Chapter 3

She was not stupid enough to think that she was safe at all, she had no illusions of safety whatsoever as she hurried over to the west wings in her louboutins that were three inches higher than what she would ever consider fighting in.

Cocking the gun steadily in her hands, she advanced to the elevators that she knew would lead her to the west wing, after all she had the complete map to the entire place so getting lost was not an option.

Impatiently waiting for the elevator doors to open, Reena stood a little bit to the side and out of sight, after all it was not uncommon for guards to just be waiting at the other side of the door ready to puncture her body full of holes.

The ding alerted her just as the first shot rang out and buried itself on the wall in front of her, doing a quick calculation, Reena could tell that they were five in total and armed to the teeth. Unwilling to confront them at once, well aware of her limited time, she decided to go on the offensive. In a well practiced move, she grasped the pin of a smoke grenade with her teeth as she lunged forward, tossing it into the elevator with deadly precision.

The guards stumbled out in confusion and alarm, coughing and choking from the smoke, but Reena was already on the move, a series of well placed kicks and jabs landing on their vital points later, Reena was on the move again, gun cocked as she listened intently, she knew she would be ambushed as soon as the elevators stopped on the fifth floor of the west wing.

“I am sorry, really.” Reena apologized to the unconscious body of the guard she dragged in for this very same purpose. The ding of the elevator alerted her, and she waited tersely for the doors to slide open with the guard propped up in front her.

Bullets ripped into the flesh of the unconscious guard with enough force to send them reeling backwards. Being no stranger to improvisation, Reena pushed the guard towards them as she rolled away from the falling corpse and tumbled behind a huge potted plant as bullets ricocheted in a deadly dance behind her.

Pulling out a second gun from her thigh holster, Reena dove from the ruins of the shattered pot and rained bullets down like an avenging goddess. And blood splattered the walls like the rendering of a series of morbid art.

Reena could hear the rapid footsteps of reinforcements coming up from the stairs below them, and she knew that in a few moments the elevator would ding up its latest arrivals. Running forward, Reena occasionally looked back to fire to keep them from getting too close.

Diving into the vault door Reena found strangely open, she flashed the light that was provided for this purpose. Reena located the safe right in the far corner of the dark room and crept towards it quickly.

“76359.” Reena punched in the codes, and waited with bated breaths, hoping that she had not been scammed by the Thorne brother. To her relief however, the door to the safe hissed open, and the flashlight in her hand flashed upon the single flash drive inside the safe.

“Brava! Color me impressed Princess.” A low voice drawled behind her, each word punctuated with a clap.

Gasping, Reena clenched her fingers tightly around the flash drive, she had come too far to lose it,

“Who are you? Reena asked, trying to calm her palpitating heart as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously, eyes that narrowed even more as she came face to face with a sinister pair of silver ones.

“Mason Thorne.” The figure replied easily, “So seeing as i live here, the important question should be who are you?”

Looking from the man to the door, Reena knew her mission was almost finished, now all she had to do was  keep the man standing between her and her freedom intrigued enough to let her slip through his fingers.

“Me?” Reena asked with a provocative little smirk, “Well I am a Thief.”

The man she had come to know as Mason widened his eyes in what looked like a mixture of disbelief and amusement, and Reena inched ever closer to the door.

She had figured out the man she met downstairs to be Caelan Thorne, the younger Thorne brother.

“Well well, a beautiful woman in a red dress that simply begs to be fucked in claiming to be a thief.” Mason shook his head slowly, “This is definitely an unusual sight.”

The alarm bells in Reena’s head began to ring shrilly. the sound piercing, this usually happens when a situation is about to go horribly wrong.

“Do not concern yourself with me.” Reena answered in a primly proper tone a thief should not have. “I am simply here to steal this totally unassuming flash drive and I will be out of your hair.”

The man threw his head back as a booming laughter escaped his lips, and unlike the man she met downstairs, Reena was not intrigued by it. Rather it caused all her hairs to rise on end as she eyed the man suspiciously.

“Sure you are allowed to leave, right after i teach you in detail what happens to little girls that do not know their place.” The man shrugged, and Reena knew she had wasted enough time.

Reaching into the holster strapped to her thighs, she withdrew it and threw it with a clean precision, and the knife buried itself into his shoulders as he let out a deep groan that caused the fine hair on her arms to rise, and she could not help the nagging feeling at the back of her head that told her she had just made a big mistake.

“You don’t know what you have done, do you?” Mason growled as he stared at Reena with wild eyes, and she flinched back slowly.

“Look, I know I technically just stole from you and everything but take it up with my supervisors, alright?” Reena huffed out as she lingered by the door, watching as Mason pulled out the knife embedded in his shoulder with gritted teeth, all through it his eyes remained fixed on her and she gulped, moving backwards.

“Seriously, just think of me as the messenger alright?” Reena almost cried desperately. “I bear you no ill will.”

“Oh trust me, I'll be thinking of you.” He muttered through clenched teeth, and Reena spurned around to run, the deathly chill accompanying that threat freezing the warm breath in her lungs.

This was the second Thorne that promised to think about her, and safe to say Reena was not feeling flattered, at all.

Dashing to the huge french windows, Reena hesitated in front of them, well aware that her time was running out, but she was overcome with the dreadful thought of the Agency forgetting her and leaving her there for dead, or even worse, forgetting to replace the glass windows with fake glass.

“Agent 13 what are you doing?! jump!” The earpiece in her ear buzzed sharply, causing Reena to jump from the suddenness of its sound.

Screw it, here I go. Reena thought to  herself before taking off her shoes and hurrying to the french windows.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” A sinister voice growled behind her, and Reena turned back slowly.

“Getting the fuck away from this mansion and away from the both of you, I smell madness in here.” Reena scoffed, watching as his eyes narrowed, signaling to her that it was time to get the fuck out of there.

But at the last minute, unable to resist one final taunt, Reena pouted up her already pouty lips and placed her hands on it, blowing him a kiss and watching his eyes darken even further before running to the windows and taking the leap, carefully free falling through the air as she watched the ground reach up to embrace her.

~~

Limping to the getaway car provided for her escape, Reena could not help the sigh of relief that escaped her lips, for a moment she had doubted if she would ever be able to leave that house, she could not be more thankful.

“I am so glad to see you alive Ree Ree.” Her friend

 and comrade Agent 9, also known as William sighed as he kept his face buried in her hair and Reena laughed as she pushed him off having gotten enough of his cuddling.

“I am glad to see you too William,” She laughed as she nudged his shoulders, trying to get a smile out of him which would have been more like the jovial William she used to know.

“No you don’t understand!” He yelled at her almost angrily, and Reena could not help but take a few steps back, after all she had had bad encounters with the male temper.

Seeing her flinching back, Agent 9 ran a hand over his face as remorse covered his every feature.

“Look I am sorry Ree, but you were never supposed to come back alive at all.” William Bates sighed and Reena moved backwards again, that familiar sense of dread creeping back in.

“What is going on William?” She asked desperately, the beginning of tears pricking her lids.

“Have you submitted the drive?” William asked, and Reena shook her head as she stared up at him. She was bruised and vulnerable, and only wanted to go back to the safety the Agency represented, but even that was no longer possible.

“Then we need to leave Ree, now.” William commanded.