A/N: FIRST OF ALL I AM SQUEALING LIKE A FRICKEN BANSHEE (my squeal is a horrendous thing) BECAUSE SINCE THE LAST CHAPTER I FELL FOR THE BANGS HAS GOTTEN 11 REVIEWS! EEEEEK! THANKS SOOOO MUCH GUYS! I WAS HOPING TO PASS THE 50 LINE BUT IT'S AT 60 NOWWWW! YAYYYYY! *breathes* *meditates* *does yoga* Okay, all calm now. Well, mostly- *shriek of joy* Okay, got it out now. But anyways, decided to update fast as a celebration to the 60-reviews for this fanfiction 3.

the reviews:

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kiki: Lol. Aww, thanks! :) XD I know right. HOW DARE U, Z-ED!?

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TheseMakeTheEchoes: (I'll answer individually to each one)

1. Yep, haha girl code XD. Linh can be a bit meddling sometimes.

2. Oof yeah. XD you'll seeeeeee.

3. Ugh yupp he did. Lol ik.

4. Yes lmao maybe. Oh ik the feeling. O.o

5. Lmao if only Nicole did that. Awww, yw. I've been too XD it's a pity few ppl write them. Yea ik :/. Everyone IS impossible to please. Thank you for the words of advice :).

6. Awww. She sounds nice. XD I know. Honestly, the Tam I write is a bit too problematic sometimes loll.

7. Heck yeah he is! Ah the police... idk honestly. Ig if Sophie called them they might take Tam into custody too tho. Lol yes that annoying sensation is the only thing keeping me from listing pineapples as my fave fruit. Yea they are!

8. I know. It really is. :/

9. XD XD me honestly.

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Melanie29: Thanks! Haha thank you, I'll try my best! I think I typed A LITTLE faster for this chapter ;).


17- Trouble in Paradise


I squeeze my kneecap, staring at the torn seams on my pantleg and the bruises on my skin revealed through the tears. "You can't be serious."

"I am dead serious, Sophie," Tam confirms brutally.

I continue staring at my lap. "Does that mean I'd never see my parents again?" I shakily whisper, hot tears already burning behind my eyeballs.

I heard the faint scrambling of Ed-with-a-Z flipping his chair around in the backseat. Ugh, eavesdropping little snot.

Tam shakes his head. "No, I was thinking we might eventually return," he explains, "but we'd have to stay on the down-low for a while."

"Define a while," I plead, my voice quavering.

"Sophie..."

"Tam," I snap back, my hands turning white from the ferosity of how I was clutching the fabric on my jeans.

Looking up, I swipe furiously at my eyes, the tears sprinkling on the seat.

I wrap my arms around myself and glare at him. "You don't understand! You don't have parents who care that you're leaving them behind! It would kill Grady and Edaline to know what I'm getting myself into right now! It would kill them if I left without a goodbye, not to see them again for God knows how long!"

I let go of my grip on my jeans, uncurling my fists.

I lifted my head only to see Tam unfastening his seatbelt and unlocking the door. "Tam-" The impact of what I said weighs down on me like a scale. My eyes widen and my heart hammers guiltily in my chest. "Tam, I'm sorry- I-I didn't mean to, it's just I-"

He stops me with a flick of his hand. "No I get it. I only have Linh. I know my parents don't give a sh*t about me anymore, if they ever even did. I know if we do this it'll affect more than just you and me. I wanted this for our safety, Sophie. For yours. But I guess it isn't only my call to make."

He kicked open the car door and jumped out, glancing over at me for a quick second. "I'll be back. I just need some air," he added emotionlessly, closing the door roughly behind him.

I heard another crash from the trunk as I lie limply in my seat.

"Trouble in paradise?" Exotic-Guy asks smugly, at least, that's what I assumed he said, because his face was planted on the floor in the very back of the car.

"There was never a paradise to begin with," I flatly tell him, wringing my fingers frustratedly. "All that guy brings is trouble, anywhere he goes. He's like a paper towel dispenser that's out of paper towels."

"Then why are you even with him?" Zed calmly reminds me.

I climb out of the front and poke my head into the trunk, peering down below at Z-Dude, who was splayed on the floor at an awkward angle, his butt and back stuck to the chair.

"It's none of your beeswax. After all, you're just our prisoner," I sneer and coldly inform him.

Zed shrugs, somehow maintaining his cool even at the embarrassing position he was currently contorted into. "Might not be, but your situation is so hopeless you're turning to me anyways." He flips over like a cricket, away from facing me.

