26. Get You Alone #2
I didn’t even know what I was feeling at this point. But I was squirming. Literally.
“Just let me have your number,” he said, shrugging as though his request was simple.
I shook from the hungry look he gave off, wondering how I was going to get out of this one.
He held his cell phone between his two forefingers and offered it to me. “If I give you my number,” I said, grabbing it. “Will you let me go?”
He howled with laughter. “Who ever said you were a prisoner?”
I did a retake and examined our current position, nearly body to body against the wall. “But–”
“I’m not going to hold you against your will.” He took a step back from me, waiting and watching as I stared at his phone.
His contacts were open for me and ready for me to plug my number in. I considered wickedly that I could just put in a fake number and call it a day.
“But if you leave without giving me answers, I’ll just ask Chelsea out. That way, you’ll have to see me again, by default,” he added, and his eyes shined with wicked glee at my horror.
Okay, so he’s crazy. Confirmed.
“Fine.” I groaned and programmed the buttons I knew too well into his phone.
“There!” I threw it back at him, hoping for a moment that he wouldn’t catch it and it would break. It didn’t, and like a perfect athlete, Noah reached up and snatched the cell with one hand before gravity had time to think about making it hit the floor.
“Thank you,” he said with a little nod.
I considered telling him everything for a split second.
The threats from Silas. How I was terrified when he called my house, and that I wasn’t sure who to trust anymore.
If Noah discovered that Silas had threatened me, I deliberated what he would do.
Was he going to defend me? Tell me it would be better if I got lost?
I decided that it would be smarter to say nothing to him. It wasn’t like I would take his calls anyway. That was the easy part: ignoring him once I got out of here. Getting him to quit calling was going to be tricky.
Noah’s grinning brought me back down to Earth. I rolled my eyes, hating how cute he looked when he smiled. “What were you thinking about?” he questioned, his expression peaked with curiosity.
The question caught me off guard, and I stopped myself before saying, “You.”
“Nothing.”
He snickered. “You make weird faces when you think.”
“Well, excuse me for having unique facial expressions.”
He touched under my chin with a finger. “No, I think it’s sorta cute.”
I stiffened. His touch was captivating, and I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t want more of it. I needed to leave this place. Fast. Before want drowned out reason.
“I’m going home. Nice talking to you.”
He gave me a little wave as I finally walked out of the theater, wishing that I hadn’t waited to make a run for it in the first place. My cell phone rang before I reached the curb.
“Hello?”
“Oh good, you didn’t give me a fake number.” Noah’s chipper tone came from the other end.
“I should’ve...” I mumbled to myself.
“What?”
“Bye, Noah!”
I stayed on the line for another second so that I could hear the sound of his laughter.
“Do you want a ride home?” he asked.
Don’t act foolishly, my mind chided me.
“Uh, no. I’ll just take an Uber or something.” The call disconnected.
I heard his voice approaching from behind me.
“At least let me wait with you until it gets here,” He suggested, stepping to wait at my side.
In a casual motion, he put his hands in his pockets. Even though I really wanted him to leave, he seemed to want to be there. For that brief moment, the prospect of getting to know Noah Hansen better didn’t seem all that horrible. I couldn’t deter him, and now he had my number.
Suddenly, the name Silas was hazy in my memory. Even though I wasn’t sure if I trusted Noah fully, a part of me longed to know about his past. Was he raised here? What was his favorite activity as a kid? I had so many unresolved questions, and I was not sure how to ask them.
He’s too much work, something inside told me. He had a gun, remember?
He’s dangerous.
He couldn’t just be labeled as a hazardous product. Since I didn’t really know him, why should I decide what kind of person he was? There was something deeper to him, and I felt it.
“The night you saved me,” I started, and he turned to face me, his eyes lighting up. “Why did you have a gun with you?”
That frivolous expression left his face, and he looked away quickly.
“You don’t have to tell me!” I remarked hastily, suddenly seeing how out of line I was.
None of this was my business at all. I too often inserted myself in a way that crossed boundaries, at least, that’s what my dad always told me.
Basically, it was a fancy way of saying that I had no filter when it came to sensitive issues.
“No, it’s okay to ask,” he assured. “I had it for protection, and well, I sort of freaked out. My brother—I thought he was someone else. He, uh… scared me.”
I nodded. The answer didn’t dig very far into the real reason, I knew, but it was a start. At least he gave me something at all.
“Okay, I guess you can wait with me here.”
His lips curved up into a smile.
I exhaled, trying my best to quiet the butterflies in my stomach.
NOAH
“So, explain to me again. What happened to Delane?”
“She needed to go home.” I tried to pacify the fuming Chelsea as we exited the theater into the night.
“Who cares? I had a good time with you baby!” Alex cheered, linking his hand with mine.
I cracked a smile, inwardly exhausted from Alex’s chirpy demeanor. The only thing I cared about was that I had finally gotten to speak to Delane, obtaining her number, and hopefully some trust.
“Well, hel-lo.” A random guy sitting on the curb to the right of us, waved and winked. He seemed to be eyeing me with a familiar lust.
Alex immediately went on the offensive. “Back off, buddy. This one’s mine.”
The guy smirked and stood, brushing off his pants. “Oh no, I wasn’t eyeing him,” he explained to the all too protective Alex. “I was talking to YOU.”
Alex stood there bewildered. “Wha– me?”
The man nodded, stripping his eyes down Alex’s figure before tossing him a small sheet of paper.
“Take it.” He ordered. Alex caught it, still dumbfounded as the guy strutted off.
Chelsea looked distraught. I didn’t think she had ever experienced a day in her life where she wasn’t the center of attention.
“What is it?” I asked.
Alex smiled weakly. “His number.”