Chapter 9

Kennedy and David Jones had been on the phone for several hours pulling in every favor that had but were getting nowhere.

"David, I don't know what we are supposed to do here! Why not just come after us? Why did they have to get Mercedes involved in all of this?"

David ran his hand through his hair. "A few months back, Tanaka called me. He wanted me to represent him. I turned him down. I don't even know how he got our new number."

"Why didn't you tell me!" She said standing from her desk.

"What was there to tell! He wanted an answer and I gave him one. How was I to know he had his son watching her?" He said avoiding eye contact.

Kennedy gasped, shaking her head and seeing right through him. "You knew? Knew Justin was watching her? You knew she was in harm's way and you didn't tell me?"

David went to his file cabinet and grabbed a manilla folder. "He sent these two weeks ago and asked me if I had changed my mind. I just thought he was trying to intimidate us like before."

She took the files and shook her head. "These are her at School, out with her friends… you didn't think this was serious? She beat his son David and didn't even bother to call us to tell us what happened! I had to hear it from Mary and you know how happy she was to tell me!"

Kennedy finished looking at the photos and frowned. "How long was his son watching her?"

"A few weeks." David said, looking at his wife.

"Then why does he have a few photos of her from two years ago. She stopped wearing braids after one of her students spit glue in her braids…"

David looked at his wife before looking away. "I thought he was bluffing."

Kennedy narrowed her eyes ot him. "Is that why you had Mia move closer to us?"

"She has kids! Mercedes was better alone and away from us, if we had gone to her or warned her they would've done something far worse and Mia needed to be hidden before they got to her. I had to make a decision, they were only after Mercedes…" David said feeling like the worst father because he wanted to reach out to her but knew how they worked.

"YOU PUT MY DAMN BABY IN DANGER!" Kennedy shouted

"What do you think would have happened if I warned Mercedes? She barely speaks to me as it is, she would have ignored me!"

"She knows when you're being serious, she would have heeded your warning! And the reason she doesn't speak to you is because of what you did when she was in high school!" Kennedy replied, shaking her head before calling a former judge hoping like hell this would work.

"I protected her! Like I always have and she is the one who decided that she was better than this family. That she was above us!" He defended angrily.

"She is better than us, look what we've done. You protected Mia and left her alone! HOW DO YOU PICK ONE CHILD OVER THE OTHER!"

David shook his head. "I did what I had to do. And I would do it again! We provided for our family and yes some of it was illegal and it made things complicated for the family. But when we told the girl's what we did, Mia stood by us! She showed grace."

Kennedy huffed slamming the phone down. "Mercedes was a kid! She just started high school and we uprooted her from all of her friends because of something you did! I just had to come behind you and clean up!"

"She was attacked! They threatened us and attacked her, what was I supposed to do? Let them do worst things to her? Let them have her?! I protected this family!"

"You betrayed me by going behind my back! You should have let me fix it. You should have let me take care of things." He said angrily. "You can't keep using the connections for every little thing Kennedy! Those are safety nets for the girls after we're gone! You really think you are innocent in all of this? You had one job and that was to make sure Tanaka went down YEARS ago!"

Kennedy stared him down, shaking her head with a frown. "Where is the man that I married?"

"News flash, I am the man you married. You just chose to ignore this side of me because it didn't fit the picture you painted in your head. My family has always been hard hitters, you knew what you were marrying and that's why that phone call you keep trying to make won't go through. Your daddy can't help you this time." David spat back before his phone went off and an old number he hadn't seen in years popped up.

Sam pulled up to his grandparents home seven hours later and let out a tired sigh. He looked over at a sleeping Mercedes and smiled, he would have to check the house before letting her get out so he let her sleep while he walked around.

Mercedes stirred, waking with a start and sitting up in the back of the car, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sam?" She said sleepily looking to the front of the car and watching him walk around the house. She was tempted to get out but she knew that he needed to do his search first, so she sat back waiting for him to return.

Sam checked the perimeter of the property before checking the shed and finally approaching the house. It had been years since his family had been out here but luckily he knew the house like the back of his hand. He opened the door,immediately feeling a chill he started to reach for his gun before realizing he hadn't carried it with him.

He took a cautious step fully inside, looking around the living room before advancing into the first downstairs bedroom then the bathroom. He breathed a little easier before walking into the kitchen and hearing the sound of a gun cocking.

