Parson Upton
Year 2023, Month July
North Dakota
~~

I was buried in my bed, exhausted and ready to go to sleep from a long night. I never wanted to go back there again, and I didn’t even want to stay here… but I’d rather not take my chances and run away. Especially since Jared told me what would happen if I did try to run away. I shivered. I didn’t even want to think about running away then.

“Get up,” I heard what sounded like Niall’s voice and I felt silent tears running down my face. All I wanted was sleep. Because I know that at least in my sleep, I could be in a happy place. Parson Upton does not cry in front of people, dammit. I wiped away my tears before taking a deep breath and sitting up so that I could look at Niall. Although it wasn’t Niall, it was Louis.

“What the hell do you want?” I furrowed my brows and he flashed me a smirk, crossing his arms. “Where’s Niall?”

“Niall and Ed went to go find the girl that escaped tonight while we were all at the auction,” he shook his head and sat down in the chair by the door, “Except Niall was here,” he angrily shook his head again and ran his hand down his face, “He’s a fucking idiot, I’m telling you.”

“Did you just come in here to talk to me? Because I am tired,” I snapped and he arched his jaw, putting his hands up in surrender.

“I just thought you would like to know that Niall might be killed tonight, so I hope that you didn’t make any kind of friendship with him… did you?” he asked and my mouth dropped open.

“He’s getting killed… tonight?” I asked, covering my mouth. Niall was the only one that I trusted, because he was the only one that was honest with me.

“Ah,” Louis laughed and looked down, “You did have a friendship with him, I see. But yes, he might be getting killed tonight because tonight was his last chance to prove himself to Jared. Because he let April escape a week ago, Jared thinks that he let Jewel go tonight.”

“Do you… think that he did?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered immediately and crossed his arms over his chest, “I do not give a single doubt that he did because Niall is a fucking pussy. He doesn’t belong in the sinister world.” I swallowed hard and ran my hand through my hair, making Louis narrow his eyes. “Who do you have back home? Who took care of you?” he asked me and it was my turn to narrow my eyes.

“Why does it matter to you?” I barked and he rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I have no one. My parents are fucking drug addicts and they don’t care about anything else but sex.”

Louis grinned. “Oi, what a family. Do you take after them?” he wiggled his eyebrows and I scowled, instantly throwing a pillow from my bed at him.

“I do not! Does it look like I do?!” I yelled and he sat up, shrugging his shoulders.

“You’ve got the body like someone who would be addicted to fucking, but I seriously doubt that you’re addicted to drugs,” he said and I blushed, scowling at him and myself.

“I am not addicted to either,” I crossed my arms, “After all, you have no room to judge me by the things I could be addicted to because you are addicted to killing people and kidnapping women, selling them in abandoned buildings for money.”

He put his hand over his chest and chuckled, “You know me so damned well.”

“You make me sick,” I told him and he grinned, bouncing his legs and chuckling again, “It makes you happy that I’m disgusted with you?”

“Yes, very much so,” he said and I rolled my eyes, fluffing the pillows behind me and straightening out my blanket.

“I would like you to leave now,” I said and he shook his head.

“Nope,” he stood up and pressed his hair up, “Jared wants to talk to you downstairs.”

I gasped and threw my blankets off of me, jumping out of my bed. “You could’ve told me that before you starting running your damned mouth!”

“Oh, princess,” he commented, looking down at my body. I had changed out of the long silk dress I was wearing to a black, silk nightgown. It was short on me but it fit me on the top so I decided to wear it to bed. “You look like an addict now.”

“Oh shutup, now Jared is going to pissed at the both of us because I don’t even know how long he’s been waiting for us!” I yelled at him before shoving him out of the way and running out of my bedroom.

“Now hold on a minute!” he grated in my ear before firmly placing his hand on my arm, “I don’t want you trying anything funny, because you know what would happen if you did.” I swallowed hard and grabbed his arm before dragging him down the stairs and running with him. “Slow down, love,” he muttered to me and I cleared my throat before stopping completely and he cleared his throat as well and pressed his hair back up.

“Where does he want to talk?” I asked and Louis smirked. He reached behind me and pulled my dress down in the back and put his mouth beside my ear, “I can see your pretty little red panties, princess.” I felt myself turning red and I pushed him away and pointed in his face. I went to yell at him, but Jared opened the doors to the room in front of us and I stood up straight, hearing Louis chuckle beside me.

