𝙊𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

Addison walked quietly up the stairs, pausing by the spare bedroom when Lloyd and Denny's voice filtered into the hallway.

"Do you have a location on the girl?" Addison pressed her back to the wall, peeking into the cracked door. Denny sat relaxed on a lounge chair, his calf bandaged up and resting on an ottoman, taking the whiskey on ice that Lloyd offered. "Yeah, she's at Jones' apartment in Washington," Addison's heart constricted at the words tumbling out of Lloyds mouth, so much for not fucking things up she thought. "I just have to find a way to convince her that it's a good idea, Addison is Claire's guardian with Six," Lloyd pushed a methodical breath out of his lips, lowering into the chair opposite Denny, "she loves that little girl more than me and Six combined, I just have to figure out how to do it without her knowledge."

Addison didn't even realize a tear had slipped down her cheek until it caught on her lip.

Her eyes closed as she pressed back against the wall, a desperate attempt to slow the tears running down her face as she listened in on the conversation. "When I ordered Suzanne to go retrieve her after I fired her, I wasn't expecting you to find a home between her thighs," Denny took a long drink from the amber liquid, eyes focused on Lloyd who twirled his glass around, a cocky smile on his lips. "I don't regret it, I've missed her, and she's so desperate to be loved that she'll buy into the whole, I'm sorry, I love you story line, shit you saw it downstairs." If Addison's heart hadn't shattered already, she would've felt it completely fracture at that statement. "I can't believe you actually got her to believe that you love her," Denny laughed, shaking his head, "this is exactly why we fired her as an agent, she's too gullible."

Addison couldn't bear to hear it anymore, peeling herself off the wall and quietly moving down the hallway towards Lloyd's room. She had to get to Claire before Lloyd or Denny moved, she needed to get that little girl to safety, Claire was not going to become collateral damage, not because of Addison's misstep. The door to Lloyd's bedroom clicked shut behind her, eyes scanning the room for the knife that he always kept within reach of the bed. She had to move quick, she needed to get dressed and secure enough weaponry to get to a safe house she knew was nearby. The cast made her hand nearly immobile, quickly moving into the bathroom to grab the first aid kit.

She thanked the gods above she had a high pain tolerance as she used Lloyd's sharp knife to slice through the cast, before wrapping it in an ace bandage.

Once she confirmed she could use her hand with minimum pain she moved quickly, prying off Lloyd's shirt and tossing it on the floor, pulling on the jeans she had arrived to his house in, tightening the holsters that were around her thighs and placing her knives in their proper spots, turning to place the gun in the back of her pants. Her heart was beating against her ribcage as she listened for footsteps, grabbing a backpack to shove a laptop in, taking the battery out of her burner phone and dropping her personal on the tile, slamming her foot down to crack the battery. The wind howled in the room, setting the urgency of the night. She had to get out before Lloyd got back to the bedroom, she couldn't allow him a chance to manipulate her, she knew what she heard, and she wasn't going to let him get out of it.

Noticing the laptop on Lloyd's dresser, she reached into her duffle bag, yanking out a device she slid into the USB port, letting her be able to scramble his cameras until she could get off his property. She moved quickly, typing in his password and pulling up the program, typing in the codes and smiling as static covered the screen, chaos erupting downstairs. Not only had she distracted them, it gave her a clear out, she would be able to slip down his balcony without a second glance, she pulled the device out of his laptop, tossing it into the backpack before yanking down his sheer curtains, pushing the balcony doors open and tying the fabric to the railing, immediately sliding down when the fabric was secure.