The Assassin - a Denied Spies Novel Book 1

Ava

Slowly but surely Kate's eyes blinked open. She looked at the roof as a slight groan slipped out from her lips. "Kate," Jake said while gently squeezing her hand. She looked in the direction of his voice before weakly smiling.

"Jake, you decided to show up for me after all," she wheezed. There was a soft chuckle next to me from Alex.

"Looks like her memory isn't damaged," he joked and I hit him on the arm; this wasn't the time to joke about. He took the hint and backed off.

"He hasn't left your side since he got here," Charlie informed Kate as Jake moved uncomfortably.

"So the big brother does care," Kate breathed heavily the corners of her mouth tugging upwards, "Who would have guessed?"

"Kate, I'm so sorry, if I had known sooner I would have ran straight for you..." Jake choked, his emotions becoming too hard to hide.

"I know, I would be the same, but things happen, you can't control everything." Kate whispered, trying to sit up to hug Jake before falling back down crying in pain.

"You need to stay lying down for a while, I haven't stitched you up, we're waiting on my mum," Charlie said just as a car pulled up in the drive. A couple of seconds later Charlie's mum was kneeling beside Kate, a medical kit sitting on the floor next to her. She gasped at the wound before giving Charlie a disapproving glare.

"Have you cleaned it properly?" Charlie's mum asked looking back towards the wound. Charlie kneeled down beside her mum before answering.

"Yeah, but it'll need some antibiotic cream; I couldn't find any." She replied instantly and her mum nodded approvingly.

"This will hurt, but only a little bit, no need to worry, I'm sure your brother will hold your hand," Charlie's mum said while digging through the medical kit. "Ah there it is I won't be long, I promise."

First she applied a thin layer of antibiotic cream before stitching up the wound, putting a plaster on over the stitches. Then she put a clean bandage around Kate's waist. "There all done, told you wouldn't be that bad." Kate managed to whimper out a thank you before being told to go to sleep.

"She'll be fine, Charlie and I will take good care of her, I think it's time for you to have a little rest too." She said to Jake who nodded reluctantly and went to sleep in Craig's room. He looked towards Alex - asking if he was going.

"In a minute, I'll catch up, I need some air," Alex said before Jake nodded and shuffled away. I followed Alex outside making sure to give Charlie a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder as I passed by her.

I found Alex leaning on a big oak tree in the middle of Charlie's front garden. "What's up?" I asked looking at him, really looking at him since he arrived at Charlie's. He looked the same as usual only his clothes were torn and grumbled from the fight. I couldn't see anything different.

"Who says anything is wrong?" he said looking at his feet. That's when I saw it. He was shaking and had dark circles around his eyes. His usually tanned complexion was pale white and his hair was matted down with sweat.

"I know something is wrong with you, you're shaking, you left Jake and you came out here of all places," I replied, trying to get a better look at his eyes.

"What's wrong with this place, it's just a tree," Alex asked confused but he still didn't take his eyes off the ground.

"You don't know? This is the thinking tree, Charlie and I have called it that for as long as I can remember, every time we climbed it, we got an amazing idea.

"Whenever we got sad or scared or even just bored, we'd come here and have an awesome idea to make whatever emotion we were feeling go away." Alex laughed slightly and I playfully shoved him.