The Protector (Complete)

Chapter 5

"Hey, Amy, my food is here," Greta said to the woman on the phone as the knock came for the second time. "And he is very impatient. I have to go."

"Me, too," Amy said. "I've been putting off correcting the giant mound of English papers. It's been good talking to you. It's not the same here without you."

Greta sighed at the words. "Well, Weston Prep isn't the same as there. I miss it."

The knocking on the door came louder and more intense.

"I have to go," Greta said, hurrying to the door. "I'll talk..." she screamed as soon as she opened the door. Her scream was cut off mid-noise by a rough, giant hand.

"It is not necessary to scream," Alexander said immediately when he felt the fear riddled in the body that he was now so close to. "I am not going to hurt you. I'm going to release your mouth, but you cannot scream."

Greta backed away from Alexander as soon as she was free from him. The back of her knees hit the coffee table. Tremors attacked her body causing the pens on the table to rattle against each other. "What are you doing here? Leave. You cannot come in here."

"Answer your phone," Alexander said. "I'm sure Amy is concerned because of your scream."

Greta's hand shook as she tried to find the button to connect the call. "Hello?"

"Greta, what's wrong?" Amy asked overly concerned by the scream and then the disconnected call. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing," Greta replied despite her voice still shaking. She stared at Alexander who was leaning against her wall, his hands stuffed into his pockets. "There was a bug. It was huge. I was just startled."

"You scared me, Greta," Amy said with a laugh. "I almost called the cops."

Greta watched as Alexander stiffened at the news. Well, it served him right for scaring the daylights out of her. "Well, thanks for calling back and checking up on me. It's all good here. Call me tomorrow."

A knock on the door had Alexander pushing himself off the wall. His senses had already told him that it was the delivery man. He pulled out his wallet, accepted the food, and paid the man. With his hands full of pizza and soda, Alexander used his foot to shut the door. He studied Greta. "If I move closer to you to set this on the table," he indicated the pizza in his hand, "are you going to bolt?"

"Don't take that tone with me, Mister," Greta said, pointing her phone at him as if it were a gun. "You don't just get to show up at my place, scare the daylights out of me, and then insinuate that it is my fault."

He ignored the order. He had given Greta a startle, and he would let her mistake slide for now. "I take it that you won't be bolting then," Alexander said, stepping closer to her. "And please keep your voice down. These walls are as thin as paper."

Greta jerked the pizza out of Alexander's hand and held out her hand for the soda. "I don't want..." She looked down at the pizza box. Stopping mid-sentence, she set the pizza on the table and flipped open the box. "This isn't what I ordered."

Alexander set the soda on the table. "Since I knew I would be here, I changed the order so it would suit both of us. You can thank me later."

"I'm not thanking you."

He softened his face with a smile. "That's why I said you could do it later. Now sit."

She sat before she had realized she had listened to him. Immediately she jumped to her feet. "Mr. Waslow, I did not ask you to come in here. I don't think you should be here, and if you don't leave, I'm going to scream until the people next to me call the cops."