She is a great cook, and I have been eating a lot these past couple of days. The food she makes is divine, and anyone that doesn’t think the same way would be crazy to think that. “Coming”, I reply from inside my room. The door is closed, but I know she left because I can’t see her shadow under the door. I can only see the bright light from the corridor. Since we moved to this new location, I haven’t seen Edgar at all, and it’s just Mrs Amber and me. There’s security, but they don’t come inside the house. This house is a lot smaller and not as good as the previous one, and I have no clue where we are. I was told that it was for my safety. I open the door and walk down the corridor into the kitchen, and I smile as soon as the smell hits my nostrils. This is amazing. My mouth starts watering straight away.
Hazel POV “Give me the phone”, I say, and he looks at my hand and shakes his head, “I am not messing around now, give the phone. I will deal with the consequences with Elliot, now give me the phone and let me talk to him”, I say, and Edgar shakes his head again and when I reach for his pocket his hand comes flying against my face. I take a few steps back in shock, with my hand covering the place where he smacked me. It burns, and I feel tears threatening to spill. “Elliot will hear about this”, I threaten him, and he shrugs his shoulder. “As if he could do anything”, he says, and I frown, watching him unlock the front door and walk out of the house, again leaving me locked in here. What does he mean by that? I walk to the door and try the handle, and it’s locked. I look around, and I finally start to realise that there’s something seriously wrong here. What the hell is going on? I walk to the ki
Elliot POV “FUCK”, I shout, throwing my iPad against the wall. I hear the screen shatter when it hits the wall and falls on the floor. Theo is standing next to me as I start to pace around. I can’t believe this is happening. I have no clue where Hazel is, and that is driving me insane. I am not able to eat or sleep. I need to find her or I am going to go insane, I will lose my shit, and I will turn the fucking world upside down. I’ll end everyone’s lives until Hazel is the last one standing. “You need to calm down”, Theo says, and I look at him in the eyes, and immediately he raises both his hands, apologising. “I know it's difficult, but destroying your iPad and your computer won’t fucking help”, he says, and I flip him off, walking out of the office. I walk down the corridors until I reach the garden at the back of the house. Killian is standing in the middle with a cigar between his lips. I see red, and I fl
Hazel POV “You bitch”, Edgar slaps me across the face once more, and I fall on the mattress on the floor. I close my eyes as I don’t move. I have learned my lesson. Every time Edgar comes into this room, I stand still. They removed all the furniture from the room and left me with just a potty and the mattress. I feel like I have been put here to die, and maybe that’s what is happening. Edgar leaves, and I finally sit up. I have been beaten, touched, and starved since I fought back and asked to leave. I stopped thinking about Elliot. It has been so long since I last heard of him that I couldn’t even bring him back to my mind. I am surrounded by darkness, a place I know way too; well, a place that takes over my soul and my body. I feel a single tear slide down my cheek, and I clean it with the back of my hand before I bring my knees to my chest as I hug my own legs
Hazel POV “Move your ass”, I hear one of the guys say. My eyes are blindfolded, and my hands are tied. I didn’t put up much of a fight. There’s no point, and no one will ever come and rescue me. I have no one now, I am on my own, and I am entering a world I never thought I would know from the inside. I can feel tears forming behind the blindfold, but I swallow hard, trying to stop them. I can’t give them the satisfaction of watching me break. I can break behind closed doors, but not in front of them. That is what they want, to see me break and take over my mind and soul. That’s not happening, I might be forced to do this, but my soul and my mind will be somewhere else, far away from my body. My body will be empty of emotions, and it will just be a shell, a shell that has been broken and fractured by these people. I am shoved into the back of a car somehow, my kne
Hazel POV “Hazel”, I say, and immediately, his hand releases my hair that has been cut, and he walks to stand in front of me. His eyes lock on mine, and he winks just before he walks away from the cage and joins a group of men watching a girl on another cage. She is touching herself, and I can’t believe this is happening. Why are they doing this? The lights all of a sudden start flashing, and all the men and shocked women that were scattered around talking to each other and watching the girls gather together and leave the room. I look around while two guys approach my cage and start wheeling it out of the room. I hold on to the bars and pray to God that something drastic will happen. A fire. That would be it. I close my eyes and hope for a fire to break through and spread through this place, killing me in it. It would be a blessed death. At least I wouldn’t be alive to suffer all sorts of torture I will have to endure if I’m sold to one of these people. I am
Elliot POV“Thank you, dad”, Jasper says, shaking my head. I nod as I watch him walk over to the girl's wife. I can’t believe my oldest son is married. He’s only nineteen, and he is already married. I tried to keep him out of trouble, but trouble found him. His high school sweetheart. He is a man, and he is extremely responsible; it’s not like he is an inconsequent teenager. I don’t even think he was ever a teenager. He was always serious and very responsible towards his siblings and us.“You’re welcome, son. Have you said goodbye to your mother?”, I ask, and he shakes his head. I know that this will be the hardest thing Hazel has ever gone through, watching her firstborn son leave the country to follow his wife’s dream.“Not yet. Eliana is talking to mom”, he says, and I nod. She is not a bad girl. She was always trouble, though, she was a re
