Chapter 18

"Sit down."

Ari heared Jackson say, so she walked the few steps to the closest spot to sit, which was the bed. Sid walked into the bathroom, coming out with a wet cloth and sat down next to her on the bed to clean off any blood left over from the fight. The cloth was warm on her skin when he cleaned at spots on her face.

Jackson warmed another cloth, switching the new clean one to Sid and taking the old one. He threw into a garbage bag and placed it on the floor to lean in to talk to Ari.

"Look at me."

Jackson said sternly and she did, even sitting up straighter to show she was paying attention.

"What happened?" He asked next.

"They didn't follow the plan, but it's done either way." She pulled the envelope out of her jacket pocket and handed it to Jackson, without a thought. "They gave me this as.. an apology, I guess."

Jackson took the envelope to look into it, after he did, he put it in his own pocket before motioning for her to stand up.

She stood and Jackson took off her jacket, checking the pockets before throwing it into the same bag as the first cloth. Sid was still sitting cleaning her arms now that the jacket was removed, when he finished he threw the cloth in the bag too.

"I'm not sure I understand why they weren't there to help. Every one of them needed Worm gone for one reason or another. For a spineless prick, he sure could dig up dirt on anyone." Sid said, walking back over to the bed.

"I imagine it was the price Daniel made them pay for using her. I'd have done the same thing if it meant that a chance to see her fail would mean getting the job done for free the next time, and none of his guys get hurt in the meantime.." Jackson suggested before looking at Ari.

"Ari, you need to take off your clothes and put them in the bag. Take it to the bathroom, have a shower." Jackson handed Ari the garbage bag. "Sid can bring you something to wear before you come back out."

"Okay." She took the bag into the bathroom, closing the door.

She put it on the ground and turned on the shower to its hottest setting. She put all of her clothes in the bag and stepped under the shower, where she scrubbed herself clean until she used up all her soap.

When she got out of the shower to reach for a towel close by, one was wrapped around her gently. Sids arms followed back over it to fold around her waist from behind her, pulling her in close and took in deep breath at the base of her neck before kissing more of her exposed skin.

She turned to face him still in his arms, and he kissed her forehead.

"I told you I would keep you safe, and I'm failing miserably." he admitted, lightly brushing his fingers through her wet hair.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" she pointed out, seeing the side of his mouth curve into half a smile.

"Why are you? You've paid your debt." He remarked, still smiling at her.

"Blame yourself." She smiled, getting up on her tippy toes to reach his lips. He leaned down to kiss her back. He sighed when they pulled away.

"You should have run." He nuzzled into her neck to kiss her over and over again.

She giggled. "I'll do that later when you're not paying attention."

He chuckled, she must have figured him out. Kissing her again, he picked her up in his arms and took her out to the bed. Jackson wasn't there anymore, and Sid had pulled the towel off her as he put her down gently on her back on the bed. She squirmed backwards to get higher up on it and out from underneath him. He just crawled after her, as if to stalk his prey, following her across the bed before pinning her down, pressing his knees up against the inside of her legs to open them and pressed himself against her body so his weight could keep her locked in under him.

He moved up closer to kiss her on the lips just once more, but when he pulled away after it, she held tighter to bring him back. He even surprised himself as he obediently followed her request and went back to kiss her again.

Ari was finding herself getting carried away, her hands trying to explore under his shirt and pull it off altogether, but he just pushed it back down and brought her hands over her head to pin them there selfishly. He still wanted to have his fun without her interjecting or distracting him.

Unfortunately, soon after that, they heard a swipe card accepted to open the door to the room. Sid dropped his head next to hers on the pillow, sighing in defeat. Jonah walked in turning on more lights, completely unaware of them. Ari laughed into Sid's chest quietly but then kept kissing, and nibbling her way up his neck.

"Ari."

Sid said rather loudly, making her laugh out loud. Jonah turned to see the large lump in one of the beds in the room, and realized what was going on.

