I'll Protect You (Original Version)

We're star-crossed haters, Sunglass Dude and I.

"You are the not the boss of me!" I shouted, slamming my hands onto the table with such force that it rattled every container on the surface, causing them to sway and roll over.

"Future king," my father countered, jabbing a thumb in the direction of his chest.

"Future queen," I argued.

"Not for a long time," my father snapped, a smug sneer on his face as he realized he was winning the argument.

"Why not? It's not that dangerous!"

"Actually," Logan coughed from the sidelines. "Considering the fact there's someone in this town that wants to kill you, it's pretty dangerous." He was siding with my father on the fact that I should not be able to go to the mall with the Player Trio.

So it's been four days since that text message Alec received. And whoop-de-doo, I've been under house arrest for four days. Everone else has been hard at work at attempts to try and find the hidden assassin.

Zen has been hard work, spending all his free time on his super-technical, expensive, one-of-a-kind laptop (don't mind me, I'm just upset that I couldn't be using it myself to track the signal coming from the person who wants to kill me). However, Zen--Zen Li, the prodigy son of the one of the biggest software inventors in the world--could not hunt down the signal.

It did the same thing it had back in the summer. The signal jumped around the world, not even staying in one place for a fraction of a second. I sat there once, watching as Zen practically screamed at the signal to stay still.

But screaming at inanimate objects didn't really do anything.

Imagine if yelling and talking to things that aren't alive actually accomplished something. My life would become at least fifty times easier.

Meanwhile, during the moments of Zen shouting in both Korean and Japanese at his computer screen, Logan was with his father at my house. On the second day, I was bored and sat on the stairs. They asked for as many eyes trained on the city as possible. Every free agent was to be sent here, every available monitor was to be searching through Paradise's records and files. 

Most of the days that passed by slowly with me sitting in the kitchen with my father standing guard over me. Alec and Elijah had the fun job, doing rounds around the two, guns in their hands as they searched abandoned buildings for any suspects.

Today, someone (James Mayfield, to be exact) called and asked Alec and I to meet them at the small, outdoor town mall that was wildly popular. Mainly because it was the only place that kept up with New York City trends.

And that request landed me here, with my father and I locked in a  heated debate over the subject of me leaving the house.

"Did I ask?' I snarled at Logan, shooting him the most dangerous glare I could muster. He didn't quail, just like I expected he wouldn't. His golden eyes narrowed at my brown ones, warning me of the choice I wanted to make.

"It's just the mall. I know there's probably a sniper out there, aiming a bullet my face, but let's face it. They haven't been able to hit me once. What makes you think that they can do it now? When I have...." I raised my hand and counted the number of trained hitman in town with me. "When I have five trained agents in town."

"It's still too risky! You are not going!" my father argued. "Even Alec agrees with me!"

"What?" Alec coughed, clearly not paying attention to the argument. I knew though, that Alec wanted to stop searching and relax.

"No, Alec is on my side," I argued.

"Since when?" my father gasped, looking insulted. "Alec is on my team!"