Angie couldn't do it. Her sweaty hands tightened around the wheel, but her foot shook on the gas. As much as she tried to convince herself that it was the right thing to do, she couldn't. The twelve year old girl yawned in the backseat, looking out the tinted window, unimpressed.

She said something in Japanese which Angie couldn't understand. She gritted her teeth. Why wasn't Emiko doing this again? But no, miss half-Japanese had left with the others while she had to stay behind and deal with this. It had sounded so innocent when she'd gotten the call.

Oh, Angie, before you go, one small thing. Yes, so small. Convince some Japanese tycoon to withdraw his bid on a shipment of weapons. Because screw the Yakuza, the CII wanted them. Such a good price. She's had to not only pretend that nothing was going on, because Tom would've blown his top if she told him, but to also come up with some way of convincing the guy to quit.

So here she was, kidnapping his tween daughter. She felt like smacking her head against the dashboard. How did she always get caught up in this crap? First spying on Snitch Gravel, now this. Tom was probably pissed as hell at her. As he should be. She was out kidnapping children.

"Who are you?" the girl finally asked in English.

Angie looked at her in the rearview mirror. "I'm your dad's new assistant."

The girl huffed and looked out the window again. "Bullshit. You don't even speak Japanese."

Touché. "I'm foreign and still learning."

The snotty little brat huffed again. "Yeah, right. How old are you anyway? You don't look much older than me."

That was true, but only because the girl had a ton of make up on. "I'm twenty two." So said her fake passport and driver's license. It also said that her name was Danielle Richards and she was a natural blonde.

The girl looked at her with the same impassible expression. "Am I getting kidnapped again?"

Angie's heart tightened. Poor girl had been through this before, heaven only knew how many times. No wonder she was so cold and careless. This was way harder than calling her father and threatening him to kidnap his daughter. That was all talk. This... this was not. The traffic wasn't helping. If she could drive at full speed, she could at least pretend she was running away from this mess.

"Of course you're not getting kidnapped," she answered through her teeth. Such a lie. Such a poor, poor lie.

The girl looked out the window again, but Angie could see the tears sliding down her thick layer of foundation. A knot settled in her chest and she pressed the gas harder. Thank God they were coming out of the city.

They raced between fields and houses, moving further away from the city, from the real target. The rice fields were a vibrant, hypnotic green which soothed Angie. The shade of green was her favorite. It reminded her of Tom, of the color of his eyes.

She couldn't do this.

Her feet slipped on the pedals and the car skidded before it pulled over into the gravel edge of the road. Angie hopped out of the driver's seat, went around the car and sat on the curb, grasping her head. Her breathing was labored and she felt the need for a paper bag to blow into.

Pull yourself together. You're an agent! But did that make it okay to do things she knew were wrong? No matter what, no one should ruin the sanctity of family. If you won't do this, someone else will either way. It didn't help. She still didn't want to do it.

With trembling hands, she took her phone out, hoping against hope that the man sent her a message to confirm that he'd given up on the transaction, like she'd requested. There were no new messages. She spent the next minute staring at her lock screen image, a picture of her and Tom in the night market. What would he say if he knew what she was doing?

The back door of the car opened. Great, she hadn't even locked the doors. Her charge could escape and run off just because she was too busy throwing a pity party. But the girl didn't run. Instead, she sat down next to Angie and glanced at her phone.

"That your boyfriend?" she asked. "He's hot," she added once Angie nodded. She whipped out her own phone, a brick of a thing with a bedazzled pink case, and showed Angie the picture on her lock screen. "This is my boyfriend. Not as hot as yours, but he has a great personality." She wiggled her eyebrows.

Not as hot was an understatement. The guy was ugly with his bleached blonde hair and crooked smile. Apparently, his great personality made up for it. And when Angie remembered that the girl next to her was twelve, she threw up a little in her mouth. Then she also realized the girl still had her phone and could call the police at any moment.

Casually, she reached over and took the phone, pretending to study the image closer. Then she pocketed it.

"I am actually kidnapping you."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Another stupid Yakuza thing?"

Angie didn't want to know what she meant, so she just shrugged. "Get in the car."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "You're not scary. I don't have to do what you say."

With an exhausted sigh, Angie lifted the bottom of her blazer to reveal her holster and gun. The girl's eyes widened and she scurried inside the car, locking the door behind her as if it could protect her. Tough luck. Angie had the keys. She also had no intention to shoot anyone, but the girl didn't know that.

"They're making you threaten kids now?"

Angie jumped to her feet and whipped out her gun. She pointed it at the man standing a few feet away, his hands already raised in surrender. He was tall, with greying hair and moustache, wearing kakis and a dress shirt. And a monocle. The guy actually had a monocle.

"Who are you?" she demanded, tightening her grip on the gun.

"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you." He threw a fleeting glance towards the car. "You're scaring the kid."

She honestly didn't care, or believe that he wasn't there to hurt her. "You from the agency?"

He shook his head. Then he took a step forward, but stopped once she cocked the gun. "I just want to talk."

"Unlikely."

"Look, my name is Philip McLane. And the only reason I'm here is to make sure this—" He nodded towards the car. "—doesn't happen again."

Angie narrowed her eyes. This sounded too good to be true. And as she'd learned on the day she realized Herrison's proposal came with a lot of attached garbage, it meant it was. "Oh, yeah? And how are you going to do that?"

"By making it go away. Allow me to demonstrate." He slowly reached his hand in the front pocket of his shirt, where his phone was visible.

Needles and pins ran though Angie's fingers as she watched the man pull out his phone. Half of her wanted to shoot him, but the other half was morbidly curious. Watching her warily, he maneuvered his phone with one hand and stuck it to his ear.

"Do it," he said.

Every muscle in her body tensed as she waited for the bomb to drop, for something to strike her down and prove that in her line of work, there was no room for mercy. Instead, her phone chimed.

Keeping her eyes on her target, Angie took her phone out and raised it in front of her face. She had one new message from the girl's father, telling her he had backed out and her demands had been met. Before she could finish reading it, another message popped up, from the agency this time: Mission accomplished.

She focused on Philip again, her brows drawn together. "How did you do that?"

He shrugged, his hands still raised in surrender. "I just offered your guy a better deal so he'd back off from the shipment your agency wanted."

This set off so many alarm bells. The guy knew about the agency, knew about her mission which was classified, knew her target's business plans and what would benefit him. This was too convenient and she was no longer a naïve little girl. There was only one man who could possibly have that much power.

"Do you work for Snitch Gravel?"

Philip hesitated for the fraction of a second before shaking his head. "No."

"You hesitated."

He smirked. "Good catch. But I'm not lying. I used to, and once you get out, some of the loyalty drilled in you is hard to let go. Just ask Ron."

Ron. This guy knew Ron. "So you did work for Snitch Gravel at some point."

The man nodded and finally lowered his hands as if he no longer thought her a threat. The precision with which he read her expression was frightening. "Yes, I did. Enough to learn a lot about leading an undercover organization. One that I would like you to join."

Angie frowned and lowered her gun. "Seriously? I'm already in an undercover organization."

"Yes." He smirked again. "But only because you haven't heard about mine yet."

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We get a special update because LS has reached 1k reads *throws confetti*. I've also reached 1k followers *throws more confetti* Yay. A huge thank you to anyone who has followed me and especially to everyone reading this and commenting  (Seriously, your comments are LIFE because they help me improve my writing and the series as a whole).

Right, with that out of the way, how do you feel about this chapter? What do you think about what Angie was up to and especially about Philip? Is he good news or more bad news?

Thanks so much for reading. I
Now grace me with your opinions and votes because the puppy demands It! 🐶