Hi, everyone!
So sorry for the delay. I intended to update when updating "Unbreakable", but life got really hectic just after I'd made that promise. I'm right now not even home, but brought my computer so I could give you the update anyway
It's a long one, so hopefully it'll make up for my absence.
Roswelllostcause - I'm so with you on all points! Thank you for the feedback
Eve (begonia9508)
But something Michael forgot, in his fear, is the fact that Liz was saved by someone she doesn't even remember and I don't think she would turn them to the FBI, because it would meant she would put to death people who saved her...
Yes, you have a really good point. And yes, that moron (David Perkins) should be stopped.
saori_1902 - Thank you!
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Thank you!
BQ1
Well dang, hopefully she gets a visit from the fbi first. But if she was spying on Max and the fbi are spying on her.... then wouldn't the fbi be inadvertently spying on Max as well?
There's a risk of that happening… Thank you for the feedback!
Natalie36 - Something sure is up. Thank you for the feedback
dreamon - I'm so glad to hear that you're still here
Thank you for the feedback
CHAPTER 24
Liz
It was getting close to five p.m. as there was a knock on Liz’s office door.
“Yes?”
After the initial uncomfortable encounter with David Perkins that same morning, the day had elapsed seemingly without drama. Unbeknownst to Elizabeth Parker, her faith had been discussed by three individuals of alien descent as she had tried to get through the day without thinking too much about David’s presence or the fight (or whatever you would call it) she’d had with Max.
Her boss must have said something to David though, because Liz didn’t have to work with David for the remainder of that day. Instead, she’d been assigned a quiet guy by the name of James, whose silence unfortunately had left Liz with way too much time to analyze the ‘relationship’ between her and David.
Her thoughts had also had several opportunities to ponder the date the night before and the man that was currently standing in the doorway to her office.
“Max,” she stated quietly and felt a complex feeling of regret, sadness, joy and disappointment run through her. “Now is really not a good time.”
He looked out of place, taking a hesitant and stiff step into her office.
“Liz, please,” he said and Liz felt heat rise in her body. The dark pleading timber of his voice did things to her that no man’s voice had ever done. She was taken back by her own body’s response and let her eyes drop to the desk.
She couldn’t look at him. If she did, she would give in to whatever he was here to ask of her. “I can’t do this right now, Max. I’m working.”
“I know,” he said apologetically and Liz looked up only to notice that his tanned skin looked visibly pale. There were haunting shadows in his eyes and she fisted her hands under the table to stop herself from asking him if he was alright.
Instead, Max continued, “But I have to explain myself.”
There was so many things she wanted him to tell her, but she had a feeling that his ‘explanation’ wouldn’t be the most truthful one. She had a feeling deep in the center of her gut that Max was carrying a large secret, maybe even a dangerous secret, and that it somehow bound them together. But she couldn’t deal with it now. Not here. Not today. David Perkins had put her emotions out of balance and she couldn’t let yet another man take advantage of her.
Max is not ‘yet another man’, her traitorous inner voice whispered, but she harshly hushed it. She couldn’t get involved with someone that wasn’t honest. Not when her life was already in a turmoil due to getting her first job, her nightmares starting up again and the waves of pure ice-cold evil she was getting from David.
“It’s just too weird,” she got out and tried to look busy by arranging her papers. The air seemed to shiver with warm tension as she noticed him, out of the corner of her eye, take a step closer to her desk.
“There’s things I can tell you. But not yet.” His soft voice cut through her like a knife.
She barely knew Max Evans, but the idea that he couldn’t trust her with his secret was more painful to her than any other ‘betrayal’ she’d experienced in prior relationships. She met his eyes and felt the hurt burn through her throat. “Then why are you here?”
Her eyes swept across his dark hair (unusually out of place on this day), the look of cold desperation in his eyes, the pleading set of his lips (how would those lips feel against hers?) and the tortured stance of his body. He was muscled, his casual clothes couldn’t hide that, and it was a fact she realized just then as his masculine physique contrasted with the vulnerability in his movements. A shiver of longing raced through her; an intruding emotion that she quickly squashed.
The hurt bubbled up to the surface yet again. She couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just tell her. She had already laid her heart out to him by telling him that she imagined herself
feeling what he felt. He obviously hadn’t deemed her insane or he wouldn’t be standing in front of her now.
“Do you really think that I have an explanation for why you seem to be able to feel what I feel?”
