Nicole

Simon held his hand out to me, trying to keep his smile but I knew he was worried, "Come out of there, Sasha... It isn't safe."

"Leave me alone!" I yelled from under the parked truck I hid under. My bare feet burned from running, my trembles taking complete control over me. I could see the hurt in his eyes but he tried his best not to show that.

"You can trust me," he promised. "I'm your friend, not your enemy..."

You can trust me, I'm your friend...

You can trust me...

I can trust him...

A soft, cool breeze glided across the hairs on my skin, waking me up along with the gradual sounds of police sirens approaching.

Police sirens?

I blinked my eyes open and the first thing I noticed was the bottom of Jaden's face. We were still in the house and I was laying on the couch with my head resting on Jaden's lower belly of his slouched body.

He had the fan turned directly on me while he narrowed his eyes, smashing buttons on a controller and focused on the T.V.

How did he get in here? Where's Miguel?

I turned to the T.V and saw a virtual man speeding down the road with the cops chasing him with 4 stars at the top corner of the screen. I turned my face back to Jaden, confused.

Simon had video games installed?

He glanced at me for half a second, turned back to the game, then looked at me again with realization this time.

He paused the game and set the controller to the side, "Look who's finally up." he smiled, using a finger to gently move a strand of my hair from over my eye.

I stared blankly at his face as the memory of my panic attack started to come back to me.

He frowned, "Are you feeling okay, babe? You had me a little scared."

I nodded, "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough... You butt dialed me and I got here as soon as I could."

I sat up, eyeing him, "You didn't happen to hear... What I..."

He nodded, "I did... Come here." he scooted closer to me with his arm coming around me. I cuddled up to him, taking in the warmth of his body and watched as he reached to turn the fan off.

"How much did you hear?" I asked quietly.

"Basically everything." he gently kissed my eyebrow. "I hope you're still in the mood to talk."

I chuckled softly, "Of course..." I thought for a moment on what happened earlier. He probably thought I was psycho now. I hope he didn't but I wouldn't blame him if he did. He just witnessed me stabbing a piece of furniture mercilessly. "Hey, whatever you heard or... Saw in there, don't mention it to anyone, okay?"

"You know I wouldn't, Nicki. It isn't their business... If you need someone to talk to about anything, I want to be the one you come to. Every time I learn something new about you, I always have to find out the hard way."

"I know, Jay..." I moved my eyes away from his, saying, "As much as I care for you, I just can't tell everything about myself to anyone. Even Simon doesn't know my darkest secrets and it's best that he doesn't... Just tell me you understand so we can move on."

He bit his lip in doubt and questioning but he nodded, "I understand..." he then snapped his fingers in realization, "Since I'm already here, we can start our little meeting. Maria is keeping our food warm in the oven. We can talk and eat."

The maid came in the living room at the sound of her name, "Yes?"

Jaden shot me a hysterical look, "You know she doesn't speak English? I tried to ask her where the bathroom was and she didn't even understand me. I even tried Spanish, watch." he turned to the maid who only smiled cutely at him, "Dónde está el baño?" he asked in broken Spanish.

Maria looked from him to me, clearly confused, "No English." she giggled.

"See?" he laughed. "I'll go get the food."

He tried to stand but I pulled him back down then turned to Maria, "Pouvez-vous m'apporter la nourriture du four, s'il vous plaît?" (Could you bring my food from the stove, please?)

"Ah, oui! Bien sur, mademoiselle." (Oh, yes! Of course, ma'am.) she quickly hurried to the kitchen.

Jaden looked at me with his mouth slightly gaped open, "She's French?"

I nodded, chuckling.

"And you speak it?" he asked, looking at my lips.

"I do. Plus a few other languages." I smirked.

"Other languages? What other languages?"

"I'd say I'm pretty fluent in Portuguese and German, and I know just enough to get by in Japan." I picked those up during the multiple times Simon took me there with him while on business trips since I was a kid.

Jaden sucked his teeth, "You're just showing out. Wannabe Little Miss Perfect."

I rolled my eyes at him, "I'm not-"

"Ah, ah, ah..." he interrupted, tilting my face towards him and caressing my chin with his thumb, "I didn't say that it isn't sexy... Say something cute to me in french." he watched my lips.

I smiled at him, "Je vais couper vos boules si vous ne retirez pas vos mains de moi." (I'm going to chop your balls off if you don't get your hands off of me.) I threatened.

The maid gasped with her eyes wide as she was setting our food down. Jaden looked at her, confused, "What? What did she say? What did you say?" he asked but I just shook my head, amused.

"We'll talk on the balcony..." I told him, slowly ending my sentence when I noticed the unpleasing scent on my body from my workout earlier. "After... I shower."

He chuckled, "No problem, I'm glad you brought it up before I did." he said, pulling the collar of his shirt up to cover his nose.

* * * * *

Jaden

Nicole was still in the shower as I waited on the balcony for her, touring the place and enjoying the view of the sunset. I noticed that there was a little beach below her balcony, already decorated with relaxing lanterns and...

Is that a boat?

I grinned to myself. This place would make a killer party. I really need to talk to Simon about that.

I leaned on the railing and sipped from my fast food cup while I gazed around. It's nice out, now would be a good time to give Nicki her gift. I got it when Tyler stopped for gas and I noticed the little clothing shop across the street. I bought her a hot outfit I saw on one of the mannequins for a decent price and kept it in my bag for her. I could only hope that she'd be into it because I already lost the receipt.

"Isn't this place adorable?" I heard Nicole's voice, causing my heart to skip a beat.

I turned around, seeing her come my way, tying her hair up. She wore a cream-colored cropped sweater that exposed part of her nicely toned belly and jeans that fit her way better than they should.

