Chapter 6

I left the car and bought a newspaper like planned. The disappearance of Talia was still the major headline. At first the palace tried to keep things mum. But when a diplomat from Asia didn't see the princess as per schedule, her kidnapping was exposed. Of course by that time, the princess was safely tucked away in my hideout. I walked to a diner and sat down on the chair in front of the counter. The waitress immediately headed to me. "So what's your order," she said while chewing a gum. She looked me up and down and gave me a coy smile. Lesbian are we? I thought. Well, I'd use that to my advantage. "Give me coffee," I said in a low voice. "Black." She wrote my order in her paper. "Anything else hun?"I licked my lips and watched her jaw fell. This one was going to be easy. "I'm a foreigner to this country," I said. "Can you tell me about the princess?" She leaned on the counter. The action exposed her cleavage which I just stared at in amusement before glancing back at her. Sorry babe, I thought. But you're not my type. I was more for the princess type of female, like Talia. Tsk! I shouldn't have thought that. The waitress continued to chew on her gum. "The princess is currently gone right now." I feigned ignorance. "What do you mean?" She raised her eyebrow. "You don't know that she's been kidnapped? It's all over the news girl. The people in the palace are going shiz crazy because our future queen is missing." I tried to look as innocent as possible. "Do they know who did it? And what's the reason behind her disappearance?" The waitress quickly retrieved my coffee before answering my question. "They don't know who did it," she said. "But there's some rumors saying that the enemy of the queen did it to mock her." "No way," I said. "Your queen has enemies?" "That's right sister," she said with a ghetto accent. "Our princess is well-loved by the whole country, but you know from what I heard, the queen is very strict and had some enemies. Maybe they kidnapped her daughter to make a statement." "Maybe," I replied and sipped the coffee. Yuck! I've always hated this. I didn't know why I kept on drinking it black. Maybe because I wanted to taste the bitterness of it all. Talia was right. I did have a dark sense of humor. With a sigh, I pulled a couple of bills from my pocket and placed it on the counter before grabbing my coffee. I headed to a booth beside a glass window and sat there to wait for Brooke. She came a couple of minutes later. She smiled widely when she saw me and sat in front of me on the booth. "I miss you Iris," she said. I gave her a look and didn't tell her that I miss her back. I've always hated saying those yucky feelings. For me there were only three things in life- kidnapping the princess, kidnapping the queen's daughter, kidnapping Talia. You know me so well by now. "You need to go back to England," I told her. "I just got here," she said while flipping her hair over her shoulder. God. Why do girls do that all the time? I mean, I have long hair. But I never do that. Maybe I should start practicing. Brooke opened her bag and rummaged inside, totally ignoring me. Once she found out what she was looking for, she snatched it from her bag and handed the small bookmark to me. "Here," she said. "Your mum said you left it." I took the bookmark from her hand and stared at the familiar flower pressed on the laminated paper. It was all that was left of that day so I just had to preserve it. "Thank you Brooke," I said in gratitude. "I didn't realize that I left it behind. When I did, I was already inside the plane." "No biggie Iris." She leaned nearer, her eyes darting left and right to ensure that no one was listening to our conversation. "Is she safe?" I knew that she meant the princess. "Yes she is. She's hidden in my property and she won't be going away for a long time." "What are you going to do to her? You're not going to kill her are you?" "Of course not. I'm not a murderer Brooke. But she's mine now. I own her." I leaned back on the seat and smirked. "I'll do what I want with her." She gave me a look of disgust. "Iris," she said in a warning tone. "I love you to death. But if you rape that girl, I'm going to punch you in the face." That wiped my smirk away. "What the hell do you think of me Brooke?!" I slammed my hand on the table, making the few people in the diner turn our way. They quickly went back to their business when they sensed that it won't turn out into a full-blown fight. "Do you really think I'd do something as revolting to someone?" I said in a hushed tone. "If I wanted to have sex, I would have done it with you. Or any other female out there. Hell I can even pay for that. Have you checked my bank account lately?" She rolled her eyes at me. "Then why the obsession with her Iris? Ever since I've met you in college, she was all you could talk about. Talia this. Talia that. It's like you're in love with her." "Will you lower your voice?" I said angrily. "I'm not in love with her. I need her." Brooke stared at me in surprise. "What exactly do you mean when you said you need her?" I looked out the window and dodged her question. "You'll never understand it Brooke. Just leave it alone." When she didn't reply, I glanced back to her and softened my expression. "Look. I know how much you care for me. I also know that you're worried right now. But please understand that I'm not going to do those things to her." "Even if she was attractive, I'd never okay. You should know me better than that." Brooke clicked her tongue. "So you find her attractive? That's the first time I've heard of that." "You heard wrong," I said in denial. "Anyway, I want you out of this country in 24 hours. You don't want to be here when the next step starts." "What next step?" she asked. "Please let me in on your plans." She took my hand across the table and squeezed it gently. She always did that in college when we'd have a disagreement or she wanted to know something. I shook my head at her. "Sorry. To keep you safe, I'm not telling you anything else." I pried my hand gently from her finger and stood up. "I need to go now Brooke. Call me when you're back in England." I raised the bookmark and tapped it on her forehead. "Thanks for this." She stood up and walked me to my car. "Promise you'll be safe." "I promise," I said and entered the vehicle. "Go home Brooke. Goodbye." I started the engine and drove away. I didn't look at the rearview mirror to glance back at her. Keep moving forward was a quote that I tried to live by. At least that was what I wanted to believe in. Until now, I was very much stuck in the past. It was nightfall when I reached the hideout. I haven't seen Talia the whole day. Was she doing fine? When I climbed the stairs and opened the main door to the third floor after activating the lock, I saw her sitting crossed legged in the middle of the hallway. She opened her eyes when she heard me come in. "You're here!" she said before running to me and giving me a hug. The contact scared the shit out of me. I was not comfortable with this kind of affection. Even my adoptive parents knew it was my limit. I tried to pry her grip from me, but she had me on a deadlock. "I was lonely without you," she whispered on my ear. I felt goose bumps crawling on my skin and straight to my flesh. Against my will, my heart thudded hard against my chest. She was pressed on my body and I could feel the heat radiating from her skin. It has been so long since we were like this. No. Stop it Cybele. Stop it! I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to control the surge of emotion that I felt. "You're trembling," she said. "Why are you trembling Cybele?" She broke the embrace and held me at arms length. "You're crying too," she said in surprise. "I'm not," I said with bathed breath. She wiped my eyes and showed me her hands. "See?" She embraced me quickly before I could run away from her which was all I wanted to do at the moment. "I think you're crying because you're lonely too," she said gently. Her words made me cry harder. I couldn't tell her in that moment that she was the reason I was lonely. There was never a day when I simply stopped wanting her. What I would give so that I didn't need to hurt her in the future. But I couldn't. Enemies were supposed to hurt each other.