Thank you for the feedback it's been lovely!
I actually posted a lot more than I intended in the first part. I uploaded the wrong document and the second half had not been proof read, but hey if you liked it then I guess I can live with that. :D
I tend to gravitate to the darker stories and this will likely be one of those. It might get a happy ending, it might not but the path there will be quite dark.
**
Brian stepped closer and Natalie screamed for help again. Out of nowhere an arm suddenly wrapped around her from behind and a hand holding a mean looking gun extended past her shoulder. Yelping she tried to pull away but the arm pressed her tight into the body it belonged to.
Brian staring into the muzzle of the gun backed away slowly, holding his hand up to show he was not a threat. Natalie squirmed around and stared into the face of a very grim looking Liam, the man who had come to her aid the previous night. Liam's rage had his eyes focused on the man backing away and for a moment she was sure he would pull the trigger.
He was beautiful. At that moment she was sure he was an angel. An avenging angel of death. The picture of her sister fanned her hate again.
"Liam..." She whispered hoarsely and watched as his eyes momentarily drifted down to hers. "Do it. They killed my sister." She pleaded, tears streaming down her face again. "They tied her up and shot her. Do it. Please. Shoot."
Liam was struggling to control his shift. Not since his father had he wished someone dead like he now wanted to rip the man in front of him apart. They dared hurt her. It comforted his soul to have her pressed against him until he heard her whisper. Despite his best efforts to stay lucid he felt his wolf control more and more, weakening his resolve.
Rage at what she told him made him loose it. The man being aimed at sensed the changed and turn to run. Liam's last lucid thought was to wrap the arm holding her around her shoulders and press her face into his neck, covering her ear with his hand as he pulled the trigger.
The first shot sped past the man and thudded into the van. The second hit the man in the arm and he staggered the last few steps to the open door of the vehicle. The third shot crushed the driver seat window as the door closed. Liam growled in frustration and fired two more shots into the back of the van for good measure before he lowered the gun and watched the car speed away.
Natalie was sobbing and shivering in his arms and he took a moment to just hold her before he carefully pushed her off his shoulder to make sure she was alright. Her first thought was to look over at where the van had been and finding no bodies she looked up at him accusingly. "They got away?"
He nodded. "Are you hurt?"
She leaned into him again and rested her forehead on his shoulder.
"There is blood on the pavement. Are you hurt?" He pressed a bit more commanding.
"My feet hurt. I think I might have stepped on something."
He stuffed the gun inside the lining of his pants and pushed her away from him again. "Wait here."
With a unhappy moan she settled her weight fully back on her own feet and winced from the pain. She watched him with curiosity as he walk back down the street and picked up a small package from the ground. With it in hand he came back to her and without breaking a stride he picked her up and carried her back towards the entrance of the house.
Not stopping until he could set her down on top of the toilet again he knelt next to her just as he had the previous night and lifted her feet one by one to rest in his lap. There was a multitude of cuts, blood and dirt on the sole of her left foot, the right had a piece of a broken bottle stuck between her toes. Grabbing the right he lifted it over the rim of the small dirty tub and turned the water on.
There was a comfortable silence between them and he was acutely aware of her eyes on him the whole time. She whimpered and winced as the water washed over her injuries and he spread her toes to ease the glass out.
"You, half-naked and men on the streets don't seem to go good together." He said with a smirk looking up her long naked legs to the rim of her sleeping shirt that ended just below her butt.
She narrowed her eyes at him and grimaced. "And you seem to be conveniently placed in my vicinity whenever it happens. Stalker."
"Well... I was bringing you this." He reached for the package she had seen him pick up earlier. It was a dark green square bag with a red cross on it, inside was the basic equipment for cleaning and dressing wounds.
He picked up a bottle of antiseptic and dabbed it on the wound. She tried to pull her foot away but he jammed her leg firmly between his elbow and body to keep it still.
He had just finished dressing the foot when his ears picked up the faint sound of sirens drawing closer. If there were someone he did not want to deal with at the moment it was the police. With a somewhat checkered past and a gun tucked into his pants there would be some very unwelcome questions. Still he found himself unable to leave her side, instead he picked up the other foot and gave it the same administrations as the first.
