Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess and her very handsome Prince Charming. They loved each other unconditionally and very deeply. They rarely ever argued, and when they did, it was always solved soon after through mature conversation. They were truly happy whenever they were together, the golden couple. Through this happy life of theirs, they were able to have several children who they loved and adore ever much so. They were all taught about the great things in life: life is about friends and family, and never take for granted love. Money, social status, and etc do not matter. Prince and Princess and the rest of the family all lived happily ever after in their beautiful world surrounded by endless love and happiness.

Please tell me that you threw up like I did. If I had this life, I'd probably kill myself, but this is like the stories we are told over and over again while growing up. Some girl falls in love with some handsome man, and no matter what social status or life either one had, they get together and live happily ever after. We all know this never happens like that and definitely no that easily, and if we do end up with our Prince Charming, he's still male, so he still makes life difficult. I can tell you how it really is to be with someone, and love someone, that you do not fit with and should not be with. My name is Arianna Maddelena Lombardi (its a mouthful..believe me, i know), and this is my story. I shall be the "princess" and you will meet my "Prince Charming," the pain in my rear a lot of the time

"ARIANNA!!" is heard throughout the house.

"You bellowed?" I respond walking into my roommate's bedroom. "Besides didn't your mother teach you better than that? Actually don't answer that because I know your mother, and I know she did."

"Whatever dude. I need your help. I can't find my favorite shirt, the green one." Tabbetha, my roomie, shares with me as she continues to throw stuff all over her room, almost hitting me with some of it.

"Ahh, the infamous I'm-totally-going-to get-laid-in-this-shirt shirt?" I laugh at myself but she doesn't find as much humor in it as I did.

"Not funny! It's mine and Chase's one year anniversary today and we're going out to dinner and everything. That's my favorite shirt, his favorite color. I thought I'd wear it tonight." She was running around frantically.

"First of all, you need to calm down. Giving yourself a stroke won't help anything, especially finding a shirt. Second of all, have you checked the laundry room? You tend to leave everything in there since you don't think you should have to put it up."

"Yes, yes, I checked in there" is the breathless response.

"Again, calm down. Sit down on your bed, if you can find it, for 5 minutes - I'm timing - and do some breathing. I'll look around and we'll find it. If we don't, I'll personally find something even better for you from my closet." I see a sigh of resignation as she practically falls onto her bed and breathes like I told her to.

I proceed to check in my room. Tabbetha has this nasty habit of going into my room and to my closet to look through my clothes. If she finds something, she immediately takes whatever she has on off and changes it out for whatever it is of mine she desired. I'm going to deal with that issue later though. Priority now is to find that damn shirt that I don't care a bit about so my friend won't die on me.

Unfortunately, I don't find it in there, so I decide to check the laundry room, even though she checked it before. Again, no such luck. I am about to go check the other roomie's bedroom when I thought about Tabbetha's car. She's bad about having her entire closet in her car, so I grab her keys and head out there. Don't see it on among all the crap in her seats, so I move along to her truck. Sure enough, in the back corner, her shirt was lying there wadded up in a small ball.

I roll my eyes as I retrieved the wrinkled mess and head back into the house. "Tabbetha, your five minutes is up and you can come out now!" I holler up to her and she immediately asks if I found it, and I just hold it up for her to see.

Without a thanks of any kind, she snatches it out of my hand and complains about how wrinkled it is. "Your welcome and that's your own damn fault its wrinkled."

"I'm sorry. Thank you very much for helping me find it. Now I must go and try to get these wrinkles out." I wish her great luck.

After spending all day getting dressed, undressed, dressed again, and then put some makeup on and fix her hair, Tabbetha is ready. "I'm ready and I can't…" interrupted by the cell phone, of course. "what do you mean you can't go out tonight? It's our one year…I don't care. You promised me this and I expect you to uphold this…Well I guess you have 2 choices. Either tell him to fuck off or find something to distract him until tomorrow." Tabbetha is very pissed.

I can't help but smirk, of course, because of all the trouble she - I - went through finding that damn shirt. I guess this is where all my fine favors are repaid - yes, I'm rolling my eyes. Tabbetha gets off the phone and almost throws it but controls herself. "Problems in the honeymoon suite?"

"That bastard thought it'd be okay to cancel and postpone tonight to another one because his best friend is in town visiting. I don't care how long they've been friends, I don't care how long its been since he's seen him, and I don't care what he has to do but if tonight is ruined - he's ruined." Tabbetha practically growls.

"I'm sure his friend will understand. Chase will be here. He loves you and he knows this is important to you. At least, he does after that phone call." I chuckle a little, more to myself hoping not to upset my friend more than she already was.

Twenty minutes pass before Tabbetha sees headlights pulling into our driveway. "About damn time." She mumbles as she gets off the couch and grabs a light sweater. She opens the door to greet her man only to come to an abrupt holt. "What the hell?!"

I move a little on the couch to get a look at what caused this outburst and then I see it. Chase brought his friend with him. Oh he's done gone and done it now. What an idiot. I was assuming that he'd be smarter than that, but I guess that's what I get for assuming. I shake my head and just wait for him to get the door slammed in his face. I go back to watching a little TV, not really paying attention, until I hear my name. "What about me?"

Chase comes into the house, just into the foyer. "I brought my friend, Justin, hoping that you could maybe show him around or just watch some TV, keep him occupied."

"You assumed this would be okay without first asking me because…" I waited for his stupid response.

"You're a fantastic friend and you would do anything to keep me from getting killed." He smiles. "plus he's a super stud and I think you'd enjoy his company."

I roll my eyes. "he doesn't have a problem being handed off to someone he doesn't know so you can go wine and dine your girlfriend into doing it with you" I give him a nasty look.

"Arianna that's not fair. If you love me, you'll do this for us." Tabbetha chimed in with her bottom lip turned out into a huge pout.

I stand up and walk to the door. I don't see this Justin right off the bat, until I see him standing by the car, looking quite anxious. "That's him. That's Justin, your friend. I can't believe you want me to baby-sit Justin F-ing Timberlake so you guys can do it. He's plenty old enough to take care of himself. I'm not needed." That was it. I walked back into the house, only to be grabbed by Chase.

"Just for tonight. I don't want him to leave town which is what he'll do if I can't keep him entertained until tomorrow." Chase whines.

"Wow! If I ever thought you were gay, you just proved it for me right there." I huff.

"I'll owe you big time, which I sure doesn't mean much to you, but come on." Chase begged some more.

"Fine" I push him out of the way so I could get outside. I walk over to Justin and introduce myself.

"It's nice to meet you, Arianna. What's going on, tonight? Chase wouldn't tell me anything except we were coming here before we all went out somewhere."

I roll my eyes because of Chase's immaturity. "I'm sorry about that. Chase is an immature douche bag. Today is his and his girlfriend, my best friend, Tabbetha's one year anniversary. Apparently you're only in town for a short time, and Chase didn't think it was a big deal to cancel on Tabbetha, especially at the last minute and obviously didn't think it necessary to let his so-called best friend, in on all this information. He is taking Tabbetha out so she won't kill him and you, I'm sorry, are either stuck with me or stuck with finding something else to do." I explain to him as I make a point to give Chase the finger every once in a while.

"OOhhh. He should have just said something. I would have understood. I'm the one that didn't give any notice to my arrival." Justin apologizes, obviously feeling bad for causing all this drama and tension.

"It's clearly not your fault. The bastard should have known for one, and should have explained it to you like an adult for seconds. That's Chase for you. Well, I'm not planning on doing much of anything except sit around and eat too much and watch some TV, my show comes on tonight. You are more than welcome to stay. It's not interesting, so I definitely won't be wounded if you choose to do something else. You don't even know me."

"I wouldn't mind staying. I could use a little down time to do nothing." He smiles. "Plus, if Chase trusts you, then I believe I can. Plus, you seem to be a little more mature and all than he is." He cracks on his friend.

At this point, I turn to Chase. "Well I am going to distract your friend for as long as I can, but I make no promises. Hope you know that you're sorry ass owes both of us." I proclaim loudly, causing Chase to blush a little at having his friend know what was going on.

"I do owe you. Thank you so much. I love you both, have a fantastic night."

"Tabbetha, you have a great night, and I hope you don't kill him." I tell her ignoring Chase. "Because I'd like to do it myself" I finish in a mumble that Justin, alone, hears and laughs about.

They head off to their glamorous night while I spend my first night with Justin Timberlake, something that turns leads to our futures being turned upside down.

"Wakey, Wakey, eggs and…ugh!" is heard throughout my bedroom as I shove my roommate off my bed. "Aw! Come on, Arianna! Wake up! You're always up early." Tabbetha whines in an almost cheerful voice.

"All the more reason for me not to be today. I never get to sleep and you're ruining it for me. GO AWAY!" I demand after seeing the time of 8:03 a.m. on my clock.

"Please get up?"

"You're NEVER up before noon unless you absolutely have to be. Why the hell are you today?! I figured Chase would have worn you out last night and I was sure to get sleep" I complain as I throw the covers over my head.

"Last night was fabulous," she gushes as she proceeds to stand up on my bed and then starts to jump. "All thanks to you, no doubt. We really do appreciate you keeping Justin company. How was your night by the way. Huh?"

At this point, I had had enough. Before she even knew what was going on, I had pulled my legs out from under the covers and swiped them underneath Tabbetha, knocking her down onto her back and knocking the breath out of her.

"Not was unnecessary"

"So is you waking me up with this awful cheerful attitude you have. Is there a point to all of this or is this really how you think you can repay me for helping out. Hint: not working"

"There is a point to all of this. I want you to go out to breakfast with us." She finally states her purpose.

"Who's 'us' and why would I want to go to breakfast with you?" I ask rolling out of bed since there was no hope of going back to sleep, thanks to the terror I call best friend and roomie.

"Me, Chase, and Justin."

"I thought Chase wanted to hang out with 'his friend that he hasn't seen in so long'" I imitated in a whiney voice.

"He does but he also wants Justin to get to know his close friends and girlfriend. That's where breakfast with us comes into play"

"Man, as much as I would just enjoy that, I have stuff I have to do" I answered sarcastically.

"You lie!"

"I actually do have some errands to run and some small work I need to take care of"

"Arianna! Today is your day off. No taking care of anything" she demanded.

I just roll my eyes at her as I turn to change into some clothes. "You know that there's really no such thing as a 'day off' in my business. Those don't seem to be top priority of things that are understood and held up with the other businesses." She hated it, but she knew I was right.

"Come on, breakfast is nothing - the most important and shortest meal of the day. It won't kill ya to come eat with us"

"What a great way to work that" I tell her pointedly.

"You know that's not how I meant it. If it helps, you can leave if you ever need to and I won't say a word or complain about it."

"You promise I can leave whenever and you wont say a word to me about it?"

"I promise," she answers with a small smile of hope.

"And you promise this isn't one of those stupid matchmaking breakfasts that you and Chase like to do?" I have to ask this.

"Yes, I promise. Although, that would be AWESOME!"

I saw that I just caused the small flickering idea to set a blaze of a forest fire. "Tabbetha, I'm serious. You, of all people, should know with my line of work that the last thing I need is to get close to anymore people than absolutely necessary and a public figure is definitely out of the question. Are you trying to get us all killed or worst?" I had to put an end to this fantasy idea that she was having, and I could see she was getting the hint.

"I just think you two would be so perfectly cute together." She states a little down now.

"Well you will need to get over this or I'm going to need to not come to eat."

"Okay, okay, no matchmaking, I promise."

"Alright then. Go away and let me get ready and I'll be done in a few and we can get this all over with."

She smiles a thanks and leaves the room while a took a short time to go over, once again, the choices I made in life that led me to this point and this type of lifestyle. I couldn't let it get to me though. It could only cause trouble, plus I had a breakfast to get to.

"So" is all that was said in the last 10 minutes. Talk about your uncomfortable silence. Well for them anyway. I was perfectly content not talking and just enjoying my breakfast.

I refuse to let Tabbetha and Chase try to set me up once again, so the less I say the more uncomfortable it was for them which means Justin will be gone after this breakfast.

"So," Tabbetha starts again, "Justin is trying to get this part in an action film." Oh so she was trying to inform me of this so I would care? Hmm

"You have to try? I thought those parts would be handed to you." I reply with a hint of rudeness and sarcasm, only to receive a swift kick from Tabbetha under the table. I immediately giver her the you-just-wait look.

"Actually, I prefer roles that aren't just handed to me. It means I earned them and they mean more." Justin's answer came as a slight shock to me, leaving me with no witty response. Damn it!

"That's good to hear." Now it's back to the silence, of course, Justin couldn't just allow this to continue.

"Well, I know what I do for a living, Tabbetha is a student while working part time at a department store while Chase is playing student and is a bartender. What exactly do you do to pay the bills?" Just asks almost with a hint of assurance that my parents pay for everything. What a bastard!!

Of course I have to make sure he is aware that I, in no way, mooch of anyone. "I'm actually employed by many. I have several jobs - one main one. Which I believe none of this information is any business of yours. I have made every penny I own." I answer in my matter-of-fact tone.

"Several jobs." He repeats. "Are you a student, too?"

"No. If you must know, I already graduated. Couldn't wait to get out." My smirk just continues to grow throughout this conversation.

"So says the girl with a Masters" Chase snorts out. If only he would apply himself, he'd be out of school too.

"A masters huh? In what? Liberal Arts" Justin challenges and I definitely have no problem meeting it.

"I actually have a Masters in Psychology and a Bachelors in Business Management."

"Interesting choices. What do you plan on doing with those?"

"The same things I am right now, applying them in my jobs. You'd be amazed what you can do with your business when you know people well enough. All you need to know is how to read people and how to control them in a sense." BAM! Justin is shocked and has no reply. I could tell and I enjoyed every bit of it. Good game. I had a blast. Maybe he'll return when he has game worth playing against.

After this response, Chase and Tabbetha feel the tension rise a bit as we stare at each other with an unspoken challenge.

"So this movie Justin's going to read for, it would require a bit of fighting ability, like martial arts type stuff." Tabbetha tries to break some of the tension by averting our attention away from each other. "You should show him some of your martial arts skills." She offers out like I would agree to it and turns her attention more towards Justin. "She has a black belt in pretty much everything you can think of. She'd definitely give Jackie Chan and Jet Li a run for their money."

This new information surprised Justin for sure. One could tell by the wide-eyed look he had on his face. "You know Martial Arts?"

"Yeah, a little. It's a stress reliever." Is my simple answer as I, at this moment, become a little uncomfortable. I turn away from him and become extremely interested in my uneaten food on my plate.

Not getting this hint, Justin proceeds to ask my just how much I know. He, all of a sudden, has no problem getting to know me and being my friend.

"Not enough to teach" is my mumbled response.

"Bullshit!" Chase exclaims. "She's amazing. She's been training for years. Aren't you the instructor at that school off-." He is cut off by me standing up.

"I need to go. Didn't realize the time. Work calls, errands to run, so much I need to do" I ramble off as I throw money down on the table to cover my bill plus tip, a huge one at that. Before anyone could reply, I was out. My friends, apparently, see no boundaries when it comes to my life when I have set up so many for a reason.

"Um…how does martial arts become a sensitive subject?" Justin asks confused, once again, because of my speedy departure.

Chase just tells him not to worry. "Everything's a sensitive subject with her" What an ass! Why am I friends with him again? Tabbetha slaps him on the arm. Thanks girl! I would have done more but that'll do for now.

"If it makes her feel this way, why does she enjoy it so much then?" Justin seems to be hooked through his curiosity. He needs to know more about me and my mysterious ways.

"The martial arts she enjoys. Its her job she's sensitive about but continues to do it."

"Her job? Why doesn't she just quit."

"The money" Chase quickly and nonchalantly answers. Again - asshole.

"Chase!" Tabbetha growls under her breath. Please punch the bastard out for me, girl!

"Money? She's making good money huh?" Justin smiles at this. Punch this bastard too!

"Yeah. That house they live in," Chase refers to mine and Tabbetha's, "is hers. She bought that and it's fully paid for. She's nice enough to let my girl live with her because she's her best friend and can't really afford her own place right now. She owns a few really nice cars, all paid for. She's not even making Tabbetha pay rent or bills to help out. She says she'd rather have her save her money for when she's able to move out and have a family of her own." Chase continues to spit out all my personal. He might as well give the nosey cretin my account numbers and whatever he wishes to know.

"Parents rich? Family inheritance or something?" Justin assumes. First off, way to assume jackass. Second, I already told him that I made my money. When one makes/earns their own money that scratches out inheritance or anything related to this. He's a dumbass, too. Just great!

"Actually no. She's trying to help them out but she has to do it discreetly because they refuse her money and help." Chase!! If I were there, you'd be dead. Just wait 'til I see your ass again. UGH!

At this point, Tabbetha finally decides that enough is enough. Took her long enough. "Ok. Enough about Arianna. How about we finish up here and go catch a movie or something?" She suggests hoping it'll divert their attention. Bless her heart. She pries into my life more than anyone but she knows when enough is enough when it comes to me and how much outsiders are kept from knowing. I love her (most of the time). It's just too bad boys never take hints well at all if any at all. Stupid boys!! They suck!!

"What's wrong with getting a little help every now and then?" Justin asks. At this point he is leaning forward on the table, just waiting for more to be told. And of course, Chase can't resist giving it to him.

"They see it as 'dirty money'" Chase answers. They're like two gossiping high school girls. They just can't hear and share enough of someone else's private life.

With this answer, Tabbetha stood up forcefully, shocking both boys. "I think that's enough about Arianna. If you want to know more, you'll just have to grow the balls and ask her yourself. So how about we go and catch a movie or something." She suggests heavily, giving the boys no choice but to comply. Go Tabbetha!! I knew the girl had my back!!

This reaction only made Justin more confused. Is he ever not confused? Welcome to normal life, butthead! I'm glad he's confused because the nosey bastard should know better than anyone how uncool it is to have strangers prying into your personal life where they don't belong.

The trio spent the day goofing off and later that afternoon, they were able to convince me to meet up with them for dinner by bribing me with going to a small family-owned Italian restaurant that happens to be my fave. What a cheater and a hooker. She knows too much about me and how to use it against me. They are already there and waiting when I arrive. I am greeted by the host, Maria.

"How are you tonight, Maria? Been busy tonight?" I ask her very politely. See I can be nice!

"Not busy at all but guess what" she demands with such excitement, I almost think she's going to pee her pants or something, but before I could even muster a reply, she tells me what. "John purposed last night!!" I understand why she is about to pee her pants now. Her and her now fiancé, John, have been dating for 3 years and I guess the man finally popped the question.

"Well it's about time. He's a very lucky man. Look at that ring, too." I exclaim pulling her hand up to get a look at the rock on her finger. It was huge but it wasn't small either. "Well, you make sure you tell him that I told him congratulation, but he better make sure he takes care of you or he'll have me to worry about." I give her a hug as she promises to tell him just that.

She starts to lead me to my table, but as often as I come here, I was sure I could find my way. I don't say anything though because she looks like she is eager to show me. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the pop star at the table. "You all are definitely not busy, but I'm sure that will change as soon as word gets out that you are hosting a superstar." I half jokingly tell her. "It'll be good for the business though. At least he's good for something huh?"

"We gave you the private table so no one will bother you once business picks up." Maria informs me. There's not really too many places for privacy in this small restaurant but she did give us the corner table that was out of the way from everything. It is greatly appreciated. I tell her to send her mom out whenever she gets a chance and she heads off to 'man the door.'

"Hey, you pieces of crap!" I greet my friends and Justin as I sit down. "How was your day?"

Tabbetha rolls her eyes immediately right before she starts to explain. "Well we went to a movie we couldn't hear because of some teenage girls squealing and whispering loudly. We went to the park for a while and then left after we were ambushed. We had some lunch and then proceeded to go shopping where we were followed into every store."

I can't help but notice Justin slouch a bit, out of the corner of my eye. "I'm sorry guys. I was hoping with it being in the middle of the week, it wouldn't be so bad. School and work and all." He genuinely felt bad for what his friends had to go through.

"It's cool man," Chase tells his friend. "We felt popular, plus it was fun playing secret agent, trying to hide and all from everyone." They laugh and he feels a little better about it.

"Great. More reasons for Chase to be full of himself. Just what we need, pictures of him in magazines." I state sarcastically. "Did you already order?" I ask changing the subject before Chase could object.

"Yeah. That's your drink right there." Tabbetha answers me, pointing out the water sitting in front of me. "I ordered your special that you love so much."

"Fantastic! Exactly what I wanted. Good call, girl"

"Come here often?" Justin asks me with a smile. Yes, a smile not a smirk.

"Yes, I do, and you'll see exactly why as soon as you get a taste of this food. It's like Heaven in your mouth" I tell him, so sure of it. We are actually sitting here and having a civil conversation and I realize that Justin may not be so horrible. If you tell anyone I said this, I deny it, and then kill you. Still can't afford to have his level of popularity in my life.

Just as we predicted earlier, it isn't long before the restaurant was filled to capacity - mostly of girls. Wonder how this happened..hmm. As much as I hate that we couldn't seem to eat in complete peace, this family was getting extra business, and they deserve it. They are a fantastic family with a fantastic restaurant.

Within minutes after the swarm filled the restaurant, our food is delivered by Anne-Marie, the owner. "I had a feeling you were here as soon as I saw this order," she jokes placing everyone's plate down in front of them.

"I'm sure it helped that Maria told you." I declared, wasting no time as I stuff my face.

"She didn't mention you'd be with the superstar, so technically I'm still shocked you're over here, Miss Privacy." She gives me a pointed look.

"Anne, this is Justin, your 'superstar' and their friend. Justin, this is Anne, the owner of this fabulous restaurant and creator of this heaven on a plate." I introduce them between bites, being sure to point out that Justin is with the other two and not me.

"It's nice to meet you, Justin. You've done wonders for my business." Anne laughs a bit. "How did you get mixed up with this group of misfits?" No longer in the conversation = uninterrupted time to eat. YES! I love to eat, especially good food, so sue me.

"I've actually known Chase for a long time, but never get a chance to make it out here to see him. I'm on a small break right now, so I thought I'd take advantage of it." Justin explains to Anne.

"Now we know why Chase is so full of himself. He secretly has a superstar friend. Good to know who's to blame for this." Anne jokes as she pats Chase on the back.

"Actually he was like that before, so there's no blame here." Justin jokes back. He may fit in with the group after all. Too bad it can't be allowed. "I'm glad I came. This food is amazing." He praises as he shoves a forkful into his mouth.

"Thanks. Maybe you can get some of these girls to eat more than bread and water." She pouts pointing to some of the young girls.

"Now, Anne, you can't let the girls eat and get fat now. They'll eventually win over Justin here and go on a date and fall in love. We can't expect them to not wanna look amazing when he falls in love with them and declares undying devotion to them." I can't help but to give my sarcastic reply while batting my eyelashes at Justin with a pouty look.

"Arianna, you're a handful." Anne tells me laughing along with the others. "Honestly, I don't-"

"Arianna." Anna is cut off when Maria arrives back at the table. "I was told to give this to you and make sure you know it's very important." She is clearly nervous as she hands me a folded piece of paper.

"Thanks girl." I take it from her and try to calm her with a smile. I look around the restaurant to see who it may be from but no one other than the eating families and Justin fans can be seen.

"Well, I guess I'll get back to the front door." Maria proclaims. "Guest to get fed and mayhem to calm. It was nice to meat you, Justin. You should come again sometime." She says in a little bit of a hurry and leaves.

"I'm sure I will. Nice to meet you all and I'll definitely suggest this place to many." Justin offers to Anne before her departure.

I pick the paper that I had placed on the table back up. I open it up and ,as soon as I read it, I stand up quickly. "I hate to rush off but I must. Friend's in trouble. Will you have Anne box this up and bring it home with you?"

Tabbetha nods silently but knowingly. Chase grabs my hand before I walk away. "Be careful. Make it back home to enjoy this food." He whispers but not quietly enough for Justin not to hear. This poor boy is getting drawn into something he has no clue about.

"As always, Chase, you worry too much. See you two at home I'm sure. You seem to be a pest problem I can't control." I joke, patting him on the head, hoping to ease his worry and tension. I, then, turn to Justin. "It's been interesting, but glad you got to hang out and know what heaven tastes like. I may see you around, if not, have a safe trip back. Don't want to devastate any fans." After this, I hurriedly walk out without another word or even a glance back.

Tabbetha excuses herself to go to the restroom and Chase gets up to go get some to go containers, seeing how the employees were busy trying to contain the rush of guests. Justin is left alone and all he can seem to focus on is the note that I left behind. So, of course, he is alone and thinks it's okay to pick up and read it. It read: 'Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.' Justin just stared at it with a complete blank. A nursery rhyme got me up and running? "What the hell?" He mumbles under his breath as he read it again several times.

"What happened? You spill something on you or a fan break free?" Chase laughs a bit when he returns with the containers and here's Justin swearing at something.

Justin quickly folds up the note and hides it away in his pocket, just in time too because Tabbetha was returning herself. I'm sure he'll be sure to ask about it later. Another way to butt into someone else's life. Does the boy feel he has the right since his life gets butted into? His way of 'eye-for-an-eye' kind of thing. Well it's not cool because that only creates two blind people and a pissed of me.

"Well, babe, give me a box so we can get the hell up out of here." Tabbetha receives a box from Chase who, also, hands one to Justin. "I'm about tired of shrieking teens and their mothers. Three of them are in the bathroom primping and plotting." She shakes her head as they all shovel their food into their containers. "Justin, just to let you know, you're about to fall head over heels in love, at first sight, with an 18-year-old who has too much makeup on and too much hairspray. Just thought I'd warn you and all." Tabbetha's information made all three of them burst out laughing.

"Well, in that case, we must hurry and get out of here. I'm not quite ready to settle down and if this girl is that fantastic, that's what I'll end up doing." He continues to laugh as they pack up and head out.

As soon as I leave the restaurant, I rush home and change into something a little more workable. I choose a tighter fitting black shirt with a pair of fitting, yet stretchable, black pants and a pair of black tennis shoes. You expecting me to say heels or boots weren't you? Don't lie. Contrary to what the media would like you to believe, a girl can't move and fight well in heels. I switch out my car for something a little faster but can still work off roads. I speed off, squealing tires all the way. I am determined to get where I'm going fast and I do. I make my way down a highway and quickly take a sharp turn to my right onto a small hidden road, really more of a path is was so narrow. I travel down the path and start to go up a hill and finally come to an old house resting on top.

I squeal to a stop and storm out of my car and into the house. "Where is he?!" I demand as soon as I make it through the front door.

"Well, hello, doll. You got here awful fast. Can I get you a drink?" A man known as Rich smiles as me as I stand there furious beyond belief. His name is actually something John or Joe but he changed it to Rich, so everyone knows how much money he has. I think he has a grudge against me - I have more money.

"DON'T call me doll. Where is Jackson? You may have a grudge against me, but you can't bring him into this. I'm not in the mood to play games with you tonight." I warn him.

"Ah, but here's the deal. This has nothing to do with some 'grudge.' You're Jackson was trespassing on MY property." He informs me with a smirk. "I don't know if you're aware of this, but that's illegal and I don't appreciate it. I'm just holding him until the proper authorities get here. I feel its my civic duty to make sure he doesn't believe he can just get away with this." He was so sure and happy with himself.

"I think you're the last person that needs to teach people lessons dealing with the law. I, however, can teach you lesson in dealing with me and pissing me off. I'll give you a hint: Don't do it." I warn him trying not to calm myself so I don't mess something up. "Now I suggest you let Jackson go, and I may not kill you." This time I'm smiling.

"Really" He walks up to me and, at this time, I see about ten maybe eleven men surrounding me. "It seems to me that you are in no place to be demanding or threatening anything. I am personally disappointed because I was sure that killing you would be a lot more difficult." What a smug bastard. "I can't believe you came alone. I guess this one be one of those reasons this world is better for men. You should just go back and find yourself a good strong man and have his babies and just make sure that dinner is on the table when he gets home. Well you should do this if I weren't going to kill you."

"Well before you 'kill me.' I suggest you come to the 21st century. Women are just as capable as 'bringing home the bacon' as a man is. As I recall, I'm a little better than some." This remark pissed him off. I could tell. His face didn't read as smug as before. "Before you finish me off, I suggest you do one thing." This time I have a smug look on my face.

"What would that be?"

"Say 'hello' to my friends. They don't feel all that welcomed since you've been ignoring them." I answer and right on cue 10 of my biggest men come barreling through the room from all directions, guns in hands. "Now that we've evened up the odds a bit, let's say we get this party started." I declared right as I kicked the bastard in the stomach knocking him back into the wall behind him.

This definitely did not thrill him much. I guess it sucks for him though that I'm so much better at fighting than him among so many other things. He comes at me but I'm easily able to dodge him and punching him hard in the face. "Maybe you should just give up and let me have Jackson back and I can get back home in time to enjoy my dinner you so rudely interrupted" The next thing I know, a gun is pointed at me and a bullet grazes my arm. "You bastard! This is an expensive shirt" I dive to get out of the way of the bullets that follow. Making my way down the hall, I search the rooms looking for Jackson.

I walk into a dark room which was probably at one time a big bedroom. Before I got a chance to call out, I felt something hard being slammed into my back. Rich just hit me with his gun causing me to almost black out. I'm getting extremely tired of this arrogant wannabe badass. It was difficult for me to stand up at first. The pain ran through my whole body and I had to regain my senses. I finally got stood up only to have him punch me hard right across my jaw, knocking me back down to my knees and of course while I w as down, the coward had to kick me right in the gut. With Rich aiming his gun right at my head, I act fast and swipe my feet under him knocking his out from under him. He falls back, giving me time to stand up and get my balance. I stand over him as he laid on his stomach but trying to stand up, at this point, I kick his side knocking him over onto his back and then proceed to step on his neck. "Do I need to ask you again?"

He goes to grab my foot to twist it, but I'm too fast. I quickly grab his wrists and twist them outward causing Rich to flinch in pain. "Apparently you think I like to repeat myself. Too bad for you I hate to, but I'll do it one more time for you since you are apparently retarded." I lean down close to his face, pushing my knee into his chest. "Where's Jackson?"

He answers by spitting in my face. I find this to be the most disgusting thing ever and the worst thing you could do to me. This asshole is going to pay!! I respond to this by punching him several times in the jaw, breaking it. Also, he receives a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, a loss of 4 teeth, and a few more injuries. I grab him by his hair and drag him to a chair that was in the room. "Just remember that I'm not your normal girl-next-door. I will not tolerate you holding my men hostage as some game. You have an issue with me, you come after me. I'll kill you and call it even. Don't worry. I won't kill you just yet. I must go get Jackson and my other men out of here, because after that, the fun begins." I get him tied to the chair and there's no way he was going anywhere. "Well don't miss me too much. I'll be back." I run off and grab a couple of my men and we search every room, closet, whatever we could. I knew it we wouldn't have too long to find him.

We find our way outside and into a small shed in the back yard. Just inside is Jackson sitting in a very uncomfortable looking metal chair. His arms and legs are tied down. By the looks of it, his right leg and arm are broke, his face is completely swollen to the point that I doubt he could see at all, and I am sure his jaw is broken. I look down at his hand and see that his ring finger on his left hand is cut extremely deep. This is probably what was going on when I showed up. Jackson's head was hanging down, his chin resting on his chest. I pick his head up and call out his name. No response. My men are cutting his restraints. "Jackson!" I call out again. "I need you to come back to us so we can get you out of here." All I get is a very quiet moan. "Jackson, we're going to take you back to the main house and get you taken care of." I explain to him as one of the other men picks him up and leaves as I instruct him to take him back and get someone to tend to his wounds immediately.

I rush back into the house, careful to avoid Rich's men. I make it back into the house and see no one anywhere which worried me a little. I grab my gun and make sure it stays in front of me ready to be fired. I make it back to the room where I left Rich, only to find an empty room. The ropes lying in the floor beside the chair, obviously having been cut. His men must have come to his rescue. Damn it! I was so looking forward to killing this bastard. He'll get what's coming to him and I'll be sure to be the one that delivers it. No one messes with me and gets away with it.

At this point, I decide to go back home to take a long, hot bath and relax a little while I figure out how to take care of Rich and his annoying clan. I jump back into my car and speed out the way I sped in. It doesn't take long until I arrive home, my safe haven. I pull into the driveway and immediately feel myself tense up and become extremely, almost uncontrollably, pissed. I can see into my front window and see Chase and Tabbetha sitting and waiting for me. This does not piss me off. What pisses me off is the fact that as I pull in, I see Justin standing up and looking out the window. I pull my car into the garage behind the house and sit there a while trying to calm myself down.

I decide I can't wait any longer and its time to just go inside and maybe my friends will be smart enough to leave me alone right now. Of course I see I have no such luck when I walk out of the garage and see Tabbetha looking out the back door at me. I lock up the garage and slowly walk towards the giving my roommate the look of death. I push the door open and push past Tabbetha. "How are things? Are you -" She stops talking when I turn around and she gets a good look at my condition. I could barely stand up straight, thanks to the kick from Rich. "What happened?! Are you ok?!" She fusses and tries to touch me.

