•Riley's POV•

You know dying is different from what most people think. Yes, you sit there and you think about everything in your life that you should've done and stuff that you should've changed. You think about how incomplete your life is for being so young still. You find that you continue to keep pushing yourself to open your eyes one last time, but there's just a wall there that refuses to let you.

All you wanted was to say was your goodbyes.

Was that really too much to ask?

The darkness wasn't something I was ever afraid of. Even as a child, I'd just brush it off because I knew my parents would always be there for me if something went wrong. They were like superheroes in a twelve-year-old's eyes, yet they died so I wasn't sure why these images, this scene was all coming back to me as I die.

Maybe it's because my supposed fate that night never actually happened. I was supposed to die.

Yet I didn't.

Boom.

I watched as my twelve-year-old self slowly slipped out of bed and headed to the door. She slowly opened the wooden door and peeked her head out.

Boom.

The sound came again causing her to jump. I felt the hairs on my arms stand up as I remembered how the fear filled my body and I for once in my life felt truly scared.

"Mommy? Daddy?" She or well, I guess I whispered, running over to my parent's bedroom door. I opened it to see the bed looking untouched. I quietly went down the stairs, ignoring the usual creaking sound it made.

I reached the end of the stairs and saw the scene slowly unfolding. My dad slammed his elbow into a man's throat causing him to hit a wall from the force. Before he could even react ten more men came rushing into the house all in black suits and masks. My mom went back to back with my dad and I felt myself wanting to go save them.

They always saved me from everything, yet I couldn't return the favor as my feet stayed planted on the ground.

I watched with tear filled eyes as they did their best to fight off the men, but they couldn't stop them as one shot my father in the head. I placed my hand to my mouth, my body almost collapsing as I fell, grabbing onto the rail on the stairs to help me. My twelve-year-old self just watched with confused eyes as my mom went to help my dad. She soon was shot too. Her body fell on top of his, both of them creating a pool of blood. A man noticed my presence and nudged the other guy, whispering something to him in Russian.

"No, wait she's not your target. Only they were. They broke the rules." An unknown man at the time said walking into the house, his hands up in surrender. I turned my head to the side curiously at his words. I never remembered that there was this many men and I never remembered Cole's words until now.

"What are you going to do with her?" The man with his gun out in the open asked as he took off his mask.

"I'll train her. She'll be the best this agency will ever see." Cole said walking over to my twelve-year-old self who was still frozen on the stairs. "You all are dismissed." He ordered and the men filed out of the house.

He bent down in front of me, going to my eye level."Hi, sweetie. I'm Cole, I'm going to take care of you from now on."

"What happened to my mom and dad?" I said flinching as he went to grab my hand.

"Someone bad got them. Don't worry, I'll take care of them." He said lying through his teeth. I watched as my younger self only nodded and walked off with him.

The room went black and suddenly I was standing there by myself. A sharp pain ripped through my leg and then another on my side. Right, I was shot. I'm bleeding out, I'm dying. Why are my parents my dying thoughts? Was it because of Cole?

Yes.

It had to be. After my parents died I didn't remember much about what happened due to something called confabulation. Anytime I would ask Cole to remind me what happen he would go through the basics, the lies. "Your parents were shot by a robber." He would say. But that's not what happened, so why would he lie?

"They broke the rules."

What rules was he talking about? Why couldn't I get the answers I needed?

"Riles, please." I heard Joey's voice in the background suddenly making me more aware of my surroundings.

"Jesse should've found us by now. I know this building is big, but it doesn't make sense." Keith said quietly to someone else.

Why couldn't I open my mouth and talk? Why can't I find the oxygen in the room?

Is this the true torture of death? You're stuck listening to your loved ones crying and stuck listening to them beg for you to come back. If so, someone needs to just slit my throat now. Sorry for the dramatics, but this is worse than the pain.

"I think someone's coming. Turn off the lights." A male voice said and I felt the disturbing light that's been trying to enter my eyes disappear. The heat suddenly dissolving and letting a cool breeze fill the room, the cool breeze relaxing my body completely. Is this a sign that I can rest in peace? Is this a sign that I'm free.

No, I have to stay alive. I have to.

