"Drake." I yell as I bang my fist against his door. The tears are rolling down my cheeks and there's nothing I can do to stop them. "Drake." I pound on his door once more before he pulls it open with a sleepy look in his eyes. He takes me in, my green dress on from last night, my messy hair, no shoes and my tear stained cheeks. The sleepy look vanishes from his eyes and they widen in shock as he grabs me by my hand and pulls me into his apartment with his good hand and closes the door behind him.
"What on earth is going on?" He says as he runs his hand through his copper hair.
"Something bad happened." I begin to pace the small space of his apartment which used to once be mine also. "Drake I don't know what to do. I messed up and now I'm in deep shit." I choke out with a sob and realization seeps in. I fucked up and the first place I come to is Drake's home, this was a bad idea especially if he's still out there looking for me.
"Is it Luke? Did something happen with Luke?" His big brother attitude is on full mode and he gives me a wary look as he takes a step towards me.
"Yes. No." I begin to say but pause for a second. "He's back. He found me and he's here." Those words halt Drake's steps and I watch a worried look cross his face as he freezes on the spot. "I need the keys." I softly say and it takes him a second to comprehend what I just said.
"Did he see you?" He softly whispers, almost as if someone is listening in on our conversation and I can relate to his fear.
"He tried to take me." I say under my breath. "I need those keys." I repeat myself just as there is a pounding on the door. My eyes widen in shock and Drake sucks in a breath. I knew he would find me and now I've managed to put Drake into danger as well. I should have known better than to come here and involve Drake in my affairs.
"Who is it?" Drake approaches the door with a shaky voice.
"It's Luke." Drake let's out a breath as his eyes meet mine and I freeze. My heart is slamming against my chest at the thought of Lucas being on the other end of the door. Eric must have told him that he dropped me off here, I wouldn't put it past him.
"Get rid of him for me please. He can't see me. Not like this." I plead and Drake nods as I slide into the hallway and am out of sight.
Drake pulls open the door and I hold in breath. "Luke, hey." Drake's voice is shaky and part of me doesn't blame him, he's not a good liar.
"Where's Madison." I hear his rough voice and his heavy footsteps as he walks into the living room.
"I don't know. Haven't heard from her since last night, I assumed she was with you." Drake pulls through and that fills my heart with love for him. He's doing something he isn't good at for me and I can't explain my gratitude for that.
"She was and then she just left in a hurry. I can't get ahold of her and she left her keys behind. Eric said he dropped her off here five minutes ago." He frantically explains and I can almost see the worry in his eyes. My heart breaks knowing that I've managed to throw Lucas in the middle of this and just left without explaining myself. However, part of me knows that if I explained myself then he would be dragged deeper into my mess.
"She didn't come up. I've been asleep all afternoon." Drake lies through his teeth once again and I hear Lucas let out a sigh.
"Can you do me a favour?" Lucas questions in a soft voice. "Tell her I said that I'm counting on her to come back. Whatever is going on with her, I can help her." He says the words like he knows I'm here and I can hear him. "Tell her I love her and that I'll be waiting for her to come back to me." He chokes out the words and I hold back a sob as I bring my hand to my mouth and the tears roll down my face. I hear the door close as he leaves and my heart shatters at the thought of his heart breaking.
"He's gone." Drake mumbles and I emerge from my hiding spot as Drake walks over to the shelves of books and grabs a box. He opens it and grabs the key I gave him a few months ago. "Take it, don't tell me where you're going because I already know. Don't tell me your plan because I already know that also. Just tell me that when I let you leave this apartment you will come back. If not for me then for him." He hands me the keys along with my car keys and I try to offer him a smile.
"I can't make promises I am unable to keep." I say as he takes me in his arms and holds me close to him.
"Be safe. I'll kill if something happens to you and I will be worried sick if you don't text me." He whispers against my hair and I pull him closer to me. "This is the last time. Do what needs to be done and come back to me. I need my friend more than anything." His words break my heart and he wraps his arms around me tighter. "I love you." I hold onto him longer than I should have, especially knowing that there is danger just around the corner.
I take a cab back to my apartment because if I moved my car then Lucas will know that I was here and that's the last thing I need. I avoid stares from the cab driver and the man at in the lobby as I race up and grab wards of cash to pay the driver. When I get back to my apartment I call the chief and ask him for a few days off before I begin to pack a bag and write a note to Dean. Before I can get myself a plane ticket to California on my laptop there is a knock on my door. I grab Dean's baseball bat from his room and slowly pull open the door. My eyes meet a pair of light brown ones and she offers me a smile as she pushes herself in and closes the door behind her. She has a bag in her hand and her raven black hair falls effortlessly down her shoulders. She doesn't look anything like the crazy woman who made me run without shoes and shove me into supply closets.
