Melody stood there for a long time after Christian had disappeared down the road. Finally, she gave herself a shake, all too aware of how exposed she was, standing out in the open like that.
With one last, hasty look around, she turned and headed inside the house. Melody was careful to lock the front door behind her.
And then she went through the house, systematically checking that every single window was shut and locked tight and that every door was barred. After she made a lap of the house she was back at the front door and double checked that too, just to be sure.
Melody pulled back the curtain that was covering the window and looked out on to the street in front of the house. She let out a sigh of disappointment.
What had she expected? That Christian would have realized what a bad idea the meeting was and turned around minutes after leaving?
She knew that she hadn’t known Christian long, but Melody knew him enough to know that he would never back down from what he considered was his responsibility.
Melody wrapped her arms around her middle. And that’s what she was now. His responsibility.
She grimaced, not entirely sure how that realization made her feel.
A part of her felt warmed all the way through, comforted by the thought that he held her happiness in such high esteem. But she didn’t want to be a burden to him. That was the last thing she wanted.
No, I just want him to love me.
The thought shattered through her, and Melody drew in a sharp breath. It shocked and scared her a little bit too, just how fast she had come to rely on him, to care for him; she was even more surprised at how much he cared for her in return.
Melody couldn’t help the jitter of worry and fear that filled her for Christian’s safety.
Restless with the emotions, Melody turned on her heel, turning away from the front window and the empty street.
She walked through the house once more, trying to keep herself distracted by taking care of the various animals that Christian had rescued and was resuscitating back to health.
After refilling their food and water, and cooing nonsense at some of them while scratching ears and rubbing bellies, Melody once more found herself at a loose end.
With nothing else to do to keep herself occupied, Melody made her way back to the living room, turned on the T.V., and let herself drop down onto the old couch.
She had barely sat down before a little white ball of fluff landed in the middle of her lap.
Melody bit back a smile despite the fear that weighted down her heart. All the other kittens had been found homes to go to, but Luna was a special case.
She’d been the runt of the litter, and Christian had been sure that she wasn’t going to survive after their mother had been killed by another animal, leaving them all alone.
No, they’d had Christian to take care of them. Just like me.
Melody let out a soft chuckle as she scratched the kitten behind the ears. Luna would always be tiny, but she had enough attitude and courage to make up for it. She’d fought hard to survive, and it showed in the kitten’s blue eyes, hungry for life.
The kitten butted her head against Melody’s hand to keep her scratching.
“What are we doing, kitten?” Melody whispered, shaking her head at herself. “I should know better. Any time my life starts to get better, something bad always happens.”
She glanced down at the white kitten, who kneaded contentedly, and the confession slipped out.
“I love him, Luna. What if something happens to him? What are we going to do?”
“Meow,” Luna responded, blinking her eyes sleepily at her.
Melody just shook her head again.
“What am I doing, talking to a cat about my problems.” Melody huffed out softly. “What I need is a friend.”
Melody shuddered as the thought brought back memories of Amanda’s betrayals.
“Meow,” Luna answered, licking Melody’s hand almost as if she understood and commiserated.
“You can’t really understand me, can you?” Melody asked uncertainly, still looking askance at the kitten before laughing at herself. “No, of course not. You just want your ears scratched, don’t you?”
Melody gave in and Luna responded with a happy purr. The tiny kitten curled up into a contented ball smack in the middle of her lap. Within a few minutes, Luna was snuggled contentedly, trustingly against her and Melody cuddled her even closer.
Melody was just starting to relax when a frantic knock at the front door startled her straight up to her feet.
She froze. Was it Christian? She glanced at the clock. He’d been gone nearly two hours, but surely he wouldn’t be back already, would he? Did it mean that the meeting had gone well? Or did it mean it had gone very, very bad?
A million scenarios played out in her head as the pounding coming from the front drew her forward.
She flicked the curtains back just enough so that she could see who was standing out there and gasped when she saw Christian’s friend, Craig. It wasn’t the sight of him that was such a shock, but the state of him.
Melody rushed to the door, throwing open the lock and pulling the door open enough so that he could stumble inside. Melody just stared at him for a moment, her jaw dropped and eyes wide.
He was covered in soot and smoke, and his hair was tousled and tangled. A dark bruise ran along one cheek, and his own eyes were narrowed in worry as he scanned the house.
