Chapter Chapter Five

“You look beautiful in that dress Samantha” Taylor smiles as I’ve finished getting ready, my hair is curled around my face, half pinned up while a black lace mask covers half of my face, framing my eyes.

“Thanks, you look great” I smile while looking at his mask, a red plastic half mask which covers the right side of his face.

“It’s time to go” He holds out an arm to escort me out of the room as my hand shakes a little.

“We can do this right?” I say.

“We’ll be fine. We can do this” He says but I notice the wavering in his voice.

The grounds were covered in little fairy lights, it looked magical.

We entered through the front doors as I turned on the coms link carefully in my ear.

“It looks gorgeous” I gasp as we enter the hall, it had been decorated with a bright red rose theme.

Mr Henderson you sneaky devil…He was doing this in my honour. Taylor smiles and nods, leading me into the room.

“We’re here Sam” Beck says through the link.

“Us too” Lizzy says.

“Great. Be careful out there. I have Henderson” I say as I notice Henderson greeting people, the only man not in a mask.

“Good evening! And who might we have here?” He says to us, shaking our hands.

“Just little ole me Mr Henderson” I laugh, playing along.

“Samantha! You look amazing! Taylor, that can’t be you under there can it?” His eyebrows raise in mock surprise as they shake hands laughing.

“This place looks beautiful” I smile.

“Thanks. It will be a night to remember. Would you come with me a moment? I would like to introduce you to a few potential investors. I’m sure they’ll love to hear some of your stories about living here” He says with a smile as we follow him.

He leads us to a few guys leaning against a make-shift bar that had been put up for the evening.

“Ah, gentlemen, I’d like to introduce Samantha Jones, former student here” He says.

“Good evening Miss Jones, my name is Becker” he smiles as I realise who it was, Beck.

“Nice to meet you Becker” I smile as he takes my hand and kisses it.

“Quite the gentleman” Henderson laughs.

“Who are the men beside you Becker?” I ask as I notice something oddly familiar.

“This is Louis, Ben and Sam. They work for me” He says with a smile. But he sees the anger in my eyes. Of course, Luka, Brian and Shaun were here…

Re-naming them was clever though, as not to spook Hayden into knowing my team were here.

“Nice to meet you boys” Taylor says, his eyes narrowing on them as they fidget.

“Excuse me, but did I hear that Samantha Jones is here?” A man towers us as he interrupts.

“Yes, may I ask why?” Beck asks, eyeing the man up and down.

“I knew her grandfather. We were old friends. I’d very much like to chat with her about him” He says but his eyes focus on mine…Hayden…

“I’m afraid that will be a little difficult as she’s just agreed to dance with me” Luka says coming up to me, taking my hand and leading me to the dance floor as his hand brushes my ear and turns off my coms.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I say as we slow dance, my head in his neck.

“You think I’m going to let my sister deal with this alone. That was Hayden, I’m sure of it” He growls.

“I know it is. You’re going to get us caught. He knows all of us. He’ll notice there are people watching me”

“He will just think we are keeping you safe, but I don’t think he knows it’s us” He says.

“You have to let him take me off somewhere. I can’t do this in here. Half the students are in here” I say looking around the busy room. Students filled the massive hall as they danced with many of the investors.

“I’m not leaving you alone with him when he wants to kill you” He says sternly.

“You have no choice. You should be back home protecting my son. He still has men in MY school” I snap.

“Tobias is perfectly capable of sorting that” He says.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I take this next dance?” A hand taps Luka’s shoulder and he glares at the man. No idea of who he is.

“Of course, the song was just ending” I said taking the second mans’ hand.

“You look amazing Samantha” He says as I look into his eyes.

“Who are you?” I ask, my eyes dancing over his face.

“Zane…” He answers as I gasp.

“Do not look now but Hayden is to your right. You need to leave Sam, I didn’t know he was going after you, I swear, or I’d never have been a part of this. He told me he was doing this to keep you safe…But I heard something…” He says in a rush.

“What is he doing?” I ask, eyes flicking quickly to my right as I saw him. Hayden was standing beside Lizzy and Craig. Lizzy’s eyes were darting around nervously as they found mine.

“He’s going to blow the whole school” He says as my eyes bore into his.

