Envelope Challenge

Chapter 37 - The Deal

Guess what, my few? I'm almost done! Yeah, I've said that before, but I only have two more chapters and then the prologue left. Only three chapters! I'm so excited!!

Enjoy!

"Welcome back," Mrs. Lucas greeted them.

Nathaniel pushed in Polly's chair before taking a seat beside her. Once again, they found themselves facing off against the pack of board members across from them. Polly's leg began to twitch, jumping up and down, as their eyes watched her. The warm pressure of Nathaniel's hand on her thigh was the only thing that calmed her sporadic muscles.

"Thanks," she replied dryly. Just to solidify her cool, calm, and collected façade, a loud sniffle tore through the room as her body fought to clear its airway. For the second time in the past two minutes, her face flushed red. His thumb traced soothing patterns on her leg, relaxing the muscle and cooling her face.

"May we precede?" Mrs. Lucas questioned. At their nods, she took a deep breath. "As I was saying, Nathaniel has given us his cooperation in return for your safety. Now that we have upheld our half of the deal, he will uphold his and work for us for five years. That was simply the term of your rescue."

"And we will be talking about that later," Polly promised with a glare at Nathaniel, "but why did you drag me here just to tell me that?"

Mr. Kingo spoke up instead. "You obviously care for Mr. Partril, Pollyanna." She normally corrected him to call her Polly, but, with this new turn of events, she wasn't feeling up to being friendly with him. "However, Mr. Partril is very talented and we do plan on monopolizing him. You will have very little interaction with him for the next five years he is working for us."

"I'll make time," she gritted through her teeth. "Are you trying to rub it in my face or something? A 'Ha-ha, he's with us not you!' kind of thing?"

"Nonsense," Mrs. Lucas interjected, but Mr. Kingo cut off her reply.

"We're offering you a chance. Have you ever heard of an informant?" He leaned forward, intertwining his fingers in front of his mouth.

A scoff flew from her lips involuntarily. "You mean like those people in cheesy cop and mafia movies who work at bars or stores? The girl with her boobs falling out of her shirt leaning on a counter?"

"I wouldn't mind that," Nathaniel mumbled and coughed as Polly's elbow dug into his side.

"Yes," Mr. Kingo continued as if she hadn't just abused poor Nathaniel. "However, we do expect you to act better than those women. After all, you do represent us, whether or not others are aware of it."

"Hold up!" she announced and held up her hand. "You're seriously expecting me to do this? Why should I?" The incredulous shock on her face was plainly visible.

"Well, it is for your country," who she thought was Mr. Williams reminded her and got a glare in return.

"So you're going to ask me to get information from a bunch of dangerous people who would kill me without a moment's hesitation if they found out what I was doing because it's best for America. You probably have, like, a thousand informants already out there!"

"We were going to ask you to become an agent, a member, but you simply don't have the steel that we require." It was Mrs. Lucas who threw in those two cents.

"I was just held prisoner for seven days!" she exploded at the insult to her pride. Honestly, she didn't know why she was so upset. She didn't want to work for them so she should be happy they didn't want her.

"Yes, we are aware. However, you are not capable of instilling fear, crippling or even killing someone. I like that, truly I do. Our country needs more people who are unwilling to hurt others. We just need people who are capable of sinning in order to do what needs to be done," Mr. Kingo placated her.