“Miss Parson,” Jared’s voice echoed through the walls and he looked at Louis, making Louis nod and walk into the room he was in, “Come in here, dear. I have to talk to you.” Inside the room, it was freezing. Because I was only wearing that nightgown, technically a too-long shirt, my whole body was covered in goosebumps. Louis sat down beside me and threw his arm behind me, and Jared handed me a small cup of tea. Louis noticed that I was cold and he reached beside him and handed me a fur blanket, tossing it lazily over my legs.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“Miss Parson,” Jared repeated and I cleared my throat, scared to look at him for the last time. I sucked it up and looked at him straight in the face, my lips parting. Jared was a handsome man, and I don’t see how I couldn’t see it before. His jaw was chiseled and his eyes seemed to be almost a grey color, which added to his foreign accent, “I have to talk to you about tonight.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, nodding my head and setting my tea cup on the table in front of me. “I think you did marvelously well for you first auction, but the problem was, Mr. Styles was at your first auction,” he started and I swallowed, “Mr. Styles is not a man to be reckoned with, and now I know that he won’t stop at anything until he gets you, because he wants you.”

“Oh,” I whispered and Louis let out an angry breath, clenching his jaw shut tightly. Something about the way he reacted at the mention of Harry’s name made me think that he didn’t like him, whatsoever.

“Which is why I’m not putting you up at the next auction,” my heart jumped and I couldn’t help but smile and feel relieved, “At all. You’re going to stay here while the other special edition’s go. I cannot let Mr. Styles have you, you see. He is my rival, and I have always had better women than he has, and like I said, he won’t stop. But you will be put up in the auction after the next one, and you will be sold. Hopefully because you won’t be in the next one, Mr. Styles will think I punished you and had you exiled.”

My eyes widened and Louis laughed bitterly beside me, “I don’t think she should be put up for auction so soon, Jared.”

Jared sighed. “I know, me either.”

“Then why do it?” Louis snapped and I looked at him with my wide eyes, wondering how in the hell he was able to smart off to Jared like that.

“Because I want to!” Jared yelled, leaning forward a little. “I know it’s not a good idea, but I am a businessman and I do things that are very unpredictable. I don’t keep women from states outside of North Dakota. I only keep women from other countries or women from states that aren’t on the state line of the state we are in now. Parson here is from Minnesota, and that is right next door. Yes, she is the most beautiful I have, but I also have to get rid of her as quickly as I got her.” I felt myself getting hotter by the second and I threw the blanket off of me and onto Louis. Louis glared at me and folded the blanket up, setting it beside him. “Another thing I wanted to ask you, Miss Parson, is did you know Jewel?” the girl that escaped? No. I shook my head forcefully and he squinted his eyes, “I know that you know one of my men, Niall. Did you know that he was going to let her escape?”

“I didn’t think that he would do that, no,” I shook my head and crossed my legs, unknowingly letting my bottom half show. Jared and Louis both looked down to my legs and I grabbed the blanket beside Louis again and covered my legs in embarrassment, “Where did Jewel stay in this mansion?”

“She stayed down in the basement, where she worked,” he told me and I crossed my arms.

“Then how in the world could Niall had let her escape if he wasn’t even watching her? His room is on the third floor where I stay, so how could he have been watching her at the same time?” I snapped. Louis cleared his throat, obviously telling me to shut up.

“Niall is not one of my best men, Miss Parson, and he could’ve done anything. He is a fool at best and I’m sure he did something stupid,” Jared snapped back at me.

“He seemed to be pretty sure of himself, considering that he didn’t let me run away the few times that I tried to.” I crossed my arms and Jared stood up, walking to the other side of the room and pacing it.

“You… tried to run away?” he asked, closing his eyes and breathing hard.

“When your men captured me and when I first got here, yes,” I said and he pressed his hair back, walking back over to the chair he was sitting in and sitting down.

“You haven’t tried since then?” he asked, pursing his lips.

“No,” I snapped and he fisted his hands, digging his fingernails into his palms. I knew that I was pissing him off, and I constantly told myself to calm down. I don’t even know why I was defending Niall anyways; he was technically the reason why Jate is dead.

“You seem to have some kind of relationship with Niall,” Jared said and I forcefully shook my head again.

