Bound to You

“Let her go.” Johnny said, his voice almost too low to hear. He reached for Leigh’s arm and pulled. Brian and Matt let her go, and she fell in his arms, sobbing hysterically and clinging to the fabric of his shirt as though they’d pull her away from him.

“You made the right choice.” Matt told him, keeping his voice even as he turned and began to walk up the stairs. “Take her upstairs, get her calmed down. Leigh, I’m sorry it had to come to this. It’s nothing personal.”

“Don’t talk to her.” Johnny snapped at Matt, who just sighed as he walked out of the basement. Brian followed him, leaving Johnny and Leigh alone in the basement. When they had gone and the door had been shut, Leigh looked up at him, her eyes still wet with unshed tears.

“What’s going to h-happen?” She asked. Johnny gave her a small smile, but his eyes told her everything she needed to know. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, or even if Matt and Brian really would leave Leigh alone just like that. He had a feeling they wouldn’t, but he wasn’t going to tell Leigh that. She was already scared enough, he saw no reason to make that fear even worse.

“I don’t know.” He told her. “They’ll leave you alone for now, though. I promise.”

He let her go before walking towards the stairs. Earlier, she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him. He doubted that had changed now, even though he’d saved her life. He was expecting it to take a long time to gain her trust, and he wasn’t going to push her anymore than she already had been today.

“Don’t leave.” Leigh said, scrambling after him and grabbing his arm in a tight grip, her body shaking. Johnny realized that she was still in a semi-state of shock, and that she probably didn’t want to be left alone right now; even if she had to bear the company of someone she didn’t trust. “I…I mean…Thank you.” She continued, meeting his gaze. “You…You didn’t need to save me. You could have done your…Your own thing, and let me d-die. But you didn’t.”

“I couldn’t.” Johnny smiled softly, removing her hand from his arm and then reclaiming it in his own hand gently. “I brought you here with the promise that you’d be kept safe, didn’t I?”

Leigh didn’t respond, but only nodded slowly before Johnny began walking up the stairs, following him without another word being spoken between them. In those few seconds, Johnny realized that their relationship, though far from romantic just yet, had drastically improved.

-x-

Eliza woke up later that night to feeling the bed creak as the weight of a second body was added on the other side of the mattress, the silk sheets she lay between shifting with a smooth sound. She turned over to see Zack’s tattooed back facing her, the sheets covering the bottom half of his body. He exhaled heavily, obviously beginning to fall asleep, and Eliza said nothing as she watched him. The moonlight from the large bank of windows in front of the bed spilled into the room, splashing across Zack’s pale body, making him seem like a dark angel lying next to her.

After a few moments of watching him, Eliza smiled when he shifted onto his side, smiling at her. “I felt you watching me.” He said quietly, his voice filling the silence of the bedroom. “It made it difficult to fall asleep.”

“I’m sorry.” She whispered back, smiling back at him. He reached his hand to her face, swiping a strand of her hair out of her face before resting his palm on her cheek. She leaned her face into his touch, closing her eyes as he felt her skin.

“Don’t be.” He told her before scooting her body closer to his, moving his face so that his lips were so close to hers that she could feel his hot breath against her face. He pressed his lips to hers in a short, passion-filled kiss that was broken off by three abrupt knocks on the bedroom door. Zack sighed impatiently but looked over at door just in time to see it open, exposing Jimmy, who was holding a gun and wearing face too serious to be anything but a real threat.

“This better be good.” Zack sighed, sitting up on the mattress and looking over at Jimmy. “It’s three-thirty in the morning, Jimmy. Can’t it have waited until tomorrow morning?”

“No.” Jimmy replied. “Security’s been breached, Zack. Someone on the inside is working for Sean. Someone here in this house is a traitor.”

“Fuck.” Zack cursed under his breath before getting out of the bed, turning on a lamp as he did so. “Is it any of the five of us?”

“No. Everyone has been cleared.” Jimmy said, walking into the bedroom. Eliza sat quietly on the mattress, knowing that her voice was neither wanted nor needed during this discussion. Whatever had happened was important, and she knew better than to interfere by now. Zack may have admitted he loved her, but that didn’t really change their relationship in some aspects.

“Start checking everyone else. From the maids to the girlfriends.” Zack said before turning to Eliza. “Don’t worry, you’re in the clear as well. You’re the whole reason Sean started this fight.

Eliza nodded, waiting for Zack to say something else before she would speak. He didn’t, but instead tossed over a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved jacket to her. “Get dressed, we’ve got to move fast.”

“Where are we going?” Jimmy asked him, lowering the gun and looking at Zack, who had gone into the closet. He emerged a few minutes later with a gun similar to Jimmy’s as well as a small pistol, which he handed to Eliza.

“Shooting’s pretty simple.” He told her. “You pull the trigger. Aim is all that you have to worry about. If you need to shoot---Eliza, are you listening to me?”

“Sorry.” Eliza replied, shaking her head and putting her focus back on Zack. She had gotten distracted for a few moments by everything that had just happened within the last few minutes; it had gone from a brief intimate moment between herself and Zack to an attack that was possibly going to happen any minute.

Zack nodded, and then went back to speaking as he loaded a cartridge into his gun. “If you need to shoot, aim for a vital spot: the head, the heart, and the neck. If you hit any of those spots, whoever is on the receiving end will almost definitely perish.”

Eliza nodded, looking at Zack again, who had looked back to Jimmy. “We’re going to go to the other base.” He told Jimmy. “Call Jacoby, he’s in danger now as well. I’ll call Joel. Eliza and I are leaving now.”

Eliza felt Zack grab her arm in his, and followed him out of the bedroom and down the hall. When they reached the staircase, she felt a sense of déjà vu as she remembered the last time Zack had led her down the stairs she’d fallen and hurt herself. This time, though, she was on his side and realized the urgency of the threat. They walked outside, where a car was already waiting, and she got into the passenger seat before Zack looked in the backseat. Brian was sitting there with a blonde woman who looked to be a little older than herself, Matt and Val behind them.

“Johnny and Leigh are going with Jimmy and Leana as soon as—“

Brian’s words were cut off by a large explosion coming from the far wing of the house. Zack cursed again under his breath before looking back at Matt and Brian.

“We’ve gotta go back in there, man.” Matt said. “We can’t just leave them, and that blast almost has to have injured both of them, if not…”

He cut himself off, unable to say the words. Eliza felt tears prodding the corners of her own eyes at Matt’s explanation, knowing what he’d been about to say. That explosion could very well have killed either Jimmy or Johnny, if not both of them if they’d been close enough to the device when it’d gone off.

“Let’s go. Eliza, stay here with Michelle and Val.” Zack said as he got out of the car, his gun in his hand as he, Matt, and Brian ran back into the house, which was now smoking.

As Eliza watched them run back into the house, the only thing she could think of was how much she wished Zack would come back out to her, and that this whole nightmare would be over soon.