Nightlight (on hold)

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

"Any news?" I prompted. Harry lazily flit his eyes up at me.

"You know I can't tell you. Besides, aren't you supposed to not be talking?"

"Stop being a douche. You've been on your phone all morning, you have to know something. Please!" I begged him. Madeleine yawned next to me, indicating she was waking, but I didn't look down at her. I focused an intense gaze on the only male in the room.

"I can't, Hannah." I let out an angry and frustrated sigh at his response, although I was expecting it.

"Well, at least let me go down and get food for everyone. We haven't eaten or had something to drink in forever."

"No one leaves this room, or that room." He pointed to my en suite. "So if you're thirsty, then drink the water from the sink."

"Harry-"

"And wasn't there a rule on you talking?"

"Were you serious about that?" I snorted unattractively. Eleanor sat up next to me and rubbed her eyes. She said good morning to everyone, but only Madeleine responded. Harry gently moved Claire off his lap and laid her down on the floor softly. He stood up quickly, to a full and towering height, and then approached me rapidly.

"What the-?" Eleanor was shocked to see what she was awakening to. "Harry, what are you doing?" She asked quietly as the curly-haired man grabbed me from the bed and set me down on the floor by the bedpost.

"Hannah lost the privilege to speak, but she's not complying, so I'm going to gag her. Which means I also have to bind her. What did Niall use last time?" He looked around the room as he held my wrists in his hands. I struggled against him, even though I knew it was pointless. All these assholes were much stronger than me, but I'd be damned if I didn't fight.

"Umm- I don't know if-"

"Bedding, right?" He mused aloud, ignoring Eleanor's quiet attempt to help me. My wrists were transferred to one large hand while the other ripped part of my sheets.

"HEY!" I snapped. "Niall ruined my other nice sheets and now you've fucked this up. How about let's not destroy my bedroom?" My wrists were bound tightly behind me. Harry was crouched in front of me and working on the knot behind my back.

"Relax, babe. Your husband will buy you new ones." He grunted. Another strip from my sheets was torn.

"Please, Harry I'll shut up." I begged him. Madeleine watched the scene in horror, but by that point in her stay with us she was quite accustomed to my misbehavior, so she knew the drill. Eleanor, on the other hand, was shaking her head at me.

"No you won't, cupcake." He chuckled, seeming in a better mood now that his nuisance was being taken care of. I tried to kick him, but he swiftly caught my ankle. "Now I'd tie your feet, but you're lucky I like you." The fabric he had just torn was quickly brought up to my lips and rapidly silenced me.

I sat there for a while, shooting pleading glances at everyone. Eleanor gave me a lecture about respect, Harry teased me, and Madeleine kept apologizing to me. Whatever, I was used to being the bad child by then. Luckily, Maddie kept me updated on the time.

Finally, around three in the afternoon, there was a noise downstairs. Harry didn't pull his gun out, or anything, so I'm assuming he was getting updates on his phone and he knew well that it was just the guys. There was a lot of commotion downstairs- a ton of shouting and I couldn't tell if it was bad or good. I swallowed the nervousness in my throat and just prayed to god Zayn got back in one piece.

There were heavy footsteps up the stairs and the first to come in was Niall. He flung open the door and smiled at everyone widely.

I took that as a good sign.

"Harry, you should go to bed." He told the poor guy who had been up for as long as I had. All the commotion had woken Claire, and she seemed confused, but Harry quickly helped her up and explained what was going on.

Niall went over to Madeleine and gave her a slow and light hug, not too much but more than I had seen between the two of them before. He escorted her out of the room quickly, but not before shooting me a quizzical look.

"Why is it you always end up like this, love?" Of course I couldn't answer or give him the middle finger, but I figured a glare would suffice. Liam and Louis came in just as they were leaving. Niall gave them both high fives and then disappeared with the French girl.

Eleanor launched herself at her fiancé and started to pepper him with kisses, Liam on the other hand thanked Harry for staying back and putting up with 'the girls.' However, when he said that, he made a point to look in my direction.

And then Zayn came in.

"What the bloody hell did you do now, Darlin'?" He chuckled as soon as he found me. I kicked out my feet, desperate for someone to untie me, but instead of helping me out, my husband asked Harry. Liam and Louis quickly ceased what they had been doing and paid attention, curious to see what I had done that time.

"She wouldn't shut the fuck up, mate. Sorry, it was the only way I could get some peace." Harry shrugged. I heard Claire whisper something to him that sounded either like 'that was unnecessary', or 'why must you provoke her' as Harry led her out of the crowded room.

"You crack me up." Louis laughed obnoxiously.

"Don't encourage her!" Eleanor scolded as the two made their departure as well.

"I can't say that I blame him." Liam shook his head at me, but at least bent down and pulled the gag from my mouth.

"HEY!" I snapped, "you're my kidney buddy. Go beat Harry up." I demanded, knowing he'd choose Harry over me anyways.

"Are you kidding me? It's about time someone shut you up." He teased. "Besides, I was kind enough to take that gag off, and that was only because you claim we have some special kidney bond. Otherwise I would've left you as is. 'Bout time we get some quiet." He shook the rag in my face, as if to emphasize that he could still silence me if he wanted. I think he quickly noticed he was the last one in the room besides me and my husband, so he quickly followed the couples out.

"Why am I not surprised to find you like this?" Zayn finally stepped forward and crouched in front of me. A light kiss was pressed to my cheek, and hands grabbed the back of my head. He quickly hugged me, but had yet to untie me.

"Hey asshole," I spoke, "why don't you let me go now?"

