Once, Twice, Sold

Dedicated to MusicalBookworm3 for making me this awesome cover. 

Chapter 1

1 year ago

Date: April 1

Location: Angra dos Reis, Brazil

Time: 8:50 a.m.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. I’m screwed, no I’m worse than screwed, I’m fucked. Crap, crap, crap. I pushed myself faster keeping a tight grip on my bag as I pushed past large groups of people who were out at this hour for who knows what reason. Either used to the strangeness of someone sprinting down the sidewalk or just not caring people made no sound as I bumped past them.

Thanks to all the running Valentin had made me do I was able to move pretty quickly and put it to some use even though I hadn’t seen any of the others in a while. I slowed my pace at the thought of them before pushing them out of my mind and picked up my pace.

It’s over now, everything’s done, just forget about them. I told myself but it was easier said (thought?) than done.

The familiar building came into view and I almost sighed in relief but since I was sprinting I didn’t have excess air to do so. The building was a beige color and had open windows in the front so you could see the wild merchandise inside that was in a variety of colors. The sign was in a language I’m pretty sure didn’t exist as many of the signs in Brazil were. Though I still didn’t understand why they weren’t since a lot of tourists will come here for vacation or make a pit stop before going to Rio de Janeiro which was only a couple of hours away but I never commented about it out loud.

I reached the building sooner than I thought and I almost fell over with how quickly I stopped. Composing myself quickly I quietly walked to the back and put my bag away before going back out front to the cash register.

Yes the famous hacker who took down the largest human trafficking business in the entire world was working at a small store as a sales representative.

“Lexi!” I jumped at the sound of my boss’s voice and turned around from my post to see him walking towards me.

He was a large man with mocha colored skin, dark hair and freckles that you could barely see spread across his face. He had a slight limp from a shark accident on the beach that was only a few blocks from here but he never let that slow him down.

“Yes?” Crap what if he realized that I was late.

“Have you checked inventory yet?” Okay so I was in the clear now but now I had to do one of the most boring mind numbing tasks known to man, check inventory. You wouldn’t think it was that bad but it was. Spending hours, counting various items that I was sure didn’t need to be used for outdoor activities wasn’t exactly the highlight of my day.

“I have Mr. Yano,” A male voice answers for me and I turn to see one of my coworker, Pat.

Pat was a year younger than me although you would never be able to tell because he was extremely tall and very muscular. I once thought that he took steroids, but after finding out that he had never taken prescription meds I quickly ruled that out. And yes, I did a background check on him, after the past two years I’ve faced I was way more cautious than usual.

Pat was my boss’s nephew although they looked absolutely nothing alike. See Mr. Yano’s sister married an Irish man and Pat got most of his traits from his father being very pale, having a bunch of freckles, and the red hair. I thought he was joking when he said he and Mr. Yano were related but after the background check I found out that he wasn’t.