I couldn't answer back. It was just so shocking to hear his voice again.

"Simmons?" There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice, as if he now thought that he dialed the wrong number.

"Wolf," I answered, still stunned.

"Do you have a moment. I need to talk to you."

I mentally cringed when I thought of the possibilities. "Go ahead."

"In person."

"Why?"

"It's not something I would like to talk about through the phone."

I hesitated. "Sure."

"I'll text you the address." Wolf hung up as soon as he said that.

"Who was that?" I had forgotten that Alexander was still standing in front of my table and had probably heard the entire conversation from my perspective.

My mouth couldn't answer him as took a pill and swallowed it with water.

What was the point of being stubbornly proud when your head is about to kill you and you're about to go meet someone you'd need all your wits to face?

I picked up my cellphone, grabbed my wallet and looked for car keys. Upon remembering that Alexander drove us here and that he had the keys, I stretched out my right arm towards him with my palm up.

"Car keys."

Alexander eyed my sudden actions oddly and looked at me questioningly.

"I-" I stopped when I saw the only door to this room open, revealing Emmaline and Victor.

"Vita!" Emmaline smiled brightly as she bounced over to me and gave me a tight hug. "Thank you for today."

I tensed and patted her head awkwardly. I wasn't used to giving hugs.

"Avery and I were pretty good friends before but I don't know, maybe she got jealous," Emmaline spoke quietly to me as she let go. "They've been bugging me for a little while now but they were never aggressive until today. So, thank you." Her smile was so sweet and innocent that I could hardly believe she was a year older than me.

I gave her a small smile of my own. "Don't worry about it."

Emmaline turned to Alexander and gave him her best scowl, which was more cute than intimidating. "Don't get mad at Vita. She was protecting me and they probably deserved it."

I didn't notice it before, but Alexander's face became a blank slate as soon as both Emmaline and Victor walked in.

"I'll keep that in mind," Alexander answered back, his voice cold and calm.

Emmaline studied him for a second before nodding. "Good." She went back to her desk and Victor went to his.

"Car keys," I whispered to Alexander so the others wouldn't hear.

"I'll take you," Alexander told me equally as quiet.

I glared at him disbelievingly. "No."

When I looked at him and saw that he wasn't going to budge, I rubbed my eyes and sighed. "Fine."

There was a hint of triumph in his dark greys and it irked me to see it, but there was nothing I could do since I really shouldn't piss him off even more today.

"We'll be back in a bit." Alexander informed Victor and Emmaline before we walked out the door together, unfortunately.

*

"Wait in the car," I instructed him with a hint of warning as I opened the passenger seat door.

Seeing that Alexander didn't move, I quickly closed the car door and ran inside the diner. I looked around to find the man that called me and spotted him fast enough. From his intimidating dangerous presence and big build with thick cords of muscle, he really was hard to miss in this small, dimly lit diner. He was sitting facing the front doors in a corner.

"Commander Zachary Wolf," I greeted as I pulled out the only chair across the small table from him.

He stood up and sat down when I did. "Commander Simmons."

I gave him a quick emotionless smile that didn't reach my light blue eyes. "I'm not one anymore."

He didn't comment on what I said as he passed me a menu. "Did you eat lunch?"

"No." I took the menu from his hands as I felt his tough brown eyes calculate my every movement.

When a waitress came by, we both ordered burgers and it fell quiet once more. After the food came and we both finished eating, I couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Am I here to be your lunch buddy, or do you actually have something you want to talk to me about, Wolf?" I sounded a little gruff to my ears, but I made sure my face didn't reveal anything.

He seemed to be choosing his words wisely. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

I raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. "What?"

"How are your injuries?" From the outside, Wolf looked as detached and distant as he would when he interrogated prisoners, but there was a hint of concern in his expressive brown eyes.

"All healed," I brusquely answered him, ignoring the flash of emotions I saw over his features for just a second.

He brought his voice lower and it became quieter and huskier. "I wasn't only talking about your physical wounds."

Now I understood his real motive of making me come here to talk to me in person. It wasn't that he wanted to reveal some kind of secret, he just wanted to read by face and body language to see how I was actually doing.

"I appreciate you concern," I bit out icily, "but it's truly none of your concern."

"None of my concern?"

I saw his fists clench on the table.

Wolf let out a frustrated huff of air. "I was the one that found you that day. Just remembering how I found you-"

"Don't," I cut him off and warned threateningly.

Wolf leaned back on his seat as if to calm himself. "About the incident, none of us blame you. No one from my unit nor your own."

I looked at anything but him.

"And about Cadence-"

I flinched when her name passed his lips. "Is this what you wanted to question me about?"

He ignored me and continued. "It wasn't your fault. You had no choice."

The world around me blurred as her topic came up and I didn't become aware that someone was standing right next to me. It was when I felt Wolf's gaze no longer on mine that I realized he was staring at the owner of the tall shadow.

"Can I help you?" Wolf questioned as he stood up. He might have been just two or three inches shorter than Alexander, but both of them looked equally intimidating and dangerous as they stared off at each other.

Rolling my eyes at their unbelievably childish behavior, I pushed them apart. Neither stopped seizing the other up.

It was Zachary that reached out his hand first. "Wolf. Zachary Wolf. Simmons' fellow teammate."

Alexander took Wolf's hand and gave a solid shake. "Alexander Blades. Vita's husband."

