I felt a bucket full of water being dumped over my head, completely matting my hair to my face and soaking through my shirt. My head lolled to the side as I tried to regain full consciousness.

"Wake up." I heard a tough male voice then felt the sharp pain of a slap straight across my face, whipping my head to the side.

With my eyes still hazily half hooded over, I turned my face back and looked straight at the man that slapped me.

He was still wearing the exact same thing I had seen him in before I passed out, mask included. I was seated on a flimsy wooden chair, my arms pulled behind the backing of the chair and tied with what felt like was a single zip tie. My legs, however, were not constricted to the chair. Quickly glancing around me, it seemed like an empty warehouse that had long been forgotten. Scraps of wood, pipes and useless little pieces of bent metal were littered around the corners of this place. The lights were dim but decently still working and once in awhile, they flickered. From what I could see, there was only one man in here with me.

I felt my shoulder length hair being grabbed and pulled back, forcing my face to look up and my neck straining.

"Where is it?" He growled at my face, eyebrows drawn towards the center and hazel eyes narrowed.

Not knowing what he was talking about, I remained silent and coldly held his gaze. As if my silence pissed him off even more, he hit my other cheek then began to circle around me.

"They didn't have it. Do you have it, little girl?" He asked once more as he stopped right in front of me and crossed his arms across his chest.

I answered the exact same way I did the first time by simply staring at him silently and I could see the fury building in his eyes. He lifted his hand slightly and two of his teammates walked out of the shadows. When they got to where I was standing, one tilted my chair back until it was on its hind two legs and another covered my face with a piece of cloth. Suddenly, I felt water being poured on my face and being unable to get air into my lungs, it burned in my chest. Then, it stopped and I felt someone peel the wet cloth off of my face.

"Do you have it?" One man asked and when I didn't answer, they restarted the process all over again.

I've lost count how many times they did it but they soon set the chair down and I struggled to breathe in air as I coughed out water. The hazel eyed man clenched my jaw tightly in his hands, fingers digging into one cheek and his thumb in the other, as he forced me to meet his gaze.

Staring into my empty eyes he concluded, "No, I don't think you have it. But you must at least know where he hid it."

Yanking my face out of his grasp, I leaned back into my chair casually, as if none of this bothered me. "Why would you think that?"

He began laughing but then immediately became serious. "Why? Why would I think that? Because you're his only daughter, little girl. So, tell me before I lose my temper. Where. Is. It."

The more I remained quiet, the redder I saw the tips of his ears get. He breathed out a controlled breath containing fury as he walked off with one of his teammates and the other remained standing next to me.

As the one that was guarding me had turned his back on me for a moment, I widened my arms and quickly stepped out of the chair as quietly as I could. Sticking my rear out slightly and lifting my arms as high as I could, I swung down, successfully breaking the locking mechanism on the zip tie. The man quickly tried to turn around as he heard the noise of the zip tie breaking but it was too late. Holding him in a choke hold, he passed out in the matter of seconds.

I dragged him into the shadows so no one would notice him and searched him for any weapons but oddly, I came up empty handed. Hearing footsteps, I quickly sat back down and made it look as if I hadn't moved at all.

Hazel eyes walked towards me confidently as he lifted his phone to show me a picture when he was close enough.

"Your dad, isn't it?" I couldn't see if he was smiling, but I could hear it through the smugness of his voice.

Pretending I didn't care, I took a glance at the photo and couldn't believe what I saw.

"If you don't give me an answer, little girl, you're going to end up just like your father."

The man in the picture was indeed my father. He was lying on the ground, slouched and unconscious. Without a shirt on, I could clearly see the bruises and cuts covering his body. No matter what, I had never seen him so beaten up. There were occasional bruises and cuts when he came home but nothing like this. The condition of his body terrified me. Suddenly, everything made sense. The reason why he hadn't called me for a while and the reason why I couldn't reach him no matter how hard I tried.

Keeping my face as impassive as possible, I looked for an opening. I gazed at the door for a moment, then looked around only to return my gaze back to the door. There was no way I was staying in here for a moment longer.

