"Mrs. Marquette are you ready to go?" Sark asked, making a crook in his arm for April to put her arm through.
She nodded, trying to give herself reassurance, slipped her arm through his and said, "Yes." Giving him a weak smile.
The two of them together, looking relaxed, appeared to be the perfect couple. April found it comfortable to be so close to him in his presence. But then again, this was the first time she had been in his presence without a gun pressing into her, that she was with him on her own free will, well slightly on her own free will. She still liked the way it felt.
Some people turned their heads when they saw a woman in sweatpants and a man in a very expensive looking designer suit walking together along the street of the fashion district. But besides their attire, to the outside world, they looked perfect. Like they belonged together.
Slipping into the persona of Annie Marquette was easy for April. For some reason, playing someone else was natural to her. She didn't know what to attribute the natural actress in her too, but she was an actress. Annie Marquette was happy. She recently married the love of her life and she was set up to become the trophy wife of a successful businessman. Happy, together, and fully satisfied.
Andrew, who Annie referred to as "Andy" or "Honey", was the CEO of some company in Britain that Annie had no idea what it did. She just fully appreciated the paycheck he brought home every week. Annie met Andrew on a blind date while he was in New York City for business. Six months later she was moving into his flat in London. They traveled in the social circles of London and were known for giving exquisite dinner parties.
April had managed to come up with this lie effortlessly. She liked creating in her mind a life that she would have no similarities to, especially a life that she definitely could never have after this experience.
Walking into the first store on the corner, like Julian wanted them too, April forgot everything she had been going through in the past 24 hours. The clothes consumed her. Like any normal girl, she became enveloped in the racks of clothes. The designer was someone that April had never heard of, but then again that was nothing new to her. Her mother had always expected her to know the difference between a black Gucci dress and a black Dolce dress, but she never understood the purpose of it. They were just two black dresses. Who needs to know that?
April could not exactly find what she was looking for. She liked everything she saw, but nothing stood out. It's not like she wanted to make a statement or anything. She just wanted to find an outfit that fit her newly created persona of Annie. Annie, although, was very much like April, so it could be said that April was Annie.
Looking through racks and racks of clothes, all of the clothes seemed to just be the same thing after awhile.
Then she heard, "Annie, love, look over here."
Julian had a light-blue dress in his hand. It was sleeveless and appeared to come just above the knee. From the waist it slightly billowed out, almost making the illusion of a ballerina dress. April immediately fell in love with it.
"Oh Andy. I love it," she commented, walking over to him. She placed a kiss on his cheek to keep up the appearance that they were married. It is what couples do. Wow, I am really getting into this. I hope Julian doesn't think that I am over playing this. I am beginning to be so concerned with what he thinks. I shouldn't be. Why am I? I could easily get away from this. I could go home and be with my parents. I can't. Those guys that were shooting at us earlier, they were serious. I can't leave him to deal with those people all by himself.
"Vaughn we have to find some type of way to get April back," Sydney said determined. She had just finished a meeting with the parents of April. Finding out that you have a cousin and that she is not in the best situation that she could be, definitely gets you thinking about how much you want to take her out of that situation.
"Syd, the only way we can do that is if we find Sark," Vaughn replied. Distaste, immediately came to Vaughn's mind when he thought of the infamous Mr. Sark. Out in the field he had been the only one to give Sydney any real competition and it unnerved him to know that Sark had the capabilities of killing the woman that he loved.
The thought of April with Sark definitely twisted Sydney's stomach. She knew what he was capable of. He had seen her torture Will and in part had to do with the killing of her best friend, Francie. Both of them were not in her life right now and it had to do with her, her involvement in this torrid world of espionage. Everyone in her life was connected to this world of treachery, even people as innocent as Francie and now April, somehow get caught up in it.
"I know, but we've dealt with Sark before. He can be very flexible in his loyalties. Maybe he wants to get April off his hands."
"Syd," he paused, looking straight into his eyes, "If he wanted to get April off his hands he would kill her. He hasn't done that yet, so he obviously has some purpose for her. It could be a trap. How do we know that the Derevko we have in custody right now isn't playing us? The Covenant has Katya Derevko working for them. We don't know where she is. How do we know that the Covenant isn't in league with Petra Derevko also? Lately, Sark has been working for the Covenant. Sydney, the Covenant kidnapped you for two years. They wanted something. They still do. This very well has the pieces of a trap," Vaughn made his case.
"Vaughn," Sydney rubbed her forehead, "I can't just not do anything. Dixon gave us full jurisdiction to do what we need to find April. I am going to take advantage of that and try to get Sark along with getting my cousin back."
Even Vaughn knew that if Sydney's determination was strong enough, there was no way that he was going to be able to convince her not to go after April. "Sydney, all I am saying is that this looks dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt."
He placed his hand on her shoulder, reinforcing the persona Vaughn had taken that night while Sydney was on a mission against her nemesis Anna Espinosa; he was her guardian angel.
"I know," Sydney said out of appreciation. He had always been there for her. Always. That was it, always.