Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Thirteen's POV

I really didn't know what to think. Sam had walked away, said he was sorry, that it wouldn't happen again, and disappeared somewhere in my house. At least, I thought here was still in my house. For all I knew he'd run off somewhere else. And I'd retreated to my room.

There's a knock on my bedroom door. I open it and Cody and Chase are both standing there. Chase holds a manila file in his hands.

"What's going on?" I question. Chase says nothing and just hands me the file.

I look at it and read it over. And then I read it again. My eyes not quite grasping what I'm reading. I take a seat on the end of my bed.

"Is this for real?" I finally ask. My eyes locked on Cody, his head's down and he's avoiding my gaze, but he nods anyway.

Chase stands there awkwardly. "I think I'll leave you two alone." He finally says. He leaves the room and closes the door.

I shake my head as I read over the file again. "Are you going?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "I don't know." He says, he finally looks up from the floor and looks at me.

"Do you want to?"

He lets out a sigh and runs a hand through his hair. "Hell yeah, I want to."

"Then go." I tell him, handing him the file back. I notice he ducks his head again. "You're already packed to go." I state and he sighs again.

"I don't know that I should."

"What's stopping you?"

"You." He says.

It's my turn to sigh. "Cody," I start. "I'm not going to sway you one way or the other. The choice is yours, not mine. And don't let me influence your choice either. What do you want?"

"I want to go." He says. "Zero needs agents, and it's a great opportunity. I'll be helping to train potential new agents, as well as military troops."

I nod. "Then go." I reply. "From the looks of the file, Zero only asked a few agents and you're right. It would be a great opportunity."

"It's a three-year program."

"Yes, I noticed that too."

"During which I'm not supposed to be in contact with anyone other than Zero."

"Yes, I know. I read the file." I tell him.

"None of this seems to be bothering you."

I groan. "Cody," I tell him. "just because outwardly I'm not showing any emotions, doesn't mean I'm not feeling anything. I don't want you to go. I want you to stay, but it's not fair of me to ask that of you since it's not what you want."

He nods thoughtfully and stares a spot on the wall for a while. "So then where does that leave us?" He asks me.

"I don't know." I shrug. He nods and walks over to me. He reaches out and grabs my hands, pulling me to my feet in front of him. "You know, if you're taking the assignment, you need to leave like now." I tell him.

He sighs. "I know." He looks down at me. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"I guess so."

He lets out a humorless laugh and hugs me. I hug him back. "Take care of yourself." He says quietly.

I nod. "I will."

"Don't go getting killed."

I laugh lightly. "I'll do my best."

"Good." He whispers. Then he seems to think about it. "You'll do your best to try and get killed or to try not to get killed?" It's my turn to laugh. "I'm being serious." He says.

"Contrary to your belief, I don't actually have a death wish Cody."

I pull away from him and he smiles at me, I give him a smile back. "How about you and I make a deal." He says.

I raise my eyebrows at him. "As long as I'm not losing any money on this deal I think that's ok."

He laughs. "When I finally get back, if you're single, you and I got out. On a proper date, and see where that leads us."

"Hmm, I real date, do you think we could handle that? Or do think we'd try and strangle each other out of boredom?"

He laughs again. "I'm being serious." He tells me. "So, what do you think?"

I smile at him. "I think I'll take that deal." I press a light kiss to his lips. "Goodbye Cody." I whisper.

He pulls me into his arms one last time. "Goodbye...Everly." He whispers. And that's the first time I've ever heard him say my name, and it's likely the last. He turns to leave the room.

He pauses in the doorway. "Coffee." He says.

I frown in confusion and look at him. "What?"

"Out of coffee and soda, I prefer coffee. I really don't even care for soda." He says, and then he smiles. "You know, if that's what the conversation was actually about." He winks at me before leaving the room.

My mouth's open in shock and I'm speechless. He knew. He knew what that conversation was actually about. And yet, he told Lily he preferred soda.

I sink back onto the edge of  the bed, a thousand different thoughts swimming through my head. "I'll miss you." I whisper, even though he's no longer here and I know he can't hear me.

Lily pops into my room. "Hey, have you seen the duck-tape?"

I give her a strange look. "Why?"

She waves her hand dismissively. "Minor details." She cocks her head the side slightly as she stares at me. "Where's lover boy going? I noticed him walking out to the car with his bags."

"Zero reassigned him." I reply. Lily just looks confused. I shrugged. "We have Garrett, the mission's over for now. Until Zero can find out more. So, he reassigned Cody."

"So...what does that mean for you two?"

"We called it off."

"YES!"

I glare at her. "Really?"

