❝I came in like a wrecking ball.❞

☀︎

MARK SHUFFLED THROUGH the papers in his hands. This was it. He finally had the one thing that would help Harry forget about his stupid little crush. There was nothing that he would not do for Harry. Even if it meant breaking his heart, Mark would do it.

He had worked for hours to dig this up. Anna was one smart woman. There were no real records on the public servers about her. Everything was under lock and key but it was nothing a 12 hour long coding session couldn't achieve.

Mark walked out of the surveillance room, decisively. Everyone else was out on the lawn, going over the building layout and running laps. Mark watched them from the window for a few minutes. Anna was jogging the perimeter of the lawn, sweat dripping from her face.

Mia, Noah, and Jeremy were going over the blueprints of Genesis Financial, burning it into their minds. Harry was sitting down under the huge oak tree, his eyes following Anna. Mark gripped his papers and decided to talk to Harry.

But something in him shifted. He had already tried talking Harry out of falling for Anna. He even knew that she was a goddamn government agent and he still did nothing about it. Every second she breathed the same air as them, she was bringing more threats along with her.

All Harry did though, in such a crucial time, was declare his feelings for Anna. Anna, the agent. The traitor. The spy. If it was anyone else, Harry would have had their head. But not this traitor, no. This was why the no feelings rule was important in the criminal world.

Love and emotions made you weak and snatched away the ruthlessness that you once carried. Mark squared his shoulders. It was now or never for him and he slowly opened the lawn gates. He whistled Harry over, who looked as if a trance had been broken.

Harry jogged over to him, his tousled hair looking even more perfect than usual. Mark had no time left to waste. He pushed the papers into Harry's palm and urged him to look at them.

"What's all this?" Harry asked, going through the pages filled with documents, photos and lawsuits.

"This," Mark said sternly, "is what you need. Do you know who Anna's parents are?"

"Yes, Maria and James Beck. But why are you showing me pictures of a car crash and these government documents?"

Mark sighed, feeling nervous all of a sudden. "You know what this is. You were there. You were responsible for it."

Harry's eyes widened with recognition. He was responsible for this whole fiasco. He had had to run away before it backfired in his face. And now it was back again, beating up terrible memories of the past.

Fear, anger, confusion, and hurt chased each other in his conflicting eyes. He was clenching the photos, his jaw tight and hard. His knuckles were turning white and he was wobbling slightly on his feet. Harry closed his eyes and threw the papers on the floor.

He walked towards the stairs and flew up them onto the first floor balcony. Harry looked down at a stunned Mark and said, "She doesn't need to know." He turned and left without a second glance.

Mark felt humiliated and annoyed. He was trying to save both of their lives by pushing Anna out of their mission. If they wanted a chance at life, she needed to die.

What all had Anna caused in the last three months? She'd been unearthing information about them. She was hunting Florian. She was the reason why Harry's father knew that they were here. She was the same girl whose life Harry had ruined.

A brilliant plan suddenly started taking shape in Mark's mind. What if, instead of Harry, he told Anna everything? She was bound to be raging and would leave immediately, leaving them in peace. Mark nodded to himself, excitedly. Yes, he would do exactly that.

Mark rushed out onto the lawn where Anna had now moved on to doing pushups. He hauled her to her feet and pulled her behind the oak tree. The others looked up from their workbench but Mark snapped his fingers at them. Mia shrugged and went back inside the warehouse, taking Jeremy and Noah along.

Anna pushed against Mark's strong frame, protesting. She didn't want to hurt him too hard physically so instead, she stepped on his toes. He yelped and jumped back. "Wha-?"

"Why did you pull me aside? I really don't have time for you machoistic beha-"

"Shut up. Just shut up and listen to me." Mark snarled, glaring at her.

"Excuse me?" Anna asked, exasperated.

"You should leave, Anna. It's not safe for you here." Mark crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Mark, this is getting really weird. I'm not going to listen to your breakdown right now." Anna pushed past him before Mark could catch a hold of her again. She was halfway across the lawn when Mark called out to her.

