"No, that's okay I can go back by myself, you have already done so much", Riri protested as she wasn't sure how comfortable she was with that. Rafi took her hand in his "Silly which boyfriend doesn't take his girlfriend back home after a night out, are you trying to make into a bad boyfriend honey", Rafi winked followed by him moving his eyes to the side of him. Riri recognized that something was going on, "Of course, I thought you had to go back to the station after this honey?", the young doctor lied following along with him. Before Rafi could reply a black sedan with a taxi plate pulled up beside the couple, Rafi almost straight moved forward to open the door for her and indicated for her to get into the taxi, just as she was about to step in he stopped her boldly declaring with his voice slightly raised "I don't want to go back, I want to stay with you!", Riri gaped at him who was pouting while shaking her arm like a whiny child. Something in her heart stirred, even though it seemed apart of the plan she couldn't help but feel honesty behind his statement. She also knew she was also hesitating to part with him and she had pondering on whether to get his number like her friends suggested prior to him getting that message but now he was escorting her home and she didn't know if it was the right thing to do.
"Fine but don't blame me if you get into trouble", she chuckled before getting into the car closely followed by an seemingly excited Rafi. Once they were inside the car Rafi's smile disappeared and he swiftly closed the vehicle door, the driver turned back from his front seat to look at them, he had a a goofy smile on his face as he looked alternately from Rafi to Riri, he was a young looking man with slightly tanned skin and his features were on the cute side as he had a roundish face, he was wearing an all black outfit and a black cap to match. Riri became confused at his actions while Rafi was observing something through the wing mirror on the passenger side, she couldn't understand what was going on. "We need your address Riri", the lieutenant suddenly said. Riri responded with a worried look as she was alarmed by the drivers behavior, Rafi look in the direction she was looking at and understood immediately.
"Will you stop looking at us with that stupid expression" Rafi proclaimed. Riri stilled "You know him", she asked. Rio who was now pouting at Rafi's comment about his face as he had one hand to his cheek. "Yep he is police officer on my team, his name is Rio", he pointed. "Hi", Rio excitedly said has he waved his hand at her forgetting all about Rafi's previous comment. "H..ii!, the young doctor replied nervously before she looked at Rafi who had gone back to observing outside "What's going on?". "Give him your address first and I will explain on the way". Riri acknowledging him proceeded to tell Rio her address with a look of concerned, Rio turned back to face the steering wheel and drove the car off into the road ahead.
"...", silence fell in the car as Rafi was continuing to observe the mirrors and Rio was now driving towards her home. "They are following us", Rafi commented. "Affirmative LT, they really aren't being stealth about it so I guess they are not experienced", Rio confirmed. Rafi scoffed before turning to Riri, he didn't want to alarm her but she needed to know what was going. Riri was gazing at him with full attention, "That man Ian, he is following us right now", "What", surprised Riri immediately turned to look outside the rear windscreen before Rafi turned her face back towards him with his hand. "Don't look", he determined. "How do you know", she questioned. "Earlier back when the party was coming to the an end, I caught him staring at you intently when you were talking with your friends, there was something about the way he was looking at you but before I could go over to him Ant asked for my help and we were headed in the same direction so I could see you" Rafi began to explain.
"After we helped those remaining guests I didn't see him but I don't remember seeing him leave but something just didn't seem right so I asked Rio to ping his phone so I could see his location", "You can do that," Riri interrupted. "Umm yeah, I suspected him of preparing to commit a crime so err", Rio looked at Rafi through the rear view mirror who was scratching his head while explaining, he stifled his laugh that was threatening to come out, his LT was obviously lying but they weren't doing anything harmful in fact his LT was doing it to keep his lady love out of danger, Rio giggled at his own thoughts giving into temptation which earned him a glare from his friend. Riri looked at Rafi suspiciously "So..", "So the location pinged just outside of Maxi and Ant's home, I got Rio to come down to their house to have a look hoping it was nothing, just to be on the safe side", "And it was it nothing?" Riri asked this time her question was directed at Rio but she already knew the answer. "Umm", Rio looked towards Rafi through the rear mirror again to seek permission, Rafi nodded.
"No, well when I found him, he was standing by some trees by the house, he was smoking and he was with a man, I think he was his driver, he seem to have just arrived there too, I hid to side of the trees anticipating to hear something", he paused. Riri glared at him intently anxious to know, 'wow she's scary, she has the same intense glare as LT, what a perfect match' he thought. "T...he guy Ian was saying things about how he didn't believe it and he wouldn't let things go, he seemed to be ery agitated, t...hey went on to discuss waiting for you to come out and plans to follow you", the young policeman continued. Riri stilled again before she heard him say, "They didn't continue to talk, I suspected two reasons for their behavior one they wanted to get to the bottom of your relationship with Rafi by watching you, two they were going to do something more dangerous".
".....", another silence befell the car. "Don't mind him, we don't know for sure", the lieutenant tried to comfort the young doctor. "Hey, do you know hard I had to convince that taxi driver to let me borrow his taxi", Rio protested against his LT who kept saying mean things. "Shut up", Rafi replied worried about Riri. "Therefore the two of you made this plan of taking me home", Riri further asked, "It was Rio who messaged when we were walking outside, that's when we made a plan, I just wanted to make sure nothing happened", Rafi explained while taking her hand, the two looked at each other in the eyes. "Uh huh I saw you two coming out so I quietly walked away from the trees and then ran down the hill I had just ran up, if that wasn't tiring enough but I had to beg that taxi driver to lend us his car after calling for him", Rio waffled however unfortunately for him the couple were not listening at all, Rafi was too busy comforting Riri by stroking her hand while looking at her with reassurance, he wanted her to know he would never let anything happen to her but he stayed silent to allow her process what they had told her. "No one ever appreciates my efforts", Rio whimpered to himself while peeking through at the rear view mirror once again at the couple.
A few minutes later, a more relaxed Riri told Rio "We are here, just there", she pointed her finger to a parking spot by the road outside a small driveway. Fortunately it did not take too long to get her house as their was no traffic, she lived inside the city, it was a small road with a only few houses which were all modern bungalows. Rio stopped the car after parking as Riri instructed, "They have also parked up, few spaces down", Rio told Rafi. Rafi seem to be in thought as he looked at his phone, he was concerned he thought they may been deterred from what they were doing when they saw him escort her home but it wasn't the case and he didn't know what they might be planning and he didn't want to cause any alarm but as ex soldier and now a policeman he had learnt to always expect the unexpected. Riri could see that he was worried, she didn't want to believe Ian would do something wrong, they had known each other since childhood, there families were close and despite everything they were once engaged nevertheless she could understand that it was still dangerous, she had more than once experienced Ian's unpredictably. For an unknown reason right now she trusted this man who had supported her all evening and had continue to stay by her side even now out of concern despite only just meeting her, her heart stirred again, all the mans actions were evoking feelings that she didn't think were possible.
She moved her hand forward and placed it on Rafi's, this prompted him out of his thinking, facing her he heard her say "Do you want to come in and stay the night". ".....!".