14

"The Director isn't going to be happy to hear about how Las Vegas went down." Kendra rubbed her temples stressfully while staring at the paperwork covering her desk. Clayton watched from the couch inside of her office.

The office that Kendra had in The Compound was considerably one of the smallest rooms there. It had plain beige walls, no windows given that it was towards the center of the building, and there were several file cabinets lined up behind Kendra's desk that was placed in the middle of the room facing the doorway. Two chairs were placed in front of it, and a long couch sat on the other side of the wall looking to Kendra's desk.

Clayton was now perched on that couch. It had been replaced over the years, but Clayton remembered spending large parts of his childhood in this room. He remembered jumping around on the couch even when his mother and father had told him to get down and behave. At the time his young imagination had told him he was a sailor, the couch was nothing more than a ship floating in the ocean and the floor was shark infested waters. He hopped from cushion to cushion using a pencil as an imaginary sword to ward off the pirates. His mother, who would be drowned in her own work of finding twins to recruit and filing through missions that had been piling up, would reprimand him for having such a wild imagination. After some time, Clayton stopped believing in the pirates and the swords. But another young girl, exactly his age with his hair and eyes roamed the halls with stories of her own. He wondered why she was never punished into no longer having the mind of a child and being told to grow up like he had been.

Clayton never forgot those fleeting moments of his childhood. He didn't quite hold onto them, but when he would think about the small amount of time that he was allowed to live freely with no worries, he found some part of himself smiling.

"I know," Clayton agreed.

His mother had finished listening to the audio recordings that Colton had taken from the surveillance van of what had taken place at Ryders party only a few nights before. She was now taking down her notes and filling out reports to send to the Director of the CIA. It wasn't typical that someone of his mother's ranking would have straight contact with the Director at any given time. Usually, someone would have to speak with another person, who would in turn speak to another person, who would eventually pass the message along to the Director. But, his mother's case was different. She had created the Twin Operative from the ground up, so even though she wasn't quite high enough in the ranking yet, they considered her an exception.

"I heard the argument that you had with Carmen on the tapes," his mother began, peering at him over the rim of her reading glasses. "She challenged you."

Indeed, she did. He recalled the encounter of when Carmen fled to the bathroom during the party after panicking in front of Ryder. She and everyone else had completely ignored every order he gave. That had never happened before. The Twin Operative group was not just some elite team of killing machines, they were a family. He knew when to separate leader from family. He'd never abused his power as leader of the team or used that against any of them, but he couldn't help but feel somewhat frustrated with everyone for blindly ignoring what he'd said and following Carmens plan. The plan fell apart anyway, and Clayton knew that there was no way for him to voice how it had made him feel without the team accusing him of trying to use his position as an excuse for them to listen to him at all times.

When they were all here, he was their friend. But out on the field, he's their leader. Everything he says and does is with their safety in mind.

"Well." Clayton pulled at a loose thread on the couch cushion beside him. "There's nothing I can say to her about that even if I wanted to."

"You need to tell her that can't happen. You also need to talk to everyone else and tell them that when you are all out there on missions, you are the one that they need to listen to. You've been trained differently than they have, you're prepared for situations that they aren't. They need to remember that."

He nodded in understanding; he'd start off with Luke. Luke was his best friend and has been since the moment Clayton and his twin found Luke and Alexa. If anyone would understand what he was trying to say, it would be him.

"Any update on The Serpent Kings?" Clayton asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows against his knees.

Kendra released a sigh and shook her head. "No. Our snitch has been quiet."

"Too quiet?"

"No, she's still alive. I keep checking to make sure. She knows how to be discreet about it, that's for sure." Kendra started to gather up the papers on her desk to tuck them into a file.

Clayton shrugged. "I still don't understand why the DEA handed this over to us."

"I don't know either, I just do as I'm told." As Kendra sorted through the papers, she uncovered an envelope and picked it up to hold out to Clayton. "You got something in the mail."

Clayton stood from the couch and walked over to take it from her. "From who?"

By the look that appeared on Kendras face, he realized that he didn't even need her to say it. "David."

Both sadness and excitement spread in Claytons chest. Colton and Clayton didn't hear from their dad often. Whenever they did, it was never in person or through phone calls. He always sent letters. Clayton knew that he would never expect an in-person visit from their father at The Compound. He vowed to never come back to this building almost two years ago. So, whenever the boys did hear from him, Clayton would get relieved while Colton would only get angry. Clayton recalled once watching his brother throw out a birthday card meant for him from their father without even opening it.

"I'll have to brief you all later when I get a response back from the Director, so you're free to go for now," his mother said dismissively. He nodded and walked out of her office while ripping the seal on the envelope.

Clayton stalked down the halls while pulling out the folded paper and reading what was written onto it:

Clayton,

I wanted to check on you and your brother and see how the both of you were doing. I'm sure that you're busy with work so I won't pressure you for a response back. I know that Christmas is a few months out, but I wanted to see if you and Colton would want to come spend that weekend with me here in the mountains. I understand if you don't, but please think about it. I miss you both more than you know. Please pass the message along to your brother. Stay safe, all of you, I love you.