"Not even if I tell you what happened to your parents?"

Anna stopped walking. She couldn't move her feet. It felt as though imaginary roots were fixing her to the ground. Her body went stiff and she felt so heavy, she could experience the tug of gravity pulling her to the ground.

They knew.

Mark walked up to her, the sound of dry leaves crunching under his feet, deafeningly loud. He stood across from her and handed her some papers. With a trembling hand, she reached out for it and flipped through them.

Picture after picture of the horrible night. Documents that were signed by higher officials of her agency mentioning words like "no participation of the Federal Agency or any of its affiliates", "confidential", "non disclosure information", stared back at her angrily.

This made no sense to her but a cold fear was silently clutching at her heart. She was no idiot. Was someone at the agency connected to her parents' accident? No, no, no, that was impossible, right?

"Mark, what is all this?" Anna asked, her voice urgent and shaking. "I don't get it."

"Don't you see it, Anna? Harry was a federal agent. Just like you. Out to do good in the world. He sacrificed his father's legacy to live a life of honour. He was the best damn agent on your force. But unfortunately for him, life dealt him different cards.

On the night of Harry's first mission, he lost control of the steering wheel. It was a faulty car. His brakes failed and the car sped forward. It crashed directly into another car coming from the opposite direction.

Your parents' car, Anna. The crash was bad but all of them lived. Your mother was paralysed from the waist down and your father went into depression soon after. And Harry? His whole right arm was badly damaged.

Why'd you think he has an arm full of tattoos that you can barely make sense of? It's best that you leave, Anna. We don't want you compromising our safety anymore," Mark finished, his voice cold and merciless. There was not a hint of regret in him and Anna was appalled.

The man she'd been living with all these months was the exact same man who had taken away her family. Harry had destroyed her family's peace and safety. Her mother was bedridden and her father was lost without her.

Anna's hands shook and her knees wobbled, eventually giving away. Anna fell to the ground, the grass cutting her knees, tears streaming down her face. She made no sound but her lips curled back in pain and horror. Her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces, like glass shattering.

Anna couldn't breathe. She felt trapped in her own mind, the key nowhere in sight. Everything was slowly falling apart. First, Harry's father turning out to be David Hobey who apparently wanted to kill her. Then Mark and Harry knowing who she was. And now, this.

Where was she going wrong? How did it all turn so bad, so quickly? Just a week ago she was in IKEA searching for a stupid mattress. Even Zach had warned her about this. Then suddenly, Mark's voice reverberated in her ears.

He was the best damn agent on your force.

The tears stopped. Did that sentence contain the answers to all her questions? Was that sentence the final clue to solving this whole madness? Anna wiped away the streaks on her face. She gathered the fallen papers, hiccuping and shaking.

Anna stood up on her feet although her body was screaming at her to give up, to mourn, to be weak. But Anna had had enough of this. She was going to have her answers and then determine her own fate. She was not going to wait around to be killed.

She would be the one doing the killing soon enough.

She rushed towards the warehouse, paying no heed to Mark shouting after her. She pushed the doors open with her shoulders and jumped two stairs at a time. She ran down the hallway on the first floor and kicked Harry's door open.

Anna stepped into his room for the first time, without announcement. Harry was on his bed, neck deep in blueprints, pistols, and daggers. He had no shirt on and his perfect abs glistened under the sunshine streaming in through the open windows.

He looked celestial, like a paragon of perfection. But angels could fall too. And this man, right here, was Lucifer in the flesh. Harry looked mildly startled at her miffed expression but he immediately smiled. "Have a sea-"

Choosing to ignore the golden locks of hair falling on his eyes, Anna dug her nails into her palm. She was here for business and she was going to get her answers before anything else. No matter what.

Anna eyes flashed red, her voice losing any sign of dread or vulnerability. "Are you Florian? And don't you fucking dare lie to me again."

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

a/n: [ february 3rd, 2021, 12:20 am] we just won january best book in the young/new adult category in TheLotusCommunity! i couldn't be more happier!