Masked Love [ Completed ]

Chapter 7. A Man In The House

Chapter 7 | A Man In The House

The man groaned out loud and squirmed under the flashlight of her phone. She covered her face with her hands trying to erase the image from her mind. She almost turned to leave when once again she heard the painful groan coming from the dying man in the alley.

She was conflicted. What would a rational person do in this situation? They would turn a blind eye and go home to their family. But Belinda was not one of those and she did not have a family. If she left him here to die then she would never be able to forgive herself.  So she did what she had to do. Turning around she crouched down and held his arm, gently making him stand, being careful of his wound on the stomach that was oozing blood, from what she had seen in the brief moment with the help of flashlight, the man had been in a suit and was wearing a white mask, she wanted to see what his face looked like but right now his wellbeing was her priority. He leaned on her and panted for breath, he was very heavy and large. She was smaller in size, a little less than average and this man seemed to be a little over the scale of tall.

Somehow she managed to get him inside the building and groaned when she saw the flight of stairs in front of her. She had four flights to climb with a passed out man in her arms. Not to mention she had to do it discreetly so no one would suspect her of murder. The wounded side was carefully hidden under the black coat he was wearing so he looked like a random drunkard who she was escorting to her house, not a good reputation to hold either.

Somehow after a lot of huffing puffing and almost dropping the poor man from those deadly stairs she finally stood at her door. He had gone completely still and she did not know if that was a good thing or not, she did not want to be caught with a dead body in her flat and be sentenced to jail over something she did not do.

She unlocked the door with one hand and leaned the man on the wall with the other, once the room was unlocked she dropped him on the floor softly trying not to put much pressure on his life-threatening injuries.

Belinda wanted to cry at her fate and demand answers to why she had the worst case of bad luck, why didn't anyone else find him? Why did she bring him all the way to her house instead of dropping him off at a hospital where he could get professional treatment? Why didn't she call the police? Maybe she could have saved all the trouble if she would have used her brain and done those things rather than acting on impulse. She did not even know if the guy was still alive! 

She quickly checked his pulse and sighed in relief when she felt the faint thumping of his nerves, squaring her shoulders she prepared to lift him once again to move him into the bathroom. He groaned softly when she held him up making her aware of his consciousness, the mask was still there and she was tempted to remove it, but when she saw the blood dripping on her floor all thoughts of masks flew out of the window.

"Not my carpet damn it! Let's get you cleaned up." She cursed under her breath and dragged him all the way to the end of the hall and dumbed him on the closed toilet seat. Gently pealing his black suit jacket and shirt she assessed the wound with her finger, the man screamed in agony which startled her. He was definitely conscious now.

"Don't move, I'm going to clean it now." She thought warning him before pouring the warm water would make his reaction somewhat less aggressive. She tried not to get distracted by his rock hard abs. It was a pretty deep cut and she was no doctor, at some point it had to be treated by a professional or it could get worse.

Once the wound was clear and the blood had stopped she poured an antiseptic liquid over it to prevent any infection and proceeded to wrap it in a bandage, the wound needed stitches but she again, and she was no doctor. She would have to call a doctor home because clearly he was not in the right condition and neither was she.

She took the risk and left him right there on the toilet seat to rush over to Jax' house. She needed to borrow a shirt for the guy and she hoped Jax won't mind lending one.

Marilyn opened the door with a wide smile and ushered her in, Belinda smiled and followed her inside thankful that she washed any traces of blood from her body.

"Would you like some tea dear?"

"Oh no Marilyn, actually I was here to borrow one of Jax's shirt." Seeing the confused looked on her face she added “A childhood friend of mine is visiting and did not bring any change of clothes, I hope you wouldn't mind."

After a cup of tea, because Marilyn insisted, she finally had a pair of plain sweats in her hand. She skipped two stairs at a time and threw open the bathroom door to find him sitting right where she had left him. Only his eyes were open. She sucked in a breath when she saw those deep golden orbs staring at her.

The mask was covering the upper half of his face and framing his eyes so perfectly as if they were made for him, the sparkling white mask was shining against the pools of molten gold and she found herself being sucked into the depth of it.

"Who are you?"

His deep voice pulled her out of her trance. She only then noticed that he was in fact conscious and talking to her. Her eyes trailed over to his pink lips, they were thin and pulled into a straight line, probably from the pain he was feeling, he had a five o clock shadow over his jaw and she found his incredibly beautiful.

"I asked who you are." He snapped again. Belinda did not like the way he was talking to her, she saved his life and this was not the way to talk to their savior. But he did not know that she was the one who helped her. So she introduced herself.

"My name is Belinda, I saw you dying in the alley and brought you here." There were better ways of delivering the reason but she chose not be very polite to him, since he had cause so much trouble to her already.

"Well I did not ask you to bring me here, and you did a shitty job with the bandage."

"Forgive me for I am not a professional, I don't encounter half dead people on my way home on a daily basis. You should be grateful!"

"Hmm" was all he did, she was getting pissed at him at an increasing rate, soon she would explode and end up stabbing him right where his wound was and not regret it even a pinch.

"I brought you some clothes to change in, can you stand?"  She asked to which he snorted, seeing his attitude no one would think he was lying unconscious on her floor just moments ago. He was better unconscious.

He attempted to get up but ended up back on the toilet seat when his abdomen started to hurt. She helped sit up properly and somehow managed to fit him I side the sweatshirt. Pulling on the sweatpants was the hard part. She had to look the other way and pulled off his dress pants and pull the sweats on. He lay still while she did all the work but when she reached out to remove the mask his hands shot out and caught her’s.

"What?"

"Do not remove the mask."

"But it must be uncomfortable, and besides don't you think I have the right to see your face after all that I have done for you?"

"I don't think so, are you so eager to see my face?"  Belinda scowled at the cocky tone of his voice, who does he think he is? She admitted that she was not much help but she tried her best, he did not have to be so ungrateful about it.

"I will be leaving now. Thank you for whatever you did. You will get a check on this address tomorrow morning. "

His words felt like a slap to her face, a very hard one. She could not believe this guy, he had the audacity to give her money for whatever she did out of kindness of her heart.

"Listen here mister, whoever you are, I helped you out of humanity, not because I want your money, so you can keep your money and your attitude to yourself, better shove it while you are here. And you cannot leave now. It's late and you are weak."

"I do whatever I want to do lady, and looking at this cheap place you call home, you are clearly in dire need of money. Accept it and let me go."

"I would like to see you try.”