Chapter 23
Caden was going to MAKE-SURE not to be late today. He was going to make sure he knew where he put his keys; For one second that idea almost worked but alas he could not decide a good place to put them and he changed it around so much he still had a hard time finding them. Maybe he should just take a taxi or something.
He got to work and he wasn't sure if it was selfish but Victoria nor Tammy crossed his mind.
He was going to park where he normally did only to realize Valerie had taken his spot again. He smiled wondering if she parked there just to mess with him because she knows he always parks there. He rolled his eyes as if she could see him and parked beside her.
"Good morning Caden." Daniella greeted as always when he entered the building.
"Good, wonderful, morning to you too." Easy to say, Caden was in a good mood today.
As he reached his office he sat down and started doing paperwork. Yes, Caden Rogers willing came in and started doing paperwork!
So what has gotten him in such a good mood? Valerie decided to accept the opportunity to be his partner.
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Daniella opened her mouth to greet the next agent when she heard the door open, but when she realized it was just Valerie she closed her mouth.
"Morning Ms. Jones." Daniella tried to be polite. She lacked the cheeriness she had when she spoke to Caden and traded it for more of a business-woman type tone.
"Morning Denise." Valerie did not even look over and she did not even say it in a nice tone at all. She said it as if it was just some huge inconvenience to respond to her.
In response Daniella frowned and rolled her eyes. Of course she did not even know her name, then again not many agents did. Though most agents do not just brush off her greeting as if it was nothing.
Valerie walked to Caden's office and politely knocked.
"Come in." Caden's voice came through the door.
She entered and offered a kind smile to Caden.
"How nice to see you this morning." Valerie greeted.
"You too." Caden assured her.
Valerie walked forward but instead of sitting in the extra office chair she sat on Caden's desk, crossing one leg over another. He seemed to barely notice.
"What are you working on?" Valerie questioned.
"Just some mission reports. Same old, same old."
"You write mission reports?"
"Mostly, don't you?"
Yeah maybe like three since the whole time she's worked here. Valerie paused before answering.
"Uhhh.. sure." She responded.
Caden did not even notice how suspicious that seemed.
It was silent until he finished but when he did he set his computer to sleep mode.
"Something tells me you don't like paperwork." Caden commented, now turning his attention to her.
"Something tells me you actually don't either." Valerie said right back.
He shrugged in response but neither one spoke. They just smiled at each other and it didn't feel awkward to them at all.
*He has a nice smile.* Valerie noted to herself.
Then the phone began ringing.
"Hello?" Caden answered.
It was a mission of course. Something about a missing person, eighteen, female. Anderson then gave him the address.
"Ready for your fourth mission with me Val?" Caden asked. He said forth counting the first missions they went on together a few years ago.
A cocky grin fell upon her face.
"Of course I am."
They went down to the armory. They did not rush but it was not because a missing person was not an emergency, it was just that it was not something they had to completely rush about as long as they were not super slow.
They holstered up quickly and then went to pick out their weapon next. Valerie was staring at one Caden was not to fond of but she indeed decided she liked that one.
"That's a bad handgun. You have to be right up close." Caden told her.
She seemed to shrug off his comment.
"Not if you know how to aim Caden." She insisted.
"You trying to say I can't aim Jones?" He playfully asked.
She stopped and put a finger to her lips and had a thoughtful look as if thinking about it.
"No.. Just not as good as me." She told him jokingly. Valerie was pretty sure she aimed better but she didn't.
"Oh come on I taught you everything you know." Caden insisted, grabbing a handgun he liked and then holstering it.
She gave him a confused look that said he was crazy.
"You did not, I learned on my own." Valerie insisted.
Caden could not tell if she was still joking but they still smiled at each other.
"You know I haven't been to practice at the shooting range in awhile. You wanna see who's a better shot?" Caden asked.
ARRO had a private place where agents could go to train. Basically it had everything a gym would but with a shooting range downstairs.
"I haven't either so yeah. Just don't cry when I end up being better." Valerie was only joking.. about the crying part.
Caden placed his hand on his heart and gasped over dramatically which caused Valerie to roll her eyes at him. They exited the weapon vault and walked over to the counter to get their radios.
"Trash talking already are we?" Caden asked.
She offered a soft smile that truthfully only Caden would get from her. She would never smile that way at anyone else.
"Only kidding around Caden." She just wanted to assure him.
Caden handed his badge to the woman and she got him his radio.
"Badge please ma'am." The woman said.
Valerie kind of side glanced to try and play off the situation.
"I don't have it on me." Valerie admitted.
"What ARRO agent doesn't have their badge on them?" The woman was more surprised than she was being a know-it-all.
"Don't use that tone with me. I could have you fired." Valerie snapped.
She didn't even use a bad tone!
"Hey," Caden grabbed her arm pulling her back some. "It's alright." He told Valerie.
"We are kind of in a rush if you could please just let her have a radio. I will make sure you don't get in trouble with Anderson." Caden assured her.
With that she handed over another radio. The girls exchanged glares as she picked it up.
"Thank you." Caden said gratefully, taking Valerie lightly by the arm to make sure she walked away and did not start a fight.
Valerie kept silent not even thanking the woman.
They walked up to the helicopter pad and boarded their helicopter which was a dark blue.
What Caden was not exactly expecting was to be taken to a mansion. He made a displeased look as they landed. He did not exactly like doing missions for rich people because some of them could be really stuck up but he would not put every single rich person in that category.
The helicopter polite decided to wait for them seeing no dangerous reason he could not stay, but he did turn it off so the blades would not be loud and distracting.
