Guns and Roses

Forty One ~ Quinn

Whoever just came in is standing directly behind me but I'm scared to turn around. Rya looks up at them and something flashes across her face. Her mouth drops open.

"Minha"

I turn and see her father standing there. Viktor looks a state. His shirt is half untucked and blood stains have ruined the expensive white fabric.

Rya gets to her feet slowly and then reaches down to help me up. I refuse her hand and turn my head to look back at the floor.

My jaw aches and I see Reggie sitting on the floor watching with fear in his eyes. I quickly get up and run over to him, ducking down to sit behind his desk.

"What the fuck?" He hisses quietly. Tears are running down his face and he's rocking slightly "What the actual fuck?"

I shake my head and turn back to look at Rya and Viktor. Neither one of them have said anything. They just seem to be assessing each other.

"What did they do to you?" He asks, something dangerous lurking in his voice. He reaches for her bloody face and she turns away.

"You have ten seconds to explain yourself" she says and steps back. "Where's mum? Did you at least bury her?"

His eyes go wide "No! I didn't kill your mother. Someone else did" He steps towards her and she doesn't step away "I was in the kitchen when someone broke in. She was in the bedroom and I heard her scream. By the time I got up there... she was already dead. It was that girl, the one who just ran. She told me that if I came back for you, she would take you from me too"

Rya gulps and lifts her chin up. Shes trying not to cry, I can see it. "She's really dead then?"

A sharp laugh startles both of them and everyone in the room turns to see the woman standing in the doorway. Bella grins and then walks in like she owns the place. "Come on guys, you should know by now that I'm harder to kill than I look"

Shes wearing a ripped, extremely bloody white shirt that looks like it might belong to a man and a pair black leggings that are ripped at one knee. Her face is even worse than Rya's with one side of her face entirely covered with a bruise. A large gash is healing over by her hairline and her arms are wrapped in makeshift bandages.

She walks in and goes straight towards Rya. "Your face... who did this to you?" She spins and points an accusatory finger at Viktor "Did you let this happen? I'm gone for how long? A month? Look at you, bubbs"

Rya grabs her in a massive bear hug and Viktor watches in complete amazement. I start to feel a little awkward at the fact that twenty students are currently watching their reunion whilst hidden under desks.

Bella finally pulls away and then steps over Rafa's body and goes to the window. "Someone had a sniper out there. I got to them though" she looks out and then steps back again satisfied with whatever she was looking for. She claps her hands as she turns around to face her family. "So, now what? I say we call up Alexander, get a bazooka or something and blow the Petrovs up. I never liked them and I dont think they liked me very much either"

"Princesa? I saw you dead... where the fuck have you been?" Viktor exclaims and then Bella starts to laugh.

Viktor shakes his head in disbelief and Bella walks over to cup his face in her hands "We have all the time in the world to go over that story in detail but right now, I need a gun, a phone and maybe a hairbrush"

Rya nods her head and hands her mother her phone. "Come on. Mika said they were staying at Sean Ackley's house and I've been choking to get my hands around Dimitri's neck for days"

"Dimitri? I've never really had a problem with him. He married a bitch and his kids are brats but other than that I dont see anything wrong" Viktor says with a shrug.

Rya smiles "He called mum a whore"

"We're leaving" He snaps and then walks from the room.

Bella pouts "Well thats just rude" She turns and looks around the room until she sees me. "Quinn! I've got something for you. PATRICK!"

Someone peers around the door and I look up to see my frail grandfather standing in the doorway. "Quinn?" Hes alive.

****

I sit in the school office and face the officer talking to me. It's not Freddie, apparently he disappeared about the same time as Rya left with her parents. It's a woman and she's lovely but I cant focus.

My grandfather is alive.

He's being checked over by a paramedic but when I saw him he seemed unharmed. Apparently they were going to hold him hostage until they got a hold of Bella and realised that he was useless to them. She then convinced them that he was actually useful as he could cook so they kept him alive.

Not even Bella recognised anyone that held them so he didn't have any names but he's being asked to describe anyone he saw.

"You've been living in their house for a few weeks. How is it possible that you never saw anything suspicious?" She asks me.

I shrug "It was a big house. They were kind enough to let me stay when I had nowhere else to go. I didn't think that Rya was capable of killing anyone so I didn't push"

The officer leans across the table "Quinn. They cant hurt you any more. We're going to put you and your grandfather under witness protection somewhere far away from Torstone"

I shake my head. My life is here. "We cant leave. We've got the shop and I've got school. I'm not afraid of Torstone and I'm not leaving"

My grandfather is home and safe. Rya is gone. I can have my old life back.

But I dont think I want it.