- Mia White -

"Mia, it's me. Please don't scream."

Levi!?

He slowly let go of me, and I stepped away from him. "Levi, where Ace?" I immediately ask without even asking how he was doing or when he got here.

There were so many unanswered questioned that I begged to be answered.

"He's still there. They surround the place to make sure that he doesn't go anywhere," he explained.

"So, they've practically caged him up."

"Pretty much," Levi answered.

I could feel my heart drop. How could Mr King be okay with this just to cover up his for his mistake? Mrs King already knows what he did, so what's the point? Besides, forcing your own child into marriage is wrong. We aren't in the eighteenth century anymore.

"Then What are we going to do? And where's Ben?"

Levi opened his mouth before he closed it. He stared at me for a moment, making me uncomfortable until he grabbed my hand and speed-walked somewhere.

I wanted to ask where we were going, but after noticing the familiar route to where the basement was, I decided to for against it.

I could hear Ben's voice running through my head, telling me not to worry. Telling me that they were going to be okay. I remember the time when Ace left school at lunch, how he told me it was important. How I saw him lying on a bed with bruises on his body. How he always got into fights that left scars on him.

How I see Levi open the door to the room filled with guns and grabbing a few.

"Are you in a gang," I blurted out. Levi stopped examining a gun and looked at me with an amused expression. I could feel my cheeks heat up as I waited for his answer.

"Maybe," he shrugged, averting his eyes away from me and back to the gun.

That's got to me it. I mean, it's either that or they're street fighters. It would explain why Ace is always injured, and how he suddenly leaves all the time. It also explains why Levi and Ben have a gun room that's hidden deep in their freakish large basement.

I continued to stare at Levi, and he seemed to notice because he sighed and looked at me once more. "Yes Mia, we're in a gang."

"Like, the mafia or something?"

"Sort of like that," he replied.

I decided not to ask any further questioned because he looks like he doesn't want to continue this conversation. So I stayed silent and looked around the room. I asked where Ben was, and he said that he was outside getting the car ready.

So I guess we're going on a little field trip.

My mind drifted back to Ace, and I wondered how he was doing.

Obviously not fine, my inner voice said.

I really hope it was wrong. I just want everything to go back to normal. To how it used to be before all this drama. Before so many problems started to surface. Why do things have to be so complicated?

Soon enough, Levi told me that we were not leaving, but he handed me a small pistol before telling me. I wanted to tell him that I didn't need one, but he just walked away before I could say a word. Sighing, I followed him outside to see Ben on his phone as he leaned against his car.

When Ben saw me with the pistol, I knew he was going to laugh since he was doing a bad job hiding it. I rolled my eyes when he finally let it out. I could see him whipping the tears from his eyes.

"You done?" Levi questioned.

He nodded, and his laughter started to sober up. He unlocked the door and I went inside after slapping him on the chest. Thankfully, Levi sat in the driver's seat while Ben sat beside him. I had the whole back row to myself.

"What happened when you and Ace tried to escape?" I asked Levi as he started the engine.

He explained how one of the tires were shot, and that they tried to catch the person responsible for it. Levi had gotten lost in the woods, and tried to find Ace, but with his luck, he didn't find him. He mentioned that he saw what looked like a grave before more bullets were fired. He followed the sounds and saw someone stabbing a syringe into Ace's neck.

He wanted to help, but he wouldn't be able to fight off seven men, each armed with guns alone. He called Ben, and was lucky that I was asleep when he asked him to pick him up.

"So, how does this help?" I asked gesturing to me and Ben. "How are we going to go up abasing seven scary men with guns?"

He chuckled. "Did you really think it's just us?"

No.

For the rest of the time being, I talked with Ben since Levi wanted to remain silent. We talk about random things like friends do, but because this was Ben, they were very weird topics. Some of them were funny while most were just gross. But this is Ben we're talking about.

We don't know what's going on in that mind of his.

When we finally arrived, I noticed that Levi drove into the woods and hid the car behind a few thick trees. When I got out, I saw another car surrounded by unfamiliar faces. I stayed close to Ben, clutching the pistol tightly in my hand as I hid it behind me.

"Don't worry, Mia. They're friends," Ben assured before giving me a small smile. "They won't even think about hurting you."

"And why is that?"

"You'll know soon."

Fortunately, Ben didn't complain when I stayed near him as we walked to his so-called 'friends.' There were exactly ten of them with all sorts of tattoos inked into their skin and emotionless expressions painted on their faces. Each one was fairly tall with a fell fit body, and there was this one guy who had piercings all over his face, making him look funny yet intimidating at the same time.

They were all chatting amongst themselves, Ben and I go unnoticed until Levi decided to speak. His words were dull when he spoke because all eyes were soon on me. I kept my head down, my eyes trained on my shoes like my life depended on it. I could feel their eyes on me the entire time Levi spoke. I don't even know if anyone was listening to him.

"Got it?" I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Levi's harsh tone of voice.

I hesitantly looked at and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when I saw that they were no longer looking at me.

"While you were off in your own little world," Ben chuckled. "They're going to go while you and I have to do the boring stuff."

"And that is?" I asked as Levi and the rest of them left. Ben walked to the car that was previously surrounded by his friends and opened the door. He opened the door and pulled out a black bag before walking towards me. He opened the bag and inside were security cameras.

"You're right. This is going to be boring."

After an hour of Ben climbing trees and placing the cameras so they were well hidden in them, I was relieved when we were finished.

Ben jumped off the tree before taking the bag from my hands. We were about to go back when we heard yelling. Ben and I looked at one another, as debating on whether or not we should check what was causing such a commotion.

We decided to check it out anyway just to see what it could be since curiosity was killing us both.

We followed the yelling, and we ended up seeing an old abandoned building with five men yelling and throwing things at each other.

"This is your fault!" One of them yelled. "He's going to murder us all if we don't find them!"

"You're the one who mixed up the orders!" Another one yelled back.

They all started to argue and Ben and I were going to leave when one voice stood amongst them all.

"Everyone shut the fuck up!"

A man with a long scar across his eye pulling hit a gun and shot a bullet into the air. The five men looked scared and they bowed their heads down as if the man with the gun was royalty.

"Everyone get back to work," he orders. "The boss will be coming here soon."

No one argued with him as they all scattered to different places, which I assumed was where their workstation was.

"Come on. Let's go before anyone see us," I said.

"Too late."

I felt my body tensed as I turned around, making sure to hide my pistol in the inside pocket of my jacket. When Ben and I faced the person, we saw who the voice belonged to.

It was Mr Summer pressing a gun against Jacob's head.

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