5: The Golden Opportunity

"I speak four languages: English, Profanity, Sarcasm and Real Shit."

C H A P T E R 5

L U C I A N A

It has been three whole weeks since Lucy Cox has been dead.

Three whole weeks since I had been back in IAO.

Which means three weeks of a whole lot of nothing.

I mean absolutely NOTHING. Literally.

My arm was done healing, which was the only good thing that had happened in a while.

I had done nothing other than eat, sleep and poop since I've been back. As if being trapped in an old room full of memories wasn't bad enough I had no one to talk to, well except Angela. No offence to her, but she wasn't really the best person to talk to when she didn't even know my name. She still thought that I'm Jade Stone, a poor accident victim who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

She was so wrong that it was not even funny. Oh, how I wish I really was Jade Stone.

Besides Angela, no one has even come to talk to me. Not Alex, not Nathan, not even my old friends. But I guess I should have known. I didn't expect anyone to be here either, but that did not mean it still didn't hurt.

At least no one came to shoot me.

Knowing that this place was crawling with assassins who were furious with me was quite terrifying.

But that ends now. This morning Angela came up to tell me that Mr. David Marcello has requested to see me. Best thing to hear on Monday morning, isn't it?

And the best part is I'm going to have to get past those angry, terrifying assassins to get to David. How lovely.

I was on the way to David's office and I was suddenly kicked to the ground, and I landed on my broken arm.

"Ow, ow, ow, my arm!"

"Oh, shut up, you've been through worse."

I open my eyes, which instinctively shut on falling, and looked up to meet the owner of the voice.

Amber Harris, my best friend.

Holy crap.

If I thought that running into Nathan was horrible, then this was a thousand times worse. And I give her the same response I gave Nathan.

"Hey Amber...."

Well, sort of.

A little tip, never fake your death without telling your best friend.

Her green eyes are full of anger, but I saw the relief there as well. Relief to see that I was okay. This made my heart melt.

"Don't 'Hey Amber' me! Would you care to tell me where you have been since the past couple of years?! Were you in some beach sipping mocktails while we were devastated by your loss?! Did you seriously think turning up here after so long would be okay?"

Okay, so she's mad.

I made a move to get up, but I was kicked down again.

Ouch.

"Do you want me to stay on the floor all day while you scream your head off?"

"I'm not letting you get back up until you tell me why you left."

"It's kind of a long story."

"You conned me into thinking you were dead for 5 years. I have time." she said, twirling her blonde hair around her finger.

I crossed my legs and looked up at her.

"What are you doing?"

"You will kick me down if I try to get up, I might as well make myself comfortable because you are not getting anything out of me like this, as you said I've been through worse." I shrugged.

She sighed, knowing it was true.

"Oh, just get up, I'm here to take you to Marcello but don't think that you're off the hook yet."

Before I had a chance to get up, she grabbed my shoulder and hauled me up. Not so gently either.

"Why did you have to come here to take me to him? I trust he knows I'm perfectly capable of walking myself to his office."

"No one asked me to come get you and I didn't tell anyone because trust me, if I did, you wouldn't have just been kicked to the ground."

Thinking of that, I silently thank Amber in my head.

"You know you can let go of my shoulder now, right?"

"Right."

We walked to David's office and saw that his door was wide open, and he was standing facing the window. Before we even entered, he said. "You took your sweet time, Luciana."

"I would have been here earlier if I wasn't ambushed on the way."

On that he turned to look at us, seeing Amber he sighed. "I suppose I should have known that. Take a seat then."

I sit on the same chair I sat on the last time I was here, and Amber took the seat next to mine. David did not make a move to walk back and simply stood looking out the window.

"Did you call me here to ignore me? Because you were doing a pretty good job of that when I was locked away in a room." I asked, frustrated by the silence.

"I don't know if there is an easier way to tell you this Luciana . . ." he said, not meeting my eyes.

"What is it?" I asked him, curious to know why the David Marcello was having trouble maintaining eye contact with me.

"I want you to train the new set of recruits."

BOOM.

My inner fuse literally burst.

And beside me Amber burst out laughing.

"Oh this is gold! You training the recruits! I need to record every minute of that! Marcello I can't thank you enough for this," she said, wiping away an imaginary tear.

I ignored her. Looking at David I said in a deadly calm tone. "Is there a special reason as to why I have been given this golden opportunity or is this your way of punishing me for leaving?"

"Luciana you have to understand that this is not a joke, I'm asking you to do this as a favor, I know you are more than capable to go back to the field right this instant but I cannot let you do that because that would be going against the organization's policy. You have to either work your way up from the bottom or you can train the recruits and reclaim your original position. And Agent Harris will be helping you."

"What?! No, I'm not going to be training the stupid recruits!"

"Agent Harris, you have to help Luciana get back in her game, as her friend."

"I think you are mistaken Marcello, Luciana and I are not friends anymore, as you said, she has to work her way up from the bottom to reclaim that too."

With that, she got up and walked right out the door.

I gave a defeated sigh, massaging my temples, I asked. "When do the recruits come in?"

David's face lit up. "They will be here in a few days, I will ask someone to bring the details to your room."

"Alright, I'll leave then."

"Wait! Luciana, I am thrilled that you took up on the offer. Do not worry about Amber or anyone else, they will come around."

I walked out without responding.