Snitch Gravel looked at the map he had pinned on the wall, a frown on his face, trying to hold on to the feeble hope. But it was useless. With an annoyed sigh, he picked up a black pin and stuck it in a white circle with the inscription Chambord.

His men hadn't returned from Chambord yet, but he was sure they'd found nothing. Everything had been empty so far and he had a nagging feeling the Grants were to blame. After Clermont-Ferrand, they had vanished and their accounts hadn't been accessed since. It was amazing they'd made such a rookie mistake to begin with.

Even if they'd covered their tracks pretty well by leaving no indication of their direction, he was sure they had headed for Loire Valley. His men in Paris would have said otherwise. But he still didn't know where they'd started searching and how meticulous they were being about it.

He turned away from the map and sat back at his desk, looking at the ceiling. Ever since conducting the research, he'd thought the stone had to be in the Louvre, very well hidden, but there. Yet, after three nights of fruitless searching, they'd come out empty handed.

Then he had assumed, just as the Grants obviously had, that the jewel might be found in some of the castles. He had started with Versailles and his men were now searching Loire Valley with Von Crooken in charge.

What had started as a sure thing had once again become a race. And for once, he'd miscalculated his resources and ended up leaving most of his men in Paris. The ones raiding the castles were hardly competent enough to search more than one at a time.

And even the Paris situation was bothersome and inconclusive. There were no news of Sam beyond the fact that the car wiring had been effective. No news of a body or if he was actually still alive and he wasn't sure how to feel about that. Disappointment was the most prominent one, but he wasn't sure if it was directed at Sam's death or Von Crooken's incompetent men.

Then there was Christine. He'd called her out of Paris after they'd finished with Versaille, but honestly, he'd expected Sam to come for her by now. Maybe he really was dead. Which made Christine completely useless.

His thoughts were interrupted by his door bursting open and banging against the wall. Von Crooken stepped inside, but lingered in the doorway. Snitch Gravel trained his gaze on it, daring him to take another step. This powerplay was useless, but he liked to see the fear in Nicholas' eyes. It balanced out the betrayal cooking right beneath the surface.

Finally, Von Crooken lifted his pudgy fist and knocked twice.

"There, was it so hard?" Snitch Gravel turned his back at him and settled behind his desk.

"News boss. The boys from Paris and the boys from Chambord are all here."

He frowned. "Why are the boys from Chambord here? They were supposed to head for Cheverny."

"They ran into the Grant brats. We found them half frozen on the side of the road."

This was new. And slightly worrying. "Call them in. And the boys from Paris as well."

Von Crooken took one step out of the room, whistled and waved his hand. It took a few seconds for six men to join him inside. The gang from Paris was lead by Cannon, his left shoulder bandaged and his arm in a sling, while the other three shook with no leader. Snitch Gravel could already tell the news wasn't good, but at this point, any bit of information was welcomed.

"Who wants to go first?" he asked, already tired with the whole thing.

"I do!" Cannon spat out. "That damn brat is alive. And he wasn't alone either." He drew in a shaky breath then winced. "He came with his twin and with his twin's little girlfriend."

Snitch Gravel raised his eyebrows. Sam being alive, not surprising. Sam bringing Tom along, also predictable. Angie being there, however, made no sense, not with their chivalrous desire to keep the girls out of trouble at all times. "Are you sure the girl was there?"

"Of course I'm sure," Cannon said. "I know my targets well. I came a couple of feet from killing her. She shot me in the damn shoulder."

A sudden darkness crept across Snitch Gravel's vision as he stared down his man. Because he believed Cannon, but also believed something essential was missing. "Bring me the girl."

Von Crooken immediately obeyed, a look of barely disguised glee on his face. He shouted a few orders on the hallway and it took only a minute for Christine to show up accompanied by her guards.

Snitch Gravel stood, circled his desk and leaned against it. "Sit."

The guards forced Christine's butt into the nearest chair. The girl glared at him, her lips pressed in rebellion.

"Why is Angie here?" he asked. Silence greeted his question. He nodded and one of the men sunk his hand into her hair and pulled her head back. "Don't make me make them hurt you."

"I don't know anything," she said between her teeth.

"Oh, really now." He stepped closer, taking in the fear in her eyes, even as she tried to be brave. "I know she's here already. She apparently shot Cannon. I need to know why though. And if you tell me, not only will I not kill you, but I may give you news about Sam."

"You should kill her immediately, boss," Cannon interjected. "The brat broke the rules."

Snitch Gravel raised his hand to silence him, watching as the resolve in Christine's eyes was replaced by doubt, by the need to know the fate of her boyfriend. Then, she took in a deep breath and stood taller, forcing her hair out of the grip.