“I wouldn’t have a relationship with him, even if I wanted to,” I scowled and Jared stood up, yanking his blanket off of me and ushering Louis and I out of the room.

“Good,” Jared snapped, giving me a wry smile, “Gives me a better reason to kill him when he gets back. I’ll let you say goodbye first, though.” Then he slammed the door in our faces and I scoffed before I took off running. I was planning on running to my room to sleep, but of course Louis thought that I was trying to escape. My waist was grabbed and I was instantly shoved against a wall, the breath knocked out of me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Louis’ eyes were dark and I swallowed, getting angrier at him the more that he pressed me further against the wall. I tried to push him away but I grunted when my hands didn’t even budge him.

“I was planning on going to my bedroom to sleep, if that’s alright with you,” I retorted and his grip on my waist loosened, but his hard expression didn’t change a bit. All of a sudden, he smirked and then threw me over his shoulder. I began to kick my legs and he wrapped his arms firmly around them, preventing me from moving them at all. “What is it with you men and throwing me over your shoulders?” I yelled and he began to laugh. Not his stupid little chuckle, a real laugh.

He dropped me by my bedroom door and I slumped against the wall to hold my weight up. He leaned towards me and went to say something, but then he grabbed my arm and spun me around until I landed in my room. He placed his hands on the outline of the doorway and grinned when I found myself giggling like an idiot. How long has it been since I’ve laughed…? Then I stopped―now wasn’t a time to laugh, especially in a place likes this surrounded with people like this.

Louis furrowed his brows and sighed, tucking his hands firmly in his pockets.

“Well,” I popped my lips and scratched my arms, “Goodnight.”

“I have to sleep in there with you, princess,” he remarked, pointing to the pull-out couch in the corner of the room and I crossed my arms, “There’s no way out of that.”

“Why? I don’t want you to sleep in here…” I muttered and he smirked again, pushing his way through me and into my room, shutting the door behind him, “Louis.”

He stopped where he was and looked at me from over his shoulder, “What did you just call me?” he turned towards me and inched closer, as if I had said something wrong.

“I called you Louis. Is that so wrong?” I barked and he mockingly put his hands on his hips, “I don’t like the way you always call me princess.”

Louis chuckled. “Aha, well, well, princess. I guess we’re both disagreeing, aye?” Then he smoothly walked over to the pull-out couch, tossed the cushions about the room, and pulled out the mattress. He grabbed a comforter and a sheet out of the closet beside the bed, including a few pillows and threw them onto the bed. “Well?” he crossed his arms and I sighed before walking over to my bed. He placed his hands on the hem of his shirt and slowly pulled it over his head, making my mouth drop open. I scowled and looked away from him, but quickly glanced back at him when he kicked off his boots and his pants. My cheeks turned red when he started reaching for his boxers and I looked up at his face to see that he was smirking at me; he knew that I was watching him. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out and I jumped into my bed to hide under my blankets. “You act like you’ve never seen a naked man before,” he muttered and I tightly closed my eyes shut, “But I’m sure you’ll see plenty of those.”

“Not a fit one,” I whispered, covering my head with a pillow. When he wasn’t saying anything, I sat up and frowned at him. “Wait. What did you just say?”

“You’re a very beautiful woman, love,” he told me and I blushed again, “and I’m sure that a lot of men will want to buy you at an auction. If Harry gets a hold of you first, he’ll do God know’s what to you,” he clenched his jaw and let out a sharp breath, “If Harry doesn’t get a hold of you first, then a lot of men will use you for sex. That’s all pretty women like yourself are used for nowadays.”

“Thanks for making me feel a lot better about Harry,” I sneered.

He balled his fists, “I will do everything that I can to keep you away from that fucking bastard, even if it kills me in the process.”

I gave a small smile and shook my head, “Whatever. Have a nice sleep, Louis.” I then laid down on my bed and buried myself in my blanket again. It was two in the morning, and I was more than exhausted. I couldn’t wait to meet sleep. Louis sighed and I heard the squeaky couch mattress move underneath his weight. I glanced over at him to see him sprawled out on the bed without any covers on him, staring up at the ceiling and tapping his fingers on the gun beside him.

“Goodnight, Parson,” he muttered before turning on his side and closing his eyes.

Notes

So.... chapter six!

Please tell me what you think, I am so happy to have three votes already! It may not be a lot to you, but it is to me!

I'll update again soon.


Kal xx