A/N: Hello everyone! As college comes closer and closer, I will try to update before it's here. Thanks to everyone who followed and favorited this story! It means so much to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 3

Okay, this was bad.

I mean, it wasn't as bad as it could be, or should have been, but it was still bad. On a scale from 1-10, it would probably be a seven.

It started out as a regular Saturday- well, as regular as it could be. Ever since that hike with Altaïr, I had essentially been avoiding him as best I could. I would sit on the couch and mope over what could have been and what my mind had played on me.

So that's where I had been when the incident occurred.

There was a knock on the door and I couldn't find the energy within myself to get off the couch and open the door. It could have been anyone, anyone like my Grandma's suitor.

"Keira, aren't you going to get that?" Grandma Joel asked after the knocking turned into pounding.

I shrugged. "I don't know who it is."

"Well," she tutted and strutted over to the door, "you have to open the door to see who it is."

As she said this, she opened the door. The smile that graced her face dropped as she saw who the visitor was.

"Alan," Grandma Joel visibly deflated at the unexpected visit.

I shot up from the couch and slowly inched my way towards the kitchen. My heart sped in my chest and my breath came in short bursts. I never took my eye off the door where my Grandma was standing, trying to keep me concealed.

"I know she's here." He was drunk. That much was evident in his speech. "I want to see her. You can't keep me from seeing my daughter!"

Something smashed on the house and I let out a whimper, dropping to the floor. I placed my hands over my face and rocked back and forth, hoping he would leave.

"Keira? Keira I know you can hear me! Come on out! Daddy wants to see you!" He shouted.

"Alan, you are not welcome here. Leave before I call the police," Grandma Joel warned.

Altaïr stepped out into the living room and saw me curled up on the floor. He quickly made his way toward me and knelt down, placing his hand on my back.

"What's going on?" He asked.

I covered his mouth with my hand and shook my head.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP HER AWAY FOREVER! SHE IS MY DAUGHTER!" My father roared, smashing his fist on the side of the house.

"Alan! Enough!" Grandma Joel yelled over his swearing. "Get out of here! You can't see her because she doesn't want to see you! Not ever again!"

"I will be back," he hissed. "DO YOU HEAR ME, KEIRA? I'LL BE BACK FOR YOU!"

Grandma Joel slammed the door shut and quickly walked over to me. "He's gone now, dear."

"Why is he back, after all this time?" I whispered. "Why can't he just leave me alone?"

"Because he's a disease. I regret never spending time with him, but when your Grandpa George and I got a divorce, Alan was always at George's house. I never thought about it, but I'm sure it was his fault." Grandma Joel rubbed my arm. "He never gave me a chance to be a mother."

With everyone crowding around me and touching me, even if they meant to do it comfortingly, it was sickening to me. I felt like throwing up.

"I have to get out of here." I stood up quickly and ran out of the room, and out of the house via the back door.

I didn't look back but I could hear them shouting after me. I couldn't make out their words but something told me that it was about how it was dark out and dangerous.

I ran blindly for a little while but I could feel my asthma catching up to me, closing up my throat.

I stopped at the side of some shady building and leaned against the wall, using my inhaler. Once my breath returned to normal, I looked around.

In my haste to get away, I never realized where I was going. And now that I had calmed down somewhat, I could tell that I was in a bad neighborhood. One that had me lost. I had no clue where I had come from.

Okay, this was bad.

I mean, it wasn't as bad as it could be, or should have been, but it was still bad. On a scale from 1-10, it would probably be a seven.

I placed the inhaler in my pocket and got off the wall, looking in all of the possible directions I could have come from.

"Eenie-meenie-miney-moe." I pointed at all the possible places to go. "I choose you."

My finger stopped on a dark alleyway.

"Of-fucking-course." I shook my head but headed in that direction. I was listening to my gut, and it was telling me to go over here.

Who am I kidding? Intestines don't speak.

