Agent 1 (Book 3)

Chapter 13

Thirteen's POV

I park the motorcycle and remove my helmet, holding it in place on the front of the bike. I just sit there a for a moment as I stare at the front doors. I let out a sigh before swinging my leg over the bike and begin to walk up to the door, leaving the helmet on the motorcycle. The ringing of my phone stops me in my tracks and I fish it out of my pocket.

I look at the number flashing on the screen but don't answer it. It's unfamiliar to me. I hold the phone in my hand a few more seconds before finally answering it. Curiosity wins. As per freaking usual. I don't even get the chance to say anything before a familiar voice starts up.

"I blame you." He says simply. Nothing more, nothing less.

I wait a minute for him to say something else and when he doesn't I speak up. "And just what did I do this time?"

There's bitter laugh on his end. "You know damn well what you did you little bloody freaking demon." He adds in a few more words...colorful words in a foreign language.

I raise my eyebrows and smile, highly amused. "You're learning to curse in French now, good for you. I'm so proud." I tease and he lets out another string of curses. In English this time.

"So before I continue on with my rant of how you're the world's most horrible human being to ever walk the freaking planet...what's been going on with you?"

I can't help but laugh. "You get side tracked so easily." I say, he grumbles lowly.

"I'm pretending to care before I send falsified evidence of the many, many, many crimes you didn't actually commit to the FBI. Prepare to be a wanted criminal. You're going to rot in a jail cell and I'll come by everyday to laugh at you like you're a monkey at the zoo."

I shake my head and smile, letting out another laugh. "You're father's the director Ryder." I remind him.

"So?"

"So we both know he likes me more than you."

More curses. "But seriously, how's it been going?" I let out a sigh and he chuckles on his end. "That bad huh?" He asks.

"I've just been having troubles with Li-Lydia." I correct myself quickly. Lily still hasn't talked to Ryder and no way he's going to hear it from me first.

"Why are you even with Lydia you stupid i***t?"

I roll my eyes. "Thanks. I needed someone to help train the boys to get better."

"Why not ask anyone else? Like say-oh huh I don't know-the grim reaper."

"A grim reaper wouldn't help Ryder."

"No but it's the same as having Lydia train them. The only reason she's there is to harvest their souls."

"You've been spending too much time with Nicky." I tell him. The grim reaper thing is something I'd expect her to say, not him.

He lets out another string of curses. "That's your fault and I'm still pissed off at you by the way."

"And I'm still pissed that I haven't gotten that one thousand dollars you owe me."

It's quiet for a second. "You know what? I can't-ear yo-you'r-brea-ing-up-" The line goes dead and I glare at the phone as I pull it away from my ear. He's so damn childish.

The front door to the house is thrown open before I can get to it. Devin stands there looking at me with wide eyes and an expression of fear on his face. I feel my heart sink. What happened now?

"We have a serious problem." Devin says in a scarily calm and yet serious tone of voice.

"What?" I ask, not able to hide the concern on my face.

"We're out of bacon."

My concern turns to irritation and I give him a flat look followed by a glare. He gives me his wide childish smile as a response. He sticks his hands in his pockets and rocks on his heels as I walk up and push him out the doorway so I can enter.

"So..." He trails off, waiting for me to say something. Eventually he takes the hint that I'm not planning on saying anything any time soon. "Lily's pretty upset...you have to know she didn't mean it."

"Doesn't make it hurt any less." I mutter lowly. Devin nods his agreement.

"I think you two should talk." He says simply and I just nod. "You should probably talk to Sam too...and maybe Cody, but I feel like this is mostly just between you and Lily. Sam's kind of included in there by default."

"How is Sam?" I ask Devin and Devin just shrugs.

"He's got the best poker face I've ever seen. Guy barely even flinched when Henri cleaned out the wound with some alcohol." Devin winces as if the memory brings him pain instead of Sam.

I shake my head but manage a small smile. Suddenly a horrifying thought comes to mind and I smack my hand against my forehead. "Crap." I mutter.

"Language Miss Kingston." Henri says as he walks by where me and Devin are talking.

"What?" Devin asks as he eyes me with concern.

