With quick, large steps Selene and Shana came out of that mansion.
For some reason, Selene had a feeling that some men might come running after them with guns.
Once they were almost at the end of the street. A car screeched beside them with a sudden halt.
Their already pumping hearts, first came to a stop at the sight of a car and then pumped faster with double speed.
The dark window rolled down and revealed the man driving it.
"KEIR! What the fuck are you doing here?" Selene yelled and glared at him.
"You can give me death glares all the way to home but first, get in the car." He deadpanned.
"I'll take the offer!" Shana huffed and entered the car.
With an angry frown plastered on her face, Selene got in and sat beside him.
He started the engine and zoomed off before any of the guards got suspicious by a strange car in their street.
"What are you doing here?" She gritted once they were back on the safe road.
"I came here to pick you up." Keir answered casually.
"Now why would you do that?! You know how dangerous that area is." Selene waved her hands in air frustrated.
"I know, which was why I wanted to make sure you are safe." He argued.
Shana looked back and forth between the two from the back seat. She never thought she would watch her friend argue with her boyfriend and especially when her boyfriend is a psychopath.
Ex- psychopath, She corrected herself.
Selene twisted her mouth in annoyance, "Keir, after all that charade the only thing that'll help me is that I know you are safe."
"Don't talk to me like that!" He glared at her. His angry darkness filled eyes still scaring her a little.
"You are doing everything for us. And I'm doing nothing." He gritted, "It makes me feel useless."
Selene sighed, calming herself down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to babysit you. I just want you to be safe."
"And in the same way I want your safety." He sighed, releasing air out of his mouth slowly.
They both took an awkward glance at Shana, for facing the situation after everything she went through in the treasury.
Shana gave a toothy smile. "Please. Continue. Pretend like I'm not here." She leaned into the seat and winked at her friend.
Keir cleared his throat to change the subject, "You got the evidence?"
"Almost died of asphyxia but yes." Shana's voice answered his question.
Keir took a concerned look at Selene to which she smiled thinly and glared at Shana when he turned away.
"We will head to headquarters. The sooner the evidence goes there the sooner this shit is off our backs." Selene spoke.
But decided to add more, "But you are not driving us there. Drop us off at home first." She demanded.
Keir opened his mouth to argue but Selene cut him off.
"I swear to devil, Keir if you come there-"
"Okay! Okay! I won't." He agreed before she could finish his words.
Selene huffed and folded her arms across her chest.
"Goddamn it! You need to tone down that fire." He whispered and smirked.
When Selene turned to him, he mouthed 'tonight' making her blush red.
"Totally! I agree." Shana's voice boomed from back making her redden in embarrassment.
Keir, who totally forgot about her, was caught off guard and gritted in annoyance.
"Bloody hell!"
****
Selene placed the pen drive on Thindrel's table and took a step back, with a proud look on her face.
"Fresh from the treasury," Selene said.
Thindrel gave a nod at Ashton and he took the pen drive for confirmation and drafting on their files.
"Very well done, Selene." Thindrel placed the rarest of his smiles.
A self satisfaction occurred in her heart when the Chief patted her back for what she had done.
Selene could deny all she wanted, but she still longed for Thindrel to be proud of her and every rare time he was, she treasured it.
It was her minus. She hated that Thindrel's opinion mattered to her but it was the truth. A bitter truth.
Ashton played the copy on the presentation before them. There was everything. Every single crime, Haden had committed. From human trafficking to money counterfeiting, everything was in it.
Haden likes to keep drafts of his crimes, like shields and trophies. Funny thing, it is what that's going to be his downfall. Selene thought to herself.
"Finally we can take down Haden." Chief muttered to himself.
Selene threw a confused look at him, "Just him? Not the Reyes merchandise?"
He pursed his lips, "Reyes merchandise is a large business empire. It has both legal and unknown illegal marketing services. These copies only show Haden guilty."
Her eyebrows scrunched in further confusion, "So?"
"So.. We need to prove that Reyes' empire as a whole is involved in black market, not just his employer." Ashton clarified her doubt, "We need to find links that can take down both his legal and illegal businesses, so that it can never be built again."
