Chapter 34

"You've really done it this time, haven't you?" Arabella asked. "I warned you, didn't I? Dave is dangerous, a cold-hearted killer. Just look at what he did to your neck."

She touched one of the cuts. It stung, causing me to wince.

"I need to get out of here Arabella. I need to leave this place now!" I whispered in fear.

"Did I forget to tell you he's a hound?" She said, as she wiped the ruined makeup off my face.

"He'll track you down through any means possible and don't think he's in this alone. You insulted him in front of his friends, he'll want to prove a point to them. So, we're talking about a gang of 5 to 10 men."

I turned white. If I left the Piacere house to Anabelle's house, he would track my movements through the cameras? Besides, I wanted to be safe, not put the girls in trouble, but how could I handle 5 to 10 men on my own? Men I couldn't even identify?

You can run but you can't hide…

The girls came down the stairs. They gasped when they saw my injured state.

"Ophelia, what happened?" Rose asked.

"Dave happened." Arabella answered, while she tended to my wounds.

I took time to admire their costumes.

Rose was dressed as a nurse, but instead of the traditional conservative outfit, she wore a short white dress far too small to contain her heaving breasts, her red bra peeked through the long v-neckline, her suspenders were red too, matching her platform heels. The only thing right about her costume was her headgear and the stethoscope she hung around her neck.

Ginevra was dressed as Eve or was it Poison Ivy? I couldn’t quite tell but she was naked, with green paint all over her skin with flimsy leaves covering her essentials. She had a short red wig on, with bright red lipstick, so she had to be Poison Ivy.

Grace was dressed as a referee in the traditional black and white stripe shirt. Like Rose, her shirt was way too small to carry her goods, so she had a lot of buttons open, revealing a lacy black bra. She had a whistle around her neck, her black shorts, if they could be called shorts, stopped right above her bottom.

"What about Dave?" Grace asked.

"It’s a long story, and we have no time to explain. What we do have time for is to keep Ophelia at least 5 metres away from Dave until Valentino gets here."

"Okay...." They replied in unison, even though I could see they were still confused.

Arabella fixed my makeup and cleaned my wounds.

"I worked hard for this night and no one is going to ruin it. Come on girls, we're going outside."

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We went outside where we found Liam working his stuff on the turntables, driving the crowd crazy.

We joined them, dancing, complementing each other's costumes and filling our cups with liquor. The last one I refrained from because I needed all my five senses intact.

The only person I could trust to handle me when I was intoxicated was Luke and I remember him saying I was quite a handful. If he wasn't here, I wouldn't touch alcohol.

So, I emptied all the liquor I received into a potted plant which I was sure would die, because of all the poison, before the next day.

I recognized a few of the girls as they danced around.

Al Modena was dressed as a Mohican.

Emilia, Dave's girlfriend or whatever she was to him, was dressed as a giraffe. Like Ginevra, she had brown and gold paint all over her skin.

Katherine was dressed as Beyoncé, a look she pulled off so well.

Others I recognized but didn't know so well were dressed as Animé characters, Maids, Vampires, Cabbies, Biker girls, but the one thing their costumes had in common was skin, their costumes showed a lot of skin.

Carlotta?

She was dressed as mystique from X-men.

The guys didn't do bad at all, most of them were dressed as superheros: Batman, Superman, Thor, The Human Torch. A few were dressed as music legends: Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson. Others as mystical creatures: vampires, ghouls. Some as gods: Zeus, Thanatos, also known as the ripper, Aries.

I also came across policemen, doctors, ghost, mascots. It was a little bit overwhelming to say the least.

I wandered off, admiring more costumes until I bumped into Dave and a group of vampires. No one paid attention to me but Dave, his eyes followed my every move, which was only the rise and fall of my chest since I was mysteriously rooted to the spot. When he smiled at me no one told me I had to retrace my steps and run back the other way as fast as my legs could carry me, back to my safe haven, which was the girls.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, when she saw me breathing hard.

I could hardly make one coherent sentence but my hand gestures told her enough.

"Come on." She pulled me out of Dave's line of sight, to where the girls were gathered around Liam.

We danced and it relived my mind a little but my eyes moved from left to right, observing my surroundings.

