Twelve years ago...
"Ready?" I looked up at Charles, who was standing next to me behind the closed door.
"It's going to be easy, isn't it?" I tried to hide my nervousness. "After all, I've been through it once."
"You were a child then. You'll be eighteen soon. It's going to be different. This time, they have to make sure you're fit to train in Finland. Higher league, bigger responsibilities."
"How long would I be there?"
"Official training takes a few months. But you? You'll be out of there in a few weeks."
"You say that as if it's certain I'll go there. I haven't passed all the tests yet."
"Trust me, you have nothing to worry about." He laughed. "They know how good you are. This is just a formality. But I advise you not to doubt yourself. They will see it in you."
That didn't calm me down much.
"Let's go." He said and reached out to the sensor next to the door, which immediately opened to reveal a huge room in front of us.
Charles walked in and I was on his heels. I automatically scanned the room, looking for any threat.
"Take it easy." Charles whispered as he led me to the tables of various weapons where the other girls and women were. "It's going to be a series of tests. I won't be able to help you, but you don't need me. You can handle it." He turned to me. "Go get ready and put on a show for them." He nodded his head behind me where a group of people were on the balcony.
I personally knew only Ada from them, but I also saw the faces of the others. Management.
Jocelyne West. Angelina Laurier. Elijah Caddel. Elisabeth Madden. Robert Stoll. Donald Carter.
Only one person was missing. Frederick Weber. The head of everything.
I had the honor to see him once. And he didn't look like I imagined him. A lot of people said he was a monster. Worse than the devil himself. And yet, he looked like an ordinary man.
"Show them everything you're capable of." I looked back at Charles.
"Is that everyone?" I asked, wondering why Frederik Weber wasn't here.
"Now yes." He raised his head back to the balcony, where there was suddenly one more person.
It was obvious he was looking at Charles. But then Frederik's gaze fell on me. He looked me over from head to toe and stopped at my face.
Without breaking our eye contact he said something and another pair of eyes started looking at me. Jocelyne West snorted and nodded at whatever Frederik said.
The corners of his mouth lifted into a small smile before he said something again that slightly unnerved Jocelyne.
"Looks like you've got their attention already." I heard Charles laugh. "Good luck." He placed a hand on my shoulder before leaving to join the management on the balcony.
"You can do it, Eris. I said to myself in my mind. "Just do what you do best."
*
"Strawberries in chocolate." I caught Luna's attention.
"What?" She frowned.
"You once told me you loved it more than your own organs." I tried to smile as I picked up a box of strawberries and a plate of melted chocolate. "Peace?"
Luna turned her back to me and was looking at the TV. "Are you going to sit down or should I come to you and take it?"
I quickly walked over to her before she could change her mind and sat next to her. I put the strawberries and chocolate on the table and Luna jumped right in.
"You want some?" She offered it to me.
"I'm allergic." I pulled away a little from her hand.
"I know." She smiled and put the strawberry in her mouth.
"Can we stop arguing? I don't want to be against you." Today's conversation in the hallway made me realize that she only wants to help me. Even if I don't want her help because something might happen to her, she gives it to me.
She wants to protect me as much as I want to protect her. But I'm too stubborn to let her.
"When you realize I'm not your enemy, maybe." She shrugged.
"I never thought you were my enemy."
"It doesn't matter. I don't want to talk about it."
"Luna, please..."
"Eris, I'm not mad at you." She cut me off. "I'm just sorry that you won't let me in. I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I understand, but..."
"But what?" She cut me off again. "There's no but. I want to help you because you're my friend and I care about you. I don't want to lose you. I can't and I won't."
I couldn't help but smile and felt a warm feeling in my heart.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She narrowed her eyes.
"I'm not used to people caring about me."
"I've always cared about you. Ever since you almost killed me when we were kids."
"Good old days." I laughed.
"I'm serious Eris. Please don't do something stupid."
"Fine." I breathed out hard. "But only if you promise not to fight again. I don't like it when we fight."
"Me neither." She smiled. "Come here." She reached out to me and hugged me tightly.
I buried my head in her neck and the smell of vanilla reached my nose. I will have to find out what shampoos she uses.
"Since we are not enemies anymore..." She started to pull away. "We need to have a serious conversation."
"About what?" I looked at her a little scared.
"You and Killian?" She raised an eyebrow.
"What about him?" I tried to look as normal as possible.
I haven't had a chance to have a proper talk with him today. He left after our conversation that morning in the hallway and I haven't seen him since.
But I wasn't even looking for him. It's clear that last night was a one time thing. I was the only one in his circle and he took advantage of that. Although, I'm not complaining.
It felt good to be with someone I wanted to be with and not because of a mission. And it's probably better if it happened only once. If it happened more than once, it would be harder to let him go.
I know that I admitted to him yesterday that I like him, but that doesn't change anything. We work together and that's it.
"What about him?" She repeated my question with a laugh. "You do realize I'm not blind, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." I swallowed hard.
"Sure." She laughed. "So it wasn't you two in the hallway yesterday?"
Shit.
"I thought so." She reached for a strawberry and dipped it in the chocolate. "To tell you the truth, I really wonder what it was like. He doesn't really like being touched, after all." She put a strawberry in her mouth and looked at me. "So? How was it?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
"Eris, I've seen you do worse things. Talking about sex can't be that complicated." She laughed.
"It was good." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Good? Really? Come on Eris. Any details?"
"You want to know the details about sex with your ex-fiancé's boss?"
"Yes." She answered immediately. "I'm interested. And so is Theo."