"Don't touch me. What the hell is he doing here?" I demand an answer quietly, hoping not to draw anymore attention.

"We came over to watch some movies."

"You thought it'd be ok to bring him here? I thought you'd be smarter than that."

"Hey, girl!" Chase greets as he walks into the kitchen not really seeing me at first but you knew as soon as he did. "What the hell happened to you?!"

I look behind him and see Justin standing there staring at her. It's obvious that he is shocked over my condition and I'm not happy that he's there to see it. "I'm going to take a long, hot bath. I expect all to back to normal." I say looking at Tabbetha. "I also need to talk to you both. I suggest you don't say much at all." I say strongly looking at Chase. "Good night you all. Nice to have met you, Justin. Maybe next time, I won't be so busy with work." I suggest all out of politeness. I make my immediate departure and slowly get myself into that hot bath that I have been looking forward to. I am not going to be able to move much at all tomorrow and I could tell by how sluggish I already am.

Through my whole bath, all I can do is plot how I was going to kill my two closest friends. How do they think it is ok to bring someone with so much publicity and hype around them around me? My life is the complete opposite of his. I must live my life in secrecy and keep out of the lime light and make sure I don't bring anyone new into it. It sounds depressing, I know, but I chose this lifestyle and I accept it. I do good as hard as it to believe. I'm sure you're asking the same question that everyone seems to ask about me. How does a "contract killer" do good? It's hard to explain but I'll have to explain it another time. I soak for about an hour before I begrudgingly get out and put on the softest, most comfortable pair of pjs I could find. I climb into bed and turn on my tv, more for background music than for watching. As I expected, it isn't 20 minutes before Tabbetha comes knocking on my door.

"Can I help you?" I call out still mad at her and Chase for their choices today.

"Can I please come in and talk with you?" I can hear the nervousness in her voice.

"I suppose. I won't kill you or anything if you do if that's what you're asking."

My door slowly opens as she, just as slowly, walks in and sits down in a chair beside my bed. "Arianna, I just want to apologize for everything that's happened. I realize that Chase and I were big idiots to try to couple you two up, and then to bring him back here tonight. I just…" she was silent almost like she was trying to keep herself from crying.

"I'm not so mad as much as I was before. I'm still upset with you for not respecting my wishes and everything but I can't blame you all for wanting to hang out with your friends here. It is a bigger place than Chase's, but you KNOW no one is to be here after I go out." I stress to her.

"I know and I'm so sorry. Chase feels horrible, too."

"Where is he?" is all I say.

She knows exactly who I'm talking about - Justin. "He went with Chase back to his apartment. He's staying the night there and leaving from there, in the morning, to go to the airport."

"What have you told him? Does he know anything about me?" I needed to know what kind of damage control needs to be done.

"We didn't tell him anything. We were trying to distract him and that's why Chase took him back to his place. Play some video games or something. Justin is worried about you. He's going to ask questions. Look at you. You would ask them, too, if you were him. It's not everyday one sees someone rush off from dinner and then come home later beaten up pretty badly and having a hard time walking upright, especially a girl. Girls are very 'gentle creatures' as most say." She rolled her eyes as I did.

I hate when people assume girls are big soft gentle creatures. We can kick your butt just as well as any male can if not better. We do it better though. Men attack physically. They'll hit you, shoot you, and so on. They are also impatient so they want results right away. Women, like me, are patient. I hit you where it hurts. I make it personal and I don't mind waiting to figure out the best way to do this. This probably just made you think horrible about me and hoping I stay away from the precious Justin Timberlake, but you have no worries. First, I want nothing to do with Justin, and second, I'm not as horrible as everyone thinks I am.

Enough about that. I just got sidetracked and my main focus right now is figuring out what it is I need to do to maybe fix things with Justin so he isn't scared to come see his friend again. I would feel horrible if I'm the reason Chase isn't able to see his friend again here where not too many people will follow him around.

"Let me put some clothes back on and we'll go over to Chase's and I'll let him off the hook." I tell Tabbetha. I can see some of the stress and worry immediately fade but some still remains, understandingly. "It's my mess and you two shouldn't be responsible for cleaning it up. You have more than enough on your plate dealing with me alone."

"I'll let you be alone then. I'll be downstairs." Tabbetha leaves my room knowing that I needed some time to figure out what I'm going to say to Justin to get him to understand I'm not threat to him or his friends and there's nothing to worry about.

About a half an hour passes before I join Tabbetha downstairs. "Let's go before Chase breaks down like a girl" I joke giving us both a laugh that we needed.

It doesn't take long at all for me to get to Chase's. I drove a little too fast for Tabbetha's liking, but I just want to get this over with. We get out and walk to the apartment quietly. Tabbetha uses her key and lets us in. I roll my eyes every time I come here. It's such a boy's apartment. There's very little furniture and what there is, doesn't match. His idea of décor is four dollar posters of some hot girl in her bikini and he even has a blow up couch. I'm not lying and its scary and a designers worst nightmare.

"Hey, baby, we're in here." I hear Chase yell from his 'game room.' "How mad is she at us?"

"It's not life threatening." I answer him as I walk into the room. They both jump up like they were scared I was going to whip out my gun and shoot them right there. "You two need to calm down. I don't look that scary. You act like you've never seen a black eye before" I try to relieve some of the tension with a little laughter but it didn't help much. I guess when someone, especially a female, comes home with a massive black eye, swollen jaw, and some cuts and bruises (not to mention the broken ribs and the difficulty moving without feeling a lot of pain) jokes are found to be unappreciated.

"How are you feeling? Did the bath help you at all?" Chase asks, unsure what to say.

"I feel a lot better than I look apparently. The bath was fantastic and I did a little thinking." I answered hoping to make him feel a little less fearful of me. "I thought about it and decided I won't kill you or hurt you. I'll just take away one of your vacations." I smile at him. I don't think he liked that remark because he starts to pout right away.

"There's no reason for you to be so cruel" he tells me. "Maybe you should just show me lesson and send me and Tabbetha off to some remote island to be alone and think about what I did."

"Nice try but I'm not a dumbass!" I punch him in the arm. "I'm actually here to talk to Justin." I look over at Justin hoping that he will agree to listen to me. He just stands quietly off to the side, not really knowing what to say to me. "If you don't mind, we can go talk in Chase's bedroom."

"Um, sure. I guess we can talk" He is unsure and I can't blame him at all.

We silently walk into the bedroom and I close the door for privacy. He sits on the bed as I slowly pace the floor trying to figure out what I'm going to say to get him to not be scared out of his mind and just dump his friend, Chase, as a whole. After walking back and forth for what seemed like hours, I finally speak up. "So I'm pretty sure you are probably thinking I'm some bitch that goes out and gets in a bunch of trouble, like some drug dealer or prostitute or something. I assure you that I don't go out looking for trouble. I have a few things to that I want to get out but I must ask that you just let me say them and if you have any questions, I'll to answer them if I can." I receive a nod from him so I continue.

"I've been friends with Tabbetha for forever now. She's the only friend I have left from childhood. She's been through it all with me and chosen to stay by my side. I would do anything for her and Chase. I met Chase when he first started hanging around Tabbetha about 5 years ago. We all became close friends and then, of course, those two got a little closer. They mean more than anything to me and I promise I am not a danger to him." I start off hoping that it'll calm his nerves towards me a little.

"I know I haven't been all that welcoming for you since you showed up but you must understand. I live a private life and your lifestyle doesn't fit that at all. Plus, I've known Chase for 5 years and this is the first time you've come around to visit him. That makes me a little curious." I explain to him. "It still gives me no reason to be a bitch. I guess I really shouldn't try to expect you to come around much since you are busy with your celebrity life. All I ask is this - don't give me a reason to distrust you or hate you and I won't. Trust is a huge thing for me because there aren't many people who I do trust."

I turn away from him for a minute before looking back at him. He can't seem to make himself look me in the eyes, but I must get him to talk to me. "Are you going to be ok?"

He nods a little and slowly looks up at me. "Chase and I are or used to be inseparable. We hung out all time doing stupid shit like hitting on girls at the mall and cliff diving into a local river. My career took off and we didn't do as much anymore. We still talk about once a month and since I have the smallest break ever, I wanted to come visit and see these two great people he held in such high esteem." He is now explaining to me, making me feel like shit. "He truly loves Tabbetha and you seem to hold a special spot , too. You tell me you're a very private person but I see it as mysterious. I became immediately curious with you and where you run off to."

This catches me off guard for sure. "I suggest you don't be curious with me. I'm not very interesting, I assure you. All I want to do when I'm off from work is sit around read a good book or go to the park and enjoy the sunshine. I'd say I'm actually more boring than interesting."

"I'd probably have to disagree. Can I ask you how you go that black eye?"

Wow. This guy is full of surprises. "You can ask me anything you want but I can't guarantee I'll answer them. This black eye came from an ass that finds it ok to hit a girl. I went to see a friend and some bully was trying to pick on him and because I tried to step in, I got a few bruises myself."

"Why did you run off so fast from dinner when some guy left you a nursery rhyme?"

"You, mister, are starting to cross the line. That note was not for you which means you should not have read it, and I guess I should not leave my notes around you."

"I'm sorry. You just left so quickly and the other two seemed nervous about it, yet they were cool at the same time. I couldn't help but know what it said." He apologizes and I can't help but understand. I did leave with no explanation and he has no clue about me.

"It ok this time. I understand why you did it. I'd probably don't the same thing. In the future though, reading my notes is a way to mess up my trust. Like I said I'm very private." He nods his understanding and I feel he has absorbed enough for the night. I just have one more thing to say. "I want you to know that I do care for Chase and Tabbetha and I would kill to keep them safe. I hope I am not a reason, in any way, that keeps you from coming back to visit. I'm glad you were able to come out and see Chase. Who knew he had any friends?" I joke to end this on a light note.

"You would definitely not be a reason I stay away. You seem like a pretty cool person, and maybe some time we can get to know each other and become friends ourselves." He tells me with the first real smile since dinner.

"I wouldn't suggest becoming my friend, but if you give me just a minute I'll show you something really entertaining" I tell him.

He gets a confused look on his face as I walk towards the bedroom door but soon sees the entertainment I'm referring to when I open the door. Chase and Tabbetha come tumbling in from leaning on the door with glass to their ears.

"You two are predictable and pathetic" I tell them as I shake my head and step over them to get out of the room. Justin laughs as he follows me out. "I would think you two would have learned by now not to be nosy especially when it concerns me." I give them a look that dared them to argue.

"We were only doing it for the sake of our good friend. We just wanted to make sure you didn't scare the boy away." Tabbetha tells me as her and Chase roll over, and try to stand up.

"I call shenanigans on your ass. First he's not your good friend, he's Chase's, and I have a sneaky suspicion you initiated the snoop." No Argument... figures. "I don't think he's the one you should be worried about. If you two keep this shit up, you're going to wish I had scared y'all off a long time ago" I give them a smirk. "As fun as all of this has been, I'm going home and going to bed. I feel like I've been hit by an 18-wheeler. I'll see you two in the morning and when I say morning I'm sure it'll be afternoon with your lazy asses. Justin, I hope you have a safe flight and wish you luck and happiness with your career. Maybe we'll see again sometime, if I didn't ruin your visit this time."

"Thanks and you didn't ruin it a bit. You possibly made it actually interesting. We both know how boring Chase can get," I couldn't help but laugh at this remark, along with Tabbetha. Chase just makes some childish face like sticking out his tongue.

I smile and bid my good night as I walk out and get myself home into my bed, too bad Tabbetha and Chase wouldn't give Justin the same luxury.

"So?" Tabbetha asks with excitement.

"So what?" Justin asks lost on the conversation.

"So what do you think about her? She really isn't all that bad once you get to know her."

"She made it pretty clear that she has no intentions of letting me 'get to know her'."

"Oh, she's just trying to be a party pooper. If you could, would you want to get to know her?" Tabbetha continues to push.

"Leave him alone and quit trying to play matchmaker. Arianna's not his type." Chase tries to put a stop. I guess I should be thankful for the effort but not sure what he means by type. I'm a great person in my opinion, not that I would hook up with Justin but that's not the point. None of this is the point!

"How is that? She's good-looking, practically a genius, she loves her family and friends more than anything, she's mysterious…" What an ego boost.

Tabbetha is about to go on when Justin stops her. "How about you let me decide all of this for myself? It IS my life and all." Good for him.

"My bad. You're right. I just got excited because normally she would have just said 'fuck off' instead of bothering to come over and try to explain things and all." Rolling my eyes…way to make me sound like a bitch, huh? "I just want my girl happy. Its been a long time." Tabbetha drops it and decides to just hang out for a little before heading to bed herself.

Weeks and months passed by and my life go on as it normally does. I get up, I train, I make sure my men train, and I continuous check on Jackson to make sure he makes a full recovery and stays up to date on training since he "learned his lesson" and decided to stay with us.

Chase and Tabbetha are doing great as usual. They argue and fight, say their sorries, and declare their love for each other only to be followed by "hot passionate make up sex," or so says Tabbetha when she insists on telling me the details.

Life is going smoothly for all of us, or at least it is until the fateful phone call comes telling us that the wonderful Justin has decided his celebrity lifestyle is just too tough for him right now. He's on a hiatus type vacation so he can live a normal life and possibly get some much needed inspiration. Chase made plans with the star to live with him for a few months, away from Hollywood.

This news excites my two friends. It just irritates me. The last thing I need is the damn media all up in our lives. I realize they will be after Justin, but as arrogant as it may sound, we all know that they will want to know any information on the pop star and who he has chosen to be with during this hiatus. My life and the life of my loved ones depend on me staying in the shadows. All I'm saying is that if his coming here 'to get away' jeopardizes my business and/or my friends, I'll kill him myself.

The special morning that seems to be the morning that has Tabbetha in an excited yet annoying mood has finally arrived. Its 8am and I'm in my bathroom TRYING to get dressed and ready to go get Jackson and go out with him on his first 'business trip' since his rehab.

"He's coming today! Can you believe it?" Is her singsong for the morning.

"Well if its good I do." is my annoyed sarcastic response.

"What is that suppose to mean? Oh wait, is that another way of saying 'that's what she said'?" She rolls her eyes at me but it doesn't damper her mood at all.

"He's going to be here in just a few hours. I'm super excited. Aren't you?"

Did she seriously just ask me that? Now I roll my eyes. "Oh yeah. I'm ecstatic. Can't wait to have a superstar around. It'll be fantastic for business." I can't help but be sarcastic this morning. "Personally I hope he'll bring along all those cameras that seem to follow him around. I'm thinking of maybe giving them a personal tour of my place and maybe even my workplace."

I just finish up getting ready and try to leave. Just as I reach the back door and open it, Tabbetha speaks up. "I really hope that when he gets here you will treat him with a little more respect than this. He's done nothing to you. He's Chase's friend and Chase is extremely excited to have an old friend back and as his friend, you should be happy for him and respect this. Not everything can be about you, Arianna." Wow, the girl grew a pair of balls overnight. Maybe this boy will be interesting to have around for awhile.

I stop and pause for a minute. "I'll treat him with the upmost respect." With this response, I leave. He will get the respect a guest should in my home, but that shall be all he is to me, all he can be.

I arrive at the mansion which we use as our 'work office' and Jackson meets me at the door with two of my other men - my 'veterans'- Roger and Charlie. "Hello boys. Good to see you this morning" I greet them.

"You, too. Meeting or leaving?" Charlie asks holding the door waiting for my answer.

"Short meeting then leaving."

I answer walking in and thanking him. I make my way through the house peeking in on some of the activities and greeting those who I saw. I get to the center of the house, the main office and walk in, immediately seeing a gun pointed at me.

"You planning on using that" I ask as I roll my eyes and shut the door.

"You need to learn to knock" the man behind the gun replies.

"Awful jumpy aren't you. You need to learn to breathe a little more. Maybe you should join in on some yoga classes at the local gym. Plus, I'd probably knock if it weren't for the technicality that this is my office and all." I can't help but laugh at him.

"You haven't really called it yours in a while now. Afraid you may be considering some retirement plan."

"Yeah right you wish. I'm still here running strong which is not what I can say for you"

"You need to shove it up your ass, Arianna. I was checking out some files and updating a few and you just happen to come in and caught me by surprise. I'd hate to actually really have to use this on you, being my partner and all" He tells me, putting the gun in its holster that happened to be on the man.

"James, James. You love me too much for that. I don't know if I can go much longer with a useless partner like you who dreams about me as much as you do." I sit down at the desk and check out some files that we had. I need to check up on some clients today and make sure I have all the updated information that I needed.

"I will kill you if you don't quit calling me James." He threatens with a groan taking a seat on the desk.

"It is your name, you shithead. Oh! That's what I can call you instead!" I tell him with a smirk that told him I had no problem with doing so.

"Everyone calls me 'Angel' and you know it."

"I also know that your obsession with that show as not only gone to your head but I'm pretty sure it has turned you gay on me." I refer to the show Angel the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He just wished he were as hot and manly and strong as the Angel character. He makes it worse by saying that he's 'helping the helpless' as they say in the show. It may work if it weren't for the fact that 99% of the people we help aren't helpless. I'd give them lazy and cowardly but not really helpless.

"Please don't call me James. Besides I believe you didn't have a problem calling me Angel before. I believe it was while you were digging your nails into my back and I'm pretty sure you groaned it into my ear." There's that damn smug smirk.

"I'm also pretty sure I claim insanity and I make sure to get tested all the time just in case you gave me something disgusting." I smirk back at him.

"I'm clean and you know. You also know I was great. I believe you called me 'a god in bed that knew exactly what to do with his weapon'"

I pull out my gun and point it straight at him, right between the eyes, without ever looking away from the file I was studying. "I will use this if you don't shut that trap of yours"

"Alright, alright. Someone's touchy today. What's going on? Why are you studying that file so heavily. You know everyone we deal with like the back of you hand."

I sigh and finally look up at him. "We need to discuss some things, as my not so equal partner, I think you should know."

"Does it pertain to the coming heartthrob?"

I roll my eyes. "I really wish you'd quit having me followed. I can take care of myself and I'm positive they're not getting any fun photos for you."

"I'll have you know" he stands up and approaches me, leaning towards me, and pushing me against the wall. "I like to keep that job to myself. You know you're special to me." He smiles and winks. "Plus, I haven't even been around in a while. I just happened to hear through the grapevine."

I look up him straight into his eyes - the ones that used to have the power to pierce right through me. "I really wish you'd quit this." I refer to him pushing me against the wall. "We're over with and have been for years. Now I'm warning you as a partner in business, be careful. I will not tolerate him getting in the crossfire and possibly hurt." I tell him while pushing him away which was a little harder than it should have been. My knees still get a little weak around him.

"I don't believe it was all that long ago that we were 'together' and I know you were loving it." He smiles knowing that when I come back from a job and can't burn off my energy to wind down and sleep, he's the first person I come to to fix it and I hate it! "I think you're the one who needs to be careful. Keep your face out of the tabloids and magazines. It could be devastating for many people including yourself and your friends." He tells me from the opposite side of the office where I had pushed him to.

"You don't have to warn me. I know. I'm not stupid and definitely not one of your nightly bed warmers that you like to pretend to believe they have an ounce of intelligence. I'm not new to this business and I can handle myself. " I tell him irritated and showing so with my small stab at him.

"I'm taking my men out with Jackson. We're meeting up with Slimetoad." I inform him using my nickname for the guy we'd be dealing with. I hate using real names and I have a nickname for everyone. This guy is someone who thinks he's hot stuff and really tried to hit on me with his oiled up hairdo. I figured this was the best name I could give him. It does make me smile a bit every time I use it, especially when others use it and understand why he's called that.

I get a little more information on the dude and grab Jackson, along with Roger and Charlie, and head out to meet up at some remote location predetermined by both parties like it always is.

Justin arrives at Chase's apartment right around lunchtime. Chase and Tabbetha were inside arguing about me and my attitude when Justin came walking in.

"Hey guys. Don't worry about me. This is your place, and I don't want to inconvenience you into helping me out with these bags." Justin says dropping two bags while he was still holding two.

"OH! Sorry about that. We didn't realize you had arrived already." Tabbetha says walking over to give him a hug and grabbing one of the bags on the floor. "Dude, you have a lot of luggage. You pack like a girl, don't you?" This amuses her greatly.

"You're just too funny, little one. Where am I staying?"

"I made Chase clean out his game room and turn it into a guest room. I know its small but we tried." Tabbetha explained as they walked into the room to drop the luggage.

"It's good. I promise you all worry too much. I neither expect nor want some lavish mansion. I feel more relaxed when I feel like I'm in a real home." He eases their tension on the matter. "I am, however, starving. What do you say we check out Maria's place again. I've actually been looking forward to her food since I left the last time."

"Sounds great to me" Chase exclaims, with a nod of agreement from Tabbetha. "Let's go!"

They all climb into Justin's car because Tabbetha and Chase both wanted to ride in his escalade. Justin even let Chase drive since he knows where they are going. Stupid on his part but hopefully he won't learn from personal experience. It didn't take long for them to arrive at Maria's and they all go in to be greeted by Maria, herself.

"Hello, my darlings!" She greets them with hugs and kisses, even Justin. She loves him since her place since her place has definitely grown in business a bit since his last visit. Everyone hoping to catch a chance to see him.

"I'm going to assume you want the usual table with him here." She grabs the menus and walks them to my corner table. She talks with them a bit, getting their orders, and then running off to go do some things, handing off their order to the cook and having their actual server get their drinks out to them.

"I love this place!" Justin says out of nowhere.

"It is fantastic. It's Arianna's favorite place to eat. Maria loves her. I think that's why she puts up with us" Tabbetha jokes a bit.

"Well she seems like she's a good person. I really wouldn't know but she puts up with Chase, so she can't be too bad, right?" Justin laughs

"I agree. It takes a special kind of person to put up with Chase. I'd put Tabbetha in that same category, too" I greet them as I sit down at the table. "I get a small break for lunch and come here to eat in peace and quiet and I'm greeted by the hostess telling me that you all are already back here at my table" I tell them shaking my head. A few minutes later, the server brings out my drink.

"A beer? Was it that bad of a morning?" Tabbetha raises her eyebrow at me.

"Just trying to get Jackson back into the game. I'm not sure his heart is really in it, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Plus James." With that simple name, both Chase and Tabbetha get an understanding look on their faces.

"Who's James?" Justin can't stop himself from asking.

"No one to worry about. Have y'all ordered?" I ask, not knowing how long they'd been here, but before they could get much more than 'yes' out, all of our food arrived.

Maria came up shortly after. "Everything good?" She asks me as she stood behind me, playing with my hair a bit (and yes she washes her hands, don't worry).

"Of course, I don't think we could have a bad dish here" I answer smiling. She smiles and kisses the top of my head then leaves to go back to the kitchen.

"When did you order?" Justin asks as we all started to eat.

"I don't. She just fixes something and I eat it. She knows me and what I like and don't and what I can and can't eat." I explain. "She's like a mother to me."

"That's cool." He goes back to eating. I kind of felt bad. I could tell he was trying to have a nice conversation with me. I was just afraid he would mistake it for me wanting to be close friends.

"So Justin," I start, "I see you had a safe trip out. Is there a reason behind your 'vacation'?"

"I was just getting tired. Always running and never resting. I could feel myself getting worn out and starting to hate everything around me and taking it out on everyone around me."

"I understand that" I mumble a little. "Especially here lately with the new ones. I feel like I'm babysitting at times."

"I know that one" he smiles back at me.

"So," I look over at the other two that are smiling to each other, "Planning a bunch of fun stuff for your guest?"

"We got nothing for now, to be honest," Tabbetha answers. "I'm sure you can give us some ideas" she smiles at me.

I must grit my teeth to keep from yelling at her and then punching her. I turn to Justin and smile. "I would suggest simple stuff while you can: putt-putt, bowling, and so on. I understand you can always do this stuff, but you should try doing it without cameras in your face. It's fun. I promise." I suggest and actually get a smile from Justin.

"That's what I'm hoping on getting before the secrets out about my location. I want normalcy" He tells me.

I nod as I take a huge bite of my food, getting it all over my face. I finally swallow it and wipe my mouth lean over to Justin. "Well, you don't have long so I would suggest you all get on top of that."

Justin just looks at me. "I'm hoping it'll be a long while."

"I know you do, but to let you in on something, someone just took your picture and it probably won't be long before they sell it." I give him a look of pity and sympathy.

"We're going to a movie today. Normal and in the dark so no one will know it's you." Tabbetha says.

"That would be great." I tell him putting my hand on top of his without a thought, but removed it immediately but, of course, not before another picture. "So, for future references, my office is kind of like a safe haven - VERY private. If you find things getting crazy and you need a place to go, you just need to let me know." I don't know what made me tell him this, but I felt bad and I know what its like to wish for privacy.

"Thanks so much!" He truly appreciated this and I could tell.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tabbetha and Chase share a look and give each other a small high-five. "I saw that you two!" I glare at them. "I'll talk to you two later, but for now I must go back to work. I get up to leave but Tabbetha stops me before I can get away.

"Arianna, you planning on working all night?" Tabbetha curiously asks.

"I'm not sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, it's Karaoke Night at The Bay tonight. Want to come out with us?"

"If I'm not busy with work, I'd love to. I'm sure you knew that considering I'm a sucker for karaoke." I tell her with a smile.

"Awesome. I'm excited. You need a day off to hand with us." Chase adds in.

"Well I'll see you all later tonight and we'll see how it goes." I answer and leave to head back to the office. If I'm going out tonight there's a lot of stuff I need to get done before I can even think about playtime.

It was a long, hard day at work. People to beat up, people to question, and people to whip into shape, all while trying to stay in shape myself. I didn't get out until about 9pm. It may not sound late but that long of a day with as much intense activity the whole time can wear on you.

I get home and Tabbetha was running around like her head had been cut off. "I can't seem to find anything I want. Everything I want is dirty!" she's screaming out as she runs past me as I try to climb the stairs to get to my room.

"I guess that will teach you to do your laundry!!" I yell back to her as I continue to climb up.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. How long is it going to take you to get ready because we are wanting to get going in about 30 minutes. The boys will be here in about 15." She tells me as she runs back up the stairs, meeting me at the top.

"You don't need to worry about me." I tell her closing my door. I open it back up though and yell out for her. "Here! Now quit running around. I don't need my house to fall apart" I tell her throwing one of her favorite shirts of mine at her.

She happily accepts it and goes and gets ready herself. I went through my closet and found some cute comfy clothes. Shockingly, I do own a few. I decided on a bright blue top that was simple enough. It fit well without being too tight, showed some - but not too much - cleavage and some silver jewelry for some accents. I pulled my hair back off my face and neck. I chose a simple pair of dark jeans and some black heels. It took me about 10 minutes. The remaining 5 minutes I had, according to Tabbetha, I used to put some simple natural makeup on. I'm all about simple if you can't tell.

I come out and find that Tabbetha isn't even ready. Sometimes, I want to kill her. The boys were there soon sure enough. "We're waiting for Tabbetha, of course. Chase, go get your girl. I gave her a shirt so she should be good to go. I'm sure she's stuck with makeup or hair. Tell her she's beautiful and let's go. I don't want to miss much." I tell him and he goes up. I turn to Justin. "That girl will be the death of me. If I'm going out, I don't want to miss out."

It didn't take long before Chase came down with Tabbetha in tow. We all headed out in one of my cars, me driving of course. We get to one of my favorite bars, The Bay. Its fantastic because its not a trashy bar or one that's mainly college students where girls are all skanked out and boys trying to hit on everyone. There aren't adults trying to look younger than they were. Everyone was just dressed comfortably, drinking, and having fun in everyone's presence. It was karaoke night which is hard for me to pass up. I love to see people getting up there showing off what they had.

Upon our arrival, I notice the young girl on stage. She is dressed nice and singing her version of Rihanna's "Take a Bow." She was pretty good. Justin seemed to agree. We found a table, my usual (I have a lot of usual tables…its what you get when people are slightly scared of you). It was off to the side a bit but still close enough to be able to enjoy the show. We order some drinks and sit back.

I lean over to Justin. "How many drinks before we get either Chase or Tabbetha up there?" I whisper with a big smile and a wink.

"I find this to be a bit unfair. You know their tolerance better than I do." He whispers back.

"Ah, but I'll even let you in on that. Plus, you have a bit of an advantage of your own. You could probably talk anyone, especially women, into doing anything you want."

"You'd probably be surprised what I want and can't get," he winks back at me.

I just roll my eyes. "It takes only a mere 2 drinks before Tabbetha is set for the night. Chase depends on what he's drinking, but he's doing tequila tonight so I give it probably 3 shots for him, too."

"I see. Well then I say 4 drinks for Tabbetha and 5 shots for Chase and they'll be up there."

"I agree with the 4 drinks for Tabbetha but I believe it may take you batting your eyelashes just a couple of times, unless it's a cheesy love song then it'll probably take 5 drinks. With Chase, I give him 6 shots and Tabbetha's pouty lip" I laugh at our deal as we sit back and let the drinks roll in to see how it goes.

After the girl left the stage, it isn't long before she is replaced by young man. It is obvious that he isn't sober, but he isn't trashed either. He gets up there and picks a love song and starts singing - quite a bit off key - to the girl who he obviously cares for, and she doesn't seem to notice.

"He could use a little help, huh?" Justin chuckles a little along with his joke.

All I can do is roll my eyes. "I guess that's one of the many things we don't have in common." I tell him as I turn to give my full attention to the man on stage.

He makes a point to lean closer. "What are you talking about? Are you telling me that you think he's a great singer?" He is obviously confused by my actions.

"I believe you, Mr. Popstar Singer, need to learn to not be so shallow. I'll let you in on a little secret." I say in a loud whisper as I turn back around to him and lean close. "Not everyone can sing as well as you and definitely don't get paid to." I pull away and smile at him as if I really let him in on a very important secret.

"I'm not shallow. I was just saying -"

"That he's bad," I cut him off. "I'm sure he knows it, and I'm even sure she knows it." I point out the girlfriend that was smiling from ear to ear with complete admiration and love for the man on stage. "This time I really let you in on a secret. It's the bad ones I look forward to."

Before he can reply, we hear Chase and Tabbetha ordering another round of drinks for our table. "You two need another drink. You have a look like you're having an intense conversation and that is not what this night is about." Tabbetha says with a small slur.

Justin and I laugh a little. This was her 3rd drink coming and the bet was still on. "We're so sorry Tabbetha. We don't want to be the ones to rain on your parade." The drinks arrive and we all tap our glasses together and drink away.

A couple more people sing away as our table shares stories with lots of laughs. We were all drinking and having fun like we had planned on. We were interrupted though when a girl with a pair of lungs belted out a note on stage, catching our attention.

"So you don't like the good ones?" Justin asks curiously.

"I never said that. What I said was 'I look forward to the bad ones.'" I tell him with a smirk.

"Please explain to me why the bad ones are better for you then the good ones."

"The bad ones have more to say."

This definitely causes Justin to be lost. The confused look on his face says it all. "How so?"

"Well the good ones pick songs that are good for their voices. They know what will be good to sing and that's the song they choose. You should understand. When you first started out, y'all picked songs that sounded good for your voices and your harmonies. Now you may write your own songs but you write them for your voice." Justin nods a little. "The bad ones, on the other hand, don't have the luxury of that. No matter what song they choose, they are pretty much going to sound bad. So, they choose a song for the message. If they are going to sound bad no matter what, they might as well get a message out with it." I continue to explain seeing the lost look slowing disappearing. "It may be a message that says 'let's party,' or as simple as 'I'm drunk and I want to let everyone know' but like the guy earlier, they could say 'I love you more than anything and I'm willing to embarrass myself to let you know this.' Starting to understand why I look forward to the bad one?" I ask him.

He nods silently at first. "I think I'm pretty good and I still have a message to say with my songs."

"Yeah and how long did it take for you to establish yourself to be able to write your songs with a message? Nobody here is famous and getting paid to do that. Your message though still fits your voice. It's written that way, so I think some of the message gets lost in that, not all but some." I give him a sorry-to-be-the-one-to-let-you-know-this look.

Instead of being met with an insulted look, I actually got a look of understanding and what I believe to be a slight smile. "There may be more to you that I ever imagined. I'm looking forward to learning more, more of the not so scary bruised and cut up you, that is."

Oh shit. What did I just set myself up for? I already made the decision to not let him in, even as a friend, and here I am having drinks, making harmless bets with him, and even sharing a secret -as simple as it may be - with him. I'm in trouble!

Last night was interesting, but not really in the greatest way. The best part is that I totally won the bet, but I chose not to take Justin's money because I had an unfair advantage - I know my friends and I know their tolerance levels well. I have to when I end up being the one that has to drive their drunk asses home. The bad side is that, because my friends chose to drink the night away, Justin and I had to talk more. I think I led him to believe that we were becoming friends and that's something that cannot happen. I keep saying this to myself and yet I seem to find myself doing things that lead to the opposite.

