Bait

It takes me three cups of coffee for me to feel halfway human. When I can finally move my head side to side and back and forth without it feeling like it’s going to fall off my body I go and take a shower hoping that it will help me sober up some more.

Thank goodness I don’t have to go back to school or work until tomorrow so I can just lounge around the house and relax plus start to feel better after my loving, crazy friends got me drunk just to pierce my ears. After my shower, I head to the kitchen not for my normal coffee but for a nice cup of herbal tea then head back up to my room and I slide back into my nice comfy bed where I plan to stay all day. Thanks to my new buddy Liam I don’t get that chance. “Come on, beauty queen, get up we have work to do,” He says, opening up the curtains letting

the sunshine in as he tries to get me out of bed. I flipped him a double bird and pulled the covers over my head. Liam bends down, grabs my ankles, and pulls me out from under the covers. “No I don’t want to get up, I just want to lay here,” I whine as I kick trying to free my feet from his grasp. “Get up, dressed we gotta get you out and about in town so we can get everything started,” He said with one final tug that got me off my comfy bed.

I pull myself up off the floor ignoring Liam’s hand offering to help me up, I grab some clothes from my chest of drawers and head for the bathroom to get changed. While I was in there I fixed my hair, makeup brushed my teeth for the second time. “Let’s go, I'm ready,” I scoffed, not wanting to go. I just wanted to get back into bed. “I guess you're going to be shadowing me while I’m walking around,”

“Actually no I’m going to be walking around with you, we are going to be acting like we are out on a date, so if Noah or the cartel see me coming and going from your house they will just think I’m your boyfriend,”

I burst out laughing, “You're going to pretend to be my boyfriend,” I couldn’t help it, all I could do was laugh. “You can’t go out with me looking like that,”

“What’s wrong with what I am wearing,”

“For one, you look like a cop, go put something on that you were wearing when I first met you at the coffee shop,”

He goes into the spare room after grabbing his duffel from the living room and changed into his blue jeans

and a black t-shirt which really brought out his tanned, toned skin. I messed up his hair a little bit then out the door we went to begin using me as cartel bait.”I will come back to haunt the FBI if they get me killed,” I mumble under my breath. “What did you say,” Liam questions as he puts an arm around my shoulders. “Gotta keep up pretenses,” He quips as if he knows what I was thinking looking up at him. “I was going to just say I was talking to myself until you did that, but you're right we do need to keep up pretenses,” I smile as I slide an arm around his waist.

We walk around town, go into a couple of shops that I like, have lunch with Allie and Melanie who at first was a little taken back by our flirting. Until I scribbled down what we were up to then did they start to play along. Just so no one could find and read what I had written down I balled up my napkin and placed it into my water glass. Melanie looks up at someone coming into the restaurant and her face goes pale white she instantly grabs the pen I was using and writes down “Noah just walked in,” on her napkin then pushes it in front of Liam and me.

I looked over at Liam who was staring at Noah who was waiting to be seated by the hostess. “It’s him, are you ready to do this,” He asked me with concern for my safety in his voice. “I’m ready, let's bring this asshole down,” I say with everything that had happened to me flooding my mind. We got up from our seats heading straight for Noah who was now following the hostess, not paying any attention to us until I purposely bumped into him. Only then does

he notice me. “Oh, I'm sorry I didn’t see you,” I apologized to him. He stopped and turned to say something only then did he recognize me as I smiled at him as Liam and I left the restaurant. “Well we did it, we got his attention,” I said laughing. Liam's phone pings. When we stop walking so he can look at it I see Noah walking toward us with his phone up to his ear. “Let me guess that was Allie telling you that Noah left and is following us,” I trembled. “Yeah, how did you know,” He asked curiously. “Because he is headed straight for us,” I exclaimed, trying dearly not to cry. “Okay don’t panic just keep walking,” Liam said calmly as he puts his arm around my waist. When we get in front of the movie theater we stop, get our tickets, and head inside. He leads me to the concession where he orders us popcorn along with a soda. While watching to see if Noah will follow us inside, sure enough, he does. We go into our randomly picked movie and find seats closest to the doors. “Listen when the lights go out we are going to sneak out of here so be ready,” Liam informed me.

Noah walks into the movie we were in looking around for us. Just as he was about to leave the restaurant he spots me then proceeds to sit in one of the seats above us. I start hyperventilating once again only this time I have no paper bag or anything to blow into. Liam instantly starts kissing me. Yep that worked I stopped thinking, freaking out altogether, and just melted into his kiss. This really set Noah off. He stormed down to where we were and pulled me

away from Noah by my hair. “Get your hands off of my wife,” He yelled at Liam who looked utterly amused at his accusation of me being Noah’s wife. “Excuse me,” Liam replied. “Aria you never told me you were married,” Liam looked at me directly into my eyes as if he were telling me to play along. “I’m not nor have I ever been married,” I declared. Noah stood there fuming. “That’s bullshit Hanna you're my wife now it’s time to come home,” He grabs me by my arm so tight I screamed in pain. Liam jumps between me and Noah removing his hand from my arm.

One of the ushers must have seen the commotion and called the police because they showed up just as Liam freed me from Noah’s grasp. A couple of the officers’ questioned Noah while another questioned Liam and me after we were escorted from the movie theater. “I’m an undercover FBI agent working this woman case,” Liam begins telling the officer some of the details about the case and not to arrest Noah that we needed him free for now. The cops drove us home as they sent Noah on his way. Lucky for us his way was our way. He ended up parking across the street from my house. Looking out my window at Noah’s white SUV I say.” Well there you have it folks using me as bait worked,” I was meaning it to be a little funny except you could hear it in my voice that I was frightened. “Hey come away from the window and sit down we need to talk,” Liam guides me away sweetly to the couch. “We need to talk about that kiss in the movie theater. I’m sorry I

overstepped my boundaries and I will understand if you want a new handler,”

“What no, that would ruin everything we’ve done besides that kiss was great,”

“Oh yeah,”

“Yeah,”

“You know we can’t do that again though,”

“Yep, I understand,”

With those last words uttered, we’re kissing each other again as if we hadn’t set any boundaries between us. Thankfully we thought ahead and told Allie and Melanie not to come over tonight since Noah was parked out front. Before we realized it we were in my bed as if we didn’t have a care in the world. Just for one night, we could be in each other’s arms where we wanted to be without anyone telling us we couldn’t be together.