Agent 1 (Book 3)

CHapter 9

Thirteen's POV

"I don't know you. I don't know you. You look vaguely familiar and I don't why. I don't know you...I do know you and I know I don't like you."

There's the sound of a scuffle a couple nanoseconds before a gun goes off after Lily finishes her little announcement.

Me and Sam share a look before sprinting down the stairs the rest of the way. Josh is standing in front of Lily, blocking her from Lydia. Hayden is holding Lydia back, Olivia places a gun on the counter and Kate points from the gun, to Lily, to the fresh bullet hole in the ceiling.

"Her fault." She says simply.

"Lily." I groan. "She's going to help us."

"Pigs haven't sprouted wings and started flying yet, and my brother-unfortunately-hasn't grown devil horns and a tail."

I give her a look and she smiles innocently, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"You know," She starts up conversationally. "World War 3's going to start a lot sooner than later what with the five Vendetta members," She points to Lydia, Olivia, Kate, Josh, and Hayden. "One angry Henri, and six agents..."

She trails off as she eyes Sam for the first time. His arms are crossed over his chest, his entire body tense. He's on his guard as always. His eyes are darkened and he looks like he's simply focused on the wall in front of him, but he's actually keeping tabs on everyone in the room in his peripheral vision.

He's probably the only person in the world who's more paranoid and less trusting than me.

It's very hard for me to trust anyone, but with Sam, his trust his is borderline nonexistent.

"And whoever the hell this is." Lily waves her hand at Sam. "Seriously who are you?"

Sam doesn't respond. Though I know it's not because he can't hear her. His hearing aids are working and he hasn't switched them off.

Personally, I have no idea how he'd even answer that question other than with just his name.

Josh, Lydia and the terror triplets only vaguely know him. They met him like one other time. Other than that no one knows who he is.

No one except me, Hayden, Zero...and possibly Agent 53, if he remembers him that is. Though it's very doubtful.

If Sam planned on answering, he's interrupted by his phone going off. He calmly digs it out of his pocket and a look of worry flashes over his face as he stares at the screen. He shows me the caller ID.

Garrett.

"Use my office." I tell him. He nods and walks off.

"What's that about?" Lily questions and I shoot her a look telling her to drop it. For once she takes the hint. "So do you planning on equipping Lydia with about ten layers of bullet proof vests before calling the boys up here?"

I give her a look just as Hayden says, "As if that'll stop them. They'll just aim for the head."

Lily nods as she c***s her head to the side and studies him. "True. Very true. Now who are you? You're kind of freaking me out because you look familiar but I can't put a name to the face."

"Hayden."

"Last name?"

"Torrens."

Lily shakes her head. "Doesn't ring a bell." She mutters as she narrows her eyes at him. "Why do you look familiar?"

"Imagine him younger, slightly different looks, and a pissy attitude." Lydia tells her.

Lily lights up like a light bulb. "Cody! You're his older brother." She states.

I turn and glare at Lydia. "What?" She asks innocently. "She knew who I was describing right away."

I continue to glare at her and she just leans back against the wall, crossing her arms and her feet at the ankles. She gives me a similar look back. I hear footsteps approach and I send a silent prayer that it's just Sam returning and not anyone else at the moment.

My prayer is not answered.

"Thirteen I need-" Fifty-three's words die out in his throat as he takes in everyone else in the room, but mainly Lydia.

"Agent 13." I correct him, still not taking my eyes off Lydia. I'm grabbed roughly by the upper arm and pulled away.

"Forgive me, Agent 13."He practically spits out at me.

I decide to give in and allow him to drag me away without putting up much of fight. At this point he's so pissed off there should be steam coming out of his ears and an egg frying on his head.

I'd love to say the situation can't get any worse...until I see Henri.

There are no words to describe Henri when he's pissed off. He's like ten times worse than Fifty-three and that's usually without resorting to blows.

I'm ripped from Fifty-three's grasp and pulled behind Henri. I rub a hand over my face. There's literally no point in trying to get between these two. Believe me I've tried in the past and it only made things worse...a lot worse. It's better to just sit on the side lines and watch this unfold. Otherwise we'll be here even longer and taking one of them out of here on a stretcher.

I'm personally betting it'd be Fifty-three on the stretcher. But Henri doesn't need to know that.

"You keep your hands off her." Henri says in a scarily calm voice.

He's pissed. Fifty-three's screwed. And if Henri could control me I'd be grounded for life. Let's be thankful he can't.

Fifty-three makes the stupidest decision he could possibly make in this moment. He ignores Henri and tries speaking around him to me instead.

I should probably go get icepacks and a first aid kit before this really goes downhill.

"What were you thinking?" Fifty-three hisses at me and I just shrug and examine my nails.

"I wasn't." I reply simply.

Henri shoves Fifty-three forcefully back a few steps. Henri may be older than Fifty-three by a far bit, but he's no weakling.

"Do not speak to her either." Henri says. "Unless you want to be tossed out of this house and never be welcomed back."

By now everyone who was in the kitchen is now in the main room with us. Though they all keep a respectable distance away. All except Lydia.

"Do you want to pretend to be acquaintances for a just a minute?" She asks me as she walks up to stand on my side, eyes focused solely on Fifty-three and Henri.

"Not really." I respond honestly, turning my head to look at her. "But what did you have in mind?" I question, humoring her.