Today though, its back to work. Life goes on. That's what everyone says. It has to be because the only other choice is that it stops. My life does just that. I take Jackson on my business deal. It works out. I require him to stay in the back on this one. I may allow him to be in the front with me, but right now he is nowhere close to being that ready in my opinion. The deal goes nicely and we head back to the office. Upon arrival, we all go our separate ways. The men probably went to their preference of releasing steam or maybe to go call family. I go to my office to make sure the file is updated with information I just obtained.

I walk in and no shock to me, see James sitting in my chair on the phone. "I've decided that you need to calm down. I'm not lying to you. She really wasn't here but she is now so get your panties out of a bunch." I hear him say as he hands the phone over to me.

I take it and answer it only to be greeted by Tabbetha. "I hate him. He's such a bastard!" she rants.

"He wasn't lying. I was out. What the hell is so damn important that you have to call here and according to James' irritation level, quite often?"

"Well, I was just curious about a few things. What I can do about this nasty hangover is a main issue of mine. Another one is seeing if you want to go out with us again tonight? Just a simple dinner and maybe watch some movies at home."

I sigh an annoyed sigh. "Of course that's all you want. I'll let you that that is in no way important enough to continuously call here, I have a cell phone and you know how to leave a message. For your answers, you have to deal with your hangover. You drank - you deal. Try some Gatorade to stay hydrated though." I inform her. "Now for tonight, I have no idea what my plans are. I'll let you know when I get home." I hang up on this without a reply from my friend.

James is quite pleased to see my irritated reaction towards my friend that he despises so much. "Good to see that she annoys you just as much as she does me."

I just leave my office. I'm so annoyed, and the rest of the day doesn't improve. Let me give you a cliff note version of how it goes. I finally leave work around six which is pretty early, but I was bored and business was kind of slow. I get home and sure enough Tabbetha and Chase conveniently promised Justin dinner and a movie and then conveniently had to go and see Chase's family - plans they had forgotten about. I'll have to write me a reminder to kill them both, slowly and painfully. I get stuck entertaining Justin who insists that I am not required to, but I'll never hear the end of it if I don't which really will cause me to kill my friends.

We try dinner, but it gets busted up by the 'razzi. I choose this time to show off my fantastic new car that goes extremely fast if I do say so myself. We tested its limits running away form the pains in the ass. I believe Justin was enjoying every minute of it, except the times when he would ask to drive and was denied. It didn't take long before we left the pains in the dust and then just went back to my house.

Chase and Tabbetha conveniently, once again, show up soon after. Justin raves about the car as Chase and him go back to his apartment, leaving Tabbetha behind to yell at me. Apparently, it wasn't what she had in mind for us. She was pissed and I didn't care. Serves her right for forcing him on me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now it's the next day and I left before anyone had a chance to get in my way. I got to the office and was greeted by some of the men. "Hey fellas! How are you doing?" I greet them with a partial smile.

"We're doing alright, but you don't look like you are." Charlie answers. I just have to love his honestly.

"Thanks Charlie. I had a long night" I tell him as I continue to walk into the office and proceed to find a work out room with no one in it.

I immediately strip off my outwear down to my simple cotton pants and sports bra. I was planning on doing a lot of sweating. I started with the punch bag. I throw punches and kicks with all I had, sadly I was imagining my friends for being conniving buttheads, and the 'razzi for just being pains in my ass, and me for being so weak to my anger and irritation. It doesn't take me long though before I'm bored with this workout.

I walk out of the workout room and head straight to my office. I grab my gun out of the drawer and head to the shooting range. I shoot off several rounds at paper and am very pleased with my precision. I move on to the dummies that are almost lifelike. These are my favorite. I get through a round when my phone rings.

I answer it getting a squeal in return from Tabbetha. "Are you out on assignment?"

"No. I'm too busy blowing off steam"

"Bags, swords, or guns?" She asks, knowing my habits.

"Gun show. Now share with me why you are calling." I know there's a reason, or she wouldn't have asked if I were out or not.

"Well," she hesitates for a second. "sees the 'razzi got some pics and video of the one and only JT going over 100 mph, swerving in and out of traffic. I have a feeling it wasn't him driving, but that's not their stories." She informs me. "It's now an official need to know who is the one responsible for corrupting the 'innocent' pop star" She goes on laughing at her choice words for Justin.

"Oh shit! I'm sure Sam's not happy." I refer to a friend who happens to be a cop. He's pretty much the reason James and I have stayed out of jail. We've had several close calls, needless to say.

I hang up without a word to Tabbetha and call Sam, immediately getting an earful. He is pissed, but I guess I can't blame him. He had recognized the car that happens to have no tags (is this a shock?).

"Look, Sam, I know I was stupid." I continue to curse and listen to his ranting until I have had enough and hang up on him, too.

I needed to do something, and I needed to do it soon. I make my way through the building determined to find some work. I get back to my office and walk in to find, of course, James.

"Will you ever learn that this is MY office?" I ask as I rummage through some files.

"What are you doing?" He ignores my question as he leans back in my chair props his feet up on my desk.

"Something, anything. I'm bored and irritated. I'm itching to get out and maybe hurt something or maybe even someone." I reply.

"Really?" He sits up quickly with excitement. "You haven't had that itch in a long while. Wouldn't have something to do with you jeopardizing us in the press would it?" I stop and turn slowly. "I heard. The most amazing part though is the fact that the tabloids are paying an outrageous amount of money to know who you are" he tells me.

"Oh shit" I curse once again, as I rush out of my office and then upstairs. I hit the intercom button that goes through the whole house and even out on the grounds. "I need everyone inside and here in front of me RIGHT NOW!!"

I wait for about 15 minutes for everyone to get there. Thank God it was a big house because no way would all these huge men fit here any other way. As soon as I was sure everyone was there I addressed them all with the same speech.

"I need you all to listen and listen well. Apparently, some pictures got out and taboids are paying huge for information. It is my fault they are out there but I will make sure of it that no information is released." I start off. "I called you all in here to tell you that you are forbidden to release any information about anything or anyone. I don't care how good the payoff it seems to be" I demand of them. "I know for a fact that all of you are paid very well. I'm pretty sure you grandkids are set and probably even great grandkids. If I find out that one of you does decide to sell yourself, I hope its worth it because I will find out who and I will have your head. Take that as literal as you would like" I continue to warn my men who are like family to me. "I trust that you will make the right choice because I'd hate to have to punish you and your loved ones. That's all" I finish and walk back down the stairs as the men all go back to what they were doing before.

"Arianna, wait!" James yells out to me as I walk by him without a glance. He speeds up and stops right in front of me.

"You were right. I got careless" I admit quietly.

"You had fun though which is something you haven't done in so long. You would never have gotten yourself caught like this. You're so cautious and so careful" He tells me. "It's good to be those things but don't let it take over the fun." He smiles at me. "Yesterday, you were having fun, yet you were still careful. There are no pictures of your tags or your face. Tabloids are having to pay tons because there is no information for them to work on. So, careful but still fun, like the old days." This is his way of comforting me. It works.

James has always been a smooth talker, and I know this but this time, I don't care. I makes me feel better, at least for now.

"So now that you're done pouting, want to go do business? Both of us together, like the old days?"

I almost turn him down until I really think about it. I could use some fun. I want the old days back. The days where I didn't care much. I did what I do and did it well. We both change to clothes that allowed movement and grab our guns. If nothing else, we'll scare a few people and hopefully, at the least, get to torture a few. The ones that deserve it, of course.

Justin

I’m here sitting shotgun in Chase’s car. I feel horrible that Tabbetha is sitting in the back, but she insisted that I sit in the front because of my long legs. I’m quite thankful for it now. My legs are cramped a small bit in the front. I don’t want to think about how bad it would have been in back.

We are on our way over to Arianna’s house even though Tabbetha made it clear that she is not there. She was obviously worried about her friend. Apparently, Arianna had hung up on her friend after being informed of her escapades in the newspaper.

“Chase, I’m worried about her” she declares again. “She was not happy about the pictures, and Sam said she hung up on him too and now she won’t answer her phone.”

I tried not to let her hear my small chuckle at this bit of information. Arianna likes to hang up on people. This doesn’t really shock me much, but it does amuse me all the same.

“Tabbetha, baby, you worry too much. She’ll be fine. She’s probably just letting off steam at the shooting range or in the pool or beating one of her men up.” Chase jokes, trying to lighten her mood a bit.

I turn around a small bit to look at Tabbetha out of the corner of my eye and see that he failed at this mission.

It doesn’t take Chase long after we arrive at the house to start up a video game. This, however, does not deter Tabbetha. “But she won’t answer her phone!” She stresses as if this fact alone should make a difference.

“So? That happens more often than not when she’s at work.” Just what I thought. “She’ll call you back so calm down already. She doesn’t have any real business to take care today. She said so last night. So quit being so dramatic and sit down and watch me kill this game.” He tells her and I think it may have worked a little bit this time because she actually sits down beside him on the couch. She did it with a very audible huff, but at least she did it.

I am sitting in a chair off to the side. I took this advantage view point to watch this couple. Tabbetha is obviously worried about her friend which she made quite clear, but it was Chase’s face I felt compelled to study. He may have played cool but I can see the slight worry lines in his face. He worries for his friend, too.

“I feel horrible. This is all my fault,” I finally declare.

“No it’s not. She chose to drive crazy. Besides there are no pictures of her face, only yours,” Chase points out.

“I still feel horrible, but now that you brought it up, how did she do that? Not a single picture of her and we were chased for a while, in and out of the car. I wish I could learn that skill.” I admit as I grab some of the pictures from the newspaper that Tabbetha had laid on the coffee table.

“Years of practice,” Chase answers me. He then turns his game off and drops the remote. “I bored!” He declares, “let’s do something.” He stands up and goes to walk out. As he swings the door open, he is bombarded by a few cameras thrown in his face.

“Hey! Is this where Justin is staying?” One of the camera holders yells out.

“Justin who?” Chase says quickly then slams the door shut. He comes back into the room with us. “Nevermind.”

“This sucks!” Tabbetha mumbles.

“Let’s call Arianna and see if we can go hang out at her work.” Chase suggests with great excitement creating curiosity because I can’t imagine anyone’s workplace making someone excited….especially someone else’s workplace.

“I’ll try to call one more time, but I obviously can’t promise anything” Tabbetha offers as she picks up her phone to call Arianna again, shocked when she actually answers.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tabbetha greets her trying to be calm.

Thankfully Tabbetha seems to be deaf and has the volume on her phone turned up to a ridiculous volume. I’m able to hear Arianna says something about being busy and taking care of something with some James.

“James?” Tabbetha seems even more tense now.

I tried not to listen but I couldn’t avoid the sound of the loud laugh coming through the phone. Tabbetha is quiet for a minute. I assume Arianna is talking. I had to try hard not to listen.

“Well we wanted to hang out but nevermind.” Tabbetha tells her with great disappointment. She slams her phone shut and groans her annoyance. “She hung up on me again!”

“Well that seems to be a running theme with her.” I mumble quietly. I’m sure Chase and Tabbetha both heard me but choose to ignore me.

“She said ‘old school’ and she’s with James.” Tabbetha informs Chase as if this information means something. “You don’t think she’s going to go on a crazy spree again do you?”

“What’s that mean?” I ask turning in my seat to fully see her.

“Nice job, Tabbetha. Way to worry the newbie” Chase rolls his eyes. He turns and looks at me. “Nothing. Tabs here is a worry wart. It’s going to take a lot more that a few pictures in the media to set her off. James can do whatever he wants but she won’t go back to that.” Chase is sure of all of this.

“Who James?” all this information overload was killing me.

“He’s an old boyfriend and now her current ‘business partner’ I guess.” Tabbetha answers trying not to think about it.

“Old boyfriend?”

“Yeah, they I guess you can call it dated for a few years but finally the business got to Arianna and she decided she needed to focus more on the work and less on the pleasure.” Tabbetha cringed. “I hate him!”

“That’s enough. You know she hates us to share her personal life.” Chase tells her looking at her through the rear view mirror to get his point across. “Let’s go find something to do. We can take one of her cars and speed away like she did.” He jokes.

­­­

Arianna

We were stealthy making our way up to the huge warehouse. A man that we have run across several times chooses to hold his serious business here, which would be fine except his business is against us and ours. After assessing the surroundings for a minute, we take out a few guards (no we didn’t kill them – just knocked them out for a long time) and make our way inside – close enough to hear what is going on.

“Just remember, Arianna is not your normal chick, she’s tough. Don’t be fooled by that. Her weak spots are those close to her though. Now if you come up against her partner, known as ‘Angel,’ he’s strong and smart. He’s good at sneaking, so be careful. His weakness is easier. It’s his arrogance. It gets to him every time.” The man informed the group.

I look over at James and can’t help but smile. There were 12 men, including the so-called leader. Its going to be tough for two people, but we were definitely looking forward to the challenge. It’s just not as fun and exciting if it’s easy. We shrug and walk out from behind the cars we were ducked behind.

“Ya know, I’m quite flattered. I never knew you saw me that way darlin’” I smile as the men turn quickly to face us grabbing and pointing their weapons. “What do you think, baby? I mean you are the strong AND smart one.” I say with a slight pout in my voice.

“Aw, baby, I think you’re brilliant. Although I must say my arrogance is not really a weakness. It’s more like a side effect from being that good,” he laughs.

We continue to scan the room. We were definitely outnumbered, but we had no fear.

“Apparently mine weakness is my friends. I’m pretty sure that’s what gives me my strength and will to fight and kill. Maybe we need to prove a point. What do you think, babe?” I turn to James with a smirk, raising my eyebrows.

“Let’s do it!” We pull out our guns and start shooting, taking the men off guard because of our chit chat.

We easily hit several of them right off the bat. As we take a few shots, we dive behind things to dodge the shots taken at us. James and I decide to split up, take out men from two different directions

I’m not having much problem with the men I am facing. I try to look around for James and see how he is doing, but just as I spot him I am knocked away with a bullet hitting me in the arm.

I cringe but refuse to let this slow me down. I turn and immediately take out the man that hit me. I move to get behind a really nice Mercedes. I’m pretty sure that after all this is over, I may just take this back with me (if there aren’t too many bullet holes in it, that is). From my crouched position behind the car, I spot James struggling with one of the men to get the gun away from him. With a quick snap of the guy’s wrist, James had it and broke it apart before throwing the pieces in separate directions.

He catches my eyes and signals to me that there were two more men in his area and that there was one left in mine. We had great success with these men. He goes after his two and I turn to find my man. I spot him very quickly and roll my eyes, the leader – of course.

“Arianna,” he calls out to me. “Come on, Arianna. I didn’t peg you for a coward that hides behind cars. I mean you are the one that came out here looking to sign your death certificate.” His voice gives away his location and just how close he is.

I stood as he wished with my guns ready. “I’m pretty sure I won’t be the one being served this so called death certificate. You, on the other hand, will be served one and I’m sure I’ll be the one doing the serving.”

Just as I’m about to move from behind the car, I spot James out of the corner of my eye. He had lost his gun and the guy he was struggling with was getting the upper hand with the large knife. It didn’t take me but a second before I had my gun up, fired, and a bullet in the guy’s head. Did I happen to mention I am an EXCELLENT shot?

This shot makes the leader step back a small bit. “You know what? I’m tired of all this chit chat. What’s up with men and their damn chit chat? What happened to the good do’ days when we shot, killed, and moved on?” I ask as I shot the floor right at his feet to make a point. “Well let’s get this over with, so I can make it home before dinner.” At this point, my gun is pointed right between his eyes.

I take the shot, but the lucky bastard jumped in time to be missed. This just irritates me more. He shoots back, but I easily get out of the way. As I dive, I hear James swear from somewhere to my left. I move a little and try to find him. I see blood all around but who knows who’s it is particularly. I stand up looking around and before I could think about how retarded I am for losing focus, the shot had already been taken. I turn and within a fraction of a second, I feel the bullet rip through my shoulder. Damn it!! And the same arm that was hit earlier, of course. I fell to my knees, grabbing my shoulder, dropping my gun. It doesn’t take me long to pick the gun back up though. I go to shoot and the ass already had his pointed at my head.

“Who’s cocky now? I told you that your friends were your weakness.” He smirks, the smug bastard!

I thought he had shot me when I head the gun go off, but it is he who falls to the ground. When he hits the ground, James is left standing there standing over me. “You know, Arianna, your friends are going to try to kill me when I have to call them from the hospital to inform them of your ‘accident’.”

“I guess that’s why we aren’t going to the hospital and we aren’t gong to tell them what happened. You just have to take us back to the mansion and remove the damn bullet and do a little patchwork.” I inform him as he helps me stand up.

We get in the car we arrived in and sped off. I didn’t forget about the Mercedes if you were thinking about that. I’m quite perturbed I have to leave it behind but there’s no way I can drive right now. The whole way back, I am thinking of way I could possibly get away with this. I would have to obviously change clothes, long sleeves or at least quarter-length to cover the spot where the first bullet grazed, and no way can I show pain or they will suspect. So basically, I change clothes and take lots of pain medication. This is going to be a fun night.

We arrive back at the mansion and James helps me out of the car. I seem to have lost a lot more blood than I thought. I’m a little light-headed. We are met by a few of our men at the door. They are obviously not happy with the situation.

“What in the hell happened?!” Charles yells out, proceeding to take me from James and hoisting me into his arms with the means of carrying me to the ‘medical room.’

“We met up with a few people who weren’t too happy to see us. Our little ‘Mean Queen’ here took a couple of bullets to the arm. She’s not too happy about it as you  can tell.” James explains as I huff in Charles’ arms.

I hate being babied and this does not help one bit. I’m quite aggravated by it to be honest. “You know I can walk on my own right? That’s why I have two legs and I got shot in the arm NOT in the leg.”

“Yes, and you almost blacked out three times in the car on the way over here and you walk like you’ve been on a week long alcohol binge.” James tells me. “You need to quit being so stubborn and know that at some point you have to be taken care of, especially if you plan on going home and playing as if nothing happened.”

With that point, I huffed one last time and just let Charles me and then lay me on the bed. It doesn’t take him long to leave the room when I started to strip down. It didn’t bother me to sit there in nothing on but my bra on above my waist. Unfortunately, I can say that he’s seen me in much less, and not too long ago. The stupid bastard seems to always find himself around when I need to release some stress. The part that bothers me the most is that he knows it. Not the point right now!!

“Would you hurry this up?!” I scoff.

“You need to not be such a pushy bitch,” he demands, “do you need to get some lovin’?” He smirks as he wiggles his eyebrows.

I roll my eyes and punch him. “Are you finished now? Whether or not I need some ‘lovin’ is none of your concern.” As he cut into my shoulder to remove the bullet, I cringe and try to think of other things.

I start thinking about how mad Chase and Tabbetha are going to be at me when I finally get home. I’m most positive that they are all at my house waiting for me. Sometimes I wonder why Chase even bothers paying for his apartment instead of just moving in. I know it’s because he wants his own place, but he’s hardly there. Then, there’s Justin. He’s probably sitting there wondering why those two are freaking out – being over dramatic I say. I hate that he keeps getting pulled into these messes, but I’m almost happy that he still chooses to stay around.

“Alright, sit really still because this is definitely going to hurt.” He tells me as he goes to remove the bullet.

He definitely wasn’t kidding. It is extremely painful. I try to breathe deep to keep from blacking out. It doesn’t take him long to get it out, but then we have to stop the bleeding before it becomes a serious issue. I lay back and allow him to sew up both wounds on my arm.

This gives me a short time to think about what I’m going to tell my friends. They are going to be mad and I’m going to have to be myself, annoyed and sarcastic.

“Alright, well I did a damn good job if I do say so myself. Now let’s get you some blood – you lost a lot. Then we can get you some heavy duty pain killers and get you on your way.” James tells me, helping me sit up.

James leaves the room for a few minutes and returns with our ‘on call’ doctor. We pay him a lot of cash for him to come ‘fix’ us and keep his mouth shut about it. He comes in with some blood for me and a prescription for pain killers.

“Who am I today?” I ask with a small smile. I can’t very well get these pills with my name on it. This would not only bring up suspicions about a drug problem and our doctor being a little corrupt, but why would someone so innocent like me ever need so much medication as often as we do around here.

“You are Amanda Dearing, and you broke your arm.” He tells me matter-of-factly.

“That’s so sad to hear. I really do need to be a little more careful.” I laugh at my slight joke.

The doctor does his job and it doesn’t take long for him to finish up and head out with cash in hand, or really more in his brief case. I leave the room soon after to go up to my bedroom I have here for those busy late nights at work. I keep clothes here for a reason.

I change into some new jeans without blood on them, and find a loose fitting shirt. I didn’t want to take a chance of anything pulling on my bandages. I grab a jacket to go over it that I’ll put on when I’m on my way home. I make my way down to my office to check up on some stuff and to fill out some stuff. I grab my cell phone to call Tabbetha when I see 13 missed calls and 13 new voicemails, not to mention the 20,000 text messages. The girl is ridiculous.

On my way to the office, I ran into a few of our men that were concerned about me, asking me how I was feeling. I always answered the same – “tough enough to kick your ass still.” I grab my phone to call Tabbetha when my office door swings open. “My office, you knock.”

“Aw, baby, be nice. I was just coming in here to check on you before I head out to take care of some more business.”

I hold up my pill bottle and shake it. “I’m fine and don’t call me ‘baby’. I’m going home soon to deal with the firing squad and probably going out. I need a serious drink.” I tell him.

“That won’t be too smart with the pills. Maybe you should go home and rest.” James tells me with concern in his voice. This is not what I’m used to and it throw me off a bit.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” I tell him, grabbing my jacket and leaving the mansion.

Justin

As the three of us sat around, or paced around in Tabbetha’s case, I cannot help but wonder who this James guy is and why Tabbetha and Chase seem to be so uneasy about him and Arianna being together. Who is he and what is the big deal about him? The main question though is why am I so bothered by the fact that Arianna seems to be quite attached to him.

“Where the hell is she?!” Tabbetha screams out.

“You need to sit down.” Chase demands. “Your pacing is making me dizzy and I’m sure it isn’t comforting for Justin either.”

The girl finally sits down, and before I can breathe out a sigh of relief, she jumps up again when her phone rings. “Where the hell are you?! Where have you been?” She demands into the phone at, who I assume to be, Arianna. Is she the girl’s mother? I am shocked by the way she was demanding answers like a mother to her teenage daughter.

I hear Arianna tell her to ‘calm her ass down’ and that she was fine and on her way home. Finally! Hopefully the girl will quit pacing a hole into the floor while yelling at us for no reason. It doesn’t take long before I hear the girl yell out. “She hung up on me. The bitch hung up on me!” I can’t help but laugh a bit at this. The girl does have a habit of hanging up on people and I’m sure she enjoys it.

Within minutes, I hear Arianna drive up. I see her on a motorcycle this time. The girl has a nice ray of vehicles. I am going to enjoy getting to know her.

“I’m going to kill her and enjoy every minute of it.” Tabbetha storms out of the room to meet Arianna at the back door.

Arianna

I get off my bike and take a deep breath before heading inside where I am promptly met by Tabbetha, followed by Chase and Justin, at the back door. The red tint of Tabbetha’s face showed how furious she was at me which makes me smile a little bit.

She shocks me with a tight hug and an expression of relief that I’m ok. Then she launches into the girl I was preparing for. “I hate you so much right now!!” She exclaims.

“First off, you need to calm the fuck down. You are not my mother.” I tell her trying to stay calm myself. “Second, I’m fine. I’m old enough to do as I please.”

“That makes me feel better,” she yells back sarcastically.

I move into the living room where the boys had moved off to. Chase is just standing there trying to ignore the whole thing and Justin is sitting on the couch looking extremely uncomfortable. “Hey Justin! How’s your day been so far?” I greet him.

“Hey. It’s been good, thanks. How about yours?”

“Its been ok. I seem to have this headache that won’t go away.” I inform him pointedly towards Tabbetha and continued upstairs, of course being followed the whole way.

“Real mature, Arianna” Tabbetha rolls her eyes at my antics, causing me to laugh. “With your line of work, anything is possible especially when you are with James. What if you don’t make it home next time?” She’s pretty much in tears now.

I hear the boys talking downstairs. “So is it always this lively?” Justin asks.

“Yes, especially when Arianna’s in an annoyed mood and Tabbetha isn’t helping much.” Chase laughs a bit and I laugh a little myself at this.

 “It’s only 10 at night. For the love of it all, you overreact so much. I know what I’m doing. I was hoping to come home from work to enjoy my night. I need you to just get off my back!” I tell her and realizing I shouldn’t have said what I did.

“Let’s go out!” She exclaims.

As much as I wanted to go out and have some drinks, I am not sure if I really want to go out with them and see them trying to hook me up with whoever. “Wow! you cheered up quite quickly there didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m excited at the thought of you hanging out with us, and not that shithead you call a partner.”

“Ok that enough! I need you to learn to accept the fact that he’s not going anywhere. He’s my business partner and that’s not going to change anytime soon if ever. Plus, I didn’t even tell you I was going to.” I tell her.

“Well I hate him. He’s the reason you are in this business and you went all crazy bitch not too long ago.” She irritates me so much.

“You are so dramatic and paranoid. I got in on my own free will. I am not sure exactly what you mean by ‘crazy bitch’ but I don’t care. You play nice or else. I told him the same thing earlier.” I warn her. “Now I’ll go out with you all tonight if we don’t do any barely legal bars. I just want to have a few drinks and chill, not worry about 21 year old loud motherfuckers coming over to our table to be on Justin.” I tell her with no hint of compromise on this.

“How about the pub? It’s not a really loud bar and people there know to leave you alone if you want.”

I  agree and tell her to go inform the boys of the plan while I shut myself in my room. I need to fix myself up a bit and check up on my bandages and make sure they are holding up. My arm is definitely hurting me, but I know it could be worse thanks to the pills.

I just change into a simple nice top that wouldn’t rub on my arm so much and another cute jacket sweater to go over it. The last thing I need is for Tabbetha to see my arm and overreact in the way she loves to do and I don’t want Chase threatening to kill James. This is all especially because Justin is around, and he doesn’t need to be in all of this.

It isn’t long before we are all ready to go and find ourselves in booth at the pub with a couple of pitchers on our table. I have a feeling this is going to be a long night and hopefully I won’t remember much of it.

I do not take long taking out these pitchers. I think for every beer the other 3 have, I take out two or three. I was feeling drunk after about the 4th one because of the pills I had taken, but I choose to keep on going. My cup keeps getting refilled and I keep drinking. I’m sure my friends are happy to see me having fun, so they are willing to keep my cup filled – if only they knew I was on medication.

By beer number seven, I am set. “Hey!” I yell a little too loudly at Justin, who is sitting beside me in the booth. “Let’s go play some pool.” I smile excitedly.

He nods and stands up and helps me do the same. I stumble a bit on the way but with slight help, we both make it to the table and rack up the balls so we can start playing.

I set up for a shot and fail miserably. “Here, let me help.” Justin offers as he gets right behind me for the classic guy move, “helping” me and “teaching” me how to play. I don’t know what made me do it – the drugs, the alcohol, both (probably both) – but I allowed him to ‘help’ me. After setting the shot up again, with Justin’s help, I don’t fail so miserably – hitting a ball this time.

“Thanks.” I offer him with a smile and wink.

“No problem,” he tells me taking his turn and of course doing much better.

It doesn’t take him long to kick my ass at the game, but I enjoy it the whole time.

“If I weren’t drunk…” I trailed off with a pout.

“I’d still beat you but maybe not as bad.” He laughs and puts his arm around my shoulders. He places our cue sticks on the table as we walk back to our table.

I fall into the booth, almost pulling him on top of me. I gulp another beer down and pour another, starting to gulp it.

“Um, maybe you should slow down.” Chase suggest taking the pitcher away.

“Nonsense, we’re here to have a good time so loosen up. Why are you two so tense?” I eye them trying to keep a straight face but falling into a fit of giggles.

Justin starts to laugh too, but its probably more at me than with me. Not too many more gulped beers later, we get up to leave. I fall over as I stand up and Justin catches me. “Oh thank you so much, my knight in shining armor.” I laugh.

He helps me out to the car and Chase drives us all back to my house. Tabbetha and I get out, and I notice Chase wasn’t turning the car off. I lean back into the window. “You two need to get out and stay here. I said so.” I tell them. That is all it took for Chase to turn the car off and both guys get out and follow us inside.

Tabbetha and Chase go upstairs to go to bed – I doubt to sleep though. “If you want to go to bed, I have a couple of guest bedrooms.”

“You not ready for bed?”

“No, I think I’m going to sit down here for a while”

“I’d love to sit down here with you. We can talk and get to know each other.” He tells me. “You know what I do for a living, what exactly do you do?”

“I thought I told you that is none of your business.”  I look at him pointedly.

“Sorry” He is obviously thrown off by this.

“It’s ok. It’s probably not everyday you meet a hitman or woman in my case.” I laugh. I know I’m saying too much but can’t seem to care.

“A hitman?”

“Yeah. People pay me to kill the ‘enemy’ sort of.”

“I had no idea that’s how it was.” He tells me with a quiet tone.

“It’s not as horrible as it sounds. I won’t kill just anyone because I got paid. The reasons got to be huge and real and I do research.”

“What does that mean?”

I try to find a way to explain it in a way not to scare him away. “Well if you give me $20 million to kill your cheating girlfriend and her new beau, I’d throw it back in your face. If John Smith paid me only $100,000 because some guy raped his wife and daughter if front of him while he was tied up and forced to watch, and this pervert keeps stalking his daughter, I’d probably take this.” I tell him but still continue to explain. “I do my own research to make sure this is what is really happened and the guy really is stalking the poor girl. I don’t kill everyone that I is brought up to us. I only kill when it is absolutely necessary – like when my life or one of my men’s life or someone’s life that is not involved depends on it. I prefer to just strike fear into people and hopefully lead them to live a ‘better’ life.” I inform him.

“Now that telling you all this as pretty much secured me life in prison without parole if not the ultimate death penalty, I’m going to shut up.”

“No, please don’t. How does a person get into this? You don’t seem to me like someone who would be dedicated to a life of crime.” He is obviously curious.

I sigh and this time it is one of disappointment – disappointment in myself. “Well,” I start as I try to sit up straight and only end up flaying around and falling off the couch. I bust up laughing. I continue to flay around, trying to get back up and have to resign to getting help from Justin. “That could have been a bit embarrassing.” I tell him sarcastically, still chuckling a little.

“Are you all right?” He asks sincerely concerned.

“I’m fine. Anyway!” I turn towards him without falling this time. “Let’s just do a hypothetical image thing so you can place yourself in my shoes. Imagine you’re a 13-year-old girl, just starting out on your journey into womanhood with the most awkward times to come.” I start off, and he just nods. “You’re goofing off and laughing and enjoying life – forgetting that your face is breaking out, your feelings towards boys seem to multiply by the minute, your emotional for no reason at times, and everything else that comes along with growing up.

Life is good. You and your friend are walking down the sidewalk when you pass an alley. Its like one that would be n a movie – long, dark, and scary. you try to walk on by, picking up speed, but just like in the movies, you and your friend are pulled in by three big men. As you try to scream for help, you feel your head being slammed against the brick wall that’s behind you, along with the rest of your body. The man holding you there hold his hand tightly over your mouth keeping you from making any noise. His free hand proceeds to shove its way down your pants and as you try to struggle free, it seems to only make things worse. Before you know it, the man has ripped your pants open and proceeds to violate your womanhood and all you can do is try to ignore the excruciating pain and try to look for your friend. You finally see her across the alley way only to see the other two men were working on her - One holding her down while the other violates her.

You close your eyes tight hoping it would be all just be a bad dream that would be over soon. You open your eyes again and see its not a bad dream, it’s a nightmare, and you are living it and it just won’t end. Finally, the man holding you lets his grip loosen on you as he turns you around, hand still over your mouth, and the other arm now hold yours down. He does what he can to force you to watch the other two take turns with your friend. Just when you think its over, you see one of the men take a knife out and slit your friend’s throat from ear to ear, killing her pretty much instantly.

As they walk towards you, you struggle and fight as hard as you can with no hope. The man will just not let go of you. All you hear is their sinister laugh. ‘This one is a feisty one. I may need a turn before.’ The man holding the knife declares. And so he does as the other two hold you still. He finishes and the third one goes to have his turn, but finally the sound of hope. You faintly hear the sounds of a group of people walking towards you. You try to scream but you can’t. The third man seems to give up his turn, pulling the other two away. The one with the knife holds it to your throat and whisper into your ear ‘this isn’t over. Tell your friend hello for us.’ He cuts your throat and proceeds to run away. Lucky for you the group comes by in time to get help for you just in time. You black out, though, before the help actually arrives.” I didn’t realize I had zoned out until I finally come back to the present day and see Justin just sitting there with a look of disbelief.

