Agent 13 (Book 1)

Chapter 6

Cody's POV

I pretended to be focused on the game in front of me as he leaned in and began to whisper in her ear again. Is it bad that I really wanted to laugh? She looked about ready to snap his neck, and I got to tell you it is highly amusing for me. I mean come on ever since she got here she's been stirring up trouble, from the plane (I am never flying again) to this casino where she claims to have a little arrangement with the owner's son. Oh yeah and then Chase goes and puts her in charge! What hell was he thinking? I'm going to have a strongly worded conversation with him later.

I watch as another hand is dealt around the table. I see her stand out of the corner of my eye but pay no mind. I turn my full attention to the game when suddenly I feel her kick me, hard. I ignore her, she's probably going to go off on me later anyway for saying I'm her boyfriend. Is it bad that I was actually trying to help her? Last time I do that.

***

"Where is Thirteen?" Jason's voice breaks me out of my thoughts and brings my attention back to the mission, for the moment anyway.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" I retort quietly so no one at the table hears me. It would look strange if I was seemingly talking to myself.

"Well you were sitting with her." Devin comments.

"No s**t Sherlock," Jason remarks back.

"Enough," says Chase "Cody, when did you last see her?"

"When she got up and left," I reply.

"Wow. You do realize how stupid that sounds right? We just asked you where she was and your brilliant response was 'I don't know but she got up and left', obviously she left, she's not here!" Devin practically yells through the earpiece.

"You know what-"

"Did she tell you where she was going?" Chase interrupts.

"No, all she did was kick me." I snap back.

"I wonder why," Jason says, sarcasm seeping into this voice.

"Arguing isn't going to find her," Devin says in a sing-song voice.

"Devin, quit trying to help." Chase scolds.

"Yeah Devin quit-"

"Jason, I swear if you or Devin open your mouth one more time, you're both going to be sitting at the house for the remainder of this mission." Chase all but shouts, effectively cutting off Jason and, almost, silencing Devin.

"You said Thirteen was in charge." He mocks. Thanks for reminding me, Devin.

"Yeah about you putting Thirteen in charge" I start only to be interrupted by Chase.

"Don't start this now Cody, and Devin...shut up." I open mouth to retort only to be cut off yet again.

"As amusing as it is listening to all of you fight over me, I'm going to have to ask all of you to shut up, you're giving me a headache." Comments Thirteen.

"Where the hell are you? And why did you mute your earpiece?" I snap at her.

"One, I was being dragged by gunpoint to a very fancy suite, thank you, Cody, for ignoring my kick to your shins I'm thinking of doing it again," she says sarcastically, "and two, I got tired of hearing your voices." I can almost picture her shrugging, almost.

"You didn't answer the first question."

"Top floor third door on the left." She replies, "Oh and take the stairs."

"Why?" Chase asks cautiously.

"Let's just say the elevators aren't exactly the most...sanitary at the moment."

"And that means..." Devin trails off.

"All you need to know is that I stopped them all at the top."

"How did you do that?" I question.

"Marcus gave me keys...to everything." Of course, she happens to leave that out, why would she tell us something important.

"You should have told us," I growl out as I make my way towards the stairs only to see Devin, and Chase waiting there.

"Yeah, I probably should've, but I didn't." I'm going to kill her, its official.

As soon as Jason walks up we begin the long trek up the stairs. It seems to take forever but we finally make it the top, Jason is the first to push open the door.

"Holy-"

"s**t" Devin finishes. I push past them curious to see what they were talking about only to stop in my tracks, now I understand why she told us to take the stairs.

All three elevators are wide open giving us a full view of the bullet holes littered across the walls and doors, as well as the blood splattered here and there. Of course the pile of bodies didn't make the scene any better. What did she do?

"Oh good, you're here." She says as she exits a room dragging another body with her.

"What are you doing?!" Chase shouts in panic. "Someone will see!"

She gives him a bored look. "Yeah they might if the hotel actually had people booked for this floor." She retorts.

"Huh?" Comes Devin's intelligent response.

She rolls her eyes, "I hacked into the hotel's registration manifest before even leaving." She responds, "No one had rooms booked on this floor at all."

"Then why are you up here?" I press, why can't she just explain everything at once instead of making us guess?

"I'm not the only one who hacked the manifest." She states simply, "He knew this floor was empty and somehow managed to swipe a key to one of these rooms from the front desk."

