Get The Girl [h.s] AU

33

"No one is ever going to take you away, ever again."

His exact words kept replaying themselves in my head, causing me to jolt awake. I was in bed, unable to process when it was exactly that I fell asleep.The room was still dark meaning it probably wasn't that long ago. When I turn, there's a dark figure sitting in the chair in front of the bed, startling me a bit.

He must realize I'm awake because he turns on the lamp on the desk, allowing me to actually see his face clearly now. "What are you doing?" I ask, sitting up while holding the blanket to my chest. I look to the clock and it read 4:36 am.

"I just wanted you to know that I would never purposefully put your life in danger," Harry begins, his face remains nonchalant. "What happened yesterday was a miscalculation on my part, I wouldn't have done it if I thought it would put you at risk."

I look down to my hands, avoiding his gaze for a while until I find what it is I want to say. "Why did you let them take me?" I ask. I expected him to fight, if he claims to want to protect me he would've done whatever it took to keep me safe as he's done in the past. "You didn't even try to stop them."

Harry leans over, his elbows press on his knees as he supports his upper body and sighs, clasping his hands in front of himself. His jaw clenched and unclenched before he speaks.

"There's many factors at play here." He begins, running a hand through his hair, his eyes no longer on me but at the floor in front of him. "Alfio got me out of...a situation back then. He gives me a job to do and I follow it, no questions asked. I owe him that, but this—" He furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head in anger. "What he did was out of line."

"I thought your whole thing was you don't listen to anyone," I say. "At least that's how you come off to me."

"It's called loyalty, in this life that's the only quality that matters. I had a debt, now it's paid. After this, Alfio means shit to me." He was very obviously bothered by what happened, maybe he feels betrayed. Who knows what Harry's actually feeling, I can't seem to tell by his face because it always remained in that same angry-bored-like state.

There's a short silence between us as Harry sits up straight. "I thought Alfio said he was a friend of my father." I recall the time at the strip joint.

"Alfio isn't a part of your father's organization. Just because they might be friends does not mean that he has to listen to what your father says. He helped locate you but that is about it. He isn't someone you can put your trust on, he will put your life on the line if he needs to."

He doesn't sound like the type of man my father would associate with. Everyone back home was personally picked to be in this with my father, no one went out without my his orders and no one betrayed him, he wouldn't have Alfio around and that is a fact.

"I miss my mom," I finally say what I had been thinking of since I arrived here. "I miss my sister and weirdly enough, I miss my father." Harry looks at me momentarily from the chair before he stands up and walks towards my bed where he sits.

"When all of this is over, you will get to go home." Harry comforts, eyes on mine. They still held that stern glint but there was also a hint of concern.

"That's the thing though, I don't want to go home. Not if I'm going to be locked in my room and never be able to leave without someone breathing down my neck." I sigh in exasperation. "I want to be able to be on my own and not feel like I'm in a cage for the rest of my life."

"You know the situation you are in," Harry says. "You've seen it for yourself. We are here as a safety protocol."

"And this is exactly what I don't want." I lay back down on the bed and Harry's eyes remain on me as I look up at the roof. "I'm tired of hiding, I'm tired of having to move whenever I'm in danger."

"Do you think this is what I wanted?" He asks rhetorically. "Because I'll tell you right now, I didn't expect this would be the way my life would turn out but it did. This is your life, Valentina. Wether you like it or not." And now he sounded like my father, scolding me for complaining about the way my life was playing out, making me feel guilty for even thinking about how miserable I was.

I turn on my side so that I am now looking at him. I hold my head up by my hand. "What would you be doing if you hadn't chosen to do this?" At my question, Harry looks away and bites the inside of his cheek.

"I probably would still be locked up," He says and that makes me wonder what he did to be put in jail in the first place. Harry then shakes his head and sighs. "I don't look back in the past, there's no point. I've got my second chance and as much as I hate it, I will do it right."

I nod, he was right. There's no point in reminiscing on the past. That is something I often find myself doing, it's a bad habit that I need to learn to grow out of.

"Can I ask you another question?" Harry doesn't respond and only looks at me, expecting the question. "Why do you let me call you by your name?" He doesn't allow the others to do it, but when I do he doesn't seem to mind it.

I watch Harry's Adam's apple bob as he gulps back before he answers. "I like how you say it." He says, his fingers toying with his rings. "Almost everyone I knew said it in spite. When you say it, it sounds right in your mouth. It makes me feel safe, even when I'm not."

Maybe it was the fact that it was early in the morning and he hadn't slept and that's why he was being vulnerable and open. I couldn't imagine him saying this to me at any other point in the day. I wanted to know more about this enigma of a man, but I hate to pry when the walls are so very high on someone who clearly doesn't want to be known.

My eyes look down to his hands and my hands nervously make their way over to them. I was ready for my touch to be rejected by him but I am surprised when his fingers stop fumbling and allows me to rest my hand on top of his own. Harry just sort of looks at our hands and says nothing.

"You will always be safe with me." I finally speak. I had no intentions on hurting anyone, especially Harry. I can tell he's been through so much because a person with a clean conscious doesn't have trouble sleeping at night.

Harry's eyes flick to mine, only this time there was no furrow in his eyebrows. His eyes appeared soft and tired, he blinks slowly and removes his hand from mine as he stands up from the bed.

"You should get some rest." Is what he says before he leaves my room. I don't know what it was, but it almost felt like something was missing as soon as Harry left. Like he took something with him that made me feel upset at its absence.

Whatever it was, I'm sure nothing good would come from it.