Twenty-Four

MPOV

Nudge was running towards me and I braced myself for the impact. She hit me like a charging bear and I could hear sobs racking her body.

"I'm sorry Nudgey." I whispered to her as I let my arms fall around her. "I'm so sorry. We couldn't tell you guys. I'm so so sorry."

"Max... I thought... you... were... dead!" she said between sobs. Her voice echoed around the room through the mic that was attached to my ear.

"Well I wasn't." I slipped out of her grasp and led her up to the stage. When we got there Iggy took her and let her cry into his shoulder.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Maximum Ride, and for the past two months my life was almost taken from me multiple times." Gasps came from the crowd, "Yeah, I know. What does she mean? Well three months ago my father and my fourteen year old sister were killed. In fact murdered! Covered up by an accident. I was the only one left though and through a lot of painstaking piloting my step mom tried to kill the rest of her family until she could get the fortune of my fathers.

"That is who I am and I will be taking over playing the guitar for the band soon enough. Thank you all for coming and I hope you will enjoy the contest! Good luck!"

I waved and walked off stage with the rest of the band. The show was being recorded and broadcast all over New York. So maybe, just maybe, I had gotten out of this predicament. Of course I didn't see what was coming next.

I was walking a little behind Fang and in front of the other kids who were speaking to me in a constant flow of questions. I tried to answer most of them but they would come up with another question before I could answer. When we started to enter a calmer sitting aria where we could see the stage on a screen. I sat down on a couch alone and thinking.

I sat there silently for a while thanking who ever it was who controlled my fate that he did not let me die that day. Then I felt more than saw a presence sit next to me. Their fingers intertwined with mine and I knew that it was Fang from all the calloused on the finger tips of his hand.

"Everything is going to be fine from now on." he almost whispered into my ear.

"How do you know? I still have an assassin after me and my step-mother didn't even show up tonight so I have no idea if I will be okay or not."

"Everything will be okay because I will make sure that they are. You just have to promise never to leave me again."

"Okay... it think I can do that." I looked at him and smiled it was a small smile but it did the job since his eyes lit up a little, but his face remained impassive and quite serious.

That was when the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

Something bad was going to happen.

There was a banging on the door and Iggy opened it to show one of the stage managers standing there breathing heavily.

"There is some stranger on stage. He has three people at gun point and is saying that if we don't give up Max then he will start to murder people on the stage in front of everyone."

Lissa

I knelt there on stage with a gun pointed to my head along with my two little siblings.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" I shouted at the very assassin my mother had hired to take care of Max. Not me.

"I am luring out my target. Now shut the fuck up or there will be a bullet through the fleshy part of your calf."

I held my lips shut but that wasn't the same for Angel. She was sobbing in terror and all I wanted to do is go and cradle her until she was sure that she was okay. Gazzy sat there next to her with a serious face that I knew could crack if he was pushed only a little bit more.

"Where is Maximum Ride!"

"Right here you bastard."

My head snapped to the side of the stage where Max was standing with Iggy and Dylan standing behind her. Someone was missing. Where was Nick?

"What the hell do you think you are doing with my family? You think that I care about them when they were the ones that took my father and brother away from me?"

The assassin said nothing but turned to face her leaving his back fully exposed. His gun raised to eye level and he clicked the bullet into place.

Max stood, fearlessly, in the face of the man who was risking his own life to kill her.

His finger squeezed around the trigger...

And he missed.

He was on the floor in a moment with Nick right on top of him.

Max

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in. I knew Fang was right there, but I had no idea if he would make it on time or not.

Security ran up onto the stage and over took the assassin away from the stage.

Only a thirty minutes later the entire stadium was empty and the contest was put to rest and the competitors could try again next year.

I guess you could say that was the end of that.

So I only have two more chapters (including the epilogue) that I am going to post for this story. Pleaaaaaase! R&R! It will be the some of the last times I hear from you on this story... BUT I have more like this coming, since I LOVE music and Max (more Fang than Max but whatever). I have one story out already called Twitch Clock. Please read and tell me what you think.

Also I am SOOOOOOOO sorry that I haven't updated in a while! I was so caught up with exams and my parents took me half way across America for a Vacation (no I will not tell you where).

Thanks for your support this far!

FangAKat