Leaving Italy was hard.

Not just because it was where I had awoken again and had finally dared to open up to Vince, but also because in just the two days we had been there, it had grown on me. I told myself that once this was all over, I'd go back to Italy again. Maybe and hopefully with Vince.

As for now, I had to focus on what was going to happen. We were in the private jet with Caleb again, who was fiddling around with a toy I could only assume once had been a drone. It now looked like a cross between a helicopter and a soap bubble machine. Meanwhile me and Vince were looking the case over again, trying to figure out what our plan was going to be.

"So if my boss is involved somehow, then how do we get to him so we can interrogate him?" I asked, hating the words that came out of my mouth. I still didn't want to believe Howard was a part of it, but for the sake of the mission, I didn't let my personal feelings get in the way.

"His house would the easiest way," Vince replied, picking out a file that Caleb had printed with the details of Howard's personal life. "It's moderately secure, CCTV, trigger-sensitive alarms. I'm sure the kid could handle them easily."

"Not his house," I said and firmly shook my head. "Howard has a wife and three daughters. Two of them are moved out, but his youngest is seventeen and still lives at home. I don't want neither her or his wife being there if it turns out he is a part of it. I don't want them... experiencing that." I said and pressed my lips tightly together. "They're innocent and they shouldn't see their husband and father get... taken."

Vince took my hand and then nodded understandingly. "I understand. We won't take him at home then. Public is no good either then, no? Too many civilians."

I nodded and then closed my eyes for a moment. "Yeah, but then what do we do? We can't wait for his wife and daughter to leave the house, and Howard is too smart to fall for a trap if we try and lure him out. He's been on the force for thirty-four years, he's not stupid. He'll know a trap when he sees one."

"That leaves us with just one option then; His workplace."

I turned my head and stared at Vince for a long second to determine whether or not he was kidding. My conclusion was that he wasn't. "You've seriously not suggesting we break into the CIA, are you? We just escaped from there. If we step into that building again, they won't hesitate to kill us."

"Actually..." Caleb now broke in, looking up from his hybrid-drone toy to be a part of the conversation. "They won't pop your asses. You're forgetting that while we're like on level 10 with what's going on, they're still just on level 2, looking for the USB. They have no idea what Vince stole yet, and as far as they're concerned, I'm still Liam Neeson's daughter from Taken. They won't risk killing you guys before they know what's on that USB. If it's state secrets, they have to know which hands they landed in, and currently, your hands are Mr and Mrs Sex."

Me and Vince exchanged a brief look. I was the one who spoke first. "So you're saying they wouldn't take us down if we walked into the CIA?"

"Oh, no, they'd totally take you down," Caleb said and resumed fiddling with his toy. "They'd taser you, cuff you and tie you up in that room below." He suddenly frowned and then looked up preposterously. "What the shit, I just realized how perverted they are," He said and grimaced. "That's total Christian Grey kink right there."

I rolled my eyes, but Vince pursed his lips seriously and spoke. "If we could at all avoid going down there again, I would much appreciate it," He said and looked sternly at Caleb. "My last stay wasn't very hospitable."

An image of how Vince had looked after he showed at the safe-place now popped up my head and made my guts turn. I could understand why he'd want to avoid that again. "I agree. We have to find a way to get to Howard without ending up in any extraction rooms," I said. "There has to be a way, I mean you've done it before when Vince broke in. Why can't we do it the same way?"

"That was before my face was known," Vince told before Caleb got a chance to open his eager mouth. "All the kid had to do back then was hack into some postal delivery files and add a new employee."

I rose a skeptical brow. "You're kidding."

"Sadly not. He hacked into the records and set up a false ID to get me through security."

"Or as I like to call it, a life-hack," Caleb smirked proudly. When both me and Vince just stared at him, his grin sunk and instead got replaced by an irritated sulk. "You guys are boring. Do you ever laugh?"

"Not on deadly missions," I replied and turned my head back to Vince. "So how do you suggest we get in this time?"