Caden approached the gate which had a slot for a keycard which gave away it was locked. A red button was on the same panel bellow a speaker.
Caden was just about to press it when someone spoke through the speaker first.
"Are you with ARRO?" A male voice asked.
Caden glanced around for a camera he could not find.
"Yes." Valerie responded, pressing the button.
Caden pulled out his badge and showed it around because he still was not exactly sure where the camera was. There was no respond from the other side but the gate popped itself open just enough so that it wasn't completely closed.
Caden and Valerie finished pushing it open and walked toward the huge house.
A man opened the door with a woman standing behind him. The couple looked kind of familiar to Caden but he just couldn't place where he had seen them. They let Caden and Valerie in.
"I'm agent Jones." "And I'm agent Rogers." They both introduced them self.
"Our daughter hasn't come home and she won't answer her phone, I'm worried something's happened to her, she didn't even tell us she was leaving!" The woman (aka the mother) said.
"This was not my idea to call you guys." The man (aka the father) said.
"Don't worry sir it's no problem. We can find your daughter." Caden assured them.
The man still did not seem amused and rolled his eyes. It bothered Caden to think this man did not even care to think his daughter could be hurt, that he would just rather assume she was not.
"I've told Paula a hundred times she's probably just run off for a few hours because she is mad at us." The father replied.
"You don't know that for sure Allen!" Paula insisted.
Caden recognized those names! Paula is Pamela's younger sister. She had a lot of facial features that resembled Pamela. He also knew Anderson and Allen didn't get along at all.
"Yes I do, she does it all the time. She's just mad we won't buy her a new sports car. There is nothing wrong with any of the five she already has." Allen explained.
Five sports car? For one person?
"I don't get why you wouldn't just let her have one. She only does it because she likes to spend time with you."
Valerie and Caden started becoming uncomfortable listening to them argue. Caden cleared his throat unnaturally loud to gain their attention.
They both looked over in an instant and seemed kind of embarrassed about arguing in front of them.
"We will look for your daughter." Caden assured them.
They walked toward the door having Allen show them out.
"Hey do you know any places your daughter likes to hang out. Any place she normally likes to go when she runs off?" Caden whispered so Paula would not hear. Allen seemed happy someone believed him but also had a strange bewildered looking expression.
"Uh.. No."
Caden frowned. This man had no idea what his daughter was even interested in.
"She's driving a yellow sports car." Allen said.
Caden nodded.
"This better not be a waste of time." Valerie mumbled.
Caden's face turned red when he realized Allen heard that.
"I'm sorry sir she didn't mean that." Caden apologized and Allen seemed to just brush off Valerie's comment anyway.
They left and told the helicopter polite they were going to walk into town, which was not far from where they are.
"Never tell people their call is a waste of time." Caden told Valerie, surprised she would say something like that.
"I didn't. I said it better not be." Valerie explained like there was actually a difference.
Caden decided to just let it go.
When they reached the town it would not be hard to find their daughter, Polly, because so far they have not seen one sports car, more or less a yellow one.
They continued walking through town when they finally saw Polly's car. It was outside an animal shelter.
Caden entered first, having a bell ring when he opened the door.
A woman stood up from ducking behind a counter (probably to pick something up) when she heard the bell. The young girl put on her best friendly smile.
"Polly?" Caden asked. He was almost positive it was her, she looked just like Pamela and Paula with the exception of blonde hair.
Polly looked him over, her eyes landing on the handgun holstered on his side. She grabbed ahold of a broom from under the counter without them noticing.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Your parents are worried about you." Caden told her.
"Why didn't they just call?" Polly glanced over at her phone sitting on the counter.
"They tried." Caden started to notice her scared expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I'm with ARRO." He assured her.
"That rescue place?" Polly questioned, releasing her grip on the broom handle.
"Duh." Valerie said. Caden gently elbowed her. It's safe to say Valerie isn't really a people person.
"Ugh, I can't believe they called you guys."
"Hey it's what we do. Better safe than sorry." Caden assured her. Valerie rolled her eyes at what Caden said.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Caden questioned.
Polly picked up her phone and saw the battery had died. She then walked over to a terrarium and picked up a turtle. Then she walked back over to Caden.
"I'll tell you if you take this little guy home." Polly said, giving him a puppy dog look.
Caden laughed.
"Sorry but I don't think I need a turtle." Caden admitted.
"He's been here for a month. Poor thing just needs a home. I volunteer here once a week. This was the first time I forgot to tell my parents I was going into town." Polly confessed.
"Why not tell them you work here?" Valerie wondered.
"Have you not met my parents? My mom would freak out that I help out for such a small place and my dad wouldn't go for me working somewhere and not getting paid."
Her parents sound like Pamela's father.
"You better get home. Their worried about you." Caden told her.
Polly nodded understand.
"I'll tell my boss. You think I could seak this little guy home?" Polly asked, petting the turtle's shell.
"I don't think I should answer that." Caden admitted with a smile.
"I'm gonna go with yes." Polly said.
They made sure Polly got home safe, apparently with her new secret turtle, and then Caden and Valerie headed back to work.
They hopped back on the helicopter to take them back. After walking around all day Valerie was tired and really just wanted to sleep for a few minutes. Sitting on the metal bench next to Caden she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Caden smiled when he saw her resting on his shoulder.
When they first got back Caden told Anderson about how it was Paula and Allen that called and Anderson said he honest did not even recognize their voice.
They had no more missions the rest of the day.
Valerie doesn't seem good with first impressions with anyone. Vote if you liked this and don't be shy to comment, I love feedback!