He looked at where I was looking and burst out laughing. "Waiting for your knight in shining armor to come in and save you?"

Slowly, a small smirk formed on my face. "I don't need a knight to come save me. I'm no damsel in distress."

Ignoring me, he continued. "This is going to be the last time I'm going to ask you. Where is it?"

When I didn't answer, he stood a few feet in front of me and began pacing back and forth.

"You know what. I'm sick and tired of playing this game." He stopped, pulled out his gun, then pointed it at me.

I glanced over at the other man in the warehouse and upon seeing that he was hardly paying attention, I quickly tilted my body to the side to lessen my chances of getting shot if he accidentally fired and then kicked the gun out of his hands in the opposite direction. Then, I stood up.

"You little-" Hazel eyes stepped towards me and I quickly aimed a punch at his neck before he recovered from the shock of seeing that I had freed myself.

The other man was about to take out his gun as well when I swung the chair at his head, successfully knocking him out with the blow.

I took out his gun and aimed it at the man with hazel eyes but saw that he had recovered his firearm as well and was pointing it at me.

His mask had fallen off and I saw him smile at me condescendingly. "Shoot me, I dare you."

I fired at his gun and he dropped it, startled. He narrowed his eyes at me as I aimed for his head.

"Where is my father?" I interrogated him icily.

"Why would I ever tell you, little girl?"

Just then, I heard footsteps approaching from outside the warehouse and saw that his smile grew.

"Too late," he taunted.

I quickly fired twice and missed on purpose the last second. Grabbing one of the large metal pipes, I swung at the back of his head with just enough force to knock him out, then ran to hide behind one of the pillars in the shadows near the doors.

I could only see their shadows but from what I saw, multiple men had entered and each held a handgun or a semi automatic rifle. Knowing clearly that I was far outnumbered, I knew my only way to get out alive was to escape unnoticed.

As the group of people dispersed, one blonde haired man remained at the door. He wasn't facing me so I grabbed one of the pipes and struck the back of his knees. The man crumpled to the ground and I quickly got him into a choke hold but he was stronger than I thought. He got up and walked backwards, slamming me against the wall. The noise echoed throughout the warehouse and I knew I didn't have much time before the rest of his buddies showed up.

My grip was pried off and we stood a few feet away from each other. He was around Alexander's height with blue eyes and blond hair, boyishly handsome and wore a bulletproof vest over a white dress shirt and black slacks.

His eyes widened when he saw me. "Are you Vita Simmons?"

Not bothering to ask how he knew me, I used his moment of confusion to land a solid punch at his jaw and he stumbled back holding it.

Then, I didn't hear his buddies approaching but I felt them surround us.

"Man, that hurt," the blond haired man grumbled.

He looked at me then put on a small smile. "I'm Agent Victor LeBlanc."

With a hand signal from Victor, the others dispersed in all directions, leaving us alone.

"We actually came to save you but it looks like you didn't need our help."

I continued to eye him disbelievingly. "How'd you find me?"

"Tracker," he said, then looked behind me. "Hey, we found her."

Victor gestured to behind me and I turned my head to see who was there and upon seeing who it was, my eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"That's Agent Blades."

Alexander didn't even look at me. "Could you wrap things up here? I'll take her home."

Victor shrugged. "Sure. I'll see you tomorrow." Victor walked away and I was about to fight Alexander to demand what in the hell was going on but I didn't have much energy left. I simply tossed him an unhappy look and walked out the door.

*

The entire ride back home was absolutely silent. He didn't talk so I didn't either. I took the silence to think about what had happened today and the fact that I now know that my father was captured.

When we arrived home, I headed straight towards the shower to think about what to do next because there was no way I was going to sit still and do nothing when my father was still alive out there.

I got out, feeling a little more clear-headed and calmer, when I saw that Alexander was sitting on the bottom edge of my bed, staring outside through my window.

I sighed as I stood right in front of him after getting changed. "It was you wasn't it? The day you touched this," I dangled my dog tag, "you taped on a tracker."

