Knocking at the door woke her up, she didn't know who would be here at this time of night. Groggy, Elizabeth sat up and remembered that she wasn't in her apartment she was in a hotel room at the Quade Night. She glanced at the time at little past 9; she had fallen asleep reading her new book, snuggling under the warm covers. Elizabeth got out of the warm bed and walked over to the door, smoothing her blonde hair as she went.
"Beth, I came to check on you this morning and you were still sleeping. Then you weren't here after lunch. Where did you go?" Marlin said when Elizabeth opened the door.
"Hey, dad. I, uh went to eat. I met Quade's mother after I woke up and she took me to eat. We have to go you'd love the meatballs." She gave her dad a hug around the middle. It felt nice to hug him.
"You met Dash's mom?" Marlin asked walking past her into her room. He sat down on the couch and somehow found a remote to a TV that she didn't see, but a click on the remote and a panel opened on the wall to reveal a TV. He flicked it to a basketball game and looked over his shoulder at Elizabeth.
Dash? Elizabeth sighed and went over to sit next to her dad, who had already gotten into her Lays Chips. "She was nice. Her name is Natasha. I could eat some food now." She reached her hand into the bag and pulled herself a small handful out to eat.
"We could order pizza through room service. Did you know that your room has free room service? Any time of the night." Marlin grinned through his mustache.
"No, nobody told me. How do you know?" Elizabeth snuggled closer to dad.
"My room's got the same deal." Marlin put his arm around her.
"Pizza sounds great." Marlin got up from the couch and went over to the phone on the night table by the bed. He made the order.
"Can you bring me the book on the bed when you come back?"
"Here ya go, baby." Marlin handed her the red book and Elizabeth glowed from the inside. The book made her tingle from the inside joy it gave her to have in her possession.
"Thank you." She got comfortable and half watched the game with her dad while she read the book and waited for the pizza to come. Elizabeth relaxed with her dad, he watched the game and she read her book while they waited for the pizza.
The night went pretty quickly and if they had been in her apartment it would have been a normal night for the pair. Her dad would come spend time with her when he felt lonely and she never minded the company, because she didn't have many people to spend her time with. The book was perfect. He'd chosen something that would instantly capture her imagination. Before she knew it, she was waking up on the couch. She must have fallen asleep here while watching the game and reading her book. Sitting up she stretched her arms above her head, she actually had slept pretty good. Her body didn't ache this morning like it had yesterday when she woke up and she smiled.
Elizabeth got up and went straight to the shower. It was a good way to start her day. She should probably go check in on her shop, she'd been away for a week now. What day was it? Getting out of the shower and drying herself off, Elizabeth wrapped the towel in her hair. She chose another pair of jeans and nicer form fitting maroon long sleeve shirt with a little slope in the front. This shirt had come from her closet at home. The sweater she'd worn yesterday had been new. Elizabeth took a moment to go through the contents of the wardrobe and found that it was a mixture of new clothing and clothing from her home.
Someone had to have brought some clothing from her home and had then bought her new clothing. Elizabeth sat down in front of the vanity to brush her hair before it dried, then she rummaged through the drawers until she found what she was looking for; mascara. Today she would put a little makeup on. It helped lift her spirits to see herself look a little more put together. Satisfied with her reflection, Elizabeth stood up from the vanity seat and slipped on her shoes before walking out the door.
It was still a little disorienting to walk into the hotel hallway instead of the hallway at home, but it wasn't something she didn't think she could use to. However, she really needed to check in on her shop. Elizabeth couldn't ignore regular life even if her life no longer felt regular. Going to her store and doing some work would be enough even if she didn't open the store to the public. Elizabeth walked past the elevators and to Mrs. Rooney's desk. The woman smiled, she'd added lipstick to her look today. Must be a day to look your best.
"Good morning, Mrs. Rooney." Elizabeth said resting her arms on the desk top.
"Hello, Ms. Jones. You are up moving this morning."
"I feel better today than I did yesterday. I think getting lots of sleep has helped. Can you tell me what day it is?" She knew that it wouldn't be an extremely weird question because Mrs. Rooney knew how she got arrived here.
"Friday, it's 9:19 in the morning. Do you remember the floor to the cafeteria? Mrs. Natasha talked so kindly of you yesterday." Mrs. Rooney glanced towards the doors. Just as they opened, and there Quade stood. A charming smile on his face, his brown curls brushed back. He was wearing a tailored dark-grey suit jacket and matching suit pants. Underneath the jacket was a simple white button down, he made rich look casual.
"Good morning, Elizabeth. I thought I heard your voice. You smell delicious this morning." His voice trailed down her spine, and a warm liquid filled her tummy.
"T-thank you, I was just talking to Mrs. Rooney." Elizabeth took a moment to find herself, after being taken back from his comment.