"A bet." She says simply, still eying them. She turns her gaze to meet mine.

I can't help the smile that crosses my face as I turn away from her and back to Henri. "How much?"

"Two hundred dollars."

"Fine." I reply, still focused on Henri and Fifty-three's arguing, which has gotten significantly louder.

"My money's on Henri." I tell her and I see her nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Mine's on Dad."

"Might as well give me the money now." I reply, crossing my arms over my chest.

Fifty-three's voice has risen to roar as he yells harshly at Henri. Henri simply replies back very calmly which only serves to piss off Fifty-three even more.

"You have no right to tell me what to do!" Fifty-three shouts at Henri.

Henri just calmly stares back and him, not even flinching at his tone of voice. "This is Miss Kingston's house and I would have you respect her and her wishes while residing here or I will have you forcefully removed."

"This is as much my house as it is hers."

"See that's where you're wrong. Miss Kingston purchased this house without your involvement in any way. Though I suppose she can thank you for the job you got her at the agency."

"She's my daughter!"

"No, she is not." Henri says calmly. "She does not consider you a father to her and you were never there. You dumped her into the agency the first opportunity you got and walked away. Only now have you been trying to reconnect with her but it is too little to late on your part and quite frankly you have been a pretty s**t father-to put it bluntly.

"You have no family here. Just merely acquaintances and co-workers. None of which are quite happy with your presence here but have otherwise put with you as have I. If anyone would be considered Miss Kingston's family it would be Miss Marshal, who is more than a sister to her, and the boys who have shown more kindness and trust to her than you ever have or ever will.

"As for myself, I consider Miss Kingston family as well. Like a daughter I never had. I love her dearly and am proud to admit to you that she is more my daughter than she is yours. Now if you do not mind, I have work to do and cannot stand to be around you for another freaking second."

Henri turns around to face me. "Forgive me Miss Kingston, but the moment you have finished with your training, I want him thrown out of here on his ass. That piece of s**t has no place being here any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Agreed." I reply with a barely contained smile of amusement. Henri turns and storms off out of the room. I turn back towards Lydia. "Henri won."

"Oh shut up." She stuffs a few bills roughly in my hand.

"Wow." Lily speaks up. "That was more curse words than I've ever heard him say in a life time. Too bad the boys missed it."

"Oh we didn't miss it."

I whirl around at the sound of Devin's voice. Chase, Cody, and Zack stand behind us, right where the elevator doors have already closed. Each one of them holds a gun in their hands and murderous expression on their face...well except for Zack, he's still got a gun but he looks slightly confused as to why.

"You're in trouble." Lily sings as she dances around me, poking me in the arms. "I'm going to go get my rocket launcher." She skips off to the elevator.

"See I knew you'd be mad," I start cautiously. "But we really needed some help that would actually you know...help."

Fifty-three scowls at me. I flip him off.

"This is stupider than Ryder's, Devin's and Lily's stupidity all put together." Chase states.

I glare at him. "I take great offense to that."

"You forgot to add the terror triplets' stupidity into that." Josh tells them I turn towards him.

"Thanks a lot."

He smiles widely at me. "Any time."

Kate and Olivia glare daggers into either side of his head and he pretends like they're not even there.

"You're so sleeping on the couch for the next week when we get home." Olivia tells him, still glaring.

"Ooo, you're in trouble now." Kate says. "My sister just kicked you to the curb. Ouch. Man, you better go kiss and make up with your girlfriend before she decides you're sleeping on the couch permanently."

Josh glares at Kate before turning to Olivia who looks at him with a harsh glare and raised eyebrows.

"Do you think they ever just switch places on him to freak him out a little bit?"

I nearly jump out of my skin as Sam's breath brushes over my ear as he leans down to whisper his question. I turn around a hit him playfully on the arm..a little harder than normal.

"I mean if Olivia just gets sick of him one day do think she just has Kate masquerade as her?"

I shake my head and smile. "I wouldn't put it past either of them."

I notice Cody glaring in Sam's direction. His muscles tense, but he hasn't said anything or come over to me yet so I think that's a pretty good sign. He's not looking to fight but if Sam doesn't start grasping the term personal space things are going to go to hell pretty quickly.

I could tell Sam to back up, to give me space. After all I can feel the heat from his body through my clothes as he stands off to my left but still partially behind me. I could and I probably should tell him to back off a little bit before Lily's prediction of World War 3 comes true. But I'm not going to. Sam can stay where he is and Cody can voice his complaints about it to me later. Though it won't change anything.

Sam's not comfortable around anyone else but me. Even though he knows Hayden pretty well, he still doesn't trust him in the way he trusts me. It's just natural for him to seek me out when we're in a crowd of people he's not at all comfortable with.

It's become a habit of his to do so. He stands close enough for me to feel the warmth of his body, yet he stands in a way that still provides me with mandatory movement if a threat approaches. He doesn't get in my way at all, and is mostly content with letting me handle it. He doesn't try to shield me from a fight and instead will cover me, and only rushes to my aid if he's positive I can't handle it.

I give Cody a glare of my own, clearly letting him know that Sam's not going anywhere and he finally adverts his gaze elsewhere.

I glance at Sam and he gives me a look that says we need to talk. I nod and glance back at the boys who are now all glaring at Lydia and the rest of the Vendetta agents.

This is going to be a very long day...and however longer this lasts.

This was a really horribly stupid idea.