"Well..." Caleb broke in again and made me turn my head back to him. "If you'll allow the smart guy here to suggest an idea, I have a plan that could get you in and out of there with controlled damage and minimalistic casualties."

"Tell us what you got, kid." Vince prompted.

"What I've got is a driver's license and a smoking hot girlfriend, so stop calling me a kid," Caleb grumbled when Vince just chuckled. "But to get into the CIA as undetected as possible, I see only two options. Here's the first;" He put his drone-toy away and instead pulled his laptop up to the airplane flip-table, opened the screen and then begun tapping away at the keys. "The easiest way to get in is—and stay with me—to turn yourselves in." When me and Vince both made our cues to protest, Caleb held up a finger. "Just let me explain before you go Hitchcock on me! If you turn yourselves in, they'll most likely take you to the—yes—extraction room straight away. They know by now neither of you will talk through standard interrogation, so they'll skip that part and jump straight to the torture."

"Which we'd like to avoid," I reminded him in a flat voice. So far I wasn't loving his 'smart' plan.

"Relax," Caleb said and now shot a look at me, then turned his eyes back to his laptop. "They'll never get that far. Once they get you in there – most likely in separate rooms – I'll hack into their systems and shut down all the power before they can even begin. I'll lock down the entire floor and lock all doors so that when shit breaks loose, more agents can't rush to the others aid.

"So when that happens, that's your cue to move. They'll probably have taken all your weapons away, so you'll have to acquire one which shouldn't be too hard in a room full of torture instruments," He commented with a small headbob. "Once you've done that, then all you need to do is find each other and make it to the first elevator you see," He continued and tapped on his keyboard again. "Which I then will direct to lead you up to the floor where Howard's office is."

"Then what?" I said. "By now the alarms must've been raised, even if they can't access the floor. If we come to them, they'll be waiting for us; We'll be walking straight into our graves."

"Calm down, I'm not finished yet," Caleb informed. "The alarms are my department, I can practically create Area 51 around the entire extraction floor so that nobody above will know what's happening and even know anything is going on. And, to your problem with all the other agents who might see two very wanted faces walking down their halls, I've got you covered," He told and now turned his laptop to us. "As of tomorrow morning, there's going to be a seminar on proper gun maintenance and safety, a two-hours course, which, let's just say, is now mandatory," Caleb grinned and pointed to his screen. "Everyone will have to attend and the halls will practically be deserted."

I looked at the screen and saw how he had issued that information out to everyone in the CIA. I was very close to being motherly impressed. "But... if it's mandatory, won't it mean Howard will have to attend it as well?"

"Higher-ups are excused," He noted and turned his laptop back around. "Just to avoid any suspicion, I've set up another fake seminar next week, just for the top heads, to remove any suspicion about this sudden impromptu course, which, let's face it, is unnecessary because everyone at the CIA knows how to clean their guns – I think they actually clean their guns more often than they wash their hands. I Purell'ed fifty times a day while I was there—"

"So back to the plan," I said when he started to blurb on. "Me and Vince find our way to Howard's office and then we should have about an hour to interrogate him and to get out again before anyone sees us?"

"Well, yes, but let's not focus on that part just yet, I've got that down too, let's focus on the Howard-part for now," He said and begun tapping away again at his laptop. That sound was beginning to drive me insane, especially because his fingers were flying across it so fast, it made my eyes hurt trying to keep up. "So when you get to Howard, it'll be up to you to find the truth about what's going on. If it turns out he's innocent, just pat him on the back and thank him for his time. If he is a part of C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S and a sonofabitch, we want to know what they're up to and why they have a mole in the CIA. I swear if these fuckers are trying to make lab rats out of kids again, I swear to God almighty—"

"Then we'll sort it out," Vince now cut in, having been silent while me and Caleb talked. "We'll figure out what's going on and take it from there."

Caleb took and deep breath and then nodded. "Good. That's good. Then I think that's basically it. I'll have to keep tabs on the extraction floor while you're upstairs, eyes on the seminar, too, to make sure nobody sneaks out, a lookout on Howard's floor to make sure he doesn't skip away, all the while keeping all the hacks undetected and while entertaining the CIA's firewalls." He took another deep breath and blew it out through his mouth. "That should be fun."