"You've had Angie all along. You took us together." A sneer spread across her lips, making her look a bit like a wild cat. "Your men just never realized who she was. Didn't bother to check their information folders. So she pretended to be one of my regular, helpless friends. She escaped a week after you grabbed us."

Snitch Gravel froze. His eyes narrowed as he took in this girl watching him defiantly, trying to control the rage building up inside him. Rage directed at her and at the incompetent men filling that room, taking up his space, wasting his time.

"You had her," he whispered, "and you let her escape!" The second part was a yell.

Everyone stepped back, even Christine's triumph sunk into fear, but he didn't care. Not when everything could've been much simpler, over by now.

"You complete imbeciles! Should I draw you charts? What do you need? Powerpoint presentations!"

They stepped back some more, all except for Cannon who looked annoyed.

"Report. Immediately! Cannon, you first. I want to hear this."

Cannon took in another breath and started the story of the current catastrophe. "Like I said, the brat came here with his twin. Guess we now know why he tagged along." He glared at Christine's guards as he said this. "After we rigged the car, we thought he was dead. It took days until he showed his face near the US Embassy. He had a whole bunch of armed men with him."

Armed men? Snitch Gravel frowned. "Old friends of ours?"

"No. Most of them black so I'm guessing French. Didn't recognize anyone except the twins, and even they were hard to peg down since they looked... different."

He raised an eyebrow. With the flight not arranged by the Agency Snitch Gravel thought they'd have difficulty taking equipment along. "Different how?"

"Street. Baggy clothes, dirty. One of them with longer hair and a unshaven. The boys were pretty skeptic." Cannon gave his companions the evil eye. "Same day with the Embassy, they went for the girl." He nodded at Christine with disgust.

She clenched her fists together, a small smile on her lips, as though news of her attempted but failed rescue pleased her. As it should, but he was letting her have none of this.

"Tell me, girl. Does it make you happy? That your boyfriend came looking for you a week too late? When you could have been long dead? What's wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me," she spat out.

"Then there's maybe something wrong with Sam? I see no other reason why he wouldn't come after you. Do his best to save you. Lay down his life for yours."

She bit her lip, tears filling her eyes, obviously without an answer. And he'd obviously struck a chord.

"Aw. Maybe he doesn't love you as much as you thought he did."

"He came here," Christine mumbled. "It's not his fault you almost killed him the moment he set foot in Paris." She raised her head again, the steel in her eyes impressive for a girl like her. "I'm proud that he's not an idiot. Even if it means being in your lovely company a while longer."

Her bold affirmation almost made him laugh, but the situation was too tragic and beyond stupid to allow for it. So he dismissed her with a bored wave of his hand and returned to Cannon. "What then?"

"They disappeared again. We saw them in a mall once, ended up blowing half the place, but missing them. We went back to surveying the grandma's house after this, but they were obviously not there. So I came up with the idea of patrolling the streets instead. We found them two days ago. There was the three of them and another woman with them."

"Another woman?" Snitch Gravel's narrowed his eyes again. If his idiot men had missed another of the girlfriends, someone's head would fall. Most likely Nicholas' for not instructing his damn men. "One of the girlfriends?"

Cannon shook his head, unknowingly saving half of his division. "No. Wasn't Blondie or Red and shot too well to be the stupid one."

"Hey! My sister is anything but stupid!" Christine piped in.

Snitch Gravel waved his hand to silence her, preparing himself from the failure report. "So what happened?"

For the first time, Cannon hesitated. The tips of his ears went red. "I got carried away. The stupid girl tripped, and then the brat... " He shut his eyes and a cruel grin spread over his scarred lips. "I emptied an entire cartridge into his back."

"But he's not dead," Snitch Gravel said, because if Tom were, Cannon would have obviously led with that.

"No blood came out. He was surely wearing one of those damn vests. His blasted twin came out and started shooting at me."

"And the rest of you?" Snitch Gravel turned to Cannon's companions who just shuffled their feet nervously like schoolboys.

"We were on our way, but that other woman came out and shot at us," one of them finally said. "Before we could regroup, they disappeared."

Typical. "Any idea where they went?"

"They're not in Paris anymore." Cannon nodded towards the washed up group from Chambord.

"They're in Chambord with the rest of the bunch. We met up with them while searching the castle," one of the men finally said.

Snitch Gravel raised his eyebrows, but the men didn't get the not so subtle hint to go on. "What happened there?"

More silence.

"We've lost four men," Von Crook finally said.

There was a moment of bewilderment before he came to the conclusion Nicholas might just be an overdramatic idiot. "Lost them how?"

"They're dead. One shot in the head, three by falling off the roof."

"What the hell were they doing on the roof?" It was the only question he could ask while he tried to compute the fact that one of the Grants had shot someone in the head. He'd counted too much on their goody-two-shoes personalities, apparently.

