Chapter 4
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He was hating. Oh man was he hating it!
Though probably not for the reasons most would suspect. Then again, they'd probably bash him over the head because he was crazy for not trying to grab her up and taking advantage of the fact that he had her with him almost twenty four hours a day and most of that time in private. But she had an invisible earpiece that probably couldn't hear him, but could hear her and she could hear everything they said.
That was enough to make him stay away from her. Though there were moments where he wanted to reach out to her and pull her to him for a kiss. It would be something she'd never forget. "You think awfully highly of yourself, don't you?" Serenity was saying and his heard jerked up, thinking she might have heard him say it out loud. He worried for a brief moment about that, but brushed it aside when she wasn't even looking at him. She was leaning through the open window and her cute bottom was the only thing he could really see. And her shapely legs.
He heard a deep male laughter and realized that someone was outside. Endymion slowly made his way over and saw that it was one of the bodyguards 'she' had. They were on the ground level and Endymion could see both of them now from where he stood. The man reached up and tugged on a chunk of her hair. He couldn't hear his reply, but whatever it was, made Serenity laugh as well.
"All right, enough chitchat. It's time to finish my search." Serenity pushed away from the window sill and closed it before wandering into another room. She didn't even spare him a glance as she walked away. Endymion was seriously beginning to doubt her fabled abilities. She was never around and he didn't see too much change, except for more bodies on the grounds.
He turned away from her disappearing form and turned almost into the man who she had been talking to. "What's the matter?" Endymion asked, when they were indoors, Serenity disappeared but the other guards seemed to be at his elbows at all times. He wouldn't have minded if it were the other way around. Though he still probably would have.
"Just checking on you." The man responded behind dark sunglasses, giving nothing away.
"Do you really have to be this close?" Endymion muttered once more. He had no peace and quiet, there was always someone else in the room with him. This was really starting to get irritating.
"It's just part of our job. People assume if they see me, then Serenity is near by. Just can't see her." He paused and gave a curt nod. "Do you realize how many members of the press we've had to force away from the gates as they're trying to capture an image, even through the windows and blinds?" Not to mention the gates themselves.
Endymion didn't care about the press, they'd always been there. They often tried to get juicy gossip, but usually there wasn't anything news worthy about how he spent his free time. Now less than normal, though with Serenity nearby he was sure the press was thinking there'd be more juicy gossip.
Scowling, Endymion left the room, he didn't want to be here with the guy who had just been flirting with Serenity. The man followed him outside to his detached garage. The door opened up slowly and the man was talking to his wrist. Endymion tried to ignore him. "Going somewhere?"
Endymion jumped a mile high as Serenity suddenly appeared at his elbow. He turned towards her and his frown deepened. "I'm going for a drive."
"That sounds great, I'll come with you!" She beamed and for a moment he considered taking her, thinking she was telling the truth, but realized she probably only wanted to come to keep an eye on him.
"No thanks." He bit out. "I intend to drive alone."
A frown flickered across her features for a moment and then she gave a small shrug. "All right but my men will follow you." She gave him a measuring look and he knew whatever she said next, he was supposed to follow to the letter. "Don't get any funny tricks in mind." Then she sauntered away back towards the house.
Endymion unlocked his car and slid into the driver's seat on the right. He backed out and then got to the gate. Her goons were following right behind him. Since he lived on the outskirts of town, he took off in the direction away from it, wanting to feel the speed beneath his hands. The open roads allowed him to do so.
He had to slow down as he entered a smaller city, but still a city. To his annoyance the two men in the car behind him had kept up with him practically the entire way. He sat in the right lane of a six lane road. He could either wait to turn right when the light deemed it capable or wait to go straight. To his left there was another straight lane and then further left was a left turn lane. Behind him the other car sat. The light was red but he was the first car in the intersection. The cross traffic just got the go-ahead to start moving. Endymion made an impulse decision, one he knew he would have to listen to later, but he gunned it and shot out just before the first cars reached him. He turned left with the traffic and cut over to turn a right and started weaving his way through the city, even heading back right passed the earlier road he had been on.
