My Heart's Always With You Now.

I grasped her hand in mine tightly, “for your own good, you better act well tonight” I growled in her ear. She stiffened beside me and nodded her head, I gave her a satisfied smile before walking her into the room filled with all the guests. Heads instantly turned as the gang walked in, girls in tow. Greetings flew at us and drinks were instantly bought our way, “and don't drink too much”.

I let go of her hand and pushed her in the direction of the other girls that had been released by the guys. She'd made everything so hard on herself, where she'd locked herself away she hadn't had the chance to get to know the other girls. All feelings aside the other girls were nice people, you could hold a decent conversation with them and her time here would be made a lot easier if she would just open up and talk to people.

I looked over to see her being greeting by the other girls, well that's one problem down. “Mr Shadows” a guy greeted holding his hand out for me to shake, I took it in mine squeezing gently as I lifted it up and dropped it a few times.

“Reeper” I nodded my head in his direction softly, “how is everything going? Strange for you to be coming empty handed”. I stared around the room noticing that none of the girls looked like one of his.

“Well no one has caught my eye recently” he chuckled, I smiled agreeing, I knew how he felt. “However, there is one girl that has caught my attention here...” he spoke trailing off at the end as he looked across the room. All gangs knew that girls were up for grabs in certain situations, but this formal event was not one of them. Fights would be started if he was to try and take another gangs girl, but he was never the kind of guy to care.

“Oh really?” I asked trying not to sound too worried, I wasn't really in the mood to be picking at fights but the curiosity was getting the best of me.

He pointed his finger in the direction of a group of girls completely oblivious to the fact we had arrived with them, “girl in the red dress”.

“Well it would probably be best to stay away from her” I advised in a threatening tone, he turned to observe me with an eyebrow raised.

“And why would that be Shadows?” He hissed clasping his drink tightly in his hand. It was a shock to me that the glass had yet to shatter, “I know for a fact she isn't one of yours. You go for the typical blonde bimbo”. He dropped his gaze from me and looked back over at the girls, “and she isn't the typical type”.

“Just stay the fuck away Reeper, you know what happened last time and I'm not willing to repeat that any time soon” I growled turning on my heels and walking over to the girls. I felt it was best to at least let them know that he had his eyes on them. Well one of them. I was pretty sure I had an idea which girl in particular he was talking about but I wanted them all to know to keep each other as safe as they could.

“Shadows” the girls greeted as I walked over, I glanced over at them all before looking at Lauren, keeping my eyes on her as I spoke.

“Reeper has his eyes on you girls, make sure you keep each other safe and steer clear of him. If you have any trouble let one of us know”. The girls froze and looked at me with fear on their faces, Lauren however just looked over with confusion, I pulled her aside and looked down at her, “He wants you and he's not having you. Just make sure you don't separate from the girls”.

“But I don't understand” She whispered glancing up at me through her eyelashes. I placed my hand on her cheek and bent down pressing my lips against hers. Her body stiffened yet her arms reached up to wrap around my neck. A split second later and it was all over. I was walking away over to the guys and she was left standing there with her hand on her lips watching after me.

“We have a serious problem” I grumbled as I stood in front of the guys, I could still see Reeper looking over at the girls from a distance and it was starting to make me feel uneasy. The guys stopped their conversation and turned their attention to me, “Reeper wants one of our girls”.

Their bodies instantly tensed their eyes showing mixed confusion – mainly rage. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Johnny snapped, he had the shortest temper out of the lot of us and could be deadly if you got on the wrong side of him.

“This can not be happening again” Jimmy sighed, he didn't seem angry, he came across as more disappointed at the thought of the situation reliving itself. He had been caught in the middle the last time it happened and I could tell the main fear in his head was having to sit through it all again.

“Well what are we going to do?” Zacky asked leaning against the wall and taking a sip of drink without even a care in the world. That was typical Zack. He had a good head on his shoulders and he knew it was best to calmly think things through. That and he knew he could easily beat anyone if they were to double cross him.

“Before we even start thinking about all this, surely we need to know which girl?” Brian questioned, the five of us turned to look at the girls, closely watching them.

“Lauren”

Their heads shot round in awe, “you have to be shitting me!” Zack laughed, his head thrown back, “no offence to the girl but she's hardly his type!”.

“She's innocent Zack! You know what he's like, he wants to break her, take that innocence. That's what he's about!” Brian shouted, I allowed the guys to continue yelling at one another while I watched her from a distance.

