Chasing Charli (5 page)

The longer I sit here the crazier the party was getting, the typical loud music blaring through the windows and open front door, and a few drunks hanging out on the front patio and steps smoking.

I sigh and sit down on the cold ground, watching, waiting, and hoping to god no-one touches a single hair on her pretty little head.

Charli

After a few shots of tequila I was on the verge of being drunk, this led to me somehow ending up outside dancing with a whole group of people for a good hour or so. There were so many people that it was pretty much bodies pressed against one another, wriggling around to the music.

I realise that this is the first time I’ve been to a party and had more than one drink since the whole crazy murder mess and it was such a relief to be out of the house.

I know in the back of my mind that even though I asked him not to follow me, I know Jax is out there waiting, keeping an eye on things. I feel bad since I have no idea how long I’ll be out but it’s his own fault. I asked him not to follow me, so if he thinks it’s necessary than he can sit out there and suffer since he can’t take my request seriously.

Okay I automatically feel guilty for even thinking that and even guiltier for him being out there on his own. I realise he actually has the worst job in the world, having no life of his own since he has to constantly watch over me. I’m going to have to sort something out, like give him a night off babysitting me, even if I take him out drinking somewhere so he can relax a little. If I don’t give him a break he’ll end up shooting me himself just to get away from having to watch over me all the time.

I wriggle my way through the crowd and take a look around at all the drunken faces. There’s people dancing outside and drinking by a table set up to resemble the bar, some people grinding up against each other on some seats, and then I notice a guy leaning casually against a tree with a beer in his hand. Has he been staring at me this whole time? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he seems vaguely familiar. He’s still looking right at me as he sips his beer and I realise I’m standing frozen to the spot amongst the dancing bodies. Suddenly this party is the last place I want to be. I head inside and make my way through the kitchen, unfortunately Drew spots me from the stairs and heads over.

“You came Charli!” he says and picks me up in his usual bear hug. I can smell the whiskey on him and I shiver. The polo douchebag that cheated on me that night used to always smell like whiskey and I hated it; whiskey and cigarettes. Surprising that his darling mummy didn’t mind, or maybe he just doused himself in shitty aftershave before he went home after a night out.

I pull away a little and then frown “actually I’m gonna head off” I say and shrug.

“But you only just got here” he sulks like a little kid, how unattractive; maybe I’m just comparing him to Jax.

“Actually I’ve been here like 2 hours already” I practically yell so he can hear me over the music.

“Alright then, well at least let me walk you out. I’d say I’ll walk you home but I can’t really leave my own party” he shrugs as though that’s a perfect enough reason; what a charmer. Let the lone girl walk home alone at night. I guess I feel safe because I know Jax is out there, but then again maybe he did actually listen to me and stayed home; good one Charli you idiot. I pat my pockets quickly and realise I didn’t bring my phone to call Jax either. Jesus sometimes I wonder at how I haven’t fallen into such a stupid situation sooner because I sure can be one stupid reckless idiot.

We take the steps slowly down the front porch and I realise his arm around me is probably more to keep himself stable, not because he wants to hold me and I laugh at having to hold him up.

“You’re so sexy when you laugh, you know that Charli?” he slurs slightly which makes me laugh even harder.

Before I know it though his lips are on mine and I’m frozen in place, his arm still around me tightly.

I push away feebly but then give up since he seems to be done anyway so I step back a little and shake my head.

“I’ll forgive you only because you’re absolutely smashed Drew” I say, pointing my finger at him. I can’t help but laugh again though at how stupid I look telling him off. He grins at me when I laugh so I shove his arm.

“Go up and enjoy your party stupid” I say and push him again, back towards the house.

He grins at me and then waves before stumbling his way back up the steps.

I look around into the dark street squinting, trying to see if he’s out there. I can’t see him so I risk looking stupid and say “Jax, you out there?”

I don’t know whether that’s a bad idea, giving him away but my instincts have been throwing big red flags up ever since I saw that guy against the tree, or maybe I was just too drunk and coming off paranoid.

I get no reply and he doesn’t come out of hiding, if he’s even out here, so I start walking home. I pick up the pace and keep my eyes scanning the streets the whole way home just in case. Maybe he was annoyed that Drew kissed me - highly unlikely.

