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NATALIE POV
The meeting ends close to 9 pm and Jasmine comes to me smiling.
"How freaking cute is Joshua?", her smile all giddy.
"What'd he say to you?"
"He barely even talked. He looked me up and down and smirked. OMG, his smirk is so hot! He said I was pretty and gave me his number."
I smile at her situation, but my mind goes to Lucas and Joshua.
Cousins?
He barely spoke about his family and now his cousin is suddenly in the enemy agency.
What is this?
Jasmine speaks to me as my eyes shift around the room, and I catch Joshua's eyes on me. He nods his head to come over and I excuse myself from Jasmine and head towards him.
He and Lucas are very similar, both holding dominating features like light tan skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.
He's handsome. But Lucas is more handsome.
"Natalie", he says looking down at me, since he has a good height. "You work at BlackLight, yes?"
"Yes."
"Just asking since Jasmine and Jayden are from another. You're my brother's partner." He says it more like a statement.
"That I am."
"I got to say you're gorgeous."
I roll my eyes. "Do you say that to every girl you see?"
His brows furrow and I signal to Jasmine. His features soften.
"She's pretty. I don't know, I like her. Just because I call her pretty doesn't mean everyone else is ugly, no?" He chuckles which causes me to ease too.
"You're a trainer?"
"Yeah. Been a trainer here for about 4 years now." He looks at me sternly but his tone soft.
"Look, Lucas has always been reserved and he wasn't aware I was a trainer until recently. Don't go hard on him for not telling you."
I sigh.
"I know trust is a major thing with a partner. You can trust him, his loyalty is through the roof."
"Can I trust you?", I rebuttal back.
He laughs. "I like you. You're protective of your case. I can see why he likes you."
"He doesn't. And you didn't answer my question."
He smiles again. "You all are so worried if you can trust me or not. Yes, you can, but the only way you will know truly is if I show it. And you're wrong by the way, he does."
His gaze goes somewhere else and I follow, seeing Lucas' eyes already on us.
"Go to him before he rips my head off for talking to his girl."
"I'm not his girl", I sighed annoyed.
"Fine, wanna friend zone it? Friend. Go to your friend."
I scowl but it turns into a smile and he smiles back, patting my shoulder. I head towards Lucas who changes his gaze to the ground when I reach him.
"You didn't tell me he was your cousin."
"Only Jasmine knew."
"But I'm your partner. I should have known."
"It wouldn't be a big deal and anyways I knew you would find out tonight."
I keep boring into his eyes until he finally looks up at me.
"Are you going to yell at me for not telling you he's my cousin? I didn't know, okay?"
I close my eyes and sigh, giving up on yelling.
"No, no I won't. It's just what if they told him to act on our side? I'm worried and I have a right to be."
"Don't you think I've thought about that too? He seems genuine and I did some background research on his job as much as I could. We should take the chance."
His gaze goes from the ground to me, up and down as if he's conflicted on where to look.
I put my hand under his jaw. "Look at me."
He moves his head away from me and something in me sinks.
Why is he acting like this?
"What's wrong, Lucas?"
"Nothing." He takes a step back. "I'm going to talk to Jayden."
"Hold up-", I gently hold onto his hand.
He looks down and his brows furrow deeply before he lets go and leaves without a word or a glance.
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4 days later
My nightmares are catching up to me. I now get 2-3 a week and every time I force myself to write down what I remember but most of the time I end up getting headaches.
"DONT TAKE HER"
"NO"
"NATALIE"
It's the same words and the voice is distorted but familiar like it's asking me to go closer and it will reveal the voice.
Nights like this I can't help but think of the time Lucas came and helped me out. It was so random, but his comfort seeped into me.
Now he stopped talking as much like he did in December. He's always on and off with me and I can never tell why.
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Next morning
I wipe my eyes from sleep or should I say "not sleep" as my nightmare kept me restless. I took a hot shower and got into a white jogger and hoodie set, and set off downstairs to the smell of syrup and pancakes.
I see Grace taking syrup bottles out, and another figure.
"Morning pretty! Pancake Saturday baby!", she smiles and I see Matthew next to her flipping the pancakes.
Grace gives me a kiss as I head to Matthew. "'Morning."
He looks up and smiles. "Morning! Grace invited me for breakfast hope you don't mind. She wanted you to sleep in today so I spent the morning with her."
