A/n: I got overly excited about being so close to finishing my story. One more chapter and that's it. Just wrapping up a few loose ends Epilogue style. And you all just went crazy with the likes on the last chapter, though I'm partly convinced it's just because I gave you a shot recipe. ;p Anyway all you lovely readers, here's Chapter 24, waaaaaay early and not edited at all. If you see something, let me know. I may or may not bother editing it! LOL. Also, it is a little shorter than some of my other chapters, but it certainly doesn't lack in excitement... at least I think it's exciting.
Luke's POV
"Luke," Victor says gently in my ear so as to not startle me, "we have a problem." I roll my eyes. When don't we have a problem? I mean, Cupcake is in the viper's nest surrounded by guys who want to do nothing but drug her and rape her and the only thing preventing her from leaving is getting this damned documentation downloaded. She really came through for us by getting that Trevor guy to go all gabby and gloat about the fact that Candy's dad kept all the records on his computer here in his office for them. I mean, how stupid do you have to be to flat out admit to that to someone you don't know? I swear, these guys are definitely not criminal masterminds.
"Is someone coming up to the office? That's the only problem I care about right now." I whisper my response in case someone is, in fact, in the hall.
"It's Sang." Those two words make my blood run cold.
"Talk to me, Vic. Don't leave me hanging buddy." I prompt him to continue.
"North and Haru accidently roofied Sang." What? I didn't possibly hear that correctly. I sat up and looked directly at the camera we had hidden in this office just hours earlier and raised my eyebrow, knowing Victor could see me clearly.
"Can you please repeat that Victor? I thought you said my dearest younger brother and Haru roofied Sang."
"That is what I said." Frustration and panic leaking into his voice.
"What's the plan now?" My mind automatically started going through all of the possible exits, noting every feasible escape we could make, carrying Sang, who wasn't going to be any help to us now.
"Sean and Marc will be waiting by the back gate in one of our SUVs to rush her to the Academy Hospital. You, North, Haru and Jimmy need to figure out how to get out of the house with her and to that back gate without being detected. The other three are currently being lead to the room where they keep the girls. We're going to hope it's a guest bedroom on the main floor. But I won't know what security systems to turn off until we know where they plan on holding her." I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. If I knew North, he was already beating himself up pretty badly for allowing this to happen. I'll be lucky if he doesn't stop talking again and hole himself away. And, oh gawd, how is Sang ever going to trust us again after we drugged her?
"Does she know?" I ask Victor, my voice still quiet as I finish up transfering all the files to the portable drive he gave me.
"Corey relayed the information to her as soon as we were made aware of the issue. The cups were mixed up and so no one knew for sure if she actually got the drugged drink or not. But, before anyone could say anything, she had already drank enough to potentially affect her. Her drink was supposed to be safe so she didn't even hesitate when Jimmy handed it to her."
"Why did they even risk it? Why not just dump it down the sink or something? What were they thinking actually drugging one of the drinks?" It sounded like a stupid risk to run.
"I think North thought he might be able to drug some of the other guys by letting them taste his drink and slowing down or limiting the number of people coming after them when they made a run for it." That made a little more sense, but it's not the direction I would have gone with it. Too much could have gone wrong keeping one of the cups drugged, and it did. But, there was nothing we could do about it now. Cupcake needed us, and we would move mountains to make sure she was safe.
"Okay, we're done here Victor. I've got everything moved over for you onto the drive. Just tell me where to go and we'll get Sang out of here as soon as possible."
"I'm waiting for them to reach their destination. It sounds like they are moving her into the basement." Crap. This place had a basement? I don't remember seeing any windows or doors that lead to a basement. This night kept getting worse and worse. Everytime we thought we were in the clear, fate had to throw a wrench into our plans. "Confirmed." Victor said over the comlink. "They are in a room in the basement. There's a bed with restraints and an attached bathroom. There is a small window in the room, but it doesn't look like it opens. You may have to break it and crawl through. I can disengage the window alarms on that side of the house. Luckily, it's away from everyone else partying in the living room. Take the back stairs to the kitchen. Instead of heading out the back door, take a right and in that hallway is a door to the basement. It is camouflaged. There is a painting of a field of flowers hanging on the door. That's what was relayed to us once North and the other two were left alone with Sang. You don't have much time. Someone is going to check in on them in about twenty minutes." I nodded understanding, knowing he could seem me on the camera and slipped out of the office and down the back steps.
It took a minute or two, but I located the door, got it opened and slipped in before anyone noticed me. I didn't make a sound as I closed the door behind me and crept down the steps, not sure of what I would come across. There was a short, dark hallway at the bottom of the steps with one door in it. That must be where Sang was being kept. I couldn't hear anything inside when I pressed my ear to the door so I took a deep breath and tapped randomly, hoping I had the right room. This was going to get messy, quickly, if I was in the wrong spot. The door opened slowly, revealing my baby brother's brown eyes. They widened for a moment in surprise before he stepped back, opening the door wide enough for me to slide in.
Jimmy was pacing near the end of the bed, running his hands through his hair absently. Haru was leaned against a wall near the head of the bed, his head hanging down in defeat, shoulders hunched forward with his arms crossed across his chest. Neither looked up to acknowledge me as I stepped in. North's eyes held chocolate storms, his fists clenching and unclenching at his side as he sat on the edge of the bed where Sang was laying. The tension in the room was suffocating. I saw the window Victor mentioned to me, I walked up to it and looked out. At least there was some luck on our side. It faced the rear of the property and was disguised by a row of bushes about three feet from the side of the house. That would give us enough room to crawl out and drag sang through the window, while allowing us some cover from anyone who might be out there. She would fit, but It was going to be tight for me and Haru. There was no way North and Jimmy were getting out through that thing. At least the back door was right by the basement stairs. They could probably slip up through the hall and out to the back of the house before anyone realized they were gone.
