Chapter 22

“How the hell do you manage to afford a place like this?” Jace asks wide eyed as he stared at house just before stepping inside. I shrug “Murdering people pays pretty well.” His eyes snap to me, gazing at me not only in shock at my words, but there was a flash of something that looked like sympathy? I don’t bother over analysing the look. I was too tired to be honest; we had just dumped the bodies of the two a-holes, cleaned out the back of the car and driven 45 minutes to get back to the house. I needed sleep. If only I could sleep. Chris walks into the hallway just as I’m taking my jacket off and hanging it on the rack. He has a smile on his face that is extremely forced, and he looks a little nervous. I look at him questioningly. “What have you done?” I accuse. “Um...Well you know what Connors like...” he drifts off, and I close my eyes inhaling deeply as I immediately know what he is getting at. “Who’s Connor?” Jace asks, looking between me and Chris in confusion about what we were talking about. “That would be me civilian!” Connor walks in holding his hands in the air and smiling cheerfully. He walks straight up to Jace, holding his hand out and greeting him in that man way which involves their hands slapping together and doing this weird shoulder hug thing. Men and their weird habits. “You must be Jace?” Jace nods “Yeah, cheers for letting me crash with you by the way. I sort of don’t want to be killed by drug dealers.” Connor laughs, and then turns to me while pointing at Jace “I like him already.” He puts his arm over Jace’s shoulder while leading him into the living room. “And don’t worry about crashing, any friends of Faith’s is a friend of ours.” “He’s not my friend.” I mutter, apparently not low enough because Jace and Connor both turn to look at me. Connor looks amused and confused as he stares between me and Jace. “Ohhh I get it, you two bumped uglys and now you want to kill each other?” Connor guesses, and I shoot him daggers “No offence mate, but if it came to a fight between the two of you, she would beat you like a bitch.” Connor laughs as he slaps Jace’s back. I smile arrogantly at Jace, who rolls his eyes and scoffs. They both walk into the house, and I turn to Chris. “Why is he like an excited toddler when he meets new people?” I ask Chris exasperated. He shrugs “He was an only child; he takes all the company he can get.” I scowl as I walk into the living room and see Connor handing Jace a beer while they both laugh like they have known each other for years. I knew Connor could make friends with someone instantly, but this is ridiculous. I turn to Chris ready for him to join in my glares at the new best buddies in the kitchen, but find he is not by my side anymore but walking over to the two while requesting a beer of his own. He cracks the lid off the beer, and shrugs while looking at me as if saying ‘hey, I like the guy.’ “Where’s Drake?” I question as I give up on Chris sharing my views on having Jace invade our house. I walk into the kitchen roughly snatching the beer out of Connors hand and sitting on the table. He glares at me, before grabbing another beer. “Pissing.” Connor simply replies as I take sip of my beer. “Lovely.” I comment dryly, suddenly not wanting the beer in my hand anymore. Chris looks at me with a sly smirk on his face, before lifting his eyebrows suggestively. I ignore his look, knowing very well what he is getting at. Drake walks into the kitchen at this point, buttoning his jeans back up. He looks up into the kitchen, then quickly gives Jace the once over as if sizing him up. I think Jace felt a little uncomfortable, whereas the rest of us were used to this. Since Drake has been an agent for 6 years of his life, he did not trust people easily. Who could blame him. “Jace, this is Drake.” Connor introduces them. He looks at Drake, shooting him a back off look “He’s not going to pull a gun out on us, he is an old friend of Faith’s remember?” Drake relaxes a little as he remembers that I know Jace. I scowl as Connor once again refers to Jace as my friend, causing Jace to smirk at my reaction. Drake walks up Jace, and after a few agonising seconds of tense silence a smile spreads on his face. “Pleased to meet you man.” Drake greets, doing the same man handshake/hug thing. “You too.” Jace replies, but I can see he is still a little on edge by Drake’s presence. Drake was not the easiest person to get along with, unless you’ve known him for a while. “So, are all of you like assassins?” Jace questions suddenly. He doesn’t beat around the bush does he? “No, only me and Chris are. Connor is beautician while Drake here is an astronaut.” I reply sarcastically, and everyone but Jace laughs. “Ignore her. She’s a bitch 95% of the time.” Chris chuckles and I flip him off. “I’ve noticed.” Jace replies, smirking slightly in my direction. The guys all laugh again, including Drake much to my surprise. “But yeah we all are. Drake’s my partner.” Connor points at Drake, who confirms this by raising his beer bottle slightly. “Anyway, how are you taking this? You know the whole people at your work being drug dealers and no longer breathing?” Jace shrugs “It’s a fucking shock I can say that much. But no point in being like a panicked teenage girl about it, just get on with it really.” I cock my head as I hear Jace talk, quite amazed again by how calm he is about this. I can hear the boys mutter in agreement at his response. “Plus seeing her again alive and well after all these years eases you into the situation a little.” Jace adds, looking at me. I can feel myself melting a little at his words as a smile begins to play on my lips. Connor gives me a suggestive smile, while raising an eyebrow. Connor and Jace go into another conversation when I feel someone nudge me. I turn to see Drake sat next to me on the table now cocking his brow and smirking. “The civilian still has feelings for you.” Drake whispers, his tone amused. I scowl at him. “No he doesn’t, you lot know what happened. He didn’t have feelings for me back then, and he doesn’t now.” I reply low enough that I knew only Drake heard me. Jace, Connor and Chris were still chatting away to pay any attention. “You sure about that?” he questions, before leaning his face in closer and whispering in my ear “Because the daggers lover boy is shooting me right now proves my point.” My eyes immediately avert to Jace, who was staring over at me and Drake with cold eyes. His jaw clenched slightly as he stared at a smirking Drake who was still leaning a little too closely. As he noticed my gaze on him, he turned back to the others and carried on talking, however his posture was still stiff. I turn back to Drake, who was smirking smugly. “That doesn’t prove anything. He probably just doesn’t like you.” I state teasingly.