I shake my head. "No, of course, I don't mind, you're her boyfriend after all."
He smiles at the word "boyfriend" and gives me a hug before I sit down.
This is the third time I met Matthew. One more after our dinner and we've established a good enough friendship that he hugs me every time we see each other.
Brunch goes by great, as two cooks would make it to be. Eggs and pancakes and fruit and syrups and juices and all that jazz.
I grab my napkin when I see a buzz on my phone.
Unknown
Hey pretty. I need to meet up with you. How does 3 pm sound? Meet me at your school. Btw this is Joshua save the # :)
I furrow my brows.
Me? Specifically?
I let my thoughts slide as I spent the next hour with Grace and Matt before I put on my bulletproof vest and other gear before meeting him.
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3:05
Mark drives me to the school, skeptical of Josh which was understandable. I get out of the car to see Joshua leaning against his car.
"Afternoon pretty", he had his hands in his overcoat pockets. "Come in."
He opens the car door for me and I get in. His car was a black LandRover, sleek and beautiful. He notices me observing his car.
"Like it? Her name is Noir."
I look at him. "Black?"
"Noo. Noir. Noir sounds better than Black, thank you."
I laugh at how ridiculous it sounds and he does too as he starts the car.
"I think French is a beautiful language. Parles-tu francais?", he asks me.
"Oui, un petit peu."
He smiles. "Great accent."
"I'm a spy, most of us are multilingual. Where are you taking us?"
"I'm sneaking you into H.E.X.A"
I straighten up in my seat. "What? Why? How?"
"You are going to sneak in by wearing this."
He gives me a fake face made of silicon and a wig which is black with short hair and bangs.
"Uhm, what?"
"I need to sneak you in because they finished the prototypes for the earpieces and I need you to check something for me."
I look at him and raise my brows.
"What I'm about to do may go wrong, but I'm going to show you the prototype they gave me and I'm going to give you one too."
My eyes widen. "Just me? What about Lucas?"
"If they genetically match us it will be obvious I went behind their back. It has to be you and I know you are stealth enough. Anyways I know him and I'm sure he's napping right now."
He parks by a tree. "Wear the mask."
I start to tie my hair back. "Who is this?"
"The person you will be imitating is one of the cooperate workers of H.E.X.A. Her name is Madalyn. I go out for lunch with her sometimes so it won't be suspicious if you and I walk in together."
I snort. "What are you dating her or something?"
"No, but she did take a liking to me."
I finish putting the mask on and conceal the flaps under my jacket. I look at myself in the rearview mirror. "Well, she's pretty."
Joshua studies my now different face. "She is, but you're prettier."
I roll my eyes and dodge it. "Anything I need to know about her?"
"No, they won't ask you anything. They know you are usually working with me. Okay, come on."
He drives further to the agency and helps me out.
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He's right. He scans his card and enters as the guards take a quick look at us and say nothing. He brings us up and a few hallways to the left when I see their fighting pit, where some agents are training. He brings me to his workroom and closes the door.
He takes his jacket off and gets a box out.
"Who is the other trainer?"
"We have three in this vicinity, me being the first and therefore the busiest."
His hair goes over his eyes like Lucas, and it makes me want to brush it out.
He takes the box off and shows me.
The earpiece looks similar to our BlackPeice the only difference is that it's silver for H.E.X.A
"These are the same. Did they really think they were that slick?", I murmur in annoyance as he laughs.
He brings me to the large window of their training Pit to see agents working and training on a Saturday.
We stay in silence watching them.
"They aren't training to defend. They are training to fight", his voice barely a whisper.
"Why?"
"I don't know", he says staring through the glass.
I get a phone call from an unknown number. I put the screen to my ear when I hear a PA system muffled in the background.
"N-Natalie?"
"Who is this?'
"Kiara. From Blacklight."
The one we erased her memory from.
"What happened?"
"We- we were training and-"
"Whos we"?, I get uneasy.
"Training C."
Training C was the training level for 14-16-year-olds.
"The alarm went off, Boss manually put it and we heard gunshots. B-boss told me to call you and tell you to come over here."
"Give him to me."
I hear shuffling in the background.
"I- we're evacuating, please come we need you."
"Alright, is he okay?"
"He's shot. Boss got shot."
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idk about this chapter man.