Contradicting to Luke's initial intentions, we didn't make it back inside until sunrise, with our proposed walk soon morphing into a hike, ranging far further than the house grounds. Time had passed easily upon us, with an uncountable amount of mindless conversations stealing our focuses.
The morning sky was untouched, a lighter blue seeping over the navy that had vacated the space throughout twilight. The frost that we had seen formulating not long past midnight was now a white blanket stretching across the garden's entirety, while the air was crisp and icy despite the sun resting over the peaks of the mountains in the distant horizon.
"You're tired," Luke murmured as we entered the kitchen, leaving the cold air behind us. "You should head back to bed."
"I'll be okay," I shrugged, peeling my coat from my body. "Doubt that I'd be able to get back to sleep now anyway. And if anyone needs sleep, it's you. I don't even want to know why the hell you were up last night."
"Same reason as you," he answered simply, taking a seat aside me.
"You had a nightmare?" I questioned slowly.
Luke smiled softly as he sighed, "No, but you had one."
My response was cut short by Michael beckoning Luke from across the room, "Luke, mate, didn't realise that you guys were back."
"Just got in."
"Good job, pretty sure that the boss was about to send out a search party for the two of you."
"I did tell Blake where we were going."
"Yeah, he tried to tell boss that but you two disappearing at three in the morning was never going to end well with him was it?" Michael retorted.
Luke laughed this time before questioning expectantly, "What's he sent you for this time round then?"
"He needs you to prep the team for Morocco this morning."
"They don't leave until Tuesday though?"
Michael appeared somewhat taken back, "They're leaving this evening? Did Blake not tell you?"
"No," Luke murmured. "No, he didn't. Why's the boss brought it forward?"
"Didn't see the point in waiting."
"Right." Luke sighed as he heaved a hand over his face. "Tell the lads that I'll be in my office in five, I'll talk them through in there." Michael nodded before stalking out of kitchen. I turned to Luke, who had raised himself from his seat and was currently stood by the kettle. "I know what you're going to say Adelaide."
"I could say the same for you," I commented quietly as I watched him reach for a mug in the cupboard above him. "Luke, they need you."
"And I need you," he mumbled. "I need you safe Adelaide and I feel like that can't even be ensured if I'm not in the same building as you, never mind continent. This trip could be meaningless, so I don't want to risk it if it means being away from you."
"It'll be meaningless if you don't go, it'll just be a repeat of last time. A complete waste, so go with them. You might not be able to protect me physically while you're gone, but by you going and possibly finding more information, then that's keeping me safe in the long run isn't it?
"I don't know what to do Adelaide," he admitted softly, finally letting his gaze fall back on me as he leant his palms onto the counter behind him. "I could be gone for a week or so, and with everything that's gone on with us two in the past few days, I don't feel that it's right for me to leave you, nor safe for that matter."
"You've seen the amount of guards we've got here Luke. Do you really think that you should be too worried? And if you're at Legrenzi's place, then surely it means that you can track him and his team's movements, which would include if they were to attack here? You'd know sooner than if you didn't go."
"And obviously I don't want you to go, because well I'll worry about you and everything in between, but I understand that this is your job. It's what you do best- what you need to do."
Luke let a heavy groan escape his throat before he slid a mug in front of me. "I need you to do me a favour."
"Hm?"
"I need you to tell Blake that he's going to have to look after the boss' daughter while I'm gone," he said with a laugh, almost as if he was mocking his own decision to go. A chuckle left my lips at his words, my hands gripping the mug in front of me. "Which won't please him, purely because he thought he was going, but I'll send Michael with us instead."
"If this is about the whole running thing-"
"I don't know what you're talking about Adelaide," he grinned. "Anyway, I really should go and prep the team now, they're probably all waiting."
He made his way around the table and over to me, leaning slightly down with the intention of peppering a kiss to my forehead, but he abruptly stilled himself before speaking once more, "You should join me actually."
"What use would that be?"
Luke shrugged, "There isn't one really, but there wouldn't be an issue with you coming either. At least that way you'll know exactly what's going on. Oh and you can break the news to Blake..."
"No chance."
"Not even if I were to-"
"Nope," I said, jumping up from my seat.
Luke feigned a frown, "You don't even know what I was going to say."
"I had a good enough idea," I grinned as Luke broke his forced pout into a smile, motioning for me to follow him.
Luke's office was full of familiar faces, the regular team of guards all conversing with one another until they noted our presence. However, there was one face that I was slightly less pleased to be greeted with.
"Luke, Adelaide," my father greeted from where he stood at the far end of the room. The office fell quiet as I edged further into the room. "I'll leave you lot to it in a minute. I've got a call to make with the base back home, but Luke you know what you're doing."
