"How do you even- oh god." Luke places his hand on his forehead in a stressed manner. "Okay, it's okay, it's okay."
"I feel like you're trying to reassure yourself more than me." I grab the duffle bag and walk to the kitchen, turning the light on and setting it onto the island. "When we were there, I found these."
I pull the book and the file out of the bag and place them onto the island, sliding them to Luke. "He was watching my every move. The file has all of our information."
"Our?!" Luke grabs the file and opens it. "This has stuff about all of us, including our families."
"Yeah, he was a sick and twisted man. I don't know what to do." I shake my head, pulling my gloves off of my hands.
"I'll go wake Calum up and ask him what to do." Luke sets the file down and I furrow my eyebrows, causing him to speak again. "Calum knows more about this than any of us, trust me."
I roll my eyes as he leaves the room and look at Ashton as he opens his mouth to speak.
"You have to-"
"I'm not telling Koleton until he asks." I stop him from finishing his sentence. "He already has enough on his plate."
"Oh yeah, like what? Being in love with-"
Before he can finish his sentence, quick stomps can be heard coming from the stairwell as if a stampede is coming through the house.
"Where is she?!" An exhausted-looking Calum runs into the kitchen frantically before his eyes land on me. "Oh my- are you okay? Come here."
He pulls me into a tight hug that's full of worry, and another emotion I can't recognize.
"Where is she?" I hear a female voice say and it causes my heart to sink. Not this bitch again.
We pull away from the hug and I look at the door way to see Hailey standing next to Luke. She looks at me and gives me a small smile.
I move past Calum calmly, all of them watching me as I approach her. I reel my fist back and nearly hit her dead in the jaw until I stop myself.
"Hailey, I'm sure you're a great person and in another life we would be amazing friends, but right now I need you to leave." I grab her arm and push her out of the house. "Have a good night."
I walk back into the kitchen and see Calum nervously biting his cheek.
"She wasn't in his room." Luke quickly reassures me. "She sleeps in the guest bedroom. I told Calum about everything when she was in the bathroom without me knowing, and the bathroom is next to Cal's room so she heard him run out of his room."
"I believe you, but right now we need to find out how to solve this situation." I whisper, feeling a bit at peace with his reassurance.
They all nod as they look around at each other and down at the island as Ashton speaks up. "Where do we start?"
———
We have been standing around the island all night, trying to piece everything together.
All the way from the source that my father was receiving the information to the reason he wanted it in the first place.
We nearly have it all put together when someone knocks on the door loudly. My eyes widen as we all begin to panic, rushing to shove everything back into the duffle bag.
"I'll go get the door." Luke hurriedly whispers. "You guys go act natural."
Ashton, Calum and I run into the living room as Luke tosses the duffle bag into the hall closet on his way to the door.
Calum and Ashton collapse onto the couch on either side of me as my heart beats out of my chest, listening to the conversation Luke is having at the door.
"Koleton! What a coincidence you're here, we were just-" Luke attempts to make small talk when the front door slams.
"Where the hell is she?" Koleton angrily walks into the living room, his eyes landing on me. "Get up."
"Koleton, hey..." I stand up, scared of what he'll do to the guys. "Before you do something irrational, I just want you to know how you're my favourite bodyguard."
He walks around the couch as Calum stands up, approaching my side with his fists clenched.
"Margo, do you know how fucking scared I was when I woke up and you were gone?" Koleton hisses as Calum protectively steps between us. "Oh come on, Calum. Stop fucking trying to protect her like she's a child."
"Yeah, because you're one to fucking talk about protecting her. Who allowed her to sneak out in the middle of the night?" Calum snaps back and I grab his arm gently.
"Calum, please don't do this." I whisper, but Koleton steps closer towards the two of us.
"I didn't fucking let her go, but while we're on the topic of letting her go, how about we talk about you leaving her for some bitch named Hailey?" Koleton laughs, causing me to step between them.
"Can the two of you please stop? I don't want you guys getting hurt." I attempt to push them apart and neither of them budge.
"I'm not going to hit him, Margo. I'm not that fucking stupid." Calum states calmly as I watch the scene unfold in front of me. "I can't say the same for this bimbo though."
As soon as Ashton and Luke finally step in, Koleton swings at Calum's head and his arm hits the top of my head.
"Koleton!" I scream, falling to the floor as Calum stumbles backwards. Luke and Ashton grab Koleton and pull him out of the living room as I grab Calum and hold his shoulders with all of my strength. "Calum, Calum don't!"
"Did he hit you? I'm going to fucking kill him!" Calum yells, trying to push past me.
