Chapter Four

My eyelids flung open just in time to watch Julian wink at me. He slowly retracted the cold gun from under my shirt, before stepping away and exposing me to my boss.

God, it was really him.

I watched Mr. Alexander speechlessly, as he glared at Julian. He still wore his gloves, but no longer had on his hoodie or bandanna. Instead, he wore a red long-sleeved shirt; rolled up to his elbows, paired with casual black jeans.

When he finally turned his attention to me, my body instantly stiffened under his cold, ruthless gaze. We continued to scrutinize each other until I cringed, when the sound I'd been dreading to hear, rang through my heavily alerted ears. A sound, which by the way, I hadn't realized I hated until that milli-second. Yes, it was the horrifically gut wrenching sound of a closed door.

This was it, people, my end had finally arrived. The notorious Garza front men, all in the same room with their next victim. Me!

As Mr. Alexander strode closer, I bit my trembling lips. Was it possible for a heart to stop working? Yes, yes, definitely. Mine just did.

His clear-blue eyes slowly scanned me from top to bottom, lingering on my bra for a while, before looking into my tear-stained eyes. I literally couldn't tell if he was angry I saw his face, or happy he had someone else to kill. There was no emotion in his eyes. Nada. Nothing. Nix, I tell you.

"Please, sir, please! I won't tell anyone about this," I promised, shaking my head harshly.

As his arms stretched forward to strangle me, I screamed and closed my eyes, expecting his large hands around my neck any second.

Nothing.

I waited.

Nothing.

And waited...

Nothing.

Hmm... maybe being strangled wasn't as painful as I thought. I couldn't feel a thing... literally. This was good. Peaceful, rather. All that interrupted my moment of silence, was a faint clicking noises. Otherwise, everything else was...

Wait... faint clicking noise? I recognized that faint clicking noise! In fact, I heard it this morning.

When I opened my eyes, it immediately landed on Mr. Alexander's raven hair. I peeked to see what he was doing with my buttons, but his large frame hovering over me, covered the movements of his hands.

"Mr. Alexander, please," I cried. "I bet a lot of women fall at your feet willingly. You don't have to do this."

Silence. Silence was all he responded with!

Just like Julian, my pleads didn't seem to faze or stop what he was doing.

Just like Julian, he ignored me.

Just like fricking Julian, he simply didn't care what his actions did to me!

"You should be ashamed of yourself for sexually assaulting a defenseless woman!" I spat, gaining silent laughter from him. How sadistic! If only the rope were loose enough for my legs to kick his chest.

"So, if you weren't defenseless, this would be a fair fight?"

"Free me and we'll find out."

"Cute," he looked up, finally giving me the opportunity to catch glimpse of his hands. Hands,which were about to do unspeakable things to my...

Wait, that couldn't be right...

He was... Re-hooking my buttons? Huh.

I wonder if falsely accusing him of boob-assault would contribute to my death.

I frowned at his long fingers as it easily connected the last one, before he stood up again.

God, he was tall.

Keeping his cold eyes on me, Mr. Alexander stretched his hands towards Julian, who in response handed him the gun. Immediately, my body shivered, even though, the AC had been on ever since I was carried in.

"This gun has one bullet left. It might or might not be on the trigger center," Mr Alexander explained casually, walking closer to me. "So this is what's gonna happen; I'm going to ask you two simple questions. If you decide to risk your life by lying to me, this gun might or might not blow your brains all over this carpet."

I swallowed hard, registering the wicked threat behind his words.

"Do you understand?" he asked, still with a surprisingly calm tone.

"Is-is there any o-other option?"

Without a word...

Crick Crick

...he raked his gun and positioned it on my head.

So no, there was no other option.

"Who the hell are you and which f*cking imbecile do you work for?"

I sat patiently, waiting for him to burst out laughing. In fact, I expected all of them to burst out into mean, hysterical heaps of laughter. Hence, I continued to stare...

And stare...

And stare...

But to my horrific surprise, none of them did. He was actually being serious! Lord have mercy.

When I heard a short laugh, my eyes roamed in search of the person who also found the question humorous. However, when the barrel of Mr. Alexander's gun pressed harder on my forehead, I quickly realized it was me, world. I chuckled. The female idiot, with the loaded gun positioned on her head. "Do you think you're in Disney world with a f*cking cartoon character, holding a f*cking water gun?"

I shook my head vigorously as an answer. "But I wish you were," I thought to myself.

"Excuse me?"

God help my stupid mouth. Did I say that out loud?

