I jumped off the bike and took the helmet off, shaking my hair out. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Anytime,” Jasper shrugged and I looked over as Eli pulled into a parking space close to us. “Are you okay, Daisy?”
I let my stare linger on Eli too long and he caught my eye when he got out of the car. “No,” I said and tore my gaze away. “I’m not.”
“Will it make you feel better to know that we have a plan?” Jasper asked and leaned back against his bike.
“A plan?” I said and raised my eyebrow. “You have a plan?”
“A beginning of a plan,” Jasper said. “We’re just brushing up on the details.”
“What is it?” I demanded.
“I-”
“Don’t give me some bollocks about how you can’t tell me,” I warned.
“Chill, I can tell you,” Jasper said and rolled his eyes. “But I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Dinner, remember?”
“Ah shit, I forgot about that,” I muttered. “Can’t you tell me now? I’m a very impatient person.”
“I know, but I can explain it properly later. We have class right now.”
“Who gives a shit about class?”
“Clearly not you.”
I smiled. “You got that right.”
Jasper rolled his eyes at me and gently shoved me towards the school. “Let’s go.”
“Touch me again and I’ll break your hand.”
Jasper placed his hand on my back. “Do your worst, little sis.”
I grabbed his wrist and twisted his hand up at an angle. “I will hurt you.”
I gasped when Jasper got out of my hold and bent my hand back, pulling the bones at an unnatural angle. “Whatever you do to me, I can do to you,” Jasper whispered.
“I’d re-think that if I were you,” I said and Jasper looked down to where I was digging a small knife into his side.
“Where were you hiding that?” Jasper asked and smirked as he let go of me.
“An assassin never tells her secrets,” I said and smiled at him.
“Put the bloody knife away before you get caught,” he laughed and I slid the knife into my boot.
“I don’t know what class I have first,” I said as we walked through the school halls.
“Gym,” Jasper said. “Have you got a change of clothes?”
“I don’t even have a pen, let alone a change of clothes,” I shrugged. “Ah, shit, Adam will be there.”
“Adam,” Jasper repeated. “What’s he like? Was he a good brother?”
I looked at Jasper and crossed my arms over my chest. “He was just Adam,” I shrugged. “He never showed he cared, but he did. He was as good of a brother as I was a sister.”
“When it comes down to it... who’s side will he choose?” Jasper asked lowly.
“Robs,” I said without even pausing to think about it. “Definitely.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Even after what Rob did-”
“They always got on better than I did with them,” I said dismissively. “They got on like a father and son should do.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” I shrugged and I sighed when we got close to the gym and I spotted Adam.
“Good luck,” Jasper said and walked into the guys changing rooms. I looked at Adam and he waved me over.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I said sarcastically.
“Where have you been?” Adam asked.
“I’ve been ill,” I lied.
“I saw you with one of the agents earlier,” Adam said. “Blake informed me the other week that you and others have been approached by them.”
“He told you?”
“I may not be directly on the mission, but I still get told everything,” Adam said. “How’s it going?”
“Wonderful. They’re so friendly I’m considering joining them,” I said sarcastically. “Rob won’t mind if I switch agencies will he?”
“Don’t even joke about that, idiot,” Adam said and rolled his eyes. “Have you heard about the trip that’s happening?”
I raised an eyebrow. “The what?”
“School trip. I think the history department is running it,” Adam said. “They want to take students to the museums in London.”
“You’re telling me this why?”
“Because the trip is going to last a few days.”
“Yeah?”
“So the people on the trip will be staying overnight in London.”
“Just get to the fucking point.”
“Well, let’s just say, if you go on the trip then you’ll be going home.”
“You will need to get your permission slip signed by a parent or guardian!” The teacher was saying while he handed out forms about the trip to London. “To go on the trip you will need to have the form signed and bring payment in by the end of the week! No form, no trip. No money, no trip- but it is sort of compulsory so get the form signed and the money.”
