Trey and I take off, trying our best not to draw attention to ourselves while also keeping out of view of any cameras, just the way Rylan taught us. We come to a door that reads ‘No Entry’ and decide this is our best bet in finding the surveillance room. Trey picks the lock in seconds and opens the door just enough for us to slide through.
We look around and come out into a maze of empty hallways. With no one around, we take off down the hallway. We pass door after door, but so far nothing seems like what we’re looking for. We turn one last corner and I come to a stop with a grin.
A door stands before us with an electronic keypad. Yep, that’s got to be it. Now, let’s just hope Jacinta’s distraction happens soon so we can get the door open.
Noises are heard from inside the room so Trey and I back ourselves into the room opposite the surveillance room, leaving the door cracked so we can get into the room the second the security team is gone.
The door flies open and three men in black tactical gear walk out leaving the door, slowly closing behind them. I dart out of the room, just in time to catch the door before it clicks shut. Making sure to keep my head down, I indicate for Trey to come out.
We gently push through the door, only to find two men waiting inside, looking at us like we’re idiots for trying to break in here. Assuming we’re just regular kids, they come for us. Within moments we have the men tied to their chairs, helping us break into their own system.
I have a laugh as I see the screen on the computer, zoomed in on Jacinta who’s surrounded by security while she holds her leg and screams in pain. I make a note to thank her for her acting skills later on.
Trey fumbles around on the computer for a while before I grow bored and take over. I find yesterday’s tape and quickly find the footage from the men’s bathroom, pleased and also a little concerned that they have footage inside the bathroom. I scan through all the bathrooms, which you would think isn’t such a big deal, but this place must have at least twenty mens bathrooms spread out over the place.
I finally find the correct bathroom and suddenly have Trey watching over my shoulder like a hawk. We watch the screen as we see Daniel enter the bathroom and head to a urinal making me desperately look away, but the figure entering the bathroom behind him has my eyes locked on the screen.
The man is in all black and has a mask covering his face, but also knows to keep his head down. He rushes Daniel and just like he said, slams his head straight into the wall. I cringe as I see his head bounce back. The man is on him straight away, but Daniel has Rylan’s training, he recovers instantly and quickly begins over powering him.
The blows they land on one another are nothing like the ones we hand out during training, this stuff is serious, this is the kind of fighting you use during battle. Daniel handles himself remarkably, but I focus my attention on the man. There’s something familiar about his fighting, but I can’t put my finger on it. One thing I know for sure is that this guy was trained by The Guard.
Even though I was expecting it, I still gasp when the guy pulls out a knife. Daniel’s back stiffens, but he continues on, attempting to disarm him. The man lands a devastating blow and instantly comes down over Daniel’s stomach with the knife. Trey grabs onto my hand as tears streak down my cheek. I watch Daniel fall to the ground in pain, holding onto his stomach in shock.
The man then crowds Daniel and begins beating on him senseless before exhaustion hits and he rushes back out the door. My heart breaks as blood begins to pool around Daniel. He struggles for a good minute as he tries to get his phone out of his pocket. He makes a call and moments later Nora comes running in.
Holy crap.
I wipe at my eyes as I try to pull it together. “Pull up the footage outside the bathroom. Maybe we see his face before he puts the mask on,” Trey suggests.
I do just that and see the man following him into the bathroom, but his head is down, knowing exactly how to avoid the cameras. I rewind hoping I can catch him off guard, but it’s no use, this guy knew what he was doing. In fact, I watch as the man follows Daniel for a good half an hour before the attack.
“I don’t get it. Why did Daniel get targeted? It clearly wasn’t random and Daniel doesn’t have any enemies,” Trey says. “There must be something we’re missing.”
“I know,” I agree in frustration.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he says, deflated. “The footage isn’t going to tell us anything else and those guys will realize Jacinta is faking it soon.”
“K,” I mumble. “One sec,” I say as I attach the footage in a new email and send it to myself before deleting any evidence that we were here. You know, apart from the two security guards who are tied to their chairs.
We rush back out into the main part of the mall and find Jacinta and Brax, still surrounded by men. Jacinta goes from holding her leg in pain to jumping up, giving her leg a wiggle and smiling as she informs everyone it suddenly feels better.
Brax’s eyes narrow in suspicion as he notices Trey and I approaching. The men around her all look on in confusion and Trey and I break into laughter at the comical scene playing out before us. Jacinta gives me a questioning look and I give her a quick shake of my head letting her know that we didn’t find what we were looking for, but I’ll give her all the details when we don’t have the tag-a-long.
“Alright, what the hell was that?” Brax asks as we all head to the food court, deciding we may as well get something to eat before security catches up to us and kicks us out.
“What do you mean?” I smirk.
He looks between us all, realizing none of us are going to talk. “Oh, come on,” he complains. “I can smell a scheme from a mile away.”
No one admits it, but all three of our smirks are confirmation enough.
Chapter 8
One more week to go and he is back.
The waiting is killing me and it’s not like we’ll actually get to be together when he’s here, but at least I’ll be able to see him every day.
