Chapter 15
Lillian took a step backward; her eyes remained glued to the back of Louis's head as she slowly moved herself rearward.
This was it.
Gradually, she turned her whole body around, her heart beating faster at this.
She was finally getting away from Louis. At last, she'd be on the road to running away.
As Lillian prepared to extend her foot forward, she found herself freezing in place as Louis's voice was heard,
"Lilly?"
Lillian tried to mask all signs of guilt from her face right before she glanced over her shoulder to look at Louis who was watching her in what appeared to be annoyance,
"What the hell are you doing? Come on." The pirate captain grumbled with a wave toward her.
Smiling as innocently as possible, Lillian nodded, "I just really need to use the toilet... Do you know where it is?"
Louis groaned with a roll to his eyes and Lillian resisted the urge to take off her thick boot and just chuck it at the over confident twat's head. Was he really getting annoyed because Lillian had to use the restroom? Inconsiderate little shit.
It reminded Lillian why she needed to get away.
Louis didn't value her as a person at all. He saw her as an object. A pet.
Everything else be damned... She had to just get away.
"Go ask Cherry to show you the way... I can't keep putting Captain Malik off." Louis distractedly mumbled as he turned back around,
Lillian scowled with a nod, "Okay."
"Meet back up with me when you finish, I'll be through the door down the very end of this aisle."
"Okay." Lillian repeated out a bit more stressed than before.
She tried to stay casual, not show any signs of escaping on her face as she made her way toward the bar set up where the woman from before was still wiping the counter while humming tunelessly.
As Lillian approached, her eyes shot at the door, which was still being guarded by the heavily built man.
Knowing that the scene that would occur would be loud if she even attempted to escape through the front door, Lillian cleared her throat to the brunette that was cleaning.
"Excuse me, but can you point me in the direction of the restroom?" She politely inquired her hands moving to adjust the hat on top of her head for the umpteenth time,
While glancing upward, the woman pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, "Down this hall," Her thumb jerked to Lillian's right, "Straight ahead, second door on your right."
"Thank you very much; I love your earrings by the way." She complimented with a smile before she returned the beam proudly while she moved out to touch the gleaming diamonds.
The moment her back was turned, Lillian rolled her eyes with a grimace.
She just needed to stay calm and get a plan together...
Maybe there was another way out... Like a back door?
If this place was some sort of underground-meeting place for criminals, surely they had an alternative exit in case the authorities tried to bust in or something.
When she reached the hall as she had been directed to earlier, she tried to remain cautious as she came upon the lavatory door. Taking the knob in hand, she slowly pushed herself in. The place was nothing fancy...More like a disgusting single toilet as the room wasn't too large on its own. The walls were so closely compacted that if Lillian extended both of her arms, they'd both touch the walls.
She prepared to turn back with a disappointed grunt; however, her eyes glanced a bit more upward.
An opened window was high up, near the ceiling...
Not discouraged, Lillian locked the door and began thinking of a way to reach it. If she stood on the toilet, she wouldn't be high enough, but the walls were close... She bit her bottom lip...
This was it.
-
Louis tried to keep his posture straight and face held high as he sat across from his old mentor, Zayn Malik, former Captain of the ship Lionheart.
"It's been a while, hasn't it Captain Malik?" Louis breathed out with a smile that was hardly returned, not that the expected any differently.
His Captain had never been one to openly display affection, something Louis had grown all too accustomed to back in his days on the ship that was now hundreds of feet beneath water in the Atlantic.
Zayn folded his arms and leaned back in his seat, "We both know you didn't go through hell and back to find me and schedule this meeting just to talk over old times, Louis. Let's get straight down to business."
Louis's smile dropped and Zayn groaned, "I'm actually more curious than annoyed that you managed to find me. I thought for sure I was undetectable to anyone." The man reached over the table for the bottle of liquor before pouring some into his glass. He picked up the cup and slushed it around leisurely, "How did you do it?"
"A pirate captain has his ways of finding things out. I was taught by the best after all." Louis acknowledged with a shrug that Zayn instantly rolled his eyes at, before he leaned backward, "But anyways, I was wondering if you could tell me what you know about the Stuart's Coffer."
All at once, Zayn's bored expression turned into that of slight interest as his eyes watched Louis expectantly for him to continue,
"I just need to know because for the past few months, I've been aimlessly searching around northern Europe for it. I have several leads and hints, but nothing has given me a solid finding for it. But you're YOU so I figured you'd have some sort of idea, if not, the exact coordinates to its location." He had to be blunt about it.
"Stuart's Coffer? You're going after treasure again?" Zayn snorted, his mouth moving to take a brief sip of his drink before he shook his head pitifully, "Treasure chests and gold hunts are child's play, Tomlinson. I thought you grew out of that phase when you became the royal of the seven seas."
Louis scowled, "I just want to know if you know where it is. I don't need your opinion on the subject, Captain."
"I'm not a Captain anymore, Tomlinson." Zayn firmly stated, "I gave up that life for a reason, so you can stop referring to me as that. That aside, yes, I do know where the Stuart's Coffer is, though I am surprised that you resorted to finding me out just for the thing."
The pirate captain couldn't help but raise up to defend himself, "It wasn't my decision... My First Mate convinced me that we were wasting provisions since we had no clue where to start and that getting a direct answer was best."