Then he was leaving the city in a direction he couldn't even be sure of himself. After several minutes he was in the free and clear. He relaxed back into his seat and started picking up speed once more. With ambassador plates, even in his own country, he could be pulled over, but he wouldn't get a ticket. He saw someone turning onto the road behind him, their speed picking up with considerable pace, and he slid over a lane to allow them to pass. They moved in just behind him but didn't go any slower. He moved over again, wanting to allow them access if they were unsure where to go. They got behind him again. The entire time his foot kept going down on the gas pedal and they were keeping up with him the entire time.
A car was pulling out in front of him and he narrowly managed to avoid it, but he had to slam on his breaks and weaved around. The car was going in the opposite direction and the one following him was lucky enough to be able to continue straight. They avoided him due to his quick thinking and reduced speed. He went into a tail spin and when he finally stopped spinning, his car was on the edge of the road, two tires already off towards the ditch. Then the car tipped over and landed on its hood. It slid down off the road a few feet, hidden from view from normal every day traffickers. The car that was at fault didn't stop or slow down at all. The one that had followed him, continued on as well, going too fast to stop or even backtrack.
Endymion sat upside down for quite awhile. For most of that time he was coming to grips with what just happened. It was only his logical side of his brain that ruled most of his actions had him calling Serenity once the car was stationary. He gave her the best directions he could. Then he worked on calming his pulse. Something she would only hitch up once more when he saw her and he would rather keep it somewhere in the middle rather than adding to it.
He heard a car not as long after his phone call as he would have imagined. Then a sound of a truck following close behind. He heard a whistle. "Whoo... that poor car!"
Then long thin legs clad in black pants were in his line of sight. "Too bad you chose not to wear a skirt this time." He grumbled, and wasn't sure if she heard him.
Then she was perched down next to his car, one hand on the undercarriage. "Did you know your wheels are spinning?" She was grinning at him and was rather perky for being at the scene of a car accident. "How's all that blood rushing to your head?"
"You've done a wonderful job protecting me." He snapped. Couldn't she have been at least a little concerned over him? "A car ran me off the road! They could have killed me!"
She was laughing at him as she surveyed the inside of the car and then looked at him. "If you hadn't ditched the escort, then we wouldn't be having this problem at all. So really I can't protect you if you shun my help." She was as bright as the shirt she was wearing. "Are you ready to come out now? Or are you still skulking? Cause if you aren't, I'll let you gawk at my legs some more once you come out." The way she was leaning in now, to look for his seat-belt release had him gawking at another part of her anatomy all together.
It made him uncomfortable. "I can manage." His voice was strangled and he tried to clear it. He didn't want her hands anywhere near his pelvic region.
She held up her hands and backed away. "Will you finally give in to the help I'm trying to offer you?"
Endymion sighed and agreed. "Sure-ooph." His release of the seat-belt hadn't been planned out and suddenly he was lying with his face smashed up against the glass and his legs over his head. She was laughing again! She reached in and tried to straighten him out. Other hands were on his arms and neck and they were pulling him out of the car. "I could have been seriously injured!"
"Doubtful. The car looks to be in pretty good shape despite being upside down. You were wearing your seat-belt."
"I'm surprised the guys didn't come back and finish me off." Endymion had to give it to her, she certainly was assured she knew when someone was injured or not. Now looking at the damage done to his car, another point went in her favor. There was hardly any damage at all. It looked even staged for a photo shoot or something.
Serenity was shaking her head, the blond strands waving in the air with her movement, too long though to be blowing about from the motion alone. She was still as peppy as she'd been since she announced that she was his bodyguard. "Nope, if they wanted to kill you, they would have. You wouldn't have been walking away from this scene. They were just intending to scare you. Apparently you have something they want."
"I don't have anything." Endymion argued, her men were checking him out for any breaks or bruises. Really except for his fall against the windshield, he probably didn't have any of the latter.
