Sorry for the chapters being published a little late. I'll be on spring break next week, so hopefully chapters will go out a little faster... hopefully.
Just FYI, two character have a little fight... Enjoy :)
*****
Khris moved around the store, curiously looking at each prop. She picked up a normal-looking deck of cards, glancing over at Danny. His back was turned toward her, the phone pressed against his ear. She sighed, looking back down at the package.
She flipped it over, staring at the back of the pack before looking back up over at Lula and Jack who were throwing cards at each other, playing some game, which Jack was winning at. She noticed all the fallen cards on the ground, she smiled a little, walking over to another shelf to Li. "Hey, could I get these?"
Li nodded, walking over to the counter with her. She pulled out a 10, handing him the money. She smiled in thanks, stuffing the pack of cards in the inside pocket of her jacket. She looked at Danny as he walked over to Jack, informing him about the chip.
As Danny was walking over and Jack was leaving, she pulled him aside. "Danny?"
"What?" he looked down at her, stopping in his place.
She sighed, "Look. I don't want to get into it right now, but we need to talk later, okay?"
Danny looked slightly taken aback, a few thousand thoughts racing through his mind about what it could be about. He had a few guesses. "Okay. Did I do something wrong?"
"I don't want to talk about it right now, Daniel," Khris clarified before walking out of the shop. She stood by the door with Lula, giving her a weak smile. They waited in silence for Danny to come back out and Jack to meet up with them with Merritt.
****
When the five arrived back at the casino, Khris briefly explained that she needed to talk to Atlas, before dragging him away into a seperate room. She let out a small sigh, glancing out the small window overlooking the street.
Danny leaned against the wall, semi-prepared for the lecture he was going to recieve. Khris turned back around, looking at him with glossy eyes, but a stern face. "I don't want to be mad at you, Dan, but I really need to feel like you trust me enough."
"I do trust you, Khris. Really, more than anyone out there," Danny motioned back through the door they just walked through. "I know I made some stupid choices and I should've told you, but-"
"No, no but's, Daniel," she sighed. "You lied to me, you kept the fact that you were contacting The Eye out of my reach. I could've helped you or- or done something! What did you want me to think when you left suddenly and then didn't come home until late!"
Danny looked at her incredulously, piecing together what she meant. "You think I would cheat on you? You really think I would abandon our bond?"
Khris hesitated, not willing to make eye contact, "I didn't think you would see other people while we're together, no. But what else should I have thought of? I came up with the worst answers, Daniel. Sometimes when you couldn't come home until almost eleven-o-clock, I thought you died, or someone found you, the FBI, whomever. You didn't leave me with a lot of options and that scared me!"
"Yeah, okay, but you aren't dumb! You could've followed me or done something to find out, Khris. I never meant to hurt you and I didn't mean for you to worry, but I was getting fed up with waiting! Henley left because the supposed Eye wasn't doing anything. We were sitting ducks, waiting for nothing to happen!" Danny flailed his arms a little, pacing a little in front of Khris.
"The Eye is real, Danny. We got instructions to do that show- and yeah, I know it kind of backfired and now we're in this mess, but we weren't waiting for nothing! I didn't want to be the girlfriend who snuck their way into their partner's private things, I'm not like that. You might be justifying yourself now, but you flat-out lied to me about where you were going! "Oh, I'm going to see the guys"," she mimicked. "'I'm going to go talk to Dylan', blah blah blah..."
Danny shook his head angrily, "I'm sorry! I don't know what you want right now and it's driving me insane. I didn't mean to make you upset, I didn't want to make us grow further apart... I just wanted be in control and know what was happening!"
"You always want to be in control," Khris looked at him. "We were living fine together, Danny... " her eyes were burning. "We talked to each other and we were actually close. After Henley left and everyone split up, we still stayed together, but then you started drifting away too."
