7. A Stripper Named Candy

“Do you have any questions?"

Not casting a glance in Xavier’s direction and taking no account of his words, I numbly stepped towards the stairs. The curious looks of those still frozen behind me, did not go unnoticed. Cameron was practically twitching with the need to know what I thought of the story they had just fed me. Not willing to give them what they wanted, I turned my face away from the guys.

In reality, I didn't really want to acknowledge the information that Jace had just enlightened me upon. The knowledge that not only now my life was at risk, but everyone's in this room's was, was enough to have my stomach heaving in a not so great way. More than anything, I wanted to run away and hide - preferably in a bed full of fuzzy blankets and chocolate.

“Savannah,” Chace finally complained, the agitation in his voice was clear to me. I didn't pay notice to it, only pausing once I had reached the stairs. My hand rested on the banister, as I turned my head to glance back. Chace was shooting annoyed glances at the guys who inhabited the seats nearest to him. I resisted the urge to childishly stick my tongue out at him.

“Savannah.” This time my name was spoken dangerously low from an even huskier voice. As Jace growled out my name, I resisted the urge to shiver. I could feel the strange things his voice was doing to my stomach. strange things that I strongly refused to acknowledge. Though his voice only made me focus on how attractive his face was and those arms-

“You insisted that you know. You should act a little more pleased now that you do." At his yummily-spoken words, my gaze snapped back to meet his narrowed one. I instantly retaliated with my own, my hands balling into two tight little fists.

Crossing my arms tightly against my chest, I gritted out "You are forcing me to stay here. And after what you just told me, I don't see how I can." I spat out.

From the corner of my eye, I could make out Riley rolling his eyes. He stood up, raising his muscled arms to stretch them above his head. Lazily running a hand through his hair, he let out a bored chuckle. "She'll never be satisfied. Once we accept that fact, we can find a better way to please the nuisance."

"Shut up." I replied lamely, my glare only half-hearted and aimed toward his retreating figure moving towards the kitchen. His loud snort in response only made my nose crinkle.

Jace calmly regarded me, before turning to Cameron. “Take her to her room. She needs to cool off.” He stood up; stretching slightly and I resisted the urge to drool, before what he had commanded hit me.

Cash smirked, looking way too amused at the tension that was steadily rising in the room. Ash sighed, once again pinching the bridge of his nose, a thing I was starting to realize he did often. "Here we go" He whispered.

Jace shook his head, standing up as well. "Savannah, just go to your room. Cameron - take her there." He turned on his heel, following in the direction Riley had left. I would be lying if I said my eyes didn't drift to his shapely butt. "I think you need to cool off." He finished, his glance moving to stare back at me.

“I was going there already. I’m not a child!” I crossed my arms. No one paid any attention to my words, all standing up and moving to leave the room. Only Cameron was left, lazily making his way towards me, a wary look registering in his eyes. “You can’t just command me now that I know everything!” I shouted at their backs.

"Don't be immature, Savannah. Just do as I say." Jace called back, his voice calm and collected, which only succeeded in agitating me more.

I was shivering again, though this time it was out of anger, “You're a butt-head!”

Cameron snorted, shaking his head as his tanned hand latching onto my shoulder. "That sounded real mature, Sav. Lets get a move on." Nodding to the stairs, he gave me a small shove.

"I can do it on my own." I shot back, moving up the steps; only to pause, when I felt something connect with my ass.

I paused, my gaze turning to meet Cameron's. "Did you - did you just slap my ass?"

Cameron grinned, the corners of his mouth pulling up to reveal a cheeky smile, before he winked. "It looked too nice not to."

"And your face looks too nice not to slap!" I retorted and my hand raised to connect with the side of his face; though it didn't, because he caught the offending arm, before hauling me over his shoulder. "Cameron!" I complained.

He only guffawed, patting my butt lightly. "There, there, Little Savannah."

"I'm going to kill you. Before Ricardo can." I hissed, banging my fists onto his hard back. He didn't seem to mind though, as he continued his way up the steps and towards my bedroom, as if I weighted nothing.

Once we had reached my bedroom, he set me down on my feet, his eyebrows wiggling.

“Annoying little twerp,” I hissed, feeling my anger peak, only for my fist to fly out and punch him, right in the nose.

“Holy shit.” Cameron cried, his hands reaching up to cup his nose, which had blood beginning to leak out of his nostrils. “You punched me. Jace! She punched me!"

"That was for slapping my ass, asshole." I spat at him, cupping my hand to my chest, before stomping on his foot. "And that was for manhandling me. Now, apologize." I ordered.

“Sorry, Savannah,” Cameron whispered, as he skittered away. His hand was still cupped to his nose, in an effort to stop the blood from dripping onto the plush white carpets beneath our feet. His eyes were widened fearfully, trained on me. "I'm afraid of you, but not as much as I am of Jace."

Meanwhile, my hand was throbbing painfully. That had felt amazing, but the pain radiating from my hand didn’t feel so splendid.

