"Is it an animal?" I asked Bradley. He shook his head. I pretended to think, then put on a pouty face. I added puppy eyes and waited. The second Bradley saw me he shook his head.
"Aww, don't do that Eiise. You know I can't resist! Oh fine, it's a necklace." That must be some new record. Propping myself up on the bed, I grinned at him.
"Brad, what do you think of meeting my brother? I'm thinking of going to back to Queens, visit the family. I want you to meet them, and you've never been to New York. Where are you from anyways?" I asked, popping my gum. I can't believe I didn't know.
"A small town near Seattle, why? Do you want to visit my family, tough luck, I don't have any." He spat bitterly.
"Nope, I don't believe you. You must have a sibling, or a close cousin or something." I persisted.
"I have a brother, but I haven't talked to him in ages. I don't even know what he sounds like anymore, and he doesn't even count. We're not close like you and Mike are." I scoffed, close?
"I haven't seen Mike since I started killing, Brad. That was almost six years ago, I was twenty the last time I saw him." It was a bit sad, actually.
"You shouldn't go Elise. I have a bad feeling about this, you know with BrickStone and everything. Also, what about those people after me?" He looked so worried.
"Hey shrimp, don't worry so much. You're getting wrinkles, and you're barely seventeen." He sat down next to me.
"Elise, please, don't go. I just don't have a good feeling about this." He pleaded with me.
"Fine, I won't go. If it bothers you that much, I'll just stay here." Bradley looked relieved. What was that about?
"You know, I think it's weird that we've been together for so long, yet we barely know anything about each other." He scrunched up his nose.
"You make it sound like we're dating, or married." I started to laugh, his expression was hilarious.
"Gross Brad, it's not even legal. It's basically pedophilia, I'm almost ten years older than you!" Giggling, I walked over to the minibar.
"Do you want something? A coke?" He nodded and I threw it to him.
"Could you imagine if you were sent to prison because of that. She killed dozens of people, let her go, but wait! She is a pedophile! Life in prison!" He laughed, and took a sip of his drink.
"Come on Bradley, give this little pedo a kiss, won't you?" I ran towards him, and pretended to kiss him. There was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" I called, changing my voice quickly. I didn't have time to answer as the door smashed in. I quickly grabbed my gun.
"Fate."
"I'm not crazy, unless you think I'm crazy. If you believe I'm crazy, that probably means you're crazy, you know?" The lady that I knew now as Connie smiled at me.
"Maybe, Miss Houston, I am crazy. Maybe I should be the one in your seat, while you ask me questions. Do you know why Mr. Patel insisted I come in immediately? In fact, he insisted on it, which is very rare. Normally I get at least a week's notice." I shrugged. Connie was a shrink I guess, I had only met her around five minutes ago.
"Why Miss.." I trailed off. Leaning back in the chair, I crossed my legs and straightened my back.
"Call me Connie, Elise. He was so worried about you, and tried to help you on his own. A very foolish choice if I may say so myself, solitary confinement is never the first option. Now I'm giving you the choice to walk out of here, right now. If you don't leave in the next five minutes, the door will lock until the hour is up. Understand?" I nodded. Eyeing the door, I started to stand up. I didn't need this.
"So how do you feel about Collin?" She asked abruptly. I swallowed and stood up fully.
"He's dead. How should I feel?" I asked coldly. Connie put her hands up in surrender.
"I don't know. You two got close, but not as close as you and Mr. Coyle. How close were you to Miss Thompson?" She asked, picking up some paper.
"We were friends, same as Collin or Tyler. Jared and I have been partners on occasion, we're pretty close." If Tyler was watching, this wasn't new to him.
"Did you love him?" She asked boldly. I stared at her for a second, not knowing what to say.
"He's like my brother, that would be wrong. That would be the same as me loving Br-" I cut myself off. Connie's eyebrows rose as she wrote something down. In a quick movement, I grabbed the paper.
Cymbalta Dosage
"Really? You're setting me up on depression meds? I'm out of here." I declared. Just as my hand touched the knob I heard a click. It had locked, that sneaky woman had trapped me.
"Sorry Elise, too slow. Now why don't you sit down, and we can talk like normal people? We could talk about Collin, or Jared, or maybe even" She paused. "Bradley."
"Who's Bradley?" I lied smoothly. She just laughed, a gesture that made her look younger. Where was the sweet lady I had first met?
"We have everything on file Elise, everything. You can't hide from us, you can't withold information from the biggest corporation in the world. We know that you were with Bradley for three years, we know he's seventeen now, heck we even know his birthday! Elise Silver, the cunning assassin, has a soft spot for a teenager. Do you even know his last name? Do you even know who he is, what he is?" What was she talking about? I backed up as she approached me.
"No. You don't, and he doesn't know your real name does he? And you don't know his." She whispered. This woman certainly didn't waste any time. I felt my resolve weaken as tears pricked at my eyes. I forced them back down.
"Just stop. I'm here, Tyler got what he wanted. Maybe I freaked out, but someone close to me was killed. Add my brother, and the fact that one of my friends betrayed me. Anyone would have snapped." I said angrily.
"You're not supposed to have friends! You're an assassin, you're not even supposed to have a weakness. Why, Elise, why! Why did you pick a life you know you can't keep up with!! Why put yourself through the torture, why did you choose to kill. It's been six years, and your luck will run out soon." Her words were true.
"In case you haven't noticed, my luck hasn't been very good. Now if you bring up Bradley one more time, I will snap your neck. Got it?" I snarled, then sat down.