Zayn chuckled unsmilingly, "What a world we live in where the captain doesn't make the decisions... The First Mate does. In any event, I'll get you the coordinates to the island the Coffer's on, even if I still don't understand why you'd want the thing. Just your average chest of treasure."
Louis nodded his head, "I appreciate it, sir."
"Now, I actually am quite curious..." Zayn now more seriously piped and for that, "You've made a name for yourself, and I'm proud of you for that. You went from cabin boy to captain in so little time and within a few years, you have every single monarch in Europe and colonists in the Americas knowing your name with blood chilling fear, something even I wasn't capable of doing. So tell me, at the prime of your career, how does it feel to be at the top of the Wanted list?"
Unable to stop the smirk from growing on his face, Louis leaned his face on his hand casually, "Feels as good as it sounds. Everything so far has been going my way and I feel at the top of my game, almost as though nothing can go wrong for me."
Zayn frowned now, his expression solemn, "You're still young. Especially for all that you've accomplished in the past couple years... Therefore it's easy for you to make one mistake that will mess you up permanently-"
"I don't make mistakes, sir." Louis intervened confidently, "Everything I do is carefully calculated and planned out. I don't allow myself to ever lose. It's just not possible."
"Louis, it has come to my attention that you are in possession of the Princess of the United Kingdom."
The response was quick and not one that Louis even expected. He was swift to cover his surprise and he watched at Zayn stilly, "How did you find out?"
"It doesn't matter. What does matter is the simple fact that you're still in the United Kingdom with that royal on your hands." Zayn's face cringed as he the term 'royal' almost as though the word was a pain to speak.
Louis remained stoic, "I understand that, but I already made sure she'd stay within my sight as long as we're here for the time being. So far on our way here, no one noticed anything suspicious and if anyone notices on our way back, I'll put an end to them before they can do a thing." He informed simply with a curt nod.
His words made Zayn arch a brow, "Ok, So where is she now?"
"In the lavatory." Louis automatically answered, his voice secure.
"She's been in there since you came to sit?" Zayn further investigated, he sounded on the brink of scoffing,
However, that made Louis stop for a moment to rethink everything for a second.
Lillian had been in the toilet before Louis even got to sit down with Zayn.
It had been a bit of a while...
"I'll be back, excuse me." Louis muttered quickly as he stood up from his seat. Zayn watched up at him dully as he slid a piece of paper onto the table toward Louis before his arms were folding over his chest once more, "No, you won't be."
Louis picked up the piece of paper and shoved it into his pocket before he began stalking toward the front of the bar.
As he reached the door, he heard Zayn call from behind, "Good-bye, Louis. Give the royal my greetings when you see her."
"Thanks. I will." Louis threw back while he kept his power walk ahead.
Already knowing the way to the bathroom, Louis mumbled a quick greeting to Cherry who was shining one of the glasses with an intrigued look to her face, "Did your friend drink any cleansing medicines before she came here? She's been in the restroom for a while."
Louis couldn't even formulate a response, his feet forcing him forward a little faster with each step ahead as he made it into the hallway that the restroom was located at. When he stopped at the door, he immediately cleared his throat, "Princess, you still in there?"
Silence.
Pressing his ear against the door for any muffled noises that Lillian may have been making, Louis pulled away with a grimace,
"Princess?" He questioningly inquired with a knock on the door.
Silence was his sole response.
Louis gave another powerful knock to the door, "Lilly, I'm serious. Answer me."
His hands halted from the rapping to give the princess a chance to be heard properly, however when he received no response, he found himself growing slightly annoyed, "Lilly." He continued sternly, and when he folded his arms over his chest for a few seconds to see if the princess inside would stop being stubborn and fucking answer him, Louis found his teeth gritting.
"Lillian," Louis icily growled out lowly,
Louis felt his eyebrows crease in growing frustration when no sign of the royal turned up once more.
"Lillian, open the fucking door or I'm coming in."
The foreboding feeling in his chest was growing rapidly and Louis clutched the doorknob tightly before giving it a sharp twist to the side. Realizing it was locked, the pirate captain wasted no time in reaching to his side to grab out his pistol and shoot at the lock.
Kicking down the wooden frame, Louis rushed himself inside, nothing but irritation lining his facial features as he prepared to unleash a load of disciplinary snarls at the royal, but he stopped.
Lillian wasn't there.
She left...
Lillian left him.
Quick to hold back his initial distress, Louis immediately went to work at solving the little mystery.
It was impossible for her to have gone out the front door because the bouncer wouldn't have let her out without Louis there with her... His eyes shot upward to the single window...
At first glance, a person could say it was impossible to jump out because of its height, however if angled right a person could slide themselves up from the closely compact walls and reach the window without fail. The size of the window along with the fact it was opened was enough to send Louis's eyes narrowing into slits.
Whirling on his heel with a snarl coming to his lips, the brunet began stalking out the bathroom and hallway,
A game of cat and mouse wasn't something he was in the mood for at all.
But if Lillian was idiotic enough to try and escape in a country she'd never even been in before but Louis knew like the back of his hand, so be it.
"Oh, The things I'll do to that intractable, disgraceful piece of shit when I find her...Just you wait..."