Hello there. Sorry for the bit of a delay; I took the liberty of planning this somewhat shorter chapter before writing and finally, posting it. I hope you all enjoy your upcoming spring break.

"I got a closet filled up to the brim
With the ghosts of my past and their skeletons
And I don't know why
You'd even try
But I won't lie

You caught me off guard
Now I'm running and screaming

I feel like a hero and you are my heroine
Do you know that your love is the sweetest sin?"

~Boys Like Girls - Hero/Heroine

Was it really a walk of shame if it wasn't the morning after? Or was it always a walk of shame, regardless of the time of day? It certainly didn't seem shameful as Auggie walked out of the room, fresh from a shower.

Sonia had clapped his shoulder when he descended from the stairs. It was a motion saying "Congratulations" even though she whispered that the first woman always felt the worst and the weirdest. According to her, it would pass.

Auggie doubted that; he felt shameless, he was not happy, and this was close to being the worst moment of his life. Yes, it was Annie that had walked away, but maybe while they were in the bed, he could have been honest. Even if Sonia wasn't far from earshot, even if they were in a host club, even if they were a little tipsy, anything would have been a better option that having her simply get up and leave. Was she sad, even angered that a "mission" had come to this? That he had nothing to say on the topic of "Yeah, I just had sex with my best friend in the middle of Japan"? He knew very well that Annie would not disregard the event, but the thought of it terrified him completely. To be rejected by her mind was a fate much more cruel that being rejected by her body.

But there was another problem present; Jester's voice interrupted his stream of thoughts. "Ahh, you're first snag? Did you enjoy her?"

Enjoy? I worshipped. Auggie feigned a chuckle. "She was alright."

"Alright? She doesn't look simply alright."

A blind anger coiled inside of Auggie's gut. "Would I lie," he smoothly said, "about sex to my boss?"

Jester gave one of his annoyingly loud laughs. "True. Go home now, Auggie. Tomorrow, I will fill you in on the offer I gave you earlier."

Auggie took his leave and mechanically opened his walking stick. Feeling for the door, it didn't shock him when Sonia's voice came into his ears and her arm in his. "What a day," she sighed.

"You could say that again." The cool air hit him, refreshing his face. He felt Friday night in the form of constant chatter and clicking of heeled feet of women on the pavement outside the large club.

"And it's the weekend!" Sonia's voice was enthusiastic and estatic for the upcoming days. "Sleep all day."

Auggie snorted. "Easy for you to say. I've got a meeting with Jester and then work. And Sundays annoy me."

"Why is that?"

"They're so unproductive to me. I mope around all day and just wait for the excess time to go by. And it goes by really slowly, for your information. Not much for a blind guy to see and do."

She talked to him like he was crazy. "So you want something to do? Sleep. Monday starts the work week and it's always a pain in the ass."

Sleep. An arch nemesis, sleep had been on and off for Auggie for a long time now. He knew he was on the verge of being diagnosed with insomnia with the way he stayed up until 3AM, only to wake up three hours later for work. And now with this growing issue and desire for Annie, he knew the better parts of his nights would be spent staring into a white ceiling of a over used room in a foreign country.

Realizing he had yet to answer the girl, he quickly shook his head. "Sorry. Work, I'm not feeling work." Auggie's stomach turned at the idea of serving drinks and small to another woman when he already had one's scent all over him.

"Go out with me."

"What?" Auggie was completely taken aback at how forward she was.

"Let's go out! Nothing serious. You need down time, right?"

"But-"

"And you said you're moping around anyways, right?"

"I don't-"

"It's a date! We'll meet here okay, don't worry about a thing!" With a quick peck on his cheek, Auggie listened to her steps click into the distance, leaving him dumbfounded.

A date? When was the last time he had even gone on a date? While he was dating Parker, he had called it hanging out; their schedules were too off to make the time for dates. Pulsing sex during their evenings and lazy mornings were considered dates. And Annie? Well, dates never happened and didn't seem too likely in the future either.

