"He was in my damn apartment." I snapped, punching my fist against Howard's expensive mahogany desk. "You call that being on top of things?"

"Why didn't you just take him down?" Monroe arrogantly asked. "You can bring down an entire highway with one car, but you can't take down one agent?"

I clenched my fists to prevent myself from hitting him again. He already had a black eye from yesterday where I punched him for being too mouthy. I wanted to give him a matching set.

"He was a freaking six foot six Neanderthal and he cornered me." I snarled. "I was off the clock, I wasn't expecting an Italian agent to ambush me in my home – which he shouldn't have been able to," I said turning to Howard again who was twirling his pen thoughtfully. "What the hell, Howie?"

"We had a security breach yesterday, Rya, you know that we put all our attention on that whenever it happens," Howard said, leaning back in his chair. "All agents were called in to assist, and it left some of our off-duty agents without backup for a few hours. We apologize for any inconveni—"

"Oh, that's bullshit." I said, crossing my arms. "Tell me why am I still working for you guys. Seriously, tell me. Yesterday was ridiculous!"

"Just quit then," Monroe helpfully suggested.

I scoffed. "Wouldn't you like that? If I did, there'd be nobody to slim your obese ego."

"Calm down now," Howard finally said and stood up when Monroe rolled his eyes. "Agent Wilkins, you are a cherished asset to our ranks and we do sincerely apologize for what happened yesterday. Investigations will be conducted after we found the breach in our security, trust in that, but you said that the agent told you they would make another attempt at breaking in? Did he tell you which firm he worked for?"

"Yeah, AISE. He said he knew they would succeed this time because they were putting their best guy on the job. That they would get away with it."

"And you say I have a big ego," Monroe snorted from the side.

Howard ignored him. "Well, let's make sure they don't, then. If they're putting their top agent on the case, then we should do the same." He buttoned his suit jacket and smoothed it down. "If we want to catch their best agent, we will use our own as well."

Monroe immediately straightened out and fixed his tie. "Sir, I'm honored—"

"—Agent Wilkins, please report down at the armory to get your guns checked out. When you encounter their agent, you have clearance to kill him," Howard stepped around his desk and walked up to me. "We need this case closed once and for all."

Monroe gaped when Howard stuck his hand out towards me. I reminded myself to rub it in Monroe's face later while I shook it. "Yes, Sir. I will. Thank you for the opportunity."

"Of course," Howard warmly smiled and then turned around. "Oh, and Agent Monroe, Stella said she needed help with documenting the damage done yesterday. Go down and lend her a hand, will you?"

I smirked at Monroe when he just glared like he couldn't believe he just got overlooked for a female agent. That big ego of his probably suffered a blow. "Uh... of course, Sir, but are you sure you don't want—"

"Now, please excuse me, I must go," Howard smiled, ignoring Monroe once again. "I am meeting my wife for brunch and her mother will be joining us. I can't stand that old crow."

I chuckled and patted his arm. "Compliment whatever she's wearing. She'll love that."

