Chapter 35: Chapter 35



Annabelle's POV

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked Izzy, as I brushed his hair backwards with my fingers. He had been asleep for quite a while now. Five hours to be exact. I knew it was one of the effects of blood loss and of course, the tranquillizer Izzy had injected him with to knock him out.

I had felt there hadn't been a need for that. He had been too immobile to fathom our whereabouts or where we were going. But as Izzy pointed out, one couldn't be too careful.

Izzy rolled her eyes at me before handing me the glass of water I had requested. We were in my bedroom and Charles was lying on my bed. We had decided it was best to keep him close to me, to make him more relaxed when he woke up.

"He is going to be fine Anna," Rita answered, sending Izzy an irritating stare.

"What? It's not my fault she looks whipped." Izzy said defensively as she plummeted down into the small couch that was at the corner of the room.

"I do not look whipped," I whined, taking a sip from the cool glass on my hand, enjoying the way it chilled my fingers. Turning to Rita I asked, "What say you? Do I?"

"Don't mind her Anna, she just hasn't been in love before."

Izzy busted out in laughter at Rita's words.

"You are even worst than she is," I told Rita as I plucked my lips at her. "I am not in love with him." I firmly denied it.

"So you say, " Izzy said with a knowing glint in her eyes.

"I agree with the scary lady over there," a grim, hoarse, voice whispered from behind us.

We all turned to face an awake Charles, who was trying to get up from the bed.

I stood up and moved closer to him. "Hey, hey, calm down. Relax okay?" I said to him, guiding him back down on the bed with my hands on his shoulder.

"Annabelle, I saw you die, I watched you--" his voice shook, "How did you survive that?" He asked weakly.

I sat next to him on the bed and rested my back on the dashboard. Izzy and Rita took similar positions around us.

"Where would I begin now?"

"Your father, I--I saw him on the news, that was why I knew you were in danger. What is going on?"

"Before we dive into that, I need to tell you something," I said, my knuckles were so white from how tightly I had squeezed them together. I had no idea how he was going to take this information.

Rita stood up and went to the bar, while I took deep breaths, trying to figure out how to relate the whole situation to Charles.

She got back with a glass of Scotch for me and a glass of water for Charles.

"He needs this, " she said before walking to him, tilting his head up with her hands, then guiding him as he took gulps from the glass. When she was sure he was satisfied, she rested his head back on the pillow and walked to her previous position.

"Before I start Charles, I want you to know that everything I've told you has been true. I just didn't tell you everything."

He nodded in response, looking at me keenly.

"W.B law form is a font for the agency. The agency is a company full of trained spies and assassins. We take care of the government's dirty deals or private activities for the rich and elite. My father was the sole owner of the company before the government took over, making him the highest member of the board of directors."

I took in a deep breath and continued, trying to gauge Charles reaction to all this. His face was static.

"Last month, we received a very private contract from an unknown source. He wanted me to seduce and obtain a key from a certain guy who didn't know he had it in the first place."

"A key?" Charles inquired lowly.

"Yeah, a key, " Izzy confirmed.

"That person was you, Charles. You were my target."

I didn't know what I had been expecting, but this wasn't it. This silence, this inert expression. I'd have preferred he screamed at me, cried, cursed, anything but this.

"Charles?" I whispered.

"Go on, " he urged quietly as if knowing there was more to the story.

"I--I planned my meeting to the later. But then, everything went sideways when I stumbled upon you and Meg kissing in the hallway. I had been devastated, firstly because I had felt we had a connection, and secondly because I thought my dad had sent another agent to do the job.

"You thought we had a connection." He said, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"Please, Charles, just let me finish I'll --" He turned his face away from me.

"Continue, " he whispered. I could feel the pain laced in his voice, I could feel the disappointment. He hadn't deserved this.

"I was pulled out of the contract after you left Abuja. But I had already discovered my mistake. I needed to prove to myself and my father that I wasn't incompetent. So I defiled a direct other and came after you. But then my father discovered and came after me."

"That was why you guys were in the restroom right?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Did he threaten you? Did he hurt--"

"No, no he didn't Charles, he didn't."

He gave a sigh of relief, then looked at me. His face filled with hurt and love and concern and regret and so many other emotions I couldn't describe. A lone tear seeped from the corner of his eyes as he asked.

"Did you succeed? Did you get the key? Is that why they killed him? Is that why they are after you?"

"Yes and no," I muttered.

He gave me a puzzled look.

"That night, when he found me, he told me my contract had changed, told me I had to get the key and, and-kill-you." I shuttered, breaking on the last three words.

"Kill me?"

"Yes, but I just couldn't, I just couldn't -you-you didn't deserve it. You--"

"Was that the only reason you didn't kill me, Annabelle? Because I didn't deserve it?"

"No-I-I--" I stammered.

Rita cut in.

"She's in love with you Charles. Head over heels, guns blazing, world-breaking love. And she doesn't know how to handle it. She hasn't even admitted it to herself yet."

"I'm not- I'm-"

I couldn't finish up whatever defence I wanted to put up because Charles took my hands in his and said. "I love her too. I love you, Annabelle. And I'm willing to wait for you to come to terms with it. This is also new to me too."

"Charles--" I cloaked. My voice wreaked. There was nothing else I could say. I couldn't believe this had turned out so well, I couldn't believe he had taken it this well. Happy tears slipped down my eyelids and into my laps. Charles wiped them away from my cheeks with his palm and I leaned in towards him and rested my head on his chest.

"Who ordered my execution? Who would want me dead? What is this key they were looking for? I still have so many questions, Annabelle." He said slowly, as he caressed my head on his chest.

I gave an ugly sniffing and raised my head.

"I was coming to that." I clarified.

"Let me do the honours," Izzy said, pushing herself up from her seat and coming to stand in front of us.

"Her father, who is, was our boss, had sent us to trail you a day before Annabelle had arrived in Abuja for the job. She hadn't even known we were there. We followed you from Lagos to Abuja, and we were waiting for you at the hotel in transcop. When you entered the elevator, we planted a skin bug on you."

"What?!" I and Charles exclaimed at the same time.

"Chill guys, it wore off after a few days, but not after we discovered all we needed to. When you got home, we overhead the conversation with your mother, the argument with your father, then the conversation between your father and one of his guards. You were asleep when that conversation took place. That was when we discovered who wanted you dead and why." Izzy paused for a bit, to let the information sink in.

Rita continued.

"Anna's dad discovered the whole plot. He knew if the key, which was a code, get into the hands of its pursuers. They would become invincible, unstoppable."

"Who are its pursuers?" Charles asked wearyingly.

"Your father," I muttered.

"My father? What does my father have to do with any of this? I don't understand." Charles asked in confusion.

"Charles, your father is the fifth crime syndicate in Africa. He is into drugs, guns, trafficking, you name it. Anything bad, your father has a hand in it." Izzy explained.

"That's not possible. My father is the most respected man in Africa. There is no love lost between us but how could he-- he couldn't be, he couldn't have-" He stammered, realisation hitting him hard.

"I'm sorry Charles. What we don't understand is why he ordered your execution." Rita said.

"That bastard!" Charles roared with anger. "He had the mind to order my execution? So he wanted me dead? Oh, fuck no! This does it. I am going to destroy him, I am going to end him, I will make sure he regrets ever-"

I gripped Charles's fingers tightly as I whispered, "Calm down baby, please,"

He looked at me then. His eyes filled with rage.

"Does my mother know about this?" He asked.

"We don't think so," I replied softly, not wanting to agitate him again.

"Then we have to find out. We are going to beat that bastard in his own game. For us, for your father Annabelle."

"For my father," I whispered.