The forest grows darker as a silence falls over us.
Bring the girl or consider her life always at risk.
The words bounce in my head and I glance towards Zeke. He is already looking at me, watching my face.
I try to smile. "It's okay." My voice shakes slightly but I hold it together. "I've always liked being badass."
Zeke shakes his head. "You're not coming."
"But if I don't then I'll always be in danger!" I claim and move closer to him, wincing slightly as I do so. "We both go in and we stick together."
He looks at me for a moment like he's weighing his options. "Everyone in the car. We're leaving."
Baz and Mace stare at the ground and follow his orders. I roll my eyes.
*^*^*
We get back to the motel late at night and I go straight to my room.
What is Zeke playing at? I'm not going to let him go in there on his own! And anyway I have to go so what are we really debating here?
I understand that he needs to sort the feud out between him and Mace's Uncle but I can't let him get hurt.
There, I said it.
This crush is growing into something too strong...
It's just that he's so handsome and caring... I love his eyes– they're lapis and silver and every other intriguing colour in the galaxy. He hides so many secrets behind his eyes, yet they always seem to clear when he looks at me. If only he knew how I feel then I could either just kiss his face off if he feels the same way or think of him on an entirely friendly basis if he doesn't.
Although that's probably how I should be thinking now...
There is a knock on the door, interrupting me as I shrug on a crop top absentmindedly and think about examining my bandage.
"Hey." Zeke murmurs as I slowly open the door, still nervous of anyone coming for me.
"Hi." I say unsteadily.
There is a silence for a few seconds as I make no move to let him in and he shows no sign of wanting to. "
You busy?" He finally sighs and itches the back of his neck.
"I was just about to check my bandage." I shrug.
"You can never trust Mace." Zeke chuckles slightly before his eyes drop to my injury. "You want me to?"
I feel insecure with his eyes scanning my body but shrug it off. "Er, thanks."
I let him into my tiny room which became privately mine since I got stabbed and everyone complained that I moaned too much.
I unwrap the bandage from my stomach and Zeke draws his breath in. "This is bad. Worse than that time I got stabbed."
"You did?" I frown and wince at the same time as his cold hands brush my skin.
"Complicated." He shrugs.
I fall silent as he slowly wraps the bandage back around my body neater than before, his breath fanning my face as his trained eyes concentrate on helping me. I can't help but watch him now that his face is only a few inches away from mine and wonder how I managed to become close to such an intimidatingly handsome guy. His dark hair and lapis eyes draw in any girl and somehow I'm falling like every other. He's a chick magnet, but I'm the ugly duckling who doesn't deserve someone so... so beautiful.
Yes I did just call a guy beautiful, but I mean it. He's all those words mixed together. He's beautiful where as, for example, Mace and Baz are fit. See what I mean? Zeke has a mystery about him, like something is hidden that he is strongly protecting... and I really want to find out what it is.
Once he has done he is about to turn away when I reach out and take his hand in mine, making his eyes linger on my face. I can tell what he wants to do.
"Don't go." I whisper.
He purposely misunderstands. "I need to sleep, so do you."
"You know what I mean." I look at him and touch his cheek so that he is aware of how much I mean what I'm saying. He tilts his head and leans against my palm with closed eyes, as though nestling into its warmth. "Don't turn yourself in to Mace's Uncle. If you go without me and I loose you... we have to go together."
"I can kill him." Zeke's voice grows with frustration. "If you come you'll only get hurt," His eyes dart towards my stomach again before he whispers, "and you're already hurt because of me."
"No, you saved me." I speak softly. "Without you I would have been injured worse or even..." I stop myself again, not wanting to finish the sentence. "We both go, and that means leaving no one behind."
"But you're injured." His eyes stare into mine like all the answers are hidden under my long lashes.
They're not, by the way. I don't know what he's doing but he looks cute when he's concentrating so I don't mind his fixated gaze.
"My injury will heal, but if you died there would be a lot more pain for all of us." His eyes close and he sighs as I come closer. "Don't go, please, just wait."
His eyes slowly open and he sighs. "I won't go if you won't either."
Why does he always read my mind?
I sigh and look away, making Zeke's eyebrows furrow. "You were going to go, weren't you?" His voice raises angrily. "You were going to leave me and go alone to face the guy who has already had you stabbed and will probably kill you! And just to make a deal to save me? What the hell were you thinking, Hayley? You would've been killed!" I feel his anger radiate through me and fear brushes my insides although somehow adrenaline makes me feel stronger as I look at him.
"But so would you be!" I shout back defensively and realise that I never really thought through what I would have actually done once I got there.
He starts walking away from me, fury in his strides as he paces backwards and forwards in my tiny room with a frustrated yet determined face. I stand, withering, as his figure blurs and distorts in front of my eyes.
