A/N: Next chapter! Yay! This one is almost over so stayed tuned~ :)!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Gwen arrived, took a taxi home and dropped her luggage off and went straight to the café. She walked to the booth Bridgette had told her about and made herself comfortable right across from her.
"The tapes?"
"Right here." She opened up her purse and gave them to her. "Hope they help."
"Oh they will help A LOT. We'll be able to make arrests after the DA hears them." She grinned.
"…um, I think you should wait."
"Why?" Bridgette looked confused.
"Trent didn't comeback with me. He stayed in Vegas to take care of some business."
"I see. Did he say when he'd be back?"
"No. All he said was that he'd be staying longer than he thought."
"Alright. I'll hold off on arresting anyone. Don't want the big fish to swim away…" She said as she sipped her coffee.
That night was the quietest one she'd had in sometime, the most noise came from her iTunes and AIM, as she instant messaged LeShawna. Sadly, it only stayed that way till about 1:15 in the morning, when she was woken up to rocks pelting her window. She groaned, threw the sheets back and dragged herself from the bed and went to the window and opened it. Duncan was standing below it.
"Why didn't you just call?" She asked and yawned.
"Left my phone at my apartment."
"I think you're lying." She said with a sleepy smile.
"Maybe I am." He smirked as he opened his arms to her. "Come on."
"I am not jumping from my window. I am going back to sleep." She started to close her window.
"Gwen, if you don't jump from that window, you'll be in a lot of trouble."
"Oh? What's going to happen?"
"There's two armed men in your house and they're coming up the stairs."
That woke Gwen up immediately and she leapt from her window without a second thought and landed right in his arms.
"Gotcha." He said as he set her down on her feet.
"What the hell are we standing around for, lets go!"
He laughed; "Gotcha." He repeated. Gwen looked at him with a look of pure evil.
"You lied to me about something THAT important to get me to JUMP out of my WINDOW?!"
"Shh! You'll wake the world with your yelling." He said covering her mouth as he pulled her away into the dark.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She hiss whispered as she shoved him backwards.
"I just wanted to see you, and I didn't want to wake anyone up by calling you…" He said with a soft smile. Gwen crossed her arms and eyed him. Did he expect that mushy crap to work on her? Ha. "No, really I did. I wanted to take you to my apartment."
"And you couldn't wait till morning?" She asked.
Duncan sighed. "Look, is your Mom or brother home?"
"No. Mom's doing overtime till like 6AM, and my brother is at his friends house."
"Good." And just as he uttered that word, screeching tires whipped around the corner and sped down the street and stopped in front of her house, and in horror Gwen watched the whole bottom level of her house become riddled with bullets, someone even pointing to the window she'd just jumped out of, and shooting into it. Duncan kept her pulled toward the back of the house in the dark.
It seemed like it was over in a blink of an eye.
"Y-you weren't lying." Gwen said looking at him. Duncan looked away.
"I was hoping to get you out of here before this happened." He said.
"Why are they coming after me?"
"…I caused some trouble…you could say." He said as he took her to his car, a brand new black Mercedes.
"I see you replaced your old one."
He chuckled some and nodded as he opened the passenger side door for her.
When she reached his apartment and was comfortable on his couch she asked;
"How did you know that was going to happen?"
"I have someone on their side who lets me know the important stuff—like this." He said as he sat down next to her. "That last attack—the one that happened when we were at the movies was a last minute thing, which was why it surprised me, as much as it did you. My informant didn't know about it till after the fact."
"Oh…" Was all Gwen could manage to say. Duncan sighed heavily.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions since all of this serious stuff has happened to you."
She nodded a little. "I'll start at what was supposed to happen to you…"
"I know you're the one who saw what happened to that one guy. The night you hid in those crates."
"You saw me!?"
He only smiled.
"I don't like killing girls. I only do it when ordered to and if I could keep my boss from seeing you, I knew you'd be okay, and it seemed to work, but after I got back into the SUV he told me to track you down and to kill you."
Gwen swallowed; "Did he ever see me?"
"No. Has no idea who you are—as far as I know. He is a tricky one sometimes…"
"So—are you going to—you know…kill me?"
"No." Duncan said shaking his head. "I don't see a reason. You've stayed quiet about what you've seen, and anyway—I kinda like ya sweetheart." He said tilting her head up with his hand and kissing her.