The sirens drew closer to stop somewhere on the street outside the building and fall quiet. Liam figured it would only be a few minutes before they came knocking on the door. He gently placed the bandaged foot back down on the floor and turned to look up at her. "Look... Uh." He shifted awkwardly. "I would rather not speak with the police if I can help it. Will you be okay?"
Natalie who had been staring emptily into space sluggishly focused on him again with anguished eyes. She looked broken. As if the last pillar holding her world up had broken and the weight of it was crushing her. He couldn't help himself as he reached up to gently cradle her chin in his hand.
With a tired and angry groan she pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her forehead on her knees, hugging herself tight. "Just go."
Liam almost choked. In her current position he could see all of her long legs and most of her black lacy panties. For a moment he was left speechless and he suppressed the need to put his tongue to the silky smooth skin of her legs.
"Eh..." He cleared his throat, struggling for control. "Maybe you should get dressed before they get here."
She looked up and rested her chin on her knees. "What the fuck for? A rape will hardly make this day worse."
"They are the police, woman. Not the rape squad. I was just thinking you might want to keep some dignity but it's your choice."
"Fuck off Liam. The moment I talk to the police they will know where I am and I'll have to split again. If I'm not taken into custody that is."
"They? The men that was here?"
"No." She sighed in annoyance. "It's a long story and one I'm not going to tell a man I met yesterday."
He sat crouched on her bathroom floor looking thoughtful for a moment. "If you don't want to talk to the police then come with me." Liam's heart was pounding harder than he liked to admit at the thought of her coming with him.
She gave him a long searching look and Liam felt the need to push the point further. "Come with me and lay low for a day, then you can come back here when they're gone. Can you walk?"
She nodded.
Helping her out into the main room he left her on the bed so she could get dressed and moved to look out the window. The police were standing just outside the building interviewing someone on the street. They kept looking over at the building and it was apparent they were talking about it. They didn't have many minutes before the police would come inside.
Throwing a quick look over his shoulder he saw Natalie's naked back, her blond hair slung across one shoulder to free her back from hair as she put her bra on. God, she was sexy. A moan slipped from his mouth before he could stop it. She froze in the middle of rolling a top down to cover her breasts and turned to look at him but he quickly looked back out the window hoping she would think he was annoyed with what he saw on the street and not ogling her like a horny teen.
"So... Guess I'm ready." She said and reached for a jacket. She was dressed in dark jeans and a bright red tank top.
He helped her up again and eased her feet into her shoes. It was a much tighter fit with the bandages and it caused her some discomfort when she tried to walk. He suggested that they scrap the idea to run but she wouldn't hear it. They made it out to the stair and walking became a little easier with every step.
"You have a back door or something?" He asked her when they reached the base of the stairs.
"Yeah, if we go down past the storage and trash room we can sneak out the back."
"Down we go." He nodded at her.
The cellar area was dark and smelled vaguely of mildew. The lighting in the corridor didn't work and all they had to guide them was the slim strip of light from under the door at the end of it. Natalie grabbed his upper arm and leaned in closer to help her find a way through the blackness. There was a giggling sound and then her voice whispered from the slightly darker shape that was all he could see of her body. "I feel like a teenager sneaking out from my parents to be with a boy."
She had no idea how much that turned him on. The thought that he was stealing her away. He was about to answer when the doors opened on the main floor and several people entered. Liam pulled her to him and stepped into the thicker shadows to make sure they couldn't be seen in case they came downstairs.
"What are you doing?" Natalie giggled and tried to push away.
Realizing she couldn't hear the sounds from upstairs he put his mouth next to her ear and hushed her. This put his nose in contact with her hair...
**
Natalie fell silent straining her ears to pick up whatever it was that her companion had heard. There were muffled sounds coming from upstairs but it sounded like they were moving up and not down. Still Natalie stayed silent, pressed to the warm body of the stranger that had waltzed into her life so suddenly.
Was it her imagination or was he breathing heavier? Was he smelling her hair? She leaned closer angling her face so he had better access to it and clearly felt him take a deep breath beneath her hand. There was something arousing about being in the dark, hiding from the authorities with a stranger and she was sure he felt the same.
