Agent 1 (Book 3)

Chapter 6

Thirteen's POV

It takes seconds.

Two to be exact.

Two seconds, no more, no less.

In two seconds flat each one of them have a gun pointed at Agent 1.

In less than a second after that, Agent 1 is using me as a human shield. I roll my eyes as he ducks behind me like a child, keeping me firmly in place with his hands on my shoulders.

"Don't shoot!" He shouts, peeking over my shoulder at the boys.

Lily leans casually back against wall with a huge smile. She's got a bag of chips in her hand and she does nothing to stop the boys. She just munches on her chips and mutters, "Oh this'll be good."

I shoot her a look before glancing back at the boys then back to her and once more back to them. She lets out an over exaggerated sigh.

One thing about Lily, she may not be able to put a ton of power into her hits, but she's got wickedly fast reflexes and her hits are extremely fast as well. She's got a speed to her that isn't common in a lot of agents. So where she might not get in some real power hitting punches, she will get in a ton of smaller punches that will add up to some really serious injuries.

And being as fast as she is, it takes no effort and no time for her to remove the guns from all of them and drop them into her chip bag.

She reaches her hand back in and starts eating her chips once again while the boys all turn and look at her in confusion, still trying to grasp how she managed to move that fast and get their guns.

"What. The. Hell." It's not a question, it's a statement. It comes from Devin as he clenches his fists and tries to burn a hole through me to get to Agent 1 who's still cowering behind me.

Yes, he's a trained killer all right.

"Why the fu-"

"Don't finish that sentence." Henri says from his seat at the counter, flipping through a book.

Cody's mouth clamps shut. Chase doesn't say anything. He just gives me a look that spells out how pissed off he is with me, and then glares through me same as Devin.

"You boys made a promise." I tell them sternly. "I told you no shooting, punching, kicking, or knife throwing."

"And you also told us we didn't know the guy." Cody says at the same time Devin mutters. "You never said no glaring or harsh words."

I shake my head. "I never said you didn't know him." I correct Cody, ignoring Devin. "And to be fair, you don't know him."

"Just so we're clear," Lily speaks up. "I had absolutely nothing to do with this...other than the corruption part."

Devin scoffs and his eyes blaze with fury. "Yeah, like he needed to be corrupted."

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Agent 1 bites back, finally standing to his full height and letting go of my shoulders. He still stays behind me though.

"I didn't trust you before, I'm not going to trust you now." Devin hisses and I'm shocked at how mean he actually looks and sounds.

Both Chase and Cody don't say a word, but I can tell they're both beyond livid. Whether it's at him or me, I'm not entirely sure. Clenched fists, tense muscles, and flexing jaws as they grind their teeth together are just some of the indicators of how angry they really are.

"Lily give me back my gun." Devin orders and Lily raises an eyebrow at him.

"Why?"

"So I can kill him."

Lily apparently does not see a problem with his explanation, and hands him his gun back. I jump forwards and snatch it out her hands before Devin can take it. I shoot her a look.

She shrugs innocently. "I'd say his logic was sound."

I groan and set the gun on counter in front of Henri. He doesn't look up from his book, but he nods anyways. His way of letting me know he's not going to let anyone take the gun.

Unfortunately I take my eyes off the boys for a moment too long.

I spin around after Agent 1's cry of pain in time to witness Devin and Cody lifting him off the ground and beginning to walk away with him. Agent 1 struggles in their arms, but Devin's got a hold of his legs, and Cody's got his arms pinned as they carry him towards the door.

Chase walks ahead of them and opens the door for them.

"Where are you planning on doing with him?" I question as I run to catch up with them.

"We're feeding him to Angel." Devin says casually.

I know nothing I say will change their minds so I settle on action instead. Both Devin and Cody let out curses as the knives just grazes their arms before clattering to the floor behind them. They drop Agent 1 and he lets out a grunt of pain but gets to his feet rather quickly and runs behind me yet again.

"Oh quit your whining." I chide both of them. "And you need to quit using me as human shield or the next knife goes through your throat." I tell Agent 1.

He holds his hands up in surrender and takes quite a few steps away from me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Why is he even here?" Cody asks in a scarily calm tone of voice.

I jerk my thumb over my shoulder at the cowering agent behind me. "He's Agent 1." I reply simply.

"Haha." Cody replies dryly without any humor. "You're hilarious. What's the real reason?"

I try not to smile. This is actually becoming slightly amusing. "He's Agent 1." I repeat, biting the inside of my lip to keep from smiling.

"How?"

Agent 1 tosses me my badge. I catch and pocket it. Cody's eyes flash to it and then to Agent 1 in anger.

"You vouched for him?"

