Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven
Elizabeth’s POV
My body immediately relaxed when I heard his voice. I tapped his hand to show that I would behave. As soon as he removed it, I turned to look at him.
“Zen?” I whispered. He was wearing all black, including black gloves and a hood. He looked like a cat burglar; a paranoid and potentially doped up cat burglar. His eyes darted nervously towards the balcony door and the shadows of the moonlight casted a darkness over his features that was frightening. I had to remind myself that Zen would never hurt me. He would never hurt me, right?
“Listen, I don’t have time to explain, but I need you to come with me.” What?
“What? Are you crazy? What are you doing here? Do you know how late-”
“Elizabeth, please.” His eyes were pleading desperately for me to listen. There was an obsessive nature in the tone of his voice that told me he wanted me safe. From what, I had no clue, but I didn’t care. So without another thought, I hurried out from under the covers. I was in a pair of black shorts and a baggy ACDC tshirt that my dad gave to me when I was 10, but Zen didn’t give me time to change. He grabbed my arm as soon as my feet hit the rug beside my bed and pulled me towards the patio.
“Zen, I need shoes.” I reminded him, before he could finish dragging me out of the apartment. He didn’t say anything, just grabbed the pair of slippers beside my bed and slid them onto my feet. Why was he in such a rush? And how/why did he break in?
The cold fall air made me shiver, but the adrenaline of leaving in a hurry made it unnoticeable. He followed the path I normally do to avoid the camera outside. I wondered briefly if he had seen me do it, but that wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t have had the opportunity. He helped me over the concrete wall, taking brisk steps towards a black sedan parked illegally in front of the building. Then he pulled open the passenger side door, waiting for me to climb in before shutting it and taking long strides to the driver’s side.
“Fuck.” He growled as soon as he started the car up. He was looking in the rearview mirror. I turned back to see a figure dressed in all black, still a couple of buildings down and headed in our direction. He put the car into gear and slowly merged onto the empty street. His directions were random, and I couldn’t tell where he was taking us, but I could see that his shoulders were still tense as he surveyed our surroundings around every turn.
After about five minutes, we hopped onto the interstate, headed north towards Chicago. I could see his shoulders finally relax. He looked over at me wearily.
“So?”
“So, what?” I asked, confused by his questioning. I didn’t even know what was going on. One second I was dreaming about kissing all of Zen’s scars, and the next we are going 80 down the interstate to some unknown location.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why the fuck I just kidnapped you in the middle of the night?” He sounded exasperated. I frowned at him swearing at me.
“It’s not kidnapping if I came along willingly.” I pointed out. I knew I was being difficult, but he was being rude. He sighed, trying to fight the smile trying to form on his lips and breaking the tension in the car.
“Elizabeth. Do you normally climb into cars with men who break into your bedroom?” Nope. This would be my first time.
“Do you normally take women from their bedrooms, and then question them as to their motives for complying?” I was a little peeved at the nature of our reunion. It was late, I was tired, and nothing was making any sense. I finally decided that I would stop being sassy and just ask what he expected me to in the beginning. I reached over, placing my hand over his on the gearshift. He flinched, but didn’t try to move away. “What’s going on, Zen? Who was that man?”
He furrowed his brows, glancing at me one more time before sighing.
“Look, you aren’t safe. That man… He was coming to kill you.” I felt my heart drop to my feet. Kill me? But, why? There must be a misunderstanding. “Your dad is involved in some shady business, Princess. Whoever he pissed off, hired assassins to kill you.”
“Unlikely, Zen. My dad is a microbiologist for a medical corporation. He doesn’t do ‘shady’ things.” I could hear the leather of Zen’s gloves rubbing against the steering wheel of the car. He was angry and the mere tension in the air was suffocating me.
“Really? ‘Unlikely?’ Don’t tell me that it’s fucking unlikely, babe, because I’m not fucking lying to you. Trust me this one goddamn time.” He didn’t shout, but instead whispered his rants under his breath in such a sinister way that the hair on my arms was standing at attention and a massive lump had formed in my throat. I wanted to cry, but I knew that having me balling in the front seat would not help either of our stress levels. I had just never been spoken to in such a disrespectful way before.
That wasn’t the point, though. He just told me that my father is doing something probably illegal enough for his enemy to have sent assassins after his only daughter. Suddenly, the past eleven years of my life was making sense. He wasn’t just paranoid after all. He knew this could happen.
I blinked as I tried my best to process what he was telling me.
“So, that’s why you came? To save me?” He didn’t answer, but it was obvious. He wouldn’t be telling me all of this if he wanted to hurt me. He had plenty of opportunity to kill me before. He was the only person I could trust. Besides… “Tom! Oh no, Zen, what about Tom?” The pitch in my voice was climbing rapidly, but he just shrugged.
“They don’t have a hit on Tom. Once they realize you aren’t there, they’ll leave, so long as he doesn’t mess with them. Assassins don’t just kill people for no fucking reason, Elizabeth. They have a job to do, simple as that.” The passing cars lit up his face in an almost earie way. I didn’t like it one bit.
“So what now? Where are we going?” Perhaps it was the sleep trying to take me over, but I had at least temporarily accepted everything he was telling me.
“North. We need to put some distance between you and them. They won’t go too far without a command. I’ll drive for a few hours, book us a motel somewhere, and we can come up with a better plan in the morning.” He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. He looked exhausted. With a flick of his wrist, he freed the hand that was still under mine on the gear shift, reaching behind his back. “Sit back, Princess.” I obeyed, appreciating the softer tone in his voice. He reached over and opened the glove box. I saw the reflection of the silver pistol in his hand before the tossed it in the compartment and shut the door.
I had to stop myself from screaming. He had a gun! Why did he have a gun?! Was he some sort of undercover cop? He didn’t show me a badge! Besides, I was pretty sure that cops didn’t sleep with the people they were supposed to protect. Why would he- He noticed the panic surfacing fast and placed his hand on my knee.
“It’s just a gun, Elizabeth. It will only hurt you if the person wielding it decides so. And I sure as hell won’t be using it on you.” I knew he wouldn’t, but knowing that there was a loaded gun a foot in front of me still made me anxious, especially when I still didn’t know why he had it in the first place.
His fingers drew circles up my leg, until I could focus on nothing else but Zen’s touch. It was sedating. It made me sleepy. “Go ahead, baby. Get some sleep.” His soothing voice helped relax me and coax me into a deep slumber.
Maybe when I woke up, this would all just be one bad dream.