"I'm coming with you." She says and I give her a confused look.
"Chanel, I don't know where you think I'm going but you need to leave." I snap as I drop the bat.
"You're running from Malcom, it took me ten minutes to gather information on you. He's your father and you're going back home because you have something of his and he wants it. I am coming with you to help you. It took me three minutes to track you down with my phone, I am more useful than you think." She pours out information about me that nobody else knows and my eyes widen in shock.
"Did you tell Lucas?" The fear in me spreads as the words leave my lips. The last thing I would want is for Lucas to know things about me without me having to tell them to him first.
"Luke and I don't have a relationship that involves me talking about his girlfriend. Your business is nobody else's but yours. And now mine I guess." She gives me an amused look but it vanishes when she notices that I don't return it. "I want to help you. I tracked Malcom for weeks, I can help you." She says with determination in her light brown eyes.
"You can help me, but you need to promise me that you won't tell Lucas where we are." I give her my best glare and she drops her bag onto the couch and walks over to me.
"I promise." She holds out her pinky and thrusts it in my direction. In that moment I can't help but smile at her childishness as I wrap my pinky around hers.
"Are you like FBI?" I say as I close the door behind me back at my old house. We arrived to California on Tuesday and it was a long flight and the layovers were longer. I am a tired because I am still living in the London timezone and it's Tuesday morning there but Tuesday mid afternoon here.
"No, a guy I'm friends with works for the FBI and he taught me how to hack and find people who don't want to be found." She nonchalantly answers as she takes a seat on the couch. I feel a pinch in my heart knowing that being back here after so many months still brings back traumatic memories. "I'm a middle school English teacher." Out of all the things I expected her to say, that was not one of them.
"I'm going to take a shower." I say as she reaches for her laptop and throws her feet up on my coffee table like it belongs to her.
"Give me your phone." She throws out her hand and I give her a sceptical look as her eyes meet mine. "I'm going to modify it and make sure nobody can track you." She explains herself and I nod as I hand her the phone.
After my shower I find her still sitting on the couch on her computer and I throw myself next to her as I let out a sigh. "What's the plan?" She says as she closes the computer and gives me a questioning look.
"Would it be bad if I said that I don't have a plan?" I ask and she leans her head back with me as we both stare up at the ceiling. "I just wanted to come back here and be surrounded by my old self and thought that I would come up with something." I softly state and let out a breath.
"What's in the storage space space down town?" I give her a wide eyed look and she shrugs her shoulders. "I was digging when you were in the shower and found out that there's a storage space down town on your name." She really has no boundaries when it comes to digging for information on other people, especially me.
"Fifty million dollars of drug money which belongs to Malcom Johnson." I mumble under my breath and my eyes move back to the ceiling.
"Fifty million dollars." She whispers under her breath. "We could buy a castle with that money." I can't help the soft laugh that escapes my lips when the words leave her lips. "We could be queens." She says and a small smile escapes my lips, I don't know what it is but there's something that I like about this girl.
There's a knock on the door two days later when Chanel is sleeping and I am lounging on the couch trying to come up with ideas. My eyes widen in shock as I walk over to the door and grab the kitchen knife I placed on the table beside it. I pull the door open slowly and come face to face with the monster who calls himself my father. He pushes himself in and Kayden walks in behind him, he avoids eye contact with me and I want to think that he is embarrased because of what happened four days ago at The Saffron.
"You should know better than to make me run across the world for you. You know how much I hate flying." My father says as I leave the door open, just incase I need to make another run for it again.
"You could have just given up." I snap and his green eyes meet mine.
"Now when you have something I want." He growls and I can feel the fear begin to seep in. He's nothing like the father I remember. "And I'll kill again for it if I have to." His words pierce right through me.
"She died right there where you're standing." I point to the spot on the floor that he stands over. "You beat her and then shot her." I say under my breath.
"And she cried for you until her last breath." It's the first time I hear him admit to killing my mother and he doesn't have any remorse or shame as the words leave his lips.
"And you still didn't get what you wanted." I say with a smirk. Knowing that he went through eight years of not having what he killed my mother for does make me a little happy.
"Go get her." He tells Kayden and I wrap the knife tighter in my hold. Instead of walking over to me he goes down the hall and straight into the guest bedroom. My eyes widen in shock when he comes back with Chanel's elbow in his hold and fear in her eyes. "Clearly that attitude of yours needs some working on. I'll be taking your little friend with me and when I return tomorrow with her I expect that attitude to be gone and my money." He shoves past me as I try to reach out for Chanel in Kayden's hold. He stops me as he reaches for his gun and I take a step back, my knife in my hold is nothing compared to the gun he posses.
