THE ELITE AGENT

42. SURRENDER.

Alex's POV:

The aroma of delicious mouth-watering dishes pulls us with a rope around our wrist. And we, take drunk steps towards the dinning room, complying to the fragrance. The lame threats which we recently got disintegrated from our mind like the mist in thin air. I wish I could include myself. The threat I got revisits my brain.

Surrender.

That was my threat. Worse of all, it doesn't feel right to lie to Elena about it. Just with the thought of her, my eyes involuntarily turn towards her. Her shoulder is wrapped, but I see a speck of something crimson coat on the plain white dressing. She has changed to her usual black shirt, a contrast to the shoulder wrap. But that is not the reason why I keep stealing glances at her.

I am not certain if others noticed it, but Elena has been unusually different. She's slightly angst and uncharacteristically closed off.

We take our seat. And I took mine beside her. The table was filled with sandwiches, salad, tacos, mac and cheese. The amount of dishes Mrs Wright has prepared could feed the whole neighborhood.

"How's your shoulder, dear? I heard that you got injured yesterday. Do I need to get you a doctor or something?" Mrs Wright asked, her eyes focused on Elena. She was quick to shake her head.

"It's fine."

"Mrs Wright, can you adopt me? I can't imagine how nice it would be to wake up to this delicious food every day," Ben exclaimed, as he scooped two tacos. She chuckled in return.

"Why, yes. I always wanted another son."

"Then we will be siblings, Benjy!" Gwen cheered happily, clapping her hands. Ben doesn't seem to share the same joviality as he made a sour face. He shook his head as that mere thought made him disgusted.

"Eh, no. We are better off friends."

They start talking to themselves, filling the room with their debate. Gwen's younger brother seem to get frustrated as his sister was barely paying attention to his school story and was rather talking to Ben. The kid pinned Ben with his glare.

"What is your name again?" The kid, whose name was Hayden, asked. Ben stops talking to Gwen and shifts his eyes to the kid.

"You're asking me?" Ben asked, pointing himself. The kid gave him a curt nod. He smiled before speaking.

"I am Benjamin Edward Sterling. I usually go by Ben. They call me seventy-eight in the agency. Gwen calls me Benjy and idiot. My sister—"

"Let me just stop you right there. Idiot sounds fine," The kid muttered, ignoring Ben's shocked face and continues to chew his sandwich. Mrs Wright gasped.

"Hayden! We don't talk to guest like that. Will you be a dear and apologize?"

"Let me think," He placed his index finger against his chin, pretending to think. "Nope." His mother gasped again as she starts a lecture on how to treat guest.

"I like him," Ben mutters, chuckling to himself. The whole atmosphere is filled with warmth and comfort. We never get a chance to sit down, have a conversation and devour homemade food. We might have power, strength, durability, stability, money, job and a reason to live. But I suppose life doesn't end there. There is always an emptiness. A void in our exquisite life. The work leaches our personal life. Our normal life. We never get to spend time together with our family.

At least, if we have one.

I turn towards Elena, to see if she's enjoying her lunch like the rest of us. I wanted to know if she's thinking the same as me. About her family. But my eyes narrow when I look at her. She kept looking at the plate with an indifferent stoic eyes. I have seen this look once before.