Chapter 7: Peculiar Occurrence

I crouched behind the stack of crates and continued shooting at those armed men. The only audible sound in this scenario were gunshots firing in every area of the place. They were shooting beside me, as I dodged every bullet that hit the ground. I was breathing heavily, peeking through the crate that was blocking them from seeing me.

My phone vibrated inside the pocket of my skirt, and I quickly pulled it out with my free hand.

"How's my niece doing?" William's voice on the other side of the phone seemed amused.

I couldn't even fathom why he was trying to get me killed by checking on me while in the middle of a hide-n-seek with a bunch of armed men.

"What the fuck, William?" I said through gritted teeth in frustration, toning down my voice. "You just ordered me to steal some money to these infuriated dogs and nearly getting me killed, and you're asking me how am I doing?"

"Easy there, munchkin. You'll get your reward soon." He chuckled.

"Look, I really need some backup, Will. If you're just gonna watch me in this Call of Duty, at least lend me some men," I demanded and hung up the phone after I felt the crate vibrated from a gunshot.

Shit, I muttered to myself before running to the concrete wall near my area.

I was still in my school uniform that was now stained with dirt and blood. William immediately called me after school, and I didn't know how was I going to return home in this state; there was blood running down from the wound beside my eye, and a developing bruise on my cheek because of the punch I received awhile ago.

As I was walking through the hallway behind the concrete wall, there were some guys wearing a black suit that cleared the path for me. These were probably William's men.

There were five of them and while they distract, I headed to the vault. My body was aching, and it was craving for rest. My hands were tightly gripping these two pistols, even though I had bruises on my knuckles that hurt like hell. I was nervous, to be honest, because someone might show up and kill me at this very moment.

I was in the basement where there were loads of crates that seemed like a storage room. This place looked like garbage, and everything here was deteriorated. Fortunately, there was this elevator beside the staircase that would lead me up to the floor where the vault was in. The CCTV's in this corrupted building were hacked by William's agent, so they could see me through every cam.

I pressed the button, and I knew that it was probably the foolest idea to take an elevator. The staircase to the top floor would consume all my energy so I didn't have a choice.

As I stepped my foot inside the open elevator, my heart began to thump fast because of the nervousness I felt. If someone entered this elevator on the other floors, I would be doomed for eternity. I would be having more stains of blood all over me.

As minutes passed by and the elevator was quickly moving to the fourteenth floor, the tinging sound of it immediately sent chill down my spine. A person would enter. What am I supposed to do now? With my eagerness to escape another trouble, I gripped the pistols tight and braced myself to shoot.

As soon as the elevator door opened, I pointed my pistols to the person standing right in front of me. She put her hands beside her face in defeat and raised her eyebrows.

"Don't shoot. You have nothing to do with me, I swear," she said, trembling. Her wide blue eyes pleaded, as I began to examine her up and down.

She had this short, wavy dark brown hair, fair skin, and eyes that looked so familiar. She was wearing a white blouse with an ID attached to it and pencil skirt that made her look like an office worker. Everyone seemed familiar nowadays. How could I had them insert in my memory without even remembering who?

The surroundings outside the elevator looked like an office, way more clean than their basement. I thought this was another abandoned area.

The girl bravely entered the elevator and stood right next to me as if I wasn't just about to shoot her a few seconds ago. I put my guns down and looked away, as it began to move upwards again. I could see her smirk at the side of my eye, and I could also sense a strange thing from her.

"Why didn't you kill me?" she asked casually.

"Is there any reason to?" I apathetically responded, trying to look eased.

She just chuckled which gave me a suspicion. I think this was the cue to shoot.

"You've shed blood but you didn't shoot me. How nice of you," she commented and mischievously smiled at me.

What the fuck was this girl trying to imply? If she intended to infuriate me, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot her right now.

"I'm just trying to escape from the people who are trying to kill me," I responded, putting the other pistol inside my gun holder.

