Chapter 7 Marfil #2
“What if there’s someone in there who wants to hurt me?” I asked, taking a step toward him, feeling brave.
“Scream.”
I stopped, gave him a once-over, and, almost as a reflex, he did the same. That was enough for me.
I turned around, flipping my hair, and went into the bathroom.
Why was it so hard to get him to pay attention to me?
Did he really take his job that seriously?
Or was he absolutely not attracted to me at all?
I briefly considered screaming like a scared little girl to see how he’d react.
Would he break down the door? Would he draw his gun and barge in like James Bond?
I didn’t do it, not because I didn’t dare—I would welcome any emotion from him, even rage—but I didn’t want to be the boy who cried wolf.
I’d been in danger, and if anything were to happen to me, I wanted to be sure that Sebastian didn’t doubt for an instant the genuineness of my cry for help.
Instead, I washed my hands and left the bathroom.
“There was a door at the end of the stalls,” I informed him. Sebastian peeled his back from the wall as his only response. “It was locked… Although apparently that won’t necessarily keep someone from kidnapping me.”
“Leave that to me, Marfil. Now, go back in and watch the movie.”
“The ant one? No fucking way,” I said, studying the showings for the other throwback movies. I scanned past several that didn’t interest me until I reached a Nicholas Sparks film. I grinned at Sebastian and went inside.
The theater was packed, but I found two seats in the last row on the right. I knew he had no choice but to stay close and make sure nothing happened to me. When I sat down and saw that he was taking the seat beside me, an unhappy expression on his face, I almost squealed with joy.
The movie had already started, but I didn’t care. What mattered was that I was on a “date” with my bodyguard seated beside me in the dark, where I could fantasize about him for the rest of the hour left in the Marvel movie my friends were watching.
“Do you think she’s pretty?” I asked as an excuse to lean close to him and take in his masculine scent, a mixture of leather and aftershave.
Sebastian ran a hand through his hair before answering. “No.”
I smiled, amused. “You’re much more handsome than that guy.” And that “guy” was none other than Liam Hemsworth, if you can believe it.
Sebastian glared at me through the darkness of the theater. “Watch the movie, please!”
I did as he asked and, when the sex scene between the two main characters started, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
The guy pushed the girl against the wall of her bedroom.
Liam was so tall and broad-shouldered that he almost covered the female star completely from view, but that only intensified the effect the director wanted to achieve with the scene.
I peeked at Sebastian out of the corner of my eye.
The poor guy looked more bored than anything.
I studied his enormous hand on the armrest. What was Sebastian like with women?
Would he be the kind of guy who touches a girl tenderly, or would it be passionate and rough, like the scene we were watching?
Suddenly I had the urge to run my fingers down his arm to his wrist, and feel my hand disappear in his gigantic palm.
What would it be like to be kissed by him?
What would it be like to feel his body pressing me into my mattress, almost suffocating me with his weight, flooding me with pleasure?
Before I had the chance to do anything I’d regret later, my phone started to ring.
The incoming call from Liam was ruining the hot sex scene taking place before my eyes.
I rejected the call as several people in the theater glared at me disapprovingly.
Where are you? For your information, the next time you want to come to the movies with me, you can’t take off in the middle of the movie and leave me alone with your friend. She left all pissed off, of course.
Oh shit! I quickly replied to his message.
What happened? Don’t be mad, I just popped into the theater next door to see part of the Nicholas Sparks movie! I’ll come out now.
I hadn’t even stood up before he sent me another message.
It doesn’t matter, just keep watching your movie, I’m already on my way home.
Fuck. I’d just pissed off my two best friends.
The ride home would’ve been silent if it weren’t for the fact that I played my music over the stereo.
I felt guilty for having left Liam and Tami alone to watch another movie because of my ridiculous desire to be by myself with Sebastian.
I didn’t understand what could’ve happened, as they’d seemed so engrossed in the film.
When we entered the lobby of my building, Norman handed me a medium-sized FedEx box. “You received a delivery, Miss Cortés.”
“Thanks, Norman,” I said as I took the package, wondering if it was the shoes I’d ordered online.
Sebastian called after me as I went straight to my room and tried to call Tami, but she didn’t pick up. Liam hadn’t either.
I set the box on my bed and got undressed, tying my bathrobe around myself and sitting on the edge of the bed in front of the package as I waited for the bathtub to fill.
I barely had time to see what was inside the box; my hands touched something sticky, and when I instinctively pulled them out, I saw they were covered in a red liquid. I screamed so loud that I’m sure the building across the street must’ve heard it.
I jumped from the bed, flipping the package over and spilling its contents onto my white comforter, bathing everything in blood. I brought my hands to my face, trying to cover my eyes.
Inside the box was a dead animal.
Before I had time to react, the bedroom door flew open, banging against the wall, causing me to scream again. Sebastian entered, gun drawn. He moved over to me and, after checking that there was no one in the room, he looked at the box on my bed, then at me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, slipping his gun in his jeans and grabbing my face to examine my head and then my hands, both stained with blood.
I started shaking.
Sebastian, on the other hand, seemed to relax when he saw that there wasn’t a scratch on me.
“Try to calm down,” he said, cautiously approaching and wrapping me in his arms.
I didn’t even register the fact that the thing I’d wanted from the moment I’d met him was finally happening.
All I could think about was the image of that dead animal on my bed and the blood staining everything.
I began to sob uncontrollably. Sebastian placed a hand on my head as he took out his cell phone and made a call.
He said something so quickly that I couldn’t even understand him.
Then he took my hand and led me to the bathroom, where he sat me on the closed toilet and picked up a towel.
He proceeded to turn off the water, which was about to overflow, and wet the tip of the towel.
“I’m going to clean your face, all right?”
I didn’t answer; I just let him do it. I was so shocked that I didn’t even hear what he was whispering in his attempt to calm me.
My entire body shook, tears rolling down my cheeks.
When he’d finished cleaning my face, my white towel stained a strange pink color, he started wiping my hands, his strong fingers attempting to erase every trace of blood from my skin.
But even though he did the best he could, my hands were still stained.
“Those sons of bitches,” he said to himself.
I looked up and stared at him. “What happened?” I didn’t even recognize my own voice.
“Wait here.” He stood up and left my bedroom.
I ignored him, getting up to look at myself in the mirror. My pale skin contrasted grotesquely with the reddish stains on my cheeks, eyelids, and even part of my lips.
I grabbed the soap and desperately started scrubbing my hands and face.
Nothing.
The blood wouldn’t come off, like a nightmare that wouldn’t end, that refused to leave me alone.
I heard the door open and saw Sebastian appear with a bottle in his hands. “It’s alcohol,” he said. I noticed that he also had a small sponge. “Let me clean you up.”
I let him softly rub the sponge over my cheeks, eyelids, and lips. When he finished, he moved on to my hands. His jaw tensed forcefully, but his hands were gentle as he carefully cleaned me up.
“Why would someone send me something like that? I don’t understand.”
Sebastian didn’t answer until he’d finished what he was doing. “They want to scare you, that’s all.”
“But who? Why?”
Sebastian released my hands and moved for the door. “I don’t know. But your father is putting every possible measure in place to find out who wanted or wants to harm you. Get in the bath to warm up; you’re freezing. I’ll clean up the mess in your room.”
He didn’t give me time to respond; he simply closed the bathroom door and left me alone. Shivering with cold, I did as he said, taking off my robe and plunging myself into the hot water.
Eye for an eye.
That’s what the package had said; I’d read it before seeing the rest.
What was happening? What had my father done to make someone want to get revenge on him through me?
I closed my eyes and let the water cover my head.