Chapter Twenty-Five

In no time, I was walking through the door finally arriving home. The walk this time around was a little bit more stressful, there were strong winds that nearly blew me into the road! But also, I couldn't stop thinking about this meet up that Austin and I need to attend, what crazy situations is Markus planning for us this time?! But also, what is Jacob going to make me do when I get there? I know this is the right thing to do and it'll free us from Markus in the end, but I can't help but worry for what the future holds. I place my coat and bag by the door before walking into the main part of the apartment, where I spot Austin fast asleep on the sofa. A smile makes its way onto my lips looking over at him, this is a sight I haven't saw for awhile. Back before all of this happened, whenever I'd come home I would find Austin asleep on the sofa. At the time, I'd think this was so annoying and complain how lazy he was. But now I know him better and know what he does in the day for Markus, it's nice that he's finally getting some rest. I walk passed him and into my bedroom where I keep all the blankets, I pick up the softest one before walking back into the living room. I gently place the blanket over him, making sure that his feet were even covered. Once he was fully covered up and warm I stare down at his face, just looking at his face made me feel a bunch of emotions. If I'm this worried about Markus and the things he's making both of us do, how must Austin be feeling on a daily bases? I wish I could just click a switch and turn back time to stop this, but I know that's not possible. 'I'll get you out of this mess, I promise" I whisper down to him, if only he knew the things I was doing myself to try and get us out of this alive. I take a look to the counter to see bags of shopping sat there, wait he also made time to get shopping. I turn to look at him with another smile before walking over to the bags, he was nice enough to get the shopping, the least I can do is make dinner. It's takes around an hour before I was plating dinner, it wasn't anything special but Roman likes to tell me it's what I make best. I had just finished plating Austin's plate, when I see him begin to move around on the sofa. I smile turning around to place the pan into the sink, as I turn back around I see him sitting up on the sofa rubbing his eyes. 'Did you have a good sleep?" I ask opening up the draw to get some knifes and forks out, he looks at me sending me a smile whilst standing up from the sofa. 'I'm sorry I didn't pick you up, I was fully intending on doing it but I thought that nap would only be an hour" he says making his way over to the table, where his eyes go wide when he spots the food. 'And you made me food?" He asks shocked while I nod my head, I gesture for him to take a seat while picking up his plate. 'It's the least I can do for all the things you do for me and don't worry, I enjoyed the walk home" I smile handing him his fork, he thanks me before placing some food in his mouth, as soon as he does his eyes go wide where he looks up at me surprised. 'Just because I don't cook, doesn't mean that I can't" I smile where a little laugh erupts from his lips, that's what he told me when he cooked for me the first time. I was just about to sit down and eat my own when my phone vibrates in my pocket, I check what Austin was doing where I see he was too busy eating his dinner to notice what I was doing. I quickly pull my phone out to check who the text was from, as I expected it was from Jacob. 'I'm outside" Is all the text read, I mean he's keeping it short and sweet I guess. I realise that I somehow have to come up with an excuse to leave, I can't flat out tell him that my old friend Jacob was waiting downstairs. He might ask why he wasn't coming to the door, or he'd ask to come with me to see him. That's something that cannot happen, Austin can't find out who Jacob actually is yet. I scan the kitchen trying to come up with an excuse, where my eyes land on the bin. It thankfully, looked as though it needed emptying. 'I'll just go down to empty the bin" I say placing my phone in my back pocket, whilst walking over to take the bin bag out of the bin. 'I can do that, you still haven't started eating your dinner yet" he tells me trying to help but I knew I had to shake my head, Jacob needs to talk and that can't be to Austin! 'Exactly, you can finish eating your dinner while I'll have mine when I get back" I smile already walking towards the door before he could stop me. 'I'll only be a minute" I smile as I reach the front door, but turn to look at him. He smiles but doesn't try to stop me anymore, I open up the door walking out whilst closing the door behind me. I think I got away with that one. I begin to make my way down the steps and towards the bin, my eyes scanning the area to see if I could find Jacob. When I reach the button step and still hadn't saw him yet, I realise that I can't just stand in the middle of the street with a bin bag. I walk down the little alley that leads to the bins, where a man was already standing there. I don't think much of it at first and just throw my bag in the bin, but when I turn to see this man's face I'm pretty taken back. 'Jacob?" I ask where he looks up sending me a smile, he must have a thing for hiding near bins. 'Are you having fun with these?" I ask pointing at his new outfit, this time he wore a ginger wig and a football like jacket, he was giving me American poplar football guy vibes. 'You know I look good" he says in a weird accent posing like a model, this does make me laugh as I turn around to make sure Austin didn't follow me down for some reason. 'Yes I'm enjoying this, but that's not the reason why I'm here" he says making me turn back around to look at him, he goes into his jacket pocket pulling a piece of paper out. 'After you told me about that meet up Markus wants you to attend, I went back to the office and started doing my own digging. I found out the location and managed to get a few undercover officers to pose like waiters, me being one of them" he tells me which did calm my nerves down slightly, at least I know Jacob and a few other officers will be there with anything was to go wrong. 'While playing the act, one of the officers will hand you an ear piece, that will mean you and I will have direct contact" he says which does make a little more worry creep in, what if I get caught wearing one of those? 'What if the people there check for those kind of things?" I ask looking back once again just in case, I still haven't told Austin about this meet up yet. 'You don't need to worry Payton, once you're in the party they won't be looking for that type of thing" he explains while I nod my head, I'm glad he cleared that up but it didn't stop the worry I was still feeling. 'What kind of things will you be telling me to do?" I ask crossing my arms as the wind brought a shiver through me, if I knew about this conversation before I would have brought a coat! 'I won't be telling you to do anything, attached to the ear piece is also a hearing device. You just need to act normal while we listen to what Markus says, it's just to get more evidence on Markus so when the time does come, he'll get years" he tells me where I send him a nod, my eyes move down to the floor my mind going over all the bad things that could happen from this event. 'Everything will be okay Payton, we'll be there the entire time" he says nudging me slightly as he went, I take a look up at him with a smile. 'I know, it's just I don't like being around that man after what happened" I say pointing up to my face, yes the bruises were nearly all gone but you could still see something bad had happened. 'Thank you for everything you're doing to keep me and the ones I care about safe" I smile really appreciating all of this, I can tell he isn't just doing this to gain evidence but really cares about us at the same time. 'You're doing much more for us Payton" he smiles while I look up at the apartment, Austin's probably wondering what's happening with me. 'I'll let you go before Austin gets suspicious, if anything changes I'll let you know" he says while I start to take steps away from him, I nod my head sending him one last wave before walking back down the alley.