AngelicaThe clock had to be messing with me. How come only ten minutes had gone by in two hours? Curtis was leaving soon but despite being all dressed up, it felt like he was taking ages.It’s not that I didn’t want to spend more time with him. I did, but more than that, I needed to get to the vault.To mask the sickening feeling in my stomach, I hugged him from behind while he put on his watch. “I’ll miss you.”“It’s only one night.” He chuckled. “Do you want to come with me?” He offered.I shook my head against his back. “I do want to come, but I don’t want to be a distraction.”“Fair enough.” He agreed. “Hard to focus with you around. I won’t be long.” He turned around and kissed the top of my head, not at all minding that I was acting clingy.I wanted to overanalyze this and come up with reasons why he would be so tender and affectionate but I had bigger things to worry about. I was relieved when he left earlier than I had anticipated he would. Except, why was he leaving two hulk
It was useless arguing with him. Spider liked to “make things more fun” by pulling unexpected moves. It was fun for him. He wasn’t the one who would get caught in the wrong place if anything went wrong.I rolled with it. After all, it was easier to avoid the laser beams this way. I entered four random digits into the keypad. Spider had already messed with it to make it accept anything. The only problem was that if the doors opened all the way, it would break the magnetic field and set off an alarm.Luckily, I had brought the tray I stole from the kitchen. I waited for the doors to part enough for me to go through without touching them, then I placed the tray between them. I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t been fully certain a tray would stop them. I stepped in just as Spider’s annoying countdown got to zero, then the whole room turned dark. I dashed for the end of the room and thankfully managed to locate the laser system’s switch before the light turned back on.“Everything okay?”
Curtis “What happened last night?” I asked when Heston peeked his head into my office. His last night was a nightmare and he had been delighted to finally take the night off. His presence here could only mean one thing. He let himself in and took a seat. “We had extra special VIPs last night.” I instantly knew what that meant. The place was crawling with CIs. They must be idle to keep snooping despite not getting any evidence. Not that they would ever get any. “Meghan’s finger found its way into my wife’s closet,” I told him. He squinted, processing my words, then he let out a laugh. “Yeah it did.” “What do you mean by that?” I asked. He shook his head like I was being ridiculous, then he reached for a file on one of the shelves and slammed it on my desk impatiently. When he opened it, I realized it was his previous search on Angelica. “I told you before, there’s something about that woman that doesn’t sit right with me. You know what they say about the deal being too good… I
I grabbed her by the waist before she could change her mind and kissed her. I could barely recognize the sound that left my mouth when she threw her arms around me and gyrated her body against mine. She was wearing a set of blue, stretchy workout shorts and a sports bra that fit her like a second skin. It was driving me crazy seeing her in it earlier. Angelica was a walking temptation and I wasn’t sure how I had managed to be close to her for so long without ripping her clothes off and claiming her. I knew I should be gentle with her. She was new to this—but my body was no longer taking orders from my brain. I turned her around and pushed her against the wall, yanking her sports bra up. Her nipples were already hard by the time I exposed them, a deep pink against her creamy skin. I sucked one of them into my mouth, letting my hands venture down her body. Her skin felt so soft I knew she would bruise easily, but I didn’t care much right now. I wanted to kiss and suck it nonetheless.
Fair enough. It was unfair of me to expect her to be part of something she didn’t even know existed. This is exactly why I didn’t want us to move into this mansion. It held too many secrets. My apartment was not any better. I may have kept myself away from my family’s illicit businesses but I wasn’t a saint myself. I had wanted to own a home with her, a place that would be completely rid of anything I didn’t want her to know. I could pretend to be a legitimate businessman for six months. But now that we were here, everything had changed. I tried to smooth it over nonetheless. “The cops would never come after you.” “But your enemies would. That’s why you’re training me. I don’t want to die for something I don’t even know. It’s not fair.” She hissed. Since when was I unable to get out of a confrontation? She was looking at me with those clear, innocent eyes and everyting I wanted to say, every lie I had made up vanished. I couldn’t stand the thought of making her sadder than she alr
Angelica I woke up with a start and clutched my chest. What kind of insane dream was that? It was already bad enough that I kept having recurring nightmares about my parents’ death. The one I had last night was the worst of them all.Right after Mama nudged me away so I would use the tunnel to escape, I somehow ended up in Curtis’s arms. What I thought was my nightmare taking a romantic turn was anything but. Curtis turned me around and held a pistol against my temple.“You betrayed me.” He hissed. Then he pulled the trigger. I couldn’t be certain whether or not it was real. Maybe he did shoot me. Maybe I had woken up in an alternate universe where he was yet to discover who I truly was. Or better yet, part of my brain had peeked into the future and found out how I would die. Which couldn’t truly be right. Curtis had explicily stated he preferred to torture the hell out of traitors. If that traitor was me, I would have it much worse. I couldn’t dwell on it for too long. If I stuc
Angelica “Aunt Angelica! Uncle Curtis!" A cheerful squeal welcomed us to Klara’s house, right before I was attacked into a hug from both sides, each kid swinging on my leg. “Hey.” I picked Lizzie up and kissed her cheek, then did the same for Archie. “Hey, birthday boy.” He pursed his lips and kissed my cheek, making my heart melt. Then they jumped onto Curtis and nearly knocked the box out of his hands. “Careful, if you don’t want to have to scrap your gift off the floor.” Curtis chuckled, but he leaned down so the excited duo would hug him. Klara came out having heard teh commotion and hugged us. “You came.” “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I followed her lead into her apartment. It was different from what I expected a surgeon's apartment to look like. I had thought it would be all white and sterile with minimum colors—much like Curtis’s apartment. On the contrary, her living room was warm with hints of golden, broze and blue. The multicolored balloons on the walls and roo
We returned to the living room one after another. As expected, Curtis looked over at Lavinia and then at me with a squint. "I'll be on my way." She winked at me right before she ran her five-inch claws down Curtis's chest. "Lavinia!" He glared at her. "Don't you mean Vinny? It sounds so much sweeter." She glided away oblivious to my stare. I didn't realize how hard I was clenching my fists until a little hand opened my hand and held it. "Aunt Angelica, are you sad?" Archie asked, holding out a chocolate candy bar to me. "Candy makes Lizzie feel better when she’s sad." "Thank you, sweetie." I accepted the candy despite knowing I wouldn't eat it. Lizzie ran over as well, holding her party hat in her hand. "Aunt Angelica is upset because Aunt Vinny likes Uncle Curtis." Curtis facepalmed. "What kind of nonsense have you been watching?" He sent the duo off to tell Klara we were leaving. As soon as they ran out, Curtis grabbed my hand and pulled me over to him. "I've never had an