I wonder how he’s going at Kaylee’s old place. What does he do with his days? Actually, stupid question. I’m sure his days are filled with nothing but training and researching new and improved ways to torture us.
Jacinta and I sit in the library late on Saturday afternoon as I finish off yet another assignment. A million down, a million more to go.
“What are we doing tonight?” she asks as we start packing up our books and pens.
“Well…,” I grin. “I sort of had an idea but we could get in heaps of trouble and we’ll need help.”
“What kind of idea?” she grins.
A few hours later, after night fall, we’re sneaking into the infirmary and creeping up the hallway. “You find a wheelchair,” I whisper to Jacinta, who’s looking around the room with wide eyes, petrified we’re going to get caught.
“Why do I have to find it?” she whispers back in horror.
“Because, I need to get Daniel and help him out of the bed. Unless… you want to help him? I mean, you’ll probably get trampled under his weight,” I tell her. “Oh, and I’m sure you’d love the job of helping him change.”
“Fine,” she grumbles as she steers off towards a storage room.
I continue tip toeing down the dimmed hallway until I get to Daniel’s door. I lightly knock before I push it open. His bruised face brightens at my appearance. “Hey, pretty girl,” he smiles. “What are you doing here so late?”
I don’t reply as I grin and produce a bag from behind my back and dump it onto his bed. He grabs the bag and quickly rifles through. “I should have known you’d try to break me out,” he sighs as he attempts to sit up while pressing a hand to his stab wound so he doesn’t break the stitches with his movements. “What’s the occasion? Millie has another secret boyfriend or do I need to go save your life again because in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not really in fighting condition here.”
“Shut up and get dressed,” I demand. “And no, I’ve haven’t been kidnapped r
ecently so we’re all good, and even if I had, you’d be fine, you’re totally milking it now,” I tease.
“Oh sure,” he laughs. “I’d like to see how you’d cope being stabbed in the gut.”
“I’d handle it like a champ,” I say as I grab the bag and help him get his shirt up over his head, earning myself a few inappropriate comments about my chest being right up in his face. “Glad you’re feeling your old self,” I grumble.
“You never told me where we’re going,” he asks as I help him with his pants, giving him, even more, ammo to work with.
“No, I didn’t and I have no intention of it either.”
The door opens and Jacinta backs into the room, pulling a wheelchair with her. Daniel gives her a grin when she finally gets the chair in the position she wants. “I had a feeling you’d be here somewhere,” Daniel says.
She gives him a bright smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good considering Bianca just dressed me even though I’m perfectly capable of it,” he smirks as his playful eyes flick towards me.
“What?” I shriek. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why would I?” he laughs.
I shake my head in exasperation as his eyes laugh at me in amusement.
“Where are we going, sis?” he asks, taking me by surprise as I still haven’t quite got used to the idea of these two being related, though, I should have, it was ages ago that we found out.
“Nope, don’t even try it,” Jacinta says as we begin helping him into the chair. “I’m assuming that since you don’t know, Bianca hasn’t told you on purpose and I’m more frightened of her than of you, so you’re just going to have to wait and find out.”
“Fine,” he groans as I stick my head out the door, making sure the coast is clear.
With a quick nod, Jacinta pushes Daniel through the doorway and gets the wheel stuck on the skirting. “Oomph,” Daniel groans, unintentionally making Jacinta feel like shit, though, I know he didn’t mean it and neither did she.
“Sorry,” Jacinta says with a frown. “This thing is hard to control.”
“I could push him,” I say with a wicked grin making them both narrow their eyes at me.
“That won’t be necessary,” Jacinta says
“Just a suggestion,” I chime as I peek around the corner to see a nurse walking our way. “Shit,” I whisper as I quickly glance around. “In here,” I push open a door to find a kid lying in bed with what looks like a broken arm staring up at me in shock. “Hey,” I whisper as Jacinta and Daniel quickly come in behind me. “How’s it going?”
“Uhhhh,” the kid says in confusion as Jacinta watches through the small window in the door.
“So, you broke your arm, hey?” I ask.
“Uhhhhhh, yeah,” he replies.
“We’re good,” Jacinta says and starts wheeling Daniel back out the door.
“Good luck with that,” I tell the kid, pointing towards his arm as I slip out the door behind Jacinta and gently close it behind me.
“So, how come you’re still in here if you’re feeling better?” Jacinta asks when we finally make it out of the infirmary.
“Dr. Mandoza doesn’t trust me not to train. This way she can keep an eye on me and knows I can’t make it worse, though, I bet she didn’t expect you two to break me out,” he grins.
“No, I bet she didn’t,” I grin.
We walk out past the training rooms, past the shooting range and past the very last building on campus. We walk the long way down towards the back of the academy’s boundary, partially because there’s a concrete path this way that makes it a hell of a lot easier to push Daniel. “I figured it out,” he says as Jacinta and I look down at him with raised eyebrows. “You’re the ones who planned the attack and now you’re taking me out to finish the job, probably somewhere that no one can hear my screams.”
Oh god.
“Stop trying to guess, you’ll find out soon anyway,” I tell him.
