Chapter Six
He steps into the living room with a hard look on his face. It somehow reminds me of every badass movie I have ever watched and the big bad guys always glare at the house like that. His two companions step in behind him and I suppose those are his friends. I remember the tall with glasses one at the wedding.
‘where is she?’ his eyes land on me and I just freeze, grabbing my wooden spoon tighter, the thing cracks in my hands.
‘what are you doing here.’ Ludo recovers from her shock, comes to stand in front of me and plants her hands on her hips, ‘how did you even know about this house.’
Tall glasses guy raises his hand, ‘I am a hacker.’ He almost looks apologetic as she casts uneasy glances at Vincent. The man intimidated everyone in his path.
‘and you brought him here?’ Ludo shrills.
‘it wasn’t my plan.’ Tall guy mumbles.
‘shut up you are not talking to the priest.’ Vincent snaps and tall guy clamps his mouth shut.
‘well you are talking to the owner of the house,’ Ludo raises her chin, ‘and I have the right to tell you boys to leave.’
Vincent casts her a seething gaze before brushing past her. Okay brushing maybe isn’t the word. The man trudged past her hollering Nancy’s name. Ludo yelped and staggered forward and thankfully tall guy catches her before she becomes a puddle of red satin on the floor.
I watch the whole thing in complete shock as Ludo straightens and glare daggers at Vincent, clenches her fists and I know what she is about to do.
‘Ludo, black belt and guns.’ I actually shout it out loud. That stops whatever tirade she had planned. Tall guy scowls and shares a confused look with the other guy who lets out an I-have-seen-this-before sigh.
Ludo audibly swallows, ‘what are you doing here Vince—she doesn’t want to see you.’
‘yes she doesn’t.’ I agree with Ludo when I finally find my voice.
Vincent pivots to face me and my knees nearly bulk. The man is super scary with that expression on his face. why not add possible murder to his list of creepiness.
‘Vee.’ The other guy comes to stand in front of me and raises a palm at his bull angry friend, ‘take it easy bro.’
Vincent presses his lips together and glares at him.
‘I’m sorry ladies.’ The other guys begins in a civil voice. I am thinking he is the peace maker of the trio, ‘we don’t mean to barge in on you like this—but Vee here has been driving like a maniac all night and he needs to lie down and collect himself.’ He pins Vincent with what I think is a stern pregnant look. Vincent huffs and eases his rigid body.
‘Yeah—sorry—where is Nancy?
Yeah by the way he was hollering I am thinking she must have fit herself into one of the flower pots outside. Good luck finding her.
‘you drove here all night!’ Ludo shouts, ‘are you crazy?’
‘I am beginning to think that-‘ Tall guy mumbles and is silenced by one look from Vincent.
‘where is she?’ he steadies his gaze on me like I would even have the courage to talk to him right now. Looking at Vincent I am thinking of survival and the only weapon I have with me is a broken wooden spoon. And yes I am taking the ready to fight stance as well.
I don’t care is he has a golden belt in karate, he is not coming within one meter of me without making me lose it.
‘we come in peace.’ The other guy turns to face me grabbing my hands at the same time. And the world stops. I have always been a victim of atrocious static electric shocks. Nancy thinks I have blood shortage or something. But I didn’t think people could cause times two bolts of electric pulses to rush all over me with one contact. I gasp and pull my hands out of his grip (which he grabbed my two hands with one of his). The two pieces of the broken spoon clamper on the tiled floor as I take a step back away from him.
‘sorry about that.’ He says sincerely and tries to flash a friendly smile that maybe can tell me that he is not a serial killer—like hulk over there. But it doesn’t settle my heart at all. My eyes do a clean sweep on his chiseled features, full lips, and smoky eyes that have a glint of untamed mischievousness in them as they regard me trying to put me at ease.
At once I become very aware of my scuffled appearance. Heat goes to my face and I dare not look at my little short pajamas and spaghetti top. Yeah I still have the scarf covering my braids and I hope I don’t have tomatoes on my face. I am not a neat freak cook. You can tell what I am cooking just by assessing my appearance,. It has never bothered me. until now.
‘why don’t we start from the beginning?’ he suggests, breaking my reverie.
Ludo stands straight, almost as tall as the men who have graced our living room. I relax my stance a little but still rattled by my reaction towards this peace making guy. I don’t care—no I shouldn’t care how beautiful he is. He hangs out with Vincent. That’s bad news. But my eyes keep magnetically drawing to him as he continues his peace making fiesta.
‘I am Joshua.’ He begins, ‘this is Question. I am Vincent’s cousin and Question is a friend of ours.