Gwen was lost in her own thoughts as he kissed her. One of them being; that neither of them had any idea that the other was trying to date her. She was struggling with the thought of telling Duncan that she was dating Trent—but then again that wouldn't be completely smart to do, now would it? She kissed him back. This man had saved her life twice now, and taken her to a movie. Trent had saved her life zero times and bought her a bunch of stuff and took her to Vegas. She looked up into Duncan's eyes and made her decision right then and there. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply.
"Glad to see you feel the same." He teased, when they parted. She smiled and snuggled against him some.
"Am I going to be safe now?"
"As long as you're with me, you will be." He kissed the top of her head.
Now Gwen had another internal battle. Tell Duncan about the case the cops were trying to make against him, or talk to Bridgette and see if she could talk her out of at least prosecuting Duncan. She sighed in an annoyed way, because she knew what her answer would be and deep down inside she knew that Duncan indeed was probably the trigger man in that murder.
"What're you thinking about?" He asked, while she reclined on him.
"A lot of stuff…" She whispered.
"You can tell me." His hand slipped down toward hers and his fingers slowly wrapped around hers.
"No, I can't."
"Gwen, are you in some sort of trouble? I can make that go away, just tell me who and where they are. They'll never bother you again." He said nodding.
"It's not that. Duncan—I'm scared you're going to get arrested when Trent comes back from Vegas."
There was a long silence.
"How do you know he's in Vegas? And how do you know his name?" Duncan asked in a deadly serious voice. Gwen bit her lip.
"He's been trying to date me the same amount of time you have. He took me to Vegas yesterday afternoon, I came back this morning because—"
"something didn't go right "business" wise, right?" He asked. Gwen nodded. "So, Gwen, you've been—dating both of us?" He asked.
"Not really…no one decided to tell me if we were supposed to be serious and then when I get to Vegas, I'm Gwen the girlfriend…and I know that you thought I was your girl too, right?"
"Well…yeah."
Gwen groaned in an annoyed way, even though this mess was her fault.
"Look, never mind that. Do you realize what Trent's going to do to you when he finds out you're with me?" He asked.
"Do YOU realize what the cops are planning on doing when Trent comes back?!"
"How do you know what they're doing?!"
"…I was supposed to be working for them."
Duncan's face went pale and he started to look around at the doors and windows, wondering if at any second his apartment would be on the news the next morning. Then he got another theory. What if she was wearing a wire?! He grabbed hold her shirt and ripped it in two, which made Gwen scream in fear and back away. "What the HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" She screamed.
"Making sure you're not wearing a wire." He said as he tossed her a blanket that was on the couch, to cover up with.
"Duncan, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you don't go away—I really like you. You showed me how much you care about me. You saved my life not once but twice. That is the sweetest most unselfish thing another person can do for another."
"Don't let it get out…" He said blushing slightly at the realization of his kind nature.
"I want to protect you too." She said placing her hand on his. He looked at her and nodded; "I trust you." He whispered.
"Good." She said and then sighed. She had to figure out a way to just get Duncan out of this mess. Maybe a plea bargain? She had no idea if Bridgette would even consider it, considering what was on the tapes… "When you and Trent told Owen about that murder what exactly did you tell him?"
"I didn't say anything. I was just there. Trent did all the talking."
There. A flicker of hope. "That is WONDERFUL. I think you just saved yourself!" She said.
"What are you talking about? How do you know Owen?"
Gwen didn't answer either of these questions, she didn't want to get Owen killed.
That night while Duncan used Gwen's thigh as a pillow, she was up thinking and being quite paranoid when her phone went off, luckily she got to it before the ring tone woke Duncan.
"Yeah?"
"Gwen, it's Bridgette."
"Oh, hey. How are things?"
"Not good at all."
"What do you mean?" Gwen asked already getting a little nervous.
"Are you sure Owen gave you the right tapes?"
"Um, I guess so. They're the only two he had in his hand."
"These are blank. Do you have any idea what could have happened to them?"
Gwen paused in thought for a long moment and then a light bulb light up above her head;
"Airport security? Maybe their machines wiped them clean? I know they'll do that to some throw away cameras…" She said. Now it was Bridgette who was quiet.
"…Damn it. It seems that whenever it looks like we've closed this case something funny happens to our evidence." Bridgette sighed in aggravation. "Anyway, I heard that Trent is due back from the states in about two days."
"Alright, I'll see what else I can do." She said and the two hung up.
