Caught

From the corner of my eyes I saw it.

From the deeper shadows at the end of the hall, near the emergency exit, a shape detached itself and moved.

It was a blur of controlled violence. One moment the man’s sour breath was on my face. The next, he was gasping, a choked sound of pure pain, as he was wrenched backward and spun around.

I was in shock.

Was that... Rowan?

Rowan Cole had the man’s arm twisted up behind his back at a brutal, unnatural angle. He applied pressure with an effortless, terrifying grace, using the man’s own bulk against him. Rowan’s face was a mask of calm concentration. He wasn’t even breathing hard.

“The lady,” Rowan said, his voice perfectly even, almost conversational, “said ‘let go’. You have a hearing problem?”

The man whimpered, his face pressed against the stained wallpaper. Rowan increased the pressure by a single, precise degree.

A sickening, wet pop echoed in the confined space.

The man’s scream was short, cut off as Rowan shoved him forward. The creep stumbled, collapsing to his knees, clutching his now-dislocated shoulder, tears of pain and humiliation streaking his dirty face.

“I believe,” Rowan said, his tone still disturbingly pleasant, “that’s a ‘no’.”

The man scrambled to his feet and fled, hunched over, back toward the noisy bar without a backward glance.

Only then did Rowan turn to me. His ice-blue eyes swept over me, a quick, clinical assessment—checking for injury, for shock. His expression revealed nothing. Not concern, not anger. Just professional completion of a task.

“Are you hurt, Miss Elera?”

I shook my head, my whole body trembling violently. I slid down the wall slightly, my legs unable to hold me. “H-how… what are you doing here?”

"I just happened to visit the bar,” he stated, as if that explained his apparition in a dive bar hallway. He didn’t offer a hand, just waited, a statue of calm in the chaos. “Shall we return to the vehicle? It’s parked out front.”

Just then, Mila appeared at the mouth of the hallway, holding two vibrant, tropical-looking cocktails. She stopped dead, her eyes wide, taking in the scene—me slumped against the wall, Rowan standing like a sentinel between me and the empty hall, the faint, retreating sounds of the man’s pain.

“What the hell happened?” she demanded, her voice sharp with protective fury. She rushed to my side, putting a steadying arm around me.

She quickly threw the drinks on the floor, like the cost nothing, assessing me, "Are you okay?" She asked looking into my eyes and holding my body like I was a child, "yeah.., I'm fine" I mumbled, still visibly shaken.

She smiled, seemingly relived, he's lucky that fool, I would've dealt with him myself" she snared. Milla had completed many martial arts class, I didn't doubt her words- she had a reputation.

Then her gaze landed on Rowan, Really landed on him.

"And who,” she said, her voice dropping into a lower, smokier register, “are you?”

She looked him up and down, from his calm, handsome face, down the lean, powerful lines of his body in the simple black sweater and dark jeans, and back up.

“Rowan Cole. Mr. Blackwood’s executive assistant,” he said, his tone blandly, impeccably professional. He didn’t offer a hand. He didn’t smile.

Mila’s lips curved into a slow, intrigued smile. A challenge sparkled in her eyes. “Well, hello, Mr. Cole. I’m Mila. The best friend. And it looks like you’re the knight in surprisingly stylish, non-shining armor.” She took a deliberate step closer, well into his personal space. “Buy you a drink as a thank you? Or do you only rescue damsels and then vanish into the night?”

I almost scoffed, she loved using this like to pick up men, I'd witnessed it many times before firsthand.

Rowan looked at her with the same detached calm he’d used on the attacker. He didn’t retreat from her advance, but he didn’t acknowledge it either. He was a wall of polite ice. “My task is to ensure Miss Elera’s safe return. Not to socialize.”

Mila’s smile didn’t falter; it sharpened. She loved a challenge more than anything. “All work and no play, Mr. Cole? That sounds… dreadfully tense. I’m excellent at helping people unwind.” She let the implication hang, her eyes holding his.

“I’m sure you are,” he replied, his voice dry as dust. He finally broke eye contact, turning his attention fully back to me, effectively dismissing her. “The car is waiting, Miss Elera. It’s not secure here.”

He didn’t touch me, but his presence was a command. I pushed off the wall, my legs still shaky. I squeezed Milla's arm, my eyes saying "we’ll talk later".

As Rowan guided me out of the dark hallway and through the crowded, oblivious bar, I glanced back once. Mila wasn’t watching me leave. She was watching him. She stood there, arms crossed, that fierce, playful smile still on her lips, her gaze fixed on Rowan’s retreating back with the focused gleam of a hunter who’d just found her favorite kind of prey.

He hadn’t dampened her interest. I low-key pitied him, I knew how Milla could get when she wanted something, His cold demeanor only thrown gasoline on the fire.

The night air outside was cool, shocking against my heated skin. A sleek, black town car idled at the curb, a world away from the Rusty Anchor. Rowan opened the back door.

I paused before getting in, looking up at his impassive face in the streetlight’s glow. “Were you following me the whole time?”

He didn’t say yes. He didn’t say no. "It's late Madam, you should get in". He just waited until I slid into the dark, silent interior of the car- defeated.

As we pulled away from the curb, the noisy, chaotic world of the bar fading behind tinted windows, My body shook, the sheer shock of almost being assault by a man twice my size took over. If Rowan hadn't been there. I had no chance, I knew it.

"Thank you Rowan" I couldn't help but blurt out as he drove in the drivers seat.

I saw his gaze flicker to me from the mirror. As he muttered a small "you're welcome.

I looked out the window to calm myself, everything was going super well, till that guy decided to ruin everything for me, all for what?, now my sneak out was ruined. I was caught.

But at least by Rowan, not Adrian himself, oh I hoped he wouldn't tell him.

We arrived at the villa a few minutes later, and I walked inside, hoping to get to my room, take a hot bath, and just sleep, I was exhausted.

I could hear the crackle of fire from the fireplace in the living room, who was still awake by this time.

Then I froze,

Sitting on the couch in sweatpants with one long leg crossed on the other was him...

Adrian

"Where do you think you're coming from?"