My eyes wince when I open them, unfamiliar with the bright lights shining down. I try to move, but something strong prevents me from doing so.

I look down. As I see Reese's tattooed arm wrapped around me, I instantly remember falling asleep here last night.

Anxiety filling my stomach, I pulled out my phone to see the damage. And there it was.

15 missed calls from my mom. No big deal.

3 missed calls from my dad. Oh no. 

I quickly jump out of bed, sending Reese's arm off of me. He makes a soft noise as I probably woke him up, but I walk across the room, holding my phone to my ear as I called my dad back.

Half a ring went by before he picked up.

"Azalea?!" my dad's panicked and angry voice comes through the phone. "Where are you!"

"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore, remember?" I say kindly, understanding my dad's concern as a parent. "I had a sleepover with a friend. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He sighs and swears under his breath.

"Tell me next time, okay?" he says in a voice that's still not completely happy.

I nod, "Yes, I will."

I hang up the phone, and as I do, I hear Reese rise out of the bed behind me. I turn around, put my phone back into my pocket, and hold my hands behind my back.

He runs a hand through his black messy hair.

"Sleep okay?" he asks me.

"Yes. Really well, actually. I'm sorry for falling asleep here, I didn't mean to," I talk quickly, and this seems to make him smile.

He shrugs, "It's okay. You do snore pretty loud, though."

"I don't snore!" I defend myself, feeling personally offended since I hated snoring so much. His smile grew, and I quickly realized he was just saying that to bother me.

I step forward, and hit him lightly in the chest, "Jerk."

He rubs the area I hit and says a quiet and fake, "Ouch."

"Are you up for doing something today?" he asks me while dropping his arm.

I think mentally about all of the things I have to do today.

And it's a whole lot of nothing.

I nod, "Sure. Tell me all about it after I grab your breakfast."

I turn to exit the room, but pause right before I do. I run my hands through my hair, taming it, so that it didn't look like I just woke up. As I stepped out, I could hear the sound of cooking coming from the kitchen. 

I enter the kitchen, greeting Simon with a smile.

"Hey," he smiles at me, but then gives me a weird look. "Your car was here before I got here, where were you?"

I stand there like an idiot while I take the plate from him and think of an answer.

"Um, in the bathroom. Was totally blowing it up, sorry if that's TMI," I whisper and he says 'oh' quietly. "So! When was that party?"

"It's tomorrow. Do you still wanna go with me?"

"Yea, sure. You remember where I live?"

He nods.

I smile, "Then I'll see you then."

With the plate of food, I leave the room, and return to Reese's cell. I sit down on the ground across from him, and while I hand him the plate I ask, "Is this even enough food for you? You have a lot of muscle. Are you sure you don't need more? I can put in a word with the kitchen."

He shakes his head, "No, don't go through that trouble, Azalea."

He picks up the sandwich and bites into it.

"Remember that guy? The one that you went and spoke to?" he asks me.

I shrug, "Well, I wouldn't necessarily say we spoke. But yes, I remember him. Why?"

"Go back to his house, and tell him that you guys are going to go and follow Michael. He's your dad's closest business partner, and I'll bet money he has a set of keys for these things," Reese tells me, and tugs at the chains while he talks. I nod.

"You know, we're kind of like partners in crime," I lean forward while sitting crisscross with a smile. "We need a name!"

"A name?"

"Yea, you know...like a duo name?" I stated in a duh tone. "I'll give you lots of time to think about it while I'm out with....what's the guys name?"

He swallows his last bite of breakfast. I'll definitely sneak him in a granola bar next time, too. 

"His name is Alec," he tells me. "He doesn't talk much. Kind of like a mute. So, he sure as hell won't bother you."

I nod. 

"Well, I'll see you later tonight," my eyes wandered down for a moment to the black bracelet I had made him, which was on his wrist. "The bracelet looks good on you!"

"Yea?" he said, bringing his wrist up to his face.

"Yea, duh," I said before standing up. "Try not to get beat up too much while I'm gone."

"Noted."

His voice lacked emotion, but as I stepped out and shut the door, I could see him smiling to himself. 

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Sitting in my car outside of Alec's house, I wait for the gush of cold wind to pass before getting out. But it was useless, since another gush came anyway.

Good thing I wore matching knitted mittens and a hat with a little ball on top.

I walked up to Mr. Stares Blankly At You and knocked three times. And just like last time, the dog barked.

