DANGEROUS OBSESSION

22

LAUREN MOSS

“Lauren!” Blake’s voice sounds, and I hadn’t even realized when I fell asleep.

My goodness.

“You’re way too sleepy,” he comments, getting out of the car, and I roll my eyes, grabbing the things from the back seat. After unbuckling, I step out.

“I was dragged out of my only chance to sleep here,” I reply, walking with him toward the elevator, my face simply flushing as I watch him in front of me.

Obviously, he’s taller than me, but he’s really tall.

His posture, his body, I don’t know… Everything about him is extremely attractive and magnetic at the same time.

He’s dangerous to be around, and I’m not even talking about him being a wealthy secret agent. Because, like it or not, money is also a sign of danger. And he has a gaze that commands without words…

A huge, gigantic red flag.

“If you think you won’t handle it, there’s still time to give up, Moss,” he says, but his tone is teasing.

“I don’t intend to leave here just yet, Agent Blake,” I reply, and he gives a little smirk, looking forward.

“Then don’t complain,” he says, and the elevator doors finally open. To my relief.

“I wasn’t complaining. You were provoking me, and I just responded to why I was sleepy,” I answer, and definitely, the aura here has completely shifted.

When we enter this floor with Samuel, they are respectful to him, but it seems like no one notices anyone else because they are in such a rush.

But now, all eyes are on us. On me, most likely because I’m the obvious reason for all this sudden attention.

They even stop and nod as he passes by.

I realize he must be an amazing agent, especially since he has a team to lead.

But I didn’t think it would be at this absurd level, because the contrast between walking around here with Samuel, with Sasha, or with the other agents—for example, the ones who brought me yesterday and the ones today—is surreal.

And I manage to feel even more intimidated and simply stay quiet, following him silently.

He’s definitely more than just a secret agent. And now I’m curious to know what else he could be.

I follow him to the room I already know.

It’s seven o’clock already, everyone is awake, and soon they’ll be coming up.

“Good morning!” they say as soon as they see him enter, all full of energy.

“Good morning,” he replies with the same enthusiasm, which even manages to make me a bit energized.

But not really.

“Good morning!” I greet as well, and Irika’s gaze goes to Sasha, to Blake, and finally to me, giving me a smile.

They’re acting strange about my presence here.

“What are you doing here?” Hailey, who is here, asks, staring at Blake and me.

“In that outfit?” she questions, and I sigh, not answering her. I don’t owe her any explanations. My hair is wet too, but I guess she chose to ignore that fact.

“Can I return the clothes?” I ask Sasha and Irika.

“Yes, you can,” they reply.

“You did very well on the mission yesterday!” Sasha praises, and I smile as I head to the makeup/wardrobe room.

“Thank you very much!” I say. “I just felt a bit unwell, but I’m better now,” I explain.

“Later, I have some tips for you,” I hear Irika say as I open the door.

“That’ll be great,” I respond.

“Good morning!” I greet everyone in the room.

“Hello, Lauren!” they greet me back, and I smile.

“I came to return the clothes,” I say, handing them over in the bag, since I left the pajamas at Blake’s mansion as well.

And I only brought the outfit that was in the bag.

“Thank you!” they say, taking the bag, and I grab the other bag with my things from yesterday.

“You’re welcome, bye!” I say to them.

“Bye!” they reply.

“Didn’t I ask you a question?” Hailey says as I turn around.

She looks like a ghost.

“Hailey, what’s your problem?” Sasha asks. “She was with Blake and just got here. I don’t understand what your problem is,” she says teasingly. She said it just to provoke her, indeed.

“What do you mean, with Blake?” Hailey asks, frowning, and Blake isn’t even here anymore.

He didn’t leave; he must be on the other side of the room.

He definitely must have avoided her.

“You were with Blake?” she asks now, mockingly.

“Yes. He couldn’t bring me back after the mission, so he took me to his house,” I answer.

“Blake?” she asks incredulously, smirking mockingly. “He took you to his house?” she questions again, and I roll my eyes.

“That’s what I said,” I reply, and her expression changes immediately.

I don’t know what she’s thinking or why she’s so surprised, but I simply look at Sasha.

“What should I do now?” I ask, and she gets up, taking her coffee.

“We had your uniform brought here. You’ll change and wait for the others to come up to go to the field,” she says, and I nod.

“Give me that, I’ll have them take it,” Irika says, referring to the bag in my hand, and I hand it over, following Sasha. And Hailey just storms off to the other side, which I assume is where Blake is.

I follow Sasha to another room, and she closes the door, handing me my uniform. I think this is so the others don’t find out I slept outside the base.

It would have caused a huge commotion, for sure. I undress.

“What’s Hailey’s problem?” I ask, definitely thinking this is too much already.

“I told you she’s Blake’s ex-girlfriend,” she comments, and I nod.

“Yes, but the thing is with me. Why hasn’t she acted like this with absolutely anyone else as she has with me so far?” I say, really feeling something more. Sasha watches me for a few moments and simply doesn’t answer.

“Sasha?” I ask, and she gives me a half-smile as I put on the uniform.

“The mission you were on when you arrived was very important to her. It was one of the missions she was in charge of doing with Blake. That probably caused some resentment and maybe jealousy. But don’t worry about it,” she says, and I finish dressing, shrugging.

“And how was it at Blake’s mansion?” she asks while I adjust the clothes I wore before.

“Normal. I just got a vaccine for my cramps, he showed me the room, and I slept until he supposedly woke me because I had already delayed him too much, and then we came here,” I tell her normally, and she nods as we leave.

