Chapter 10
Savior
**warnings for mentions of suicide**
As the sun rose in the sky, its rays of light crept through the dirty window of the back office. The window was partially covered in old newspaper that had faded with time. Riley blinked as the rays hit her face and reminded her that she had survived another day. She lay still for a few more minutes before remembering the night before and everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Not sure if it was all real or her imagination, but Riley knew she was not that creative, so it wasn't her imagination. She turned her head and saw the most beautiful man she had ever seen. She could not believe this man was here, lying next to her, and as she thought about last night, she instantly turned red, feeling hot about the things this man did to her, but not only that, the way he made her feel.
Never in a million years did Riley think she would ever look at sex the same. She never thought she would enjoy it after the emotional and mental damage that was done to her. She closes her eyes and shakes her head a bit, not wanting to go back to that time, but she knows she owes Aiden an explanation for what happened. She knows she owes him a lot more than that.
She opened her eyes again and this time, the beautiful man before her was looking at her. He is looking at her like she alone put the sun in the sky and gave birds a song to sing. Riley never had anyone look at her like this. She had only seen it once before, and that was when her daddy looked at her mom. She was mesmerized by the look he gave her.
Smiling, she sits up a bit and rests her body against his. Her head on his shoulder " Good morning," she says quietly, not wanting to disturb the quiet of the morning.
"Buena's Dias, princesas." He says it back and kisses her on the forehead. "How are you doing this morning? Is everything okay?" He asks. He needs to know he didn't step over any boundaries with her.
"Everything is better than ever," she says with a smile on her face. "How are you?" She asks in return, as she twists her body to look at him
"Everything is perfect." He says as he leans forward and kisses her nose. Riley giggled; she rolled her eyes internally that she giggled like a schoolgirl.
"So, what's the plan for today?' she asks, hoping he doesn't realize he turned her into a lovesick schoolgirl.
"You tell me, Mija. When you found me, I had nothing planned or no real destination in mind. Truth be told, I had no plans past the bathroom." Aiden says, as he looks at her, wondering if she will catch on to what he is saying and not saying. He knows she is smart and if she thought about it, she would understand what he means. He doesn't think that she is paying attention, so he just grabs one of her braids and plays with it.
"Well, I had some plans, I don't know how realistic they are, but after our daddy died, me and Ruben needed something to focus on, so we planned out our trip to Lytle Creek." she says, looking out the window when she finished talking. She takes a breath and it's audibly shaky, her chin starts to wobble, and she swallows hard, to get the tears to go away. She blinks three or four times and tries to get control of her emotions, when finally, Aiden had enough.
"Mija, stop. You don't need to pretend or be strong for me. If you are hurting or in pain or just sad, tell me. I want to know. "He tells her as he rubs her back, trying to comfort her anyway he can.
"Lytle Creek sounds like a good plan, fresh water in the creek, fishing, hunting, isolation. Perfect. You and Ruben were smart to think of that place." He tells her
She turns her face and looks at him, her eyes are shining with tears she hadn't let fall, swallows the lump in her throat and she nods her head. "Ruben thought it was perfect too when I told him."
"Maybe one day, when we get a chance to just breathe, Ya know, maybe you can tell me about them? Ruben, your dad, and your mama if you don't mind?" He asked cautiously, not sure if it was a good thing, but he was following his gut. His gut told him these people were the most important people to her and she needed to talk about them.
"Yeah, I'd like that," she whispers. Finally looking down and letting the tears fall freely. She doesn't even try to wipe her face, which Aiden thinks is the strongest thing she has done so far.
She jumps up and grabs her backpack, "I'm gonna use the restroom, I'll be right back," she says, as she grabs her knives and slides them into each boot, grabbing a gun, checking the clip, and putting it in the back of her waistband, all without thinking, and Aiden looks on in amazement. He thinks that this woman is a goddamn soldier.
She swings the backpack around her and puts it on, then she carefully opens the door an inch and peers out. She listens for any sound, then when she is satisfied, she nods to herself and opens the door. She begins to walk out, then quickly comes back, "Before I forget, can you double check the perimeter, make sure nobody tried to come in when we were sleeping?" she asks Aiden,
"Of course,"
"Great, thanks," she says and closes the door behind her.
She walks cautiously to the restroom, it's on the other side of the store from where they are. She didn't hear anything but the last thing she needs is to be surprised now when she is not even close to being alert and ready to fight.
