“We’re not supposed to flirt with you. West said it’s against the rules.” Kal shrugs his shoulders. “But it’s a stupid rule.”
West told them they’re not allowed to flirt with me? That’s a weird rule. But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. The guys have revealed the reason they’re worried about having a girl on the team is jealousy. But I know they have nothing to worry about. The guys do not like me like that. And I definitely don’t like them like that either.
Nope.
Definitely not.
Tuesday, September 19
Jet lag sucks.
I ended up falling asleep on the plane and I wake up with my head on Alek’s lap. Somebody shook me awake, so I open my eyes and see Kal standing over me.
“Seatbelt. We’re about to land,” Kal says.
I sit up, looking at Alek. He is way too smug-looking and I know he won’t soon let me forget that I just napped on his lap. I buckle up, turning to look out the window. It’s early morning in Santorini. The pilot announces that it’s seven AM, but it’s midnight back home, so I am exhausted. The guys look just as tired as I do. Hopefully, we will get to sleep a little bit before heading out to find this assassin. At this point, I am dead on my feet.
“When we land, we’re going to go to our hotel and sleep for a little bit. Michael Sinclair has somebody trying to pin down the assassin’s location and we’re just waiting on his call,” West informs us.
My shoulders sag in relief.
Good. I need sleep.
At the same time, waiting for a phone call is going to suck. I think we’re all anxious enough as it is.
Once the plane lands, there is a black SUV waiting for us. This one is big enough for all five of us to fit in comfortably, but I’m still stuck in the middle, between Alek and Kal this time. On the drive to the hotel, I try to look at the scenery, but I’m so tired my eyes keep shutting.
“You can rest your head on me,” Kal says.
For once, he’s not using his flirty tone or even smirking. It’s actually a sweet offer. But I decline, trying to keep my eyes open.
Santorini is beautiful. I’ve seen it in pictures and movies, but it’s far more beautiful in person.
The streets are narrow and hard to navigate, but West does a pretty good job. A few locals are annoyed that West is driving the speed limit, and race around us, even when there is barely enough space. I would be too anxious to drive like that.
Every once in a while, between buildings, I get a view of the cliff side and the blue water. It’s breathtaking. I hope that we get to enjoy this for a little while during our stay, but I highly doubt it. We’ll probably spend all our time here working.
I love traveling the world, but it’s not always as glamorous as it sounds, especially when your only purpose while staying in the beautiful, exotic location is to chase down an assassin.
After a thirty-minute drive, West pulls the SUV to a stop at a hotel. I step out, my breath catching in my throat at the view.
“This is nice, huh?” Alek steps up beside me. “Pretty view.”
“Very pretty,” I agree.
“Come on, guys. Let’s get some sleep while we can,” West says.
I turn around and see the guys have pulled all the luggage from the car. Ian is wheeling my bag behind him and I’m too tired to protest. I just follow them into the hotel.
The thing about Spy School is they always put us somewhere nice to stay. The hotel we’re at during our trip is a beautiful 5-star resort. When we walk in, there is a fountain spraying water up, and a guard at the door nods at us as we enter. But I’ve been to places like this hundreds of times before with my parents. It’s exciting that I’m on my first mission with the guys, though. The only thing that would make this trip better is if they actually liked me.
West has us wait for him while he goes to grab the key to our room from the front desk. I don’t even complain when Kal puts his arm around me. I just lean into him, letting him support my weight.
“You’re all cute and cuddly when you’re tired,” Kal mumbles.
I don’t even bother with a response.
“Knock it off, Kal,” West says as he approaches.
Kal steps back from me, so I have to stand up on my own.
“We only have one room.” He holds out one extra key card and Kal is the one to grab it, which surprises me.
Kal sees me looking at him. “I’m the most responsible. Ian would lose his head if it weren’t attached to his body and the last time Alek had a hotel room key, he tried to use it to buy coffee.”
