Happy Sunday everyone! Hello to my new followers! *wave*

So, this is part 1 of what you have been waiting for: the escape. It will span over 3 chapters. I hope you'll like it. This is the part of the story I am most proud about.

Please know that if I don't reply to your reviews, it's not because I don't care. I just want to avoid spoiling the plot. I know myself, and there is a great risk I will spoil the plot if I talk too much, and I tend to do that when I reply to reviews. So please, just know that I read each and every review you all send me and that they are greatly appreciated. Thank you all for reading!

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We can get away to a better place if you let me take you there
We can go right now cause every second counts
Girl just let me take you there
Take you there

Let Me Take You There – Plain White T's

Chapter 15 – Let Me Take You There

BPOV

Friday night. Another week has gone by. The days keep changing, the outside world keeps changing, but I'm not. Not moving forward, still stuck at the same place where I've been for a little over two years now. Even though this particularly rough patch I find myself in tonight, I can't help but feel some kind of hope. A hope that hasn't been there before, like something big is going to happen, maybe even…tonight. As quickly as it came, the feeling is gone to be replaced by the depression I was previously in.

I try to brush everything aside as I am preparing for yet another night of selling myself to a crowd of horny men. Hopefully, Edward will be there to make it easier to go through the night.

Just as I am pulling on my first outfit of the night, Carmen runs in, obviously late. All that runs through my mind is, good thing it's the first time, but then again, it's her first week. We never know how Phil will react if he catches someone arriving late.

"Do you think Mr. Dwyer saw me?" she asks, out of breath.

"I really hope not," I reply. I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of Phil's tirade for something as simple as being late.

"You better hurry, the solos start in less than thirty minutes, and Laurent will want you ready and backstage five minutes before he starts." Rose adds.

She nods quickly and takes my place at the make-up counter.

"Hey, are you girls doing anything later?" Carmen asks as she is applying some mascara.

Rose and I look at each other, wondering where this is going.

"No, why?" my best friend answers.

"Well, I thought we could go out. You know, go dance, have a few drinks, to let off some steam."

"Um…" I hesitate; I don't know what to reply. Would Phil let us go? I guess we could find some way to get him to agree. It would seem suspicious if he didn't let us go. I think that alone would convince him. God knows he doesn't want people to get suspicious about mine and Rosalie's situation. "Why not! I think that would do us some good. What do you say Rose?"

"Yeah, why not," she answers wearily, eyeing me curiously.

'Later', I mouth to her. She nods and goes back to her make-up.

"Hey, Carmen, do you mind if we invite some people?" I ask a bit later, an idea suddenly forming in my mind.

"Of course not! The more the merrier! Okay, I have to go. I'll see you later!" With that, she runs off to make her way to the stage.

"Do you really think we'll convince Phil to let us go?" Rose asks as soon as Carmen is out of earshot.

"We just need to tell him that Carmen could get suspicious if he won't let us go. You know how he doesn't want anyone to get suspicious." I answer as if it were the simplest solution in the world.

She thinks it over for a moment and nods. "Yeah, I guess that could work. Why did you ask her if we could invite some people?"

"Let's invite Edward and Emmett. It's probably not the best setting, but we'll be able to tell them our stories without fearing that Phil will overhear us. Plus, it will make them happy; we'll be doing something outside of the club with them." My mind says that the whole plan is so simple that it just has to work, but my heart is still screaming at me for even trying something so stupid. I am so scared that the least little thing will go wrong and we will get caught, then we'll have to suffer the consequences.

She laughs a little at that. "Yeah, you're right. Damn, you're a genius tonight."

"Well, we still need to get the idea past Phil," I reply, blushing. I've never done well with compliments.

Later that night, I am alone with Edward once again. It was a bit of a struggle to win me at the auction once again, but he pulled through. And I was damn glad for it. I don't think I would have been able to handle spending this night away from him.

We are spooning on the couch in my room in the back of the club, just enjoying each other's presence. Once again tonight, Edward is not very talkative. He's barely even moving, like he's thinking so hard he can't move or he'll lose focus. After a while I get fed up and just try to strike up conversation. I start with asinine things, I try to make him tell me about the few days we spent apart, but it's not enough to get his undivided attention. I turn around in his arms as an idea suddenly strikes me, confident this will get his attention.