Eyes looking around everywhich way, she stops in the hallway and listens. She closes he eyes and just listens. Satisfied they are alone, she continues to the restroom, pushes it open, and turns to lock the door. She grabs her flashlight off of her bag and looks around. Not too bad, actually. It was kept decent. She walks to the sink and looks at her reflection in the semi lit mirror. She doesn't know when the last time she had even seen herself in a mirror. It had to be close to six months, when they left that house. When she escaped and saved her dad and Ruben.
Riley shuts her eyes, refuses to allow her mind to take her there.
"Nope, not today." she says to herself.
She opens her bag and grabs her toothbrush and when she turns the tap on, she almost screamed. It worked. She ended up brushing her teeth three times, washing her face twice and was so tempted to wash her hair, but she remembers the last time she did that when she was with people, and refused herself the luxury.
She hurriedly used the restroom, and decided she could change her clothes. And since she was doing that, she could hurriedly wash herself. The quickest wash anyone had seen.
She grabbed the change of clothes, tight shorts that went to her knees, and met her boots, a tank top, with a short army vest, like a cropped version. When she had found it, she did some alterations to it. It was too big, so she sewed the inseams, and shortened it. With the extra material, she had sewn more pockets on the inside.
She decided since there was water, she would wash her clothes. Honestly, running water was a rarity. She had just started washing her underwear and bra, already finished with her shirt and pants, when a knock came.
She quickly turned off the water, "Yeah?" she asked.
"Almost done, muñeca, I am gonna pop if I don't pee soon." He spoke.
"Oh my God, why didn't you say something, Yeah, hold on." she quickly grabbed her things and rushed to open the door.
When she yanked it open, Aiden stood there witha serious look on his face. Shaking his head, he said,"Not good. What if someone had caught me when I had went outside, and were using me to get you out of there?"
"Oh," was all Riley could say.
"We always gotta be on out toes, okay Mija." He says more gently.
"Of course, you're right. I wasn't thinking."
"It's okay, we will come up with a safe word okay, something that lets you know it's okay, or even a trouble word too," he says to her as she walks up to him.
"Yeah, that will be good," She agrees.
"Okay, good." He bends down and kisses her lips softly.
Riley can't help the way she melts at his tenderness, and she instantly wants more.
Aiden steps back and motions for her to step aside, so he can use the restroom.
"Oh, yeah, of course," she says as she waves him in with her hand.
Aiden walks into the restroom, and he sees the sink and he immediately closes his eyes, he is brought back to the day before when he was in this very restroom.
He walks to the sink and he's ashamed at what he saw the last time he looked at this very mirror, because he looks now and what he sees is completely different. He looks at his eyes, they have a shine to them now, they aren't looking sad and dull. He looks at every part of himself in the mirror and he can't believe how everything has completely changed because of this woman. Yes, woman.
He knows she is young, but she is nowhere near a child. She has experienced things, he can't even imagine the things that has made her have these attacks. He knows it will destroy him when he finds out, he doesn't want to ask, he hopes she will offer the information up soon. He hopes she doesn't have another attack before he knows where it's coming from.
He understands that what they are doing would be considered crazy and inappropriate, but honestly things are different. Things that used to be considered taboo or inappropriate don't matter like they used to. Living does. Not repeating the samething and surviving and merely being alive every day, in Aiden's opinion, was the same as basically being dead.
Aiden repeated the same thing every single day, he had to scavenge for food, barely survive, and hope to live until the next day before repeating the process. If living is nothing more than existing, what good is it? Aiden's desire is to live and be alive. We don't have the luxury of taking our time to get to know each other and go on dates, but damn it, he still wants to experience the things he knows are still out there, like love. He knows this is quick and reckless, but damn it, he also knows that it's real and it is love, and it's something he wants to experience. He is aware that saying something so absurd at this precise moment is unthinkable. Even though he only met her a day or two ago, he already feels deeply for her.
He couldn't believe that a few days prior, he had been in this restroom trying to clean himself as thoroughly as possible, he doesn't know if it was just to waste time or because he wanted to be clean when someone found him. All his weapons, his jacket, and three layers of clothing had been taken off. He always carried a muscle shirt, a thermal, and a t-shirt on top of that. He also carried a leather jacket and kept a hoodie in his bag. He was aware that summer would soon arrive but with his plan he just made, it didn't matter what the weather was going to be. When he used to go walking around the streets or searching through buildings for supplies, he would always wear a hoodie and a leather jacket. He has a bite mark on the leather jacket as evidence that the layers are effective.
He was washing up in the sink and had just started drying himself off, getting clean for his big day. He had decided he couldn't take this anymore. The same thing every single day, the loneliness, and the terror of being eaten alive, shakes him to the core. He would rather go out on his terms. He wants to be the one to decide. Nothing else.
