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

[58] Grounded

A beep emitted throughout Jade's office. The amber-eyed girl looked up at the computer screen in front of her before her lips curled in a frown. HUEY had been running facial scans in Italy as both he and Jade had been searching for the people she was friends with only two months ago. She ordered HUEY to move onto the next location while switching tabs, going onto her unread emails.

After Manchester, Jade, Kayrel, Darik, North, and Bradley came back to New York. Secretary Ross was displeased when footage of them got leaked out on social media. The meeting with the Secretary of State wasn't the best. He wanted Bradley DelGordo and Kayrel Jones in prison since their signatures were not on the Accords, and they helped with the damage of a country under the Accords. On top of that, he had gathered intel that there were two more bionic soldiers, similar to Jade.

Kayrel and Bradley decided to fly the two bionic soldiers to Kayrel's condo in Boca Raton. It was off the files of S.H.I.E.L.D, just like Clint Barton's farm. If anyone were ever going to search for the four, they would have difficulty finding them.

The five had to stay very cautious, especially Jade since she used the tracking equipment a lot more than the other five. Kayrel told her to use the old school tech that she had locked up in storage. That was why trying to find Team Cap was taking longer than necessary. Agent Ninety-Nine even ordered Jade not to communicate with anyone about the four who were going on the run.

Kayrel and Bradley had to change their appearances to keep them off the radar, except for Darik and North. No one knew about them. They were complete ghost stories. Kayrel had her and Bradley dye their hair to whole different colours. Kayrel picked out black with neon blue highlights, while Bradley dyed his hair a russet brown.

To stay in communication with Jade, Kayrel sent the Stark girl a burner phone. Darik had called last night, complaining that living together wasn't the smoothest. It was a two-floor condo but didn't exactly have enough bedrooms to go around. There were only two, so the only option was to share and break that privacy barrier. Darik and Bradley shared one room, and that left Kayrel stuck with North. She didn't mind about the quiet bionic soldier, but she preferred to be alone.

That was the least of their problems, though. Bradley had avoided speaking to any of the people he was living with. He holed himself in the room he and Darik shared and barely came out as he mourned over his brother. The only times any of them ever saw him was when he was going downstairs to get food or something to drink. The first few days, he didn't eat that much, but Kayrel started to worry and forced him to eat since he was beginning to lose a lot of weight.

Now, Darik was on the phone with Jade again, but for a different reason. He wanted to take it into his own hands to smooth the hatred tension between Kayrel and Jade. He forced Kayrel to sit down with the burner phone and speak to Jade about everything. Kayrel didn't like that an eighteen-year-old was ordering a thirty-year-old woman what to do, but she finally gave in. She pushed back her dreadful past and placed the burner phone against her ear.

Jade had looked up from her computer when she heard a female's voice on the other line of the burner phone. She recognised that her older half-sister and the bright smile that she had due to reading Happy Hogan's emails on Peter's updated text messages faded away. "May I help you?"

She sighed, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry," said Kayrel through the speakerphone.

Jade furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion from behind her black-rimmed glasses. "For what?"

"For being a bitch towards you when you've always tried to be nice to me," Kayrel confessed. "God, you even tried to help me in Manchester, and I completely lashed out on you. I never acted like the greatest sister, and I'm sorry for that."