Alliance || 1 || ✔️ mature

02 | Eleven

Rule number two; Do you ever just look at a guys hands and think yes.

I breathe in slowly, the noise around me slowing to a dull whisper before breathing out and releasing the blade from my fingers. I watch the weapon whistle through the air before plunging into the target. I glance down, fingers skimming over the array of blades set out before me, grabbing a stiletto blade, and feeling the cool indifference of it in my grip.

I repeat the process, letting it spin from my fingers. It makes a quick hissing noise as it slides past my other blade and sinks beside it.

Drowning silence follows before I look at the other blades and ignore them, hands reaching for the twin daggers at my hips as I slide them from their harnesses. Feeling their comforting weight in my grip and the inscription on their handles.

I snap to attention as awareness prickles along my skin. I place the daggers down, turning to the intruder as they step up beside me.

Gary watches the opposite wall with deadly precision, his eyes narrowed.

"You've improved."

I scoff. "It hasn't changed." I say as I turn with him and look at the range of blades protruding from the dummy, all piercing vital arteries.

"Neither has your attitude." He chuckles. "I thought you weren't coming back?"

"Change of plans." I turn to the only father figure I have and smile at him.

"You found him then?" He asks softly.

I let the question linger in the air for a moment before answering, my eyes finding his.

I shrug, "I found him."

Gary lifts a brow but doesn't ask anything else, just nods slowly, contemplating that information before he looks back at the dummy.

"She'd be proud."

I sigh, my shoulders dropping and ignore the sentence, "How'd you know I was here?"

"You didn't turn off the alarm correctly." He narrows his eyes and points to the alarm system and the bits of it on the ground.

"I'll pay for it."

"You paid for that one."

I grimace, ignoring his probing stare.

"Does he know you're here, yet?"

"Maybe." I say quietly, shrugging.

His green eyes narrow, "Is that blood?" He questions as he points to my hair before his eyes sweep the rest of me. "And your hands? What the fuck have you been doing?"

"I just got back into town."

Gary narrows his eyes.

I breathe out, shoulders dropping only a fraction, "Letting people know I'm here."

"He'll send people after you."

I smile tightly, "I'm counting on it."

He chuckles, brushing his fingertips over his beard in thought. "Just be careful. Don't lose sight of why you're back."

Reaching behind me, he grabs the twin daggers, his eyes alight as he reads the inscription on the handle.

Lefty and Righty.

"She always thought that was funny."

I take the daggers from him, slipping them back into their harnesses and nod my head as pain spears through me, "Yeah, she did."