Hailing the cab and tossing whatever money he had left to the driver, he let whatever talk show the cabbie was listening to invade his thoughts and float him away from the fact that he was booked for the entire weekend with a lunatic that liked guns, an agency that kept him awake at night with haunting memories, and a woman who he barely knew.

Great.

Auggie stood outside the door to the safe house feeling like he was back in high school, as if he was going to try to win an angry ex girlfriend back. This was positively insane. It was just sex. He had been through plenty worse. He shook the nerves and felt for the keyhole; in with the key and out with the same.

The house was quiet and warm. Kicking off the shoes that made him feel like he was walking on stilts for the day, and pulling apart the chokehold that a the had on him during his ride home, Auggie made his way to Annie's room. It was amazing how someone so close could be so far.

"Annie?"

No response. When he finally inched the door open, he heard her soft, systematic breathing.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

He paused only to hear the patter, and when he finally went back to his room, he decided that he wanted to spend his nights hearing her breathing rather than his own heartbeat. Despite having an arms dealer watching over his shoulder, it was that single decision that scared him the most.

Walking early the next day, he smelled the homey scent of fried eggs and butter. With a sleepy walk, Auggie padded to the kitchen.

"Good morning Auggie!" Cheery, so cheery. So sugar coated that it made his mouth go dry when he heard her voice.

"Mornin'," he said with a small wave.

"Coffee?"

"Please." He sat in a chair near the island until he felt his hand in hers as she handed him a steaming cup. "I've got a meeting with Jester today. I think he's going to fill me in completely."

"Maybe a dock, where the movements can be done easily? Do you need me to be there?"

"I don't think so. It's best to keep our personas distanced."

"Personas, yeah."

A strange pause followed until a plate slid towards him. "Eggs, toast. Edible stuff." She sounded proud of her simple accomplishment.

"So you didn't burn down the safe house. Excellent work, Walker." He knew she smiled at his comment and knowing that she was smiling kept is turmoil at bay.

"Auggie?"

"Yes?"

"I think we need to talk about this."

So much for at bay. "Yeah," he said quickly, palms beginning to sweat.

"But not now."

What a relief. What a let down too. "Oh."

"Amy. Katie. Our mission, these lives, those are things I need to put first. We're running out of time and this can wait just another day."

An icy feeling washed over his body. "Right," he said coolly, trying to push away the feeling that everything that wasn't the mission was utterly meaningless to her. It was an irrational thought; how many times she had his back? But he knew the truth: she would always be there as a co-worker. As an emotional crutch when his engagement fell apart while he was held captive. As a partner when he royally screwed up and lost a case in amidst a mission. But as a friend? She might as well have been a brick wall.

"It's not what I want to do. It's what we need to do."

"I know."

"So why are you talking like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you don't care."

The words wounded Auggie worse than any blade or bomb he had previously faced. "I do, I just." He felt a fist curl at his side, he heard her breathe in, and he felt his heart open. "I just thought we would cut the formalities. I thought it would be easier to admit that it might have been the best hours of my life."

Auggie shifted his eyes down, knowing his untouched coffee was growing colder with each minute passing by and he knew it was pointless to look down when everything was so dark to begin with, but at that very moment, he felt so exposed and simultaneously so alive, that he could swear he could remember sparks of fire and electricity that people envisioned when they realized they were falling in love. And he never quite felt this way about any one, nor had never experienced these flashes of colors and light, but something deep inside of him told him that his own electric currents were perfect. That this love, that her presence was perfection. That the idea of them coming to life was perfect.

"It was the best hours of my life too."

If butterflies could explode, then all of the high school butterflies in Auggie's stomach had spontaneously combusted.

And the ashes and remnants fell when she said she had to go. "I need to talk to Katie first. She's been quiet and she deserves to know how far we've come. In the mission."

"Alright." Auggie felt dazed. Sure it was no confession of undying love, but to know she too, enjoyed the time they spent was enough to send him on cloud nine. "Alright," he said again. "You get going. I need to get ready for the meet up with Jester anyways."

