Love Dies

Chapter 9

                     "Mari! Mari!..." Shooting awake to the sound of her name and the aggressive shoves on her shoulder, Marinette was quite shaken when she awoke. It was still dark out and  the rain was much heavier than it had been when she went to sleep. Appearing more like an actual storm now rather than just a little sprinkle.

"What?"Mari groaned as she rubbed her eyes. From what she could see, Adrien seemed frantic, and what for was the mystery.

"Answer my phone please." It was at this time that Mari realized Adrien's phone was buzzing on the dashboard. Marinette was too tired to contest, so she pulled the phone down and exited out of the gps app and answered the phone. The number was labeled as an unknown, so the question of why he desperately wanted her to answer it wasn't clear.

"Hello?"

"Oh!Do I have the right number?" The woman questioned, skeptical.Recognizing the voice as Mrs. Denni's Mari replied.

"Don't worry Mrs. Denni, you have the right number. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien's partner. He's driving at the moment. What's going on?"

"I've found Monica. She's been under an elaborate disguise."

"How can we find her?"

"She just left my office a minute or so ago. She's wearing...." As Mrs. Denni continued to speak on the other end of the line, Mari reached down to her feet and retrieved her computer. If Monica was still in the building maybe they could catch her on the security cams. "a black wig, a navy shawl, and white tennis shoes." To be honest, that didn't sound too elaborate to Marinette, but the best way to hide was in plain sight, so it made sense. The computer booted up quickly, and because Marinette never closed out of the cameras, they were conveniently up on her screen. Of all the cameras to view, Mari finally spotted a woman matching the description in the bottom right corner.

"I see her..." As the words came from her mouth, Mari felt her side being thrown violently into the passenger door. Adrien had aggressively made a u-turn. "Adrien!?"

"You just focus on not loosing sight of Monica. I'll get us back to Milwood Fashions."

"We won't make it in time." Clearly he wasn't listening as the car continued to speed along the road. "Adrien!" Mari tried again.

"We've got to try." He protested.

"Stop! By the time we get there she'll be gone." Finally, her partner slammed on the brakes. The almost immediate stop, surely to have left some damage on the vehicle. Slamming back into her seat, Mari's hair fell into her eyes. Sitting herself up slowly, the agent began the process of catching her breath from the sudden adrenaline.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Adrien questioned. Mari was too peeved to answer and simply removed her hair from her face with a frustrated sigh. Keeping her stern scowl on her partner for another moment, Marinette turned her attention back to the phone call.

"Mrs. Denni, do you happen to gain any information from her? For example where she's staying perhaps?" Mari listened carefully, nodding and humming along to the directions as she processed them in her brain. Obviously ticking off Adrien since she wouldn't put the call on speaker. He sighed in frustration while removing the key from the ignition, flopping back in his seat to lean his head in his hand as it leaned against the window. Selfishly, she didn't want him to know anyway. If it wasn't for the fact that Master Fu was forcing them to work together, she wouldn't be involving her partner at all. Except,that would have been childish and rude. Maybe that's why her moods around him and the roller coasters of good and bad conversations existed between them. She had been cordial, yet sour at the beginning, but now she was firm and bitter, yet still genuinely curious. The influx of emotions messing with her thoughts and tampering with her actions. At least that would make her unreadable to Adrien. "Yes. I understand. Thank you." Hanging up and dropping Adrien's phone into her lap, Marinette prepared to diverge the information to the blonde beside her. It was quite easy to assume that Agreste was frustrated and displeased about being left out. It was also clear that he wasn't going to say a thing about it, waiting patiently by staring through the windshield. "Mrs. Denni said Monica is staying just off the English Channel in Southampton."