"Thank you for the advice," Howard clucked back. "I will see you both later. Best of luck."

~~~

I was gearing up. I clipped on my ammo belt and secured my gun holsters. I then checked my two Glocks, unclipped the mags and made sure they were fully loaded. Grabbing four more mags, I fastened them to my belt, before taking my 9mm pocket pistol and slipping it into my boot. I then tested my army knives, running my finger along the steel blade, before sheathing them into place on the clip around my thigh. Lastly, I took my 9mm Taurus and stuffed it down at the back of my pants and then grabbed my automatic machine gun and strapped it over my back.

– I was ready-eddy for Spaghetti.

"Testing earpiece, do you copy, Agent Wilkins?"

"Roger that, voice is clear," I said, tying my hair into a tight ponytail while walking down the secured hallway which led to the data room. "Is everything up and running?"

"Affirmative. All teams are set and in place. Operation Hometurf is ready to go."

"Copy that."

I then crouched down behind the curve of a wall and closed my eyes. Now all we had to do was wait. I didn't care how long it took, it could take hours, days; I wouldn't fucking leave my spot until I had this goddamn dick under my boot, either dead or dying.

"Bring it on, fuckheads," I whispered, gnashing my teeth. I then opened my eyes and stared forward down the hall. The SWAT team was ready and lined up down the white hall, standing by on my command, all geared up in Kevlar and semi automatics. If this so-called 'best agent' of theirs even tried to come close to the data room, he'd get gunned down by fifteen men – and that was assuming he even made it into the building. And if he did, and he by some miracle managed to make it past the fifteen armed men... well, then he'd have the pleasure of dealing with me.

"Regis, what's the status at Area 1?" I murmured into my mic.

"No movements. Area 1 secured."

"Dallas, status."

"Area 2 secured, no sign of entry."

"Cornell, what's your situation?"

White noise. I waited another second.

"Cornell, status report. What is your situation?"

No answer.

"Cornell!"

"Did you remember to feed Bob this morning?"

My eyes widened, just like my heart began galloping.

"Alert, alert, target is within premises, I repeat, target is within premises!" I alarmed into my mic, pulling both my Glocks from their holsters, placing my fingers on the bud. "Stand by on my command!"

"Copy that, teams are standing by."

Holy shit. It was him. It Spaghetti himself. He was their best guy.

I cursed myself. I should've predicted it. That was why he seemed way too smug – he had practically told me straight to my face he was coming to steal whatever it was they tried to steal from our data room yesterday. And on top of that, he had mentioned Bob to me.

"All units, come in. If you get a clear aim at the target, take him down," I spoke harshly into the mic. "The one that brings me this dick on a silver platter gets my full salary on this hit."

"Why don't you just come get me yourself, dolcezza?"

His voice was so amused. I curled my lip back and spoke venomously into my mic. "Laugh it up now, Spaghetti. You're not gonna be laughing when I kill you."

The deepest, most sexiest chuckle followed after a moment of white noise. "Come and get me, then."

A giant explosion rocked the walls in the hall and filled the air with thick white smoke before his sentence had even fully finished. I covered my nose and mouth, but the SWAT team lined up down the hall had taken most of the blast. The damn asshole had thrown a smoke bomb into the hallway.

Cursing, I repositioned myself as I heard footsteps and hustling, then guns flairing and cries of pain. The thick fog made it impossible for me to see what was going on. All I could hear was the SWAT team taking on Spaghetti. From the sounds of it, he was still somehow having the upper hand. Not good. Not good that he was as good as he bragged.

I now begun seeing shapes from within the dense smoke which was slowly evaporating. I spotted Spaghetti's tall frame breaking through it all. I could just tell he was wearing a gas mask, but I could still see it was him.

"Fucking cock," I seethed. Gripping my guns tighter, I waiting until I could get a clear shot.

Spaghetti was impressive, I couldn't deny that as much as I wanted to. The SWAT team was buzzing around him like mosquitos that wouldn't quit, but he was swatting them down like flies; He was swatting the SWAT team.

Gripping around the throat of one guy with his arm, he used him as a human shield as another one fired at him, emptying his clip. Spaghetti then wrung the shield's neck around, the uncomfortable break of bones echoing in my ears. Next thing I knew, he had drawn his own gun and was gunning down two others, each with a single, perfected shot to their heads. They dropped like flies.