As the night went on I grew more comfortable, Reeper had stopped looking in the general direction of the girls and had instead focused more on his gang and the people we were surrounded with.

Lauren appeared to be having fun, the girls were sat in a circle talking and laughing among themselves which was nice to see. Maybe this meant she could get the fuck away from Brian and speak to the girls instead of him. That'd be doing us all a favor. I turned to Brian as he made a comment about Lauren, “50 says she's a virgin”.

“Oh Brian!” Zacky laughed tilting his head back to emphasize the amount of humor he found in that statement, “Are you being for real?”. Brian nodded his head with the other guys nodding in agreement.

“Are you telling me she's had sex? Because I don't think so” Johnny chuckled, I frowned and turned to look at her only to realize she'd gone. Panic started to set in and immediately I fired towards the girls, dodging everyone in my path.

“Where is she?” I snapped turning towards the girls, Bethany turned to me with a concerned frown on her face.

“Don't worry M, she's only popped to the loo” She smiled laying a reassuring hand on my arm. I nodded and turned in the opposite direction marching off towards the guys. This line of work was starting to make me grey, everything made me paranoid which wasn't always such a good thing. I started to glance around the room, hiding the obvious interest in finding Reeper.

“I can't see him and she's gone”

“What're you on about?” Jimmy frowned turning towards me, I pointed in the direction of the girls to see Lauren hadn't return, “Oh shit!”. The guys instantly shot forward darting around the room trying to find her.

“She went to the toilet!” I shouted as I ran past Brian and Jimmy, I burst into the ladies rest room finding all the stalls empty and the window wide open, “I FUCKING KNEW IT! THE BITCH HAS DONE A RUNNER!”. The guys all scurried off going their separate ways trying desperately to find her, Brian even noted the girls who started to look around for her.

I ran out the front of the building and started down the road to see if she had tried running the way we'd come in hopes of escaping but couldn't see her. I couldn't even see marks on the ground to let me know she'd left this way. It didn't make sense! She was having fun! Why would she try and leave now? Especially when I'd warned her about Reeper. “I can't find her” Jimmy breathed running up behind me and doubling over to catch his breath.

“I'm going to break her fucking little neck when I find her” I roared as the two of us made our way back towards the house, “I want security on it now!”. Jimmy sent the guards off in search of the girl leaving me to stand in the ball room looking around. I couldn't see her vibrant red dress standing out anywhere, and I knew better than anyone that an open window meant she'd gone straight out of it.

I found it odd that Reeper had gone missing too, which meant he must have been waiting for the right moment to pounce on her. I rolled my sleeves up and made my way up the stairs. We hadn't checked the upper level of the house yet meaning she could be innocently having a sleep unbeknownst to the panic among us.

I slammed open the first door I saw finding it empty. Of course. It was never as easy as it seemed in films. I reached into the waist band of my black trousers pulling out my gun, like hell was I going to leave this place without causing a scene. Especially if I was leaving empty handed. I heard muffling coming from the room joint onto the one I was in.

I pushed the door open a creak and saw a lady in a red dress laying on the bed, a large man on top of her. Bingo. Shoving the door fully open I pointed the gun in the direction of the two startling them both. “Put your hands where I can see them!” I demanded, the two ignored me, continuing what they were doing before I'd entered, “NOW!”. I shot my gun at the floor near them to startle them both.

They moved apart and instantly I cursed. It wasn't her. I walked to the bedroom window slamming my hands against it in annoyance, I turned to the two on the bed apologizing profusely for the mistake I had made, the two had laughed it off politely asking me to leave. I retreated back the way I had come walking to sit on the seat by the window. Once there I stared out at the grounds of the house, a red figure caused me to snap my head to the side. She was running, her hair flying behind her in the breeze and her dress hitched up at her sides to make it easier to run. She was going to die for this.

I rushed down the stairs, escaping through the back door and notifying the guys on the way that I had seen her in the garden. The five of us raced after her ensuring the distance between us and freedom was slowly decreasing for her. After putting up a good chase she fell, her knees hitting the ground with a thud allowing us the time to catch up with her. We positioned ourselves in a circle around her, menacingly glaring down at her.

She looked up at us, fear etched on her face, “OH FUCK!” she sobbed clearly regretting her choice of running now she had been caught.