"Yes boss."
Following my father's departure, which involved him blatantly avoiding my eye line, Luke directed for me to take a seat in the chair behind his desk as everyone else in the room settled. Luke lifted his body up to sit on top of his desk, allowing his body to been seen by everyone in the room.
"What time do we leave exactly?" Luke said.
"We?" Michael repeated questioningly. "You're joining us?"
"I was convinced in to believing that it was probably necessary if wanted to be successful this time."
I smiled at his choice of wording, catching his eye line flicker my way momentarily.
"What about um," Blake began, pausing to clear his throat. "What about Adelaide?"
"That's where you come in Blake," Luke confessed, turning his head to shoot a grin my way. "You've been assigned the top job I'm afraid."
"What? I'm not going with you guys? Why the hell does it have to be me?"
"I trust you with my life. So I trust you with hers."
"That'd be cute if I weren't annoyed right now," Blake retorted. "Can she not just come with us though?"
Michael scoffed before chiming in, "Yeah there's an idea, take her directly to the people trying to hunt her down."
Luke laughed, "Yeah don't go giving her any ideas Blake."
"I'm being serious. The last thing they'd expect is for us to bring her with us."
"That's true," Michael commented, accompanied by a chorus of agreements throughout the room by the other guards. "But at the same time, they wouldn't doubt the idea that Adelaide would be where ever Luke is."
"That's my concern, so it looks like you're staying here Blake. Anyway, Morocco. From my perspective, the main point is to ascertain what they could possibly want from Adelaide, along with obviously getting more on their numbers, resources and Legrenzi himself. All of which we won't be able to get from a distance, we know that from last time, so we need to get inside."
"How the hell do we do that?"
"That's the problem," Luke said, leaning back onto his palms. "Maybe with a little more time we could have planned something out, but we leave tonight and although we could push it back until next Tuesday, it makes sense to go as soon as possible. We'll be able to get into the area undetected quite easily, but getting inside his place is a different story. His guards all work around on a twenty minute rotation, switching between all view and access points, but where they switch to varies every two hours which makes it look as if there isn't a pattern and therefore makes it harder for people to get in, but his method has a lot of logic behind it. His security are split up into four teams, with two people from each team following the same rotation, meaning that there are periods of time when access points will be unguarded, but these will last no longer than four minutes. Getting in is doable from this, but then we'd have to plan our route around the building based on these rotations by working out which areas are going to be vacant."
"Not the easiest job then," an older, tight-faced man stated from the centre of the room.
"We could always send one of you lot in to work for Legrenzi," I suggested in a low tone, causing everyone's widened eyes to flitter my way. My sudden outburst of speech came as a surprise, after having remained silent throughout the duration of the conversation. "Sorry," I mumbled, instantly feeling regretful.
Luke turned to me, folding his arms over his chest. "No go on?"
"I meant like a mole, as such," I explained with apprehension. "It's clearly dangerous and Legrenzi evidently wouldn't give out trust easily but simply working for him would mean that you'd pick up on things and it'd give you an opportunity to hunt for files or even get stuff out of the men already working there."
It was silent for a minute as I scanned my eyes around the room, hoping for someone to draw the attention away from me, but everyone sat quietly, as if waiting for Luke to comment first.
"I knew there was a reason we were trying to save this girl," Blake remarked, causing a succession of hushed laughter to flood the room.
"Now do you understand why I brought you along?" Luke said, directing his question to me as he let a laugh fall from his lips. "So who do we send in? Choices are pretty limited if I'm being honest, a lot of us have had dealings with him before. Like Michael, they were tracking you in New York, so you're out of the question, same with Clarky, I know he isn't here but they've been tracking him since the raid."
"You're not really an option either mate," Blake commented. "Bit of a familiar face round there ey?"
"You can say that again. What about you though? You haven't dealt with them before?"
Blake shook his head, "No, I haven't, so they shouldn't know my face. I'm up for doing it, if it's what's needed, but I'm not even meant to be coming with you guys."
"We'd send you in after our trip," Luke affirmed. "We'll do what we can from the outside and if needs be attempt to get in. You're our chance of getting things in the longer term."
"How do I get in though, on his team? I can't exactly rock up on his doorstep asking for a job."
"He's always looking for work. Any chance to increase his numbers he takes, it's just gaining his trust that's the issue."
"How the hell are we meant to do that though?"
"Luke?" I chimed. "Did you find anything from the case files that we collected the other day? On the people he's had dealings with?"
"A bit, why?"
"Well if you can get to the people that he's worked with in the past, people that he's trusted, then you can use them to recommend Blake. That way Legrenzi wouldn't have a single reason to not trust him?"