I cringed when his legal title to me passed his lips.

The look of shock was the first emotion that cracked through Wolf's mask. "Nice you meet you."

"Likewise," Alexander answered stiffly.

Wolf looked at me for a moment. "Does he know?"

I shook head. If I had it my way, he would never find out.

He returned his gaze back to Alexander. "If she ever tells you, don't judge her too harshly. It wasn't her fault and she had no choice."

Alexander looked to be listening to every word carefully. There seemed to be a silent understanding between those two.

"We should get going," Alexander told me.

I faced Wolf and he simply nodded then patted my shoulder. "Think about what I said."

Giving a reluctant nod, Alexander and I left the small diner. The whole ride back to headquarters was silent.

*

"Agent Luke Simmons' latest case file just arrived." Victor informed us and we both entered.

Alexander reached for the file and opened the cream colored folder, tilting it slightly towards me.

Frustration rose when I saw that it was literally useless. Everything was still redacted and there wasn't much you could actually read.

"You've got to be kidding me." I felt my anger rise.

"It was odd. This was the first time we received a file still blacked out to that extent after we requested for full access." Victor sighed and tugged at his blonde hair with both hands.

"I thought," I narrowed my eyes at Alexander, "you said we'd get access. This is useless."

Alexander flipped through the rest of the redacted pages. "We did get access."

He must be delusional.

I clenched my hands into tight fists, hoping that it would help control my temper. "What are you talking about?"

"The parts that our organization is solely involved in isn't blacked out."

"Blades," Victor began cautiously, "are you saying it was a joint investigation."

Alexander nodded. "Our organization gave us access, but it's the other ones that are not willing to give it up."

"This is getting weirder by the minute," Victor grumbled.

"From what I could tell, this recent case was linked to finding an object. It is most likely due to this investigation that Agents Luke and Sophie Simmons were captured."

"Wait, does it say names of the other agents on this case?" Emmaline rushed over to us and scanned the papers in the file.

"No," I bit out.

"What in the world could this case be about that they wouldn't even give us access?" Emmaline softly asked herself.

"Does other organizations usually give us full access?" I questioned Emmaline.

"Yeah. Always."

This made whatever my parents were involved in more mysterious and bizarre.

"Can I have an update on what you guys found so far?" Alexander handed me the file and turned to Emmaline and Victor.

"We don't have much. All we know is that they went to a hotel named Rouge Rose two months ago. Other than that, nothing. They're both very good at covering their tracks," Emmaline murmured.

I didn't know if I should be proud that they're so good at what they do or be upset that we hadn't found much useful information because of their skills.

Out of nowhere, my laptop started blaring out and I ran over to it to check it.

"I've narrowed the locations down to three," I told everyone and they immediately came over.

Emmaline pointed at the last location listed on the screen. "It's that one."

The one Emmaline pointed to was a small cottage home deep in the forest.

"Are you sure?" Alexander asked.

"Yeah. I remember seeing that one and thinking something was extremely off about the owner." Emmaline explained.

Just like that, we were one step closer to retrieving both my parents.

"Call a team, we'll be leaving in fifteen," Alexander ordered Victor.

*

A five man group from the special forces section came into the conference room that the four of us occupied.

"We'll be stopping on the road a few minutes away from the cottage." Alexander showed the newcomers the picture of the house from the live satellite imaging. "Everyone will stick together two by two. Two will go through the front, two from the back and another two from the sides. The remaining two will stay outside in case anyone escapes."

Alexander was explaining the process while Victor handed out earpieces. The five men that just came in were already in their gear, including helmets. All they needed was to retrieve their rifles.

For me, after strapping on a bulletproof vest, I shoved the earpiece in my ear and turned it on. I saw from the corner of my eye that Victor and Alexander did the same.

When Alexander looked over at me, his eyes were telling me that he wished I wouldn't participate but there was no way in hell I was going to sit still and do nothing.

Especially not now.

*

We were all in the forest, waiting for a verbal signal that everyone was in position.

I looked up to the bright blue sky and hoped that both my parents were alive.

"Ready."

Just like that, we all moved in silently. Alexander and I took the front entrance and the moment we got in, it was all too quiet.

"Clear."

I heard through the earpiece, confused.

"Clear."

"Clear."

While everyone searched the upstairs region, Alexander and I headed towards the basement. Seeing that the lights were on, we both readied our firearms to fire if necessary.

He went in first and as we descended closer towards the basement, the stench of blood became stronger and stronger. From what I could tell, the basement was just wide empty space with no other rooms in it.

Suddenly, I realized why the stench of blood was so strong. There was blood everywhere. Some were mere drops but others were puddles.

I walked closer towards a table, the only thing down here. On the table were little tools and they had blood on them too.

Unable to believe what I was seeing, I searched the entirety of the basement. Thinking that we might have come to the wrong place, I came across the area that looked exactly like the one from the picture my father was in.

"I see coffee. It's still kind of warm." I heard Victor's voice through the earpiece.

"Basement is clear." This time, it was Alexander.

Whoever these people were, they knew we were coming because they were long gone. Nothing was in here.

It was empty.

****

Whew, another chapter the day after. So much action :D

Anyone excited??

Please don't forget to leave a comment and vote if you liked it, I really appreciate it. :)

Until next time,

InvincibleBunny