I could hear the hoots of laughter resonating somewhere down the hallway. Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes at the blonde boy, before slamming the door in his face.

I needed to get out of here.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Wake up."

The rough had shoving my shoulder had me groaning, rolling over to bury my face into the soft pillows that rested beneath my head.

"Savannah, wake up." There was that familiar, deep, husky voice again that I could just get lost-

Another prod had my ribs throbbing and I finally pried open my sleepy eyes to come face-to-face with a godly one.

"What?" I mumbled, my voice incoherent to my own ears. I could feel blood staining my cheeks at the state my hair was in, not to mention the tiny bit of drool I had just scrubbed off my chin.

Jace's gaze softened slightly, before he straightened, running a hand through his tousled hair.

"There's an emergency." Jace spoke quickly, his arms crossing as he shot a look towards my door. I hazily rubbed a hand across my eyes, blinking sightly at the light that assaulted them when Cameron flicked on the switch to my room.

"Wakey-wakey!" He cried, moving to stand next to Jace at the side of my bed. I had the satisfaction of seeing the two tampons still stuffed up his nostrils. "There's an emergency, my little warrior!"

"Warrior?" I croaked, my voice weak from sleep. "And Jace just said that. What is it?" I sat up, trying to tame the mane of hair around my face and gain knowledge of what was happening around me. I slept like I was in a coma. It wasn't exactly easy to just wake up.

"Yes, warrior. After that punch you threw at me today, I realized you can't be a normal human." Cameron explained, a finger tenderly reaching up to stroke his crooked nose. "You not only ruined my once-beautiful nose, but you caused me great pain. So, you are now - Warrior Savannah!"

I blinked at him, unable to comprehend what he had just said. "You're stupid." I finally spoke, before turning to Jace. "What happened? What's the emergency?"

"Chace was shot and we believe it was one of Ricardo's men who did it. " Jace ran a hand through his hair, as I stared horrified at him, at his words.

"Oh my goodness." Clasping a hand to my lips, I shook my head. "Is he going to be okay?"

"It was in his arm - we're lucky that the guy didn't know how to aim correctly. So, yes, he is. Though Cash is on the guy and I want most of my men to be out there so we can capture the fucker." He growled out, his eyes staring unseeingly at my bedspread.

My hand still clasped to my mouth, I swallowed thickly. I still wasn't adjusted to the talk of 'guns' and 'captures' and the thought made me slightly queasy. "Is there anything I can do?" I insisted, my hands loosely dropping into my lap.

He shook his head, his eyes narrowed down at my frame. "Chace is downstairs to watch you. There will be shifts who does later. As for now, don't try anything." He leaned forward, his eyes dark and narrowed menacingly at me. His huge frame towered over mine and I leaned back, refusing to let him scare me.

"The attack was in town, so we'll be there."

Not saying anything else and giving me one last stony glimpse, he turned on his heel and marched out of my room.

Cameron gave me a serious look. "Seriously, Savannah - don't." before he followed after the man, only glancing back once to offer me a small smile.

______________________________________________________________________________

I was sprinting.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. The kind of movement I was making with my feet could hardly be considered anything more than a light jog, and even that was pushing it. I gasped for breath, the aching in my lungs, most likely hurting more than it should, which only proved the level of un-athletic I was. Perhaps, I should have taken into account my large-lack of refusal to exercise over the past few years, though that was something no-one really wanted to think about.

What? Food was better than fitting into a pair of yoga pants.

Refusing to slow down my lead-footed pace, I took a peek behind, sending a prayer that nobody had noticed yet that I had suddenly disappeared from my bedroom at ten PM on a Tuesday night. I had no doubt that Jace could find me in an instance.

It was only my luck that the house I had been held hostage in was located in the middle of what seemed to be trillion-mile deep woods. Lost was an understatement. Stumbling-blindly-with-no-clue-as-to-where-I-was-heading was a much better-suited term.

Not to mention the darkness. One of my hands was loosely stretched out in front of me, hoping to God that I wouldn’t break my head smacking into one of the trees littering my path in front of me. I had the option of taking a crudely carved-out dirt road, which held a much higher risk of being caught, once I had been discovered, but I had opted for the thickly-dense trees, which I was beginning to regret. Heck, I was eager for freedom and getting lost had seemed reasonable at the time for it. Only now it didn't seem to be.

I had not only convinced myself that I was going to perish in these very woods, but I was also felt very positive that the bears and whatever-kind of crazy animals lived in the forest, were going to find me and kill me in a very grisly fashion. Heck, I could practically feel the eyes of such animals trained on me, hunting me.

Casting another paranoid look around me, my eyes squinting into the dark, I stumbled another step forward, managing to catch my foot on a root and go flying into the truck of a tree. I let out a small cry as my forehead managed to connect with the rough bark, before I landed on the hard dirt.

Another reason I didn't exercise? I was clumsy.

My head still spinning, I let myself lean against the tree. A groan found its way from my lips, before I reached up to cup my forehead, letting out another disgruntled sound when I felt the wetness where the pain was most concentrated.

