The Knight in Leather Armor

ch.38 Fallen Angel

I gasped.

“Now what’s a pretty girl like you doing all alone?” he asked with a sly wink.

I took a half-step back.

“W-What do you want?” I asked defensively, but probably only sounded that much more frightened.

“I think you know,” he growled in a low voice.

I scanned the park for Harry. For anyone. Louis’ friends weren’t even here. I was slightly relieved, but that much more suspicious.

“They’re busy doing my bitch work,” he answered the question in my head.

“Come, walk with me,” he ordered casually as he took my arm and pulled me to him.

“Let go of me!” I shouted as I tried to escape his tightening grasp.

He yanked me to him and I slammed into his chest.

He grinned triumphantly.

“Now, now Angie, let’s not make a scene” he advised as he squeezed my arm, pulling me close to him.

A little girl looked at us a moment before returning to her mud cakes.

“Walk with me,” he ordered through clenched teeth. I took a deep breath and a hesitant step forward. “That a girl” he grinned and he kissed my hand.

I jerked it away. He held me tighter.

A few minutes passed as he led me around the park. My eyes frantically searched for Harry, but it was no use.

“You know the state prison is no place for a girl like you,” he told me authoritatively.

I turned and stared at him in disbelief.

“How did you--”

“And you should probably check your mirrors once in a while, you don’t want anyone following you to the Hospital, or the restaurant, or your bed” he winked.

My jaw dropped slightly. He wasn’t going to give up. He was never going to give up.

Louis grinned as continued to tug me along

“But I can see why you like him so much” he began calm, even slightly understanding voice.

I looked over at him hesitantly.

“He’s got that rugged bad-ass look and his track record, well, that speaks for itself” he cocked a brow warningly.

“I’ve seen it” I said quietly.

“You have?”

Louis eyed me curiously as confusion replaced his normally sly grin.

I nodded.

“And you’re not afraid?”

I looked down and shook my head slowly.

Louis laughed- clearly completely bewildered and entertained by my answer.

“You know, I might have admired, even respected him for the shit he’s gotten away with” Louis told me in a matter-of-fact way. “But that’s nothing, nothing compared to how he got you” he admitted with an ounce of honesty and a pound of hissing vengeance.  

“He must have some pretty big balls” he huffed and he watched my face for my reaction.

I looked down.

“Or maybe not” he grinned slyly.

“He hasn’t touched you, has he?” he asked with a poisonous glint of excitement.

He took a dangerous step closer to me.

“He’s coming” I threatened. I searched the streets again, as if Harry might pop up randomly.

“And I won’t stop him when he tries to kill you” I warned and I took another step back.

“Oh, I don’t think he’ll get a chance to come,” he winked suggestively.

I searched Louis’ eyes for sympathy, for a sliver of humanity, but I found nothing. Nothing but a heartless, greedy animal.

“But that’s might noble of him” he grinned and he nodded his head slowly, appreciatively.

I scoffed. “Noble.” What does Louis know about being noble?

“Don’t be afraid, baby” he hissed by my neck, over the spot he had bitten me that night.

I brushed him off.

He grabbed my wrists and pulled me hard against his chest. Then he stared into my eyes, wanting to penetrate me in every way.

“You’ll still be an angel when I’m done with you” he whispered close to my lips.

“You’ll be my fallen angel” he added and the corner of his lips slanted up in a cruel smirk.  

“But if you so much as say a word to him, I’ll make him watch. I’ll make him watch you cry out my name as I take what his sorry ass left me” he warned in a slithering hiss that sent a shiver down my spine.

Then he let go. He left.  And I realized I had been holding my breath.

I inhaled and exhaled, taking in every molecule of oxygen to restore my broken lungs.

I wanted to fall to my knees and curl up into an invisible ball. But I couldn’t. I shook my head as bleak reality set in.

I have to. I have to let Louis hurt me if it means Harry will be safe. It’s either both of us or one of us and I was willing to let Louis take me if it meant sparing Harry. Harry, who would already stop at nothing to kill Louis and then get himself hurt in the process.

But I won’t let him do that for me.  

I turned around hurriedly, about to run back to my house, lock myself in my room until every tear was drained out of me, then go to Louis and let him take me as he wishes. There was no point in fighting him anymore. There was no point waiting in anxious agony for the next moment he would appear in my life like the Lord of the underworld, wanting me to come to him blue-black underworld.

I was too busy trying to stop my heart from squeezing into my throat that I nearly fell face first into the hole in the ground.

Two sturdy hands grasped me by my waist and steadied me gently. I looked up to see Harry’s green eyes smiling with eager delight.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Angie,” he apologized in his low, raspy voice.

I lowered my gaze, afraid he could see the fear melting my soul and clouding my eyes.

“I was setting something up,” he told me with a slight grin. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I brushed off.

“Angie,” he insisted. He tilted my chin up to face him

I loved when he did that because as he looked down into my eyes, I forgot where I was and everything that was eating me up melted away. But not this time.

This time, he could see every line of anxiety as they blackened my brown eyes.

“I was getting worried,” I admitted.

“I’m supposed to worry about you, not the other way around,” he shook his head slowly and his curls bounced playfully.

I nodded acceptingly as my worries exploded into a thousand shards of glass.

I glanced over Harry’s shoulder and saw Louis roll down his window and glare at me before speeding by.