Dark Red by Steve Lacy.

Something bad about to happen to me.

I woke up in Jameson's bed at around 11am. My whole upper body feels achy and painful. I look around and see my dress on the floor piled like a mountain. Jameson sleeps peacefully beside me. Watching him makes me feel better about everything that happened last night. 

I crawl out of his hold and creep to his bathroom. I take off the t-shirt he gave me and see thousands of bruises lining my rib cage. That fucking dress. The corset was so tight it's left bruises all around my upper body. 

I get in his shower. When I'm finished I wrap one of his ridiculously soft towels around my body. I walk into his room again and see him still sleeping, now cuddling a pillow close to himself in place of me. 

I get changed into some denim shorts and underwear I left here from a couple days ago and one of his white band shirts. I don't know the band and the shirt is too big but I wear it anyway because it smells like him.

It's 12pm now and Jameson continues to sleep. I flop down beside him. He ditches the pillow and cuddles into me again. "I'm hungry Jamie, get up and get something to eat with me." I beg. 

"I love it when you call me Jamie." He smirks against my neck. "Well I'll just have to go call someone else Jamie because this Jamie is not letting me get food." I complain. 

"You're lucky i love you." He groans, pushing himself out of bed and throwing on his shoes from last night. 

"Seriously? You're not even changing?" I ask as I look at his shirt and trousers from last night, his hair messy and face tired. He walks into the bathroom and brushes his teeth. 

When he returns he walks out, looking exhausted as if he didn't sleep at all last night.

I catch up with him, closing his door for him and grabbing his hand. 

"I'm not a morning person." He whines as the bright lights of the hallway make him squeeze his eyes shut. "Well it's a good thing it's the afternoon." I smile, dragging him faster.

We get into the dining room, where everyone sits at the long table. He waddles lazily towards the kids table.

The kids table. A thing only recently brought into Hawthorne House to give us privacy to talk about our own things but letting the adults think they're the ones getting a break from us.

We sit beside each other, with Max and Xander opposite us, Avery and Grayson both sit at either heads of the table.

I place my hand on Jameson's knee, slowly rubbing circles with my thumb. We are served our lunch: a bowl of vegetable soup, some bread and a side salad. 

Jameson looks like he's about to fall asleep in his soup. "How are you Paris?" Avery asks quietly, next to me. "I'm fine." I nod. And I'm not lying. Somehow after all that happened last night i'm okay. "You sure?" She asks again. "Positive." I smile, glancing to Jameson. Everyone else seemed to listen in on our conversation except Jameson, who is struggling to stay awake. 

"Is everything okay?" I ask Jameson. "Yeah, just a little tired." He murmurs. 

"You should go back up to bed." I tell him with a frown. "No." He shakes his head. 

I've seen him morning tired. This isn't just a morning kind of tired. This is exhaustion. As if he never slept last night. 

I don't push it, letting him struggle to not fall asleep whilst we all start eating. 

"So what did we miss this morning?" I make conversation. Avery starts playing with her food, not really wanting to talk about it. "We got Avery's DNA results back." Grayson speaks for her. 

"And?" My eyes widen. "Ricky's my Father." She bites her cheek. I take her hand in mine, "Ave.. I'm sorry." I frown, knowing that wasn't the answer she wanted.

"Yeah it's okay." She lies. I give her hand a squeeze.

Jameson spent the whole afternoon pretending he wasn't tired. We went swimming at 4pm. Avery, Max, Xander, Grayson and I all get in the pool whilst Jameson sunbathes. Even through the sunglasses he's wearing I can see he's just sleeping and pretending to be soaking up the sun. But I know Jamie and he would normally be in the pool with all of us. I just let him sleep, telling that he needs it.

It's around 5:30pm when I get out, telling everyone I'm going to get sunscreen for Jameson so he doesn't burn. "I'll be back in 10." I call out as I walk through the house again. I dried off with a towel and put my high waisted shorts over my bright orange bikini, wearing sandals as I jog through the house. 

I get the sunscreen and head back down, on my way I notice Thea coming out of a passage way. "Thea?" I speak up, confused as to why she's in the house.

"Paris! Thank god." She gasps. "What's wrong?" I ask confused. "It's Grayson." Thea says. "What?" My voice wavers. I cough to get rid of it, "I was just with him ten minutes ago, what happened?" 

Tears stain her cheeks. Which is alarming. Thea Calligaras doesn't seem the type to cry.

Immediately, I drop the sunscreen and follow her through the tunnels.

Only seconds later I feel strong arms grab me from behind, too strong to escape from. I feel a cloth cover my mouth and nose. A sweet smell, pleasant. 

Thea's figure starts to blur and the last words I hear before everything goes black are "I'm sorry Paris. I had to. They have Rebecca."

