Never Again

Chapter 59: Again

Hey guys, another update for you all. I'm sorry that I can't update more regularly, but I'm so busy lately and I barely get any writing in at all. Even keeping up with Formula 1 is hard. I've been to Spa last week though and that was pretty awesome, Seb was so close to a win, but just not close enough. Oh well, I hope you all like this chapter and I'm sorry for letting you all wait so long!

The sudden intake of breath had grabbed his attention and when Seb looked up he saw an expression of horror written on Keira's face. He could see tears glistening and especially the flicker of fear that suddenly was visible in her eyes frightened him. The colour had drained out of her face and when he followed the direction of her gaze, he witnessed the phone dropping out of her hands. Fear was crossing her face and she screwed her eyes shut, while it looked like she had difficulties breathing. He was alarmed by this, because he didn't know what was going on. When he looked across the table he saw that the other's hadn't noticed anything yet, as they were still engaged in their discussion about which driver was often the drunkest. That meant it was all down to him, he couldn't keep his distance and leave her like this.

He stood up from his chair and made his way around the table to kneel down next to Keira. He wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. She didn't resist and when he felt his shirt getting wet he noticed she was sobbing. The others had now also noticed something was going on and they looked alarmed at him, clearly demanding answers. He shook his head and pressed a finger against his lips to tell them they shouldn't say anything and that he wasn't going to explain right now. They seemed to understand, although all of them didn't exactly know what to do. Macy was poking her food without any enthusiasm, Minttu was looking at Keira with concern and Kimi was quietly eating his chicken.

He himself didn't know what to do, the only things he could come up with was to stroke her hair and whisper words of comfort to sooth her. It hurt his back to sit like this, as he was twisted in a weird way, but he didn't dare move. He also noticed other people looking, but if Keira needed him, he had promised himself he would be there for her. He pressed a kiss on the top of her head and tried not to let out a sound of pain when she dug her nails in his chest. She grabbed the fabric of his shirt with her other hand and it felt like she was afraid that he would let her go. He responded by pressing her even closer against his body and that's when he spotted the abandoned phone laying on the table. He hesitated for a moment, because he wasn't sure if it would be a breach of her privacy if he would look at it. He needed to know though what had upset her this much, if he could do anything else to calm her down. Although he was still indecisive, he reached out for the phone.

Unknown - I saw you on TV today, it looks like you have forgotten to tell me something. It would be a shame if something happened to that pretty little face of yours, right? Just remember you can't hide forever love, we both know we belong together.

He got a bad feeling when he read the message, this didn't sound good, it didn't sound good at all. He stared at the screen, trying to make out what it meant. It clearly was someone threatening her and according to her reaction is must be the same person who had hurt her before. His eyes lingered on the last few words 'we both know we belong together,' because it told him what he had always expected. She had never wanted to talk about it and he had never dared bringing it up, but clearly her ex-boyfriend had been responsible for all the bruises. It made him shiver, because he knew they had lived together and the idea that she didn't even had a safe home to escape to made him angry.

He looked down at the girl in his arms and tried to imagine what she had been through, but he also blamed himself for letting her go back to England when he could have kept her safe in Switzerland. He had somehow made himself believe that she would be strong enough to take care of herself and that it wasn't his place to interfere in her private life. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pain in his back. He couldn't blame himself, that wasn't fair. They hadn't been close back then, they had only drank a coffee together. He couldn't have done anything, he had been a stranger to her. He kept wishing it had been different though, maybe he could have prevented at least some of her injuries, like that one in her face. His stomach tightened at the idea that someone had deliberately punched her in the face and he was sure that he hadn't even seen half of her injuries. The fear in her eyes when she had read the message made him feel sick, because that amount of fear is only caused by someone who doesn't have any limits to get what he wants.