Alanna awoke later on that morning to find herself snuggled beneath Darren’s comforter in his bed. She stretched out and looked around the room. It was exactly as she remembered it from the night before. As she glanced around, she saw another door beside the closet. Standing up, she walked over to it and tried to open it, only finding it locked. ‘What’s back there?’ she wondered.
Walking back to the bed, she sat down on the soft sheets and cuddled up to one of the pillows. She could still smell the sweet scent of his body all over them. ‘Okay, what’s wrong with me? I’m not supposed to be falling for a guy I don’t even know!’ Alanna scolded herself, but breathing in the pillow’s aroma, she closed her eyes and smiled. ‘He’s so sweet, that’s why I’m falling for him, and he’s so cute. Uh! I don’t need this kind of stuff in my life right now. Vlad is holding Dmitri hostage. I need to worry about him, not Chris.’
Darren stepped down the hall and into his room to find her awake, her hair a jumbled mess of bright red and sticking up on end. “Good morning, or should I say afternoon,” he said, looking at the clock beside his bed.
“Afternoon,” she replied. “Did I really fall asleep again?”
“Yeah, and I left you that way because I didn’t have the heart to wake you up after seeing how exhausted you appeared this morning. Why didn’t you really get to sleep last night?” Darren asked as he sat down beside her.
“I don’t know where my brother is. I’m afraid a rival gang has caught him. I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared and I feel so stupid for leaving him alone,” Alanna almost began to cry. Even though she was lying, almost everything she said paralleled her life.
“I’m sorry,” he replied, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “You’ll find him. Why don’t you come to lunch with me and maybe get him off your mind?”
“That would be nice,” she said, her face perking up a little.
* * *
“Thanks for lunch,” Alanna said as she and Darren walked down the street together back towards his apartment. “I really liked it.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied.
“And thank you for taking me in. You really didn’t have to do that,” she added.
“It was nothing. You really shouldn’t be out on the street right now if someone is chasing after you.”
“I really appreciate you not turning me in to the police. You’re the only person who’s ever known and not told on me. Thank you.”
Her gaze met his, they blue eyes meshing, their souls connected for the first time. Darren began to lean in for a kiss, but Alanna pulled away.
“No, don’t kiss me, please,” she begged.
Darren felt his heart sink with her rejection. He wondered why he felt so low. He barely knew the girl. What upset him so much about not being able to kiss her? ‘Maybe you’re falling for her. Maybe she has a boyfriend and you’re jealous. Maybe she doesn’t like you,’ he rambled in his mind.
“I’m sorry,” Darren replied. “I got carried away.”
“You’re not the first,” she answered. Darren nodded, not knowing how to reply. “Come on, let’s go back to the apartment. I need to call my friend and see if he has talked to my brother yet.”
The two stopped at Darren’s door and waited for him to find his key. Turning the lock, he could hear the phone begin to ring. Darren ran inside and picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Daz! We’re in town,” Daniel replied.
“Where are you?” Darren asked.
“At the airport. We took an early flight.”
“You’re two days early.”
“Yeah, surprise, surprise.”
“Hold on, I’ll be right there.”
Darren grabbed Alanna’s hand and dragged her with hit to the garage in the back of the apartment complex.
“Where are we going?” she asked, feeling odd.
“We’re going to the airport. I need to pick up a friend of mine,” Darren answered.
* * *
“Danny!” Darren exclaimed, excited to see his friend for the first time in months.
“Daz!” Daniel replied as he and his fiancé, Destiny Harris, walked over to him, their faces masked by sunglasses and hats to prevent people from recognizing them.
“Destiny, how are you?” Darren politely asked as she reached over and gave him a hug.
“I’m good. And you?” she responded sweetly.
“Same,” he answered. Darren looked over at Daniel and added, “We’ve gotta talk. She’s here with me.”
“Who? The girl?” Daniel questioned as they walked down the corridor of the terminal towards the parking lot.
“Yeah, she’s in the car, and she thinks my name is Chris, so start calling me that until I can find a way to get her out of my place and to somewhere safe,” Darren said.
“Okay…” Daniel replied. “Chris.”
“What are you two talking about? And who is Chris?” Destiny butted in.
“My new alias. There’s a girl staying with me, and she doesn’t know who I really am,” Darren explained.
“Darren!” she angrily slapped his shoulder. “You can’t go lying to a girl about who you are!”
“But I have to! I don’t know who she is either. All I know is that her name is Alanna, she’s in a gang, she sells drugs, and she thinks her brother has been kidnapped.”
“Alanna?” Destiny pondered out loud. ‘That name sounds too familiar,’ she thought to herself. ‘Could it be? Naw, it’s not possible.’
The three of them walked back to the car where Alanna was patiently waiting in the passenger’s seat chewing on her nails. She looked up to see Darren followed by another blond cutie in sunglasses and a hat. Behind him was a woman, her face also covered by a dark pair of Ray Bans and a Yankee’s baseball cap. Darren motioned for her to get out of the car.
“Dan, this is Alanna. Alanna, my friend, Dan,” he introduced.
“Please to meet you,” Daniel cautiously replied.
“Pleasure is mine,” she said.
“This is Dan’s fiancé.”
The woman took off her glasses and hat, her mouth gaping open by the sight of Alanna and her bright green eyes opening as wide as they could. Alanna could feel her heart creep into her throat. “Destiny Harris?” she choked.