I slowly looked into his eyes again. They were flaming with anger. And by flaming, I mean if he were actually an animation, smoke would be rearing out of his ears. So yeah, it was officially confirmed; I told Roman- The Wolf -Alexander, I wished he were a stuffed animal.

To his face...

So you know what god, don't help the stupid thing; take my mouth away if you can.

I needed to proceed with caution from now on. I was hanging on a thin rope. I knew it. He knew. Everyone in the fricking room knew it. It was evident in their smug faces. So how the hell was I supposed to answer his question? It was literally, a double edged sword:

I would be calling the man with a gun to my head, a "f*cking imbecile," if I answered honestly and if I answered dishonestly, I would surely receive a bullet and go to heaven.

Or hell.

"Heaven..." I countered the voice in my head calmly. I needed hope right now.

"You sir, I-I work for you. Your co-company." His eyes narrowed an inch, as he took a step closer. And closer. And closer. Oh, god. "But, sir, for what it's w-worth, I don't think you're an imbecile," I added quickly. But judging by the scowl on his face and the deeper frown of his thick eyebrows, that little addition was not appreciated. "Sir, calling you an imbecile would be like calling you a halfwit, dufus or nincoompoop."

"Are you for real, woman? Do you have a death wish?"

"No sir, that's not what I meant! What I meant to imply was; you're none of the above, sir. You just didn't know I worked for you. So calling yourself an imbecile wasn't your intention."

Oh, god, Eliyanna. Shut up, now!

"You trying to be smart?" He used the edge of the gun to tilt my head upward. "If I were you, I wouldn't be."

I shook my head again.

"No, sir, I work for you!" My lower lip trembled mid-sentence, so I bit it hard to make it stop, before continuing, "I'm a new finance trainee. My-my name is Ellie-Eliya-Eliyanna. I was sent over by Alfred, my supervisor, to bring over your docu-documents."

"Where is the file?" he asked and I froze. Shít, shít, shít!

It was in my bag, which meant; it fell in the pool, which meant; it probably got ruined, which meant; I was definitely gonna die today!

What if it was an original or only copy?

"Oh God. Oh God," I chanted quietly, before looking up at his blurry face. "It fell w-when I ran. I'm sorry."

Silence.

"It was a mistake, I swear. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," I cried out, unable to keep my voice from cracking, or my mental state from falling apart.

Silence.

"I'm s-sorry." Tired.... I was so tired.

Moments later, his gun pulled from under my chin. I opened my lazy eyes, just in time to watch him move away. "Bloody hell," he sighed deeply in frustration.

This couldn't be happening.

*Hiccup*

It had to be a nightmare.

*Hiccup*

It had to be...

"How did you get in?" Mr Alexander finally asked.

"I-the-the gate-man..."

Before I could finish my explanation, he slapped his hand on his forehead, and slowly dragged it down his face. "When the f*ck did Hector return, Julian?" he asked, turning to face the blonde man.

"An hour ago," Julian replied.

"Why didn't you f*cking tell him what was going on here? I asked you to keep him on alert."

"I thought you were finally gonna fire him. That old shit was busy f*cking around with Louise, instead of doing his job. It was because of him," Julian pointed at the dead men. "These idiots got in here. He should have been watching the f*cking mansion, especially today."

In a blink of an eye, Roman strode toward the blonde. "Like you were f*cking supposed to do?" he barked, raking his gun as he got closer. But before he could position on it on Julian's head, the third masked-man hurriedly stood between them. He slowly held up his hand as if taming a wild bull, while a wicked glimmer shone in Mr. Alexander's eyes. "Get the fuck out of my way, Nic."

"Steady, Wolf, you're seeing red right now," Nic replied, cautionary.

"No, no, no!" Julian chanted.

"Hush!" Nic warned him.

"I didn't know she came home today," he continued absentmindedly, with a horrid look on his face.

"Shut the f*ck up." Mr. Alexander warned, disheveling his hair with his hand.

"You know I love her. I'd never put her in danger."

"I said, shut the f*ck up!" he barked again, shoving Nic to the side. When he neared Julian, he grabbed him by the shirt with one hand, and pinned him against the wall. "I'm up to here with you," he explained, using the gun to tap the middle of his forehead. "If I boil over, we both know what will happen. None of us want that sh*t."

"I know," Julian breathed out. Mr. Alexander's nose to immediately scrunched up.

"Are you drunk?"

"No."

"Are you drunk?" he repeated.

"Yeah, maybe a little bit.."