Once I’m at the apartment blocks I sigh with relief, and I rush into the elevators. It pings once it reaches level 6 and I step out.  I’m heading towards my apartment when I hear someone clear their throat behind me and I know before I even turn around to face the stairwell that it’s Jax.

“Interesting evening?”

“You know spying is frowned upon Jax” I tease but am remotely relieved knowing he was out there while I walked home.

“I wasn’t spying Miss Valentine; I was just keeping an eye out for you to make sure you got back okay, since you decided to leave your phone behind. What if there was an emergency?” he says sounding semi-professional and annoyed, running a hand through his scruffy hair.

I can’t help but smile. “Miss Valentine? Why are you being so formal with me Jax?”

“This isn’t funny Charli. Do I need to start following you around everywhere?”

“Knowing you, you probably already do. I thought you said I was safe here. Why are you freaking out now?” I say but since I drank an obscene amount of alcohol I start to grin and laugh a little.

“Nothing…I just…you need to be more careful. Just remember to take your phone with you okay?”

I realise now that he’s probably in this shitty mood because he saw Drew kiss me. I don’t even get why he would be pissed at that; a) I didn’t kiss Drew back and b) why would he care anyway? He had every opportunity to kiss me and he didn’t, so he shouldn’t give a shit.

“Okay I’m sorry. I’ll make sure I have my phone on me at all times in case of emergencies” I say and roll my eyes.

I feel like a naughty child, even though he’s barely 4 years older than me, it feels like he’s my dad telling me off for something stupid.

“Good night Charli” he finally says with a sigh and makes his way back up the stairs to his apartment.

I sigh again and then walk towards my apartment door, letting my head drop and hit the door. I have my palms pressed flat against it and I breath in deeply, trying to calm myself and steady my drunk wobbly legs.

I pull away from the door and pat the pockets in my dress, realising that not only had I not taken my phone, but I didn’t take my keys with me either.

“Shit.”

I sigh so deeply I swear I almost pass out from lack of oxygen, because I know the only thing I can do now is go up to Mr angry  pants’ apartment and apologise some more.

I wobble my way up to his floor trying to keep my balance in my high shoes, and try my hardest not to fall down the stairs.

I take a deep breath before I reach his door and just stand there staring at it for what feels like an eternity.

I reach out and knock lightly then wobble a little again, so I reach out and put my hands against his door. I can’t hear anything so I press my ear up against it to listen as well. I knock again a little harder this time, and keep my ear to the door. I can hear muffled footsteps and then almost fall through the door when he yanks it open.

I stumble a little and then practically jump back, knocking my head against the door when I see him standing there in nothing but a towel. Well that’s just fucking fantastic, I interrupted his shower, and to top it off now I’m picturing him naked.

My eyes are practically glued to his chest and then slide down to his hand, bunching the towel up and holding it tight so it doesn’t fall down. Oh dear lord, Jax half-naked and glistening from the water is doing strange things with my libido. My hand itches to reach out and yank that towel away.

Instead I rub the side of my head from where I hit it against the door and realise my mouth is wide open; he just looks amused.

He’s dripping wet from the shower and his hair, believe it or not is messier than usual; bits sticking up here and there as if he was trying to pull his hair out, I can’t help but laugh at that.

“Did you come up here just to laugh at me while my hot water wastes away?” he smirks at me.

“I…uh…I locked myself…out…out of my apartment that is” I manage to get out and mentally slap myself. Could I sound any stupider? I snap my mouth shut and look up at his face.

Don’t look down, don’t look down, whatever you do don’t look down I repeat in my head.

My gaze slowly drifts down his chest but then I quickly force my eyes back up to his face. I can tell he’s trying hard not to laugh.

“You want my spare keys, or you want to stay here?”

“I…umm…”

“Want to stay here? Good, it’s probably for the best. I think you’re a little loopy from drinking and hitting your head on my door” he says as he turns and ushers me further into his living room, still holding on tightly to his towel.

He closes the door behind me, locks it securely and then turns his hungry gaze on me. I may be drunk but I’ve at least managed to keep myself from drooling, thank god.

He points in the direction of the shower and says “I’m just going to finish my shower. Make yourself at home, get some ice on that head” he snickers.

Jerk.

