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CHAPTER 14
Kayden was rather shocked at the sight of his sister sleeping peacefully in the arms of the man in front of their doorstep. He mentally smacked his forehead.
"I'm so sorry for the bother," Kayden was quick to apologise. "Uhm, if you don't mind... Please come in and help me put her on the couch."
Arsenio did not say another word as he stepped into the house. He gently placed Scarlett on the long couch in the living room. Just as he did, he heard her mumble a few words.
"Please don't go... Mum... Dad..."
Arsenio took a quick moment to look at her face. He saw she was in pain and a single drop of tear slid down her eyes to the side of her head.
He wondered what happened to the people she was calling for in her sleep. How tragic was it that it hunts her dream?
"I don't mean to be rude. But can you tell me how you guys happened?" Kayden asked.
There was a moment of silence before Arsenio answered.
"A woman getting drunk alone at a club will be seen as prey to lust-filled men," he said.
Kayden did not need much to be spoken to understand. He knew how clubs work. It leads to nightstands between strangers.
And his sister was not an ordinary beauty. He knew how many guys he had to ward off in their high school days and even when he goes to pick her up from the college she studied in.
Now that was just school. The clubs will definitely be the worst. But he wanted to know one more thing.
"Then you stepped in to save her?" He inquired while meeting eyes with Arsenio.
Kayden always felt a certain chill and dangerous vibes from Arsenio. His presence made the air around thick and dark.
But being dauntless, Kayden never cowered before Arsenio's presence. He never did for anyone, especially when they have nothing tying them together.
"She came to me for help," Arsenio answered and began to walk toward the door until Kayden brought up another question.
"Why are you doing this? Helping us. Is there something that you seek?"
Arsenio frowned. He hates explaining himself to anyone and not to even talk of being questioned several times. He stopped in his tracks and turned on his heels.
"I should be asking you the same. Why does she always appear wherever I am and then you get into the picture? What do YOU want?" Arsenio asked back.
Kayden sighed and nodded. "I'm just being sceptical. It is known that everything has a price. Even those that lend a helping hand."
"I don't care. I have more important things to do than finding how to make people indebted to me."
Saying that Arsenio walked out of the house and into his car without sparing any other glances at Kayden or Scarlett.
"Is he trying to we are useless?" Kayden murmured with furrowed brows.
He felt mocked rather than insulted. However, he could not blame anyone but himself for asking those things.
He was just curious and trying to protect the only important person left to him. He sighed and looked over to where Scarlett was lying.
Another sigh left his lips. Asernio is right about one thing though. He failed to look after Scarlett tonight.
What if Asernio was not there at the club? Would Scarlett have been able to come home without falling prey to those lustful men?
"I can't even think about the consequences," Kayden shook his head at the thoughts piling up in his brain.
"Let's get you well settled in bed, sis," he went to carry Scarlett out of the couch to her bedroom.
Meanwhile, Arsenio got himself thinking of the past fleeting minutes of the day. He was trying to understand what he felt when Scarlett was not only close to him and when she touched him.
He wanted to deny it. But he couldn't because of the truth, he was affected by her. He found it strange.
He did not even know her not to even talk of having an interest in her. Well, he does but it's the strange pull he feels toward her that interests him.
They have only met twice. Was that alone enough for someone to get affected by the other party?
Asernio's thoughts were centred on all that had for the rest of the day.
"One way or the other, I will find out just what it is in her that pulls me close," he said to himself.
~The next day~
Scarlett had woken up to a nagging headache and a shocking revelation that Arsenio brought her home. She remembered bits of the previous night
But those bits were what happened in the club. The rest were blurry. That aside, she was embarrassed for making such a bold move on a stranger for help.
"Well, he wasn't particularly a stranger. He saved my life," Scarlett mumbled before taking a sip from her cup of coffee.
Scarlett had gone out to a cafe to clear her head. She's been couped up in her room for days. So a bit of fresh non-alcoholic air would not be bad.
Kayden was against it at first but after much pleading, he agreed to Scarlett's pestering. After all, she did not think someone will harass her in broad daylight and in a public place at that.
So he let her go. However, he made her agree that she will be home before seven in the evening.
"It's non-negotiable." She remembered how Kayden stood on his words.
Scarlett let out a long sigh as she sat back, and relaxed on the chair- thinking. Her thoughts varied between getting a job or focusing on finding those involved in her parents' death.
While these things carried on in her mind, her eyes leisurely watched the people that were on the busy street. Until she spotted a familiar figure amongst several people.
Luckily, she sat beside one of the transparent windows in the cafe so she drew closer to peer at the man. Waiting for him to turn his face so she could see.
And when he did, her breath went still.
"Butler Mark," she whispered in disbelief. "He's alive? He's alive!"