Sexy Love (13 page)

“
Fine,” answers
Lord Snider impatiently but his eyes have an evil glint as he looks
back at me and Carl. “We’ve managed to find your rescue centres,
even your old
and new
secret base.” I feel hit by the bad news.

“
But there is
one more location we would like to have,” he continues. “We want to
know where your precious sanctuary is.”

I feel my heart
stop beating. There’s no way we can tell him where it is or he’ll
kill all the innocent children who are staying there for
safety.

“
We’d never
tell you where it is,” answers Carl.

“
And you’ll
never find it,” I say.

“
I’m sure we
will. If we’ve cracked down on your other locations it will only be
a matter of time,” Lord Snider replies.

“
What if we
offer you something in return for that information?” asks the
police officer.

“
We won’t be
interested,” Carl tells him, annoyed.

“
What about
your two friends?” Officer Vincent asks eagerly, and I can tell
he’s up to something. “Would you like them and all your other
freedom fighters not to be taken to execution?”

“
Of course we
would, but we still can’t tell you anything,” answers
Carl.

“
Pity,” says
Lord Snider. “Are these two your girlfriends?” Him and Officer
Vincent snigger.

I feel myself
blush a little, embarrassed that they’re joking about girlfriends
and scared that they’ll figure out Starlet is mine. If they do
she’ll be in even more danger and she’s in enough trouble
already.

“
It’s none of
your business who they are,” Carl snaps, for my benefit.

I’m sure he’s
trying to keep Starlet safe too and cover up who she is. I risk a
quick one second glance at her, feeling worried, before looking
away. However, Snider catches me doing it no matter how fast or
cautious I was. He follows my earlier gaze towards Starlet and my
heart stops with fear as I see him figure it out.

“
How would you
like to see your little girlfriend be executed, Rickie?” he taunts
me, grinning evilly.

Chapter
26

I feel
terrified, my heart beating so fast with fear I can hardly breathe.
I’m desperate to protect Starlet and I know I can’t stand here and
let him kill her.

“
Leave her out
of this,” I warn him. “It’s us you want, not her.”

“
My offer
stands. If you tell me the location I want, your girlfriend’s life
will be spared and she can go free.”

“
No way I’d
trust you to keep that promise.”

“
Unfortunately
it’s the only way out of it. So are you going to tell me or let her
die?”

I look over at
Starlet again, my heart full of love for her. My worst nightmare is
happening right in front of my eyes. My brother will be killed soon
and now Snider’s trying to manipulate me by threatening my
girlfriend’s life. I don’t know what to do.

Carl looks
over at me worriedly, scared that I’m going to tell him.

Starlet looks
upset and scared too, “don’t tell them,” she begs me
quietly.

The seconds
feel like hours and its torture. This is one of the hardest
decisions I’ve ever made. I know I need to do what’s right, but do
I really have the strength to do it?

I look away
from Starlet and back at Snider. My heart breaks as I finally say
it, “I can’t tell you.”

I look down,
feeling so much pain and sadness at thinking of Starlet and Carl
being killed, but I had to do this to protect all those
children.

“
You’ll regret
this,” Snider warns me, furious that he couldn’t use me to get what
he wants. “Enjoy the execution.”

We’re forced
outside and I feel terrified as I see the executioner holding an
axe and knowing what’s about to happen. I try not to show my fear
and stay brave, but I have no idea how I can bear Carl, Starlet or
Sarah being executed.

“
I’m sorry,” I
whisper to Starlet, feeling really guilty that because of me she
will be dead soon. “I wish I could have done more…”

It’s like my
whole time with Starlet flashes before my eyes. The first day I saw
her and knew I had to have her; our first date at the cinema; our
first kiss before she became my girlfriend and I ended up falling
madly in love with her; the night we finally made love and I became
her first…

There’s a lot
more amazing memories flashing through my mind too and I feel
devastated that today it will all be over.

“
It’s fine,”
she whispers back in answer. “You made the right
choice.”

I know I did,
there’s no way I could live it down if I was responsible for all
the children’s deaths. However, it still doesn’t feel right because
I’m losing the two of the most important people to me and that
really doesn’t feel like the better option.

A crowd of
people have started gathering to watch the execution and I can
hardly breathe with being so anxious. I can’t believe I’m finally
going to die and I’m only seventeen.

Carl is
brought forward for execution first and I feel sick and upset. I’ve
known Carl all my life, he’s the only family I have now and he’s
also one of my best friends. I can’t bear to see him being taken
away from me.

Before the
executioner can bring down the axe on his head, I see some of our
friends appear and suddenly everything happens in fast forward. The
other freedom fighters attack and the executioner is shot with a
sleeping dart. Carl quickly escapes from the police officers
holding him and I feel relieved that he’s safe. Our friends use
smoke bombs, which confuse the remaining guards, and we manage to
escape without being seen or followed.

Once we’re out
of there and back at one of our other smaller buildings, I look for
Starlet. She must have run with one of the others and I’m anxious
that she made it back safe, especially since the corrupt police are
still out there looking.

I feel relief
wash over me as I see her arrive through the door and she runs
straight into my arms and hugs me tight.

I smile and
hold her close, “I was gettin’ worried, I’m glad you’re
safe.”

“
I’m so happy
you are too,” she says and looks up into his eyes. “I love you
Rickie and I couldn’t bear it if you had been killed.”

“
I know, I’d
hate to lose you too,” I say, staring back into her eyes. “I love
you too Star, you mean everythin’ to me.”

