Vince's face distorted in pain as the electrical volts traveled through his body and made him clench his jaw so tightly he was in danger of breaking his perfect teeth. Arms tied above his head, his body dangled rigidly below him with his feet just barely touching the ground, I watched him from the other side of the glass as he jolted from the excruciating pain. The power was then turned off and he went limp, breathing raggedly.

"I'm going to ask you again; Where is the USB?" The extractor, as we here at the more secret part of the CIA liked to call the people who specialized in extracting information, asked. Their ways and means of doing so were particularly nasty, hence the fact that we were in the secret part of the CIA. The place where human rights kinda lost its meaning at the door.

Vince simply just let his head hang tiredly and continued not to speak like he had for hours, but the vague smirk on his lips pissed the living hell out of me. Here he was, getting tortured, and he still looked as if he was having fun.

"We have all day, Mr Santino. Then there's tomorrow and the day after that as well, and so on. The sooner you give up the details of your operation, the sooner you'll be able to get down from there. So are you sure you don't want to start talking?"

When he didn't answer but only widened his smirk, that was it for me. While the extractor turned the power back on and electrocuted him again, I turned to the tall man standing next to me who was the man in charge of this operation. "Let me talk to him."

Perri, as his surname was, looked up from his papers and gave me a glance. "Why?"

"Because we have been at this for hours and he's not cracking. Plus, he seems to have a fondness of me. I might be able to persuade him to talk," I said, not lying. "You can keep monitoring me from here and have your guys over there tape the whole thing. I just want a shot. Give me fifteen minutes with him and I'll get him to sing."

Perri glanced back his men working the different machines, monitoring Vince's vitals and suchlike. He then looked back at me and gave me a hard glare. "You have ten minutes."

That was all I needed. He let the extractor know over his earpiece that I was swapping place with him, and after a moment the extractor walked out and looked at me. "What's happening, I almost had him!"

"This is Agent Wilkins, she'd like to give it a go. At this point, it can't harm."

The balding, old, creepy-looking extractor gave me a demeaning once-over and then scoffed. "She won't make him crack, much less speak!"

"You want to make that a bet?" I gave him a cocky glance before I unceremoniously walked inside the extraction room. My boots thumped against the linoleum floors as I came up to Vince. "Hello, Spaghetti. How's it hanging?"

He tiredly raised his head and then looked up at me, a sexy smirk lifting to his lips. "Hello, mia cara."

I imagined the extractor having a fit behind the spy glass. "How are you doing? Got time for a chat?"

"I don't know, I'm a little tied up at the moment."

"That was so cheesy."

"I'm Italian, we put cheese on everything." He smirked again when I rolled my eyes. "I've been waiting for you, tesoro. Are you going to try and extract me from information like Augus Filch tried to, or couldn't you just wait to get another glimpse of my body?"

"Both." I replied. I took a good long look at his torso. "You sure do have a lot of scars."

"Show me yours and I'll show you mine."

As if. I pursed my lips, but then trailed my finger over the scar I knew I had given him; the bullet I managed to plant in his arm. "I like this one. It looks like it hurt."

"It did. Like a biatch."

I smirked a little at his playful eyes. So we were playing like that, were we? "Do you remember what I said I'd do if I ever saw you on American soil again?"

"Why do you think I've been waiting for you, mia cara?"

Oh, I was seriously going to whip his sorry Italian ass as flat as a pizza. "I'm going to tell you your options here, Spaghetti; One, you tell us where you're hiding that USB and I'll only hurt you above your belt. Two; You don't tell us where you're hiding the USB and I'll move the electrodes down below your belt. Take your pick."

"Speaking of what's below the belt, I really love that little tattoo you have on your hip," He met my eyes with a playful glint in his own, "A swallow with an eye on its back; Eye swallow. Molto carino. Can I see it again?"

"You sonofa—" I got cut short when Perri opened the door and stuck his head in. He looked pissed.

"Wilkins. A word."

"My time isn't up yet."

"Now."

Angrily, I shot a glare at Vince, catching his smirk. I knew exactly what he was doing.

I stepped outside the extraction room and faced Perri who was glaring at me with lethal eyes. "Agent Wilkins, would you care to explain how an enemy of our nation knows about this aforementioned little tattoo on your hip?"

"He glimpsed it once!" I growled, curling my fists. Behind the glass, I could see him still smirking, undoubtedly knowing what kind of trouble he was giving me. "He's deliberately messing with you, don't you see? He's fooling you into thinking things!"

"And what things be those?"

"You goddamn fucking know what things," I hissed. "But nothing like that never happened, I swear on my life."

"Then how could he know about—"

"Because he fucking broke into my apartment while I was in my goddamn underwear!" I yelled, probably turning a furious red. "You would've been able to see my damn tattoo as well if you'd caught me wandering around in my thong!"