I pull my shirt down a bit and for the first time, he notices the very faint scar on my neck, “I….I had…no idea.” He quietly say as he looks up at me. He reaches up and touches my cheek causing me to finch a bit. He wipes some tears away that I had not noticed had fallen.

“Of course you didn’t. Only very few people do. Not even my family knows the whole story. Tabbetha and Chase are two of the three now four that do, and I think this is the main reason they don’t hate me so much for my choice. The desperation and rage I felt after that night, its like it took me over.” I find myself reaching out for Justin’s hand. “I wanted revenge on the men that took so much from me – costing me my only close friend at the time and myself. A couple of years passed and the police just pretty much gave up on the case. I was devastated until I met James.” I can see the look of interest now on Justin’s face.

He was 17 and cute. As a mere 15-year-old, I couldn’t help but be fascinated when he chose to talk to me. As much as my parents hated it, I started hanging out with him and eventually learned his dad was into the business of ‘payback’ and James promised me we would be able to find those three men and show them the price of revenge. His dad had resources. It didn’t take long. We found them and had his dad take care of them. It was then that I was drawn in and did all I could to get in. I trained with martial arts, weapons, boxing, etc. I was determined to not let anyone else get away with treating people that way and now here I am.” I finish just sitting there, a little worked up over my flashbacks.

Justin sits up straight and pulls me over into a tight hug. It takes a couple of minutes before I fall into him completely and let him comfort me. He pulls away a small bit and pulls his hands up to my shoulders and puts his forehead against mine. Neither of us says a word. We just sit there in complete silence except for our breathing. Before either of us know it, I move and am practically attacking him with my mouth. We are like two insane teenagers on lover’s lane.

We couldn’t keep our hands sill as they move over the other’s body. It isn’t long before Justin stands up, pulling me up with him. We clumsily try to make our way around the furniture, but Justin fixes this a little when he grabs my thighs and pulls my legs up and around his waist. We barely pull away from each other, only to take small shallow and needed breaths but only when they were truly needed. He carries me up the stairs and at the top-, I do what I can to direct him to the door that led to my room. He throws it open and once we get through, he shuts it with his foot – thankfully, not letting go of me.

The next morning the sun wakes me up, and I wish it had just burned me alive, it probably be less torturous then this hang over. Note to self: never drink while on pain pills – it leads to serious hangover, not to mention when it wears off the bullet wounds tend to send fire through the entire body. I cringe and bite back a scream of pain when I sit up. I look down at my arm and know I need to change my bandages.

I lie back down and remain completely still with my eyes shut, and it seems to actually be working. The fire is starting to simmer down. I’m honestly a little shocked but of course it can’t last for too long. Just as I’m about to doze back off, there is a loud knock on my door. Damn it, Tabbetha!!

“Arianna!! I’m making breakfast. Do you want anything?” She asks through the closed door.

“Stop yelling!!” I groan back.

“I need to know so I can go ask –“ she cuts off when she opens my door and apparently invites herself in.

“So you can go ask what?” I question her, still not moving, and still not opening my eyes.

“Well, I was going to say ‘Justin’ but I guess I can ask him now” she laughs.

This opens my eyes and gets me moving and way too quickly if I say so myself. I cringe and grab my head as it is about to explode. “What are you talking about”

“Would you two both be quiet and no, Tabbetha, I don’t want anything at the moment” Justin’s voice comes from underneath the huge mounds of down comforter and pillows. He pushed the blankets down to look over at us.

I turn so fast to stare at Justin who is lying in my bed. He is obviously has no shirt on but the covers are still covering him from mid-back and down and I don’t want to check. I look around the room for evidence of clothes and then at my shorts and tank top then back at Tabbetha who has a huge smile on her face.

“Get out now!” I demand.

At the very moment I realized I was not wearing sleeves, Tabbetha gasps in horror. “What in the hell happened to your arm?!”

“That’s none of you business. I’m fine.” I stand up and start pushing her out.

“I refuse to leave until I know.”

Before I could even breathe, Justin mumbles from under the pillow. “She was shot now get the hell out!” He demands.

My turn to gasp. How did he know? How much did I tell him? Oh, I’m in so deep now. I push Tabbetha out and go back to sit on the bed.

“Justin, did we-“

“No.” He answers before I even finish the question.

I sit on the edge of my bed with my back to him. I am afraid to ask just what all I told him last night. I know, eventually, it will all come back but I don’t want it to. What I told him and how he ended up in my bed instead of a guest one is all so blurry and fuzzy.

Out of nowhere it all came flooding back. I told him WAY more than I ever should have, I practically jumped his bones, our trip upstairs to here in my room. Then how he knew about my arm. Things had heated up and he went to remove my jacket when I gasped in great pain. He had pulled away to check it out and saw the slightly bloody bandages. He had immediately pulled all the way away worried. As he helped me put new bandages on, I told him the story. How could I tell him everything? How could I tell an ‘outsider,’ someone who could just run the police and ruin so many lives that I do everything I can to keep safe.

I just sit on the bed and contemplate all of this. I fell the bed shift a bit and Justin sits up and moves closer to me.

“You ok?”

“Yeah, I just…long night.”

“I’m sorry I just blabbed your business. She was just grating so bad,” he apologizes.

“Oh, please don’t apologize. I would have told her eventually. I guess I should be thankful because she went away.” I turn and give him a smile. “You know you almost give me a run for my money when dealing with her in the morning. It’s not pleasant. She’s either a bitch that annoys you with her whining or she’s chipper and she annoys you with her unnecessary happiness.”

He laughs. “Yeah, I see that.”

I’m quiet for a minute and then look at him, actually look at him in the eyes. “I just can’t believe I told you all that I did. I took me years before I could tell those two everything and plus you haven’t run away or worse called the cops on me. Why?”

“Well, here’s how I see it. I don’t agree with your lifestyle, but it is your lifestyle. I see now why you were kind of cold around me. My lifestyle definitely doesn’t mix well with yours, polar opposites. I, also, know I trust Chase and I trust that he wouldn’t be around you if you weren’t ‘good people.’ Then there’s the fact that I trust you. I can tell you aren’t just out there killing anyone for any reason.” He tells me and I can’t help but feel so comfortable around him.

Damn it!!

“Arianna, I would love to take you out and get to know you even more. You as a person, not business,” he tells me and I, against my better judgment, can’t resist and agree to go out on a date with the boy.

Three months have passed and I am now, by far, the most hated female in the world. I am the one that has caused THE Justin Timberlake to disappear. The media cannot seem to find him unless he wants to be found. He goes to award shows and big events and definitely charity events, all to which I do not accompany. He does show up to the charity events with a large donation from both him and an anonymous giver. The media just cannot seem to find him walking down the street, flipping people off, swimming in the ocean, or most importantly he cannot be found with his significant other. They cannot find him and they blame me.

The media and the fans blame me. They blame because their beloved popstar has deserted them, and they see it as my fault. I’m the bad influence. He loved his fans and would do anything for me before me. They still love to bring up the high speed chase from a while back, and they see it as the first step to his downfall. He isn’t out there swooning the public, so they assume he has deserted his music and talents as a whole. It is all because of me. The girl they cannot get pictures of to save their lives. They do not know me or see me, so they assume I hold him back.

What these people, so-called fans, do not know is that Justin has been writing like crazy and I do nothing but support him. He is looking through movie scripts and I am helping him go through them and decide if there is anything out there he is interested in being. He wants to keep trying new things and expand his talents. I am not trying to keep him from the public. I do not want to be in the public eye, and he chooses to stay out of it as well. He actually enjoys the normalcy that he is experiencing for once, and I am not going to force him out if he doesn’t want to be out there.

As I rattle on here, I’m sure you are not really paying attention. You are still wanting to know about that first date. What happened and how did it lead to three months later? I’ll let you in on a little secret. I hate retelling this story, because Tabbetha insisted on hearing it over and over again for the next two weeks after it. I’ll tell it one more time and then I am moving on.

After Justin asks to take me out on a date, I agree and we decide to get up out of bed and go join the two nosey butts downstairs. It doesn’t take long for Tabbetha to start diving into our lives.

“So Arianna told you some business information? How do you feel about all of that?” She asks Justin curiously.

“Well it’s definitely weird to hear. I’m glad she told me, but it will take time to adjust to all this information.” He answers as honest as he can.

“So when’s this date going to be?” She blurts out.

“You know what? I’m going to soundproof my room. I’m tired of you listening in.” I tell her with a glare.

“Aw, come on! You know I do it. If you didn’t want me to hear then you wouldn’t talk so loud.” She declares. “Besides, it is nowhere as bad as when I had to you getting it on with –“

“I think that’s enough.” I cut her off once again. “I believe our first date will be tonight.” I tell her as a matter-of-fact.

She cannot resist asking when and where and for all the details. I can tell Justin wants the details to since he planned on taking me out, but I am tired of Tabbetha.

“I’m taking him to work with me” I tell them resisting the smirk I felt coming.

“WHAT?! That’s so unfair!!” Chase exclaims from where he was quietly sitting on the couch.

“I don’t really know what you are talking about.” I act stupid.

“You do, too. You are such a bitch! We’ve been begging to go for forever now, and you are taking him – a newbie, practically a stranger.” Chase yells out standing up.

I could tell he had no intention of hurting his friend’s feeling in any way but he was mad at me. “I’ll have you know that Justin is neither a ‘newbie’ or a ‘stranger’ to you, Chase. He’s your friend and now my date. You pushed for this and now you have to deal with this.” I tell him with extreme controlled calm.

“I’m going to change clothes really fast and then we can head out. Are you cool with that?” I ask Justin.

He nods. I could see his confusion and he expresses it when he believes me to be out of earshot. “What is so great about work? How is that a date? Is this her way of telling me to fuck off?” He questions the two left in the room with him.

I stop to hear what the two answer back.

“Are you kidding? She’s taking you to her work. Even if it weren’t for the fact that this place is amazing, I’d almost say this is her way of saying she hopes to keep you around.” Chase tells him with, what I believe to be, a hint of shock.

“He has a point. We didn’t see her workplace for the longest time and have been begging to go back. She has some fantastic stuff there. Her business is just as personal to her as her personal life and she hold both very close to her and does all she can to keep it as her own. The fact that she’s sharing with you and so much at that means that she’s quite fond of you.” Tabbetha tries to reassure him and encourage him.

I make a run for it up the stairs and change quickly before the two brats share more even more than they should. It doesn’t take long before I return in simple jeans and a plain bright blue t-shirt. I throw on some tennis shoes and get back downstairs.

“Ready to go?” I ask him as I come into the room.

He jumps up. “Sure am. Let’s go. Want me to drive?”

I laugh a bit. “I think I can handle the driving. We don’t want to be caught do we?”
I wink at him. I turn to Chase. “If you can promise not to get in trouble again, I’ll let you have these while I’m gone.” I tell him a I hold up the keys to my bike that he loves so much.

His eyes light up. “I promise!!”

I roll my eyes showing that I don’t believe him, but I throw him the keys anyway. “Please be careful. I’ll see you all later.” With this we walk out to my garage where I had several car choices that amazes the boy. “Ferrari work for you?” I ask with a smile.

“Works for me.”

We hop in and I, of course, speed out and get ourselves to my workplace in very short amount of time. We pulled up to a gate but there was still no house in sight.

“Um… you gate in a yard?” Justin asks looking around for some sign of a work building.

I get us into the gate and down a drive and I watch as Justin’s jaw drops when he sees a mansion instead of a skyscraper. “Oh please close your mouth. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that you will catch flies?” I laugh at him. “It’s not like you don’t have a mansion and all your friends don’t have one.”

“I know. It’s just that you have one that’s straight out of the 18th century or something. We should have arrived in a horse pulled carriage, you in a ball grown and me in a fancy tux.” He tells me.

This definitely makes me laugh. “If you say so.” I stop in front of the house and get out. As I walk around the car, I throw my keys at Brady, who comes out to move it. “Get out, Justin, so Brady here can put the car away.”

He listens to me and gets out, and the car is gone within seconds. We are met and greeted at the door by Charles. “Hey, girl, how’s the arm doing?”

“It hurts like hell but that’s what the drugs are for, right?” I answer causing him to chuckle.

“I suppose so.” He then looks over at Justin with a questioning glance.

I introduce the two and then I order Charles to inform James that we were there and tell him to come find me. Charles left with a quick ‘yes, ma’am’ and then we were off again.

“Man, you really do have control around here don’t you?” Justin asks amazed.

“Yeah, now it is time for the grand tour.” I tell him.

I take him to the back of the house to show him the fantastic kitchen and inform him that he can have the cook make him whatever. The down the hall to the right were our training rooms that were filled with all kinds of weaponry and punching bags and lots of paddings and so much more. I show him the shooting range and let him take a few shots himself with the simple 9mm . The pool is next then the tennis courts and the basketball courts and the other pool. I figure this is enough for now, so I bring him back inside.

There are bedrooms upstairs for those who need to rest for any reason or end up working overnight. There’s also a medical room for those who are wounded on the job. It is hard to explain to the hospital about a gunshot wound or a knife wound or so on without suspicions and not to mention the police being involved.

He is quiet while he just looked around with a little admiration. “I’m amazed. I can see why Chase and Tabbetha would enjoy coming to hang out. How’s the privacy work?”

“That’s the fun part. We have security that would make the CIA and the President jealous. We keep the house surrounded enough by land so that no cameras can get shots and there’s pretty much no way anyone, without permission, can get to this place.” I tell him with complete confidence.

He nods. “That sounds like fun.” I actually couldn’t tell if he is being sarcastic.

The rest of the day we hang out and enjoy watching movies in the move theater we have in the basement, play some basketball, and I even teach him a little martial arts.

It is during the martial arts lesson that James decides to grace us with his presence.

“I heard that you brought an unauthorized visitor onto the grounds. I’m shocked.” James says walking into the room.

“I’m going to make you unauthorized if you don’t learn not to annoy me. Where have you been? In my office?” I question him.

“I was doing some work that you should have done but apparently you are too busy with fun.” He states looking over at Justin.

“Whatever!” I exclaim. I introduce the two testosterone filled boys. Justin politely greets him and stays quiet. James on the other hand decides on a different approach.

“So, Justin, you’re her new boy toy huh? Well, let me just tell you that you she can wear you out, ESPECIALLY after a long hard day at work.” He tells Justin with a smirk and a wink.

I respond by sweeping my feet underneath him, taking his out, and causing him to land on his back with a loud ‘oomph.’ “Don’t push your luck today, James. You annoy me.” I warn him with a smile.

After taking James out and getting back to our martial arts lesson, our night is pretty nice. It is a simple and fun night. It is so fun that we are exhausted by the end of the night. I decide that we should take advantage of the bedrooms because there is no way I’ll make it home without falling asleep at the wheel. We go upstairs and I give him some clothes to change into and we both pass out within seconds of our heads touching the pillows.

That was our first date. Our second date was a double with Tabbetha and Chase and that one annoyed me, but we survived it. We went out several times, and we ended up at the mansion several times. It was our way of have a normal dating relationship without worry of the media, plus if I had to work, I was there just in case.

We are sitting at my house right now. It is just Justin and me for once. Probably something to do with me threatening their lives. We have been dating for three months with a date pretty much every night, yet very few of them were we alone. Tabbetha and Chase were around when we were at home, and then there were the hordes of men around somewhere watching while we were at the mansion. James always finds it amusing when he chooses to be around all the time and pretty much spy on us. I’m pretty sure I’m going to kill him.

We are lying on the couch, enjoying being alone and in each other arms, while watching a movie and eating some dinner. I am about to get up and take our dishes back into the kitchen when I hear something outside. I am not sure what it is, but it stops me in my tracks.

“What is it, babe?” Justin asks sitting up on the couch.

“Shh. I heard something outside.” I inform him as I slowly move closer to my front window. I get about 3 steps closer when my window shatters and I dive to pull Justin to the ground. I look up from the ground and see the hole in the wall the bullet made. We are under attack and I have to get Justin to safety. This is why I didn’t want to start anything.

“Stay down,” I tell Justin as I crawl across the floor as more bullets make their way into my house. I go and get my gun that is under the entertainment center and the one that is behind the china cabinet. I crawl my way back to Justin who is lying on the floor in front of the couch with his head covered.

“What’s going on?” He asks frantically.

“Some asshole thinks it is okay to attack me at home. I take shit like this very fucking personal, and I will take care of this.” I look around and try to assess the situation. See if I can figure out just how many men were out there and who the hell their boss was. “Have you seen the movie ‘Panic Room’?” I ask him

“Yes and what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“I have a room like that. It’s a little better though. I need you to get into this room and stay there NO MATTER WHAT!” I stress to him. “Follow me.” I command as I crawl trying to dodge the bullets and the shattering of items around the room. Justin is right behind me.

Just on the other side of the room, I hit a panel on the wall and door opens that is only about waist high but it is wide enough for anyone to crawl into. “Go,” is my simple command. He crawls in and turns around. Once you get inside the room, it is a normal size room that someone can stand and walk around in. There are TV screens around that shows every inch of the house. “There is a phone in there. If you’ll just pick it up and dial number one, you’ll be directly connected to James. Tell him to get over here and bring some men.” I order him.

“What are you doing? You need to get in here too” He tells me.

“I’m not going to. I’m going to shut this door and you are NOT to open it under any circumstances whatsoever until either James or I tell you to. Do you understand me? NO matter what happens.”

He nods with fear in his eyes. I tell him again to call James and then I hit a button and the door shuts as I crawl back around behind the wall. I stand up with a gun in each of my hands and look around to see if I can see anyone. I see movement outside one of my side windows and I shoot and hit the guy. I see him fall, but I doubt he’s dead. I move to the living room and barely miss a bullet. I stand behind a bookshelf, and duck as a vase on top breaks above my head.

“Who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you shooting at me? Do you not know who I am?!” I demand out to the men outside.

At first I got a few more bullets shot at me as an answer and then I head someone yell out. “We’re here for Rich. He wanted us to make sure that we let you know that he’s sorry he had to go last time but hoped you would understand.” The guy laughs out loud.

I had a feeling it would be that jackass. “Well I’d have you give him a message back for me, but I don’t think it’s going to get back to him after I kill you!” I yell back. Following up by moving out from behind the shelves and shoot out the window. I pause a bit to see if I hit the guy. Plus side is that I did hit him. Bad side is that there was another man standing right beside him that takes a shot, and he is successful.

The bullet hit me in the shoulder, the same fucking shoulder. I am tired of this. I fall back behind the bookshelves and slide down to the floor. It takes me seconds to see that this wound is a serious one.

JUSTIN

I cannot believe she locked me in this room. I feel helpless and scared for Arianna. I cannot understand why she wouldn’t get in this room with me. So, here I am in a small room where all I can do is watch Arianna through the TV monitors lining the wall. I already made the call to James and after he swore uncontrollably he told me he was on his way.

I pace the small room as I continue to watch the monitors. I stop when I hear Arianna yell out to the guys outside, and then I see the bullet hit her. I ran to the door, but couldn’t figure out how to get out of this stupid room. I frantically ran my hands all along the wall trying to find some button, switch, or anything that will allow me to get out and to Arianna. I do everything and fail. I go back to the monitor that shows Arianna sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, trying to wrap her arm up to stop the bleeding. She looks up at the camera and gives me a faint smile as she tells me she is okay.

It is not probably 5 minutes before I hear the front door behind kicked in. I move to the monitor that shows the door and I see three guys come in with huge guns. I am officially scared for Arianna and questioning myself for getting involved in this lifestyle. I look over to where Arianna was, but she is no longer behind the bookshelves. I look through all the monitors and finally spot her in the dining room, standing behind the wall, looking around to find her targets. I see her move to take a shot and hits one of them right in the middle of the forehead. As horrified by this as I was, I couldn’t help but be proud of my girlfriend. She amazes me everyday, as morbid as that may make me feel.

She moves to the other side of the doorway and the two remaining in the living room take shots at her. After missing her again, they decide to split up. I see her take a deep breath and move to take another shot. She stands in the middle of the doorway and proceeds to shoot several times. She hits the guy in the leg and in the stomach. The guy immediately falls to the ground. “Oh thank God” I breathe out a sigh of relief. Arianna moves toward him with her both guns pointed at his head.

“So, you were sent here to kill me, huh? You work for Rich?” She asks him with her gun pressed to his temple.

“Yes and I am not the only here to kill you.” He smirks up at her.

I wanted to reach through the monitor and kill the guy myself, arrogant bastard!

“You’re loyal to a man that just sent you to your death. Believe me when I tell you that he knew I was able to kill you when he sent you here, along with all your friends.” Arianna smirks right back at him. “Here’s what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to show you more mercy than your boss did. I’m not going to send you to a quick death because that’s TOO merciful. What I’m going to do is allow you to live and go back to Rich and tell him to fuck himself and that he just started a war that he is not going to win. He should have just let it go.” She informs him and with a final kick to the wounded leg, she sends him on his way. She takes his gun of course before he goes. The guy drags himself out and as quickly as he can leaves the house.

I sigh in relief again. I start to smile because my girl was winning. My girl – I like that. She may not be perfect and may even be a hazard to my health and even my life, I still like the sound of call he my girl. I smile as I look over the monitors, but something catches my eyes. I see Arianna walking through the house looking for others. She takes a quick a glance at the camera and smiles at me again. She winks as she continues through the house.

I follow her through the monitors and watch as she checks out all the corners. I’m watching the monitor with her when movement in another. I go to look and see the other guy that had split off coming up behind Arianna. He goes to aim his gun and she doesn’t hear him.

I yell out her name at the monitor but she cannot hear me. She walks around more. Just as the guy goes to shoot, I see her sweep her feet out and the guy goes down. She knew he was there. I should have known. She point her gun at him. “Really? You thought you could sneak up on me?” She laughs. “I don’t think I’m going to be more merciful with you than your friend earlier. I’m going to kill you.” She smiles.

The guy starts to laugh which obviously annoys her. I just stand there and watch the monitor waiting for something to happen. She demands to know what is so funny. “Well, I wasn’t planning on sneaking up on you? He was going to.” He says laughing and pointing his head behind her. I cannot believe I didn’t see the guy walking up behind her.

She turns to see what the guy is talking about and is met with a guy dressed in black with a black mask on and he moved so quietly. Before she could react, he had shot several rounds off. She jerks a few times as the bullets hit her. I couldn’t tell how many had actually hit her. I am too busy yelling out “NOOO!!” I’m back to frantically trying to find a way out. I need to get out to her. I can’t take it. I am scared I’m going to lose her before we even have a real chance. “ARIANNA!!” I yell out. I am punching at the walls when I hear a voice and hear more gunshots. I run over to the monitors and see James standing in the door with a gun in his hand. He had shot both men while commanding the men to check out the rest of the house and grounds.

ARIANNA

I cannot believe it. They got one over on me. I felt at least five bullets hit me. I fall to the ground and things started to go fuzzy. I can make out the guy in black move to put one more bullet in my head. He aims, but when I hear the gunshot he is the one that falls. I hear another shot and assume that it is the other guy that falls. I hear James giving commands to our men and then he moves over to me.

“Arianna, we need to get you to the hospital fast. You are losing a lot of blood.” He tells me. He goes to move me but I start to whisper to him for it is all I can do. He makes me repeat myself because he can’t hear me.

I try with all my strength to be louder. “Justin” is all I’m able to get out.

“What about Justin? We’ll call him on the way. Let’s go!” He goes to pick me up again but I stop him.

“No” I whisper, “Justin’s in there.” I tell him looking towards the wall where the room is.

James yells out to Charles and has him come over and pick me up as he goes to get Justin. “Justin, open up.”

“I would if I knew how.” I faintly hear Justin yell back.

“There’s a small button on the floor. It is right in the corner over here.” James tells him.

In about 2 seconds, the door is open and Justin is pulling me out of Charles’ arms and into his. “Arianna, I tried so hard to get out here.” He tells me as if he could have done something.

He practically runs out of the house and gets in the car James arrived in. James hops into the driver’s seat and speeds off to the hospital. I bet the men our left to secure the house and get back to the mansion to inform the crew what happened. I am sure we arrived at the hospital faster than any ambulance could have gotten us there. Justin carries me in and starts yelling. I do not know what happens after that. I finally black out and pretty much wait for the bright white light to overcome me.

JUSTIN

It’s been 8 hours since I laid Arianna on the gurney and watched them take her into the emergency room and then to emergency surgery. They refuse to tell us anything. I am sitting here waiting with Chase, Tabbetha, and James. We are all taking our turns at pacing a hole into the floor and demanding information from the nurses and doctors. They continue to tell us that only immediate family gets information which equals none of us gets information. This is bullshit!!

The only thing that made matters worse is that around hour three, someone must have recognized me and called the stupid press. The room was swarmed with cameras and people asking endless questions – inconsiderate pricks! I can only imagine what pictures of me in bloody clothes looking distraught cost. They finally kicked out the press and moved us to a private waiting area.

We sit and wait and pace and wait and yell and scream and wait. I am tired of waiting. Why does this have to be the one place where my name and status will not get me anything I want. I am finally at my breaking point when I scream out and throw a chair across the room, startling everyone.

“That’ll help.” James rolls his eyes. “Do you feel better now?” He is such a sarcastic ass.

“Well if you had gotten there sooner,” I yell at him. “What the hell were you doing? Contemplating which ‘cool tough boy’ outfit to wear or maybe which car is cooler to drive?”

“I believe I’m the one who saved her life!” He exclaims loudly.

“So you say. I believe her being in surgery leaves that up in the air and left to be decided.” I say through gritted teeth.

“Who are you to say anything, Mr. Hide-Away?”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” Tabbetha screams out between her sobs, startling us into silence. “I’ve had enough from you two. My best friend is on her deathbed, and you two are arguing over who is the damn hero. Fuck off!” Tabbetha is pissed and I don’t blame her.

I sit down beside her and try to console her while Chase is off trying to find someone willing to give information. He finally returns with Sam, one of their cop friends.

“Hey,” he greets Tabbetha with a sigh. he squats down in front of her, “how you holding up, sweetie?” He asks sincerely.

I’d be better if these two asses would stop trying to compare dick sizes and I knew information on my best friend. Can you help?” She asks showing a slight hope in her eyes.

“I’m going to try to help.” He tells her and stands up to look at all of us. “It’s a huge criminal investigation now, and it’s all over the TV.” He looks more towards me. I knew my celebrity status would end up blowing this up. “Not looking good for you, man.” He tells me what I already assumed. He tells me about the media frenzy and some of the stories they have come up with. Some include me being becoming a member of a gang, one is me being chased by the mob, and several similar ones.

Sam must go back out to join some fellow police officers and detectives while we continue to wait. It is well into the 10th hour when a doctor finally comes into our waiting area.

“You all here for Arianna Lombardi?” He asks and we all jump to our feel and nod. “Technically I am not allowed to tell any of you anything, but Officer Sam Hudgens assures me that you are all basically family and she doesn’t have any family that will be here.” He tells us and then goes on to explain the extent of her injuries. “She was shot six times. It is a miracle she even made it here still alive with the damage done and the amount of blood loss and all. Luckily the bullets missed most major arteries and we were able to stop the bleeding for now. She is in ICU on a breathing machine and some IVs. She’s very lucky. We will have to keep a close watch over her for internal injuries or bleeding and make sure we got everything. We are still trying to give her a blood transfusion and after that because of the circumstances we are giving her an extremely private room in ICU and will allow all of you see her as soon as we finish but there will be strict rules.” He informs us.

“Please only two at a time. You need to let her rest and do not overwhelm her. We don’t know the exact amount of damage and I’m afraid a lot of stress will cause it to get worse. I’ll let you know when we get her into a room.” The doctor leaves.

Shortly after Sam returns looking a little stressed himself. “Oh, thank you so much, Sam. They finally talked to us and will let us see her.” Tabbetha jumps up and hugs him.

“Don’t get too excited. The neighbors called the police because they heard what they think were gunshots, and the department sent out some units to check out the scene. They took a report of the scene and are expecting me to get statements from everyone involved.” He is not looking too happy when he turns to James. “I know this has to do with you two, so do you have a story to tell me?”

“Yeah. Arianna was at home with her scrawny boyfriend here, Justin Timberlake,” he starts. not resisting his need to insult me in the process, the jealous bastard. “Out of nowhere there was shooting. They tried to call 911 but they couldn’t get to a phone. Three guys actually busted in and kept shooting. Arianna tried to get a gun from them and they shot her several times. Justin somehow was able to get away and I had made plans to come over and hang out but when I got there, I saw the house a mess; windows busted, door broken, etc.” He continued with his story. “I was worried so I ran inside and found the three guys dead and Arianna on the floor. I located Justin and on our way here he told me their boss came in and shot them. The boss man thought she was dead, and apparently they were supposed to just kidnap her for ransom from Justin.” James gives her his explanation and I actually almost started seeing it happen this way. He is very convincing.

“What about the man that was found shot outside the house?” Sam questions. I’d forgotten all about this man.

“Who knows? It was outside the house. How should they know?” James questions.

Sam is about to ask another question when the doctor comes in. “We have her in a room but she is still asleep. We don’t know when she will wake up.” He informs us. We all jump up ready to hear anything he had to say. “So which two will be going to see her first?” He asks looking at each of us.

I almost demanded it to be me, but I figure Tabbetha or Chase or even James (as much as I hate to admit it) have more of a right to go first. They have known her longer and are much closer to her at the moment. I start to back away with my head down.

“Me and Justin are going.” My head snaps up when I hear Tabbetha’s answer.

“I… I don’t want… I don’t think I should get to go first.” I tell her still shocked they would let me.

James is not happy at all. “He’s right. He shouldn’t get to so I’ll go,” he declares moving towards the door, but Chase grabs his arm.

“I believe Tabbetha and Justin will be first.” He tells him and his tone and look leave no room for argument.

James jerks his arm away and storms out. I’m pretty sure he would have hit Chase if he wasn’t scared of Arianna.

“Let’s go see our girl,” Tabbetha smiles weakly as she holds her hand out to me.

I look over at Chase to see if he truly is okay with me going before him. He nods at me with a small smile. I grab her hand and we follow the doctor down several hallways and eventually come to a stop in front of a shut door.

“Again she’s not awake and I don’t suggest you try anything to change that” The doctor warns us.

We nod and go inside. My breath catches when I see her lying there in the middle of the room. She is so pale. She has tubes in her mouth, helping her breathe. IVs are in both arms, slightly bloody gauze all over, and that annoying loud beeping that seemed to echo throughout the room.

Tabbetha lets go of my hand to bring her own to her face to wipe the fresh tears that are falling. She walks over to Arianna’s side and stands over her. “Oh Arianna! Why do you have to be so stubborn and stupid? You act like such a boy sometimes.” I hear her try to joke to he friend. “Just so you know, I consider you owe me one now. I believe Chase was planning on purposing before your dumb ass got shot and the phone call interrupted. I believe a honeymoon to wherever I want with all expenses paid will do.” Tabbetha begins to sob.

“Maybe I should go get Chase,” I whisper as I move away towards the door.

“No, please don’t.” She jumps up. “You should be here. You mean a lot to her. Even if she won’t admit it, in the short amount of time you’ve been here, you have become something special to all of us, especially Arianna. Please stay. I’m going to go get Chase myself. Take your time. We are going to go talk to Sam.” She tells me before she leaves.

She leaves the room and makes sure the door closes behind her. I slowly make my way to her the chair that was against the wall. The beeping of the machines seem to match each of my steps – slow and steady. I pull the chair over to the bed and sit down. I grab her hand, careful not to mess any of the tubes and wires up. I pull it up to my lips and kiss the back of it and then I lean my head down and place my forehead on her hand now. A few minutes pass before I lift my head up and tears are running down my face. “Arianna, I don’t know what to say. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I was wrong. I care so much about you, and I don’t know what to do. I… I can’t stand the thought that I may possibly lose you so soon after… so after I realized that… that I love you.” I am quiet for a moment. I cannot believe I just said that out loud, but I have no desire to take it back, just the wish that she was awake to hear it.

It has been five days now. Five days since Arianna were last open. Five days since she last smiled at me. Five days since I last heard her voice. Five days since I was last able to hold her in my arms. Five days since I last heard a sarcastic remark from her, saw her roll her eyes, and laugh at something. It has been five days since I sat down beside her and refused to leave other than to pee or shower for a quick five to ten minutes.

Chase and Tabbetha have been so kind and generous to me. They brought me a bag of my clothes to change into, although I’m sure that was more for them than me so they won’t have to smell me and my old dirty clothes. They don’t make me leave so they can have time with her alone. We finally convinced the doctor to bend the rules again and allow four people in the room so we don’t have to worry about taking turns.

Five days!! I’m going crazy. Every time I hold her hands and feel her twitch, I get a hopeful excitement but the nurse continues to assure me that there’s no change. They are just reflexes. She then proceeds to put more drugs into her IV; I think they are trying to keep her from waking up.

