Undercover Cops

Chapter 9

"You will be waiting with your photographers' team until someone calls you to a photo shoot. If you need anything, ask me," concluded the businesswoman sitting in the office of the Chicago Super Model Company.

Miley forced a polite smile before engaging herself in her team's room. She felt like am an intruder; the new freshman in a typical high school. Once she entered the spacious room, everyone turned towards her with curious expressions.

"Are you new?" asked foolishly one of the photographers with black and short hair. "Welcome here! I'm Stacy, and the four others are Marco, Isabella, Ronnie, and Matt. Don't be scared, we don't bite."

I raised an eyebrow at the talkative girl before furtively squinting at the last one mentioned. Matt Efron, Zachary's brother. He didn't seem dangerous at all but quite the reverse. His warm smile and amicable expression gave him a look of sympathy. Nevertheless, Miley learned throughout the years that we can't completely trust one's appearance even if you're a trained agent with intuitive impressions.

"Nice to meet you too," she forced herself to use a jovial tone. "Sorry if I'm not bubbly today; I don't feel well."

"Oh no!" gasped Stacy with compassion. "If you can't go on, you can take a few days off. I'm sure it won't affect your new job."

"No thanks. It's only temporary," Miley declined with a cordial smile. She then sat down on the couch just beside Matt. After a while, she decided to be brave and start a conversation. "Your name is Matt, am I right?" She indecisively questioned.

"Yes. Nice to meet you," greeted the man with a polite smile.

"Do you love the job here? I'm a new photographer and I was just wondering if the service is great," I easily lied with a smile that could fool anyone.

"The job is flawless," Matt revealed. "I love photography since I was fairly young. I used to take photo shoots of nature, but then diverged my interest towards real persons."

"Incredible," Miley cooed. "My story resembles yours, but it's actually someone very important who advised me to develop my passion, someone really close to my heart... " She let her phrase linger in the air for an instant before finally completing it: " My brother." She bit her lip after her shameless lie and observed his reaction. He didn't even flinch which was surprising, so she decided to dig a little bit deeper. "And you? Do you have a brother?" She added maliciously.

He seemed caught off guard for a moment but nodded confidently. "Yes, he was very close to me when we were younger."

"Was?" questioned Miley, pretending to look taken back. "I mean, what do you mean? You fought too much so you aren't close anymore?"

Matt stiffened a little and thought carefully for a few seconds. "We drifted apart," he finally told her. "We used to understand each other well, but after some disturbing events, I realized he changed a whole lot."

"I'm sorry," She apologized, truly feeling bad for him. "I'm sure he's still the same person deep down but made some wrong choices. Some people are simply good at making bad decisions. "

"You don't understand," Matt sighed, abashed. "He's not the same anymore. He did some unforgivable things that I don't want to think about right now."

"I see," Miley nodded understandably. "I hope you'll soon reconcile because brothers have to stick together."

Matt nodded, uneasy. The special agent soon got the message and changed the subject. At least, he talked briefly about Zac. It was a progress.

___

Nick's lips twitched upward when he saw the message that Miley sent him. He knew it was nothing much -just a quick update-, but he was happy to know that she was safe. Like a chain reaction, his fingers typed a response that was none other than a cheesy emoji. They used to do this every night when they were friends with benefits. He still doesn't know why they stopped.

"Still thinking about your girl?" teased Cole, appearing on the restaurant's table with two burgers. "You must love her?"

Nick chuckled and waved his hand dismissively. "I don't love her; I just extremely care about her."

Cole lifted his eyebrows playfully before attacking his cheeseburger. "I used to tell myself the same thing with my wife. When we were in high school, she was the captain cheerleader while I was the loser with clown outfits and weird hairstyles. Every student in my class used to mock me, chanting 'Cole called himself Cole because he is so not Cool!' One day, I decided to be brave and confess my feelings to Samantha. It turned out that she felt the same thing!"

"Well, isn't this a cliche story?" Nick commented, raising both of his eyebrows.

"Well, not really. I took her to various dates; magic show, bungee jumping, and even heavy metal concert. It was absolutely amazing, the good old years! As we say, old but gold!"

Nick nodded, entertained by Cole's stories. He found him so charming in his own way and was glad to be mentored by him.

"Do you know how I proposed?" Cole continued, nostalgic. "We were only eighteen when I took her to visit the giant pandas in China. It was a rainy day, but I still put a winter hat to hide my orange dreadlocks. In brief, I trained the pandas so that they could form the shape of a ring! In the center, I used rocks to form the ultimate sentence and she immediately accepted!"

"Very romantic, Cole!" Nick complimented in a good mood. "You're a funny pal. Unfortunately, we have a mission to fulfill! Let's go to the next state!"

"I still have the anecdote about our first underground house to tell you..." pouted the middle-aged man cutely.

Nick rolled his eyes playfully and started the car. Las Vegas, here they go!

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Nancy xox