It was like he had hit her. She felt herself harden. How dared he talk down about something she was sure he was feeling too? So she answered in the only way she could. “Yes.”
He looked uneasy. “Why do you think I have more information than you?”
Was he serious? She blinked back hot tears; in limbo between crying and laughing. She stomped down on both those emotions Hard. And settled for a shrug. “Just a feeling.”
She watched Max look out her big office window and noticed, alongside Max, that the day had turned into evening.
She watched his profile harden, the muscles of his jaw tensing. “Liz, it’s important that you don’t leave work alone tonight.”
Liz stilled and her thoughts erratically sought out the morning incident with her colleague. The icy feeling of being trapped and hunted that morning revisited her at his warning. Her question came out in a breathy, shell-shocked manner, “What?” Did he know about David? What had happened?
Max looked worried and he took another step towards her desk, his eyes burning into her soul. There was a certain urgency about his body language, like he wanted to say so much more. Or as if he wanted to pick her up and physically take her out of there.
What do you know that I don’t, Max Evans?
“Just take my word for it, okay? I can’t explain right now, but you’re in danger.” His voice was level, but she could hear the waver, the tension that he was trying to hide.
She could feel the adrenaline from the morning hours return, fueling the chill, and wondered about the deep fear for her well-being that was coursing through her. Was it from her or from him?
“You better tell me right now…” Liz noticed that he swayed on his spot and she reflexively made a movement to get out of her chair to stop him from falling, but he stilled, his face as white as a sheet.
He took a deep breath and mumbled, “It’s repeating itself, word by word.”
Liz frowned, her hand frozen in a reached out position between them. “What?” Was it possible, that the more she spoke to this man, the more confused she got?
Max looked up and his troubled eyes looked almost golden. “I can’t tell you. It’s not only up to me.”
No, Max, Liz thought.
This is
up to you. You just don’t want to deal with it.
Frustrated, she bit back the fearful memory of her morning interaction with Mr. Perkins and started to collect her papers into a pile while rising to her feet. She could feel Max’s eyes following her every movement, but he remained rooted to the floor. As she started to move towards the door, the words of her frustration ran out of her, “This is ridiculous.”
She was just passing Max as she felt his hand on her arm. Her breath stilled in her chest as his touch jolted her. She could feel the comfortable heat from his grip spread out from where his hand was touching her skin.
“
Please, Liz.”
He was close. She could feel his whole being float around her, his face only inches from hers. She knew that he was looking at her, pleading her with those emotional eyes, but the hurt of not being trusted with something that they could both feel made her say, “Don’t touch me,” even though she didn’t want him to remove his hand. She wanted him to stop her. To tell her why she was so instinctively attracted to him? Why she wanted to crawl inside of him and be protected by his warmth?
“Liz…”
The way he said her name… There was a small hitch in his voice that almost broke her.
Just let him get to know you first and he’ll start to trust you.
She shook her head to clear it from the traitorous thoughts. No. She had been hurt by secrets before. She needed to protect herself first and foremost.
“Max,” she interrupted before he could say anything else that might further affect her decisions. “Without an explanation, your ‘warning’ mostly sounds like a threat. I barely know you, what if
you’re the danger?” Which was a valid question, but it felt like a lie. There was no way in hell that Max Evans was a danger to her. The knowledge he was controlling on the other hand, was a different matter.
He looked hurt, his hand burning against her upper arm, and Liz tried to bury her instinct to apologize. But even worse was the coldness that rocked her soul as he removed his hand from her arm.
Max shook his head, looking lost. “I’m not.”
She pressed the pile of papers protectively against her chest, wanting to ward off the chill.
Just tell me why I feel this way, Max. Just tell me.
But the words that came out of her mouth were generic, trying every way to get him to talk to her. After all, if he knew that she was in danger, wouldn’t it be better if she knew all the facts so that she could protect herself? “I don’t appreciate being lied to, especially not about something that…something that might jeopardize my life as you so clearly want to warn me about. If my life were in danger, isn’t that reason enough to tell my
why that is?”
He took a step closer to her and whispered, “I’m not allowed to say. You have to trust me.”
Trust you?
When you won’t trust me? She felt the conflicting emotions tear at her and couldn’t stop a hot tear from rolling down her cheek as she whispered, “I’m sorry, Max.”
She turned to pull the door open, but Max grabbed her free hand, stepping close to her. He leaned his forehead against hers and she felt faint. His grip on her hand was strong, almost painfully so, as he looked down into her eyes. She had the strongest sense of déjà vu, but that something had changed.
