Aelise shivered in realization and regret. She looked around to find who it was or maybe, just maybe, it was just some cat or any animal. But it was as if God wasn't listening to her prayers as she spotted five guys walking their way towards her. She looked at them in horror and the worst possible scenarios pestered her mind shamelessly. She tried to quickly run away but it was too late as one of them pulled her back by grabbing her leg, making her fall on her chin. Blood dripped from her mouth and she felt pain emerging from her head.
Aelise cried and begged for mercy from the men who were holding her back, a maniacal grin on their face. "P-please let me go. I'll give you whatever you want, but not this." Unfortunately for her, that didn't help stop them from advancing towards the female. Even one bit.
She attempted to break free from them but the one guy walked up to her and without hesitation, slapped her full force across her face. Aelise's eyes began to water even more as she received the painful hit. She coughed out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. She gritted her teeth and one of them kicked her in the stomach. Aelise tried to fight back with all her remaining strength but it only seemed to get worse.
Until the sound of a gun being fired was heard by all of them, making them look up at the person. A tall man, with white hair and arctic blue eyes. Aelise's eyes widened.
"Get the fuck out of my sight."
Nate was just following Zen's orders. Zen had gone back to the company to get things taken care of so Nate rushed behind to find Aelise. "Where the fuck did you go so soon?" He whispered to himself and heard a gunshot from the alleyway. "Fuck." He drew his gun out too and just hid behind the wall. He saw Aelise on the floor with blood trickling down. 'Holy fuck. Thank God Zen wasn't here or these poor guys would've been ripped apart.' He thought to himself.
He saw a guy standing there with the gun. "Sorry, my men." Nate spoke with a smile to the guy in front of Aelise. "Zen won't be pleased." He whispered, loud enough for Aelise to hear as he held the guys who hurt Aelise and dragged them out. "They got the wrong chick. Apologies." He waved to the guy with Aelise and left the place with the five bastards.
Ace watched them go away with a blank expression. 'But I don't want to hurt anyone.' Those words rang in his head. He shook his head and his attention went to Aelise. At some point, he wanted to cry but he couldn't do that in front of a girl. Or anyone. It's been a while since he did. A really long while.
His blue eyes softened as he held her chin up and wiped the blood off with his thumb, heaving a deep sigh. "What are you doing out here all alone?" The question seemed to make the girl sink in her position but before she could answer, she got scooped up by him as he stood up. "Ac-" She got cut off by him, his tone cold. "Never mind. Don't talk." The female did what he said. He carried her towards his car.
Zen's snipers who stayed back came to him and helped them into a car. "Nice. Snug as a bug in a rug." Nate smirked as he tied them all up, gagging them with a cloth. "See. I don't know why you were behind her but remember to thank me for getting you away from there. But then again, I'm taking you to Zen so I guess you shouldn't thank me." Nate mumbled as he shut the door and they drove to Zen's warehouse.
Zen growled when he got the text from Nate. 'They hurt Aelise.' That was more than enough for Zen to stop everything and text Aelise. 'Text me when you're free.' He texted and got his coat. "Sir, the deal-" He cut the man off with a glare. "Fuck the deal." He spoke in his low voice as he made his way to the warehouse.
Nate had gotten the five guys out and tied them to chairs. "Move and this slices through so I suggest you don't struggle." He smiled as he pointed to the blade right near their wrist vein. "Zen must be-" He heard the door bang open and smirked. "Boss. Got them all set up." He spoke and tossed the gun to Zen. "Who sent you? Or were you just looking for a good fuck?" Zen asked as he shot at one of their legs. "Get out, Nate." He spoke. "As you wish, Sir." Nate smirked as he walked out, closing and locking the metal door.
Nate hated this side of Zen but he always got so possessive. From when he lost Aelise, he had gotten more possessive over the people he had in his life. They were his and he would give his own life for them no matter what. Sometimes, he liked it. It kept his family out of trouble. Of course, Zen was like his brother now.
After a while, Ace was done treating Aelise's injuries. The atmosphere was terribly tense. It was dead silent. It was always like this whenever he was around her. She chewed over the thought of why Ace came so early and what he was doing there in the first place.
The girl snapped out of her thoughts as he spoke. "So, care to explain what made you go to that alleyway?" That didn't even even sound like a question. It was a mere statement. It was like he was demanding the answer by how stern his tone was. "I met up with Zen today-" She didn't even realize that he was already driving until he took a sharp right. He sighed. "That doesn't matter." She gulped and shook her head. "Something just happened that made me cry, I guess."
Ace hummed and said nothing. Everything fell into an uncomfortable silence once again. Then the female realized that she didn't know the place. "Where are we going?" She asked and not long after, he answered but his eyes were still focused on the road. "My house. I already texted your parents." She tensed, her jaw almost dropping as she started to feel severely anxious about staying over his house. He immediately noticed this and reassured her. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you because you met up with your ex. If you did want to meet up with him then it's okay. As long as you're happy." He trailed off and that made the female look at him in surprise. "Thank you." She mumbled.
He never gave her a response like that. He would always give straight and stern answers. No stuttering, nothing. Just a response that could send a chill down anyone's spine. She also just realized that this was one of their first times talking like this because they would usually get into arguments pretty quick.
"Next time, if you go out at a time like this, I beg of you to take someone with you." She nodded as a response. "You're worried about me? Why?" Ace almost choked on his saliva upon hearing that question. "D-Dummy, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" He stuttered. He just stuttered. It was like an endangered side of him, which surprised Aelise a lot. She rose her eyebrow. After everything that he had done to her, why was he still worried?
She slightly jolted as her phone buzzed. She checked it and saw that it was a message from Zen. Aelise hesitated to respond but she eventually did so anyway. 'What's up?' With that, she turned her phone off.