Perfect
Chapter XXV

“Bella.”

“Bella!”

I kept hearing the familiar soft voice in my brain until I fully woke up from the cold dark floor. Once I’d registered where I was my heart started beating furiously. I searched each wall of the cell inspecting it closely until I found a brick that had fallen out leading into another cell close to the floor.

“Hello?”

“Bella, you’re awake, I was so worried.”

“Cameron!”

“Sh baby, you have to be quiet.”

“How long was I out for?”

“Three days.”

“Oh my God Cameron. What have they been doing? Who is it? Why have they taken us?”

“I don’t know but every time I get too close to this side of the cell I get whipped and I’m so sorry I couldn’t get you out of this.”

“No it’s not your fault, it’s mine. Enemies come with the job, I’ll only gain more when I become Queen.”

The sound of shuffling feet reached my ears and I slid across the cell to the other side to be as far away from Cameron as possible, “Be quiet, they’re coming.”

“Oh look, she’s awake.” Internally my heart shattered and my lungs almost burst as I gasped at who it was, “Victor?”

“Yes sweetheart, it’s me. I hope you don’t mind the accommodation, I guess it’s a little more grim then what you’re used too.” He said with a snarl.

“Why are you doing this?” I was huddled in the corner and for the moment Cameron was listening to my order about being quiet, especially since he was being eyeballed by the man that still had his mask on. It’s like they were having a staring contest.

“You know why Isabella, I’ve wanted you ever since that night at the palace.” I thought about the night and remembered something he’d said, ‘I’ll kill you for what your daddy did to me’.

“What did my father do to you that was so bad, that caused you to chase me around the world?”

“He took my son from me.” He said roughly, his hands fists of iron around the bars. I thought they’d break at the pressure he was squeezing them. I couldn’t even begin to imagine them around my neck.

“My father wouldn’t take someone’s son away for no reason?” I tried to reason with him.

“It doesn’t matter why the bastard did it, he tore my family apart and they all left me so I was alone and I wasn’t the only family he did it too.” I shook my head at his statement, “There’s no way I’ll believe that the King just took children away from their families for nothing, there would’ve been a reason.”

Victor banged his fists against the mental bars and a wild look appeared in his eyes, “There was no reason and now that I have something important to him, he’ll learn his lesson.” I shivered at his ferociousness.

“They’ll replace me Victor and there won’t be anything you can do about that.”

“We’ll see about that Princess, they won’t be replaceing you down here.”

They turned and left and I crawled back over to Cameron’s cell but he wasn’t there. “Cameron?” Nothing came back to me and I started to get really worried. I looked through the hole in the wall and the cell was empty. They’d taken him somewhere else while Victor and I had been talking. I leaned back on the wall and pulled my knees up to my chest to keep myself warm. Going through every option in my head I thought of Claire, she was one hundred percent looking for me and every guard and elite guard was on the job, the boys would even be helping, they would be worried. I knew they’d be here soon or someone would be.

Three days was a long time to be captive and knocking me out had been the smartest idea since I could’ve tracked our way back in the car ride or even figured out where we were. Now I just had to wait for help to arrive since there was no way out of here.

I’d fallen asleep again for a few more hours before I heard the sound of rattling chains and the cell door opening beside me. Someone was thrown inside with a grunt and the door was then slammed shut and locked with the key, I made note that the key’s were on this hooded guys waistband. Difficult to retrieve but I’d think of something if no one came.

“Cameron, is that you?” A moan met my ears and I stuck my eyes towards the hole in the brick wall. There was Cameron all beaten up, bloodied and bruised.

“Oh no.” I whispered to myself, how could they do this to you.

“Victor!” I screamed out.

“You beckoned your Majesty.” He bowed with a sarcastic tone to his voice and a smirk.

“He has nothing to do with this, why is he being hurt?” I demanded.

“I don’t know nor do I care. My accomplice took him for his own fun, that has nothing to do with me.”

“This is bullshit.” I cried out, crossing my arms in frustration, “Why am I not being hurt then just as he is. I know you want too.”

“No Princess, I may have been a bit touchy that night but I intended no harm, just to scare you enough to make sure you never forgot I was coming for you. You’re a ransom for me to get some money so I can have a life and a royal pardon, so you need to be in tip top shape.”

“You’re twisted and sick, we will get out of here.”

“Only for you sweetheart and I doubt that, there’s guards positioned everywhere around the vicinity. I’d like to see you try.” He walked away and I crawled towards the hole in the wall.

“Cameron baby, if you can hear me I’ll get you out of here I promise.”

“It was him.” He whispered before I saw him pass out. I sat back and watched him from where I could while I thought about what he’d said. It was going to be a long night so I shut my eyes again and wished for sleep to come upon me.

The sound of jangling keys woke me up from my sleep this time and I looked at the gate, my gaze a little fuzzy and the darkness of the night was not helping in the slightest but that shape was still unmistakable.

“Claire!” I said loudly.

“Shush Isabella. I’d like to get out of here alive with both of you in tow.” I looked towards Cameron’s cell and saw him being lifted out by two big men wearing my royal crest. My heart slowed down it’s pace slightly. We weren’t out of the woods yet.

“The plan?”

“We don’t have one,” she said pulling me by my hand out of the cell and into the dark corridor, “We stumbled upon this while searching the woods about seven hours out past your home.” She looked at me then, her gaze sad, “I’m so sorry we took so long to get to you, there was so much ground to cover and with everyone in a frenzy it was chaos.”

I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight, “The only person I’m worried about right now is Cameron, Victor seemed to have a different plan for me this time. He was going to use me as ransom.”

