Undercover

Chapter 24

*TW: Mention of Child rape.*

(Songs: you could start a cult – Niall Horan
& Family line – Conan Gray)

Enjoy <3

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His eyes. His hair. His lips. His touch. His mind...

I sat by the body and stared at it for a long time. Very long time. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. The whole time he was beside me stroking my back and whispering encouraging words. The blue brunette hair with a twisted mind. He was proud of me. I did a good job. I killed him perfectly. It doesn't make sense.

Everything was changing inside me. My mind was somewhere my heart was somewhere else. I was enjoying things I shouldn't. Things I fight against for.
Suddenly everything was hard. He makes it hard.

And it makes no sense at all that I'm still following him around. Worse than that, I want to follow him. I shouldn't but my heart was commanding me to. This shouldn't be happening. It doesn't make sense at all. It doesn't make sense the fact that he is starting to make sense to me.

He. Two words. Ten letters. One name.

Niall Horan.

It's been a week since. No words were spoken. No lips were kissed and no skins were touched. I locked myself in the room. No Tom. No Niall. No one. No food or water. Nothing. Just my thoughts consuming me. My thoughts eating me alive.

My head screaming at me Daphne open your eyes. My heart gently touching my soul and saying to follow Niall. I sighed for the millionth time and rubbed my temple. All I wanted was to be a good detective and finish the case. We're getting close to the arresting date but whenever I picture Niall behind the bars my heart aches for some reason. It shouldn't but it does.

A knock interrupted my not so nice thoughts.

"Daphne." Niall called.
I stayed silent.
"You can't stay in your room forever."
Nothing. I heard him sighing. After a couple of seconds I heard some noises and the door opened. I looked at Niall with a confused expression.

"I'm a criminal." He shrugged like picking a lock was the easiest job in the world.
"So you could do that the whole time?" I asked hearing my voice for the first time after a week.
"Yeah." He said sitting next to me.
"But I knew you needed some time and space." He said giving me a side hug and placed a kiss at the top of my head.

Why? Why did a small smile sat on my face?

"I wanted to give you a heads up for next month." He said.
"What's happening?"
"Masquerade ball."
"oh?"
"Elijah's parents always host one. Everyone is invited including you and your friend Tom. Since you were locked up in here I delivered the news to you."
I nodded sinking in.

"So instead of locking yourself in and feeling sorry for yourself, keep your head up proudly and go look for an outfit." He said.
He makes everything hard.
Daphne open your eyes.
Follow Niall.
"okay." I sighed laying down.

"Was it this hard for you too? When you had to kill someone for the first time?" I asked after a couple of seconds of silence.
"No."
"No? So you killed someone and moved on the next second?" I asked.
"You know what the problem is Daphne?"
I waited for him to continue.
"You think death and murder is the worst thing."
"It's not?"

"The worst thing is experiencing a pain but not knowing when, how, or by who." he said.

I slowly sat up.
"Niall." I whispering placing my hand on his wrist.
"Can I ask you to do me a favor?" he said as gently as possible.
I looked at him.
"If your team became successful in arresting us, don't let them take Hazel. Take care of her. She's innocent. She was just born in this family but she has nothing to do with what we do." He said.

I swallowed hard. He faced me.
"Hazel is an angel. She got hurt too soon." He said his eyes turning red.
"Niall." I stroked his hand. He looked ahead.

"We were in Ireland for a mission. Hazel was only three. It was one of my first missions since I was only fourteen. No one was home except for my mom, Hazel and my Dominik's ex best friend, Dave." He dropped his head down.

I waited patiently for him to continue.

"He was waiting for us to return from that stupid mission. My mom was sleeping, so was Hazel. He ..." Niall cleared his throat.
"He went to Hazel's room and" he couldn't finish his sentence.
"Oh Niall." I said and hugged him tightly.
"She was only three years old." He whispered.
I felt a wetness on my shirt.
The Niall Horan was crying on my chest.

"My room was only one door away from her Daphne. If I were home that night, I could've saved her." He said crying silently.

"Niall this is not your fault." I said tearing up as well.
Hazel did not deserve this at all.
Niall broke apart from the hug and looked at me.
"She doesn't remember that much since she was only three. She just remembers something terrible and painful has happened to her that day."

"What happened to him?"

"I wanted to kill him. We all wanted to. But stupid Dominik stopped us and let him go saying they were once friends. I hate him for that. My mother hates him too she just tolerates him. My grandfather, my aunts and uncles and my cousins hate him too. After that he stopped being my father."

"Did you ever find him?"

He shook his head.
"We've been searching for him since then but there's no trace of him."
Suddenly I remembered two things Niall told me in our first encounters which I didn't understand at first, but now it makes sense.

'Listen I may be a criminal and kill people, but I would never touch a girl without her permission, okay?!'
'It's just ... Hazel ... she kinda grew up fast. Like faster than any other child.'

I hugged him again. I will find Dave and serve justice.
I will take care of Hazel.

The next morning I came out of my room with a purpose. Finding Dave and sending him to his grave. And to continue the case by talking to Nova. I sent Tom to talk to Leo. So far I got nothing new. Just the basic introduction and details that I knew from my research.

"So, enough about me. Tell me about you and Niall." Nova smiled.
"Me and Niall?"
"Oh don't say there's nothing between the two of you. I've seen how you guys act-" she stopped talking and looked behind me. Confusingly I turned around and saw that Tom and Leo were talking and chuckling lightly. I faced Nova again.

"My bad." She shook her head and gave me a fake smile.
"What was I saying again?" she asked.
"Nothing important." I said smiling back.
"Oh don't be silly." She laughed.
"Oh yes. yes. You and Niall. I've seen how you guys act around each other."
"We're a thing." I tried to sound casual.
"I knew it." She said laughing. I laughed back.

"Nova the tailor is here for the dress fitting." Scarlett said.
"Yes. It was very nice to meet you Riley." Nova said standing up.
"It was nice meeting you as well." I shook her hand and she walked away. I couldn't help but to notice she stole another glance at Tom and Leo's direction again.

"Any new information?" I asked Tom once were alone.
"No. You?"
I shook my head side to side.
"Nothing. Just that they live in Australia and they have no kids." I said.
"Same thing." Tom said.
I looked at the other side and saw Niall talking with Lucas and Isaac.
I couldn't get the image of him crying out of my head.

"Earth to Daphne." Tom waved at me.
I shook my head and looked at him.
"Sorry what?" I asked.
"I'm worried." He said.
"Why?"
"You're spending too much time with Niall. You're not being careful." He said.

"I am being careful. Don't worry."
"How can I not worry? How? You two are always together. Always doing missions together."
"Hey relax." I said gently. I placed my hand on his arm.
"It's fine. Everything is fine." I said calming him down.
He took a deep breath and nodded.
We looked at everyone in silence.

"By the way the lieutenant contacted me last night." Tom broke the silence.
"And?"
"They confirmed the arresting date."
My heart rate increased. I could hear my heartbeat clearly. Was I ready to put Niall behind the bars?
"When?" I asked with a shaky breath.
"Next month at the masquerade ball."

Oh.

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A/N
I'm baaackkk😎
Man I missed writing this story🥲

How are you all doing?