~17~How Deep¿

I stay patiently still in the room Rose left me, waiting for that food she promised me.

Seconds tick by..seconds become minutes..minutes become an hour.

My patience has disappeared into thin air.

I stand up slowly to leave-having a tiny glint hope that Rose could appear anytime now.

Taking slow, cautious steps, I make my way through the door and down the stairs, which I found easily-unlike the ones at Alex's house.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I turn in the direction of a living room I saw while Rose led me up to that room.

Making sure to keep my steps slow, careful and awfully quiet, I head for the living room.

"One would think you're a burglar with the way you're acting" I hear a familiar voice say, frightening the sh*t out of me.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"You startled me" I whisper when my heartbeat returns to normal.

"I noticed" he whispers back, smirking at me and I roll my eyes

"Where's Rose?" I ask in a whisper because she seems to be the only force working to keep me alive.

'Why are you whispering?' Lush asks, returning from wherever she went.

'Oh look who's back' I roll my eyes at her

'What's your deal?' She mutters wryly

'Um..I just thought I had a conscious who was with me all the way and just when the going gets tough you disappear' I hiss

'Oh, get over it, you big baby' this time it's her turn to roll her eyes

"She's gone" he whispers, bringing me out of my mental argument with my conscious-you probably think I'm crazy(I probably am).

"To where?" I mutter, surprisingly keeping the tension and unease building up inside me out of my tone.

"She's got some work to do around town. She'll be back soon and no need to worry we won't feed you to our wolves" he says as his eyes turn a darker shade

"Y..you have wolves?" I try and terribly fail to act nonchalant.

"Of course not" he chuckles and I don't know what else to do so I laugh along.

"I..I'm gonna go back upstairs now" I mutter and begin to make my way back in the direction I came from.

He says nothing and let's me walk right past him which I'm grateful for-I'm not particularly the type to make friends with my kidnapper.

'And yet you've grown so fund of the guys' Lucious points out and I just shut her out

I'm still mad at her for running off to God knows where.

My stomach makes a loud, unladylike grumble.

I flush and turn to check if Liam is still there. He is..I turn crimson.

Surprisingly though, he makes no snarky comment about it instead he asks nicely "You hungry?"

I just nod childishly.

His lips twitch in the semblance of a smile.

"Follow me" he tells me and then I'm on his trail like a puppy.

I follow him to a huge kitchen-not nearly as large as Alex's though-but to my surprise there are no swarms of maids and servants in it.

"I'll check what's in the fridge" he informs, I don't have enough time to respond before his expression changes to a thoughtful one and he says "...except of course you'll like to cook up something fresh"

"Are there no maids?" I blurt out as my eyes travel all around the kitchen.

"No" he says simply

"Why?" I question

"Do you need one?" He answers my question with a question

"Who does the cooking around here?" I pay him back his own coin

"Don't reply my question with a question" he groans but not angrily, somewhat playfully

"Alright then let's take it from the top..answer my question and I'll do the same" I smile sweetly

He doesn't respond so I continue "Why don't you guys have maids? I assume that you guys are too busy chasing Alex's a*s to have time to take care of the cooking and anything really"

The corners of his lips turn upwards in an amused expression

"We don't spend all our time chasing after Alex's a*s, you know?" He says, making air quotes around chasing after Alex's a*s

"So what do you spend your time doing then?" I ask

"First off, there are other gangs to take down.." He starts but I cut him off

"Oh, so you spend all your time chasing after other people's a*s" I say in a mocking tone

"No" he says defensively

Just as I'm about to quip something about his childish attitude, Rose appears in the doorway.

"There you are" she beams at me "I was looking for you"

"Oh, well, I never got that food you promised me so I decided to look for you and I met Liam who oh-so-kindly offered to help" I say sweetly

"Oh, I'm sorry..I forgot all about that" she says apologetically and I just smile in acceptance.

"So, what did you decide on?" She asks, shifting her gaze from me to Liam and then back to me.

"I was asking Liam who does the cooking around here" I tell her

"Oh, I do" she says with a hint of pride in her voice

"You? Aren't you busy with all the gang stuff?" I raise a brow

"Oh, honey, a woman is never too busy to care for the home she lives in" she says

"Tell that to my mother" I mutter under my breath

"So, you were gonna cook?" She asks and I nod

"Let's do this then" she says excitedly "What do you want to cook?"

My only answer is a huge smile matching hers

Is it weird that I feel so comfortable in the house of my kidnappers?

I don't even know if Rose will let me go or if she'll just make me comfortable while still keeping me as bait.

I don't know if I prefer to be here instead of at Alex's house.

I was kind of getting used to being over there and now all of a sudden-oh what am I saying? I was gonna leave there anyway.

I still don't know why Alex took me in that day or why I have this weird feeling when I think of him.

Rose and I begin to cook the first thing that pops into my head-Honey Mustard Chicken with Broccoli

"Rose, you said it goes deeper" I say out of the blues

"Hmmhmm" she hums in response

"The suspense is killing me, please explain" I cry

"I will" she says simply

"How deep?" I ask

"Anita, this goes way back to the 90's" she sighs

"Please, Rose" I beg for more information

"Let's finish up here and discuss it over a meal" she offers

And just like that, she takes away my willingness to cook... I just want this done and over with fast.

Hell, I'm not even hungry no more.