More excitement in this chapter! Hurrah!

CHAPTER 15 -DAY 11-
Tori's POV

The past few days were probably the most hectic moments of my life. We had gotten the old studio back and each time we did a broadcast our performances increased tenfold. As a matter of fact, Mr. Highes told us that we were one of the best Vegas 777 kids he'd ever seen in all the years of hosting the program, which I guess was a really good thing considering that man is like sixty years old. But then again, he was extremely bipolar and was obviously hiding something, so maybe not.

And because of all the good work, Mr. Highes had decided to take the majority of the crew and us out for a fancy dinner at a supposed five-star restaurant (thank goodness it wasn't that Harry's Steak House place) to celebrate.

We all dressed up as nicely as we could, but since no one was expecting to go anywhere so fancy none of us had brought hundred-dollar dresses or suits. Oh well, I think we looked nice enough in skirts and button-up shirts or dress pants with ties.

Instead of having to take a dirty taxi to the restaurant, Mr. Highes sent a limo-van thing to The Royale that we took. It was sleek and black, and the inside was absolutely beautiful with leather couches and even a fancy bar. Panels of lights hung on the wall that randomly lit up in different colors, a showering everything in a bright glow. But the most amusing feature was probably the two silver poles that were set up right in the middle of the large space.

Looking doubtful, I sat down on the nearest cushiony seat as everyone followed in behind me, observing the decked-out area and murmuring in awe. Jade was the last one to get in, next to Sikowitz, and her eyes got big when she saw the shiny rods.

"Are these what I think they are?" she asked, running over to one pole and grabbing it with both hands. Smiling suspiciously, she started doing some weird and very seducing dance around the metallic object, throwing her head back and wrapping her legs around it.

"Get off of that, Jade," Sikowitz disapproved as he boarded and saw the girl gyrating around the pole in a stripper-like fashion. Everyone was smirking but Beck and Jade. She sauntered away, her hips swinging more than usual and sitting down next to her boyfriend, who cast a weird glance at her.

"Like that?" she whispered.

"Save it for the hotel," he replied, slipping his arm around her. I looked up at the ceiling, my ears burning at what I had just heard. Maybe they were more into a relationship than anyone really thought.

We made it to the restaurant in no time at all. It turned out to be very fancy Chinese restaurant, four times nicer than Wok Star, although the food there was really good. Everyone piled out of the vehicle and we approached the looming building in pairs like celebrities on the red carpet: André and I, Cat and Robbie, Beck and Jade, and Sikowitz was a loner in the back.

Just the outside of the restaurant was intimidating enough. It sparkled gold in the darkness of the night, carvings of dragons striking the surface, the name written in cursive type, the letters beaming at us.

I felt André grab my hand and I looked at him.

"You look so nervous, Tor. What's up with that?"

"What? I'm not nervous. What part of me are you looking at?"

I didn't realize how awkward that question was until it came out of my mouth. André stared at me uncomfortably (in the eyes, by the way) before looking away as we arrived at the front doors.

Suddenly we both burst into laughter as the doors swung open, permitting us to enter.

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André's POV

The hostess took us through the gigantic restaurant to a private back room where Mr. Highes and some of his crewmembers were waiting for us. They shook our hands like we'd never met before as we sat down in one of the booths, while they took the tables for themselves.

Half a dozen waiters and waitresses came in to hand out menus and get drink orders. I was between Tori and Robbie, while the other three sat across from us. Sikowitz was at the head of the table, rifling through his menu with ease.

"This is a pretty nice place," Robbie commented.

"Reminds me of Wok Star," Tori said.

I looked up at the ceiling hesitantly. There were big, red paper lanterns shimmering in the dimness of the room, the lights leaping onto the gold and silver dragon designs on the walls, along with picture frames full of fancy Chinese writing. You could hear the trickling of the bamboo fountain near the door of the room just faintly. It did seem very peaceful and relaxed indeed.

The waiters came back to bring our drinks, carefully spreading out the orders on wooden coasters onto the table in front of us. Sikowitz picked up his coconut milk-filled glass and held it in the air.

"To Vegas 777," he said.

We all lifted up our drinks after him. "To Vegas 777," we repeated, glasses and soda cans clinking together quietly before we all took a sip.