"Chasing Jimmy and Red," one of the men mumbled. "He shot at them. And I don't mean just randomly, like they usually do, or aiming for kneecaps. He aimed and fired at their heads."

A shudder shook Snitch Gravel's body and he tried his best to hide it, so he crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. It was hard to believe, but the men looked shaken enough for it to be true. They too hadn't expected the Grants to start playing hardball.

"Then what?" he asked.

"Then the other brats started rounding them up," Von Crooken said. "Left them in the middle of nowhere. They're lucky we found them or they would've frozen to death."

"Did any of the others shoot?"

There was a suspicious silence after his question. Finally one of the men mumbled a, "They didn't have to."

Snitch Gravel squinted at him. "Why didn't they have to?"

"The ones who didn't run into Jimmy and Red ran into Kyle and Blondie. He doesn't really need to shoot to get his point across."

"Kyle's getting a bit too dangerous for my liking," Snitch Gravel mumbled. Jimmy was, too, but in a much more complicated way, apparently. "At least we know where they are. Nicholas, I want your full report on the Chambord situation. Cannon, same for Paris." Maybe with all the data together he'd figure out why exactly his men had fucked up so spectacularly.

"A re-report? As in a written report?" Cannon stammered.

"Yes, man. Writing is not rocket science." He glanced at Christine who sat quietly in her chair, nibbling her lower lip, making herself unnoticeable. Well, he'd noticed and she had no place hearing what followed. "Take her out of here."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, standing.

He raised an eyebrow at her question, quite impressed with her perceptiveness. If he were honest, he'd never given the girl much credit, but she'd apparently anticipated that the death of his four men had changed everything.

"Wouldn't you like to know, little princess?" he mocked. "I'm sorry I'm not disclosing my strategy to you and requesting your opinion on it."

"You've pushed them into this, you know that, right?" she insisted as her guards grabbed her elbows. "You've turned them into killers. Only because you can't get over your goddamn self."

"Oh, wow, I'm so offended. Please, stop," he replied in the same mocking tone. He waved his hand bored. "See you whenever I need you again."

Christine kept yelling pleas at him to not order Sam killed as she left the room, but Snitch Gravel ignored her. Cute, but irrelevant. Probably the story of Christine's life.

"The rest of you go, too. Nicholas, you and Cannon stay. And someone get Eye Patch."

His orders were executed flawlessly, as they should be, but it did nothing for him. Not in a moment where everything hung by a damn thread and the rules were changing. It didn't take long for Eye Patch to enter the room, a stack of papers in his hand, his other hand holding a monocle over his eye. Everyone in the room stared at him for a moment.

Then, he burst in hysterical laughter. "What the hell are you doing, Eye Patch?"

"Making my way through all this paperwork, boss," Eye Patch answered undelayed, ever the obedient puppy.

"Where on earth did you get that ridiculous monocle, man?" Von Crook asked exasperated.

"From Firefox."

"I should've known. That pompous twerp," Von Crooken mumbled to himself.

"I'd be careful before calling more competent people names, Nicholas," Snitch Gravel said, the warning obvious in his voice. That idiot needed to learn his place again. "Sit down and shut up. We have a situation."

"Are we finally allowed to kill the brats?" Von Crook interrupted.

"What part of shut up didn't you understand?" He gave him a glare for good measure and was satisfied to see him cowering back. Coward. "As you know, I want the Grants alive. That hasn't changed. I want to be there and deliver the killer blow myself, not read about it in one of your misspelled reports."

Von Crooken opened his mouth again, but was silenced by one stare.

"However, things have escalated. So you are from now on allowed to respond in kind. If they shoot at you, you shoot at them, if it's hand to hand, then you do the same. If it's Kyle and Jimmy, you can shoot them in non lethal places even if they're unarmed. I know what they can do."

Eye Patch nodded eagerly, but Cannon and Von Crooken looked less than pleased.

"Don't pout, Nicholas. It suits you ill. And Cannon, I'll make sure to hand Tom over to you."

Cannon's face immediately lightened up, making his scars look even creepier. Even if he wasn't a fan of his cruelty, the man did his job.

"This changes nothing," Von Crooken mumbled.

"Nothing?" he asked, feigning offense. "I just gave you permission to shoot them." He narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare misinterpret my orders. I'll know it's your doing and I'll start asking what you're doing when you're not here."

"Fine by me!" Von Crooken threw his hands in the air. "It's your vendetta. Capture the brats. As long as I get to bury their corpses, I'm game."

"You'll get your chance." Snitch Gravel waved his men away and they left him alone with his thoughts.

The events were troubling. Particularly Cannon's failure to finish Tom off. Snitch Gravel had thought he would be the most efficient, but apparently, his obsession had been his undoing. Then there was Jimmy throwing his consciousness out the window and the retellings of Kyle losing it and using his full strength.

