•• 5 T 4 T U 5 ••

xx This chapter is dedicated to @autumnbellss for being the first person to decipher the passcode. Thank you for nominating me for the 2018 Fiction Awards (it just started didn't it)! I'm really touched *hugs you* It took me by surprise since this book barely existed on Wattpad for more than a year. Enjoy the update, love xx

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| N E x L I F E x H S B E E N x S A V D

👤🔒

To future readers, your made this choice for you.

Do you trust your fam?

|| Liam's POV ||

He opened his eyes and met contact with the ceiling tile concealed by the dark within her room. The lights were off, their clothes were off, and she was off... of him. It had been an effort getting her drunk and subduedly passing a sleeping pill in her drink while she was busy running her arms on his back and tangling her red nails in his jet black hair. His mouth ran a course of every sweet, seductive, trashy nonsense words the English vocabulary had in its dictionary, and when that wasn't enough to stall a good hour and a few minutes, he transitioned to his school best friends, Italian and French.

Just when he thought he'd have to play it for real, and had climbed atop her— shirt already off— Rosella drifted to sleep underneath him after unconsciously fighting the effects of the drugs. Smirking, he had eyed her face to make sure she was knocked out before attempting to get off her figure and exit the scene. Putting on his white collared shirt from the prior dinner, he was stopped midway when an arm reached up and held him back on the bed.

"Where are yo-"

He pasted on a smile and leaned down to stroke the side of her face. "Turning off the lights, Rose."

The lights went off.

She clung her whole, naked body onto him and frequently tossed and turned against his body. Liam mentally groaned out a loud, long sigh as he made no movement and cradled the woman stinking of alcohol into his arms.

15 minutes later he got a call. A call that made him shut his eyes afterwards and think of the woman he came on this mission with. He needed to find her. It was about time.

-

"Ash, where's Ja- who did this to you?"

He advanced towards the young child sprawled on the bed, exhausted with sweat dripping down the side of her face. The little one heard him and lifted her entire head from underneath his suit jacket. The marks on her neck were undeniably visible.

"Papa, Mama got hurt." was the only thing she cried to him as she ignored his question walking in, "The man hit her. With long—" her small figure demonstrated a stretched out rope of some sort in front of her, and she smacked the side of her stomach with the imaginary rope, "Like this, Papa. He hit her for a long time, and then Mama told him to go out, and he took her. Papa, he took her. Ash saw him hold a light to Mama's head and was about to—"

Liam's face contorted into a frown as his lips parted, "What happened to Jamie?"

"Jam-y?" The girl's voice cracked as she said it with a slightly higher tone than usual, "Who, Papa? Do you call Mama that? Mama told me her name's Ana. Did she tell you her name yet Papa? Can you teach me her name?"

"Ash," his voice warmed her jumpy heart and she calmed down, quieting afterwards.

"I told you my name was Jason."

"I- ... I'm sorry," she squeaked quietly.

Liam sighed and sat on the bed with her for a moment. "Listen, I'm going to go look for Mam- Anne. Anne.." he coughed, "I'm going to look for her. Can you stay here and lock the door? Don't let anyone in. Not even me and the girl you saw today. We'll come in with our own key. Can I trust you, sunshine?"

"Yes!" She smiled up at him, earning a gentle hair ruffle from him.

"We'll be back."

"Bring her back, Papa."

_

Liam walked down the hallways and soon found himself standing in front of Ben's room. His heart tightened at the sounds of struggling from the other side. What was going on there? Who was getting hurt? Who was holding back? After telling the woman that she couldn't fight, he was afraid maybe something came up that should make her fight.

So Liam hesitated going in. He stood there and looked down, running a hand through his hair slowly. But he instantly turned the doorknob upon hearing a low moan escape Jamie's lips from the other side.

What Liam saw next was horrific. But he couldn't stop it, so he crept along the walls after shutting the door unnoticed and watched the scene play out before him.

Jamie's chin was pulled up with a jerk and he could make out her jeering up at Ben examining her face from weird angles. She sat calmly on the edge of the bed, hair ruffled wildly, blood dripping out of her mouth, fingers most likely numb from gripping the mattress until it ripped. Did Ben make her change in front of him?