Why?! Why would they do that? Do they not see what this is doing to me, to us? Why has three months driven me insane over this girl? Here I am on the fifth day, sitting by myself, refusing to leave this girl’s side and I’ve been with her for a little over three months and have known her for not much longer than that.

I grab her hand and kiss the back of it once again. “You drive me crazy.” I say out loud, laughing a small bit to myself at the line I just used as I picture an old video my old bandmates and I had made. “I’m officially insane.” I mumble as I lie my head down on the bed, still holding her hand.

I’m alone right now for Chase and Tabbetha are in the cafeteria eating some lunch, and James is who knows where off doing business. I hope off somewhere killing the guy who is responsible for this is the thought that goes through my mind and just as the thought crosses my mind I felt Arianna twitch again.

“You agree too huh?” I ask out loud as if she is responding to my inner thoughts and I receive another twitch in return. “I really wish you’d just say so then. Twitching is such a tease,” I tell her without lifting my head from where it lies on the bed beside the hand that I continue to hold.

This time the twitch actually turns into more of a grab than a twitch. She grabbed my hand! I am sure it is another hopeless reflex but I did not care. I reach up and smooth some of her hair back off her face. I simply run my fingers over her forehead and cheek and just hope I can will her awake. She grabs my hand again a little harder and just as I look up at her eyes, they fly open – almost panic-like. Her eyes are full of fear and confusion. I immediately push the emergency button above her bed to get some doctors, nurses, or whoever in here as I try to talk to her.

“Arianna, baby, you’re awake. Oh thank goodness. I was so worried. You’re ok.” I tell her. “You were shot several times but we got you to this hospital and they were able to save you.” I know what I was saying sounded very child-like as I try to explain things to her.

She just looked around trying to place everything. Several nurses and doctors rush into the room. I stand back and watch as they all hover over her and check her vitals and several nurses leave and return several times, bringing in things they apparently need. I use this time to make a short phone call to Chase to tell him that Arianna is awake.

“Arianna, I’m going to need you to take a deep breath and breathe out for me on three. I’m going to remove this tube that’s in your throat.” I hear the doctor explain as he followed by counting to three.

ARIANNA

I open my eyes to see Justin sitting over me. I look around the room I am in and see nothing familiar. I see his lips moving as if he is talking to me, but I cannot comprehend anything he is saying. It does not take long for doctors and nurses to come flooding in around me checking on things. I look around for Justin but do not see him; they must have pushed him to the back. The doctor comes over and explains to me that he is going to remove the awful uncomfortable tube that feels like it is running all the way down to my toes.  I’m sure it is one of those stupid breathing tubes you see in movies. Go figure I would one day need one.

As the doctor gently pulls the tube out, I start to gag and choke on it. I lie there wanting and wishing everyone I do not know would just get out and leave me alone. A doctor and his nurse check and record my vitals and try to talk to me.

“Please, go away.” I get out with a very quiet and scratchy voice.

“Miss, we need to make sure everything is okay.” The doctor tries explaining to me.

“No. Get out.”

After I refuse to cooperate and Justin finally demands, the medical staff leaves the room. Justin moves back over to my bedside with a huge smile, leaning down to kiss me on the forehead. “I was so worried you wouldn’t wake up.” He whispers to me.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I try to joke but I cough instead. My mouth and throat are dry and sore.

Justin obviously realizes this for he gets me a glass of water and helps me sit up enough to drink some. I thank him as I lie back down. I try to push myself up into a sitting position but I am too weak and not to mention it hurt like hell to move. Justin helps me once again. “You really should rest.” He tells me pointedly.

“I should do a lot of things that I don’t, like avoid getting shot.” I smile over at him.

“Not funny at all. You really did scare me. Seeing you lie there in a pool of so much blood and I couldn’t even get to you. Then there’s the fact that it’s a miracle you lived through this at all.” He is upset. The watery eyes are giving that fact away.

“How long have I been out?”

“Five days.”

“Damn! That’s one hell of a nap!” I exclaim. I don’t do soft emotional moment too well I you can’t tell.

Justin rolls his eyes at my comment. “I was going crazy. This whole situation has opened my eyes to a few things.” He informs me with a serious look. He sits down in the chair beside my bed and leans close to me. I give him a confused look and he continues on, “I thought I had lost you so soon after we became something. I know we have only been together for a short time, but this has let me see one true thing.” He babbles on. What in the world are you talking about? “I just want to say that I –“

“I thought I heard the nurses talking about you.” James interrupts. He walks over to side opposite of Justin and leans down to give me a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “I’m so glad you have finally come back to join us. Enjoy your nap, slacker.” He smiles at me with a small wink.

“Oh Angel, my dear Angel, thanks for having perfect timing.” I tell him as I grab his hand with my free one and smile up at him. “I thought I could handle the lackeys but I was obviously wrong.” I tell him.

“You called me Angel.” His huge smile shows practically all of his teeth. “You never call me that.” He is exited over something so retarded.

“I think you’ve earned it, for a short time at least.”

I look back over at Justin and his face is scrunched up and a frown has replaced the smile that was there just minutes ago. “What’s wrong, Justin? What were you going to say when you were interrupted?” I ask him.

He shakes his head looking down at his hands. “It’s nothing”

JUSTIN

I was just about to tell her I love her, but of course we are interrupted by James. James, who seems to butt in at the worst time every time, interrupted us and she called him ‘Angel’. Why? I’m the one who called him and I am the one who carried her to get her here. Obviously I feel more for her than she does me. I tell her nothing and I excuse myself as James once again takes over my place.

I go out in the hall and lean against the wall and slide down to the floor. I’m in too far and I don’t know where to go from here. I feel like I should get out and leave now but I don’t want to and I don’t think I could even if I did. I’m not in the hall for but a minute when I hear Chase and Tabbetha running over.

“Justin! What are you doing out here? I figured you would be in there with her especially now that she is awake considering you refused to leave her before.” Tabbetha squats down beside me.

I could tell she wanted to be inside, yet she chooses to talk to me. “I just think she wants some time with James – or he so-called Angel.” I tell her sadly. “I’ve been monopolizing her for the past five days, so I should give others time.”

“Justin, don’t be jealous of James. He’s a complete shithead. They are over with.” She tries to assure me.

“If you say so, I just want to be out here for a second. I’ll be back in about one minute.” I tell her with a small smile.

She nods and her and Chase go inside the hospital room and greets their friend with a squeal from Tabbetha.

I want to believe what Tabbetha has told me, but it is so hard for me to do. For the three months that we have been together, she always answers his phone calls no matter what she is doing. She frequently leaves me behind to go fulfill his stupid wishes. I try to understand her ‘jobs’ but I cannot understand her and James.

I pull myself off the floor and go back into the room before my absence becomes a topic of discussion. Chase is standing there over his friend with Tabbetha. They are talking about things she missed and things she owes Tabbetha when she gets out. James stood on her other side still holding her hand smiling. He turns to me when I walk in and gives me a smirk that makes me want to hit him so hard. I just stand there at the foot of the bed and watch the interactions, wishing that I was alone with her again.

ARIANNA

I am doing everything I can to act interested in what my friends are saying but all I can do is smile and nod as I watch Justin, who is now standing at my feet. For some reason, he left my side and never claimed it back. I find this weird considering Tabbetha informed me that he never left my side while I was unconscious, so why would he leave it now. I can tell what is going on in that head of his but it doesn’t look pleasant.

“And then I jumped overboard and got bit by an orange alligator in my attempt to save my poor pet pink elephant.” This statement catches my attention. I turn to Tabbetha with a look of pure confusion and in return I receive laughs from her, Chase and James. “Just checking to see if you were listening,” she smirks.

“Do I ever?” My sarcastic reply is given back.

“Aw, the oh so sweet Arianna we love and have missed so much is back.” Chase jokes.

“Right.” I say and is all I can get out before I feel a sharp pain shoot through my whole body.

My sudden hiss created by he intake of pain alarms everyone. Chase runs out to get a doctor who returns with a big syringe.

“I see you’re an over-doer.” the doctor smiles. “Pain medication is running out. These will give you more and will put you to sleep. I suggest you all let her rest.” He tells my friends.

They all nod their agreement and the doctor shakes his head as if he knows they won’t listen. Man, I missed the hell they must have raised to get the doctor think this way. I taught them well. I think with a small smile.

“I’m glad you’re back with us but will let you rest. Be back later tonight.” Tabbetha tells me leaning down and giving me a small kiss on my cheek followed by Chase.

I see Tabbetha stop and give Justin a sympathetic look as she pats him on the arm before leaving the room. What the hell is that about?

“I have to continue my manhunt,” James declares.

“I wish you great luck with that one, Angel,” I tell him using the name he loves so much.

“I don’t need it, trust me,” he laughs and leans down to kiss me on the lips and I smack him on the arm glaring at him.

“If you find anything, you let me know.” I demand.

“Right, because that is resting.” He replies as he walks out.

“I guess I should go, too.” Justin says without moving.

“Or you can come sit down and talk to me before I pass out.” I look over at the chair and then back at him.

He slowly makes his way to it but he won’t look up at me. He sits down and proceeds to look down at his hands. I reach out for him but he just sits there. “Justin,” I whisper. He looks up and gives me the saddest look and I have a feeling I am not going to like what I am about to hear.

JUSTIN

I sit down beside her but its too hard to look at her. For five days I’ve been begging for her to wake up so I can look her in the eyes and now I find myself not being able to. I hear her whisper my name and I cannot resist looking up. She has the most worried look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” She asks quietly holding her hand out for me.

I finally grab her hand and hold it close. “I don’t know what to do.” I admit to her though I’m sure she has no idea what I am talking about.

She asks me what I meant as she proceeds to tell me that I don’t need to do anything because the doctors are doing it all and she will be healed in no time.

I’m quiet for a few minutes and then finally and slowly answer, “about me… you… us…” She tries to pull her hand back immediately but I hold on tight. “I don’t fit in. I don’t fit into your world and you don’t fit into mine. You should be with someone like James.” I cringe a little. “He knows and understands this lifestyle. It’s too hard for me to watch you risk your life so often knowing that one day you may not make it through.” I stop to let her process what I had just said.

“Is that what this is really all about? James? You’re jealous of James? Why? Is it because he shot someone or is it because he is an arrogant asshole who calls himself a hero? Is it really James you have a problem with or is it me?” She throws me off with the last question. “Are you mad because I’m not some huge profiled actress or singer or whatever who you can take out in public and down the red carpet? Are you really mad because I choose to be very private instead of arm candy for you and your stupid paparazzi?” She is yelling but I don’t really notice.

All I notice is the increase in intensity of the beeping of machines like small alarms going off. A nurse runs in and demands I leave at once. I can’t move. I just watch as Arianna is gasping for air as she yells out in pain. The nurse is leaning over Arianna trying to get her to lie back down and to take deep breaths to calm herself down. I look down at her hands that are resting on her lower abdomen and they are covered in blood.

Another nurse rushes in and immediately pages a doctor and then pushes me out of the room where I must now watch through the small window in the door. Arianna had taken what I said the wrong way, because I didn’t know how to say it because I really didn’t know what I was trying to say. Now here I am letting James win again in my own small way. I watch through the little window and watch as the nurse continues to keep pressure on the wound while the other nurse pumps drugs through her IV.

It isn’t long until she calms down and then she is out. The doctor examines her wounds and orders one of the nurses to get her stitched back up. He leaves the room and almost runs over me. “Mr. Timberlake,” he addresses me, “I’m unsure what caused her to get so worked up but I suggest you and your friends control it or I’m going to have to ban you all again.” He warns me. I stare at the ground as he continues. “She ended up busting the stitches of one of her wounds and we will need to re-stitch that. We gave her a bit more drugs to calm her down and to put her to sleep. It is best if she stays that way for a while.” He informs me.

“Thank you, doctor. We will do all we can to help out.” I assure him. He nods and leaves.

ARIANNA

I open my eyes once again and feel a great pain in my abdomen. I moan out in pain as I try to sit up. “Arianna!” I hear his voice yell out in concern as he jumps up from the chair to check on me.

“Go away!” I demand as I gasp in pain.

“No, I’m here for you,” he states with arrogance.

“Why are you really here, James?” I ask with pure annoyance.

“For you, like I said.”

“Well unless you’re here to share information on Rich then leave.” I demand again.

“Woah, Sweetheart. What’s gotten your panties in a wad?” he asks with his hand up in a surrender style.

“Nothing” I simply answer.

“You lie. Remember I know you better than that.”

“I know and there lies our, or really my, problem.” I tell him which leads to a lost look on his face.

“I’m sorry, can you share more details?”

“Justin doesn’t want to be with me anymore.” I inform him.

The smile that forms on his face makes me want to jump up and hit him but I try to keep myself calm. “Good. That pansy pretty boy has caused us enough trouble.”

“Fuck off, James.”

“Back to James huh?” He smirks.

“Yes, mental lapse due to blood loss and six bullets in my body. For your information, Just has not caused us any more trouble than we get ourselves into. I created this problem with Rich long before Justin came into the picture.” I feel my control slipping as my anger continues to boil.

“That may be true but if it weren’t for your infatuation with the newest kid in town, you would have been more concentrated and would have kept yourself out of here!” He exclaims motioning around the hospital room.

I roll my eyes. “Infatuation? New kid? Just so you know, this is more than just some infatuation. I care about Justin. He’s not just some ‘new kid’ either. He’s not you!” I exclaim back and I hear the machines start to go crazy again but I take deep breaths to calm myself back down before the nurses storm in again.

“You ok? You’re supposed to be resting.” the voice points out, coming from through the doorway.

It is Justin and I cannot help but feel thankful even through my anger. “I’m tired of resting. That’s all I do in this God forsaken place.” I grumble.

“Is this a bad time? Do I need to come back?” Justin is worried.

“No, please, stay.” I answer and then turn to James. “You can leave now.” I tell him pointedly.

James groans and leaves. Justin sits down in the chair, and I try to move more towards him, but the pain will not allow it. My gasp caught his attention, and he stands back up. I am worried that he is going to leave again until he just shift and moves to sit on the bed and pulling my hands into his lap.

“Where’s Chase and Tabbetha? They told me they were going to stay with you?”

“They were here until I demanded they go and have some alone time. I don’t need them to fuss over me. I really don’t need anyone fussing over me.” I tell him.

“How are you feeling?” He  asks as if he ignores the statement I just made. “Any pain? I heard the machines –“

“I’m fine.” I cut him off. “James just knows how to press my buttons. How are you?” I ask referring to his ‘James issue.’

He sighs to himself as he fidgets with our hands. “I’m sorry. I never should have assumed…I guess I just get jealous. He shares something with you I never could.” He admits to me. I go to deny this, but he stops me. “I’ll never be apart of this so-called business of yours, and I’ll never truly completely understand, but it is something he does with you. He gets all the inner workings. I know it’s the same for you and my work but I hope that one day I can share all of that with you and you will be apart of my world in a sense. I know this really can’t work with yours. It is like when you know someone has a fantastic secret and you want to know really bad but at the same time you know the secret will hurt to hear.” He explains to me.

I do understand what he is saying. I want to share his world like he wants to share mine and like he pointed out, mine can not be shared with him. “I’m so sorry, Justin. I never mean to hurt you. We haven’t been together for very long but I’ve come to care for you a lot. I don’t want you to feel left out or anything. I keep you out for your own sake.” I tell him and he nods a small understanding. “What if I promise to talk to you a little more about my job – not too much detail for you sake – and I agree to go to one of those popular celebrity gatherings with you?” I offer.

He looks up at me, and I see his eyes light up and a real smile appears on his face. It is a small one but real none the less. “I’d like that and if we see it doesn’t work out then we can go back to this but at least we tried.” He tells me and I just nod.

James will be furious because my face in the public eye will cause a ton of problems for all of us in this business. Justin and I sit around and talk about a lot of things. He even almost seems eager to hear about my past life.

“So I talk to my mom pretty much everyday and even multiple times a day on some. I talk to the rest of my family about once a week or at the very least every other week. What about your family? I never hear you talk about your parents.” He starts and I look away from him.

“I had to distance myself. They blame James. They saw and still see James as that type of bad boy you date in high school that makes that good girl rebel against her parents.” I explain not really wanting to look at him. “Except mine went beyond that. After school, I moved here and as time went on our contact got less and less until its practically nonexistent. They may blame James but it really isn’t him. I made the choice because I feel like being close to me only brings them more danger. I do keep tabs on them from afar, making sure they’re still ok and happy and well taken care of.” I feel my eyes start to water.

“I miss them so much but this is for the better. They’ve moved on from me.” I can tell Justin is silent for not really knowing what to say and I’m a bit thankful for that.

After a minute or so, he asks “do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah, I have an older brother and a younger sister.” I answer.

He can tell his is touchy but I know he wants to know so I keep talking. “You say you keep people away to keep them safe. What about Chase and Tabbetha?”

I chuckle a bit. “I really had no choice with those two is my honest answer. Tabbetha was a classmate who became a good friend and when class ended, she kept calling and wanting to hang out. She made it very difficult to ignore and avoid her as your can tell. She ended up calling me one day and telling me of some financial problems she was facing and I felt bad so I let her move in, rent free, for a short time. It was supposed to be short because I couldn’t let her know me and my business.” I pause a bit trying to figure out how to finish.

JUSTIN

I can tell this is hard for her. The sad look on her face makes me w ant to stop her but I cannot help but feel she needs this more than me.

“The girl is nosy.” She laughs more to herself as she looks up at me. I nod as a way of encouragement. “I gave her rules but she refused to follow them, of course. She snooped the house which isn’t much of a deal but then she snooped my garage. She found a couple of cars which wouldn’t have mattered except they were rare expensive ones and a couple of bikes.

She met James who I was ‘dating’ at the time. My hours were crazy at work and so on. She questioned and questioned and I ignored and avoided. She finally got the hint and stopped. It wasn’t long before she met Chase and they became close fast.

She was distracted away from me until Chase came over and spotted my Lamborghini and Ferrari both in the drive because James was there and we were about to leave and drop them off at the mansion. The questions start up again from both. Then one day they thought it a bright idea to question James.” She stops again and rolls her eyes. “As you can see James is pretty blunt and straight forward and has no problem being harsh. They annoyed him enough to where he pulled a gun on them to tell them to shut the hell up, causing me to pull mine on him.

At this point I had to share some information with them and strangely enough, like you, they didn’t run. Scary enough, Chase found it to be a little cool.” She finishes with a sigh of relief.

“Wow. She he’s an ass to all huh?” I attempt a joke to ease her stress. She laughs a small bit. “You need to rest. I appreciate you sharing with me but I think that’s enough for now.” I tell her and for the fact that she didn’t argue me, I know she is exhausted.

I hit the button that allows a small amount of pain killers into her IV and just held her hand, and I softly hum until she falls asleep.

JAMES

“Do I look like I care?!” I yell at this lowlife in front of me. I’m tired of dead ends and that is what I keep getting let to.

“I don’t know anything.” This guy tells me.

I can tell he is scared of me and also lying to me. I pick him up by his throat and slam him against the wall behind him. “You listen to me” I growl “There’s someone I care about in the hospital with six bullet holes in her. These are there because one man ordered it. You know what man and you know where I can find this man. So unless you want me to pop your head off then I suggest you tell me what I want to know.” I warn him.

I get a gargled sounding response. I loosen my grip on his throat and the guys coughs a but until he gets some words out. “Fine. I really don’t know where your guy is but he has some men down at the shop on 2nd and 12th. There’s and underground casino there. The main guard there is one who works close to your man.”

I tighten my grip again and slam him hard against the wall one last time before I let him go. He falls to the ground and gasps for air as he rubs his neck.

“If you’re lying, I will find you and you wish I had just popped your head off.” I threaten as I turn to leave. “Charles, let’s go!” I demand.

Charles has insisted on coming with me everywhere that pertains to hunting down Rich. He has always been one of Arianna’s personal guards. I think he feels guilty for what happened to her, like he should have been there and stopped it. If this helps him feel better about it all then I’m a little willing to let him tag alone. Besides, it never hurts to have a little reinforcement, plus the man is huge and quite intimidating.

“So we heading over to see this guard?” Charles asks me as we drive towards 2nd Street.

“No I’m going to drive by and check things out and come back tonight with some more men. This is an underground operation which means it won’t start until late tonight and we’ll need backup.” I tell him.

“So what do you plan on doing?” Charles asks me.

He’s a talker. No wonder he is Arianna’s guard and not mine – although that is probably why he is a talker.

“I’m going to beat dude into a pulp, find Rich and kill him.” I inform him. He shakes his head and laughs. “What’s so funny?” I ask while glaring at him.

“I wasn’t talking Rich. I was talking about Arianna.” He tells me as he continues to laugh.

“I’m not sure I know what you are talking about. Arianna is being taken care of by professional medical care. Not much I can do other than this.”

“I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the fact that you still love her and here you hunting down her killer and causing all kinds of pain in her name and she is with the first serious guy – boyfriend – since, well, you. You were able to scare the others off, but she has actually shared this life with him and he’s still around. What now for you?” He questions me.

“I don’t still love her. She’s my partner and friend. If she chooses to date that pretty boy then so be it.” I answer, but deep down I know Charles has a point. I wish he would go back to Arianna. I don’t need my men expressing my feelings to me. It makes it difficult for me to suppress them all. “He’ll run. It’s just a matter of time. They all do eventually.” I add as an after thought. I nod as if that will make it all so.

Arianna and I have been through too much together for that weasel to win he is just some stupid ‘Southern Gentleman’ who knows how to charm young teens. She’s not stupid. She’ll see through his act soon. I know her, I understand her, I love her and I intend to keep her

ARIANNA

About two weeks since I first woke up has passed until now when the doctor has finally signed my release forms. I would have left sooner against doctor’s wishes, but I have been avoiding work a bit, especially since I know I am going to have to warn James about my new public deal with Justin.

“I may be releasing you, but that doesn’t give you the right to go and overdo it now. I still order you to rest and call if you have any complications and/or problems of any kind.” He tells me with a smile.

I smile back, “thanks, Doc. I appreciate everything, well everything except this damn wheelchair you have me in.” I tell him with a mock glare.

“It’s mandatory procedure. Besides, I order resting and taking it easy and walking around the hospital is not following orders.” He does not give in.

“She’ll follow orders if it’s the last thing we make her do.” Tabbetha declares as she pushes me down the hall.

Tabbetha and Chase have made sure they were here for all the doctor’s instructions and home care orders. They are going to be hovering, smothering pests for the next couple of weeks, I can tell. I hope they thought to remove all my guns and weapons from my room because I will be tempted to use them if they are too annoying.

Justin walks beside me, holding my hand the best he can. He is not saying much, but I can tell he is listening to everything and he is going to make sure I rest if he has to knock me out himself.

This thought makes me laugh a little.

“You find something funny, Miss Lombardi?” Tabbetha asks raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

“Nope, Miss Henderson, sure don’t. Rest and lots of it,” is my answer with a nod as if I’ll follow them.

“That a girl!” Chase says laughing as he patted me on the head. I glare in return.

It does not take but a second out the door before cameras are flashing everywhere.

“Justin over here! Justin, is this your girlfriend? Justin, is this why you are here? What happened? Was it really a crazy fan or was it domestic assault?” All these questions fly out at us. I keep my face shielded, but at the last question I heard, I could feel Justin tense up.

“That’s enough! We need to get through.” He demands furiously pushing through.

His bodyguard who I’ve never seen before now pulls up in a large SUV and comes around to help me in shields us all from the cameras.

“That was nuts!” Tabbetha exclaims.

“Domestic assault? Where the hell do they come up with these things?” Chase wonders out loud.

“Anything to make me look bad.” Justin answers solemnly. “Sorry, guys, for all of that. I should have let y’all go separately for privacy, now you’ll never get any.” He apologizes as he internally beats himself up.

“Hey, hey” I grab his face and force him to look at me, “It’s ok. At least now Tabbetha and Chase will lead interesting lives. At least until they even bore the ‘razzi. I give them a week.” I get him to laugh a little.

“Hardy har, bitch,” Tabbetha responds

I blow her a kiss and lay my head on Justin’s shoulder. I still have pretty strong hands running through my system. I just block out all the external noises as I choose to actually follow orders for once and rest.

We are almost home when I instruct the driver to turn around. I get strange looks from everyone until I tell them that I’m going to let them all come to the mansion. “That will allow us to avoid this mayhem that is sure to be outside my house. We can also lose our ‘razzi tails.” I inform them and receive hollers of excitement.

As soon as we arrive at the mansion, I instruct everyone to not get in the way of anyone or anything and not to annoy my men. They all agree and run off to their spots. Even the guard went to check out our training rooms and equipment.

“You alright?” Justin holds my hand as he walks with me. “Can you walk?”

“I’m fine, just a little slower than usual. That’s all.” I assure him. “I just need to get to my office and check out any info that James has gotten.”

“Rest! Your office and work is not resting.” He gives me the pointed look.

“I’m not really working. Working is going out there and hunting people. I can’t do that, because I have to fucking rest,” I pout just a little bit.

Justin follows me into my office, and when I sit down I tell him to go find something to do. I tell him the others are probably either at the pool or the court.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m fine here with you. I told you I am open to learning some new things concerning all of this.” He tells me as he sits down in the other chair in the room.

I have a feeling that isn’t the only reason, but I choose not to question it. I just turn to my computer and search for and print off files, as I go through the folders on my desk.

“Wow, the files and folders make it seem like a real business.” He mumbles.

“We are. I have to pay my employees, keep files straight so the wrong person doesn’t get beat up, and so on. I realize this isn’t the ideal profession but it is one. Not all of us can get paid millions upon millions to have their pretty face posted all over people’s walls.” I am irritated. It isn’t at him, but I cannot help to take it out on him. He’s here and it makes it easier.

“That isn’t what I meant. I am just trying to take it all in.” He cannot make eye contact with me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I’m just tired and frustrated. I can’t find any updated information on Rich and his location and his crew. I know James has found stuff, but I can’t decide if he’s been too busy or doesn’t want me to know.” I tell him. “I also think I’m up for some resting.” I have to admit.

“Let’s go then. I have your medicine and I’ll help you to your room. Just direct me in the right direction.” He tells me.

I get up and he does not take long to pick me up and carry me out. I direct him to my room and that is where we head. We get to my room and he opens one of the double doors and is quit to show amazement.

The room is huge and decorated extravagantly. He carries me to the bed and lies me down. He stands up and just looks down at me for a minute of two in silence.

“I’ll get you some water and then you can take this medicine and I’ll sit over here in case you need me.” He rattles off.

“Or you can kick your shoes off and join me in bed here. I am all of a sudden feeling rested. I just want you to be here, close to me.” I admit as much as I hate to. I feel so weak to my feelings.

“You really should rest.”

“You really should stop worrying. You’ll age prematurely.” I tell him with a smile as I pull him down onto the bed.

He kicks his shoes off right beside mine and we crawl to the middle of the huge bed and curl up together. We lie there and just enjoy the feel of each other’s arms. I feel like a normal girl with a normal life and a normal job. I feel like a girl – I hate it and I love it at the same time.

“Justin, I’m glad you’re here. I care about you a lot.” I tell him quietly as I drift in and out of sleep.

“I care about you a lot, too.” He  tells me shifting a little to get a better view of me. “In fact, Arianna, I know it has been a short amount of time but this whole thing has made me realize that I love you. I’m in love with you, Arianna.” He tells me.

I lie there quietly for a while, trying to comprehend what he just told me. I hear him sigh a little. He thinks I’m asleep or something I am sure.

I finally move to look up at him. “Justin, I appreciate you telling me this. I know I care about you a lot, but I can’t honestly say that I’m in love with you, yet. I don’t want to discourage you or hurt you, but I have been hurt bad in the past and it just takes me a little longer to open up and let my heart go.” I watch him and try to see the hurt I just caused.

Surprisingly enough he smiles at me. “I understand and I am okay with that, as long as you are willing to see where this goes and hopefully it does lead to love from you.” He tells me and I return the smile.

I lie my head back down on his chest as he wraps his arms around me and we choose to follow doctor’s orders together, both with a smile on our faces.

I wake up to a dark room. I try to pull myself up, but it seems that I am being held down by a pretty heavy arm that is resting over my waist. I push it off and finally sit up and wish I hadn’t have. I am completely groggy and feeling like shit.

I look over and Justin is still asleep, and I believe there is a small snore escaping from his mouth. It is so small you can barely hear it and would almost mistake it for slightly loud breathing.

I lean down and kiss his temple, and then move myself off the bed to go find my friends and check out the damage they have caused in my absence. As I move off the bed and go to stand, I stagger and come close to falling on my face. Pain shot through my body. I am now hating myself for not taking Justin up on the drug offer before our nap.

I leave the room quietly and search for the trouble makers but didn’t have to search long when I hear James’s voice echoing through the house.

“LEAVE NOW!!”

I rush the best I can down the stairs to go find the small group before it grows into a huge one and then I’ll have to shoot someone. I make my way out to the back patio area and find James in Chase’s face while Chase is holding Tabbetha behind him. I also notice Justin’s bodyguard standing to the side ready to pounce.

“What in the hell is going on here?” I demand to know, out of breath just from the short distance to here. I bend over trying to ease the pain that is throbbing. “James, I suggest you get out of their faces, and I suggest you three get over here.”

They follow my suggestions realizing that they weren’t so much suggestions as they were nice orders.

“Now someone tell me what the hell is going on. I hear you all the way upstairs. I thought I told you all to stay out of trouble and not to annoy my men…that included James, as much as I enjoy this.” I state with the smallest smile at the end.

“You’re little annoying people here are in the way. It’s bad enough that you all are posted all over the TV and newspapers and magazines but you cannot come here and cause us to be in the middle of this.” James is furious.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” I ask not so nicely myself.

“You obviously had some followers. There are 2 photographers outside the gate trying to get a picture of their beloved boy.” He gives me an accusatory look.

“Look here, you need to watch that look first and foremost. Then you need to realize that two is nothing and that we have security that would make the CIA jealous. They are not getting in, and they are not getting any pictures. I don’t care how good they think their cameras are. You should know this since you helped me design everything dealing with security.” I say trying to calm him down so I can get him inside and then beat the hell out of him.

“I invited them here because it is better to come here first then go home and have a swarm of ‘razzi and have that follow us here. Plus, I needed to rest remember and this is the only place I would have been able to do so. These three are my guests and I suggest you watch yourself right now.” I warn before I decide I can take no more pain. “I’m going to go dope up on some pain meds, I want you to meet me in my office. We need to talk.” I turn to the three beside me, “I need you three to behave. You are more than welcome to leave because I know Tabbetha is a little upset now, so it is up to you. Justin, is upstairs asleep right now, so if you leave I’ll bring him back with me later.” I tell them as they nod their understanding.

I leave and go find some strong drugs and do all that I can to get ride of my pain. I go to our medical room and find some good stuff and down a few. I sit there and try to take a few deep breaths to calm myself before I have to go talk to James.

I leave the medical room, and it does not take long before I am informed that Justin’s bodyguard drove Chase and Tabbetha home. This does not surprise me at all. James has an intense ability to make everyone feel uncomfortable around him, everyone except me. I refuse to let him make me feel that way.

On this thought, I walk into my office and find James in there, sitting in my chair, and with a smug look on his face. “Get the fuck up! I need to sit down.” I tell him.

He remains seated and tells me that I can sit in the other chair in the room. I demand once again with a warning that if he did not listen then I would shoot him and give him a reason to need to sit in my chair.

“You are Miss. Cranky Pants today huh?” He says with a childish tone in his voice.

I pull my gun and point it at him. “Sit down. Shut up. I will shoot.” I tell him and he listens.

He does smile a bit, but I refuse to be distracted. “First, you will never treat my friends like that again. I do not give a flying fuck why you yelled at them or what your problem is with them, but I made the executive decision to bring them all here for all of our safeties. If you have an issue, you come to me.”

“You are my boss.” He states as a matter-of-fact. “We are partners, remember?”

“I do remember and I think you need to because my partner will not try to scare my friends off and overturn a decision I made.” I give him a smug look right back. “Second, we have some things we need to discuss because it does involve us and our business.”

He sits up straight on this claim. “You quittin’ on me?”

“You would never make it if I did. Seriously, we have to discuss what is going to happen since I am with Justin, and Justin is famous. As we saw it is going to affect us in some way even if it is small.” I start off. “I am not going to stop seeing Justin, and I am almost completely certain he is not going to just stop seeing me. You can get that disgusted look off your face and stop rolling your eyes and deal with it, because that is how things are going to be.”

“I just can’t see when you turned into one of these girls that falls for his stupid celebrity charm. I figured you would be the one girl in the entire world that could resist him, but obviously I was wrong.” He shoots back at me.

