The Middle Child (The Offspring Series)

Encounters And Uniforms

I don't think of myself as intimidating. I'm hardly bone chilling and not even the servants fear me. I don't have a reputation of being scary or menacing. My reputation only goes as far as being fearless and unscarable. So tell me, if i'm not scary, why did I see terror in the eyes of the girl in the tree.

The girl looked to be my age but her wide innocent blue eyes and unruly fluffy red hair with freckles attacking all sides of her face masked maturity. But maturity comes with levels. I was forced to mature earlier to survive, I'm starting to understand that not everyone was shoved along on that path as fast as I was.

She stared at me and her body shivered even though it was warm out. She looked to be in the midst of climbing with one leg on a branch and her arms holding onto a limb above her for support. She wore a black suit and boots that looked like they were made to be silent.

I can see what her goal is here. She wants to jump over the gate so she can get out. The girl didn't look like a threat like I had first thought, she didn't have a bag so she obviously wasn't stealing either. Even if she wasn't an assassin or robber, King Spade would most likely order someone to torture the information out of her to see if she was a spy. I don't think she's a spy either, otherwise she would have known that the gates are booby trapped and would kill her if she set a foot on the top.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" I say calmly as I keep my hands in my pockets and observe her. The girl's face flinches at the sound of my voice but I continue "The wall will sound an alarm and unless you want to be stabbed or decapitated I wouldn't try it."

She starts to breath heavily as I stare up at her. From my angle I can see the fullness in her womanly proportions. The thought makes me slightly blush so I look down and turn away before I start to walk away.

"Okay" I mutter as I exhale.

"What?" The girl's voice rings out "Wait! Stop!"

I stop walking and look back to see the girl jump down from the tree. "Wait a minute!" She calls as she runs over.

I look at her and she stops a few feet away from me.

"Who are you?" She exhales and sets a glare on me.

She's trying to intimidate me with a cold look. Heh, cute.

"You're not in the position to ask questions." I reply. "You're not really in the position to be talking to me technically."

I frown at her and she takes a step back looking slightly worried. Hmm, maybe I AM intimidating.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. "You're obviously not an assassin unless you've already slipped into the heavily guarded mansion and slit the throat of King Spade."

Her eyes widen "What? No!"

"So you're a robber"

"No I'm not!"

"A robber of information then" I say stepping towards her. My face must show how I'm starting to lose my patience because she takes another careful step back. I was having a dandy and peaceful night until I found her. Now I have a problem right in front of me that I probably have to deal with. She must have gotten in somehow even under the "watchful" eye of a guard so that means someone is about to be fired. And why is she here? Can't she just answer the question so she can leave or get caught or something so I can go back to enjoying my night?

The girl seemed to muster up some confidence as she straightened her posture, still being shorter than me but now without the scared retreating stance.

"I'm not trying to harm your family in any way." She says. "My name is Belle Contigo and I was here for the group sign up."

The group sign up? Oh, that's right. Yesterday I was supposed to look over the people who could be my right hand man for my team. I was supposed to have an A team for when I start doing missions and first thing was to get a person who would be my number one partner. I didn't go to the people who were brought yesterday because I was training then slept. Still, that was yesterday, so why is she here today and climbing the wall at that.