[ B L A I R E 'S P O V ]

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We're ready to strike four hours before midnight.

    Both Jax and I are already on our way to Teddy Well's house, by foot of course. It's dark outside—too dark. The streetlights around this area are constantly flickering, adding to the gloominess of the area. I have to suppress a cold shudder as we make our way down the road.

    I don't mind the dark too much. Hell, I embraced it for a long time when I was on the streets. The darkness was my only companion when I had no one.

    I used to be afraid of the shadows and now because of the shit that I had to go through, I have become one.

    Now that I think about it, it's sounds depressing and oddly to me, it isn't. I learnt to be stronger, faster, bolder and braver. I learnt to trust my instincts and look after myself. I learnt that the only way to survive in this world was to take it.

    And take it I will.

    I am this close to getting Eden all to myself. I may have Jax in my life to fill the emptiness in my life but I don't feel fulfilled, complete without my baby brother. He has been all I ever had when I lost everything. And I want him to be part of this new life that I'm starting with Jax.

    And I can only do that after tonight.

    I know that I'm very close to having everything that I ever wanted. I wish I could feel it between my fingertips but instead

    I feel like it's going to slip through them instead.

    I can't shake off this bad feeling that something's going to go wrong. It's been gnawing at me for the past few days and I can't seem to make it go away. It's slowly eating away all of my sanity and I can't seem to hold on much longer.

     Even Jax knows something is up with me. I haven't been the most cheerful person in the world these days—because I'm usually indifferent most times—and my boyfriend is definitely taking notice of it.

    I tell him I'm okay though. I tell him that everything's okay. Everything is going to be fine.

    He doesn't believe me one bit. But he doesn't tell me that. He pretends to be oblivious to my forced smiles and ugly lies. And for once, I'm grateful for it.

    I'm not going to let this bad feeling deteriorate me from getting what I want. I need to force myself to push those feelings aside so I'll be able to focus on this instead.

    Because this

    This is everything.

******

    It's a fifteen minute walk from here so I didn't bother calling Ben to pick us up.

    Jax, on the other hand, doesn't feel as strongly as I do about walking though. He's been muttering a plethora of curse words ever since we got out of the house. He lets out another long, exaggerated breath as we make our way down the road.

    "Remind me again why we didn't take the van that Ben said he was going to be holed up in?" He groans.  "It could have saved us a lot of energy."

    "Because I don't roll that way," I say, pulling Jax's hoodie over my body, then sliding into the sleeves and then looping my head through. "And a little bit of walking doesn't hurt, you know. You're just a lazy motherfucker."

    "How dare you." He gasps, pretending to be offended, even though I know he's unfazed by my words.

    "But it's true though." I shrug. "We haven't gone out of bed for three whole days because you refused to let me go until we broke the bed."

    "If I may recall, that wasn't me being lazy." A smug smile forms on his face and I roll my eyes. "It was quite the opposite, really."

    Oh Jesus.

    "I wish I didn't bring you tonight," I moan.

    "Hey." That earns a frown from him. "We're a package deal, darling. You go, I'll go. We're a—"

    "—team. I know." I finish off the sentence for him. "But you don't have to do this if you don't want to, Jackson. You can always turn back," I say quietly.

    "I told you before and I'm going to say it again: I'm not leaving you," Jax tells me with absolute certainty. "We do this together or we don't do it at all. I got your back, Sullivan."

    That makes me sigh. "As much as that's really romantic of you, I wish you didn't." I tell him. "I hate dragging you into all of...this." I gesture with my hands. "It's not the kind of life you would want, Jackson. This is some hardcore stuff."

        "No, this is amateur stuff," he corrects me, shrugging. "Do you even know what is hardcore shit? Hardcore shit is when you're in a ring with two other dudes who weigh twice is much as you and you are being crushed under their bodies and you have to crawl your way out of there with eight broken ribs, a fractured spine, two dislocated shoulders, a broken wrist and only eight fingers attached to your hand."

    I stop at my tracks. "Oh my god. You actually did that?"

    "No, but the look on your face when I told you that was priceless."

    I smack his arm and glare at him. "You little shit."

