So my dears, how are you finding it so far?
I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I did writing it, it gets better when Zach arrives, I promise. Don't worry; you'll meet him soon.

Disclaimer: Ally Carter owns all.

Chapter One

Poison Kisses and Deadly Wishes

"Peacock is moving." The observation came with a fresh round of static. I winced and rolled my eyes.

"Yes I can see that." I retorted to the coms unit in my ear. God, I hated this job and I hated all the ignorant Secret Service agents who seemed to think I was nothing more than a seventeen-year-old girl who was on the protection team for one purpose only; to keep Macey McHenry company.

The only reason I still came to the campaigns was because Macey was my friend (If you could even call her that) and I really didn't trust the safety of Macey in the hands of the idiots who commented every time Macey so much as blinked. That and my aunt was dead set on me spending time with people my own age.

Sure they noticed she was moving, but what they didn't notice was that the elevator down the hall had dinged some time ago yet no one had walked out. They also didn't notice that there was a gun strapped to my left thighor that the security camera overhead had just turned off.

So no, I definitely wasn't going to stop attending these things, because Macey McHenry needed protection and she sure as hell wasn't getting it from the buff guys standing behind her.

As we passed through the lobby of the hotel there was a crash as one of the vases fell to the floor and a feminine southern accent sang "Oppsy-Daisy" in a guilty way.

Macey appeared to find this amusing but I just hoped for the sake of the country that whoever that girl was, she didn't end up working for the CIA.

In the next hallway that we walked along, a maid with caramel coloured skin bumped into Macey and started apologising in a British accent. What the Secret Service didn't see was the bug the maid had planted in Macey's pocket.

But I had sure seen it. Without a moment's hesitation I had the girl pressed up against the wall of the hallway and the gun from my thigh was now in my hand. "Now why would you want to plant a bug on Miss McHenry?" I asked the girl sweetly. In my line of work one spoke politely to the criminals.

"Looks like I don't need to be worried about your safety after all Mace." The British girl laughed. As the Secret Service spoke into their radios about how they had the situation covered. Yeah right, they didn't do anything. I had the situation under control not them.

"Bex darling, I thought I told you not to follow me here," started Macey, "I did say that the Secret Service had it covered. Does the school know you're here?"

"Course not, besides it seems less like the Secret Service has it covered and more like this girl here does."

Upon realising that this girl –Bex- was not a threat to Macey's safety, I let her go and went to lean against the wall, returning my gun to its holster. "If she has you protected can I go home now Macey? I've had a busy night."

I would love nothing more than to just go home and sleep, and thismysteriousgirl 'Bex' seemed to know what she was doing. Besides the big buff bodyguards could surely get through one night without me.

Macey waved me away and I left through the back door. Now I wouldn't actually go so far as to call Macey a friend but she was as close to one as I had had in a while; being home-schooled and spending my time doing unspoken of jobs for the CIA meant that I didn't have much of a social life.

I took the subway home and smiled at the old lady who lived in the apartment below mine. I used the elevator and arrived at the floor I lived on. I walked into my aunt's apartment and dropped the envelope of money onto the kitchen counter. "Hey squirt, how did the date go?" Abby winked and started to open the envelope.

I was sure that Abby calling what I had done earlier that night a "date" was her way of teasing me about how the only boys I ever kissed were the ones I had to kill.

Sure I had been on dates before, several actually, but none of the guys had ever made it as far as my doorstep. It was really their fault for wanting to kiss me early.

"Yeah, yeah, funny. Speaking of dates, where's Townsend?" I took a quarter of the cash reward while Abby spun around to the music, looking gorgeous and carefree.

Whenever I got payed I would give Abby half to help pay the bills, a quarter went into a savings account for when I was eighteen and I would keep the last quarter to do with whatever I wanted. And it wasn't like I got ten dollars an hour like most teenagers, nope, my job payed me quite a lot of money. Though it usually depended on who was doing the paying.

"I don't see him that much; we can spend time apart you know. Besides he is off on some big top secret hush-hush job for the next week or so." Abby winked and then looked at the clock.

I took that as my cue to leave. "Well, I'm going to bed, night. But I expect pancakes tomorrow for breakfast!"I called asI backed back out of the apartment and walked to the one across the hall.

Abby lived in a two story apartment in one of the large glamorous apartment buildings on the Upper East Side of New York, and as a sixteenth birthday present she had bought me the identical apartment that was right across the hall. In Abby's eyes if I was old enough to kill a man than I should be allowed my own living space. And I totally agreed. We still ate meals together though.

I unlocked my front door and walked up the stairs into my bedroom. I was halfway through taking off my extremely uncomfortable footwear when the one constant man in my life pattered in through the bedroom door.

Abby had given me the grey kitten about two months ago and I still found it kind of sad that he was the only male figure to last that long around me lately. I picked up the kitten and hugged it to my chest telling it all about my day. So maybe I was slightly lonely sometimes, that was nothing to be judged about.

Sylvester or Suzie for short (Abby gave it the nickname don't ask me why) purred and jumped onto my pillow where he seemed content to stay.

I shook my head at him and pulled my extra-large pyjama t-shirt over my head. The t-shirt was black, ended mid thigh and had a grey print of the scene from Disney's Peter Pan where Peter and the children were flying over London, and below the picture was the quote 'Second star to the right and straight on 'till morning.' The shirt was another present from Abby; she knew that I adored Disney movies.

Thinking about Abby made me smile, my aunt was the closest thing I had to a mother and a friend as well. After my parents' death nine years ago I had been raised by Abby, it was Abby who had taught me everything I knew about my uh... profession.

Sure I missed my parents but if they had survived I wouldn't be the way I was today, I wouldn't live with my charismatic aunt and I definitely wouldn't have been making a lot of money by giving out poison kisses. I guess that sounds bad, I do wish my parents were alive. I truly do. But at the same time I'm not going to go around moping over their death; I have a good life and I love Abby and my job.

"Good morning Miss Morgan, stop any hearts lately?"

Joe Solomon was one of my only tutors who knew about what I did, though I'm not exactly sure if he approved or not.

"Oh you know how it is Joe, I'm the heart stopper." *7 I drawled as I poured myself a coffee.

We were talking about it as though I was just some girl who was breaking hearts in the usual sense. I wasn't. Joe and I spent the next hour going through surveillance techniques and I was just about to grab another coffee when Aunt Abby strolled through the door.

"Joe," She acknowledge my teacher before turning to me, "Cam you have a client. And they are willing to pay quite a large sum."

"You know the target's name?" I asked as Mr. Solomon walked out the front door saying that he would call in later that afternoon.

"Uh huh," My Aunt nodded and leaned against the counter, "Zachary Goode."

Once again, thank you to my darling Beta Ritt, seeing as this chapter was a colossal mess before she came along.

Quick tidbit, Cam doesn't go to Gallagher, but the rest of the girls do and yes it is still a school for spies. Cam doesn't know Bex or Liz yet and she only knows Macey because she is on her protection detail. You will meet Kitty Kat soon enough.

Review, Favourite, Follow.

~Matisse x