Mr. Highes approached our table after we had settled down; beaming thoroughly and bouncing up and down almost like Cat did on a regular basis, which was certainly an odd sight. It was one thing to see a sixteen-year-old girl do it, let alone a sixty-year-old man. He held a glass of wine, which swished around hazardously and threatening to spill out.

"You like the restaurant, no?" he asked in a mock attempt Italian accent and despite the fact we were in a Chinese place.

"Well, considering we haven't even tried the food yet, it's all right," Sikowitz answered calmly, taking another drink of coconut milk.

Mr. Highes threw his head back and laughed. "Ai, you are a funny one, Mr. Sikowitz," he murmured, wiping his eyes with his free hand. "You try the wine, yes?"

"Oh no thank you, kind sir. I don't drink."

"Are you sure? It's on the house."

"Yes, I am pos-i-tive," Sikowitz replied, stretching out the word for emphasis. Mr. Highes looked at each of us, like he was going to ask us to drink some too. But finally he gave a curt nod and bounded away to some of his employees.

"He kind of scares me," Cat whispered.

"I know right?" Robbie agreed.

Sikowitz watched as they chatted quietly. The waiters and waitresses came out and put some kind of white fluffy bread I've never seen before on everyone's tables. Jade took the first piece, and Beck followed. Cat passed while Robbie and I grabbed a slice.

"I need to use the bathroom," Tori announced unnecessarily loud once everyone was chewing noisily.

"Great to know," Jade mumbled around her food.

Tori stood up, knocking the table forward. I pushed Robbie and he filed out of our side of the booth, me following him to let Tori out.

"You know where they are, right?" Sikowitz asked.

"Yeah. I'll be back." Tori stalked off.

We went back into the booth and continued eating. Ten minutes later, refills for drinks came out, which practically everyone accepted. When we were finished with the bread, we resorted to texting each other and playing games on our PearPhones when I suddenly realized that it had been twenty full minutes and Tori was not back yet.

"Did anyone see Tori?" I inquired, tapping my contacts on my phone.

"I think she might still be in the bathroom," Cat pointed out.

"Man, she really must be taking some dump," Jade said. Beck tapped her head at her amusing comment and she smiled at him.

"Cat, could you go and see if Tori's still in the bathroom?" Sikowitz asked, leaning towards the table and pushing the empty, crumb-scattered plate out of his way.

"Kay kay!" she replied excitedly, getting up and leaving the private room.

"Hey, where's Mr. Highes?" Robbie asked.

Slowly, we all looked around the room. The billionaire was nowhere to be seen. A bad feeling buzzed in the back of my head, and I took a sip of my drink quickly.

"You don't think…" Beck began.

"…He's with Tori?" I finished, and he nodded. "Maybe, maybe not. But it's possible. I just don't really trust him, that's all."

"Yeah, I mean look at what happened to us at the studio a couple days ago," Jade said, crunching ice in her teeth at an obnoxious volume. "He was the only one that got out before the police came to get the rest of us out."

"Hey," Sikowitz interrupted, "I don't want you kids talking trash about Mr. Highes, okay?"

"He sets himself up for it, you know?" Jade responded. "He's so bipolar sometimes I think him and Cat are like, related or—"

"Just because he's different from us doesn't mean anything," Sikowitz replied.

"What are you trying to say?" I asked, very curious now.

"Well, Mr. Highes has a special disor—"

Cat suddenly appeared at Sikowitz's side, looking sober. Everyone shut up upon her arrival.

"Tori's not in the bathroom," she said, sitting back next to Jade.

"How many bathrooms are in a place like this? Maybe there's more than one."

"I dunno," Cat said, playing with her chopsticks.

"Um, excuse me, Miss?" Sikowitz called politely to a waitress nearby taking orders from another table. "How many woman's restrooms are here?"

The lady stared at him like he was crazy. No wonder, I would too if there was a full-grown man asking for the girl's room. Finally, she said, "We have two men's and woman's rooms…"

"Ah, thank you, dear. That's all I needed to know."

"Anytime," the woman said cautiously before moving away.

"Jade, can you go with Cat this time and try to find Tori?" Sikowitz asked the girl sweetly, knowing that the redhead wasn't completely trustworthy, as adorable as she was.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Just do it, Jade," Beck sighed, nudging his girlfriend gently.

She shook her head and replied with, "Why don't you go instead?"