I roll my eyes and climb back into the seat, the question Zed raised hanging over me like a mace dangling by a single thread.

Why are you even with him?

Don't be stupid, you love him, my mind pointed out.

But do I? I asked myself. Before, Tam and I rushed into our relationship a little faster than I would have liked to. I had a small crush on him, I'll admit. But did I ever love him? Love him enough to stick by his side even though he wants us to leave our hometown to evade his ex-gangmates?

The thing was- and it scared me beyond how I could describe- was that... I just wasn't sure.

I look out the window and stare where Tam was, walking across the street by a costume shop. He had his arms crossed on his chest as he gazed into the shop, ogling the designs. A prick of shame sparked in my gut. I'd hurt him.

And now Zed sparked a mental war between the different parts of my brain.

The hopeless romantic softly insisted that I did love him. You're just scared because of the implications. You're just scared because you've never felt love before and you don't want to lead him on.

The ninja-samurai-action-movie part of me yelled, Stop with all this love sh*t and go beat up some bad guys already! Which, of course, was completely irrelevant to the current situation but Ninja Me had a fetish for action.

There was also the Jedi part. Which actually said something pretty damn helpful. Now is not the time to be focusing on love, young Padawan, it stated serenely. Now you should be more concerned about your enemies. Once you are safe from the clutches of the Empire, you- Until now. Shut up, Jedi Me.

And then there was the logical part of my brain. Which was frying. Because unfortunately love isn't something you can crunch numbers on. It's crazy and doesn't make sense.

I stare at my nails, my fingers instinctively reaching up to pull an eyelash out. When out of nowhere, a hand grabbed my wrist. I shrieked, at first thinking Zed escaped from the trunk or something like that. Then my sight kicks in and I realize I was so lost in my thought I didn't notice Tam reentered the car.

"Don't ruin your poor eyelashes," Tam smirked. A hint of sadness seeped into his expression and he removed his hand from my wrist, sitting down beside me, his head flopping on the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry, Tam," I murmur, pushing my blonde hair out of my eyes and glaring down at my folded hands, which were resting on my legs. "I went too far." I exhaled sharply. "All this stress is no excuse for me to lash out like I did. I can't believe I did that..." I trail off, pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation with myself.

Tam shook his head. "No worries, Sophie. But can we leave my parents out of this?" His voice had a bit of an edge to it.

"Sure." Relieved, I nodded. I run my fingers over the soft cushioning of the seat. My shoulders slightly sag and I droop against the support. "What are we gonna do now?"

He sighs. "I don't know. I really really don't know. I feel horrible involving you in all this but now that Ra...Timber... knows who you are and how we're connected, he sure isn't gonna let an opportunity like that slip through his fingers."

I suck my cheeks in and pull myself upright, my body still limp and noodlelike but propped up better. "What do you think is the best thing to do?"

Tam gritted his teeth and eyed the cup holder, taking the small half-drunken bottle of water from there and finishing the rest of it. He wiped his lips. "I told you," he reminds me with a note of resignation. "I honestly think we should leave the state, maybe even the country if we can, and get new names, identities, all that jazz."

"Just how powerful is the cult?" I whisper. The fear in Tam's eyes was starting to scare me too.

"Powerful enough to resort to blackmail with the federal government. That's why it might be better to leave the country completely. They have records on us you know." Tam shook the empty bottle of water and groaned. "Yup. We're gonna need to go to my bunker to restock," he mumbles.

"Say what?" I gape, stunned at him.

Tam wags a finger behind us, where Zed was lying down in the trunk. Oh. Right. Our prisoner has ears.

Abruptly, a vibration from my jeans pocket surprises me.

A message from Grady and Edaline, probably. I open up my Samsung and tentatively scroll down my notification center. Text after text after text lit up the screen. I couldn't do this to them...

Tam noticed what I was looking at and leans forward to reach me, pushing my phone down onto my knee and meeting my eyes with his own serious grey ones. "Sophie, I won't force you to do anything, but to put it simply, you'll be their newest murder victim if you stay in San Diego."


A/N: Slightly shorter than the last one but still not too bad! What do you guys think should happen next? I'm honestly kind of at an impasse here. Let Sophie and Tam move to a different state (or country XD) and go on the run from Tam's ex-cult, or return home to San Diego and risk them being harmed? What do you think?