Dedicated to ava-noah Thanks for all the votes and sweet comments!!! You really encouraged me when I felt pretty unhappy with this story.
A/N: I'm going to get serious about writing and hopefully update more often. Now that people are actually reading and enjoying this story, I'll really try to update every other day or so. Anyway, here's chapter 12 and I hope you like it!
P.S. On the side is a video of Niall falling at a golf tournament. Watch it at the part where he falls😂😂
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Asheley Grace's P.O.V.
I sat at my desk watching the security cameras. Well, one security camera in particular. The one trained on Zayn's room.
I watched as Zayn's door opened and Zayn slipped out. He shut the door and locked it, then left the house with his head down.
Now that's suspicious. Normally I would have liked to follow him, but I had a job to do and this might be my only chance.
I waited until the front door closed behind Zayn before I jumped up and hurried to his room. I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and inserted it into the lock. It turned, and I let myself into Zayn's room.
Damn. His room, like Liam's, was spotless. And I do mean spotless. His furniture didn't have a speck of dust, and the few things that were laying out were neatly organized. This was going to be harder than I thought.
I closed the door and decided to start with the desk. I pulled out the drawers, not bothering to be neat. After all, the ass messed with my stuff! He deserves to have his spotless room wrecked.
Aha! I pulled a laptop out from underneath a stack of comics in a drawer.
I sat down on the neatly made bed and turned it on. Password protected.  Not a problem. I quickly got past all passwords and firewalls. Easy. Now for the hard stuff. I clicked on his files. Zayn had some heavy-duty firewalls protecting his files. Again, this guy is good with computers. Not bragging here, but he's still not as good as me. It took me longer than getting past the first firewalls, but I finally did got through to Zayn's files.
There was alot of songs and music. Not what I was expecting for such heavy protection, unless Zayn was really worried about copywriters? I kept looking.
Here, this looked interesting. Report on Foreign Technology to Central Intelligence Agency.
I clicked on the file and started reading.
Russia has launched a new spacecraft into space, hoping to explore other galaxies beyond our own. This technology goes far  beyond our intelligence of space science.
In the file, Zayn had included maps of what looked like parts and data sets that made no sense to me. Underneath all those were two sentences: There will be only one more report. I am almost finished here.
Now, what could that mean?
Footsteps sounded coming down the hallway. Shit, Zayn's back!
I didn't have time to log off and erase any traces that might lead to me. I could only shut the laptop.
I looked around frantically for a place to hide. Zayn's room was on the third floor, too high a jump for me. I couldn't hide under the bed, he would surely find me. My eyes landed on his huge walk - in closet. I ran in and burrowed behind a rack of heavy suits. For once in my life, I was grateful for being so small.
The door creaked open, and I just had time to arrange the coats so that I was completely covered.
I held my breath and watched from between the suits as Zayn moved around the room.
He had his pistol drawn and he didn't look too happy at the state of his room. He saw his laptop laying out and quickly opened it and logged on. His frown deepened into a scowl.
I really wish I'd had time to clear my tracks.
Zayn stood up abruptly and slammed the laptop shut. I winced at the loud noise.
"Where are you, Asheley Grace?!I know you did this!" He yelled.
He started stomping around the room searching, for me, I geussed.
The suits smelled like mothballs and cologne. I held back a sneeze. That would be just perfect if I sneezed, just like in every cheesy movie where the girl sneezes at the worst moments.
Zayn walked into the closet. I held my breath and hid my face behind the suits, not daring to look. I heard his footsteps coming closer and the rustle if clothes as he searched for me. The footsteps stopped right in front of me. I saw the tip of the gun poke between the suits, feeling around for me. I shut my eyes. That's when I couldn't hold my breath any longer.
Everything went black when I passed out.
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Niall's P.O.V.
"Asheley Grace?" I asked. Her blue eyes fluttered open and took in my concerned face. She sat up and looked around frantically.
"Where's Zayn?! Where am I?" Her beautiful eyes were wide with alarm.
"Shh, Zayn isn't here. For some reason, he didn't find you. And for your second question, you're in his closet. Zayn came running out of here saying something about having to find you, so I came up here to see what all the commotion was about. And I found you passed out in his suits."
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Asheley Grace's P.O.V.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Zayn didn't find me. I'm safe, at least for now.
Niall gently took my hand and asked the one qeustion I couldn't answer. "Love, what's going on with you and Zayn?"
"I, uh.." I stuttered, trying to come up with a believable lie. Gosh, I was running low on those.
Niall looked straight into my eyes and seemed to understand. "It's okay if you can't tell me. Whatever it is, just remember that I'm ready to listen when your ready. You can trust me. I would never hurt you."
You can trust me. I'll never hurt you. The words echoed in my mind. Why did I wish so hard that I could say them back to him? But in reality, I couldn't. What would I say? Even if I trust you, you can't trust me. Because I really want to keep you safe but I'm going to have to kill you sooner or later. No, I can't tell him anything.
"Hey, didn't we have a date to go golfing today?" I asked with fake cheerfulness.
My attempt at changing the subject worked. Niall's face lit up, then clouded over with concern. "Are you sure you're up to it, though?" he asked.