She made a face and he didn't think that it was very professional but it wasn't disrespectful either. "You have lots of power, Ambassador. You have the power to agree to something or turn it down. You have information on current politicians in power and ones past. You have got dirt on everyone and nobody's really got any on you. It doesn't have to be something physically in your hands. Nobody except the people can remove you from your position and even then you don't have too many competitors and the people don't care what you do. They think others are the ones to blame and rightly so, for the most part."
He was impressed with what she knew about him, but then again she had been spying on him before he even met her and then spying on him afterwards too. She was just good at doing her homework before a case, and this time he was her case. She'd forget everything that wasn't directly important to her the next time and place she went.
Reluctantly, he had to admit though, she was right. He wouldn't be having this conversation with her if they had intended to do him more harm. They might not have even meant to push him off the road and definitely wouldn't stay behind to see what happened to him. He might recognize them and they'd be in trouble. They could very well have pushed him off themselves.
"Ready to go?" She asked and then frowned as she listened to something he couldn't hear. The others with them nodded, they'd heard it too and moved in around them. Serenity threw herself into his side and clung onto his shirt at his abdomen. Her fingers brushing against his front. It drew in involuntary at the surprise touch. Serenity was looking up at him with distraught on her features. It was at such odds of her regular personality that he found himself off kilter and pulling her closer in an attempt to soothe. Maybe she had been worried?
Then a van pulled up and several people jumped out. He realized just seconds before a flash went off that it was a reporter and her news-crew. The camera man, the photographer the sound-man (whatever the technical term for it was), the techie. He was blinded for a moment by the bright light and then he was standing up taller and getting annoyed once more, though he had learned long ago not to show it. Serenity standing so close and touching would have to feel his muscles clenching but then he slowly relaxed them and tried to offer up a smile.
"Serenity? Are you all right?" The reporter asked as Serenity was still looking at him, and this time when he looked down at her he saw concern. He wondered if this emotion was real or not. She seemed so unflappable, so god-damn cheerful about everything, especially as she got to tell him 'I told you so'. Endymion wanted to move her away from him, but knew she wouldn't let him and it would only add weight to anyone's doubts about them. So Endymion kept his arms around her and watched as she slowly turned her eyes towards the cameras.
To his chagrin tears started welling up in her eyes. "I'm all right, but it was just so awful. One minute we were driving and then the next, we were upside down!"
It took Endymion a minute to catch up, she was claiming she was in the car with him? She was very, very cleaver. "What about your bodyguards? Why weren't they behind the wheel or even with you when it tipped?"
How could they know that? Endymion's brows came together wondering what was happening. "We wanted to get away from it all for a little while. We can't fit the guards in the backseat so Endymion and I rode together. I guess we lost them a little while back. We'll have to get more so I can feel safe again." The little minx just managed to make his life a bit more unbearable.
He wanted to bare his teeth at her, but he held back. She was very good at what she did. "Endymion? How about you? Are you all right?"
"Yes. I'm not entirely sure what happened myself. Luckily no one was hurt." Endymion managed to cover quickly, for he too could handle the press. "Now, as Serenity is very shook up, I think we should go back home, shouldn't we darling?" Where had that come from? But the media was loving it and then a whole round of photos went off. "You'll have to vet this video with my management team." Endymion told the news reporter quickly who only nodded and waved him away.
Well sure enough, Endymion thought on the way back to his house, the media was just about to get something more gossipy. It was mostly due to his big mouth and stupid choices, but also to do with her flinging herself at him.
They sat in the backseat with her bodyguard and secretary ahead of them. Once inside and away from the press, other vans coming up just as they wee leaving, Serenity scooted far away from him. He could probably touch her hand if she would put it between them.
The trip back was longer than the trip out and they sat in silence for a long time. Then Serenity's head tilted towards him and though she was still dazzling in her brightness, she asked him a question. "Are you really all right?"
Endymion took a moment to check himself before he answered. Then he nodded slowly, but before he could say anything her head bounced and then she was back to looking forward and she was leaning against the panel between them and the front seat and she was talking to those ahead of her. Endymion was feeling rather left out as she did that. Though she probably thought talking to him was boring and that's why she avoided it. She'd have more in common with her guards than she would with him. Endymion leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes.