Hawt banner by Annie Ha. Please don't forget to email me your wattpad usernames too when you send me banners! Enjoy :)

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" I asked Nathan innocently.

"Like you think my plan is ridiculous and I'm stupid." Nathan told me flatly.

"Well I can't force my expressions to lie." I retorted with an innocent smile.

Nathan let out a frustrated sigh. "Unless you have a better idea, we're sticking with this plan."

I let out a frustrated sigh too at this. If only I actually did have a better idea. This plan was straight up ridiculous. It was nuts. But unfortunately, it was all we had.

"Fine. But what about the cops?" I asked Nathan with a raised brow.

"What cops?" Nathan asked dumbly.

I rolled my eyes. Man he was getting old to forget stuff like this. "You said you called the cops, didn't you? The original plan was to get the hell out of here just before the cops came to bust out Ryland." I explained.

"Oh, yeah. About that..." Nathan trailed off sheepishly. "I was kind of planning on calling them after we had escaped."

"But you even said 'hurry up the cops will be here any minute!'" I mimicked his deep voice.

"Since when did I sound like a drunk whale?" Nathan shot me an amused grin.

Whales could get drunk?

"And yeah, I only said that to get everyone to hurry up." He added.

"So now there's no way of contacting the police." I stated with a defeated sigh.

"Considering this place has no service, no there's not. But don't worry, lucky for you, we have my great plan." Nathan grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes. "So now we wait?" I asked him.

"Now we wait." Nathan confirmed, making himself comfortable on the bed. I watched as he propped the pillow against the wall behind the bed, leaned back and put his hands under his head, sprawling his legs out lazily.

And here I was, sitting at the edge of the bed with the little space Nathan had left me, uncomfortable and slightly cold. Considering I was still wearing that flight attendant's outfit with the short black pencil skirt and thin white button up, and the fact that we were locked up in a chilly basement, I wouldn't be surprised if I caught a cold.

I glared at my boyfriend but he didn't seem to notice as he was too busy looking off into the distance, deep in thought.

Rubbing my arms with my hands trying to keep warm, I went over the brilliant plan Nathan had come up with in my head.

Since sooner or later, someone would come in to get us, Nathan had decided that I hide behind the door, out of sight. This would cause the guards to walk in and freak out, which is when I'd surprise attack them from the side with a small metal table that had been sitting in one corner. Nuts I tell you. Then, after Nathan and I had knocked out all the guards, we'd sneak out of this place and try to leave somehow. We weren't so confident about this plan, but we had to at least try.

"Hey are you cold?" Nathan's voice broke my thoughts, causing me to look at his him sitting more up now and looking at me with concern.

Now he notices.

"A bit." I replied.

"Come here you sexy air hostess." Nathan grinned lazily, opening his arms up.

I rolled my eyes, before crawling up the bed to him with a grin.

I cozied up onto his chest and we laid with our legs stretched out.

"I can't believe your sister almost roundhouse kicked me." I stated after a while.

"Maybe it'd be easier to if you'd seen her kill a guy." Nathan answered in an empty tone.

I looked up at him with concern. "I'm sorry. None of this is your fault. You tried your best. At this point, she'll need professional help to come back around." I tried to comfort him.

"Yeah, I know." Nathan said, looking down at me with a small smile. "I guess being around your optimistic ass all the time made me start to have more faith in things. Which is why I feel disappointed and hurt about what she did."

"Yes, but we wouldn't be here right now if we didn't have a bit of faith." I reminded, winking at him.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." Nathan sang with a teasing smile.

I giggled for the first time since we had been in this building. Before I could reply, the sound of footsteps and voices caused us both to freeze.

"Go." Nathan whispered, motioning me to get in position.

I shot him a wink, before grabbing the metal table near the bed and going over to stand next to the door.

The sound of keys jingling and the lock clicking made me grow slightly tense. What if this didn't work?

Before I could start to doubt myself more, I watched as the first guard entered the room.

"Where's the girl?" He immediately yelled at Nathan as he glanced around the room. Luckily he didn't look behind him.

I watched as he stepped further in and two more guards stepped in, all of them looking distraught . They all moved forward and crowded around Nathan, none of them bothering to turn around

"Where is she?" Another one yelled, going over to Nathan now and hauling him up from his comfortable position on the bed.

I watched the fourth guard step in and looked to Nathan, waiting for the signal.

Just as the guard who had stepped in turned to notice me pressed against the wall, Nathan yelled. "Now!"

Before the guard could even react, I quickly slammed the door shut behind him so that no one could escape and call for help and brought down the metal table to his head as hard as I could, watching in horror and surprise as his body went straight to the ground. He was out cold.

I looked up to see the other three frozen to the spot in shock, before quickly recovering and starting towards me.

They had forgotten that Nathan was still behind them and just as the first guard moved to grab his gun from his waistband, Nathan had grabbed that guard's wrist and twisted it it back painfully, before shoving him into the two other guards who were now advancing on Nathan.

I watched as the three guards stumbled, before starting to circle Nathan.

My instincts kicked in. After seeing my boyfriend get shot in the leg last time, I surely wasn't going to leave him to fight off the three guards all alone. I also noticed his limp which he was trying to cover up as he started to move towards one of the guards.

I quickly rushed forward as I saw a guard to Nathan's side pull out a gun. Before he could surprise attack Nathan, I jumped onto his back right as Nathan advanced onto the guard he was facing, going for a clean uppercut.

I covered the surprised guard's eyes with my hands and clung onto him as he struggled to get me off of him.

"Get off me you twat!" He yelled, flailing his arms and trying to grab me.

"I'm not a twat. I'm a ninja." I said in a serious tone, before jumping off his back and ducking down behind him.

I watched as he looked around for me furiously. "Where'd you go!" He yelled out in irritation.

"Boo." I said, popping up to face him just as he turned my way. Before he could lash out at me, I brought my fist back and slammed it to the side of his head as hard as I could, remembering to keep my thumb in the right spot.

I watched in victory as this two hundred and fifty something pound guy staggered back a bit, before dropping to the ground.

Nathan had given me some pointers on how to efficiently knock out a big bozo and I was suddenly very grateful for that.

My eyes searched to find him and widened once I saw what was happening before me.

Nathan was currently on the ground with one guard knocked out a few feet away from him and two other guards currently kicking him viciously.

I suddenly felt as if I was the one being kicked repeatedly.

"Nathan!" I yelled out, watching his futile attempts to get up. "Get off of him!" I yelled out, before grabbing the metal table that had been discarded on the ground and running to them.

I let out a yell before swinging down the table in anger on the first guard. The contact made a loud bang.

I watched as he successfully crumbled to the ground, before turning to see the other guard, who had thankfully stopped hitting Nathan, looking at me in shock, before scrambling to grab his gun.

Before he could even pull it out, I was already running towards him and tackled him to the ground.

"You bastard!" I yelled at him, before repeatedly punching his face. I had gotten a good five punches in before the guy finally used his strength and pushed me off of him, quickly standing up.

I moved to get back on my feet before freezing. The guard had the gun pointed right in my face, standing above me.

"That's enough. Now get up." He ordered, his voice deep and menacing.

"No." I glared at the man.

I knew I should have listened but I also knew that he wouldn't shoot me. Not until Ryland had the satisfaction of destroying my family.

"Get up now or else I will--" I didn't get to hear the rest of the man's threat because Nathan had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was now standing over the stupid guard's limp body.

I looked up in relief and accepted his hand as he helped me up.

Nathan slightly cringed and I remembered his leg. It probably hurt him to move around.

I gasped as I took in his face and quickly stepped over to him, examining the small blue bruise under his eye.

"The bastard managed to get a good punch before I knocked him out." Nathan explained with a grimace, motioning to one of the other guards.

I brought my hand up and carefully touched the bruise, my fingers softly grazing his skin.

"Does it hurt?" I asked in concern.

"It'll heal. I've had worse." Nathan reassured me, taking my hand in his now and smiling down at me.

"You were amazing out there. I knew you could punch but I didn't know you could knock out three buff men twice your size." Nathan grinned down at me, looking impressed.

I shrugged with a small grin. "Well you know, I am a ninja and all."

"I know." Nathan grinned at me, before pulling me in for a hug.

"Are you okay?" He suddenly asked, pulling away slightly. "Did they manage to hit you?" Nathan asked with concern.

"I'm fine. You worry about yourself." I shook my head at his concern.

"I don't need to, you already worry enough for the both of us." Nathan grinned at me.

I simply stuck my tongue out at him.

Nathan chuckled but stopped and winced, clutching his abdomen all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?" I asked, once again concerned.

"See, this is what I mean." Nathan tried to joke, but winced again.

I moved his hands away from his torso, before gently lifting his shirt up. At first I saw a nice eight pack, before lifting it up more to see dark bruises that flawed his perfectly sculpted torso.

"Holy shit." I muttered, reaching my other hand out to slightly touch it. I quickly pulled it back as Nathan clenched his teeth in pain.

"Nathan, we need to see a doctor." I decided, looking at all his bruises.

"No, we need to get out of here. Come on." Nathan said, taking my hand off of him and pushing his shirt down.

"But--" I started to protest. For all we knew, he could have seriously cracked or broken his ribs. Hopefully he hadn't.

"Skylar, we can go to the doctors and all but in order to do that we need to get out of here." He explained.

I nodded reluctantly, before taking his hand. "Just be careful. Can you still walk?" I asked him, glancing down at his injured leg.

"Yeah, don't worry about me." He reassured me, and as if to prove that he really was fine, he took a step forward.

Except he slightly wobbled and let out a cry of pain as his injured leg took all his weight.

I quickly moved forward and ducked under his arm, standing up and partially supporting his wait. I faced up and shot him a look. "Nathan, you're clearly not fine. Just let me take care of you. I'll help you walk and I don't mind going slower, we just have to be extra stealthy then. But you're not fine on your own and don't even bother trying to argue with me." I said, giving him a look that showed that I was in no mood to argue.

He just stared at me silently. When he didn't say anything, I faced forward.

"Come on, let's get out of here." I muttered, starting to make my way towards the door, Nathan slightly limping as he tried not to throw all of his weight onto me.

"Wait." Nathan stopped, causing me to look up at him. "Grab that." He said, nodding his head at a gun lying by our feet.

I bent down to grab it, handing it to Nathan as I stood back up.

"Thanks princess." Nathan said, looking down at me with a small smile that made my insides melt.

I just reached up to give him a small kiss on his cheek in response, before opening the unlocked door cautiously. We both looked down both ends of the dark and empty hallway before stepping out of the room. I silently shut the door behind us and clicked the lock back into place.

Turning to face the way we had come from, Nathan and I silently made our way down the hall.

Once we reached the end, we found a small staircase and climbed it. I patiently waited on each step for Nathan as he tried his best to not use his bad leg.

Once we reached the top at ground level, I turned to face Nathan. "What way do we go from here?" I whispered.

"If we go right, it'd be faster and easier, but we'll probably end up running into Ryland's guards. If we go left, the path is slightly longer but the exit is through the main doors, so we'll have to be really fast." Nathan explained.

We both agreed to go with the safer option and went left. Nathan was in no shape to be a sexy hero right now. He was just a sexy injured guy.

I was suddenly thankful that the whole building was really dark as Nathan and I crept along the shadows, out of sight. We were making our way down a wide, dark hall with doors lined all along the sides. It made me wonder how many other prisoners were stuck in there. But then I reminded myself that as soon as we got out of here, we'd call the police and all the prisoners could escape. Including Hana. If we couldn't get her out of here, then the police would have to do it. That's what Nathan and I had agreed on.

We finally reached the end of the long hall, and Nathan motioned to go right, where the exit was.

"Hold on." Nathan whispered, his arm around my shoulder suddenly tightening and holding me in place as he moved us back against the wall, deeper into the shadows.

I held my breath as I suddenly heard voices coming from around the corner. I strained my ears to listen.

"No, please. You don't understand!" An all too familiar voice cried out, causing me to freeze and tense up.

No. How could Ryland have taken her?

"Hey let her go! It's me you want!" A gruff voice yelled out this time, followed by some shuffling.

He was here too?

"Actually, you're wrong. You see this is not all about you, Randy." Ryland's annoying little voice caused me to clench my fists.

I heard Nathan suck in a surprised breath.

"What the hell could you possibly want from me? I can't help you in any way so just please let me go! And let Skylar go too!" A new voice pleaded.

"Jess." I breathed out in shock.

She couldn't be here. I couldn't let her get hurt too!

The first thing that came to mind was to run out there and demand Ryland to free my best friend. Then I'd figure out a way to get my mom and step-dad out of this too. Even though we never got along, I wasn't just gonna leave them to die.

Just as I took a step forward to go around the corner and reveal myself, I felt Nathan's strong arms grab my waist and pull me back.

"Hold on Skylar. You're not going out there." Nathan whispered in my ear, his tone commanding.

"But they have--" I started to argue but he shushed me.

"I know. So what we're gonna do is figure out a more reasonable way to get them out of here." Nathan explained to me, causing me to slightly relax and give him a reluctant nod. He was right.

"Actually, you can help me. You and your friend's parents are going to help me." Ryland explained in a calm tone.

"With what?" Jess yelled at him in frustration.

I smiled at the girl. She always was an aggressive one.

"Revenge, my dear. Sweet, sweet revenge." Ryland spoke, and I could just picture the sinister smile on his face.

"What did we ever do to you?" I heard my mother's small, fragile voice ask him.

"You killed my brother you dirty slut." Ryland spat out, his voice suddenly cold.

"He got shot because his involvement in your gang! She had nothing to do with it! She was just his punching bag so how could she have caused this?" Randy yelled out at him, sounding frustrated and I could hear a bit of desperation in his tone.

"No you idiot! That's where you're wrong! Your snitch of a bitch tipped the rivals and organized his death!" Ryland yelled, causing the room to grow silent.

I was frozen too, my mind blank.

So my own mother had killed my dad...

"He would beat me and my kids nonstop! He was a drunken monster!" I heard my mother's shrill voice scream.

"Shut up! He walked away from you. You were fine!" Ryland shut her down.

"I was scared he'd come back! I was so fucking scared everyday that I had to do it. I couldn't live!" She admitted, causing the room to grow silent again.

I suddenly felt like throwing up. What horrible and delusional monsters my parents were... What did that make me?

As if sensing my sudden mood, I felt Nathan turn me around so I was facing him.

He gazed down at me as if I was the only girl in the world and we weren't currently hiding from my evil uncle and trying to escape this mess.

Then, without a word, he pulled me into his chest and held me tight.

And that's when I was reminded why I was even here in the first place. Because I wanted to fight for him. I wanted to be with him and not have to worry again. It wasn't easy, but I knew that this was what I wanted and I was willing to fight for it. No matter how much I felt like falling down.

So, after holding onto each other as if our lives were about to end in seconds, I pulled away and looked up at him with a small smile.

"I think I've got a plan." Nathan said, causing my smile to grow.

"Good. I was counting on it." I said.

"You can also count on a nice trip away from everything once this is all over." Nathan smiled down at me, his green eyes twinkling.

"So then what are we waiting for? Let's get this over with, I don't think I can wait any longer." I smiled up at Nathan, adrenaline pumping through my blood.

"So, here's what we do." Nathan started explaining the plan in a hushed voice. I could hear Ryland, Jess, Randy and my mother around the corner, all of them still arguing, so it gave us time.

As Nathan explained what we were to do, I wondered if this would be the last time we'd have to come up with a plan under all of this pressure and short amount of time.

The thought excited me and I could almost imagine running off somewhere nice with Nathan, and never again having to worry over these types of things.

But first, we had to get out of here. So using that thought as motivation, I turned to Nathan with a determined look and we both gave each other a small nod, before I stepped out into the open and Nathan stayed behind.

Show time.