Rule #1: Never Date An A.C.E. [COMPLETED]

Chapter 27: Rule #37: We Must Sacrifice Everything For The Greater Good

I leisurely wandered around for a while, still lost, when I stumbled upon Vanessa. She led me back to our room, before bombarding me with questions with Flower and Alex.

"Hey," I raised my hands to get them to quiet. "Firstly, Junior will be alright. Director told me she would notify me when he awoke. Secondly, Dylan is still an asshole. Thirdly, I am fine. I found my mother's old office and I was just reading through her journals," I gestured to the pile sitting on the side-table.

"Why is Dylan still an asshole?" Vanessa asked and I rolled my eyes.

"That's the thing you decide to focus on?"

"He was really worried about you," Flower said quietly. "He thought you had been kidnapped again."

I shrugged, frowning, "He's treating me just like I thought he would—like another agent. As soon as I told him I wasn't going to fuck him, he changed. So what?" I shrugged again and the girls exchanged looks.

"What was in your mother's journals?" Alex asked, curiously.

I cautioned my answer, my parent's warning ringing through my head, "Just stuff about how she joined Ace and met my father."

The three of them nodded, before dragging me to the cafeteria to eat. Everyone in there stopped talking as we entered, lowering their voices to a whisper. "Why are they acting so weird?" I asked, glancing around as I filled up my plate.

"Deraleck was found with his face bloodied and bruises all over his body," Alex whispered back. "They think you did it."

My thoughts flashed to Dylan's bloody knuckles and my grip tightened on my plate, "Well it wasn't me."

"Obviously," Vanessa said as we sat down with Boone and Levi, "You were with Junior during the time it happened."

"How is he?" Levi asked, his brow creased in worry.

I smiled, "He's going to be alright. After eating, I'm going to go see him and bring the Director dinner."

"She'd like a ham and swiss sandwich with a pickle and a slice of vanilla cake," Dylan said, sitting down between Alex and Boone.

I nodded, "Thanks." Silence ensued as the awkward tension between us stretched to our friends.

"Alright, look," Boone slammed his hands on the table shocking all of us. He glared between Dylan and I, "You two need to figure your shit out. I will not be a part of a group where two people who obviously like each other are fighting. Talk it out. And get. Over. It."

Dylan stood up, offering me his hand, "Come on. We don't want to make Diesel madder than he already is at us." I swallowed my last bite of food, got the Director's dinner and Dylan and I walked slowly toward Junior.

"I'll go first," I volunteered, looking at my feet. "Like I said earlier, I'm sorry for my choice of words. And I'm sorry that you were worried about me when I disappeared." I stopped, turning toward him and he did the same. I moved my gaze to his eyes, "I do like you, but you make me so damn angry sometimes."

He chuckled, before schooling his expression and raising a hand to my cheek, "I'm sorry for shooting Junior, but it's my duty as an Ace agent to protect everyone from people like Deraleck."

"I know," I placed my free hand over his own.

"Rule number thirty-seven, Bella," Dylan said, a tight smile on his face. "We must sacrifice everything for the greater good of the public."

"It's a hard life."

"It sure is," Dylan sighed. "And I like you too much to do anything that could threaten our relationship," he explained. "That's why I thought you'd be better off without me. And that's why I didn't want to push you to have sex."