"Agent Wilkins—"

"No, suck on a dick, you gave me ten minutes and I still have four left." I spun around on my foot and then marched back inside the extraction room, slamming the door open.

– Vince just poked the mama bear.

He lifted his head when I stalked up to him and offered me a mischievous smirk. "Trouble?"

Damn right there was. Trouble for him.

I punched him right in his goddamn stomach – his liver to be exact. I wasn't one of those weak-ass women who threw a punch that had the same power as a feather landing on a pillow. I was a trained agent who worked out every day; when I hit, I hit hard. And Vince very quickly found out, if he didn't already know.

He winced and coughed, getting the air knocked out of him. I didn't care as I grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head to me, going so close I could feel his exhale on my lips. "Now listen very closely, Vince. You're going to fucking tell me where you keep that USB or I'm going to make your life very miserable. You could stay in here for all I care, get tortured until you get an erectile dysfunction, so I suggest you tell me what I want to know before I show you just how goddamn much I can put a man down!"

His lips twitched. "Oh, bella mia. You are exquisite."

And then he jerked forward and pressed his lips to mine. For exactly three whole seconds, the bastard managed to kiss me while the whole goddamn extraction team watched from the other side of the glass.

I was toast.

I jerked away from him angrily, wiping my lips, only to let out a furious sound when I saw him break into a proud fucking smirk. I launched at his tied up body, beating, clawing and punching everything I could. Finally I felt someone pull me off him, dragging me away. The last I saw was Vince hanging in his shackles, bloodied and bruised; Still grinning.

"You fucking bastard! I'll kill you! I'll fucking KILL YOU!"

"Agent Wilkins!"

"I WILL!" I screamed, bashing against the hands that restrained me. "Get your fucking hands off me!"

The door was slammed shut, but my temper was still cooking. Someone tried to talk to me, but I couldn't listen. All I did was try and get myself to calm down.