Why? I'm not sure anymore. Was whatever the reason worth it anymore?

Sleep sounded good right now, so why should I deny the overbearing demand?

~Claire's POV~

"How are we going to get out of here?" I whispered to Keith, ignoring Caiden's penetrating glare through the dark as we stayed low to the ground.

"There's a door nearby. If we can get to that then I can lead us through the hidden escape tunnel Jesse had for emergencies." He explained and I whispered an, 'okay'.

"Funny how you're the so-called 'good guy' now." Caiden sneered at him, causing me to look at him with surprise.

"I've never been the bad one."

"You're the reason I got involved in the first place."

"Jackson didn't know about me when I was younger. Jesse let me leave the gang, but then you did the whole running off thing and it fucked everything up. He gave me an option and that was to watch over you and make sure you didn't say a word about the gang. I did the job and now we're here."

"If you did the job then why didn't you walk out if you're free?"Caiden's tone held his suspicion.

"Because, believe it or not, I fell in love with someone in the gang and my job was to get him out," Keith said and my eyes bulged at his words.

"You're gay?" I whispered-yelled. I mean yes, I'm engaged and I love Caiden very much, but I can appreciate a male's attractiveness and Keith definitely fit in the 'attractive male' category.

It's always the pretty boys that turn out to be gay.

No kidding.

"I'm bi," Keith said with a slightly sour tone and I only nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Great. Well, how about that escape plan, now?" I asked and he nodded.

"It's Yellowbird calling in, do you copy?" Joey said suddenly and I looked at him curiously.I noticed his hand dropped from his ear and I caught sight of something silver before his hair completely covered his ear again.

"Great, we're heading out now. We've got two injured and I'm not sure of the location yet. Can you follow the lead of Clover's cellphone?"

"Perfect. See you soon." Joey said before reaching up and touching the piece on his ear again.

"Let's go," Joey said standing up, his voice was void of emotion along with his face. I watched as he picked up Riley and started heading towards the door. Keith quickly went after him and started leading the way with Liam, Clover, and Andrew directly behind.

Caiden helped me stand up from the ground and in return, I sent him a thankful smile before we quickly caught up with the group. "I need to tell you something," Caiden mumbled to me as we went into a new hallway, stopping at the second door on the right. Keith pulled out a key and unlocked the door. He turned on the lights and ushered us all in.

"Can it wait till later?" I asked softly."I think all our main focus right now needs to be getting out of here." I quickly explained.

"Of course." He said pressing his lips to my temple. I leaned against his body for a minute as I watched Keith take a picture frame off the wall. There was a large hole there, I noticed the broken up paint along the edges and looked at the ground underneath. There laid pieces of beige wallpaper.

"Damn it." Keith muttered."Jesse escaped. This is usually covered with wallpaper."

"Can we still leave through here?" Liam asked impatiently.

"It's our only option. I'm not sure who's still in here." Keith said before grabbing a flashlight from a cabinet, he pushed the desk against the wall and stepped up. "See you guys outside." He said before placing the end of the flashlight in his mouth. He stepped up into the tunnel first and started crawling. Liam went after and then Andrew. Being the gentlemen, Andrew grabbed Clover's hand and helped her up.

"You guys go. It's gonna be a while with me taking Riley." Joey said as he grabbed a jacket that was hanging off the back of the black chair.

I felt my stomach tighten as I noticed the look of sadness and exhaustion on his face. Caiden tugged on my wrist slightly and nodded for me to go. He helped me step in the tunnel and I started into the darkness.

I hated the scrapping feeling of my knees and we crawled through the metal and probably old tunnel. It took what felt like forever, but actually was ten minutes for us to get to the end of it.

There was no sun waiting for us at the end. Nothing but cloudy skies and rain welcomed us. I used my hand as a shield from the wind for my eyes as I stepped out of the tunnel. There was a huge field of grass and a helicopter waiting there almost directly in the middle.

"That's our queue," Liam said as he started jogging towards it.

We all followed after him and surprisingly the helicopter was big enough and could fit all of us. "This thing is nice," I yelled to no one in particular and Matt looked back at us.