He is obviously irritated with this whole situation. I know Justin’s celeb status makes things a little more difficult than in the past, but I don’t know what his issue is. It is almost like it is with Justin, himself, and not his being famous. Who knows what his problem is? It is probably his male ego and pride being threatened by another big male in the picture. A male that matters in a sense (not that our men don’t matter to us, but you must understand – meaning another male that affects my decisions in a big way).

“It is not like that and you know it. I’ve dated before and you have not had an issue with them, so I don’t know what yours is with Justin but you need to get over it. I had you come in here so we so we can talk about the fact that I made an agreement with Justin that I would do more public stuff with him. I’d go to some events with him. I may not do red carpets but I will most likely go to huge events where my face will get out there. I wanted you to know this before it happens so you are aware and we can adjust things if need be.” I explain to him and get a reaction of complete disbelief and rage in return.

“You know you can’t do that. You have to think about this whole business.” He stands up and tries to intimidate me by standing over me. “If you do this, you are throwing everything away that we have worked for. All that we have done is for nothing. You can’t do this.” He repeats again to make his point.

I stand up and face him on the same level. “I will do this and it doesn’t throw everything away. I know my limits and Justin understand there will be limits. We made an agreement. He would be more opened to my world and I would do the same for him.” I try to explain to him. “I know this decision affects many people and I will not put anyone in danger. The very second I feel like it has gone too far, I will stop and Justin knows this.”

“Whatever. This is all bullshit. Just know that if we lose anything or anyone it will be your fault.” He says and storms out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

I sit back down. I did not feel much pain because of the medication, but I did feel a little weak. I could not deal with this right now, but I know I have to. I do not want to upset James, and I want him on the same level as me but I do not know if he ever will be. This is all going to hell and James was right, it is my fault.

I’ve let my emotions and heart take over when my head should be in control. I’m letting my feelings for Justin and my want for a ‘normal’ life interfere with my work and in result putting my life, my partner’s life, and our men’s lives in jeopardy. What am I going to do?

JUSTIN

I wake up and find that Arianna has already woken and left. I roll out of bed and begin my search for my girlfriend. I look around before I stir up courage to ask one of the men where she may be. I already learned that Chase and Tabbetha left with my bodyguard, my bodyguard. I am informed that she is in her office with James discussing business.

I do not care much what they are discussing. I go to find her. I am about to knock on the door when I hear the room’s two occupants yelling back and forth at each other. I hear my name yelled quite a bit, and I hear James blaming Arianna for horrible things. I cannot take anymore when I decide to enter.

“I believe that is enough.” I state firmly upon my entrance.

The two stop and look at me in shock. Arianna eases into a smile while James glares at me. If looks could kill, I would be dead ten times over.

“Who do you think you are to come in here and try to demand anything? You are a nobody.” James is obviously pissed.

“This ‘nobody’ had quite a bit of presence in your conversation. I say I have to be a somebody if I’m worth you talking about me.” I reply smugly.

I look behind him and see Arianna standing there with a smile on her face and almost a sense of trying not to laugh.

“You need to watch yourself. I’d hate to have to kill the boy my partner is choosing to fuck at the moment.” He spits out as he leaves the office.

I turn to Arianna and see her sitting down in her chair. It is obviously to anyone how weak she still is, though she wishes for no one to notice and definitely not mention.

“I’m sorry. I never meant to cause any problems. I just couldn’t take him talking to you that way and definitely not blaming you for such ridiculous things. Are you not allowed to have a life outside this ridiculous career you all have.” I feel myself getting angry.

“It’s ok. I appreciate your thoughts. He does have a reason and a point behind some of the things he did say. We do have a business, no matter how ‘ridiculous’ you find it to be, that is based on secrecy. Your celebrity status takes that secrecy away.” She does not look up at me for a short moment.

I can tell I have upset her with my comment. I feel bad, but I couldn’t help it from coming out.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just not understanding some of the thing that go on. I’m sorry again. I do love you, and I am trying.” I assure her.

“I know and that is why I am trying to work with you. James doesn’t understand this because it has always been him and me. Past boyfriends and such have not been introduced to this. I never let them in on this whole side of me. You on the other hand are here in the middle of it, and you still stick around. He just feels threatened. It will all work out. I’m sure of it.” She tells me looking up at me and smiling at me.

I stand there and just look at her. I am so in love with her and I am excited to see where this will all lead and scared all at the same time. I’m scared that her attachment to her business, her men, and to James will eventually pull her away from me and I will just be left behind out of nowhere.

“What do you say we go back to my house? You don’t seem too comfortable here, and we can figure out what we are going to do. You have some events coming up, but I do know that I am going to limit the events I go to and obviously I won’t walk any red carpets.” She tells me, standing up.

I move to help her, but of course she refuses it. The woman is impossibly stubborn and prideful, and she wonders how she ended up with 6 bullet holes in her. I do take her hand though and hold it. It looks like it is out of love, which it is, but it is also out of a weak way of help. I want to make sure I am there if something goes wrong.

We go upstairs where Arianna changes clothes and we head for the door to leave.

Right before I reach the bedroom door, she grabs me by the arm. I turn around confused by her actions. “What is it? Is something wrong?” I am worried.

“I can’t help it, but I find you extremely sexy right now. I may get used to this whole love thing.” She smirks a little. I am still confused by her actions. “I’m thinking since we are here, I have a soundproof room, everyone thinks we’re doing it anyway, what do you say to an early evening, out of the blue, roll around in the sheets?” She smiles at me.

I laugh a little bit at her statement. “You have a soundproof room?” is all that I say at first.

She laughs and nods as she tells me that it used to be a huge conference room where everything needed to be private and now it works in her advantage, especially since she has a nosy roommate. “What do you say?” she asks again.

“I say let’s test out just how soundproof this room really is.” I laugh as I shut the door and I move to pick her up and toss her the bed.

When she cringes a small bit and moves a little, I realize she is still in great pain and has quite a bit of stitches. “Maybe we should postpone this. You are in pain, and you could bust a stitch or something. I don’t think I want to be responsible for that again.” I tell he as I go to stand up and move away.

“I don’t think so.” She grabs my arm and pulls me, quite strongly if I do say so myself, back over to her. “First off, don’t you worry about me and my pain. I am on some excellent painkillers. Secondly, if I bust a stitch them so be it. I actually only have a few more, and I’m healing quite nicely. They need to come out soon anyway.” She tells me as a matter-of-fact.

“If you insist…” I start with a smile.

“Oh, do I ever.” She tells me, grabbing my by my shirt and pulling me onto the bed.

ARIANNA

I wake up with a huge grin. Last night was fun, lots of fun. I roll out of Justin’s embrace and get my robe that is lying on the floor. I put it on and lean down and kiss him on the head. As I walk out of the room, I can’t help but think about how much I wish James was standing outside the room, so he can see me walking out in just my robe completely happy and satisfied. That bastard will learn to try to give me orders.

I go downstairs and see some of my men already up and training and a few just coming in from a job. They wish me a good morning and go about their tasks. I get something to eat and make something to eat for Justin. On my way upstairs, I see James enter through the front door as I get about halfway up. I turn and smirk at him.

“Good morning, James.” I smile really big. “Just coming in for a job or just coming in from your latest whore.”

“You, my whore, need to go put some clothes on. I need to talk to you about something.” He does not even seem affected. That ruined my fun but not my happy buzz.

I make my way upstairs and place the food on the bedside table and leave a note. I give him another small peck on the cheek. I throw on some pants and a shirt and make my way downstairs. I get into my office and there is James standing there with his arms crossed as he paces the floor.

“What’s got your panties in a wad?” I ask him as I plop down on the chair and then gasp in pain. “Guess I should have taken some pain killers and probably check up on my stitches.”

James rolls his eyes. “You really need to take care of yourself. You’re going to need to be at your best. Apparently, Rich as recruited a lot of men with the sole mission of taking you out. You seem to have royally ticked him off. He’s after both of us but mainly you.”

I roll my eyes. “He is so damn threatened because a girl is a better man than he is. I can’t help it if I’m better at everything than he is.” I laugh.

“This is serious. I realize you’re pissed at me and you had a great lay last night, but you cannot forget that your life now has a price on it, a hefty one at that. I have a few men scoping out his property and watching his men to see if we can figure anything out.” He informs me. “I know you are tired of hearing me say this, but now more than ever you need to stay out of the public eye. You need to rethink this whole ‘I want to go out have my face posted everywhere’ mentality you have right now.” He really is upset about all of this.

“What is your deal? I’ve had serious threats on my life several times before. We’ve handled it and I’m obviously still alive so why are you so antsy about this one?” I question him as I reach into my desk and get some of my medication out and take it.

“Because before you weren’t planning on putting your face out in front of millions of cameras.” He answers me with frustration and irritation. “I don’t think you are truly understanding what the hell you are doing?”

“Yes, I do. It may be a shock to you, but I am a big girl, and I can take care of myself. You need to calm down.” I tell him. “My boyfriend is upstairs and I plan on going up there and waking him up and then we are going to go and spend some time with some friends. If you need me, I’ll have my phone on, but I suggest you don’t need me.” I get up and leave the room.

I slowly make my way back up the stairs. This time, I am slow because of the slight pain I am still feeling. I hope that the meds will kick in soon. I refuse to let James intimidate me out of having a life. For the first time since I was thirteen years old, I have felt free to live, to live a life that is free of guns, death, and repeat.

“So what do you plan on doing about James?” Tabbetha asks me as we sit in a small café.

I demanded that Justin and Chase spend time together. Chase is the reason he came out here,  and I feel responsible for the fact that they haven’t been able to do so. While they do their guy stuff, I opted to take Tabbetha out for shopping. We’re on a small break now.

“I don’t know. I have considered several options, but I always come back to the same one, which is kill the bastard.” I tell her obviously annoyed by the topic of discussion.

“You’re not going to let him talk you out of dating Justin are you? You two are so happy. I can tell that you care for each other.” She gushes which makes me want to throw up a little.

I, against my better judgment, share with her the fact that Justin told me he loved me. She practically screams, bringing attention to our table.

“Would you settle down? You are being ridiculous. I have no intention of letting James talk me into anything, but that doesn’t mean that this will carry on forever. Justin and I are both aware that we come from two different worlds and no matter how much one wants this to work out, it may now. I have more than just myself to think about and worry about in all of this.” I explain to her.

She just rolls her eyes in response. I know she may not understand, but I do not care. I change the subject and it does not take long before we are back to shopping. This girl could win the gold medal if this were an Olympic sport. I am worn out by that evening and she is still going strong. I insist on going back to the house and she really does not have a choice but to follow since I drove.

Months have passed and James does what he can to avoid me. It is weird since we are supposed to be work partners, but he seems to be extremely dedicated, almost obsessed with finding Rich. I want to find Rich, too, but he seems to be a little too focused, even for him. I only see him when he is on a quick run in to check in on some things and give me a quick update if I see him. This boy makes me wonder about his sanity.

Outside of work and trying to keep things running since James is only concerned about one job, I try to balance my life with Justin and Chase and Tabbetha. I hang out with my close friends as much as I can while trying to go out with Justin. It is hard to deal with considering I am so used to being in the shadows and never seen. There are always cameras in our faces and around us. I’m very careful to limit my face and extremely careful not to lead them around my house and definitely not the mansion. My skills of hiding have come in handy for this.

Right now, though, is not the time to worry about all that. I have a huge event to go to tonight. I am at the mansion trying to tie up some loose ends on some jobs and make sure my men have it covered, and then its home to get ready for it. It is a huge charity type event and Justin is invited because of his huge contributions, plus I think his name and face help out a lot.

I’m not all that excited about having to get dressed up in a formal dress and heels, but Tabbetha is ecstatic about it. She is coming up with hairstyles and makeup tips everyday. I’m quite annoyed with it all, so that is why I am here until I have to go get ready.

I’m walking around and checking on everything and everybody when I hear the intercom system turn on. “Arianna, I need to speak with you right away.” James’s voice booms through it. I roll my eyes and head straight to my office since I’m sure he’s not in his.

I walk in and before I even set eyes on him I roll my eyes. “You know, you do have an office of your own and I am quite tired of you taking over mine.”

“It’s nicer and bigger and not to mention it have huge windows.” He tells me without cracking a smile. “I called for you to let you know that some of the men I had following Rich and his men have reported back that he has come up missing. I have no idea how this happened and I am definitely looking into it, but that is not my point. Rich is obviously has something huge planned. He has been very tight on who he has been talking to, he doesn’t move around much, and now he is missing. I’ve come to let you know this so you are aware. If he has gone missing, he is probably after you and it would be safe for you to stay low profile for a while.” He tells me.

“Well that is good advice and I may just follow it starting it tomorrow. I’ll start it by doing research of my own and following my own people. Apparently it hasn’t been done as well as it could have been.” I tell him hoping this will satisfy him for the night.

“No, you need to start tonight. You and I can go research his old workplace and maybe a few hot spots we know he visits.” He moves to the door with an expectation that I will follow.

“I will not go anywhere tonight except to my house to get ready to go to a big charity event with my boyfriend, and then to the charity event. We will start tomorrow.” I tell him as I plop down in my chair. Thank God my bullet wounds have healed because that jarred a little and hurt slightly. I can only imagine what that would have felt about a month ago.

James stops in his path and immediately turn around with a furious look on his face. “ You cannot go to this event!” He demands.

“Oh yeah. Why is that? Because you say so? You are not my boss?”

“No, but I am your partner and as that I tell you that if you go, you have become the selfish bitch I knew you would become when you started dating this puss.” He yells.

I jump up from my chair with fury of my own. “Selfish bitch?! I finally do something for myself and that makes me a selfish bitch? This is because I’m going with Justin isn’t it? You can’t stand me happy with him.” I challenge him to disagree.

“It’s not about that. If you go, you put not just your life in danger but min, our men, and ever your lover boy. You may not care enough about your life and most likely not mine right now but what about his? Is it really worth it?”

I glare intensely at him but I do not respond. I know he presents a good point, the stupid bastard. I do not give in though because I can protect myself and those I love. “I’m going!” I declare and walk out of the office before he can say anything else to convince me otherwise.

I storm out of the mansion, drawing quite a bit of attention as I speed off.

Our men are getting anxious with the tension growing between James and me and I can tell. I feel bad because it can only lead to stupid mistakes through lack of confidence. I’d hate to lose a man just because James wants to be a stubborn butthead. Yes, I just resorted to name calling and I do not care. I’m going home to enjoy a night with my friends and my boyfriend.

I get home ready to be overwhelmed by Tabbetha, but no one is there. She is probably with Chase getting a little lovin’ before she comes over and gets a little annoy. I sit around and watch some TV and make something small to eat. There is supposed to be food at this event, but just my luck it will be something that we overpaid for. It will be a small amount of food that tastes like cardboard.

After eating and cleaning up a bit, I call Tabbetha to come over. I may dread the idea of having her come over and make a huge deal out of all of this, but I know I need help. I’m not used to being a girl in the sense of dresses, heels, hair, and makeup.

It does not take Tabbetha but a matter of minutes to get over to my house. She runs in as a ball of energy. She starts firing off ideas for my hair and makeup but stops quickly when she sees I’m not listening. I’m just sitting on my bed staring at the wall or that is what it seems. I am really staring into nothing.

She asks me what is wrong, but I do not want to tell her. In fear she will agree with James and tell me I can not be with Justin anymore. She sits down beside me and insists I tell her what is wrong, and because she is my best friend I share with her the conversation that went on between James and me.

“He does have a point, Arianna. Justin is in danger,” the answer I feared, “but he is always in danger as a public figure. I can imagine someone he would be safer with though. I do understand that your life adds a little extra danger and putting you into his life intensifies it.” She had made me feel better only to make me feel worse. “Arianna, I believe that Justin loves you, and that he understands the risks he takes being with you. I also believe you love him and you will do nothing but everything you can to keep him safe, along with everyone else. You have been looking forward to this event, but if you are questioning it that bad, then I do not think you should go and Justin will completely understand.”

Finally my friend is able to get around to the point of making me feel a little better. My anxiety is still there, but I am more at ease about my decision to go tonight. “Thank you. You truly are a great friend, and I do not tell you that enough.” I tell her looking at her and giving her a hug. Damn it, this boy has made me a softie!

“I actually prefer the sarcastic witty remarks if you want my honest answer.” She says laughing as she pulls away. “Now let’s do something with that hair.”

I laugh and am very thankful I have friends like Tabbetha and Chase who truly understands me and allows me to be me without great judgment.

After a couple of hours of me bitching and Tabbetha whining, I am finished with getting ready. My hair is pulled back away from my fair with half of it up in a twist with pieces framing my face. The half that is down is curls into nice thick curls. My make up is a simple light smoky look with just a little blush. We compromised on the lips with having only a slightly tinted lip gloss. I have a floor length royal blue dress that fit me to my waist but flowed loosely from there. The back is pretty much nonexistent as the front dips down in a V-cut. I am wearing small dangling diamond earrings, with a small diamond tennis bracelet on. We kept going back and forth on whether I should wear a necklace or not, but we decided that we will keep it simple and do no necklace.

Justin is going to be here in like five minutes, and I need to calm down a little before then. I am anxious. I am nervous about being in front of cameras and trying to impress Justin’s friends and acquaintances. I want to make a good impression, so people will believe that I really am not bad for him. I want to show that it is okay that he has chosen to be with me.

Holy shit! I care what others think about me and him. I want people to be okay with the fact that we are together. I love him. Holy shit! I love him! I am now more nervous than I was before. I have to wait for him to arrive to tell him.

I leave my room and walk downstairs to the living room. I had intended to sit patiently and wait, but instead I am here pacing the floor waiting impatiently for his arrival. Tabbetha joins me in the living room, but she sits on the couch where I wish I could.

She starts laughing a little, “you alright? You seem extremely nervous about something.”

“I love him!” It just burst out without being able to be controlled. “I was upstairs thinking about how much I want to impress his friends and his world and how I want it to be okay that I am dating him. I’ve never cared what the friends think or what anyone thinks for that matter before. I love him.” I smiles as I finally sit down next to my best friend.

She squeals with delight. “FINALLY!!! I was starting to think you’d never figure it out.” She smiles at me and gives me a small hug.

“What has gotten into me? Ever since he has come to visit, my whole world has done a complete 180. I don’t think I even know how to handle it.” I admit, hoping my friend has some great profound advice.

“You don’t ‘handle it.’ You love him and he loves you and you just live life as it is dealt to you.” She smiles at me, and then looks down at her watch with a perplexed look.

I am about to ask what when I look at my own watch. Justin is fifteen minutes late. This would normally not bother me, except he was adamant about being on time for this event. He is usually on time when we need to be somewhere. Actually, now that I think about it, he has never been late for any of our dates.

I jump back up off the couch and immediately start back with the pacing. Tabbetha tries to calm me by telling me that he is probably running late because of traffic or because his suit is giving him problems or most likely because Chase is holding him up with playing video games.

I nod as I grab my phone and dial Chase’s. He answers and I start hounding him. “Chase, where’s Justin? We are going to be late and if you and your stupid video games are the reason then I will kill you.” I tell him with what he knows to be an empty threat.

“What are you talking about?” He questions, sincerely confused.

“Justin. He was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago. We are going to be late if he doesn’t make it soon.” I explain to him.

“Justin left 45 minutes ago to come get you. He should have already been there by now.” Chase answers with a little worry.

My pacing intensifies and my worry grows. Chase tells me he is coming over and I just hang up, planning on making another call – to work. I call my guard, Charles, to figure out what is going on.

“I’m not sure what you are talking about, Arianna.” he tells me.

I’m tired of people telling me this. “James, where is he? We may have an issue that needs to be taken care of immediately.” I demand to him very loudly.

“Arianna, James left over an hour ago. He said he was going to make you listen to his warning if it’s the last thing he will do.”

“FUCK!” I yell out as I hang up. “Something is going on. Apparently, Justin left to come here and he is not here. James left over an hour ago to come here and he is not here. Something has happened and I’m sure Rich has something to do with it.” I ramble on as I pace.

Tabbetha becomes scared and I do all that I can to calm her down. “Listen, Chase should be here any minute now. You two stay here and keep the door locked no matter what. You know where the safe room is. If worse comes to worst, please use it. I’m going to the office, and I am going to figure out what the hell is going on here.” I tell her as I head out the door and straight to my car and speed out of my driveway straight to the mansion.

I get there and my three main men meet me at the door. I order them not to comment on my dress or anything else about my appearance. I rush in and go to my office. James must have left something. There has to be a main reason behind him rushing to come get me other than warning me about Justin and the stupid event.

Papers are strewn out everywhere. That boy can never clean up after himself and for once I’m happy about that. I shuffle through the papers trying to figure out what he must have found out. I almost give up when something caught my eye. It is a handwritten note beside the phone. Since when does James take phone messages. It is an address. I turn on my computer and about to look up the location when I looked over the address. I did not have to look this one up, I know this address. This is the address of Rich’s previous meeting ground. FUCK!!!

I run out of my office as fast as these damn heels will allow without falling on my face. I run upstairs to my bedroom and change into some more reasonable breathable clothes that will allow me to kick some ass. I do not bother doing anything with my hair or jewelry. I do not really care. I need to get to this address before something extreme happens, and I never forgive myself.

I get downstairs and give orders to my main men and a few others to follow me, and I order others that I see to get everyone they can to this address as soon as possible and to stock up on the weaponry. I had three guns on me, a couple of blades, and fury that will kill anyone in my way.

It does not take us long to load up our vehicles and head out, leaving only dust behind. I give orders the whole way on how we are going to go about taking Rich down. Who is going to be where and what they are going to do. Only Charles and I are going after Rich himself. Everyone else is in charge or controlling our environment in a sense. Any of Rich’s men who get in their way, they are more than welcome to take them out. I call James’s phone once last time in hopes that he is just being a butthead and avoiding calls. Shockingly, the phone is answered.

“I have been waiting for you. I ignored so many calls hoping you would call” is the greeting I am given.

“You fucking bastard. What have you done?” I demand to know.

“Not too much. Your lover boy is looking a little rough. I would think dating you would have toughen the guy up. I guess I was wrong. James hasn’t let me down though. He is stubborn, just as I had hoped.” He laughs which infuriates me.

“You do know you will die, don’t you?” I ask as my speed increases and Charles calls the men in the following vehicles to let them know that I am talking to Rich.

“I doubt it, but I will do you a favor because I am such a kind person.” He offers, “I will not kill your two favorite men until you get here to watch.”

This pisses me off. I hear him laughing as I just hang up on him. My speed increases to a great extreme but I do not care. I am getting there soon and I am killing Rich. As bad as I want to be quick, I am going to make sure this bastard suffers for crossing me. No one messes with me and the ones I love.

We get there and check out the area. We spot most of the men and the weapons they are carrying. We prep ourselves and head out or more in I guess. We are spotted soon after our arrival which is expected if these men are doing their job. My men are in charge of keeping them off our back so Charles and I can get into the building to Rich.

I look over at Charles and he nods at me as he has his gun up and ready to take out whoever. I have a gun in each hand and ready to take out Rich. I kick the door in and aim the guns right at his head. I would have shot, but the sight in front of me brought me to a sudden holt. My guns never leave Rich’s head, but I do not fire.

In front of me is Rich standing in between two chairs, and in each chair is someone sitting in them. I look over at Justin who has a gag tied tight and his hands and feet bound by wires, wires so tight that if he moves at all they will cut into him. His left eye is practically swollen completely shut, his nose is bloody, and he has several small cuts. I try to keep from showing any emotion for I know that is exactly what Rich wants, but the pleading look on Justin’s face is killing me.

I look over to the other chair and James is sitting there in the same situation with a few extra cuts and bruises, but he had more of a bored look on his face. If I am not mistaking, it is almost like he is just waiting for the right timing and he is going to jump up and take Rich out.

I move a little to my left and make sure my stance is very firm with my guns straight at Rich’s head, right between the eyes. “I suggest you let them go before I kill you and we ruin this reunion by shortening it.” I glare.

He moves and I see two guns, one at Justin’s head and one at James’s head. “I suggest you put your guns down or you lose your lover boys.”

“What makes you think I will allow that? I don’t know if you are aware if this, but I have the best aim out of anyone.” I smirk a little. “I’ll shoot you right in the head right now.”

“Yes, you can do that. If you do, you better believe before the bullet hits, I’ll have my guns fired. You’ll lose your special one, but if I do miss, Thomas behind me here will finish for me.” He smiles evilly at me.

“What do you want?” I question him.

“I want you to tell your man there to leave and you and me go at this like real men.” He laughs a little to himself with calling me a ‘men.’ “Thomas will leave and your boy will leave and you will drop your guns and listen to this deal I have for you. I’m sure your boy here, Justin is it, will enjoy this one.”

I never negotiate, but usually the life of someone I love is not the item being negotiated over. I see James roll his eyes and look at me to tell me to just blow him away, but I cannot. I cannot risk Justin like that. He has not done anything to deserve this. I drop my head a bit and tell Rich I will comply if both our men leave, and he drops his guns, also.

Surprisingly enough Rich does just that. Thomas leaves and I order Charles to leave. After I point my guns at the floor instead of Rich’s head, he moves his away from Justin and James. If he is so willing to compromise, there is something else he is up to and I am sure it will not be long before he reveals his intentions.

“Now that I have you all alone per say, let’s play ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’” He laughs a little at his game show voice. “I present you with a few offers and you choose which one you want. What do you say?” He asks as he waves his gun around towards the area where the guys are.”

“I’m not up for making deals. I’m really more for you releasing them or die a horrible torturous death.” I tell him.

“Well here’s the first condition of the game,” he starts by ignoring my comment. “You are not allowed to have your guns while playing this game. So you either lose them or I remove something from them.” James says as he places a knife to Justin’s throat.

I immediately drop my guns to the floor. Rich advises me to move them a way so I slide them behind me, so he does not have easy access to them if I cannot. I them demand he removes the blade from my boyfriend’s throat.

“Ready to play?” He asks me with a huge smile that I cannot wait to remove.

“I’m not going to play.” I tell him.

“Sure you will because if you don’t, they both die.” He says as a matter-of-fact.

“What do you want? Let’s just get this over with.”

“Sounds good to me. So I’ll present to you your choice, and you choose which one you want.” He informs me as he walks around, but never letting his eyes leave me or his smile fade. “Door number one,” he moves to right behind Justin, “you choose to let Justin go and I leave him alone, but James must stay and fight for his life.” He moves to behind James, “Door number two is you let James go home, and Justin stays to fight for his life. Door number three is that they both stay and I torture them both as I make them watch you go through a serious amount of pain right in front of them.” He presents the choices in a game show host voice.

I roll my eyes and refuse to choose one of those. “You must make a choice. I’d hate to have to kill them both right now.” He says pointing his gun to Justin’s temple.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask him.

“Because I want to know who matters more to you. Do you care more about Justin, your present boyfriend? Will you choose to free him? OR Will it be James, your past lover and your wonderful business partner? Who do you care more about? You must make a choice.” He is so smug.

“I can’t make that choice.” I answer as I look at Justin who is pleading with me to get him out of this. I look over at James, and I can tell he wants me to choose Justin. He’d love nothing more than to stay and ‘fight for his life.’

“Well you must or I will for you and I’m sure you won’t like my choice.”

I look back and forth between the guys and I know who I have to let go and I feel horrible that one has to be left to ‘fight’ but I have no doubt who I must free. I look down at the ground and quietly give him my answer.

“I’m sorry, Sweetheart, I didn’t quite hear your answer.” He laughs standing behind James, knowing that is who is staying behind.

“I said that I choose to free…” I look up and take a deep breath “James.”

The shock on everyone’s face tells me just how unexpected that answer is for all.

JUSTIN

As soon as I hear her say James, my head shot up. I cannot believe she is letting him go. He lives for shit like this. I see it in his eyes, he is as disappointed with her choice as I am. There is no way I am going to make it through this. At least now I know that I love a girl that does not and will not love me. It will always be James.

I watch as Rich cuts the wires around that are around the hands and feet of James and remove the gag. “As I promised, you are free to go. I’m quite shocked and disappointed though. I was sure she loved this boy over here more,” he points towards me. “I guess the girl is always full of surprises. I’ll just have to torture you later sometime.”

I see the hatred in James’s eyes. He is about to take it out on Rich but Arianna stops him. “Please, James, go. I freed you so go.” She won’t look up at. “I made my choice and I can’t and I won’t take it back.” She whispers loudly to him and almost growls at him.

She looks at me and apologizes, but I just look away. I do not want to look at her. I cannot take this. The wires around my wrists are tight and if I move at all, they dig in just a little more.

James leaves and Rich locks the door behind him. “Well, Doll, you surprised us all. You want to explain it to the poor boy over here that was sentenced to death by the very woman he loves, or can I?” He asks with an evil smile.

“Shut the fuck up, Rich. You would never understand.” She demands with a glare that could cause anyone to second their actions, anyone but Rich it seems.

Rich moves over behind me and leans down to my ear. I try to jerk away but the pain searing up my arms stops me. “You want to know why you got left behind? She chose James instead of you because she will always love James more. He’s her ‘Angel.’ He can take care of her like you can’t. He shares a life with her that you never will. He has had his way with her many, many times. Can you really believe you can every possibly compare to him?”

I close my eyes for he is confirming all of my fears and insecurities that I feel when it comes to Arianna and me. I was actually beginning to get over them before this whole incident. I look up at her hoping she would deny all of these accusations or at least explain a little but all she does is look away from me and stare at the wall behind me. I try to look into her eyes and I almost see them watering. What a bitch. How can she possibly feel upset? She’s the one that had a choice, and she’s the one that made the decision. Then it occurs to me, the bitch is upset because the truth is coming out and she can no longer expect me to stick around.

Rich stands up straight and moves over to right in front of Arianna. He grabs her face and makes her look at him. “Don’t be upset, Arianna. At lease you got to save one of them.”

At this moment, I see Arianna head-butt Rich right in the forehead. I almost jump up in a cheer, but once again the wires are cutting. Rich backs up a little and shakes it off. He stands back up and then grabs Arianna by her throat slams her against the wall behind her. I cannot believe he is able to do this. I’ve seen Arianna fight, and I know she is better and stronger than this.

“You’ll pay for that one, my sweet one.” He tells her. He continues to hold her there for several minutes. She tries not to give him the satisfaction that he is bothering her at all, but she moves a little every short while, trying to get a little air I’m sure.

Rich releases her throat a little, but he then switches it up by punching her and whatever else he can think of to cause pain. The only thing she seems to do in response is wince a little every few blows and look over at me. Rich delivers one more blow to her face which causes her to fall to her knees before he backs off a little.

“You are not making this fun for me. I have another idea.” He states as he moves back over to me. “What would you do if I were to start hitting him some more?” He asks her.

She lifts her head and I see the bloody nose and lips, the swollen eyes, and the bruises that are already forming. No woman should have to go through that, even if she thinks it is funny to lead me on.

Before I think of anything else, I feel Rich’s hand come across my face, right along the jaw. Pain shoots through my entire body. If he did not break my jaw, he came close to it for sure.

He moves my hands from behind me to being tied to each arm of the chair, The wire still tight enough so if I move they will cut through my wrist a little at a time.

“What about this?” Rich pulls out a blade and holds it to my hand. “One finger for every time you do not scream.”

“Leave him alone. This is about me.” She screams out as she struggles to stand back up.

“You are completely right, and I have learned the best way to torture you is to torture those who are close to you,” is his answer. “The best way to torture him is to take his figures. A pop star will have a hard time playing his piano or guitar with missing fingers.”

He is right. That is a tortuous thought. I have worked so hard for my career and my music and here he is threatening to end any future career or music. I should have never taken this stupid hiatus to get away. Why did I need to get away from my life so bad? I am selfish and this is what I get for that.

“Please leave him alone. I will make this all worth your while if you just leave him alone.” She tries to bargain with him.

I almost think it works when I feel the blade leave my hand, but then I feel an extreme pain shoot all the way up my arm and I scream out as loud as my gag will allow me to. I close my eyes and try to not black out from the pain. I feel tears rolling down my face. I finally open my eyes and look down at my hand. He did not completely cut off my finger but I am pretty sure I see the bone. Blood is rushing out and I feel myself getting a little woozy. I hear Arianna scream out, but she does not move.

ARIANNA

I am scared that if I move to help Justin, it will only make it worse for him. I will never forgive myself for this. I should have chosen for him to go. I did not think Rich would actually go through with all of this with Justin. I was wrong. His want and need to hurt me and kill me is greater than I thought, well maybe not but I underestimated his methods.

I see his finger and Rich almost cut it off. He stopped at the bone. “Leave him alone. This is between you and me.” I tell him again.

“This is too much fun though,” he tells me as he moves his blade to the next finger. “What till happen if I take out more than one finger?” He asks as he slices through the second finger.

Justin lets out a muffled scream. I cannot take this any longer. I move to my left and spot my guns. I just need to get to them and take out Rich. I move a little more and Rich stands up.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I do not answer. Instead, I dive for my guns, and hope I get there before he does any more to Justin. I grab them off the floor and sit back up with them pointed towards Justin, where Rich no longer is.