“Don’t be alone tonight,
please.” His breath fluttered against her face. He smelled of night with a tad of lemon. She fought to not close her eyes, revel in his presence. “Could you call someone to follow you home? Would you do this one thing for me? Just trust me.”
The world was blurring around her, around
them, and it was as if it was only the two of them in this universe. She wanted to get closer, wanted
him to follow her home. But her pride, her hurt, her disappointment stepped in between and she forced herself to pull her hand away while taking a step back. “Okay. I’ll find someone.”
He looked relieved, but still worried. Without letting go of her eyes, he said forcibly, “Promise me.”
His forcefulness surprised her and she couldn’t help but nod. “I promise.”
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Taken with the situation, she fumbled with the door knob before managing to get the door open and get out into the corridor. She didn’t dare to look back, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to leave. Instead she put her pile of papers down on a desk nearby and got her cell phone out. Now, apparently, she needed to find someone to walk her home.
*****
Max
He had every intention of following Liz home. From a distance. He
knew that it was happening tonight, so even if she managed to find someone to keep her company he was not going to let her out of his sight tonight. Even though the conversation with her just now had run its own course, he
had been able to change some things. This gave him hope that the future wasn’t set in stone; he could still prevent Liz from getting hurt. He watched her down the hall, talking on the phone (good, she’s keeping her promise), as he got out of her office and closed the door behind him.
As he turned around to leave, he came face to face with a short blonde girl and froze.
She smiled up at him innocently and stated with self-confidence, “Max Evans.”
She was the girl from his dreams. The blonde woman who had, in his dream scenario, claimed to be his wife.
“Who are you?” he said, relieved to hear that his voice held nothing of the shock and confusion that he was feeling at the moment.
She continued smiling at him, an expression that was making him uncomfortable. “You don’t know me, but I know you.”
“And you would be…?”
She offered her hand. “Tess Harding.”
*****
Liz
“I’m sorry, Liz. It’s Gramps’ 95th birthday party.”
“It’s okay, Alex. I’ll be alright. I just thought it would be nice with some company on the walk home.”
“I would cancel if-“
“Don’t, Alex. Say ‘hi’ to Gramps for me, okay?”
Alex sounded regretful. “I will. Are you sure, Liz?”
Liz nodded into the phone, even though he couldn’t see her. “Of course. Talk to you later.”
“Sure. Bye.”
Liz disconnected the phone and glanced around the office, feeling rattled.
You promised.
Isabel hadn’t answered her phone. Liz wasn’t really the social butterfly so her contacts mostly stopped there. She scrolled down to ‘Max Evans’ in her phone contacts. She could ask him to walk with her. After all,
he had been the one wanting her to have company tonight.
She sighed with frustration. “Max Evans has freaked you out,” she mumbled to herself. “There’s nothing dangerous out there. I’ve walked this way alone plenty of times.”
She pressed the button to the elevators and balled her fists tightly up against her sides. She was getting angry that she had let Max work her up. Now she was
anticipating something to happen, because the truth was she
did trust him. She trusted that Max knew that something was up. But if she looked at this rationally; how could he possibly know?
But why would he want to scare you? What would he get out of that?
*****
Max
He shook the blonde’s small hand, watching her closely. It was eerie. How could he, within the same month, meet both women from his dreams in real life?
“Max,” he offered in response to her introduction, but added, “But you already knew that.”
The girl shrugged slightly, confirming his statement as mere fact. Instead, she moved on to, “Could I speak with you?”
Max shrugged. “Sure.”
“Privately,” she added and even though he didn’t like the glint in her eyes, he was intrigued. Maybe he would get some answers.
He looked around himself for a ‘private’ room and knowing that Liz had left her office, Max reopened the door to her office and gestured inside. Neither Tess nor Max noticed that their motion to pull away to more ‘private’ surroundings was being seen by Tess’ ex-whatever. David Perkins’ eyes darkened in jealousy as he watched the woman he had enjoyed quite good sex with, step into Elizabeth Parker’s office with the man who had been glued to Liz’s side at the office party. A scenario that was going to fuel Mr. Perkins’ dangerous feelings and set him out on a hunt that very same night. Simultaneously as David looked to his right and saw Liz step into the elevator, alone, Tess closed the door behind her and Max.