As soon as the elevator stopped, I quickly grabbed the girl's hand and put it behind her. I pointed the nozzle on her waist and dragged her outside the elevator. She didn't even dare to free herself, she just simply complied and now I was frustrated.

"I don't have time for games, whoever you are. If you're going to get me killed, I will not hesitate to pull this trigger," I hissed, as we moved quickly down the hallway.

"I will tell you where the vault is, just don't kill me, please," she answered, pleadingly.

Be wise Lala, I told myself. I would not get fooled.

"How did you know I was looking for the vault?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

"If you're not, then why are you even here?" she asked back, as I pinned her on the wall, tightening my grip around her wrist.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I whispered in her ears and pushed her further on the wall, making her groan in pain.

"I'm just a worker. I'm hired to clean up and scan every technology. I swear you don't have to worry about anything." She panted nervously.

"Who do you work for?" I interrogated as if my job was to investigate rather than stealing.

Before she could even speak a word, someone started shooting in our direction. In just a blink of an eye, my hand lost the grip on her wrist. In one swift move, she pulled out the other pistol out of my gun holder and shot the man standing a few feet away from us. The pistol I was holding slipped out of my hand and landed on the floor. She then turned to face me and pointed the gun on my forehead. Now that she slipped out of my grasp, I was totally screwed.

She pulled out something from her pocket and opened an ID holder. Just great. I rolled my eyes to meet her victorious gaze.

"You're an FBI agent so. . ." I scoffed and tried to hide my nervousness.

"Pretty much." She shrugged before hitting me with the back of her hand-- the one that was holding my pistol.

I stumbled on the ground and touched my wounded lips that bled from the hit. Really great. I looked beside me to see if I could reach the other gun but it was too far. And this girl was now in front of me, pointing the gun to my head as I tried to control my breathing to gain strength.

"Your uncle probably hacked the system and if I stayed longer, I will get myself killed," she pointed out, playing around just like a while ago. "And. . . I still need the Jones daughter alive," she added.

I caught a lump in my throat after she uttered that sentence. What the hell? So now she knew me, and I was such a fool I should've shot her a few minutes ago. William couldn't let this happen or he would lose his precious money.

"Who are you?" I asked nervously, trying to lift my weight by pushing myself up to sit.

She looked at me with those piercing, electric blue eyes that looked so familiar that I just couldn't remember. Slowly, she put her gun down and looked me in the eyes.

"Let's just say I'm an FBI agent for now. Move your ass up and get out of here before I could even pull this trigger to your stubborn head."

And that was the day I thought I was going to die.

~*~

Unfortunately, to my own cowardness, I hadn't got the chance to steal that money inside the vault; the FBI woman would kill me, or should I say. . . arrest me if I got to steal the money. To be honest, I didn't feel brave at all. I just needed to show William that I was strong so he could see my eagerness to fight against Houstons and give Dad the justice he deserved.

What surprised me the most was, William didn't even know who the girl was. He was too focused on the money that he didn't bother to investigate who she was. So in order to keep me safe, he let go of the money for now. He also told me to conceal everything up and decided to suspend my job for a couple of days since an FBI just caught me stealing. I might mess up my reputation if something happened unwanted.

And first of all, that girl just dared to kill me, but then she still needed me alive for some reason I didn't fucking know. My identity wasn't as concealed as I thought it was. Now I had to take action and look for some clues that might involve Ms. FBI. For now, I had to wait for my uniform to dry so I could return home without Hansel or Mom being too nosy about me.

I was currently waiting on the bench, placed in front of these dryers. I was wearing a plain, white shirt and jeans that William got me after the life-risking scenarios.

While I was quietly waiting for my clothes, the bell on top of the laundry shop chimed, and a guy stood in the doorframe. I saw Miguel with his million-dollar smile, walking to the counter. What could possibly be the reason why a rich teenager visited a not-so-luxurious laundry shop?

~*~