I rose a worried brow. "Can you even do all that?"

He flipped his eyes to me and then handed me a wide grin. "Are you kidding, that's a Tuesday afternoon for me. Well, that and popcorn with Nutella. Ever tried that? It's fucking delicious."

"Alright, well, that sounds like a good plan to me," I said, Vince nodding in agreement. "But you said you saw two options, what was the second?"

A slow, devious smirk spread on Caleb's lips. "The Trojan-horse trick. Mail yourselves in through a crate, and then once they pop it open, bam! You go all Trump on them as if they were Mexicans!"

I suppressed the need to roll my eyes. "You're saying we build a wall around them?"

"Yeah, and then you get to sing, 'I came in like a wreeeecking baaaall' when you take them down! Hell, I'll even channel the song through the speakers! It'll be epic!"

"No music," I deadpanned. Caleb's lips grin fell. "And I think we'll stick to plan A."

"Aww, man, I was rooting for plan B," He pouted and crossed his arms like a kid that had been told no dessert before dinner. "I would've filmed it and mailed it to Ellen. She would've loved it and we would've danced together."

I had to stare sideways at Vince for help, only to find him shaking his head quietly, biting down what looked like a smile. "Are you sure he's an actual genius?" I voiced.

Caleb snorted offendedly across from his seat. "Make fun of me all you want, but did you know that humans are deuterostomes, which means that at one point during your development in the womb, you were basically just an asshole? Well, congratulations, I'm pleased to inform you that you still are."

Vince now didn't bother holding back his chuckle anymore. "Don't let looks deceive, tesoro. You'd be surprised."

I sighed, but nonetheless caved. "I just can believe the things that comes out of his mouth."

"You'd be shocked what comes in it as well," Caleb smugly remarked which made me palm my face.

Vince shook his head again, but then slung an arm around me and pulled me closer, pecking a kiss to the top of my head. "Choose your battles, dolcezza. Choose your battles."

I did. And unfortunately, I knew that on a plane with two very dirty-minded men, I'd lose.

~~~

"BOB!" I nearly cried as we stepped inside the safeplace, making a beeline towards his fishbowl. "Oh, Bob, I've missed you so much! Where's my favorite man?"

"Behind you," Vince commented. I ignored him as Bob swam out of his little sea castle to see what was happening outside. He looked just as happy and as golden as I left him.

"Hey, handsome," I smiled at him and poked his bowl gently. "Did you play nicely while I was away? Don't worry, mama's home now."

"And daddy," Vince spoke up again, startling me with the fact that he was standing right behind me, leaning down to press a kiss to my cheek which lingered just a bit too long.

"You're not..." I said as I struggled for words, trying to shake off that statement. "You're not Bob's daddy. Or mine. Or anyone else's, hopefully. I was only joking back in Italy, you know."

Vince just cinched his arms around my waist and pulled me up, turning me to face him so I was standing pressed against his chest. "You realize there's a chance that could be untrue, mia cara. I came inside you yesterday, you could be carrying my child."

I cleared my throat a little and tried to ignore the blush that crept onto my cheeks. "Well, uhm. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, yeah? I mean, it was one time. If anything happened, we'll know soon enough, and then... well, I guess we'll take it from there."

"You're not more worried?" He asked and rose a small brow. "I thought you'd be having one of your mood swings by now, chasing down morning-after pills and whatnot."

"Actually," I said and looked down at his chest where his tight, black T was fighting not to tear under the pressure of his bulging muscles beneath. Mamma Mia. "I've always believed that what happens happens. I know it may not seem like it, given the past few months with everything that has happened, but... in hindsight, if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have ended up with you being here. So no, I'm not going to flip. If I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, if I'm not—"

"Then I need to try harder." Vince captured my lips with his own in a split second, catching me off-guard, which had me letting out a small squeal that quickly turned into a moan as his tongue dived into my mouth and ravaged me. My hands gripped onto his shirt, just as his grip tightened around my waist and drew me closer.

"I, we, ah..." I tried to find my breath as Vince's lips hotly traveled down my jawline to my throat, nibbling at my skin there, leaving scorching kisses. "W-we should conserve energy... we were just on a long flight a-and we're jetlagged and we sh-should probably save energy for t-tomorrow..."

"Mmm," Vince hummed against my neck, his lips still brushing over my sensitive skin. "We should definitely get some food and sleep..."

"Yes. Yes, we should," I stuttered, though my hands were gripping tighter on to him. "I can go make us... some sandwiches, if you'd like..."

He hummed again and slowly let his hands travel down my lower back to my rear. Feeling my warm globes, he squeezed them softly. He was so not aiming for food and sleep. "I think I'm in the mood for something else..."

I knew exactly what he wanted and smirked when his right hand slipped down into my pants and massaged my buttcheek, rubbing it against his palm. "Well, there's some biscuits in the cupboard and some—Jesus!"

He picked me up without warning, and that's all I managed to process before I was carried fireman-style into the bedroom where he then proceeded to devour his meal.