We end up far enough away from the academy that in the darkness, I have to pull out my phone to use the torch app. We end up in the back forest and stop right before a large clearing. Daniel looks up at me in confusion as I dash behind a tree, thankful that I found the one that I was at earlier in the day and grab the party hat that I had stashed here.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” I yell as I pop the hat on top of his head and burst a party popper. He looks at me as if I am crazy, then over to Jacinta who finds a power cord and flicks a switch. I push Daniel forward a little so he can see clearly into the clearing.
The whole space lights up with the fairy lights Trey was able to steal from the storage rooms. Music is turned on and the whole senior class stands before us calling out ‘surprise’.
Daniel looks up at me. “Shit. A party in the woods?” he asks in complete shock.
“Yep, you only turn 18 once. It’s also a makeup for missing Jacinta’s birthday,” I say, glancing up at her to find her smiling back at me.
“Thanks, Bianca,” he says taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. “I needed this.”
“Don’t thank me,” I say, motioning towards the whole senior class. “All I did was have the brilliant idea, everyone had a role to play and looks like they all managed to pull it together, after all, I only told them about three hours ago,” I laugh. “Though, Nora is the one who was running around like crazy making sure all the little things were thought of,” I say, seconds before she steps up to him and plants a massive kiss on his lips. “Ok then,” I say to myself as Daniel gets lost in the kiss. “I’ll be going.”
I dash deeper into the clearing and have a proper look around. The place is awesome and makes me wonder why the hell we have never partied here before. We’re far enough away from campus that we won’t be caught by teachers, even if they do discover we’re missing, they’ll never find us here, well, unless someone has the brains to follow the power cord that has been connected through the nearest window in the back of a store room somewhere, you know, with a million extensions added onto it.
The lights hang in the trees around and it’s utterly breath taking, the only thing missing, is Rylan.
I head over to the drinks table and pour myself an orange juice with a splash of vodka, pleased to see that nearly everyone must have brought a bottle of something. I find Jacinta moments later and pull her onto the makeshift dance floor.
Brax comes and joins us while Trey dances up on Jacinta getting a little too sexy for a dance floor, but I can’t find it in me to care. After all, each of us are well and truly drunk. Though, I’m not that drunk that I don’t notice Brax getting closer and closer, but I manage to continue dancing while cleverly shuffling away from him each time, well, at least, in my current state, I think it’s pretty clever.
Daniel sits in his chair in the middle of the dance floor, showing off to anyone and anything that will show him the attention he craves. I feel bad that with the pain meds he’s been given, he hasn’t been allowed to have a drink, but it hasn’t stopped him from having the best night.
I’m absolutely exhausted but I just don’t care. The party finished about an hour ago, but we all sit in the clearing, not ready for the night to end. I must admit, with Nora and Brax weaselling their way into our group, I actually seem to be enjoying their company.
We sit and chat for another hour before Jacinta starts being over taken by yawns. “I think I’ll take her to bed,” Trey says, getting to his feet and pulling his sleepy girlfriend up beside him.
“K,” we all say, getting to our feet as well.
“I’ll take Daniel back,” Nora says.
“Nah,” Daniel objects. “I can’t take another night in the infirmary, take me to your room. I’ll go back in the morning,” he says.
Nora looks concerned for a while, but I see the longing in her eyes and the need to spend the night with him, even if it is just holding each other while they sleep. I resist letting out a sigh. I know the feeling. “K,” she mumbles.
“I gues
s I’ll walk you back to your room,” Brax says to me as each couple takes off in their own directions.
“Oh,” I say, a little surprised. “Sure.”
We walk over to the power cords and flick off the fairy lights, convincing myself that I'll come back down in the morning to start cleaning up the mess. Once again, I flick the torch app open on my phone to help guide us through the woods.
Brax places his hand on my lower back to help, but both he and I know that with my training, I’m certainly in no need of any help when navigating the woods, especially woods that I’ve grown up in. “You look like you enjoyed your night,” he says.
“Yeah, I had a great night,” I say as I step slightly out of his reach. “It was exactly what I needed after the past few weeks,” I tell him honestly.
“Nah, what you need is something to help take your mind off it all,” he says with a flirty grin.
Ugh.
“No,” I laugh as we finally come out of the woods. “The last thing I need right now is a distraction.”
He lets out a deflated sigh. “I admire your dedication,” he says. “I don’t understand it though.”
“What’s there not to understand?” I ask.
“Why you’re working so hard? You’ve already caught up to everyone else and surely you’ve done more than enough in your school work to get a pass in all your classes.”
“True,” I say. “I just want to be the best version of myself. It’s kind of something I’m doing for my dad,” I explain.
“Oh, cool,” he says, completely not understanding why it is such a big deal, but I’m not about to explain it all to him.
After what feels like the longest walk known to man, we make it back to my window and he steps in close to me. “I don’t know what’s holding you back,” he says. “But you should know, I really like you, Bianca, and I’m not going to give in just yet.”
“Brax,” I sigh. “I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in you like that,” I say, feeling like the wicked witch of the west as his heart breaks in two before me.
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