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Dear readers,

As much as I want to welcome everyone to my madness... WARNING this is a dark romance book and if you are underage I encourage you to delete my novel as I only wrote this for adults and purely for a short while escape from our reality.

BABY'S POINT OF VIEW

There's always a situation involving exposure to danger. It's called risk.

We've known it ever since our parents died, and we were taken in by our fathers' sister, an assassin in the underworld.

The first time we met was at the cemetery.  Her name is Madonna.

"Aunt Madonna," I say this in amusement while she plays with my long hair, curling it in her fingers lightly.

Our aunt is a girl version of our dad, having the same facial structure and has the same eyes and hair color.

Her beauty is very intriguing. I was enamored right away. 

She's unlike anyone I've ever met. Her eyes, on the other hand, were a brighter green than my father's, and the dark brown of her hair provided a nice contrast, allowing it to stand out even more. We were taken aback when she explained what she does and why we are unable to meet her at any of our family gatherings.

Our father appears to have a good understanding of what she does for a living. Although he didn't support it, he respected her choices in life.

Our Aunt Madonna was honest from the beginning about her secret job. She gave us a choice if we wanted to stay with her or live a normal life with strangers.

It took us three months to decide on her because child services were splitting us to live with different families. Far away from each other.

Since our aunt is blood, we didn't want to be separated. She eventually turned out to be a decent person who raised us as her own children.

We made peace with our choice to live in her world.

To survive in her world, she had to teach us her ways. We were trained as professional retrievers and eliminated whoever gets in the way.

She has an impressive ability to get close to the target. Close enough to plant explosives.

She made our bodies built like athletes. We were training from sunrise to sundown. Because we burn calories like an ectomorph, our bodies can consume anything.

I developed a huge liking for computers; when my aunt learned that I have a brain for it, she supported me. She made a conscious decision to send me to one of her trustee intimate friends named Astor to teach me the ins and outs of the world of programming.

I've always thought that Astor has feelings for my Aunt. Anyone can tell by the way he looks at her while he lingers longer than needed. I never knew what their relationship truly was, but it seems that my aunt has her way of keeping bridges intact with many men and Astor is just one of them.

I spent two years with Astor training for hacking jobs. I would only see Carly and my aunt whenever they were in the same town as me for a job.

I only joined them when Aunt Madonna felt I was ready. It was easy to convince my aunt Madonna to have me back for she witnessed that my fingers were the fastest encoder ever trained under Astor.

Astor had always said how fortunate I was to have such features. He was such a nerd, but a gorgeous one for his age.

My sister Carly grew up to be just like my auntie. She had all her mannerisms, and they were closer.

I was jealous initially but quickly got over it when a confrontation arose between us in the middle of a mission. It's funny now that I thought about it, but after that, we were closer than before.

A few more years and a lot of pledges had passed. My sister Carly excelled in the field game, while I excelled in hacking. She's always been more aggressive, whereas I've always been the thinker.

Dangerous pair, as our aunt Madonna, would always say. She curated this setup for Carly and I to retire early and leave this perilous life as she wished for her life to be.  

As we learned about our Auntie's health condition, which she failed to hide because of Astor's reaction toward her situation.  Astor, who had feelings for Aunt Madonna, had forced her to seek treatment in a faraway facility, but before she left, she had warned us not to accept any more pledges and to retire.

So, risk.

We've always been good at taking risks until this last job. I usually double-check every job before pledging to it. Yes!, the term we use is pledge when one has accepted a position in the underworld.

I knew in my heart something was off with the offer, but Carly, the bolder one, the stronger Belle, was fit to work in the field. While I stay behind the screen, watch, calculate the right move for her and take care of everything she would need for the job.

Carly, being the eccentric one, pledged to this last job without my consent. Surprisingly, Carly was desperate to green-light this pledge.

I couldn't let my conscience get the best of me and let my sister go on this mission by herself. As a result, we decided that this would be the last work we would do. Before we part ways, there's one last task. We've realized that we're getting too hot, that we've made a few enemies, and that we need to go offline for good.

We arrived at this rented cottage in the middle of the forest two days before the day of the mission.

We were given the task of retrieving information using only a code project number. We don't care about the substance of the pledges; what we care about is whether or not the client is a reliable payer.

We are so good at what we do, that requiring a client to pay first wasn't an issue at all. I hear a ping on my phone indicating there's a message.

$500,000,000.00

Location: FLAH Lab

Project: 0985890

I pulled out my laptop to check the deposited amount on the account. I worked on deleting everything that could lead to tracing where the money goes.

It took me only 10 mins to convert the amount into 20 separate accounts with different currencies. You never know which country you'll end up in if the situation goes south. 

Our aunt Madonna made sure to teach us to make a backup plan before making any pledges.

The secret to a successful mission is having multiple getaways.

We always prioritize the getaway. That's how we become good at what we do! If we aren't able to retrieve whatever needs to be, there's a second chance only if you get away.

As I sit here finishing all the last touches. I see Carly engaging her toned muscles by doing pull-ups. I smirk at her, showing off again.

I closed the laptop. Echoing a clipping sound-making, Carly looked my way and headed toward the work zone.

"So Baby, who am I going to be this time?" — wiping the sweat on her forehead.

"Here you go! You know how to read. I'm going to bed. I'm tired. I pulled an all-nighter "— smiling at her, handing her the folder with an ID key card.

"Ewwww no! You did this on purpose. I told you I'm not too fond of this look. Change it, Baby, I look like Nanny McPhee! "

"Carli, stop. I've already entered all of the information into the system."You're only going to be in this outfit for an hour, maybe two or three tops," she says, annoyed.

"No, I won't do it, Change Baby" Her eyebrows are drawn.

"Carly, you better be kidding me, or I'm going to stop this operation right now," I retort.

"I just like teasing you" hugging me from the back.

She finally got me laughing after she tickled me hard.

"I will surely miss you, sister! What are you going to do with all that money? "

"Carly, the first thing I will do is buy myself a puppy. Now that we're retiring, I have the time to take care of one "

"I thought you were going to say a cat! An old virgin maid with cats is more of your vibe "— she laughs, mocking her nerdy ways.

"Hahaha I'd rather be an old maid than a wanton like you Carly," I retort.

The insults and banter went on for a few more minutes. Typical Belle sisters that we are! As I lay on my bed. I could not help but think of the freedom within reach after this last job.

We spent our last day together preparing for the mission. The prosthetic makeup is all done and perfectly suited to make her look older. 

Come dinner time, it would be our last meal before we officially go our separate ways. It's dangerous to stick together because if one is captured, one can get away and survive. We rehearsed her execution.

This job should just be a walk in the park. We've done a much more complicated job.

Once the file is retrieved from FLAH lab, a program I created will be ready where Carly can easily upload it. This program window can only be accessed by the client. Once it's been opened and downloaded, it will self destruct.

When we said our goodbyes this morning, my eyes were all balled up. My obnoxious sister received a tight lung crushing hug from me. She tried to lighten the mood by joking about how ugly I was. I've always been the one who gets all worked up over stuff. I couldn't help but get insecure about how she got everything figured out while I'm still scared of putting myself out in the real world.

As she drives away. I confidently hold on to the hope that I will reunite with her in five years along with my aunt Madonna and Astor.