"No, I want Daisy to come," Lily said and Jasper raised an eyebrow at me.
"Fine," he shrugged.
"Let's go, kid," I said and I let Lily guide me up two flights of stairs were the house was much quieter and a child yelling could be heard.
We made it to a kids room and I smirked when I saw a boy shouting at a tv with a game controller in his hands.
"Does he live here?" I asked Lily.
"No, but he has his own room as he stays with Sammy a lot," Lily said and skipped into the room. "Hi, Zac!"
Zac grinned brightly at Lily and offered her a controller. I chuckled and backed away. "Young love," I murmured and rolled my eyes.
I turned round and walked through Jasper's house. I could hear the pounding music and the chatter of voices and knew I should join the party, but somehow I found myself in a bedroom.
I walked over to the bedside table and spotted a familiar photo. It was the same as the one I had seen downstairs. Of Jasper and someone else when they were babies and his parents. I picked it up and frowned. His parents seemed so happy, so full of joy. Jasper was scowling at the camera but the little girl with silver pigtails was grinning brightly. I looked at Jasper's mother. She was pretty, very pretty.
And there was something familiar about her.
"People say I take after my father."
I jumped and swore when Jasper appeared next to me. "Jesus, make a noise next time!" I snapped.
"My sister takes after my mother."
"I didn't know you had a sister," I said and Jasper took the picture from me and looked at the little girl.
"She was taken a few years after this photo was taken."
"Taken?"
"Kidnapped. Never found. Presumed dead."
I gasped softly. "Shit, sorry," I said quietly.
"I don't remember much of her," Jasper said, his voice was cold, but it was clear he was upset.
"Younger or older?"
"She was younger, but only by 10 months," Jasper sighed and gritted his teeth. "She'd be 18 now, nearing 19."
"How old are you?" I wondered.
"19," he said. "I dropped out of school for a year."
"Oh," I said. "Um, I am sorry about your sister. I know what it's like to wonder about family members."
I thought of my birth parents and frowned. I couldn't help but think about life without Rob. With someone different.
Would I be the way I am?
"What are you wearing?" Jasper asked suddenly and I narrowed my eyes when he looked me up and down, but it wasn't in a perverted way. He looked angry.
"I don't think you're in a position to judge my outfit choices," I said and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Whatever," Jasper muttered and walked out of the room. "Enjoy the party."
"Oh I will," I called and rolled my eyes.
When I finally made my way downstairs I spotted everyone with their different groups. I eyed the people who I knew were agents and noticed how they were looking at everyone, watching them, particularly the undercover agents.
It seemed the majority of us were being considered for recruitment.
"You know the real reason we're here, don't you, princess?" Eli said, walking up next to me. I glanced at him, raising my eyebrow in warning. I still had the bug.
"I do," I nodded. It was simple. The other Agency wanted to get to know the potential recruits more.
"Here." Eli passed me a drink and I shivered when our hands brushed. "It's not alcoholic."
"Cheers."
"What did Blake want?"
"He wants us to go back to the way we used to be," I sighed. "But with everything that's happened I think that's impossible."
"People change," Eli shrugged.
"Look at us two, who would've thought we'd be standing next to each other having a civil conversation?" I said and Eli smirked, catching my eye.
"Who would've thought," he murmured and I coughed when we held eye contact for long than was considered socially acceptable and I took a sip of my drink.
"Princess?"
"Hmm?"
"Do me a favour and don't kiss Noah at this party."
I looked up and Eli and raised my eyebrow. "You know I won't be kissing him, so why say anything?" I wondered.
Eli leaned closer to me and I held my breath. "I just want to make sure," he said lowly.
"Why?"
Eli's eyes flickered to mine. "No reason," he said and went to walk past me but I grabbed his wrist.
"Eli," I said. "Why?"
Eli turned to face me and placed his fingers under my chin, tilting my head up to him. "I don't want anyone-" he stopped himself and gritted his teeth. "Just don't, princess." Eli walked off and I frowned at his retreating figure.
