Chapter 40: Next time, listen

"Fuck! You-your lip's bleeding," he looked at her as if she'd done it on purpose, "Did you hurt yourself?" His eyes moved to her knee. "I'm fine. Can we just go please?"

Brad helped her up but this time didn't leave her hand. In some really screwed up way, he actually reminded her of Dino-with the attitude and protectiveness. Her legs were wobbly but Meera forced herself to suck up the pain and move. It wasn't for long, she told herself, each time her muscles pulled.

At last, the final level came into view. Meera peeped over Brad's shoulder to locate her apartment. Thank heavens!

"It's okay," she told him, "I can take it from here. Thank you very much."

He nodded but didn't make any attempt to leave. Was he going to wait until she was inside? Brad stared her directly in the eye. With that awkward tense moment, Meera flashed a smile and made her way past him.

"Wait...do you at least have some sort of weapon on you? Just in case?"

Before she could answer, he leaned forward and pulled out something from his jacket pocket-the jacket that she had on. She was on the verge of taking it off when he told her to keep it. "Take this," he extended the object towards her, "It's a taizer... it err-shocks people." Meera knew what a taizer was. "Take it," Brad repeated, "Trust me, it's much safer than a knife or gun, that's if you have one. You just push this lever down on the person. But try to get them on the neck, keeps them down for longer."

The hesitation was there but she took it. "Thanks," she muttered. He smiled back, for the first time; nodded then vanished.

Wow! Now she could finally breathe. What just happened? Meera wanted to scream and disappear at the same time. Did she have like a sign on her forehead that read 'I like bad boys' because lately, they were all she seemed to be attracting.

Stepping into the peaceful confides of the apartment, she shut the door behind her. That was way too much of a rush to handle for one night. No scrap that, for just under an hour. For one, Brad freaking Wyatt was living in the next building. And two, was Dino aware of this. Didn't he say that they were on a different street. And three, Brad knew exactly who she was which meant he had to have been watching them and following the news.

Flickering switches, she sent the ceiling fans spinning and the kitchen and living rooms to illuminate. One step into the lounge and she stopped dead on her tracks. The curtains were not closed when she'd left the apartment. Meera took a few steps back, mentally rewinding her brain too. If it hadn't been for her preoccupied mind and the million things racing through it, she might have realized that the apartment door was unlocked when she arrived and she had locked it.

Act completely natural, she calmed her nerves down. But how could she remain calm when there was a hundred percent possibility that she was not alone. Her eyes immediately flew to the couch where Dino had left the gun, only it was no longer there.

Meera took deep breaths, considering the only two options in her head. One, she could pretend to go in the bathroom and call Dino. Or two, she should run out of the apartment and then call Dino. Counting till three in her mind, Meera spun around for the door.

"Don't even think about it." A voice echoed, causing Meera to freeze. She turned back around, locating the source of the voice and landed on not one, but two oversized men. And they weren't the ones that she'd seen when she was hiding behind the building with Brad. Her hand shot up to her ear but nothing was there. Panic filled her. Where was her earpiece? What? It must have fallen off when she'd tripped on the staircase.

Dizziness was already beginning to seep in. There was no way out. She was trapped. She had no way of contacting Dino, no gun, no-Brad's taizer. It was still in the jacket pocket. Yes, it was there. She didn't feel for it but the weight of it gave her the proof. Hope pushed some of the fear away.

"What do you want from me?" Meera asked, trying to buy some time to figure out how to do this. "Who sent you? Why are you here?"

"Oh aren't you a feisty lil one?" They were probably middle-aged but dangerous as hell. Both of them were armed with more than just one weapon. "Look, if this is about money then my dad can pay you both! You don't have to do this!"

She measured the distance between her and the door and then, the distance from her position to the bedroom. Even though the front door was closer, there was no way that she'd make it out without them catching her and if she did, there were no doubt, gonna be more men waiting outside for her. And the bedroom was behind her, the men in front.

"You think this about money daddy's lil angel. This isn't about the money or you. It's about Randal!"

"Hey that's enough!" The other man said, making his way over to her. "Now I need you to come with us. This can either go down two ways-the hard way or the easy way. If you try to run, you just gonna end up hurting yourself."

Grabbing her by the hair, he signaled for the other guy to start walking. "Let go of me! You hurting me!" Meera caught the second guy heading for the door. This was her chance. "Take this asshole!" She planted the taizer straight for his jugular vein, not bothering to check if he was alive or not. Sparks flew, the man collapsed.

"Hey you bitch!"

But Meera did not stop for a second. Half-running, half-slipping to the bedroom, she locked the door behind her. She was already out of the window and on the ladder when she'd heard the door bust open. Meera climbed down faster, sliding most of the time. She could do this. She was only a few feet from safety, then she'd hide out until Leo arrived.

Meera was almost there, she could see the ground approaching when someone suddenly pulled her off the ladder onto what appeared to be someone else's balcony. Brad Wyatt.

"They in the apartment! They behind me! They have guns...I don't know-" He cut her off. "I'm here now, okay?" Meera was anything but okay and he was definitely not Dino, so trusting him with her life was going to be a problem.

"Stay here."

"No, no! No! Just get me out of here!" she demanded. "Meera, there's an entire army-" "Behind you!" she screamed. Bullets slammed on the wall next to them. "Down! Get down!" Brad roughly pulled her to the ground, indifferent as to whether he hurt her or not. "Stay down!" He shouted when she attempted to look up.

Brad shoved a pot plant in front of them as a cover. Shots were being fired one after the other, the noise so disturbing. One missed Meera by an inch. "Son of a bitch!" Brad instructed her to remain down before getting out a gun of his own and standing up to fight back. The only thing Meera saw was the man from her apartment fall down the building.

"Let's go!" Brad took her by the wrist. "Get up! Move!" She was trying, couldn't he see that. They were in someone else's apartment. "We'll take the stairs," Brad decided, turning around every few seconds to make sure no one was behind her. Eventually he gave up and put Meera ahead of him, still holding her hand.

They'd managed to make it down two flights of stairs, no doubt that they were being chased. The exit of the building was nearing because Meera caught the 'ground floor' badge on the wall before heading for the next bend. But her mistake. She took a too wide turn on the last corner. "Wait for me!" Brad pulled her back but it was too late.

"Aahh!" Meera's body froze. She looked down where a man stood inches away from her with a knife stabbed into her stomach. Before she could even catch her breath, he pulled it out. She let out another shout of pain. It was unbearable.

He aimed for her again when Brad pushed her back and took the stab to his shoulder and fired at the guy. He was dead.

"Are you okay? Can you walk?" His eyes moved to her stomach, widened when he saw the damage. "Fuck! Fuck!"

Brad pressed at the stab, trying to stop the bleeding. "If we don't get you help, you gonna bleed out. I need you to stay with me Meera."

But she was already fading away. The pain was worse than anything she'd ever endured, the blood just pouring out arose nausea. Only half-conscious now, Meera felt herself being dragged into some dark room. At least she taught it was dark. She felt pressure being applied to her abdomen, she heard her name being called a dozen times.

Through all the chaos and noise, Meera saw Dino's face. He was smiling at her-that adorable amazing, annoying charming smile of his. They were dancing, she dressed in a fancy dress and him in a tux-something she taught she'd never see him in.

"You look beautiful," he told her. She smiled back, her eyes never leaving his face. 

#help #trouble #theend