Taken and Misused.

[Vaughn’s Point Of View]

Even though food had been all Elisabeth had been talking about for the past ten minutes of the car ride, now she was passed out in the back seat, slumped against the passenger side window. It was kind of cute actually and it made me forget about how mad I was at Marco for being an idiot and getting us mixed up in the dirty business of the black market. Again.

I heard her roll over in the back seat and stretch out on the black leather, she mumbled a few things that sounded like “keep your eyes on the road” but I wasn’t sure because of her slurred speech. I chuckled and shook my head as she mumbled the same thing again. Seeing Elisabeth drunk had been an eye opener. I hadn’t thought someone could get drunk in that short of time, in fifteen minutes she had managed to get completely drunk out of her mind.

Taking her to my place seemed to be the best decision. If I took her back to her apartment the manager would probably notice the fact that Elisabeth couldn’t speak clearly or walk for that matter and Elisabeth had mentioned that her mother had the apartment staff keeping tabs on her. Each new bit of information about her family made me understand why she never really spoke about missing them, they sounded nuts to me. I glanced in my rear view mirror at her and smiled lightly, she was sound asleep with her mouth open slightly. She was adorable.

When we arrived at my home I felt slightly embarrassed when I thought of the plush and luxurious apartment Elisabeth had. I lived in the downtown area where most people had moved out of, there was crime and a shooting every other day was no surprise. I had to get out of my car to lift up the metal garage door. I had bought an old warehouse that had once been one of the most popular clubs but once this area lost its rich residents it moved up town and sold this place for cheap. When I had gotten it vandalizers had already gone through it and spray painted on the concrete walls and broke the windows, they pretty much destroyed the place. I had come in here and worked for a few weeks until I had made it livable, I knew my reputation was the only thing keeping it from being robbed now a days. Once I had pulled the garage door up I went back to my car and drove it into the large space, I had all of my tools in here as well as two other cars. Not everything in my garage was legally purchased though.

I shut the car off and got out, Elisabeth stirred in the back seat, mumbled a few more things, then went back to sleep. I chuckled again, she was like a child who had just had a sugar rush and was now going through the “crash” phase. When I opened up the back door to pick her up she opened her eyes groggily and looked up at me with confusion.

“Vaughn… stand still dammit” she muttered, frowning at me as she looked at me upside down since she was lying on her back. She blinked her eyes a few time and I assumed she was trying to focus. I couldn’t believe how much of a potty mouth she was when she was drunk, I usually only heard her talk with her proper talk and big words, now she had so far cursed two times around me.

“I’ll try” I said as I pulled her out of the car and lifted her into my arms like it was our wedding day. She curled her arms around my neck and rested her head on my chest, snuggling into my hold like a cat would. It felt oddly right, holding her like this, like she belonged in my grasp. I didn’t want to put her down. I shook those thoughts from my mind, I didn’t want to mess her life with mine, I was probably doing harm now. In fact I did, I had let her get drunk out of her mind. The thought depressed me a bit. I cradled her with one arm for a moment while I opened the door that led into the rest of the warehouse which I had renovated into a home; she was so light it was easy to hold her like that.

Glory came bounding up to me from his dog bed and skidded to a halt when I put my foot out and shushed him, he sat the and wagged his tail, happy to see me as always. Glory still acted like a pup, jumping on any new visitors and playing 24/7. “Go lay down boy” I whispered and Glory bounded off into the kitchen to eat I guessed.

“Where am I?” Elisabeth mumbled, glancing around herself as I went up the stairs towards the loft area that had once been the VIP section of the club. Now it was my room, I’d let her have the bed and I’d sleep on the couch downstairs.

“My place, you mentioned the staff at your place report to your mom-“ she cut me off by pressing one of her fingers to my lips, it was quite funny to see her face in that moment, full of seriousness even though her eyes couldn’t stay focused.

“She’s my step-mom, I wonder why they’re called step-whatever, it makes no sense. Do you know why? I don’t” she mumbled, taking her finger from my lips and hanging her head back over my arm to look around at my room upside down. “Is everything on the ceiling? That’s… odd” she said, her eyes closing for a long moment. I had a feeling she had fallen asleep again.

I laid her on my bed and pulled the comforter down and pulled it over her, I noticed she didn’t have any shoes on. When had she lost them? I couldn’t remember her having them on when I took her off the bar for that matter either. I shook my head with a grin and tucked her in. Before I left I let my eyes trail over her sleeping face, she was completely serene and peaceful. I reached out and tucked her blonde hair out of her face, her hand reached out from under the covers and grasped mine when I went to pull away.

“Stay” she mumbled, her eyes half open as they stared up at me. I was torn; she was giving me an open invitation to stay with her but I didn’t know if it was just because she was drunk. If that was the case I’d just be taking advantage of her. Another thing that kept me from staying with her was my earlier troubles, she was much too good for me, she had a good, law abiding life, a career in the making and a family no matter how psycho they were. I butted heads with law enforcement nearly all of the time, I’ve gotten shot at, threatened, put under arrest, gone to jail, and now I had to worry about some big shot in the black market. I didn’t want to bring her into a world like that, she belonged in her own world.

“Go to sleep Princess…” I said softly, gently taking my wrist out of her grasp and putting her hand back on the bed. Her eyes dropped shut again and I left before I could go against my conscious. Glory waited for me at the bottom of the stairs and I scratched behind his ears and smoothed out his golden fur. He followed me to the couch and I tugged off my shirt before grabbing one of the blankets I left in here and laying down on the couch, Glory hoped up next to me and I resisted the urge to shove him off due to the amount of space he took up. My couch wasn’t that big. Instead closed my eyes and scratched his ears. I looked up at my ceiling thinking about these new feelings I was getting, I had to stop them, otherwise I’d ruin her life like I had ruined mine.