As soon as the bathroom door closes I collapse on the couch. I slip my heels off and rub my feet a little. Thank god I wore wedge ankle boots; certainly way more comfortable than any other kind of high heel contraption.

I lean back against the arm rest on the couch and throw my arm over my face. My head is pulsing at a steady rhythm and I probably should put some ice on it, but I wouldn’t be able to move now even if my life depended on it.

I faintly hear the shower water running and my mind starts to conjure up nice images of a naked Jax, running his fingers through his wet scruffy hair and across his body.

I fall asleep almost instantly, but after a while I start to toss and turn, a movement I realise should have dropped my ass to the floor of his living room. I open my eyes slowly and it’s just barely light out. I’m twisted and wrapped like a burrito amongst his bed sheets and I kick them away and sit up. How the hell did I get in here?

I take in my surroundings and groan as my head continues to pulse and throb angrily. I run a hand down my face and slowly slide to the edge of the bed. Shit I wish I didn’t drink so much. I stand and wobble for a second before looking around the dark room. As I pull on one of Jax’s jumpers that I found thrown across a chair, I make my way out of his room to get a glass of water. I inhale and my mouth practically waters at how delicious his jumper smells; that yummy guy smell and aftershave that most guys seem to have.

I tiptoe as quietly as I can into the living room and find him sprawled out on the couch, looking ridiculously uncomfortable. Did he carry me into his room? I hope to god I didn’t slur something stupid at him. If I did I can just blame tequila, or a serious knock to the head.

I realise I’m leaning against the doorframe staring at him sleep like some weirdo. I turn and make my way into the kitchen, and grab a glass of water and some pain killers.

The time on the microwave flashes 6:23 in the morning so I quietly rummage through his fridge and cupboard and find the essentials for a thank you breakfast; then get started on the best breakfast I’ve ever made.

Jackson

I wake up to the smell of cooking bacon in my apartment and I can hear Charli in my kitchen, quietly singing along to something. I risk a quick peek in her direction and see her drifting around in my kitchen, barefoot, and wearing one of my hoodies over her tight dress. It sits just at the top of her thighs and she still manages to look fucking beautiful.

Her hair is a wavy mess looking more like sex hair then a birds nest though, and she’s got it pulled back in a messy bun. I watch her as she pulls out two plates, evenly distributes the bacon, and then grabs the other pan with the scrambled eggs.

For whatever stupid reason I quickly close my eyes and pretend I’m asleep, maybe so she doesn’t catch me staring at her.

I hear her soft footsteps cross the living room space and the soft noise of ceramic being placed gently on the coffee table.

It’s silent for a few moments before I hear her start to crunch and I’m so intrigued I almost open my eyes, almost.

“Jax” she softly whispers, and she sounds closer than I expected.

“Jax, I made you something” she whispers again and this time sounds less than an inch away from me.

I open my eyes carefully and groan since it’s so early in the morning. Definitely feeling the aftermath of sleeping on a couch but being the gentleman that I am, I couldn’t let her sleep out here while I had a nice king size bed she could use. After I came out the shower I found her passed out on my couch so I carried her into my bedroom and put her to sleep. I lay with her for a little bit and after she started mumbling in her sleep I knew she was okay. It took everything in me to walk out and leave her in there alone, the temptation to spend the night with her was almost too hard to resist.

I left her in there on her own and collapsed on the couch before I could be tempted to do anything stupid. Well, more stupid than I already had. When I carried her to my room she wrapped her warm hands around my neck and kissed me softly on the lips before mumbling my name.

In that instant I swear I had the stupidest grin on my face and ended up going to sleep sprouting a massive hard on – yay for me.

“Why are you up so early?” I finally manage to groan.

“I couldn’t sleep. Plus you stooged me with the good groceries” she says jokingly and pops a piece of bacon in her mouth.

Why did she have to look so good even when she did something as ordinary as eating breakfast?

“Mmm you know the way to a man’s heart” I tease, picking up my plate and almost miss the small look of triumph on her face. She sits back on the floor, stretching her legs out in front of her and starts to eat her food quietly.

I move my leg and nudge her shoulder with my knee since she’s wedged between the couch and the coffee table.

“What’s up with you today?”

“What do you mean?” she says between mouthfuls of food.

