I woke with a start. The light was streaming through the cracks in my curtains and I yawned, rubbing my eyes. I looked at Eli who was sleeping peacefully next to me. I then spotted my clothes discarded in the corner of my room. I could see the blood.
"Shit," I whispered, my mind going to the previous night's events. I sat up suddenly and scrambled to the end of my bed, searching for my phone.
Eli groaned as I crawled over his legs and stood up, looking around my room. "Princess?" Eli said groggily. He pushed himself up onto his elbows. "What are you doing?"
"I need my phone," I said and gasped when I spotted it.
"Daisy-"
"Hush," I ordered and grabbed my phone that was on the floor. I saw a message from Nathan and fell back onto the bed, sighing in relief. "She's okay. Fuck. She's alive. She made it."
"Oh, thank god," Eli said.
I dropped my phone and looked at Eli, swallowing. "Did last night really happen?" I asked quietly.
Eli ran his fingers through his messy hair and sighed, nodding. "Are you okay?" He asked.
"No," I said honestly.
"Come back to bed," Eli said, reaching for my hand. "You can talk to me if you want?"
"Yeah, I don't want to do that," I said and stood up.
"Daisy-"
"I'm going to shower." I walked into the bathroom and stepped under the hot steaming water of the shower. Eli had washed away all of the blood, but I still felt so incredibly dirty. I scrubbed my body until my skin was raw. I still felt disgusting.
Eli sat up in bed when I walked back into the bedroom, propping himself on his elbows. He was silent and I sighed. "Say something," I snapped.
"Are you okay?"
"Say something else," I said and walked over to my wardrobe.
"Princess, there's something I need to tell you about last night," Eli said after a silence.
"Your conversation topics are on point this morning," I said sarcastically and got changed into jeans and a vest top. "Talk about the fucking weather for all I care, just not last night."
"I-" Eli stopped himself and sighed. "Fine. Weather looks shit today, doesn't it?" I gave him a look and he shrugged his shoulders. "What? You said talk about the weather."
"You're fucking annoying," I muttered.
Eli smiled softly and patted the bed next to him. "Come here," he said.
"I'm not discussing-"
"I know," Eli nodded. "Sit your ass down next to me, princess."
I rolled my eyes and sat on the bed. "What, Eli?"
"What are we doing today?" He asked.
"How the hell do I know, it's not like I made any fucking plans-"
"Daisy, stop snapping at me," Eli said gently. He took my hands. "I know you're on edge, I understand, but I'm asking you what do you want to do. You need to be distracted, but you also need to be in control, so you're deciding what we're doing. I'm trying to help, give me a chance, princess."
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "Sorry," I grumbled and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I know you're trying to help. I do."
"So?" Eli reached up and ran his fingers through my damp hair. "What are we doing?"
"You are going to get dressed," I said. "We are going to have breakfast and then we're going to go to the tube station and head into London. I'm going to buy a load of pointless shit that I don't need to make myself feel better. And then we're going to get a crap load of junk food and stuff our faces. That's what we're going to do."
Eli nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I guess I better get up then."
Not long later, Eli and I walked into the kitchen and were greeted by Riley and Jacob. Neither of them looked like they had gotten much sleep and their phones were on the tables, waiting to hear any news about Louise.
"Daisy," Riley gasped. "Morning! Are you okay? Are-"
"I'm fine," I said and walked over to my cupboard, grabbing a box of cereal. I pretended not to notice Eli narrowing his eyes at Riley and shaking his head at her. "Any news?" I wondered.
"No, just that she's stable," Riley said softly.
I nodded and sat down at the table with my bowl of cereal. Eli sat next to me.
"Up to much today, man?" Jacob asked Eli.
Eli shrugged his shoulders. "Not really."
"I was thinking that we could all go out for lunch?" Riley suggested.
"No," I said dismissively.
"We have plans," Eli said. "Alone."
"That's cool," Riley nodded and she shared a look with Jacob.