"Well, I would." He smirked devilishly, "but I quite like you completely incapable and surrendered at my mercy."

"Bleh," I made a fake vomiting spectacle, to which he only shook his head. He did, however, pull out his pocket knife and reach around me. My face was pressed right to his chest and I got a good whiff of his smell, which is the best thing in the world- a foresty musk mixed with cigarettes. I loved it. In seconds, he cut through my binds and helped me off the floor.

As soon as I was free, I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him dearly. He was bent over at a bad angle, so that I could reach his shoulders, but that was swiftly corrected when he picked me up so he could stand straight. I wrapped my legs around his torso and clung even tighter to him. Hands rubbed my back gently as he held me, but all too soon I was set on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" He asked me.

"I'm fine." I shrugged.

"How's your head? Are you nauseous? Does your side hurt?" He lifted my shirt to check the stitches from where the Doctors had to operate to remove that motherfucking bullet.

"Zayn, I feel fine. Really." I assured him, telling the complete and honest truth. I was still on pain meds, but I felt better than I had in a while. "Now tell me how it went."

"Let's get you something to eat and drink first. You're still recovering from an eating disorder, so I'm not entirely pleased I had to lock you up all night." He stretched his arms back around me, like they had been before.

"I can walk." I informed him.

"I know, but I want to carry you." And without waiting for my response, he lifted me back against his chest, forcing me to cling to him as I had before. I was brought downstairs to a crowded first floor. There were so many One Direction guys that I hardly recognized any of them. They all were patting each other on the back, and joking around, and shaking hands and just being happy. I noticed Eleanor and Louis in the corner. Louis had his arms wrapped around his girl while he spoke to one of the only guys I vaguely remembered.

Madeleine and Niall were nowhere in sight- but I assumed they were back in her room, and rightfully so. Niall knew that it would be too much for her. Harry and Claire were also not present, but I assumed they were in the guest room they had been borrowing, because Harry was definitely sleeping and Claire was probably taking care of him.

Liam was in the center of a group of guys. He was one of the few with a beer in his hand, but he had a huge smile on his face and seemed to be recounting a story. All the men were listening intently to his every word, and I could tell Liam was enjoying himself.

We went into the kitchen, which was surprisingly empty. It must've been off-limits. Zayn set me on one of our counters, and then went into the fridge and served me an iced tea. While I was quenching my thirst, he made me a grilled cheese.

"Can you please tell me what happened now?" I begged in between bites of the fancy sandwich he whipped up. It had tomatoes and mushrooms and spinach and onions and three types of cheeses. I was thoroughly impressed. I couldn't even make a plain grilled cheese.

"Alright, alright." He consented.

"The suspense is killing me." I admitted, with my mouth full of course. He laughed at me, and it was nice to hear him so carefree, finally.

"I know. I love making you squirm." He smiled. I shot my eyebrows up, but was too busy snacking away to respond.

"We have some injuries, so we're not unscathed. A handful of my men are hurt, but they're stable so they'll live. Mostly, we're fine." He started. I didn't want to sound rude, because I did care about his gang members. Zayn obviously did and every loss, he took personally. But I wasn't so interested in that, I wanted to know about the human trafficking.

"Anyways," he continued, "we got to the warehouse and there were about fifty guys left. We took them out quickly, so the Black Devil Cartel is officially deceased."

I would like to tell you that I cheered and gave him a kiss and we celebrated the win in a classy way, but that would be lying. How I actually celebrated the win was choking on my food, spitting some of it out, and then Zayn having to give me the Heimlich. Of course he then fawned over me for quite a few minutes, making sure I was alright and that I was breathing normal and that he hadn't injured my stitches, but I was fine. He then made me drink a liter of water to help the rest of the food go down smoothly.

When all of that was done, I finally congratulated him.

"I'm so proud of you!" I climbed into his lap quickly and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.

"Thanks Darlin'," he grinned widely. His big hands rested on my waist and he squeezed me gently.

"But if that was so quick, how come it took you guys so fucking long to get back?" I demanded, trying not to sound too whiny, but also curious what else had happened. Zayn sighed softly and hesitated before answering.

"We went looking for the rest of the girls. We found them, but not all of them were alive, and the ones that were had to go straight to the hospital. Only a few, the newer ones, could walk on their own." He admitted. His eyes regarded me carefully, as if waiting for me to break down, but I stayed strong. At least he found them, before more of them could be sold or killed.

"What about the others?" I asked softly, not exactly sure if I wanted to know the answer.

"What others?" His fingers pushed up the hem of my shirt slightly, so he could draw small patterns against my hip bones.

"The girls who were already sold, b-before you guys got there."

He sighed again.

"That's our job for the next few days. We have their clients' names, now we've got to track them down and take care of them and then handle the girls." He didn't have to go into any more detail, I knew very well what he meant by 'take care of'. I rested my head gently against his shoulder. Fuck those guys, honestly. I didn't understand what kind of monsters could ruin perfectly innocent and young girls. And why the fuck did it have to be so complicated?

People can be just really fucking horrible sometimes.

"So that means, unfortunately, we won't be around much for the next week or so." Zayn told me. I could feel his chest vibrate against me as he spoke, and I liked how it felt. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. "But then it'll be over, Darlin'."

"Good. I'm glad. I'm really proud of you and all you've done for these girls." I whispered against his skin. I wasn't sure if he heard it or not, until he answered a few moments later.

"It was all for you, Darlin'. This win was because of you and your pushing us to be better people. I love you."

"I love you more." My lips pressed against his collar bone gently.

"Not possible."