CHAPTER 64
GIRL, THOSE EYES OF YOURS...
Tuesday morning was kind of rough for Bryan. Waking up was a real pain after all the wine and beer he had consumed the night before. Also, because he only went to bed at about 3 am and was unable to shut Angie up for the next half an hour or so.
Angie, on the other hand was as fresh as a cucumber. She hopped out of bed at 6 am, as if she had been to the SPA last night.
"I hate you, Hunter!" Bryan muttered, fighting her for the bathroom.
It used to be set – Bryan showers first, then Angie. Then, somewhere along the way, it was always Angie first, for whatever reason. He had to step up his game.
"I love you too, Bry-Bry!" She blew him a kiss before she closed the bathroom door in his face.
"Uuuuuugh!" Angie groaned, running from one class to another for the third time that day.
They barely had any time for lunch and it was already 4 pm.
"What's your favorite class?" Bryan asked, walking fast, just a step behind Angie.
"Dude, I am all sorts of jagged up and also - late to class right now; and all you can do is initiate small talk? Like, seriously?" Angie hated being late and, so far, they were going to be at least two minutes late for class, if they didn't pick up that pace.
"It's SWAT procedure. It's something we did when we were under pressure. Trust me, it takes your mind off of things." It kind of made sense, now that he explained it better.
"Fine. I clearly liked the profiling classes. Sadly, those were just substitutes and we don't have anything like that on our schedule yet. So, that sucks." Angie started walking a little bit faster.
"I really like Agent Seger's class now." She then added.
"What, the one that speaks about dead bodies?" Bryan laughed at her. Such an Angie-like thing to say.
"Yeah, it is important to be able to figure out the time of death. And it's not about bodies, it's about bones and ancestry. It's different." She corrected him in her sweet, nerdy way.
"I'm not a fan of her class. She is really cool, though, as a person. I mean, she's always smiling and so different than anyone else who teaches us." Bryan scanned their surroundings, noticing a small water fountain, tucked away between the trees. This would come in handy when they need to re-fill their bottles, but have no time to go around, searching for a vending machine to buy it from. Neither of them enjoyed tap water, this was their last resort, usually during PFT training when they were too far from the vending machines.
"Tell me about it! I still hate the tactical driving dude, like, so badly!" Angie rolled her eyes.
This man had been pushing her last nerve since the moment he met her. Yes, Dan had initially asked him to push her, but once Dan's scheme was revealed, she thought things would cool off. They did not. The guy still hated her guts and considered her to be a complete failure, during his classes.
"What's your favorite?" She asked him, now completely forgetting about the time and the schedule. Apparently, his idea of small talk was working.
"Oh man, I really liked that DeMo dude's class yesterday." Bryan grinned.
"I thought you would. He's a tough cookie." Angie looked at him with a smile. "He's pretty easy on the eye, too."
"Oh, look at who is checking teachers out now, Missy!" Teasing her was what he lived for.
"I just said he's good looking. And those muscles…yum!" She said dreamily. "But I'm not attracted to him, not like that. He's not my type. I do, however, really like the way he held that class. Let's hope he keeps on kicking our asses. I have a feeling there is tons we can learn from that guy."
"What's your type then?" He just had to jump at the chance to ask her that, since she practically never spoke about guys. All she did was tease others, but when it came to herself, she hadn't uttered a word.
"You'll see. Someday…" She trailed off.
"Whenever the heck that might be." She added, rolling her eyes.
"Don't tell me my Tough Missy is a helpless romantic who is waiting for her Prince Charming?" Bryan burst out laughing.
"Oh, you don't know nothing about me, bro! My favorite movie is The Wedding Planner. I've seen it about 150 times already. Even though I don't really believe in love…and I really, really dislike watching movies…" She shrugged, now opening the door of the training building.
"Haha, for real? Yo, I gotta admit – Jennifer Lopez was smoking hot in that movie." Bryan licked his lips subconsciously.
"She always is!" Angie stated.
"So, now I know your favorite actress and possibly singer, too." He deducted.
"Mhm." Angie admitted shyly.
"You know, you kind of look like her. The hair, the lips…" He stared at Angie's face for a second.
"Oh, staaahp!" She chuckled.
"The only thing that's completely different is the eyes. Don't read this wrong, but girl, those eyes of yours…" He then whistled, out of appreciation.
Angie bat her eyelashes sweetly. All her life she had received compliments for those emerald eyes of hers. She liked emphasizing on them, putting on more mascara, so that people would be drawn to her eyes, but she didn't know they were already naturally drawn to them anyways. It was impossible not to notice them. They were big, always sparkling, full of life…and so damn green.
"Can you, please, continue with the compliments even after class?" She asked innocently, as he opened the auditorium door for them to enter.
"Oh, I will never stop, Missy." He smirked, allowing her to enter first.
"Ugh, why is Missy back?" Angie sighed, pretending that him calling her Missy was not the cutest thing.
"One more class to go!" Bryan sighed when they were on their way to the laboratory later that day.
"And people think college is hard. Ha!" Angie said sarcastically.
"Where did you go to college?" Bryan had this plan in his head, where he would jump at any chance to ask Angie questions about her. He was genuinely curious.
"On the internet." She laughed.
"You did online college?" That somehow surprised him.
"Yup. What's with the quizzical face?" She nodded.
"You just don't seem like the homeschooled type of girl. I'd say you had a wild college experience, you were in a Sorority and you went to all the parties." He deducted.
"Please, don't ever consider profiling as a career…" Her words were more a suggestion, than a joke.