"Kiss me." the man in front growled in her face, dripping with venom and lust. She looked back at him trying to regain her breath.

Liam leaned off the wall for a split second when Ben picked up Jamie's body and tossed it further up the bed, climbing over her figure as he took off his shirt. Liam's eyes furrowed as he eyed the woman for her next move. He could see her eyes shooting up at Ben with fury in her eyes. All of a sudden she sighed out loud and got everyone to stop. Ben froze with a frown, not long before he dismissed it.

"Don't blame me for this then, Anne," He mumbled with a smug look at her lower body, diving his head to her face. Liam silently watched her face hardening from disgust as she clenched her jaw. Her fingers choked the sheets until her nails clawed into her skin and left crescent marks.

Jamie's head turned to the side. Her and Liam's eyes met for a suspended moment but her face remained expressionless on the bed. He pushed himself off the wall and took a step forward, his gun ready, only to skid to a stop once he saw a small smirk curl at the edges of Jamie's lips.

He stared at the woman with a questioning frown. What are you planning on doing?

Her eyes said it all.

Someone's about to get killed.

Liam glanced over at Ben and his eyes had transitioned from overpowering dominance to some sort of a cautious black orb. His demeanor wiped away all of a sudden as his eyes flashed something like confusion, possibly even fear. And all that just because of a small smirk from the woman he climbed over. The man played himself tonight.

Jamie's mouth pursed together as her head tilted to the front. Ben looked down at her as his body was still over hers, his hands hovering over her chest. They stared at each other for an elongated, awkward moment before Ben's breath hitched in defense from Jamie reaching up and cupping the side of his face.

She took a loud breath in before her true expression surfaced on her face. Her eyes reflected murder, and her lips demanded revenge.. that's all Liam dared to conclude. "Haha... hey." Jamie's new voice echoed throughout the room as the last word sounded something more like a dangerous growl in Ben's face. Ben kept a crunched up expression in her direction as she stroked the side of his face and sat herself up, leaning in mere centimeters from his face.

"You know," she cooed, smiling, slowly starting to pull the straps of her clothes up, "I had fun tonight, babe. Really," a soft laugh escaped her lips as her thumb brushed against his bottom lip, "You played hard. But... well, that's hardly fair. I get to play too, hmm?" She ran a hand though her hair swiftly before wiping the blood that trickled down her chin away.

Ben seemed to be back in reality as his body tensed and he held his ground over her, trying to push her back down. Jamie, at the speed of light, reached out and clenched his wrist frozen in midair before he could lay a finger on her. For a moment she raised her brows at the man, who seemed to be unaware that his life was going down the drain in the next few seconds.

Her faint smile that she pasted on her face wiped away and all that was left was an agent's mask. Agent W.

"You messed with the wrong woman," she chuckled out, snapping the man's wrist back abruptly so that Ben roared in pain all of a sudden, "I'll show you how agents play, fuckboy."

It all became a blur as quickly as it ended. The man launched at her but her fist came around and smashed swiftly into his jaws, dislocating a few discs as he was knocked flat down in an instant on the bed. He jostled himself up and Jamie jammed her kneecaps up his stomach towards the lower region of his belt line. An astounding, frustrated cry bellowed out of his mouth. She booted him off of her effortlessly by kicking him off of her. The man tumbled off the bed with a loud thump that cracked the cold ground. Liam raised his eyebrows when he saw that the man had picked himself up again and was prepared for another hit, for how could he stand being beat up by a girl?

Jamie came around the bed to his side and clawed her nails into Ben's clothes, pulling him up briskly by the collar of his shirt so that he choked on air in massive amounts of breath to breathe. The man attempted a swing at her face, so in response she ducked her head so that she now stood behind him, grabbed his arm, and turned them with a snap at an odd angle behind his back. She knocked in the back of his knees without warning and the man fell once again to the ground in a roar. Slowly, she circled around Ben's body sitting upright on the ground, his breath unsteady as his body shook form pain, still keeping a hold of his hands behind his back so that it almost looked like she was hugging him. She leveled down to meet his eyes and a smile returned, before she spat in his face, earning yet another loud round of cusses.