"Kazan Ka-62," Matt yelled back with a smirk on his face that showed he liked the perks that the agency gives. The smirk fell off his face as Joey and Riley were the last one's to get in.

"You failed to mention our boss is the one that was down," Matt said with worry in his eyes. He signaled for the pilot to head out and he did exactly that as the helicopter door was shut.

"Would it have made a difference?" Joey asked dryly."Either way, two people are injured and need medical attention immediately."

"Who's the other?" Matt asked curiously. I raised an eyebrow, thinking it was obvious, that is until I caught sight of how we all looked. Clover was covered in blood, I was covered in blood, Keith is cover as well. And, Riley is just completely drenched in blood along with Joey. Thanks to me Caiden wasn't lacking the red color either. The only one who looked perfectly fine was Liam.

"I am," I said gesturing with my hand to my arm. Matt nodded and gave me a thumbs up as a signal he heard me over the loud noise the helicopter created.

"Hang in there, guys. You did well. We're about done here." He said pointing out the window. As we flew over the scene I noticed dozens of police cars. What surprised me was instead of Jesse getting dragged out by the police Jackson was. Did he set his brother up?

"He let everyone take the blame," Keith said with disgust and I felt the disgust as well. Yes, Taylor, Chris, Jacob, and all the others deserved some prison time, but it didn't compare to what Jesse deserved. He's a killer, a murderer, and no one could sleep until he locked up or even dead. That man I once knew has turned into someone else in just a short period of a year.

"At least they're caught. I mean it's finally happening. The gang is going down." Liam said not letting his eyes shift from the scene. "Hey, did you guy's kill anybody?" He asked curiously and I peeked out the window again to see a body being carried out in a black bag on a stretcher.

Everyone mumbled a no and shook their head. I frowned, wondering who died. Did Jesse kill someone else?

"It's Jasmin," Clover said suddenly and all eyes snapped to her.

"What do you mean it's Jasmin?" Andrew asked her, squeezing her hand for support.

"Lisa made her kill herself. I don't know what happened before that and what she said to get in her brain but it was awful. It was so so awful." Clover said shaking her head. I felt sympathetic as her good friend's death just started to hit her as the shock started wearing off.

"Lisa." Caiden let out a dark chuckle as he repeated her name. His fists were clenched and his face held a look, one I've never seen before. "I thought I saw her when they took you."

"Who exactly is she? I've never heard of her and we've dealt with this gang for years." Joey questioned and I stared at Caiden. I wasn't sure if he was going to tell them or not.

"She's a cold woman. She takes children as her prey and she treats them as slaves. She turns them into her own personal dolls. It doesn't take long for someone to get caught up in everything she tells them. She turns every one of her prey's into a new person. Someone that even they don't recognize." His voice was taut as he almost shook in his seat from anger.

"Hey," I said in what I hoped was the opposite and modulated."You're okay. You're not that little boy anymore. You're a strong and handsome man, okay?" I said with both hands holding his face, making sure he didn't look away. He only gave me a curt nod and moved his head, letting my hands drop. I ignored the pain caused because of the small movement and focused on him. He needed me.

"They'll get her and Jesse."

"I just don't understand. The cops told my parents that she was found dead. They said that I killed her." He snapped getting angry again.

"If she's with Jesse now then she probably had some connection with him then. It probably wasn't hard to pay off a few cops to lie and say she's dead." I said honestly and he sneered.

"That fucking bitch. I hope she burns in fucking hell alone." He hissed and I frowned as I watched his fists start to turn white as he leaned his clenched hands against his forehead. I leaned towards him and pressed a gentle kiss on his shoulder, not caring that his t-shirt covered his skin. I then moved and pressed a kiss against his jaw. I moved my lips up and pressed one feather like kiss on each of his closed fists in a spot that wasn't covered with small scars and open skin from slamming them into concrete walls.

"I love you."I let my lips graze against his ear as I whispered the words. No, I wasn't going for seduction. That wasn't my goal in a situation like this, my goal was to calm him down before he hurt himself.

I glanced at the other's around us and only saw Andrew comforting Clover and Joey whispering to the unconscious Riley, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes before anyone noticed his true pain. Liam was texting someone on his cell phone, the one I'm not sure where he got from. The only one who seemed to be watching Caiden and I was Keith.