    I can't believe I have feelings for this son of a bitch.

    "What you see is what you get, darling. Well..." Jax looks down at his crotch and shrug, "maybe you can't see everything right now. I'll show you the best part of me when we get back home," He winks at me.

     I snort, an easy smile tugging on my lips.

    "Tell me: why do you always have to bring sex into everything, Jackson?"

    It takes him a while to think about the answer. And when he finally does, he opens his mouth to speak. "Because it makes me sound ridiculous," he admits.

    "And that is a good thing?" I say, utterly baffled.

    "Sure it is," he nods, a slow grin forming on his face, "because it's one of the very few ways I can get you to smile at me."

    Goddammit. I hate it when he says those kinds of things. It causes this chain reaction in my body and I'm consumed with this emotion—this emotion that is stronger than interest, stronger than just having feelings for someone.

    Love.

    Nope. Nope. No way am I going to be thinking about this right now. Retreat! Retreat now while you can!

    "We should keep moving," I blurt out instead. "I mean—I don't want to waste time."

    Jax seems taken aback by the sudden change of subject. He quickly readjusts to it, a mask blending over his face, but not before I see a look of hurt cross it. "Yeah. Of course."

    I shoot a text to Ben, telling him we'll be arriving soon. Both Jax and I walk in silence, our shoulders bumping together. After a while, he slides his fingers in between mine and cups my hand tight, as if he needs reassurance that I'm real and I'm never going to leave him. He does that sometimes. I take notice of it.

     I guess even the strongest people are the most vulnerable ones too.

    I check my phone again for any messages from Ben but so far, no luck. That's weird. He's always been very consistent when communicating with me.

    "We're here," Jax announces, finally coming to a halt. He stares at the empty road stretched in front of us and his eyebrows knit in confusion. "You said that we'll be meeting Ben here, right?"

    "Yeah."

    He pauses. "Well, either Ben's really good at playing hide and seek or he's a no show tonight."

    I take a swift look around the area and find that Jax's right. Ben's no where to be seen. He said he would be here in a van at precisely 10pm. I look at my watch and my lips fall into a small frown. He's fifteen minutes late.

    "Maybe he just got caught up in the traffic."

    "Yeah because there are so many cars out here tonight."

    "Shut up, it could be a possibility." I say calmly, though on the inside, I'm starting to panic a little. Calm down, Blaire. It could be nothing. He probably lost track of time or something. I shoot Ben two more texts and wait. A couple of minutes later, I check. Nothing. Calling him doesn't work either. It just goes straight to voicemail.

    "Shit," I swear. "Shit."

    What the hell is happening? Why isn't Ben answering any of my texts or calls?

    "I told you he bailed on us." Jax shrugs.

    "He didn't. He won't," I tell him. Ben won't do this to me. He knows this is important to me and he won't back out of it unless he had a really good reason to. I stare at my cell and sigh. I don't think I can take the suspense any longer. "I'm going to call Belle."

    "Does she know that he's supposed to be out with us?"

    "No," I say, punching her number into my phone, "She doesn't know anything about this. About what we do. But I have to try."

    Just when I'm about to press call, my screen lights up and it shows Belle's caller ID. I let out a breath I've been holding and I answer her call. "Oh thank god," I breathe, "I was just about to call you—"

    "Blaire," Belle's voice fills my ears. She sounds so frightened, unlike anything I've ever heard before. "They took him—they took him and he's—he's gone—"

    "What?" Panic slams into my chest as I grip the phone tight. Jax's expression falls when he sees the look on my face. "What? Who? Are you talking about Ben? Who took Ben?"

    "The—the police..." A wretched sob tears out of her. "The police—they came into our house—they had a search warrant and everything—took his computer and his tech and then handcuffed him and took him to the police station—"

    "Fuck!" I close my eyes and grab a fistful of my hair out of frustration. I can't believe it. My worse fears are coming true. Fear slowly begin to creep into my veins, attacking my entire body. "Fuck, Belle, I'm so sorry..."