How come this man knew just how to push my buttons? And why the fuck did he keep doing it? Whatever the reason, I was getting sick of it. I was going to slap him silly next time I got a chance with him. I kept saying that, but this time I meant it. For real.

~~~

"What the hell happened, Agent Wilkins?"

Slapped into a chair in the cafeteria above ground (because everyone sometimes needed a break from torturing people), with a cup of joe in front of me, I sat limply and looked at the table.

What had actually happened? I was usually so much more professional than that, I was ice cold. Nothing got through to me, remember? So why did he?

"I don't know."

Agent Perri massaged the bridge of his nose with a tired exhale and then leaned back in his chair. "For Christ's sake. I'm going to have to talk to Howard about this, I hope you realize that."

"I know. So what happens with Spaghe—I mean Vince—what happens to Vince now?"

"He'll be taken to a cell for a couple of hours since you bashed the living shit out of him," Perri informed with a dull voice, taking a sip from his own coffee. "When he's regained consciousness and a little more strength, we'll try again, but we're under hard pressure here. By now AISE must've figured out he's been taken captive, so they'll be coming to retrieve that USB any minute, wherever it is. And since we still have no location on it, since it hasn't been activated since your tech guy gave up the address..."

"Goddamn it." I cursed silently, knowing how much trouble I had caused. By beating up Vince I had cost us precious time that could've been spent trying to get some info out of him. Not that I believed he'd ever talk. He was like me; he wouldn't betray his country even if it meant giving up his life.

"We're going to go downstairs and look at his possessions that was picked up at his safe house," Perri told, finishing his coffee. "If you would like, and if you think you can behave yourself, you can come downstairs and take a look at them too, see if anything jogs your memory or gives you any clues."

Well that was the least I could do after making such a mess. "Of course. I'll behave, I promise. Again, I'm so sorry."

"Forget about it," Perri said and stood up, buttoning his suit. I followed his lead as we headed back to the elevator that would take us below ground again. "What's done is done, now all we can do is try and make up for lost time – starting with going through his belongings."

I nodded as we stepped into the elevator. Perri pressed the down button and down we went. The elevator didn't have annoying humming music like in other elevators, just the mechanical sound of the elevator moving from floor to floor.

The elevator stopped and we stepped out in silence, just as a door down the hall opened. Out came three guards, escorting Vince with guns pointed to all the vital parts of his body; heart, head and spine.

He was somewhat conscious, yet still looked bashed and bruised as he walked there with his hands cuffed, wearing a gray jumpsuit.

Our eyes met, and somehow even before I saw the smirk stretch onto his lips, I knew he'd do it.

"Oh, fuck."

I had barely uttered the words before Vince with his incredible speed knocked his head backwards into the guard holding the gun to his spine and busted his skull against his. That quickly evolved into the two other guards trying to restrain him instead of shooting him as they should, the fools, which was to no avail. Despite being cuffed and beaten up, Vince seemed as fit and as mobile as ever. This of course led me to the conclusion that he had faked his fatigue so that he could escape when the opportunity presented itself. It was only sweet serendipity that that opportunity happened while I was around. Or was it?

Cursing, I drew my own gun from my belt, just as Perri did, but Vince hadn't forgotten us. After bashing the first guard in his face with his elbow, he grabbed the second and used him as shield. I didn't want any more guards dead on my behalf, so I held my fire. Perri had the same thought.

There was just one way to go then.

Throwing my gun away, I bolted for him, nostrils flaring like a bull. There was no way he was escaping the CIA twice on my watch. Nuh-uh, my female ego couldn't take that, so I went for him, fully intent on disarming him long enough for Perri to shoot him somewhere that would slow him down.

But Vince only smirked at me, and then before I could stop him, he banged the other guard's head against the wall, knocking him out. He then turned to me as I jumped him and punched my fist straight across his jaw. The blow was successful, but unfortunately after hours of receiving torture, that blow hardly affected him. The next moment he grabbed my arm and did the thing he always did; he wrenched my wrist around until I was forced to submit, and then he wrought it around on my back. This time I had fully been prepared for him to pull that same old stunt, so I was well on my way to do a circle flip when I felt something metal jab against my temple.

The shithead had somehow gotten a gun from one of the guards in all the turmoil. Fuck, how did I miss that? I had forgotten how good he was.

Perri was left blocking the hall, pointing his gun at Vince as well he could, while Vince had me locked in his grip with a gun to my head. I could practically hear the western music playing as our classic Mexican standoff unfolded.

"Perri, take the shot," I said, grimacing when Vince tightened his grip on me when I tried to get free. "Just take it, I don't care if I die, he stole government secrets. They're worth more than me and you know it. Shoot."

"If you shoot me, you'll never get the location of the USB," Vince countered in his Italian drawl. I couldn't see him, but I could hear from his voice that he was smirking. Damn I hated that stupid smirk. "And if you shoot her, all you'll achieve is one more dead agent." He tabbed the gun at my temple, making me grit my teeth.

Perri's forehead was creased with the dilemma; shoot one of his coworkers and maybe get a chance to shoot Vince and hold him down long enough to call for help, or don't shoot and let him get away.

"Lower your gun and let us pass," Vince said and squeezed me. "I'm taking this one with me."

"No, you're not." I said.

"Oh, yes I am," He chuckled and leaned down to my ear. His warm breath blew right across my earlobe and made goosebumps spread all over my body. "You took me hostage, mia cara. I'm just returning the favor."

I really fought not to roll my eyes. That was so childish. His ego was bruised from getting taken hostage by a woman, so he felt the need to get even. How petty and pathetic.

"Perri, seriously, take the shot. At least I'll die knowing this sonofabitch got to spend the rest of his life within a dark cell, getting tortured every night and day," I growled and turned my head slightly sideways to catch his amused eyes. "I'll haunt the fuck out of you."

"You'll be a hot ghost." He just smirked and pecked the side of my head. I jerked away. "Now, Agent Perri, step aside. I'd like to get to the car chase, I always loved those. They really get the adrenaline pumping, no?"

"Perri," I said again, giving him a long, hard stare. He met my eyes, his own deep with doubt. I could already see it, he didn't have the balls to take the shot.

I could sense Vince smirking, him probably sensing this as well. Not moments later, Perri lowered his gun and then slowly put it down on the floor. He kicked it away and then glared harshly at Vince. "I'll be impressed if you make it past the first floor."

I groaned inwardly. As Vincent yanked me along and made me wince from the tight grip he had on my arm, Perri stepped aside and made room for us to get by. I knew as well as Vince did he would somehow make it past the first floor and make it outside to any vehicle. Even with me on his arm.

"It was nice doing business with you," Vince said in the passing to Perri who growled. Vince then pulled us into the elevator that was waiting and then leaned down to my ear again. "Mind pressing the button for me?"

"Actually, I do."

"Don't make me knock you out, then you won't be able to see where I'm taking you. You'll also miss the car chase."

"You also won't be able to carry me and make it out at the same time."

He chuckled. "I want to make that a bet. Ten American bucks says I'll make it out of here and to safety with you knocked out in my arms."

I scoffed. There was no way that was possible. Upstairs was swarming with armed CIA agents. He wouldn't make it past the threshold. "You're on."

"In that case, you're out."

And with that, he knocked me over the head with the gun and this time (unlike the first time he did it in my apartment) he did it hard enough to actually make me pass out.

The last thing I thought was damn him.

Damn him all the way to fucking hell and back.

• • •

Been there, done that.