Athalia Quinn

27 - Pancakes

They're all sitting on the stools beside the massive island. "Yeah," they respond in union.

"We're stayin' tonight, too," Nicolas says.

"Who the fuck told you that?" Levi asks.

Nick rolls his eyes. "We're staying, bossman. We need a good party night before we have to start our months of training."

Groans follow his sentence. Even Levi stiffens from behind me.

"Months?" I ask. "Like, everyday for months plural?"

Frannie huffs an apathetic laugh. "Fun, innit?"

River seats himself beside Frannie, leaning his elbows on the table. "Our next mission is arguably our highest high-risk mission since, like, ever."

"We're basically being re-trained," Fisher chimes in. "Except past us would shit themselves if they knew the drills Bossman is forcing us to do for the next three months."

Levi narrows his eyes. "Die, or shit yourself?"

"Honestly, die," Nicolas answers. Frannie flicks the back of his head. "Uhm, ouch?"

After laughing quietly at Nick, I question, cautiously, "What's the mission?" Uncertainty floats around the room. "I don't have to know, if you don't want me to," I add.

Everyone glances towards Levi.

I definitely regret asking when not even Levi says anything. He's rarely ever nervous, but this is much, much different. Almost like I can feel a twinge of fear coming from him.

If Levi is any bit scared, it can't be good.

After a moment of silence, he tells me, "Assassin versus assassin."

I twist to look at him.

Those stunning eyes of his relax a little too much when they meet mine, and it allows me to get a tiny glimpse of how he's feeling.

I was right.

He's scared.

In a blink, he removes any emotion from his face, and I'm left searching for more. He looks away from me. I didn't even realize he walked off until he's out of sight, and an upstairs door closes.

I take a single step forward to go after him, but decide it's best to give him a little space for now. I'll talk to him later, if he wants me to.

"No way it takes this damn long to make seven pancakes," Maxen counters, cutting the silence. He flicks his eyes to me for half-a-second, and I thankfully let out a breath at the subject change.

Nicolas shushes Maxen. "Don't rush him."

"Yeah, don't rush me," Fisher agrees. A second later, he turns to us with a plate filled with pancakes. "Done."

He makes my plate first, drizzling syrup and spraying whipped cream on top. He slides the plate to me when he's finished, but I snag the whipped cream back and add some more.

Who puts only one swirl of whipped cream when you can have a whole blob?

Even shoving the delicous pancakes—and I mean delicous—into my hungry mouth couldn't take my mind off Levi.

He lets his foot hang off the bed in the middle of the night, how can he possibly be scared of anything?

Okay, I know that having a foot hang off the bed and assassinating someone is completely different, but still. That man is brave.

Plus, he's so annoyingly smug that seeing his confidence dip for a fraction of a second tells me a lot more about this mission. It's not an in-and-out, capture the drug-dealer type thing this time.