He felt her hand squeeze his. "Be safe, okay?"

"I will."

Back in his room, Auggie laid in bed, doing the exact opposite of what Sonia had urged him to do. How quickly Annie made him go from a cruel train of thought to an elated one. At one moment, he was ready to scream at her for being a terrible excuse of a friend. The next, he was ready to press her against the wall and confess his inner most feelings and desires to her. As he turned restlessly for an hour, he realized exactly how wrapped up he had become with her in the matter of a couple weeks and a safe house.

Annie had urged him to be safe. But she never said that she was the very person to be safe from.

"I'm very glad that you've taken up my offer."

"Not yet. I want to see exactly what I'm getting myself into. Well, know. Not see."

Jester chuckled. "Right you are."

Auggie had given up sleep after an hour passed. With another two hours to waste before his meeting with Jester, Auggie slowly groomed himself and prepared for the worst. It was too risky to take any soft of recording device along with him; he had no idea where he was going or what the plan was. He settled for an easy prepaid phone that the agency had secured for him. Dressing as if it was any other workday, he stepped out, hailed a cab, and went to the club. Only a few minutes later, he stepped into Jester's personal car.

Seated in the back, Auggie sat across the powerful man, a glass of champagne in his hand. He heard a woman's voice, but it was unfamiliar and Jester yet to introduce them. There was constant tapping and swift Japanese exchanges between the two. While Jester's voice was playful and upbringing like it always was, her voice was cold and calculating. Auggie felt that he was the only one that was deeply troubled by this. Jester simply talked to her as if she was speaking in melodies.

Too annoyed to ask who she was and too smart to ask where they were going, Auggie simply plugged in his iPod after a long, quiet five minutes. Jester made no motion for his attention, which made Auggie grateful. Switching from cluttering sound to beautiful jazz easily made him relax against the leather despite the strangers in front of him and the potential harm that awaited him at the end of the car ride.

It was about forty minutes later, though, when Jester politely tapped on his kneecap. Jolting from his blank stare and cheek pressed against the window position, Auggie faced the club owner.

"We have arrived."

"Good. Where are we?"

The sound of windows opening and a few more uttered Japanese words along with the smell of salty oceanic water already answered him before Jester did. "A port, Auggie."

"And what kind of business am I here for?"

"I'd thought I'd choose to be completely honest with you." Now speaking directly to him, Jester had his smooth, persuading voice on. "Years ago, I was a freshman at a prestigious university here. I wasn't the wealthiest college student, but then again, what college student is? But my family and I made it through. Working weekends at the local bar with a friend of mine, going to parties only to walk out with empty arms. Things like that made up my life.

"The bar paid me the bare minimum and life gave me all the bullshit it could possible pile onto my shoulders. It, however, never came in the way of the dream I had of opening a business. I didn't know who to contact, or even what I wanted to sell. I just wanted it, whatever it was, to sell fast, and to sell like mad."

Auggie nodded.

"The thing about sex, Auggie, is that it always leaves something behind. Customers walk into my club only grazing fingertips of what they can possibly have. They go home, tell their husbands, boyfriends, family, that it was just another get together at the bar. But it's never just like that. Never assume that a woman is pure at heart. All humans are damned to sin.

"So why not make sin into a business? Temptation is the key, Auggie. When temptation calls, everyone runs to it. I finished school quickly, and with my idea in my head, I planned to take on the world. But I alone, only thought this was a good idea."

"Your family didn't support you."

"Obviously. The idea of wooing young woman and controlling good-looking men was something that my high-strung family couldn't bare to keep their eyes open to. They didn't want to fund my project or give it the light of day. Until," Jester's voice got extremely excited now. "Until, I was given the opportunity of a life time."

Auggie's heart accelerated. This was it. "Someone gave you the money? Was it your friend?"

"Better. It was an old professor of mine at the university. I told him my plan, my wonderful idea. And though he was about 15 years to my senior, he adored it. He said that it was a clever way to attract the other gender while keeping them satisfied. Women thrive on satisfaction and men, when paid enough, will satisfy.