"Lily just might have screwed up everything." I mutter as I press my back against the wall and let myself slump to the floor, resting my elbows on my knees and massaging my forehead with my fingers.

"Screwed up what?" Devin asks as he lowers himself to the floor next to me.

"Not on purpose." I mutter. "She didn't know."

"Didn't know what?"

"Crap." I repeat as I bury my face in my hands.

Lily doesn't realize what she did, and it's not like I can explain to her the severity of the situation now. By kicking Sam with those spiked heels of hers, she's hurt him. But that's not the problem. the problem is the fact that Garrett believes Sam's at a bunker right now, where he wouldn't get a wound like that. He goes back now and they'll suspect something's not right immediately. He'll be killed on the spot.

"I need to talk to Sam." I say and jump to my feet quickly, leaving Devin on sitting on the floor with all his questions.

I run up to his room first, figuring that's the place he'll be. Since he's not too trusting and he doesn't really know these people he'd normally go off somewhere by himself. So I'm pretty surprised when I discover he's not in his room. I run down to the living room but he's not there either. I run into the kitchen. The only person in the kitchen is sitting at the counter, her head down and her eyes red rimmed.

I know she didn't mean it. I know I haven't given her enough time to get over it. But right now I really just want my space. Plus I really need to talk to Sam, so as soon as I see her I spin on my heels and walk right out of the kitchen. Sam wasn't in there anyways.

"Ev wait!"

I hear the sound of the stool scraping back on the floor and heels clicking as she rushes to catch up with me. Instead of speeding up or ducking away I just stop in my tracks and turn to face her.

She hangs her head and doesn't look me in the eyes. "I'm sorry." She says softly. Her voice trembles and notice tears run silently down her cheeks. "I didn't mean it. I was angry and...and well I've just had a lot on my mind and...I don't really blame you." She looks up at me. "I'm really sorry."

I stare at her and say nothing. She looks down again. "I know I really screwed up this time." She mumbles. "And if you want me to leave I will. I'll just go back to the agency, but I wanted you to know I'm sorry."

She turns to walk away but I stop her with a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at me through her long eyelashes.

"Your apologizes are always accepted." I tell her. I offer her a small smile that she returns before launching herself at me and wrapping her arms tightly around my torso.

"I'm sorry." She says again. "You're my sister. I didn't mean it." She says and feel my heart skip a beat as I smile and return her hug.

She pulls back and wipes at her eyes. "Devin sucks at trying to cheer people up by the way." She tells me and I let out a little laugh.

I hear a scoff from behind me. "I do not suck at cheering people up." Devin denies.

Lily gives him a glare for interrupting. "Can it stupid or I'm going to plant my spikes in your ass."

"Miss Marshal that's quite enough."

"Not really. I'm just getting started."

I clamp my hand over her mouth before she starts spouting more foul language. Devin sticks his tongue out at her and she glares. She mutters something into my hand that I can clearly make out no matter how muffled it is. I give her a wide eyed glance before turning to Devin.

"I would run if I were you." I tell him.

"Why?" He asks. "What'd she say?"

I glance at Henri who stands nearby with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow, as if daring me to repeat it.

"I'm not allowed to repeat it." I reply.

Devin opens his mouth to reply, but before he can there's deafening siren and flashing red lights as several alarms begin going off all around the house. I release Lily and shoot Henri a worried glance.

"Don't tell me we're going to be going through another lockdown." Devin says dryly. I shake my head and run up the stairs. "Where are you going?" Devin yells as he runs up the stairs after me.

"The control room." I respond. I get to the large mirror on the wall and begin to twist the jewel at the center of the frame.

"What's going on?" Devin questions as the wall swings open and I run in.

I sit myself at the center of the computer screens and furiously begin typing. Screens pop up and go back down as I bring up the weapon, lockdown, lights, and door controls. I then bring up the security camera feed.

"Please tell me that isn't a live feed." Devin mutters as he stares at the figures in black moving across the yard with machine guns in hand, bullet proof vests, and several other weapons attached to their belts.