"You mean.. " she began after cracking her neck to the side, her eyes transitioning quick to stare daggers into Ben's soul, "You don't want your saliva back?" she faked a gasp before chuckling in his face, "What, you expected me to keep it? Ya nasty, bastard." Jamie lifted her fist in the air so that Ben had a clear view. He looked from the fist to her face to her fist and back to her face. "See you in the afterlife, babe. This one's for Ash." And an air-splitting impact from the punch knocked the man backwards as his skull smashed to the ground and bled upon contact to the floor.

Jamie scoffed after a moment of silence to make sure that the man had been knocked out for good. Tired, she glanced back at Liam, who had been tense this whole episode of fighting before him. She glanced at his watch.

10 seconds.

A breath of relief washed over her and she stepped towards him.

He stepped back.

She paused as she saw him move and her face quickly turned dark.

8.

"What are you doing, Carter..."

7.

She tried another step. He stepped back, hands going up in front of him.

"Stop playing what the fuck are you-"

"Lennon wait, stop coming clos-"

6.

"What?" She cried out, "It's about to explode and you're just standing there? Oh, I see how it is."

5.

"No, Lennon I have something to tell-"

4.

She stopped moving forward. Her eyes flashed a moment of confusion and hurt before it washed away with a blank stare. His heart ached for a moment at seeing her expression for some reason and he took another step back.

3.

"Carter..." she frowned and looked at him with concern, "What's going on?"

2.

Her hands fell to her side as she closed her eyes with a firm look of exhaustion.

.

The brace for an explosion never came. It took a minute of standing there before he advanced towards her and grabbed her wrist, putting his own hand next to it. He eyed the cuffs. It didn't flash nor explode. The cuffs fell off.

He looked up at the woman before him and his eyes softened. "Jamie, open your eyes."

She did and glared at his so fiercely that this time he leaned back a bit for his life. "You risked my life to test this?" was all she snapped out before letting out an inaudible sigh as she crouched down to the ground, exhausted out of her mind.

"No," he spoke up for the first time since their reunion, "I have something to tell..."

She picked her head up from her knees and looked up at him with a frown, "What is it?" The look on her face was maxed out of energy. She wasn't in the mood or energy to hear the news yet, so Liam decided to hold back till next morning.

"Nothing," he said instead, squatting down to place his hands on her shoulders as he looked her in the eyes, "I'm sorry for making you worry, Lennon. It was all for your good. Trust me, I wouldn't have let you die so easily."

"What reassuring words, whoop," she managed as she let out a soft laugh, "Glad I'm not dead, partner." Upon saying 'partner' her eyes widened and she pursed her lips shut. Instead she looked at the cuffs that were on the ground, completely off of both of them. They were both free.

He stared at her for a moment before letting out softly, "Let's go back to Ash."

-

As they approached Ash's door, Liam realized that he had told the little one to lock the door.

"You told her to lock it but you don't have a key.." Jamie trailed off with a raised eyebrow that mocked him to the point where he flicked her forehead.

"I was planning to pick it, smartass."

"And where are you going to find a pick? You think either of our nails are long enough?"

He let out a loud sigh. "Lennon, give me your pick."

"How the fuck do you know I have one?"

"I gave it to you."

"When? Oh.." she let out a whistle with an odd look at the door towards the suit jacket that laid on the other side of the door. "Maybe.. you should have told me to keep it in my possession Mr. I'll-Stay-Silent-And-Tell-Her-Later."

He rolled his eyes slowly. "I also put one in your pocket from the outfit you were wearing."

"Um hello?" her voice rang in a sing-song annoyance, "I undressed? You see any clothes on me, Lilian McCarter?"

"Who?"

"Tsk, whatever," she ended, taking out her earrings as she bent the hooks straight and stepped forward to pick at the locks. He watched her give the door a couple of tries before a faint clicking sound indicated that the door was unlocked and they could enter.

The child was surprisingly awake and she jolted at them coming in.

