BLADE (√)

●Chapter Sixteen●

*A/N Hey everybody...welcome to chapter sixteen, it's a bit late, I'm sorry I had a busy morning. Hope everyone is enjoying the first few days of the year. Whoop woop..*

Hey girl, it's been a while.' Alexia walked into Tanaka's house with ease. Gin looked at her furiously and then stared at her feet.

'Take your shoes off, Japanese house.' She did I told her. She handed me the large bag she held in her hands and proceeded further into the house.

'Will she...?' Gin began

'Yes she'll be joining us Gin. Don't worry about a room she'll be with me.' I interrupted.

Gin disappeared. I turned to Alexia, she wore green cargo pants and her hair was down in its usual curls. Her skin a darker shade from its usual light tan; she had working in the fields.

'So who's this Brad guy?'

I flinched at the question: I did not want to answer it. It would bring out more questions. Being who I was I knew how to keep questions away but Alexia, she was one of us, she knew how to recognise a lie... and a secret.

Alexia trained me when I was first taken under the wings of Anthony. I would call her sister Lex when I was younger, and she hated it. One day she threatened to cut my tongue out if I said it again, so I stopped. Alexia was there on my first mission, where I met Shaun. She had ordered me not to make friends. 'no friends, no witnesses.' she used to always repeat and so I never told her about Shaun. To this day she didn't know- well maybe she did. I wanted to be like Alexia all my life. I began dressing like her and adapted her sassy attitude. I kept my hair the same length as hers and tired it up the same way she did, pulling the hair band from my left hand with my right hand and folding over twice. She was the first ever person I admitted to loving: my big sister Lex.

Alexia looked at me with stern, concentrating eyes. I knew she was trying to get to me and so I turned my face away and motioned that she follow me. Seeing Alexia again, made me feel confident. The fact that she was here meant that rest assured things would most probably work out. Provided, of course, Jacobs wasn't already acting, which he most definitely was. That much was promised.
We entered the room where Tanaka had been seated. He looked at her for a moment before turning to me; 'More insurance I presume?'

'Shut up,' I hissed.

He did as I said. He was seated on the floor of his own office and I stood next to him leaning on the desk. Alexia was still standing at the door arms folded posture the same was as mine. Eyes squinted and one knee bent. I looked at her and remembered the last time she helped me with a mission. She got into so much trouble with Jacobs since she had left he own station to assist me with mine.

"Amanda, how did you get yourself in this mess?" Alexia shouted.
We were in central Town of the Golden city, sitting in front of the Mall of Africa. She had on a black jean shorts and a green tank top and I was spotting a black blouse in tights and flats. This mission was getting out of my control fast but I still thought I could do this.

"Where are they?" Alexia said, still shouting. I stared at her, squinting my eyes and whispered a shout back at her.

"Would you stop shouting at me? Like I said, it not a mess, I'm just being careful. You said you'd help me! You've been screaming at me for so long I'm sure my people have left the country by now."

She grimaced and looked to her side. She was wondering how I had made such a stupid mistake with this one. It was an easy one, or so she thought.

His name was Maneu and in the last two weeks of me planning to end him; he had taken a liking to me. I never meant to meet him, he was supposed to be one of those quick ones- in and out, no questions asked, no pictures taken, just gone. Anthony Works partnered with loads of other industries and Maneus's drug line just happened to be one of them. Maneu's mistake was crossing Jacobs by attempting to steal his clients. Maneu had sat in a meeting with Jacobs and insulted his business methods. He had also laughed and said that Jacobs would never reach the level of clientele he had and that if he ever did, Maneu would kill him and his business too. Of course Jacobs had laughed it off. Instantly sending me in to buy a bus ticket to Johannesburg and leaving to close in on Maneu, immediately.

I was there, in his neighbourhood at his house, just jogging through; 'trying to keep healthy and all'. I knew that he went out on his runs every morning and passed by the local dam on his way because I had been watching hi, the past couple days. That's where I'd do it. It was so early it was still dark so there were hardly any people around. It was perfect. That is until he saw me. He smiled, jogging over to my side of the street and introducing himself, saying he had never seen me before.
"Visiting my sister, she's getting married on Sunday." I said sighing and shaking my head in emphasise my frustration. He laughed and we continued in conversation about family life and what we do to distress.

When we got closer to the dam he slowed his pace. He stopped jogging and looked toward me, "Tired?" I asked he breathed out, we had jogged non-stop for a full 3km and I knew he wasn't used to it: "It must the altitude, where I come from it much harder to run than it is here."

He chuckled and looked over my shoulder, then began walking toward me. We started to head towards the dam and I motioned that we stop here. We sat on the bench that was there and he glanced over at me. "So, who's your date?" he asked.

I laughed, loudly. "I don't have one. I'm not even a bridesmaid." I replied not looking at him-directly.

"Oh? I assumed you were the matron of honour." I shook my head and sighed. He nodded. "So no date then?"
I didn't reply.

"Weddings are nice..." he trailed off and I took his hand and led him to the dam. I stared up at him since he was much taller that I was and he smirked at me and continued to speak: "You are nice..." he finished leaning in. his eyes were a light brown that glistered lightly in the dim morning light. His breathe was warm on my face as he spoke. I closed my eyes just as I punched him forward and pushed him in the water. He laughed and I ran in after him pulling him deeper into the water. My knife was carefully etched into my bra and I pulled it out and plunged it in his chest and pushed him lower into the water.

There was a beeping I looked for the source of the sound. It was coming from his wrist: a watched that was signalling that his pulse was decreasing and calling someone whose name was not written in English. Oh crap, I thought to myself as I began running whilst calling Amanda at the same time.
.........

She glanced back and forth from Tanaka back to me. I looked at her subtly annoyed face and rolled my eyes as I stepped in further into Tanaka's office.

"Are you going to explain?" She exclaimed. I sighed and turned towards them both.
I began:

'I have a family...'