Act of love

Chapter Twenty-Four

Anfisa:
With a headache I open my eyes, a very soft blanket is covering me. It's a grey blanket, that covers double this couch. Couch? Where the hell am I? The apartment is filled with some simple luxury decoration, that is light up by the sunlight. The windows are huge, giving me a perfect view of the city of Los Angeles. My favorite park, next to my favorite street, with my favorite restaurant.
My eyes lock with a guy coming through the door. He's wearing some slippers, a towel, no shirt, and his face... My jaw drops, which I cover with a hand.
"No it can't be." His wide smile disappears in an instant.
"Back to the old self this morning?" I blink at least a hundred times to make sure I am not dreaming.
"Pinch me, this can't be real." His eyes crinkle a little at the corners of his mouth.
"You don't want to know how many times I imagined this moment."
"Dalton..." I can't even pronounce his name the right way. "You were..."
"Dead? Not really."
"Did we?..." I don't even have to finish my sentence.
"No of course we didn't Anfisa, do you really think I am that awful of a person?"
My head rests in my head to lower the headache, I already had a headache because of the weed, now him. It gives me happiness, but it also brings back one of the most painful memories ever.
"You aren't dead." I say, trying to get to a realization, but it doesn't come. Not by a long shot.
"What happened? The doctors declared you dead, your heart is inside of someone else's chest." Well it clearly isn't...
"Did he even get a new heart?" I sit up straight on the couch with the most tension I have felt in a long time. If he didn't get a new heart, what could happen to him?
"I don't know how the doctors covered that up, but no he does not have my heart." Something inside of him makes me raging mad.
"How could you do this to me? You knew this was the worst pain you could give me. Why did you even?" My brain gets flushed with million questions, but not a single answer.
"How about I give you a few minutes to go change and eat, then..."
"No!" The words that just left my mouth sounded more intense then I meant to. "I need answers, Dalton."
"I'm afraid I can't give you the answers you want, it's too dangerous. All I can say is, I dealt with the wrong kind of people.
You can tell no one I'm alive, not even that new boyfriend of yours." Zachary, of course. he knew about Zachary, I told him all about Zachary last night.
How did I not realize this was Dalton?!
Somewhere I am mad at myself, but it doesn't equal to the anger I feel towards Dalton.
"So because you dealt with wrong people, you had to pretend you were dead? And making it worse, you had to have a proposal ring in your pocket too?!" This is absolutely not how I know my Dalton. How much can a person change in two months?
"I forgot I had it in there."
"Sure, you just forgot?!"
Dalton's demeanor changes in an instant, like his patience has run out, what I thought I would never see. The old Dalton never loses his temper.
"Yes I forgot, just like you forgot me after just a month, you were talking with another guy the day I 'died'. I have had eyes on you all along, even in the mental hospital, I may have been 'dead' and hiding out, but I have people working for me, I saw everything, you know how painful that was? My love for you hasn't changed one bit, but I have." His attempt to make me feel really guilty about myself works.
"Do you think I planned it that way? I was a mess, and who's fault was that?" I bounce the guilt right back at him, which doesn't make his mood any better. "And now you're back and can't even give me a clear explanation, you said you were hiding, where?" I fire question after question at him.
"Just here, but I can't stay here for much longer, one of my guys snitched on me." His hands grips the counter tightly, making the muscles in his arms very outlined. I can't help but stare, which brings a grin on his face.
"Your feelings haven't changed either."
I shake these weird thoughts off me and go back to the intensive eye contact.
"Tomorrow I'm moving to the other side of town." The fact he has been staying here for the full two months, while I had dinner at Sette Giorni, just two streets away. If I would have knew, I would run to him, but now I don't even know how to feel. "Come with me Anfisa, leave that guy behind, let's be like how we used to." If he told me these words a month ago I would scream yes and cry while hugging him to death. Now a long silence falls. "Come on, you don't really feel something for him do you? He was just there to help you get over me, and it just fit the story. Because he was supposed to have my heart, that's a part of me, so basically he kept reminding you of me." That's what I thought at the beginning too, but the more serious we got, the more attached I got. And now he rarely leaves my mind for a second.
My phone that is laying on the coffee table buzzes and lights up a bit.
'Hey, talk tonight? Over dinner, my treat.' A smile pops up on my face. Dalton immediately gets who the text is from.