"You've already started to make friends. I missed getting to be in your presence yesterday. My mother had nothing but nice things to say about you." He paused for a moment, "And my mother doesn't like everyone." He finished the last with a smirk.
"Mrs. Natasha can be very... mean to her sons' -romantic friendships." Mrs. Rooney said trying to be delicate with her words, since she was talking about her boss' mother.
"Thanks, Mrs. Rooney. Start scaring her now before she's really scared. She's already been through enough this week." Quade said with half a smirk and roll of his eyes.
"Better for her to know now, Mr. Quade." She looked at him pointedly. It felt as if she was talking about something else. Maybe something that Quade had asked her opinion on.
"Not now, Mrs. Rooney. Thank you." He exaggerated the you before stepping closer to her and placing a hand on the small of her back. Elizabeth stepped forward out of touch from his fingertips, the area still felt hot from their touch.
"Yes, thank you for your help. Natasha was so nice to me yesterday. Could be because I'm not anybody's girlfriend." She wanted to make that very clear to everyone, but she also was being dishonest in a way because Natasha had made it very clear how she felt about her son and her being together.
"Right, Mrs. Rooney, have you seen Randy this morning? He was supposed to meet here at 8:30. He's almost an hour late." Quade stepped away from her to direct his attention to Mrs. Rooney.
"Sorry, sir. I haven't gotten a call or email from him."
"If you do see him, please call me. I'm going to take Elizabeth to breakfast. Thanks, Mrs. Rooney."
"See ya later, Mrs.Rooney." Elizabeth waved over her shoulder and the receptionist waved back.
"I really did miss you yesterday. How are you feeling?" He asked approaching the elevator doors.
"I was very tired I slept most of the day. I actually wanted to talk... about being kidnapped." She said stepping through the doors of the elevator.
Quade waited for her to continue, his face showing concern. "I don't understand why someone would kidnap me over you. We only just met, like the same night I disapeared." Elizabeth stammered.
"You are important to me." He said as if that explained everything; it didn't. "It's possible someone saw me enter your store with less than appropriate attire and made big assumptions. And then heard about how enamoured with you that I am, they decided it was perfect time to make an attack."
"Why would someone want to attack you?" Elizabeth asked.
Quade didn't respond imediatly instead he faced his brown eyes forward and together they watched the elevator number go down.
"Evander mentioned a family feud. I'm sorry you've got caught up into something that didn't involve you." Quade finally said as the elevator dinged to let them off at floor 16. Elizabeth had never been in a hotel that required passcode access to pass floor levels.
"But you could say it does now." Elizabeth stood in-front of him outside the elevator doors.
"Yes. If our suspension's are true then you have already been involved." Quade grimaced.
"So you could say maybe I could know more about the family feud. Your mother told me lots about the family, but not about that. Actually your mother didn't know anything about my disappearance but she knew I existed." Quade again grimaced at her words. He sighed.
"My mom found out through my brothers about my wanting to ask you out." Quade smirked walking forward and around the corner opening up into a cafeteria. "We sometimes leave out details when we tell her things." He shrugged.
"She doesn't know about the family feud, but Randall does." Quade blinked, he was surprised.
"Randall lives here in the hotel. He works for me here at the hotel. We share responsibilities. Mom lives at the cabins with Evander and Maverick." They walked through the cafeteria crowd. She heard all talking stop as soon as they had stepped into the room. Elizabeth's skin prickled with the eyes that followed them as they went.
"Evander and Maverick?" Elizabeth remembered the two tall looking twins with black hair.
"You met them the night you arrived. They're my adoptive brothers. My dad and mom took them in when their parents died. Randy is my little brother by my parents." The conversation about children loosing their parents at a young age made more sense to Elizabeth.
"Where does the feud fit in here?" Elizabeth asked wondering how this all fit into her kidnapping.
"Well-" Quade began as a little blonde girl ran up to them. Elizabeth stopped walking and the little girl's round cheeks bright with color.
"Are you going to stay here now?" Elizabeth blinked and turned her head to Quade then knelt low to the ground becoming eye level with the child's blue ones.
"I am staying here for now." Elizabeth smiled and held out her hand to the little girl.
"I'm Elizabeth Jones, it's nice to meet you." The little girl took her hand shyly.
"I'm Melissa," she giggled. "Are you going to stay forever?" Elizabeth was careful to keep her face still since it was easy for her to pretend she just belonged here.
"Forever is a long time. How about just for now, Melissa?" She fought the urge to glance back at Quade's face.
Did he put this little girl up to this? She was very cute, almost too cute. No, Elizabeth gave herself a mental shake because she didn't want to mix this little girl up with any weird scheme Quade might have concocted. The little girl twisted her body side to side.
"Do you two love each other?" Melissa was very serious in her question.
