MY HEART POUNDED in my chest when the event coordinator gathered the guests again and announced exciting news was going to be revealed promptly. With Nicolas' hand pressed against my lower back, purposely guiding me away from the ballroom floor, we headed up the three story, gold-accented staircase.

My earpiece crackled to indicate a connection coming through.

Cody's voice amplified through the line. "Where's Nicolas taking you? Didn't he hear the coordinator?"

I smiled as a couple descended the stairs in matching black swan masks, shaking Nicolas' hands. With the man's attention divided, I leaned towards the railing of the stairs and pressed a finger to my ear. "Now's not a good time, Cody. Looks like my hands will be full for the next few minutes."

"How the fuck did you make that leech stick to you so fast?" Osias asked bewilderingly. "Boy swooped in like a seagull."

I shrugged. "I did things."

"What kinds of things?"

I caught myself right before answering our Commander when I felt Nicolas' hand reappear on the arch of my back. The connection cut off as my finger fell back to my sides. I continued ascending the steps with my arm wrapped around my target, secretly stroking up and down his sleeves for the ring.

An elegant lady in a mid-length mauve dress headed down towards us, her natural red hair tied as a low ponytail. She adjusted her side bangs when her eyes landed on me, and she gave me a quick smile of greetings.

That was, until she spotted Nicolas right beside me. Then, her eyes turned demonic.

"Anastasie."

Nicolas and I both turned our heads to the male voice at the bottom of the stairs. My eyes narrowed seeing Pierce of all people. But the man didn't even spare me a sliver of a glance. As Anastasie descended, with unreadable eyes still fixed on her to-be fiancé, Pierce held out his hand for her to accept.

"Babe, I have something to gi—" Nicolas started, but I tugged firmly on his arm, which confused him greatly.

He gave me a disapproving glare. "What?"

I remained patient with him. "The room you wanted to show me."

"That can wait," He pushed my arm off of him. "Anastasie, wait—"

All of a sudden, Pierce sent him such a look that the rivaling man sucked in his breath. Even I held my breath.

"I have business with her. Like how it'd been before the dance, like how it'll continue to be after," my Commander fabricated. "You didn't seem to care before?"

"Just keep on talking. See how many fucks I give." Nicolas raised his eyebrows.

Anastasie, in the midst of the men fighting over her, glanced over Pierce's shoulders to survey me. Her demeanor completely changed from our first impression. Despite K2 claiming she was an ally, I had a hard time believing him with the obvious death signals she was transmitting my way.

"You know he's my fiancé, right?" She hissed under her breath. "You don't stand a chance."

"Keep it to yourself, no one asked."

Anastasie's face flushed. I kept a calm stance when she snapped her head away. Nicolas and her began engaging in a small argument.

Meanwhile, Pierce and I stood on the sidelines, watching our targets feud. We finally glanced at each other. But the moment was as short as a heartbeat. After that, the man turned his back to me and simply face outwards to the ballroom.

Why was he avoiding my eyes? A small crackle in my ear indicated that I was about to be sent a grave message from the team. Instead, I heard something that made my insides turn.

"Risa, don't go."

Shifting my weight from one leg to another, I slowly turned back around to the opposite railing handle, and sure enough, Pierce was now facing me.

"What are you going on about now?" My fingers wrapped tightly around my ear piece.

He locked eyes with me and didn't look away. "This wasn't part of K2's plan. Stay in the ballroom."

"You know that makes my job harder," I gave him a confused look. "I need to be alone with him to find the ring. Just trust me."

"I do. I just want you in my sight."

"And why is that?"

"Because he's dangerous." Pierce said, pushing off the railing as he moved closer towards me.

"I can handle myself." I straightened up.

"No, that's not really my point."

"Then what is your point?" I pressed, not realizing I was also taking a few steps towards him.

He turned off his connection and I was left with an irritated sigh before I realized we were right in front of each other. His eyes searched mine until he was satisfied, then it traveled to my hands, like it had done back on the plane ride.

He pulled out a chain from his pockets and my eyes widened. My ruby necklace hung from his fingers, the one I had lost back in my apartment.

"Put this on at least."

I turned my head to look at Nicolas and Anastasie to the side, making sure they didn't see us interact. My breathing slowed abruptly when I felt his fingers brushing across my neck. He placed the thin necklace over my head and clasp the hook in place, finally letting it rest on my chest.

"Would you look at that," I smiled slyly to mask the strange feeling in my chest. Pierce pulled back and looked into my eyes. "The Commander is a big softie."

His eyebrows lifted with a confused expression. "What? I'm not."

"That was the gentlest touch I've ever felt."

