Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Thirteen's POV

I walk out of the living room, closing the wide double doors leading into it behind me. Henri's waiting for me right outside. He takes a key and locks the door before holding his hands out to me.

"Give me anything you need cleaned." He orders.

I pull several of my knives out from my pockets and hand them to him carefully. Those will probably be the easiest to clean since most of the blood that was on them is now all over my pants and shirt instead. Thank goodness for black clothing,

I turn to walk off but Henri stops me by stepping in my path. He continues holding out his hands. "Clothing too Miss Kingston."

I give him a blank look before pulling off my tank top and pants, leaving me in my sports bra and slider shorts. I don't care, Henri's seen me like this before, and sometimes in less depending on how bad my injuries were. He's usually the one to clean my wounds and stitch me up. Unless he claims the wound is too bad. Then he forces me to go to a hospital.

"Wait here." He tells me simply and I just nod mutely.

I feel so angry, and yet at the same time...detached, numb.

I let out a sigh and lean back against the wall. I go to brush a stray hair out of my face but stop myself. Probably not the best idea to wipe at hair with blood coated hands.

Henri's back not even a full minute later with a trash bag, towels, and some wipes. He hands them to me and I begin to wipe off all the blood from my hands and arms. He wipes some blood off my face I hadn't noticed was there.

"You get what you needed?" He asks as he stares at me with sad eyes. I just nod again in response.

I feel like if I open my mouth to start talking, nothing's going to come out. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to be in there alone with him. Because as much as I hate to admit-and I'll never say this out loud-he got in my head with his words. He brought up the past and all the memories I try so hard to suppress.

Though it definitely helped to beat the crap out of him when he kept trying to push my buttons and get some kind of reaction out of me other than a blank stare or an angry glare.

"Forgive me for asking," Henri starts as he eyes me with caution. "But you did leave him alive, right?"

"For now." I confirm and Henri just nods. "Where is everybody?"

"Kitchen." Henri replies before eyeing me carefully. "When do you plan on heading out?"

I answer his question with one of my own. "How soon can you have six tactical uniforms, plus weapons ready?"

Henri smiles at me and nods. "No more than fifteen minutes tops...what kind of weapons exactly?"

"All need grenades, knives, a garrote, and an extra gun. I need extra knives, and both daggers. Lily will be taking her crossbow and rocket launcher no doubt, and the boys each need rifles, and an extra handheld-I don't care which kind."

"Make that a half an hour tops." Henri says in response. "Might I inquire as to where you are actually going?"

"One of Garrett's more secure strongholds. The place is basically its own military base."

Henri just nods before walking off with the bag of bloody wipes and towels. He comes back and tosses me an oversized shirt to wear but I toss it back. He raises an eyebrow at me.

I just shrug. "Going to have to change anyways, besides I'm basically wearing a pair of shorts. Plus a sports bra."

"And they, are teenage boys." Henri states.

I shake my head. "Chase, Zack, Ryder, Sam and Hayden aren't."

"You are right. My bad. They all have the mindset of teenage boys." I give Henri a flat look. "I am merely stating the facts."

"I'll be fine Henri. Besides, I'm pretty sure Lily will just shoot them if she feels they're looking at me wrong."

"You are not going to cover those?" Henri looks pointedly at the scares on my leg, but I don't look down at them. I'm the only one who knows how much time I've wasted staring at them. Wondering what would've happened if I had just done one thing differently.

I finally just shake my head in response after finally bringing myself back into the present. "It's about time I stopped hiding things. Don't you think?"

Henri gives me a sad smile. "If that is the case then you should tell them the truth."

I look at him in confusion. "I've told them the truth about everything."

Henri looks at me pointedly. "Not...everything."

I give him another confused look. "What haven't I told them? Is there something you know that I don't?"

"It is not a matter of what you did not tell them, it is a matter of what you lied about."

"I try my best not to lie, so you'll have to spell it out for me. What do I need to tell the truth about?"

Henri gives me another look before taking a step towards me. He holds up two fingers and lowers his voice when he speaks next. "First, Daggers, Triple, Moth and Soldier."

I feel my eyes widen as I stare at him in shock. He is not supposed to know about that. About any of that. At all.

"How-"

"I was not finished." Henri says, interrupting me. "Second, Delta 1."

I give him a confused look. "What about them?"

"You should tell the truth, don't you think?"

I feel myself pale as Henri simply offers me another sad smile before walking off. Of all things he's not ever supposed to know. That takes the top of the list. And the thing is, I never told anyone about that. The fact that Henri knows is not a bad thing, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

How the hell did he find out about any of that?

I shake my head, trying to get it all out of my mind and make my way towards the kitchen. I can hear everyone talking. But the talking stops the moment I walk in. All eyes turns towards me.

