Hidden Tracks | ✓

29 | sensual politics

Seeing Isabella Hill at the gala was the last thing I could've possibly expected.

My heart jolted when I spotted her, and I double and triple checked to make sure it was really her. But there was no doubt about it.

Although she was looking a bit different due to the makeup on her face, her basic features remained the same, enough for me to recognise her.

I couldn't believe it. What could she be possibly doing at an event like this? How could a woman as unassuming as her be related to this? TIA had found no information about her which could be suspicious. She had no history of drugs or illegal activity.

I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. But then again, this wasn't the first time I was experiencing a twist in a case. In many of my previous missions, there'd been twists and turns I hadn't foreseen. You just had to take them in your stride.

I took a printout of the shot which featured Isabella Hill and the man beside her at the party. I also made two more copies of the picture and headed downstairs.

Upon going to the living room, I found Soler sitting there, watching football on the small screen of the TV.

I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and raised an eyebrow questioningly, surprised at my action.

But now wasn't the time to feel awkward around him. The discovery I'd made was more important.

"Where's Miranda? Is she in her room? I have something very important to show you both."

He scrunched his brows. "I think so. Why, did you find anything?"

I simply nodded at him as he sat up. Thankfully, I didn't need to go all the way to Miranda's room to call her as just then, she decided to enter the living room on her own.

I practically ran up to her. "Miranda! Come here and see this. I found something."

We sat together in the living room as I laid the picture out on the centre table. "Can you guys recognise this woman? The camera from my hairclip captured footage which showed her at the gala."

Soler and Miranda squinted at the woman before realisation dawned on their faces.

"That's Isabella Hill!"

"Oh my god, what's she doing there?"

I nodded. "That's what. I just can't figure out how she can be connected to all this. But she must be, right? I mean, it can't just be a coincidence that she was present at an event like this. That means she isn't as unassuming as we thought her to be, and she definitely didn't tell us everything about herself."

Soler looked at me, his dark eyebrows drawn together. "Will you call her again?"

"I don't know. We'll have to find out what she's up to, and who this man is, standing next to her. Before that, we can't just confront her."

I looked at the picture again, this time focusing on the man. Who was he? He had a heavy, dark beard, a slightly wrinkled face and was quite tall. He also wore glasses.

Something about his face seemed familiar. It was giving me deja vu. Maybe it was just me, but I was having this feeling that I'd seen him somewhere.

I couldn't place him now, but I'd have to think about it later.

Miranda got up. "I'll call the TIA HQ and tell them to monitor Isabella Hill, find out where she is currently and what she's up to."

She headed out of the room, leaving Soler and me alone.

I was lost in thought when I heard him ask, "What are you thinking?"

I looked at him. "Just how Isabella can be connected to all this, besides being Amélie's friend, of course. But now I can't trust everything she told me. Who knows how much of it was the truth."

"But what she told you about that trader in Istanbul turned out to be true, right? It wasn't a false lead," he pointed out.

I nodded. "True, but now I'll take everything with a pinch of salt."

Miranda came back and informed us that she'd notified TIA about Isabella's situation. We got up to go back to our rooms.

Just as I was about to walk up the stairs, I felt a hand wrap around my arm.

I turned around to see Soler looking a bit...nervous? I'd never seen him with this expression before.

"Hey, listen," he began. "I-um, I wanted to apologise for how I behaved the night of the gala. You were doing your job and I shouldn't have gone off at you like that. It was...it was disrespectful to you, I know. I was just a bit--a bit worried that those men would try to harass you or something."

Something stirred in my chest. This was so uncharacteristic of him, he'd never apologised to me before, for anything.

He'd be the first one to laugh at me if I embarrassed myself in training, he'd be the one to try and trip me or make me fall during physical evaluation, he'd always mock my shooting skills, and he'd never apologise for any of those things.

Now him saying sorry and admitting to his mistake was just...so new and unexpected. I gaped at him for two seconds before finding my voice.

"It's--it's fine, Soler," I said, my voice coming out a bit shaky. We were standing a bit too close to each other, which wasn't good. "I shouldn't have shouted at you either, that was stupid of me."

He cracked a tiny smile. "Yeah, well, you almost sounded like you were jealous that night, Winter."

I scoffed. "Jealous? Me? Of what?"

He grinned, shaking his head. "Deny it all you want."

I glared at him jokingly. "Hey, if anyone's jealous, it would be you. Of my incredible agent skills."

He looked at me for a long moment before dropping his gaze. "Never mind, now go take some rest. We'll continue with this case later tonight."

I nodded and sent him a small smile, before heading up the stairs. I was relieved we'd been able to work past our issues and resolve them, and that he'd finally had the guts to say sorry.

I didn't know why, but for the past few days, whenever we'd fought, I'd always felt this unsettling, upsetting feeling in my chest which just wouldn't go away unless we made up.

I didn't know what was happening to me, why I was suddenly starting to think so much about all this, about him. Before this, I'd never worked in such close proximity with him, and it was affecting me in ways I hadn't foreseen at all.

Now this was one twist in my case history I hadn't experienced before.

a/n: that's right, kaia, nobody is ever prepared for twists which involve their heart. what do you think of the turn this story has taken? leave your votes and comments!