"I really do think that you should reconsider not taking this girl with you, you know?" Blake quipped, earning a mocking glare from Luke.
"Hey, she has a name," he reminded. "But I'm happy just letting her do the brain work for the time being."
I pushed my back against the counter, my hands landing softly against the smooth surface as my eyes watched Luke searching through the fridge. "Please don't tell me that you're going to try and cook again. Luke we've been through this."
He frowned at my mockery, shutting the fridge door as he made his way over to me, "I'm just trying to be nice, and don't you dare mention the fire thing because that was one time."
"I would never," I laughed. "But since we're on the subject..."
Luke stepped forward, bringing his index finger to my lips and prevent me from continuing any further. "Don't you dare," he mumbled, fighting the grin that threatened to adorn his features. He removed his finger, dropping his hands to plant them on the workspace either side of my hips.
"So are you making dinner or?" I grinned cheekily.
"Shut up," he sighed, closing what little distance remained us but was prevented from doing so as a small laugh slipped through his throat, causing him to gradually pull back. "God, I'm going to miss you."
I smiled sadly, "I know the feeling, but you'll be back before we know it. It's a week at most right?"
"Yeah. I doubt that we'll be that long though, so we're probably looking at a few days or so. You know we haven't actually been apart since you were let out of the hospital."
"That feels like such a long time ago."
"It was," Luke commented, raising his hand to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. "You really impressed the lads today with your contribution, like the things you were saying, it were as if you'd been in the unit for years."
"You could say that I have."
"I'm serious, it was all so clever. I doubt any of them would have come close to any ideas even remotely like that, so thank you."
"You would have," I said as he placed his hand back onto the counter beside me, his feet rocking slightly.
He shrugged, "I wanted to see what you'd come up with first, I knew that you wouldn't have it in you to just sit here quietly if something came to you. You undermine a lot about yourself Adelaide, and in all honesty I shouldn't have any concerns about going away because I know that you know how to protect yourself. I just worry I guess. I want to be there to protect you and I'm sorry if that comes across as being possessive sometimes, I just want, need you to be safe."
"I understand that now. And I've seen firsthand how much of a priority my safety is to you. I trust you, and I know that you'll do everything in your power to keep me from getting hurt, but sometimes it's out of your control Luke."
He sighed, not offering a reply and making it clear that he didn't want to continue this conversation any further. So, instead I cupped my fingers under his chin before I pulled him forward so that his lips found mine.
"Are you guys like asking to be caught?" We broke apart instantly at the sound of a voice, whipping our heads around to find Blake smirking as he leant his elbows onto the breakfast bench. "I honestly don't think that you could be any more discrete," he retorted sarcastically as I watched him wide eyed. Luke, to my upmost surprise, casually laughed with him, refusing to reduce the distance between us.
"We were in private," Luke argued.
"A kitchen that's shared by the volume of people that live in this house does not count as private mate," Blake responded. "Then again, I think many of those people have pretty much figured you two out anyway, I mean I had an rather large inkling before you told me so-"
"You told him?" I questioned Luke, to which he smiled sheepishly.
"Oh please Adelaide," Blake scoffed. "That guy was like a little boy on Christmas morning, he couldn't have held it in any longer if he tried."
"Is that right?"
Luke avoided my question, "I'm starting to rethink leaving you in Blake's capable hands now Adelaide."
"You might actually be allowed outside Adelaide," Blake remarked, earning a glare from Luke. "I'm kidding. I won't ever live up to Luke's standard but I'm certain that he'll do his best to make sure I'm doing a good enough job, even from a different continent."
"That's very true, but you also know that I could get you fired in a heartbeat."
"You could, but you wouldn't," Blake opposed as I watched their interaction, only now realising from their mockery and playful insults, how close they actually were. "And Adelaide, don't get me wrong about the whole looking out for you thing. I have nothing against doing it, it's just a pretty big responsibility, because not only are you the bosses daughter but you've now got a rather large tie with Luke, and well I can't even decide which ones worse, never mind considering the two of them together."
"I'd tell you not to worry, but you and I both know that that would be a lie," I said, causing Blake to laugh. "But seriously, don't see it as looking after me because much to Luke's displeasure I'm actually quite independent, so think of it more as me knowing that I have someone around if I need them, yeah?"
"Try telling Luke that."
"I might appear as if I control her every movement Blake," Luke said, shifting his gaze between the two of us. "But she's right, she doesn't need looking after, as such anyway, just keep an eye out for her."
"You got my word mate," Blake replied, taking a much more serious tone. "Now when do you and the team leave?"
"An hour or two, so I should probably go check that everything is ready. You coming with Adelaide?" he requested, motioning his head toward the door.