"You think I meant for that to happen?" Danny asked quietly, taking a step forward. "I might've been seeing The Eye, but you were gone, Kristen. Henley left and you were the one who stopped talking to me about normal, everyday things," he let that sink in, watching her face. "I thought that maybe if I contacted The Eye, we would get back into performing- and you would cheer up or some reaction would spark."
Khris stared at the ground, memories from the weeks after Henley left, flashing through her mind. She remembered not leaving the apartment for any reason and staying up late because she couldn't fall asleep without knowing if her friend was okay or not. She realized Danny wasn't the only one at fault. "I'm sorry."
"Kristen," Daniel stated firmly, standing in front of her now. He placed his hand under her chin to lift her head up, staring into her eyes. "You don't need to apologize. Her leaving was unexpected and a personal choice. I shouldn't have lied and I should've been a better boyfriend for you."
She wrapped her arms around his torso, closing her eyes. "This is such a mess... Why are we always in messes?" she wondered aloud.
Danny sighed, calmer down. He cradled her in his arms, stroking her hair as she stood there, a little guilty. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay," she smiled weakly, backing up from him. She sighed, "I was overreacting."
"You really weren't," he tried, clasping his hand in hers. "Let's go back out, now, alright?"
Khris nodded, walking beside him to the door. She swore she heard footsteps retreating from behind the door. She glanced at Danny who sighed roughly as he opened the door. The two walked out, throwing slightly angered faces at the three Horsemen sitting messily on the couches.
"You guys okay?" Jack asked, eyebrow raised. He was sprawled on the couch, looking like he just sat down in a hurry.
"Just fine," Khris narrowed her eyes at him slightly. "We're going to talk plans now and also..." she glanced at the three of them, "if you heard anything going on, consider yourselves in deep trouble."
****
"Alright, so the lab is made up of two distinct layers: the security perimeter and the clean room," Danny explained, circling two different spots on a set of blueprints.
"The stick we're looking for should be in this core," Khris said, pointing to a specific spot on the TV, where a map was shown of the building. "We're going to have to get underneath, extract it, and replace it with a decoy." Khris handed Jack the hair clip they would use to safely get the chip out.
"Now, we're about to get to the chip," Danny sat down next to the TV, Khris sitting on the opposite side on another chair. "This is the thing about the chip, it's very thin. Luckily, it's similar in weight and size to a playing card." Danny grabbed a few papers and prints, showing the rest of the group.
Khris placed a chip look-alike on different sizes of playing cards. "So we're going to have to brush up on our cardistry," she smiled, looking up at the others.
She took out a deck of cards, handing a few to Jack. She and Lula started practicing throwing the cards to one another as Jack and Merritt did as well. She laughed and smiled as Lula had to crouch to not get hit in the face by the card Khris threw. She almost fell backwards as she ducked down.
She glanced over at Merritt and Jack who weren't doing too well. Jack transitioned to throwing a few to Danny and then Khris, the two doing pretty well. Jack showed a few tricks to Merritt and Lula. Khris laughed, watching them, before going over a few related things with Danny on a desk.
"Merritt, c'mere!" she hollered at Merritt, who jogged over. "Okay, we're going to basically be putting a string through the back of your jacket, so when the chip is attached, it can move on to the next person," Khris explained, grabbing a thick wire.
Merritt nodded along, turning with his arms stretched out for Khris to measure. She pulled the wire to the length of his arms, Danny cutting the wire once they got the measurement. "Great, thanks."
"Sure thing," Merritt patted Khris on the back, glancing at Danny, before going back down to Jack and Lula.
The two worked for a little while longer before Khris spoke up, glancing over at Danny, "Look's like they're having fun... Let's go practice, yeah?"
"Yeah," Danny agreed with a nod, setting down the used supplies and walking back to the center of the room. As Khris joined him in the middle, he called out, "Team practice, let's go."
Lula, Merritt, and Jack joined them in the middle. The Five soon practicing throwing the cards to one another. They had a few mishaps, Merritt almost fell backwards when Lula threw a card at him. They all laughed, of course. Cards were scattered all over the ground as they kept practicing.