I was so agitated that I nearly incapacitated someone when they whispered into my ear.

"Why so jumpy?" I relaxed when I recognized Liam's voice and apologized for the elbow to his chest.

"I'm avoiding someone." I replied.

He gave me a brisk nod. "Arabella told me to keep an eye on you. Wanna dance?"

That's when I noticed Arabella was gone. Grace, Ginevra and Rose where dancing with others.

"I'm taking you off the group. The last thing we need is you advertising yourself to Dave in the open but we're still going to do our collab, we'll be better protected inside." Arabella said, when she came back.

If she only knew how wrong she was. Inside, we were trapped by four walls.

"Grace!" She called out. "Come over here, will you? Rose is busy, Ginevra’s guy came calling, take care of her until I get back." She walked off to coordinate the dancers.

When Grace came over, Liam returned to his station.

Everyone gathered around the stage in the yard to watch the girls. Arabella stood on the side, whispering last-minute commands, she didn't need to, the performance was perfect. It had the crowd cheering and wolf whistling, the girls earned themselves the few bills thrown at them by men.

After the performance, it was time for everyone to go into the house to continue the party.

Liam's things were already set up in the longue and he got the place grooving with the latest jams.

Alcohol and food were passed around, girls occupied the mini stages in the lounge, giving the guys a variety of dance performances to choose from.

It wasn't long before some guys whisked Grace and Rose away, thereby breaking my circle of protection. Arabella couldn't host the party and protect me at the same time, we were barely able to avoid Dave a few times.

"Why isn't he here yet?" She paced up and down the kitchen. "He should be here by now, Ophelia. Can't you call him or..."

She stopped talking and face palmed herself. "What am I saying? Valentino is his own man, he'll come if he wants to." She placed a hand on my back, patting it lightly like a mother would pat her child.

"Arabella?" Someone called her attention.

"What?" She snapped.

"A moment please."

She waved him away, then she turned to me. "I'll be right back Ophelia, stay put."

She followed the person out of the house.

I nibbled on a piece of cake while I waited for Arabella to return. Intuition made me look up, I saw Dave leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed across his chest, looking relaxed.

It is time.

A tiny voice unanimously announced in my head.

I stood up forcefully, causing the stool to fall, the cake fell out the plate.

Instinctively I turned to run, the best thing to do at this point was to lock myself in my room until the party was over, I stopped moving when I saw another figure standing by the stairway looking relaxed, a party cup filled with liquor in his hand.

There were so many people in the kitchen but the reason I picked this one out was because he was wearing a fireman’s costume.

Arabella's words came crashing down on me.

You insulted him in front of his friends, he'll want to prove a point to them. So, we're are talking about a gang of five to ten men.

I looked around the room, most people were in the longue, only a few people were talking in the kitchen and a couple of them were dressed as firemen.

An image flashed through my head, the person who called Arabella out was dressed as a fireman.

I face palmed myself. How could I be so blind, so stupid not to notice?

Dave obviously had calculated everything, covered every possibility. He knew his presence in the kitchen would either drive me outside in search of Arabella or to my room faster than the speed of light.

Outside, I was sure more guys were waiting to intercept me.

If I ran to my room, the loud music blaring through the speakers would absorb the sound of them kicking my door down, probably my screams too. No one would know what was happening, I would be lucky to live and tell the story.

And if I wanted to play brave, not run outside or to my room but to stay and fight then the guys in the kitchen would serve as backup.

But he had miscalculated one small detail.

I wasn't stupid.

He obviously was the stupid one here, getting all the members of his unit to wear the same uniform. Idiotic dumbass.

He took a step forward and I took an involuntary step back, hitting the island, which told me that there was insufficient space as the trap closed in.

I looked around and noticed they had all moved, discreetly. I guess the plan was to drag me to wherever they wanted.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

The best place to hide, is in plain sight princess. Let's go.

An image of Luke filtered into my mind as he assembled a gun during one of our training sessions back at the mansion.

Suddenly, I knew what to do.

I turned around and climbed the dining table, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

I was tempted to flaunt myself, to ask Dave to come and get me as I stared into his astonished eyes.

I got down to doing what I knew how to do best instead.

Dancing.

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