Syndicates //

xxvii

CIPHER'S POV

I feel sick.

It's pitch black outside and in the house. I don't remember getting to the couch. As I retrace my evening, I remember we were at the club. I was drinking.

Shit. Did I blackout?

My head is a million pounds but I force myself to rise because I have to pee really badly. I get up and head towards the bathroom, but then I hear faint conversations coming from upstairs. I peer to the stairs and see the lights on.

I'm most definitely at home. It must be the boys talking. I slowly drag my feet up the stairs, my head reverberating with every step. I follow the sounds of their voices.

I round the corner into an office, part of the house that I haven't seen yet. I notice there's a bed, where Niall is sat, and a ton of techy things around the room. This must be Louis' room.

Their heads turn sharply to me standing in the doorway. Harry, leaning on a dresser, straightens up and comes forward, "Mia, what are you doing awake?"

"Everything hurts," I whine.

"You're hungover. You blacked out."

A single cry escapes from my lungs. "I feel like shit."

He holds my upper arms and gently squeezes, "go lay back down and I'll bring you some meds."

As I start to be aware, their blurred figures focusing in my vision, I wonder what they're doing up at this time after the club. "What are you guys talking about?"

Harry turns to the boys, they try to tell him something with their eyes. I'm too out of it to decipher.

"Just something that happened at the club. We'll fill you in tomorrow," he starts to turn me around with the gentle grip that he kept on my arms, but I use what energy I have to resist.

"No," I say irritably, "It must be important if you can't wait until the morning to talk about it."

He sighs, giving in, "sit down next to Liam. I'll bring you meds." He brushes past me quickly to retrieve what I need. I still needed to use the restroom so I slowly stomped behind. He didn't realize me trailing him, or maybe he did and just ignored me. The bathroom was right next door anyway.

I was moving at half speed. I felt nauseous. Maybe I should've stuck around the toilet because I felt something rising in my throat. I knew it wasn't coming. I'm just in a total state of shambles. Back in the room, I fell into the springs of Louis' bed, sat next to Liam. Harry was already back with two pills and a bottle of water. He handed me the pills and then opened the bottle for me.

"You're handling your first hangover better than I did," Liam says. Cool story, bro. I am not in the mood.

"You guys gonna spill what happened?" I ask.

"Harry... that should be you," Liam admonishes.

"I ran into some guys at the restroom and they were looking for you, except they had no idea who you even were. They were just looking for Cipher."

My eyes widen at the almost-sobering news. "So were they trying to kill me?"

"We... aren't too sure," Liam turns to look at me. "At the very least, they wanted to take you. Which is practically a death sentence itself." The thought of being taken and the idea that it almost happened churns my stomach even more.

I'm speechless.

"We took care of them," Harry assures me, "you're safe with us."

"You killed them?" I exclaim.

"No," Niall adds, "I did beat the shit out of one of them. They're just some wannabe Black Diamond Brothers."

Louis is sat at his desk, multiple monitors and heavy machinery surround his corner of the room. He reclines in his swivel chair and impersonates an old man, "raah you stupid kids!" I'm not quite in the laughing mood.

I take another sip of water. "Is this something we're going to tell Cobalt about?"

"We have to. He would've done almost anything to have you be on his side. You're about to be really useful in the next set of weeks or even months," Harry says. "He knows there will be people looking for you. You've pissed off the entire Six, minus Cobalt. They either want you dead or on their side."

"Luckily," Liam adds, "we have to praise you for being so good at concealing your identity. You're nothing more than your virtual persona: Cipher. You probably danced right beside the two guys who were after you and they had no idea you were the diamond in the rough."

"Tomorrow, we're gonna go over security footage from the nightclub. We'll meet with Cobalt."

"Anything else I should know about what happened tonight?" I ask.

"No. We were almost ready to head to bed when you came in," Harry explains.

I ask another question, "What time is it anyway?"

"Five." Louis looks at his computer monitor.

"And what time did we get home?"

"Uh... two? three?" Liam shrugs. "Not quite sure."

"So you just explained two hours worth of conversation to me in a few minutes?" I skeptically question. I feel like they're still holding more.

"That's the sum of it all. We were just telling each other in depth," Niall says. "And I also had to clean myself up. Got a little red on my white shirt." He's talking about blood.

"Where did you guys drop Ava off?" I ask.

"She's here. In Niall's bed."

"Cat's out of the bag on the whole syndicate thing then, huh?" I raise an eyebrow.

They nod, pursed lips and a look of disappointment.

"And we called you Mia in a panic," Niall adds- salt to the wound, that is. "So the whole Cipher cover doesn't work on her anymore."

"How is she handling all of that?"

"Oh she loves it," Niall guffaws, "She's got a thing for bad boys." The rest of the boys groan at Niall's bold comment. I sour my face as it cusps on verge of TMI.

"I'm going back to bed," I sigh, dragging myself up against the resistance of my body weight and sway out of the room. They have way too much energy for all of this. I can't keep up.