~Louis~
It felt like Gordon couldn't drive fast enough, the fear gripping his heart making him feel sick to his stomach.
Louis had asked Gordon to call in some reinforcements to the school and also his contacts that were keeping watch over some of his cousins that attended as well, considering that Gordon came from the same company that most of his family used for their security detail.
Everything had been reported that nothing was wrong, and that troubled him even more than if there was news of a fire or something crazy, because if they didn't have news of something going down, then that meant that Malia was on her own and no one knew what was happening to her.
He gripped the sides of the black leather seat so hard he felt his fingernails puncture the expensive material, cursing under his breath as Gordon took a turn a little too quickly.
He would kill that man, Daniel, if he got the chance. Gordon got the phone number that Malia had called Louis and sent it to his contacts and ran it through their system and sure enough, one Daniel McGinnis was the owner of said phone line.
Louis was growing concerned that he could be a part of the King's Horses gang, wondering what motive he could have to terrorize Malia while also being one of Henry's guards.
Louis had always had his doubts about Henry, but after the death of his father, Louis' uncle, Henry had really stepped up in his tutoring sessions on politics and world affairs and became the golden cousin in the press.
Some news outlets even went as far to say that they would prefer Henry to take over one day instead of Louis himself, and that thought had almost given him a sigh of relief to not have to worry about the constraints of royal life. He couldn't picture Henry being in on this no matter how much of a scumbag he knew Henry to be.
Gordon flung them around another curve lightning fast and Louis held on for dear life, wishing he could throw Malia a lifeline to let her know that they were coming, sure that she must have been terrified out of her mind...
He pulled up to the school finally, students milking about as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring and he tore out of the town car without a second thought, the only thing on his mind being Malia.
*******
~Malia~
I had shown up to school that day planning on worrying about catching up on math homework that I'd skimped on and making up assignments that I'd missed after a day of parading around England with their crowned prince, but I did not expect the situation that was sitting before me in that moment.
Daniel had me locked in an empty classroom, pacing around as if he were crazy. He kept muttering something to himself over and over again, hitting himself with the palm of his hand against his lightly tanned skin.
I wondered how I'd gotten myself in that situation, and it all started when Lizzie had approached me the second I'd made it to campus that morning.
"So, when were you going to tell me about the big fat lie about your dead boyfriend? You do know he's alive, right?"
I sighed and cast my eyes to the ground as I followed her to the picnic tables in the front of the school.
"I thought he was dead, so did his entire family. I have pictures from his funeral, for God's sake, but he told me he faked his own death when he was recruited by a dangerous organization and that since the press outed him he could come back into the public, or something like that I don't know. But I didn't lie to you."
That was all it took for her to 'forgive' me, and we made our way to our first classes together and the first half of my day was totally fine and normal, but then came my class with Henry.
Daniel was in the back like I'd expected him to be but I ignored him as hard as I could, focusing on completing my schoolwork instead of the searing rage I felt when I thought of him.
My mind drifted and I found myself thinking of Louis and the amazing times we had together and wondered just how 'official' our relationship actually was, but was cut off by the sound of the door slamming as students began shuffling through the doors.
I had sighed and began to put away my things and was the last person in the line to the door, noticing the teacher had already left for lunch.
Just as I was about to make my final exit of the classroom, a large hand appeared from the other side and slammed the door shut in front of me, making my eyes widen in surprise and fear.
Daniel had locked me in the classroom with him, his green eyes holding a desperate quality in them.
His hair was going in multiple different directions and looked more messy than normal, his dark uniform clothes crumpled and dirty upon closer inspection.
"What do you think you're doing?" I had asked him, fear striking a trembling chord through my voice.
"Malia, I have to tell you something...I was going to go through with it and do what they asked of me but then I just remember reading the report of what he did to you and how you could've died by his hand and I was too much of a coward to stand up to him then, now is my chance to make everything right with you!"
He care forward suddenly and I backed away in fear, realizing how unstable he'd been in that moment.
I reached for my phone in my back pocket but silently cursed myself when I realized I was wearing a skirt without pockets and my phone was zipped up right in my backpack.
I would've had to make a complete show of getting it out right in front of him to call someone for help and that was probably something that he wouldn't have allowed me to do.
I kept backing up until I ran into the desks behind me, the sharp edges biting into my skin.
"Daniel take a deep breath and just start from the beginning."
And so he did. He told me again about how he had been recruited by a very secret organization that was based in England as far as he could tell since he didn't know it's real name for a year and a half, and he also told me about how he knew my stepfather was apart of it from the beginning.
Just as he was beginning to get into the information about why he'd come back to England so suddenly after being outed as alive and not killed in action while serving in the military, (the real reason, not that he'd come back for me like he'd said previously) a knock sounded at the door.
Daniel rushed to me and put a hand over my mouth, causing me to freak out and struggle to remove it.
As much as I wanted information from him, he was still very unstable and I wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible.
His phone started ringing loudly in his back pocket and he swore as he got it out quickly.
The knocking stopped so I saw my opportunity and took it.
I slapped the phone out of his hands while he was looking down at it and placed my hands on his shoulders, not failing to notice the broad muscles that flexed underneath me as I did so.
Using all my force, I jerked back and rammed my knee into his groin with all the force I could muster and sent him hurtling towards the ground.
I ran over to the phone that had slid halfway across the room and thanked my lucky stars that he'd unlocked it already.
I quickly dialed 9-1-1 until I realized I was in a completely different country and couldn't remember Britain's emergency number.
Then I scrolled through his contacts.
He was still writhing in pain on the ground and I contemplated running for the door until I looked over and saw a very scary looking back of someone's head through the small window in the door and thought better of it, realizing that he'd brought backup.
I kept scrolling his contacts until I saw a name I recognized and sighed in relief, wondering how Daniel had his number and why people didn't memorize phone numbers anymore.
"Who is this? How do you have this number?"
"Louis?" I asked him, panic and relief in my voice all at the same time.
"Malia, what's wrong? What's going on?"
His voice was like my guardian angel, warm and fiercely protective.
"I need you to come to the school, or send Gordon or something. I need hel-"
I was cut off by Daniel's hand grabbing the phone from my ear and effectively ending the call.
"You really shouldn't have done that."
"Why? Because now you can't kidnap me or kill me or whatever you wanted to do?"
"No, because now they're all going to come for us! I never got to finish my story. Robert is here and he's looking for you. Thanks to me, he's already found you, and it's not going to be pretty when he burns this entire city, hell-this entire country to the ground. He's ruthless and doesn't care who he hurts or gets in his way."
My moth went dry and for a second all of the oxygen left my body.
"I don't care. Louis will protect me, I'll protect myself. I'll-"
"I don't think you understand just how deep this goes, Malia. I'm in it until I die, and since I'm a traitor now basically, that's going to be sooner rather than later."
He crouched down to the ground where I was still sitting after having called Louis successfully.
He looked stricken and pained, as if what he was saying physically hurt him.
"I don't care that I'll die because I'm doing this to make everything right, everything that I did was a choice and I deserve this. But you don't, and that's why I have to warn you and to help you fight them, no matter the cost to me."
And just as I was about to respond, he pulled away and began his pacing routine around the room that he continued until the second Gordon punched the guard in front of the door and came barreling into the room, a concerned and terrified Louis trailing after him.
*******
Author's Note:
So what did you guys think?
Were you expecting this at all??
To be honest, I wasn't either! Sometimes my characters write themselves for me!
What do you think will happen next?
What do you want to happen next?
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)