No One Touches Her

“I hope you shit your pants!” Heidi mutters while gritting her teeth. 

Her hands dig into the snow and form tight fists that shape snowballs as she watches Dad Griffin disappear into the hall. 

She remains crouched on all fours between two parked cars, disregarding the creeping frost that would soon bite at her hands and knees. 

Guests and guards loiter about. Thankfully, the paparazzi have been forced to leave, which is quite relieving for Heidi because it’d be terrible to have this moment trend online. 

When she feels hands brush her shoulders, she thinks it’s any of Morton’s friends who sat with him against a light pole by the road.

So, her instinct kicks in. 

She springs to her feet and hurls the snowballs at the intruder, who fluidly dodges them, raising his hands in surrender.

Heidi abruptly stops. 

Her stance is defensive, ready to strike again. 

The intruder, however, looks nearly as tall as Hunter, and his black chin-length hair would have covered his face if a red headband wasn’t holding it to the sides. 

His tight skin seems to glow with his facial muscles defined, but what gives him an aura of fatal allure is the scar slicing vertically across his right eye.

“I don’t like being touched without permission,” Heidi hisses.

The man smirks. “I’m Zavere. I do not hurt ladies,” he says, his voice like a bassoon melody.

“Who the hell are you?” she demands while still wary. 

Zavere slowly bends down to pick up the jacket that fell into the snow when Heidi threw the snowballs at him. 

“Someone who’s going to keep you warm,” he replies before holding it to her. 

However, she slaps his hand away, sending the jacket back into the snow.

“Bugger off.” 

“Okay.” Zavere casually turns to leave. 

“I guess you’re not so eager to talk to Hunter, then,” he says over his shoulder as he retrieves his shit. But then pauses and, turning back to Heidi, mumbles, “I know you two are in a relationship.” 

His words pique the girl’s interest even though she wears a mask of indifference. 

“Why, you think I cannot get close to him?” he says after noticing her insouciant expression. 

Heidi’s lips curl down as she sways her head to the sides in a way of a shrug.

“Watch me.” Zavere starts toward the hall before Heidi’s voice stops him.

“I’ll…I’ll take the coat.” 

“Good choice.” He tries to drape the jacket over her shoulders, but she snatches it from his hands. 

“I can do it myself, thank you,” she snaps. 

“You know, you should try to relax a bit. It’s exhausting with all that tension.” 

“Well, save your advice for the one who caused it in the first place,” Heidi retorts while eyeing the man who won’t stop looking at her with that wolfish grin.

“Now, off you go. Shoo!” She waves her hand dismissively, and Zavere huffs before disappearing into the hall. 

She watches through the open doors and glass windows as he weaves through the crowd to where Hunter sits.

Then she sees him pat Hunter’s shoulder, and the latter responds by crossing his arm to Zavere’s back, stroking his waist in a friendly manner. 

Heidi catches the smile across Hunter’s face as he clinks glasses with Zavere before the latter leans in to whisper something in his ear. 

She doesn’t have the chance to ponder the nature of their relationship before she hears someone sniffing behind her. 

“Hm... smells good,” Saturn’s voice drifts in with a slur, and Heidi wishes the music were louder. “How do you keep grabbing good-looking guys for yourself?”

“Maybe because I don’t have a toxic, stinking trait?” Heidi replies without looking back. “Try washing off some attitude, it helps.”

“You’re one to speak.” Saturn stumbles forward and Heidi catches her before she can fall. The girl gives off a sheepish grin, insobriety dancing in her eyes. “You were literally stinking aaallll the… way from where I stood before you had this jacket.”

She finds her balance and jabs a lazy finger into Heidi’s shoulder.

“I love my attitude just the way it is. Thank you.” Saturn makes to leave, but stops and sluggishly turns back. “By the way, why are you out here?”

“Was kicked out by your kind,” Heidi snaps as she looks away from Saturn to see Hunter sitting alone again.

Zavere has vanished from sight.

“Good. I was beginning to wonder when they’d finally do that. Have a nice time here with your non-stinking, non-toxic trait.” Saturn stumbles towards the road. “Morton, with me!” she yells.

“Can you not see that I’m with friends, Saturn?” Morton’s voice booms back from the roadside.

“Well, ditch ‘em. I need you inside to hold my arm.”

Morton’s friends split their sides laughing.

“Fuck off! Find your boy toy, dude. Hey, you too.” Heidi knows the last call is for her. She flips Morton off. “If you do that again, bitch, I might just have you buried in the snow!” he bellows, but she ignores him while walking away.

Zavere hasn’t seemed to be much help. So, Heidi cooks up another plan—a rather punishable one. 

She notices one of Hunter’s guards, a female, leaning against the wall and smoking. 

Then she decides to lure the guard to a secluded spot, knock her out, and steal her uniform. 

The plan isn’t foolproof, but Heidi knows she has to try.

It makes her regret even more for not taking her combat training seriously over the past six years. 

Zipping up her jacket, she searches for a piece of rock and tucks it underneath, leaving her hands with it. 

“Hey,” she calls as she approaches the guard, who looks at her without a reply. “The Whites prepared a treat for all the guards behind the building. I was asked to bring you.” 

