I blinked. Once. Twice. Then, out of shock, I began to laugh.

"What?" I was frozen at the door. "Say that again?"

"Marry me," he enunciated slowly. "Yes? Or no?"

Appalled, my mouth dropped open. "Of course no!"

Alexander started stepping towards the door. "I know a great safe house very far away from here."

"Wait." I widened my eyes. "That's it? It's either I agree or nothing?"

I cringed. "Are you absolutely sure you want me to marry you? Me? Of all people?" I pointed at myself. "Me?!"

He ignored me and walked out of my bedroom, leaving me confused.

I chased after him and saw that he was already halfway down the stairs.

"Why not just let me go?" Recovering from the shock, I spat out distastefully at him.

He immediately paused, but then continued on descending the stairs. "Both your parents and mine would probably kill me if they knew I let you go do something stupid."

I rubbed my forehead, suddenly feeling that this conversation was sucking the energy out of me. "My life, my choices."

He turned his head slightly and raised an eyebrow a fraction. "You tell them that."

By now, he was at the front door and had his hand on the doorknob.

Weighing my choices, knowing they were extremely limited and that I had to make a decision soon, I ran towards him and grabbed his elbow.

"Why? Why marriage?" I questioned quickly, immensely curious as to what possessed him to ask of that from me.

When he turned around to face me, I squared my shoulders and confidently confronted him. Alexander stared into my eyes then glanced lower for a second before he returned his gaze back on my face.

"If you tell me why you wear it, I'll tell you." I knew he had looked at what I always wore on my neck after I came back home. My body tensed and my grip tightened on his elbow.

Closing my eyes for a second to calm myself, I tried to erase all emotions from my face but it didn't work.

My voice quieted, the defiance leaving me when I remembered why I wore this around my neck. "You drive a hard bargain."

He put his other hand on top of my hand, the one that was gripping his elbow in a tight grasp, engulfing mine. I felt the warmth of his hand penetrate my cold one as he tightened his hold around mine and peeled my hand off of him. Alexander dropped my hand immediately after he had freed himself from me.

"It seems you got one up on me," I said mostly to myself as I gave a quiet huff of laughter in utter dread.

Alexander didn't wait for my answer as he opened the door.

"Yes." Looking away, feeling absolutely defeated, I ran my fingers through my still damp hair. "I'll take it."

I didn't hear anything else other than an order from him. "Pack what you need. You'll be staying with me."

I looked at him and frowned. Then, I saw the blank mask he always had on him fall and he looked tired.

"You can't stay here anymore."

Knowing he was right and that the location of my house was compromised, I didn't argue. For the first time, I obediently listened to him and went upstairs to pack my things.

*

I walked down with a medium sized suitcase with only the most necessarily needs packed in it. In my other hand, I held the large rectangular case that seemed to resemble an instrument case.

Alexander eyed the dark grey case questionably but didn't say anything so I didn't bother telling him what it was. We both went out and I locked the doors, looking at my house and feeling wistful. During all the years I've lived here with my parents, no threats came all the way to our home and I guess my parents truly tried hard to prevent that as well. I wondered how everything could change so quickly.

I slid my things into the trunk of the car and made sure everything was secure before I closed the door. Upon shutting the door shut, I saw that Alexander was standing quite close to me, eyeing me carefully.

Feeling unnerved from his scrutinizing gaze, I snarled at him. "What?"

Without saying anything, he quickly tugged me into his arms, firmly holding me to his chest. I felt him gently place his head on top of mine and heard him sigh softly. Just like that, all I could feel was the warmth of his body slowly soaking into mine, keeping me safe and shielding me away from the bitter morning breeze.

My breathing stopped. Absolutely confused by his uncharacteristic behavior, I limply stood still. "Don't touch me."

Alexander didn't let me go, instead, he tightened his brawny arms around me and pulled me closer to his hard chest. His scent flooded my nose and I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm wash over me.

I didn't know how long we stood there but he soon slowly let me go.

"Were you hurt?" His voice was brisk and distant but when I stared into his eyes, they showed a lot more emotions than he let on. Genuine concern was in his eyes and I didn't want to see that from him.

I pushed him away from me and this time, he stepped back. "Perfectly fine." I answered back, equally as sharp and crisp, then I quickly walked to the passenger side and got in the car.

Alexander had gotten in a few moments later and we reversed out of the driveway.