“In my defense, it did look like a credit card,” Alek protests.
Still... out of the three guys, Kalvin Fuller is the responsible one?
I turn to West. “Wait. Did you say we have one room?”
West nods grimly.
“One room for five of us?” I ask, just to confirm.
“Yep.”
With that, he turns and starts walking toward the elevators. The rest of us have no choice but to follow him.
I’m not sure how I feel about being in the same room with all of the guys. I assumed we’d have two rooms. And since West has spent the last month sleeping on the couch in our condo because he doesn’t want to share a room with me, I assumed I would be in a room by myself.
We get onto the elevator and I’m feeling less sleepy than I was a few minutes ago. I’m kind of nervous about our sleeping arrangements. I hope that whatever room we have is a big one. Maybe it’ll have multiple rooms. My parents always got rooms like that on missions—there would be a living room and two ‘bedrooms.’ I would always get one of the bedrooms to myself, which was always nice. But when we get to our floor and walk to our room, my heart sinks when West opens the door.
The room isn’t small, but it also isn’t huge. There are two king size beds, a mini-kitchen, and a large bathroom.
Great, not only are we all going to be in the same room, but we also have to share one bathroom.
It really is a nice room, though. It’s very clean, with fluffy white comforters on the bed. The art that is hanging on the wall isn’t the normal ugly hotel art—it’s a collection of photographs of Santorini in different locations.
Alek opens up the curtain and there is a door that leads out to the balcony. Everybody gravitates toward the glass door to look outside. The hotel is on the side of a cliff and you get a perfect view of the water.
“We should probably get some sleep,” West says after a while.
At that, everybody turns to look at me. I am confused for a moment until I remember our predicament. Two beds. There is no couch. I suppose we could get a cot brought to the room, but that doesn’t sound comfortable at all.
I clear my throat. “Uh, does anybody have objections to sleeping in the same bed as me?” I point a finger at Kal. “Say anything sexual right now and I will throw you off the balcony.”
The guys snicker.
West steps forward. “I promise, all the guys on my team will be respectful of you and they will keep their hands to themselves.”
I believe him.
“Same goes for you though.” West gives me a pointed look.
I roll my eyes. “Right. Because I’m dying to get my hands on you.”
West just shrugs.
“Fine. Alek and you should take a bed. You two are the tallest or whatever. I’ll sleep with Ian and Kal.” I turn to Ian. I know he really doesn’t care for me and I don’t want to do something that will make him uncomfortable. “Are you okay with that?”
He nods. “I’m fine as long as you don’t try to spoon me.”
Kal grins. “She’ll be busy spooning me.”
I turn to Kal. “I meant what I said. Keep your hands to yourself.”
“You already know I will,” he says.
Yeah, I do know.
Kal likes to flirt and joke, but it’s all just a joke. He would never touch me without my permission. He is a good man.
“But you have to
sleep in the middle,” Kal says.
I turn to Ian, who nods once to let me know he’s okay with it.
“Then it’s settled,” West says. He doesn’t even bother changing into pajamas. He just gets into bed.
I go to the bathroom really quick before getting into bed between Kal and Ian. The bed is big, but I’m still pretty close to both of them. I think that it will be impossible to sleep, but I find myself drifting off pretty quickly.
As I am drifting off, I swear I feel somebody’s arm go around my waist and I am snuggled against a warm body, but I am way too tired to protest. Besides, it feels kind of nice.
The mission.
When I wake up, there is a heavy arm around my waist. I assume it’s Kal, and I also assume he’s sleeping so I won’t get mad at him for cuddling with me. But when I open my eyes, I see that Kal is out of bed. He’s sitting on the edge of the other bed, talking with Alek and West.
That means the arm around me definitely belongs to Ian.
West’s eyes hone in on me.
“Good. The Princess is awake. Maybe now we can go get some lunch.”
I stretch out a little, ignoring his insult. “What time is it?”
