32 - A.S

"Tell me the story.

About how the sun loved the moon so much. That she died every night.

Just to let him breathe..."

― Hanako Ishii

. . .

I was not one of those people who could deal with being confined, even in a large mansion that had all the luxuries in the world. I craved my freedom more than I craved anything. I had come to New York looking for freedom and I had it for about a year and a half and now here I was, confined in a glorious mansion with my consent.

They were protecting me and I knew they were hiding something. Something big. I prided myself in knowing what was up with people around me yet some people, the Creeds and Georgia, rarely let me see but I could see enough to know when things were being hidden from me.

I had forgiven Zavier. What other choice did I have? If this Russian threat was so big that the Creeds were alarmed, It had to be bad. I made Zavier promise he wouldn't lash out at me ever again, though. There was a part of me that was still cautious of them. I didn't fear them, but I...didn't let myself ease around them either.

ZAVIER CREED

"Her job starts tomorrow," Ashton said, his hand in the pockets of his trousers. "We need to let her out more." Apparently, her days off were done, and tomorrow, on Monday, she wanted to go back to her job. She had said

this all to Xerxes. I was sure she would never speak about leaving to me again. I shouldn't have lashed out. I didn't want to scare her.

"We can send bodyguards. Alexi can't be stupid enough to attack her with an army of bodyguards behind her," Xerxes said, his eyes fixed on the file on his desk. We were at the headquarters. My kitten was at the mansion, doing her classes and making notes like a good girl. She was shutting off. I could see her lingering glances at the sky, her hands stained with charcoal after sketching her school and even her apartment. I didn't want her to be like that. She was shutting off on us. She was not talking.

I loved to hear her talk.

She was not like the previous subs I had. I rarely had them on my lap. I was not a soft dom in any way. She bought out the softer side in me with every glance of her curious brown eyes. I wanted to crush her to my chest and protect her from the world and at the same time, I wanted to make her scream.

"I'll tell her," I said because I needed to get on her good side. She had forgiven me, but those were just words, she was still distant.

I walked out of the office later that day. I was the last one to leave. Ashton and Xerxes were already gone. Fucking bastards.

I walked out of the elevator, into the private parking.

There was a letter on the windshield of the car I had driven today. I picked the black envelope up, feeling my jaw clench.

I ripped it open.

Your city or your girl? Time is ticking, Zavier. A.S.

Fucking bastard.

I put the envelope in the inner pocket of my suit and looked around. There was no one there. No shit.

I called Ashton. "Get your ass back here. Bring Xerxes." "The fuck happened?"

"Russians."

. . .

"Look at this," Michael pointed at the windshield of the car on the screen. "It appears which means someone tempered with the tape. The envelope isn't there one moment-" he played the tape. The envelope appeared. "And it's there the next. They either hacked into this or we have a traitor in our hands."

"How many people have access to these?" Xerxes asked as we walked out of the darkroom.

"The whole security," Michael said, frowning. "And anyone who has access to your office computers." We entered the elevator. I leaned against the wall.

Anyone who had access to our computers.

"Someone who works for us," Ashton muttered, and I knew he was thinking what I was thinking. "Happens to work with us closely." We walked out of the lift.

I looked at Ariel's office door.

"And is a jealous bitch," Xerxes added.

Michael grimaced. "Do I need to call for cleanup?" "Not yet."

I walked inside her office.

She was there, sitting behind her computer, she looked at me with fear clean in her eyes. I smirked as I took the gun out of my pocket. "Tell me."

She sobbed. I sighed. "He-He came to me in the morning. He said kill my mother. He had a gun I could-"

Ashton shot her arm. Her scream rang in my ear. I winced and turned to Michael. "Retrace her steps. Get more information. Come to the mansion tomorrow."

I walked out.

. . .

OLIVIA WOODS

I had nightmares. I napped from the afternoon to the evening, and I had nightmares.

Nightmares were regular guests of my nights but I rarely had them during the day for some reason.

When I woke up it was around eight and the Creeds were yet to come back. I knew I was growing cold towards them. Not responding to their kisses, shrugging when asked what I wanted to eat. I was not feeling like myself here. The mansion was marvelous, don't get me wrong, but I needed NYC's busy crowds and irritating tourists to feel like myself. I needed to sit in the central park with Georgia and eat Cassandra's bakery delights.

The nightmare was of that night. The worst night of my life. I could hear the gunshot in my head. I could almost smell their cologne. I could hear him yelling. I could see myself trembling.

It felt like it had happened yesterday when it had been so many days. I was fourteen back then. A child. They were older. About eighteen. I often wondered why people hurt people if they could be kind.

Hurt people hurt people.

A vicious never-ending cycle of pain.

I tried to make sense of it! Sense of all my torment often. I tried to reason with myself. Maybe they were lonely. Maybe they needed to get their anger out some way.

I made excuses for my mother, too.

Maybe she doesn't know how to do it. Maybe she is just like that and it's wrong for me to want her to change.

But at the end of the day, these things were nothing but lies I fed myself with sugar to make the bitterness of my trauma dull. At the end of the day, they all hurt me.

At the end of the day, I still was the one left with the nightmares.

But he didn't deserve to die.

. . .

Thoughts?

I was telling myself I wouldn't do this but I am doing this. Who is your favorite Creed?

Ashton

Zavier Xerxes

*sips tea*