Manhattan: In Love with the Infamous King

Chapter 9

Nolan POV

God. Her brown eyes stare through me, like she can read me the way I read her. I watch as she sprints down the aisle in a hurry to grab whatever it is she forgot. Checking my phone, Phillip lets me know that they are set for the Duval case, but every plan they come up with requires a sniper. My hands grip my phone hard at this. We barely know this girl. She could get us killed.

Before long, I see her headed back as we are about to be next to put the items on the counter to be scanned. She seems different. Her eyes are distant and her body is tense as she walks over quickly to where I am. Setting the sauce down, she remains quiet as she starts loading the items up.

"What?" I say lowly.

"Someone is watching." She barely opens her mouth to respond to me, her lips barely move as she continues to put things up. When she puts the last item down, I snake my left arm around her waist and pull her to my side. I give her a wide smile.

"Babe, didn't I tell you to not go too far?" She flashes a wide teeth-baring smile back as she wraps her arm around me in return. With her hopeful youthful eyes, even I almost think she is for real. The old register lady is watching us as she rings up our groceries.

"I'm sorry, love. I'll make it up to you later." Her soft angelic voice makes my arm tense around her waist, gripping her harder to me. She gives a cute little wink as she lightly swings her head back and forth carefree. Damn, she is selling it. I tap my nose to hers and she scrunches her little nose and blinks back with an ear-to-ear smile. The register lady takes my card as the grocery bagger fills our cart. I take my arm and wrap it around her shoulder as we walk out and put everything in the trunk. When we are settled, I drive out.

"Who was it?"

"I don't know." She's restraining herself from telling me something.

"What is it?" Her deep shallow breath tells me I'm right.

"I felt whoever it was watching in the lobby before we left for your training grounds." She continues to look out into the street without facing me. Who is following her? Or is it me and I didn't notice? No, I trust her instincts and I doubt she would lie about something like this. I fall silent as both times she felt someone watching her, she was with me.

"Nice acting." I tell her with my eyes focused on the road. Without looking at her, I can feel her smirk slightly.

"I think that's the first time I have seen you smile, even if it wasn't real." The rest of the car ride is peaceful as we make our way back. When we are finally back, I call them down to help us carry everything. Alex directs them when they get set up for whatever it is she has planned. I pull Phillip into my office.

"Will you go over the security cameras and see if someone was watching for Alex in the lobby before we left for training grounds?" He gives me a weird look, but I usher him to do it. I finish up some emails before heading back outside to the balcony and joining the others around a table as Alex cooks meat on a grill. It does smell amazing, so I'll give her that. Before long, she starts portioning it out, but Phillip calls me back inside.

"I don't know how he got through security, Nolan." He turns over the tablet and that's when I see him. Kendrick.

Alex POV

When Nolan grabbed me and flashed me that wide smile, I knew he was trying to warn off the person watching me, or us. I'm not really sure anymore, but I intend to find out soon. Vic and Trent help me with most of the setup as Nolan and Phillip talk in the office.

"Did Nolan b***h at you?" Trent says in a joking manner while I am deep in thought about that feeling that I had.

"No. He was the perfect gentleman." We all laugh a little. I felt the twinge in my stomach from the laugh. I don't. know when I have felt this.. this comfortable, but it's not going to last for long. I have to get my head in the game.

Nolan comes to join us, but he mostly talks to Trent about their plans for tomorrow while Vic helps me cook. Before long, a nervous Phillip calls Nolan over. I can feel his anger roll over in waves from where I am standing, but I hold my composure. Trent and Vic, however, are called over to them. They all come towards me with a solemn look. I look up to see Phillip holding a tablet out to me.

"Do you know him?" I put down the tongs and grab the tablet from him. He has familiar features, but I had never seen him before, so I shake my head.

"No, why?" They all fall silent as they glance at one another. Nolan, on the other hand, keeps his eyes on me so I meet them with my own. He's studying me, trying to read if I am lying. I blink away from him to turn to Phillip. "Who is he?"

"Nobody." Nolan doesn't let anybody answer me as I see Vic was about to. They look towards me expecting me to say something back, but I'm way too hungry right now to be worried about someone I don't know.

"Fine. Let's just eat. The food's ready." Everyone sits and we eat while drinking some soju from the store. They all seem to enjoy it which is nice considering my other crowd of 'friends' wouldn't be caught dead eating common people food. We make light conversation about small things like recent tvs and movies that have been out. It's a light-hearted meal until we head to the lounging area of the balcony. Trent is borderline drunk and dancing around and Vic is definitely tipsy with him. Phillip doesn't drink too much, so he's fine on his armchair. Nolan can sure hold his alcohol while I look red from the Asian glow as sit on the sofa.

"How are you and Kenendy friends?" Trent asks me suddenly, to which everyone is now focused on me.

"What do you mean?" I shrug at him as I feel cold chill vibrate to my bone. It's getting cold out here and I have just a t-shirt and shorts on. Nolan hands the blanket from his side to me. Guess I didn't hide it as well as I hoped.

"You guys are so different!" His words slur slightly and Phillip laughs as he struggles to dance.

"She's a good friend." That is all I say since that is all they need to know.

"Yeah, but snipers don't have friends." I blink in response because I don't disagree with him. There are certain qualities from a sniper that tend to be characteristically common. Since we are often lone wolves, it is hard for us to build meaningful relationships. I shrug as I am not offended by it.

"Why'd you start?" Trent asks as Nolan sprawls over the sofa putting his arm behind me but on the top of the sofa and his legs are spread out. He's a pretty big dude, so I'm sure I'm taking too much of his space as he struggles to get comfortable. I''m about to get up, but Nolan pulls me back down by the arm.