“Where is he, Justin?” I ask him.

He closes his eyes tight and groans out in great pain before finally looking at me then over to my right where I had come from. Rich is standing there with a gun of his own. Before I am able to move my guns, his gun hits the side of my head and knocks me down hard.

I black out a little for a second, but I will myself to stay conscious and focused. If I blackout completely, there is no telling what he will do to Justin. I shake off the black fuzzy spots I am seeing and try to stand up.

It takes me a few attempts, but I make it up with a little help from Rich. He grabs me and slams me against the wall again. He knocks my guns out of my hand and holds his to where the tip of the barrel is pressing up against my chin. This pushes my head up a little and I am looking into Rich’s face.

I try to look around, but it is almost impossible. I give up and look at Rich, “you really going to shoot me now. I don’t think you have the balls to do so.” I tell him a little strained because of the gun being pushed up.

“I’m not going to shoot you just yet. I think I may just finish my torture on your little boyfriend here.” he tells me.

I look at him confused because he knows I will not let him do anything else. I look over at Justin and he is obviously fighting himself to stay conscious himself. “I’d like to know how you plan on doing that since I don’t see you being able to do so without me killing you.” I try to push him into keeping his focus off Justin and on me.

“I thought about shooting him in the knee, ending his dancing career too,’ he answers but then his smile because a little more smug. “But I changed my mind. I figured it’d be nice of me to make him watch me take you right here in front of him.” He tells me as I feel his hands groping me.

I almost start to feel the vile rising in my stomach up my throat. I get a flashback to the alleyway and close my eyes tight for a second before I open them back up determined to not let him have the satisfaction of seeing me bothered by that. I try to lift my knee up to hit him between the legs but he catches it and stops it from happening.

“Now, now it’s either this or I cut his whole hand off and shoot him in the knee and if he survives, I start to defile his pretty face.” He laughs.

I stop struggling as he continues to grope me. I start to look around the room the best I can. As Rich starts to push his hands into my pants, I am able to make eye contact with Justin. I see him bouncing around in his chair, trying to get up and trying to scream out even though his gag will not allow him to do so. I can see the wire cutting its way into his wrists.

I try to look at him and let him know that I will be okay and that he needs to stop struggling and fighting. This is the reaction that Rich is wanting.

I try to keep my eyes on Justin, but Rich moves my face back to him. “How does that feel?” He smirks.

“You’re doing nothing for me. I’m pretty sure I’m like a desert.” I try to piss him off so he’ll just stop and shoot me or something.

“Aw but you aren’t, so I’m sure you’re enjoying this.” He laughs as he turns to Justin and sees him trying to fight his way free. “Your girl is loving this. So tell me, does she like it on top or on bottom? Does she like to be in control? Is she a freak?” He keeps asking, and with each question, Justin fights more and more.

Rich rips my shirt off and starts to grope me more. “Does she like it rough or soft and gentle?” He asks another question.

At this moment, Rich’s guard is down because he continues to watch Justin’s reaction. I throw my knee up an hit him in the thigh, giving him a painful Charlie horse. He loses his balance for a second, but that second is long enough for me to throw a right hook into his jaw and cause him to lose his balance. I reach down and grab my guns and smirk at him now.

“Now I suggest you back the fuck off of Justin. I warned you several times and now you’ll see what happens when you piss me off.” I tell him.

I shoot both my guns and I hear him fire his at the same time. I hit him in the head and chest, right wear I was aiming. He flies back and falls onto the ground. I wait a second and walk over. He is surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Thankfully, he had a bad shot.

I straighten my pants and just try to adjust my bra to wear everything is covered. I walk over to Justin. “I’m so sorry, Justin. This never should have happened to you.” I tell him as tears poor out of my eyes.

 I pull out one of my blades that I had forgotten I had earlier. I cut the wires that are cutting into his wrists, then the ones around his ankles, and finally I remove his gag.

I stand up and move over to the wall where my shirt was lying on the floor. I rip it up a little and tie the strips around his hand. “We need to get you to the hospital. Let’s go.” I tell him.

Just as we move towards the door, Charles busts through, knocking down the door. “Oh my, are you alright?” He asks seeing me pretty beat up and shirtless.

“I’m fine. We need to get him to the hospital.” I state and turn to where Rich is lying on the ground. “He’s dead, finally.” I tell him, more for myself than him.

We get to the door, and we are greeted by James. He barely has a scratch on him besides the swollen black eyes and cut lip from earlier. This makes me feel much worse about what happened to Justin. “Are you okay?” He looks back and forth between Justin and me.

“I’m fine! I need to get him to the hospital. He has lost a lot of blood and we need to make sure there is no permanent damage.” I demand.

Justin shrugs me off of him. “Don’t touch me. I can get there on my own. I don’t need you.” He tells me through gritted teeth.

I’m speechless for a second. I tell him he needs help. He has no car and he is in no shape to drive. Plus, the media will slaughter him. I inform him we have our own doctor who is at the mansion waiting for us. “He can fix you as good as new and without the media.”

“I don’t care about the fucking media. You do. You don’t care about anything but what happens to you and your fucking precious business. I don’t want anymore of your fucking help. You’ve done enough as it is.”

Once again I am speechless. I feel myself about to breakdown but this is no time to do that. I finally convince him to let me at least get Chase or Tabbetha out here to get him so he doesn’t have to walk or call a cab. It is not long before I see Chase speed into lot in front of me. He gets out and helps Justin into the car.

“What the fuck happened?!” He yells at me.

“It was Rich. It’s my fault. Please, just get him to the doctor and get him taken care of. Avoid the media if you can.” I tell him.

He can see the resignation in my voice and see that I feel horribly guilty about all of this so he does not push it for now. He gets back in his car and speeds off to get Justin to the hospital.

I am left behind to make sure that the situation has been secured by my men and that there are no more threats. James assures me that everything has been taken care of, and I just need to get to the mansion and get taken care of myself. James removes his shirt and gives it to me to put on. I do so as I climb into the back of my black escalade followed by James and let Charles drive us back.

I try not to think about the mess that I am going to have to clean up and what I am going to say to Justin to fix this situation. I do not blame him for not wanting to be around me. It is my fault this all happened to him. I allowed myself to let my guard down and in result caused great pain to those I care about. I wish Rich had just shot me when he had a chance is my last thought before I finally black out.

I wake up and find myself lying in my bed at the mansion. I groan as I try to sit up. My face hurts and when I reach up to touch it, I can tell I’m going to be bruised and swollen for a while. My sides hurt and a searing pain shoots through me when I take a deep breath, must have broken a few ribs too. This is all tolerable and expected, but it hurts more knowing that Justin walked away and will not be coming back.

I do not know why I am shocked by this. I should be shocked he stayed around as long as he did. He does not belong in my world. He was only on vacation from his. He should have gone back, and I just helped. I did him and myself a favor because now everything can go back to normal again.

I continue to try to sit up, groaning the whole time. “You going to make it?” I hear James ask from where he sat beside my bed.

“I will. I’ve felt worse, mainly when I had six bullet holes in me.” I try to joke but I do not smile.

“I did not really mean with the physical pain. I have no doubt that you will make it through that. I meant about the boy.” James clarifies with a sneer.

“I’ll be fine. I’m a tough chick if you can’t remember. Plus, we were obviously not that close if he was able to leave so easily.” I say, trying to convince myself a little more than him, and James just nods. “Why am I hurting so bad?” I mumble holding my side.

“Apparently he didn’t miss you like you thought he had.” He answers. “The bullet grazed you pretty good and left a nice gash on your side. Doc stitched it up. He says the adrenaline pumping through you is what made you unaware of it all and probably why you blacked out in the vehicle on the way over here.” James explains to me as he moves over to sit beside me on the bed.

I sit there in silence. I am still trying to process all of the recent events. I see myself seeing Justin and James tied up, beaten and bloody. I see the evil smirk on Rich’s face. I see his cocky smile as he forces me to choose between them. Mostly though, I see the look on Justin’s face as he walks away, not wanting to see me ever again.

I shut my eyes tightly wanting the images to go away, but they will not. I made the choice and now I have to live with it. I lie back down and refuse to move. James moves closer and tries to comfort me as much as he can. What a softy he has become.

The remainder of the day, I choose to just lie in bed and stare at the wall. I have no desire to get up. I do not want to train in any way, take any phone calls (most of them from Tabbetha and Chase), go out and do anything. I do not even go out to talk to my men. I usually let them know how appreciated they are, especially after big events, but not today.

A couple of days pass and I still do not move. I get up to go to the bathroom, of course, and James brings me food and if he is lucky, I will eat a small bit of it. I do not have the energy or will to do anything. What the hell has happened to me?

JAMES

She’s a shell. I have not seen her so distant and so unresponsive since that fateful night in the alley. This boy has destroyed my Arianna. If only I could kill him. She refuses to move or acknowledge anything or anyone.

I leave the room to call her friends and dreading this the whole time. I use her office phone and hope they answer when they see this number. It rings a couple of times and is answered, “Arianna, are you okay? Are Justin and James okay? By that, I mean is Justin okay?” Tabbetha adds the end through a mumble.

“Thanks. That’s greatly appreciated,” I say as I roll my eyes.

Tabbetha demands to speak with Arianna, but obviously I do not let her. “I would let you, but your wonder boy that you are so worried about has left her in a state of nothing. She won’t respond to anything. We haven’t seen him either. By the way, you all were the last people we saw him with.” I inform her.

“Justin left and I assumed he would go see Arianna,” she says quietly.

“Obviously not.”

“Is she okay?” Tabbetha asks, extremely worried about her friend.

“She will be. She is bruised and cut up a bit, but it’s nothing she can’t handle. You’re boy leaving caused the most damage.” I answer her, showing my annoyance I have towards the boy.

We talk a little longer, surprisingly in a civil manner, and we hang up so I can go check on Arianna. I get back upstairs to see she still has not moved.

I kneel on the side she is facing. I reach up and push the hair out of her face. There are tear stains on her cheeks and her eyes are red from crying. She sniffles often, and it is practically killing me to see her like this.

“Please calm down over this. He clearly isn’t thinking straight. He’s not used to all of this direct contact with the ‘bad guys.’ He’ll be back. Just give him some time to think all of this through.” I try to soothe her as I stand up.

I move to sit on the edge of the bed and continue to rub her head and back – always calms and soothes her. I cannot believe I am trying to assure her of baby boy, but I know she is happy with him and that is what matter right now. If you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it then kill you.

“This is all my fault,” she says and quickly moves to wrap her arms tightly around my waist and sobs into my chest.

“No! You cannot blame yourself. Rich is or was a morbid bastard. You could not have stopped this.”

“Yes, I could have. Rich was my problem. I continuously pushed him and I had my chance to kill him and I didn’t. I could have pushed Justin away, but I didn’t. Rich wanted to hurt me, and he used Justin to do it. That’s not fair to him.” She is irrational.

“Rich was a problem in general that needed to be dealt with and now it has been. You didn’t push him anymore than he did you. You could have killed him, but you chose to save Jackson instead, who I believe is very grateful. Plus, no matter how hard you pushed, I believe Justin wouldn’t have gone anywhere. He’s attached to you and I understand him there. You’re quite irresistible. Don’t discredit him for that.” I tell her. Why am I defending him?!

This girl really will be the death of me. I go to say something else when she jumps up all of a sudden.

“I need my guns,” she declares as she starts to change her clothes and clean herself up.

“You can’t have them. Nobody is worth your life.” I tell her, standing up and following her around.

She starts laughing hard in return. “Don’t be stupid. I would never kill myself. I got plenty of people that’d be more than happy to do that for me.” She continues to laugh as she straps her guns on and looks over at me, who has a dumbfounded look on his face. “I’m going to go kill me somebody, wanna come?” She asks me with an evil grin.

This is my girl! She’s back!!

We quickly suit up and head out. We do not take any of our men with us. They have done enough for a while and this is for Arianna. She needs to blow off some steam and I am going to be there when she does.

sure with a little time, my old Arianna will be back completely.

The nights continued to pass and we continue to with our business. It is usually just Arianna and me, but on the bigger jobs we will take a few men but not many. We rarely need help when the two of us are working together.

The best part of all of this is the fact that at the end of the night, she lets me share her bed with her. We may not be having sex but give it time. For some reason when she gets home she is exhausted and just wants to go to sleep. Again, it is all a matter of time.

ARIANNA

Months pass since that night Rich was able to hurt me more than he will know. Justin packed up and left. He went back to his Hollywood lifestyle. The media had a field day with his injuries, but he had a great story, and the hype went away with time. The media eventually left our neck of the woods, after they realized he was not coming back.

I stay at the mansion mostly now. I hate going home because Chase and Tabbetha insist on needing to know my feelings and when I tell them to fuck off, they then tell me I need to talk instead of “go back to my old uncaring ways. I just roll my eyes, get the shit I came for, and leave.

James is the only one I seem to be okay with right now. Even my men are giving me the damn pity look, not James though. He seems to accept me and my behavior. He goes along with it, and I go along with not caring about his reasons behind his support.

Here I am at the mansion, dressed for a mission, ready to go when my phone rings. I answer and hear Tabbetha on the other end.

“Will you please come home?” she asks but I refuse. “Just for a quick minute. I want you to see something.”

I roll my eyes. “You can show me later.”

“No, please. It won’t take long.” She pleads.

“You’re desperation is quite annoying.” I tell her. “Fine, I’ll come but it’ll better be a very quick minute. James and I have plans. I’ll be there in 30 minutes.” I hang up and go get James. “You ready? I need to swing by the house on the way.” I tell him.

“Brats again?” He questions knowing the answer.

I just ignore his comment and walk out to our car with him following behind me. I was going to drive, but I change my mind and let him this time so I can just run in and out when we get to the house.

Within the promised 30 minutes, I am at my house, and on my couch with Chase and Tabbetha on either side of me. “You have a very short time to tell me what is so damn important.” I tell them, “Angel is out in the car waiting for me.”

“Angel?” Tabbetha questions.

“Yeah and that I am sure is not the point of you calling me over here. What do you want?” I demand, annoyed with them.

“We thought you should see this.” Chase answers as he uses the TV remote to start something on the TIVO.

This just makes me mad because the wonderful thing about TIVO is that it can be watched whenever you want. It’s a great power. I tell them this as I go to stand up to leave.

“Wait, please just watch this.” Tabbetha says. She is pulling on my arm to get me to sit back down.

I do so in a loud huff. The show starts and it is some stupid talk show. It’s actually Ellen, if I am not mistaken. Chase fast forwards through her introduction and her dance routine. Her first interview flies through and then the show returns to normal speed. Ellen stands up and introduces Justin Timberlake. This is the point at which I start to get really irritated. Another stupid attempt to get me to talk to Justin, I am sure of it.

Ellen: So, Justin, back from your so-called vacation. How was that for you? Did you get the needed rest you wanted and needed?

Justin: I did get some rest between the exciting events.

Ellen: Yeah, that high speed car chase and shootout at your girlfriend’s house made hufe news in the media. Must have been tough. How is your girlfriend? She ended up getting shot in that incident didn’t she?

Justin: Yeah she was – six times actually. The girl could probably give 50 cent a run for his money with that. (Justin jokes in order not to think about the situation).

Ellen: Sounds like it. How is she doing?

Justin: She’s doing great as far as I know. We are not together anymore. It wasn’t the happiest of breakups.

Ellen: Uh oh. Was it that psycho fan shooting incident?

Justin: No, she was okay through that. We made it through that just fine.

Ellen: Do mind me asking what happened?

Justin: (quiet for a minute) In a short amount of time, I fell in love with her, and I thought she was falling for me, too. Turns out, she didn’t care for me as much as I did for her. She loves someone else. She chose him. (Justin answers as if he didn’t want the world to know but more so that he just needed to say it out loud as if to accept it)

Ellen: Well, it is obviously her extreme loss and a huge gain to all the other ladies out there (huge applause from the audience). We have to take a break but we’ll be back to talk to Justin about his new album he is working on and maybe even a small sample.

(Commercial break)

Chase stops the TIVO. I turn and look at him. “Is there a point to wasting my time with this?” I ask as I stand up to leave again.

“Don’t you see? He left because he thought you chose the ass over him. Why won’t you call him and tell him you’re a stubborn ass and you love him?” Tabbetha yells at me as she follows me to the door.

“He left, not me. I saved his ass, so he could make a choice, and he made his.” I simply say. “I have to go. Angel is waiting on me.” I leave and get in the car, and James speeds off.

“Everything okay? What did they want?” James asks.

“To waste my time,” is my short answer.

“You’re extra annoyed. They must have wasted it pretty good this time.” He says as he puts the car in park and gets out.

I take a deep breath and get out myself. “Let’s get this over with.”

I start walking, and James grabs my arm to pull me to a stop. “Alright, something’s up. What is it?”

“Nothing. The shits made me watch some dumb ass talk show they TIVO-ed.” I tell him, making the effort to move again, but he does not let me go.

“Was it about him?”

I roll my eyes uncontrollably. I give him a short version of the show and Tabbetha’s reasoning behind making me watch it. He stands there quiet for a second and I just roll my eyes again. “Let me go.” I tell him, slinging his hold off of my arm and walk away.

“Do you?” He yells at me from where he is still standing.

“Do I what?” I ask without stopping or turning around.

“Love him. Is that why you are so dedicated to work now?” He asks me.

“Don’t be a pest. I have Tabbetha and Chase for that. Now let’s go. I really need to hit someone and hard.” I say as I continue to walk.

James does not respond. He follows and we go finish the business we had come here for. It does not take us long to finish it though and before we are back in the car. The trip back to the mansion is in complete silence, which is perfectly fine with me. I’m tired of hearing people’s stupid opinions and advice like I’m ten years old.

We get back to the mansion and I go straight in and to my room and to bed, where I fall into another restless sleep.

 The next morning, I awake to some yelling coming from downstairs. I groan a bit as I force myself to get out of bed. I throw on a robe, not wanting to take the time to throw on some clothes, and leave my room. I lean over the rail and look down into the great room of the house. I see two men throwing punches at each other as several others crowd around him. This is not cool. It pisses me off to see my men acting like a bunch of high school boys.

“Hey!” I yell down to them. Everything comes to a halt as they all look up at me. “What the hell is going on here?!”

“Aw come on, Sweetheart, we were just settling some personal issues the old-fashioned way.” James answers with a smile as he pushes way into the middle of the crowd.

“You know we do not do this shit in here. There are specific rooms designed for this bullshit and plus a huge yard. NOT HERE!” I yell at him, pissed that he is allowing this shit.

“Alright, boys, you heard the woman. Let’s take ten and then meet back up in the combat room.” He tells them and then looks back up at me. “I’m loving the outfit. Especially because I can see up it through the rails.” He smiles at me while he wiggles his eyebrows at me.

I huff in disgust, but I don’t move away from the rail or go to adjust my robe. It isn’t like he has not seen it all before. I am just annoyed with him right now. “I really think you’re pushing your luck with me and believe me when I tell you, you don’t have much left” I tell him.

“You’re no fun. Didn’t sleep well again, I assume.”

“That’s really none of your business.” I glare. “Now, what in the hell was that about? I can’t have my men fighting each other like that. Personal shit brought in here will cause problems out there.”

“Our men and you need to chill out. That’s why I came up with this solution. They fight it out old school style and get their issues out and after it is all over, there is no more issue. Apparently Eddy hit on the girl Skinny has been interested in, and they both think they have a chance. They are fighting for a chance to ask her out. The loser backs off.” James explains with pride.

“Pigs. What happens if this girl is not interested in neither one of them?” I ask lean forward and rest my arms on the rail.

“That’s their issue and problem to deal with. I just solve the business shit.” His answer makes me roll my eyes and stand back up straight.

I turn to walk away and after a couple of steps I turn back to him. “And you wonder why we never worked, jackass. I’m going out later. Will you please act mature for a few hours and make sure everything here is being taken care of while I’m gone?”

“No worries here. I did it for several months. I don’t see why I can’t do it now,” is his response.

“I know that you are not trying to imply that I wasn’t taking care of things while Justin was here because I did. That is why he no longer is.” I throw back at him as I turn and leave.

I get to my room and slam the door. It is childish, but I do not care. He just frustrates me. He thinks he needs to point out his belief that I abandoned the job and remind me that Justin left me, and this will ‘knock me out of the funk’ I am in. I am not in a funk and I never abandoned my job or my men like he abandoned me.

This is why I never let myself get attached, have a fling and then end it. Do not get close and do NOT get them involved in the business in any way.

Later that afternoon, I pull into my driveway and see neither Chase’s nor Tabbetha’s cars. I have no idea how long I have here to be alone, so I rush in and grab some things I needed. I wanted to get some of my clothes, but I am mainly here to get a file that I had left in my room the other day.

I grab the things I came for and just about out when I hear Tabbetha’s car pull in. I roll my eyes as I ready myself for some kind of confrontation. I stand in the middle of the living room with my arms crossed across my chest as I hear her walk through the kitchen. I hear two sets of feet, so I assume Chase is with her.

“Arianna, I didn’t expect you to be back here anytime soon.” Tabbetha says and the surprise is evident in her voice.

“I had to get some things,” is my simple answer as I hold up the file in my hand. “I’m on my way out.”

“Please don’t. I never meant to cause a fight. I just wanted you to see that you aren’t the only one that was hurt in all of this. Justin thinks you chose to love another man, James of all people,” disgust in her voice, “and you just let him get tortured for nothing. That isn’t fair for either one of you.”

I roll my eyes as I move to walk out the door. “I honestly don’t care what he thinks about anything. I’m tired of you two not letting it go.” I tell them.

I’m almost to the door when I stop and turn to Chase. “I truly am sorry if this cost you a friend. I never meant for that to happen. If you wish, I will pay for any and every plane ticket you need to go visit him.”

“See you do care, so why won’t you admit you care about Justin. You love him.” Tabbetha yells out at me.

I walk back in with pure annoyance on my face. “I said I’m tired of it. Just drop it!” I growl at her through clenched teeth as I glare at them both.

I go to walk back to the door when Tabbetha stops me once again. “Don’t you want your fairy tale ending?”

Without even thinking about it, I pull my gun out and point it right at her. Her eyes widen with disbelief and fear. This is the first time she has ever shown fear towards me and as much as it bothered me, I could not seem to put the gun down. Chase slowly moves in front of her.

“Don’t you ever fucking bring up fairy tales around me,” I demand angrily.

“That’s enough!” Chase yells out. “You get that fucking gun out of our faces. You don’t do this. Who are you?” Chase asks me.

“I’m the same person I’m always been. I’m tired of everyone saying I’ve changed. Just because Justin left, everyone assumes that I should be all mopey and crying and whatever else like some girl out of one of your fucking fairy tales.” I yell back.

Tabbetha moves out from behind Chase but still keeps her distance from me. “I just thought –“

“Don’t do that. It obviously causes problems.” I tell her as I finally put my gun down and start walking back to the door when I turn back to them. “You want to know the truth about fairy tales?” I ask them, looking more at Tabbetha. “They are bullshit. They are society’s way of telling girls that they are destined to be damsels in distress. We are meant to just sit around wishing and hoping for our Prince Charming to come and rescue us and then we immediately obey their every command. They tell boys that they are meant to be some Prince Charming and they will be a hero and save some girl which only makes them pompous assholes.” I explain to her. “Parents tell us these tales over and over again because they are too lazy and scared to let their children live their own lives. I’m tired of it. Apparently I’m a horrible person for wanting to be a girl that doesn’t have to be saved by a damn Prince Charming.” I storm out after that.

I speed off back to the mansion, swearing never to return to my house. I cannot take it when those two are constantly pushing shit. They used to understand that I do not want things pushed on me and I cannot stand it when people assume I want or need something. What has happened to us? We seemed to have pulled apart, no longer the friends we were. I know what happened, fucking Justin Timberlake. I’m tired of him causing problems even after he is gone.

I get to the mansion and go to inside. I hear yelling coming from down the hall. James must have started the fight back up and it is still going. There is one problem that can come from having our men trained so well. They think they can fight for days. They will start to feel it in the morning, and I do not stand for whining when I send them out on a job.

I get to my office and shut the door to shut out the noise. I throw the file that I had retrieved from my house down on my desk, and I throw myself down into the chair. I slump down, not really wanting to do anything. I’m tired from not sleeping well and exhausted from yelling at my friends. I decide to put off work and find something else to occupy my time. I grab the few clothing items I got and take them upstairs to my room. I clean up a bit and then go follow the sound down the hall.

I get to the combat room and, not to much surprise, find two different people than the original battling it out. I spot James across the circle that had formed around the fighters and holding money.

I make my way over to him. “We aren’t a Fight Club, asshole.” I lean over to his ear and say.

“I know but we don’t have anything to do right now. It’s a good way to train them.” He tells me smiling. “Plus, it’s good money.” He hold the wads of cash up for me to see.

It is not long before the fight is over. I pull referee status and call it off. It is obvious who was winning, and I did not need to lose my men to some stupid severe head injury because of all this nonsense. I got a couple of boos until I look around and then it stops.

“Baby, you can’t just stop the entertainment. This helps the men. They have a release and if they aren’t fighting then they have something to take their mind off things.” James whines as he comes up and puts his arms around my waist but then starts to smirk a little, “Not everyone has a chance to release their pent up frustrations and stress the way we do.”

“Get off me.” I move out of his grasp. “I have an idea. They want entertainment and I need release. You and I fight. If you win, you can continue this nonsense until we have to start hiring new men because ours are in a coma, and if I win then this stops and everyone finds a new release.” I offer him.

The men heard my offer and are immediately up for the deal. They are excited to see the outcome. They have all seen both of us fight in some way or another, but we usually have guns with us, and never have they seen us fight physically like this.

“I’ll even spice it up for you, baby,” I smile at him. “We can use anything in this room we want against each other, anything but guns.” I tell him.

If you look around the room, there is pretty much anything and everything in here. There are wooden poles in a bin, there are chairs in the corner, there are swords on the wall, and there are so much more lying around.

“You game?” I ask him with an evil smile.

“I’m not fighting you. I don’t need my partner to be a vegetable just so we can fight.” He answers while shaking his head.

“That’s fine.” I tell him as I turn to the men. “Sorry, boys, no more fighting because Angel here is scared to fight me.” I tell them causing them to all boo and raise commotion.

“That’s low. Fine, let’s do this. I don’t want to hear you whining later either.” He smiles back at me. “Maybe we can work off some more steam later in the bedroom.” His smile turns into a smirk.

I just roll my eyes and remove any clothing that would be hindering, leaving myself in a tank top that fits snugly to my body and some snug fitting workout pants. I remove my shoes and James does so too. Just before the first punch is thrown, I can feel myself needing this. This is just what I need, take out my frustration on someone that can give it back, and the person that is the reason he left. This is going to feel good.

The slamming of the front door jerked me out of my slumber. I look around and find myself in my own bed. I sit up and find my whole body sore. I find some bottles of pills on my table and grab them sure I’ll be taking some. The first bottle is to help me sleep which explains my deep sleep and the crick n my neck. The second bottle is what I am looking for, the pain killers.

I take some pills and head to the bathroom to shower when I hear yelling from downstairs, once again. I sigh in annoyance as I make my way out of the bedroom to see just who is responsible for me being so rudely awaken. To my further annoyance, I look down into the great room and see Tabbetha yelling at James.

“She had a fucking gun in my face! It is all your fault and you better fix it or I swear I’ll beat your even more than whoever gave you those damn marks.” Tabbetha threatens him which makes me laugh a little.

“What the fuck ever. You need to get out of my house before I force you out.” He warns her.

Before I could even voice a warning, Tabbetha’s right fist came in contact with James’s left jaw. I did not know the girl had such a nice right hook, but then again the boy did provoke it.

“You bitch!” He says shaking off the pain.

I quickly make my way down the stairs before James’s right hook could make contact with her left jaw. The boy has restraint when it comes to hitting girls but I am sure the girl just pushed a special button.

I jump in between them, facing Tabbetha. “That is enough. You can’t just come up in here, start fights, throw punches, and think all is okay.” I tell her with a glare. “What are you doing here?”

“I came here to blame this motherfucker for you sticking that damn gun in my face. I’m tired of you being a bitch to Chase and me and this damn attitude you have, and what the hell happened to you?!” She says as if she just noticed my cuts and bruises.

“Nothing that has anything to do with your business.”

“I beat her ass,” James tries to brag.

“In your fucking dreams.” I turn to him, which causes me to miss Tabbetha’s move to hit the ass again. I catch her just in time.

“That is enough of that. You are just asking for me to tie you up and sit you on the curb for Chase to come get.” I warn her.

“I cannot believe that bastard hit you, and obviously multiple times, and you are okay with that. You always said that any guy that hit a girl should be castrated and then hung upside down by his toenails into a tank of piranhas.”

I laugh at this because it is exactly what I said and exactly what I believe. “Well considering I hit him way more, begged him to hit me so I could hit him again, and I won, I say we call it even.” I laugh some more.

“You’re not my friend anymore.” Tabbetha shakes her head as she looks down at the ground.

“Aw, cheer up, girl. I’m still me. I just happened to beat the hell out of my business partner, in which I thought you would have enjoyed way more than this.” I tell her. “Haven’t you been begging me to do this since you first met him.” This got me a roll of the eyes from James but no response from Tabbetha. “Oh, fucking lighten up. You and Chase are so uptight. It’s not like I shot you with the damn gun.” I roll my own eyes now.

“I’d rather have my friend back then have him have the shit beat out of him, but seeing that it has already happened, I can’t help but be satisfied in that at least.” She tells me.

“That’s nice. I’m getting in the shower. I need you to leave before James really does have you forced out of here, because I cannot control what he does while I am not around.” I tell her with a smile. “So I’ll see you around. Oh, also, don’t come back here without permission. I’ll be sure to let the guards know. You can’t just come up in here and start shit with us on our property. Tell Chase, too. “I inform her.”

She shakes her head. As she looks up at me before she turns to leave, I would swear there were tears on her eyes, but what does she expect. This is our work, our business. I cannot have her able to just come up here anytime she wants, especially if she plans on starting shit just because her feelings got hurt.

She walks out and I head back upstairs to take that shower I was planning on earlier. Just before I get my bedroom door shut, I hear James call out to me. I don’t move to the rail though. “You are not looking up my robe,” is all I say from my doorway.

“Did you really point a gun at her?” He questions me.

“Is there a point to that question? Like I told her, I figured you’d be happy to hear that news.” The irritation is obvious in my voice.

“I was just curious. I never thought you’d ever do that. You and those two brats are extremely close.”

“I couldn’t get her to shut up. I never planned on shooting it.” I tell him. “It’s not like I had it up against her head. I just pointed it towards her, and seriously, the safety was on the whole time.” I tell him as if this question/answer shit is pointless and getting nowhere.

“Whatever. Go take your shower and think of me while you’re naked.” He smirks.

“Go fuck yourself.” I shoot back as I shut my door behind me.

My shower actually works wonders to make my stress a little more bearable. I take my time getting ready as I stare at myself in the mirror. My right eye is slightly bruised, but it does not compare to the bruising on the rest of my body including my sides and back. If I had to guess, I would probably guess I have a couple of broken ribs too.

I am focusing on what it is that Tabbetha saw earlier. I can see why she was a little upset by what she saw, but she should be used to seeing me bruised and beat up. Although, she has never see me this bad because of something James did to me. He has never done anything like this to me before. We train but this was extreme. I could not help it. He would try to end it, but I would just fight harder causing him to have to defend himself. I kept coming at him to keep my mind from wondering to certain things or certain people.

I sigh as I look away from my mirror. I do not have time to pity myself. I throw on my clothes and head downstairs. I assume I will see James but he is not there, so I go to my office where I am sure he is. Shockingly, I do not find him there. I look around and actually find him in his own office.

“What the hell are you doing in here? I didn’t think you knew where this room was?” I ask him laughing, as I plopped down in one of the chairs in the room.

“I cannot help it if it is just more fun being in your office and annoying you. Plus, all the files in your office are more organized.” He answers, not looking away from his computer screen.

“That’s not surprising. Are there even files in here?” I ask looking around.

“No. I don’t keep files in here.” He looks at me and gives me a look of disbelief.

“Oh my bad. Considering this is an office, what kind of work do you do in here?”

“I surf the net,” he answers as he goes back to looking at the screen as he clicks away on his mouse, “I also enjoy having girls dress up as secretaries and do it in here” He smirks at this answer. “I do recall you did that a couple of times.”

“You are a disgusting pig.” I say as I stand up and move to lean over the front of his desk, trying to get a view of his screen. “What are you doing, seriously? You are focused.”

“I’m trying to book my flight if you must know.” He answers, almost with annoyance.

“Flight? Where the hell are you going?!” I have no idea where he could possibly be going.

“I have some business to take care of.” He tells me as a matter-of-fact.

 “What kind of business are you doing? I didn’t think we had anything huge for a couple of months.” I inquire as I sit back down.

