Vitus and Leila

Chapter fourteen: a golden cage

The car stopped, Leila was just about to slide off of Vitus' lap. Vitus held onto her. "I can carry you in, you don't have to get off of me" he offered.

"No you don't have to it's fine, the others could see and besides, I can walk." Leila replied, the door opened, a bodyguard that Leila hadn't met before stretched out his hand to her. "Ms. Johnson" he nodded and helped her out of the car and then nodded to Vitus "Sir Sorokin".

Vitus was annoyed, he wasn't used to being turned down, he had protected Leila and now she didn't want to be seen with him, what was so wrong about him?! Yes, he had been an *ssh*le to her but he was trying to make up for it now. Couldn't she see that?!

Leila's worried voice tore him away from his thoughts "where are we?" She was asking and looking around.

"In the woods" Vitus replied shortly.

"I can see that, but we only drove for a short while, how can we be in the woods?"

"I can't tell you that, I can't even tell you where we are."

Leila reached into her pocket to take out her phone, it was gone. She started to panic, "my phone, where is it?! I was sure I..have you taken it?!"

"It's still in your flat, Leila, if anyone tries to locate it, they won't be able to find you" Vitus explained.

"Why would anybody want to locate my phone? Or find me? I need my phone, I have to go to work, Uni, I don't even have my laptop or my books" Leila fretted.

Hearing all the commotion, an older lady opened the door of a nearby wooden hut and came out:

"Ms. Johnson, let's go inside and have a cup of tea and something to eat. I'm sure the guards will then answer your questions, worrying on an empty stomach, has never solved anything." She said warmly to Leila. Leila wondered how she knew her name, she guessed that the guards might of rang her before getting here. She nodded and looked down at her feet, she thought Vitus liked her, but now he had kidnapped her and taken her to the woods. Why had she trusted him and let him carry her away?! What was she thinking?! she reproached herself. Leila started to walk towards the door, her empty stomach rumbled, reminding her that she couldn't change this situation anyway and tea and food sounded so good after not having eaten anything for hours.

Once inside the lady introduced herself to Leila as Sally, she was a short plump woman with rosy red cheeks, she wore her hair up in a loose bun and she had an apron on. Leila followed her down some stairs and into a long corridor. From the outside the hut had looked quite small, but now, downstairs, it seemed humongous, the corridor was long and led of to multiple rooms, the ceilings were high and even though it was all underground it was light as though the daylight was shining through some not existent windows. Leila was quite taken back. Sally led her, Vitus and two of the bodyguards into what seemed to be a dining area. There was a large wooden table surrounded by about 15 chairs. Vitus sat down at the head of the table and Sally pulled out the chair to his left for Leila to sit down. Leila complied. She looked around at the walls, there was large framed art pieces hung all around them.

Sally placed multiple dishes, a large cake and several sticky buns onto the table and told everyone to take whatever they wanted.

Vitus and the guards pounced on to the food, Leila giggled, they reminded her of her brothers at the coffee shop, she swallowed the lump that was starting to build in her throat as she wondered when she would be able to see them again.

"Tuck in, darling, it'll all be gone soon, if these cavemen get their way." Sally laughed. Leila smiled weakly and took some pasta salad and a small piece of cake.

Vitus had stopped eating to watch her, his heart had warmed at the sound of her small laugh, he had frowned when she stopped and her eyes turned sad. He sighed.

After a while Vitus spoke "Leila, once you've eaten, I would like you to come with me."

Leila nodded. She ate in silence and when she was done she looked over to Vitus, he stood up and walked out of the room, Leila followed.

Vitus opened the door of one of the rooms in the corridor and beckoned for Leila to go in, he then followed and shut the door behind them.

Leila looked around, the room was painted in a pale yellow, there was a large four-poster bed in the center of the room and a bedside table next to it. There was a large desk and a chair in one of the corners and on one of the walls there were pictures that had been painted to look like the view out of two windows. In one you could see the sea, in the other a large park with mountains in the background.

Vitus watched Leila taking it all in, "do you like it?" He asked, Leila nodded, "you can stay in here if you like." "A golden cage" Leila replied sinically.

Vitus ran his hands through his hair and sat down on the light blue winged chair that stood in the corner.

"I know you don't want to be here, Leila. But I have to protect you. The more people who know that you know me, the more people will come looking for you, they'll try to use you to get to me. Like Sergey.." he trailed off. Leila shuddered. She could of easily been taken by Sergey, if Vitus hadn't of saved her, who knows where she would of been now.

Suddenly she remembered what she had been wanting to ask Vitus, "how did you know I was in danger?" Leila asked him. Vitus looked at her "I was having you watched." He said simply. "What do you mean? Like a stalker?" Leila panicked.

"Yeh sort of" Vitus laughed embarrased and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

Leila looked at him sternly.

"I felt bad after I left you there and rode off that night, but you had asked me to leave you alone, so I had you watched, to make sure you were ok." Vitus looked down at his feet, he knew his words sounded as of he were a pathetic stalker. "I should of just left you alone from the start, now your in this mess because of me." he said out loud

Leila walked over to him and sat on to the bed next to him. "Everyone I spoke to about you said you were dangerous, yet when I speak to you all I see is a very hurt little boy." She said softly and caressed his cheek.

Vitus jumped up as of she had burnt him "don't be mistaken, Leila, I'm dangerous, I'm an *ssh*le, you'd have done best if I had left you alone. But this is what's happened, here we are. We can't change it. I can't leave you alone, I don't know why. But now your safe now. I'll try my best to stay out of your way. You do yourself a favour and stay out of mine." He said seriously and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Leila sat alone on the large bed, tears brimmed in her eyes, she didn't know what to do, one moment it seemed like he liked her, the next it seemed like he hated her. She curled up onto the bed and fell into an uneasy sleep.