"I'd like to see you try Miss Houston. Just go ahead, I have nothing to lose. You've already lost your freedom, and that's what you're most afraid of. You've lost your freedom,, you can't run around as you please anymore. Tyler and this facility, they're slowly clipping your wings." The door slid open.
"Ms. Quentin, you have a meeting with.. Elise!" Mike shouted in surprise. He was alive? I stood up and ran into his arms.
"But how? You were so close to the explosion Mikey!" He lifted his shirt, showing me a nasty burn.
"I didn't know you had a session with Ms. Quentin! I wanted to see you, but Ty told me not to." Ty. I guess that he and my brother were friends. I scowled at the thought.
"Hey peanut, why the scowl?" He asked. Connie came up behind me.
"What's so important, Mr. Houston." She snapped. Well that was rude.
"Mr. Patel says you have a meeting with a man named Daniel. It's in thirty minutes, he wanted me to warn you." She already had her notepad out, writing down the appointment.
"Thanks for the notice T-bear." She muttered, then swore. My eyes widened, as I giggled. This was too good to be true.
"Tell me, Connie." I drawled out. "What's your maiden name?" I took great satisfaction in watching her tense up.
"Mike, leave the room." I ordered. He shook his head as I walked towards her. Quickly, I pushed her against the wall, and held her throat.
"Would it happen to be Patel?" I asked sweetly. Checkmate. I saw the resemblance now, the nickname was only a clue.
"Put her down Elise, I don't want to knock you out." Mike warned. I felt cold steel on my back and turned around. Jamming the gun up, I kicked him in the ribs, sending him backwards. Turning my back to him, I focused on Connie.
"One more time Connie, one more time. What's your maiden name." I demanded. She craned her neck and I saw the opportunity before she did. Grabbing her arm, I twisted it before she could grab the pen.
"It's Patel, alright! But I'm not his mother!" She screamed in pain. I heard groaning, and Mike got up. He looked furious. I eyed the open door.
"Time to go!" I smiled as he ran towards me. I slid through his legs and ran into the sterile hallways. I casually slowed down when I heard footsteps in front of me. It was an operative.
"Hey, I was wondering if you could show me to Silver's room?" Hopefully he didn't recognize me. The man nodded and I followed him.
"So what's your reason for being in Silver's room?" He asked. I smiled at him.
"Mr. Patel wanted me to get close with her, I'm her old friend from Queens, Monica." Half truth. Hey, every lie contained some truth.
"Nice to meet you Monica, I'm Derrick. Sorry, a lot of the guards got the day off today, Mr. Patel called for it. Some kind of stat holiday or something." Sounded fishy. I flipped my hair and winked, and I saw him blush.
"Why do all the corridors look the same?" I asked. Derrick paused for a moment. and I dubbed him 368. Just in case.
"I guess it's so people can't escape. A big pain in the ass if you ask me, it took me a while to figure it out." I touched his arm lightly.
"What's the trick?" I giggled, and saw his cheeks turn pink again. He cleared his throat.
"It's really small. Um, if you look at the bottoms of the walls, there are different colors. Like, we're on floor two, and that means green. It's really discreet." He pointed and I saw it. The lining of the walls, seriously Tyler?
"We're here." He announced and I knocked on the door. As I suspected, no one answered.
"Oh! I forgot Monica, Elise is at the doctor's." Lie. "She hurt her arm while here, she's with Mr. Patel" I hope not. I nodded though.
"I'll phone Ty tonight, and ask him what's up." I realised my mistake. Derrick turned to me confused.
"Do you know him, you seem pretty close to him. Only his friends call him that." Time to lie! I was doing a lot of that today,
"Well Tyler and I, we um, were together for a while. It was super brief, and um, yeah." I mumbled, trying to look embarrassed.
"Here. Why don't you wait in Silver's room, and I'll go check on her." He seemed uncomfortable. Perfect. I kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks Derrick, you've been so much help." I shut the door and sat on the bed. I couldn't believe that Tyler hadn't told his staff what I looked like. Add in the fact that there weren't as many staff working today, and then you've got your final equation. But something didn't add up. It just seemed fishy. I walked over to the balcony, overlooking the garden. I coudn't see anything beyond it but a dirt road surrounded by trees. All I had to do was jump out the window, and run down that road. Hopefully, I would make it to town.
This was easy, too easy. I couldn't see any guards patrolling, like there always were. Something was off about this, but this was my only chance of escape. I swung my legs over the side of the balcony, and hopped off. Landing in a ball, I quickly darted into the small hedges. Now or Never.
I sprinted down the road, just as I heard shouts and.. dogs barking? This was like a scene from a movie.
Turning around, I saw people running with dogs yapping. They were close, too close. Sprinting into the woods, I shot up a tree.
I never liked the game Hide-and-go seek.
I frowned at the figure that entered.
"Fate looks pretty ugly." Bradley hollered. I shushed him as I saw more people enter the room. I counted ten as they piled in. What was going on, how did they find us.
"Trackers." Bradley confirmed my suspicion. Who was after us? No one was after me, really.
"What do you want." I demanded, shoving Bradley behind me. They were all wearing masks.
"You two. And you're wanted by the big man." Who the hell was the big man.
"Elise, pretend to faint." Bradley muffled his words into my hair. What was he playing at? I went limp in his arms, and he dropped me. Then the fight started, but it wasn't much of one.
"You know you couldn't run away from him forever." Was he addressing Bradley? I didn't dare open my eyes, but felt myself being picked up.
"Who knew, the famous assassin fainted. What a little-" He didn't finish as I opened my eyes and punched him in the nose. Looking around, i held out my arms.
"Now fate is even uglier." I remarked, and let them handcuff me.
Fate was pretty ugly to begin with.