"Dais," Blake called and walked into my room minutes after Eli left.
"What?" I asked and retied my trainers.
"Can we talk?"
"About?"
"Us? You-"
"Tomorrow," I said and pulled my hair into a ponytail. "I'm going for a run."
"Promise?" Blake said.
"Yes, we'll talk tomorrow," I said and walked past Blake and put my earphones in.
I had to get out. Distract myself. I didn't get nervous. I didn't stress out. I didn't get scared.
But this time... I was.
I was never scared or nervous about missions, I was amazing at what I did. I was one of the best. It was in my blood.
Running away was not.
I'd done it once, and I hadn't succeeded.
But this time I wasn't alone.
I set off at a jog down the road and tried to distract myself. I had hours to kill, I might as well get some running practice in.
My mind wandered to Beth, and to Joey... Even to Blake.
I would miss them.
But I couldn't stay.
I shook my head and turned a corner, slowly to a stop when Jasper and Kyle blocked my path.
"What now?" I asked and crossed my arm over my chest. "I only just left the Agency."
"You need to come in," Kyle said and stepped forward almost threateningly.
Jasper put his hand on Kyle's arm and gave him a look. "We need you, Daisy."
"Why?" I asked cautiously and took a step back. "I've got something to do tonight, can't it wait until tomorrow-"
"Now, Daisy," Jasper said sharply.
"I told you I've got shit to do," I said.
"Daisy!" Jasper yelled and I jumped. "Just fucking come with us."
I eyed him cautiously, somehow knowing I would regret my next word. "Fine."
"What the hell is going on?" I snapped as Jasper led me through the halls of the Agency.
"You're meeting everyone else that's been recruited," Jasper said and pushed open a door that took us into a large room. My eyes scanned the people that were stood in a semi circle in the centre and I frowned.
Everyone was here.
"Jasper, what's going on," I whispered and he nudged me into the room. My eyes landed on Beth.
Since when was she recruited?
I glanced and Carter and Max. They weren't recruited either. Neither was Emma.
"Jasper!" I snapped and noticed agents stood around the edge of the room, waiting patiently.
"Just be quiet," Jasper said and nudged me toward the end of the semi circle. I looked at Mason who was next to me and raised my eyebrows.
"I've got no clue," he shrugged.
"Something doesn't feel right," I murmured. "What are we waiting for?"
"The boss," Mason said and I glanced at Jasper who was waiting a few meters behind me.
"Jasper-"
"Shut up, Daisy," he said just as the door opened and Richard walked in.
"Welcome," Richard called and I narrowed my eyes when he looked at me. "I apologise for the way that some of you arrived here. I know some of you have been here previously, and some of you have not. Now I know that those of you we haven't met before are going to be very confused about what you're doing here, but let me make this easy for you. Drop the act."
"Fuck," Mason whispered from beside me and I glanced at him.
You'd have to be stupid if you didn't realise what was going on.
"They know," I said lowly. "Everyone is here. Everyone apart from-"
There was a shout and I gasped when Blake was dragged into the room, his hands bound behind his back and his mouth gagged.
"Let him go!" I called and stepped forward. As soon as I moved the agents that were stood behind us all snapped into action and I glared when they raised guns. There was a gun pointed at every single one of us.
"Daisy, we don't want to hurt anyone, so just listen," Jasper said and I jumped when I heard him behind me, closer than I expected.
"Let him go, Richard," I said and Richard looked directly at me. He seemed angry. Hurt. Frustrated.
And it all seemed aimed at me.
"He's the one running this operation, isn't he?" Richard said and Blake was shoved to the ground. "He's a bit young. You must have another supervisor."
"I guess you'll never know," I shrugged. "You won't break any of us."
"We won't need to break you," Richard said and I tensed when Eli was dragged into the room by two people. They were struggling to keep him contained and he swore at them when they shoved him to the ground next to Blake. "I have all the information I need. I just want to give you all a chance to be honest with me."
"If you're just going to kill us then get it over with," Eli snapped and looked at me, raising an eyebrow. "I guess it's still a way out, eh, princess?"