Our eyes locked and he gave me a sad smile. I didn't say anything in response and only looked away. I placed my hand on Caiden's and didn't comment on how he intertwined our fingers. I felt his lips pressed against my fingers and I turned to give me a small smile.

I glanced out the window and realized we were going down. Thirty seconds later we were on top of a hospital. A stretcher waited there along with multiple doctors. "- alert the police that we've got two GSW victims. She's going to need to go straight to the OR." I watched as they started assessing all of Riley's wounds and yelling out words to each other that I didn't understand.

Joey stepped next to Caiden in the elevator and answered all the questions in the best way he could without saying too much. As soon as the elevator opened they rolled Riley out while another doctor brought me to a private room to remove the bullet from my arm.

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~Clover's POV~

I sat on the bed patiently as a doctor examed me for injuries."For the third time, I'm not hurt. This isn't my blood." I snapped getting irritated with all the touching and prodding.

"Clover?" West said with confusion as he rushed over to me. I smiled at my cousin who stood there proudly with his white coat on and his green scrubs on. "Are you okay?" He asked after waving off the other doctor and started looking for a source of where the blood was coming from.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My friend got hurt and I just so happened to be there. It got a little messy." I told him, pushing him away.

"You sure? You look like you've been crying." He argued and I waved him off.

"It was just a bit emotional. She's in surgery now, so I'm just waiting to see how it all goes."

"What are you still doing here anyways? Weren't you done with Seattle months ago? I thought it was just a few photoshoots and that was it?" He asked pulling up a chair.

I almost snorted. If only he knew the hell I've been going through."Yeah, but we loved it so much that we decided to stay longer. Plus the kids are on summer break, so it wasn't a big deal." I said lying through my teeth.

"Where are those two anyways?" He asked and I rolled my eyes.

"West, stop," I said shaking my head in amusement.

"What?"

"You're like drilling me with questions. Listen, we can get some lunch sometime soon and catch up. I'm just really exhausted right now."

"Thompson, we have incoming. Let's go." Another doctor yelled causing him to stand up immediately.

"Sounds good. Love you, Clove. I would hug you, but you're a little bloody." He said pressing a kiss to a clean spot on my cheek.

I let out a small laugh,"Bye, West." I said with a small smile as I watched him eagerly head in the direction the doctor just went.

"Hey, here's your water," Andrew said handing me the clear bottle. I opened up the drink and swallowed down half of it before coming up for air.

"Thank you," I said squeezing his hand to show my appreciation."I feel like I haven't had anything to drink in days."

Andrew frowned,"You haven't. You were in that place for almost two days, Clo."

I stared at him with confusion. Two days? That couldn't be right. I mean it didn't take us long to escape."Are you sure? I mean it only felt like a couple of hours." I said, my eyebrows furrowing.

"Yeah, I'm positive. I can't forget constantly pacing and not sleeping because we couldn't find you guys." He said and I pouted.

"Awe, I'm sorry! I guess we now have a lesson to teach our kids, though." I said standing up and wrapping my arms around his neck.

"What lesson?" He asked curiously and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Don't ever make friends with people in jail," I said and he only shook his head, a smile sliding on his own face.

"I love you, Clover." He said pressing his lips to mine. I embraced the feeling and pulled him tighter against me, needing to feel the warmth of my husband.

I pulled away after a minute and sat back on the bed, feeling the exhaustion hit me again. "Do you ever just think how strange it is that we ended up together? I mean you were just so cocky and annoying.." I said making room so he could sit next to me.

"C'mon, you didn't actually ever hate me. Let's be honest, you liked me from the start. I mean why else would you have told me your secret almost right away."

"Hey, in my defense, Mary didn't give me much of a choice. And, part of me was just ready for everyone to know. I mean I kept that secret for years and it was senior year, so who really cared if one more person knew." I said lightly bumping my shoulder with his.

"I'm glad you told me. It was much better than the finding out the hard way." He said and I nodded in agreement.

"You know when I look at Caiden and Claire's relationship it makes me wonder how they get through it all. I mean when I was with him and Joey he was just a complete ass to everyone. Comparing their relationship to ours-ours was just a breeze."