~~~

"Why are you walking funnily?" Caleb asked with a little frown when he came to the safe house that very next morning. I shot him a flat glare as I stiffly sat down on one of the bar stools while he set his bag down with his equipment. "You didn't sprain anything, did you? We kinda need you to be at your best."

Vince had let out a chortle at the word 'sprained', which he then immediately covered up with a cough when I elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm fine, let's just get to work. It's almost time."

"Alright then, here we go," Caleb said and opened his bag, only to pull out two small containers. "Here are your earpieces. You need those to stay in contact with me."

"They won't let us keep those," I said and crossed my arms. "They'll get taken from us the minute we walk in and then they'll know something is up. If we're turning ourselves in, then why would we be wearing earpieces? I'm sorry Caleb, but it won't work."

He rolled his eyes irritatedly. "You've gotta learn to let me finish, woman. If you'd done that, you would've known why that won't happen." He clicked the small containers open which had the same size as a ring box, and then revealed its content. Unlike a normal earpiece, what laid on the fine satin was what I could best describe as a dot. It was a small, round, flat-looking device that was smaller than the mole I had on my back. "These are my own invention. Undetectable earpieces. After watching too many spy movies where agents lost contact with their squad over a clunky, obvious piece of equipment in their ear, I decided to invent these." He told and proudly handed the boxes over to me and Vince.

I picked up the tiny little device and looked at it. I had no idea how people could invent things that small. "How does it work?"

"Exactly like a normal earpiece would, only with a few more perks," Caleb grinned smugly and looked at us both as we studied them. "You stick them on the inside of your ear and then they burn you for a short moment, but that's just because of its holding mechanism. It burns itself onto a tiny patch of your ear and then it sits. It won't fall off if you get a blow to the head or if you fall into water—that reminds me, it's also waterproof."

"O-kaaay..." I said and raised a small brow. "How about the metal detectors at the CIA? Won't it set them off?"

"It's made almost entirely of plastic and what little metal there is is too weak to flicker on a metal detector," Caleb continued to tell. "And the frequency is undetectable because it's my design, thank you very much. It's waterproof, metal-detector-proof and scanner-proof. Who's your daddy, goddamn!" Caleb proudly puffed out his chest and crossed his arms, trying to look big. Next to Vince, though, he really didn't.

I had to roll my eyes. "Alright, well that all sounds great. So we're basically good to go?"

"Once you pop them in, yup," He said and nodded as both me and Vince stuffed them into our ear with some difficulty, then grimace as the little piece burned our ear for a second, almost like a cigarette burn. "You'll have to turn them on when you get there so that I can guide you through the plan."

"And if anything doesn't go according to plan?" Vince questioned.

"Then you'll have to improvise until you can steer back on track again," Caleb replied. "I can't really do much, except hope that everything happens as we planned... but I'll do my best to help if it doesn't." He promised.