Stop crying Hayley!
Slowly he comes to a stop and faces the wall, away from me.
"Neither of us go." He says quietly and I sigh in relief, though a smile never tempts my lips.
I'm about to reach out when I feel a familiar pain in my side, making my knees want to give in. Zeke is quick to support me with an arm around my waist. He slides his other arm under my legs and and carries me to my bed to lie me down. Once my head has hit the pillow and my body is straight I try to relax, hoping the pain will fade.
"Neither of us go then?" I whisper, my voice barely audible.
Zeke strokes the back of my hand gently which is actually strangely therapeutic. "No one's going anywhere." He soothes and brushes my hair away from my face.
He is about to leave when my grip tightens on his hand even though my eyes are gradually closing, now only slits like a snake eyeing its prey.
"Stay with me." I whisper as sleep takes me away and my eyes close.
Zeke smiles. "'Cause you're all I need." He whispers back before lying on top of the sheets next to me. "Nah, I knew you would want me in your bed eventually."
I only show a small smirk as I'm too lost in my own black oblivion to reply.
Sleep is like a drug, I'll never get enough of it.
*^*^*
I slowly open my eyes to the early morning light. My body is in a comfortable position diagonally across the bed and I stroke my wavy hair out of my face. I yawn before swinging my legs over the side of my bed, changing my baggy clothes for more of a stylish look, and heading outside.
Rebecca immediately throws her arms around my neck. "Are you okay? I heard about yesterday!"
I hug her back tightly. "I'm so glad you're here."
I notice Mace out of the corner of my eye, fidgeting and avoiding eye contact.
My stomach drops as I realise who's missing.
"Mace... where's Zeke?" My voice comes out cold and deadly as I glare him down.
"I'm sorry Hayley." He mumbles, still not looking me in the eye, but that was enough of an answer.
My jaw clenches as I unlock Mace's car.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca calls after me but my heart is set in stone.
"I'm gong to find him." I speak defiantly and watch as Mace comes running towards the passenger seat. "No, you need to stay with Rebecca." I tell him.
"You can't go alone. The others will arrive soon- Miles, Foster, James... why don't you wait for them?" Mace murmurs as he looks at me through the side window, a face full of longing. I know that Zeke probably instructed him to try and stop me if I tried to leave.
"Precisely." A voice speaks matter-of-factly and we all turn to see Baz. "She can't go alone, so I'll go with her."
He climbs into the seat next to mine and everyone looks at him with awe filled, shocked expressions. Except I'm horrified too, but you know.
"Baz, mate, you don't have to do that." Mace warns.
"She's going to go either way so I may as well come." Baz speaks, and as that is a rare thing in itself it seems to shut Mace up.
"It's on the North Side, the Miroir Building." He admits finally and Baz nods. "And um... break my Uncle's face, you know, as an early Christmas present from me."
A sly smile crosses Baz's expression. "When would I ever not?"
I don't even wait to say goodbye, just drive at full speed in which ever direction Baz tells me. Well he doesn't really talk, just points and grunts although I'm kind of getting used to it now. He does annoyed grunting and tired grunting, bored grunting and 'I am not entertained what am I doing with my life, why am I talking to you' grunting every time I speak to him.
We arrive at the Miroir Building late in the morning and I'm just about to race in blindly when Baz grabs my arm.
"You need a plan." He speaks seriously before nodding his head towards the main doors of the building. Four body guards stand rigidly with some sort of gun by their hip. I hadn't noticed them. "You can't just run in there, they won't let you in."
I frown as I think. "Is there a back way in?"
"This place is used for lectures and fashion shows." Baz speaks with a slick smirk. "There's always a back way in."
He leads me round the side to a fire exit. Baz breaks it down and we enter the Miroir building in our amazing disguises– jeans and hoodies.
We enter a corridor made up of pure white and nothing else, where only two women stand around talking, one behind the receptionist's desk and the other looking judgementally at her from the other side.
"Mr Nichilo requested three men to his office." We hear the voice of the blonde woman wearing a pristine white suit and a tight snowy pencil skirt. Baz and I duck behind the receptionist's desk.
"But the shoot will need them, ma'am." The receptionist speaks quickly and I try to dodge her chair as she stands up. Why is being an undercover agent hiding behind a reception desk in the middle of a huge organisation's leading building full of bodyguards and a man who tried to kill me so hard?
"He said it's urgent." The blonde continues before writing something on a note and passing it to the secretary who files it immediately.
"I shall send a message after your meeting telling them to report immediately." She says politely before tapping her tablet.
"Miss Withers," her boss speaks sharply. "Mr Nichilo requested men urgently so I will supply them. Send three agents to him now or fear for your job, okay?"
