The Stand Off (33 page)

“Is this what you meant when
you said you would end the night with a bang, dear sister?”
Lux thought. Between
the large crowd scrambling around her and the noise, she was oblivious to the
danger creeping up from behind her. When she felt someone softly brush her from
behind, she turned around expecting to see Dean. Instead she came face to face
with a ski-masked man holding a large knife to her waist.

“Don’t move,” he demanded, trying
to disguise his voice with an unnatural accent. “Come with me and you won’t get
hurt.” He wrapped his arm around her and led her away from the garbage can.

“Listen, I don’t have any cash on
me and all my jewelry is fake,” she told him as he led her into the dark alley
between the buildings.

“I don’t want your money.”

“Wait,” she objected when she
realized he was trying to take her to the empty building next door. She tried
to pull away from him as they neared the side door, but he pressed the sharp
blade against her skin.

“Don’t do anything stupid; I really
don’t want to hurt you,” he threatened her without using his fake accent, and
she immediately recognized the voice.

“Clifton!” she hissed accusingly
and tried desperately to get away. She managed to free one arm and began to
slug at his head.

He grabbed her flailing arm, put
his hand over her mouth, and all but dragged her inside of the building. He
slammed the door behind them, locked it, and then leaned back against it. He
raised his knife to keep her in check as he pulled off his mask.

“Sorry to scare you Lux; that was
not my intention,” Michael said in a submissive tone.

“What are you doing here?” she
asked as she stepped backwards.

“I need to talk to you.” He moved
closer to her as she continued to back up.

“You tried to set me up; as far
as I’m concerned we have
nothing
to talk about.” She frowned as she
discreetly kept track of how far he stepped away from the door. If she saw an
opportunity, she would take it.

“Please you have to listen to me.
I never tried to set you up, it was Dean.”

“Bullshit,” she scoffed as she
tried to inconspicuously step towards the door.

“I’m telling you the truth, he’s
the one who sold the pictures, but he’s blaming it on me to cover his tracks.”
He took another step away from the door.

“He would never jeopardize his
relationship with his brother,” she said as she watched him like a hawk.

 “You don’t know him as well as
you think you do, Lux. He
is
in love with his brother’s ex-fiancée, that’s
why he hates Vaughn so badly.”

“How long did it take you to come
up with that crock of unconvincing shit?” she scoffed as she crossed her hands
over her chest and took a minuscule step to the side, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

“It’s the truth; they were having
an affair long before Vaughn asked her to marry him.”

“You’re so full of shit.” She
realized it wasn’t wise to bait him, but she was too angry to care.

“Lux, I wouldn’t lie to you; you
know me.”

“I don’t know you at all; I don’t
even know your real name…
Clifton
.”

“My real name is Michael; I’m
sorry that I had to lie to you. I had to change my name because Dean Blake has
been stalking and tormenting me. He knows that I am the only person who can
expose his secret about his brother’s fiancée.”

“Either you’re crazy as a shit
house rat or you’re starting to believe your own lies,” she said as she shook
her head. She suddenly pretended as if she saw someone behind Michael, she
looked at the window behind him and gasped. The very moment that he turned to
look behind him, she sprinted for the door.

She had just grabbed the handle and
went for the lock when he grabbed her from behind. She swung blindly behind
her, trying to connect with any available body part. When she felt her fist
connect and heard him grunt, she ran towards the window. He shook off the blow
to the head and tried to rush her. She abruptly ducked, avoiding his grasp, and
grabbed a large rock from the floor. She threw it at him, but it flew right
past his head and crashed through the window as he dove to the side. As his
body hit the ground, she went back for the door. While still on his knees he
scurried over and grabbed her ankle before she was able to unlock it. She held
the handle tightly as he tried to pull her back. She kicked backwards as he
stood up but when she felt the cold metal against her neck, she froze.

“Why did you do that?” Michael
asked as he yanked her away from the door. “I was hoping we could work together
to stop Dean but now I see where your loyalty lies.”

“My loyalty is with Dean,” she
spat at him before he covered her mouth with his hand.

“And you will pay for that,” he
threatened her.

***

Kiki, Graves, and Dean managed to
extinguish the fire and went outside to let everyone know. Dean looked for Lux,
but he did not see her amongst the crowd.

“Pixie?” he yelled.

“Yes?” she bounced over to him.

“Where is Lux?”

“Um, I’m not sure.” She looked
around the crowd before she yelled, “Lolo, where’s Lux?”

“I don’t know,” she answered
before she turned and yelled to Graves, “Graves do you know where Lux is?”

“I haven’t seen her since the
fire started,” Graves said as she walked closer to Dean and Pixie.

“Shit,” Pixie cursed.

“Kiki!” Graves yelled across the
crowd and Kiki looked up. “Where’s Lux?”

“I don’t know! I’ll go ask Mom,”
she yelled back.

“What in the hell?” Pixie walked
over to the smoking garbage can, and everyone followed behind.

“Firecrackers,” Graves said as
she looked into the can.

Pixie turned to Dean, “We heard a
bunch of firecrackers earlier, but I assumed that one of the passing cars had
thrown them.”

“So where in the hell is Lux?”
Dean asked as he looked around.

It was then that one of Kiki’s
friends from the party turned to Pixie, “I saw Lux go in that building.”

“What building?” Dean asked, and
the girl pointed to the building next to the music hall.

“Why in the hell would she go in
there?” Pixie looked at the building with a frown.

“I don’t know,” the girl shrugged
her shoulders.

“Well who was she with?” Pixie
probed.

“Some guy,” she answered.

“What guy?” Dean barked.

