Protecting Daniella

6- Daniella's side of the story

Silas' P.O.V.

It took me a while to fall asleep last night. Thoughts of a porno being made on this couch was still fresh in my mind. I wasn't turned on by it, it was the fact that Daniella was right. At least the sheets on the bed were probably washed, whereas the couch probably didn't get cleaned at all.

After a few hours of laying there, I heard Daniella finally breathing long, even and gentle breaths, letting me know she was finally asleep and I was able to fall asleep shortly after.

I handcuffed her to the side of the bed when I got up so she couldn't run while I showered. I was rinsing off when I heard her yelling my name.

"I'm almost done. Chill out, woman."

"Stop handcuffing me to things, asshole. Unchain me right now!" She yelled, making me laugh.

I ran the towel over my hair a few times and quickly over my body before I wrapped it around my waist and walked out.

She stopped pulling on the bed rail and looked up at me. Her eyes raked over my bare chest and then traveled lower, seeing just how many tattoos covered my body.

I waved my hands in front of her eyes and whistled. "What's the problem?"

She scowled. "Take these off of me!"

"Relax." I leaned down, taking the cuffs off her wrist. "I had to make sure you weren't going to run when I was showering."

She got up and pushed me away as if she was trying to escape. I grabbed her arm and motioned for the bathroom. "That was cute, now go shower. I have a fresh outfit in there for you and a toothbrush. Hurry, we need to finish our discussion we started last night. Ohhh and leave the-" I didn't have time to finish my sentence when she slammed the bathroom door shut and locked the door before I could tell her not to do that.

After I heard the shower start up, I called Nico. I asked him to look into Robert and Kathleen a little deeper to see if I missed something on them. I needed to figure out if Daniella was telling me the truth or not. Twenty minutes later Daniella came walking out of the bathroom, hair still wet with the outfit I had in there for her. She wrapped her arms around her front and stood in the corner as far away from me as she could, watching as I zipped up my leather jacket.

"Let's go." I picked up my bags and her dirty clothes and headed towards the door.

"Where are we going now."

"Breakfast."

"Oh my God. This is ridiculous. I want to go home."

"That's not going to happen for a while. We need to finish our talk and what better way than over food. Ohhhh and if you even think about misbehaving in any way, it won't end very well for you. I'm actually going to listen and hear what you have to say about Robert so don't fuck this up for yourself or I'll have you in Chicago in two days."

I moved the couch away from the door and motioned for her to come forward. Gently grabbing her arm, we walked side by side to the car and I helped her inside.

I didn't want her to be seen by someone she knew around where she lived so I drove for about an hour before pulling up to a diner. Plus it was on our way to Chicago anyway so I figured if she didn't convince me Robert was in the wrong, I was just a step closer to getting her to where we needed to be.

The waitress sat us down at a booth and took our drink order. When she set down our drinks we ordered our food and we're finally left alone. Daniella was playing nervously with the tips of her hair as she looked down at her lap.

"What did you do with Robert's money?"

She sighed. "I gave it to his wife."

"His wife? Did she ask you to steal it for her?"

"No, I did that all on my own."

"Why?"

She took a deep breath and sat back. "Seven months ago, I went to Chicago for business. While I was there, I noticed a woman sitting alone on a bench at the park... she looked so sad. When I was about to walk up to her to see if she was alright, a man who I had assumed was her husband came back from throwing the frisbee for their dog."

She shook her head and took a sip of her orange juice. "After they left I had a really bad feeling about that man. A few days later I ran into the woman again on an outside patio at a restaurant. To anyone passing by not paying attention she looked like a normal, happy woman that day, wearing big sunglasses and laughing with a few of her friends while they ate lunch. She did a good job covering up her black and blue marks he left on her body but I saw them. After her friends left I acted as if I had a question, being I was a tourist... and that's how we got talking. Long story short, I promised her I could get her away from her husband, safe and that's what I did."

"Where is Kathleen now?" I questioned.

"I'm never going to tell you that. She has a new identity, she's safe and finally happy. I'm taking that to my grave."

The waitress came back over and set down our food and Daniella dug in right away.

I smiled. "Hungry?"

"I'm starving. I didn't have supper last night."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that?"

She looked at me funny. "I've never been kidnapped before but I didn't think a kidnapper would have cared."

"Well I don't want you to starve."

He eyes narrowed as if she was trying to figure me all out. "Hmm." She put part of her pancake in her mouth, "the next time I get kidnapped, I'll remember that."

I chuckled to myself as we continued to eat. "How does a coffee shop owner muster up a new identity for someone just like that? And how did you go about stealing Robert's money?"

"If you have money, you can do just about anything. So I used some of that money I took to get Kathleen safe and then the rest went to her. I came up with a plan to get Robert. I sat down by him at a bar one night, it didn't take him long to strike up a conversation with me and we exchanged numbers."

"And what exactly was the plan?"

"He refused to divorce Kathleen when she asked for one. He threatened to kill her and everyone she loved if she went public with his violence or other activities nobody knew about. So I was going to get close and expose his embezzlement, forcing the divorce."

"What?"

"The City Treasurer's Office is the custodian and manager of all cash and investments for the City of Chicago, totaling more than $10 billion dollars a year."

"Yes, I know all that."

"The day I saw Kathleen at the park was when she found out Robert was pocketing some of that money. They had a big fight about it that night and he took out his anger on her. So I got close to him over the next month, getting the evidence I needed on him. Six months ago, Kathleen called me up, crying. I hurried over as fast as I could and when I got there I heard screams coming from their house so I broke in, knocked him out with one of his golf clubs and got Kathleen out of there. After I got her stable and cleaned up... I went back to his house, broke into his safe and took everything he had to set Kathleen up comfortably in her new life."

"And that's when Robert learned your real name was Daniella, when Kathleen called you?"

"Yes."

"What ever happened to the evidence?"

"Hidden. Kathleen wouldn't let me use it because she didn't want to have to go back to Chicago. So I put it somewhere and the butthead gets away with everything."

Throughout our conversation I studied her, watching her body language. Normally, if someone's lying, their answers are short and sweet but her answers were to the point and seemed truthful... or, maybe she was just a really good liar.

After we finished our breakfast, I paid and helped her back into my car again.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Chicago." I shut her door and got into the driver's seat.

"What? Are you serious... after everything I just told you, you're still gonna bring me to him?"

"Yes."

To be honest I didn't know if I could trust her just yet.