Triton [hs au | completed]

35) Back Against the Wall

"Can someone call her job, someone who doesn't have an accent, and say she had to go out of town for a family emergency." I instruct. "I'll have someone bring you some cash."

"I'll do it." Michael volunteers. I nod to him and then pull my shirt on before walking out into the hall. I walk back down to her room and slowly open the door. She's asleep, with her head turned away from me. I walk up to her bed, but don't touch her. I'm scared of waking her up.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper. "All I wanted was to keep you safe and I failed. I'm going away now. I love you and I'm sorry." I feel the emotion building in my chest again. I quietly let myself out of her room, not wanting to wake her up.

As I turn to walk back to the exam room, I nearly collide with Michael.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"I have to be." I respond. He stand there for a minute, watching me. "Listen, thank you. Thank you for everything, she would be dead if it weren't for you. You've been there for me and I appreciate it more than you will ever know."

"It's no problem." he grins. "You better get out of here before Louis comes looking for you."

Twenty minutes later, I walk into the departures gate of John F Kennedy International Airport. Louis and Keith are at the ticket counter talking with the ticket agent. Perrie motions for me to come over to here.

"Here, " she passes me a large duffle bag. "You should probably change." she motions towards the bullet hole in my pants.

"Where are we going?" I ask as I take the bag from her.

"London. We thought it best we get out of here until we have a plan."

"Who is going?"

"Us, Zayn, Keith, Niall, Louis, Preston and Paul."

"Why me?" I ask. There are other members with higher rankings that would need to be protected more than I do.

"Louis requested you for his security detail."

I take the bag from her and change in the bathroom. I meet them in the security queue a few minutes later. Once we're through security, we board a private plane for London.

The next three days are a blur of meetings and dinners with the London chapter members. The Atlantic City chapter is in shambles and no closer to identifying Bernard. It's agreed upon that we will return the Atlantic City the following day as Louis' absence could be seen as a sign of weakness.

I'm sat at a long conference table with other members going over our travel plans for our return trip when I feel my phone vibrating. No one has called or text me the entire time I've been here. I pull it out of my pocket and glance at the caller ID under the table. Unknown number. I rise from the table and walk to the back of the room. Everyone else is engaged in a heated discussion about whether we should fly private or commercial.

"Styles?" I answer.

"I want you to listen to everything I have to say and only speak when I tell you to." a rough voice on the line demands. "Say 'yes' if you understand."

"Yes." I respond as I walk out into the hallway, out of earshot of everyone else. What the hell is this?

"You're due to land in Atlantic City tomorrow at four o'clock tomorrow morning. As soon as you land you're going to find your way to Louis' office and locate an external hard drive. He keeps it in the safe under his desk. You will need to to retrieve the keys from the chain he wears around his neck to unlock the safe. You have twenty four hours from the time your flight lands to deliver them to the warehouse where the wedding took place." the voice demands. I lean back and glance into the other room making sure no one is looking for me.

"You might be asking yourself why you would agree to do this. You're going to do this for me because I have something you want."

There's a shuffling on the line before someone speaks again.

"Harry?" her voice makes my blood run cold.

"Arden? Are you okay?" I frantically speak into the receiver, trying to keep my voice down. There is some static and shuffling on the line before the voice returns.

"You tell anyone about this, she dies. You're a minute late, she dies. Do you understand?"

"Yes." I growl into the line.

"Good." the voice replies before the line goes dead.

A.N. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up today.

It will answer a lot of questions :)