Chapter Twelve

KACE

They all rise swiftly obeying my direct order, as always, and start heading toward the hall. I smile weakly at them as they walk toward Luca and me as we all move down toward the boardroom. It's only now that I realize Noah is noticeably absent. He must be out on a mission.

General chatter and laughter filters down the hall as we walk. I push open the door to the vestibule. Standing just inside, I let my team move past me after swiping their ID cards then using the iris scanning device on the inside wall. Once they're identified, they move forward and take their seats around the immense oval wooden table located in the center of the vast room. The table has the Seven insignia stamped in the middle, and the logo of The Agency is adorned on the walls and in the center of the carpet.

The head of the table is always left empty for the boss. No one sits there except for her. I always sit to Mom's left, and then the others sit wherever they want to around the table. But normally, Luca is to my left. He's pretty much my second-in-charge.

"Anyone know where Noah is?" I ask, taking up my seat as the black high-backed chair rolls back on the carpet.

"He went out on assignment, he hasn't come back yet," Tanner replies in her innocently sweet voice.

She's the only female on the team, and her voice is deceiving. She sounds innocent and cute, but she's feisty and can kick ass quicker and harder than most of us, except, maybe, Eli. But her background in martial arts and gymnastic skills makes her a very tough competitor in hand-to-hand combat. She trained as a Navy Seal and came out from service in Iraq because her father was terminally ill. That's when The Agency approached her. She left the Navy and joined us. She may be all woman, but she's tougher than some of the manliest men I know while still being a girly-girl.

"Does anyone know what his assignment was?" I ask.

"No, he spoke to the boss and left pretty quickly afterward. He's been on radio silence ever since," Blair tells me, and I nod.

Blair's an interesting character. No one knows much about his past other than he was pulled from the streets as a teenager and put into juvenile detention. His fighting skills were so good that he caught the attention of a guard, and he was placed in an underground fighting ring. When he left juvie, he went full time into the underground world of fighting and was a champion. He basically beat everyone up so badly they almost died every time they fought him in the ring.

My father was always scoping places like that for not only the criminals who needed bringing to justice but for people he could induce to train. That's where he found Blair. He pretty much recruited him in one sitting. Blair's coach was the guard from juvie, and he was drugging him to make him stronger and more aggressive. Blair had to go through a detox program and withdrawal once he left the ring. It was brutal, but he came through it even stronger than before and with a kick-ass attitude to fight for those who deserve second chances.

Then when Tanner came in about six months later, he was fully recovered. He came out of his shell entirely and became a different man. She made him believe in himself when he thought he wasn't capable of being himself. They make a good team, and they do most of their assignments together. They just work better that way, and they look out for each other.

We all watch out for each other, but with those two, it's a little deeper.

"Okay, well, hopefully, he comes back in soon. Would be good to get some intel on what's happening with the Cavaleri's since Roberto went down," I say, knowing Noah is the best hacker within our group and quite possibly within The Agency as well.

We're all trained in computer infiltration techniques, but Noah, he was brought into The Agency due to his brilliant brain. To gain Noah's services, our IT team infused a particular software program into cyberspace, hidden inside the Dark Web within a darknet for a ‘specific' brilliant mind to find. Basically, the hacker—which in this case was Noah—had to crack into the program and run through a maze of fifty high-IQ questions to break the code and find a phone number hidden within.

Once he'd accomplished that task, which was incredibly intense and complicated, he could ring the number. He was then required to follow some particular instructions find a meeting place. Once there, he had to answer a payphone and follow more directions leading him to the Museum.

More paperwork was required, plus an array of mental health and general knowledge questions. Once the answers were analyzed—the psychological crew watching his every move during the process—he was brought in and told what the test was for. Then, after some discussions about our mission statement and skills, he was eager to join after finances were discussed.

It's amazing what money can buy.

He was then assessed on his marksmanship abilities, which were not sniper-worthy, but nonetheless outstanding for a civilian. He credited his abilities to years of video gaming. Hand-to-hand combat testing followed where it was learned he was previously trained in jujitsu, so he had some remarkable abilities.

He was the perfect candidate.

He was brought in, and he's been our computer geek ever since.

