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.