Not even a few minutes later, Alexander's phone rang and he clicked a button on the steering wheel.

"Go," he answered.

"Got them all and they're being taken to headquarters. Forensics are coming by to check up in half an hour. Anything else?" I heard Victor inform Alexander of the situation.

"Meeting at eight. Everyone."

I could literally hear the frown in Victor's voice. "Oh, come on. When I said 'I'll see you tomorrow', I actually meant after twenty-four hours, not today after the sun comes up."

"Two hours." Alexander's tone was clipped.

"Fine. I'll see you in two hours," Victor grumbled then quickly hung up.

It was silent for a while after that but I was the one that broke it.

"I have some rules, too," I told him while looking out the passenger seat window. "I get my own room."

"That's fine," he started. "We need to convince my mother."

I snapped my head in his direction, staring at him horrified. "Are you trying to set us up for failure from the beginning? Here I thought agreeing to marry you was the hardest part."

He continued facing the road and didn't bother to answer me so I continued.

"Convincing your mother is going to be impossible. I still remember the time I snatched one of your mom's homemade cookies that were cooling on the racks when I was six and told her I wasn't the one who ate it." I felt goosebumps rise on my arms. "She's a terrifyingly fierce woman when she's lied to. I cried for a solid week and promised not to do that again. I'm not going through that again for you."

"Not to mention, she's terribly good at reading us." I added as I frowned.

"You have your condition, I have mine." With that one sentence, our conversation ended.

Upon remembering why I was doing all of this in the first place, I stared back outside feeling sorrow seep into my veins.

"Red," I began quietly. He didn't answer, but I knew that he heard me.

"Do you think they're alive?" I took a peek at him. The tick in his jaw along with his hands tightening on the wheel answered my question for me.

Alexander is the brutally honest type and has never made promises he couldn't keep. I knew that he didn't answer nor give me hope because he doesn't know.

Closing my eyes in agony, I held back my tears because there was no way I was going to fall apart. Definitely not in front of him if I could help it.

The only thing I could do was to hold on to hope that they were both still alive.

*

We soon stopped in front a beautifully designed iron gate with two pillars on each side surrounding a house. There were cameras on each pillar and probably more around the perimeter of the gate. A ring of trees obscured the full view of the home.

Me, someone was had studied technology and computer softwares for years, I was impressed by the technology that fortified his home.

The camera seemed to have scanned over his face or something because the gates opened and we drove up the straight pathway.

Looking at what seemed to be a Victorian style house, it put the beauty of the gate to shame. The size of the home was large enough to be considered a big home but small enough to look homey and cozy. The thick stones were colored with different shades of dark and light grey and the other parts not covered by stone were painted a light cream color, almost white. The windows were decently large on the first floor too bring in as much light as possible. The front porch was long and it stretched along almost the entire front of the house, facing the vast green grass.

This was not what I expected from him.

Alexander parked the car and we both got off. He got my things out of the trunk of the car and started walking up the steps to his front door and I realized they were the double door kind.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" I hurried after him, trying to catch up with his long strides.

He stopped walking when he arrived at the front of his door and turned his head slightly to look at me. His eyes were asking 'why wouldn't we be?'.

He opened the door for me and his gesture was telling to go in first. He put my things on the ground as he closed the door.

Alexander pointed to the right. "Kitchen and dining area." He pointed to the left. "Living room, tv area, my office." He pointed up the grand staircase right in front of us. "Bedrooms."

"Questions?" My eye slightly twitched at his short explanation, feeling slightly annoyed by him.

"No." He nodded as if satisfied by my answer then picked up my things and walked up the stairs. I quickly followed and noticed that paintings of all kinds of different sizes and scenery decorated some walls here and there. Not too much to be overwhelming, but enough to be tasteful and considered a point that draws people.

The color scheme seemed to be dark brown and a light cream along with some pops of colors. While the decor seemed to follow the modern concept, it still felt homey.

We suddenly stopped in front of a door. He opened it and the room looked quite nice with cream colored walls. There was a queen sized bed with pastel blue pillows, deep blue sheets and one nightstand on each side with lamps on them. The window was average sized and it was covered with dark navy blue curtains. It was so sparse on furniture that this room seemed even bigger and emptier.

While I stood there staring at everything, Alexander walked directly to what seemed to be a walk-in closet and dropped off my things.