"I'm not a girl," he said confusedly.

"Well that's too bad."

"Jade, just go," I begged and she looked at me, obviously annoyed. But Cat tugged on her arm, and with an overly dramatic sigh, she got up and left with the little redhead.

"What is so hard about taking a trip to the bathroom?" I muttered.

"The world may never know," Robbie replied.

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Tori's POV

The bathroom was absolutely magnificent. It seemed like it was roughly the size of my house, with dozens of gold-painted stalls, mirrors that traveled the full lengths of the walls, and almost everything was automatic. The sink counters gleamed white marble and my favorite turbo-jet dryers were there too.

I was getting ready to leave, after fixing my hair slightly in the one of the mirrors. I opened the door, still gawking at the peacefulness of the place. There was one more door for me to properly open in order to get to the 'outside' world. I ended up in a dark hall, one end opening up to the rest of the restaurant. As I made my way towards there, someone out of nowhere stepped in front of me.

At the same time, there was something cold pressed against the back of my head and a hand wrapped around my face, covering up my mouth. Instinctively, I dropped my purse, trying to pry off the person's hands desperately in an attempt to get free. The object on my head pressed down harder and harder until I saw black dots spotting my vision, and gave up the fight.

"'Atta girl," a menacing voice whispered hotly into my ear, "No struggles, no problems. Let's keep it that way, okay?" I shivered, terrified out of my mind.

The person in front of me, a very big man in a solid black suit, lunged forward and slapped something across my mouth as the person released me from behind. Then Suit-guy picked me up in a bear hug and flung me over his shoulder. The other man walked around and taped my hands behind my back and my ankles together with more tape while I dangled in the air helplessly.

Suit-guy and his partner carried me into the boy's bathroom, a sinking feeling in my heart. The brighter lights gave me a better look at my captors, though: Suit-guy towered at least six feet, and he was even wearing black sunglasses so I couldn't see his eyes. The other man was a lot scrawnier, and his eyebrows arched so high it gave him a permanent 'evil' look.

I was set onto the cold tiled floor (at least it was clean) and Eyebrows was holding my purse, already starting to go through it. I stamped my feet—or at least tried to—in frustration.

"Mmmuutt moo ooo mffnntt mff mmee?" I mumbled. Suit-guy pulled out a small gun and pointed it at my face. Oops, probably not a good time to say anything, huh?

"Don't talk now. We'll be out of here in no time, girlie," Eyebrows said, running over to the far side and opening up the window. First he through my purse out and then gestured to Suit-guy who picked me back up and hauled me over to the window.

Holy cow! I'm not going to fit…not because I'm fat, but because that's a very small window! I panicked.

But lucky Suit-guy was surprisingly gently and more carried me through the window than threw me, and my body barely scraping the edges. But once I was mostly through, I realized there was a bit of a drop, and my body went into overload until Suit-guy let go, but I landed safely face-first on some really big, cushiony garbage bags.

I rolled off (and ended up in a puddle) and sat up, observing my surroundings. We were in the restaurant's back alley, and several yards away I saw another window, this time of the kitchen, and could hear the faint sound of banging pots and pans and people shouting at each other in Mandarin.

Eyebrows came through the window after me in a neat fashion, landing on the bags and doing a shoulder-roll forward, grabbing me, probably to keep me from running, but I couldn't even stand up.

However, Suit-guy ended up getting stuck with his large body wedged between the window space.

"Oh, god, Walter, you really need to lay off the potato chips," Eyebrows groaned. He looked around and spotted tin garbage cans, and dragged one over to the window, steadily balancing on the lid and taking both of Walter's hands, pulling back sharply as I watched, confused.

"Well sorry, Nicolas, but when a man's gotta eat, a man's gotta—OOF!" Walter came flying out and landing in a heap on top of poor Nicolas. Too bad they made such a clutter, with the garbage can toppling over, releasing a sound equivalent of cymbals smashing together.

There was a silence coming out of the kitchen window.

"Oops, sorry, buddy." Walter stood up and brushed off his black suit. He turned to me, also noticing the kitchen window. "Oh crap, Nicolas, we'd better get out of here. I think someone might've heard us."

"Well, if they did, it would've been your fault anyway," Nicolas retorted. But nonetheless, the two men worked quickly. Walter put a gun to my head as he picked me up. Nicolas tugged us along, and we ended up in the back alley of a filthy nearby bar.

