Project Seventeen

Explosion

19

The building was huge and there was so much more to discover than just the ballroom. We had headed inside a king sized bedroom and were just goofing around. We didn't bother to care about the cordons that blocked almost every door we had entered this far, and this door wasn't any different. Ashton headed inside the bathroom and picked up a soap, which apparently was very slippery because of his struggle of not dropping it on the shining marble floor. 

At first, he had been very sceptic to head upstairs and just look around for fun. He said it wasn't his type of fun at all and that he'd just rather sit in a corner and drink in silence until it's time to leave. The thing that convinced him was that there wouldn't be as much noise if we left. But seeing the always angry looking pierced and tattooed tough guy Ashton smile unbothered like this, while trying to catch the escaping soap, made me smile too. 

He got a hold of the soap and put it back in place, giving it an angry glare. I laid down in the fancy bathtub with golden lion feet and covered myself with the shower curtain. As I revealed myself once again I was doing a very dramatic and complicated pose to amuse him. As a small chuckle escaped his lips I knew I had succeded. 

I liked that Ashton was one of these person's who only laughed if they really thought something was funny. Many people would just smile along with everyone else to fit in.

I started sipping on my drink as Ashton washed his hands to get rid of the soap stains. That's when the door to the bedroom suddenly opened. I choked on my champagne and was unable to breathe for a few seconds. Ashton turned off the sink in an instant and threw himself into the bathtub. He managed to do it quietly, but only because of him landing right on top of me. I felt my whole body ache as his body weight smashed onto me. The pain in my throat didn't make it any better. It was getting really irritated and my instincts kept telling me to cough to get rid of the thing blocking my throat. Ashton blocked my mouth while slowly pulling the shower curtain to the side, making us isolated from the rest of the bathroom. 

I got startled as the bathroom door was roughly opened with a loud creaking and couldn't help but to released a small cough in surprise. Ashton gave me a look that I read as him telling me to be calm and not make any noise. Hopefully, they didn't hear anything because of the door creaking at the same time. I focused on breathing slowly and quiet and hoped my loud heart beat wouldn't expose us.   

I knew we weren't allowed to be here, but what was the worst thing that could happen? As I glanced at Ashton's stiff facial expression, I could tell something really bad actually could happen if we got caught. 

I felt something warm and wet slick against my body. I found out the bathtub was turned on and hot water was slowly pouring down onto me. Ashton seemed to notice it too, but both of us knew we couldn't turn it off now without being noticed, so we just dealt with the fact that we were going to get soaking wet.   

- God, I hate this job, a deep vibrating voice surprisingly close to the bathtub said, making my heart beat a lot faster than it already did. 

- Oh, really? I think you're going to change your mind once you get paid, another more high pitched voice said. 

- I guess so, there's not really any other company that would pay you that good for kidnapping.

- Hell no! The high pitched one exclaimed followed by a horrible chuckle. 

- By the way, have you seen her?

- No, but she's supposed to be here, so we should probably just keep looking.

- Hello gentlemen's, a third voice said. 

He sounded younger than the other two, like he was in my age. They both greeted him carefully. 

-  I spoke to Mr. Turner, the third voice began.

There was a long silence. 

- He said he's found it.

- Found what? the high pitched one asked. 

The water was now by my neck, soon I wouldn't be able to breathe anymore. 

- This fucking bathtub! The first one exclaimed irritated. 

The person who stood closest to us pulled the curtain to the side and his eyes widened when he saw us. Ashton jumped out of the bathtub and threw a hard punch right at his nose, before landing onto the floor with blood trickling out of his nostrils. The second guy came rushing towards him and Ashton slid between his legs and pulled them up from behind, making him hit his teeth hard into the floor. Now the third guy who stood in the entrance kicked him in the face as he laid down. But Ashton managed to block him with his arm in last second. I could see the second guy trying to collect two bloody tooths from the floor. 

I felt like I had to do something so I ran over the other two and right into the third guy so he fell onto the floor. Ashton pulled me up from him and dragged me out from the bathroom. All three of them were after us, so we ran back out into the hallway. This wasn't a good idea because we would be seen by everyone, but it seemed like we didn't have any choice at the moment.

We ran towards the stairs and down into the ballroom. Then I saw Jessamy standing with Riley and Liam. The next second I was staring down on the shining floor. I felt extreme pain pump around my whole body. What happened? 

I was being pulled up by Ashton and another person and was pretty confused by this whole situation. Suddenly everyone started screaming and my ears began ringing. 

I turned around and saw Liam, Ashton, and the three strangers. One of them was holding a tight grip off Liam's shirt and raised an arm to punch him but stopped with his fist in the air when he heard all the screams escalating around him. The other two men were beating Ashton. One of them were holding him in a tight grip around his neck from behind, while the other one kept punching and kicking him. But they also stopped for a second to check what was going on. That was Ashton's shot, he pulled out a gun from his suit and started shooting in the air. 

That made everyone run to the entrance in a matter of seconds, that included the three strangers. I was being pulled to the side by Riley and Jessamy so I wouldn't get ran over. 

Ashton walked up to some guards on the second floor with his gun pointed towards them. I didn't know what his plan was because they were plenty more than him and were all armored. I could spot Nathaniel and Jasper in the middle of the guards troop. What were they doing there? 

As the guards pointed their guns towards Ashton, Nathaniel and Jasper threw one fragmentation grenade each and then slid down the staircase. Riley, Jessamy and I ducked behind a bar to take cover. Ashton backed down from the staircase and made his way towards us. Nathaniel and Jasper joined us behind the bar and everyone was hoping for Ashton to hurry. 

As the guards were trying to get away from the grenade, Ashton shot at them, making a huge bang occur. Ashton threw himself onto the floor to avoid the grenades range. The guards who were already a bit away from the grenades didn't blow up, but the power from the two of them together made blast wave so hard that they all flew hard into the wall. He must've been really good at aiming if he managed to hit one of a grenade at the exact angle to make it bump into the other one at such a far distance. 

-  We must get out of here, now! Liam growled stressed. 

- I'll get Ashton, Nathaniel said and went back out into the open ballroom. 

- I'll cover you! Jasper called out and hurried after him. 

Ashton got back up on his feet and was guided out of the building by Nathaniel. Jasper and everyone else, except Jessamy and I who wasn't given any weapons, were shooting down some guards who tried to shoot at them as they were so vulnerable in the open room. 

We instead tried to open the huge dull doors. It took some time but eventually got them open so we were able to get everyone out. Sydney was waiting outside in his car and we let Ashton sit in the passenger seat, while everyone else just got in the backseat and basically sat one top of each other in a huge bundle. Sydney drove off just in time because we saw police cars with their sirens on going to the area we just left.

I looked at Jessamy who sat on Riley's lap and seemed really bothered

- What is it? I asked her.

- I know who he was, the guy that attacked you in the ballroom, she mumbled.