“What…No” I gasp as my eyes drift over the whole crowd in a panic.

“When Henderson goes up to do his speech at nine, he’s going to take Lizzy and his men out the back and blow the place” He says.

“Why are you telling me this?” I ask.

“I won’t have you die. You don’t deserve it” He answers.

“The kids…Everyone here…The school…We have to stop him” I say.

“There’s nothing we can do.” He sighs.

“Zane, take Lizzy, get her out” I order, and he looks at me wide-eyed.

“But…What about you?” He asks.

“I’ll deal with it” I say as his eyes sadden.

“No, no way” He says as his grip tightens.

“I’m not letting everyone die” I snarl.

“And I won’t have Cody lose his mother” He snaps back.

“What about my brother? Shaun? Taylor? Brian? Beck? They are all here too. Should I lose them too?” I say and he looks at me, sighs and swears under his breath.

I look at the clock on the wall, it was 8.45pm. I had fifteen minutes to figure this out before the place blew.

I took myself from Zane’s grip as he tried to hold me harder.

“Zane, take her and go. I have to save them” I said sternly shaking free from him as I turn and walk off towards the bathrooms, turning on my com link.

“Little Samantha, how lovely to see you” Hayden rounds the corner behind me, taking my arm with a grin.

“Fuck…Hayden…Didn’t expect to see you here” I gasp playfully as I hear Lizzy in my ear.

“I didn’t know, I swear Sam” She whispers.

“What’s the plan Hayden? You knew my grandfather? You want what’s mine? So many have come after me for it. So why here? Why go after Henderson?” I ask as he takes of his mask throwing it to the ground with a wide grin.

“Your grandfather was a good friend of mine. Louisa was supposed to be mine, I paid for her, but he let Gregory have her. Then she ran off with Trent and had you. I knew you would be the key. Smart, talented, beautiful, I wanted my daughter to have the best. But, the child was NOT the plan. So, I pushed her and pushed her, drove her crazy until she took the child. You were supposed to be baron. No children, broken like Lizzy and easy to control. But every time you get out of my clutches!” He shouts, pushing me against the wall, punching it near my face.

“So now what? Am I no longer any good?” I say as he grabs my arm dragging me painfully, through a series of doors.

“You going to blow the place? Is that it?” I say, hoping they heard me through the coms.

“I will own you. Kill everyone you love, destroy you piece by piece until I can mould you to my own vision.” He smirks and brings out a button.

“No! You don’t have to blow the school! I’ll come with you, just don’t blow it!” I cry out.

“Get everyone out!” Beck shouts in my ear.

“Let’s watch the fireworks shall we?” He grins, removing the safety cover.

“What about Lizzy? She’s in there right? You’d kill your own daughter?!” I cry out trying to stop him as he brings a gun to my head.

“My daughter is WEAK! You’ll be so much better. I’ve seen you in action, I can feel the rage inside you! I’ll use that for my advantage. People will cower in fear!” He shouts.

“Don’t fucking touch her” Zane creeps behind him putting a gun to Hayden’s head.

“Well, well, well, I wondered if you would give up the game. Which is why I had your sister come here too. She’s with Craig right now” Hayden grins as Zane’s hold faulters.

“No!” Zane shouts angrily as I try to wipe out Hayden’s legs, he drops the button and I try to stop it from pressing against the ground as Zane’s gun shoots’ at Hayden but misses.

They get into a scramble on the ground as Hayden kicks him hard in the stomach, looking at me before running.

“This isn’t the end!” He growls.

“No!” I scream as the button hits the ground. Hayden makes a run for it as he darts into the trees, getting into an awaiting car as it speeds off.

It’s like the whole world is in slow motion, flames erupt from the ground as we are tossed backwards from the explosion.

Splinters of wood hit us, cutting our arms, rocks exploded around us and the school is up in flames as I hear the screams.

“What has he done?” Lizzy’s voice whispers angrily behind me as she runs out from behind a car.

“Taylor!” I scream out.

“Shaun! Brian! Luka!!” I scream once more as I run towards the building.

“No! You can’t go in! You’ll burn!” Zane holds me back, grunting at the pain of his ribs.

“I have to find them!” I scream as I fight against his hold.

“They’re gone Sam” He repeats holding me back as I scream.