Faithfully

“They could start a war,” I was shocked and outraged. “You have to tell someone they could start a war!”

“I can’t until I have proof of that, Grace,” he answered angrily. “How can I?”

“Well, what do you do now?” I asked softly, not sure what to say to him.

“Nothing, it would be speculation if I did go to the-“he was cut off violently by the car being hit on the driver’s side. We flipped twice before we settled right side up. “Grace? Grace baby are you okay? Wake up, open your eyes.”

“Who hit us?” I fluttered my eyes open. James had a scratch on his cheek but he was fine otherwise. I felt blood on my head but I didn’t say anything. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, we have our proof, come on,” he helped me out of my seatbelt, looking wildly around us. I began to realize his Corps training was a little more than he previously said when he grabbed both guns from the bodyguards that were in the front seat, they were obviously very hurt but all he did was feel for a pulse, take my hand and we ran from the car.

“James tell me what’s really going on!” I called out frantically when he took my hand and we started running through alleyways. I thought it was getting silly because no one was following us; I started to ask if we could stop running when a shot rang out and hit the brick wall beside my head. I screamed and James pulled me down another alleyway. “James!”

“DeMotta’s men,” he answered, loudly as we ran in front of a garbage truck that almost hit us. “Don’t worry; I have this under control, just do what I say.”

“This is under control?” I shouted, panicked and scared.

He pushed me into an alleyway; I hit the brick wall hard and stayed there, gaping as he kept running. I almost started crying but I heard footsteps. I put both hands over my mouth to keep me quiet. I saw the shadow of a man peeking around the building I was against and my eyes closed against my will. I took a deep breath, praying one last time when I heard a single shot. My eyes snapped open after a spray of something wet hit my face and I jerked my head towards where the sound went off. James stood at the beginning of the alleyway, with his gun drawn. “Come here, don’t look down,” he held a hand out; I ran to him and clutched onto his side. “It’s okay, he won’t hurt you. I won’t let anyone.”

“I thought you left me,” I buried my head in his neck, trying to control my sobs.

“Never, I would never,” he replied, cleaning of my face, which I assumed had the man’s blood splattered on it. “I was trying to lure them away from you but apparently they got winded.”

“They should have done more cardio,” I sniffled.

“Come on, we have to get to the airport. We have a private jet waiting to get us home.”

“You had time to call and get us a ride home?” I asked innocently, staring up at him with blurry eyes.

“I can multitask shooting someone while booking a flight, sweetheart,” he answered simply.