"Of course I am!" I sat up quickly. Too quickly. A wave of dizziness hit me. I waited until it passed than stood up. Niall watched me worriedly.
"Oh, stop acting like Liam! I'm perfectly fine." I rolled my eyes at his foolishness. "Come on."
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Niall drove me to the golf field. Once there, I realized just how talented he is at golf. It made me ashamed of my poor golf skills. Although there's alot of things I can do that I bet he and alot of ordinary girls can't, golf isn't one of them.
I watched as Niall lined up his club evenly with the ball, swung, and sent the ball flying with a resounding whack.
"Good job! Another perfect hit!" I clapped.
Niall wiped the sweat off his brow and smiled at me. His blue eyes were sparkling at me. "Your turn."
I realized I getting lost in his eyes. Again. Remember the mission Asheley."Uh..okay but I'm not nearly as good as you."
He threw back his head and laughed. "We'll see about that."
He handed the club to me and stood back to watch. I tried to line up the club with the ball like Niall had done. I swung, and the ball flew far off course.
I blushed. "Told you I can't play."
"It's okay. You just need to adjust some things. Let's start with your hands." Niall placed his big hands over my small ones and gently moved them. He was saying something about positioning my hands correctly, but all I could pay attention to was the feel of his hands touching mine. I tried to pretend that his touch didn't send electricity up my arms. I was very aware of his body against mine as he showed me how to swing the club.
Maybe he noticed me stiffen, because he stepped back abruptly.
Was he blushing too, or was that from the exercise? I wondered, noticing how his cheeks flushed.
"Anyway, there's some tips. Why don't you try again?" He said rather awkwardly.
"Uh, sure." Shaking myself back to reality, I got ready to swing again. This time, the ball flew in a straight line and luckily landed  close to the hole this time.
"That was good. Don't get discouraged." Niall encouraged me.
I looked around searching for the ball. Wait was that smoke?
A thin trail of smoke led to a thick stand of trees on the far end of the field. I looked closely and sure enough, a person leaned against a tree. Of course. It was Zayn. He caught my gaze and a smirk lifted up the corner of his mouth. He lifted the cigarette to his lips and blew out another puff of smoke with exaggerated slowness. His other hand rested on a gun in his belt.
"What's wrong?" Niall asked.
I suddenly realized what a vulnerable postion we were in. Niall and I stood in the middle of an open field, as easy pickings as mice to a hawk on a snow- covered landscape. And in this case, Zayn was the hawk. He stood in the leafy protection of the trees. I had a bad feeling this wasn't a coincidence.
"Niall, we need to get out of here." I said calmly.
He looked at me with a confused expression. "What's wrong?"
I thought quickly. The sky was a cloudy dark gray color, typical of London weather. Still, it was the perfect excuse.
"It looks like it's going to rain. I'm  not dressed for getting wet."
Niall nodded in understanding. "Of course. Come on." He grabbed the holf bag and slung it over his shoulder. With his other hand, he grabbed my hand. I didn't have a chonce to think about how it felt that we were actually holding hands. I was too busy sprinting for the parking lot.
Right on cue, it started to rain. Hard. The ground was getting slick and my feet started to sink in the mud.
"Asheley, slow down!" Niall panted as he struggled to keep up.
I ignored him and kept running. All I could think about was getting out of the open and into safety.
I felt a hard jerk as Niall slipped and fell, yanking me down with him. We both landed on our backs in the gooey mud.
"Ugh," I grunted in disgust. My clothes were ruined in mud and my hair was covered with the stuff.
This is just perfect.
Niall was looking at me and laughing uncontrollably.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"You are!" He kept laughing.
His laugh was the full-on guffaw I'd come to know. I realized that Niall laughed at everything. He found the tiniest things hilarious, and he didn't care if people thought he was weird. He loved to laugh, and his laugh was adorable and infectious. Before I knew it, I was cracking up too.
"What's so funny?" It was Niall's turn to ask.
"You," was all I could get out. It was true. Not only was his laugh hilarious, but his pure white clubbing outfit was covered in mud. Mud was mixed in with his dyed blond hair. I couldn't stop laughing.
Niall and I just lay in the mud, dying of laughter. I'm sure we looked like a bunch a weirdos, but I didn't care. At that moment, Zayn, the near danger, the mission, it was all forgotten.
I gradually realized that Niall was staring at me. I stopped laughing and looked at him.
"What?" I asked.
"You're beautiful when you laugh." He said quietly.
I suddenly felt awkward.
"Well, Louis did say I should laugh more." I attempted to break the sudden tension.
"You should." Niall smiled at me. "It would do you good. My mum always used to say that a daily dose of laughter makes everything better."
"Is that why you laugh so much?" I asked.
"Maybe."
A shot ripped through the air.
"Duck!" I yelled. I pulled Niall down and we both hit the ground. I crossed my arms over my head for protection.
Shit! I forgot about Zayn!
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A/N: I love cliffhangers! I know, I'm a cruel person but hey, they're super fun to write! A story without cliffhangers is so boooring. Anyway, how did you guys like this chapter? There will be more action between Zayn and Asheley Grace in the next chapter. Some shit will be going down! Thanks to all you guys who are still reading, and please vote and comment for a dedication!