The Story of Blood and Roses

"I'm sorry," he whispered. I nodded, wondering how being sorry would help me forget that I don't have anyone on this planet to fall back on.

"You still didn't tell me how you snuck out." I tried to change the topic.

"My dad doesn't stay with us; he's a busy man... So I live with mom." He shrugged. "She's drunk half the time, so she's rarely sober enough to know what I'm up to."

"Does your dad know this?" He nodded. "He still leaves you behind?"

"He's working. He pays the bills and the school fees... He's usually too busy to call." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You go to school?" He shook his head.

"Then why does he pay the fee?" I grimaced.

"Those are my savings." He smiled a little. "The money never reaches the school. The school I supposedly study hasn't got me enrolled. I've been hacking into his accounts and putting the money for the fees in my bank account every month for the past two or three years."

"And he hasn't got a clue about this?" He shook his head.

"All monetary transactions from his account are handled by an employee of his," he said as he rolled his eyes. "He's too easy to fool."

"That's not possible... What about parent/teacher meetings and stuff?"

"He doesn't care about those." He smiled.

"What about when he finds out that you're cheating him?" I asked, worried.

"I'll run." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing of importance.

"You should be in school, studying, having a nice childhood." All my anger was directed towards Anthony.

"I know what you're thinking. Don't blame Anthony. He's a cool guy. He helps me out all the time with the family stuff. He asked me to stay with my mom and help her get better." Surprised, I turned to him. He had an amused smile on his face.

"You didn't think he'd just use me, did you?" I shook my head, not believing a word he said. "He pays me a handsome amount of money; he encourages me to study when I'm not working."

"And he buys you toys?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes," he said, chuckling under his breath. "You'll see tomorrow. My toys are some of the best." He winked at me. I stopped the car.

We'd reached his place. He took off the seatbelt and opened the door. "See you tomorrow." I nodded.

He shut the door the car with a thud and walked away.

As I drove towards my apartment, my phone started ringing. I picked it up. "Mia, I found out about Jasper," Daisy blurted out.

"Great," I said, excited.

"But you need to come to headquarters. I needed to get the Chief's permission to get the information. You owe me," she hissed.

"Now?"

"Yes," she replied, obviously pissed off.

"It's two-thirty in the morning!"

"And the Chief wants you here." She hung up, leaving no room for discussion.

That was one of the many hazards of being a secret agent. The Chief could call you at any time he wanted, and the work of the criminals had to be monitored all day. You barely got any sleep, and people were always ready to kill you. When tired, you were weaker than usual and hence an easy target.

And the best part about it was you could never complain. The moment you started complaining, they would kick you out of the project and give it to one of your masochist of your colleagues. That's how it worked in the badass world.

The unofficial motto of the organization was 'no complaints, no demands'.

Now that I thought about it, the organization was very much like a mob family. We killed criminals, a lot of them. We destroyed their lives and gained a lot from it, and we took large sums of money to get the job done. We were loyal to the organization, yet there were people who would rat us out. And the mob families were the same! They killed people, criminals, and civilians. They destroyed people's lives at a whim; they gained from massacring people's lives. They got paid handsomely to get their work done. They were loyal to their boss, and obviously, they had spies all over the place. And they too killed the spies painfully.

The only difference was, we were criminals who killed criminals.

The main office was still full of people who rushed in and out. Some of them greeted me and moved out. I silently nodded at people who acknowledged me and went straight to the Chief's room.

"It's three in the morning, Daisy! This better be good, or I'm going to strangle you," I huffed. The Chief was not present in the room. I could see Daisy sitting on the couch across the room, her laptop on her lap as she typed.

"You need to see this." She smiled, brightly. I scurried off towards her and plopped down on the couch. She turned the laptop towards me and pointed at something.

"What is this?" I asked her, not getting the big deal about a fully blue screen flashing three starred words.

"This, dear Mia, is the password for all the records of the organization, even the high-security ones." She gave me a pointed look.

"Jasper?" I smiled, realizing what she meant. "How did you get it? The password, I mean." She rolled her eyes.

"It took hours to figure out the password. I called the Chief, and he was genuinely proud, so he let me go through Jasper's records and gave me access to every small bit of information on the database." She looked like a girl who'd been handed a lollipop. I rolled my eyes at her.

"He just gave it to you without a fight?" I couldn't believe it. She shook her head.

"Not without a fight," she sighed. "I think he gave me access to everything." She started typing furiously, "But I'm not sure if he's going to change everything again." She gritted her teeth as she concentrated on something.

"They change the password every week. Basically, in about two days, you're going to be back to square one. You better give me all the information fast. The chief might limit your access any moment." I was sure of it. The Chief would never jeopardize the safety of the agents like this. On a mission, yes, but when they were not doing anything, he would protect them at all costs.

She took in a deep breath and looked at me.

"Jasper joined the organization when he was sixteen." I nodded, gesturing her to continue. "He started his field work when he was seventeen and continued till he was twenty-one. He took up the job of training agents after that and continued until he was twenty-three. He voluntarily retired from his position because of some personal matters." I raised a brow, in need of more information.

"There is no more," she whispered.

"Nothing?" She shook her head. "Give me a picture!" I asked, exasperated. Her face scrunched up. "It's not there?"

"Seriously? I thought I had access to everything!" She shouted.

"His identity is something that can't be revealed to anyone." Both of us jumped as we heard the Chief's voice. He had a frown on his face as he walked over to his desk and sat down. He gave us disapproving looks as we stood up and greeted him.

"Daisy, as happy as I am that you could hack into the high-security database I'm disappointed that it came down to this. You exploited your liberties." He didn't even look at me as he spoke. I was in for another lecture.

Shit.

"But, si-" Chief cut her off.

"I don't want to listen to any of your explanations. I had told you that Jasper is none of your concern, but you kept investigating about him." He shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry, but you are not allowed to do this. You are excellent at your work, but what you did today could easily be portrayed as disloyalty." Daisy's head was bowed as she took in his reprimands. It was like she was being scolded by the principal of her school. "I hope that this will not happen in the future," he said with a stern look, clearly ending the conversation. "You may leave now." The two of us turned around to leave.

"Not you, Mia." I heard the Chief say and stopped walking. I turned back, knowing full well that I would get a fair share of scolding.

Daisy gave me a reassuring smile and hurried out of the room, leaving me alone with the Chief . . . the very angry chief.

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