enemies | rc

cinquante-cinq

charlotte's point of view

"charlotte?"

i stopped in my tracks and turned towards the voice. "yeah?"

"i've personally assigned you someone to be with you at all times. even on missions." my uncle crossed his arms over his chest as he walked towards me.

"i'm not even allowed on missions yet." i furrowed my eyebrows and tilted my head to the side. "anyways, why do i need a bodyguard again? christopher is basically my shadow now."

"you have a mission tomorrow."

my hand went to my growing bump. "a mission?"

his eyes flickered towards my hand and his lips slowly curled into a smirk. "don't worry, it's a recon mission. it's not dangerous. i've already given agent hazel the file. make sure to report to her as soon as you can."

i sighed and bowed my head. "alright, though i've always thought recon missions could be the most dangerous ones."

he grabbed my arm before i could walk past him. i winced at the contact and looked up at him. "just because you're pregnant and have barely regained your strength to walk again doesn't mean you can sit on your ass all day."

"oh, i didn't realize going to therapy was sitting on my ass all day. i must have misread the doctor's note." i laughed. "they do have shitty writing, after all."

his grip tightened. "i know christopher doesn't take you to therapy. your parents might be fooled, but i know what you're up to. consider this a warning to stop seeing that boy."

"or what?" i scoffed and pulled my arm out of his grasp. "you'll kill me? make me watch as you kill him? better yet, leave me alone in an office so someone can stab me in the heart?"

his eyes hardened. "are you implying that i let the traitor stab your father in the back?"

i raised an eyebrow. "what are you talking about?"

i paid close attention to his body language. his eyes widened the slightest bit, i couldn't decipher the emotion that flashed in them. his hands clenched and, for a second, i was scared of the man that i grew up to see as a second father.

"that's what the doctors said. he was stabbed in the back, literally and figuratively."

i pressed my lips together to keep myself from smirking. "not at all, they only said that the knife graced his heart and he was lucky to be alive at all. i have a theory though." i cleared my throat to keep speaking, not bothering to wait for his reply. "i think their goal was just to scare him. to prove that they could kill him if they wanted to. barely graced the heart? only our family is trained with that skill. our agents are trained to either keep alive or kill."

i was playing with fire here, but i couldn't exactly ask the others to help me. christopher would just completely shut me down and liz might give me the benefit of the doubt, but i couldn't risk it. my uncle had to be the traitor. he had the skills to pull it off and he coincidentally wasn't with my dad when he was stabbed? not only that, but he just basically outed himself when he said that my dad was stabbed in the back, which only christopher, richard, zabdiel, liz, dad, and i know. not even my mom knows. we agreed to keep it a secret precisely for this, to find the traitor.

"someone in our own family is the traitor?"

"i don't think so." i shrugged. "none of us would do something like that."

he reached for something in his back and my fingers danced over the small blade i always keep on me. i never wore it inside headquarters, but after what happened to dad i've made a habit of wearing skirts and strap it onto my thigh.

"you're not wrong, charlotte. that is a skill only our family gets trained with..." he trailed off.

he moved his arm to reveal a gun, but i was faster than him. i grabbed my blade and pushed him against the wall. the blade was against his throat, if he tried to move even an inch i would slit his throat.

"none of us would do something like that," i repeated. "except someone who is not from our family would."

"but i am family, charlotte. i married your aunt. christopher's mother, does that ring a bell?"

"family-in-law is not the same as real family." i sneered.

"let's make a deal, dear charlotte." he pressed the gun against my belly. "i don't kill you or your beloved, and you let me go. let me tell you where you're doing recon; the camachos."

"you're crazy if you think i'll give you any information about them." i scoffed.

"your life is in my hands, sweetheart."

"go ahead. kill your only niece and her two babies. you already tried to kill my father."

his eyes seemed to soften for a fraction of a second when i mentioned having more than one baby. he glanced down at my abdomen, but when his gaze returned to my eyes they were as angry as earlier.

"i wouldn't dare kill a mother and her children. i'm not that cruel." i felt the pressure of his gun leave my skin. "but i will kill the father of those babies if you don't give me the information i want."

i know better than this. eighteen years of training both mentally and physically taught me a thing or two. i had a thousand ways to turn this on him, i really did, but the thought of richard getting hurt was too much to bear. i closed my eyes and took the blade off his neck to slide it back onto my strap.

"what do you want to know?"