Finally, the fog lifted enough for me to get a clear shot, and so aiming, I pulled my trigger. Spaghetti roared and whipped around when my bullet imbedded itself in his arm. He quickly pulled off his mask and let a smirk rise to his lips. "There you are."

"Here I am," I chimed and pulled my triggers again. I fired at him and he instantly ducked, pounding his feet against the wall, before making a 360 flip in the air, landing on his knees, before doing a barrel roll. Show-off.

I refilled my guns with a swift move and clapped the mags against my thighs to secure them before firing again. Spaghetti took out another SWAT guy, breaking his arm around his back before thrusting his elbow into his shoulder, making it pop out of the socket. He then provided him with a bullet-shaped hole in his head as well.

Then there was just me and one other SWAT guy left. Based on the white noise I heard in my earpiece, nobody else was coming to my aid, either.

– Looked like I was going to have to take this jackass out myself. I felt myself smirk a little. I wanted it that way, anyway.

Spaghetti finished the last SWAT guy while I fired at him, landing a bullet in his shin as well. He hissed and growled at me, before throttling the SWAT guy's dead body into the ground. Then he was coming for me fast, a slight limp to his pace. I noticed he had a few wounds and cuts here and there, but other than that, he rocked his tight black kevlar outfit like a boss.

Throwing my now empty Glocks on the ground, I pulled my automatic and pressed the trigger. Spaghetti quickly moved, jumping up and around to avoid my rabid firing. Did the guy have reflexes like a goddamn ninja or was he just as fast as a cheetah? Both, apparently. His size didn't slow him down, that was for sure. I unloaded my entire clip on him, only managing to graze him twice, before he leaped for me, taking me down. I cried loudly when his weight pounded me down and pinned me to the floor. My gun in my pants jabbed into my spine.

"Good to see you again, dolcezza," Spaghetti smirked at me from above, closing in on my face. "Did you miss me?"

Sneering at him, I used the element of surprise and wrapped my legs around his waist before knocking my head powerfully into his skull. The move did its job well when he groaned and rolled back, giving me the opportunity to roll him off and pin him beneath me instead. Grabbing the blade from the clip on my thigh, I flipped the blade downwards and made a stab at him. Spaghetti quickly stopped my blow before impact and wried my wrist around, making me holler in pain and drop the blade.

"That wasn't very nice. Not very lady-like."

"Oh yeah? How about this then?" I punched him harshly across his jaw, whipping his head to the side. When I hit again, he caught my other fist and clenched his big paw around it.

"God, I love that in a woman." He chuckled and then forcefully rolled me over on my stomach and pinned my hands on the floor next to my face. "Violence."

Hissing and curling my lip back at him, I felt as he then yanked us to our feet, keeping me locked tightly on his grip. He was wrying my arm around on my back like he had done back in my apartment yesterday, and my arm was still aching from nearly getting thrown off a van. I bit back my pain. "Then why don't you let me go and allow me to give you what you love."

"I wish I could, but unfortunately I have some other business on my agenda today," He answered and leaned down to my ear. Hell, I could feel his goddamn cocky smirk. "But I'd like your company while I take care of it, so shall we?"

I gritted my teeth as he pushed me forward. He led us up to the data room's door, which was locked with a thumbprint reader.

"I need your signature, sweetheart."

"Yeah? Well my signature is a bullet to your dick, followed by a bullet through your yap."

"Mmm, coldhearted. I can't wait to taste your little bullet," His mouth grazed my ear as he grabbed my wrist and forced my thumb out. Despite my struggle, he managed to press it against the pad. The lamp lit up green and the door unlocked. This was so not good.

Grinding my teeth as I tried to think of a new plan, Spaghetti walked us inside the data room where the motion sensor lights flipped on and revealed the giant super computer which stored all our most top secret files and data. Every secret known to our country was right there for him to take, provided he knew how to pass about fifty firewalls.

"Why are you doing this?" I snapped at him as he forced me forward, leading me up to a metal pillar that connected to the ceiling. I struggled to get free, but his iron grip just tightened and threatened to pop my shoulder out of its socket. I bit back more pain.