"Don't move, I'd much rather make the clean easy." He heard before feeling the barrel of a gun on the back of his head. "You aren't an easy person to find Evans."

Sam slowly raised his hands and let out a breath. "You do not want to do this, this is really above your pay grade Mike."

"Funny you'd think that considering you're a free hit. No one will even know because my only job is to take the girl. So killing you is just a perk." Mike replied nudging him forward.

Sam let out a grunt before moving forward. "Killing me will only make things more difficult on you, just walk away." Sam reasoned.

"You're funny and useless, just like this conversation so any last words?" Mike asked, pressing the gun harder.

Mercedes had watched the clock, waiting for Sam to return and after five minutes past she started to get worried, it never took him that longer to do a perimeter search. Chewing her bottom lip, fear crept inside of her. What if Sam was hurt? What if someone was there? She might have been paranoid but she didn't know how to shake that bad feeling.

After hitting the ten minute mark she turned to the trunk, searching for something, anything to take with her. Grabbing the tire iron she hopped out the car and ran to the front door bursting inside with the tire iron above her head.

Walking into the living room, she didn't see or hear Sam, so she slowly made her way further into the room, but gave up being quiet when she kept stepping on squeaking boards. "I am not made for this CIA, FBI spy crap." She said to herself making her way to the kitchen.

"She's adorable." Mike said, pushing Sam out so they could be seen. "I see why you're trying to plead for her life but we both know what the Tres' do once they're done using someone and she will be used… a lot."

Sam shot Mercedes a look telling her to run but he knew she didn't understand. "She has powerful parents, the Tres won't recover from this and neither will you." Sam said.

"HEY!" She yelled towards Mike raising the tire iron higher. "You just…you just stop okay, just put the gun down…" God she wished she sounded more sure of herself.

"Will you look at that, she has a tire iron and she's gonna save you." Mike said sarcastically before pulling out another gun and pointing it at her. "Now put it down, I need you completely untarnished."

Mercedes eyed him and his words caused her to smile. "Untarnished?" She hit her hand with the tire iron. "So if I were too…I dunno hit myself with this, that would be bad for you?"

Sam shook his head warning her not to do that.

"Go ahead." Mike said, his voice full of amusement and lowering the gun pointed at her. "But if you do, I'll shoot him right in front of you."

"You act like you aren't going to shoot him anyways." She said, shaking her head. Moving closer to them she stopped realizing that he looked familiar. Why did he look so familiar?

"You're right I am going to shoot him but we all know we don't need you seeing that." Mike said, shrugging before point the gun back at her. "Okay that's enough small talk, Evans tell your girlfriend you love her so I can get this over with."

"Mike?" She said, staring at him. "Oh my God…Mike Chang?"

Mike looked at her impressed. "You've heard of me? Guess Evans told you all about me, good for you."

She laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "No. I know your wife. Tina."

Mike flashed his eyes at her before hitting Sam over the head and pointing both guns at her. "Be very careful mentioning my wife will have you getting tortured by the wrong kind of people." He threatened.

"Really? Because I think threatening one of your wife's friends, one who actually saved her life once, will get you put on her bad side… Mike." She said reaching for her phone slowly. "You know we still follow each other…pretty sure if I called her she would answer." She said. She was terrified, and it took everything for her not to lose focus and move to Sam.

"Call her." Mike said, scowling at her.

"Okay." She said keeping her eyes on him as she called Tina. The phone picked up on the second ring and Mercedes put it on speaker.

"Mercedes Jones, why has it taken you over six months to contact me! How are you Denise?!"

"Not so good Justine, got your husband here…pointing two guns at me?"

"You're joking right?" Tina said through the phone.

"Say hi Mike." Mercedes said, staring at him, heart racing as he stared back at her.

"Hey baby, you know this woman?" Mike asked, keeping the gun pointed at her.

"Do I know her? You know her! Remember when I told you about that guy who was trying to take advantage of me, and my friend who basically helped me out and got me interested in self defense?"

Mike looked at Mercedes, having an internal debate before lowering the guns. "You're the one that helped her that night?" He asked, his tone was softer than before.

Mercedes nodded. "I had been in a similar situation when I was younger. Plus I just distracted him. T over here is the one who made him cry." Mercedes said relieved he lowered the guns.

"Only after you got him on his knees. Mike, baby, why are you trying to kill my friend?"