The secretary bows her head as her boss walks on. "Of course, ma'am."
"Good." The blonde says sternly. "And Miss Withers?"
The receptionist looks up sharply. "Yes?"
"Change your name tag." Her boss taps the plastic attached to her grey suit. "I do not call you Beatrice, only Miss Withers, do you understand?"
The woman I now know to be Beatrice stutters as she peers through her thin glasses. "But— but I wasn't the one who made it."
"And it was unfortunate that your mother made you but we can't blame her for her mistake can we?" Her Boss speaks cruelly and my mouth opens to speak up but is stopped with Baz's subtle shake of his head. Miss Withers seems to be shocked too and doesn't object as her boss sends her a fake smile. "Only joking. But still... change it."
The blonde then walks off, her stilettos tapping against the marble floor.
I assess my surroundings- a modern building with only white slabs and glass panels. There are about ten people in the room opposite, all working at desks and tapping on computers. We are only in a corridor, luckily, and the receptionist is the only one here, sitting at her high desk at the back of the foyer as she taps on her computer and rummages through some important papers.
And then here I am, hiding under her desk with the guy who I swear literally hates me so that I can hopefully save my hot jerk of a friend. I may sound great and heroic, but I'm not really feeling it as my face presses closer towards the receptionist's smelly feet.
*^*^*
Baz's POV
Three minutes later I standup and walk to the other side of the receptionists desk to face her. She's pretty, I guess.
"Excuse me, do you know where Mr Nichilo's office is?" I ask, trying to sound as confident as Mace would be in this situation– not that I look up to him. He isn't as big as me and doesn't have my muscles 'cause these babies are rock hard.
Miss Withers looks me up and down. "I'm sorry but only authorised people are allowed Upstairs. Maybe you should try the main entrance like all the other desperate common folk."
Bitch.
"I could report you." I speak casually and look around before whispering with a cocky smile. "I am Mr Nichilo's nephew."
The receptionist's mouth hangs half open as she continues to stare at me with wide eyes.
"Mr Nichilo is my Uncle." I try again but receive no response as she is frozen in a horrified expression. Yes woman you did just speak like that to your future boss. "Are you too much of a desperate common person to understand?" I snap, breaking her trance.
"I'm so sorry, sir, I'll call for someone to take you up there." She reaches for the phone but I quickly stop her.
"No!" I almost yell and she frowns. "I mean no... that's not necessary. Just tell me where the lifts are, I want to surprise him."
By punching his face.
"Of course, right this way." Miss Withers speaks quickly and almost bows as I walk confidently past her. "Just behind you, sir. They're in the next room."
"Thank you, I shall have your name pardoned from the firing list." She smiles in gratitude at me but I'm too tempted. "For a while." I add and watch as her face pales so that she matches her suit. I turn away, a triumphant smirk tampering with my lips.
*^*^*
Hayley's POV
I feel the guard grip my shoulder roughly as he guides me through the front doors of the Miroir building like it's a fortress. I don't know how Baz is doing with the plan, but I sure hope it works.
We walk past the receptionist again and I shudder at the thought of her smelly feet. "What's going on?" She asks and I see a strange blush on her cheeks.
The body guard to my left goes a bit closer to her. "Don't worry Bee, we just have a situation."
Beatrice smiles slightly. "Okay Jason." She blushes timidly.
I ship them.
The next thing I know the other guard pushes my head down and guides me into the lift. It travels upwards for what feels like forever until eventually we get off at the 95th floor, which happens to be the roof.
The wind howls around the tower but up here it seems calm. The rest of the Miroir building seems quiet, like I never broke in and all the people in it are as innocent as tooth fairies.
Jason pushes the door open to a huge office. It has huge windows covering one side which look out onto the beautiful gardens hidden from onlookers below.
It's there that I see a handsome man aged by laborious time sitting smugly behind his desk. He's talking on the phone but grins like a lunatic when he sees me. He would seem like a likeable character, if he hadn't told someone to stab me yesterday.
"Miss O'Sullivan, welcome!" He goes to kiss my hand but I swiftly pull away. His fake smile sticks to his face like a clown incapable of being sad. "I'm Bill Nichilo, take a seat Hayley." He speaks and gestures across his desk.
I sit uncomfortably in his expensive chair. Everything in his office is modern and clean, and it slightly creeps me out.
"Where's Zeke?" I try to be polite but it comes out more venomous than I intended.
"Lover boy? I was surprised he didn't bring you with him... instead he chose to endanger your life forever..." Mr Nichilo smirks as I avoid eye contact. "And may I ask, Miss O'Sullivan, what you would have done once I told you where Zeke is, hm? He killed my son, do you really think I will let him get away with that?"
My mouth opens but I can barely speak. "Zeke killed your... your son?"