The One That Got Away (The Bounty Hunter Trilogy)

Chapter thirteen

Magnus was just in the process of reviewing everything that happened to Hodge, Clary, Jace and Simon, when Alec and Isabelle came in. Magnus tried not to stare at Alec too much, but as soon as he walked in, he could see the mental image of Alexander kissing him come up in his mind. He averted his gaze to Isabelle instead, who looked very smug for some reason.

"So? What happened?" she asked without preamble and Magnus sighed, his hands on the table. He felt very tired, it was 3 in the morning, after all, but then again all of them, including himself and even Simon and Clary were used to going at their jobs at night. It was what came with the profession, so to speak. Alec leaned on the doorframe, while Isabelle clicked over in her heels, hopping onto the desk and sent a beaming smile at Simon, who instantly blushed. Magnus decided to ignore it and answered her instead. "Like I just finished telling Hodge, Valentine promised to contact me, after he verifies I'm good for the information I gave to him. He wasn't exactly... friendly and eager to let me back in, but it would seem his grudge against you, especially Hodge" Magnus sent the man an amused glance "outweighs his mistrust against me. Besides, he has reasons to believe my word." he concluded. Isabelle quirked an eyebrow. "Really? And what are those reasons?" she asked and Magnus saw Jace tense a bit, eyes on him. He rolled his eyes. "Reasons." he said in a cryptic manner and heard Alec scoff. 

He snapped his head towards him, but Clary spoke up. "I think that we can trust Magnus to do what he needs to do. From what I've understood, you want Catarina and...Ragnor, was it? You want them safe, why would Magnus jeopardize their lives? If this is going to work, we have to trust each other." she said, sending Magnus a small smile, which the conman returned. The redhead was sweet and petite, but Magnus knew she would fiercly protect her family, should Magnus break the said trust. "Clary's right." Alec said then, sending a glare towards Jace, who held up his hands. "Alright. Just know, that we will be watching your every move." the blonde said without taking his eyes off Magnus and he returned the stare. "That would probably be the best." he replied, smirking and Jace rolled his eyes.

"Who was the woman? I know that the other one there was Raphael, but who else was with Valentine?" Isabelle asked, clearly they had seen Valentine's companions while keeping an eye on Magnus. The conman touched his neck instinctively, but lowered his hand as soon as he saw Alec narrow his eyes at him. "Don't know. Never seen her before in my life, but she spoke Russian. With a faint American accent, so she must've been in the country for a long time, but she was still fluent." Magnus quickly said, to deflect the attention from his movement. Isabelle seemed fazed. "You speak Russian?" she asked and Magnus gave her a cocky smile. "Darling, I speak 7 languages, besides English." he said to her and Simon's and Clary's mouths both hung open. Jace only scoffed. "So what, I speak 5." he said and Magnus chose to ignore it, especially after Isabelle said "two weeks in France doesn't make you fluent, Jace". He stood up and went towards the wall, to lean on it and felt their gazes on him, making him uncomfortable. He still couldn't get over the fact that these people had been wanting to capture him not too long ago. And now he was working not against them, but with them.

"She has got to be a paid mercenary of some sort." Magnus stated and Hodge furrowed his brow. "And why's that?" Alec asked, with something in his voice that Magnus couldn't decipher. It was almost like he was...annoyed? "She moved fast, even for me, and her movements were precise when she advanced on me, she knew exactly what she was doing. Her demeanor, accompanied by the bruises on her neck make me think that she must've been abused - could be a 'side effect' of her training. I know of a few underground training facilities in Russia that have a tendency to make their mercenaries to be the absolute best... by any means necessary." Magnus ended his conclusion and saw that Clary and Isabelle seemed worried. "We should at least try and find her profile. Did you get a good look at her? Enough so Simon could make a visual picture?" Jace asked and Magnus nodded. Simon stood to attention, almost always ready to do what needed to be done. Magnus almost laughed at his eagerness, he could bet that the reason behind this was that Simon wanted to impress Isabelle, every chance he got.