"To be honest, I'm glad Roberto was taken out. He was a slimy son of a bitch, and the way he used to look at women…. sheesh, I wanted to stab him with my stars multiple times," Eli says in his low voice.

We all chuckle while I imagine Eli throwing one of his metal stars across a crowded room and hitting Roberto right in the jugular. Even though Eli is as huge as the Hulk when green, he's a soft guy at heart. He has a large family, but they're all females except for his father, of course. Three sisters, four nieces, and a Nonna he adores. He's also the best cook out of all of us, always bringing in his heritage Italian food. How he stays so amazingly muscular with all those carbs, I'll never know. He was in the police force and gunning to make detective when the assassination attempt happened on President Jackson. Luckily, the attempt failed, but the President was shot in the arm and chest. She lived but was in the hospital for a prolonged time, and Eli was there when it happened.

Along with The Agency.

He saw the Seven come in and take down the perpetrator. The Seven took him away, and Eli knew we weren't part of the Secret Service or the local Sheriff's Department, and because he was aiming for the detective role, he started digging.

He wanted to know who took the perp.

He was obsessed.

Always looking.

He became fixated and started putting the pieces together. He was good, he knew something was off. So boss pulled him in. His skills in solving puzzles were too good to be ignored. His aim in weaponry, exceptional. His fighting skills, amazing. He was the ultimate machine. He was perfect, so they just had to convince him to come in.

Eli was the hardest of the Seven to recruit. Once they told him about The Agency, he wanted to know more, he wanted to know everything. Eli likes facts—he wants to know details about every possible scenario, every situation.

But much to his dismay, there's a security classification system. There are some things we're just not cleared to know about. It's all about need-to-know, and if there's no need to know, then you are not read in. He basically said that if he couldn't know it all, then he wanted to know nothing.

They thought about taking him out at the time because he knew too much, but as an asset, he was too extraordinary to let go. So, they kept him in lockdown and worked on him day after day. It took a solid month before he finally ‘saw the benefits,' so he broke and became part of the team. He says now that he wished he didn't take so long, and because of his stubborn streak, he could have been with us sooner, but he had to be broken before he could be fixed. Now he can't imagine his life any other way.

"Should have got my Sergeant at Arms to take Roberto out," Axel says, and we all frown at him. "Kidding… kinda," he smirks as we shake our heads.

Axel has about half the sarcasm of Luca. He's still a little immature at times, but he can be a lot more serious in a time of need, whereas Luca will more than likely turn most situations into something he deems funny. Axel comes from a family of bikers. He's technically still a fully-fledged member of a biker club, much to the dismay of The Agency, but they can't force him to leave. Plus, the club isn't one-percenters or the drug-mewling, gun-trafficking bad guys you see on television. To be honest, no one is really sure how Axel and The Agency came to be. We know it has something to do with his biker club, but no one really knows the full story. I'm sure if I asked Mom, I could find out, but I know if you're not told something, then it's best not to ask. But Axel grew up shooting weapons and riding bikes. His aim is impressive, he's the killer sniper of the team. If you need a precision kill shot, he's your man.

"I wish your Sergeant at Arms would take you out. Maybe for a nice romantic dinner? You need to get laid, man. How long has it been?" Luca quips, and Axel scoffs rolling his eyes and throws a pen at Luca's head, smacking him right in the middle of his forehead, making the rest of us laugh.

Luca, he's the wild card of the Seven. The one on my team who I didn't want. Fresh as a recruit from the Army, he was young, reckless, and irresponsible. But The Agency saw a potential I simply couldn't. The Seven were only six then, but our team was strong. The Agency decided we needed one more, someone with training in all aspects—marksmen, fighting, hacking, everything—an all-rounder like me. We needed someone who could take my place if ever I were to fall in combat.

The thought of this young upstart possibly taking my place if I died, made my skin crawl. He was nothing like me. He was a joker, took nothing seriously—especially the rules—and he broke every single one in his first week. But with time and training came strength and honor, patience and virtue, and he grew into this confident but still cocky, decent guy who somehow grew on all of us, especially when he risked his own life to save mine in the line of fire. He proved himself taking a bullet in his arm and shin for me that day. He still has the scars from the bullet holes to prove it. He's been my right-hand man and best friend ever since. Sure, he still pisses me off with his incessant joking, but it's something you get used to, and I've grown to appreciate.