"You were awake and you didn't open the door for us?" Liam gave a teasing, disapproving look towards the child with an eyebrow raised.

"But you said not to, Papa." Ash came back at him, earning her a pinch on the cheeks.

"Papa?" Jamie repeated as she turned to look at him with an amused look, "Someone's growing up fast."

"Lennon if you don't shut it-"

"Mama's back!" Ash interrupted us as she crawled over to the edge of the bed where Jamie had just walked over to get some clothes from her bag. She froze and looked down at the girl who was grateful to see her back. She glanced at Liam with a simple stare as he returned her smirk from earlier.

"Bastard," she cursed him out under her breath as she hugged the little girl coming into her arms before getting up and going to her bag.

They soon all transitioned out of the cupboard and into his own room that Rosella saved for him. He caught Jamie rolling her eyes as she stepped in and muttered something like, "privileged." They decided she was to shower Ash first. Jamie received clothes from Liam and placed Ash in the shower, herself still dressed in whatever hideous piece of article that Ben forced her to wear.

"It hurts- ow," the little girl winced as soon as hot water splashed on her back. Jamie looked at the child and gave her a side smile, "Hey, are you strong?"

"Erm.."

"Yes you are."

"Yes I am," she giggled as she repeated back.

Jamie let out a soft laugh and she wiped the child's face clean. "So can you hold on before getting out of the shower? Carter will apply some ointment for you."

"Car.. turn?" Ash echoed back as her small head tilted to the side, and her pure eyes gazed back at Jamie curiously.

"Papa," she corrected herself absentmindedly, washing the child's hair, "Papa will help you."

"Ohh Papa," Ash said his name in a cute hum, "Okay Mama!"

At the mention of 'Mama' yet again, Jamie stopped for a moment and looked down at the girl. "Hey Ash, tell me honestly.." when she got the girl's attention, she continued, "How does you mother treat you?"

"You're great!"

"Your other mother, kiddo."

"She's- she cooks me food, and gives me hugs, and ruffles my hair, and-"

Jamie frowned when she saw Ash's eyes looking somewhere forward. She glanced behind and sure enough on a towel, there was pictures of a mother cooking food in one square, hugging her child in another square, and ruffling a dog's hair in another. She turned back and eyed Ash in concern as her eyes softened. "I see."

"How about Papa?"

"Ash loves Papa," she said with a simple smile on her face that came naturally, "He gives Ash bread. And plays with Ash at night. Sometimes he says Ash isn't bad and that makes Ash a little bit happy. And he saved Ash today!"

"No I didn't mean..." Jamie trailed off as she ended with a warm scoff at the girl talking about Liam. "Never mind." Ash finished and Jamie called Liam in to take her out. Liam went in and smiled at the girl all cleaned up and happy, and Jamie came out patting him on the shoulders.

She barely made it out a few feet before footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.

What..

Her heart skipped a beat as she froze and glanced at the door horrified as a face popped in with a dazed grin, and knife held high next to her head. Jamie's body ran cold with chills as the woman looked possessed almost, creeping in slowly. All she could do was stand there as Rosella shuffled in slowly in a daze state, butcher knife raised in the air. Jamie's eyes narrowed and she held her ground as she realized the woman wasn't looking at her, or anything for that mattered. She walked in straight and kept at walking straight, with a grin still pasted on her lips.

Liam walked out at the wrong time and he almost made a sound as he was about to call Jamie in to take a shower, but his eyes fell on the other woman in the room and his body tensed up. Jamie felt his presence and her mind raced through all the horrid thoughts that was about to happen right now in that room. "Don't worry," Liam whispered down at her, not ripping his eyes off of the other woman, "She's sleep-walking."

Jamie crunched up her face in horrid disbelief as she mouthed into thin air before her, "What. The. Fuck." Liam grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back into the washroom. Just as he closed the door, Rosella spoke up.

"Jason is that you babe? Where did you gooooo...." her voice slurred from behind the door. Liam had forgotten she had alcohol earlier as well. "I'm showering," he reassured her in his sweet voice, "Go back to sleep, Rose."