"I thought you didn't like being touched," a voice said from behind me.
"I don't." I looked over my shoulder and spotted Kyle.
"You two looked pretty cosy," he commented and I stepped away from him when he stood next to him. "He touched you."
"He's different."
Kyle narrowed his eyes at me. "I don't see how."
"Alright, stop it with the dirty looks, man," I snapped. "I know you don't like me because I killed that guy, but I don't give a fuck because he deserved everything he got. So stop with the glares and the snappy attitude, or I might give you a real reason to not like me."
"What he did to you wasn't right, I don't care that you killed him," Kyle growled. "I just don't trust you, Daisy Kellerman. Something is off about you."
"If you don't trust me then leave me the fuck alone," I hissed. "You are the ones approaching me, I don't want anything to do with you guys."
"We can't exactly leave you alone," Kyle muttered.
"Why?"
Kyle stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "We just can't."
"If I accept Richard's offer, will everyone take a step back and let me breathe without feeling like I'm being watched?" I asked.
"You're going to accept?" Kyle asked.
"I've got nothing else to fucking lose, have I?" I huffed and ran my fingers through my hair.
"We knew you would accept, we just thought you might drag it out a little longer," Kyle shrugged.
"Then why delay the bloody inevitable," I muttered. "Look, Kol, or whatever your name is, do me a favour and fuck off."
"Bitch," he snapped as he barged past me.
I tensed and gritted my teeth.
"Ignore Kyle."
"Did you get over your strop?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at Jasper who came to stand next to me.
"He doesn't trust people easily," Jasper said and ignored me. "Don't take it personally."
"I won't," I said as my eyes landed on Kent. I stiffened and glared daggers at him who glared back at me.
"What happened between you two?
The fight," Jasper said.
"He said some shit and I got angry," I shrugged.
"He seems like a twat."
"We agree on something," I smirked.
"Daisy, I don't want to be a dick to you," Jasper said seriously. "I want us to get along."
"Get along?" I repeated.
"Yeah. We're not doing that very well at the moment."
"Oh and I wonder why that is?" I said sarcastically.
"All of your questions have answers," Jasper said. "We want to tell you."
"Why can't you?"
"Accept my fathers offer and we will," Jasper shrugged.
I eyed Jasper and took a sip of my drink. "Fine."
"Fine?"
I sighed. "I accept."
I was sitting back in the room that I had been taken to when I was kidnapped by Jasper.
This time I was more willing to come.
But that didn't mean I wasn't bored.
"Four hours," I said when Richard entered with Jasper. "Do you two not own watches or are you just incapable of telling the time?"
"It's a pleasure to see you, Daisy," Richard said and took a seat opposite me. "I hear you've had a change of heart about my offer."
I stared blankly at Richard. "Can we cut the crap and skip to the part where you tell me what's going on?"
Jasper rolled his eyes. "We're assassins."
I raised an eyebrow. "And I'm completely happy about being here. Can we get to the part where someone speaks the truth?"
"Jasper isn't lying. I run an assassin agency. We recruit young, potential teenagers like you and train you to take out people who are a danger to the general public," Richard explained smoothly. "You are an ideal candidate."
"Assassins? You really expect me to believe that?"
"We do," Richard nodded. "You have no family connections, you're currently ruining your life, this is a great way out for you."
"Killing people? Killing people is a great way out?" I asked.
"Don't look so shocked, you've already taken a life," Jasper pointed out.
"He deserved it," I snapped.
"And so do the people we take out. They're murderers, criminals," Richard paused, "rapists."
I wanted to roll my eyes. The whole reason we were on this mission was because this agency was corrupt, they didn't take out the bad.
They took out the good.
"This is ridiculous," I muttered. "This is insane."
"Well, you accepted my offer-"
"Before I bloody knew what it was!" I exclaimed.
I should've been an actress, not an assassin.
"We'll leave you alone, give you some time for it to sink it-"
"I don't need time for it to sink in."
"We'll be back in an hour."