"Alright boys, here's the new and improved plan." I started, getting everyone else's attention. "We are going to break that window. Haru is going to climb up through it and is going to help pull sang through, making sure we don't cut her up all over the broken glass. Then, I'm going to follow them through the window. North, you and Jimmy are just going to waltz right out the back door, waltz quietly though. Meet us behind the bushes and we'll give Victor or Corey the signal to cut the power, this will disengage those back gates and shut down all the security cameras between here and there. We're going to have to be quick and quiet. Think you all can do that? Cause I want to get Cupcake and myself the hell away from this place." I met determined stares from all three of them. Then nodded once in agreement and we started to move as a unit.
North gently picked up Sang off the bed and laid her in the bathroom where she'd be out of the way. We took down the shower rod and used it to bust through the glass of the window after Corey shut down the security for all the windows and doors on this side of the house. The system still showed everything as operational, but no alarms would go off if the perimeter was breached. We removed the glass from the window frame as thoroughly as possible. Before laying a blanket from the bed down over the window sill and over the glass on the ground. This would help ensure no one was gravely wounded in this portion of our escape plan.
"Luke, you and Haru should climb through first and Jimmy and I will pass Sang up to you. It will be easier to get her out with the extra hands up top." North pointed out once Haru had wiggled his way through the small opening. It would be faster if him and I were out already. That way, if North and Jimmy got stopped for some reason heading out, we could still get Sang to safety. She was our number one priority. Family First. We couldn't risk leaving her behind, not when we knew what the outcome would be. So, I climbed through that window, Haru had to pull me out while the guys pushed my ass through. It was a freaking small window. I knew as soon as I saw Haru having issues that I might get stuck. I guess it's a good thing I went with North's plan. Otherwise, I might have been stuck there. Once I had escaped the window, we scrambled around and reached in for Sang. North and Jimmy lifted her up and as easy as we could make it, we pulled her through the window. Her limp body made the task all the more difficult. She was probably going to have some serious bruises where we had to manhandle her to get her through the window. We arranged her on the ground behind the bushes, Haru and I keeping an eye out for any roaming gang members or guards who might be here. We were told the guards were given the night off, but we weren't going to take any chances.
North and Jimmy finally walked out the back door casually and strode toward us. They took about five steps before they broke into a run, sliding to a stop in front of us. "We've got to go, now. Trevor caught us coming up the steps and asked us what we were doing. We had to tell him that Haru was having some trouble down south with us watching him so we came up to get some air and give you a little privacy. He didn't look like he believed us, but headed back into the living room." Jimmy explained to us while north picked up sleeping beauty bridal style.
"Victor," I said into my comlink, "on the count of three, cut the power. The rest of you, we start running when I say one, got it?" We were going to have to hustle. Hopefully the power outage at the house should cause enough pandemonium and cover to allow us to get to that gate and get out of here before anyone noticed we were gone. It was about a hundred yards from the back of the house to the back gate. If we sprinted, it should only take a few seconds.
"One." I said out loud and we moved forward together, Haru and I taking the lead with North behind us and Jimmy following up at the end. "Two. Three." I huffed out, running as fast as I've ever run before. We were bathed in darkness before I even finished counting. We were halfway to the gate when we heard shouting and a gun go off behind us. We all ducked and scattered slightly, keeping up the pace as the gates neared. I could make out the running SUV on the other side.
Another round of shots rang out and I heard someone behind me cry out in pain and fall to the ground. I skidded to a stop and reversed direction. North blew by me, focused on the vehicle. Jimmy was lying on the ground, clutching his side, a grimace on his face.
"Come on Jimmy, this is no time for a nap." I quipped as I looped an arm around him and helped him up. Haru was quickly on the other side and we began jogging toward the vehicle.
"There's a lot of blood guys. I'm not sure jumping in front of North was the best idea now. It hurts pretty damned bad." He panted through the pain. Damn, he saved my brother and Cupcake, now I definitely couldn't leave him.
"You should be less worried about the blood and more worried about the diet I'm sticking you on after this, you weight a fucking ton Jim-bo." Haru huffed under the strain. I could hear the guys coming up behind us. We had lost a lot of time rushing Jimmy to the SUV. But he wouldn't have lived for very long if we had left him. At least he has a chance now. He yelped in pain as we threw him in the back of the SUV next to Sang's prone form, shut the back and clambered into the back seat. Marc was already pulling away from the back gate as the lights came on and the gate shut and locked again with the power.
We made it. I can't believe that worked. Everyone turned to look at me when a laugh bubbled up out of my chest. I was just so unbelievably relieved to be out of there and everyone was still breathing. Of course, Jimmy wasn't doing so good, but Haru had leapt over the back of the seat and was putting pressure on the wound as we drove. If he could just make it to the hospital, I had faith he'd pull through. Hell, I'd bring him a basket of chocolate as thank-you as he recovered in his room. I owed him everything for taking that bullet. We wouldn't have been able to haul North and Sang to the vehicle in time.
"Jimmy, don't you dare give up on me. You're too fucking stubborn to lose to a little bullet wound." Haru whispered angrily at Jimmy as his hands became coated in red. Tears streamed down his face. Sean was there beside him the whole time, trying to staunch the bleeding from Jimmy's abdominal wound.
"Marc, if you don't get there soon, we're going to lose him." Sean stated. His voice was eerily calm. He had taken on that professional tone that meant he was emotionally distancing himself from the situation, preparing for the worst. Marc only nodded and the vehicle shot forward.