    I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say to make her feel better. I'm still trying to grasp the fact that Ben's been caught and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

    Fuck, fuck, fuck! This can't be happening. This can't be happening right now. I'm not fucking prepared for this!

    "What?" Jax asks, concern written all over his face. "What the fuck is happening, Blaire?"

    I ignore him and focus on Belle instead. "I'm coming over now, Belle. Alright, you hear me?" I hold my phone away from me and tell Jax. "I'm sorry, I really need to go—"

    "What? Why?" Jax clamps a hand on my wrist to prevent me from leaving. His eyes search mine for answers, determined to figure out what is going on. "Did—did Ben—"

    "He got arrested," I blurt out. "He got arrested and I—I need to fix this, I'm sorry I have to go—"

"Blaire, wait!" Jax yells but I'm already turning my back on him and I'm running.

     My first instinct is to get to Belle right now because I need to know exactly what happened and how I can fix this. I need to fix this. My heart is slamming against my chest so hard and I'm trying so hard to breathe but I can't because Ben is in danger and I need I need I need to save him he needs me now more than ever—

    "Blaire?" Belle squeaks out over the phone.

    I lift my phone to my ear just as I make a left. "I'm here! I'm coming for you right now—"

    "No!" Belle cries. "Don't come for me! What you need to get out! The police are patrolling the streets right now because of the shit that they found in Ben's computer! They know where you are, Blaire! Both you and Jax need to get out of there, now!"

    "What?" I scream, and then my eyes scan the perimeter quickly. "I don't see anybody! Are you sure—"

    "Hey! You there!" A sharp voice pierces my ears and I hang up the phone. My head whips around and a few yards from me, two police officers—one male and another female—both look at me with predatory gazes. "Put your hands in the air!"

    I don't do what they tell me to do. I'm too scared, too scared to even hold their gaze. My eyes make contact with the floor instead, but I can hear the safeties to their guns unlock and I know they're pointing their weapons at me right now.

     "I said hands in the air, girl!" The female officer says in a low growl.

    If they approach me right now, they'll know. They'll know that I'm the girl that has been robbing houses for the past few months and Ben's been the one to aid me. I'm not going to go down like this. I can't. While I was out on the streets, I've been taught that if I was caught red-handed for a crime I committed, I need to run the hell away.

    And so like a coward, I take off.

    I flee through he streets, darting through the nooks and crannies of the little streets. I don't know where I'm going but I need to get them off my back, fast. My mind is spinning, spinning to come up with a new plan, a plan that will end up with me getting out of this but in the end, I come up with nothing. My only plan now is to run.

    I sprint as fast as my legs could carry me, cresting through the houses and alleyways. I hear the officers behind me yell for backup and that pushes me to drive me forward even more.

     My lungs are about to burst, being hurtled as much oxygen as it could possibly get. I take in huge gasps of air as I tear through the tightest of alleys, my small body finally putting me at an advantage. I don't know how long I've been running, but all I know is that I need to get as far away from here as possible.

    How did I allow things to get this far? It was supposed to be so simple—get the money and get out. I hadn't expected for this to happen, for any of this to happen. God, Ben. Regret and shame starts to pour out of me and I can't help but cover my mouth with my hand to prevent me from sobbing.

     I'm the reason why he got arrested. At first he had been hesitant to help me in all of this but I made him do it. I made him hack all those cameras. I made him shut down those security systems. I made him an accomplice to my burglaries.

    Fuck. If I wasn't so damn persistent, maybe he would still be here with me.

    I don't know what's going to happen to him. I don't know anything. I'm certain that he'll hold out information about me as long as he can but I don't know how long it will take before he breaks.

    This is all my fault. My fault. All my fault.

    And I haven't any inkling on how to get myself and Ben out of this.

    No. I can't think about this right now. I want to cry just thinking about it and I can't—I need to be strong—for me—for the both of us.

    I want to slow down. I want to rest. My body is on the verge of collapsing but I can't because I have to constantly push myself to run even further, even faster. I can't give up now. I need to get the fuck out of here and find Ben—no , I need to find Belle—no Jax...

    "She's over here!" An officer screams.

    Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit—

    Lights flicker around me and I hear footsteps growing closer. Yells echo through the air, telling all the officers to be on alert for me. I'm still running, still staying strong. I pulse through the narrowest of roads, keeping my head low while I do it.

    Suddenly, someone collides into me, pushing me to the ground. I fall backwards hard just as one of the police officers try to gain the upper hand. I struggle against her as she tries to keep me restrained with her hands but I thrash around her so she can't make me still.

"Stay...still!" She hisses at me, a nasty scowl on her face.

     No. No I won't. I won't ever.

     Although she's much bigger than me, I know I can work it to my advantage. I push forward and knock my forehead against hers and she falls back. I use that split second to scramble away from her and hit the ground running.

     I can feel my legs anymore; I've worked them to the point of exhaustion and god, I just want to stop. I'm really tempted to—to just collapse to the ground and let them take me let them take me away...

    Suddenly, I feel someone grab me from behind, looping an arm around my waist and pulling me backwards, away from the alley and unto the ground. I crash through the bushes of some yard and hit the patchy grass with a loud thud. I want to scream but a large hand clamps over my mouth, preventing me from doing so.

     I kick and thrash and hit but he won't fucking bulge. On instinct, I bite his hand instead and he immediately lets go of me, hissing.

    "Stop it, stop it!" A familiar voice sounds and I weep out of relief. "It's me, goddammit!"

    "Jax?" I say, baffled. It's too dark to see his face but I can recognize that voice anywhere. I place my hand on his cheek. "Oh my god, Jax—"

    I launch myself at him, tackling him to the ground. "Oh my god," I whisper, "oh my god... Jackson..."

     A huge sob tears out of me as I fall into his arms and he embraces me tightly.

    "Shhhhhh," he whispers, kissing my cheek. I'm still breathing hard, trying to catch my breath. "Shhhh, it's okay. I'm here. The second I heard police sirens, I hid." My shoulder sag in relief and he sighs. "God, Blaire. You scared the shit out of me. I thought I'd never see you again. I was so afraid—"

    "I know," I whisper back. "I'm sorry I left. I just—I thought—I just wanted—"

    "It's okay," he kisses my forehead, his arms still around me. "It's okay. They're gone. They're all gone. They're chasing a ghost. They don't know we're here." He pulls me so we're behind the thick bushes, trying to mask ourselves in the dark as long as we can. "Everything's okay, Blaire. Everything's going to be fine."

    I nod at Jax wordlessly, not wanting to tell him that those were my exact words before I got myself into this mess tonight. So I allow myself to believe him, at least for a little while. I lean my head against his chest, seeking comfort from him, as we hide from our predators, the sounds of police sirens and angry footsteps the only company we have as the night bleeds a deeper shade of dark.

******

A/N: HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH! AND THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THE 2 MILLION VIEWS ON PERFECT REDEMPTION! We're getting there, Dia-Hards! We're slowly getting there!

This chapter is dedicated to @captivatingeyes . Your comments are bae <3

Anyways, I'm sorry this was a late update. I almost forgot to update today. LOL. If you saw my snapchat (username: claudiaaatan), I spent my evening at the museum with my friends so yeah. heh.

You kinda knew this was coming, huh? I've been hinting it for a while now. The next few chapters are going to be very... emotional and dramatic so I highly urge ya'll to stay tuned. We only have 5 more chapters left (including the epilogue) until Perfect Redemption is over.

My god. Jax has grown up so fast. *tears rolling down my cheeks and I wipe them away dramatically*

Also, I would like to thank you for the 23 Perfect series one-shot entries! I'm looking forward to reading them tomorrow on my train ride to Lancaster. (: I've already read some of them and I think I might already have three winners in mind. But nothing is set in stone and of course, I'll have to give everyone a fair chance.

I don't know when the results are coming out. Hopefully by the next two weeks - maybe I'll even announce the winners in the next chapter of Redemption. So to all participants, make sure you stay tuned.

See you the following Friday! It's gonna be a BIG chapter! Send me your predictions! What's going to happen to JAIRE? HEA? Or trouble down the road?

Next update: Following Friday!

Love, Claudia.