‘question?’ Ludo scoffs, ‘is that a name? be serious please—did Vince hire you to kidnap us?’
Vincent speaks up, ‘drop that nick name—and the only person I am going to kidnap is Nancy.’ And he hollers, ‘Nancy!’ before he leaves the living room.
‘hey!’ Ludo yells and starts after him. finding my energy again I rush to grab her arm.
‘Ludo—stop trying to kick his balls in, what if he brought his gun?’
‘what?’ Joshua and Question splutter at the same time.
I give them a calm look and simply say, ‘we know okay?’
JOSHUA
This was a bad idea. I knew it from the moment I packed a travel bag and followed Vincent in that damn car. I had tried to suggest all that could go wrong. Like Nancy reporting this to the police, that’s the ultimate of us being screwed. Abusing women in this country is no light issue and I don’t plan to rot in jail because of him.
It’s lucky we didn’t have a severe accident by the way he was driving. The man has some luck I can give him that. I tried talking him out of banging on this door but by the time I opened my mouth he was already walking in the gate.
So here I am now trying to diffuse the situation while the brat has marched into the rest of the house searching for Nancy. Leaving me in the tense room with the tall intimidating lady who looks like she could kill someone. At least her friend. very cute friend by the way, is trying to calm her down and now she has just mentioned a gun. Yeah we are so going to jail.
‘know about what?’ Question mumbles, getting over his shock.
‘that Vince owns a gun.’ Tall lady seethes, ‘so what are your real names.’
‘why would you think Vincent carries a gun?’
The cute lady locks her eyes on my face and my heart skips. The same reaction when I touched her earlier trying to remove the deadly wooden spoon from her hands and calm her down. Man she is so cute. Cute little thing with all her assets in the right places and eyes that told of intelligence to finish off what I will call the art of perfection for now.
‘fits him.’ she narrows her eyes daringly, ‘the cave man that he is.’
‘we also know he has a black belt in karate.’ The tall lady asserts, ‘but I can still kick his ass.’
No doubt about that. If she ever turns her furry to me I will be willing to run for my life.
‘Vincent doesn’t have a black belt in karate and he has never touched a gun his whole life.’ Question says in a low slow manner like he is talking to children and we all turn to look at him. ‘now ladies how about your names?’
‘your names are fake.’ Tall lady snaps, ‘what kind of name is Question?’
‘I have my ID.’ Question says coolly, ‘besides one of you is called July.’
Tall lady glares at him while cute lady purses her lips. So she is July. Cute—fits her.
‘what the other name?’ I ask Question without taking my eyes off July, suddenly overwhelmed by the need to push her against the wall and assault those cute lips.
‘Ludo!’
‘fits her.’ I say loudly as Ludo wiggles her hand from July’s hold, ‘so its nice to meet you ladies.’
Ludo glares at both of us while July scowls at my openly staring at her before she turns her attention to Question, breaking our moment. I grind my teeth and Ludo raises an eyebrow at me.
‘I am afraid we cant say the same.’ July gestures between herself and Ludo while I try to flash the ice queen my most charming smile. It works, she blinks and looks away tucking strands of hair from her face.
‘so as I was saying—‘
July cuts me off, ‘seriously what are you? Mr. peace maker?’
‘he was probably bullied in school.’ Ludo says.
‘they don’t turn out like this—Vincent could be one of those—people turn out bullies as adults if they were whimpers in childhood, this guy here probably got straight As in everything he touched and was in the student representation council even the student president.’
Question snickers.
‘nerdy July.’ Ludo mumbles before raising her eyes at Question who seems like he is desperately looking for somewhere to hide. ‘what about him?’
‘a loner.’ July decides seriously.
Question pushes his glass over the bridge of his nose, what he does when he is extremely uncomfortable. Especially being teased by two beautiful women in pajamas. Just like we fantasize them. Oh correction. July is beautiful. Ludo is trouble combined with complications beautiful.
Ludo flashes Question an evil smile before she dashes towards the direction Vincent went. July gasps and start to go after her. But she doesn’t make it even a step before I grab both her arms from behind and bring her back flash against my front. Her soft body against mine brings a surge of lust to bolt all over me waking up a certain member to full attention.
She feels him because she gasps and tries to scurry away from my hold. I shake my head to dissipate the sudden fog that has clouded my mind before I could think rationally.
‘let her get a beating I think she needs it.’ Are the words that rush out of my disoriented mouth.
She stops and looked at me over her shoulder, whatever she wanted to snap at me dissolves when our eyes lock and panic descends in hers. She brings her elbow to my stomach and I let her go. Her hit didn’t even hurt but it brought to my attention how I am behaving like a cave man.