"Nah, that's your thing." He felt his stomach growling. They had only grabbed a burger on the way to one of their classes, five hours ago. Both of them were starving.
"I like a lot of things." She said defensively.
So far, Angie had never admitted her true desire when it came to FBI placement, after graduation.
"Do you also like the fact that Sunday after lunch we have this blank spot of two hours on our schedules?" He said as his eyes laid on the paper that was in his hands.
"Ugh. I hate cuts." She smirked.
"Let me guess – because you feel bad that so many other people would get cut, while you and me will stay here and smoke the competition out, to the last second in the Academy?" Bryan smirked as well.
By now, he knew how to read Angie's thoughts. But, only sometimes.
"Exactly." She put her hand up and got a fist bump from him before they made their way to the last class.
Two hours in the laboratory followed and Angie was seeing stars each time she blinked. If she didn't get food immediately after class, she knew she would pass out.
Bryan offered to go get pizza and she had nothing against it, even if it wasn't exactly healthy. They added some wings, some French fries and some cheese starters to the order and they finished every last bit of it.
An early night followed, as they had a busy day to re-charge for.
"Today is your lucky day, granny. We're taking you out shopping." One of Richard's kidnappers said to Consuelo.
The poor woman looked so scared. This was the best time to do what Richard had asked her to do and she was very worried. If she failed, both of their lives would be at risk.
She was then dragged to a car, by two of the three kidnappers. They took her to a local grocery store and let her go around, picking out fruit and vegetables, choosing the best meat that she would later have to cook for them. The men kept an eye on her from a far.
Consuelo hurried between the aisles and she looked around nervously. When she reached the counter, she made a small piece of paper fall, right in front of the cashier.
"Call number, say Louis and a woman kidnapped. Big house close here, blue bird. They know what to do next." She whispered to the cashier before the two kidnappers joined her, to pay the bill.
"Everything okay, granny?" The alpha one asked, grabbing Consuelo's arm tight enough to make the woman wince.
The cashier was a tiny young girl who was scared out of her right mind at that moment. She had kicked the small paper underneath the booth where she was sitting, and she greeted the two men with a smile after she noticed a metal piece of something, poking from under the taller man's jacket. It sure could have been a gun.
She played it cool, as if the elder woman hadn't even spoken to her, just seconds ago.
As soon as the men dragged Consuelo out, the girl informed her boss that she needed to use the restroom and she walked away after grabbing the piece of paper from underneath the booth.
"He-hello?" She stuttered when she heard a deep male voice answer the phone.
"Hello, who is this?" The man asked.
"Who are you?" She asked, sounding scared out of her right mind.
The man then realized what this call must be. He sighed and told the girl his name and where he worked.
"Oh my God! What is going on? So, she wasn't joking?" The girl gasped, absolutely terrified now.
"Relax, breathe slowly and tell me what you know." He said calmly.
"Ok, so I work in a grocery store and an old woman just came here and gave me this number. She told me to call you and say that Louis and one more person are kidnapped. And then she mentioned a big house and some blue bird. She said it was close to the store. She said you'll know what to do next." The girl was hyperventilating, trying really hard to remember all of the words correctly.
"So, Louis and one more hostage, in a big house near your grocery store…and a blue bird. Is that correct?" The man asked for confirmation on what he had just typed down on a piece of paper.
"Yes, that's all she said before the men dragged her out. I think one of them had a gun."
"How many men were with her?" He asked.
"Two. One of them grabbed her hand and the poor woman seemed so scared. Please help them!"
"Don't worry. You did the right thing to call this number, I'll take it from here. Now go back to work, see if you can take the rest of the day off, try to relax. Don't think about this anymore and don't tell anyone. Do not call the police, do you understand me?"
"Yes. Wait, no. Why not call the police? They have to know!"
"Because the moment the police gets involved, the two hostages get murdered and the men you saw would be on a plane to Miami. Do you understand? No police! Promise me not to call the authorities!"
"Oh my God. Okay, no police, I promise. Please, help them!" She spoke frantically and he could tell she was out of it. That was not an everyday thing.
"I need you to repeat the address of your store and your name, please?" The man asked.
She gave him all the information willingly, before they hung up and she asked her boss if she could go home. Luckily for her, she only had an hour left from her shift, so her boss told her she could go.
"Victor, what's the emergency?" A young female asked, raising her eyebrows when she entered a meeting room that Victor had invited her to, just minutes ago on the phone.
Looking around, she saw some of the most influential people that she could find in the building.
"Richard just made contact. He used his alias, Louis. He's been held hostage, I have an approximate location. It's an hour away from here. I need two teams on this and I need a whole bunch of permissions that I don't have the time to e-mail all of you about…" Victor explained briefly before giving a look at a few of the suited up guys in that room.
"Anything you need." One of them nodded and soon enough, everyone else did the same.
"Good. We need to be careful, the second hostage is an elderly woman, the one who made contact with the person who called me. So, whatever happens, whoever gets to them first, eyes on the lady, okay? I want her safe and unharmed." Victor commanded.
"Alright, let's go get our Boss back, guys!" He said, trying to pump them up.
Everyone seemed a bit nervous. This was pretty much an everyday thing for all of them, but when the big Boss was involved, they knew they had to be on top of their game.
"No police will be involved, which means you are authorized to shoot, whenever and whoever you find necessary. No questions asked. You know how we roll. Eyes on our main goal, everything else is fair play. Okay? Come on, people. Let's go have some fun, alright?"
"You sound just like Richard…" Someone told Victor and he smirked.
This was a compliment and he'd gladly take it in, letting it sink in for a moment.
