The Stand Off by Z. Stefani Page A

work,” Pixie cried as she followed her sister downstairs.
     
    “Where’s mom?” Lux asked, but she
could suddenly hear her mother crying.
     
    “She’s at the connecting door.”
     
    Lux walked down the decorated
hallway to see her mother, Kiki, Graves, and Lolo standing at the door that
connected to the Lounge.
     
    “Every door is chained,” Kiki cried;
her thick, black eye makeup had trailed down her face.
     
    “We can’t get in. You have to fix
this Lux, please. I need your help,” Pax cried.
     
    “Stay here,” Lux said as she
stormed towards the storage closet. She opened the door and immediately grabbed
the chainsaw before walking back over to her family.
     
    “Stand back,” she instructed
before she started the chainsaw. Once everyone was out of the way, she cut the
chain off the doors. She had just turned off the chainsaw and opened the doors
when she saw Dean’s men headed towards her.
     
    “They’re just going to put
another chain on the door,” Kiki said.
     
    It was Floyd who came to stand
before them, with his head bowed, “Sorry about this Kiki.”
     
    “You can’t do this,” Pax cried as
she watched him put the new chain on. She turned to Lux, “You have to do
something; you have to stop him!”
     
    Lux looked at the scene playing
out before her eyes. She watched the tears rolling down her mother’s face as
she pleaded for help. She looked over to see the worry on the faces of her
sisters and her friends. Finally, she looked at the demolition notice attached
to the door with red tape. At the very bottom of that paper was Dean Blake’s
signature.
     
    “I’ll be back,” Lux said as she
handed Pixie the chainsaw and then ripped the demolition notice from the door.
She grabbed the heavy chain and then rushed out of the building. She couldn’t
stand to see her mother cry and her family so worried.
     
    She raced to her car and promptly
headed towards Dean’s office. Her anger and frustration had escalated by the
time she arrived. She rushed past the receptionist who only smiled in return.
She headed down the hall to his office and continued past his secretary.
     
    “Hi Amelia,” she said.
     
    “Hi Lux,” she purred with a
smile.
     
    “I need to see Mr. Blake,” she
said, trying to be careful not to drop the heavy chain as she tried to open his
office door.
     
    “He’s not in his office,” his
secretary said.
     
    “Where is he?”
     
    “In the boardroom,” she answered
with a smile.
     
    “Thank you,” she nodded then
turned away. She headed straight towards the boardroom, despite Dean’s last
warning about interrupting him.
     
    Lux held the chain tightly as she
opened the doors and stepped inside the room. She saw the same group of
expensively dressed men with the same sour looks on their faces. Only this
time, the men didn’t seem as surprised to see her.
     
    She looked at the head of the
table to see Dean. He was not the least bit shocked to see her either; in fact,
he looked as if he had been expecting her, as if he’d been prepared for this.
Instead of the angry look she’d expected from him, he was actually smirking.
She dropped the heavy chains on the floor and glared at him.
     
    “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse us,”
Dean demanded in an authoritative tone.
     
    Lux watched in surprise as the
men got up and quickly left the room. She hadn’t expected that; nor had she
expected Dean to get up and lock the door behind the last man out. She held her
breath as he walked over to stand before her.
     
    “And here I thought you’d heed my
warning,” he said with a cocky grin as he stepped closer.
     
    She took a step back and held the
demolition notice up, attempting to ward him off.
     
    He paused momentarily. “I see you
got the notice.”
     
    “If you come anywhere near that
building, I will send everything that I have on you to the press,” she
threatened.
     
    “But that won’t bring your
building back.” He snatched the paper and