"And I know it seems a little odd. We come from a world that objectifies women, but I urge you to hear me out when I say that I come from a viewpoint that simply sees everyone as a game piece. My professor said that things such as gender and race did not matter. It was mastering the manipulation of beauty."

This guy is absolutely nuts. Auggie nodded.

"The money was given to me, and I got to work. A year later, my club opens, and I'm raking in money like no other member from my family. What good is a doctorate if it's going to take another eight years? I got triple in half the time."

"So then what's with the docks?"

Jester paused to take another sip of champagne. "I paid back my debts a while back." This information made Auggie confused. "But there is much more money out there."

"You extended the business."

"You could say that. My hosts are wonderful men. They are paid to do the art of seduction without giving in. That's what separates them from simple and petty whores. They never give into the money, the lust, and the façade. And luckily, my professor wanted men just like this.

"It is not just labor and hard work. I was told to choose the specifically tight lipped and strongest men. Some leave my club and never come back, simply drowning in the money that's offered. It's a lucrative field, the one that you are about to witness."

Auggie laughed and knocked back the rest of his glass. "I like the idea of money. But you're leaving out the key fact that I want." And what I need to nail your ass to the ground.

"What is that?"

"What kind of business is this, Jester? What could possibly make more money than the world's oldest profession?"

"Weapons, of course."

Got 'em. "Weapons?"

Jester took the champagne glass from Auggie's hand to refill it. "The world's oldest profession is no match for the technology of the future, Auggie. The movement of arms is just as financially rewarding, if not more."

"That sounds like something that could be better suited for someone who has assets that I cannot ever have back."

"Ah, how quickly you dismiss your own significance. Do you do that to yourself often?"

Auggie opened his mouth but no words came out, letting Jester continue. "It's not all brawn in this game, Auggie. I reread your resume a few times, and see that you could be used in our computing and operating systems. We waste plenty of resources every shipment with irresponsibility. With your skills, we can hone them to provide faster shipments, better strategy, and of course, more money."

"This is-"

"A lot to take in, yes."

Auggie said nothing but took another sip of the expensive champagne provided to him. There was an awkward silence; a silence that he had hoped Jester would do the honors of breaking. But apparently, this was a decision that had to be pondered, weighed, and made in front of the club owner at this very moment.

Auggie sighed audibly after a few minutes. "I'll need time to think about this," he said finally.

"Of course, of course." Jester's phone beeped obnoxiously. "Ah, a text. Suki says a friend is here to meet us."

"Suki?"

"The woman who was riding with us. Personal assistant. Former bartender. Current wife."

Auggie had to choke back the drink in order to keep himself from spitting it in Jester's face. "Wife?"

"As young as I look, every man finds a certain peace in a certain woman. She is my peace."

"Oh. Well, I had no idea-"

"That a woman would approve of this trade?"

More than ever, Auggie wished he could shove the wine glass down Jester's throat, or tear his tongue out. Anything to keep the man from interrupting him. The way Jester finished his thoughts, and correctly at that, left Auggie feeling extremely vulnerable to the man's scrutiny. "Not at all. I feel like she was being cold to you."

Jester gave that hearty, ridiculous laugh again. "People say women are lovers or fighters. I disagree. They are both." There was a clinking and Jester guided the glass out of Auggie's hand. "Now, I have someone you ought to meet. Follow me, to your left."

Auggie exited the car along with Jester. He took Auggie's arm gently, as if he was handling a child instead of a grown man. It sent shivers down Auggie's back at how a forbidding and devious person could be so compassionate to the ones he looked down on.

"Ah, here we are." Auggie took a deep breath of the ocean. Gulls flocked noisily and the water sloshed around in a lazy manner. But above all of that, there were footsteps. Heavy, laden with sadness and disastrous worry, in the form of footsteps.

"Auggie, this is Dimitri. He's here to take you under his wing."

Thoughts? Review. Thank you for reading. Thank you... for sticking around.