Heidi knows that the lie is sloppy, judging from how the lady eyes her skeptically with her gaze sweeping from her head to her feet. 

Puffing smoke and glancing around to find the other guards in their stations, the lady returns a questioning stare to Heidi, who waves dismissively. 

“Oh, it’s done in batches. All the guards can’t leave their posts at once.”

Hopefully, this is convincing—or so Heidi thinks. 

The guard nods reluctantly and crushes her cigarette into the snow. She pushes herself off the wall and gestures for Heidi to lead. 

“After you,” she mutters. 

Heidi takes the guard around the back of the house, where the snow-covered fields give way to frosty woods.

Snow crunches under their feet, leaving a trail of blackened footprints in their wake. 

Dad Griffin made sure to light this part of the valley, especially for Hunter’s birthday. But the once lush woods barely caught the light. 

After a few minutes of walking, the guard suddenly stops and looks back at the long trail they left.

“Are you leading me to the mountains, girl?” she asks harshly. 

Heidi stops and turns to face her.

The woods are just ahead, but she needs to get the guard inside them.

Yet, watching the woman’s paranoid expression, Heidi sees the next few minutes flash before her—minutes that only luck can change. 

She realizes that she might have bitten off more than she can chew. This isn’t even the best choice she could have made.

Whereas she stands a hundred and sixty centimeters tall, this woman towers over six feet. Plus, she’s well-trained. 

Heidi zips her head in all directions before stealing to the woman’s side.

“I was asked to get you around here,” she mumbles, sliding the rock from under her clothes. “This is what I do for love,” she sighs before swinging the rock at the back of the guard’s head. 

The latter crumples to the ground. A smirk plays on Heidi’s lips.

“That was easy,” she mutters while watching the woman’s unconscious form. 

Heidi can’t figure out how the rest of her plan will go.

All she knows is that she is supposed to wear the woman’s uniform, but can she do that in such open vastness around her? 

After ensuring no one is watching, Heidi grabs the guard by the forearms and drags her towards a large boulder.

Grunting and breathless, she moves the woman across the snow and props her heavy body against the stone, holding her in place. 

As Heidi reaches for the fasteners on the guard’s bulletproof vest, strong hands suddenly grip her nape and her wrists. 

Her eyes widen in shock, horrified when she realizes the guard has regained consciousness.

She tries to free her hands, but the woman’s own that holds her two wrists together is too powerful.

She sneers, “Guards’ treats, huh?” 

“Fuck!” Heidi curses, just before the woman slams her forehead against the boulder. The impact renders her unconscious on the guard’s body. 

“Whose child is this anyway?” she mumbles while pushing Heidi’s limp body back into the snow. “Nearly bruised my damn head too!” 

She hoists the girl over her shoulder, leaving Zavere’s jacket behind. 

When she arrives at the hall, she signals one of Hunter’s men to come forward.

“The boss needs to see this. I’ve been watching her try to get near him for a while now,” she says, nodding toward Heidi’s butt. 

The man disappears into the hall while the female guard drops Heidi’s unconscious form in the snow. 

Hunter emerges from the hall moments later with Dad Tad trailing behind him. 

He crouches beside Heidi’s body and peers at the small abrasion on her forehead, then touches it with his index finger, his gaze darkening when he sees blood. 

Rising to his full height, he turns to the guard. 

He exudes an airy demeanor, also fatal, as he approaches her. Yet she stands her ground.

“What did you do?” Hunter speaks through clenched teeth, his voice low and eyes brooding. 

His tone causes the woman’s composure to shatter.

As she watches Hunter near her with the murderous glint in his eyes, her legs involuntarily begin to shift back.

“She… she attacked me first. She’s b–been spying on you,” she stutters as fear steals her expression. 

Hunter nods stiffly. “Do you know who she is?” 

The guard shakes her head. Panic set in.

Without warning, Hunter covers the remaining space between them, reaches for her, and clamps his thumb and index finger on her throat. 

She chokes, her hands grasping at his wrist. But no matter the pressure she adds on the man’s hand, it doesn’t seem to affect him. 

Dad Tad, who wanted to intervene before Hunter attacked the guard, immediately retreats to the hall, walking past Zavere who approaches.

The latter stands facing Hunter’s side profile, his hands in his pockets. 

“That woman belongs to me,” Hunter growls. “No one touches her.” 

The guard nods frantically. Yet, Hunter doesn’t loosen his grip.

Instead, he lifts her off the ground, her feet dangling under her as she struggles to breathe. 

“She understood you, Hunter,” Zavere tells the man calmly. But he doesn’t seem like he’s about to let her go.

He stares at Zavere with a deadpan face. Then, without a word, his fingers twist, breaking her neck with a snap. He lets her lifeless body drop to the ground. 

Zavere releases a soft sigh before he turns to walk away.

“Zavere,” Hunter calls, and he stops without looking back. “Clear any footage of this.” 

Zavere silently continues walking. 

He passes by Dad Griffin, who watches with a proud gleam in his eyes as Hunter lifts Heidi's body bridal style and heads for another entrance that isn’t the hall’s.