The brunette boy who was once mocking Natalia had now tackled her to the ground and was fighting against her. Adam quickly stands, picks up his pistol and aims it at Natalia, his heart racing faster than it ever has in a long time.
"I'll take her from here.", Adam says to the boy who looked up at him in shock.
"And take all the credit? Nu-uh! Anyway, you were the one who just got tackles by her a few secon-", he begins before getting punched by Natalia and choke slammed to the ground.
She wraps her arm around his throat and tightens it as hard as she possibly could when she suddenly began feeling small areas of pain in her right arm. Realizing just now that she had forgotten to take her tablets for the pain. Everyone stops their approach and all draw out their guns.
"Let him go Nat.", Adam orders with a shaky voice he instantly changed when he recognized how obvious it seemed.
"Don't call me Nat! It's Natalia for you...for all of you!", Natalia snaps back before eyeing everyone in the crowds, "Anyway, I wasn't the one who always tried to kill you."
"Nat let him go!", Adam says slowly circling towards Natalia's back, obviously ignoring her order.
Natalia tightens her grip even harder before releasing it and elbowing him in the temple, hard enough to knock him out. She stands and walks up to Adam boldly, becoming a bit more confident that he wasn't going to pull the trigger.
"Or what?!", she yells as he backs up with the pistol in his hand aimed at her head.
"Look around you! They aren't afraid to stand up for their family. And you're not part of it!", Adam states, stopping Natalia from approaching him with the thought of intimidation passing out of her mind.
She hated that. She hated the fact that he was right. Her own enemy was right. But it wasn't this scenario that she related that phrase to, Natalia vividly remembered Thea nagging her about it in hopes of making her breakup with Keith.
This time Adam had decided to stand up against her and used the old fashioned taser to make it an easy kidnap. After handcuffing her, Adam confidently led her to the unconscious brunette's car and forced her into the back seats. He slides into the back seats, just as one girl hops in the driver's seat and one boy hops in the passenger; both looking somewhat familiar from her brief memory of The Academy.
They both begin boasting about how proud this "Denim" dude would be of them while Natalia sat silently in the back with Adam pointing his pistol at her. All the cars deserted the area, following each other at an insane speed as they dodged the trees and flew over hills. It was until the short girl decided to ask a question, that the silence in the back seats was replaced.
"So, who was that you were chasing back there Natalia?", she asks, alternating her view from the rear view mirror to the woods.
Natalia gives her a pissed off look suddenly remembering that she could've caught and ended Dean's life if only she wasn't distracted by these Academy Savages; as she renamed them.
"None of your business.", Natalia responds with a cocky tone, alternating her concentration back to the woods the cars zooming along them lit up.
"Still that same asshole you were three years ago. Well, I hope Denim makes your life miserable!", she continues to boast before Natalia gives the girl's seat a sharp kick.
"Watch it Feisty Pants!", Adam retorts, cocking his pistol.
"Or what?!", Natalia yells back, standing upright.
"Oh, so you want to go back down that path?!", Adam asks, mimicking her stance.
"How 'bout you let me loose and I'll punch some sense into the stupid brain of yours?!"
"Nah, you deserve the pain we all got because of you. DeVito's princess!"
"Awe poor Princy, couldn't man up. At least you've just earned yourself a death wish, Warthog.", Natalia mocks annoyed, attempting to ignore him and returning her gaze back to the window.
"Not if you die first, Spoiled Brat!", Adam continues, obviously enjoying the game.
"I don't die. Unlike idiots like you, Sewer Breath!", Natalia snaps back.
"Dork!"
"Dickhead!"
"Asshole!"
"Enough!", the girl yells as she swerves past two trees.
"Shut up!", Adam and Natalia yell in unison.
"No you shut up! You two lovebirds have obviously had a long history of a love-hate relationship that seriously needs to be fixed! Go get a room for pete's sake!", she yells back.
"Excuse you...what? Love-birds? Pft, you guys are more stupid than I thought.", Natalia laughs to herself as she leans back in the chair, shaking her head while backing up into the chair.
"Oh yea? How so Miss Know-It-All?", Adam asks with a cocky grin.
"Well, first...catching me. Second, staying in a group. Third, aiming an unloaded pistol at me. Fourth, living in a forest off of some random highway...Should I go on?", Natalia asks sarcastically.