I turned to Beth who was reading the form. “Adam was right,” I said and looked at the form. We were going to be staying in a cheap hotel in town. In our hometown. “Makes sense,” I said. “It would be so expensive to stay in central London so they choose a small London borough with a tube station with easy access to the city.”
“So we get to go home?”
I took a deep breath. “We get to go home.”
“We’ve got a problem.”
I stared into my locker, debating whether to close it and look at Eli or ignore him completely. I took a deep breath and shut my locker and turned to look at Eli, looking anywhere but his eyes. “We?” I said. “I don’t think so.” I stepped past Eli, but he grabbed me and pushed me back. “Eli-”
“Shut it, princess,” Eli said and I glared at his hands that were on my waist. “Adam has been trying to reach Blake.”
I froze. “What?”
“He’s not had an update in a while. Blake was the one that dealt with him as he can’t speak to me without wanting to punch me.”
“I know the feeling,” I muttered.
“He’s going to keep asking questions if we can’t answer them,” Eli said. “He’s your brother, what can we do?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped. “Now get your damn hands off me! And he’s not my brother, is he?” I shoved Eli away from me and flattened out my top. “Now if you try and manhandle me again, I’ll kill you.”
I walked forward, but Eli grabbed me again and pushed me back up against the lockers. He put his arm across my chest, holding me in place. I glared and grabbed his wrist, twisting it in an unnatural angle, smirking when I saw him wince ever so slightly. “Let me go, or I will act on my word, Eli.”
“Give it your best shot, princess,” Eli whispered.
I lurched forward, but Eli slammed me back. “I’ll break your hand,” I hissed.
“It’ll heal,” Eli snapped. “If we all get killed because Adam’s figures us out then we won’t heal.”
I gritted my teeth and sighed. “You’re really fucking annoying.” I hooked my foot around Eli’s ankle and pulled him to the side. I turned as I did and slammed him up against the lockers. I smirked at our switched positions. I held my arm across his throat. “I’ll talk to Jasper. See what we can figure out. Now leave me the hell alone.”
I stepped back from Eli and sent him one last look before walking off. “What the hell!” I exclaimed when I was pulled back again. “Eli, you’re going to fucking wish you-” I was yanked close to Eli and suddenly his lips were on mine. I gasped softly, but didn’t pull away. Eli’s fingers tangled in my hair and I wrapped my arms round his neck.
I kissed him back.
Our tongues danced back and forth. It was heavenly. His kisses ignited a fire inside me. I wanted more. “You can’t push me away, Daisy,” Eli growled and ran his teeth over my lip. “Not when I know you want this.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I muttered and kissed him again. His lips were soft, but he was rough. He-
“And that’s enough PDA with my little sister.” I was pulled away from Eli by Jasper who crossed his arms over his chest.
“I thought you said you screwed up with him,” Jasper said. “I was not expecting you to be necking him in the hallway.”
“We’ve been screwed up since we met,” Eli said and took a breath, running his fingers through his hair. “Isn’t that fight, princess?”
I narrowed my eyes at Eli. “Stay away from me,” I warned and grabbed Jasper’s arm and pulled him away from Eli.
“I don’t really want to talk about you and the guy you just kissed, but what just happened?” Jasper wondered.
“Nothing.”
“You said you fucked up. You said you pushed him away.”
“I did.”
“That’s not what it looked like.”
“He didn’t get the hint,” I sighed. “Can we not talk about it.”
Jasper shrugged. “That’s fine by me.”
I stopped and looked up at Jasper. “Can we skip last class and go straight to dinner?” I asked. “I can’t be fucked with school, and I need to talk to you about Adam.”
“What sort of brother would I be if I allowed skipping class?”
“The type that’s an assassin and already has the qualifications,” I said and raised my eyebrows.
“Lead the way, little sis,” Jasper said and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Shut the hell up with the ‘little sis’, big bro.”
“We’ve really got this sibling squabbling perfected,” Jasper smirked.
