章 21: Chapter 22

~Victoria's POV

Jessica speaks in a stern voice. "After the ball, you should disappear."

I stare at Jessica bewildered, still trying to process exactly what she has said. I turn to her fully "Disappear? Jess I can't do that. Why would I do that to Xavior?"

She comes towards me, grabs me by my shoulders and looks me dead in the eye. "Victoria, you have said it yourself, there's something wrong going on. Are you really going to stick around for something bad to happen? Do you really want to put yourself in such danger?" she asks me in an almost panicked manner.

I stare at her and think about what she's saying. She releases me from her hold and steps back. I groan loudly trying to calm the unnecessary headache that has sneakily slipped into my head while I was speaking to Jessica.

I rub my head and try to think. If Xavior is keeping something from me, doesn't it mean that it is about me? I scrunch my face in annoyance as this is what I did not need. I head to the kitchen and sit on the stool.

Jessica sits next to me and tries again to convince me that I need a break from everything. I look at her and agree to her statement. "You're right Jess, if my life is in danger, I need to stay as far away from Xavior as possible, but he needs to know that im leaving, I can't leave him in the dark like that" Jessica nods in agreement and we head to bed as it is late.

I toss and turn but can't seem to find a comfortable position. I look for my phone to see if I haven't missed any calls or text messages from Xavior, but to my disappointment, all I receive is nothing.

I play with the beautiful pendent around my neck and think of it as a symbol of Xavior's love for me. I still cannot believe he used the L word. Do I love him? I quickly leave the thought as it is really late and I need to get some sleep. I let the darkness consume me and fall deep into a much needed rest.

~Xavior's POV

*Where he's leaving Victoria's house*

I quickly dial Kyle's phone as I need to draw up an emergency meeting with him and my head security as I have received another threat from Jackson, but this one was about Victoria.

I get Kyle on the phone as I get into my car and speed off, I connect my phone to the car as i did not want to hold it while I drive. I hear his voice over the speakers of my car. "Yes boss, what is it?" I frantically rush through the traffic trying to get home. "I need you to call up an emergency meeting with our head security and meet me in my office, I'll be home soon"

Kyle speaks again, "Okay, I'm contacting him right now and we'll be in your office when you arrive. What's this about?" he asks, I make a sharp turn causing some cars to hoot at me.

"I'll explain when I get there, I'm almost home" I end the call and focus on driving. After another ten minutes, I make my way into my house and head straight to the office where I see Kyle and Nate sitting on their respective seats in front of my desks.

I walk to my seat and switch on my laptop to show them why I called them in today.

I show the footage of the night Daniel broke in, from the camera that was hidden in his jacket. A person can clearly see Victoria fighting Daniel and then us hugging and me kissing her. A message that was attached under the video stating. "I see the all powerful Xavior has found his weakness. It will be fun having you watch how I play with sweet Victoria. See you soon, Jackson."

Nate and Kyle sits in silence as the video comes to an end. I slam my hands on the desk startling Kyle and Nate." DAMNIT! He. Will. Not. Have. Her. " I say in a deadly tone to Nate, who nods his head showing no emotions.

I blow out a large sum of air to help calm me down. I lean back in my seat and stare at Nate who looks to be thinking of a plan. When he gets an idea he looks up and begins to talk. " Boss, why don't we use this as an opportunity." I crunch my eyebrows in confusion but I patiently wait for him to continue.

"Since Jackson knows about Victoria, he will solely divert his attention on capturing her , I say we set him up, we use one of our female assassins to lure him out in the open, when we have him. That's when we make our move." This is why I recruited you to head security, I think to myself as I process the plan he just suggested.

There's lots of things that needs to be done since Jackson is not dumb, so I must not underestimate him. We begin by drawing up maps and plan in detail what will be needed to make sure that the plan goes without having us being in a disadvantage.

By the time we finish our meeting, the plan has been saved in my file and stashed in my drawer. I get up from my seat and make my way to my bedroom.

As I open my bedroom door, I am greeted by nothing but an empty room that has lost its lively energy. The thought of having Victoria die on my hands sets off the sombre mood in the room. I head into the bathroom to clean off today's event.

Thoughts of Victoria starts flooding my mind leaving me agitated. The only thing keeping me sane is the reassurance that she is safe away from me.

I step out of the shower after doing my normal routine. I get ready for bed but not before checking up on Victoria. She might still be mad at you, you should give her the space you promised. My conscious voices out his opinion which causes me to place my phone back down on the dresser and find a comfortable spot to sleep.

*The next day, one day till the ball*

~Jessica's POV

As the morning sun starts to rise, the thoughts of Victoria and her situation bombards my mind leaving an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Just a couple of weeks ago, mafias didn't exist to us.

Now all of this chaos is beginning to fuck shit up. I'm so scared Victoria might be one of the many unfortunates that might have fallen victim to this shit. I quickly shake my head to erase those thoughts.

I get up and do my usual routine, showering, getting dressed and cooking breakfast for the household. As I'm cooking I hear Victoria emerge from her bedroom looking like the walking dead.

I look to the clock on the wall that reads 7 a. m, maybe that's why she's so tired since it's somewhat early. While I'm setting a plate down for her, I break the silence which causes her to snap out of her trance like state. "Hey Vee, are you alright, you don't look that good." I say genuinely concerned.

The person looking at me is stressed out and very agitated. She speaks up, trying to cover her true emotions with a soft smile. "Yes I'm okay, just over thinking like I usually do" she ends off with a dry chuckle.