I can tell she’s either curious or suspicious about something, but she doesn’t say a word.

BLAKE WRAY

I left Moss with Sasha and Irika so I could start the meeting in the conference room, when the door to my office is suddenly thrown open—by Hailey.

I’m already out of patience with all of this.

“Blake, how… Why did you take that… that girl to your house? Why?” she demands, nervous, and all I can do is stare at her, wondering when she became this unbearable.

“I’m going to say this once, Hailey,” I say. “I take whoever I want to my house, and that is not a matter that concerns you.” I make it clear, and she blushes.

“Do not question me, and don’t you dare act as if I owe you any kind of explanation.” Her eyes fill with tears.

I’m far too irritated to care.

“You never took anyone besides me there, and now you’re taking the daughter of a murderer?” She says it—and it’s enough to kill the last drop of empathy I had.

“Apparently, you and the daughter of a murderer aren’t that different,” I say, and she wipes away the tear running down her face.

“I apologized… I love you.” Good God, give me patience.

“I have a videoconference now, Hailey,” I say. “I expect that after it’s done, I find you behaving professionally, or you’ll be transferred.” I finish.

And without another word, she leaves.

Patience, Blake. Patience.

LAUREN MOSS

“You can use this. I also had one sent to your room; it’ll help with the cramps,” Irika says, and I nod.

“Thank you!” I say.

When suddenly, Hailey appears from God knows where and storms out—nervous.

Nervous!

I already thought she was anxious, but she looked like if our eyes met, she’d kill me on the spot. I look at Sasha and Irika, confused, and they glance at each other.

“Lauren, you can head upstairs now. The others will be going up soon,” Sasha says, and I nod.

“Alright,” I answer, standing and adjusting my uniform. “See you in a bit,” I say, and they nod. I leave, sighing, go to the elevator, and step inside.

My hair is still a little damp, and since I didn’t bring my hair tie, I start braiding it. My whole body just warms up when Blake crosses my mind.

“For the love of God, Lauren. For the love of God!” I exclaim. I step out of the elevator at the same moment the one beside it opens too.

“Lauren!” Apia, who was right ahead, says excitedly, and I smile. “I was wondering where you were,” she says as she steps out.

“I was here…” I don’t even know what lie to come up with. “I had to go to the infirmary earlier because of my wrist,” I invent, already walking with her.

“Is everything okay?” she asks, looking at my wrist, worried.

I hate lying.

“It’s fine, but I had to redo the… X-ray,” I justify, and she nods.

“You missed breakfast. I went to your room thinking you’d overslept,” she says.

“Yeah, when I left, the alarm hadn’t gone off yet,” I say, and glance sideways, seeing Jennifer.

Unlike me, she seems to have slept much better and is talking to Noah.

All smiles—she doesn’t even look like the same girl who gets all wrinkled-up and irritated with me.

“Yeah…” I say, walking with them toward the field.

“I’m nervous because of the elimination,” she says as we walk in. There must be another entrance, because even Samuel and James are already here. Irika, Sasha, and Hailey too. The only one missing is Blake, who vanished the moment we came in.

“You’re definitely on the list of people staying,” I tell her, and she looks at me like that couldn’t possibly be true. We line up with the others in order.

“Did you see who left yesterday?” she asks, and now I feel the nerves kick in.

“Uh…” I mumble, staring ahead. “We’d better be quiet now before you end up getting scolded along with me,” I say, and she looks forward as well.

Hailey’s eyes were on me, as usual, but this time she didn’t say anything. I stay quiet too, still with a thousand and fifty things spinning in my head. They begin speaking and start with the eliminations, one from each group.

For some reason, probably because of that test in the middle of the night, I’m confident I won’t be eliminated, but even so, my hand reaches for Apia’s, nervous. But to our relief, neither of us is cut. At least not from Ápia’s little bunch.

Now we’re down to ten!

This is emptying out fast.

“Tomorrow, three more will be eliminated,” Irika says, and I swear she looks intimidating here, just like Blake but upstairs she’s a whole different person.

But what do you mean, three? Why the rush to eliminate people?

“Only seven from each team will remain,” she concludes. “And you will all go through a group test, where two will be disqualified on the same day,” she adds, and the tension spikes.

Yeah… this is not any kind of camp.

My heart wants to leap out of my chest.

“From the final five in each group, all of you will be able to return home and begin the screening phase, where you’ll be authorized to carry out missions with our supervision. Obviously, everything confidential,” she explains.

Wait…

Go home?

I don’t want to. I won’t.

I can’t go back.

Not now that I thought I had escaped all of this.

“Those who pass the screening phase will be officially recognized as secret agents,” she says, and my heart tries to escape again.

Apia raises her hand, and Irika lets her speak.

“Tomorrow’s mission—what will it involve?” she asks.

“Everything you’ve been learning,” Irika answers calmly.

“Classes will be more intense, they’ll last the entire day, and the test you would be taking now will happen at night,” she says.

And here I was thinking they were already intense…

“You may go to your rooms,” she says, and we all nod.

Everyone is simply in shock. I leave with them, still gripping Apia’s hand, tense.

“Three people!” Apia exclaims as we enter the elevator. Everyone—absolutely everyone—is terrified.

I don’t plan on going back.

I don’t want to go back, not after finally believing I wouldn’t have to. How am I supposed to keep everything secret living in that mansion, especially with the media watching?

I already hated being part of that family, but now I hate it even more.

Much more.

I barely had time to go to the little house, we went straight to the classes.

And if they said intense…