"Unfortunately that's exactly what it is." I mutter as I switch through cameras, trying to figure out how in the hell they all got past the gate. I notice one of them gathering up what looks like a parachute and stashing it in a bush. Where there's a chute, there's a plane they jumped from.

"Oh hell no." I say. "Lily-" I start to tell her to go over to the other computer in the corner but she doesn't need to be told. She's already there powering up the computer and placing on hand on the keyboard, the other hand on the joystick like control next to it.

The screen powers on and she lets a devilish smile grace her face. It's honestly one of the scariest things I've seen in a long time. Even Devin seems to huddle closer to me.

A targeting screen shows up on Lily's screen and she lets out an evil laugh. She moves the joystick control around and types a few things in on the keyboard. Her smile growing wider and wider.

Devin gives me a nervous look. "What exactly is she doing?"

Lily answers for me when she shouts, "Missiles away!"

There's an explosion that shakes part of the house. Devin shoots me a fear filled and worried look. "What the hell did she just blow up?"

"The stealth plane they were parachuting out of to get onto the property." I tell him casually. "Normally the heat seeking missile launchers I have set up around the property would just take out any enemy crafts flying too close, but the damn stealth planes have a fifty-fifty shot of making it through without detection."

"I was actually wondering why no one's ever tried to just bomb this house."

"Been giving that a lot of thought have you? Should I be concerned?"

"There's at least sixty men on the ground and I have no idea how many more stealth planes are actually on the way. No doubt they have a plan to get out of here somehow." Lily says.

"They're probably hoping to overrun us and just walk out the front door." I reply. I turn to look at Devin. "Go get as many weapons, as quickly as you can from the basement. Take Henri." I tell him. "And make sure they're the biggest ones!" I call out to him as he runs out of the room with Henri close behind him.

"Like I need to be told that!" I hear him shout back.

I start typing on the computer again. I activate all the metal barriers on the outside of the house. All the windows quickly become covered by the thick sheets of bullet proof metal, along with the front, back, and garage door on the first floor. I keep the rest of the doors on every floor open so we can maneuver through them.

"Do you know where Sam is?" I ask Lily. I've got to tell him to stay out of sight. If Garrett's here Sam will be in a hell of a lot of trouble if he's spotted.

"Yeah, he's in the game room playing video games with Cody."

I stop typing immediately and turn slowly to look at her. I swear I heard her wrong. Very wrong. She feels my gaze on her and turns to look at my disbelief and bewildered looking face. "What?" She asks with a confused look on her face.

"Are sure it's actually Cody he's playing video games with?"

"Well Chase and Zack were in there too but they were playing a card game."

I shake my head in disbelief and turn back to the screens in front of me, trying to put that unbelievable thought out of my mind. There's no freaking way those two are acting civil towards each other. Correction-there's no freaking way Cody's acting civil towards Sam.

"I got some bad news for you." Lily says from her seat at her computer screen.

"What is it?"

"Your ex-boyfriend's leading the charge." She says as she turns her screen towards me to show the camera zoomed in on Garrett.

"Fantastic." I mutter dryly. The one time I'm actually wishing Lydia was here and she's still running around the city elsewhere. "Jam their communications." I tell Lily and hear her typing across the keyboard.

"I think he's standing right on top of one of the land mines." Lily says. "Do you want me to blow it? That would be a pretty rude awakening and an awesome opening statement."

I roll my eyes and smile. "Not yet. He's regrouping with all his men." I tell her.

"So what?"

"So wait until there's as many of them standing there as possible." I smile widely when a thought comes to mind.

"Ok, that smile is scarier than all of my evil genius master plan smiles combined." Lily says as she eyes me with a cautious look.

"Garrett doesn't know you're alive."

"So?"

"So I think it's about time you let him know...with as much dramatic flair and as much...explosive force as possible."

Lily's Cheshire grin mirrors my own. She lets that devilish spark in her eyes grow. Her fingers run across the keys and then hover over a button I know very well. She presses it.

"3...2...1...Sayonara mother-" Henri doesn't need to cut off Lily's cursing. The sound of her explosions does the job perfectly. She leans back in her seat and puts her hands behind her head with a wide smile.

"Damn I've missed this. Who's next?"