Silence fills the room as we eat our breakfast that I've prepared for us. After our meal is finished, I take the dishes to the sink to be washed. I look back to Victoria to see her deep in thought.

She breaks out of her thoughts, turns to me and says "Can we do something today? I just want to keep my mind busy" she asks with a glint of hope in her eyes.

"Sure, I'm tired of my dress and I want a new one, we can head to the store today and exchange my dress." She lifts her eyes in remembrance. "Oh crap, the ball is tomorrow, I completely forgot. I can come with you and maybe I might find another dress that I might like even better than the one I have now." She ends off looking away, thinking about it.

I smile and tell her to get ready and to pack her dress as I do the same.

I put on a simple white long sleeved jersey under a black denim dress and pair it with transparent black stockings and my retro doc Martens.

I see Victoria coming out of her room wearing a simple white crop top and a high waisted mom jean pairing it with white sneakers making her look extremely youthful.

We head back to the store, both of us hoping we don't have to run into that unbelievably rude worker.

As we head into the store, we inform the security that we're exchanging our clothes. We hand our bags to the cashier and walk around the racks again looking for better dresses. Thank goodness Victoria still has the card, other wise Victoria would have to speak to Xavior and I know she's not ready for that.

We both agreed to stick to our colors but just look for different designs. As I walk through the racks I see a beautiful white dress with an extremely high slit on the side with a long sleeve on the opposite side of the dress with its back exposed.

I grab it and see that it is round about the same price as the first dress that was bought, but this one is a bit cheaper.

I look around to see Victoria staring at an amazingly gorgeous black dress with a high slit and sequence attached to some parts of the dress. I walk up to Victoria who is contemplating on taking the dress. I whisper over her shoulder which startles her a bit. "If you won't take it, I will" she hums and shakes her head no. " I can't wear this, Xavior will get mad if I'm wearing something so exposing.

I roll my eyes and take her by the shoulders, turning her to me. "Are you seriously going to let a man dictate how you dress? He has already controlled so many aspects of your life, don't let this be one of them." I say sternly. She looks at me nodding her head. "You're right, it's going on my body, not his, so he doesn't have a say in what I wear."

We both grab our dresses, obviously checking our sizes first before paying for them. Since it wasn't that expensive we used our own money and we used my change to help pay for Victoria's dress.

Luckily we didn't run into that atrocious woman, but it was a shame that we didn't run into Tony, the kind woman that helped us the first time we were there.

We walk around satisfied with our outfits. As we are walking, Victoria stops and stretches her arm out to stop me from walking as well. I look at her and ask her "What's wrong?" she replies with. "What are we going to do with our hair and make-up?"

Shit, I have completely forgot about that. We search the mall for a salon to make a booking for tomorrow for our hair and make-up. As we are making our booking, we suggested that they come over to my house to fix us up as it will be more convenient for us, traveling wise.

As we walk out the mall, this unsettling feeling immediately rises within me. Am I being watched? I ask myself as I feel someone's gaze on my back. "I turn around to find a tall man looking at us, but looks away when he catches me looking at him. I slowly grab Victoria's arm to not seem suspicious, she looks up at me as if I'm strange." What's wrong Jess? "

She asks as I pull her along to walk faster. "I think someone is watching us" I tell Victoria as I turn back around to see the same man walking closer to us, but still far enough to not do any real harm.

Victoria kisses her teeth and scoffs, she turns around and see the man who I'm taking about. She pulls me towards the approaching man and he stops in surprise when he sees us coming over. I whisper intensely to Victoria trying to get of her unbelievably strong grip.

"Victoria, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Are you trying to get us killed?" I loudly whisper but she does not answer as we are directly in front of the man who has a dark blue hoodie with its cap over his head causing shadows allowing us to not properly see how the man look.

His faded blue jeans sits comfortably on his legs while the white sneakers, he has on, is well kept meaning this guy looks after himself quite well. He removes his hoodie, giving us a clear view of his face.

He looks a year or two older than me, maybe twenty three or twenty four. His chocolate brown eyes fits well with his dark brown hair. He keeps making eye contact with me, which I find very odd.

Victoria speaks to him breaking the staring contest between this man and I. "Hi there, were you following us?" I snap my head towards Victoria and give her an are you kidding me look. I turn to the man to see him widen his eyes in surprise.

"Oh no no no, I was just trying to get a closer look at your friend here because she looks familiar, but I was too scared to just pop out of no where and ask who she was. I didn't want to come off as a creep." He awkwardly laughs while scratching the back of his head." I'm Joseph, Joseph Re-uh Reynolds.

He lightly chuckles again. Am I crazy or have I met this man before? Before I could figure it out, Victoria speaks again. "Well I'm Victoria Henderson and this is Jessica Rey." he shakes Vee's hand and then mine, but holding onto it longer than normal.

I remove my hand and step away. I kindly tell him "I'm so sorry, but we must get going, I hope to bump into you soon" I grab Victoria's hand and pull her to the car. As I start the car and drive off, I watch in the mirror how the man still keeps his eyes on us or on me as we drive off. Only when he disappeares from eye sight, I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

Victoria turns up the radio a bit and begins to speak. "So have you met that man before?" she asks waiting for a reply. I say "Well I don't think I've met him, but he does seem quite familiar, maybe we met in another lifetime" I shrug just throwing around some random thoughts.

When we get home, we spend the rest of the day catching up on what has been happening since Victoria left. We end up having an early night since there is lots to do tomorrow. We both are over the moon ecstatic for tomorrow's event and we cannot wait for it to come.

Little do we know, that from tomorrow night, our lives will change forever...

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