"No Alexis! I won't let you do this do you hear me!" Whispered Giovanni.
Even after all that he told me, I could never figure out why he is so adamant on helping me.
"Come with me." He said as he extended his arm out for me to take. I looked backwards and forwards between him and his arm, my head spinning too fast for me to focus on anything.
When he saw that i was in a completely different world, he tossed me over his shoulder, slowly shut the door behind him and motioned for his friend to come forth.
"They have us locked down, and they're going to stop at nothing to kill us all." He said, quickening his pace.
"Let Royce and his friends go! We're all leaving here." He said, as he put me down on the moldy floor.
"What the hell is going on?" They all asked at once as they huddled around each other.
"The weirdos upstairs shot one of our own and they're threatening to kill all of us if we don't hand her in."
"And there's no way on earth we're going to do that of course." Said Alec.
"No way in hell." Replied Giovanni. "Instead we need to come up with a way so we can all make it out of here safely. What do you say Royce? We're in this together?" He asked, extending his arm.
"We're in this together." Replied Jay hesitantly, taking his arm to shake.
"Doesn't mean I like you. I will fight you, but not in front of Lexi." He said, looking at me all lovingly.
Did that go unnoticed by Jaycee? Of course it didn't.
"Lexi? It's Ms. Pierce to you dipstick!" He said, pushing him aside and picking me up.
"Whatever heathen. Ok gentlemen, this is it. We need to find a way out of here or else we're all going to be shish-kebab for dinner. Any suggestions? Does anyone know this place good enough?"
No one said anything for a good second.
"Wow you New Yorkers are really useless even in your own city." Started Ashton. "Yo Reena, Brenda you guys still there?" He said through his intercom.
"Yup! Locked and loaded baby! What's up?" Replied Sabrina.
"Can you guys pull up the blue print for the old factory down by the river?" Said Jaycee, stroking my hair and making sure to keep me away from Giovanni.
"Uh yeah just a second." Said Brenda as she heavily typed away on something. "Ok got it, you guys are currently in the basement that is not exactly connected to the factory itself."
"What does that mean?" Asked Alec Xander.
"Well, it means that there's only one exit and it's the door at the end of the hallway that has ascending stairs that lead upwards towards the backyard of the factory." She was quiet for a while, typing away. "But there is an exit somewhere here."
"Somewhere where woman?" Replied Jace. "We're kinda running out of time here."
Before he managed to even finish his sentence, the door we just locked and barricaded started banging loudly.
"You nitwicks have about ten seconds to open the door before we blow up this entire place!" Yelled a muffled, manic voice.
"Ok guys we need to get moving right now. Ma'am can you please guide us to the nearest exit from here please." Said Giovanni.
Everyday you live and you learn. Who thought he would actually have manners?
"Ma'am? What am I? Your retired, veteran grandma? Turn back and literally run all the way to the end of the hallway, then turn left, there should be another door there. Pffft. Ma'am he said. Does it look like I'm a ma'am?" She whined off to Sabrina.
"Ok boys let's get the heck out of here. Alec and James, initiate operation fireworks." He said turning to lead the way.
"You got it boss." They said in unison.
"What on earth is operation what the hell?" Said Jace, pushing CJ's wheelchair ever so lightly.
"You'll see when we it happens. Come on."
"Dude are we just going to let Herrera,of all people, lead the way? The guy we don't trust at all? The guy whose head slightly looks like an egg?" Said Ashton.
"It's not like I'm fond of you Michals. But I promised this beautiful lady that I'd help her but unfortunately she won't leave without you imbeciles so I'm forced to oblige."
"Why is he being so nice to you?" Whispered Jaycee.
"Can't a person be nice?" I replied. "You know. Seeing how you killed his brother, he's actually been pretty decent."
His face lost all color, and his heartbeats became erratic.
Looks like I hit a nerve.
Good.
"Um... I... I.." he stuttered. I've never seen him this flustered before; ever.
"Save it Royce. He told me everything. At first I thought maybe you didn't tell me about this gang business to protect me; but damn am I dumb. The only reason you didn't tell me was to protect yourself and your dirty secrets. You've been showing me an image that only exists in my eyes but you've been living a double life I have no interest in being a part of. I'm really disappointed in you Jaycee." I say, distancing myself from him a little.
The look on his face really broke my heart and it really hurt making him feel this way. But he killed someone, and that guy's brother could've easily killed me; but he didn't.
"Babe please..." he started, but he was clearly at loss for words to say. He just stood there, in defeat while I let Ashton help me out. It took him a few seconds to regain his focus again and he stormed right past me.
The door behind us was hanging by a thread as they almost knocked it all down.
"Sabrina, Brenda where are we going?" Asked Jaycee over the intercom.
"There's a secret passageway inside a room to your left." She said, describing what was once CJ's room.
"Hey that was CJ's room!" I butt in.
"Do you know where it is?" They asked in unison.
"Yeah! Follow me." I say as we took two left turns and ended up inside the vast room; locking it and barricading it with the little furniture we found inside.
"Brendi, where is it? That passageway you speak of." I asked, yelling into oblivion.
"It's to the left of where you're standing" she said, referring to the bed.
The boys moved it and used it to block the door just as the other door exploded.
"We don't have much time guys, come on!" Said Giovanni as he opened the trap door. He used his phone's flashlight to see the way.
"How's CJ's chair going to fit in there? He can barely keep his eyes open." Asked Jace.
"We'll have to take turns carrying him on our backs. We can't leave him here obviously." Said Jaycee.
"You can actually fold his chair and just get him down, there should be a hallway that leads to the back room of the adjacent building. There, you should find a door that would lead you to the side road no one should be able to see." Said Brenda, typing something so annoyingly loud.
"Ok gentlemen you heard the lady, let's get the heck out of here before they bury us beneath the ground." Said Jaycee, lifting CJ up along with Jace.
"Who the heck died and made you president." Mocked Alexander or whatever his face is.
"You really wanna start Brit? Really?"
Let me tell you something. Being in one room with this much testosterone is deadly because it's really starting to suffocate me. It's like in PE class when they reek of sweat but still insist to use Axe as their form of shower.
Giovanni went down first, followed by his guys. Jace went down next so he could set up CJ's chair. The only two left in the room were Jaycee and I.
"Come on princess, I'm not leaving you up here." He extended his hand for me to take, but everything in me told me to not take it.
He looked at me like I betrayed him when in reality he's the one who's been keeping me in the dark.
"I'm not made of cotton candy, I can do this myself." I say sharply. I didn't even dare look into his eyes because I knew I would crumble under his gaze.
"Wait." He said as he stood in between me and the trap door.
"Jaycee get your ass here right now! We have to leave if we wanna see another day!" Yelled Ashton.
He didn't even acknowledge him.
"Please don't do this Lexi. Not now. There's a good explanation as to why I didn't...."
"No there isn't." I cut him off. "Not if the explanation is because you want to 'protect me'! I'm sick of it! I'm not a child for crying out loud and I'm not your mother. Jaycee you're the love of my life and the fact that you're hiding stuff like that from me makes me constantly wonder what else you're hiding from me!" I say, avoiding his arms reaching out to hold me.
I'm pretty sure I heard soemthing move above us and I'm sure he heard to too.
"I'm not hiding anything else." He said looking so deep into my eyes.
"I want to believe you Jay, I really do but..." I didn't even finish my sentence.
Something jumped from the ceiling.
"But what? Oh right, but unfortunately she won't live to see another day." Said a voice that got us both jumping.
He found us.
Blake the menace found us.