"No! I'm okay, Calum! Look at me, I'm okay! Calum please!" My cries finally get him to look down at me, his expression immediately softening. "Please, let me take you upstairs and treat the place that he hit you before it gets bad."
He eventually nods and places his hand into mine, allowing me to lead him up the stairs. I walk into the bathroom and grab the first aid kit from under the sink as he closes the bathroom door. "Close the toilet seat and sit down please."
He does exactly what I ask him to, without argument or hesitation. "Thank you."
I run warm water over a rag, turning off the water before ringing it out and stepping towards him. I nudge his legs apart gently and he allows me to stand between them and begin dabbing the blood away from the wound.
"Did you get burnt?" He asks quietly and I shake my head, chewing on the inside of my lip.
"You should've called me." He whispers and I try not to react. "I would've been able to help more than Ashton."
"I know, but I didn't think we were on good terms." I whisper and he tilts his head farther up to get a better look at me.
"Even if we are on the other side of the world from each other, fighting about who is in the wrong, if you're hurt I'll catch the first flight to come help you." He reassures me, rubbing my thigh gently.
"I know, I just don't like bothering people." I whisper, trying not to react to his words in any drastic ways. "Especially not you."
"You don't bother me. I-"
Without allowing him to finish, I sigh loudly and pull away from him with a smile. "All done. I have to go home now because it's seven in the morning and I need to be at a meeting by nine."
I leave the bathroom and don't bother waiting for him before walking down the stairs.
I enter the living room to see Luke and Ashton talking quietly. My sudden press makes them stop talking and turn to look at me.
"Koleton is in love with you?" Luke states loudly and I hurriedly hush him, shooting a glare towards Ashton.
"Remind me to never tell you shit." I snap and he opens his mouth to argue.
"Yeah because I knew he was going to mention it to you." He frowns as I approach the two of them, looking over to Luke.
"Since when did this happen?" Luke asks and I shrug, honestly not knowing.
"I don't know, he told me a day ago and then he pulled the stunt today." I let out an exhausted sigh as I attempt to explain the spider web of events.
"Well, how do you feel about him?" Luke raises one of his eyebrows and I look up at him with a confused expression.
"I don't know."
"And how do you feel about Calum?" He asks the same question, but this time with a different name and my stomach does a full somersault.
"I don't know." I croak, nearly choking on my words.
"You're leading them on, Margo." Ashton finally steps in and I snap my head in his direction.
"I spent the last few months in Australia watching Calum flirt with me and countless other girls, but I'm the one leading him on? I watched Calum choose Hailey over me, but I'm leading him on? I had to spend an entire two weeks with Koleton's family while they called me his girlfriend and he didn't argue with them about it, but I'm leading him on?" I step towards him and he backs away quickly. "Yeah, you sound real fucking smart, Sherlock."
I walk away from them and into the hallway next to the front door, opening the closet to grab my duffle bag. I sling it over my shoulder angrily as they enter the hallway.
"Margo, that's not what he meant-" Luke tries to reason with me, punching Ashton in the arm.
"Shut the hell up, Luke. For once I just want you guys to stop being so fucking misogynistic and realize I'm not always the bad guy." I grab my gun off of the counter and slide it into my waist-band. "Yes, I left Calum, but I gave him a valid reason. Yes, I'm confused about my feelings I have for the two of them, but I'm young. That's normal for people my age."
I turn to look at them, anger and irritation coursing through my veins. "Now stop looking at me as if I'm going to light the two of you on fire next."
I step towards the front door and swing it open to see a black car with tinted windows parked outside the house. "Who the fuck is that?"
I stare at the car as the driver door swings open, revealing a tall man as two others step out from the other side. I immediately get a bad feeling about their presence.
I notice the first one pull a walkie talkie out of his pocket and nod towards me, mumbling something into it. Oh no.
"Get down." I slam the door as they pull out their guns and quicken their pace.
"What? Why are we-" Ashton frowns as I grab his and Luke's heads, pulling them to the ground.
"Ashton, shut the fuck up and listen to me." I whisper-yell, locking the front door as if it'll do something. "We have to get to my house, it has bullet-proof windows that I had custom made."
"Are they going to kill us?" Ashton gasps and Luke smacks his hand over his face.
"Not if you do as I say. Now take the duffle bag and follow me." I slide the duffle bag towards him and pull out my gun. "You two go up the stairs first, I'll follow."
"No, I'll follow the two of you guys." Luke argues and I roll my eyes.
"Fine, but we need to hurry up." I nod, still whispering when gunshots begin to ring through the house along with the sound of glass shattering.
"Now!"