“C-Craig?” Melody stuttered out, and then the rest of the words that had been stuck in her throat came tumbling out in a rush. “Oh my god! What happened? Where’s Christian? Is he alright? What the hell happened at the meeting?”
“Look, Christian is okay,” Craig said, hurrying to stop her before she could have a full-on panic attack. “Things went a little… sideways at the meeting, that’s all.”
“‘Sideways’? What does that mean, things went ‘sideways’?”
Melody threw the questions at him and just shrugged a little, but she could see the truth in his eyes. It had gone bad. Very, very bad.
“Craig, please, just tell me what happened?”
“Christian may have said some things to piss off Enrique, and his men may have fired a couple shots at us, but believe me, Christian is fine, okay? He wasn’t hurt.”
There was something else in his tone that had Melody questioning him again.
“He wasn’t hurt. Who was?”
“Hub. He might have gotten grazed by a bullet.”
“Hub was shot!” Melody spluttered. “Is he alright?”
“Jesus, just calm down. Christian is taking care of him. That’s why he asked me to come here and keep an eye on you.”
“I don’t need a babysitter. I need to know that my husband is safe!”
Craig paused, tilting his head to give her an odd look.
“You really care about him, don’t you?”
“Of course I do! I love him.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before another voice answered. And it wasn’t Craig’s.
“You love that bitch-ass Devil’s Martyr, do you?” the voice sneered.
Melody gasped in fear as three of Enrique’s men pushed their way through the front door. The front door that she’d forgotten to lock again after letting Craig inside.
“Enrique isn’t going to like that.”
Melody couldn’t speak. She couldn’t scream. She was frozen in terror. Luckily, Craig had no such problems.
“What the fuck are you assholes doing here. You better turn around and crawl back to your master with your tail between your legs before things get real bad for you.”
As Craig threatened the three men, he pulled a gun from the back of his waistband.
There was a sudden scuffle as two of the other men pulled weapons while the third tried to rush past Craig to try and abduct Melody.
In a sudden rush, the fear that had held her frozen was gone and what ebbed in to take its place was pure anger.
She was so tired of being terrified of Enrique, of what he would do to her, of the control he had over her life. It was time to take a stand and follow Bianca’s advice. She was going to fight for what she wanted. She had to fight for her happiness.
With a roar of rage, Melody bent down and picked up the nearest thing she could. Her fingers closed around the metal base of a bird cage and swung it over her head, bringing it down hard on the attacker as he reached for her.
“Not today!” Melody growled, hitting him with it again, “Not. To. Day!”
She knocked the man away from her, and he held a hand to his face as his nose dripped a river of blood.
“The bitch broke my nose!”
“Just grab her and let’s get the fuck out of here. Enrique is waiting for us.”
The man’s words spurred her on, and Melody jumped forward, attacking them again, swinging the heavy metal base like a battering ram in front of her.
“I’m never going back to him. You can tell him that. Never!”
In a blur, one of the men held a gun, pointing it straight at Craig. In the small space of the living room it was too crowded to move, and there was nowhere for him to duck to dodge the bullet.
Melody gasped, time slowing as she saw the intent flicker across his mean face. He was going to shoot the other man and take her, no matter who had to die.
But just as his finger closed on the trigger a little white ball of fur came hurtling towards him, hissing and clawing at his ankles, and he went down in a heap of angry kitten.
The sound of the gun firing was extra loud in her ears, almost as loud as the ringing, but even through that Melody could hear the sirens drawing closer.
“Shit. We have to go,” one of Enrique’s men said with a nervous look outside. The sirens were almost there.
“We’ll be back for you, bitch. You belong to Enrique.”
“Not anymore,” she whispered wearily, suddenly exhausted, as they rushed outside just as quickly as they’d rushed in.
She was shaking so badly that the metal bird cage base slipped from her fingertips to land with a loud clang, but all she could hear was the ringing. It drowned out everything else. It even muffled Craig’s cry of pain.
Melody looked over to him and saw him holding his arm with one hand, but it didn’t seem to stop the flow of blood down his sleeve. His face was so pale it was nearly completely white.
“Are you okay?” She forced the words out through suddenly numb lips.
“Me? Oh I’m just fine and dandy,” Craig said with a stuttering laugh. His eyes were all whites as he stared at her. “Never been better.”
Melody watched as his eyes rolled back into his head, and a moment later he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.