Then there's me. I'm different from everyone else. They were all recruited into The Agency, but I was basically bred for it. My parents, both members of The Agency, met working for a covert team much like the Seven—code name Black Athena. Their team was smaller than ours but still deadly assassins nonetheless.

The Black Athena team was made up of Mark Luthendale, Mom, Dad, and Jack Turner, who moved over to the Secret Intelligence Service or MI6 as it's also known heading a division similar to the Seven over in the UK. Mom and Dad met, fell in love, and got married all while working within Black Athena.

But then Mom was promoted out of the task force, and into the role she's in now, which allowed her to get pregnant. So, she and Dad started trying for a baby with the thought that they would train their child to one day become an Operative, and that child was me.

I had no idea growing up that this would be my life. I had no idea my parents were trained assassins. I was an average guy until I suppose you can say, they called me in for recruiting. Then my world turned upside down, learning everything about my parents' working in a museum was a lie, and that inside that museum was a hidden government facility run by top-secret government officials trying to protect the world from terrorists and the like. Yeah, it took a bit of getting used to. But once I realized this world ran through my veins, that I was born to do this quite literally, I knew I could, I knew I had to. Even if my life ended at The Agency's hands, at least it would be for the right reasons—it would be for protecting the country I live in, for the country I strive to protect, for the country I love.

"So, Tanner, you found a girl for me yet?" Luca asks.

Tanner scoffs and shakes her head. "Luca, you need a woman, not a girl, someone who can rein you in and tie you down."

"Oh, I like being tied up rather than tied down. A bit of bondage never hurt anyone, right, Blair?" Luca asks, and Tanner rolls her eyes as Blair shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

"Shut up, Luca. Just ‘cause you can't get serious about anything, doesn't mean you have to tease Blair," Tanner shoots back.

Luca smirks. "Just ‘cause you have the hots for Blair doesn't mean you have to go Feisty Fiona on me either."

"You're a dick."

"Yeah, a massive King Kong-sized dick."

"Yeah, because it's diseased and swollen, not because it's actually made that way," Tanner quips back, and we all chuckle as Luca purses his lips and smiles.

"Okay, that's enough," Mom says with finality as she strides with purpose into the boardroom. We all turn to look at her. She may be small in stature, but the atmosphere is mighty in her presence.

My eyes are starting to feel weary as it heads toward three in the morning. The drain of the night's emotions is starting to hit me fully, and I'm suddenly overwhelmingly tired. I try to covertly yawn, but Mom notices as she looks directly at me.

"Would you rather be in bed, Kace?" she asks harshly.

Slumping my body, I shake my head. "No, sorry, I'm here."

"Good, because I don't need a leader who's going to fall asleep on my briefings."

Mom's a funny creature—behind closed doors she goes easy on me, but in front of my team, she's a taskmaster.

"Understood! I have a question," I ask.

She exhales and tilts her head. "I didn't realize this was a Q & A briefing, Kace. But sure, why not. Go ahead."

My eyes open slightly wider at her tone, and I breathe in harshly through my nose wondering why she's being exceptionally hard on me right now.

Maybe she knows about Lily?

Shit!

My palms start to sweat as I take a quick glance around the room to see if anyone looks guilty like they might have spilled the beans about me spilling the beans, but everyone looks calm and relaxed.

"Are you even with us right now, Kace?" Mom asks, snapping her fingers in front of my face.

I turn to look at her and nod. "Shit! Yes. Sorry."

"Your question?"

"Where's Noah?"

She swallows hard and sits up a little taller in her chair. "That's classified."

Furrowing my brows, the others all move in their chairs like they're as uncomfortable with that answer as I am. "I have Top Secret clearance with the appropriate briefings."

"This requires a Loft briefing, Kace."

We all look at each other, and there's sudden tension in the room. None of us have ever had a Loft briefing, not even me. It must be big, whatever it is.

"Is there an imminent threat to the country?"

"Kace… what part of classified did you not understand?" Her harsh glare stabs right through me, and I can tell she won't shift on this.