I wake up tied to an old chair. Boxes line the room. It seems to be a storage unit.

The room reeks of gasoline. I'm suddenly very aware of the smell not only being spread around the room but all over me. Gasoline is doused over every inch of my skin, in my hair and soaked into my bikini and shorts.

I look around and see Sheffield Grayson and a maid from Hawthorne House.

"Where am I?" I ask, and then all my memories of what had happened in the passageway hit me. "Where's Thea? And Rebecca?"

"I assure you, your friends are fine." Sheffield Grayson is wearing a suit. He has me tied to a chair and he's wearing a suit. Of course he's Grayson's Father.

He has Grayson's eyes. Or maybe Grayson has his?

"I am sorry about all of this," Grayson's father comments, flicking a speck off the cuff of his shirt. "The chloroform. The restraints." He pauses. "The bomb I put on your sisters plane."

"The bomb?" I repeat, gritting my teeth. The police arrested Ricky and Skye weeks ago. They had a motive, "I don't understand." 

"I know you don't." Grayson's father closes his eyes. "I am not a bad man, Ms. Grambs. I take no joy in... this." He still hasn't quite told me what 'this' is exactly.

"You kidnapped me," I state. "I'm tied to a chair." He stays silent. "You tried to kill my sister."

"Injure her. If I'd meant for her to die, my man would have timed the explosion differently, wouldn't he?"

"Why?" I swallow.

"Why what? The bomb or-" Sheffield Grayson gestures to the bindings on my wrists. "The rest?"

"All of it." I keep my voice strong. Why kidnap me? Why bring me here? What is he planning to do to me next?

"Blame your father." He breaks eye contact, sending chills down my spine. "I blame my Dad for everything however I struggle to believe he can be blamed for this." I hiss.

"Your real father. If Tobias Hawthorne the Second weren't such a coward, I wouldn't have had to go to such lengths to lure him out."

"Toby?" I raise my eyebrows. "You're after Toby?" I laugh in his face.

"Forgive me Darling, that bomb should've been for you. That's why it never worked. At that point I believed it was your sister, not I know it is you." Sheffield begins cuffing the sleeves on his dress shirt, a furious motion. Yet one that seemed so familiar.

"She was rushed to the hospital. It made worldwide news. I was ready. The trap was set. All that was left to do was wait for that bastard to come to her bedside, the way any self-respecting father would. And then your lawyer had the audacity to have her moved. It took me time to realise that your sister was not Tobias Hawthorne the Seconds daughter." He pauses. 

"You are." He crouches down to my level.

I bite down on my lip. Trying not to let out what I'm holding in. But I can't, I burst out laughing in his face. "I'm not his daughter you fucking wanker." I cease my laughter to ridicule him. 

He tightens his jaw, yet another quirk Grayson inherited from his lovely Father. He pulls himself up to stand. "Oh but you are, Paris." He speaks sharply.

"So here we are," Sheffield Grayson says, "as unfortunate as that may be."

"I'm sorry." The maid speaks up sheepishly. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

"Toby isn't going to come for me, I've never even met the man." I say calmly. "I'm nothing to him." It doesn't particularly pain me to say that, it doesn't bother me.

"I have reason to believe he's in town. He stuck his head out of whatever hole he's hiding in long enough for me to verify that much. You are his daughter. He will come for you."

He isn't listening to me. "I'm not his daughter you stupid asshole"

Sheffield Grayson's achingly familiar eyes settle on mine. "I have a DNA test that says otherwise."

I stare at him. What he'd just said made no sense. Alisa had done a DNA test on Avery, if she wasn't related to Toby there's no way I am. Ricky Grambs is our father. Which means, obviously, that Toby isn't. "I don't understand."

"Mellie here was quite obliging about providing a sample of your DNA. I'd acquired a sample of Toby's from the Hawthorne Island investigation years ago. The match was definitive. You have his blood." Sheffield gives me a chilling smile. "And you really should pay your help more."

"You can go now, dear," Sheffield Grayson tells her. She shuffles toward the door. My fait flashes before me. She leaves, Sheffield Grayson burns the fuck out of me, I die. So as she reaches the door, I play my last move. One last gamble before I'm burned alive.

"You think he's just going to let you go?" I call after her. "You think he's the kind of man who leaves loose ends?"

I don't know Sheffield Grayson. I don't even know the maid but everything in me is saying that I can't let her leave me here with him alone. "What do you think Nash would say if he knew what you're doing?"

She hesitates, then keeps walking. This is it.

"And now," Sheffield Grayson's voice is crisp, "we wait."

(a/n. Girl is just never getting a break. 4 more chapters guys!! How does everyone feel? What do you want to see in part 3?)