He set me on the ground.

"Sorry about that, Miss. But anyway, you can call me Mr. Lowes," Walter said, painfully ripping the tape off of my mouth.

I opened my jaws wide and closed them, feeling the annoying sting on my cheeks. I considered shouting for help, but first off, no one would probably hear me, and anyway we were by a bar for goodness' sake, and I doubt if anyone were sober enough to hear me they wouldn't do much.

"What do you want with me?" I asked quietly.

"You're a pretty teenage girl," Mr. Lowes said simply. "You ought to have some sort of money on you, correct?" I stared at him with my best imitation-Jade look. He actually flinched a little bit. "Geez, you look a lot like another girl we tried to rob the other—" he stopped abruptly, glancing at Nicolas, who didn't seem to be paying attention. "Hey, Nic, check out her purse, will ya?" He cocked the gun in my face.

Hold on, Mr. Lowes said I looked 'familiar' when we've never met before…but he's met Jade I think and that's the expression I was attempting to show…could these be the men who escaped but after they had partially destroyed the studio the other day?

Sikowitz said they only caught one woman that day, but the police knew the others had gotten away…

Nicolas grinned evilly and started rifling through the contents of my bag.

"You get your filthy mitts out of there," I shouted.

"You live here, in Vegas, permanently?" Nicolas wondered.

"Oh, Nic, you didn't introduce yourself yet," Mr. Lowes said suddenly.

Nicolas rolled his eyes at his partner. "Okay, whatever. I'm Mr. Right, isn't that correct, Mr. Lowes?" Walter nodded eagerly. "And, girlie, I asked you a question. So I need an answer."

I clamped my jaw shut.

"Oh, never mind. What's this?" Mr. Right was holding a card. On closer look, with a jolt I realized it was my hotel key, the name 'The Royale' gleaming in the darkness of the alley. "Well, that certainly narrows it down."

"Hey, are you one of those Vegas 777 kids?" Mr. Lowes butted in.

"Vegas 777? What's that?" I feigned.

"It was all over the news a few days ago," Mr. Lowes continued, "said that the studio where it was filmed got ambushed by a couple people. Some of the kids got hurt, unfortunately."

"So you were the ones that did the ambushing then," I said.

"What? No!" Mr. Lowes denied, but I knew he was lying.

"She knows too much, Mr. Lowes," Mr. Right seethed, his eyebrows contracting to become one furry line across his forehead. Another gun appeared out of his pocket and he pushed it against the bridge of my nose. "Tell us what you know about the Vegas 777 program and the ambush that happened a few days ago."

"I don't know!" I shrieked.

"She's lying," Mr. Lowes said harshly, and I realized he was a lot smarter than he acted. "She's one of them!"

Mr. Right jumped up and down, pointing an accusing finger at me. "She is, isn't she? What's her name, uh, Jade Vega, I think."

I rolled my eyes. Oh sure, get me mixed up with that witch why don't you.

"Then that must mean she's loaded," Mr. Lowes said solemnly. He was gripping the handle of his own gun very tightly, and kept it now pointed at my chest.

"What room number do you have at The Royale?" Mr. Right questioned.

I didn't say a word. Mr. Right aimed his gun at the bar's brick walls and pulled the trigger. There wasn't a noise, but you could see the smoke rising from the barrel and the intimidating dent in the wall. Those certainly weren't toy guns.

"Tell me, Jade Vega, or I'll pull the trigger." The gun now faced my temple once again, the cold opening shoved against it hard. I narrowed my eyes trying to get a good look at it.

I contemplated if dying would be worth keeping the secret of our hotel room. Nope, definitely not. I took a deep breath and whispered, "Floor thirty, room C."

"Excellent. Let's get going, Walter," Mr. Right straightened back up. Tape was placed across my face again and Mr. Lowes picked me up. "Nighty, nighty, kid. We'll see back again at the hotel, okay?"

At that moment, the gun tapped my temple sharply, and the last thing I saw was the dirty ground of the back alley before I blacked out.

Well don't one of those two men seem very familiar? Hmm...

And darn! We were so close to figuring out what is up with Mr. Highes, huh? Well don't worry, it will be revealed at some point...I hope mwahahahaha. :D

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