I couldn't help but chuckle. "They're not going to kill us," I said. "They're stun guns. So our plans to get out are a bit fucked up."
"Get out?" Mason spoke up. "Yous were going to run?"
"It's Daisy what do you fucking expect," Jack scoffed.
"Eli, we're a team!" Tom called. "And you were going to turn your back on us?"
"Now really isn't the time to discuss this," Eli snapped and shook his head. He looked up at Richard. "Who is it? Who have you got on the inside. It's the only explanation. It's the only way you'd know about us."
I scanned the room again and sighed. "Of course," I muttered and I watched as Eli looked around, noticing someone was missing.
"Dante," Eli said my thoughts out loud.
"Sorry," Dante called and I tensed when he walked through the doors and stopped next to Rob. "No hard feelings."
"You little rat!" Mason yelled.
"Nice acting," I said and Dante smiled sarcastically at me.
"Thanks," he said.
"So now what," I said loudly. "You've caught us. You know who we are. What are you going to do with us?"
"Talk to you," Richard said. "Thanks to Dante we know the basics, but some of you here are a lot higher up in the Agency you work for. We don't want to hurt any of you, but we will if we have too."
"Let's see how effective torture training was," Dante said and I clenched my hands into fists.
"I never did like you," I snapped.
"You'll want to talk to Eli, Blake and Daisy first," Dante said. "They will know the most out of anyone here."
"You won't get anything from us," Eli said dismissively.
"Let's see about that," Richard said and I flinched when Eli and Blake were both grabbed and harshly yanked up.
"Who thinks they can dodge a stun gun?" I yelled, and gained everyone's attention. "I think we should find out. Don't you?"
Mason smirked at me and moved first, followed quickly by Carter, Beth and Max. They all turned round and faced the agent behind them.
Chaos erupted.
"This hasn't really gone to plan, has it?" I said and knocked the gun out of Jasper's hand. "Did you really expect us to sit back and let you torture us?"
"We wouldn't torture you," Jasper grunted and I gasped when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his chest.
"Bullshit," I growled and twisted out of his hold.
"It makes sense now," Jasper said and scoffed. "I can't believe I didn't realise it before. Your fighting skills-"
I punched Jasper and he stumbled backwards. Before I swept his legs from underneath him I glanced round and swore. We were overpowered. We were fighting, but it wouldn't last much longer.
Eli had untied Blake and they were working together, but they were surrounded by enemy agents.
Jasper fell to the ground next to me and I looked at the gun that had slid across the floor. Jasper followed my gaze and scrambled up as I lunged for it.
I yelled out when I was tackled to the ground and I gasped when electricity filled my body and took control. I went limp as soon as Jasper took the taser, that I hadn't seen him reach for, away from my side and he yanked me up from the ground.
"Why aren't you going to kill us?" I groaned and he held my arms behind my back.
"We're not murderers."
"That's exactly what you are."
"You've been misinformed, Daisy," Jasper said into my ear and he held me still as I was forced to watch everyone I knew get defeated.
I groaned in frustration and tried to fight against Jasper when I saw Eli get taken down. It took a few men, but they managed to hold him down and he caught my eye as he was dragged from the room.
"Let him go!" I yelled weakly. "Let him go!"
"Come on, let's get you out of here," Jasper said and I fought when he pulled me through the room and away from my friends who were falling to the ground unconscious.
"Get off me!" I growled, but Jasper was stronger than me and he easily dragged me out of the room and I was thrown into an interrogation room, similar to when I first came to the Agency.
It was dark in the room so I didn't see Jasper take some plastic cuffs out of his pocket before it was too late. He secured my wrists together and then tied my bound wrists to a bar that ran across the middle of the table.
"Daisy, I really don't want to hurt you," Jasper said and I blinked when the lights flashed on and I sighed, adjusting my position on the seat Jasper had shoved me on to.
"Funnily enough I don't believe you," I said and watched Jasper carefully as he sat opposite me. "When did you find out who we were?"
