Chapter 44 Noah
Forty Four
Noah
The hours it took us to fly back to Boston felt like the longest hours of my life.
I’ve never been as antsy and on the edge of my seat as I was today. The guys couldn’t stop staring at me.
For more reasons than one.
The news about Andie and me broke out, and the world knows about us. Consequently, the team found out too. And since then, they have been throwing apprehensive glances our way, the somber air enveloping us, threatening to choke us.
Yes, I’m seated beside Ezra.
To say that he has forgiven me or accepted our relationship would be a lie. He can’t stop throwing daggers at me. That may also be because his fiancée forced us to sit together, saying we needed to sort it out like adults.
Ha!
Joke’s on her. Men’s bruised ego rarely lets them talk out their woes.
We haven’t said a word to each other. He didn’t initiate, and after getting punched multiple times in the face, I wasn’t eager to fill the awkward silence either.
All I care about is getting back and checking on Andie.
I worry about her and how she’ll take the news, especially after I had to make her believe that it’s over between us.
So, seeing all those images, finding out she was being stalked must’ve made her feel unsafe.
And her brother and her friends aren’t even in Boston to be with her.
Add to that this uneasiness I feel in the pit of my stomach, which doesn’t help the case.
I hope she’s not alone and has at least decided to go to her parents. The thought of her being alone after her privacy was invaded, and knowing that my good-for-nothing father is behind all of this has me itching to wrap my arms around her and shield her from the ugliness of the world.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, the plane lands, and soon we’re exiting the airport.
I need to be with Andie before I combust with worry and impatience. As the cold wind whips me in the face, the pain in my jaw and split lip flares back. Dragging my suitcase behind me, I turn off airplane mode on my phone to call Andie. I don’t give a fuck what I said.
The need to see her face is a breathing, leaving physical ache.
My phone pings with multiple notifications, bombarding the device all at once. One of them catches my eye. I’m about to ignore it like the others, but something in me has me clicking on it.
My blood turns cold, freezing in my veins and cutting through my skin like a knife, demanding to bleed from my body as I hear the team coming out of the airport too.
Kaeli steps up beside me, her hand falling on my bicep. “Hey, you alrig—” The message on my device has her ceasing, her nails digging into my skin, and I don’t think she even realizes that.
“Go. Now.” Kaeli’s softly spoken words pull me out of my comatose state and put me in gear.
Tossing my bag to the curb, I’m running to the woman whose breath is entwined with mine. “Call the fucking cops!” I throw over my shoulder, and I trust Kaeli enough to do everything that needs to be done.
“Where the fuck are you going!?” Ezra and the other guys call out to me, but I couldn’t care less.
I’m desperately searching for a way to reach her. My frantic eyes fall on a taxi. No, a car would take too long, and by that time, who knows what could happen to her.
No!
I can’t think like that.
That’s when an engine revs in the distance, the sound getting closer and closer.
That’s it! I need a bike.
I put out my hand, running right on the busy street, not caring how many people I knock into on my way, and standing in the bike’s way.
The driver instantly pulls the brake, the back of the two-wheeler levitating in the air.
“What the fuck, dude!?” he curses. “If you have a death wish, find another vehicle to die in front of!”
“Get off!” I interrupt him mid-tirade, my chest panting.
His eyes widen in surprise at both my words and my identity. “You’re…N..Noah Miller?” he stutters, his voice coming down.
“Yes. Now, I need you to do me a huge favor and give me this bike. Someone I love is in danger, and I need to get to her fast!” I beg him, praying to whatever power there is to listen to me.
The first drops of rain fall on my face, and the clouds thunder with a bang and light up the sky.
As if it couldn’t get any more ominous.
Fuck, he’s taking too long!
“I can get you a new bike and the tour of the arena,” I incentivize him. “Just talk to her, and she’ll get you everything.” I point at Kaeli in the distance, her eyes trained on me as they hail a taxi, Ezra barking on his phone.
“Gotcha!” And then he’s off the bike, and I’m mounting it in a second. He hands me his helmet, but by that time, I’m already racing off to the woman whose life might be in danger if that threatening text is anything to go by.
I’ve never been more grateful for the name and fame I’ve earned over the years playing hockey. If I were an ordinary man, this situation most certainly would look a lot different.
Racing against time as the wind and pouring rain beat down on me, I break every traffic signal and safety measure known to mankind, all while my brain conjures up horrid images of Andie hurt and asking for help.
Fuck! From what I could see in the image in the text, she wasn’t even aware that she was being watched. Let alone that my father fucking sold her out for some cash to the fucking goons, even when I wired him the money he asked for.
If their threat is anything to go by, they plan to violate Andie, and the mere thought of it makes me choke on my own bile. I need to get to her before they do.
By the time I pull in front of her apartment building, it’s raining cats and dogs, barely offering me any visibility in the night sky. I throw the bike with a thud, not caring to park it properly and make a run for the entrance.
Just as I’m about to enter the building, I hear a commotion. My muscles pull tight as my head whips in its direction. A ghostly chill settles over me, my skin pebbling with goosebumps.
There she is, my Andie, fighting off two men all on her own like an avenging angel that does not fear the lord of death.
My fighter.
My Rainbow.
I can’t see her face in this torrential rain as it seeps into my body, soaking my clothes as they stick to me like a second skin, no. But I’ll know her in another lifetime with a different face.
She pushes the man who plunged into something sharp in her hand, slumping to the ground with a feeble cry as the rain washes down his blood onto the street.
I’m too stunned to move, in awe of her fight and spirit to take down two fucking men all on her own. I’ve never felt more proud of her than in this moment.
In this moment, my love for this woman eclipses everything it’s ever been.
I terribly need her to know the depth of my uncontained feelings for her. I’m rushing to tell her just that when the bald guy teeters to a stand, grabbing something that glints under the street light, and with a scream, attacks Andie, catching her by surprise.
Fear digs its barbed tendril deep into my heart and wraps around my throat, constricting me, suffocating me, and denying me the very oxygen I breathe.
But none of that matters as my feet hammer into the street with every footfall.
I’m hurrying to her before that sharp object hits her, to shield her from the impending pain.
The man raises his hand in the air, and she flinches, her hands shielding her face.
A petrified scream works its way up her throat and resonates in the empty street, and my breath stutters, but my feet don’t as they situate themselves right in front of her, taking the make-shift dagger that was meant for her.
My chest screams in agony as the glass slashes against my left pec, the blood instantly streaming down and soaking my torn shirt.
The bald guy’s eyes widen, but before he has the time to retract, I’m grabbing his head and bash mine right against his nose with a guttural scream, the sound of bone breaking resounding in the air, but shadowed by the downpour.
The glass shard clatters to the ground, and I’m serving him punches after punches until his wail fades out and he crumples to the ground like a bag of wheat. By the time I’m done with him, he’s unconscious, severely bruised, bleeding, and has more joints and bones broken than he knew existed.
My chest heaves like an animal that has finished hunting as each breath tears through my lungs.
I’m so lost in glaring at the slumped man for daring to touch Andie that I don’t even notice when she walks around to my side.
Her hand reaches out, tearing my eyes away from his figure and turning me until my vision is filled with nothing but her. Seeing her for the first time in so many days has me dragging in a ragged pull of air, my lungs greedily expanding to breathe the air she does.
As my heart thumps in my chest at an abnormal rhythm, there’s only one thought that has my shoulders sagging in relief and unrivaled acceptance.
My life only has meaning as long as her heart’s beating.