“We know, he told us one billion by twelve am tonight or we’d never see you again.”

“Oh my God, did he tell you this or my parents?”

“Your parents, so yes they know.” I bowed my head at her, “They’ll never let me leave the palace again.”

“Once you’re eighteen and Queen, they can’t tell you what to do anymore Isabella, they can only council you.”

“How long is this corridor?” I asked as we kept running, we’d been talking for the last five minutes and still hadn’t managed to reach ground, I could still smell dirt everywhere.

“Longer then it should be.” She said to me through gritted teeth.

After a few more turns we finally felt a breeze and behind us were the men carrying Cameron’s body and they were being as careful with him as possible. Claire grabbed her earpiece out of her pocket and placed it back in her ear, “I’ve found the sparrow and boyfriend, we need immediate backup.” She proceeded to give them our location as we headed out the door into the light of the moon. The moon gave us the light we need so we didn’t need to get out flashlights and torches.

I jumped as a sound came out of the tunnel, almost an animalistic growl and I looked at Claire, “They know.”

“We need to keep moving then,” she reminded all of us, looking at the two burly men behind us as well, they hid their fear well but everyone was scared of something. “Claire, there’s more of them.”

“Where?”

“Victor said he had guys everywhere.”

“Here.” She said handing me a loaded gun, I nodded my head at her, I’d fired a gun before in a practice range but never had I had to use one to protect myself. Today was the day it seemed.

“I want one of you to hold Cameron and the other to watch his six.” I told the men behind me. They bowed their heads and began to do what I said when I heard the first fire. “We need to keep moving.” I nodded my head at Claire’s request, Cameron and the man holding him were situated in the middle of us while we rotated him in a triangle form.

I felt a hand grab my forearm and I flicked the gun in the direction of where the head would most likely be and found myself face to face with Victor himself. His gun was pointed directly at my head and at the moment, we were in a standoff.

“You almost did it.” He sneered, “But you’re not going to escape this time Princess, I have a little more help this time.” Men appeared out of the forest with guns in hand and the little inkling of hope I had left of getting out of the situation had vanished. A familiar feeling gathered in my gut at some of the men, I’d seen them before. I looked at the man in the mask and studied his eyes, “I know who you are.” He seemed taken aback but recovered quickly.

“And who would I be little girl?”

“Cameron’s ass hat of a father.” The sounds of his first connecting with my face resonated throughout the forest and the men laughed at his victory.

“Sorry, did I bruise your ego darling.” His eyes were ablaze at my oncoming sarcasm and wit. I wasn’t scared of him, not anymore. This was a distraction, I was giving Cameron and Claire more time. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Cameron was still passed out but Claire was texting with her free hand without managing to look at the screen.

“You’d better watch your tone or next time I won’t just have some fun with my son, I’ll ruin your face a little too.”

“Not on my watch.” The click of more then one gun came from behind Cameron’s fathers head.

“Seth!” Claire shouted in joy. Two more men came out from behind him taking his place with guns pointing at Victor and the sperm donor’s heads. I looked around me and every man with a gun had been held down and cuffed by someone of the royal guard. I turned even more and saw Ace and Jason as well, holding down a big burly man who had dropped his gun just beside him and I laughed running over to them and hugging them quickly.

“We’re so glad you’re safe Bella.”

“I’d never leave you two idiots to graduate on your own. Neither would Cameron.” I said softly, looking over at him in worry.

I turned away and started walking over to Claire who was embracing Seth when I heard it, a gunshot. It rung loud in the air and I looked frantically around in front of me for who it hit, I saw Claire’s horrified face in front of me but she wasn’t looking at me, she was looking behind.

Turning around, the sight I saw made me fall to my knees. The burly man had escaped Ace's grip and grabbed the gun shooting Ace in the process.

“No, no, no!” I screamed racing over to Jason who was holding Ace in his arms, “You have to hold on for me Ace.” I demanded him as I compressed the bullet hole. I looked for an exit would but there wasn’t one, the longer it was in there the quicker he would die and we were still five and a half hours out from the nearest hospital.

“Bella,” he whispered to me, lifting his hand. I grabbed it and tried to stop the horrible sobbing I was doing.

“You are going to make a great Queen and are going to graduate with flying colours, with or without me and I’m glad I had the pleasure of meeting you,” he unceremoniously coughed a few times before continuing, “I want you to take care of these guys, they love you and are willing to die for you. So was I.”

“Don’t speak like this Ace, we’ll get you to a hospital.”

“I know I won’t make it Princess, but I’m not scared.” I gripped his hand even tighter, “You were so brave.”

“Aren’t I always,” he said with a wink, halfway through a cough.

“There’s one more thing, remember that day you called Cameron Cammy?”

“Yes, why? That’s such a random thing to ask Ace.” I said, tears falling down my face.

“I know but only I out of his three friends know, his mother used to call him that. You’ll have to ask him about it in your own time.”

“Okay.” I said, the tears now staining my cheeks, “Lets get you up and to the car.” I said, watching in disgust at the man who shot Ace was getting dragged away. Although I didn't miss the victorious smug look on Victor's face as he was also placed in cuffs and taken away by the Royal Guard.

Eleven fourty three was when Ace died on the ride home that night. No matter how many times I attempted CPR I couldn't bring him back, we were two hours out from the hospital. All of our hearts broke that day and big a piece was now missing from our little group.

“How will you tell Cameron and Ace's parents?” Claire asked crying as she sat in the seat beside me.

“I have no idea.”