A few minutes later, Alec opened the door. He swore the same blank and a little grump expression on his face. His black curly hair looked messy, as if he had been taking a nap. 

"Hi. It's me again, not sure if you remember me," I gave him a moment to say if he did or not, but he said nothing at all so I just kept talking. "We are going to go and follow Michael. So come on, it's freezing out here."

His tongue poked his toffee colored cheek as he looked me up and down. Blankly. 

And without a word, he stepped outside, and shut his door behind him. 

"Okay! So, it's nice to meet you, Alec. Reese told me your name, I don't like stalk you or anything. My name is-"

I stop talking when I reach my car parked on the road, but he stands at the drivers side door of his, and stares at me while opening the door. I cross my arms at him, "What's wrong with my car? It's super clean, plus, I have a strawberry air freshener in it."

He doesn't speak, and just keeps staring at me. Instead of my words getting met with words back, like a normal person would, Alec pulls a piece of gum out of his pocket and pops it into his mouth. And. Just. Stares. At. Me.

"Fine," I mutter and walk over to the passenger side door. "Only because I'm freezing."

We both get in at the same time, and unlike him, I do my seatbelt up. 

He reverses out of the driveway, and we start driving along the semi-busy road. I move my hand to turn the radio on, I know a lot of people complain about it, but I don't actually mind the generic pop music that plays on the radio. But when Alec gives me that empty-eyed serial killer look, I slap my hand back down against my thigh.

"Are you from Russia too?" I ask him. 

He doesn't answer.

I sigh and give up, looking out of the window and watching the city as we drive. Darkness was beginning to settle into the sky, since it was 5 pm. 

After a silent drive, besides him chewing his gum, the car slows to a stop before pulling into a parking lot that seemed to be for a place that went out of business. But since I could only see what the headlights provided, it wasn't much. 

Alec parks the car, and then opens the glove compartment. When I see him pull out a pair of binoculars, I ask him, "What the heck are you doing?"

He looks out of his window, and raises them to his eyes. He watches the building across from here. It's a large one, looking bigger than a freaking shopping mall. Wired fencing traced around the grass, and some semi trucks sat beside it.

I snatch the binoculars from him to see for myself what we're looking at, since Mr. Won't Talk doesn't tell me. 

He makes an annoyed noise, as I look through the glass. I move them around a little, before stopping, seeing three guys standing outside. One is older, around my father's age, and the other two only look a little older than me.

"Is this Michael?" I ask. He snatches the binoculars from me.

"Yes," he finally speaks. "Now shut up and eat a nut."

My jaw drops. 

"That's disgusting. I wouldn't eat your-"

He cuts me off by pulling a tiny can of peanuts out of his jacket pocket and shaking it. I say a quiet, "Oh."

I take the can from him and start snacking on it while he watches them. We sit here for about 30 minutes, before he finally sets them down and turns the engine back on.

"So?" I ask him. "Did you see anything important?"

He starts pulling out of the parking lot, and doesn't answer me. I narrow my eyes at him.

"Listen here, Alec. I don't know what your problem is, but Reese is literally chained in my dads own personal Saw trap as we speak. So if you don't tell me what-"

He cuts me off and speaks a little aggressively, "You need to learn to shut your mouth, kid. I'll tell you once I've seen something important."

My eyebrows raise at his words.

"Asshole?" my voice raises an octave.

He rolls his green eyes. He speaks bitterly, "You're the daughter of my biggest fucking enemy. Sleeping tightly away in your mansion when he's out here making life hell for others. I don't wanna be doing any of this shit with you, but I'm doing it for Reese's sake. But let me make one thing clear. We are not fucking friends, Azalea."

So he already knew me. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. I wasn't tucked away, like Repunzel. I attended my father's parties regularly.

His words hang heavy in the air as I fall silent. 

"Michael had a lot of keys on his waistline. Surely one of them unlocks the chains," he adds. "Tell him that."

I take his advice of staying silent and nod. 

When he pulls back into his driveway, I quickly get out of the car. I walk-run to my car, but pause when I reach my door. I hear him walking up his driveway behind me.

"Hey, Alec!" I turn around and call out. 

He turns around, giving me an unamused look. 

I don't like when people are mean to me. He's judging me, based off of my dad. But I'm nothing like my dad.

I hold my middle finger up to him, taking my mitten off first so he could see it better. I didn't even care that the cold air bit at my skin. He tilted his head at me as I held it up, and I added, "Bitch."