"So what makes you think he hacked?" Jason asks, finally speaking up.

She mutters something to herself before addressing us, "Don't you idiots listen? Marcus told me that he had a room on the second floor."

"So?" I say, not understanding what she's going on about. She sighs loudly, a bit dramatically too actually.

"Why would he take me up to the top floor if he already booked a room on the second, unless he knew no one was up here? Think about it, if the guest has a room on the second floor, there is no need to be on the top floor, no need to look for anyone up here." She pauses as if in thought, "besides up here makes it easier to dispose of people with no one hearing." She tosses the body she was previously dragging into one of the open elevators. I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"Ok, quick question, where is Alexander?" Devin asks.

She waves her hands towards the pile, "Somewhere in there."

"You killed him?" I say in shock.

"No, I knocked him unconscious with knives." She retorts sarcastically, "Yes I killed him." She proceeds to mutter some choice words, all directed at me, under her breath. I narrow my eyes at her.

"I thought we were supposed to get information out of him," Chase grumbles.

"Let's set something straight here, there is no we, I got the information I needed from him then killed him." She declares, "Now, are you boys going to help me or not?"

"What are we supposed to do?" I inquire.

"Just help me move the rest of the bodies to the elevators and I'll call Marcus and he'll take care of the rest." She orders before turning and disappearing into the room.

***

"That's the last of it." Jason declares as he tosses a handful of blood-soaked towels into the pile.

"Why did we need to get the towels again?" he questions.

"Anything soaked with enough blood that would take forever to wash Marcus just burns anyways, so we are doing him a favor." She answers.

"And how exactly do you know this?" I inquire. I mean come on everyone else is thinking it.

"Some of my past missions required me to come here and things usually ended up getting a tad bit messy." I think she should get a medal for answering a question spot on with the least amount of information possible. I mean seriously she answers the question but reveals nothing about the double meaning to her answer.

"If your past missions were anything like this mission..." Chase pauses as he grabs one of the bloody towels, "then I'd say things were never a "tad bit" messy." He finishes, using his free hand to make air quotations. He drops the towel back into the pile.

"Are you hurt?" Devin suddenly asks out of nowhere. I turn my head to see him with a baffled expression on his face as he stares at Thirteen.

She gives him a strange look in return. "No, why?"

"There's blood all over the side of your dress." I look at where he's pointing, well he's not lying. Although it could easily be mistaken for water considering her dress is so dark.

"Oh that," she says, "It's from moving the bodies." I stare at her, it's impossible to tell whether or not she's lying, her face is always just so...blank, that is really to only way to describe the look she gives, well...everyone.

"That's a lot of blood." Chase presses while giving her a look that would make any man tell his darkest secrets, she however only stares back.

"There were a lot of bodies." She snaps. I walk up behind her, reach my hand over, and apply pressure to her side. Her reaction is immediate, she hisses in pain and jumps away. Her fiery eyes find mine and suddenly I feel my feet fall out from under me. I land on my back with a thud, pain shooting in every direction.

"Perhaps a warning next time." I grit out sarcastically as she clutches her side.

"Gladly," she leans down to my level "Cody I'm going to make sure you're never having kids." She stands and swings her foot back.

"Stop. Both of you." Chase cuts in, "ok first off, Cody don't do that again, secondly Thirteen, just tell us you got hurt next time."

"Now why would I do that?" I open my mouth before Chase can reply, standing on my feet as I do so.

"So you don't get yourself killed smart arse." I'm rewarded with yet another hard kick to my shins.

"I did say I wanted to do that again." She murmurs quietly, more to herself than to me.

"How badly are you hurt?" Chase sighs as he runs a hand over his face in exhaustion.

"It's just a scratch." She answers with a shrug. I raise my eyebrows and look down at my hand. It's coated in blood from when I touched her.

"Yeah," I say holding up my hand "just a scratch." Her eyes narrow at me in a threatening way and I see her hands clench into fists, not good.

"What happens to me is my business, not yours." She growls out before turning on her heel and beginning to walk down the stairs.

"What about calling Marcus?" I call out to her, mostly to irritate her since I know she hasn't forgotten.

"Oh look she's waving at you." Devin snickers. I look over at her only to see her flipping me off. I turn to Devin.

"Waving at me?" I say sarcastically. He smiles back in return.

"It looked like a wave to me." He shrugs innocently with a smirk on his face.