Well, it as been FOREVER! So sorry! Nutcracker's over and then, woop-dee-doo, here's exams! Anyway, I'll try to update more. I just noticed that the second chapter didn't really end properly, though, since I already posted it, I think I'm gonna leave it alone. Hope you enjoy!

Cress gasped and her hand flew to her mouth in surprise. Standing in front of her were two large men. They were muscled and tall and had hunched backs like an animal's. Each had sharpened, unnatural fingernails that stretched three inches from their fingertips and canines that gleamed in the low light.

"Who are they?" Cress asked Thorne, pointing frantically in the monsters' direction.

"They don't like me," he said, pulling out his knife. Cress's eyes widened in horror and she felt she might faint. Thorne, as he had done earlier, pushed her behind him to shield her. He then stepped cautiously closer to the two men, carefully keeping his knife from their view.

"Carswell, how have you been?" the smaller one sneered. He had brown hair and ugly, bright hazel eyes. "Found anything interesting?"

"No, today's been kind of slow," Thorne replied, flashing a grin, though they could all tell it was forced. "You?"

"Only a note informing me of your betrayal," the man said, a small growl in his throat.

"Ahh…That. I'm guessing my offer was not satisfactory to you?"

Both men let out a loud growl, almost a howl and Thorne took a step back in surprise.

"Now, now. We can work this out. What do you want, 25%" Two additional growls in unison caused Thorne to raise his hand defensively. "Whoa, men. I mean 25% plus the already determined amount."

At this the men seemed almost satisfied. They behaved as spoiled children who had more trouble than usual getting what they wanted. Cress hated that Thorne was giving in to them, even if she had no idea what they were talking about.

"Alright, now that's cleared up," said Thorne, letting his hands fall to his sides and strategically placing his knife into his pocket, "back to real things. How's Alicia, Jim?"

"Don't call me Jim," said the yellow-eyed one from earlier, "or I'll bite your head off."

"Still too soon? Sorry. Well, now me and my…" he gestured down at Cress and the wolf-men seemed to have only just noticed her, "—my companion here must be going. We've got a lot of work to do today so…" Thorne grabbed Cress's arm and dragged her towards the men. When Thorne tried to move past Jim, the huge man grabbed hold of his arm.

"And why do you think you get to leave?"

Thorne chuckled nervously, and tried retracting his arm from Jim's grip. Jim held on tighter. Thorne stared at his arm a minute before replying cheerily, "I thought we came to an agreement already. 25%, right?"

"75% split between the two of us. You said plus the amount already promised."

Thorne flexed his jaw. Though he was obviously intimidated by these men, his loyalty to money and greed seemed to take precedence of this fear.

"Right. 75%. Now, my arm?" Jim finally released them but still followed them with his eyes. When they were nearly out of earshot Jim called out to them.

Cress and Thorne turned. "If you try to jip us out of what we deserve again, we'll kill you," Jim said happily as his friend grinned with him.

Thorne grinned and turned back onto the path he had started, his hand still gripping Cress's arm tightly. After another few minutes passed, Cress looked behind her shoulder to see if the men had followed them. She was pleased to see no sign of them and sighed with relief. She turned back forwards nearly stumbling into Thorne when he stopped suddenly. Looming high above her was a gray door with a miniature window. Thorne stepped up to this door and opened it for the both of them.

Bright sunlight poured into the basement, momentarily blinding Cress. Thorne, still holding her arm, ushered her out first. He followed, stepping into the sunlight. Cress had most definitely noticed his attractiveness before, but now it was apparent through every feature, every curve of his face. He was the most handsome man Cress had ever laid eyes on.

Completely ignoring that Cress had just turned into a puddle of mush in front of him, Thorne continued on his trek. He turned around a corner to get to the parking lot, Cress assumed, and pulled extra hard on her arm.

Cress yelped, her arm suddenly throbbing in his grip.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Cress," he said finally releasing her.