And it was all mine.

"This place is dope- I-I mean, really nice. Do you think Simon would let me throw a party here?"

She chuckled, "What's the occasion?"

"I don't know..." I shrugged. "Maybe for father's day or something?"

She smiled, tipping my straw to her lips and taking a sip out of my drink, "I don't think Simon's the 'party type' and did you just make that up?"

"Make what up?"

"Father's day. Is that a thing you guys do?"

I nodded, "It's a real holiday. What? You never heard of... Nevermind." I had to stop myself, knowing that she's been anti-social for the majority of her life. It's not like anything was wrong with that but she really has a lot to catch up on.

She shrugged it off, "Okay. Let me hear what you've found."

"No problem, mami." Damn, I gotta stop doing that, I thought as I pulled out a chair for her. This whole 'talk like a normal person' thing is harder than it looks. I've been doing pretty good so far but sometimes I slip up before I could catch myself.

I handed her the waffles making her smile. She was obviously hungry and had been waiting for this moment. I then pulled my laptop out of my bag, opening it on the round balcony table.

"So. You know how you guys easily caught Freak Show?"

She nodded.

"Well, it seems to me that he got arrested on purpose. He kept telling investigators that arresting him was a waste of time and will only slow us down. And Look at this." I turned the computer to her, displaying a few of what was confiscated from him after his arrest.

She carefully went through the pictures as I continued, "I wanted to get my hands on them but investigators said I had to wait... That flower toy." I pointed, stopping her from switching slides, "It's a recording device. I remember him using it on me to try and find where you were. The investigators have no clue that it's more than just a rubber toy but when I tried to get a closer look, they wouldn't allow me to until they were finished."

She raised an eyebrow, "And you think he's the one helping Fire Catcher hide? He won't be able to keep this up behind bars."

"That's where it gets interesting... I noticed that the performers at the show knew a little about what was going on. Even the guards. They were all in on it."

She looked at me, narrowing her eyes, "What makes you so sure...?"

"Well, for one, I saw the 'guards' guarding the room I was trapped in. And if you think about it... If you're going to kill or steal kids during a live performance with thousands of witnesses, don't you think you need a whole team to help you cover it all up?"

She thought for a moment, "The construction zone... They knew she was up to no good..." she shot me a concerning look, "Pull up the tour map."

I nodded, looking up the tour dates of the show, "She just canceled a bunch of them..."

"Why is she only coming to these places? California, Texas, Chicago..."

"Canada, Egypt, and Italy..." I finished.

Her eyes grew angry and alarming. I didn't know what it was but she definitely knew something that I didn't. "I knew it... She wants us to look for her!"

"I don't know... Those places seem pretty far from us."

"No, no, no. We have other private headquarters and facilities in these places."

I nodded understandably, remembering when she's told me about those once until she suddenly asked herself, "But why... Italy. We don't have a headquarters in Italy."

I shrugged, "Well, didn't you tell me that we had one in France? They're only 13 hours apart."

She nodded, "Which means she's keeping that cushion of distance for a reason..."

I scratched the back of my head, "Right, makes sense... Except, how does she know about our private headquarters to begin with?"

She pinched her chin, "That's a good question." suspicion rose in her voice. "She has to know something we don't and we have to find out before it's too late."

"Hold up! We need a full proof plan. If she's expecting us to be at her tour locations, she has to be planning something extreme. I'm sure she's not only doing this with the performers she's had at the show."

She nodded, "I'm sure of that too. Someone who's setting themselves up for a fight won't make it easy for us to win... So here's what we'll do. I'll schedule​ a team meeting and then we go and take a good look at what was in Freak Show's possession. What we find will determine what we do as our next step. The investigators should let us in after today."

"I hear you clearly. But I have more..." I went into my bag and pulled out a book I found when I was searching for the criminal couple during the mission. "I don't know if it's important or relevant to them but I found it in one of the dressing rooms at the show. It's kind of weird." I handed it to her.

She flipped through the small book then soon slid it back to me, "Cool, you want to read it to me?" It was more of a demand.

I pursed my lips, taking it back, "My bad... I forgot." I opened it as she crossed her arms at me. "Um... It says..." I stopped to eye her for a second then I shook my head.

You know what?

"Actually... I want you to read this." I tossed it back to her.

She caught it, giving me a warning look, "We don't have time for this-"

"Nah, nah. We have plenty of time, just try... Out loud." I furrowed my brows at her.

She rolled her eyes, "Jaden-"

"Right now, Nicole," I told her sternly, making her eyebrows crease with a frown.

After a moment, she let out a sigh then opened it, reading it in her head at first, "Uh... We... S- s... Um." she slightly shook her head, embarrassed.

"Come on, Nicki. We shall..."

She rubbed her forehead in frustration, "I really don't want to worry about this now. We have bigger problems."

"Those are giving up words. I know you're not dumb, you can do this if you at least try it."

She clenched her fist in frustration but didn't say anything.

"Nicki you... Wait, wait." I quickly knelt down beside my bag and pulled out two of the flyers I grabbed from Simon's office. I tossed it on the table towards her, "Do you recognize these?"

She glanced over at them, "Yes. It's a guide for rookies."

I opened the booklet to the first page, "So you remember what was said in here?"

"It's the same exact speech I gave you when you first got here. I don't need to see it."

I moved to the seat next to her, showing her the page, "Yes, you do. Since you've memorized exactly what was in here, you could match what you know to the words in the book. That way, you'll see how the words look... If you do well, I'll give you a little gift." I winked.

She stared at me with her arms crossed. Then after a moment, she finally took the booklet from me, "You had me at 'gift'." she opened the booklet and began, "So, you've been recruited to the United Secret Services for Criminal Investigation... What's the next step from here."