I inched my way into the alleyway and practically held my breath as I let my eyes adjust to the darkness. I could make out vague shapes of dumpsters and trashcans. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so I continued, ignoring my beating heart.

I was halfway through when I heard a scuffle.

I whipped around to face the threat but there was nothing there.

"Hello? Anybody there?" I called out but there was no answer.

"Smart move, Keira, call out to the murderer. I'm sure he'd give up just because you suspect he's there." I shook my head and continued down the dark alleyway.

I got to the end but it was blocked by a fence.

On the other side of this fence was my Grandma's neighborhood. I could see her friend Gaea's house.

I reached up and grabbed the chain-link fence, prepared to haul myself over, but somebody grabbed my waist and pushed me up against it, forcing me to keep my eyes away from their face.

"You came into the wrong neighborhood, woman." The man's breath tickled my ear and I shuddered. "Give me all of your money and I just might let you go."

"I don't have any money," I hissed. "Let me go, you creep!"

"Now is that any way to talk to the man holding you hostage?"

Something gleamed in the dim lighting and I recognized it as a knife. He pressed it against my ribs, just underneath where Al Mualim had stabbed me.

"Empty your pockets, babe." The man let go of me but didn't drop the knife.

I faked reaching for my pockets but quickly grabbed his wrist and broke it, letting the knife drop to the ground. I kicked it away before he could grab it and kneed him in the stomach.

He let out a breathy groan and I elbowed him in the nose before pushing him to the ground.

"I am not your 'babe.'"

"But you could be mine."

I looked up and came face to face with another man with a knife.

"Or mine."

"Or even mine."

I should have known that there would be more than one.

"Let me go and I won't report you to the police." I backed up slowly towards the knife the other man had dropped.

"Now we can't let that happen, sweetheart." The man in the middle spoke with a gruff voice. It sounded as if he would have a beard like a lumberjack.

There was a split second before I grabbed the knife when I could tell that they were going to pounce. One arm came straight for my face and I ducked and rolled away, grabbing the knife on the ground as I did.

I popped back up, knife in hand, and faced the three attackers. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem for me, but when you can't see them, are out of shape, and have asthma, it's not really a fight I can win. Not when they attack me all at the same time.

They came at me as if they were one person, moving in synchronization and fluidity. They were not merely street thugs, not by the way they were fighting.

I ducked under their arms and jabbed with my knife, hoping to hit someone. What I succeeded in was getting the knife taken away from me.

One of them slipped up and went for a right hook, holding the knife out instead of against his arm. I grabbed his arm and knocked the knife from it, kicking one of the men in the gut, and breaking the first man's arm.

He cried out in pain before I kicked him in the temple, knocking him out.

A fist connected with my face and I fell to the ground. Pain exploded on my jaw and forehead as it came in contact with the cement.

I rolled away from the men and stood back up quickly, guarding my face as carefully as I could.

The first man who attempted to rob me stood up, holding his broken wrist.

"You will pay for this, bitch!" He spat on the ground as if that would make him look tougher or something.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Altaïr quickly took down one man with a chokehold and while the others were distracted, I punched the man with the broken wrist.

The pain in my hand felt good as I watched him stumble back and face me. He let out a war cry and ran towards me, his good hand raised above his head.

I ducked and kicked my leg out, tripping him. He went sailing into one of the dumpsters. The force with which he hit the lid sent it down, trapping him inside.

I turned to face Altaïr and saw him coming closer to me. He grabbed my face and back me up against the chain-link fence.

He leaned in close, our noses almost touching.

"Keira." He nearly whispered.

"Yeah?"

"You should put ice on your cheek and forehead. They're already bruising," he said and spun around walking towards the alleyway entrance.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and closed my eyes for a second. I opened them and hopped over the unconscious bodies of my attackers before catching up to my Assassin.

"Don't run away again, okay?" He looked at me.

I nodded. "I'll only run away if my life depends on it."