"I'm working babe, you can't call me baby when I'm working, it makes me seem less bad ass." Mike said, shaking his head. "No, I'm going to kill your friend…"

"You should ask him if he is gonna kill my bo-my boy friend." She said looking at Sam who was still on the ground.

"Your boyfriend! Girl I need the deets! I mean of course Mike isn't gonna shoot him, right baby?"

"Tina! You can't make decisions like that, I have a job to do and we have a baby we need to send to college." Mike said.

"Michael Joseph Chang! Don't you dare bring our baby into this! He will be fine and we both know it! We have more than enough money. I don't even know why you took this job, but that is neither here nor there. No, you will not kill him. Or you will have to deal with me!"

Mike let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. I won't hurt anyone, I'll just become a gardener or a dancer or something." He said, rolling his eyes before helping Sam up.

"Good, now apologize to them and when you get home we will discuss this little hobby of yours."

"Sorry." He said through clenched teeth.

"Thank you Tina, you know when all this is over we have to get together, I have to see that baby of yours in person!" Mercedes said with a soft smile.

"You sure do and you can bring your boyfriend so he and Mike can be friends. Right Michael?"

Mike looked at Sam and sighed. "Right, I'll be home in a few hours… I have to help them first."

"I will let you get back to the baby, but we will hold both our guys to this dinner."

"You bet. Love you honey." Tina hung up and Mercedes went over to Sam.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking at his head.

"I'm fine, that was incredible." He said, smiling at her.

Mercedes gave him a soft smile. "It wasn't anything, I just couldn't let him kill you."

Sam smirked. "You were going to take him down with a tire iron?" He teased.

Mike looked at them and shook his head. "Okay that's cute but considering my wife just put all of our lives in danger you should know that this is about your parents."

Mercedes turned to look at Mike. "My parents?"

David and Kennedy Jones, retired lawyers right?' Mike asked, sitting down on the couch and taking out his phone before pulling up her parents' picture. "These two."

She took the photo and stumbled back falling to the couch. "They aren't… they weren't…" She couldn't even get it out.

"Nah, they're more valuable alive plus no person in their right mind would actually go after a Jones… this isn't Tanaka. It's whoever is above him, apparently your dad did some wrong dealings or knows too much or something." Mike responded, rubbing his hand over his face.

"This doesn't make any sense. I mean I need to call them, I need to find out what is going on."

"Don't, the moment you reach out to them it's game on for everyone. This is a mild attack, you don't need the full force of the Tres' after you.

"You said it was over their head…and they sent you for me..so what if they get me?"

"It doesn't matter because they won't be getting you." Sam said, shaking his head at her. "And before you try to even form that plan, you are more valuable to them, meaning they will keep you for as long as they can until your value runs out. This isn't some small gang he's talking about, this is an organization." Sam added, letting out a sigh.

"He's right, the second your parents give them whatever it is that they want, they'll use you to send a message. You have an older sister right? She has kids…but if they need to they'll use them then her if it means staying in control." Mike chimed in.

"My parents may be the target but getting me won't matter. Mia is the golden child and she has kids, they will protect her. They will keep Mia safe so this won't ever be over."

Sam scuffed and shook his head. "Think about that for a second Mercedes. You are moveable, they won't keep her from her kids… you can be used for more things and they can sell you to keep your parents in line. You are the golden child. Your sister is a hassle."

"You aren't getting what I am saying Sam. My parents don't care about me enough to care if they take me.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Mike said, shooting her a look. "Your parents have been calling in every person they know trying to get the hit off of you and if you think the people I deal with are unsavory then the people your parents know are… I wouldn't even try to take them on."

"My mother." Sam said, letting out a half hearted laugh. "I should've known…" He pulled his phone out and called his mother.

"Did you make it?" Mary asked, skipping the pleasantries.

"You had me assigned to the case… what haven't you told me because it's more than Mercedes."

"Did you make it?" Mary asked again.

"Yes we made it now, answer my question!"

"And Mercedes is still with you?"

"Answer the damn question."

"I assume that means Mike Chang is no longer a threat. I thought you would've figured this out on your own but I see Mercedes is as swift as I thought she was."

Sam let out an annoyed breath. "Just tell me whatever it is you're hiding."

"Stacey… they have Stacey."

Sam felt the air leave his lungs before he shot a look at Mike. "How long have you known?"

"She's been with them for a few months… we told her to stop dating that guy but she didn't listen and now they have her which means they own us. Mercedes was our only way in… we couldn't just demand the department raid them so she's a blessing in disguise."