“I mean, what’s up with the early wakeup call and the breakfast?”

“Can’t I cook breakfast without there having to be a good reason?” she asks defensively.

“Well…I mean...no offence but you never cook and usually if you do, the smoke alarm goes off” I say and quickly dodge a smack from her.

“I’m not that bad!” she complains.

“Yeah okay, you’re not that bad. This is actually pretty good” I say before shoving more food in my mouth.

After that we’re silent, eating our breakfast with the occasional groan of satisfaction.

Once we load the dishes into the dishwasher and I help her clean the mess she made in the kitchen, there was nothing left to do but give her the spare keys I have to her apartment.

“I’ll come with you, save you running back up here to bring back the keys” I say casually.

“Thanks again, for you know…letting me stay here. You really didn’t have to give up your bed either.”

“Yeah that couch was a pain in my ass…literally” I say and smile as she laughs.

We make our way out the apartment and head to the stairs. She’s a few steps ahead of me and suddenly she pauses at the bottom of the steps, making me run straight into her.

“What the hell Charli?” I start to complain as she says, “What. The. fuck!?”

I follow her gaze and see her apartment door slightly ajar. The handle is barely hanging on and the extra lock looks like it’s been ripped from its spot.

“What the actual fuck!” she says again.

I quickly put my hand over her mouth and shake my head at her.

“Stay here for a second. I’ll quickly check and make sure there’s no one still in there. Okay?” I whisper to her.

She nods vaguely and looks angry. If I wasn’t slightly panicking right now, I’d say she looked pretty cute. She always looks cute when she’s mad.

I walk over to her door and quickly look back to make sure she stayed by the stairs. She’s got her hands by her sides, clenching into fists that could probably do more damage to herself than anyone else; she looks too fragile.

I nudge the door open further with my foot and slowly peek in to her apartment; annoyed that I don’t have some sort of weapon. The place looks pretty trashed, but from quick glance, nothing major looks like it’s missing, and the place looks void of any unwanted intruders.

Her DVDs are scattered on the floor in front of the TV, with a few out of their cases. Her art books are still spread out on the coffee table, but are open wide with a few pages visible. I notice there’s a drawing of someone that on second glance I notice is me. If I weren’t pissed off at the mess that is now her apartment, or freaking out as to why it’s actually like this, then I might have been more flattered.

I hear her footsteps behind me and a crunch of one of the DVD cases when she steps on it.

“Shit…”

I turn and see her scowling at the mess of her apartment. In all honesty she doesn’t even look scared, she still just looks mad.

“Does anything look like its missing?” I ask to try and get her talking and see her reaction to all this.

“No…fuck…I don’t know” is her only reply; yep, definitely mad. I can’t help but laugh a little and she shoots me a quick annoyed look.

“Sorry, I know this isn’t funny, but I swear you have the mouth of a sailor” I joke. She stares at me even harder before looking down at her coffee table.

I see the blush creep up and colour her cheeks before she quickly scrapes up the loose pages and shoves all her drawing books together, then shoves them in the closest drawer.

I start to pull out my phone to dial the police, her mum, I don’t even know who but I need to tell someone; this obviously wasn’t a random break in.

“No!” she practically yells at me and grabs my phone out of my hands.

“What are you doing?” I complain.

“You can’t tell anyone. They have eyes and ears everywhere” she says to me and slides my phone in her pocket.

I quirk my eyebrow up at her and realise it almost looks like whoever it was, was looking for something, not someone. I know it’s somehow related to why we’re here in the first place, I just didn’t think they could find her so quickly and I still can’t understand why they are so desperate to protect these two irrelevant criminals. Somehow it feels like there’s more to the story then I know.

“Have you contacted anyone, any of your old friends…old boyfriends?” I ask.

“No” she answers calmly then seems to remember something, “my mum called me the other day, but I didn’t think too much about it.”

Shit, that’s not good. Her mum wasn’t supposed to call her number at all.

“You may not be happy about this, but we’re going to have to be roomies. They don’t know who you are, or that you’re here with me, hopefully” she says and bites her lip, “Please don’t tell my mum, or the police or anyone, okay? There’s not many people we can trust.”

“Why? What’s going on Charli?”

