The Deadly Nightshade | { BOOK 1 of The Flower series }

[36] Heartbreaker

For the past two hours, Steve talked about the mission report for what had happened in Los Angeles. Of course, it was awkward since Wanda and Jade were in the same room. They both stayed silent, listening to what Steve was saying. They only spoke unless they were spoken to and gave their own feedbacks. After discussing what Wanda had taken from the warehouse and the file contents, Steve wanted Tony to track down Emilio's whereabouts since he had escaped during the gunfight.

Sam had been completely bored out of his mind, so he decided while Tony tried to track Emilio down on the screen behind them in the conference room, he asked if Jade wanted to play a classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot, because hearing Tony talk for an hour about Emilio's whereabouts, would put you into sleep, real quick.

Jade threw out scissors, and Sam revealed paper. She smiled in triumph as she did a very quiet victory cheer. Sam chuckled, playfully rolling his dark brown eyes. So far, Sam had been winning, and this was Jade's second time winning against him. They started a new game, but Jade had caught Wanda staring at her from the other side of the table. That had distracted her, leaving her hand in a closed fist. Sam covered his large hand over Jade's, indicating that he used paper to cover Jade's "rock".

"Boom."

Tony looked back from the hanging screen at Jade and Sam. "Are you two playing Rock, Paper, Scissors while I'm in the middle of this?"

Jade looked around the table and noticed that everyone was paying attention to what Tony was doing on the screen, except for her, Sam, and Wanda. Natasha was, but she had an annoyed look on her face. Steve was too because, well, he was Steve. Vsion was respectful by watching and listening. A couple of agents were also in the room because Steve wanted to pass the second part of the mission to them.

Wanda kept staring over in Jade's direction, wanting to speak to her but not to interrupt the mission reports. Jade flickered her eyes over at Wanda, and the Sokovian let out a small smile. Jade nodded with a tight smile as she looked over at the big screen that showed a digital map of the United States.

"I've heard everything that you and Captain Rogers have been saying," Jade assured. "Multitasking isn't that difficult."

Tony nodded, glancing back at the screen. "We clearly know that in this file are different locations of waterfronts," he informed, holding up the vanilla folder in his hand. "From what I understand is that they're pouring drugs into the water to affect the city."

"And Emilio is the only one who got away," Natasha reminded the team. "So if he knows where each of the location points are, he could easily do it himself."

"So, you guys let him get away?" Marcus questioned with furrowed eyebrows as he sat in the chair separated from the long table.

"There happened to be some complications in the way," Steve replied, glancing over at Jade for a split second. "He escaped through the large fight."

Bradley leaned forward in his seat that was on the other side of Jade. "Where's one of the location points? We can set up agents in the different areas; keep an eye out."

Tony pressed a button a remote as crop circles had targeted waterfronts of New York. Bradley quickly wrote them down as well as assigning agents in those areas. "Great, um," he looked over at Jade, nudging her side. "Mr. Stark, do you mind if we borrow Jade? We could really use her help with restraining Emilio."

Tony gazed over at Jade, noticing her tensed body. He shook his head, getting an idea. "I would let you, but I need her for rehearsals, isn't that right, Jade?"

Jade furrowed her eyebrows slightly until she saw Tony discreetly winking at her with his right eye. She nodded convincingly. "Yeah, yeah, for the—"