"Hey Edward," I start, playing with the collar of his shirt.

"What?" he replies distractedly.

"What are you doing later tonight?" At my question, his gaze turns to me, searching my face.

EPOV

What is she getting at?

"You mean, once I'll leave here?" She bites down on her bottom lip and nods. "Well, I guess I'll be going back to my place… Why?"

"What if I told you I could go out?" my eyebrows shoot up at this idea. Go out? Would he let her go out?

"What do you mean?" I ask hesitantly, my mind is already begging for it to be true, this would answer all of our prayers.

"Well, the new girl working here, Carmen," My mind suddenly understands, Leah. She must have found a way to get the girls out of here for the bust, "she invited Rosalie and me to go out with her later, after we're finished here."

Pure genius, Leah. I'll owe her so much after all of this is over.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We haven't made a final decision, but I think we'll go. It would be nice to get out of this club and let go of some of the stress." I can imagine, in more ways than she will ever know exactly what she means. "And I was wondering…if you would like to join us?"

HELL YES! "Absolutely!" She absolutely beams at my answer. She's so beautiful… and starting tonight, if she wants to of course, she'll be all mine. This night just keeps getting better and better! If Chief Swan can arrest her kidnapper and his accomplices, it'll be perfect! At that thought, I lean in and kiss her. Things heat up a little and her hands start moving on my chest.

Damn, she can't find the microphone… think fast!

Just as one of her hands gets dangerously close to the strap holding the microphone, I grab it and slowly pull it up so it's in my hair. I love her hands in my hair anyway, so it's a win-win situation.

Slow down, tiger. Things will probably have to slow down once she's out, she probably won't be ready to jump head first into a relationship with you.

Hey, let me enjoy the moment. We'll think about that when the time comes, I scream back to my subconscious for its rude reminder of what may be truth once Bella gets out of here.

"So what would you like to do later?" I ask Bella once our kiss has slowed down significantly.

"Umm…" she seems a bit dazed. Two thumbs up, Cullen. "Carmen was talking about having a few drinks and dancing earlier."

"Okay, sounds good. Did she have a place in mind?"

"She didn't say. I'll ask her and have her call you?"

"Sure. But do you have my number?" She blushes as she shakes her head no. I laugh a little. "That's alright, here." I stand up and fish around in my pockets until I find a five dollar bill and a pen. I quickly write down my cell phone number and swiftly slide it into her top. She looks up at me playfully scandalised. I grin at her and kiss her quickly. She goes to slap my arm but I'm faster than her. I grab her hand and pull her against me. We're about to kiss again when someone knocks on the door before they come in. I recognize the scantily dressed girl as Leah.

"Hey, you two," she says.

"Hey, Carmen," Bella replies, trying to pull away from me, but I don't let her. "What's going on?"

"Well, we're about to close. I wanted to come by and tell you myself. Laurent didn't seem in such a good mood…"

"Ah, thanks. Nobody wants to be near when Laurent's in a foul mood."

"Ha ha, no. And who's your friend?" I try to play it cool and act like we are just now meeting.

"That's Edward. Edward, meet Carmen. I told you about her earlier." Bella gestures back and forth between us. I hold out my hand to shake hands with Carmen.

"Nice to meet you, Edward." She takes my hand and shakes it as well.

"Same here."

"Hey," Bella suddenly says, "do you know where we're going later?"

"I don't really know yet. I'm leaning towards the Trinity. Why?" Carmen appears to think over her decision and then nods as she finishes saying it out loud.

"Well, Edward here will meet us there, right?" Bella asks as she looks down at me. I just nod at her. It's better this way anyway, I need to call Chief Swan.

"Okay," Carmen says, "no problem. It'll be great!"

With that, she exits the room and Bella and I are once again alone.

"Well, I guess that was my cue." I say.

"Yeah. But I'll see you soon, right?" Bella appears sad all of the sudden and I can't blame her at all, it is only the knowledge that I will see her very soon that keeps me from wearing an expression to match hers.

"Absolutely. I'll see you at the club." I lean in and kiss her quickly before I stand up.

"Oh, wait!" she suddenly says.

"What?"

"Here." She pulls out the bill I gave her earlier and goes to give it back.