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know;
I could only see the back of him.”

“What in the hell would she be
doing in there?” Pixie wondered.

“I’m going in,” Dean said.

He’d no more then taken a step
towards the building when a rock came crashing out of the window. Dean, Pixie,
and Graves ran towards the window to see Lux inside, fighting with a man
dressed in all black. They ran to the first side door and tried to open it, but
it wouldn’t budge.

“There has to be another way in,”
Dean said frantically.

“There’s a door on the other side
of the building, the lock is broken. I’m going in through the window out back,”
Pixie said before she ran off towards the back of the building.

“I’ll call the police,” Graves
said as she retrieved her phone from her pocket.

Dean sprinted to the side of the
building and breathed a sigh of relief when it opened. He walked through what
appeared to be an old storage room and headed towards the commotion he heard.
He stepped into the main room and saw Lux struggling with Michael Bender.

“Let her go!” Dean roared.

When Lux looked up to see Dean,
Michael took the opportunity to overpower her. Despite the knife pressed
against her throat, Lux felt relief when she saw Dean walking towards them.

“Stay back or I will cut her.”
Michael threatened.

“Let her go, Bender. This fight
is between me and you; she has nothing to do with it.”

“She has a lot to do with this;
she levels the playing ground.”

“Bender, I’m warning you,” Dean
said.

“Stay back!” Michael yelled hysterically.

“Just let her go,” Dean pleaded,
fully prepared to beg if necessary.

“I can’t let her go; she’s the
only upper hand that I’ve ever had on you. She’s valuable; without her, there could
be no revenge.”

“If you don’t let her go, I will
fucking kill you!” Dean yelled.

“You’d have to kill her first; I’m
taking her with me.” He took a step backwards, forcing Lux to step with him or
be cut.

“You’re not leaving this room
with her. You’re a fucking dead man!”

“What’s more important to you
Dean: Revenge or Lux? Because I think that if I wound her bad enough, you’ll be
too busy helping her to chase me.” Michael attempted to reason.

“If you hurt her, I will tear you
apart with my bare hands. You will never make it out of this building alive,”
Dean vowed with an animalistic look in his grey eyes.

“I’m not stupid; you’re not
letting me out of here regardless,” Michael rebuffed.

“If you let her go, no one will
stop you from leaving. I give you my word,” Dean promised.

“You must think that I’m a fool;
your word is garbage to me,” Michael sneered.

“I’m telling you the truth. I
love that woman enough to let you walk away from this,” Dean swore.

“I know you do, and that’s why I
can’t let her go. Your love for her makes you weak… like me. When you lose her
love, you will finally be able to feel what I felt. You will
finally
know pain, and I will
finally
get my revenge.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Dean
tried to reason with him.

“Of course I have to do this. I
lost the love of my life because of you. I want you to know exactly how that
feels.”

“Bender I’m fucking warning you…
you let her go right now!” Dean yelled in a beastly tone.

“I can’t, it’s all over; you
ruined everything for me. The media has humiliated me in front of the world,
and the police want to question me. Trust me I
will
go to jail once they
see the extent to what I’ve done. The worst part is that Reva hates me more now
than she ever has,” Michael cried.

“You blackmailed her,” Dean said
with a look of disgust.

“She destroyed me; she deserves
what she gets,” he said with a sadistic grin.

***

Pixie crept in through the broken
back window and thanked her lucky stars when she saw a large two by four
propped against the wall. With the large block of wood in hand, she silently
crept into the room where Michael held Lux. She held the wood like a baseball
player, ready to swing as she tiptoed ever so quietly up behind Michael.

When Dean saw Pixie creeping up
from behind Michael, he started rambling loudly to keep him distracted.

“It’s not over. You have the
opportunity to get out of this alive… with no repercussions,” Dean yelled loud
enough to cover any sound that Pixie made.

“And go where? I have nothing…
nothing
!
You destroyed everything; you took the only thing I have ever loved.”

“You can start over; you can have
a new life and a new love! All you have to do is let Lux go;
please
let
her go.” Dean had never said please a day in his life, but he was prepared to
grovel at this man’s feet if it meant that he’d free Lux.

“I can’t; I really wish that I
could. You have no one but yourself to blame for this Dean… I’m so sorry, Lux,”
Michael said in a whiney voice.

Pixie was going to wait until she
had a clear shot of Michael’s head. However, upon hearing his last words, she
got nervous and threw caution to the wind.

“Lux, duck!” Pixie screamed.

Lux did not hesitate when she
heard her sister’s voice, she immediately bent over. Michael was shocked and
turned his head at the exact moment that Pixie swung her weapon. The wood
smashed into his head and made a sickening sound. Wasting no time, Dean
immediately grabbed Lux and pulled her away.

The blow had stunned Michael, and
he staggered backwards as he grabbed his head. Deciding not to take any
chances, Pixie whacked him again. Dean took that opportunity to tackle Michael
to the ground.

“I gave you a choice,” Dean said.

Michael attempted to move, and
Dean gave him a quick blow to the ribs to keep him still. Michael was too dazed
from the blow to the head to fight Dean. Dean rolled him on his stomach,
grabbed a dirty piece of rope from the pile on the ground and proceeded to tie
his hands behind his back.

“Please, I’ll never bother you
again, I promise. Please just let me go!” Michael cried deliriously.

“You’re not going anywhere until
the police get here,” Pixie snapped at Michael.

Dean grabbed him by the back of
the collar and dragged him over to the old heater attached to the wall. Lux
grabbed another piece of old rope from the ground and took it to Dean. Dean
tightly secured Michael to the heater before he stood up to examine his work.