“Almost noon.” Alek stands up from the bed. “And don’t let West make you feel bad. He only woke up about ten minutes ago himself.”
Alek grabs a shirt from his suitcase, slipping it over his head. I roll over, just out of Ian’s reach. When I glance at him, his eyes are still closed, but I doubt he’s asleep. Ian is a light sleeper. I get the feeling maybe he’s embarrassed about the fact that he was cuddling me.
I sigh, wondering why Ian hates me so much. Out of all the guys, he is the nicest, yet he does everything he can to stay away from me. I must have done something or said something to offend him, but I’m too scared to ask what.
I open my own suitcase, grabbing some clothes. I want to get a shower, but when I glance over at West to see if I have enough time, he’s being grumpy with Kal about something, so I don’t even bother asking. I just go into the bathroom and get dressed. I pull my hair up into a messy bun, not bothering to fix it today. I will after we come back from eating and I can get a shower. I feel gross from the plane.
As soon as I walk out of the bathroom, Ian brushes past me, entering the bathroom. He doesn’t say a word as he slams the door behind me.
“Did I bite him in my sleep or something?” I ask, pouting at the closed door.
“Don’t worry about him.” Alek walks over, grabbing onto my arm. “Let’s head downstairs and pull the car around.”
I let him pull me out the door.
Alek has sort of grown on me. Even though we fight like crazy, there is something about him that I can’t help but like. Maybe it’s his accent and the way he gets confused at certain American phrases. Or maybe it’s the way his pale green eyes light up when he’s excited about something. He loves Spy School—it’s everything to him. And I can relate.
Somewhere from our room to the lobby, Alek’s hand ends up sliding down my arm and he ends up holding my hand. I know he doesn’t mean anything by it. Alek is a flirt, but he’s not interested in me like that. But I wonder what everybody else in the hotel thinks when they see Alek and me holding hands. Do they think we’re young and in love? Or do they know we’re only work colleagues?
Then again, maybe only Spy School agents study other people. Maybe I’m weird because I always try to imagine what everybody’s life is like.
“You look like you’re deep in thought,” Alek says.
He clicks the unlock button and I climb into the front seat. I know I’ll have to move later, but I’ll sit here for now.
I buckle my seatbelt and look over at him. “Yeah, I guess I am. Just... overthinking. It’s a girl thing.”
He nods like he understands, but I know he doesn’t. Alek isn’t the kind of guy to ponder on things. He lets everything brush off his shoulders. He’s so nonchalant, and I wish I could be more like that sometimes. But I am a worrier. My mom always says that’s what makes me a bad agent, but I don’t really trust her. She says everything about me makes me a bad agent, even the way I breathe annoys her.
“What were your parents like?” I ask.
He puts the car in drive, but glances over at me with an eyebrow raised. “My mom was a Spy School agent who fell in love with a Russian spy. She didn’t know he was a Russian spy, just as he didn’t know she was a Spy School agent. When they found out, they tried to kill one another, literally. Life was hard and I had to choose between my parents. I chose to stay with my dad, which broke my mom’s heart.”
“Yet, you ended up at Spy School.”
“Funny how that works.”
When he pulls the car in front of the hotel, the rest of the guys are waiting there. West doesn’t even make me get into the back. He just climbs back there and shouts at Alek to drive.
“Go left!” West yells, as we pull out of the hotel and onto the road.
Alek takes off from the hotel, nearly leaving black marks on the pavement. Good thing I put my seatbelt on or I would have been tossed around the car.
“Where are we going?” Alek asks.
“I got coordinates on my phone,” West answers. “Turn right.”
Without slowing down, Alek makes a sharp right turn. My head nearly bumps into the window so I turn to glare at him.
“Sorry,” he says, not taking his eyes off the road.
“Michael Sinclair called me while you were getting the car,” West explains. He’s sitting in the middle in the back, so he leans forward between Alek and me to talk. “The target has been found and we have to move quickly. We don’t know how long he will be staying here.”