"It-it's fine," replied Cress, biting her lip as she rubbed gently at her arm. She felt like crying, but thought it inappropriate. Then again, how much did she really know of how to behave while being kidnapped? As the thought crossed her mind, she thought it may not be entirely improper to scream at this moment, when he'd let her go. Cress considered this a moment, then decided to remain quiet. Excluding the fact, he'd probably stab her or do worse for screaming, she was certain she would feel incredibly awkward in said situation. Cress could already imagine his funny furrowed brow as she screamed for no apparent reason.

"What are you thinking?"

It took Cress a moment to realize he meant her and another moment to think of something to say.

"I—."

After a too long pause, Thorne raised a brow questioningly. "You…what?"

Cress decided to just be honest, though it was probably naïve. "I was thinking of screaming, but I felt that would be weird for both of us, so I didn't," she rambled.

"Oh. Well, thank you. For not screaming," said Thorne with a surprised look.

"You're welcome," Cress replied uncertainly.

"Turn this way," Thorne pointed to a nice, expensive looking RV. It was blue and green and black and red and had a picture of a naked lady on the outside of the driver's panel. Sprawled near the gas tank were the words 214 Rampion, Class 11.3 in large letters.

"Rampion?"

"Hmm?"

Cress pointed to the vehicle, "Rampion? What's a Rampion?"

"Technically, lettuce," Thorne said, "but I thought '214 Lettuce' sounded way less cool."

"You seem to care an awful lot about what's 'cool'," Cress sighed.

"Yeah. I guess I do."

They were quiet until they made it to the car. To Cress's surprise, Thorne didn't stuff her in the trunk or hide her in the back but opened the passenger door for her to enter. He had to pick her up to help her into the seat.

"Thank you," Cress squeaked.

"Welcome."

There was a 28 second pause before he himself had climbed in. He started the ignition. Cress looked around the thing. It was one of the most spacious RVs she'd seen, though she'd never been in a RV before. As a child, Cress had thought they were the most awesome vehicles in creation.

In front of her there was a compartment that most likely held a makeshift foldable desk. She longed to open it and again have the security of a laptop resting on her legs, or the wonderful stretch of her fingers across a keyboard. Cress refrained, however, and refocused her attention on the back of the vehicle. Cress turned as far as she could in her seat to get a better look. There was a good sized table with a booth of white seats where Cress saw some seatbelts peek out. The refrigerator was high-quality and stainless steel. She could even see the digital screen that covered most of the door showing the refrigerator's contents. Next to this was a seamless stove and oven, both were sleek and black. The cabinets that surrounded these accessories were wooden and a cherry brown. Back farther there was the living room with two comfy looking couches, both of which were an off-white color with gold trim. Like before, Cress could see seatbelts in certain places of these seats. There seemed to be additional compartments to hold goodies and food and drink hidden all over the RV because Cress's eye caught on at least two more. Farther down the RV was a huge flat screen TV of the newest model, she was sure. The screen was off, but Cress could already imagine the perfect, crisp image that probably came off that screen. The TV was mounted on the wall diagonally facing the couches, which were so close they were almost across from each other. Under the TV there was a decent sized fireplace that was lit with fake embers and fire. The fake fire crackled and rolled, mesmerizing Cress. She couldn't see any of the bedrooms, though she longed to very much. The entire area wasn't dark like most RVs but had plenty of natural light floating in. Cress also noticed the state of the art lighting system and chandelier that hung over the living room area. She guessed that these were equally as bright and yearned to see them turned on. Cress sighed in contentment and stayed looking behind her until her neck ached from her position. At this, she realized she should probably be paying attention to where her kidnapper was taking her. Cress shifted and turned in her seat. Thorne glanced at her once and smirked but stayed quiet. They stayed like this for a while, him perfectly satisfied with the quietness and her enthralled by the places they were passing.

Cress slipped off her shoes and then pulled the heels of her feet into her thighs. She then snuggled up into the chair. She yawned sweetly and let her long locks fall in front of her eyes. Cress certainly didn't feel tired but she was understandably so. Besides, she wanted to rest on this ridiculously comfy seat.

Again, Cress let her fantasies take over her thoughts. She was an explorer, an archaeologist about to search the Sahara for clues into everyone's past. She was brave and daring and fought off many wild animals that tried to harm her companions. She was strong, adventurous, and brave.