"Come on, this thing with him isn't serious is it?" He sounds like a little devil on my shoulder from those movies.
My fingers slide across the screen, ignoring Dalton completely.
'Sounds good, Sette Giorni 7 PM?' Zachary sends a thumbs-up emoticon back.
"I can't believe you, listen I have to run an errand, do not leave and most importantly do not ever open the door for anyone. I'm not expecting packages and I don't want to buy anything." His commands make it sound like I have no options. I can't argue that I have many, it's this or going back to my parents and seeing that monster once again. I'll pass. "Got it?" He puts his shoes on after his shirt and some pants.
"Whatever you say boss man." There is a small grin on his face one he doesn't want to show to me.
Minutes pass, and those minutes become an hour... An hour and thirty minutes. Should I be worried?
A loud knock sounds from the front door, my heart raises to my throat. The knock is so loud it sounds like they might kick in the door any second. I stay quiet to make it seem like no one is home, but the lights are on so it's obvious. Shit.
"We know you're home you bitch! You owe us something, and if you can't give us that... You know what will happen." I place my hand over my chest, to make sure it doesn't beat out of my chest. "Open this fucking door before I break it with my bare hands! I know you're home Blanks!"
On my tippy toes I make my way over to the door, on the way there I stub my foot against the counter.
"Fuck!" I yell a bit too loud.
"Who's there Blanks?!" My hand covers my mouth and my nose completely, so they can't even hear my breathing.
While peeking through the key hole I see multiple men, all dressed in black clothing. Please get home soon Dalton. He didn't even give me his number to call him in case anything happens.
Do I call Zachary? No I can't bother him with this.
"If you don't open this door in five seconds I'm breaking in! Five... Four... Three... Two..."
From the counter next to the door I grab a key and twist it in the door, unlocking it. As soon as he hears the sound he stops counting.
I don't even have the time to fully open the door, it gets thrown open right in my face.
"Who the hell are you?" Three grown men are standing in the hallway. These people must be the guys Dalton was talking about, and indeed they don't seem so friendly.
"The owner of this apartment duh." I try to act as obvious as possible while swallowing the nervous feelings. Now they're in my stomach. "Can I help you guys? I was just about to make some tea, care to stay for a cup?"
"Listen lady!" One of them says, the same one that was yelling at the door.
His hands wrap tightly around my throat, pushing me hard against the wall behind me. It becomes really hard to breathe. One of the other guys closes the door behind them. "We are not coming here for a 'cup of tea', where the hell is Dalton? I know he lives here! You can't fool anyone." Not a singular word can reach my lips, they're trapped in my stomach, just like all of my fears.
"You know what? We will wait for him right here, I'm curious to see what he thinks when he comes home and his... Whatever you are, is dead." If he keeps me in this position any longer, I'm going to throw up.
His grip loosens just a few seconds later, without forcing me too much he leads me to the living area. The grey blanket is still laying on the couch where I slept.
"I'm going to be nice and ask one more time, where is Dalton?" Again I'm not saying anything, He may have hurt me a lot by doing what he did, but I am not a snitch, I've never been. "Fine then bitch."
One of them grabs some rope out of his back pocket. One ties my wrists together behind my back, the other my ankles.
It's so tight it hurts. When I make a mumbling sound, one of them laughs softly. That must be a sadist. He ties it a little tighter. I try not to squint any more for his pleasure.
My heart stops beating for a second when he pulls out two guns from his backpack. All the gear is getting casually laid on the table, next to my phone.
"Is that yours?" When I give no response once again, he kicks me against my tibia.
"Fuck you."
"You wish you could." He smirks, the smirk doesn't suit his face at all. He is the only one out of three that doesn't have a ski mask on.
"Go to hell."
"Big words for a little girl." The urge to spit on him grows with every word he says. But I know, if I do that I'm dead. "She doesn't even have his number in her contacts." One of them says while scrolling through my phone, I have no password on this phone, since there isn't any important stuff on there. "Smart girl hm?" His fingers grip under my chin, making me look up at him. Now I see his dark eyes for the first time. Deep brown, just like his long hair. He looks in his mid thirties, all things to remember when I go to the police. "Appreciating my good looks?" I just shake my head, there are no words in my mouth.