Perplexed, you squatted in front of the safe in Michael's room and stared at the numbers.

Two, two, seven, four had not worked. But you could have sworn that Michael had said exactly those numbers.

"Two, two, seven, four...", you muttered to yourself as you punched in the code again.

A soft beeping sounded. A red light came on. The safe remained locked.

An annoyed groan escaped you.

"God I'm loosing it!", exhausted, you let yourself fall on your bum and massaged the bridge of your nose.

A headache started to press against your skull. It felt like pressure tried to make your brain explode from the inside of your head.

But before you could get overwhelmed by all the strange things that worked or didn't work out in the past few hours your phone started to buzz in your pocket.

As quick as lightning you fished it from your pocket in hopes it could be your aunt or Felix. It wasn't. But somebody else you liked to hear from.

"Hello cowboy.", a soft smile appeared on your lips as you greeted Phillip. "You seem to like me a lot. Otherwise you wouldn't call so often."

A chuckle sounded from the other end of the line. It was awfully strained and disfigured, thanks to the broken mess that was left of your phone.

"You have such an attitude, suga.", he replied, audibly amused.

"I don't want to bore you."

A sound made your ears bleed. Probably a snort but it was hard to tell with the poor sound quality.

"And that's why you act all bratty?"

"You don't seem to be the type of guy who'd enjoy the company of a priest and nuns."

"If you'd know, suga. Orphanage had its own little chapel. Sunday mass was fuuuun."

You couldn't hold back the laughter. And he did too. So for a moment the two of you just sat on the phone and chuckled at the thought of little Phillip being the absolute nightmare for every southern nun out there.

"You sounded like a brat.", you said, still huffing, as the amusement about his childhood stories had faded.

On the other end of the line, he hummed. The sound of a heavy swallow reached your ears. He was drinking.

You didn't know why but that thought made the hairs in the back of your neck stand up straight. If he had a drink he wouldn't be able to get to you in case you needed him.

It would be DUI. Something that was a very unfortunate offence for someone who did military and security work.

Yet again, why were you worried in the first place?

There was no need for him to come around. Or at least that's what you kept telling you. Everything was fine.

"I was a bit of a hand full.", he admitted with a lower voice all of a sudden.

Perhaps he was just lost in thoughts. But it seemed like your comment had hit a sore spot.

"Sorry...", you cleared your throat. "Uh, why are you calling, by the way? We agreed to meet tomorrow."

Silence spread.

There was this cracking sound in the background that always lay on top of the conversation. Whenever nothing was said it seemed so deafening that you could hardly keep listening.

"What did you say?", Phillip's torn apart voice asked.

Annoyed at the broken phone, you rolled your eyes.

"Why are you calling?", you repeated the question.

Again, he didn't answer right away.

"Look, I think the connection is getting worse, but I just called to tell ya something.", he stopped for the breath of a second, to give himself a moment to reconsider. "Remember when I told ya that your aunt looks familiar?"

Surprised, you frowned.

"Yeah, why?", your gaze briefly jumped up to the window next to you.

It was already dark out. Time seemed to pass quicker than you had expected. But not as quick as you wanted it to.

Weird noises came from Phillip's end of the line.

"Money.", he just said, cut off.

"Sorry connection was awful. Could you repeat that?"

He sighed.

"I saw her before."

Even more surprised, you couldn't help but sit up straight.

"What?"

"Yeah. She came to the office once. Shortly before your father passed. But he was already unable to work."

"What did she do?"

"I didn't plan on tellin' ya this but..."

"Then why tell me now, Phillip?", slight anger started to show in your words.

"Because I feel like ya gettin' screwed, suga. And as funny as that suspicion sounds I'd like to remain the only one to do that."

You didn't know if you should scream or laugh about his tasteless joke. Perhaps it wasn't even a joke but him being a total dick with a terrible pickup line.

Either way, you didn't know how to respond. So you didn't at all.

"What did she want?", you asked instead.

"She offered to pay me. Loads."

With a groan you rubbed your eyes.

"Details, Phillip. I don't want to sit here and ask you. Just tell me everything."

"Is that an order, suga?", the smirk was audible in his voice.

"Yes it is."

"Very well, boss. She wanted me to work for her. But I don't know why. And before you ask, I also don't know what motive she had. I know she doesn't have a job related to military nor the company."

"She wanted you to be her mole.", you said without hesitation.

For a moment he fell silent. Then the sound of lips smacking reached your ears.

"That's a hard reproach.", Phillip said.

"You didn't deny it though.", you huffed.

"True. Probably cause that's the only explanation that would make sense."

"Fine, but what exactly would my aunt wants mole for? Like you said, she had no connections to the company."

"Holly moly, suga. You know I like em' smart and with a little attitude. Just like you."

Rolling your eyes, you couldn't help but smile.

He really was one charming bastard.

"Phillip, get back to the point.", you asked him. "What could she want?"

"Well... truth be told, I wanted you to answer me that question."