Silence filled the room, besides the quiet radio. But even though it was quiet, it still felt deafening.

My eyes wanted to turn glossy and red - but I didn't let them.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nearly whispered, "W-what is this?"

"It's a semi-automatic pistol," he said the type of gun that was in his hand while looking at it with an admired look. "Not the best around, but it's pretty good."

He moved his blue eyes away from the gun, to look at mine again. It made chills form on my skin as if I were standing in a snowstorm.

"But it'll be good enough to make a pretty heart like yours stop beating."

My throat burned. My hands shook. I felt frozen.

I slowly moved my eyes to look at the clock, my body not moving at all as I did so. Nobody else was going to come in, I'm sure of that. Nobody is buying flowers at this time.

Nico was the only person coming here, and he wouldn't be here for another 20 minutes.

But I might not be able to wait 20 minutes, because sometimes, even one minute can cost you your life.

He gestured his head towards the cash register, "Why don't you go ahead and empty that out for me, pretty."

Him calling me pretty made me cringe. I felt physically sick. I took a deep breath, trying to control my trembling hands as I opened the cash register.

As I took all of the bills out, I asked with a shaky voice, "You're just doing this for the money?"

Which was my way of asking, Are you going to kill me?

"Originally. I like to scope places out before I rob them. Get an idea of the security, how busy it is at what times, that sort of thing," he replied casually as if he were doing something normal. "But you are very beautiful, Elle. It's rare to meet somebody with a beauty like yours."

I ignored his compliment and slid the stack of bills across the counter for him to take. I avoided his eyes, watching him grab the stack of cash and put it into his jacket pocket while he kept the gun pointing at me.

My eyes remained on the counter as I almost whispered, "Is that all?"

"Why don't you look at me, darling," he spoke, but it sounded like a demand.

It took me a second before I slowly moved my eyes up to meet his. Once my eyes locked on his, I felt my blood boil a little seeing the expression on his face. He smirked, creating lines on his cheeks. He looked me up and down, which made me shift my weight from foot to foot.

"Now come around the counter," he ordered, but his voice was even.

I didn't move. Half of the reason why was because I felt frozen, and the other half was because I didn't want to be near him.

The cold metal of the gun suddenly dug into the skin on my forehead. I shut my eyes tightly, and this time he spoke loudly, "Now."

My legs shook as I stayed still. His jaw tightened as anger filled his eyes.

He nodded, "Okay."

He removed the gun from my forehead, and I let out a breath of relief. But the feeling of being relieved didn't last long, since he casually started walking around the counter.

I turned my body in the direction of him as he walked toward me. He only stopped once he was directly in front of me, and we were so close that we were nearly touching.

"Sorry I did this," he spoke unapologetically. "Come back to my house with me, and I'll make it up to you?"

I nearly scoffed. He noticed this, and his nostrils flared as he spat, "Don't give me that fucking look. That was me asking nicely. Make me ask again, and I won't be so nice next time."

A threat. One laced with venom. My intrusive thoughts made me want to reply, 'I don't fucking care.'

"I don't fucking care," I blurted, and the second that the words left my mouth, my heart pounded even louder than before.

The angry look remained on his face, but after a few moments, he started to laugh.

"You know what I like about you, Elle?" he spoke, but I didn't respond. That didn't seem to keep him from continuing to speak anyways. "You may be beautiful, but I like your personality, too. You're sweet. I find it very admirable how much you do for your grandparents without them even noticing."

My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. He continued, "I've been watching you, my sweet. You mop the floors for them and sweep once they go home, you clean the windows, you organize everything for them. From what I've seen, they haven't thanked you for any of this."

My ears started to ring for a moment until it all became white noise.

He has been watching me.

"Now, Elle," his voice reached my ears. "Come back home with me and do these things, and I will thank you for it."

I could feel my lips part slightly.

Either go back to his house with him and be at his psychotic mercy, or put up a fight. He has a gun - I'm not really sure how I can defend myself against that. So I made my decision.

"Okay," my voice was nearly a whisper.

This made a smile form on his face. He nodded, and used his gun to gesture towards the radio, "Turn that thing off and turn the lights off, then we can go."

I swallowed my saliva, giving him a small nod.

My body was still shaking as I turned my back. Part of me worried that he would shoot me while I wasn't looking, so I made my steps toward the radio quick. I unplugged it, the room now falling completely silent since there was no music.

I turned back around, and his eyes were still on me. Well, my chest.