Something weird is going on, and I don't like it. I find it strange that being the head of the Seven that I don't know what's going on with one of my operatives. An eerie silence falls over the boardroom, and only the sound of the air-conditioning can be heard. My heart is pumping fast in my chest as I realize something strange is definitely going on. I just don't know what, and I hate not knowing. I can tell Eli, the one who likes to know everything, is struggling with this too as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

A shadow appears in the doorway, making us all look up at the hunched frame. Noah's pale frowning face fills the open space as his hand grips onto his side which is covered entirely by a long-sleeved sweater while he slowly enters the room like he's in pain.

"Noah, you're back," Mom says.

Noah looks to me, and something shifts in his face. Remorse? Apprehension? Concern? I'm not sure, but he quickly looks away.

"Yes! Mission was a failure, boss. I'll have a report on your desk by the morning."

Mom straightens her back in her chair, her mouth forms a tight, thin line. Her hands ball into tight fists, and her nostrils flare as she breathes out of her nose.

"Sorry, boss, I was intercepted. Will fill you in once this briefing's over."

She slams her open palm onto the table sending a thud through the room. I furrow my brows as I watch Mom obviously worked-up over the mission failure. Whatever it is, it must be important. And Noah is definitely hurt by whatever happened.

"How injured are you?" I ask.

"You can fill me in on the briefing, Noah. Let's go now, I need to know what happened. This briefing on Cavaleri can wait. We will reconvene again Monday at thirteen hundred. Get some rest, especially you, Kace. I need you more alert. Noah, my office."

Mom stands up, and her chair almost falls over as she pushes it back with force. She strides out of the room with Noah, who's limping behind her.

I take a deep breath rubbing the back of my neck and look around at the rest of my crew. "What do you make of that?" I ask.

"Not up to us to ask questions," Axel replies.

"Fuck that! I say we ask Noah as soon as he comes out of the briefing," Luca replies.

"For once, I'm with Luca," Eli answers.

Tanner rests her hands on the table, leaning forward and sighing. "I really want to know what's going on, too. But guys, you know the rules… if they don't tell you, don't ask."

Blair shrugs. "Tanner's right! And fuck, I wanna know what the hell could hurt Noah like that, but I don't know if I'm willing to risk my job over it."

Eli groans as Luca rolls his eyes.

"You bunch of pussies," Luca quips.

"I'll try and talk to Noah one on one. I'll also try talking with boss. See if I can be read into a Loft briefing. Maybe then, I can understand a bit more of what's happening around us. I'm not happy that one of us is being sent out there without the rest of us knowing or without us for protection. In the meantime, we should all go home and get some rest."

"You gonna be okay going home?" Luca asks.

"Why wouldn't he be okay at home?" Tanner asks.

I glare at Luca and tense up waiting for him, Axel, or Eli to say something.

Luca talks first. "Because he's banging his neighbor, and she's becoming a stage five clinger. If he goes home now, she might be there, and he might not get any of that much-needed sleep boss was telling him about."

Tanner and Blair smile as Axel and Eli both fold their arms in a show of annoyance.

"Kace, my man, finally stepping out of the world of abstinence and getting some," Blair says.

I roll my eyes and leer at Luca, who's smirking maniacally.

"It's not even like that, it's complicated—"

"Oh shit! You like her?" Tanner asks.

"Okay, we are not talking about my relationship status, thank you, people."

"Awww, this was just getting interesting," Tanner taunts with a bright smile.

"Okay, go home, everyone," I demand.

"Spoilsport," Luca says, slapping my back as everyone heads for the door.

Luca pulls on my arm, making me stop as we wait for everyone to leave. I look at him raising an eyebrow. He looks around making absolutely sure everyone is gone, then slumps his shoulders. "Do you want to stay at my place?"

I smile because for all of his shortcomings, he really is a good friend. "I'm good. Don't worry. I'm gonna stay in my apartment. I'm not gonna go see her. I'll give her the space she needs to process."

He exhales and shakes his head. "Let's just hope that process doesn't involve going to the papers and selling our identities."

I chuckle. "That's not her. I know her well enough to know that."

"You better hope so, Kace, or we'll be assassinated by this time tomorrow."

I nod once. "Noted."