She only looks slightly sorry. "I mean, that sucks that you guys have broken up, since I know you really did care about him, but hell yes! Team soda lives!"

I roll my eyes and stare at the floor.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Lily says and I turn back to look at her. "You avoided looking at me after I said that. Details!" She shouts. "I need details! What happened? What happened? Tell ME!"

I smile and avoid looking at her again. "Nothing happened." I tell her.

"Bullshit. Look at you, you're trying so hard not to blush! And you actually look kind of guilty! And I was beginning to think you had no feelings!" I give her a flat look. "You have to tell me! I have to know or I will die!"

"What's going on?" Ryder questions from the open doorway.

"Team soda all the way. That's what's going on." Lily fist pumps. "Ha! In your face you stupid brother!"

Ryder eyes narrow and then there's a scream as Lily is tossed over Ryder's shoulder and he begins to carry her off.

"Let me down you sore loser!" Lily shouts. She begins pounding on his back and then lets out a yelp. "Since when are you made of stone?! I told you eating rocks was bad for your diet!"

I laugh and roll my eyes at them, listening to Lily's screaming and Ryder's cursing carry through the hallway.

Suddenly the house shakes and there's a deafening explosion.

"Oh shit." I hear Lily says.

"What the hell was that?!" Ryder shouts.

I'm already up and running down the hallway past them, they both follow closely behind. We make it downstairs and the entire bottom floor of the house is filled with smoke.

I press my sleeve over my mouth and run to where the smoke is thickest. There's a huge hole in the wall, and a tipped over chair, with the ropes all cut and on the floor next to it.

"Devin!" Lily suddenly yells out and runs over to where he's buried in debris on the floor. Ryder moves to help her.

Devin sits up and begins coughing as they clear the debris away from him.

My jaw is clenched and my hands are in fists at my side. "Garrett got away?" I ask him.

He's still coughing so he just nods. "He had some kind of bomb with him. I don't know how we missed it when we searched him." He manages to say between coughing.

"Lily, Ryder, get him out of the room." I tell them as I stare at the hole in the wall in front me.

We had him. We had him. But as always he got away. Crafty bastard.

Josh comes in behind me. "Well that sucks." I glare at him and he holds his hands up in surrender and takes a few steps back.

"Was anyone else other than Devin the room with him?"

Josh shakes his head. "No, me and him and had just switched so I could have a break from watching him."

I nod. "So no one else was hurt then?"

"I don't believe so."

"Good."

"You have a hole in your house." I glare at Zack as he stands next to me, eyes fixated on the hole. "You might want to get that fixed."

I narrow my eyes at him further. "What? I'm just saying. And I'm really not even concerned about your house. Mostly I'm concerned about something getting in the house that should definitely be left outside."

I give him another look. "What?" He questions further. "I don't want to wake up to an alligator in my room, I'm just saying. Since that's clearly not your first priority, I figured as the only sane person here, it needed to be said."

I roll my eyes and walk away from him. I walk into the kitchen where Lily and Ryder are with Devin.

"How's he?" I ask Lily.

"HE'S SLIGHTLY DEAF AFTER BEING SO CLOSE TO THE BOMB!" She screams.

Devin lets out a surprised shout and claps his hands over his ears. "No, I'm NOT!"

Lily shrugs innocently. "Well you could've told me that sooner. I wouldn't have had to yell. My voice is going to get hoarse now."

Devin gives her a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

I smile and roll my eyes. "How are you, Devin?"

"Fine." He replies. "Going to be a little sore and I've got a few scratches, but that's it."

I nod. Chase walks in. "Zack's basically taken over." He tells me. "They're all trying to remove most of the debris and make a barrier out of it to keep Angel out.

Lily scowls. "That's so rude." She says. "Let her in, she misses me."

Chase gives her a look reserved for insane people. "Yeah...no." He tells her flatly. He turns back to me. "What are we going to do about Garrett?" He asks me.

I run a hand through my hair and shrug. "We'll have to track him down. I know a couple places we can begin."

"And I know exactly where you should begin." Ryder speaks up. He holds up his phone, there's a blinking red light on a map on it.

"You put a tracker on him." I state and he smiles widely.

"Hate the guy. And I figured he'd end up getting away. No offense to any of you guys." He says. "Plus it was a great excuse to stick a needle in his arm."

I give him a confused frown. "Nano trackers. They enter the bloodstream and stay in there up to two weeks. Nicky's invention." He explains.

"Speaking of Nicky," Lily starts and Ryder scowls. "You need to go back and help her."

"I'll help her." He mutters. "Right off a cliff, I'll help her."

"Ryder!"