Alexander didn't face me nor give an answer so I was going into my closet to find a backpack when I realized that he had come to check up on me everyday as if he knew I was in danger. Getting unreasonably angry, I walked back out and grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall, holding him there.

"Did you know?" I snarled out at him, not even trying to contain the fury leaking out of my voice. "Did you know about my father?"

He didn't answer but I searched his eyes and saw the truth as his dark greys softened a fraction.

I let him go and stepped backwards, utterly pissed. "You knew, didn't you?"

"How long?" I questioned through clenched teeth.

"A week."

I let out a quick breath, unable to believe what I was hearing. "Anything else, Red?" I stared at him incredulously.

"Your mom went rogue."

Blinking my eyes, hoping I heard wrong, I waited for clarification.

"She went off the grid two weeks ago."

"Explain." I clenched my hands into fists.

"Your dad disappeared three weeks ago. The moment she found out, she disappeared as well. Most likely captured as well."

"By who?"

"We don't know yet."

I stood thinking for a moment before I went back into my closet and packed a backpack lightly with the most necessary things. When I was done, I ignored the fact that Alexander was examining my every action like a hawk and pulled out the large rectangular container that I hid under my bed. Putting it on my bed, I peeled off the outside cardboard and stared at the hard, dark grey case.

"Where do you think you're going?" I heard Alexander's voice from behind me.

"I will inform you next week," I sassed him, still bitter that he hadn't told me the moment he found out.

"You're not leaving."

I walked towards the door only to find him standing in front of it.

"Move," I demanded, but he didn't.

"You're not leaving." There was no way I was backing down so I stared defiantly into his eyes

I casually set my things on the ground, getting ready to fight him to leave if I had to. However, he grabbed both my wrists in each hand and pinned me to the wall before I could even blink.

"I'll throw you into a maximum security prison cell if I have to. You're. Not. Leaving." Alexander's face was abnormally close to mine. So close that I could see the small amber specks near his pupils.

"I'm not sitting around doing nothing while they're both out there somewhere."

"We're working on it."

I looked up to the ceiling, exasperated. "Yeah, doing such a great job."

"Then you tell me. How are you going to find them?"

My voice lowered and it quieted into a whisper. "I'll find them. One way or another."

"I can pull some strings." He cautiously let me go and stepped a foot back. "Get you into our team for this investigation."

I eyed him questionably.

"This, or I lock you up in safe house, Angel."

"Don't ever call me that." The thing was, while I called him Red throughout the years, that's what he called me. Angel was derived from Angelina, which was what my parents were going to name me instead of Vita.

He tilted his head to the side, his dark eyes trying to read mine, something that he was too good at.

"Fine," I grumbled my answer knowing that he would actually toss me into a safe house and his parents would most definitely support his decision.

"We have to set some rules," he sighed out.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I waited.

"First, I can feel your resentment towards me come off in waves whenever I'm in your line of vision."

Not being able to deny it, I looked at anything but him. "Okay. I'll try to control myself. Be professional." I mumbled quietly.

"Only this investigation, nothing else."

I nodded and silence fell upon us for a few moments. When I looked at him, he seemed to be deep in thought.

"I'm doing something for you," Alexander paused as his eyes watched for my reaction, "what are you going to do for me?"

Rubbing my eyes, I sighed out heavily. "What, you want me to write a contract? Like, I promise to tolerate your presence and be kind to you until this is over?"

I knew that wasn't what he meant but I tossed in those unnecessary comments just to see if I could irritate him. However, I was disappointed to see that it didn't work. He was still as stoic as ever.

Not hearing a response from him, I rolled my eyes. "Fine. If you do get me into your team, I will make an exception. What do you want from me that I can offer?"

There was a long pause, as if he was thinking heavily on the subject. Not wanting to wait around any longer in the same room as him for a response, I opened the door. "Well, tell me when you think of something." I had already stepped a foot out the door when I heard his solid answer.

"Marriage."

I snapped my head to look at him and my eyes widened in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me."

He didn't back down, instead, he stared intensely into my eyes.

"Take it or leave it."

****

This concludes chapter two. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please comment if you can and vote if you liked it :)

Until next time,

InvincibleBunny