“It’s not anything major. Just tying up some loose ends, collecting some money that is owed,” he shrugs off his answer.

“Really? Why are you doing that? You know that’s not what we do. That is why we have men.” I am curious now. “You, especially, don’t do the small jobs. You send the ‘little’ guys to do it, as you wait for the more fun and exciting things for yourself. Send one of them to collect the money.” I tell him with a smile, as if I solved a big problem

“If you must know, I figured I’d take a few extra days to myself to enjoy also. I think I’m going to take Caroline with me.” He informs me.

“Her name is Caitlyn. You might want to remember that if you plan on taking her with you.” I laugh at him. “Where are you going?”

“Haven’t decided yet. I’m thinking maybe in the Caribbean somewhere.” He continues to stare at the screen.

“Well, have fun. Let me know when you plan on leaving and getting back.” I stand back up and move to leave.

James is acting weird, but I chalk it up to sexual frustration. He normally tells me about all trips and invites me along (along with a sexual invitation for me to turn down). Oh well, maybe this is his way of giving me a little alone time and himself some time away from me. I did bruise his ego a little with our last fight, plus he does like to ‘hang out’ with a girly type girl (by this I mean slutty).

“I’ll be leaving today.” His reply stops me in my tracks. “I’ll let you know when I plan on coming back.”

I turn to look at him again, and he is looking up at me. “Why such a rush?” I am extremely curious now.

“I need to get away, plus we can’t let people think they can get away with not paying us.”

“If you say so. Have a good trip.” I tell him, waving my arm at nothing really. “I’ll see you when I get back. I leave his office and return to mine where I plan on finding way to occupy my time in any way I can.

JUSTIN

I haven’t really left my house in weeks, since my interview with Ellen. I know I should not have said what I did. It is our private business but for some reason I couldn’t control it. Ever since I told everyone on Ellen about Arianna, the media has had a field day, in disbelief that a girl could turn me down. I’m not God. I cannot make her love me even though I wish I could, or at least I did.

I have been doing everything I can to keep myself distracted form thinking about Arianna but it seems almost impossible the more I try. I try to just drive around town, and I think about our high speed chase. I go write, and it is all about her. I watch TV, and there seems to be media coverage about me, Arianna, or both all over the place, and so on.

Right now I am cleaning up my house and rearranging furniture once again, because it seems to be the only thing that distracts me for longer than five minutes. I am in the middle of moving one of my couches when my doorbell rings. I sigh as I go to answer it.

I open the door and my jaw hits the ground, but it quickly closes and tightens up. “What do you want?” I ask through clenched teeth. “Come to rub it in? Got a wedding invitation?” I glare at him.

“You need to shut the hell up.” He tells me.

I roll my eyes. “Don’t come to my house and make demands. That might work in your territory, but this is mine and you have no rights here.” I tell him.

“I want to kill you so bad but I can’t.” James says as he tightens his fists.

I just walk away from him to go back to my rearranging. “Why can’t you?” I am curious what his answer will be.

“Arianna would have my head on a platter,” is his reluctant answer.

“I’m sure” I reply shortly. “Why are you here? We both know you hate me, and the feeling is mutual, but you’ve won. You got Arianna. You don’t need to rub it in.” I tell him trying to just end this conversation.

“She’s not herself.” He tells me in a huff.

“Well I don’t know what you want me to say. I refuse to be a relationship counsel for you two, so you are wasting your time.”

“She won’t even work anymore.”

“You’re here because she doesn’t kill or torture people anymore? Man, you must be devastated.” I say sarcastically.

“You may have hated her lifestyle, but you still loved her and you accepted it because you know it is a part of who she is.” James tells me.

 I just roll my eyes as I throw my hands up, “yeah and we all saw where that got me. Tortured almost to death for loving someone who chose to save another man in the end. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone and forget all that” I walk towards my door and open it to give him the hint that he is not welcomed in my home.

He just crosses his arms. “Is that what you think happened? Is that the reason you think she chose how she did?”

“Obviously. You got to leave to freedom while I got to stay behind and be tortured. She couldn’t stand the thought of you being left behind to feel that pain.”

At this point, James starts laughing hard, and this definitely pisses me off more. “You truly are an idiot. If she had really loved me, she would have let me stay. She knew that’s what I wanted, but she couldn’t do that. She chose you to stay because you were safer there.” He tells me and I just give him a confused look, but I don’t say anything. He shakes his head but continues. “She wanted you there because she could watch over you and hopefully steer the pain more towards her. It killed her to see you go through that but she knew there was no chance for you in ‘freedom.’ She was right, too. As soon as I got outside, I was ambushed. I am trained though. I got hit pretty bad but you didn’t see that. You would never have made it through alive, plus I had to go rally up more men or we never would have made it through like we did.” He continues on with his explanation. “They would have killed you in seconds and then possibly us soon after, had she chosen to keep me. She chose you to stay because she loves you and through you’d understand that she did it because she could keep you alive and would rather have you in pain for a short while then dead for forever, but you didn’t let her explain this.” He finishes.

I had listened to everything and tried to talk myself out of believing any of it but I couldn’t.

“You’re a fucking idiot and because you’re so selfish, Arianna continues to put herself in danger, among others, because she’s reckless now. She goes out and just barrels into situations with no plan, she refuses to listen to me, she has pulled away from her two closet friends, which suits meme fine but she needs them, and she sits around wondering what she could or should have done to make things different with you. I suggest you get off your high horse and talk to her before she does something we all regret, mainly her.” He demands.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” I ask, not sure what I want to know.

“She’s going to get herself killed or she’s going to lose control and hurt or kill someone she doesn’t mean to. She pointed a gun at Tabbetha the other day.” He informs me and shock registers immediately on my face.

“She wouldn’t.” I try to convince myself.

“She did.”

“Well I don’t know what you expect me to do. She’s a killer. I don’t think I can do or say anything to change that, and I don’t want to be around that.” I say quietly, more to myself than him.

“Well you need to figure all that out by yourself. Do you love her enough to see who she truly is or do you only see part of what she does? You have to make that decision. Now that I am completely disgusted with myself because of this whole conversation, I’m leaving.” James tells me and finally moves to the door. “I just came to let you know. She saved your life.”

With that he leaves me to my racing thought about everything that I thought I knew.

ARIANNA

I’m sitting here in my office for the 17th day in a row. I’m planning jobs for my men, small ones of course. I’m holding the big ones for James when he gets back if he ever comes back. He does not think I can handle the big ones by myself very well right now, and even though I believe he is full of it, I am okay with it because I do not have any desire to go out right now.

So, here I am in my office putting things together when I get a call. “What do you need?” I answer it.

“You need to find a happier way to greet people.” I hear Chase tell me, unsure of what he wants to say.

“Then I suggest you find another way to annoy me, maybe a different way to get a hold of me.”

“Well you banished me and Tabbetha and you don’t come home and you ignore your cell phone.” He points out.

“I am well aware of what I do and don’t do. Is there a point coming up soon?” I ask him.

“We miss you. Tabbetha is a wreck and we just want you to come home. We promise no talk of Justin, your work, or anything. We can stick to the weather if you want.” He tries hard.

“I can’t. I’m busy and James is out of town, so I need to get all of this done.” I try to hard not to tell him I am not going because I would rather have all my limbs ripped from my body then go out with them, but still trying to be nice.

“You have men that could help, plus it’s just for one night. We can go to the karaoke bar we all love.” He is desperately trying to persuade me now.

I am quiet for a few minutes. I cannot help but think it over. I can use a night out, but do I really want to take my friend’s word for it and believe that work and Justin will not be brought up. Then again if I drink enough, which I plan on doing, I can ignore them and enjoy some good, or bad, karaoke.

“Arianna?”

“Fine,” I sigh, “I’ll go, but you must tell that girlfriend of yours not to get too excited and no Justin talk and no work discussions. We just go and listen to the music and drink.”

“Okay. I’ll tell her and we’ll see you tonight. Meet here or at the bar?”

“I’ll meet you at the house at nine.” I answer him. I will be driving, so I can leave anytime the annoyance gets to be too much.

“Alrighty then. Nine it is. See you then.”

I hang up and find myself unable to focus on paperwork any longer. I decide to head to the training room and get one of my men to work out with me. He is nice enough to throw on some padding to let me hit and kick at him. Well, he wasn’t going to put the padding on at first until I informed him I am a bit frustrated and reminded him of James’s face when we finished fighting. I got several got hits in, but it is obvious that for some reason my mind is not completely in it. Matthew is able to knock me off my feet a few times, and that is not common. I train my men well, but I also know all of their power moves. After a couple of hours, I see that my frustration is not going anywhere with my men being able to knock me off my feet.

“Maybe you just need to get rid of your frustration in a way that works pretty much every time.” Matthew suggests raising his eyebrows.

“And what do you suggest, Smartie Pants?” I ask, fully aware of what his suggestion is going to be.

“Sex. You get a work out and if you have control in the situation, you can definitely work out some frustrations. If you don’t work out your frustrations, you can definitely work off some steam.” He tells me with a smirk of a smile.

“Matthew, I appreciate the suggestion and the workout, but I am not going to be working out any frustrations or steam with you, doll.”

“I figured that much. I guess a man can hope and dream, huh? Besides, James isn’t here so it’s almost like my chances go up. Or so I thought.” He laughs at himself.

I just roll my eyes. “I’m flattered, but James wouldn’t be getting any either even if he were here.” I inform him. “I’ll let you in on a not so big secret. When if comes to him and me, James is a lot of talk. He hasn’t gotten any from me in quite some time.” I just shake my head and walk away. “Go out and get yourself a girlfriend, Sweetie. You’re good looking, so it shouldn’t be hard.” I holler back to him as I leave the room to make my way to my room.

I sit around in my room and apparently visit a far away land where things are much easier for me, because before I know it, it is 7:30. I go shower and get dressed. I decide to look hot tonight, so I pick a pair of tight fitting jeans that make my ass look amazing and a strapless green and white striped shirt that compliments my slim and fit figure while showing that I do have a chest. I may not be huge but proportioned to my body, they are big enough in my opinion. I straighten my hair and put a little makeup on and grab a pair of black heels and head out.

On my way out of the door, Charles stops me. “You’re looking fine. Where you planning on going?”

“I’m going out to the bar with Tabbetha and Chase.” I answer him trying not to roll my eyes.

“Ah, I see. They annoyed you enough to make you give in” He laughs at me.

“Whatever. I’m going out, and I’m sure I’ll be coming back here for the night. If James calls, tell him I would appreciate it if he would inform me if he is planning on coming back or not.” I tell him with a tone full of sarcasm. “If anything happens and you need me, call me.”

It is just before nine now, and I jump in my car and speed off. I arrive at my house a little after nine. I walk into the house and see Tabbetha and Chase sitting on the couch. They jump up as soon as I walk in.

“Anxious much?”

They do not answer me. They just walk over to me, and Tabebtha gives me a hug. I shrug her off as I give Chase a though-I-told-you look. “That’s enough of that.” I say as I turn to leave.

They follow me and we pile into my car and I drive us to the bar. It is silent the whole way there. I can tell my friends are scared to talk to me, afraid of how I will react. I do not blame them. I am actually okay with it though because that means they will not bother me.

We get to the bar and I pull up to the front of the bar where a valet is standing. I get out and give my keys to one of the boys, who looks extremely excited to drive my car. “If there’s so much as a scratch, dent, or anything on this car that I do not see now when I get it back, you will regret it. I will literally take it out of your hide. You’re not a huge guy, so I’d hate to have to take it all.” I tell him as I smile sweetly at him.

His smile is gone instantly. “Y-yes, ma-ma’am.” He stutters and gets in my car and slowly moves it.

I meet Chase and Tabbetha at the door. “I cannot believe you just scared that kid like that. He’s here trying to make money and you probably just made him pee his pants.” Chase says laughing.

“What? That’s an expensive car.” I say as if that should explain everything. “He would not be able to pay for the damage, so it’s better that he doesn’t risk it. He’ll be okay. Someone else will come along with a cool car for him to speed around in.” I shrug as we walk in.

We walk in and I make a point to wave over to the bartender as we go find us a table. We find a nice one that is off to the side but not too far away from the stage. As soon as we sit down, a girl walks over holding a tray with 3 drinks on it.

“Bartender says these are for you.” She tells us as she sits a fruity drink in front of Tabbetha, a beer in front of Chase, and double shot of Jack Daniels in front of me.

The bartender read my mood well with my straight whiskey. I look back at him and wave my thanks with a smile to him. He smiles back and then focuses back on the customers in front of him. He is hot too. Maybe I’ll take Matthew’s suggestion and use the bartender with some unwanted frustrations and stress. Plus, if I remember correctly, he is pretty good in bed, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings.

“So, Arianna,” Tabbetha starts nervously, gaining my attention back, “how’s work?”

I sigh, but hopes this does not lead where I think it will. “Pretty boring. I haven’t really left the office in a couple of weeks. Setting up meetings and all,” I nonchalantly answer as if it were a regular job. I see this eases her tension a little.

“I’m sorry it’s so boring. Maybe work will pick up soon or maybe you can quit and become a minimum wage bum that gets paid to do something legal.” She tells me with a little laugh because she knows that will not happen.

“Bottoms up,” I reply as I down my drink and wave over to the bartender to have another one sent over.

“Seems like your ‘boring week’ is equal to a bad one.” Chase takes a drink of his beer.

I just shrug and turn my attention to the stage where some girl is trying to sing a Christina Aguilera song. I am sure she thinks she is fabulous but she is not. She is followed by some guy who sings ‘Vanilla Ice’ who is joined by everyone in the bar.

~*~

I am four drinks down and starting to feel good.

“You plan on slowing it down before we have to take you to the hospital for poisoning?” Chase jokes a little.

“Nah, no fun in that.” Plus I am sure I need to have this alcohol to handle another bad version of ‘I will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston. This song annoys me because there is always at least one person a night that sings this song to their significant other as a love song, but it isn’t really. It’s her way of saying ‘I love you, but I can’t be with you.’ People need to make sure they know what they are singing before they do so.

Between and during the songs, we talk and joke around a little, almost like we used to. Another drink and they are begging me to get up there and sing myself. “You two are full of shit. I am not getting up there.” I laugh at the thought.

“You so should” Chase pushes laughing. He’s pretty tipsy himself. He’s had 4 beers and then I made him switch to whiskey with me.

“No, besides what in the hell would I sing.”

“I’m sure you can come up with something.” Chase answers.

“Absolutely not.” I say with no room for negotiation.

One more drink, Drink #6, and sure enough the DJ is introducing me. “You two owe me,” I say pointing to the shits as the music starts.

I chose ‘So What?’ by Pink. I start to bob my head and I start to sing it. I replace ‘husband’ with ‘boyfriend’ and Chase and Tabbetha laugh at this. I rock it out if I do say so myself. I cannot believe I got up there, but it was fun. When the song finishes up, I hand the microphone back to the DJ and I receive a loud round of applause from the bar. I laugh and take a bow.

I stumble a little on my way back to my table, but make it back without a major fall. I grab Chase’s drink and take a small swig and cringe a little when it burns on the way down.

“That was great, girl,” Tabbetha praises.

I smirk and get another drink. This one will be my last I am definitely feeling the alcohol. I slowly sip this last drink. I turn away from the stage as some guy gets up to sing some country song.

We sit there quietly as a few more people sing their drunken songs. I look at the clock on the wall and realize that it has gotten a lot later than I thought. It is almost closing time, and I am pretty sure they’re about to make the last call, which is okay with me. I’m almost ready to go sleep this off and pray the hangover isn’t unbearable.

I take another sip and then look at my friends across the table who are watching whoever is on stage butchering a Journey song. “You guys are great. Thanks for making me come out.” I say to them with a slight smile.

They both turn to me and smile. “No problem. We’re glad you actually agreed to come out.” Tabbetha said smiling.

I hear the DJ announce the last singer for the night, so I know this night is almost over. “I’m really sorry about…” I trail off as I notice neither one of them are paying attention to me. They are staring behind me with a look of disbelief. “What the hell are you two staring at?” I ask but before I can get an answer or even turn to look for myself I hear the person on stage talk.

“I’m hear tonight because someone I care about deeply is here. She saved me at one point and I was too damn blind and selfish to see it myself. I walked away and I am here tonight to ask her to forgive me and take me back. I’m doing it this way because she once told me that karaoke is a great way to relay a message. Now I may be able to sing but I don’t know about this. I hope it isn’t too bad.” He announces before the music starts.

I still have not turned around to look at him yet. I am pretty much frozen in my seat. I see Tabbetha staring at him, wide eyed and she covers her mouth with her hands. I almost see her smile and her eyes water a little. I look over to Chase who looks at me. He gives me a look to tell me that he is will be here for me. I sigh and then take a deep breath before I turn around to look at him.

Justin Timberlake, the one and only, is on the stage dressed casually. He’s in loose fitting jeans, a dark gray t-shirt that fits a little tight, and a cap on his head. He is singing ‘I’m Sorry’ by Tyrese. He is definitely not sounding great which almost makes me smile.  I see flashes going off around the stage. I am sure that people know who he is, and the news story will be out tomorrow about Justin trying to woo his girlfriend back.

This gets me thinking. Why did he come back? How did he know where I was? Was this all part some plan by Tabbetha and Chase that goes along with me coming out tonight. Here I am feeling like things were getting back to normal. We were having fun and now I am too damn drunk to drive myself home. This is all part of their damn sneaky plan. I knew there was something more to just wanting to hang out with me. I can’t even focus on what Justin is singing.

It isn’t long before he is finished singing and he gets a roaring round of applause. As girls all stop him along his path to our table, I take this time to turn to my friends. I see the smiles fade fast as my glare hits them full force.

“I can not believe you two would stoop so damn low. You promised me tonight was not to be about work or Justin.” I say to Chase as my voice rises. “I cannot believe I fell for it. I knew there was something behind this other than just wanting to hang out.” I get up and throw money on the table. “This should cover the tab for all three.”

“Arianna, I promise we didn’t know anything about this. We had no idea he was in town or how he even knew we’d be here.” Tabbetha yells out desperately to me as I start to walk away.

I just shake my head and walk away. I walk right past Justin, who tries to get my attention. I ignore him and keep walking. I hear him try to push his way through the crowd after me. I can’t stop. This was supposed to be my fun, forget all, safe night. It was all just a setup to get me to fall back into my weak self. I will not fall for this. I get outside and feel a cool breeze hit my face as soon as I walk out the door. I close my eyes and try to focus.

I walk over to the valet podium and before I say anything, the young guy grabs my keys. He remembers me. Good. This will take shorter time than I thought. I wait to get my car back and to get away from all the feelings that are flooding back, the feelings that I had just drank away twenty minutes ago.

I see my car being brought around the corner. I stand on the curb waiting impatiently for it to get to me.

“Arianna!” I hear my name being yelled out behind me, but I refuse to turn around or even acknowledge it.

My car comes to a screeching holt right in front of me. I roll my eyes (I’m surprised they are not stuck like that by now) as the guy gets out of the driver’s seat. He comes around the car and gives me the keys. “I’m sorry about that stop. Your brakes seem to be a little sensitive compared to the other cars from tonight.” He is scared of me and my threat. If this had happened about 20 minutes ago, this would be extremely amusing to me.

“I’m truly sorry.” He continues to apologize. “I honestly didn’t mean –“

“Whatever.” I cut him off and throw a wad of cash at him hoping this will shut him up.

I start to walk around my car when I feel myself being jerked back onto the curb by my arm. I whip around and glare at the person holding it. “You need to get your hands off me.” I tell him through clinched teeth.

“Arianna, I don’t understand.” Justin says with a lost look on his face. “I was hoping that we could talk. I didn’t think my singing was that bad.” He tries to joke. He sees the fact that I am in no mood and his face falls. I almost feel bad. “I came here hoping we could maybe talk.” He repeats a little quieter this time.

“Is that so? Did Chase and Tabbetha put you up to this? Promise you something if you would just please come talk to their ‘broken’ friend?” I ask him in a sarcastic pleading tone. “I don’t need y’alls damn pity. I’m fine.” I yell at him.

I am annoyed with my friends, hurt with Justin, and pissed because of all this. I missed out on a good lay because of this!

“I’m not sure I know what you are talking about to be honest.” He tells me as I hear the two shits running up behind me now.

“Arianna! What the hell?!” Chase yells.

“We were having a blast and then you have a psychotic break in there.” Tabbetha says, obviously upset.

“Fuck all of this intervention shit,” I say as I turn to walk around my car again.

“We didn’t invite Justin here.” Tabbetha yells out desperately.

I pause a moment but decide to not listen to their bullshit.

“Arianna, we’re not lying. As much as I love my boy, Justin, here, we didn’t invite him. It was just us tonight.” Chase tells me giving Justin an apologetic look.

This time I really do stop and turn to Justin who is lost. “What made you think they invited me? Why does that matter?” He asks.

“How did you know where to find me then and why are you here?” I avoid his questions by asking my own.

“Your guard, Charles, told me and like I said, I came to talk.”

“Charles? Right and how, I must ask, did you get up to see Charles?” I ask with a look of disbelief.

“James. He came to see me a couple of weeks ago, we flew back today, and he drove me to the mansion to talk to you but Charles told us you were here. Then, he dropped me off here.” He explains.

“James? Selfish, pompous, asshole James?” Tabbetha question and I can’t help but glare at her.

“Yeah. Surprised me too,” he answers back.

Right now I do not want to think about the whos, whats, whens, wheres, and such. I am drunk and still wishing I was not missing out on that lay. Damn it! “Ah fuck it. You’re a better one anyway.” I say out loud. All three turn to me with a confused look. I do not explain, instead I look at Chase. “Are you drunk?” I ask holding up my keys.

“Not at all,” he answers with a huge smile.

“You lie but right now I do not care. You get pulled over or wreck my car, I’ll slit your throat.” I tell him as I throw my keys at him and grab Justin by the arm and pull him into the back seat as the other two climb into the front.

“Go to the mansion.” I command.

I see Chase smile and he starts the car and heads to the mansion.

The whole ride we are all quiet. I feel my drunkenness coming back and my hands start to have a mind of their own. I start to rub on Justin’s left leg that is pressed against my right one. I increase the pressure as I rub up and down and then I reach down and grab onto the inside of his thigh, massaging it. I feel him tense up a little but he doesn’t say anything. I don’t look at him but continue my movements. He shifts a couple of times but that is about it.

Chase pulls up to the gate and I see one of the men about to open it until he sees Chase in the driver’s seat. I lean forward and wave so he sees that I’m there and entry is okay. The gate opens and Chase drives us up to the door. He jumps out with Tabbetha and I impatiently push Justin out as I follow him. I hold my hand out for the keys and Chase reluctantly hands them over with a pout.

“Get over it. You got to drive one of my cars. Be happy. I may let you drive my Ferrari one day.” I say then laugh when his eyes widen. “Don’t hold your breath.”

“That’s not nice.” Chase says, still pouting.

“You’re not driving anymore. You two can use one of the guest rooms. I think Room Seven is open,” I tell them with a smirk, raising my eyebrows.

“Well if you insist.” Chase says grabbing Tabbetha and walking off down the hallway.

“What’s Room Seven?” Justin asks standing behind me.

I turn around and close the front door and lock up. “That doesn’t matter now. You are coming with me upstairs to my room.” I tell him as I grab his hand again and pull him up the stairs and to my room.

As soon as Justin gets in the door, I shut the door and slam him against it. I may be missing out with the bartender, but I’m okay with it now. This boy is way better. I pretty much pounce on him. It does not take long before our kisses heat up and quicken in pace. They become almost desperate. I am trying to make up on some missed time. We somehow make our way to the bed, stripping clothes off on the way, but not letting our lips part. We finally lie on the bed, and our lips start to roam around along with our hands. This is what I have been needing for a while now.

 We’ll talk in the morning. Right now I am determined to feel him close again and to follow through on Matthew’s suggestion from earlier. I need to work out some frustration and stress before I talk anyway, otherwise I may say something I shouldn’t.

The sun is up and so am I. I can see the sun coming through the crack that is between my curtains. I have a slight headache, but it is nowhere close to being the worse hangover I’ve experienced. I am just lying here staring at the wall, not wanting to turn over and face who is lying beside me. I know, I know. I did the deed and now I must face the consequences. I was horny and now I must pay. I have got to learn to not drink, or really just not get attached to people. This is the first time that I am close to feeling bad for sleeping with someone because I was drunk and horny. I do care for this one, and he loves me. I took advantage of that last night to take care of myself. I am lying here going through all the ways I can possibly express the thoughts on my mind without having it come out the wrong way have it hurt the man’s feelings.

I can hear him softly snoring beside me. I like this sound because it means that he is asleep still, a deep sleep too. This means I can sneak out without waking him. I need to get away and think about things and also find James. We need to discuss some things, too, and I do not care if those things come out wrong or if they hurt his feelings.

I gently roll myself over the edge of my bed and quietly make my way over to the door and out of my room. I get the door shut without a sound. I smile at my success and bounce my way down the stairs into the kitchen. I find Tabbetha and Chase in there, annoying the cook I am sure. I can hear them asking for their favorite foods to be made for them. I roll my eyes. They enjoy these perks a little too much.

“You know, you two can always eat scrambled eggs and sausage biscuits like normal people. Stop annoying my cook.” I tell them.

Tabbetha jumps off the bar stool she was sitting on and skips over to me. Yes, she skipped over to me. “Oh, Arianna, thank you so much for letting us stay here last night.” She gushes as she gives me a big hug.

I actually stop myself from rolling my eyes as I look over at Chase who is doing it for me with a big grin on his face. “Yeah, thanks a lot. We truly enjoyed it.” He tells me laughing.

“I am sure you did. You two have smiles on your faces that should rip your face in half. I just hope you didn’t break anything this time and also let the housekeeper know what to clean up.” I tell them as I walk over to the board that is on the fridge.

“We took care of everything. Now, I must ask. Did you talk to Justin?” Tabbetha asks as she sits back down on her bar stool and leans over the counter with anticipation.

“No, if you must know, we did it all night and then fell asleep.” I grin myself as I go back to the board I was writing on.

“Arianna! That is not how you solve problems. You two need to talk about everything or this may all happen again.” She tries to scold me which only makes me laugh.

“Oh, please, you two know my better than that. Last night was not about “fixing” anything other than me being extremely horny last night and taking care of that problem. You two need to just mind your own business and let me take care of mine.” I tell them as I take the board I had and put it back on the fridge. I turned to the cook who was taking care of the brats’ breakfast. “This is the food I’d like to be made and sent up to my room when you get a chance after making these heathens their food.” I say and without another word I walk out of the room. Of course, I see Tabbetha and Chase share a glance and a smile, smug bastards.

I continue walking through the house. I go to my office where I am sure I will find the object of my search. I walk in and open my mouth to start walking but quickly shut my jaw with a snap. I look around with confusion. There is no one in the room. I go to the training rooms and do not find him. I decide to ask some of our men where he is, and I am shocked by the answer. He is in his own office, again. This boy is making a habit of being in his own office. I make my path to his office and walk in.

“You know, this is my office, not yours. So, technically you don’t have a right to just walk into this office.” he tells me but does not look up from the papers he is looking at.

“I know, but I see it as even for all those times you took it upon yourself to just walk into mine.” I smile as I plop down into the chair. “So, you planning on just staring at that paper, pretending to read it, the whole time I am in here?”

“He sets the papers down and looks up at me with a bored look on his face. “What do you want? Don’t you have Loverboy upstairs waiting on you?” He questions me.

“I am down here to punch you in the face for butting into my business and going to see Justin behind my back. I cannot believe you went there and did not tell me.” I tell him as I lean forward. “You lied to me, you whore.” I stand up and walk around the desk to sit on it, right beside where he was sitting. “Why?”

“I don’t understand the problem. He is back and all is well.” He just shrugs his shoulders.

“Yet, you were sure that I would run back to you with him gone, so why would you want your competition back in town. You hate him because he brings the public eye into our private world. You blame him for so much. Why did you lie to me and get him to come back?”

He sighs and leans back in his chair. “I knew I’d never have you again, and I was sick and tired of watching you put yourself and others in unnecessary danger. You always think things through and you weren’t with him gone.” He tells me, looking me in the eyes. “He loves you and he left you without truly knowing you. That is not fair, and for some reason you love him, too. Don’t argue that either because I can tell you do.”

“Well, next time, mind your own business.” I look him with a dead glare and then I look down at my hands. I look back up at him with a more gentle look. “This time, though, I thank you. Don’t ever lie to me again, but I am glad you went out there. We do need to talk about what happened even if we don’t get together. The boy needs a little debriefing on the situation.” I say.

He nods his head with agreement and stays silent for a short while. He puts his hand on my lower thigh and pats it. “For what it’s worth, I believe I was wearing you down. You would have come back to me.” He smiles at me.

“If that is what you need to believe to get through the day then go right on ahead.” I jump off the desk and head out the door. Before I am out I turn back around, “For what it’s worth, I find you to be a good friend and I do love you.” I tell him. “If you tell anyone I just said that, I will kill you and everyone you tell. I will, also, tell everyone you are a good guy deep down.” He smiles at my threat and nods.

I walk out and make my way back to my bedroom. It is time for the big discussion . I enter the room as quietly as I left it. This time I see Justin is awake and eating the breakfast that had been brought up to him by one of the kitchen hands. He looks up and he is all smiles.

“This food is amazing. I may have to stay the night again soon.” He tells me as he finishes up the last bite and sets the plate back on the tray and sits ups in the bed. As I walk over to him, he swings his legs over the edge of the bed. I pick up his jeans that were still lying on the floor and toss them over to him. His smile falters a little, but he tries to hide it by looking down at his pants as he puts them on.

After he as them completely on, I sit down beside him on the bed. I look down at my fiddling hands as he buttons and zips them. I do not want to look up at him just yet. I am sure he has a disappointed look on his face. “Justin,” I start. I still do not look up at him. “I do not know how to start this. I am not used to having to explain my actions in any way.”

“I don’t expect you to.” He cuts in. “James explained everything to me. I started dating you, knowing what you did, and I left because I got overwhelmed. You have nothing to explain and nothing to apologize for.”

“I do have some things to explain to you. I don’t think you know as much about me as you think you do.” I look up at him and turn sideways so I am facing him. “My job is extremely dangerous, for me and the people around me. I am in a dangerous situation almost everyday of the week. I make a lot of enemies, enemies that will do anything to see me suffer. You experienced this firsthand. I am truly sorry for that. He used you to get to me. He wanted to weaken me, get me to put my guard down. It worked.” I continue to explain.

“I know James told you that my decision to leave you behind was to save your life, but it was more than that. I chose to keep you with me for more selfish reasons. I did not want to let you out of my sight. I was afraid that if you left the room I would never get to see you again. I wanted you there so you would be the last thing I saw when he killed me. I would not have let him kill you, but I can’t guarantee that it wouldn’t have cost me my life, saving yours.

That night we were meant to go out to that charity event. James had warned me, threatened me, not to go. The media is dangerous for people like us. It puts our faces out there and makes them a huge target. He also warned that my face being out there was dangerous for you. I didn’t want to listen. I wanted to be with you. I was being selfish.” It is difficult to look at Justin as I explain all of this for.

He went to speak up, but I stop him. “I was getting ready that night, and I knew what I needed to do. I didn’t care about me anymore. I haven’t cared much about anything or anyone outside of myself in a long time. When you came along, things started to change. I went out in public with you where I knew the media would be, I didn’t care what happened to me as long as you were safe, and for the first time since I started this business I was willing to give it all up if it meant that you would be safe.” I look into his eyes and my eyes are tearing up. “I know you are here because of what James told you, but I must tell you something now. My life is extremely dangerous. I do all that I can to keep those I care about out of it. Chase and Tabbetha have been lucky so far. I make sure I keep business here, at the mansion, and personal at my house. I do all I can to not mix the two. I let my guard down with you, and I apologize to you for that. I cannot promise you that it will never happen again and I cannot you that life with me will not be very difficult. You will have to let me do what I do without questioning it, I’ll be doing things you won’t agree with, and you must trust me completely at all times. I love you and I want you to be willing to try it out, but I will not force you to and I will not blame you if you don’t want to.” I finish looking back down at my hands that are in my lap.

He sits very still beside me and is very quiet. After what seems like a lifetime passes, he moves his hand under my chin and lifts it up so that he is looking me in my eyes. “I understand what your lifestyle entails, and I will not push you to be with me in the public. I do not blame you for what happened to me. I know why you did it, and I cannot say that I would not have done the same thing. I just have to ask you one thing before anything is decided.” He tells me with a small smile.

“What is that?”

“Will you tell me that you love me one more time?”

I cannot not control the huge smile that grows across my face. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

“That is all I need to hear. I am willing to do anything to make this work.” He tells me.

I cannot stop myself from jumping into his arms and sharing a passionate kiss with the man that I love. This is the beginning of a new life for me, and it is the first time in a very long time that I am excited to see where the journey will take me.