"Technically Zero owed me...plus I put up a pretty good argument."

Chase speaks up this time. "So we're supposed to trust him?"

"No." I reply as I turn to look at him. "You're supposed to trust me."

"Why the hell didn't you tell us the truth?" Devin asks me, disappointment flashing in his eyes.

I just shrug. "I knew you'd all react like this."

"So you figured you'd just keep it to yourself?"

"Well I obviously shared." I wave my hand in Agent 1's direction.

Devin scowls at me angrily. Though I'm fairly certain it's not actually me he's upset with. He turns and walks back into the house, grumbling to himself the entire way in.

Chase shakes his head. "I do trust you." He says softly. "But I don't trust him."

"Well I do." I reply firmly. "Maybe I'm making a mistake, like you were with Elaine." Chase visibly flinches. "And if I am I'm expecting you guys to pull me out of it. I trust you guys enough to keep me from making a mistake, but I know I'm not."

Chase nods before disappearing back into the house, muttering something about finding Devin. Lily stands nearby still eating her chips.

Cody doesn't say anything, and I'm not entirely sure I want him to. Agent 1 taps his foot impatiently behind me. I turn around to give him a flat look.

"What?" I question and he gives me a wide smile.

"You ever going to show me to my room...or yours?"

I open my mouth to retort, but a pair of arms wrap around me from behind and I'm pulled back into a hard chest. I find myself relaxing and leaning back in his hold.

His muscles are tense and he glares harshly at Agent 1. His glare screaming volumes of how much he's not happy with the guy and how much it's taking him to restrain himself. He's also making it clear to Agent 1 not to even bother trying.

"I'm sure Henri can show you to your room just fine." His cold voice says and I find myself rolling my eyes and smirking before I can stop myself.

"Play nice." I tell Cody and his grip just tightens, though it still remains gentle. Possessive without a doubt, but gentle.

"Yeah, didn't your parents ever tell you to share your toys?"

I scowl at Agent 1 after he calls me a 'toy' and I feel Cody tense and his arms loosen. I press myself back into him more to keep him from charging Agent 1. His arms tighten around me once more.

"One more snide comment from you and I let him rearrange your face." I growl.

Agent 1 smirks and turns his attention to Cody...good grief somebody help me.

"She's keeping you on a tight leash huh buddy?" His tone is mocking and high pitched like he's talking to a dog.

This time I have to completely turn around and press my hands against Cody's chest to keep him from killing Agent 1.

"Cody stop." I mutter while I shoot Agent 1 a glare, he just smiles oh so 'innocently'. "Cody come on it's not worth it."

I notice Agent 1 opening up his mouth again and look at Lily, giving her a 'help me' look. She lets out a sigh, pulls one of the two guns left in her chip bag and fires it.

Agent 1 lets out a string of curses as the bullet whizzes right by his head.

"Are you insane?!" He yells at her.

She makes a show of leaning back against the wall, putting the gun back into the bag and eating a chip, purposely making the chip crunch loudly in her mouth before she whistles.

The sound of claws scraping against concrete comes from around the corner of the house behind Lily and moments later, Angel stops right next to Lily.

Agent 1 stumbles back a few steps and his face goes stark white. He mutters some unintelligible words under his breath as he stares at Angel, never taking his wide, fear filled eyes off of her.

Lily makes a clicking noise in the back of her throat and Angel opens her mouth wide, showing off her sharp and freshly cleaned teeth.

Lily then lets out a low humming sort of sound and Angel matches it with a low hiss, tail swishing back and forth. Lily crunches on her chips and occasionally tosses a handful into Angel's mouth.

Agent 1 winces at the crunching noise every time Angel clamps down on the chips. I just watch cautiously with Cody, neither one of us daring to make a move.

Cody leans down so his lips brush against my ear. "I'm so glad she's on our side." I nod my agreement.

"Want to come with me to show Agent 1 to his room?" I ask him and Cody gives me a look that clearly shows how much he'd love to do that.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"So that you can point it out to Devin later and leave him to do...whatever." I reply and Cody smiles, his eyes lighting up at that thought.

"Fine." He says.

He walks up behind Agent 1 and grabs him by the scruff of his shirt, dragging him into the house behind him. I laugh lightly and follow them in.

I pick out a room for him and Cody immediately goes to find Devin right after. Good luck Agent 1.

"Let me know if you need anything else." I tell him as he tosses his bag onto the bed and begins to unpack. "I'll leave you to get settled." I turn to leave the room.

"Hey Thirteen," Agent 1 calls and I stop in the doorway, turning to look at him over my shoulder.

"It's good to see you again." He says simply with a smile and I give him a small smile in return.

"It's good to see you too Zack."