For the most part, they were successful. Khris threw the card at an angel to Jack, who grabbed it, and threw it to Lula. She just barely got it with a nervous smile before throwing it to Merritt who caught it in his fedora. He took it out, throwing it behind his back to Danny, who luckily grabbed it.
Khris smiled, high-fiving the others. They all found a seat, Danny beginning to explain what they needed to do next. "So how do we get in? Hannes Pike."
Khris threw down a few pictures of the man, "He's the son of a South African gangster."
"He's RSVP'd with, what looks like, a couple of members of his security detail," Danny explained further. "A doctor, to vet it, I guess, and someone named Buffy."
"Yeah, apparently he travels with a different bimbo every week. Hmm... I wonder which one of us gets to play the bimbo," Khris joked, looking directly at Lula, raising her eyebrows. "Lula."
"Khris," the two said each other's names at the same time.
Danny took a bite of a pastry, raising an eyebrow at Lula who sighed and nodded. "You'll do great," Khris teased, to which Lula rolled her eyes.
"Jack, for a moment they will think you're Hannes, so lead them out and keep them busy," Danny continued on. "Then, our time is ticking to infiltrate the lab and get the card to the market, where I'll hand it off to The Eye."
"I'll be going with you," Khris commented, meeting Danny's eyes.
He looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows a little. "No, you will not be."
"Yes, I will. I'm going to go with you and that's final," Khris stated firmly, clasping her hands together, leaning forward in her chair.
Danny opened his mouth to argue, but Merritt butt in, "Atlas, stop. Khris is going, she said so. That's it. Now, please, continue."
****
Khris and Lula walked through the halls, getting to the elevator where the three guys were waiting for them at the doors. There were also two guards in the elevator waiting for them to board on.
Khris was wearing a short, skin-tight, black dress, showing off her curves. It reached her mid-thigh. The chest of the dress was a complication of strings, but looked nice on her. She had a black, knee-length suit-jacket type thing draped on her shoulders and black stilettos with ankle straps. Her blonde-brown hair was worn in curls, covering over her shoulders.
She walked into the elevator next to Lula, the guys trailing after them wearing suits. She smiled over at Lula who was wearing a short, black dress with a large fur coat around her arms and shoulders.
Danny stood next to Khris, Jack and Merritt standing on the other side of Lula. The five stood in silence, the elevator doors closing, the machine beginning to descend. Danny snaked an arm around Khris' waist, pulling her closer. He whispered in her ear, "You look gorgeous."
Khris blushed slightly, a smile appearing on her face as she leaned into Danny's touch. "Why thank you, sir. You look pretty great yourself," she spoke in a hushed tone.
She looked up into Danny's blue eyes as he smiled down at her. The elevator doors slowly opened into the large, bustling casino. Khris looked forward, a confident smile appearing on her face. "Let's do this."
The five all walked out of the elevator, dispersing their different ways to get the job started. She strutted forward, sitting down at an open slots machine. She looked at it, acting like she was going to play. She brushed her hand over a few buttons before glancing over to her left, seeing Merritt disappearing underneath a Chinese dragon puppet.
Khris stood up from the slots machine, smiling at a few passing people. She wandered around until she found Lula sitting at one of the tables. She tapped her shoulder, "C'mon."
"Really? I'm doing pretty dang-"
"Lula," Khris rolled her eyes playfully. "Let's go."
"Fine," Lula stood up with a chuckle, following Khris around the crowded room. They found Danny, walking through the crowd. Khris looked around the room, seeing guards in yellow jackets, leading the real associates of Hannes, out of the casino.
The three walked through the casino until they found Jack and Merritt, who joined them on their walk. Khris glanced back and saw Walter looking down at the five, she flashed him a smile, before looking back at where she was going.
****
Thanks for the read!
(2448 words)