Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Thirteen's POV

I have to walk over Jason to get into the house.

Devin's standing over him with a smug look on his face while Jason lets out a groan from his unexpected impact with the floor.

"Glad it's not me this time," Zack mutters under his breath as he passes me and walks off into the house.

Jason lets out a string of curses as he pulls himself to his feet and then glares at Devin. "Really?"

Devin gives him a devilish smile. Jason lets out more curses.

"And to think, I actually missed you," Jason says as he glares at Devin.

Devin gets a look on his face I don't understand before he smiles devilishly once again. "That's how you know you hit your head," He states.

Next thing you know, Jason's charging after Devin who's running through the house cackling . . . until he starts screaming as Jason starts catching up.

"I did not miss this," Chase says as he shakes his head in resignation and walks off towards the kitchen. Lily runs in the direction of Devin's screams, phone in hand ready to record the whole thing.

I check my phone again, waiting to see if Zero's returned any of my calls or messages. Nothing. Not surprising.

Really though, he should know that if he doesn't answer my calls I'll just show up at the agency. So, for his sake, he better return my calls.

I hear a crash from upstairs and I wince. I hope they're not breaking anything. Though I know that's a little much to hope for. I can still hear Devin's screaming – which probably means Jason hasn't caught up with him yet – and for the moment the house just seems too loud, too big. So, I slip my phone back into my pocket and walk back out the front door and into the night air. I take a seat on the steps leading up to the front door.

I'm not sitting out here too long before the front door opens behind me and someone steps out. I don't bother turning around to check who it is. His footsteps are silent, and I know if he didn't want me to know he was behind me, I'd never know. He'd never make a sound. He doesn't make a move to come any closer and just stands in front of the door behind me.

I still don't turn to look at him. "You going to take a seat?" I question, and for a moment I believe he's got his hearing aids switched off when he doesn't move or make any reply back to me.

Finally, I hear his soft footsteps and see his figure as he takes a seat on the steps next to me.

"I didn't think Jason remembered I'd trained with him," Sam says softly.

I turn to look at him. "He hadn't seen you until now. He recognized you," I reply.

"Yeah," His tone is off. Kind of like he's thinking of something else. "Did you like your brother?" He finally asks.

I look at him curiously. "Yes. We were very close." I frown. "Unlike me and Lydia. Why do you ask?"

He shrugs. "I never thought to ask before. I never cared then."

"And you care now?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I was thinking about that time you gave me a concussion in the hospital wing of the agency."

I smile. "And that didn't answer your question to begin with? The only reason you got that concussion was because of what you were saying about my brother."

He laughs lightly. "Yeah well, I didn't like JD. And after that concussion, I didn't like you."

I laugh. "Well, I didn't really like you all that much either," I tell him.

"And now?" He questions.

I don't look at him. "I might be coming around," I reply with a smile.

He says nothing and neither do I. The silence between us isn't awkward or uncomfortable, it's nice. I look over at him and notice he's deep in thought, about what, I don't know.

I'm the one to break the silence. "What are you going to do?"

He turns his head to look at me. "What?" He asks.

"You're free to get out of this mess," I say. "And I know you wanted to quit the agency. So, what are you going to do?"

He looks up at the stars. "Quitting sounds nice, but I don't know if I could handle being anything other than an agent. But I know I can't stay with the agency. Not after all the shit Zero's pulled. I won't be anyone's pawn anymore."

I nod. "I figured as much. And you could handle anything, these last few years are proof of that," I tell him.

He looks at me and smiles slightly, his eyes softening. I look away.

"So, what are going to do? Where are you going to go?" I pause and a frown makes its way on to my face. "Do you have anywhere to go? I never asked before."

He nods slowly. "I have somewhere to go. I have a family I could return to if I choose to." There's something in his tone that I can't identify.

"Why am I sensing there's more to this story?" I ask him. "Do they think you're dead?"

He shakes his head and then shrugs. "No. Maybe. I don't know." He shakes his head again.

I've never asked him about his family before. I knew absolutely nothing about them. The conversation had never come up and I had never pushed to know. I had never even thought to ask.

He lets out a long sigh. "My sister should know I'm alive. I think." He goes back to looking up at the stars. "I have Zero send all my pay-checks to her. She needs the help, or maybe she doesn't. I haven't checked in with her in a while."

I raise my eyebrows at this but I don't push it. I didn't even know he had a sister. Sure we'd talk to each other, but it was always mission related. Never personal. Not that Sam was ever into sharing anything personal about himself. Everything I'd learned about him I learned through experience.

"You have a sister?" I question and for a moment I believe he's not going to answer. He doesn't say anything for a while and doesn't even acknowledge that he heard me.

"Yeah," He finally says softly. "She's ten years older than me." I must look surprised because he smiles again when he sees my face. "My parents always wanted to have a big family, but my mom ended up getting cancer shortly after my sister was born. For a long time she was in and out of the hospital, and just when they thought it was gone for good, it would come back. Finally she was declared cancer free and my parents still wanted to continue to grow the family, but they only ended up with me and my sister in the end."

I nod. "You said your sister needed help?" I question.

He nods. "She got married when she was twenty. Her husband was in the military. They had my niece and nephew a couple years later." He smiles slightly. "Twins. And they were a handful. I was only fourteen at the time but I helped out by babysitting them when she needed me do. Since her husband was in the military he was always gone and sometimes overseas." The muscles in his jaw clenched. "He was a good man."

"Was?"

"He was killed overseas before the twins were even a year old."

I didn't have a response to that so I said nothing. There was nothing I could say.

