The Want Me

Clara POV

"Let her go now..." Lucia said, while holding the half of the shattered wood she had cracked on the other man's head.

The man suddenly burst into anger after shifting his gaze and seeing that his colleague had passed out.

"How dare you! I will tear your skin into pieces of shreds!" he threatened, and before I knew it, he dragged me into his arms and strongly choked me with his hands.

"Do you prefer your friend to die, or are you going to drop that wood in your hands?" The man's cold voice sounded with a sneer tugging around his lips.

His strangle around my neck was becoming so tight that I felt my breath glitching.

I struggled, but with every try, his grip intensified. And just then, Otis, who had been kicked like a ball previously, ran toward the man's and bit one of his legs.

"Ahh, you stupid dog!" He tried kicking Otis for the second time, but Otis didn't allow that to happen.

And using this distraction, I slid myself away from the man's grip. When the man turned to chase after me, Lucia pulled out a gun and pointed it in his direction. "You better stay down, if not I will pull the trigger."

Even I was shocked when I saw Lucia with the gun. I never expected she had a gun, let alone had come with it. I had always known Lucia to be a fearless woman, but never had I concluded so soon that a gun could be in her possession.

The man didn't argue, nor say a word, as he saw the gun pointed at him, and it was as though he didn't come with a gun as well that was why he hardly reacted when it was pointed at him.

He gently lifted his hands in surrender as he spoke, "I've stood down."

And after he said this, he shifted his gaze to me before adding, "Don't forget what you have done today, and neither will we let go of what your stupid boyfriend defrauded us of."

I could have asked what exactly he had defrauded them of, but even though I knew, it wouldn't be of any good to me, because neither would I have the money to help nor pay.

"Suit yourself. That's your business if you really want to collect what you have lent to him. Why not go look for him? Why disturb her?" Lucia said, her voice cold and the gun still in her hands, pointing at the man.

And to be sincere, what she had said was the truth, and I still can't tell why they kept doing this same thing. I had tried my best to make sure I pay the rest that had come in earlier, and sometimes, even though I don't have it, they end up taking anything of value in my apartment.

"I don't know who exactly you are, but you are poking your fingers into matters that don't concern you." The man's brow furrowed as he said those words. He then looked at his colleague on the floor before shifting his gaze to Lucia. "Don't forget about this. This won't slip off."

Lucia scoffed. "Not until I get the police here before you do."

Lucia had called the police even without me knowing, and they were on their way. Lucia knew for sure that she wouldn't let them see her with the gun she was hiding, which meant she would have to leave the scene before the police arrived, and that was what she did.

But before we could head out, I grabbed Otis and stormed out with him. Lucia's car was parked outside, and when we both got in, she didn't waste a single second before speeding down the road.

The men we had left in the house knew better, and that knowing better was to run, which means before the police would arrive, they could have looked for a way to run because they are all criminals and they could be hunted by the law themselves.

I wouldn't know how I would have to thank Lucia if it wasn't for her tonight. What could have happened to me? And if I had gone to the club for my job as usual, those bastards wouldn't have seen me to harass me this way.

But the way Lucia located me was just so astonishing, she played everything perfectly and struck at the right time.

I stared at her. She didn't say anything, she didn't stare back; she was just focused while driving.

"Do I look like a pancake? Do you want to eat me?" she teased, and I pulled away my gaze.

"What were you even thinking, hiding secrets from me? You know how tight we were before, or don't you trust me?"

When she said this, it wasn't that I didn't trust her to relate anything to her when I should have done so over the years, but it's just that I don't want to put my problems on other people's heads.

I didn't reply to what she had said; I just leaned on the car seat, my hands gently caressing Otis's fur.

Within a couple of minutes, approximately ten minutes, we arrived at an apartment. We both got down from the car and went inside. Lucia urged me to go take a shower and offered me clothes to wear.

It was already night, and even while taking my bath, I was still thinking of the two-day interval the crime boss had given to me to make a choice which was now left with one day. And here I was, confused on what to decide on.

And to be sincere, his offer shouldn't even be seen as an offer. It's as though he dropped two cages and told me to choose the one I would prefer to be locked in.

Lucia was seated opposite me. She wouldn't allow me to sleep until I had told her what exactly had been happening.

"Those men... what have you done to them?" she asked, even though she still had a hint of the story.

I hesitated for a while, and when I was about to speak, her voice cut in. "What exactly is wrong with you? I can't help you if I don't know what is going on."

And it seems that is exactly it. I had no choice but to explain all that had been happening to me over the five years we haven't seen. Could she be able to take it all in, or would she be very disappointed in me?