He looks at his reflection, and his eyes tear up. He doesn't really want to die, but he can't see himself doing anything else. Taking a deep breath, he lifts the gun and cocks it. He holds it there and he allows himself time to take a few more deep breaths, then he decides, okay, it's time. He inhales and, on the exhale, he will pull the trigger.
Inhale, Goodbye world, tears streaming down his face. He hopes whoever finds him doesn't think bad of him for doing this. He hopes they will understand. As ridiculous as it sounds.
That's when he hears the distinct sound of someone entering the store, that's what caused the chime of the front door to go off.
"Fuck," he said, as he went to the door to listen, putting his gun away.
He was hoping they would just get what they needed and leave. Aiden stayed quiet, listening to footsteps. They were light and rhythmic. A female, he knew right away. She didn't stomp everywhere she stepped. He could tell she was cautious. She only stepped when she needed to. He was hopeful that she would be the type to just grab what she needed and be on her way. Someone who is smart like that wouldn't risk being trapped inside. He thought this was his lucky day.
Until the knob of the door, he was standing up against, trying to listen through, started jiggling. She was trying to get in the door.
"Figures," he thought as he quickly turned, wiped his tears with his hand and put his layers back on. The muscle shirt, thermal, t-shirt, hoodie, and finally, the leather jacket had just been put on in time to hear the door being kicked and a groan from the other side. Aiden knew that feeling all too well. The frustration is that no matter what you try, it doesn't work. He figured he would step out of the restroom before she found him. He wanted to be the one with the upper hand and set up control of this spot first. He didn't need any more surprises. He needs to be in control, at least until he can finish and complete his last mission.
At the exact same time, he turned the doorknob, he heard a female's voice, faintly talking about feeling lucky and calling someone a punk. He started to push the door open, when she turned and pointed, what looked like a revolver directly where he stood. For a second, Aiden thought she knew he was there, and those words were for him. He thought she was really going to shoot him and that she had lured him out. She screamed and dropped the gun, but quickly recovered and pulled out a sweet looking AR-15 from behind her back.
"Don't move," she said, and Aiden knew he was a goner. That voice, the way she carried herself, the courage, the intelligence, he knew he was going to fall hard for this angel. He hadn't even seen her face yet. Her face was covered in shadows, and that was a mystery. Her body, though, any hot-blooded man would say, was perfect. Thick thighs, round ass, soft, perky breasts. He is done for. He couldn't help it. He called her dirty "Harriet," and he doesn't know if she liked that or if it pissed her off. She told him to come forward and remove his weapons. He couldn't believe she named every location where he kept a weapon.
She was an angel, or the devil. He wasn't sure which one yet. He walked the five steps, and he looked down the whole time. He didn't want to see her face once she realized what he looked like.
"Look at me, please." She said it so softly and gently, he couldn't help but listen, and he did. He looked up and swore to any god who still existed that he would love this girl until his last breath. He wanted to be there with her, right next to her, because he would dedicate the rest of his life to ensuring that she made it through this hell on earth. He wanted to love her and worship her body like the angels' worship in heaven. He never bought into the nonsense about falling in love at first sight. He had always believed it to be a fairy tale for other people. He didn't even know anyone who remained married. Even his own parents separated when he was nine years old. He only knows one thing about love: it transforms people. It changes how people behave and respond to circumstances, and it often has negative effects. Aiden has seen how a person in love has the potential to snap and transform into a terrifying new individual. It turns people against one another, makes them stupid and gullible, and plays everyone for a fool. Love makes people its very own bitch. That was Aiden's experience with love.
However, Aiden now realizes one thing: he was completely mistaken about everything. He realized he was wrong when, while still standing there and gazing at the angel in front of him, his dead heart suddenly fluttered, and he felt her strength and beauty deep within his soul. He felt like she reached deep down inside of him and grabbed his heart, squeezed it, showing it how to beat again. With a single glance, this angel held his heart in her hands and brought him back to life. Her smile, her eyes, her inner strength and courage and power, commanded his heart to beat again, and as Aiden stood before this goddess, Aiden felt different. Just by being in her presence, she had the power to change him.
Aiden thinks he must be dehydrated because what the actual fuck is he thinking about? All he knows is that this goddess-like woman is biting her bottom lip and staring at him with eyes the color of molten lava, and, Lord help him, if she doesn't stop, Aiden will have to bite her lip for her.
Aiden shakes his head as he looks into the mirror and just smiles. His life has changed so drastically in the last 24 hours all because of a woman, an angel that he planned to live for the rest of his life. And he now planned on staying alive for a long time. All because Riley Reese walked into his life at the right time.