He shakes his head. "I liked him. He was like an older brother to me. And he treated my sister like she was a queen." He smiles. "He adored her." His expression turns grim. "And it broke her heart when he didn't come home. I helped out all I could, even skipped a few missions to stay and help her as I got older. Now I just send her my checks." He shakes his head and anger flashes in his eyes. "That's all she'll accept from me."

I'm stunned by the barely restrained anger in his words. "Why?" I ask.

He sucks in a shaky breath. "She doesn't need someone unstable babysitting her kids." He shrugs. "She doesn't say it, but the words are there. Hovering in the air between us. It wasn't just her though. After my team . . . after the bomb, I went back home to recover, my mistake. I was only seventeen, and I didn't stay long. I got tired of being treated as if I was going to explode at any given moment. Got tired of everyone staring at me like I was going to shatter into a million pieces. They treated me like I was less than a human being like I was invalid."

He stops talking and just stares out into the darkness, his whole body stiff and tense. His eyes glittering in anger. I reach my hand out and put it gently on his shoulder. He tenses even more for a moment before relaxing under my touch.

"You never talk about any of this," I say quietly.

He shrugs. "You never asked, so I never told. Besides, it's not exactly something happy to share."

He shakes his head again. "No, that's not true. My family was always good to me. They just didn't know how to handle me then. They were trying to help me, I know they were, but everything they did was only hurting me more. I didn't want their pity or their comfort, all I wanted was for everything to go back to the way it was before. I didn't want all conversation to lower or stop when I walked in a room. I didn't want my niece and nephew to feel like they had to tip-toe around me. I didn't want to be treated as if I were any different."

He clears his throat. "So, I packed up my bag, walked out and made the stupid decision to ask Zero for a mission that would keep me away for a while. Long enough to recover." He grimaces. "And he handed me over to a monster."

His next words are so quiet I almost miss them.

"A monster I still have to go back to."

"What? No," I tell him, shaking my head. "No, you don't."

"Yes, I do," Sam says and his tone of voice leaves no room for argument. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try. "I left something there that cannot be found. If it is it'll cause a lot of problems."

"You're not going back."

"And you're not listening. You can't stop me Daggers. I'm going." He holds up his hand to keep me from protesting further. "I need to go get it. That's it. In and out. I'll be back before you know it. I'm not going to stick around longer than I have to."

"What is so important that you have to go back for?" I ask him. He just looks at me. I suck in a sharp breath. "You left it there?"

He gives me a look and pushes to his feet. "Don't say it like that," He says. "They were getting too close to finding it. So, I had to move it. I just didn't have another hiding place ready."

"You should have given it to me. I would have taken care of it."

"When did I have time to give it to you. I could barely sneak myself out of those bases. How was I supposed to sneak that out as well? What if I was caught."

"That dagger is not that big. You could have gotten it out. If Garrett finds out it's there, then they have two."

"That's why I'm going and getting it out."

"If you don't get yourself killed," I hiss as I get to my feet.

"I won't," Sam says. "I'll be fine."

"Famous last words," I state. Sam shoots me a glare.

"Thank you for that vote of confidence."

"I could go with him."

I whirl to face Lily, who's standing in the doorway. I hadn't even heard her open the door. Her eyes have lost the devilish mischief if only for the moment and her expression is deadly serious.

"No," Sam and I say in unison.

Lily scowls at us and closes the door behind her as she moves to stand next to us. "You're not thinking this through."

"Yes, I am. You're not going," I tell her.

Lily holds up her hand. "As far as anyone knows, Sam is still on Garrett's side. It'll be nothing for him to walk in, get what he needs and walk out. I don't have to go in with him, but I can wait outside and make sure everything goes smoothly. If it doesn't I can call you and we can figure out what we're going to do from there."

I look at her. "Just how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to find out that those daggers are still causing problems. I told you years ago you should have destroyed them."

I shake my head. "I couldn't do that."

"I know, but you should have. Bad enough what I gathered from your conversation that Garrett already has one. He doesn't need to have a second one." She turns her attention to Sam. "Which one did you leave there?"

"The gold one," Sam replies.

Lily nods. "And Garrett has which one?"

"The black one."

"And I know where the silver one is," Lily says as she looks at me. "So that leaves two uncounted for. Where are they?"

"Safe," I tell her. "And they're going to stay that way. I'm the only one who knows the location of the copper one, and I have someone else watching the red one."

Lily nods thoughtfully. "Well you and I both know Sam has to go get the gold one," She pauses. "Does Garrett know what those daggers unlock? I never knew whether or not you told him all those years ago."

"I told him. I shouldn't have, but I trusted him," I whisper.

"And who else knows?"

"Lydia suspects but doesn't know for sure. Sam knows, Garrett knows, you and me and . . ." I trail off.

"And who?"

I shake my head. Oh, what the hell. "Hayden."

"Hayden? Cody's older brother?" Lily crinkles her nose. "Why him?"

"It's complicated," Sam speaks up.

"And I promised not to get Cody involved in any of this. That's why I never mentioned anything to Delta 2," I tell her.

"That's not the only reason," She says, looking me in the eye. "You still don't want to tell the truth about what happened all those years ago."

I shake my head. "That's the one thing they never have to know."

Lily nods and turns to Sam. "How soon do you want to head out?"

"Immediately," Sam replies.

"What? No," I interrupt. "Lily's not going."

Sam shakes his head. "She's right and you know it. If something goes wrong someone has to be able to get word out. And you're more recognizable than she is."

I look at Lily's bright orange hair and shining spiked heels.

Sam grimaces. "That was the wrong way of trying to explain it. But you get what I mean."

"We'll be back before you know it," Lily says and then the devilish mischief lights up her eyes once again. "Besides, I still have break in Jason."