“How far away are we?” I ask.
“About five miles.” West glances anxiously down at his phone.
I can tell all the guys are nervous, and I’m a little nervous myself. This is my first real case. I mean, I’ve done the ‘mock’ cases that Spy School sends us on, but those are easy. This case is very, very real. A trained assassin is kind of a big deal.
West reaches a hand over and squeezes my shoulder. “It’ll be all right, Princess.”
I roll my eyes at the ridiculous nickname. “Why do you insist on calling me that ridiculous nickname?”
He doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he looks at his phone and keeps giving directions to Alek. I lean back in my seat, looking at the road. I cross my arms over my chest, longing for the day my team doesn’t treat me like a burden. Just once, I’d like them to take me seriously.
A five-mile journey in Santorini takes nearly an hour. The traffic is bumper to bumper and people walk up and down the streets. If this were a vacation, I would be disappointed. But then again, when I imagine a vacation, I’m more of a spend a week on the beach kind of girl. Going anywhere crowded is my idea of a nightmare.
“How long until we can leave this volcano?” Ian mumbles from the back.
“As soon as we get this guy, we are out of here,” West promises.
It makes me feel good that the guys seem just as eager to leave as I am. I can’t deny that it’s beautiful—it is. But I don’t enjoy the crowds. Especially not now that the cruise ships are in port. It seems that the crowds double, if not triple.
“Why would an assassin want to hide in Santorini of all places?” I ask.
“Maybe it’s on his bucket list,” Kal suggests.
An assassin with a bucket list—that’s not something you see every day.
We park the car about a block away from our destination and travel the rest of the way on foot. None of us talk the rest of the way there, because we don’t want to be heard. West leads the group. I figured they would put me in the back, but Alek is the last one in our lineup. As we walk, I realize they put Alek back there to protect the back, in case somebody comes up from behind us. For a moment, I think maybe I should be offended, but it’s just their way of protecting me. Until I prove myself to them, they’re going to be this way.
; Maybe today is the day that I prove to them all that I’m not the weak little girl they think I am.
West stops on the sidewalk and he points to a house. It’s the biggest one on the street, of course.
Since the assassin is Spy School, I’m assuming he will have security cameras and alarm systems. So, we are going to have to be careful. West pulls his gun out of his pocket, so we all do the same. We walk carefully along the grass, West leading us around the side of the house.
West looks at Ian, who is doing something on this phone.
“The upstairs side window. That’s where we should go in,” Ian whispers.
Meaning we just have to scale the side of a house in the middle of the day. That won’t be at all suspicious. But if we wait for night, the guy might not be here anymore, so it’s a risk we’re going to have to take.
West stops by a tree and looks up. It’s close enough to the roof that we could climb it and go in the side window. But it’s not going to be an easy tree to climb.
Ian goes first. West and Alek give him a boost up and he’s able to climb the rest of the way. Kal follows after getting a boost up, but he doesn’t climb onto the roof. He waits on the limb. I’m confused about what he’s doing until West lifts me up and Kal grabs onto me, pulling me the rest of the way.
I roll my eyes, offended that they think I can’t climb a tree without their help, but I can’t argue right now because I can’t talk. But when this mission is over, I am going to give them a piece of my mind.
Kal holds my hand and helps me onto the roof. Ian is working on opening the window. It’s locked, but he has some kind of glass cutting kit.
I look below and watch as Alek and West get up the tree. They both just jump up and hoist their own bodies up. I try not to be impressed at their upper body strength, but that actually looked really hard. I’m not sure I could’ve done that.
I turn back around to watch Ian pull a piece of glass out of the window. I have no idea how he did that. From watching these guys, I realize I still have so much to learn from Spy School. No wonder they think I’m not ready. Maybe I’m really not. But this is how I’m going to learn—from watching them and learning. I just hope I can make them proud today.
The Unwanted Spy Page 7