"Risa, that sounds explicitly weird out of context." He took a step back.

"What are you afraid of?" I leaned forward, my necklace sliding across my skin. "No one's listening."

Just then, his brows twitched when four different pitches of a cough echoed through our ears. I held back a snort when the connection collectively turned off just so that our four teammates could make a point.

Just as I was about to talk again, I stopped when I saw Pierce's eyes change. It was a warning, as if he was saying, Time's up. They're watching.

Nicolas had turned back to me and without a hint of notice, he snatched up my wrist and jerked me up the stairs.

Great, I beamed sarcastically as I cracked my neck. Homegirl made my man moody.

Nicolas was too hot-headed at the moment to pay attention to me, so I glanced back around at Pierce. I paused for a moment, then looked away when Anastasie linked her arms under his.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

We entered a spacious room that I didn't know the name of. Dim-lit, of course. He locked the door from behind him.

Then again, it's a strange concept of locking the door when you're both inside the same room. Cause like, if he can lock it, then what's stopping me from unlocking it? I mean, it's practically the same lock on the same side of the doo—

Nicolas spun me around in his arm with a quick snap. My eyes narrowed dizzily behind my mask.

"Why are you being aggressive with me for, monsieur?" I asked. "Have I done something?"

He scoffed a bit before flashing me a conflicted smug grin. "No, but I have no one to take it out on."

So that's how logic works in that bobble head of yours.

"I wished you were a bit more gentle. I'm not built like a brick wall."

How does a dynamite sound for you, though?

He caressed my face slowly. I found myself angling my head ever-so-slightly out of his lip's reach.

Wrong move.

His eyes landed on the locket on my chest. When his fingers pressed against my skin to hold the pendant in his hand, I tensed up.

"So, what happened with Anastasie?" I tried to veer his attention away, but to no use.

"Who gave you this?"

"... My boss."

"Who?"

"At the company."

"What boss gives his subordinates, especially a beautiful lady like yourself, a personalized red ruby locket?"

I mentally roll my eyes. Is this baby dick caveman actually jealous?

"It's more like a pick-your-own-gift-and-I'll-pay-for-it-because-I'm-rich kind of thing. You don't have to flatter the situation."

After a moment of studying the chain, his eyes traveled up to mine. "Take it off," He demanded.

"Excuse you?"

"It's hideous," Nicolas laughed, throwing his hands in the air. "I have something that will fit better. But first, take that thing off."

Strange enough, standing there, with my head held high being confident with the mission going well so far, I couldn't bring myself to simply... take off the locket. Sure, I'm overreacting a little. But something felt weird. Something like, I just received it back, so why am I taking it off again?

Besides, Pierce wouldn't have handed it back to me just to have it separated from my body merely five minutes later.

Nicolas sensed my hesitation, and in a split second, I caught a glint of suspicion brewing in his eyes. So, I changed course.

"Show me what you have first. I'm afraid to break it to you, monsieur, but no man has topped this gift my boss got me." I held the locket safely between my forefinger and thumb, angling it towards him so that he's under the false impression of how much the necklace meant to me.

To my surprise, he leaned forward and whispered, "You already have it."

"Is this a riddle, Tom?"

"Check your purse."

Something clicked in my eyes. That'd make sense. I left my handbag on the table with him when I danced with Pierce. Granted, there was nothing in there to begin with, but still. My eyes slowly traveled up to meet the man before me, and I instantly frowned at the cynical look he was giving me.

"Where'd you take it?" My voice immediately dropped an octave.

He bursted an amused chuckle. "My oh my, you catch on quick, beautiful."

"You heard me," I took a step towards him, catching him off-guard. "Where is the ring?"

"Is that what you've been so caught up on? Not my face?" His demeanor began shifting to his true self. An arrogant, baby dick caveman.

That's okay. Risa Kennedy also wanted to get out for a long time now.

"Have you caught on to everything or can I still assume you're dumb?" I laughed dryly. "Save me the effort Nic, I beg you."

"Beg on your knees then. I know what you're up to."

"Kinky." My fingers gradually slid further down my dress until I felt the outline of the tool I'd been hiding at the flowing brim of my dress.

He watched me effortlessly bend to my knees, distracted by my fingers. But he was too late. I stuck my leg out underneath him and directed the dagger just below his candy cane junior. He froze from reaching for something in his back pocket.

"You pull that whole gun out, and I release this ballistic knife up your balls and out your skull," I peered up at him. "And if it doesn't cut all the way through, we'll just keep shooting more up. I have plenty, have you seen this dress?"

The man cursed loudly. He reached to his wrist instead and pressed a button.

"Get my men in the Venus room. Now."