"Come now, that's such a cliché question," He mused. He then whirled me around and within seconds had a pair of army-grade cuffs linked around my wrists which he also cinched around the metal pillar. He locked me up against it.

I really was screwed. "Fine, I'll rephrase myself then; Are you sure you want to do this?"

"There are so many things I want to do right now, and non of them involve stealing confidential files." He said and fished out the gun from my pants and looked at it before disarming it. "A Taurus? Interesting choice. Do you have a 9mm in your boot as well, then?"

He smirked at me and brushed my chin with his thumb. I jerked my head away from him which only made his smirk grow. He then proceeded to crouch down to my boot and pull out my pocket pistol, emptying it for bullets.

"I was right. You're old-school. What else are you hiding?" He smirked.

When his hand brushed up against my inner thigh, I glared deadly down at him. "Felt enough now?"

"Not even close."

Jerking again, I cursed when he begun frisking me from my weapons, unsheathing all my blades from my thigh-clip and unfastening my ammo belt. His calloused hands then ran up my sides, inching up to my breasts.

"You think I'm hiding a gun between my boobs?" I sneered when he brushed over them, feeling them up real good. Too good. He was enjoying this. And I feared a twisted part of me was, too. Good God, I shouldn't be.

"I am most certain that you are," He grinned, dipping into my cleavage, purposely scorching me with his touch before fishing out my pink, miniature snapnose .38 police gun. "Cute. Are the bullets pink as well?"

"Asshole," I growled while he rolled the bullets out of the barrel, letting them drop to the floor. "I'm going to kick your Italian ass into tender meat once I get out of these."

"So by your definition, my ass is currently firm?"

Goddamn it! He grinned sexily at me, but then took a step back and walked up to the super computer.

"You'll never get into it, you know," I confidently said. "That computer is guarded with more firewalls and encryptions than the amount of bullet shells that's carpeting the hall outside. You won't ever get into it."

"That's why I brought this guy." He told and took a seat in the lush chair in front of the computer and then pulled out a USB from his pocket, inserting it into the PC. After pressing a few keys, a window popped up on the computer screen which then started loading a black text. A virus. Probably one that was set to infiltrate it.

I cursed loudly and started yanking at the restrains, almost dislocating my own arms to get free. I ignored the amused smirk that twitched on Spaghetti's lips as he begun cracking the computer's firewalls. "You fucking shitpiece! I'm going to kill you once I get out of these!"

He just chuckled and pressed Enter, then let the computer work by itself. He then unzipped a small pocket on his protective vest and pulled out a small kit; A tweezer, a thick, black thread and a needle. "I think you already tried. Not many people can brag about having landed a bullet in me, mia cara."

"No shit. I'll be expecting my honorary medal in my P.O box within the next three days."

He shook his head with a smile as he pulled up his long sleeve, inspecting the bleeding bullet wound I had given him, just above his elbow. "How about I drop it off in person?"

"You mean breaking into my apartment again?"

"I miss Bob."

"Stop talking about Bob."

He chuckled silently before he picked up the tweezer. Next thing I knew, he was twisting it into his bullet wound, digging for the slug. He hissed and cursed, letting out a sound that was close to a groan of pain. I enjoyed almost a full minute of hearing that. Finally, he pulled the bullet out with an exhale and held it into the light. ".36-caliber?"

"38."

"Nice," He put the bullet down on the table and pulled out a cotton ball from his pocket, pressing it to the wound which was still leaking crimson. "You like your guns deadly."

"Same goes for you," I voiced while the computer was still running its virus, now pulling up files, sifting through them. Shit, he actually got through. "You killed a lot of good men today."

"They were pointing their guns at me."

"They had families."

"So do I," He replied, now threading the needle with the thick, black thread. "They chose this profession, they knew the risks."

"Who's coldhearted now?"

His lips twitched again. Then he began piercing the needle through his skin, grimacing a little. He pulled the thread through and repeated the process, sewing up the wound. "I follow my orders, mia cara. Just like you do."

Grinding my molars, I just watched him for a moment while he stitched up his bullet hole, biting the thread at last, before pressing the cotton bud to the now closed wound. He then rolled down his sleeve and turned to the computer again.

