Chapter 12.

*****

"Why this way?" I whispered as Adrian pulled me through the pool door into the backyard.

"The door makes less noise; also, the way the guards rotate here gives us a forty second opening to get over the wall without being spotted." He said leading me behind one of the few trees in the backyard. I narrowed my eyes.

I saw a guard look at his watch before he called another and began walking away.

"Now, run." He said.

We went sprinting across the clearing in the backyard, I made a mental not to ask the guards what the heck they were doing letting an opening this big as they switched.

We ran into some dense trees before I spotted the high light brown wall.

"Follow me –"Adrian's pace didn't change as he ran to a tree and jumped against it using it as leverage to jump onto the top of the wall.

I did what he did and we both jumped over the wall landing in rolls before we got to our feet. He smiled at me holding out his hand.

I smiled taking his hand and we walked through the trees.

"Maybe you should go shopping..." I mumbled taking in his attire, which was as formal as usual, save for his hair (which I think he forgot to brush because of the hurry).

He chuckled. "If I go shopping, I will be getting more of these. My father says Kings should not look sloppy... or informal. Besides, all my suits are bulletproof..." he shrugged.

"Bulletproof?" I asked.

"Yes, in most places. So are my brothers' but they are not as public so they do not always wear their suits." I nodded.

We looked weird beside each other again because I was once again in soccer pants but this time I had a jacket that matched it and some sneakers. I looked like I was going for a jog and he looked like he was heading to a meeting or a job interview.

"How far is it?" I asked as we walked along a dimly lit sidewalk. We were staying in the shadows because it was not that hard at all to recognise Adrian.

"Not far." He replied.

Earlier, at the mall, Brandon had actually paid for whatever food Thandi, Jade and I bought. That was probably the reason they ended up with bags of junk food, yeah, they completely took advantage of the offer... When I got home, it was late and it didn't take long for me to fall into a comfortable asleep – until Adrian shook me awake that is and pulled me from the house.

We were comfortably silent and I took in the city as we walked. I didn't usually do this. In any other mission I would just be studying a map of the city and its underground tunnels encase I needed it. I never actually just walked through it... It was a beautiful city.

"Do you have brothers or sisters, Jessica?" Adrian spoke.

I shook my head, lying. He was a client, so he didn't need to know that. As much as I disliked the thought, this time in a couple of months, I would probably be half way across the world on a completely different mission.

"Alright." He smiled.

This was usually the part where I would begin to talk about my fake parents and my life as an only child but I didn't want to lie to him more so I kept quiet about that.

"How long has Max been with Candice?" I asked.

"A few months – four months." He frowned looking ahead of us.

"You don't like her either?" I asked raising my brows.

"It is not that we do not like her," He was talking about Maximilian's friends, "I just do not trust her... but he is insane about her so we let it be." He shrugged.

I nodded.

"There it is." He said pulling the keys from his pocket with the hand that wasn't holding mine.

I saw a small door between two stores, but neither of the stores could be it because one was a formal dress store and the other was an ice cream store. He unlocked the door and pushed it open with a creek before he attempted to make his way down the stairs that led into the dark. I grabbed his arm and tightened my grip on his hand to stop him.

"Adrian, you know you can't kill me, right? I could kill you right now on the other hand, so you better tell me if you're leading me into something bad." I said.

He chuckled, "Kill me? Do not be so sure of that, Sweetheart." He lifted our hands to brush his thumb against my chin, "Honestly, though, I am not leading you to your death or attempted death. Trust me, I like you too much to kill you anyway – or try to." I laughed feeling my face heat. I let him lead me down the stairs shutting the door behind us so it was completely black around us.

I let my eyes adjust to the dark and saw four doors around us, and boxes. I laughed as he stumbled as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Which door is it?" I asked.

"You can see?" he asked surprised.

I shrugged, "Half my training is in the dark, Adrian." I said. He chuckled.

"Second one on our left." He said. I took the keys from him and pulled him over to the door guiding him past the boxes stacked on the floor beside the wall. I tried two keys before the lock clicked and I pushed it open.

"Wait,"

His hand lifted past me and pressed the code into the alarm, when he was done the place automatically lit up and I blinked adjusting my eyes.

"Oh..." I mumbled.

We were in what looked like a storage room.

"The store's this way." He typed in a code on the side of another door across the room before took the keys from me and unlocked another door before pushing it open.

I walked past him and smiled as I ran my eyes over the gadgets. The store was massive. I could see that the front entrance was on the other side of the room.

"Oh, this is so cool! It's like vintage heaven!" I said picking up a drone.

"Vintage?" he raised his brows.

"Yeah, our tech at the agency has this made so small..." I said looking at the drone excitedly. He laughed.

"Oh," He chuckled as I began running from one thing to the next.

I knew about every new device the agency created, I wasn't supposed to, but the lead developer and designer was my closest cousin Diego so I got all the news before anything was even announced. I got everything before anyone else did as well, it was our secret though.

The entire time, Adrian just followed me amused as he listened to me ramble on about everything and its technology.

"This is all so cool." I finally looked at him taking a breather. He laughed.

"You can take a look at our ancient side. I mean, we all call it vintage, but for you I will make an exception." He pointed to a corner. I walked over to it and my jaw dropped seeing a huge computer.

"This works? People buy this?" I asked tapping it.

"Yes, and yes." He said turning the plug on.

I watched as the computer sounded and waited.

I frowned at the fact that it was still blank after ten seconds.

"Just wait..." he laughed.

I watched as it lit up and raised my eyebrows.

"Oh my God, this is old..." I whispered running my hands down the sides of the computer as I stared at it wide-eyed. His laughter filled the room as I tried to work the computer when it was finally turned on. I had been busy for a half an hour trying to log onto the internet, it was just making funny sounds.

"Alright, alright, enough of that." Adrian pulled me away from the computer and handed me a cassette.

"Ha! This isn't that old." I said. I turned around and found a cassette player before trying to play it.

We had been in the store for two hours when I spotted a fluffy white teddy bear on a shelf.

"Why is there a stuffed toy in a store like this?" I asked him.

He just smiled and handed it to me. Oh. It was heavy. I put it down and began pressing it everywhere before I clicked its eye, very weird design if you ask me, do you really want kids poking at their teddy bear's eyes all day? It began walking before it asked me if I wanted sweets.

"Yes." I said. I gasped when its paw cupped and its wrist shot skittles into the cup. "Oh! That's so cool! Thank you." I took the sweets. It replied with a 'My pleasure'. This would be the perfect way to hide sweets when I went home...

"We should go." Adrian chuckled turning the doll off by poking its eye before putting it back on the shelf.

I smiled as I followed him out of the store turning the light off before I shut the door and he typed the password in to turn the alarm on.

I walked out and waited for him in the dark as he put the other alarm on and locked the door before he turned around.

"Jessica?" he spoke, I imagined he was looking around wondering if I was still there or if I was outside.

"Here." I covered my mouth as I laughed. I heard him chuckle as his feet shuffled. I blinked trying to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness again. "Ad –" I was cut off by him bumping against me. His hands shifted to the sides of my head against the wall as I laughed. "The door's that way." We both laughed because there was no way he could see me pointing.

"I was not looking for the door." He said sounding different.

"Oh? What wer –" I began but I was cut off as I looked up his lips pushed against mine. My eyes widened for a few seconds before I shut them slowly as he kissed me.

I froze as his hands moved to my cheeks to cup my face as his soft lips moved against mine. I felt like my heart was going to beat through my chest at how hard it was banging against my chest. I lifted my hands to his neck slowly and pushed my fingertips into his hair as I kissed him back.

*****