We share a
long kiss and I feel so happy that we’re both still
alive.

Chapter
27

While everyone
is sleeping, Carl, Bryan and I have a meeting about Snider. Carl is
freaking out for the first time ever.

“
Bro, what
should we do?” he asks me. “I can’t stand by and let Snider do all
this. I have a team to keep safe and he nearly killed four of us
today.”

“
Quit
worrying, we got away didn’t we?” I say, keeping chilled out
because there’s no point being anxious about what could have
happened.

“
Yeah, but
he’s destroyed two of our bases,” says Carl. “We need to do
something.”

“
The only
thing we can do is fight back,” I answer.

“
But how? I
can’t turn this city into a war zone and I won’t let our team fight
that way.”

“
It doesn’t
have to be like that,” says Bryan. “There are other ways of
fighting. Think about it, how do you defeat an evil
dictator?”

“
Cutting off
his supplies,” answers Carl, “but we all live in the same city and
I don’t want other people to suffer just to get at him.”

“
What about
his buildings?” I ask. “He destroyed ours so why don’t we get
payback?”

“
I don’t know,
Rickie,” says Bryan. “It sounds dangerous and if the police catch
us its criminal damage.”

“
It’s a good
idea, but Bryan’s right,” says Carl. “It’s a huge risk to us and
anyone around at the time.”

“
We’d
obviously do it when no one is in the building,” I say, “and we’ll
bring it down so fast that the only thing the police will find is
rubble.”

“
How do we
make sure the building is completely empty of people?” Carl
asks.

“
Give them a
warning. They’ll empty a building in minutes if they know it’s
going down.”

“
What kind of
warning?” Bryan asks nervously. “They could get the police
involved.”

“
A last minute
one so the police don’t have time to stop us.”

“
It’s still
risky,” says Bryan. “We need other ways to stop the police from
getting involved.”

“
What? You
mean blow up their police stations too?” I ask, joking.

“
That would
help,” Carl says, taking me seriously. “It will put a stop to
Snider from bribing them if they’re no longer useful to
him.”

“
Whoa! So
we’re attacking Snider
and
the police?” I ask in surprise.

“
I suppose we
have to. Evil dictators need followers, so how will he react once
his troops are running away from his buildings and the corrupt
police can’t help him either.”

I grin,
“sounds like a plan.”

“
We need to
get it all organised properly,” says Bryan. “It’s a huge mission to
pull off and it’s the biggest risk that we’ll ever
take.”

Chapter
28

The next day
we have another meeting to discuss our new plan and I can hardly
stay awake. It was four in the morning when I finally got back to
the base last night and I’ve only had three hours sleep. I feel
like a total zombie as I walk in with everyone and sit
down.

Starlet
strokes my hair affectionately and smiles at me, making me feel a
little better.

“
How did it
go?” she asks.

“
Really well,”
I answer sleepily and lie back on my chair, closing my eyes for a
rest.

“
Don’t worry,
you can sleep once we’re out of this meeting,” I hear her say
softly in my ear, but I’m already falling asleep.

I wake up with
a start as Starlet nudges me and I see that Bryan is talking to
everyone.

“…
Rickie went
on a mission at Snider’s base last night and hacked into Snider’s
computer systems, so we now have access to all his data and
information,” I hear him say.

Everyone
starts to congratulate me and I smile in reply, half awake. Starlet
gives me a grin, impressed.

“
I’ve looked
through the records and found the data with all his locations,”
Bryan continues and shows a projected picture of a map with all the
locations highlighted.

“
Cool,” says
Carl. “I bet Snider’s going to get a big surprise when he realises
that all his buildings are destroyed tomorrow.”

“
We definitely
need to start our plan soon,” says Josh. “I heard that Snider is
planning an attack on Twilight City tomorrow.”

It’s pretty
weird having Josh back after he betrayed us. I never thought we
would, but since he warned the others about Snider’s second raid
and helped rescue us yesterday, we decided it was only fair to take
him back and give him a second chance. Carl and I are keeping a
close eye on him though, in case he messes up again.

“
That means if
we don’t do something he’s going to try and capture everyone who
isn’t already on his side,” says Mick.

He’s sitting
beside me and looks nervous.

“
Don’t worry,
we’ll be ready for tomorrow,” says Carl.

The next day
everything is planned and ready. We work as a team, destroying the
police stations, finding all of Snider’s buildings and blowing them
up. The last to go down is his main headquarters and Snider throws
a tantrum when he sees his precious building crumble in front of
him.

Starlet and I
even hear him talking on his mobile when he finds out that his
other buildings have also been trashed and the police force he’s
bribing can’t help him.

Snider knows
he’s beaten and quickly goes into his private helicopter to do a
runner. He’s obviously too much of a coward to face us
anymore.

When we arrive
back at our temporary base, a celebration has already begun as news
of Lord Snider’s departure has spread. Sarah runs towards Starlet
and gives her a hug, looking really happy.

“
Did you hear
about Snider?” she asks excitedly.

“
Yeah, we just
watched him leave,” Starlet giggles. “He was even throwing a
tantrum.”

Carl laughs
too. “Looks like he’s left for good and he’s taken some of his evil
workers with him.”

“
But what do
we do now?” asks Sarah. “We’ve got rid of Snider so I suppose we
don’t have a job as a freedom fighter anymore.”

“
We need to
reclaim Twilight City,” answers Carl. “Now that Snider is no longer
dominating we can return to the way things were all those years
ago.”