Mystery ~ MV1

019. Whos In Control Here?

[Agent A]

I can still feel the phantom beating of Max's heart against my palm, a reminder I needed as ice seems to crystallize in my veins.

Even as I watch him retreat back to the bar, now next to his teammate, Sergio, the pit in my stomach still grows in size as my skin starts to crawl. My hand still burns with the reminders of where I touched him as almost a comfort to myself— to remind myself he was okay. But it's not the lingering warmth he left that makes my skin feel hot and clammy, it's the memory of Tavi's serpentine smile. The way she leaned in, looking at him like a lion does a gazelle.

There was a fear that sank its teeth into me when I saw her approach him. A different kind of fear that I wasn't use to, a fear I couldn't control when I was meet with my worst fear. A fear that use to make me paranoid about now practically paralyzed me when it came true.

The fear was prime, visceral— the kind that turns your blood to ice and makes your heart forget its rhyme.

It was a fear I hadn't felt since I watched my life be consumed in an angry red flame.

Max was in my eye line as I positioned myself at the back of the room, letting the shadows embrace me as their own. But he wasn't who I was watching. My eyes tracked Tavi like a hunter tracks a deer in a rifle's scope, following her as she moved through the crowd with a practiced grace— each step calculated and choreographed.

She was playing a game tonight, and I got the feeling she just added Max as the newest piece on her board.

I would've cursed myself for letting the real reason I was here— Vega and his men— fade into a buzzing sound at the base of my skull, but I was too hyper focused on the French assassin who decided to mess with what didn't belong to her.

The possessive feeling that bloomed in my chest only made my body tense up like a coiled spring more. Max wasn't mine— I didn't deserve to feel possessive of him when I was the one who led him to the snake pit.

But those thoughts faded to the background as well.

It's like the shadows I loomed in were controlling my movements, forcing out the emotional control I thought I had mastered for so long. The shadows pushed me forward, following Tavi as she slipped out of the grand doors that led to a hallway.

The marble corridor stretches before me as I quietly pull open the door, moonlight splashes across the floor as it passes through the large windows. And with the stealth of a viper, I stalk closer and closer until I'm close enough to strike with a deadly precision.

I reach out, hand catching her bicep before slamming her back against the wall. The movement is fluid, natural, like breathing or pulling a trigger.

I'm quicker than she can keep up with, my forearm presses against her throat as my other hand quickly grabs her wrist to keep them in place with a grip that promises bruising.

For a second, she's taken back but then she gets a good look at me and a smirk begins to pull her at lips.

"Well, well, well," she mumbles, her eyes alight with humor, "I was wondering when you'd show up." She purrs, until she lets out a small gasp when I press my forearm harder against her throat. I feel her swallow back a gulp of air, yet the smirk persists on her lips.

She speaks up again, clearly finding this whole situation hilarious despite the one being at a disadvantage. "How's your lovesick puppy doing? He's a cute one, those eyes... so very trusting Sydney."

Something dark and ancient feeling rises in my chest, clawing at my ribs and throat until all I can taste is smoke and revenge. I lean in closer— I can see my reflection in her icy blue eyes, and it's a reflection I don't recognize for a moment.

I increase the pressure, watching her pulse flutter beneath my arm like a trapped bird as I remind her of her mortality. "If you so much as breathe near him again..." The threat hangs unfinished in the air between us, deadlier for its incompletion.

"Look at you," she laughs but it sounds pained, "look at you playing guard dog, how precious." She tries to lean forward but the pressure against her throat is too strong, holding her in place as she taunts me.

"Such passion," she purrs, "it's almost sweet watching you bare your teeth to protect him. Like watching a wolf protect a lamb. It's a new sight to see from you." She mumbles mockingly.

My grip on her wrist tightens, the promise of broken bones hangs in the tension between us. Her blue eyes a mirror on me, reflecting something feral in my expression that makes even Tavi's smirk falter for a fraction of a second. "Touch him— speak to him again, even a whisper of a word— and I'll kill you."

"Relationships are such dangerous things," she says, voice sweet like sugar to hide the poison laced within, "so...enticing, ready to exploit. You of all people should know that, you wouldn't want to add him to the red on your ledger, now would you?"

My grip shift and she's lets out a pained gasp as my forearm digs into her skin, finding her larynx. I see a crack in her usually calculated and cold exterior as her airway slowly becomes blocked by the pressure I created and control.

I lean in closer, my breath a deadly whisper against her ear, "try me, let me show you how... creative I can get..."

I lean back enough to see a flicker of —not quite fear- but something close to it.

Recognition, perhaps.

An understanding that this isn't just a professional curtesy or a hound marking its territory. This is something much darker, more passionate. Something that tastes like copper and gunpowder on the back of my tongue.

The tense silence between us is left to hang, unbroken until voice grow in the distance.

A cover must be kept, so I step back smoothly— rising my chin when I see a blossoming of maroon dash across her neck. The threat lingers between us like a stench impossible to ignore or escape.

Her tongue glides over her teeth as she smooths out the wrinkles in her dress. She looks to the people, the artificial smile returning to her lips like a gun being reloaded.

Her spine straightens as she turns back to me, "well, as fun at that was— some of us didn't come here to play domestic." She announced, as she began stepping away from the wall.

My narrowed gaze follows her even as she starts to walk past me, her eyes finding mine, "do give Max my regards."

My nails dig tiny crescent shapes into my palms, fighting my dark desire to make good on my threat— promise— right there.

I only turn to watch her go, walking back in the ball room.

Watching her go back into the room she just left makes me skin crawl, a realization dawning on me.

She lured me out.

Which meant someone needed to get in without me knowing.

Vega was here.

And I let him waltz right in.

———
Not my best work
But y'all aren't ready for the next few chapters
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