Loving a Bully

Lost You

Christopher awoke from deep sleep with a jerk when a spiked heel dug painfully into his side.

"Hey, bully."

Still hung-over, he flinched at the voice and rolled to his back. A haze of interrupted sleep hanging over his head, his eyes found Hannah Austin, also a friend since high school, staring down at him with irritation on her features. Though she looked magnificent in the floral sundress she was wearing and her red hair floating over her shoulders, he still didn’t appreciate her barging into his hotel room and waking him up.

Wearily, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're the f*****g bully, Hannah," he growled, pushing her foot off the sheets. "What are you doing here?"

A clatter made her head turn around. William Carter, her fiancé, looked up at them apologetically. He was bent down, trying to clean up the mess on the table. With platinum blond hair and blue eyes, Christopher considered Will as one of his closest friends, something he was already beginning to regret since Will couldn’t quite control his fiancée.

Christopher almost growled.

What the hell were the two of them doing here?

"Maybe I should just order coffee for him instead?" Will asked Hannah, leaving the empty bottles of alcohol on the table alone.

Before he could ask the both of them to leave him instead, Hannah had her glare on him again, her hands on her hips.

"Move," she hissed, her green eyes flashing with deep annoyance.

His brow lifted. "Where?"

"On."

He closed his eyes and smirked. "Don't give me s**t so early in the morning, Hannah."

"It's not morning." He felt her sit on the edge of his bed. "It's the afternoon."

"And I don't need you to tell me the time."

“How many days have you last shaved?”

“I just shaved yesterday morning for Emmy’s concerto, Mother.” He sucked in breath and tried to pull in patience with it. Will this woman ever stop nagging him? “Terry would kill me if I went there looking like a f*****g hobo.”

“Then do it again,” she instructed. “And for God’s sake, cut your hair.”

"Honey," Will called out. "Leave the grizzly alone."

Christopher peeled one eye open. "Please,” he said wryly. “Listen to your fiancé." Then he lifted his head and glowered at Will. "And I'm not a grizzly."

"Your attitude's like a grizzly," Hannah pointed out irritably.

"I'm a man," he pointed out in return.

"And your sense of humor is currently nowhere to be found, Skull."

Sighing, he let his head fall back on the pillow. He didn’t need this s**t right now. But he couldn’t exactly kick her out without her causing a tantrum.

Hannah tugged on the sheet to get his attention again. He gave her his eyes.

Then he said, "I'm naked under this sheet."

She shrugged. "I already know."

"Do you want to see my d**k to compare it with Will's? Because you might give the ring back."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said with a scoff.

Will was acting like he heard nothing. He probably got used to their banter already. His phone started to ring and with a resigned sigh, he excused himself and answered the call by the window of Christopher’s hotel room.

"His father still hates you, does he?" Christopher asked Hannah.

She looked at him and grinned. "He doesn't hate me."

He gave her a knowing smirk.

"Fine," she conceded with a shrug. "He does. He especially hates the fact that he has to deal with me now that Mom has already handed most of the business to me."

Of course, old man Carter would hate that. That old asshole still believed that women belonged in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.

"I could already imagine the skinny bastard's face," he mumbled.

Hannah whacked his shoulder. "Don't call my future father-in-law names."

Snickering, he closed his eyes again and sighed. His head still felt like it was trying to split itself open. Last night’s meeting had ended in the bar across the hotel he was staying. Thank f**k he didn’t take a girl home after. Hannah would have definitely liked that.

Damn it.

He shouldn’t have told her where he was staying. And he should definitely not have stayed in the only hotel her family owned in Chicago.

"Do you want me to set you up for a blind date?" she asked him in a hopeful tone after moments of silence.

His lips twitched. "No."

"She's really nice," she insisted. "And she has a really nice rack."

He chuckled. "Still, no."

Hannah heaved a great sigh. Christopher opened his eyes to look at her. There was sadness in her eyes, pity too but he didn’t let it anger him. Hannah just wanted him to be happy like her. Like the rest of their friends. And as much as Christopher wanted to be happy, without her, without the girl he was relentlessly and tirelessly searching for eight years, he knew he was never going to be happy.

He saw how she hesitated before she said, "Skull, about April..."

"She's out there somewhere, Hannah," he cut-in before she could finish her words, knowing it would finally piss him off. "She's close. I can feel it. I have to find her."

"It's been..." she bit her lip then released it to say, "It's been eight years."

He shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

Leaning forward, her expression set in worry, she said, "But Skull—."

"Doesn't matter," he said gently but firmly. "I'm still going to find her."

Even if it takes him years. He was going to find her.

The first girl he fell in love with and would always keep loving.

He was going to find April Locke.