I clenched my fist around the spoon I was holding, the temptation to gouge Riley's eyes out was so extremely strong. If she was who we thought she was, then she was doing an absolutely terrible job of being discreet. Eli placed his hand on my thigh, bringing me back to reality.
"I'm not feeling so hungry anymore," I said and stood. "I think I'm going-"
I was cut off by a loud banging, coming from the front door of the flat. I narrowed my eyes and walked out of the kitchen, followed closely by Eli. "Shut the fuck-" I opened the door and froze. "What the fucking hell are you doing here?"
I was met with a familiar grin. "I've missed you too, sweetcheeks."
"Mason?" Eli said, surprise lacing his voice. "Tom?"
I looked at the third person, frowning at Jasper's closest friend from the Agency. "Kyle? What are you all doing here?"
"We're here about Jasper," Kyle said. "Are you going to invite us in?"
I looked at Eli who gritted his teeth, glancing over his shoulder as Riley and Jacob walked out of the kitchen and joined us by the front door. "You need to get the fuck out of here guys," Eli said under his breath.
"Yeah, we can't do that, mate," Tom said to Eli. "We really need to talk, man."
Eli looked at his best friend and sighed. "Not right now-"
"Who is it?" Jacob called and I stiffened when he stood next to me.
"None of your concern," I said and grabbed Mason's arm, yanking him into the flat.
"Oh, I knew you've always wanted me, Daisy," Mason called and I shoved him into the door of my room. "Ow, uncalled for."
"Inside!" I snapped and looked at Tom and Kyle. "Are you coming in or not?"
"Is everything okay?" Riley asked. "Who are-"
"Everything is fucking great," I said. "Just some old friends who decided to turn up without a damn invitation."
Eli clapped Tom on the shoulder as he walked into the flat and I shoved Mason further into my room. "What are you all doing here?" I exclaimed once everyone was in my room and the door was shut. "What's going on with Jasper?"
"Well, that's what we hoped you could tell us," Kyle said, furrowing his eyebrows in concern. "You were the last person that spoke to him."
I froze. "What?"
"He's gone dark. We haven't heard from him in days. He went completely off the radar yesterday. We accessed his phone history. You were his last phone call," Tom explained.
"So, you have no idea where he is?" I asked. "How the hell do you lose Jasper? You're assassins! Your job is to hunt people down!"
"It's Jasper, if he wants to disappear he's going to disappear," Kyle sighed. "But something is right. He was being secretive for weeks. Whenever I questioned him he shut me off. Something was up. And now he's missing."
I sat down on my bed and sighed. "Shit."
"Can you tell us anything, Daisy?" Tom wondered. "Anything that might help us figure this out."
"He was being weird when I spoke to him yesterday," I told them and explained our phone conversation. "He wouldn't tell me anything over the phone."
"Great, lots of help you are," Mason muttered.
"Do you value your head, because I have no problem with removing it from your body," I snapped, glaring at Mason who raised his eyebrows and whistled.
"You're grouchy today, sweet cheeks."
"You rock up out of nowhere and tell me my brother is missing. My apologies for being a little touchy," I growled. "I'm trying to be normal, blend in, go unnoticed. You three turning up out of the blue isn't helping."
"You're living with a bunch of university students that are probably drunk most of the time, it won't take much to convince them that you two are normal people," Mason shrugged.
I looked at Eli who pursed his lips. "Well..."
"What is it?" Kyle demanded.
Eli sighed. "Nothing."
"If you know something that could help us locate Jasper you better damn tell us," Kyle demanded.
Eli narrowed his eyes at Kyle. "You better watch your damn tone," he warned.
"What aren't you telling us?" Tom frowned, looking between Eli and me.
"We don't work for the Agency anymore," I said. "We haven't got to tell you anything."
"But we can help," Tom insisted.
"No, you've actually made things worse by turning up," I sighed. "And after Blake last night... you guys are making us look damn sketchy."
"Blake?" Mason said. "You saw Blake?"
"Yes," I muttered. "Jasper sent him."
"Of course Blake is involved," Mason muttered. "He always is when it comes to you."
