ESCAPE

Chapter 40

ZAYN

I smiled wryly at Valentina who clearly looked confused at my sudden appearance.

'Here, let me help you', I said and lifted her to her feet.

She gave me a quick hug and then tugged at my arm.

Now doesn't this seem familiar?

'What's wrong? Are you in trouble?', I asked and she nodded.

It was then that I noticed the bruise on her cheek, messed up hair and dirt covered clothes.

We seriously have to stop meeting like this.

'Who did this to you?', I asked unable to believe that she had just been attacked but she kept pulling me and I decided it would be best if I ran with her.

'Where is everyone? Where's security?', I asked but she shook her head at me.

'Val wait', I said and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop and as she faced me I noticed the tears in her eyes laced with fear.

'Val, are you being chased again?', I asked praying that it was not the reason.

'There you are', said a voice from behind us and she let out a scream.

I turned around to find a member of our security but he wasn't a regular face and strangely, I felt like I had seen him before.

'It's a good thing we found you, everyone is worried', he said and Val took a step back but I held her securely behind me.

'Yeah, well we're safe', I said trying to remember who he was.

'Paul wants the girl', he said.

'Well you can tell Paul that she's with me', I said daring him to take a step forward.

This man was a foot taller than me and seriously built. I knew that I didn't stand a chance against him, but I couldn't let him anywhere near Valentina.

'Come on man, don't be difficult', he said with a forced laughed.

'Well as One Direction security, you should know we're anything but easy', I said in mock tone and I could tell he was starting to fume.

Valentina whimpered behind me as she held onto my jacket and I wrapped my arm even more tightly around her, suddenly it struck me.

'You're the guy who chased her that night', I said.

'Yeah and you're the bastard who took her from us. Now give her back', he spat coming up to us and I felt my hands ball up into fists but if I attacked him now, it wouldn't end well for anyone.

'She doesn't belong to you!', I shouted hoping to get the crowd to notice that something unusual was happening.

'Boy you don't know what you're up against', he growled.

'Oh yeah? Try me', I dared as I held her closer.

'Fine by me', he said and before I knew it, I was at gun point.

That got the attention of the crowd because they started to scream and panic.

'Hand her over, or you die', he said.

I could feel Valentina try to come forward but I kept her behind me, there was no chance that I would let her come front.

'No', I said firmly, looking straight into his eyes.

He didn't scare me.

If this were a year ago, maybe yeah I would have run but being with Nova taught me quite a few things about being at gun point.

Rule number one, don't make your moves obvious and I was planning on pushing Val into the crowd as soon as he pulled the trigger but her struggling was making it quite difficult.

The man then sighed and clicked his gun, 'Shame, I heard that you had a great voice'.

I gulped as I watched him aim at my head but before I knew it, a loud clang was heard and Valentina pushed me to the ground behind her as a gunshot rang through the sky.

It was chaos as I opened my eyes watching people run around in fright but in the midst of all that, stood a very pleased Louis holding a what looked like a deformed pail.

'Oi Oi', he said looking down at me and I noticed that the man lay unconscious at his feet.

I slowly got up holding my head, trying to register what had just happened.

'Did you just-'

'Knock out a man twice my size with a milk pail?', he asked and took a look at his so called weapon.

'Yeah, seems so', he said and flipped his hair back with a smirk.

'Good to see you mate', I said as he pulled me in for a hug.

'I'm just glad that you're okay', he said and I shook my head in disbelief.

'Wait, where's Val?', I asked suddenly remembering how she pushed me out of the way.

'ZAYN!' 'LOUIS!'

I turned to find our crew along with Paul who looked like he had a heart attack.

'Are you alright?', he asked holding me by my shoulders.

'Yeah but Val', I said and turned to find that Louis had disappeared but then,

'HELP! WE NEED HELP!', cried his voice somewhere to the side.

I could hear his voice full of fear as he said, 'Don't close your eyes Val! Do you hear me?! Stay with me!'

Of all the déjà vu that was happening today, life couldn't have chosen an even more fucked up moment than this; Valentina in Louis arms, with her hands clutching a bleeding abdomen.