I finally lost my patience. "What is it that you guys want?"

"Something we believe has crucial information regarding our sweet nation. Something we believe you originally stole from us."

"Well if we confiscated it, it obviously threatened our nation and was believed to be harmful," I countered, watching him concentrate on the computer. "Did you ever think we took it because you were the ones who started this feud?"

"I don't care who started what, dolcezza. I'm just following my commands and then some," He abruptly stood up from the chair and walked up to me. His dark brown eyes met mine and he leaned down, brushed a strand of my hair out of my face, a strand that had escaped my ponytail. "I liked the thong you were wearing the other day. Do you always strip down when you get home or was that just for me?"

I scowled up at him and jerked my head away when he tried to brush my cheek. "I'm so going to enjoy killing you, Spaghetti. It's going to be slow, calm and painful."

He chuckled and ripped my ponytail apart, combing his fingers through my hair. "The name is Vincenzo, mia cara, and I prefer fast, wild and pleasurable."

Growling and thrashing as he pushed my chin up, he once again crashed his lips onto mine. Gripping roughly onto the roots of my hair, he kept my lips firmly pressed against his. The same sensation as the first time it happened went through me, and I struggled to maintain my cool. He was intoxicating, wild, raw. Everything I loved in the male specie.

Writhing, I suppressed a moan when he pressed his other hand to my lower back, forcing my hips forward. I felt his unmistakable erection rub against my pelvis, causing all kinds of misplaced things to happen in my panties. My body was on fire, scorched by his touch. My lips parted on their own accord and I cursed my brain for acting without my permission. He took that window of opportunity to thrust his tongue into my mouth and tear my world apart. There was no way back now.

I was helpless, but it was the best kind of helpless I'd ever known.

Moaning out a hot breath, I couldn't resist him any longer. I rawly kissed him back, meeting the thrusts of his tongue with my own. With no hands to touch him, I simply just angled my head up to get more of the toxic thrill he was poisoning my body with, allowing it to course through my body.

Smirking satisfied with my surrender, Vincenzo victoriously moved his hand lower to my ass. Cupping my buttocks, he squeezed it and I moaned. He then abruptly pulled away from me, grabbing my throat. "Vaffanculo. You are going to be a perfect conquest, Rya Wilkins. I can't wait to have you writhing beneath me."

All the toxins in my body now vanished and I realized suddenly what I had just fucking done; I had willingly kissed the guy back who had broken into the CIA and killed a bunch of good men, not to mention he was currently stealing confidential files from the USA. I had all but submitted to him just now, allowed myself to be manipulated by the enemy.

"You fucking SHIT!" I screamed, not knowing exactly if I was talking to him or myself. Thrashing wildly against his hold and my restraints, I glared lethally up at, thunder blazing in my eyes. "I'll fucking kill you! Take these goddamn cuffs off me and take me on like a fucking man! DO IT!"

But Vincenzo just smirked and shook his head, then walked up to the computer again which was now flashing something. Probably telling it was done doing whatever it was doing. "Bella mia, I can't wait to take you on. In fact you have no idea how hard it is to walk away from you right now, but as of five minutes ago..." He confessed and checked the digital clock on his wrist, "Sorry, six, your secondary standby SWAT team entered the area and is coming for me and..." He pulled the USB out of the computer and held it up. "...this. So unfortunately, I have to go."

Glaring at him, I watched as he stood up and then checked his guns before walking up to the door, making ready to exit. "So you're just going to leave me here then? Didn't peck you for a coward, Vincenzo," I spat out his name. Yes, I was antagonizing him, but what other choice did I have? I was chained to a pillar and he was about to walk out of here with state secrets. I couldn't let that happen.

"We'll meet again, Rya," He promised me, smirking over his shoulder as he gripped the doorknob. "Tell Bob I said hi."

And like that, he ran off, and it didn't take long before I heard gunshots from further down the hall, the same we had come from. I thrashed against the army-grade cuffs again, but it was useless. He had gotten away.

Monroe was going to have a field day.

• • •

Thoughts on Rya?