Eli coughed, raising his eyebrows at Mason. "He didn't give Daisy any worthwhile information."
"What did he want?" Kyle asked.
"He told me that there was someone watching me-" I froze as the pieces fell into place in my head. "Oh my god, I'm so stupid. How did we not get this?"
"What is it?"
I looked to Eli. "It's all linked," I said.
I watched as Eli's eyes widened slightly. "Jasper sent Blake to warn you that you're being watched... and we know exactly who is watching you. Us."
"Shit. I wanted to get away from all this drama," I groaned.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kyle snapped.
"Tell them everything," I said to Eli and ran my fingers through my hair. Eli explained our suspicions about my flatmates and how we think they wanted to recruit us. It would make sense that we were being watched. They wanted to make sure we were the right candidates. And somehow, Jasper knew this and wanted to warn me.
Could they be responsible for his disappearance?
"I thought I was being paranoid," I said. "But I wasn't. There has been someone watching me. I'm also scared that they could be getting suspicious of us now. Jacob saw us fighting, they saw me with Blake and now you guys have turned up unannounced. They could start to realise that we aren't normal people. They could start asking questions and I'm not getting pulled back into that life. We purposely haven't revealed much about our lives to anyone, but it's looking like our past is coming back to haunt us." I narrowed my eyes at Mason, Tom and Kyle. "That isn't good."
"So, what you're saying is, that it's possible there's another assassin agency here in London. And they've got their eyes on you two?" Tom said. "And you think Jasper knew about them?"
"We can't know for sure," Eli said. "But it's looking bloody likely that this is all true."
"Surely Richard would know about another Agency?" Kyle frowned.
I shrugged my shoulders. "All I know is that whatever Jasper was looking into, he didn't want Richard to know about it."
"Shitting hell," Mason sighed. He raised his eyebrows at me. "Trouble sure likes to follow you everywhere, doesn't it, sweetcheeks?"
*
"In future, pick up a damn phone and call me, don't turn up unannounced," I said to Mason, Tom and Kyle as they exited the flat.
"We'll keep you updated," Tom said. "We'll fill Richard in about everything we've found out and let you know what the plan is."
I nodded. "You guys better get going then."
"It's been good to see you two," Tom said. He nodded at Eli. "I've missed you, man. Both of you are missed."
"Oh, I wish I could say the same," I said.
"Liar," Mason winked. "You've missed us too."
"Get out of here," Eli said and rolled his eyes.
The three of them said their goodbyes and started to walk away, but I reached out and grabbed Kyle's wrist. "Kyle," I said lowly. "Find him."
Kyle nodded. "You know I will, Daisy."
"If you don't I will hunt you down and and kill you slowly and painfully," I said, smiling at him. "He's my brother. He's just come into my life, I can't lose him."
"You're not going to," Kyle assured me. He pulled away and I watched as he walked away, chewing on my lip nervously.
Eli wrapped his arm around me and kicked the door shut. "What the fuck are we going to do, Princess?"
"Fuck knows," I sighed and we turned around, freezing when we saw Riley standing outside her room, leaning against the wall, watching us with raised eyebrows.
"Can we help you?" Eli wondered.
"You have a brother," she said. I tensed when her gaze landed on me, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "You told me your family weren't in the picture."
"Family is a tricky subject," I told her. "It usually is when you're adopted."
Her eyes widened. She wasn't expecting that. "Adopted?"
"I would really appreciate it if you stop with all the questions," I said. "It's been a shit 24 hours and I didn't think it could get any worse, but you're proving that wrong." I took Eli's hand and pulled him into my room. I looked at him in exasperation. "Can I kill her? Please, it'll be quick and no one would know."
Eli rolled his eyes at me. "Princess, she's suspicious."
"Wow, I didn't realise that," I said sarcastically. "I can't believe I was friends with her. I thought she was cool, but she's really just fucking annoying. I want to smash her face in."
"We don't want them knowing who we really are, we also don't want them recruiting us," Eli said. "How exactly are we going to get ourselves out of this shit show, Princess?"