𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘀

𝟏𝟐𝟗

"𝙻𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝙰𝚝 𝙼𝚎"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ
𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕟𝕖𝕩𝕥 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘
𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘥.𝘤. 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

     EMILY walks alongside the train, entering into a specific car. She takes a seat that faces the doorway and waits for the train to be in motion again. She looks around, making sure to keep an eye on her surroundings. And a good thing she does because she sees a man suspiciously walking towards her.

It feels like all she does is blink, but when her eyes open, there's barely anyone left on the train. She looks around, sensing someone walking towards her again, but calming down once she recognizes the face.

"Bonsoir," Clyde says and continues to speak in French. "Heureusement pour toi, je ne travaille pas pour Doyle. Nous sommes arrivés il y a trois arrêts. (Luckily for you, I'm not working for Doyle. We got on three stops ago)."

"Non," Emily replies, but Clyde only looks up at Tsia, who walks up to them and sits across from Emily.

"You okay?" she asks.

"Ian Doyle is here in D.C.," Emily informs them.

"How can you be so sure?" Clyde inquires.

"I sat next to him last night," Emily replies, knowing that she won't get a good reaction to it.

"What?!" Tsia asks.

"He said if I warned my team or told anyone, he'd kill them."

"Why didn't he kill you?" Tsia wonders aloud.

"And more to the point, why didn't you kill him?" Clyde interjects.

"He's not working alone," Emily states.

"Then he's just playing with you," Tsia says.

"No, no, he's a power-assertive psychopath. He doesn't play games," Clyde mentions.

"He's meticulous. He plans everything down to the last detail," Emily adds.

"Yeah, that last detail being you," Clyde interjects, seeming unimpressed.

He should have known Emily wouldn't have done this by the book. Not that any of them are, but she was always one to take risks. She went off track a few times when they were initially investigating Doyle, taking her own detours without letting anyone else know. She was an incredible undercover agent, he always wondered how she made it seem so real.

"Maybe you should tell your team," Tsia suggests.

"No," Emily asserts. "No way. This isn't their fight. And I won't take that risk."

"We stay together, we can get him," Tsia says.

"We already tried," Emily groans. "Look how that ended up," she adds, nodding at Tsia's engagement ring.

"When you went undercover, I promised no one would harm you," Clyde says, intending to keep his promise.

"I'm not undercover anymore. D.C. isn't his comfort zone, it's mine. This ends here," Emily states before standing up. She gets off as the train comes to a stop and walks down the subway station, leaving Clyde and Tsia to go to another stop alone.

—
𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺

Much like her mother was to work, Noah runs late as she walks into the school. She rushes to her locker and quickly grabs her books. She yawns as she makes her way to the classroom, not caring if she's a few minutes late.