————
𝐇𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐬
————

The men came barging into his house. The little boy didn't understand what was happening. His mom told him to go to his room. Being the little mama's boy that he was, he went.

He heard shouting. He heard them say something about his father. Then there was more yelling. When he heard his mother start screaming and shouting 'no' he decided to leave his room.

When the little boy left his room, he saw everything. But he was frozen in place. At the time he didn't understand what was happening.

But one day he would learn what happened. And he would mourn what was lost that day.

♚♚♚

I wake up with a jump on the plane. I look around and see that Aspen is passed out with drool rolling down her cheek and Aziel has his headphones in probably sleeping too. I look to the seat across from me and see Phoenix looking through a magazine.

The nightmare was different this time. It's different every time...

I try to shake the nightmare from my mind, but the images from that night replay in my head.

"Are you okay?" Her voice pulls me from my thoughts. I look over at her rubbing away the sleep from my eyes.

"Mhm, why?" I mumble forcing nonchalance into my scratchy voice.

"Nothing, you just kinda startled awake." Phoenix shrugs.

"I was just dreaming about finally being away from you, and then I woke up but, nope, I'm still here." I roll my eyes.

"Ha ha, you're so funny," Phoenix deadpans. "Honestly, maybe you should quit this whole agent thing, and consider a career in comedy."

I scoff, "Look who's the funny one now."

She flips through a page in the magazine and says, "You know you talk in your sleep?"

Fuck.

"Really?" I ask feigning nonchalance again, "What'd I say?"

"Don't know. Couldn't really make it out." She looks over at me and I try to keep the relief out of my face.

Thank fuck.

"But based off what you told me, I'm sure you were jumping with joy that you were away from me." She fake smiles at me.

Changing the topic I ask her, "Why aren't you sleeping?" I check the time on my phone and it's twelve am.

"Couldn't really sleep." Is all she says but she doesn't need to say more. After the day we had, I had a hard time falling asleep too. I just hope those girls find their families again.

One of the pilots comes over the intercom and says, "Agents we will be landing in Athens in about ten minutes."

I buckle up my seatbelt again and look out the window at the capitol city of Greece, lights from buildings filling up the dark sky. I let this image replace the one from my nightmare and finally relax in my seat a little more.

♚♚♚

••••
𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱
••••

When we got to the hotel all of us were so tired we all went straight to bed. Our hotel room is bigger this time. Our rooms are connected by a living room with a small kitchen and we all have separate bedrooms this time. I don't know why Cole decided to splurge on us, maybe he felt bad that I was getting my hopes down about Mom. But either way, I'm fine with it because there was little chocolates under my pillow.

And shit they were so good, I went into Hayes' room and stole his.

It's been a day since we've arrived at the hotel. There isn't much we can do until Aspen tracks Andrey again. She's been working really hard, using the street cameras to track him or anyone that works for him down, but it's been dead silent.

They're probably trying to be careful because they just arrived in Greece or they're panicking because the deal with whoever was buying those girls to was ruined. Either way, they're lying low and it's been really hard to find them.

It's eight o'clock now and Aziel is helping Aspen locate Andrey in her room. I don't know where Hayes is but last I heard he was taking a nap. So I decide to make my escape now.

On the plane yesterday, Cole called me about a mission that he had for us that shouldn't take that long. In fact it sounded like a pretty easy mission that I could do by myself.

So, I quickly do my makeup and put on a dark red velvet dress, that hugs my body in all the right ways. The dress is tied together with strings that crisscross in the back, leaving most of my back open. I slip on my nude high heels and look in the full length mirror in my room, and -not to suck my own dick- but I look fucking hot.

I grab my phone and start to grab the door knob of my bedroom door to leave, but it's already opening for me.

Fuck.

Hayes walks into my room with an annoyed look on his face, "Phoenix, I know you took my fucking chocol-" He stops mid sentence as he sees what I'm wearing. He slowly drags his eyes down my body taking every curve in making my body heat up where his gaze trails. And damn if that doesn't boost my ego.

I feign a gasp putting a hand on my chest, "Oh my god we got chocolates?"

"First of all don't play dumb." He scoffs, "Second of all, where are you going?"

"To your dad's house."

He raises an eyebrow at me.

"Exploring Athens."

"In that?" Hayes gestures to my outfit.

"Can't a girl just get dressed up to go see a beautiful city?" I pout.

"They can, but if you were going to explore a city, I highly doubt you'd do it in high heels."

"You know what, you're right, I'll just go get my sneakers. You can go back to whatever you were doing now." I smile.

He sighs exasperatedly, "Phoenix cut the shit, what mission are you going on?"

"I'm going on a mission to explore the city!" I rub my temples.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I came with you?" He smirks, "I haven't gotten the chance to see the city much yet." He starts walking out of my room and down the hallway to his room.

"Actually I would mind."

"No, really, you shouldn't be alone in a foreign country." Hayes shrugs.

"Oh my god, you're insufferable." I finally snap when we reach his room.

"Then actually tell me where you're going, he turns around, probably not realizing how close behind him I was, our chests are almost touching. Very briefly, his eyes glance down at my lips, but it happened so quick I could just be seeing things.

"On a mission." I mutter finally giving in.

"Yeah. I knew that." Hayes scoffs, "What's the mission."

"Get dressed, I'll explain it on the way there." I sigh walking away.

♚♚♚

Once we get in the Uber, I tell the driver to turn up the music so she doesn't hear our conversation about the mission. The club is quite a drive from the hotel, so I have enough time to explain to Hayes the mission and the plan.

"Director called me on the plane about a mission that wouldn't take that long. So I thought I could do it myself because it seemed easy." I start. "There are these two serial rapists that go to the same club every night and always find some girl to drug so they can both..." I trail off but Hayes gets the hint. "But the problem is, the police thinks the girls are lying when they try to tell them about it. The police ask who were the people that assaulted them, but they can barely remember who but they know that it happened, and the police just don't look into because they don't have names." Hayes jaw clenches in anger.

"And you thought you could do this mission alone?" Hayes raises his eyebrow.

"Okay, yeah, yeah I'm an idiot for thinking I could do it alone. Whatever." I scoff. Hayes doesn't deny it.

"So what's the plan?" He asks.

"I'm putting all my trust into you." I start. "I'm gonna let them drug me."

"Phoe-" Hayes starts to protest but I cut him off.

"Let me finish. I'm gonna act like some drunk girl. I heard they like big boobs and ass'" Hayes looks my body up and down and I have to fight the smirk off my face. "Hoping that they come up to me, they'll try to get me even more drunk and drug me. There's a room upstairs in the club that they always use, so when they take me up there, you follow and then fight them off before they get to touch me. You handcuff them to something so they don't leave," I pull out two pairs of handcuffs from my handbag. "We call the cops with an anonymous tip and hopefully they call in the girls that reported the rape, and put the guys in a line up. After that with luck, they'll go to prison, Cole is gonna make sure of it."

I'm putting so much of my trust into Hayes, I hope he can handle it. He sighs, clenching his jaw and nods his head silently agreeing to the plan just as we pull up to the club.

We get out of the car and we start to walk into the club before Hayes pulls me to the side. "Why are you putting so much trust in me?" He asks. His eyes look sad and there's a deep hurt behind them that confuses me.

"Because even though I hate you, I highly doubt you would just sit back and let them hurt me." I explain, furrowing my brows. Hayes sighs and closes his eyes at that, making me wonder if he's okay. He shakes his head and then gestures for us to go in the club.

♚♚♚

i literally forgot to update yesterday i'm sorry guys

anyway thank you so much for reading i love you all<333