"Are you sure you're not time wasters instead?" I yelled as the door slammed behind them. "Fucksake," I muttered and kicked my feet up onto the table and stared at the wall for the 5th hour in a row.
Assassin agencies sure liked wasting your damn time.
"Let's go," Jasper called when he walked into the room I was being held in an hour later.
"If I'm just going to be waiting around then I'll stay here," I said and crossed my arms over my chest.
"You won't be waiting," Jasper said and pulled a knife out of his pocket and twiddled it between his fingers. "You're training starts now."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're going to give me a knife?"
"It's not like you can beat me."
"Is that a challenge?"
"I've been training to fight since I could walk," Jasper scoffed. "You couldn't take me, even with the skills you have."
I smirked and stood up. "We'll see," I murmured and followed Jasper out of the room. "What if I say no?" I asked suddenly. "What if I refuse."
"You can't."
"That really makes me want too."
"You won't. I won't let you."
"Why?"
Jasper glanced over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes. "Just shut up and walk."
"Fine," I muttered and glanced around the Agency as we walked. It felt and looked so similar to the Agency at home, but it was so different at the same time.
We passed many agents as Jasper took me to wherever we were going and they all gave me weird looks.
It was starting to piss me off.
"Is this because I killed that agent?" I asked Jasper. "Everyone's staring at me."
"It's not because of that," Jasper said dismissively.
"Then why."
"Don't worry."
"I'm not worrying, I just want to know," I snapped.
"Well you're not going to find out just yet," Jasper said and he stopped outside a door. "Please just don't do anything stupid."
I raised an eyebrow and pointed at my chest. "Me?"
Jasper rolled his eyes and chuckled ever so slightly. "Just get inside."
I smirked and walked past Jasper into the room. When I got inside it was full of teenagers fighting, training exercising. It reminded me of home.
I hated it.
"We're just going to access you for the moment. Find out how good you are," Jasper said and guided me over to the knife range. "Everyone here is a recruit, you're all in the same position."
I glanced around and nearly laughed. I was pretty sure that even Emma was better than these recruits.
"Give me the damn knife," I said and snatched the knife from Jasper and threw it across the range within seconds.
It landed directly in the middle of the target.
"Try again," Jasper said and I grabbed a knife from the side.
"I bet you 50 quid I can hit bullseye without looking," I said and glanced at Jasper.
"You'll take someone's eye out, just throw it," Jasper said.
"Wimp," I murmured and Jasper smirked slightly.
"No, I just don't want you to lose 50 quid," Jasper shrugged.
"Oh really?" I asked and looked him directly in the eye as I threw the next knife. It obviously hit bullseye.
Jaspers eyes flickered between me and the knife and he nodded. "You're good," he said. "How?"
"Rough start to life," I shrugged. "You pick up some bad shit."
Jasper frowned. "Go again."
I sighed and threw another knife, making sure not to hit the centre of the target this time. I couldn't be too good. That would raise questions that I couldn't be bothered to lie about.
"Right, come with me," Jasper said and led me over to one of the sparring mats.
"I'm not touching you," I said immediately.
"Daisy, I'm not going to do anything. We're just going to spar."
"No."
"Daisy," Jasper said softly. "I wouldn't do anything you're uncomfortable with."
"But you'll happily fight me?"
"I wouldn't hurt you," Jasper said seriously. "Okay, maybe a little, but you can't spar without getting a bit hurt."
"We've already done this remember?" I said. "When you kidnapped me."
"Adrenaline was high, you didn't know what was going on," Jasper said dismissively. "I want to see how well you fight in real circumstances."
"The same," I said and kicked off my shoes with a sigh. Jasper did the same. For some reason I trusted him. I knew he would hurt me when we fought, but he wouldn't seriously harm me.
"You're very confident, Daisy."
I shrugged. "Fight me and you'll see why."
"I know you can fight, I've seen you. But what we do here is slightly different. I'll start easy," Jasper said as we faced each other on the mat.
"Don't worry about holding back," I said. "I think you'll be surprised."
Jasper rolled his eyes. "And they say I'm cocky."