Taken and Misused.

[Vaughn’s Point Of View]

I waited in the garage for Elisabeth to come back down the elevator. She was taking a long time but that was probably because she had to pick up her dance stuff too. I stretched my arms up over my head, letting out a groan as I did, and leaned against the passenger door of my car. My eyes stayed on the elevator doors and I started tapping on my car’s window. Was I impatient? Yes.

The elevator dinged, signaling that it was opening. A grin spread across my lips, I enjoyed her company too much and I shouldn’t, not when I knew I was bad for her. But it wasn’t her getting off of the elevator. Two men, one tall and well built with copper hair, the other was as round as he was tall. It was an odd pair but I didn’t poke my business into theirs.

Not that much anyways.

They looked like those fishy people you saw wandering around crime scenes and it spiked my curiosity. I didn’t look at them, but I did strain my ears to hear what they were saying. The large parking garage echoed their hushed whispers over to me.

“Why do we need to have her access card anyways? We could just take her in the streets” one of them said and I had a hard time figuring out what he was saying.

“It’s neater if things go wrong with the boss’s deal” the other said, I glanced up and noticed it was the copper haired one who had replied. Neither of them had noticed me because they were walking away from me, and part of me was grateful. I didn’t know who they were but they made me nervous. Who were they talking about? What deal? Why would things be neater? For some reason I couldn’t shake off those questions, my silver eyes followed the two men until they slipped into a black Mercedes and drove off. I was so caught up in my mental questions that I didn’t notice Elisabeth until she was standing in front of me snapping her fingers.

“Oh, sorry” I said, catching her hand in mine to stop her snapping.

“What had you so… spaced out?” she said, having to search for the phrase before she could say it. I got off of my car and opened the door for her; she had my leather jacket slung over her arm and a grey duffle bag on her shoulder. I took both from her and put them in the back seat as she gave me a questioning look.

“It’s nothing, just two guys having a weird conversation that I’m thinking too much on” I said, waving the topic off with a vague hand gesture. I opened the passenger door for her and I couldn’t’ help but notice she looked insanely adorable in her little outfit, with her hair pinned up and her amazing features evident to me I couldn’t help but stare for a moment. That moment made her blush and pull her crystal eyes from mine, sliding into the car. Well, at least I knew how to make her quiet, I thought wryly.

I got into the driver’s seat and started up the car, the roar of the engine coming to life reverberated off of the walls and I took off at a normal speed for once. “Do you want some coffee, it should help with the hangover” I said and chuckled when she cringed at the word hangover.

“Anything to stop my head from pounding would be lovely” she said, twirling a piece of her blonde hair around her finger tip then untwirling it.

When we got to the coffee shop I had apologized to her at I parked my car along the curb of the street and got out along with Elisabeth. I held the door open for her and we sat near one of the large windows that overlooked the street.

Elisabeth didn’t say anything until she had her hot chocolate in front of her. She obviously wasn’t much of a coffee person. She took a sip and looked up at me but I held up a hand to pause her and took one of the napkins on the table and wiped the bit of whip-cream she had gotten on her nose. I chuckled and she blushed.

“You were going to say?” I prompted.

“I was just thinking about how much I’d rather you were my dance partner rather than Stephen” she said, stirring her warm drink, her eyes watching the whip-cream blend into the hot chocolate.

“Stephen doesn’t seem like a nice person” I commented, shrugging as I took a drink from my coffee. The bitter liquid felt good, it warmed up my body.

“He seems to know you though” she inquired, trying to sound nonchalant. It wasn’t working, I could tell she was trying to get me to admit I knew that bastard.

“We have regular tea parties on Thursdays and Sundays” I said, my tone nothing but serious but she still frowned at me. I grinned and set my coffee down. “We used to be friends, a long, long time ago” I said, and she seemed genuinely surprised by my truthfulness. I guess she had expected another joke.

“When?” she asked.

“When I lived in Las Vegas” I said, “we got into a fight, well, I started a fight actually.”

“Why?” she asked, folding her legs under her and leaning forward on the table between us.

It took me a moment to answer, and I decided I couldn’t, not without revealing just how much trouble she could get in around me. How bad I was for her. “We had differences” I answered, walking on a fine line between truth and lie. The truth was he had betrayed me. But I didn’t want to talk to her about that.

“wha-“

“Can we please not talk about him?” I snapped, cutting off her next question. Stephen had made my life a living hell for three years; I wasn’t in the mood for him to be brought up when the same thing was happening again.

“Alright, I’m sorry” she said, drinking her hot chocolate again. I immediately felt bad, I knew a lot about her but she knew so little about me and every time she tried to learn something new I shut her down.

I pulled a smile over my lips, replacing the unfriendly scowl. “Ask me something else” I said.

She looked hesitant for a moment but then a grin pulled across her lips, “when did you get Glory?”

“When I was a kid, I grew up with that dog” I smiled as I thought about those memories.
“Do you have a day job?”

“Mechanic.”

“Favorite color?”

“Magenta.”

“Really?”

“No,” I grinned at her frown.

Her questions continued for awhile, she kept tossing them at me. Simple ones then hard ones, ones I had to think about, then ones I knew instantly.

“Where do your parents live?” she asked, sipping on her second cup of hot chocolate.

“I’ve only got an older brother and a mom” I said, frowning slightly.

“Oh, I’m sorry” she said softly.

“I was too young to remember her, so I can’t really miss her too much” I paused, running my fingers through my hair. “Is that wrong? For me not to miss her very much?” I asked, suddenly wanting reassurance. I was only a few years old when my mom was killed, I couldn’t even remember what she looked like and when people used to tell me I looked just like her I could never smile and say thanks because I had never seen her, never spoken to her or gotten to know her.

Elisabeth seemed to think for a moment. “No,” she said, shaking her head twice. “You never knew her, but I’m sure you do regret never knowing her” she said, her voice soft and reassuring.

“Regret” I repeated with a wry laugh, “yeah, I definitely feel that” I finished, drinking the last of my coffee and checking my watch. “What time was your practice again?” I asked, mostly to get us off of the subject of my deceased mom.

“Six o’clock, why?”

“Crap, we’d better get going then” I said, pulling a few bills out of my billfold while Elisabeth searched through her bag to find her wallet. “I got it covered” I said and she frowned at me as if I had done something wrong. “Don’t worry Princess, it’s just a few dollars.”

Elisabeth obviously decided there wasn’t enough time to argue so she hurried after me. Part of me wished I could spend the rest of the day talking to her, about any topic other than Stephen and my mom. She was easy to talk to and never seemed to judge me. Just another reason why I was beginning to like her, just another reason I had to try and stop talking to her. She was perfect, I was a criminal. And I was involved in something that could go bad at any second.

As we drove towards her dance studio that’s all I thought about.