F•A•S•T//r.s.l.❣

1.9

Not long after Casey left, I fled as well and was walking back to campus when my phone vibrated.

"Hi David"

"Hi Athena. How's the spying going? Have you got any leads so far" he seemed stressed out.

I sighed. "I collected some notebooks from her room but they didn't have very much in them. And I haven't had much time with school and my life"

"I'm sorry if this is harsh but, your life has to be put aside in order for you to save others. It's your job" he paused. "I should have asked somebody else to step in when Ross reappeared"

"Why would you say that?"

"He's clearly distracting you"

"Is not! Nothing is distracting me, I came here with one purpose and right now I can't wait to leave" I told him. "But I only leave when my job is done"

"You're one of my best ones, love. You can do it"

We exchanged a brief goodbye and I hung up, creating a motto in my head.

Now on- no friends, no boys, no drama, nothing. Just me and my work.

+++

"David" I sighed into the phone. "This guy is nuts"

"What's up?"

"He has a code word. 'Diamond' stands for people"

"So this has just become a case of human trafficking. But for what?"

"Forced labour, and sexual exploitation it seems" I spoke with disgust as I flicked the pages of the notebook. Until something caught my eye. "R.S.L- 250 @ IL? David I-"

Casey walked into the room and tensed up, hiding the notebooks underneath my school stuff. "I'll call you back later, Dad"

This is personal now.

"You don't have to leave just because I came in" she said.

"I have something to do" I said briefly as I kicked off my heeled boots and slid on some Vans, out the door.

It was coming up to 10pm and Sierra's party was raging from the other side of the campus which made it a great opportunity to go into Ross' room. The door was locked, so I fiddled with the lock using a bobby pin.

It looked like any other dorm room- only painted a baby blue instead of pastel pink and smelt of some good cologne. I didn't allow myself to get snooping so I went straight for the nightstand, searching.

"Alright there?"

Seen as I was in a slight squat, I figured it would be appropriate to spin around quickly. Only that I was level with something which caused me to bounce back and smack the back of my head on the nightstand.

"Oh shit, are you okay?" Ross pulled me up and I nodded, everything still spinning around me. "May I ask you a question?"

"Go for it"

"What the hell were you doing?"

"Looking for tissues" was the first thing that came into my mind. He pointed at the tissue box on top of the nightstand. "Oh"

"Never mind, but I still need to speak to you regarding earlier today" he said anxiously. "Where did we go wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Us. You hinted that before I got shot we had something, and it was starting to re-appear again but, then I saw you with Rocky. Tell me what we had before"

I looked around. Talking about this hurt more than I thought it would, so I grabbed my phone and typed everything up, then sent him a text. He looked at his phone concentrated. "I'm such an asshole"

"It's not your fault" I sat down on his bed. "It's just that now I'm here and I'm caught up on basically everything and it's all so difficult to keep up with and just- ugh"

"Then why get personal with my brother?"

"Your brother was one of the first people to make me stop hurting"

He shot up. "So I don't help with the aching but my brother does? How the fuck does that make sense?!"

"You left!" it's off. "You left me for 3 fucking years thinking you were dead! It made me vulnerable but then toughened me up, and made me stop trusting people- and you didn't even bother to say you were okay! Of course seeing your adorable ass face would hurt! I haven't seen it in 36 months!"

"I was in a- you know what, I'm so done explaining something that doesn't seem to sink into you" Ross sighed. "This is so toxic, for both of us. Why don't we just-"

I interrupted his sentence with a well-deserved kiss (for me at least), and like I knew it would, the memories just hit me in a way that I couldn't put into words.

I pulled away ever so slightly, in a way that our lips grazed with every word I spoke. "Because I love you. Always have and always will"

Without any other words, the blonde simply pulled me into a much needed tight hug.

"We will make this work, even if it kills us both" he sighed as he left a kiss on my forehead. "But, you need to tell me everything, right from the start"

YAY