"Atlas," Brooklyn runs over to me and wraps her arms around my neck.
My body is still frozen as I look around the room.
"Throw him in there," The man behind me yells.
I get pushed into the room full of bricks and a cold floor. The room goes dark and I hear metal scraping the walls and boots squeaking the floor…
"Atlas!" I look over at Rhys standing behind Brooklyn and me. "She said Dean didn't touch her," he tells me. I see Brooklyn with Aiden, staring at me like I'm crazy, Rhys looks at Aiden, and he gives a nod, and I watch Aiden walk Brooklyn out, but her eyes haven't left me. "He never touched her, she doesn't have a mark on her, you won't find anything. If you keep looking for something, it's going to scare her."
My eyes move to my hands trembling like crazy at the moment, my lips going dry, as I fight to breathe.
"Can you hear that?" I ask Rhys, as I drop to my knees, my hands move to my ears when the scraping gets louder.
Rhys kneels, his hand on my shoulder. "Atlas, keep it together, we've found her. You need to keep it together." Rhys tells me.
I know I do, I want all of this to stop, I want the demons to leave me alone, but they’re staying and it’s making me go crazy.
"Let's go home. Safe there, you know what's there." I look up at Rhys, as he gives me a nod. “We’re a family, a team. We’re always here for you."
I stand up, putting my hands into my pockets as they continue to tremble. I take in a deep breath, as I walk out the room, and head back to the car, knowing that's where Aiden and Brooklyn are. I didn't want to find her and get a nervous breakdown in front of her. I wanted to hold her, tell her that she's safe, that I will protect her, but the truth is I can’t even protect myself, much less her.
The chair scraps on the floor, and my eyes shoot open, at the sound. The only time I feel safe is when I close my eyes- beautiful blue eyes flash in my mind watching me. Atlas is the one keeping me safe at the moment, and he’s not even here with me.
All I want to do is tell him that I'm ready to give this a chance, I'm ready to see if we can both move past what he told me about my heart. Because that's what it is. My heart. Not Lucy’s, it’s mine.
I’m the one who controls this heart. I’m the one who relaxes so that it can have a steady beat. I’m the one with all these feelings, not Lucy. This heart is mine, just like Atlas is. I’m finally ready to accept what I have known all along. Being here I've thought a lot about this, and yes I have Lucy's heart, but maybe that's not a bad thing. She was pushing me to be with Atlas, for him to be the man who saves me from myself, and Lucy knew he would do that. Gave me signs that someone out there was looking for me. Maybe she thought that as much as Atlas could save me, I could save Atlas, and I will be there to help him through everything. Because I love Atlas.
"This might be the last you see of me, today I will be telling Atlas to bring the papers for the club, and if all goes well and he loves you as much as I think, I will be walking away from all this." Dean places the chair in front of me, I push his hand out the way as he goes to touch my face. "I’m hoping he’d spare my life and let this be because I haven’t touched you yet. He’d kill me if I dare lay a finger on you," Dean tells me and I have to laugh at him.
"You do know he will know where you are if you take the club from him? What makes you think when he gives it to you, he won't come?" I ask him, as I stand up getting as far from him as I can in the small space.
This room is small, it smells, and I've only been in here for two days, and the only reason I haven't gone crazy is because it's only been two days. Atlas was taken, beaten, burned... the list goes on, yet he survived. He knows that his friends were coming for him, and I know that Atlas is coming for me, so I can survive this.
"I'm not going to ask for the club, there will be rules to go with it. I have it all ready, I'm about to talk to him, and get this done," Dean looks at his watch, then back at me. "I just wanted to come in to see you one last time, I wanted to say goodbye."
"Fuck you," I bite back to him.
I hope when Atlas sees him, he kills him. I don't care how Atlas kills Dean, I want him dead.
Dean starts roaring with laughter without a care, as if he’s not going to pay for what he’s doing to me, but all I do is stand and smile at him.
"I hope we meet again." Dean stands up and starts walking towards the door. "If this was a different situation, I would have tried my luck." he says as he looks over his shoulder at me. The shit head blows a kiss towards me getting a middle finger in return from me.
The door slams shut behind me, and I take a moment to breathe, hoping that Atlas will find me. If this is the last time Dean will be in the room with me, I have no idea how long it will take for me to get free.
I listen to my heart as it tells me to calm down, that everything is going to be fine, but I'm not so sure if I can do that.
I hear a loud gunshot, which frightens me to the core making my heart pound and beat at a vigorous pace. My eyes move to the door, waiting for one of the fucking druggies to come through the door. One came in this morning, but Dean got rid of him, and I know that I won't be able to fight them for long. My body won't let me do it.
The door opens to reveal the man I have been waiting for all this time- Atlas, he did find me.
When he strides towards me, I jump and meet him halfway by wrapping my arms around his neck. All too soon, he pulls away from me. He has zoned out and I see his hands moving over my body as he mutters incoherent things to himself. I can make out a few words: burn, wearing shoes, cigarette. What is he doing? This isn’t the Atlas I thought I was going to meet when he found me, this one is frantic, his hands trembles as he looks over my arm.
"He never touched me, Atlas," I say, but I feel like he can’t hear me. "Atlas, he didn't…" I stop as Atlas doesn't seem to be here with me. I mean he's in the room with me, but his head is not here, it's somewhere else, somewhere dark.
I look over at Rhys as he stands between Atlas and me. "Atlas!" Rhys shouts his name, trying to get him back to the reality. "She said Dean didn't touch her," he tells him.
Aiden walks over to me and stands in front of me. Do they think Atlas would hurt me?
"Come on," Aiden puts his hand on my back and leads me towards the door.
"Atlas-"
"He needs to get back home," Aiden cuts me off. I look over my shoulder to see Rhys kneeling in front of Atlas and trying to bring him back from the darkness. "It's been a hard few days," Aiden adds as I look up at him, his eyes looking ahead, not looking around at anything.
I begin to go slower when I see Dean lying on the floor, but Aiden blocks my view. Did Atlas kill him? I wonder hoping he did kill the bastard.
"Atlas will meet us by the car, are you okay?" Aiden asks. As we leave the building, I look around to see where the hell I am. I have no idea, but one thing is for sure it's a hell hole.
"Yes, Dean never touched me. He said he wanted the club, and if Atlas loved me, he would give it over, if he didn't, then maybe he would have to show Atlas how serious he was." I tell him. He takes his jacket off, wraps it around me, and hands me a bottle of water from the car.