The brats were losing control. This entire debacle was as much their doing as his men's. His own miscalculations worried him. He'd been convinced that kidnapping Christine would send Sam running, that he'd be easily captured. Instead, he'd had both her and Angie and let the more important one slip away.

Not that it mattered. They were all in one place again, one step in front of him.

He walked back to the map and chose a red pin from the small box. He could bet the brats were in Cheverny right now. It was the closest castle and also the most improbable to hold anything. He'd switch directions and go the Chenonceau, meet them there. If they ever made it there. They were lucky the storm kept them safe for now. But not for long.

He headed for one of his filing cabinets and lingered next to it. Finally he opened the drawer designated to Jimmy and pulled out his medical file. He needed more data about him and this worrying evolution. His medical records only held the near-death experience and ended there. A lot had happened since.

He threw it back in closed the drawer, but hesitated in front of the cabinet. He opened another drawer and picked up another folder, one containing all the information he had on Kay. Once he opened the folder, her smiling face greeted him from the only photo inside. The feeling of her body trembling against his brought a wave of disgust. A moment of weakness that was coming back to haunt him, because she was nothing but a poor replacement. At least he hoped she'd gotten some scars out of it.

For a second, he wondered if he should keep a medical file for her as well. Anything coming in contact with that serum should be kept in check. Perhaps not the time. So he threw the folder back into the drawer and focused on Kyle's.

His was the most complex file he had, mostly because of the serum and the careful observation of its effects. Even if he hadn't seen Kyle properly in months, this reported increase in strength was notable. As he added the latest observations, Snitch Gravel's hand faltered above the paper. There was another change he'd failed to document and Jimmy's sudden change of heart made him realize it.

The depressive state Kyle had been in for over a year had disappeared. He'd never given it much thought, thinking it was a side effect of the serum. After all, the stronger he became, the harder it was to keep control. But another factor had come in, twisting everything: Kay. Even if he'd followed Kyle's life almost religiously, waiting for the serum to show its effects, Snitch Gravel hadn't paid Kay much mind. A friend from high school. A prom hookup.

Someone that ended up balancing him out, making him invincible. Not his weakness. Not anymore.

Kyle had a choice when he'd been shipped home, but his rebellious side had seemed to go into slumber. Months of constant criticism from Freider hadn't made him snap, disappointingly enough. He wasn't getting worse. He was getting better.

"Why are you getting better?" he mumbled. "What's that woman doing to you?"

Maybe what she could've done for him. Instead, she chose differently. So did he. And there was no turning back.

He took the file and slammed it back inside the drawer and looked at the other folders inside: 'Battle strategy', 'Relationship development', 'Medical file'. His hand lingered over the medical file but he gave up on it and pushed the drawer shut. He knew too well what that folder contained and he didn't have any reason to return to it. Not until he saw Kyle again.

He opened the drawer where the files on Sam were and he pulled out the one entitled 'Relationship development'. Why was Sam still so grounded even if Christine could be dead for all he knew?

As long as he was asking complicated questions, what did Sam see in her? She was a mean little spoiled princess while Sam was obsessed with being right and fair.

Sure, he'd come for her, but it fell into the pattern of her being the girlfriend. And the recording of his conversation with one of his elite guards showed just how worried and desperate to get her back he was. It had taken him a day to get there, but that was also the day he escaped from the wired car and Snitch Gravel had no idea how he had managed it. Why did he give up after that?

He opened the folder, but the information inside was more teenage drama than relevant. Yes, Christine was complaining that Sam was too shy, yes, he continued being shy and letting her call the shots. They'd broken up twice in six months, once at her request and once at his. They were supposedly in a good place when he'd ordered the kidnapping. Yet, he had Christine and not Sam. And it wasn't her he wanted to interrogate and pull answers from.

Because, beyond his control, he was starting to be a little impressed. It had started out as a fun game. Push them until they break. One crazy ploy after the next. But now... Not only were they not breaking, they were pushing back, one remarkably silly strategy after the next. And he was so curious how it was happening. They were children.

Freider Grant's children.

They had to die. Before they became even more fascinating and he forgot who they really were and what they were doing. Because if there was one man who needed to suffer in this world and learn that actions had consequences, it was Freider Grant.

And the consequences of his actions were dire.

❄❄❄

I know you're surprised. As you should be. I also know you missed the big bad baddie so much. Well, there you have it.

What do you think is going on? The rules are definitely changing. But what will end up being the costs? The next chapters will reveal just that. After the storm is over.

I'm also a little curious how you feel about Christine after reading this chapter 😅 apparently no one gives her much credit.

Give me your thoughts and hit the star!