"Nah, keep it. You might need the number," I wink at her. She giggles and puts in back in her top. Damn, how I want to touch her…

Focus, Edward. Chief Swan may have given you his blessing; it doesn't give you the right to have these kinds of thoughts when she's still a captive.

Ugh, ok. I have to leave before I do something stupid.

"Okay love, I'll go now. I'll see you at Trinity later." I say as I pull her close to me again and she puts her hands on my chest.

"Okay."

I lean down and kiss her softly, then wink at her again and leave.

BPOV

Is this fate finally playing in my favour? God, I hope so… I need to talk to Edward at the club. Maybe it's not the best place to do this, but I need to jump at the chance.

I hurry out of my room and to the changing room, finding both Rose and Carmen there.

"Rose, we need to go talk to Phil." I say as I am pulling off my shoes.

"Yeah. Let's change and then go." I nod and move on to removing my make-up.

"Why do you have to talk to Mr. Dwyer?" Carmen suddenly asks. I freeze. Damn, I didn't think she'd ask.

"He always wants to know where we're going after we are finished here. Since we're the customers' favourites, I guess he doesn't want anything bad to happen to us. It'd be bad for business or something." God bless Rose for her quick thinking. Carmen seems to buy that because she doesn't say anything else.

Shortly after, Rosalie and I make our way to Phil's office on the second floor of the building. The tension is building between us as we really have no idea how he will react to our request. Once we're standing outside his door, it takes me a few seconds before I gather up the courage to knock.

"Come in!" I hear faintly through the door. I take a deep breath and turn the knob. Imagine the surprise on Phil's face when he sees us, but he quickly replaces the surprise by indifference.

"What do you want?"

I take a deep breath; trying to calm down the fear I can feel building up inside me. "We have something to ask you." I say as calmly as I can.

"Oh really?" he sneers. "What makes you think I would agree to anything you'd ask of me?"

"You don't want people to get suspicious about us." Rosalie quickly replies. That seems to surprise him a little.

"Why would I fear that people get suspicious about you?"

"Because Carmen, the new girl, invited us to go to a club with her tonight. She's actually waiting for us right now." I explain.

"Is she now?" He lays his pen down on the desk and sits back in his chair. I can't tell exactly what this move means but I silently pray that it bodes well for us.

"Oh, she is. You can check for yourself if you want." He went to the window that allowed him to see the whole bar downstairs. Carmen was sitting at one of the tables alone, tapping her fingers, obviously bored. "We already told her we would be going. You wouldn't want her to ask questions if we went back down and told her we can't go, right? You know she tends to ask a lot of questions." I add.

He doesn't reply right away. I take that as a good sign as he seems to be pondering over my statement.

"Okay," he finally says, "you can go. But on one condition. James and Victoria go with you. They drive you there, and they will bring you back to the house. When they tell you it's time to go, you follow them, there is no trying to stay longer. If you so much as open your mouth to protest, James has the authorization to hit you until you obey. Both of you. Do you agree?"

Rose and I both nod quickly.

"Good. Now go. I wouldn't want for Carmen to ask too many questions." He leers at me.

With that, we hurry downstairs and sit with Carmen.

"So?" she simply asks.

"Everything's fine." I say vaguely.

"Great!"

"Now that that's settled," Rosalie starts, "do you, um…"

"Do I what?" Carmen asks when Rosalie doesn't continue.

"Do you have any clothes for us? We don't have anything that would be club worthy…" That's the understatement of the year.

"Oh! Of course! I saw these the other day and thought of you two." Carmen replies, pulling up a bag and sets it on the table.

A little later, we all come out of the changing room ready to leave.

"Are you sure you don't have any sneakers I could borrow?" I ask for the billionth time. Carmen put me in high heels. God knows I have enough of working in those, why should I wear them to go out as well?

"Sorry Bella, I don't have anything else." I groan softly but stop short when I see James and Victoria in the bar area, waiting for us.

"Oh, are they coming too?" Carmen asks, pointing at them.

"Yeah. We'll be driving with them." I answer.

"Alright. I'll see you there, then. I'll wait for you at the door."

"Okay."

With that, she makes her way outside. James and Victoria stand up from the table they were sitting at and turn to us.

"Let's go." Is all James says before he walks to the door, Victoria following closely behind. We know better than to make them wait, so we follow them silently.

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