"Your bathroom is right next door and my room is across the hall."

"Did you decorate this place?"

When he shook his head, I knew exactly who helped him. It was my mom. She always had a fine artistic taste and loved to decorate anything along with planning events.

I couldn't take the suffocating feeling so I pushed past him and headed for the main doors downstairs.

Air. I needed fresh air.

Just as I was about to open the door, it slammed open, smacking the side of my forehead in the process. Staggering from the blow, I stumbled back into something hard and I knew that Alexander had followed me. He held my shoulders with the intention to help me find my balance, but I immediately shrugged him off and stepped away from him, rubbing my forehead.

"I am so sorry, Vita." I heard Mrs. Blades' voice and I looked up, only to see Mr. Blades standing right behind her.

He was slightly shorter than Alexander but other than that, they almost looked exactly alike and emitted the same presence. The same dark brown hair and grey eyes. I had always found their resemblance uncanny.

Mrs. Blades rushed towards me and checked me over. "You okay?"

Alexander answered for me instead. "Not anymore."

I snapped my head towards him with a glare, feeling even more irritated when I saw the amusement glinting in his eyes.

"I'm fine, Mrs. Blades," I assured her as I tried to push away her probing hands so that I could escape her scrutinizing gaze.

"Vita," Mr. Blades greeted me and I immediately straightened my spine.

"Mr. Blades." I gave him a quick smile.

"My heart stopped when I heard you were taken." Mrs. Blades cupped my face and stared into my eyes. "We need to get you somewhere safe."

Alexander remained quiet so I knew it was up to me to break the news to them.

"There's no need to worry. I'll be staying with Alexander." I tried to put on a reassuring smile but I knew I looked as convincing as I felt from the looks on their faces, which was horrible.

Both of them were frowning. Mrs. Blades' eyes darkened and she started to look frightening. During Mrs. Blades' ascending anger, a familiar face popped up behind them.

"Dr. Isabelle is here to check you over. Excuse us," she told me, then faced her son. "We need to talk."

Alexander and both Mr. and Mrs. Blades walked towards what I assumed was his office.

"Hello Vita." Dr. Isabelle smiled warmly at me as we went to sit on the sofas in the living room. "Nice to see you again."

Dr. Isabelle was a woman her mid fifties. She does house calls and has been our doctor for as long as I could remember.

"Look at you, all grown up." I returned her smile the best I could. "Now, where were you hurt young lady?"

I shrugged. "I'm fine."

She pointed to my forehead. "That?"

I was about to answer when I heard Mrs. Blades yell in absolute fury and I cringed, pitying Alexander because an angry Mrs. Blades is terrifying. "What were you thinking?"

"I'll just take a quick look at your head," Dr. Isabelle told me as she recovered and I simply nodded.

*

When Alexander and Mr. and Mrs. Blades came into the living room, Dr. Isabelle had left a while ago.

Mrs. Blades came in with her emotions concealed and I was reminded how much Alexander took after her as well.

"I suggest you reconsider," she warned me and I froze knowing that Alexander probably told them that I was going to work with his team. "Step away from this life when you have the chance."

I stood up, not backing down, feeling pissed. The infuriating bastard and his parents were trying to make decisions for me.

"I'm not the little girl you used to take care of anymore. I can fully take care of myself, Mrs. Blades."

Mrs. Blades' expression softened and worry filled her gaze. "Both of your parents wanted to keep you away from this." She came up to me and grabbed my hands.

Mr. Blades spoke up. "Step away, let us send you somewhere safe and take care of everything."

I clenched my teeth and frowned. "No."

Mrs. Blades sighed and patted my head, making me feel like I was a young girl again. "Stubborn, just like your mother. When did you grow up so fast?" Her hazel eyes were soft and warm. "No matter what I say, you're not going to change your mind are you?"

"No."

Silence fell upon us and I could feel that Mrs. Blades was clearly upset by my choice.

"I'll take full responsibility." I heard Alexander say and this angered me.

I glared icily into his eyes and made my voice loud and clear. "I will take full responsibility for my own actions and my own choices."

"Do you know what you're getting yourself into?" Mrs. Blades questioned.

I felt that I was at a disadvantage from the lack of knowledge and stared at everyone of them. Their silence spiked my curiosity even further.

What in the world are they hiding?

****

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Until next time,

InvincibleBunny