"Absolutely Not."

Chapter 36: Proof

AN: before reading, it is highly advised to read all of "Autumn" and "The Year in Between". happy angst! <3

Her accent was gone.

No longer did she sound Irish or Scottish or whatever foreign inflection she faked, tricking everyone into thinking she was just like them on a base composed of mostly European soldiers.

Fucking fake ass bitch just like her hair color with her roots sticking out now that I knew it was definitely all a ruse.

I tried to keep her in my field of view as she sauntered around my vulnerable figure, but as soon as my head turned to see what the hell this she-devil was up to, a low groan left my lips when a spasm of pain sprung from the base of my neck and up the back.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she wasn't sorry, "my friend got you pretty good, huh."

The only thing I could utter was a confirming grunt, and while I didn't want to look at her smug face, I had to when she finally came back into view.

Plopping herself down on the wooden chair she'd dragged to be a few feet away from my indisposed body, she crossed her legs, sandwiching the paperwork between thigh and clasped hands.

"So refreshing," she prompted the change of topic, "to see that the elusive Kelsey Holland could finally be tied down. You have a reputation around here, you know."

Too bad she was too far from me, or I would have spat right in her face. Probably would have done her some sort of favor.

"Yeah? What kind of reputation?" I dared to ask, unsure if I really wanted to know. "And where is 'here' anyway?"

The whites of her knuckles seeped through her skin from what I could see, a tell-tale sign that me questioning her had irritated the side of Mara that wanted all the control. I'd been interrogated enough times before to pinpoint the signs of someone obsessed with dominance.

I just know when I kicked her ass during our sparring session just killed her inside.

"Here, on one of the new Shadow bases, you're simply known as one of the bigger traitors we've been trying to catch."

That explained why I didn't recognize where we were. We'd arrived not only not at Alejandro's grounds but Graves'. We'd been planted right in his greedy palm, and I felt like an idiot thinking I had outsmarted him.

I hummed out a sound of disappointment. "I don't get a cool nickname or anything?"

Satisfaction curved my lips upward in a smirk just seeing the look of annoyance flash across her face. It made me a little less pissed that she'd become a mole just as much as I had over a year ago.

"Anyway," she huffed as she opened up the file and began to rummage through it, "as much as I would love to chit-chat with you, I think there are a few things we need to discuss."

I rolled my eyes at her attempt to change the subject. "Like what, pray tell?"

"Like..." Mara paused to hum. For dramatics, I guessed. "Like how was Russia? Hm?" She peered up from the paperwork that I realized now was mine.

How'd she get that?

And how much of me was typed in that?

"Cold for the most part," I answered, keeping my answers short and sweet. I didn't want to give her more ammunition than she supposedly already had on me.

Unamused, she kept staring at me with her annoying beady eyes like some goddamn finch trying to be a vulture. I couldn't wait to sink a blade into one of them.