I drop my hand and slip my mitten on before getting back in my car. I see him continue to stand there, watching me, as I drive off. 

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

I basically inhale my dinner when I got home before going to work.

There were some cars parked in the lot, which didn't surprise me, since I assumed the cooks were still here cleaning. Simon had given Reese the dinner about thirty minutes ago, but if anybody asked why I was here, I already had a lie ready. To check on his cuts.

I enter the room. Reese was doing pushups, but as I took a step in, he rose to his feet.

"Hey," I smiled at him.

"Hey," he replied. "How'd it go?"

I sighed, pulled my mittens and hat off, and tossed them onto the tiny table.

"Well, he said he thinks Michael does have a key," I tell him. "But he was also a little mean."

"Yea," he nods slightly. "Sounds like him. Don't take anything he says too seriously, Azalea."

I walk over to him, stopping directly in front of him. My head only barely reaches his shoulders, so I have to look up at him. 

"Don't worry, I won't. So! Did you come up with a duo name for us?"

He nods, "Yea. I did. The half and half."

My eyebrows immediately lowered. That sucks. I wanted something cool, like The Unbeatable Gods of New York.

"The half and half?" I repeat in an unsure voice.

"Mhm," he hums, his eyes looking all over my face. "Because we have me, the killer, and the thinker...."

"And then we have you, the sweet and pretty doer," he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "Who's going to be the reason for getting me out of here."

Sweet and pretty? He thinks I'm sweet? And pretty?

My heart feels like it melts a bit. 

Suddenly I love this duo name.

I open my mouth to respond, but a loud noise from behind me cuts me off. 

The door behind us whips open, as if it were the FBI raiding a house filled with criminals. But it wasn't the FBI, it was just one guy. He storms toward me and orders, "Get out of here. I'm here to get answers from this piece of shit since nobody else will."

I shake my head and cross my arms, "No, you're not. I'm in here, so you leave."

"Get the hell out of here," the guy says angrily to me.

I don't move.

So he grips my upper arm tightly, making a gasp of pain escape my mouth. He jerks me toward the door, and Reese tries to run forward and shouts, "Don't fucking touch her!"

The chains scream on the walls as they hold Reese back. The guy stops pulling me, but keeps a tight grip on my arm. An amused look slowly forms on the guys face.

"So you do know English?" he smirks, and the chains jump again as Reese tries to step forward. The guy looks down at me, and brushes some hair behind my shoulder. "This girl a weak spot for you or something, Ricci?"

I feel my heart stop as he pulls out a gun and presses it against the temple of my head. It makes my throat go tight, and Reese's eyes turn dark. The look behind him nearly made me shiver. It looked murderous. Dangerous. 

"Give me the location or else her brains will be on the wall," the guy spoke in a tone as if he had hit checkmate.

Reese's jaw tightened.

"You know who that is?" Reese tilts his head. "That's Joesph's daughter. You're pointing a gun to the head of your fucking boss."

Although I couldn't see it, I could feel the look on the guy's face drop. He immediately releases me, and I run over to Reese, who holds his arms out for me to go to him. I hug him quickly, but then he pushes me behind him as the guy starts stuttering, "I-I'm so so sorry, I had absolutely no idea. Please don't tell your father about this, it was an honest mistake-"

"I'm not completely unreasonable," Reese cut him off, keeping one of his hands on mine as I stand behind him. "I'm sure we can come to an agreement, and act as if this never happened."

The guy's eyes widened in relief, "Yea?"

"Yea," Reese nods. "Give me your gun, and we won't speak a word about this."

The guy stands there, the unsureness showing in his body language. His eyebrows lower, "I can't give you my gun..."

"Okay. Then we'll just let Joesph deal with you."

Reese's words make the guy look as if he had seen a ghost. From behind Reese, I mouthed at the guy, 'You're screwed.'

He swears under his breath and rubs his jawline. He steps forward, passing the white line and says, "Fine, fine! Take my gun."

He holds it out for Reese to take. But Reese looks at me over his shoulder.

"Could you please go outside, Azalea?" he whispers to me. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I nod. I look between the two of them before quickly exiting the room. 

But as I took a few steps outside, I heard the guy start to yell, "Hey - what are you doing?! No, Stop!"

Chains slammed together and I could hear the sound of suffocating. Knowing exactly what Reese was doing, I took a deep breath, and kept walking.

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