not in the same way || c.h.

30

I heard a knock on my door as I stood in front of the large mirror in my bathroom and towel dried my hair. I jumped slightly and looked up towards the direction of my door, suddenly feeling scared again.

"It's okay come with me." Calum said and took my hand, making me drop my towel and cling onto his bare arm as tight as I could. He walked up to the door with his wet hair slightly messy and just a pair of sweats on while letting me hold onto him and hide behind him for protection.

When he opened the door we were greeted by three men that were taller than me, but not taller than Calum. One of them had bleach blond hair and blue eyes, the other one had chocolate brown curls and green eyes-he was only a couple inches shorter than Calum-and the other one-the shortest one-had brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"It's okay, they're my friends don't worry." Calum said and stroked my hand with his thumb and looked down at me and gave me a reassuring look.

"We're alright, we're the good guys." The blonde one said and showed off his perfectly straight teeth.

"I'm sure you've had a bit of a rough night so we won't take it personally this time." The tall one with green eyes joked and showed off a crooked smirk.

"Boys this is Brenna, Brenna this is Niall, Harry, and Louis." He said and gestured to each of them as he spoke. The three of them all smiled and stuck their hands out for me to shake so I did, nervously, but I did.

"So this is Brenna huh?" Louis teased and looked between me and Calum.

"Cut the shit. Where's Liam and Zayn?" He asked and let them in the house.

"They're taking care of the cameras and stuff so we don't get caught." Harry said as the three of them started dealing with the body that was on my floor.

"So are you guys in this whole thing too?" I asked softly as curiosity hit me.

"Yeah but we're pretty much the clean up guys really. We do other stuff sometimes but this is what we're good at." Niall said as him, Harry, and Louis all put the body in a huge black bag.

"Boss keeps us in clean up cause we're the best at it. If he needs us to do other stuff we do it but we're pretty good at not getting caught, unlike some others." Louis said and zipped up the bag while Harry started deep cleaning the floor.

"Do you guys kill your own that often? Isn't that like not gang like or something?" I asked and kept clinging onto Calum's arm while he stroked my skin lightly.

"Cal always broke rules all the time. Last time he had a good reason for it, but this time I'm not so sure boss will like this. Greeley was one of his favorites." Harry said and gave Calum a look.

"He exiled me remember? It doesn't matter what I do anymore." Calum said and leaned against the wall.

"He what?" I asked and looked up at him.

"He found out that I was so infatuated with you, yelled at me and a whole bunch of other stuff. He somehow found out that you knew everything, which is why Greeley came and tried to kill you. It's also why he wants nothing to do with me now, apparently I'm a disgrace." He explained which made my eyes slightly wide.

"How did he find out?" I asked and looked between the four of them.

"We're not sure, no one is really, but now he wants both of you dead and anyone else that knows." Louis said which made a pit form in my stomach.

"No one else knows. I haven't told anyone. What about Noah? They can't kill me I'm nearly all he has left, and they can't kill him either. Are they going to kill him?" I asked Calum and held a fearful look in my eyes.

"Hey hey you'll be fine. I told you that I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. And they don't know about Noah, they won't if we're careful. You'll be okay I promise." He said and pulled me into his chest and rubbed my back.

"Who's Noah?" Niall asked with a confused look.

"Her little brother, he's just a kid, barely even really. He lives with their grandparents." Calum said.

"He'll be fine as long as no one sees you with him." Niall said as they finished cleaning up my apartment like nothing had even happened.

"So you probably shouldn't go out in public with him. You never know who's watching you." Louis said.

"He's a kid I can't just keep him locked up when he's with me." I said and held a sad look on my face. Just then there was a knock on my door. Every single time I heard someone knock on my door I got scared now. Only people I didn't know knocked, all of my friends just walked in so that scared me. I jumped a bit, and held onto Calum a bit tighter as I stared at the door.

"I'm sure it's just Liam and Zayn, it's okay." He said and let go of me to go answer the door. When he opened the door there were two boys standing there with tons of tattoos. I'm just now realizing they all had a lot of tattoos except for Niall actually.

"See you're fine." Louis said with a smile and slung his arm over my shoulder.

"You must be Brenna right?" The one with dark hair asked as the two of them walked through the door.

"Yeah." I said shyly as Calum walked back over to me.

"This is Zayn and Liam, they're good too." Calum said and wrapped an arm around me. 

"I hate to cut this meeting short but we should probably go so we don't get caught." Liam said nervously.

"We never get caught we'll be fine." Louis said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Nah we should go." Harry said and gestured to the bag on the floor.

"Well it was nice meeting you, I'm sure we'll see a lot more of you." Niall said while they all picked up the large bag. They all said a quick goodbye as they left my apartment and shut the door behind them. Calum went over to lock the door quickly before coming back over to me.

"I don't think you should stay here anymore, clearly they know where you live. It's not safe here anymore." He said and rested his hands on my arms.

"I can't leave, all of my friends are here and it's close to everywhere I go. I'm attached to this place I can't go." I said and he let out a sigh.

"I know but I don't want you here, it's not safe. Live with me, you'll be safe 24/7 and I won't have to worry about you when you're not with me. I know that it's too much too soon right now but it would make me feel a lot better if we lived together because I'd know you're safe." He said and gave me a convincing look.

"They know where you live Calum it won't make much of a difference. I can't leave here, I'm sorry I can't." I said and shook my head.

"Then what do you want to do?" He asked and tucked my hair behind my ear.

"I don't know. It's not safe, I know that but I can't just get up and leave all of my friends that are more like family. I'd feel better if you were with me but it's a lot to just move in with each other right away. I'm worried that is living together might just make things more complicated and we'll fight a lot." I said softly and started thinking about how this would work.

"I know I know I'm worried about that too but it's the only way to keep you safe. I'll try and come up with something so that this whole thing can be over soon." He said and kissed my forehead.