"But that would take months! His brother, Brent would erase any link that attaches to his brother by then." Selene pointed out her concern.
"Then we would find Brent guilty too." Thindrel answered calmly.
Selene let out an unbelievable laugh, "Brent is worse than his brother. He is not easy." She shook her head.
"One step at a time, Selene. We can take Haden with this evidence, so let's do that. His empire and his brother can wait." Thindrel assured her.
Selene wanted to spit at their face that it was why the criminals get away and investigation agencies had to chase after them for years.
She is sick of these agencies by now. They have these protocols, proprieties and decorums that they should follow. While the mafia and underworld won't need them. Which was why they are faster and invincible than the governments.
Even after they find criminals, it would be at the stake of several innocent men.
In her eyes, even these agencies are murderers. They use men when they should use brains and when the men die, they brainwash everyone into thinking that it's for the greater good.
To her, acting good and doing bad is far more sin than being bad and doing bad.
They are worse than Keir. And the common people will never know the truth.
"-We don't have the FBI support to bring in the SWAT Team." Thindrel's voice interrupted her morality thoughts.
"It would be impossible to go into the devil's lair without SWAT, sir. Our men won't be enough." Wyatt, who takes care of the military department of NIA, shared his knowledge.
"Then we isolate him?" Shana proposed her idea.
"Yeah." Selene nodded in agreement, "I can do that."
"Are you sure?" Thindrel asked, "We can't give you back up until we arrive." He warned.
"Yes, I'm sure," Selene said. "But before that I want some things to be clarified first."
Thindrel raised his eyebrow in question.
"I want our deal closed once you have Haden." As soon as the words left from her mouth, a pitch silence followed them.
"That's not how the deal works. You give me both, you have their identity." Thindrel said in an authority dripping voice.
"No, I want them first." She stood her ground.
"It's non negotiable!" His voice boomed across the cabin.
"Well.. Then fuck NIA. I won't work here." She spat.
"You signed a mission. You can't walk away."
His calm, all controlling demeanour was getting on her nerves.
"Then fuck the mission." she seethed.
"It's high treason. You want to throw away your life and your young years with your stubbornness?" He glared at her with his icy blue eyes.
Selene wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. The things she did for this agency, things that took away any self respect she had revolved before her eyes. It infuriated her that after all she had done, she couldn't even ask for her parents identity.
The times she walked into fires of death for this government were all in vain because in the end she can't have one thing she always wanted to know.
"Fine!" She gritted, controlling her rage. "You can have them both."
Another pregnant silence followed her. Shana's confused, irritated eyes looked back to her.
Selene understood what she must be thinking. Why would she agree to give up Keir for those two names.
And honestly, Selene didn't have an answer to that except that it was a decision made in the moment.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Thindrel asked, with an impressed, hopeful smile on his face.
Anything she would say, might be the biggest mistake of her life. But she can't back out now.
"There's one lakeside house that Haden owns. It a deroute from the highway road into forest. He will definitely come, if I ask him to. Same as with Keir. I can lure both of them there." She gulped.
Thindrel nodded with a smirk. "Ashton." He signalled.
"On it!" Ashton swiftly typed on the keyboard and a map appeared on the slide. It soon zoomed to Knight Hills forest and then to the remote lakeside House.
"It's a one hour drive from Manassas sir." He informed.
Thindrel slowly nodded, thinking to himself, "Good. Then without delay," He paused and looked at his team. A small triumph smile creeping on his dark lips.
"Let's take those bastards down."
*****
Originally I didn't write the scene with Keir in this chapter. But since the chapter length was short for my liking I added it. I hope you like it.
And also.. You understand Keir's problem with Shana right? I mean why he can't be friendly and normal with her like he is with Selene...(you know.. Cuz' he is *Whispers* a Serial Killer).
Thank you for all the support, killer thrillers. (LOL I badly wanted to call you that) 💕. Keep reading to find out more and don't forget to vote on this chapter.
~A. ❤️