"Not yet." Elizabeth didn't want to say not at all to the child and be completely rude.
"Ok, are you hungry Elizabeth?" She was surprised Melissa took the answer so easily.
"Very much, what are you eating this morning?" Elizabeth stood up and was led by the little girl's hand towards a table with another blonde haired woman who stood up when she saw them approaching.
"Melissa! What did I tell you about talking to strangers?" Standing she was tall like most of the people here, Elizabeth was beginning to notice.
Almost nobody in this cafeteria looked to be even close to her size, even the children were above the average size. The men in the room all looked over 6 foot and some even more. None of the women were her height that she could tell.
"She's not a stranger mama, she's our beta!" Elizabeth glanced back at Quade who looked horrified, Elizabeth just thought that the little girl was super excited.
"Good morning, Olivia." Quade saved face by smiling quickly and stepping forward.
"Good morning, B-Mr. Quade. I'm sorry that Melissa keeps interrupting your morning activities." The girl's mother apologized.
"No problem, she was just worried about if I was having fun so far while I was here, right Melissa?" Elizabeth winked down at the little girl with a grin. The girl nodded fast her blonde hair bouncing with her head.
"She gets excited and forgets her manners. Are you enjoying your stay?" Olivia asked.
"I have so far. It's a nice hotel. But I'm ready to go back to my work and occupy my mind there." Elizabeth was determined to make that clear. It was bad enough that she had to cope with the crazy shit that happened to her. There was nothing going on between her and Quade, her libido be screwed. Because even now with him being so close, she felt her body's need to be close to him. Elizabeth fought the urge to express her frustration with him right there, but instead kept her smile.
"Oh, this is our home. What do you do for work?" Olivia smiled back.
"I own a bookstore. It's called A Likely Story."
"Oh that's great. I will have to take Melissa sometime." Olivia began to sit back down.
"Maybe we could make it a field trip for the little kids? I think Elizabeth has a children's story time." Quade offered giving Melissa a high five before she sat down next to her mommy.
"I do have a children's program, and a library card program. It would be great to see new faces." Elizabeth was genuinely happy with his suggestion. "Anyway, see ya later. It was nice to meet you both." They both waved goodbye as a man with reddish hair sat down with them.
"I want to go to my shop today and check in on things. It's been a week since I've been there." Elizabeth had definitely lost out on sales that would effect her income for months to come. She would have to penny pinch for a little while. However, Elizabeth didn't want to worry about it right now, because Melissa had mentioned food and it had actually made Elizabeth a little bit hungry.
"That shouldn't be a problem it's within my patrol route. I hope you'll like the improvements I've had done." He led them to a center room that had different selections of food with servers to help serve.
"What kind of improvements exactly?" Elizabeth asked and then wondered over to the area that had pancakes. They sounded wonderful covered in plain butter, with maybe a little honey if there was some.
Quade followed her easily, almost too easily. She glanced in his direction, he was watching her back and she felt her cheeks begin to warm. He was wearing toothy grin that was school boy cocky. She placed two pancakes on a plate and shifted her eyes.
"I had the store's security improved. As well as the entrance to your apartment. I made sure to let my group know that the decorations were to stay the same. Personally I love the whole cloud thing." Quade piled his plate with several pancakes of his own.
"Oh you shouldn't have gone to the trouble. My neighborhood isn't that-" Elizabeth stopped in her sentence. She had never had a reason to be scared of her living place, but now that she had a very big reason to be scared. There were people out there that were willing to harm her simply because a rich man wanted to date her. Did he want to date her? Did she want to date him? That was ridiculous.
"Well, it wasn't that bad, until you came into my life anyway." She jokingly shrugged putting globs of butter on each of the pancakes. But she didn't see honey in this area, the syrup options were plenty though.
"Uh, I'm sorry about that, I never would have-" Quade paused, taking a moment to spread his butter evenly over his pancakes, then poured original syrup over his stack. "I'm not even sure how anyone would have known about you yet." He sighed. "Though you may have noticed though word gets around fast here. So it's possible someone from the Quade Night is a betrayer and working as a double agent. Evander and I don't know yet." Elizabeth studied his face as he talked and he looked troubled. There was more to it, but she appreciated the effort to explain what he could.
They crossed through the tables to an empty one in the corner. Quade seemed to try to move them away from the other people in the room, but Elizabeth noticed two young men walking up to the table.
"Hey, sir, can we talk to you about the patrols?" A teenager with spiked up hair and designer jeans spoke first, the other had similar spiked hair with sunglasses on his head. Quade set his bite of pancakes down on the plate. He looked in her direction and it made her feel like this was something else he didn't want her to know. She didn't like the secrets and she didn't like that she was bothered by them either. She didn't have any right to be upset. But Elizabeth sat in her spot and idly cut into her pancakes, there wasn't going to be any secrets being kept from her.