"Beautiful dress," he praised as I walked back over to him.

I forced a smile as I walked past him. A hard slap to my ass made me gasp, and his laughter filled the store despite me clearly not finding it funny.

I clenched my teeth as we walked to the door. I flipped off the light switches, the white glow and noise that came from them now gone. I shivered from being in the dark, then shivered again realizing that I was in the dark with a man with a gun.

I pressed my palms against the glass door, the wind whipping my hand around for a moment. I could feel him walking behind me, but I paused once I realized I didn't know where we were going.

"Cars this way," he said, making me turn. "Hope you like Teslas."

Oh wow, so much. He knows me so well.

I followed him down the street, my brown eyes frantically looking around for anybody to be walking outside. I guess he noticed this because he abruptly grabbed my upper arm with enough force to leave a bruise tomorrow.

He leaned down and whispered in my ear, "One noise out of that pretty mouth of yours, and you'll regret it."

My face clearly showed the pain he was causing me, but he didn't care. It didn't take long until a while Tesla came into view, and he started walking toward it.

I overthought my every move. There were only about 10 seconds that went by before we were at the passengers' side door, but it felt like days.

This has to work.

I'm not getting in his fucking car. I'll put up a fight - even if it costs me my life.

"Do you think your boyfriend will even notice that you're gone?" he spoke up as he opened the door for me.

His words made me pause. I moved my eyes to meet his, the deep blue shade filled with the reflection of the moon.

I nodded, "Of course he will."

"Are you sure about that?" he said while placing his hand against the car and leaning against it. "If he really cared about you, he would be here right now."

"He's at work," I defended him.

"And what does he do, exactly?"

"Not this," I gestured to him, and then me.

He just stared at me. I started to feel uncomfortable by how long the silence went on for, but then he made a small 'hm' sound.

"Show me what he does, then."

A heavy weight lifted off of my chest. If I take him to the tattoo parlor, Nico will see me and help me. I'd get to go home, and call the police on this guy. I won't have to put up a fight, and I won't die.

"Gladly," I said while sitting in the car.

I didn't put my seatbelt on so that I could jump out faster if I needed to. He locked the door instantly once it was shut before rounding it and sitting in the drivers' seat.

I started to tell him which roads to turn on to get to the tattoo parlor. I bit my bottom lip to stop the smile from forming on my face. Nico will see me as we stop outside.

It felt like Christmas once we finally turned onto the road. We started to get closer and closer to the parlor, and my heart rate started to increase out of happiness.

He braked in front of it since there were no cars behind us. My eyebrows lowered, and I felt my heart drop in my chest.

It was black inside. Not a single light on. The sign was flipped to say 'Closed' and my eyes instantly became watery.

He wasn't here.

"Shitty parlor," was all he said before starting to drive again.

My eyes were filled with water as I remained looking out of the window. My bottom lip trembled, and I started thinking of everything I could do.

Hot tears slid down my cheeks as I turned to look at him. He was driving casually, tapping his finger against the steering wheel.

"Are you going to hurt me?" I stupidly asked as my cheeks were now damp.

He looked away from the road to look at me. There wasn't an ounce of humanity in his eyes. He nodded, "Yes."

My already broken heart just further shattered.

"But don't worry, Elle," he looked back at the road. "You'll learn to like it."

The tears continued to silently slide down my cheeks. My vision was blurred from them, and it felt like I was struggling to breathe from my anxiety.

Panic filled me seeing that he was heading in the direction of the highway. Adrenaline suddenly started pumping through me, realizing that I needed to do something.

I didn't want to be a victim.

Without giving it a single thought, I reached across the seat and grabbed the steering wheel. My intentions were to crash the car, and hope that I didn't die in the process.

But I overestimated my strength. He started turning the wheel in the opposite direction that I was, making the car swerve back and forth on the road. The tires screeched against the road, until he hit my arm with enough strength to made me pull away.

He opened his mouth to start screaming at me, when blue and red lights flashed from behind us.

"Fuck. Now look what you've fucking done," he cursed while starting to pull over for the police officer behind us. "Say anything, and this gun will no longer be in my pocket. Both you and this cop will die."

I sniffled as the police stopped a good distance behind us. I tried to control my breathing as I watched him get out of his car in the rearview mirror.

Once he was beside the car, he knocked on the window. He rolled it down for him, and I winced from the bright flashlight that the officer shined in the car.

"You know why I pulled you over?" the officer asked.

