Secret [British Villains]

❥ chapter II

You shook your head to pull yourself out of this train of thought and took a few deep breaths to calm down your fast beating heart. You had already been standing motionlessly in the hallway for too long and could consider yourself lucky that no one had come here and seen you staring into the distance with a blank, yet flushed face without moving an inch. Oh goodness, how embarrassing would that have been?

You quickly returned to your table outside the café and were just about to sit down on the chair next to the one your favourite messenger bag was lying on, when you caught a glimpse of dark blue in the corner of your eye. Pausing mid-motion, you looked over to see the man from earlier disappear in a side alleyway two apartment buildings away.

You also saw that a piece of paper slipped from the young man's briefcase, sailing through the air and onto the dirty pavement. He didn't seem to have noticed though, thus you straightened up and hurriedly walked over to the opening of the alley, picking up the sheet. "Excuse me, mister, it seems like you've dropped something!" you called after the man who already was halfway across the alley and now turned around upon hearing your voice, the polite smile back on his lips. Had it ever left his face in the first place? You weren't really sure, but this was of no importance right now.

Waving the sheet of paper in your hand to draw the man's attention to it, you jogged over to him. However, as you were approaching him, steps echoed through the mostly empty alleyway and got closer to you. Merely two seconds later, two men stepped in front of you, effectively barring your way.

"Excuse me, miss," one of them spoke up with a gravelly voice, forcing a strained smile onto his lips, but it didn't reach his hard eyes. He was at least two heads taller than you and half a head taller than his colleague. You had to tilt your head back to look at him properly. "Would you please give us this sheet of paper?"

You eyed them attentively. They were dressed in a similar fashion like the young man you had met in the café, both clad in a tailor-made, black suit. But something about them made you feel rather uncomfortable, caused a bad feeling to arise in your guts.

"Um, well, I'm afraid I can't," you replied and cautiously took a small step backwards, gripping the piece of paper and unintentionally crumpling it. "I don't think that it belongs to you, misters."

"This is a matter of utmost importance, miss," the other man insisted. He reached for the sheet of paper in your hands, but you pressed it to your side. He frowned. "You do not understand. We really need this paper, and we cannot take a no as an answer."

You quirked an eyebrow at him. What was going on here? What was written on this piece of paper in your hands that these two men were hell-bent on getting hold of it? Swallowing hard and audibly, you tightened your grip on the damned sheet of paper that had brought you into this mess, clenched fists pressed to your sides. What had you gotten yourself into?

Your eyes flickered towards where you had last seen the young man with the briefcase, but the two men in front of you were not only blocking your path, but also your field of view. Had he seized the opportunity of you involuntarily distracting these men and taken flight?

The men exchanged eloquent looks. The one on the left was visibly annoyed by your refusal and looked like he would love to just rip the paper from your hands without having to convince you to give it to him, whereas the one on the right kept his cool and didn't seem to like his companion's willingness to use force, narrowing his eyes at him. In the end, they both looked back at you, and their gazes were even more intense than before and gave you the chills.

"Look, miss, this man you have seen is a wanted criminal," the calm man spoke up, pushing his glasses higher up his nose. "He has stolen the briefcase and its contents, and we are instructed to recover it. The sheet of paper you are holding is part of the briefcase's content."

Your one eyebrow joined the other, both now raised in utter confusion. This was just like in one of these films you loved to watch, but you weren't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. I mean, well, it was unusual for things similar to films to happen, whether from the action films about secret agents you loved to watch or from any other film. To be exact, things like this never happened because they were from films, and films were merely fiction most of the time. And especially the things that happened in your life were anything but from films.

"If that man really is a wanted criminal, well, uh, shouldn't you rather set about arresting him than talking to me, if I may say so?" you retorted, unable to bite back this remark, your voice as polite as could be. You would regret this a moment later.

The associate of the calm man clenched his teeth, lips pressed together into a grim line. "Alright then." he growled. His aggressive undertone sent a shiver down your spine. Well done, you had just set him off. "You asked for this, woman."

His hand shot forward, probably to grab your arm, but you swiftly evaded his grasp by turning to the side, his fingers clutching nothing but air. A look of surprise registered on his face as he shot a glance at his partner who looked equally surprised at your sudden display of agility.

Your friends always said that you looked like you wouldn't hurt a fly and were the personified innocence and kindness. Thus, the astonishment on their—your friends'—faces had been priceless when you had showed them your newly acquired skills in self-defence, easily flooring one of them after telling them to grab your wrist. These two men in front of you, the looks on their faces remembered you of the ones your friends had had back then.