Elliot POV “Where are you?” I ask as soon as Hazel answers the phone. “We’re home; why?” she says, and I can tell she is chewing on something, and I take a deep breath. I am so grateful that none of my kids is involved in this life. They all just want to study and have nothing to do with it, and I am here for it. “I need you all to stay inside, and please, please don’t fight me on this one”, I say, and I can hear Hazel taking a deep breath on the other side. “I have another call”, she says before she puts me on hold and answers the other call. I swear to god, if it's Killian asking for her to go there, I am going to fucking lose it. “Babe, I got to go, Killian called. They were attacked”, she says, and I take a deep breath. “I asked you to sta
Theo POV“I guess that is it”, Killian says, and I nod as I stand up, ready to leave his office. “Theo”, he says, and I look back, and he stands up.“This is going to be dangerous, and it is going to take a long time; take Elliot and Joseph with you”, he says, and I nod. There’s another war brewing, and I don’t like this at all. We had peace for so long that now we are all on high alert.We’re going to a mafia meeting. Killian can’t attend as he has had a target on his back lately. Joseph is growing up to be a great man, he is in training, and Killian is giving him his everything. I walk straight to Elliot’s office, and when I open the door, I can see him teaching Gabriel how to hack into the national bank. Great.Gabriel, my son, hates everything that has to do with physical activity, he hates
Killian POV“Kids, stop running”, I shout as my three kids with Ashley start running through the corridor towards Ashley’s office. Joseph, the oldest one, is now ten, and he is becoming as bubbly as his mother, and I absolutely love it. He says he wants to be just like her when he grows up, and I swear I am so proud of him.“Kate, slow down”, I say, and she ignores me as she runs after Joseph, that is holding her doll hostage. “Give it back”, she shouts at him, and he laughs and holds it high above her head. Kate is short like Ashley, while Joseph, well, he is tall. He is taller than a normal ten-year-old. He is the tallest in his class.“Daddy”, Kate complains as Jo, my youngest one, watches as her older siblings fight over a doll. Jo is a lot like me, quiet, she pays attention to everything, and her eyes scan e
Hazel POV“Come on, and we have to go”, I shout at Elliot, that is coming out of the kitchen like nothing is going on. He looks at me with an eyebrow raised, and I can’t help but laugh. “Come on”, I say, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the living room towards the door.“I need my shoes, Hazel”, He says, and I roll my eyes. Men… Why are they never prepared? Killian called me in full-on panic mode. The man kills people for a living, and he deals with criminals and terrorists all the time, but his wife goes into labour, and he becomes a fairy that doesn’t know what to do.“Where is the kid?” he asks, and I roll my eyes. Their older baby Joseph is a sweetheart.“He’s with the nanny. They had her on call”, I reply, and he nods, walking into our bedroom to get his shoes. H
Hazel POV “That’s not possible”, I let out, and Elliot rests one hand on my knee. “My mother told me she had an affair with Elliot’s dad, and then she met my dad, and she went to live with him, got pregnant, and Ell’s dad lost it, he tried to kill her”, I let out and Killian nods. “Yes, that’s the official story, but no one told me. I saw them together. I saw your mother telling my father she was pregnant with his child. Elliot’s dad lost his shit when he found out his best friend slept with the woman he loved, but he couldn’t do anything against his father, but he could against his mother. Your mother was already pregnant when she moved in with your stepfather”, Killian says, and I shake my head. I stand up and start pacing around while Elliot watches me. Killian stands and walks to me. “I was pissed at you, I wanted you gone; you were a constant reminder that my father fucked over my mother”, he says, and I understand that. But… what? “You’re…” I st
Hazel POV“How have you been?” Ashley asks as we sit on the couch. I smile, looking at her, I missed her, and I missed Everly.“I am okay, I think. I was shocked when I saw a woman in the kitchen this morning”, I let out, and Ash frowned, looking at me.“A woman? What woman?” she asks, and I realise I didn’t explain myself properly. “Is he fucking serious?” she says, standing up. I grab her arm, and she sits back down while I try to explain to her.“No, not like that, calm down”, I say, and she looks at me confused and takes a deep breath sitting back on the couch.“It’s the new housemaid”, I say, and she nods. I can see the stress leaving her face, and she smiles.“Oh, Michaela? I forgot that she was working
Elliot POV“I am sorry”, Hazel whispers, and I shake my head. She shouldn’t apologise, ever. She has no reason to. I am the one that fucked up, and I am the one that put her in danger, I am the one to blame. I cradle her face between my hands and look into her eyes. Her hazel eyes are shiny from the tears, and they are puffy and red. I feel regret in the pit of my stomach.“Don’t you ever apologise? It was all me, all my fault. I should’ve kept you by my side like you wanted to. I will be the one apologising to you for the rest of our lives”, I let out. The feelings are eating me alive. I have never felt like this before. This is a new feeling, this is new, and I don’t like it.“How about we both stop apologising?” She asks, and I realise if we want to move on, we need to leave the past in the past and keep loving each other. We need to keep making each other happy and fight for our love, fight for us.
Hazel POVI feel Elliot’s hands moving up and down my bare back. I open my eyes to see him staring at me. I blink a couple of times, trying to adjust my eyes to the light that invades our bedroom from the window. I groan as Elliot pulls away, standing up. I frown, watching him, missing his touch already. I support my body on my elbows and watch him walk past me and into the bathroom. I flop back down, smirking at the image of his bare ass. He has a fantastic ass. I can’t get tired of it, and it's covered in marks from my nails. Scratches. I close my eyes, hugging my pillow.“We need to get up”, Elliot says as he walks back into the room, I can hear the water in the bathroom and I close my eyes shaking my head.“No, I’m tired”, I say, but Elliot straddles me, sitting on my ass and leans down, kissing my neck. I feel a shiver