Lost Stars (The Jewel Project #3)

09.1|| Missions

Angie couldn't do it. Her sweaty hands tightened around the wheel, but her foot shook on the gas. As much as she tried to convince herself that it was the right thing to do, she couldn't. The twelve year old girl yawned in the backseat, looking out the tinted window, unimpressed.

She said something in Japanese which Angie couldn't understand. She gritted her teeth. Why wasn't Emiko doing this again? But no, miss half-Japanese had left with the others while she had to stay behind and deal with this. It had sounded so innocent when she'd gotten the call.

Oh, Angie, before you go, one small thing. Yes, so small. Convince some Japanese tycoon to withdraw his bid on a shipment of weapons. Because screw the Yakuza, the CII wanted them. Such a good price. She's had to not only pretend that nothing was going on, because Tom would've blown his top if she told him, but to also come up with some way of convincing the guy to quit.

So here she was, kidnapping his tween daughter. She felt like smacking her head against the dashboard. How did she always get caught up in this crap? First spying on Snitch Gravel, now this. Tom was probably pissed as hell at her. As he should be. She was out kidnapping children.

"Who are you?" the girl finally asked in English.

Angie looked at her in the rearview mirror. "I'm your dad's new assistant."

The girl huffed and looked out the window again. "Bullshit. You don't even speak Japanese."

Touché. "I'm foreign and still learning."

The snotty little brat huffed again. "Yeah, right. How old are you anyway? You don't look much older than me."

That was true, but only because the girl had a ton of make up on. "I'm twenty two." So said her fake passport and driver's license. It also said that her name was Danielle Richards and she was a natural blonde.

The girl looked at her with the same impassible expression. "Am I getting kidnapped again?"

Angie's heart tightened. Poor girl had been through this before, heaven only knew how many times. No wonder she was so cold and careless. This was way harder than calling her father and threatening him to kidnap his daughter. That was all talk. This... this was not. The traffic wasn't helping. If she could drive at full speed, she could at least pretend she was running away from this mess.

"Of course you're not getting kidnapped," she answered through her teeth. Such a lie. Such a poor, poor lie.

The girl looked out the window again, but Angie could see the tears sliding down her thick layer of foundation. A knot settled in her chest and she pressed the gas harder. Thank God they were coming out of the city.

They raced between fields and houses, moving further away from the city, from the real target. The rice fields were a vibrant, hypnotic green which soothed Angie. The shade of green was her favorite. It reminded her of Tom, of the color of his eyes.

She couldn't do this.

Her feet slipped on the pedals and the car skidded before it pulled over into the gravel edge of the road. Angie hopped out of the driver's seat, went around the car and sat on the curb, grasping her head. Her breathing was labored and she felt the need for a paper bag to blow into.

Pull yourself together. You're an agent! But did that make it okay to do things she knew were wrong? No matter what, no one should ruin the sanctity of family. If you won't do this, someone else will either way. It didn't help. She still didn't want to do it.

With trembling hands, she took her phone out, hoping against hope that the man sent her a message to confirm that he'd given up on the transaction, like she'd requested. There were no new messages. She spent the next minute staring at her lock screen image, a picture of her and Tom in the night market. What would he say if he knew what she was doing?