xxxix. DORA THE EXPLORER

Ace leapt into action immediately. He jerked on my hand, pulling me down quickly, as the thunderstorm of bullets shattered the windows. Grey, aged snowflakes of dust and debris floated up into the air to blur my view. All of a sudden, my house seemed more like a tangible battleground than a faint memory.

My body crashes into his due to the instability. I cling onto his chest motivated by fear. Even in this situation, Ace cocks an amused eyebrow at me. "Cupcake, you're holding on pretty tightly you know, not that I mind."

I smack the side of his head. "Christ can we not do this now? We're being shot at."

"Au contraire, this could be our last chance to make something happen. Il y a tellement de choses que j'aimerais te faire..."

"We'll talk about this later, Rosetta Stone," I seethe. The deafening sounds ebb away. Whoever, whatever was out there now waited for the prey in the den to make the next move. "Do you think it's Thirteen?"

"I can't tell," Ace mutters, his jaw tightening. He reloads the handgun with a magazine. No matter how good of a shot he is, we were simply outnumbered. "Could you think of anyone else you might have pissed off? You're pretty irritating."

"This could be our last conversation. So screw you."

"If you'd like to. We still have time."

I smack him again. "You're right, two minutes should be long enough for you."

Ace deapans me. I quickly get up off of him before our potentially last and embarrassing conversation can continue. "Alright, I'm going to deal with whoever it is."

"You're going to get yourself killed dumbass," I state, "You're not a journalist by day and superhero by night, you're not invincible."

"I can't believe the last words you said to me included dumbass," Ace smirks. "Make sure to put hot, intelligent, and charismatic on my epitaph."

Before I could comprehend what was happening, he shot back into the crowd through the ajar window. Three bullets, three corresponding fallen assailants. He then jumped through the window from the distraction in one swift motion. What a clusterfuck of wankers.

I instinctively run after Ace so he doesn't die—not that I was much help anyway. Now that I was running through the hail-mary of bullets, with every step, I was more regretting my decision to help Banana Bread. Thankfully the bullets were mostly concentrated on Ace. He was clearly the bigger threat.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little offended that they weren't trying to shoot at me. Like come on, I can kinda aim. I can be dangerous.

Who am I kidding, perhaps hiding in a shrub was my best option.

"Put your hands up!" Someone yells using a megaphone. "This is Interpol—surrender peacefully or you will be killed."

My gaze flickers over to the speaker, and it's someone I'd never thought I'd see again. Bright and determined blue eyes meet mine. When he sees me, he raises his hand, and everyone stops the crossfire.

"Daniel?" I say.

"Sophia?" Daniel responds. There's a British accent tinging his voice. Then Ace shoots near Daniel in the foot, causing the Interpol agent to curse into the air. "Whoops," Ace says unapologetically.

~

"What the shit Blackwell?" I spit. "He's Interpol, we're on the same side!"

Ace grimaces at Daniel, who is now staring daggers in his direction. "It was an accident," Ace shrugs. "You're lucky I missed too."

Daniel rolls his eyes. "I should arrest you." He rolls up his sleeves and legitimately looks likes he will shoot Ace with a real bullet. Can't blame him, I've wanted to shoot Ace too.

"Alright," I turn to Daniel before their fight can escalate further. "So I'm guessing you're not actually an angel investor, and you were lying back at the gala in Paris."

Daniel gives me a sweet smile. "I'm not. And I'm guessing you're not working for the American consulate, Sophia."

"It's actually Octavia," Ace interjects. He wraps a hand around my waist, pulling me closer into him. "And I'm Ace. We're part of the special ops unit of the CIA."

Daniel narrows his eyes at Ace. "Special ops, head agent, Britain, Interpol."

The two gorilla-heads exchange badges to confirm legitimacy. Ace lets out a scoff. "I'm the head agent as well, mais Interpol c'est une organisation pour les faibles."

"Je peux encore te botter le cul," Daniel spits.

Ace turns to me and blatantly ignores the Interpol agent. "Interpol is like the UN of governments. All show no power. It's basically the Green Lantern movie, the Fyre festival, or the third Hemsworth brother no one talks about. Useless shit."

Daniel reloads his gun. "Language. Besides, the CIA is basically the drunk aunt of the international community... How did the Bay of Pigs turn out? Iranian Revolution? Iraq War?"

"Listen nimrod—" Ace starts.

"What you discount hallmarks card that was set on fire—" Daniel interrupts.

"Listen you fucking Best Buy appliance—"

"Try me you park porty potty—"

"ENOUGH!" I yell. "We've established that you're both Walmart clearance aisle underwear that a homeless man in Los Angeles bought then returned during a heat wave."

The two men look at me with wide eyes. Ace's chest is heaving; Daniel's fists are balled. They both relax slightly once I've established dominance.

"Daniel, why are you here?" I glare. The testosterone is basically as pungent as AXE body spray in a middle school locker room.

"Our team has been tracking the missing Winged Victory of Samothrace—it was stolen by an international crime syndicate, and it should be in that house. Why are you guys here? By the looks of it probably covering up another CIA failure." Daniel snickers.

"We've been tracking it too," I immediately lie. "We found it upstairs in the bedroom."

"Do you know who and why they stole it?" Ace baits. Smart—for once.

Daniel smirks. He runs a hand through his dark hair. "That's classified. Although Octavia, I'd love to discuss this case further over coffee. Our agencies should work together." He then goes on to hand me a business card with a phone number.

Ace grimaces at Daniel and takes his card before I can grab it. "Thank you for being so... considerate. We'll definitely discuss with you later in Seattle. Collectively as an entire team. Over coffee."

Daniel gives Ace a curt, tight smile. "I'll see you guys then. We'll go ahead and airlift the structure back to Paris."

Ace's hand doesn't leave my waist until we're on his motorcycle. Even then, he had an annoyed expression skewing his features. We drive off, yet, still no peep from the asshole.

"Did you really have to be such an ass to Daniel?" I prod. "You literally lied to him about Seattle."

"Oh please, he's an Interpol agent. Literally useless. He's as intimidating as Dora the Explorer if she found a 45 caliber and ten thousand dollars in her backpack."

A grin spreads across my face. "So what you're telling me is... you almost got killed by a team of Dora the Explorers."

"I had the situation under control," Ace justifies. "The whole fact that it was Daniel really threw me off. If I had more bullets, there would be enough dead bodies to constitute a genocide of exclusively Dora the Explorers."

"We've said Dora the Explorer too many times at once," I ramble. "It doesn't sound like real words anymore."

I can feel him shrug through his leather jacket. "Alright Cupcake," he stiffens. "What are we going to do now?"

"We're going home. Then we're cracking this code in 72 hours. For now... Thirteen stays between us."

"And will we meet with Daniel?" I grin.

Banana Bread narrowed his eyes. "Sure. If he can find our top secret penthouse us in Seattle."

Octavia [whispers]: "Vote if you think Daniel and Ace are kinda cute together. Maybe I'll try to set them up over coffee."

Ace: "What did you say—"

Octavia: "—nothing."