Manhattan: In Love with the Infamous King

Chapter 8

Nolan POV

I'm sure Alex is pissed that Louis exposed her talents to us. What a d**k, but he did reveal something interesting. She worked for him. It is a no brainer that those that work for him are all hitmen, especially when he flaunts it in that way. Not bad, Alex, pretty, smart, and deadly. I doubt she is better than Ryker, but it will be nice to put her on the spot, make her sweat a little. This is a harder situation to get out of with so many eyes on her.

We sit right behind the shooters as they aim and shoot the target. The moment Trent tells them to fire away, everybody starts shooting immediately, but she doesn't. She's patient and takes a deep breath before taking the shot. Though I can see her form is perfect, she drops the sniper down slightly and then she aims. She barely misses her target. The next couple of shots are like 75% hit and 25% miss. In our world, that's a pretty bad shooter. Ryker, on the other hand, is at 90% which is average.

She smiles sheepishly back at all of us as she sets down the gun and sits next to Vic. Vic whispers something in her ear and I see her giggle. I look hard at Alex. She missed on purpose and I want to know why, but I can't ask with so many people around. If they hear she is doing this on purpose, they might take it the wrong way and I'm not trying to have any blood on my hands today.

"My my Alex, you have lost your touch." Louis beams as Ryker is the winner of the challenge. She smiles politely, but I know that's not real. She's faking it and I have got to admit that she's selling it.

"I think you have always held me too highly." She states back at him with almost a wicked smile, but it's not. What game is she playing?

We all make small talk here and there. Louis and Ryker were coming to me about filling in that Ace position, but I know this is just their way of trying to garner more powers for themselves. It's not like I didn't give his son a shot, but he's not great in the field, most evidently because he is unpredictable and gets angry if and when he misses. Trent barely got out alive after the last assignment, so I'm not risking that again.

"So Alex, what do you do now?" Louis points his attention towards her as she had stared off to the training ground.

"Just going through school."

"How normal! I suppose that is always how you planned it out to be." Hmm. I wonder how she got into the black market. There's definitely more to that vixen.

The sun starts to set and we send Louis and Ryker off. May we never speak to one another again. Though, with our field, I am sure we will. Alex stands there, but she doesn't react to anything. We get into the car in the same setup that we arrive. Trent starts driving away.

"Why did you miss?" I ask without looking at her. She knows I am talking to her, but I receive silence in response. The tension in the car thickens. "ANSWER THE f*****g QUESTION!" I echo through the car and Trent swerves a little on the road, not anticipating my outburst. It is unusual for me to get that worked up with people I hardly know, but this girl has kept a lot of secrets to herself and I want answers.

"I don't know what you mean." She says without flinching and without fear as her cold eyes meet mine. They are as soulless as mine and she notices the same reflection from my eyes. Promptly, we break eye contact.

"How good are you?" Vic brings up hesitantly.

"Does it matter? I left that life behind me." Her tone is as dead as her eyes. I can recognize them anywhere because I see them when I look in the mirror.

"Next week.." Phillip starts "we need a sniper, come with us." My eyes almost pop out of my socket. Is he crazy? "I trust her."

"You shouldn't." I blink hard at Alex as she says those words with her usual blank demeanor.

"We need a sniper at least for this one case." He lets out a slightly frustrated breath. "Do this and I'll give you the facial recognition program."

Alex POV

I blink hard at Phillip as he tries to make a deal. That facial recognition program might be worth sacrificing my identity for. It might be able to find Aidan and after that, all of this ends. No more underhand dealings, no more socialites.

"No," Nolan states firm and cold, but Phillip just shakes his head at him.

"I like her." Vic adds with a smile and then shrugs. "I'd take the risk just to see how good you are. Just try and not get me killed." I laugh with her and the tension in the car decreases.

"I never said I was going to take the job." I say in all seriousness. To them, it's been awhile. I can't exactly seem too eager to jump in now. Trent pulls up to their building before we all get out. I check my phone to see a bunch of missed messages from Kennedy. No doubt I will have drama to deal with after this.

"I should go." I say as I start to walk away.

"Are you coming next week?" Trent says. He's been surprisingly quiet this whole time. I pretend to think about it some more, but I knew what my answer is going to be.

"She's not." Nolan answers for me. His cold voice would send shivers down anyones skin, but I'm not just anyone. He may be able to scare the world to bits with his tone, but I have already seen everything. Nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing scares me anymore.

"Looks like we have our answer." I state while maintaining his eye contact. Beyond his cold hate-filled eyes, I can see the torment that drained the light out of those perfect green eyes. He wants answers about The Whisper, but the truth is, whatever little hope he is grasping onto will diminish the moment he gets what he is asking for. No good can come from that. Some things are just to be buried.

"Alright." Vic comes over to me. "We" She gestures to just the two of us. "are going to grab some food." She links her arm in mine as we start walking away.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. I am starving!" Trent yells from behind us as we stop and give each other a look. I shrug my shoulders as Phillip also runs to catch up with us too. We all turn to look at Nolan who doesn't look pissed, but disappointed. I can tell he is going to give in to the rest of them to have dinner, but I can't be seen with all of them, at least not in public.

"Actually, Vic. Can I get my stuff from your place?"

"Yeah, you want to go now? We can grab it after dinner?"

"How about we just order something and have it delivered?" I say nicely with a small smile. Vic looks cautiously at me for a minute before nodding in understanding. She leads the way as we follow. We make our way to their private elevator and Vic stops the boys from coming up with us.

"We'll meet you in the Board." Vic says to them with her hand up to stop them from coming up. What is she up to? The elevator door closes and we start heading up. She turns to me with a serious look as I give her my blank one in return. "We would take care of you."