I smiled, it was true. We did have an easy relationship. We never got into serious fights and this Jesse thing has been our biggest problem yet. "I like it like that. You were one of the simple things in my life and you became one of the best things in my life." I said lightly playing with the end of his shirt as I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"Your life was never simple, Clove." He said shaking his head."You were a model that went undercover as a nerd. I don't think you can ever say your life was simple. "

I lightly smacked his arm,"Compared to all this, I would say that was nothing." I argued and he nodded.

"Hey, if you think about it Claire was just a regular girl that went undercover as a boy and Riley is an agent who has been undercover as probably anything you can think of. I'd say your life has never been simple and neither was your friends. It's not a bad thing, it's pretty great actually. I mean you've met some life long friends here because of you all having that unsimple life." Andrew said, rubbing his thumb down my cheek with a small smile.

"Hey, we're going to pick up some food from the cafeteria. You guys want to come?" Claire asked interrupting and I jumped, surprised by her sudden appeared. I got off the bed and nodded.

"Yeah, I could die for some coffee," I said feeling my stomach jump in excitement just from the thought of getting some caffeine in me.

"By the way, how did you guys get caught anyways?" I asked looking at Andrew.

"Jackson surprisingly. He and his members just came out of nowhere. Eventually, we were just surrounded." He explained and I nodded in understandingly.

"Oh, so that's how he was there. Do you think Jesse set him up?" Claire questioned.

"Probably. Jackson got out of prison early somehow, so I'm sure the cops would have been happy to find him." Caiden agreed.

"Claire, can we talk?" He asked suddenly and she frowned but nodded.

"You guys walk ahead." She told us and I shared a look with Andrew and did exactly that. I couldn't help but listen as I heard them whispering quietly to each other.

"Keith is your brother." Claire repeated after him and from the corner of my eye I saw him nod."Well, I'm not surprised. I mean it makes sense. You both got the brown hair from your dad and you both have one hell of a personality. Plus, I expected something was there. You two acted strangely around each other."

I looked at Andrew who was already looking at me. He just shook his head at me and placed his finger to his lips, signaling for me not to say anything.

"You handled that better than I expected," Caiden grumbled, not sounding happy about that.

"You're Caiden Anderson. I'm used to your crap at this point. Really nothing surprises me anymore." Claire said and I heard the sound of a quick kiss. "Don't be such a Debbie downer." She said lightly patting his cheek before catching up with us.

"You guys are horrible at eavesdropping by the way," Claire whispered to me and I felt my cheeks start to tinge with embarrassment.

"You know, I have major respect for you, Claire. You're one interesting person." I said nodding.

"Thank ya." She said winking and pretending to tip a hat. She placed her uninjured arm around my shoulder and looked at me.

"Just so you know, you're coming back here for my wedding."

I raised an eyebrow in amusement, "I didn't know I was invited?"

She pursed her lips together and nodded as she pretended to rub her chin. "Yeah, I mean who wouldn't want the famous Lucky as a bridesmaid." Claire said giving me a 'duh' look.

I shook my head and couldn't help but let out a loud laugh throughout the elevator. "You suck," I said and she nodded.

"Yeah, I'm pretty good at it too. Ask Caiden." She said pointing a thumb at him. I watched as his eyes widened and he gave her a look that said, ' Please tell me you didn't just say that'.

"Love you too." She said lightly patting his cheek again with a cheeky smile."But seriously, though. Do you want to be one of my bridesmaids?"

I nodded eagerly."Are you designing the dresses?" I asked and she smiled.

"I've had the dresses designed for years. Just wait till this is all over. You'll love them." Claire's excitement for her wedding was clear and just the talk of it brought a new feeling in the room. A feeling of happiness.

"I'll look forward to it," I said with my own soft smile. I felt truly content with life at this moment. If Riley could get better and Jesse could get caught and I could see my kids again then everything would truly be the elucidation of perfection.

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A/N: Aannnd that's another update done. It was a pretty slow chapter, but almost everyone's caught now, so finally they're getting somewhere. There's still a few more chapters left, so look forward to those(:

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