"It's fine. Just answer his question." Nolan's eyes are closed as he says this, guess it was a long day. I stay quiet as the rest of them watch me, waiting for me to respond. What am I supposed to say? You don't really come into this life for just one reason. It's eerily quiet in here as I think of an answer.

"I started because my mom kicked me out." Phillip starts and we shift our attention to him. "Nolan discovered me and offered me a place here." He finishes off quietly. I know what he's trying to do. Trust. That's how it's earned.

"My dad hit us." Vic starts after Phillip, so he doesn't feel so alone. I close my eyes a little as I wasn't exactly anticipating a heart to heart, a real one. "I finally had enough and killed him. I got sent to juvie when I was 13. When I got out, my family didn't want to speak to me and I got into this boxing gym where I met Trent. He brought me here."

"You guys don't have to-"

"Nolan and my mom were roommates in college. They were best friends when we were growing up. I don't know who my father is, but Nolan's father took me under his care when our mom died in that car accident." Trent interrupts me to quickly tell us how he was involved in this business. I take a deep breath. It's my turn. I decide to tell them the half-truth.

"I started because I wanted to feel.." My blank expression confuses them.

"To feel?" Vic asks.

"To feel." Nolan states, not ask, before I could even reply back. We look at him as his tired eyes flutter open to meet mine. "You wanted to feel something, anything." My breath hitches in the back of my throat. How the f**k did he know that?

"Yeah, I wanted to know if.." I pause as I wonder if that's too dark to share.

"if you still had a soul." Nolan finishes for me. The others stare at us in astonishment. Our eyes gaze into one another and his eyes gives me the answer to my question. He knows because his pain, his emptiness, is numb for him too. "And do you?"

"Yes." I say exasperatedly while I continue to maintain his eye contact. Never have I ever been so caught off guard. I'm not sure I know how to react in front of him, but I feel this soft pain in my chest. I don't let it show through my body language. He thinks I saved his life all those years ago, but really, he saved mine.

"She can go next week." He breaks the eye contact and promptly leaves the balcony to go back inside. We all stare at him before returning to one another.

"I should get going." I start to stand up, but Vic stops me.

"It's late. Stay here tonight." Studying their facial features, it is evident that something got them on edge.

"What's going on, Vic?" She glances to Trent. I am tired of this, so I shake my head and move Vic's arms.

"Wait." Trent has his serious demeanor. That's a rare sight to see since he's usually so outgoing. "She's right, Alex. Just stay the night tonight."

"Why are you guys persistent about this?" They look nervously at one another yet again. I sigh and give up. If they are not letting me leave, I had doubts that I will be able to fight against all three of them and live. They are not called the Royal Flush without reason. "Fine."

Nolan POV

There's just something about that girl. The way her eyes speak to mine makes my muscles tense. I hadn’t intended to let her come with us on our deal with the Duval, but whatever interaction we had made my gut tell me it was the right thing to do, to trust her just this once. Now I’m in my room, trying to calm the bulge in my jeans. I can’t remember the last time I was ever this nerved by a woman.

Damn it. I take a cold shower to calm down my heated body before heading to the office to look over the deal. Trent handled most of it and on a normal day, I would be fine with it, but something has me on edge. It’s Kendrick.My blood boils just thinking about him. Why can’t he just leave it alone? Kendrick is my half brother from my father’s side. Maybe if my father knew when to keep it in his pants, I wouldn’t have to be dealing with a spoiled child that wants something that doesn’t belong to him.

I grip my glass of whiskey harder than I thought and it shatters, cutting my hand. The clock reads 1:27 AM. s**t. I worked longer than I had anticipated and all of these thoughts about Kendrick isn’t helping.

Walking out of the office, I notice the TV slightly on through the hallway. Careful not to make a sound, I go to check it out.

Seriously? They crashed in my living room? Some basketball game re-run is on and I notice someone’s missing. I only count three bodies. As my eyes search, they see Alex on the balcony. What is she doing there? It’s freezing out there.

I walk through the living room cautiously to not wake anyone up. She’s at the very edge of the balcony looking at the city. As I head towards her, she notices and glances over at me before turning back to look at the view.

“Thinking about jumping?” I say darkly as I grab the blanket that was on the sofa from earlier.

“Knowing my luck, I’d survive.” That’s not the answer I was expecting. I stand behind her and cover her with the blanket. Her tack tenses from the contact, she takes it to wrap it around her as I go to stand next to her. For a few minutes, we stand there in utter silence as we both take in the view. I can hear her deep breaths as she closes her eyes for that cold wind to hit her face.

I glance back down at her and see she has changed into another pair of t-shirts and short shorts, probably took a shower. What catches my eyes is the gold necklace hanging from her neck, the necklace I got her. Shes still wearing it? Before I can ask her about it, she turns to me.

“Are you going to bandage your hand?” Her bored tone and facial expression makes it appear that she is done with the conversation before she started. I look down to see that my hand is dripping blood and its pooling slightly at the foot of the blanket that wraps around her. I grunt in response and ignore it. She closes her eyes and shakes her head at me before walking back inside. "Coming?" She says to me in a chilling distant voice that lures me to her. Not sure what her game is, I follow her.

She stops and looks to me for direction. I lead us to my bedroom and pass my bed into the master bath. It's relatively large with a double vanity floating cabinet sinks black and white overlay on the left. The bathroom walls are laid with black and gray stones. On the right, there is a gray stone bathtub and a large rain shower in the corner.

I pull out the first aid box underneath the sink, trying to one handedly search and grab bandages and a pair of tweezers. Her icy cold hand pull mine back as she takes her other hand to grab the things I need. When she's done, her still eyes once again meet mine as she looks to me for direction.