"What exactly did you-"

"You don't want to know." I interrupt Devin.

He nods thoughtfully. "You're right. I really don't."

"So what's the word?" Ryder asks.

"Heading off to one of Garrett's strongholds in the middle of nowhere."

"Right." Kate speaks up. "We'll suit up." She says, gesturing to herself, Olivia, Hayden, and Josh.

I shake my head. "Why not?" Josh questions before narrowing his eyes at me. "You are not, going alone."

"No I'm not." I agree. "But I'm not taking any of you." I point to all the Vendetta agents. "I'm taking them." I say as I point to all the actual agents.

"This is a Vendetta problem." Olivia chimes in. "Not an agency problem."

"But it's an agency mission." I state firmly.

"Lydia, is our boss."

"Don't care." I shrug. "But if you really want to go into rank, I out rank you."

"Hayden out ranks you." She retorts.

"And Hayden agrees with Thirteen." Hayden chimes in as he stares down Olivia.

I give him a look. "Thirteen?" I question as I eye him. He knows my name, so I wasn't expecting him to still refer to me by my number.

Hayden just shrugs. "Use to it."

"What is that?!" Zack shouts suddenly, drawing everyone's attention to him. His face is one of wide eyed horror almost, and his skin has gone an almost ghostly pale.

I turn to look at him. "What is what?" I question calmly.

He raises his hand and points at me. More specifically, at my leg. At my scars. I turn back away from him and go back to talking with Hayden and Olivia.

"I'm going to be taking them with me, and I need you four-Ryder included as well-to keep guard and make sure the spawn of Satan doesn't escape."

"Are you just going to ignore me?!"

I turn back to Zack and plaster an innocent and confused look on my face. "I'm sorry did you say something?"

Zack gapes at me and waves his hands wildly in the air before repeatedly pointing at my leg as if it'll answer all his questions. Cody, Chase, and Devin however, seem to be almost frozen in a mixture of shock and horror. I roll my eyes.

"How are you so calm about this?! What are those?!"

"They're scars Zack. I'm sure you've heard of them. It's what happens when a wound is really bad, so when it finally heals, it leaves scars."

Zack looks like a fish right now. Opening and closing his mouth with wide eyes like he can't form the right words.

"What?! When?! How?! Why?!" He sputters.

"Scars. Four-five years ago. With that glowing dagger. Because Garrett felt like it." I answer and Zack gets really quiet. So does everyone else for that matter.

"My brother did that to you?" Zack asks softly. He's no longer yelling.

I look down at the scars carved into my leg-the numbers carved into my leg. "Yeah." I mutter in response.

"Why?" Zack practically chokes out. He looks like I'm bringing him physical pain just by showing him. He places his hands on top of his head and begins pacing.

"Because he wanted me to reminded of what I did. Of who was dead because of me." I reply I stare at the numbers on my leg. 13, 57, 60, 61, 83, 77, 2. "He wanted to make sure I never forget. I was never likely to."

"He carved his own number onto your leg? Why?"

"He told me that I had killed him as well. That I had somehow betrayed him because I decided to stand against him, rather than with him."

"Who's Two?" Chase asks.

I shake my head and look away. "A pain in the ass stupid guy I don't want to talk about right now."

I look over at Lily who's doing something with her fingers. I look closer only to realize she's trying to make letters out of her fingers. S-A-M. I give her a flat look and she gives me a thumbs up.

"I take it I'm right then." She says and everyone turns to look at her as if she's grown another head. I roll my eyes but smile none the less and nod. She fist pumps the air.

Henri walks in just then. He motions for us to follow. So I walk after him with everyone else trailing behind me. Six duffle bags are spread out on the table in the conference room. Each one has a name tag tied to it...except the one that's been spray painted and covered in rhinestones.

We're spies Lily. Not disco dancers.

"Everything you wanted." Henri says and I open up the bag with my name tag tied to it.

"That was definitely less than a half an hour." I tell Henri appreciatively. "Thanks."

"Oh yeah!" Lily shouts as she slings her rocket launcher up onto her shoulder and makes a show of aiming it.

Everyone else-Henri included-hits the floor as she sweeps the weapon across the room. She scowls at them and mutters a few choice words under her breath.

She takes her crossbow out next and everyone automatically takes a step in the direction away from her. She glares at them before grabbing a fist full of arrows and waving them around menacingly.

"I am not that bad." She grumbles. "You people have no reason to be afraid of me...unless, you did something wrong."

"You make me feel like I did something wrong." Zack mutters.

Lily lets out an evil laugh and her eyes glint with a dangerous mischief. "Then you should be very afraid."