"Alright then," I said, just as Vince nodded affirmatively. "Let's get to work."

~~~

"We're actually doing this," I whispered as me and Vince walked up to the CIA building, watching as the CCTV turned our way and zoomed in as we approached. "This has got to be the stupidest, most riskiest shit I've ever done."

"Hey," Vince said and turned his head my way as we stopped up in front of the gates, now hearing as the alarms blared, notifying us that we had been recognized. "Trust that the kid knows what he's doing. We've both survived this far, no?"

"I guess we have..." I mumbled and watched as armed SWAT guys now came pouring out of the building, blazing forward towards us. "Can you still do me a favor though?"

"Anything, mia cara."

"Keep it that way."

I flipped my eyes to Vince's and saw him slowly smile. He then turned towards me, cupped the back of my head and softly pressed his lips to mine. I closed my eyes and indulged in that final moment we had while I heard the SWAT team come closer. We both stayed like that until I felt someone grab me and yank me away. Vince got dragged away, too.

"Agent Wilkins and Agent Santino, you are surrounded!" A voice over a loudspeaker called. I rolled my eyes when I recognized the cocky voice once again. "Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head!"

I watched as Vince did the same as me and very voluntarily dropped down to the ground, lifting his hands behind his head. He smirked my way as the SWAT team approached and then cuffed him, just as they did me. I couldn't help but grin back as we were forced down on the ground, guns and automatics pointing at us.

This was going to be so much fun. Dangerous, but fun.

~~~

"Well, well, well."

I snorted out a laugh as Monroe approached me. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. Could you sound anymore stereotypical? 'Well well well?' Come on, Monroe, even you can do better than that."

Me and Vince had been led inside and then separated as we got pushed into each our torture chamber where we were frisked and scanned for concealed weapons. The earpiece in our ear hadn't been detected, so so far, things were going according to plan. I didn't like being separated from Vince, but I knew it would only be temporary. In less than ten minutes, he'd be by my side again.

– Or at least that was if things continued to go according to plan.

Monroe chuckled a little and watched me closely as he circled me, probably enjoying seeing me cuffed up, the perverted bastard. "I don't have to do better; All my dreams have come true. We got you and the Italian fucker locked down and cuffed. You're both going away for a long time."

"Well congratulations. I mean you did absolutely nothing, you didn't find us, couldn't beat us; we came to you, but you know, good job, seriously. Tell me, will that make you feel manly and strong when you go to bed tonight to jerk off?"

Monroe clenched his jaw and then the next thing I knew, he backhanded me hard across my face. My head whipped to the side, but at least the blow didn't make me lose balance. It did, however, piss me the hell off.

"You think you're so smart, don't you?" He snarled at me while I spat out some blood from biting my tongue. "You suck a little Italian cock and suddenly you're Mrs Clever. Well guess what; You're still the same delusional, crazy bitch you've always been in my eyes, only now you're a traitorous one as well. How does that make you feel, hm?" He provoked and walked right up to me, leaning down to my face. His lips twitched in a little sadistic smirk when I sneered up at him. "You feel like a strong, 'independent' woman? Look again where that got you. That's what fucking Mr Italian's tiny cock will do."

I spat directly in his face and then enjoyed the look of fury that spread on his face as he slowly took a step back and wiped my spit away. He glared at me with dark rage, but I just glared back with equal hatred. "Be careful, Monroe. The more you hate us women, the more it'll look like you're into dudes. Why so interested in Vince's cock by the way? Do you like cocks?"

"That's it," He growled and drew his gun. He snapped back the safety and cocked it at my forehead. "I've listened to you yap for the last time." He slowly lowered the gun to my mouth instead and pressed it to my flattened lips. "All you fucking broads need to learn to shut up when the men are fucking speaking. I'll make a good example out of you. Christ, I've been waiting to do this ever since you walked in. See you on the other side, Wilkins."

And then, just as I saw him make his move to pull the trigger, all the lights went off and it turned pitchblack.

It was time to get the party started.

• • •

Next chapter... will be lit.