"There will be time for questions later at the evening training." Quad kept his face in a smile but Elizabeth could see the tension in the corners telling her that he was feeling much different than his face told. She also couldn't help but notice the silent command in his voice, a command for what she didn't know. The boys in front of them looked mildly uncomfortable, they looked strained and she could see them tilting their heads down looking at the ground. The moment didn't last long, so Elizabeth tried to shake off the way the boys responded to the tone of his voice.
"Oh ok, it can wait until then." The teenager looked a little sadden by having to wait and the smile on Quade's face softened.
"It will still be important to me later at training, Kevin. I would like to introduce you both to our newest guest at the Quade, this is Elizabeth." Elizabeth had been paying attention to the conversation and had been thinking to herself that Quade must like to use the word IMPORTANT . When he surprised her with the pride she heard in his tone, Elizabeth liked it not that she was going to let him see that.
"What's up, Elizabeth? How'd Quade catch a babe like you?" The teen turned a charming smile towards her and he slouched backward swinging his hips forwards in a circular motion. His friend next to him snickered just enough for it to give the young boy more fuel to his fire.
"Babe? How old are you 14? 15? You are not old enough to be calling me babe." Elizabeth laughed, teasing the young boy. She didn't want to hurt his feelings.
"I'm 16. I can't be apart of the patrols because I'm not old enough for that but I'm old enough to train. Doesn't stop you from being a babe." Kevin winked at her. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows but kept her mouth shut. She didn't know what he was talking about and while she was staying here she decided she was going to at least find out why a hotel owner had a patrol team and a person willing to kill strangers because of a rumor.
"Well, for your information I haven't been caught." Elizabeth smiled sweetly knowing their encounter was being watched by more than just the people at the table.
"Oh so that means I still have a chance." He said wagging his eyebrows at her and earning snickers from his friend.
"A few more years before you'd get that, and without learning a few manners you won't ever get that. Also, you still can't call me babe. My name is Elizabeth that is what I would like to be called." Elizabeth replied with a raise of her eyebrows.
"Sounds like a deal, Elizabeth. See ya later, Mr. Quade." Kevin waved and left with his friend. She was sure they were going to retell the event to their buddies. However, Quade was quietly laughing with his shoulders shaking and his head lowered. His eyes were on her face. The breath stopped in her lungs. The color was a warm liquid brown, the color glowed and burned with a flame that had nothing to do with the playfulness of his lips.
"You must excuse my building kids. But he liked you, and Kevin is a rough kid. He has a lot of anger inside of him." Quade relaxed his laughter and smiled over a bite of pancakes. As he was chewing his food, Elizabeth remembered how to breathe again.
"News travels fast. How many people did you go around telling that we were boyfriend and girlfriend before I even knew your name?" She gritted her teeth because she didn't want to start in on the fact that she still half believed he was the one behind the kidnapping. All this talk about a family feud sounded less realistic with the way everyone in the hotel she'd met so far already knew who she was and then connected her to Quade. It wasn't the teenagers' fault, she wanted to make sure she put the blame where the blame was earned. Quade did have enough shame to at least lower his eyes to her. Something she noticed he never did to any other person he spoke to. He always tried to keep good eye contact with the person.
"Well, I talked to a couple close people, but some people have good hearing." He shrugged as if that was a good enough answer. Elizabeth scoffed. They weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. They were barely friends and if she was honest she wasn't sure she wanted to be that.
"We arenot anything." Elizabeth replied taking extra care to cut her bite of pancake before putting it into her mouth.
"I want to be your-" Quade paused for a moment, "friend. Just friend if that's all you'll let me be." She could tell he was taking time to choose his words.
"Friends don't move in with each other within 24 hours after meeting." Elizabeth really wished she had honey for her pancakes. She didn't want to eat anymore of them without it but she didn't want to storm away from the table either. Elizabeth chewed her bottom lip waiting for his response.
"Technically it has been (over) a week." Quade shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see a problem with someone helping a friend out in their time of need. Especially if that time included being kidnapped. It's only fair I provide you with comfort after all this may very well be all my fault."
Quade was looking directly into her blue eyes, his golden chocolate stare was intense -hungry- and all she could wonder is; was this his confession? He expected her to fall in love with him after being kidnapped by his goons, and well, would it really be that awful? He seemed to have gone through a lot of trouble to make her believe that he was saving her instead of holding her against her will.
"I need to go to therapy and move on with my life. I have a store that needs to be ran. I can't wallow in self pity. And I really need some honey for these pancakes." Elizabeth took her time to calmly stand and turn to go get the honey for her pancakes. She didn't want to run away like a scared little rabbit. Even though she felt very much like a juicy bite to eat, and if she didn't get away now she was going to be begging for the hungry man in front of her to do exactly that.
*****************************************************************************************