"Bullshit, there's something else you aren't telling me and the sooner you do the easier it will be for me to do my fucking job!"

"That's all I can say because it is above my pay grade. Whether you like it or not, I can't give you all the information… I just know that my child is with them and I want her back!"

"So Mercedes being taken by them would've made this easier for you… you were going to allow an innocent person to be taken by them?" Sam asked, already knowing the answer.

"This is why you shouldn't sleep with your assignments, your mind is clouded and you don't even care that your sister is being held by some of the most dangerous people because you got some free ass." Mary spat back before the phone was snatched away from her.

"Son, don't let what she said take you off course. We need to protect them both and if Mike Chang is no longer a threat then you have one less person coming your way." Dwight said hoping like hell they didn't lose their son again.

"You let Agent Evans know that I will complete this assignment and it will be my last." Sam said before hanging up.

Sam?' Mercedes said but he shook his head throwing his phone against the couch and walking out the house.

Mercedes moved to go over him but Mike held her arm. "He needs a minute."

She looked after him and frowned. She had sat back listening to Sam and his parents, seeing the look on his face. He was probably torn between saving his sister and saving her. Scared he couldn't save both. She looked over to Mike.

"Where were they going to have you take me?"

Mike stared at her. "What? No! No. Tina would kill me, your parents would and so would Sam."

"Mike, what if it was between Tina and your sister and you had a chance to save both?"

Mike sighed. "It's not that simple. You're his assignment, his only job is to protect you and if he tries to do more he could ruin the entire mission." He replied, noting the look of sadness on her face. "I will say that the two of you… being connected the way that you are is a good thing."

"What do you mean?"

Mike smiled. "It's obvious you two are a thing plus I saw you two having sex."

"Oh God."Mercedes said, burying her head into her hands as Mike laughed.

"Calm down, I didn't take any pictures or anything but now that he knows his sister is there and he has to protect you… I feel sorry for anyone that tries to stop him. Evans is a bad ass minus him you know breaking the rules and getting involved with you."

Mercedes sighed. "So all of this is just some screwed up plot that both my parents and his have a hand in…this situation is getting out of hand…"

"Mercedes, I really do apologize for trying to hurt you. It was the job and had I known you were, well you, I never would have taken it." Mike said sadly.

"You know, I have known your wife for a long time. T and I have this friendship to where, even if its been months or a year since we have spoken, the moment we talk it's like time never passed…" She ran her hands through her hair looking out the door that Sam left from. "When she told me about you, about how she met you in her self defense class, how you stole her heart the moment she did a spin move and knocked you on your ass."

Mike laughed. "I tell people I let her do that but that little spitfire kicked my ass."

"That sounds like T. just know that she loves you, for all of you. You don't have to be rich to keep her, so if you wanna take on another job, maybe do one that doesn't involve you trying to kill people."

Mike scoffed. "Spoken like a true best friend."

"We need to figure out a way he can get his sister and not compromise his job." Mercedes said.

"No. You need to let me do my job." Sam said coming back inside. His mind was swimming because things just got too close, too real. "I have to keep you safe and let them handle Stacey."

Mercedes shook her head. "You need to get your sister out, I'm safe here right?" She asked looking at Mike who shrugged.

"Technically, I'm the best at my job and Evans is too. She is in the safest place with us, if we plan it right we can do both." Mike replied.

"Why are you so willing to help?" Sam asked him.

"My wife. SHe would kill me… and I'm not kidding, she would actually murder me if I let anything happen to her."

Mercedes stood walking closer to Sam. "I have faith in you Sam, in your ability to keep me safe, so have faith in me, that I won't do anything to jeopardize that! I am with you and Mike, I am protected but Sam…" She exhaled. "I saw what Justin did to Marley, I saw what he was going to do to me had I not stopped him, your sister needs to get out. And one thing is very clear to me in this moment. Maybe your mom used me for all the wrong reasons, but maybe just maybe I am the only way to save her."

Sam didn't like it, like the fact that he felt he had to choose, knowing he would do anything, everything to protect both Mercedes and Stacey. "What are you two thinking? Sending Mercedes into their hideout. The moment Justin sees her, he will attack her. She embarrassed him and that asshat is vengeful."

Mike nodded. "Then we don't send her into the lion's den, then we bring them out to us."

Sam let out a breath before nodding. "If we do this then we have to do it right and we can not mess up."

Let the planning commence!