“Just…trust me okay? I can’t tell you anything more than you already know Jax” she says and sighs.

Okay, now I’m officially a little annoyed and a little worried. What the hell could she possibly not be able to tell me, and is it because she doesn’t trust me?

After a little stare down I finally nod and help her pack up some essentials to take back to my apartment; don’t understand why we had to have separate apartments in the first place anyway. We close the door behind us as best as we can after making the place look liveable again and quickly head back to my apartment.

“I’m not letting you sleep on the couch again” she says, obviously trying to keep me from asking the important questions.

“Okay” I say and grin at her; I don’t mind sharing my bed with her. She probably thinks I’ll make her sleep on the couch I smirk to myself.

“Well that was an easy argument. I thought you’d fight me on it.”

“We can both have the bed, it’s big enough for two” I say and smile at her. Shit I’m probably laying it on too thick, but luckily she just shoves my arm and laughs.

“As long as you don’t start spooning me in your sleep” she says and laughs even harder. Drew was certainly right on that account, she really does look good when she laughs. Yes I overheard, and yes I saw him throw himself at her. I was pissed at first but realised I couldn’t be; she wasn’t mine.

Charli

I sit on the edge of the bed, flipping the tiny memory card between my fingers. I’m keeping an ear out trying to hear Jax’s side of the conversation between him and my step dad. He’s given me some time to make myself comfortable and unpack some stuff in his apartment while he makes a call.

Apparently he’s had to call either my step dad or my mum every couple days just to give them updates on how things were going here. Maybe that’s why my mum didn’t ask me much on how things were going because she was already getting that information from Jax.

I’ve certainly put myself in a shitty situation and I’m dragging every single person I care about down with me. This right here, this little memory card, is my saviour. I just have to stick it out the next few months and pray they don’t push the court date any further. This right here is our ticket to bringing them all down and making us safe.

The fewer people that know the better; judging by the mess that is now my apartment though, looks like they already know.

What not many people know is that the night I saw everything happen, I recorded a few minutes on my phone. Those few moments were enough to capture faces and names of apparently some very high ranking criminals. I’ve only told the select few detectives that interviewed me for hours on end and looks like one of them is a rat. How do I know that? Well obviously someone told the people that are after me; otherwise they wouldn’t be so keen to find me.

No-one has caught on that criminals like this, they don’t care if two of their lowest, petty criminals go to jail for murder, as long as they are in the clear and the work has been done.

Thanks to me though and the two idiots I saw bragging about who they work for and what they’ve done for them, I have enough evidence to put a lot of them away for a long time and tie them to heaps of other stuff.

I hear Jax ending the conversation and thankfully he mentioned nothing about the little break-in to my apartment; if they think all is well that’s good.

I quickly slip the memory card back into the mints tin I carry in my bag and shake it a little to mix it in with the mints. Genius I know; who would think to look in a tin full of mints for a memory card. Thankfully I managed to transfer the video to the card before the detectives took my phone for evidence – which not surprisingly is now missing.

Jax knocks lightly before entering and then sits next to me on the bed.

“You okay?” he asks softly.

“Okay? Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I ask. Dammit I sound way too nervous so I take in a deep calming breath.

He reaches out and skims his thumb over my lip, pulling it free from my bite. Dammit I didn’t realise I was doing that either and god does he make my insides burn; even just from that simple touch.

He turns his head a little to the side and grins at me.

“You’re a pain in the ass Charli, you know that?”

“Quit the job then” I tease and my breath starts to quicken when he inches a little closer. I realise his hand is still touching my face as it slides around and his fingers slip through my hair.

“This jobs too enticing babe” he responds and softly his lips finally touch mine. Did he just call me babe again? Oh god he’s finally kissing me, and I mean really kissing me.

I groan and crush my lips harder against his. When I think he’s going to pull away because we’ve crossed some imaginary line, his hand slides through my hair, around my neck and pulls my body closer against him; I instinctively reach out and grasp his tight, muscly arms.

“You’re the only reason I took this job in the first place” he says before he slides his other hand against my thigh and along my side.

“You’re so full of shit” I laugh and pull away from him. Ha! How does he like it? Not so nice when you go in for a kiss and the other person backs out.

I stand up and pull off his jumper regretfully, dropping it on the floor.