THIRTEEN
KADEN FELT LIKE HIS HEART had been crushed into two. Scarlett had twisted it right out of his chest and ripped it into bits, leaving it in the dust. It wasn't rejection — the woman didn't even know of the feelings he harnessed. No, it was pure and utter betrayal.
William had told him he was being dramatic.
Him and Scarlett were supposed to be in on this together, not a one man mission. When she had gotten captured, Kaden had expected her to accept the fact that he wanted to save her and go, run as fast as she could. The woman exceeded his expectations, however.
Scarlett wanted to stay, and for what? The brunette had claimed it was for their safety, that she would figure it all out. Yet Kaden couldn't bring himself to believe her. Was it for Lucien?
Anger boiled in his chest.
Lucien was most likely brainwashing Scarlett, convincing her that all the things she had done once before were wrong — working as a government official, not supporting Anonymous, being against the protests, supporting policemen and women.
Even through her betrayal, he still loved her.
When him and William had been released, they formulated a plan to keep Scarletts kidnapping out of public view. It's what she would've wanted, after all. Once the two men would return back to their own city, they would tell Chris that everything was fine — that Scarlett didn't need their help on this mission anymore. Occasionally they would find a way to keep in touch, but other than that, they had no way of knowing if she was dead or alive.
Telling Chris that Scarlett didn't need their help anymore was surprisingly easy. He only responded with a shrug of his shoulders, mumbling some intelligible words and moving on with his work.
That's when she approached them. A journalist from The Washington Post, who had introduced herself as Jen.
Jen wanted to know about their most recent mission, coming from a woman who was very interested about the day in the life of a federal agent in times like these. It seemed to them that she was only searching for more drama on Anonymous, or news about the most wanted criminals so she could make barely any money writing about it online.
When the two men refused to tell her anything, Jen calmly handed them her business card, and walked away without another word.
The brunet at first had shoved the business card into the depths of his pockets. He would never find a use for it. But as the days passed by, Kaden's anger only grew.
Kaden didn't care about what Scarlett wanted anymore. He wanted those hackers to be gone.
He grabbed the crumbled business card out of his pocket in a rush, typing the phone number in.
"This is Jen at The Washingington Post," the woman said on the other line. "How may I help you?"
"I have a story, Jen. Keep it anonymous for me, will you?"
•••
LUCIEN STARED AT THE WORDS on his bright phone screen, his thoughts running through his head. There was no possible way that this could have gotten out, unless Scarlett had access to outside communications — in which she didn't. Her fellow Agents were another plausible answer, but why would they expose something that the government would want to deal with in private?
The story had gone viral in a day. Twenty four hours and their entire reputation had gone down the drain.
FEDERAL AGENT KIDNAPPED BY HACKTIVIST GROUP
SCARLETT PIERCE, FEDERAL AGENT GONE MISSING
IS ANONYMOUS A THREAT TO LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS?
The man clicked his phone off, running his hands through his hair. Federal agents everywhere were most likely now on the lookout for Scarlett, missing posters stapled to poles in the streets and her picture put everywhere on social media. They were in deep trouble, and Lucien knew it.
Kidnapping someone was immoral, and extremely illegal. If they were to be tracked down and arrested for it, the court system wouldn't go easy on any of them. Twenty years in a high security prison, if he got lucky. Even more for hacking into government systems and exposing celebrities for their wrongdoings.
If they were to be caught, Lucien would be in prison for the rest of his life.
"What am I going to do, Frankie?" Lucien asked his friend, shaking his head. "Everyone is going to be searching for her."
While Scarlett stayed in his room, Lucien had asked Francisco — or Frankie, as he liked to be called — if he was willing to share. Frankie's room was smaller than his own, but it would do for times sake. He had agreed immediately, letting the man stay for as long as he needed to.
Frankie was currently scavenging through his fridge, looking for anything edible. He closed it halfway to look at him, "Decoy? Red herring? We've dealt with things like this before. Give them some bullshit clues and put them to work while we figure out what we're actually going to do. Fake her death?"
"We are not going to fake her death."
They had tried out that plan nearly two months ago with a drug dealer that had been hacking into police systems to clear his records. In short terms, it didn't work, and he was arrested within a week of his funeral. The funeral didn't have a open casket showing, or a proper burial, which was a red flag to the police. Despite their failure, the best part of it was that the wife and children believed it, too.
Made their story much better.
"I'm out of ideas, then." The man pulled out a container from the fridge, which was covered in plastic wrap. "You want some of this?" Frankie asked, tapping on the food.
Lucien shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm heading out," he told him, grabbing his jacket and mask from their spot on the couch. "Call me if you need me."
"Grocery run? I'll make you a list—"
"I'm going on a small mission, not a grocery run." Lucien opened the door, looking back at Frankie. "And if you need groceries, you can order them."
The man shut the door, walking down the empty hallways. He secured his mask on his face, pulling the jacket around his torso.
Lucien retrieves his phone from his pocket, dialing a number and waiting for them to answer.
"Lucien?" Natalia questioned. "What's wrong?"
"Can you watch over Scarlett while I'm gone?" Lucien requested. "It won't be long—"
"Where are you going?"
He hesitated for a second, finally deciding that Natalia deserved to know the truth. "Washington."
"You didn't tell us you were going to Washington."
"It was a last minute decision. And they don't need to know I'm going." Lucien shook his head. "It'll be quick. I just need to hunt down a journalist."
"Hunting down a journalist doesn't sound like a quick task."
"Just promise me you'll watch over her?"
"Yeah, I promise."
NOTE
I swear I'll edit the ending of this chapter since I rushed it a bit.
I forgot to thank you guys last chapter for 7000 reads! I hope you're enjoying the story!
(Also, I know I included a small GIF of Scarlett in the beginning even though her presence wasn't even in this chapter. I'm going to continue to do that, though, because I don't have faceclaims for the other characters. I want that to be up to your own imagination.)