The Agent #2
By then, the sun was beaming through the windows. Warm rays caressed my face and projected orange circles through my closed lids. The heat embraced me like a mother holding her newborn and rocked me into a deep slumber.
Hours passed by like minutes in the peaceful oasis of unconsciousness. In it, my body was blissfully heavy, sinking into cushions as if they were clouds. For a little while, the world was quiet, and there weren’t any dark clouds looming over my head, preparing to storm.
I relished in the feeling for as long as I could. When I woke up, I knew thunderstorms would be rolling down.
The abyss kept me for longer than I expected, keeping me snug in its grasp through most of the day.
Only the loud blare of my cell phone pulled me from it - and by then, the sun had fallen again.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes and peered at my ringing phone. I was expecting my godfather’s name across the screen, likely concerned that I never called this morning. But, instead it was my partner’s.
“Hey, Gabriel,” I greeted almost incomprehensibly as I answered the phone.
“Hey. Are you decent?” He replied. “I’m out front.”
“Unless you have food, you’re not allowed in.”
“I have a key. I can come in whenever the fuck I want.”
I smiled.
Gabriel has been my partner since we were training at Quantico.
We were paired together once for a field simulation.
Even though he barely knew me, he caught a moment where I was in trouble and caught a paintball bullet for me.
When I asked him why he’d do that, he looked at his lower abdomen where the paintball had landed, shrugged, and said, “I’ve taken real bullets in worse places.
” Then he smiled, nudged me and added, “For girls who weren’t as pretty as you. ”
At the time, I wasn’t amused by his flirtatious demeanor.
I’d rolled my eyes and tried to put the interaction behind me.
But, Gabriel wasn’t having that. Every time I saw him, whether it be during class or around the Quantico building, he made a point to be directly next to me.
Each time, he’d initiate conversation and I’d do my best to ignore him.
In my head, I was there to start my career, not make friends.
But the more time Gabriel spent around me, the more I realized he was just looking out for me.
There weren’t a lot of women training in Quantico, especially Black women, and some of the men had strong opinions about the handful of us in the class.
I noticed whenever I was awarded for busting my ass and a smartass had something to say, Gabriel was ready with a comeback of his own.
“He never lets anyone disrespect you,” one of our classmates told me one day when Gabriel was avoiding my questions about his bruised knuckles. “You talk shit about his girl, and at least one tooth is getting knocked out.”
I didn’t like the comment about being his girl and confronted him on it the next time I saw him.
“Chill, ma,” he told me when I gripped his ass up by the collar. “You’re cute and all, but I have a boyfriend.”
Hearing his statement made my brows raise. Suddenly, I realized why he was so passionate about sticking up for me. We both had something to prove to the knuckleheads of our class. And we needed to stick together if we wanted to make that happen.
The alert on my alarm system chimed, announcing Gabriel’s entrance into the house. His footsteps thudded against the carpeted floor as he jogged up the steps and into my room.
The sherbet orange light of the sunset shining through the curtains cascaded over his golden brown skin and illuminated his chestnut brown eyes. “Now why the hell are you still in bed?”
“I’m concussed,” I retorted. “Rest is necessary.”
He rolled his eyes. “Rest isn’t in your vocabulary.” He walked over to the side of my bed and flounced down beside me onto the mattress. Leaning close, he inspected the bandaged gash on the side of my head. “Damn, he got you good. I know Cooper was pissed.”
“And you’re not?”
“Hell yeah, I am. I told you not to cover for Duncan’s dumb ass. He should’ve been the one getting his shit rocked. Not you.”
My smile dimmed at the reminder. If it hadn’t been me, would Lorenzo still have jumped in? Or would he still be alive and Duncan would be dead? The trail of “what ifs” was dangerous to follow, yet I somehow managed to always find myself wandering down it.
“Hey,” Gabriel said as he gently gripped my chin and tilted it upwards so I’d meet his softening eyes. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
My belly warmed from his kind words. “Yeah. Me too.”
He gave me a kind smile as he released my chin. “So, are you gonna debrief me or what?”
Matching his smile, I began to tell him the events of the night before. Listening to Lorenzo’s lament. The power suddenly going out. Being thrown around like a rag doll. Watching a bullet pierce through Lorenzo’s forehead. The last one bought a frown to my lips.
“It wasn’t an ordinary retaliation,” I said. “They had a bullet proof stealth suit with more guns than I could count, and they were clearly trained in combat. Mob men don’t care about that. They go in guns blazing, intending to make a mess. This guy was too calculated and organized.”
“Do you think this was a professional hit?”
“It had to be if they managed to infiltrate our system to locate us and encroach the premises.”
“Hmm,” Gabriel hummed, his eyes fading off to another place. His free hand drifted to the cross pendant hanging around his neck. Gently, his fingers traced over the gold metal.
“What?” I asked. “You’ve heard of something like this before?”
He nodded. “My uncle used to run for the cartels back in the day. When I got out of hand, he’d tell me stories as a warning to stay away from all that shit.
Entertained me more than scared me, though.
But, my favorite was the one about the assassins he called los fantasmas del diablo, the devil’s phantoms. According to my uncle, it’s a group of cold-hearted nobodies the world turned its back on.
They’re highly skilled and trained, but have no sense of loyalty.
They could be hired by one cartel this day and take out somebody in the same cartel the next.
Hiding in the shadows, they’re able to get their hands on anyone.
And they don’t discriminate. Criminals, civilians, it doesn’t matter.
If they’re hired to take someone out, they’re going to follow through at all costs. ”
My brows came together. “Do you think this could be the same group?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriel shrugged. “But, if they’re anything like my uncle described, we better hope not.”