"Guess who's not having children after today." I sang bemusedly as I pressed my own trigger and watched the blade spring out of its place. I watched it impale his ding-a-ling in fast-motion.

It was his reaction that was a tad bit slow.

He jerked up and collapsed violently to the ground, squawking out colorful language my way in choking pants. I slowly rose to my feet, despite the absurd scene before me, and ripped the handle of the knife from my ankle, the strap tying it in place earlier unwinding to the floor.

"You mind giving me back the blade sometime soon, Nic? Your men are coming." I cupped my hand to my mouth and called out to him rolling on the ground, grabbing his manhood in massive pain.

I shook my head at his inaudible response and started around the room. He hid it somewhere. He wanted to show me this room, so it had to be in here, I stroked my chin in thought, or he wouldn't have been so confident.

My earpiece connected again from the other end.

"Pierce has Nicolas' ring," came Kenya's voice. "It was disguised as an earring, that's what he told us, but he's not in the ballroom right now. Which means Nicolas has Anastasie's. Did you find it yet, Risa?"

I pressed the button on the earpiece. "He said he slipped it in my purse. I doubt it's still there."

"It's not here," Osias answered. "We already searched the table you two were sitting at."

"Hold up, his guards are racing up the stairs..?" Cody's voice had a hint of insecurity to it. "Risa, where are you?"

"You guys should be asking what did she do," Pierce suddenly entered the conversation. My ears perked up at the strange sensation I always got when the Commander talked. "They're coming for you, aren't they?"

I looked at the many bouquets of flowers decorating the walls of the room. So we were in the Venus room, which was the main entrance, along with the Diana room, to the King and Queen's Apartments, so naturally there would be many things in the room that I had to look through.

It would be great if I had a helping hand, you know.

"No, they don't know about me. They're only coming to their Saint penis-less Nicolas. It's going to be a hole-ly Christmas for him, mind I say. Lots of nice breeze from underneath."

"Um, what?"

"Commander, I know you understand English."

"But not Laringlish," He scoffed. "Half of the time I can't decide whether or not to take you seriously."

"Excuse me, there's a man trying to fling a vase to my head behind me so I'm just gonna get back to my job." I clicked off the connection and barely dodged just as the plant flew past my left ear and smashed against the gold paint of the walls.

My head snapped around as I saw the gun the man wanted to pull out earlier was now aimed at my head. But I'm not entirely sure if his vision was restored at the moment or not, because he was aiming the muzzle of the pistol towards a painting of the planet Venus.

I sighed. "I'm over here," I held the bridge of my nose after getting back up on my feet. "There should be rules on letting a dick-less man hold a gun."

"You cunt." He spit blood out from biting the insides his mouth too hard.

"I'm going to laugh. Quit while your head's still intact."

He let out an ear-splitting growl and I sighed, walking away once more. I reached a bend in the corner that hid off a little carpet, and just as I was about to turn away, a small figure in the shadows alarmed me.

I quickly snatched up a large piece of broken vase and held it out before me firmly, but my hands dropped when the figure stepped forward to reveal Asao.

Hide.

He held up the purse and made a motion to his ring finger with a nod, indicating that he had Anastasie's ring all along. I dropped the broken shard and went in to embrace the boy protectively, shielding him from Nicolas' view, or the guards that had just entered the room.

I released his body and mouthed to him to keep the ring safe and himself hidden. I then backed away from the dim corner and walked briskly back to the center of the room, where I became surrounded by a dozen men in black and gold uniform.

and Seek.

As they helped their boss get up, a faint tune played in the back of my head.

Hide. Or Seek.

I dazed out seeing eight year-old Asao running around a dark corner, humming to a familiar six note tune.

Hide. Then Seek.

I saw angry eyes from Nicolas' guards. They pulled out their assault weapons.

Once Hidden, don't Seek.

I followed the little boy. It was the middle of the night. I was scared, but I felt safe because he was around. The others were sleeping soundly.

Once Sought, don't Hide.

Agent X woke up in the dead of night and grabbed my arm back, shaking his head.

Or We'll take your eyes. Your mind. Your pride.

Asao came down from the stairs from the commotion. He was in the penthouse all along. Then who was...

So You can be Seeker, and We will Hide.

The Commander held me in his arms as I shivered uncontrollably. The whole team woke up. K2 turned on the lights. The Commander looked at them with me in his arms. X yelled from the couch for me to wake up.

Surprise.

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Asao watched in horror as I broke the promise I made to him.

To protect myself.

Minna: Oh snap. I've been dying to reach this point in the story... and now we're finally here.. so buckle up. Whole lot of dark shit coming your way.