"I never said you wouldn't." She's talking about their Ace position. The Queen is persuasive and well admired for her strategic battle methods. Even reading up on one or two or her plans in the past piqued my interest.

"My gut never lies." She starts as she stares at me as the elevator door is about to open. "You're better than what Nolan is imagining." We make our way to her door as I shake my head at her.

"Poaching Vic? That's beneath you." I say with a playful sass in my tone. Let's not piss of the woman that could probably beat my ass like there's no tomorrow.

"Normally, I wouldn't, but I don't have much of a choice. We don't have much of a choice." There is desperation in her voice. What is it with this case that they need a sniper this badly? Or a sniper this badly. She's withholding something from me.

"What is it? What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing." That's a lie.

"Vic, my gut never lies either and it's telling me you are, so what's up?" I grab my clothes from her room and I am about to change out of my clothes, not really caring if she is in the room. She throws me a large t-shirt and some shorts instead.

"They're all I have, Alex. I can't keep saving their ass. The last contract sniper we had almost cost Trent his life. I'm not risking that again." I breathe in hard. That hit a nerve. Aidan is all I have and I have seen him taken from me. It sucks.

"Why me, Vic?" We start heading out the bedroom and make our way back to the elevator.

"Because I can sense that you won't f**k it up." Our eyes find each other before we start laughing a little to lighten the darkened mood. The elevator doors open and we head inside to go up one floor, the highest floor.

"I know what it's like to watch something being taken. I will take the deal, but I think convincing Nolan to let me might be harder." As I finish my sentence, the doors open up to a large living room. We step off the elevator and I can see the space more clearly. On my left there is a span of floor to ceiling glass window with a pillar in the middle that has a marble wrap arround fire place on the bottom and a wall-mounted tv on top. The large white modular sofa in the middle and a giant white kitchen on the right with a marbled island. Closer to me on the left is a large dining table and on the right is a hallway. Not bad. The view is impressive, I'll admit. The glass window wall on the left opens up to the large balcony where there are some sets of sofas and tables around.

"We call this the Board." Vic states to me gesturing to basically the living room and the balcony. I nod back in response as I walk out to the balcony. I'm about to comment on the place, but my phone rings. I look down. It's Kennedy, again. I must have turned my sound on when I was getting dressed earlier.

"Hello?" I pick up the call, anticipating the other line's deafening scream.

"ALEX KANE! Do you have any idea how many messages I left you?!...." She continues her screams at me as I take the phone away from my ear and put myself on mute. The others just smirk at me as I turn down the volume. Even at its lowest setting, I can hear her frantically lecturing me. To be fair, I deserved it. She's trying to be a good friend and I suppose that is all I can ask of her.

"So, what are we eating?" I ask the rest of them with a light smile. The rest of them are all changed into casual clothes, which is interesting to see.

"What do you want?" Nolan asks. We all turn to him, surprised he is asking, but he shrugs in response. "She's still a guest."

"It depends if you guys have the tools for it." This time, they look at me like I'm strange. I just smile and shake my head in response. "I have an idea if you guys are up for it. It's probably different from what you guys normally have." I add with a little smirk, which makes them more interesteed.

"What do you need? We can get someone to pick it up." I shake my head at Trent. I have a feeling that whoever they send to grab the things we need is going to grab the wrong things.

"Give me your keys and I'll grab it." They look nervously at one another and I curve my lips up slightly. "Someone can come with me."

"I'm driving." Trent says and I nod in aggreeance, but before I can even step back into the suite, Nolan stops us.

"No, I will." He stares at Trent, but Trent gives him a suspicious look before going back to the others. "I need you guys to go over the Duval case while I am gone." He grabs my arm, a little roughly and yanks me towards the suite. Instead of taking me to the elevator, he drags me down the hall. I try to snake my hand back, but he hardens his grip and I know if I try again, he'll probably break my arm. What is his problem now?

Pushing me into a room and closing the door behind him, I look around to see I am in his bedroom. The bed is in the middle against one side of a brick wall facing another panel of floor to ceiling glass walls. I try and walk out but he pushes me away and sit down to his bed. He goes around and grabs something from his drawer. It's a pair of longer shorts with a tightener. He practically throws it on me.

"Change." He says coldly and leaves his bedroom. Did he seriously drag my in here because he didn't like what I was wearing? There is seriously nothing wrong with what I have on. I get up and open the door to see him standing against the wall, seeing me not changed, and pushing me back through the door. Okay, fine. I change quickly, but his shorts run pretty big on me. I open the door again and when he sees that I have changed, he nods and leads us out.

The car ride and grocery shopping was a short trip except that we had to go to Chinatown to get what we wanted and a bunch of people were staring at us. I'm not surprised, Nolan is easily 6'3" and a white boy with green eyes. I, on the other hand, am half Chinese so I at least look like I belonged. From his body language, I could tell that this didn't bother him. Like a sense of belonging didn't matter to him.

"What are you making?" He finally asks me as we are at the checkout. This is the first time either one of us has spoken to each other on this trip. I'm not complaining, it was nice to have peace and quiet for once.

"Korean barbecue."

"Are you Korean?"

"No." He glances over at me, anticipating more. "I'm half Chinese." He nods in acceptance of my answer.

I look down at the cart as we are waiting for the person in front of us that also has a lot of items. s**t, I forgot something.

"I forgot something. Stand in line, I will be right back." I am about to book it down the aisle, but he grabs my arm to stop me. He gives me a warning stare before letting me go. Our eyes stay on each other for a second too long and I peel them off of him as I sprint down the aisle for that sauce that I love. That's when I feel it again, the feeling that someone is watching me.