Now scowling, bloodied, and unbearably exhausted, I forced myself to get up on shaky legs, setting off in the direction I assumed I had been heading in. There was no way I was going to let a small little scrape upon my head to stop me from my freedom. Even if said scrape suddenly made my head feel like it was being pounded upon by a hammer.

I obviously hadn’t put much thought into my plan, I realized, as I winced at the pain making my head throb. Without any money, clothing, food, or light, I was basically screwed. There was no way I could know how far away from home I was and showing up at the police station was not an option. One of the guys would most likely be there and send me right home.

Ten minutes after Jace had left, I had scaled my window and jumped down two-stories. The throbbing in my ankle had numbed to a barely-there ache which made running a hell-of-a-lot easier. I could feel a pinprick of guilt poking at me in the back of my mind. Jace had asked me not to try anything and in there moment of weakness, with Chace shot and their focus on other things, I did.

Resisting an urge to let the tears that had suddenly been built up in my eyes, I swallowed thickly. Though everything wasn't going as smoothly as I had hoped. I would have to leave what life I had created and start over. Heck, I would eventually most likely have to change my name. I didn’t feel safe anymore.

Especially with this Ricardo and his men targeting me, I knew there was no way I could ever really feel safe again. And that’s most likely why I started sobbing.

My cries weren’t exactly beautiful. In fact, the horrible wailing noise that was coming from my throat even surprised me. Plus, there was a horrific amount of tears and snot already running down my red cheeks. I was most likely giving myself away to anyone who could be possibly trying to find me, but I didn’t care.

How was I ever supposed to open a gallery when two dangerous gangs knew my name and were trying to hunt me down? How was I suppose to live a life when I had a gang of men out searching for me?

The thought only opened the doorway for louder sobs and I barely noticed the road in front of me, until I tripped on the pavement, and once again, landed painfully upon my knees.

My inhumane gasps died down as I realized what I had stumbled onto. Ignoring the pain in my knees, I pressed my hands flat against the concrete. It looked deserted and desolate, but it was something that would lead me to civilization.

Standing on shaky legs, I chose a random direction, hoping to God that I had picked the right way. Figuring that if the guys did happen to pick this road to drive on, they could easily spot me, so I decided to walk in the ditch alongside the road instead.

The world around me was still dark, though the moonlight that reached me made it able for me to see my surrounding. Thick dense forest surrounded both sides of the cracked road. Pot-holes littered the surface and weeds had started to seep through the cracks. The road obviously wasn't often-traveled and that information made my heart heavier.

"I'll convince Brooke to leave with me." I mumbled to myself, my eyes flickering around, paranoid. I shivered, rubbing my fingers along my arms in hope that it would create some warmth. "We could go to California. And be warm. And meet hot guys with tan skin and six packs."

My words only let an image of Jace invade my mind and I crinkled my nose. "Un-cocky hot guys with six packs. That don't wear sexy cop suits as a side job."

Stumbling in my steps, I let my eyes wander to the sky. I had hit the jackpot with the fact that it was a clear-night. "And maybe I could open my gallery there. I could paint pictures of beaches. Brooke and I can drive along the coast. Heck, I could paint the hot guys for money, on the streets." I mumbled to myself, aware of how crazy I was beginning to sound.

Realizing that my plan was beginning to go no-where and that it, in fact, wouldn't work out, I could feel my tears beginning to rise in my eyes. "Heck, maybe I should just become a stripper and change my name to Candy. I - I can get a wig." I sniffled in my palms, the thought only making my horrible-sounding sobs deafening.

So deafening that I didn't realize the truck until it was driving besides me.

"Uh, are you okay?" A voice asked me, hesitant and wary as if he wasn't sure I was sane.

My head shot up to meet the face of a boy who had barely-hit puberty yet. He had to be seventeen at most. He had thick blond curls that were messily grouped on his head and wide brown eyes. Which were still staring at me.

"Oh, yeah. Great." I cried sarcastically at the pre-pubescent boy. "You probably think I'm some stripper named Candy. Well, I'm not." I whispered, shaking my head.

"I never thought, uh, you were a stripper." He finished, scratching at his head. "I just saw you crying so I pulled over. Ma'am."

I scrubbed at my eyes. "I just don't have anywhere to go!" I could only imagine what I looked like. My head was still dripping with blood. My t-shirt was ripped and had blood-stains from my head. There was dirt all over me and I was pretty-sure I had a branch tangled in my bush of hair.

"Oh, hell, mom's going to kill me." The boy whispered, before he cleared his throat. "Do you, uh, need a ride?"

"You would do that for me?" My eyes stared widely up at the boy, unable to comprehend that this little teen was going to actually attempt to help me. "Wait - is it even legal for you to drive?"

"I'm seventeen." He rolled his eyes. "And passed my drivers test with a ninety-three. Hop in. Where are you headed?"

Hello! I have more time to write so there will now be an update schedule for Hot Cop. Every Monday I will post a new chapter! Thanks for reading :)

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