STRONGER. |Completed|

15. Base and Introductions

"Este's a friend of mine, we meet up every Tuesday for dinner and a glass of wine.
Este's been losing sleep, her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity"

Athena's PoV

That night I didn't get much sleep. I was nervous, nervous about messing things up, about getting us in danger, about dying if I do. I guess that I never thought about dying much because all the fights I got into, all the threatening people, I was trained to do that. I never went undercover though, I know how important it is to take down the Carter's not only for us but for the Knights too.  So I have to do this.

I saw the time and it was already 4 in the morning. Luca said yesterday that he would send his men to get us at 5:30, so I woke up and went through our things again. We couldn't take much luggage cause it was not a vacation and Luca told us to carry only one bag, and nothing sharp.

We had great backpacks where there were several hidden areas where we could hide things. I had my knives in mine and a pistol. Noah had the laptop and a few other devices for communicating. ]

I heard Noah's door open and saw his getting his backpack out. He didn't say anything yet. He didn't speak much since yesterday, he is just weird in some ways. At times I feel like he is warming up to me and then again I am facing a cold-ass shoulder!

"Open up," He said coming to me and pointing at my bag and I looked at him confused. "I want to check, just in case something is too obvious," he shrugged and I rolled my eyes and open my backpack.

"You do realize that I also run a gang and know how to kill" I say and he nods. "Well then stop pissing me off, I will kill you one day," I state and his mouth curves in the edges.

"It's pretty brave of you to threaten me sugar," he says zipping my backpack close, i noticed he changed the places of few of my blades but let it go.

"Cocky much?" I say as he goes back into his room and comes out with his phone.

"As much as I got to know you, you are a softie and you wouldn't hurt an innocent, but the guilty should look over their shoulders," he said and I got a grin on my face but immediately went to the pissed look. "Well you aren't innocent so I am good" I say smirking.

We were sitting on the couch waiting for Luca's men to come to get us. Noah suddenly looked at me and just stared. I didn't look at him but I could feel his stare.

"Athena, there are chances we won't come alive out of this, hell there are great chances that we won't make it out alive," he said in an honest tone. I just nodded. Way to make me less nervous buddy!

I look at him and he looked rather flustered. I have never seen him like this. He always has this no expression look on his face, I call it the stone face, but right now he seemed somewhat worried. Of course, confidence was radiating off him like usual but he seemed slightly worried.

"So Athena, in case I get caught or something like that, you leave without me. Just somehow leave that place and don't look back. Got it?" he said looking at me with his green-blue eyes.

"No. I can't leave you there. They will kill you, no they will torture you and then kill you," I said sternly. "I case you aren't aware Mr.Knight, we don't leave our people behind. We fight for them." he rolled his eyes at me.

"They cannot get to you, do you understand?" he yelled at me and I flinched, but soon my anger boiled in. "Raising your voice won't prove your point, We will go in there, and if anything goes wrong, we will fight together, and I swear to god shout at me once more and I will slit your throat," I say holding his collar in my fist.

The room was filled with his laugh now, he was laughing! I swear he has the worst mood swings. "You are adorable when you get all furious sugar," he says and I push him back and sit on the couch.  He also sat and no words were shared for a while.

We heard a bang on the door and I open it to find two of Luca's men and women. These weren't the guys from yesterday. The lady looked like she was in her mid 20's. She has the carter's mark on her collar and her hair was black like mine but much longer and tightly braided. She looked like a scorpion.

They came in and checked out bags again. The whole time I acted calm but I was holding my breath. They found nothing suspicious and they turned to look at us.

"So what is your name sweetheart?" One of the two blondes asked me. "Zoey" I stated and he nodded, "and he is your?" He asked looking at Noah.

"Her brother, Tyson" Noah said flatly. The guy just nodded. "Man, Luca does know how to pick the chicks" The other guy said eyeing me up to down. "I will check her" he said and came to me.  I saw Noah's fist clench and I think even the lady saw it.

"Back off perv, No man touches her. Luca's orders" She says and comes up to me and checks my body. One guy checked Noah and we were left the flat after that.

We reached cross road and abruptly stopped. "We get down here" the lady said whose name is Angie. We got down and walked into a lane. The lane was old and dark. It suited the destination.  We reached the end of the lane and there was a door on the wall beside it.

The guys went to the door and clicked on the digital lock. Password I guess. We went inside and it seemed like a elevator. We went to the first floor on the top and Angie told us to follow her.

I looked around while walking. The place had light grey walls and it seemed like there was only one floor on the top and rest underground. We stopped in front of a door and Angie asked us to wait there.

"Come in, and don't utter a word unless asked" she warns and takes us in. The room was more bright and has a couch in the corner near a fireplace.

On the couch was Luca and the men we didn't expect to see this soon. Jim Carter and his son Ace Carter.
What were they doing here?

I looked at Noah who's face had his usual neutral expression. "Boss, these two are the one's I was talking about," Luca says standing and walking around us.

There was something about Ace that caught me off guard at that moment . Jim just drank his Scotch not noticing us. "Zoey and Tyson" Luca says and that caught Jim's attention.  I knew the name would hit a string. Zoey was Ace's mother and Jim's wife, who was killed in a gang war.

"Usually I don't meet the new recruits until they are marked, but you see  I have heard a lot about from that man there. And we had to come to see you" Ace says. I look at him.

He looks around our age, dark brown hair, muscled but not too much, and there was a scar near his jaw. It was blade cut. And Jim looked like the older version of his son.

"Luca, tell them what they have to do and meet me in my office" saying that Jim and his son left the room. Luca sat on the couch and eyed us.

"Here you train. And then we let you out. The last batch of trainees left last week, so there aren't many around now, but it will fill up soon." Luca said and Angie nodded.

"And you have already met Angie here, she will handle you. The training will be of 2 months, but before that we will ask you a few questions and then get you marked" Luca stated.

"And normally no trainee gets one on one speech by me so enjoy while it lasts sweetheart" Luca said and I had to resist myself from rolling my eyes at him.

"There are 7 floors down, the lowest one are the bunkers where you rest, which you won't be able to much but still.  There are rooms there, which are all empty expect a few, so Angie will show you your room, you both will be sharing because we will have other people coming in too" Luca said and Angie nodded again.

"And when things get hard, which they will, don't you dare think about running away. You will be shot without thinking twice" He said a left the room.

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Hey lovelies!
I wanted to make it sound good and give enough details which made this chapter longer than usual.
The above song is "no body no crime" by Taylor Swift. ✨ that song is literally a entire crime story in 3mins.
Vote and comment!

-xoxo,Lumos.