"Meaning you drank the whole f*cking bar, Julian," he shoved him to the side. "Do you think I'm stupid? God!" After turning his watch thrice to the left, Mr. alexander closed his eyes as if performing a calming mechanism, before facing a distraught Julian. "Don't ever do that sh*t again."

"Which?"

"Both."

Julian nodded. "Is she-"

"She's fine." After exhaling a huge breathe, Julians shoulders sagged with relief. "Bring my laptop," continued Mr. Alexander. "And Cameron get Eliyanna's bag."

After a couple of minutes, Julian walked in holding a RomeTech laptop, followed by Cameron, who held my soaked handbag and hair tie. All four of them sat around the table, while the other twelve men stood around doing nothing.

"Last name?" Mr. Alexander asked, clicking away on his laptop.

"Holland," I quickly answered. "Eliyanna Nicole Holland."

His head immediately snapped up upon hearing my name. It might have been the distance or mere hallucination, but I could have sworn something flashed in his eyes. As quickly as it came though, it disappeared and was soon replaced with an unreadable expression. Maybe, he recognized me from the list of trainees, personally chosen to work for RomeTech. I looked back at my feet, finally breaking eye contact and hoping doing so, would divert his intense scrutiny and permanently scowled-face back to his research.

"Keep it together Eliya." *Hiccup.*

Fifteen minutes later, they were done with their research. When all four of them turned their attention to me, I tried my best to stay still. Even the slightest movement caused the rugged wool to harshly dig into my sensitive skin. Uncomfortable, was a understatement compared to how I felt. I just wanted to go home and pretend this never happened.

The Garza Front Men debated with each other, while Mr. Alexander leaned on his chair, with a lit cigarette hanging on his lips. It was as if they were the lawyers, and he, the judge and executioner.

I continued to sneak glances at them, keeping my ears on heavy alert. It had been fifteen minutes straight and I hadn't heard a word until... "I think we should crook her. She's seen too much."

My eyes widened as I stared at the man who uttered those heart stopping words. Literally. I felt my heart stop for a second. Then...

Boom, boom...

Boom, boom...

Boom, boom...

This was exactly how it went down before they shot those guys. They stood debating for a while, then BANG! The horrendous images of that scene immediately played in my head again, causing my throat to instantly tighten up. I couldn't breathe, feel, or see anything. "No... please!" Their blurry figures turned toward my direction.

Like deja'vu, I felt like a fish out of water. My lips immediately parted and instinctively, I began gasping for air for the second time today. Again though, it was no use.

"Hey, breathe." Mr. Alexander's figure strode towards me as I slipped in and out of consciousness. As the rope loosened around my body, my head went into spin mood. I wanted to scream, but no words came out. Then, I wanted to cry, but my tears were finished for the night.

"Breathe," he repeated again, lifting me from the chair, however, I stumbled in a pathetic attempt to stand straight. Desperately, I tried to keep my eyes open, but unfortunately, they failed to comply. When I couldn't keep my balance anymore, my legs melted under me. Instantly, I felt a pair of arms circle my waist, holding me up seconds before my body connected with the floor.

Mr. Alexander effortlessly swept me off my feet and my arms instantly flung around his neck, clinging tightly. With my head suddenly feeling like a thousand pounds, I had no choice but to rest it on his chest.

"Ms. Holland open your eyes... Eliyanna!" His deep voice sounded distant but his cold authoritative tone was still present. As if, if he commanded enough, my fainting would stop.

I could feel it coming. The unconsciousness, I mean. Yet still, my eyes opened, allowing my vision to adjust to his face.

I continued to fight my body, however, staying vulnerable to them seemed to be an inevitable option. My heavy eyelids struggled to shield me from gloom no matter how hard I tried. As my vision adjusted to his face, we locked eyes again. A single tear rolled down my right cheek and I silently begged him. Begged him with all my soul, to let me live tonight.

But at that moment, between darkness and light, there was no denying it. That was it for me. I might never wake up again.

A/N
Hey cookies and cupcakes! A lot has happened in this chapter.

For one;
Who is the "she" Julian was rambling about? It seemed to faze Roman a lot, didn't it? Hmmm...

Was that really recognition in Roman's eyes, when Eliyanna told him, her full name? Or was it just in her head?

What do you think will happen to poor Eliyanna? She's had such a rough, first day. *cries*

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I wrote this faster than the previous chapters, so it's not exactly my best. If you still liked it, please consider giving it a vote or comment. It would seriously mean the world. :)

Updates will be on Saturdays and occasionally Wednesdays.

Xoxo. Tima.