"But she’s a bi - she's not even friendly," Hannah whispered in dismay, knowing she couldn’t change his mind again.

He laughed low. "You don't know her like I do, Hannah.”

She stared sullenly at him.

Because it was true. She didn’t. No one did.

No one knows about the time she extended her arm and pulled him out of the darkness and misery that was his life.

“But yeah,” he mumbled. “I can't deny that she was a bitch."

Because she was also the same person who brought him back there. In the dark. In his well of misery. Until Leon and John pulled him out and helped him stay in the light.

It had been deliberate. He knew that now. The b***h that she was back in middle school and high school was deliberate. And he didn’t know why. No one knew. Not even Emmy who had admitted that they were really friends and kept their friendship hidden until the night April disappeared after her high school graduation.

A muffled sound of a cell phone ringing took Christopher’s attention. He and Hannah exchanged glances then he started to dig around the bed. He vaguely remembered sleeping with it last night after making a call.

"You really are naked," Hannah started laughing, closing her eyes when the sheet wrapped around his chest slid lower and lower as he moved around.

Will, who had finished his call, walked up behind Hannah and covered her eyes with his hands. "You might get tempted to look," he told her with amusement laced in his voice. "It's a very nice ass after all."

"Sometimes, I get thoughts that you might be gay, Will," Christopher grumbled as he kept looking under the sheets. Not that there was anything wrong with that. But the guy says the weirdest things sometimes.

"I studied in a boy's school. There's a lot of ass there."

"Point made."

"He still needs more practice on how to talk like a regular person," Hannah muttered with a sigh. "At least he doesn't sound too formal now."

Christopher dug under his pillows with a wide grin. "Yeah, I still remember when he told me to have a nice day when I was about to leave-- ah, here it is."

Grabbing a pillow to protect Hannah and Will’s engagement, he placed it between his legs and slid his thumb across the screen, placing the phone on his ear.

"What?" he said irritably.

“Skull, f*****g hell, Skull,” Alec muttered on the other line, his voice agitated and pissed.

Alarm bells rang inside Christopher’s head.

What the hell was it this time?

The Morettis? The Russos? Did his men f****d up the deliveries? Or was it another mess at the stables?

“What is it?” Christopher barked impatiently into the phone when Alec stopped speaking.

“Jesus, Skull,” Alec mumbled. “We... we found her.”

His body went still and his jaw went tight.

"Are you certain?" he whispered.

"Is everything alright?" Hannah asked worriedly and his eyes went to her.

Will's hands on her shoulders tightened. His face was concerned as well.

“f*****g certain. She’s home.”

His gut lurched.

Home? As in her father’s home? Damn it. Why did her father have to find her first? What did he and his men miss?

"I swear to f*****g God, Alec, if you're not certain—.”

Alec didn’t let him finish. “I’m certain, sir. I’m looking at the CCTV footages right now so I’m so f*****g certain. I’ve already booked you a flight home. It leaves in an hour. I’ve also mobilized Jeremy and Lance, they’re down the lobby waiting for you.”

Fuck.

Fuck, f**k, f**k.

"Alright,” he knifed out of the bed. “I'll call you again."

Then he disconnected the call and threw it on the bed before moving to his closet, tearing the doors open.

“Skull, what the hell is going on?”

He glanced over his shoulder. Will was covering Hannah’s eyes again. He looked down. He’d forgotten to take the pillow with him.

There was no time to explain however. Heart pumping, he pulled on a shirt and jeans and found his wallet.

“Where are you going?”

He snatched his clothes from their hangers and dumped them on the bed. He paused briefly to look at them. f**k, maybe he should just leave them. He needed to go.

To her.

“Skull!” Hannah blocked his way as he was grabbing his suitcase. She stood on tiptoe and held his face, her eyes worriedly searching his face. “What happened?”

His eyes wildly landed on hers.

“They found her.”

Her face tightened. “April?”

“Yes.”

A long, slow sigh burst out of her lips. Her gaze searched his face some more. Impatiently, he wanted to tell her to back off so he could leave but she let his face go before he could and fell on her heels.

“Go,” she told him, moving to the bed to fold his clothes. “We’ll take care of your stuff.”

Will was already on the phone, calling the valet to get his car ready. “Your car will be out front soon,” Will informed him. “Go.”

Christopher stared at the couple for a few seconds.

“You said you wanted a commercial building for your wedding gift,” he told Hannah. “How many floors do you want it to have?”

Hannah smiled and shooed him off with her hand. “Just go, Skull.”

He crossed the distance between them to kiss the side of her head. Then he gave Will a tight squeeze that made the other man grunt.

He almost stumbled slipping his feet hurriedly into his shoes.

Then he was gone out of the door.