The man smiled charmingly, "No idea, sir."

"Well for one, that swerving you were doing. And for two, I'm wondering why your license plate is from Arizona."

"That's where I'm from, Sir. And my apologies about the swerving, was just trying to make my girlfriend laugh," he said while grabbing onto my hand.

The flashlight shined directly on me. The officer asked, "Have you been crying, miss?"

"You know women," he spoke for me.

The officer didn't look impressed with his response. He asked him, "Can I see some license and registration?"

"I don't have it on me right now, I'm so sorry."

The officer looked him up and down. He asked him, "Any ID with you?"

He sat up in his seat, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. He pulled out a card and handed it to him, and the officer looked at it carefully.

He then nodded. I was expecting him to hand it back after, but instead, he ordered, "Get out of the car for me."

"What? Why?"

"Because, Adrian Ricci. Your plate is registered to somebody else, from Arizona."

I almost laughed. A smile spread across my face, and Adrians' face dropped.

Adrian opened his mouth to say something, but the cop cut him off by opening the door. He pointed his gun at him and said, "Out of the car and away from the girl, now."

I knew that there was a gun in Adrian's pocket. I watched him carefully, not sure if he was going to pull it out or not.

But he didn't - probably since the officer had one pointed at him.

Adrian muttered a string of curse words while getting out of the car. I got out, too, watching as the officer patted Adrian down.

"Well, what's this?" the officer said while pulling the gun out of his pocket. "You got a license for this?"

The look on his face told me that he didn't.

My heart pounded in my chest seeing the officer cuff him. He ordered for me to stay there while he walked him back to his cop car.

He put Adrian in the back, and made his way back over to me.

I started explaining everything to him. I told him about the robbery, and how I got in because he had a gun. He wrote down everything I said, even though I was talking at a pace of a million words per minute.

After I was done, he asked me, "Are you injured?"

I shook my head no.

"Do you have anybody you can call?" he asked, but my phone was still at the flower shop. Once I shook my head and told him that I didn't have my phone, he gave me his.

Rio, Romeo, my parents, Winter. They were all options, but they were nothing compared to Nico.

Not even a ring went by before he picked up. He spoke quickly, "Elle? Where are you? Are you okay? I'm at the flower shop and you aren't-"

"I'll explain everything to you in person. Can you please come pick me up?" I asked, and once he said yes, I gave him the address of the road we were on.

I handed the officer his phone back, and he stood with me while he waited for Nico. It didn't take long until a pair of headlights shined in the distance, and Nicos' familiar car braked beside me.

He ran out, leaving the drivers' side door open. He looked at me with so much worry as he scanned me up and down, "Are you okay?"

I nodded and threw my arms around him. He held me close to him as he lifted me off of the ground, and I relaxed once I was in his arms. His cologne filled my nose as I buried my face into the crook of his neck.

As the officer walked back to his car, Nico set me back down on the ground. I opened my mouth to tell him what happened, but he cut me off, "Don't explain anything to me right now - let me just take you home where you feel safe."

He held onto my hand until I was sitting in the passengers' seat, and he grabbed it again once he started driving.

He held my hand comfortingly while we drove. I leaned my head against his arm, and he let me. I started to think of how I was going to tell the story to him, getting lost in my own thoughts until we pulled into the driveway.

He waited to move until I did, like he wanted to go at my pace. He walked behind me and followed me inside, and then up the stairs.

I sat down on the bed, my hands still shaking from the experience.

Nico gently crouched down in front of me, putting his hands on my knees as he looked up at me.

"Don't explain anything to me until you're okay," his hands rubbed up and down my knees. "Lets breathe together."

He started counting, telling me when to inhale and exhale. We did this for a few minutes until my hands stopped shaking.

I stared down at my now still hands. I looked back up at him and asked, "Why are you so nice to me?"

"Because I fucking love you, Elle. That's why," he spoke with nothing but honesty lacing his tone.

My eyes widened. My heart and stomach warmed, and my lips parted in surprise. The sentence echoed in my head over and over again.

"I don't know if you love me, Elle," he continued. "I don't know if you even want to fall in love. But if you do, I'm praying, please let it be with me."

Love circled around in his green eyes. My heart felt a million times bigger than usual. I felt at a loss for words taking in what he just told me.

He loves me.

I put my hands on the sides of his face. My thumbs brush up and down against his cheeks, and even though I felt speechless, there was one thing that I knew I could say.

"I love you, Nico."