Her fantasy dissipated when Thorne slammed on brakes for the nineteenth time. It was only then that she realized what a terrible driver he turned out to be. Cress had already seen him run at least four red lights and merge lanes more than once or twice. He had also almost rammed into a minivan while messing around with the radio, trying to get signal to his favorite station. Just then, he had decided to stop for the light but he did so very roughly.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Got somewhere to be? You might want to cancel."

She hadn't thought of how being kidnapped could ruin her career forever. She tried not to think about it.

"You didn't answer the question," she said simply.

"I don't think I should tell you."

"I'll count then," Cress said defiantly, the effects of her fantasy still making her feel big and noble. "One…Two…Thr—."

"You aren't serious, right?" Thorne interrupted, laughing.

"Someone's in a good mood."

"Look. I just lost 25% of my profits in two minutes flat. No, I am most certainly not in a good mood."

Thorne swerved right and nearly ran into a light post. Cress screamed and gripped her harness. He straitened the vehicle and sighed deeply, looking slightly shaken himself.

"Are you okay?" he asked, after a moment.

"Yeah," replied Cress meekly, clutching her stomach.

"We're…" he stopped himself, then seemed to decide it wasn't worth it, "we're almost there, by the way."

"Okay." A pause. "And, yes, actually. I had somewhere to be, which I thought you already knew? Considering you knew where I'd be and you kidnapping me and such."

"Kidnapping? Is that what you think?"

"Well…yeah. That was what I thought," for some reason Cress know felt stupid for assuming this.

"This is no kidnapping, merely a borrowing. A loan of your intelligence," Thorne said matter-of-factly.

"Right. Except…that makes absolutely no sense," Cress deadpanned.

Thorne busted out laughing at her remark. She felt her cheeks heat and laughed with him.

"You might just be right," Thorne said. "Where did you have to be, though? I didn't do that much research."

Cress was surprised this pained her slightly. It kind of hurt knowing that someone could just pass over the details of her life because they looked boring. And those details surely looked boring being that her life had been bottled up in her house, her small town school, and her average job. Cress pushed these feelings away, however, and continued the conversation.

"I was going to Queens SCJB headquarters for my first day. Hopefully, I was going to start working there. It's, like, a big deal to tech lovers."

Thorne nodded, though Cress was sure he had no idea what she was talking about. "That would've been nice. Congrats."

Did he seem…regretful?

"Yeah, it was kind of my dream," she said sadly, ironically.

"Sorry," he mumbled, not sounding apologetic at all, "but they'll probably take you back."

Cress only sighed in response and continued to look out her window. She had no idea where in LA she was but she at least she knew they were in LA. And being in LA was good enough for her. Despite her current predicament, she couldn't help but be glad and hopeful when she looked around her. Los Angles was a beautiful city. She wasn't off to a great start but, someday, this could be her home. Whenever she escaped from Thorne, whenever that would be, she would start anew. She would get a job at Queens SCJB and she was going to love it. It would be the best job imaginable. She would make great friends there and settle down for life.

Cress was a 24-year-old woman; she needed to start acting like it.

First, Cress had to escape from Thorne. She was a little saddened by this prospect, because she felt he wasn't all bad and would be lying if she said she hadn't enjoyed her time with him. Maybe if Thorne wasn't a criminal and if he hadn't have kidnapped her, they might have grown to be friends one day. She couldn't think of that, though. She had to think of an escape plan.

Thorne was obviously not the best kidnapper. He had left her unrestrained in the passenger seat right beside him. He had also left her without a blindfold so she could see wherever they went, though, admittedly, she hadn't been paying attention. He had also granted her access to his knife for a short while. It was painfully apparent he wasn't that worried about her running off, whether it was about her actual importance or just because of his attitude, she didn't know. If she only focused, she could figure this out.

Thorne said he needed her smarts and computer hacking skills; he knew that much about her. But then he said he hadn't been very thorough in his examination of her records. She couldn't tell if he just said that to gain her trust, though. He didn't strike her as someone who did a whole lot of planning, either, though he wasn't an idiot.

It didn't matter.

She was an intelligent and clever spy, and no man could kidnap her. Crescent Moon Darnel, the youngest and greatest spy at the agency, would not be on the losing side for long.