Filed to story: Watch Me Win Alpha (Olivia & Ethan)
“Look!” I said and pointed in the direction of her balcony.
That was when a large gust of cold wind blew through the room, making my whole body shiver. Ava’s white curtains were billowing because the glass doors of her balcony had been thrown open.
“Did you forget to close your doors before you left your apartment,” I asked hopefully as my stomach stiffened with fear.
Ava met my eyes, and I could see the panic that was flowing through me mirrored in her wide eyes.
“No, Olivia. I clearly remember closing the doors and locking them,” she uttered.
“That means that someone is the house,” I murmured as my heart slammed against my rib cage.
The doorbell rang once more. Then, someone began to pound on the door.
*Olivia*
The knocking became insistent and loud. With each second that passed, my certainty that there was an intruder in Ava’s apartment increased. From where we were standing, I could see that her wooden front door was shaking from how hard the person was pounding on it.
I looked at Ava, but she no longer seemed scared. Her face was no longer pale, and now she looked nothing but determined.
“How dare someone try to terrorize me in my own home,” she said as his hands clenched into tight fists. “I’m calling the police.”
“Good idea,” I said as a shot of adrenaline pumped through me. Her courage was helping me not be as afraid.
“I left my phone by the couch,” Ava said.
“Me too.”
Together, we began to walk back to the living room, but we had only taken a few steps when all the lights in her apartment went out.
“No!” Ava yelled in frustration. “They must have messed with the circuit breakers.”
In the dark, we stumbled toward the living room. I almost tripped over a large vase in the corner of the room, and Ava bumped into a side table, jostling a lamp, but she managed to catch it before it crashed to the floor.
Finally, we made it to our purses. Quickly, Ava made the call to the police and put her phone on speaker so that I could hear it.
“Yes, please send over someone as quickly as possible,” Ava said after she quickly explained the situation. “The knocking on my door is becoming so loud, I can barely even hear you and…” She paused and swallowed, but she rolled her shoulders back, trying to remain brave. “And I think there might be someone in the house.”
The pounding on the door was becoming so loud that I could barely hear myself think. Whoever was trying to get in alternated between knocking and ranging the doorbell repeatedly.
“I’m sending someone over to your location right now,” the operator assured us. “Go to a room that you can lock and stay there to wait for the officers to get to you. If you have any weapons to protect yourselves, bring them with you.”
Her last sentence made a jolt go through me. The room spun. This whole thing was all happening too fast.
After Ava hung up, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to her bedroom. She locked the door and used the light from her cell phone to look around the room. I shook my head to clear it. I couldn’t afford to go into shock right now. I had to help Ava. As I got my phone out of my purse, we heard a noise coming from the other room.
It was the unmistakable sound of a door being unlocked.
Ava’s terrified gaze met mine. “They’re inside!” she whispered, her voice high with anxiety.
This time, I was the one to act first. I grabbed onto her wrist and led her into her bathroom that was connected to the room. We shut the door and locked it. The fact that there were now two locked doors between us and the intruder made my shoulders relax slightly.
After a moment of eerie silence, Ava quietly gasped.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“If someone has a key to open the door, that means that they can get into my bedroom and the bathroom,” she quickly explained. “It’s a master key that unlocks any room in my apartment!”
My heart dropped. “So, we’re sitting ducks, then?”
Ava nodded.
At the same time, we sprang from the floor and ran out of the bathroom, through her bedroom, and back out into the hallway. It wasn’t smart to be cornered by the intruder.
“Do you hear that?” Ava whispered as we crept along the dark hallway.
I stopped walking and listened closely.
In the direction of the balcony doors, there was a small creaking sound. The door to the balcony was slowly being opened, and a man’s face came into view.
Ava and I held each other as we screamed at the top of our lungs. We were almost loud enough to crack the glass. The pounding on the door continued as the man came slowly into view.
Once I got a good look at him, I immediately stopped screaming.
“Ava!” I said and shook her because she was still yelling with fear. “It’s. Richard!”
Alexander’s new bodyguard was standing in the doorway with a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry, ladies. I didn’t mean to frighten you. That was the opposite of what I wanted. Mr. Green has put me in charge of protecting you two for the night, but to do it discreetly. So, I found the extra key to your balcony on your patio and have been watching over things. I’m so sorry to scare you. I’ve been making sure to lock it each time I leave.”
My heart was still slamming against my chest. “Were you also pounding on the front door?” I asked Richard.
His head tilted to the side. “No, that wasn’t me.” As if on cue, the knocking started again. Richard volunteered to see who it was. Turned out, it was just Ava’s landlord who had come around to inform all the tenants about the power outage. It wasn’t just Ava’s apartment. It was the whole building. The landlord had heard us screaming, and that was why he had been pounding on the door. He had decided to come in with his master key when she hadn’t answered to make sure we were alright, but when he didn’t find us, he left.
Shortly afterward, the police showed up. While she blushed, Ava told them that this was all just a big misunderstanding, but to be diligent, they checked every inch of the apartment and balcony. But they found nothing, which was a comfort to me.
After the police and Ava’s landlord left, Richard offered to sleep on the couch, and we gladly took him up on his offer. We got ready for bed and even stayed in the same room because we were still so scared.
As Ava sat down on a chair in the corner of her bedroom, I got into bed even though I wasn’t the least bit tired.
“This whole thing with the Windsor’s is getting out of hand,” Ava said and scrubbed a hand down her face. “I’m starting to become scared for our safety. Do you think that you could ask Alexander for help taking them down?”
Her question made my palms sweat. I was scared to ask Alexander for any help because I was afraid of what kind of strings would be attached to any favor that he did for me. What would he ask for in return? Even if he didn’t ask for a favor to pay him back, I would still be afraid of owing him. Then, I wouldn’t be able to refuse him anything in the future. It would be like making a deal with a very handsome devil.
I sighed and organized my thoughts before I replied to Ava’s question.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I finally said. “I don’t want to lose myself in this whole situation. That’s exactly what happened with Ethan when we were married, and I can’t let that happen again. If we make a deal with Alexander and his team, I’m afraid that he’ll ask for something that will make me act like the kind of person I don’t want to be anymore. Does that make sense?” I turned toward her, afraid of her reaction.
*Olivia*
To my complete shock, Ava didn’t seem angry with me. She had a thoughtful expression.
I sat up in bed and waited for her reply.
“You know, it’s probably for the best that we don’t involve Alexander right now,” Ava said after a moment. “I keep thinking about that missing boy’s parents who passed away. The real reason that they died was because the mother kept getting involved and asking questions about the Windsor family. If we ask for Alexander’s help, that would just paint an even bigger target on our backs since he is such a high- profile person.”
I nodded in agreement. I hadn’t even thought about that. But she did make a good point.
“So, should we just take a step back and allow Ethan and Chole to have their way for the time being?” I asked.
Ava sat forward in her chair. “Here’s what I think we should do: You should write that letter of understanding that Ethan requested for Chole.”
I rolled my eyes. That was going to be a difficult letter to write since I wouldn’t mean a word of it. But it was important to get that powerful family off of our backs for now. Besides, I had come to the conclusion to write that letter earlier today, but I was glad that Ava agreed it was the best course of action.
“While Ethan and Chole think that we have given up, I will quietly gather evidence behind the scenes to pursue the Hawthrone’s and the Windsor’s on murder charges,” Ava continued. “There’s no way in hell that I’m letting them get away with the crimes they’ve committed.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?