*****
Liz
She pocketed her phone as she stepped into the elevator, feeling irritation fuel her. She didn’t need Max Evans to tell her what to do. Especially not if he couldn’t be honest with her. Her frustration had only increased during the elevator ride downstairs and her steps were hard and irritated against the tiled floor as she crossed the lobby and stepped outside. Looking down the empty street, which she had walked several time, she felt a shiver run down her spine. She inhaled deeply and cursed Max for scaring her, before she commenced her walk home.
Her steps were fast as she walked down the street and it didn’t take her long to walk off her frustration. At that point, the distance to her apartment was getting shorter by the minute. She started to relax. She would be home soon.
But in correlation with her feeling at ease, she heard foot steps behind her. At first, she tried to ignore it (after all, the street was made for more people than just her), but as it got closer and effectively slowed down a couple of feet behind her, she started to get nervous. To see if the person was really following her, she took some detours through alleys to see if the person kept on following her. Her heart started to beat erratically, her palms broke out in cold sweat, as her stalker followed her every illogical deviation. That’s when she started to run.
She was looking around herself, trying to find someone that could help her, as she took a moment to curse the high heels she was wearing. Her stalker certainly wasn’t wearing high heels, the steps hard and even. It sounded like a man. A large man.
*****
Max
“How do you know me?” Max asked once they were alone.
“I think we share a similar past,” Tess answered.
She knows, a voice warned him and Max took a step back from the girl. There was something he didn’t trust about the woman. It was distinctly different from his first meeting with the other girl from his dreams.
“Really?” he asked, pretending to be indifferent.
“Actually, it’s more similar to your friend Michael Guerin’s past.”
He was about to answer but got distracted by the girl closing her eyes. “What are yo-“
He felt her then. Inside his head. He felt her rummaging through his thoughts as if someone would sift through paper.
Intuitively, he blocked the paths to his thoughts, to his mind. He didn’t know how to, having never done it before, but apparently blocking her invasive power came naturally.
Her eyes flung open and her assertive persona was for once temporarily erased. “How did you do that?”
Max was looking at her angrily. “I’d like to ask you the same question.”
“No one’s been able to resist me before.”
I bet, Max thought tersely.
She recuperated quickly, the curtain of self-confidence slamming down in front of her face. “It’s one of my powers.”
He should have been surprised. The girl was probably expecting shock. But he was distracted by the sound of steps behind him. He turned around, but only came upon the empty office. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Fear was starting to creep through him and he couldn’t understand why. This woman didn’t scare him. He turned his attention back to her. She was staring at him as if
he had been the crazy one just talking about powers and not the other way around.
*****
Maria
“What do you think it means?” Maria asked.
She watched Isabel trace the letters with her finger. Maria had copied the letters from the photo in Michael’s cell phone onto big sheets of paper. Isabel was now sitting cross-legged at the lower point of that paper, trying to make sense of it.
“It reminds me of Chinese,” Isabel mused.
“How’s that?” Michael asked from the corner of the makeshift collage and Maria watched her boyfriend inch closer to the replicated language.
Isabel pointed out a letter with two straight vertical lines which were joined at the top by a solid horizontal line. “Like this one… It kinda looks like a house.”
“Home,” Maria mused.
Isabel looked up at her, a look of excitement in her eyes. “Exactly.”
“So you mean that each letter is like a word, like it is in the Chinese language?” Michael questioned.
Isabel nodded, looking to her friend for confirmation. “Or what do you think?”
Michael nodded slowly. “Sounds reasonable.”
Maria looked closer at the script before pointing to the letter Isabel had pointed out earlier. “I think that
is ‘home’.”
She felt Michael looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She could practically feel his dubiousness. “Ria, what makes you think that alien homes look the same as ours?”
She turned to him and squinted at him. “Don’t be condescending, Mikey G.”
“Don’t call m-“ Michael started to object, but Maria wasn’t done.
“Everyone needs shelter by putting something above their heads, probably even aliens, so why not? Why would they not have the same
simplified symbol for it?”
Isabel nodded. “I think she’s right, Michael.”
Michael bit his lip stubbornly, but Maria knew that he had seen her logic. He just didn’t want to admit to being wrong. “Whatever.”
“Then we just have to figure out what the other letters symbolizes,” Isabel said.
Maria sank down next to Isabel, pointing out a swirly symbol, which looked like a helix seen in cross-section. “Maybe that’s the solar system.”
“Or maybe it’s boiling water,” Michael said grumpily.
