Act of love

Chapter Twenty-Five

Anfisa:
A key hits the lock of the front door, making my heart raise right in my throat again. I want everything but Dalton to see me like this, he will be disappointed that I did open the door.
"He's here." One of them whispers.
Two of them grab a gun. The one without a mask keeps it casually in his hand, tapping it on his fingers. The other holds it right at my head.
Right before the door opens, I get a piece of tape put on my mouth.
"Shut the hell up got it?" He whispers in my ear, the soft voice sends shivers down my spine.
"Anfisa?" He says in the hallway. I hear him take his jacket off.
These are the longest seconds of my whole life. I want to yell at him not to come in. But even if I didn't have this stupid piece of tape on my mouth, I wouldn't have yelled. They would kill me if I made even a slight breathing sound. "What is going on here?" His eyes spin across the room, eyes full of stress and panic.
"What do you think is going on Blanks? This girl, how important is she to you?"
The point of the gun gets pushed against my head a little more, letting me know the person holding the gun is just as nervous as I am.
"What do you guys want? I told you I would pay you next month, in January I will have the money I promise!"
"We don't believe these empty promises anymore, either you give us ten percent of the money right now, or she will no longer see the day light."
"That's at least five thousand dollars, I don't have that." The words hit me hard, if he doesn't have the money, that can only mean one thing for me. "I can give you two thousand right now, that's all I can do." The one holding the gun laughs hard.
"Shut up Marlin, make it three thousand and we have a deal."
"What? We wanted at least ten grand, how can you agree on three thousand?" He says when he lowers gun. The guy who's name probably was Marlin.
"Who is the boss here? You or me?" Both seem to be in the argument too much to care even the slightest about their surroundings.
There is a second of eye contact between me and Dalton, we both think the same thing. Now is the only moment to escape this.
He gives me a slow nod before grabbing the only other guy with ski mask. The only one out of three that is fully focused on me, and not arguing about what Dalton has to pay, what he will never pay. With my legs tied together I kick the other guy in the ski mask. He holds on tightly to the person who he was arguing with. Which doesn't stop me, I keep kicking and kicking him, until he ends up on the floor with his buddy right on top of him. Aspects of holding onto him, if one falls so does the other.
"Dane! Don't let her escape." He seems to be passed out on the floor with a puddle of blood next to him. My eyes follow the blood trail, which leads to Dalton's hands. It's not the moment to be scared of him, we need to get the hell out of here, then we can talk for hours.
"Untie me!" I want to scream at him, which I can't.
If Dalton waits any longer, that Dane might even wake up. Or the other guys can finally get up. I keep kicking them in hope they stay down for longer, but one already is getting up.
Without untying one part of me, Dalton picks me up from the chair. Never have I've been more scared in my life.
He presses the elevator button at least one hundred times in the last two seconds, hoping it would close faster. Out of the room Dalton lives in, the guy without the ski mask comes stumbling over garbage laying in the hallway.
Right before he reaches the door it closes, please don't open again, please don't... I can hear him banging his fists at the door.
"Anfisa I'm so sorry." He finally removes the tape from my mouth. Before speaking I take a few seconds to breathe.
"I... I shouldn't have opened the door."
"No stop, I shouldn't have even left you alone." The moment the elevator door opens we run outside. There was not a single moment of rest where he could untie me.
They don't seem to follow us, they probably know too that it's useless. We are very much faster. They didn't look quite healthy and fit.
A few streets away from his apartment he finally unties the ropes that are ties way too tightly around my ankles and wrists. It leaves behind a bright red mark.
"God, they got you good. I can't even tell you how sorry I am." he says, my first instinct is to scream at him, but I don't own the energy anymore. I've fought against my emotions for so long, there is not even a bit of strength in me anymore.

The sign of Sette Giorni lights up right next to us.
"Let's go inside." It might not be the best idea to take your ex fiancé to the restaurant your ex boyfriend owns. But it's a warm and save place, and I can't be alone, neither can Dalton.
"I was thinking about getting some flowers for you, but I was out for almost two hours already, so I returned home. Thank God I did." He starts speaking as soon as we find a table for two. Half of the words he is speaking don't even reach my brain. My brain feels completely fried. Overflooded with thoughts.
In the back of the restaurant two eyes peek out of a window. I have never seen how this restaurant looks at the back, but those eyes looked a lot like those of Zachary.
When I spot them, they disappear, like he didn't want to see me. But that wasn't true, next the door of his office opens and he walks out. His eyes only focused on mine.
"What are you doing here?" His entire demeanor changes when he sees the make up stained all over my face. It's everywhere but where it's supposed to be, on my eyes and lips. I've never been a huge fan of a lot of make-up, that's just because I'm not good at it, and it doesn't suit my face.
"Who is he?" There is a slight softness in his voice, the softness almost sounds like betrayal.
Zachary is standing right behind Dalton, the two haven't made eye contact yet. But if they do I'm not sure Zach would even recognize Dalton. They have never officially met.
"He is, just a friend." I'm not quite ready to tell Zach who he is, he is just busy at work, this would definitely disturb him.
"Hey man, I've heard a lot about you. I'm Dalton, pretty sure you heard enough about me too." Dalton gets up out of his chair to shake Zachary's hand. Which he refuses to, understandable.
"Dalton? Like Dalton Blanks?"
"Sure man, that's what most people call me, you can just call me just Dalton." Zach's eyes pierce right through me, I don't let them.
"Anfisa? Explanation?"
"She doesn't have one, I do." His sweet face turns in an annoyed one.
"But I didn't ask you did I?" Dalton's brows furrow, this is not like he saw Zachary whilst he was with me.
"Listen, I don't know what to tell you, but Dalton was never dead." It takes multiple seconds for Zach to actually give a response. I expected him to get mad, instead he calmly sits down.
"He was never dead?"
"Right here mate." Dalton says waving his hands in front of Zach. We're almost pretending like Dalton isn't right here with us. He sounds jokingly in the moment of serious conversation.
"Shut the hell up! No one is talking to you." There goes the angry reaction. "Who's heart do I have than?" I lift my shoulders to my ears.
"You probably never even had a heart transplant, just a cut in your body that made it seem like you had one." He hits his hands on the table in defeat. How someone's life can just change in the matter of a few minutes.
"How long did you know this Anfisa?"
"Don't blame her man, this was my doing, if you want to put the blame on anyone put it on me." Again his eyes move over to Dalton, this time in a not so friendly way. His eyes are so narrow they're almost fully close, never in my life have I seen him so angry.
"Again. I did not ask you, and who cares about the fucking blame, I need to know if I'm still sick or not!"

Zachary:
Thoughts are rushing through my mind, there could be a chance that I'm still sick, I thought we could leave this behind finally after twenty-four years.
"The chances of you still being sick are relatively high Zach, I'm sorry, I wish sooner." For the first time in my life I felt healthy, and it was fake. It was all fake.
"How do I believe you Anfisa?"
"Trust." She makes it sound so easily.
"You've lost every bit of my trust the moment you slept with that guy."

A sharp pain comes from my chest, I lay my hand over it and massage it lightly to get the pain to stop.
It doesn't, it only get's worse. It's probably my lunch stuck somewhere, that happens, nothing badly. Even a couple of coughs don't seem to help this pain.
"Zach? Are you okay?"
"Fine..." Is all I can say, the pain gets worse with the second. If I wait a couple of minutes more the pain will get unbearable. "I'm not... Call 911."