"For Christ's Sake." I breathed out hard. "It was sex, I don't know what you want to hear from me."
"Are you telling me it was some boring sex?"
"I can't believe I'm talking to you about this." I hid my face in my hands.
I tried to think about last night as little as possible. Not because it was bad sex, but because it was too good. And when I think of him, a chill runs down my spine and I automatically press my thighs together.
"It was the best thing I've ever experienced." I mumbled into my hands.
"On a scale of one to ten?" I could hear in her voice that she was smiling.
"Eleven."
"I knew you'd say that." She said happily. "Theo owes me twenty."
"What?" I looked up at her. "What's with the people in this house and stakes?"
"In time you will learn that . . ."
"Am I interrupting?" We both heard a voice behind us and immediately turned to the figure in the doorway.
"Not at all." Luna smiled. "Quite the opposite. We were actually talking about y..." My hand flew at the speed of light to her mouth, silencing her.
"About nothing." I said between my teeth. "You need something?" I turned to Killian.
"I wanted to talk. Do you have time?"
"Oh, sure." I removed my hand from Luna's mouth and stood up. I gave her a warning look before leaving to see Killian. What was she even thinking?
"Didn't you say you were allergic to strawberries?" He frowned as he looked at the table.
"So you know she's allergic to strawberries?" Luna said with a smile. "I have to say..."
"Zip it, Luna." I interrupted her, but she just started laughing more. "Don't ask." I told Killian when I saw his confused expression.
"Let's go." He laughed and grabbed my hand, which surprised me. He started walking towards the hall and I automatically followed him, but I didn't take my eyes off our joined hands. What is going on?
We walked down the hall to the back entrance that led to the garden. I didn't even notice the blanket on the ground until we stopped by it.
"What is this?" I looked at Killian.
"Picnic." He smiled and gestured for me to sit down. I listened to him and he let go of my hand. He sat close next to me. "It's probably not what you imagined, but it's safer to have it here."
"What I imagined? What are you talking about? What is this, Killian?" I looked at him incomprehensibly.
"You really don't remember anything?" He frowned. "It was one of your wishes. To have a picnic."
"Oh my God." I covered my mouth with my hands. "What else did I say?" I looked at him horrified, but he just started laughing. "It's not funny." I hit his shoulder with my fist.
"For me, yes." He calmed his laughter. "Even if you don't remember telling me, you wanted to have a picnic sometime. Why not now?" He pointed to a blanket on which were various plates of food and glasses.
"Wait. Have you been preparing this all morning?" He nodded. "So you weren't avoiding me?"
"Why would I avoid you?" He frowned.
"I thought...after last night."
"Did you think I was sorry?"
"Well..." I started but didn't finish.
"Lyssa." He put his hand on mine. "The only reason I didn't stay in the morning was because I had a meeting. When I came back to go wake you up, I found you and Luna in the hallway."
"Oh." Stunned by his answer, I couldn't say anything else.
"I've only been thinking about one thing since morning." He grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me closer, connecting our lips in a kiss and electricity ran through my whole body. After a while he pulled away with a smile on his lips. "We should eat something. Otherwise Kai will kill me."
"Did he cook everything?"
"Yeah."
I can't believe Killian did this. It really took me by surprise. And what surprised me even more was our conversation while we stuffed ourselves with the best food I've ever had.
It was so easy. We laughed and talked about complete nonsense. They were little things, but they meant a lot.
I couldn't stop looking at him. Especially when he was laughing. Such a small thing made me happy.
I don't think today could be any better. Even the sun was with us. There was not a single cloud in the sky.
"Why don't you have any tattoos? To tell you the truth, I thought it was mandatory to have them when you were part of the mafia." I laughed.
"My siblings have enough of them for me too." He smiled.
"Come on, Killy. Tell me the truth."
"I never found the right one. They were all meaningless. And if I'm going to put something on my skin, it's going to have meaning."
"You should tell that to your brother. I'm sure I saw a lollipop on...you know whose hand." I rolled my eyes when I couldn't remember his name again.
"Sebastian is in a different league." He laughed. "It was probably some sort of bet."
As our conversation continued, he talked about his siblings with a smile on his face. He looks happy. Really happy.
"What about your brother? Were you close?" My smile dropped slightly when he mentioned him. "Sorry. If you don't want to talk about it..."
"No." I interrupted him. "It's okay. Uhmm...Lukas was the best brother I could have had. This is his." I raised the hand that had the bandana on it. "He wore it everywhere. I don't even know where he got it from. He came in one day and had it. He never took it off. He said it brought good luck." I smiled at the memories of him. "It's the last thing I have left of him." I started playing with the edge of the bandana with my other hand.
"I'm sure he'd be proud of the way you're taking care of it."
"Except I almost lost it." I gave him a nasty look remembering how he somehow took it from me.
"I was wondering what you were going to do. You can't blame me. I needed you to work for me."
"I don't know why I didn't kill you on the spot then."
"Because you liked me even then. I saw the way you looked at me."
"Oh come on." I snorted. "Me? What about you? You couldn't take your eyes off me."
"I remember it differently." He started to approach me.
"Really?" I laughed as he gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
"Sir." We pulled away from each other as one of Killian's security guys appeared next to us. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but there's a woman at the gate. She said her name is..."
"Nyx." I interrupted him and he nodded.
"Looks like this is the end of our picnic." Killian let out a frustrated breath.
*****
So I decided that the story will continue with more chapters so get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions.
Hope you enjoyed. <3