Jackson silently pledged never to get on Alexa's bad side. At least not more than usual. The muffled yells of the shooter in front of him as Alexa cut another finger off his hand, brought back memories Jackson didn't want to revive.

They were in an abandoned warehouse. The shooter tied up on a chair with Alexa in front of him with a hedge clipper.

         "I can make this last way longer than it has too." Alexa snarled at him. "I still have ten toes and 7 fingers left."

The guy whimpered.

         "You ready to speak?" Christopher growled.

That guy was scary when he needed to be. He had already cut one finger off by the time they had reached there.

Alexa removed the cloth that was stuffed into the shooter's mouth.

         "Answer!" Jackson ordered. "Who paid you?"

The shooter kept this mouth shut looking at them. Some of these goons are really as dumb as they look. Christopher pushed his head back and pointed a scissor, blade side, at the guy's eye.

         "Don't. Please don't." He whimpered.

         "Then answer," Alexa said waving Christopher off.

         "I don't know the name." The shooter said as Christopher backed.

         "Is it him?" Alexa said showing a picture of a guy on her phone.

         "No. That is Jonathan James." The shooter replied.

All of their eyes stayed on him.

         "I don't know who that is." He immediately corrected himself.

         "One of your guys said that "Alexa Black was meddling in businesses that wasn't hers". What did you mean?"

         "I don't know." The guy said shrugging indifferently.

         "You son of a bitch," Christopher swore.

         "All of you out," Alexa said not taking her eyes of the shooter.

         "What?" Chris asked.

         "OUT," Alexa repeated louder.

Jackson walked outside the warehouse not checking if Chris was following him. He knew Alexa, or Lara as she was called in the previous mission, and he knew that if she had something up her sleeve he wasn't going to question it.

The stood outside the entrance to the warehouse as he grabbed his cigarette packet from his pants and lit one up.

         "Smoke?" He asked as Christopher came to stand beside him.

         "How old are you?" He said taking one.

Jackson threw him his lighter. "Nineteen."

         "And you dated Alexa? Isn't she seventeen?" He asked.

         "Aren't you dating that librarian? Isn't she twenty years younger than you?" Jackson asked back.

         "Holy shit! How old do you think I am?" He exclaimed.

         "Forty-five?" Jackson guessed.

         "I'm thirty!" He whined. To think this was the same guy who had a scissor to a guy's eye a second ago.

         "Well, I'm surprised," Jackson said. "Still five years older."

They stood in silence as they heard muffled screams from inside.

         "Should we check on her?" Chris asked blowing a smoke.

         "She'll be fine," Jackson replied. "Where's the other guy? Jason?"

         "Jason went home. A friend of theirs is in the hospital. He went to go get a change of clothes and some biscuits."

         "Are they a thing?" Jackson asked pointing this thumb in Alexa's direction.

Chris glanced at him before replying. "I don't know. Why do you ask?"

         "Why do you think?" He asked. Jackson dropped his cigarette and pressed on it with his foot. "I loved Lara. I made one stupid mistake and blew the entire relationship."

Christopher didn't reply.

A 'thump' on the warehouse entrance door was the signal Jackson was waiting for. It meant that Alexa was done and she got what she needed.

Jackson walked in. Alexa was putting on her sweater.

         "I need a ride home." She stated.

Jackson nodded. The shooter looked half dead.

         "Loyalty, sweetheart." The blonde in front of him spoke. She spoke softly like they were at an ashram. " Loyalty is the most important trait one can find in one's self. It's also the most dangerous trait to one's self."

         "Jackson?" Lara called out.

         "Coming," Jackson replied as he snapped out of his daze.

         "I'll take care of this," Christopher said pointing to the bloody mess she had made.

Jackson nodded and followed her towards his car outside.

         "Alexa! Call me when you reach home." Chris yelled out.

✘

         "So. Did you find what you needed to know?" Jackson asked breaking the uneasy tension in the car.

Alexa pressed her lips. That was what she used to do when she didn't want to speak about it.

         "It's fine," Jackson said. "You don't have to tell me. But can you answer one thing, Lara?"

         "My name's not Lara anymore." She replied. "Just like yours isn't Jackson."

         "Mine is still Jackson. I'm still in the mission." Jackson responded.

         "What for? Didn't we finish it?"

         "No. Turns out we were after the wrong guy the entire time. The right one, behind all the mess, was his wife. Once you left, she came at me. Tried to kill me but I managed to bring the public into it and they now think she is a psychopathic paedophile. So "Jackson" has to now go on cases to put her in for that." He explained.

         "Oh." She said parting her lips a little.

         "But I'm getting pretty close to the end of this mission and soon I'm not going to be Jackson and you won't have a way of contacting me." He said as he came to a stop in front of her house. "Marion will listen to you. Just ask her. She'll let me join you on this mission and we can work together like we have our entire lives."

Lara let out a breath. "You can't take back what you did, Jackson. And sorry doesn't cut it. We were a great team. And we ruined it. It's never going to be the same."

She got out of the car. "Goodbye, Jackson."

Jackson watched as she entered her house.

How'd it go? Jackson got a text.

Not great. Guess we have to move to plan B.

✘✘✘

23-1-19
A/N- Hey. Hope you liked it. Vote and comment!