“That’s probably the only normal thing about us,” I muttered.
“Everything will be normal soon,” Jasper said.
“Will it?” I said.
“No, probably not,” Jasper changed his mind and we made it out of the school.
“I would kill to be normal,” I muttered and put the helmet on when we reached Jasper’s motorbike.
Jasper locked eyes with me. “I think we may end up doing exactly that.”
Jasper took me to Nando’s. “Of all places,” I said and rolled my eyes as we sat down at a table. “Nando’s?”
“Being an assassin doesn’t pay the best, so you’ll have to deal with Nando’s,” Jasper said and picked up the menu, his eyes flickering over the options.
“So, tell me the plan,” I said.
“We haven’t even ordered yet, patience,” Jasper tutted.
“My patience has worn thin,” I said and snatched the menu from him. “What’s the plan?”
Jasper straightened up in his chair and looked directly at me. “We go on a school trip.”
I stared blankly at him. “I was expecting something a bit more... extravagant than that.”
“You’ve heard of the trip that’s happening? We’re staying in your home town.”
“I know, but we don’t need a school trip to get to my town. What the hell are we going to do once we’re there?” I demanded.
“We kidnap agents,” Jasper said.
“That’s insane-”
“And we turn them. Get them on our side. Get them to fight with us.”
“What if they don’t?”
“Then we’ll deal with it,” Jasper said. “If we get enough agents on our side, we can bring the Agency down. We’ll spread a virus through the Agency’s systems, we’ll turn the whole Agency dark. Electricity will cut out, guns and weapons will be locked away, no one will be able to access them with no electricity. Once we’ve done that then we’ll storm the Agency.” Jasper pursed his lips. “And shoot anyone who gets in our way.”
“And what? We take a nice little trip to Rob’s office and blow his brains out? It’s a lovely idea, but I don’t think it’s going to be as simple as that.”
Jasper raised an eyebrow. “I never said it would be, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it.”
I sighed and looked down at the menu. “On second thoughts, I’m going to need some food to get me through this.”
Jasper smirked. “We can do this, Daisy. We’ll start with your friends. You said that three agents you lived with didn’t come on the mission? We can start with them, and then move onto other agents. I’m pretty sure once we’ve explained everything they’ll join us. All of you did.”
“Rob has his claws in pretty deep,” I murmured. “It most certainly won’t be easy.”
“When is anything easy?”
“We’re going to have to plan this out a hell of a lot more,” I said. “But after I’ve got some chicken in front of me.”
“Obviously we aren’t going to be able to get everyone on our side,” Jasper was explaining as I bit into a chicken wrap. “But if we can get enough people positioned in the Agency when we attack, then we’ll already have inside men; it will be a lot easier to take down agents we haven’t managed to turn to our side. Once we take down Rob, then we’ll take control. We’ll dismantle the Agency, while giving current agents a chance to work for us, or start a new life. A clean slate.”
“We need a list of names. All of the agents at the Agency. We can go through them and work out who we can get to easily and who are the most likely to join us,” I said. “And we’re going to need more than the few days that this trip lasts.”
“That’s not a problem,” Jasper said. “We’ll go with the school to London, we just won’t return with them.”
“Adam will realise if we’re not back at school,” I frowned. “And speaking of Adam, he’s going to want to hear from Blake, otherwise he’s going to get suspicious. Blake is the person who updates him, and he’s not had any updates.”
“We’ll need to do something about him,” Jasper murmured. “In the meantime, I’ve got an idea to keep him off our backs.”
“Care to share?”
“Jack, he’s your tech guy, isn’t he? I hear he’s pretty skilled.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” I muttered and rolled my eyes. “But yes, he is.”
“Has he ever worked on voice manipulation?” Jasper asked.
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” I asked.
“Well, find out,” Jasper said. “Because if he has then we’ll be able fake Blake’s voice, and give Adam a perfectly fake update on how the mission is going. He won’t suspect a thing.”
I sighed. “For now.”