"Fuck! I'm leaving, I'm leaving."

Jonah tried to turn back for the door.

"It's alright." Sid climbed out of the bed still fully dressed, keeping Ari covered by the blankets.

She sighed quietly, pulling the blankets up to her neck while she rolled onto her side to face them better. A twinge of pain in her spine made her frown as she looked over at Jonah.

"I don't think it is for her." Jonah pointed out, looking at her upset expression.

Sid looked over at her to see what Jonah meant, but he knew the look was from pain, not sadness. He was at her side seconds later taking her hand, which she hold on to so she could put it on her back where the pain was coming from.

He lowered the blanket to see the bruise forming in the middle of her back. It was a large bruise and the muscles were swollen. If they got any worse, they could cause pressure around her spine.

"Jonah, does Jackson know Elliot's number?" Sid asked his brother, still looking at her back. Jonah followed suit to see what his brother was doing, he sighed when he saw it.

"No. He contacts us differently every time." Jonah admitted.

"I think I might have it in the pocket of the pants I was wearing yesterday... In my bag." Ari spoke up, not sure if she should have.

"What?" Sid looked at her, confused.

"He slipped something in my hand the day we met. It's still in my pocket. I never looked at it, so I might be wrong about it being a phone number..." She admitted, meeting Sids gaze.

He was clearly angry, but he walked over to the closet where he had put their bags to dig for her jeans from yesterday. He found the piece of paper and started calling someone. She thought she must have been right about it being his number.

Sid said nothing when he was on the phone, not one word. Not a hello, or goodbye, so Ari wasn't sure what had happened. She couldn't hear if anyone else was on the other line either, he was too far away.

"I'm fine. Get me some advil and we-." Ari snapped at him, about to wiggle onto her back to try to sit up, but Jonah wouldn't let her move and interrupted her.

"Ari. Stop moving."

Jonah used a stern voice that made her nervous. Bad things followed that tone of voice in his family. She took a deep breath and stopped trying to struggle while Jonah continued feeling around her back, and checking the rest of her body to make sure nothing was missed.

When he was satisfied that nothing else was wrong, he kept his one hand on her to keep her still, and Sid called Jackson on his own phone.

"Where are you?"

Jackson had answered his phone, apparently. After Sid heard his answer from the other end, he hung up and tossed the phone on the bed.

Ari turned her eyes up toward Sid, who looked back down to meet her gaze.

"Is it that bad?" She asked about her back.

"No." They lied.

Ari was about to comment on their terrible lying skills when there was a knock on the door.

Jonah was closest and opened it to Elliot, who came in followed quickly by a pissed off Jackson, slamming the door behind him. Elliots hair was messy, unlike yesterday. When he came over to the bed to lean over Ari to see why he was called. His hair fell into his face covering his strange forest green coloured eyes, he had to tuck it behind his ear.

"I really like your hair today. You should always have it like this."

Elliot pulled his eyes away from examining her back to look at her, she was watching him too. She smiled through all the pain as some of his hair fell over his eyes again as he moved. He thought she was making a joke, and he raised his eyebrow at Sid.

".. pain pills kickin in?" Elliot asked, thinking she was a little loopy.

"No. She hasn't had anything. That's just her." Sid replied with a smirk.

"Well, that's oddly adorable for a time like this, isn't it?" He went back to looking at her back before coming back around to face her once again a few moments later.

His hand reached down for hers and her eyes followed up his arm, to his shoulder, to rest on his face, which was only about a foot away from hers now. She took a sharp breath in, shivering from his cold touch and closeness. When she looked into his eyes, and he stared back, she couldn't let herself look away again.

"Go to sleep, Ari." Elliot whispered.

The last thing she remembered was wondering why he would have said such a stupid thing. How could she possibly sleep at a time like this? Yet here she was, waking up in a completely different room, alone, however many hours later, and that is her last memory.