Maria glared at him. Now he was just being obstinate. “Or maybe-“
“We should write down all the alternatives below the sign,” Isabel interrupted. “Hopefully it’ll make sense later.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Maria agreed.
“Yeah,” Michael agreed sourly and sat down next to Maria. To her surprise, he took her hand in his while he pointed to the next symbol. “What about that one? Meteor?”
Maria looked at his profile and smiled. He sure was one complex individual.
*****
Liz
The first outward signs of her fear was when she screamed, hoping that someone would be outdoors that evening.
Someone had to hear her. “Help! Please! Someone help me!”
But there was no one on the less trafficked route to her home. She saw an alley up ahead and turned into that one, hoping that it would present an opportunity for her to hide or for someone to hear her. But it was a dead end. She came to a stop in front of the unyielding brick wall.
“No,” she whispered and turned around to see the shape of her follower slow down and walk towards her. Her follower knew, just like she did, that she had nowhere to go. She was trapped.
*****
Max
“Your powers?” Max asked, pushing the right amount of ridicule and disbelief into his question.
She looked annoyed. “Cut the crap, Max. I’m the same as you. As you, Isabel and Michael.”
The fear gradually escalated in him and confused his own feelings of weariness. He shook his head again, trying to clear it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She was looking at him funny, trying to gauge his responses, and he was not giving her the appropriate ones. “Of course you do. The crash in Roswell. The cave. Wandering around the desert with amnesia.”
The footsteps were getting closer again, echoing off the walls as if he was standing in a space between buildings. The air was getting more humid, colder.
“You mean the weather balloon that fell?”
She made a grimace. “Don’t play coy with me, Max.” She proceeded to raise her hand and shot an electrical current through a close-by chair, causing it to explode into millions of tiny pieces. She looked proud as Max jumped. “Now? Do you believe me now?”
*****
Liz
“Ms. Parker,” a familiar voice said, breathing hard from the run, and she felt herself shrink back into the bricked wall that was blocking her escape. “Why are you running?”
She felt the rough surface of the bricks against her palms as he walked into the light of a small lamp over a closed door. Maybe this was a good thing, she tried to reason with herself. Since she knew him, she could reason with him. But she had a feeling that David Perkins was not the reasonable guy. He was not the person you’d want to meet in an abandoned dark alley.
“Just let me be,” Liz said, making her voice calm and attempting reasoning.
There was a smile across his lips (more like a sneer) as he stepped back into the shadows just before reaching her.
“I haven’t done anything to you,” Liz tried.
He raised his right eyebrow in question. “No?”
“Be reasonable about this, David. I mean,” she tried to laugh, it came out as a croak, “we work together. You know me.”
“You’re talking as if I’m here to hurt you,” David said, pondering, and his eyes traveled down her body. Slowly. Liz felt so much like the prey of a lion that she wouldn’t have been surprised if his devouring look had been accompanied by him licking his lips in anticipation of a meal.
Liz shivered, a fist of icy fear squeezing her heart. “Aren’t you?” Liz asked.
“It doesn’t have to hurt,” David said quietly, stopping a feet from her. “How about you lie down on the ground, Ms. Parker?”
A tear of fear rolled down her cheek and she shook her head. “No.”
His face softened and he looked at her as if she was a child that was too young to understand the consequences. And he would have to teach her. “Get. Down. On. The. Ground. Ms. Parker.”
She gathered everything she had and threw herself to the side, trying to sidestep him and run. But he was faster. Catching her by the waist he got her down on the hard ground with one strong shove. She felt her arm scrape against the rough concrete at the impact.
*****
Max
Max was about to answer Tess as he felt the superficial layers of the skin of his right arm, just below the elbow, open up in abrasions. He lifted his arm in surprise, causing Tess to witness the damage being done, seemingly by its own force, to his arm.
“What the fuck?” Tess whispered.
His lungs were starting to burn and his body was reflexively increasing his breathing rate.
“What’s happening?” Tess continued, taking a step back. Suddenly she wasn’t the spectacular one. Max Evans, with a bleeding abrasion on his underarm and his head being forced to the side (as if someone had just hit him), was stealing the show.
*****
Liz
She tried to get her legs underneath her, trying to get out of being at a disadvantage, but he was already there, pushing her upper body backwards so that she hit the back of her head hard as she was pushed into a horizontal position. She rolled and struggled, but was shocked as pain exploded across her cheek as he hit her.
She tasted the metallic tinge of blood in her mouth and felt remnants of it sip down the side of her mouth as he straddled her. She could feel how turned on he was about all of this, which deepened her fear. He wasn’t just going to punish her, he was going to rape her. He gripped her forearms at the wrists, pressing them down into the ground and trapping her underneath him.
*****
Max
“Liz,” Max murmured as he tasted blood in his mouth. “She’s in danger.”
How had she already left? Not more than ten minutes could have passed while he was talking to Tess. She was just packing up when he left her, arranging for a ride. He felt a weight pressing down in his chest and it wasn’t just due to the indirect weight of a man straddling Liz’s waist, but from guilt. He had told himself to not let her out of his sight tonight and yet so he had.
Tess was staring at him. “What does that mean? What’s going on?”
“I have to go,” Max said tightly and almost caused Tess to fall over as he stumbled towards the door. Somehow Max was feeling everything that was happening to Liz and if his premonition had had all facts straight Liz would right now be laying on the ground, her attacker poised above her.
I don’t have much time.
*****
Liz
As the adrenaline rolled over her, she attempted another approach to make him stop, “No, please. No, don’t.”
She barely felt the cold air hit her exposed skin as he ripped open her blouse, but it made the fear in her spike. “Pleasedon’thurtmepleasedon’thurtmepleasedon’thurtmepleasedon’thurtme.”
But her pleading only ignited him more and she suffered another blow to the face. She felt bones crack in her nose.
“You’re not so full of yourself now, are you Ms. Parker?”
“David, please,” she whispered.
He paused and looked at her darkly. His voice was devoid of any emotion as he ground out, “Don’t call me that.”
Spotting an opportunity to reason with him, Liz continued, “This is not you, David. You’re hurting me.”
He smirked and gathered both of her hands in an iron grip of his left hand before he started working on her jeans with his freed up right. “Are you sure about that?”
She closed her eyes. She couldn’t reach him. She had always known, from the second that she met him, that he was dangerous. But she had never imagined herself ending up in this situation.
His left hand let go of her arms to figure out her pants and she took the opportunity to heave her upper body up and then wiggle to try and get out of his grip. As her hands got out of his hold, she immediately clawed at his face, thinking along the lines of how to survive a rape.
Put your fingers into the perpetrator’s eyes.
But she never had a chance to come close enough to cause any real damage. He abandoned fighting with her jeans and put both of his hands around her neck and squeezed. She angled her head backwards, straightening her windpipe, trying to get air into her lungs, but he only pressed harder as he brought his face closer to hers. His face was unforgiving in the background of dancing black spots as he pressed hot lips against her mouth, biting her bottom lip so that he drew blood. But she barely noticed the pain. She was slipping away.
About three seconds before she lost consciousness, he let go. She inhaled sharply, her head lolling to the side in oxygen deprivation and exhaustion. David was now pulling down her jeans, but she didn’t notice. She was trying to get enough air into her oxygen-starved body. He might have been talking to her then, but she only registered grunts as her body was pulled in this and that direction, forcibly but unable to defend itself. She didn’t hear her panties rip, but she felt him there, touching her invasively and roughly.
Then he wasn’t there anymore. She briefly noticed a green light around her before Max was there, above her. He was talking to her, she could see his lips moving, but she had trouble hearing him. She felt the heat of his fingers as he skimmed her cold face, brushing down her body, concern vibrating off him. She noted that he had a bruise across his left cheek, matching the pain she was feeling in her own left cheek.
“Max,” she croaked, worried as he momentarily disappeared from her field of vision.
“Liz,” he said urgently and she could see him again. He had removed his jacket and was draping it over her. “I’m gonna get you out of here, okay?”
“David?” She felt the fear ascending again, the momentary daze from the almost successful strangling gradually wearing off.
“It’s okay. He’s…out,” Max said and his words washed over her like soothing water and she felt the dam break.
“Help me,” Liz sobbed, managing to lift her arms up towards Max.
Without hesitation, he directed her arms around his neck and pulled her up on his lap. Her bare legs fell down on either side of his thighs as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. She felt the hard pulse from his jugular vein throb against her cheek and her arms tightened around him.
“You’re safe now,” Max whispered. “You’re safe now.”
She cried, pressing herself into the crook of his neck, trying to bring herself closer while her whole body was shaking. He stood up with her gingerly, her legs still around his waist, keeping his jacket pressed between their bodies. Under the jacket, she was exposed from the waist down, but she didn’t care. Max was here. She was safe.
TBC...