Adam quickly pops out the magazine only to find it full.
"Just checking to make sure you didn't lose your hearing and vision", Natalia states looking over at him with a smirk.
"You're the idiot who decided to come into our forest all alone.", Adam counters.
"I wasn't alone."
"So now you work with other people for a change?"
"Nope.", Natalia lies.
"Still the little lonely deer stuck in headlights?", Adam mocks.
"Nope.", Natalia lies again, glaring at Adam in annoyance.
"Well, you're obviously lying about one of them.", Adam snorts, leaning back into his seat; ending the conversation.
"I can't believe we actually caught the Natalia! I thought you would've been long dead by now-", the redheaded boy begins.
"And I thought you would've lost your tongue by now.", Natalia snaps back.
"Well, someone's pissed.", Adam judges, earning an annoyed glare from Natalia.
𐊜
Keith falls against the cold pavement with the back of his head hitting the ground first. As he hit the ground, he rolled to his left; and just in time, allowing the cement to receive the hard punch. Keith jumps to his feet kicking his opponent in the ribs. It wasn't until Keith had the towheaded boy pinned to the ground with pistol to head that he gave up.
"Are you planning on letting me shoot Petrova?", Keith says as he tries to ignore the trickle of blood he felt oozing its way down the back of his shirt from his head.
"You wouldn't shoot Natalia's only sibling.", Alek protests.
"Actually...I would", Keith responds after he cocks the pistol.
"Okay! Okay! I give in! What do you want?!", Alek surrenders quickly lifting his hands up in defeat.
"Leave Nat and I alone.", Keith replies.
"That's it?!", Alek says wide eyed, "You almost killed me just to get that point across?"
"Actually you started it.", Keith states, standing up, "You were the one running towards me with a knife."
"Hold up", Alek pauses after he stands up, "You two are romantically involved, aren't you?"
"Where's Jasper and Felix?", Keith asks avoiding Alek's question.
"So you guys are. Should've guessed.", Alek concludes.
"I never said we were.", Keith counters, looking over his shoulder and giving Alek an annoyed glare, "Where are Jasper and Felix?"
"You didn't have to say it. Just a heads up, I don't agree with you two being together. You seem like a player who can easily find anyone's weaknesses, so I advise you...any sort of 'connection' you feel with my sister; break it off."
Keith stops, turns around, and looks up from his phone.
"You look like a five star player yourself, so I'd say we're pretty equal. Now answer my question before I regret letting you live", Keith snaps back, changing his view on Alek.
"So you've threatened to kill her too?", Alek says with a smirk, pushing Keith's buttons.
"Not the type of threatening I'm doing to you.", Keith warns Alek as his mind races to his recent incident where he almost shot Natalia; no thanks to the dangerous phase his past engulfed him into.
"Let me guess she's like your few-week-night-stand or-", Alek presses stubbornly before Keith decided he had enough.
Within a blink of an eye Keith had already stormed up to Alek, and given him a hard punch, towering over him with pistol aimed to head.
"Now you're going to tell me where Jasper and Felix are and drop the subject about my relationship to Nat. We're not in any sort of romantic relationship, we're just co-workers, understood?!"
"Well, if Nat agrees then I understand."
"Good. Jasper and Felix?"
"Already on their way towards Nat's location.", Alek states, rubbing the back of his head as he stands once again in defeat.
Keith frowns in confusion while he puts his pistol back in its case hanging off the right side of his belt before finally coming down to the obvious reason of how they were able to track down Natalia.
"Her tracker.", he says in realization, running towards the shortened cement wall separating the parking garage from the rubble underneath it.
Keith had finally hopped into his Corvette Stingray when the door to the passenger side opens and Alek hops in.
"Oh no, no, no, no! You are not getting a free ride-", Keith begins before getting cut off by Alek who throws a black bag at Keith.
Keith unzips it cautiously only to find stacks of one-hundred dollar bills.
"Take it or leave it. I want to reunite my family so I ain't giving up Natalia.", Alek reasons.
Keith sighs, zips the bag up, and throws it in the back seats before zooming off the alley.
"Pull up her location on the tracker.", Keith orders Alek after throwing a small phone his direction.