"Today," Jasper said. "Dante had been waiting for the right moment to inform us about everything. He overheard you and Eli discussing running away so we decided to act quickly."
"The little bitch," I muttered. "So he's one of you, isn't he? He's just been undercover."
Jasper nodded.
"Fuck," I sighed. "All I wanted was to get out."
"Why?" Jasper asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Dante hasn't filled you in on that part?" I said.
"He's not had that much of a chance to give us in depth details about every single one of you," Jasper said.
"He's slacking," I said and rolled my eyes.
"Why were you going to run away?"
"That's none of your business," I said dismissively.
"It is," Jasper said.
"Look, you're not going to get anything from me," I said. "I may not give a shit about the Agency, but I'm not snitching. You can't do anything to me that I've not already endured."
"All the scars you have," Jasper said. "Your body has been bruised and battered for years and years. You've been tortured as well, haven't you?"
I ignored him.
"How many times? Who by?"
"Us." I looked up when Richard walked into the room. "She's been tortured by us."
"What do you mean?" Jasper asked and Richard pulled a chair up beside his son and placed his laptop on the table. A few seconds later we were watching a video and I tensed when it suddenly became very familiar to me.
"Remember when we heard of a girl that tried to assassinate one of our agents: Jacobi James?" Richard said to Jasper. "It went wrong for her and she was captured by his security. Jacobi realised who she was and tortured her. I gave him my permission." I glanced at the video and cringed when I saw myself being assaulted, tortured, nearly killed. "It was found out that she was Rob's daughter and we tried to use that against him to take him down, but she stayed strong, didn't spill and stayed alive."
"Turn it off," I snapped when my scream came out of the speakers. Richard closed the laptop and looked at me.
"I apologise for that, Daisy," Richard said honestly. "I wouldn't have allowed that to happen if I knew who you were. If I had even seen a glimpse of you back then I would have stopped it instantly."
"You know who I am," I said. "Rob is your brother. You know I'm his daughter. If you were so willing to let Rob's daughter be tortured back then, why is it different now?"
"Daisy McCaughlin," Richard said slowly. "That is not who you are."
I rolled my eyes. "Cut the shit," I said. "I'm tired, angry, confused and I just want to get the hell away from this fucking life."
"I can give you answers-"
"I don't want answers!" I yelled and pulled against my restraints. "I just want to leave!"
"With Eli?" Jasper said. "Why do you both want to leave?"
"Do we need a fucking reason?" I snapped.
"No, but you have one," Jasper said.
"It's none of your business," I growled.
"We're family, Daisy," Jasper said and I laughed.
"You let me be tortured because I'm Rob's daughter! What sort of brother does that?" I looked at Richard. "How sick can you be to try and take someone's daughter away from them!"
"That's a question I've always wanted to ask Rob," Richard said stiffly and I paused.
"What?"
"I'm sure Jasper has told you that he had a sister," Richard said softly.
"He said she disappeared," I said.
"She was kidnapped. By Rob."
I opened my mouth to defend Rob, but I didn't. Rob wasn't a nice man. I wouldn't put him past him to do something like that. "Why would he kidnap his niece?"
"To try and take me and this Agency down. Long ago we founded this organisation together, but soon the power got to his head. He lost sight of the goal we wanted to achieve. We wanted to help, take out the bad in the world. It wasn't long before he started taking out the good. He took out anyone as long as he got paid. I couldn't stand for that, so I started fresh. I've been running this Agency while trying to take down Rob ever since."
"So we're the bad guys," I said and sighed. "I was right about doubting Rob's intentions for this mission. He did lie to us."
"He's lied to everyone. He lied about taking my daughter. We had no proof, but we knew it was him who took her. He's been trying to take us down just as we've been trying to defeat him. We searched for years for her, but it was like she just vanished. Became a different person that we couldn't find," Richard said.
"I'm sorry," I said and I looked between Richard and Jasper. "No one deserves that."
"All I wanted to do was find my little girl," Richard said. His voice was broken. Rob definitely was the mean brother, Richard seemed kind and fair. Everything Rob wasn't.
Yes, I thought that, even though I was tied to a table.