Clayton could practically feel the desperation and sadness with each word. Colton resented his father for leaving after everything that they're family had gone through. But Clayton understood why his dad left. He begged the boys to come with him, he knew that Kendra would never leave this organization. Not after everything she'd endured to build this from nothing into what it is now, even if she'd lost herself along the way. David knew that this life wasn't safe for them, he knew that if the boys stayed then they would most likely end up dead. Clayton wanted nothing more than to go with him, but he knew how committed Colton and Kendra were to this cause. None of the McGuire siblings had known anything else other than the Twin Operative their whole lives. Kendra and David lived here when she was pregnant both times, so they were raised here from birth. Their very life story lived in these walls. Colton would never leave, and Clayton refused to leave his brother alone. He stayed to protect his mother and brother, but his father refused to stay and watch any more of his children lose their lives. It didn't change the fact that on the rare occasions that he did reach out to the boys, it was mostly asking them to visit him or talk to him.

Guilt hit Clayton in the gut, he loved his father, but he felt torn when he left. It felt as if he needed to side with his mother and brother, or his father. It was unfair. Especially with the timing. After what Clayton had gone through at that time, no one seemed to take that into consideration, and he felt as though his family had played tug of war with his grief.

Clayton folded the letter up and shoved it into his back pocket when he drew closer to the training room. He could hear voices coming from inside and the lights were on.

Upon entering he spotted Colton and Luke sparring on the mat. A very entertained Ainsley was leaning against one of the concrete beams watching the two as they went at it. Clayton stood on the other side of the mat and folded his arms across his chest as he watched.

Luke was visibly getting exhausted with every swing and kick that Colton would dodge. Colton's tactic was well known enough to everyone else; he was very good at predicting his opponents moves. So, whenever Luke would even try to throw a punch, Colton would already be prepared to dodge it, sending Luke stumbling to the side breathless. His constant avoidance of hits would exhaust anyone he was sparring with. It would exhaust them to the point where he could get them right where he wanted them to land his final blows, ultimately taking them out.

Colton picked up on this tactic when he was a kid. He's used it ever since and although most of his fellow teammates are aware of what he does, they still have no idea how to outsmart him in sparring. He wins every single time. Clayton always grinned with pride at the sight of his little brother in his natural habitat.

Luke suddenly stepped forward to throw a punch. Big mistake. Colton caught the movement of his feet instantly and swerved out of the way to avoid Luke's oncoming fist. Colton had very clearly decided that he'd gotten bored with the circling each other for minutes on end, because he'd swept Luke's legs out from under him with one swift kick. Luke landed directly onto his back and burst into a coughing fit as he struggled to catch his breath.

Ainsley smirked. "You owe me 10 bucks." She stepped away from the wall. Revealing four knives in her hands that had been tucked under her arms.

"Bullshit." Luke sputtered from the floor as Colton stood over him with a smile and an arched eyebrow. "It doesn't count if Colton doesn't hit me."

"I did hit you," Colton stated matter-of-factly.

"You hit me like twice." Luke rolled onto his side. "Doesn't count."

"My bank account says that it does," Ainsley said. "Now, everyone off the mat. I've been wanting to train with the sandbags all day."

The sandbags were a new edition that The Compound had installed only a few months ago. It was good when practicing with throwing knives and Ainsley had been obsessed with it for weeks. The obsession ended when she got tired of having to clean up the spilled sand that leaked from the bags with every stab, not to mention that she would have to reattach a new bag every time it was used.

Luke stood up, and the two boys cleared the mat. Luke walked over to the small electrical panel on the wall beside the light switches. It would control the number of sandbags that dropped from the platforms on the ceiling and how fast they would come. Colton stood beside his brother and Ainsley tucked two of the knives into her belt and kept one in each hand.

She walked to the center of the mat and began twirling the knives in her hands anxiously.

All the boys fell silent with anticipation as they watched.

Luke hit the red button in the center, initiating the timer.

There was a faint ticking that echoed in the room, and suddenly a burlap sack of sand fell from the ceiling, towards a corner of the mat. It was still attached to the rope that kept it hanging above the ground.

The second the rope made a snapping noise, Ainsley whirled. Throwing the knife right in its direction.

The knife struck the bag directly in the middle and sand started to leak out.

Before the boys could even register her quick movements, another bag fell. This one had fallen so close to Ainsley that Clayton almost gasped when it looked as if it would land right on her head. But Ainsley was smart, she stepped to the side and spun around with the one knife still in hand. As she turned, she slashed the bag wide open before it had even finished falling.

Another bag fell and Ainsley went after that one as well, unsheathing both knives while throwing one in her hand just in time for another bag to fall and for it to catch Ainsley's blade. She grabbed the hilt of her other knife just as a bag fell once more and she wasted no time to spin around and hurl that knife right to its center.

She'd struck every bag and done so in record time.

None of the boys dared to speak or even breathe as Ainsley stood there, observing her work.

Clayton would never admit this out loud, but he'd never seen anyone more lethal than Ainsley. Luke and Alexa had been trained to be killing machines from the age of 6 and still, they didn't frighten him quite as much as she did. He'd grown up with spies who were just as dangerous as all of them put together, but there was something about Ainsley's precision, the look in her eyes, and the energy around her when she was in action that made Clayton scared to his bones. Those spies that he'd seen and trained with for years had more self-control and while they could be deadly, they never went in with an approach like that. Ainsley, however, always went into all her fighting and weaponry skills with one intention: nothing left standing.

It wouldn't be hard to take Ainsley in sparring, Clayton had done it several times. But if they were in the field, he would not want to be on the other end of her gun or her knives. When she moved, she was fast, angry, and spiteful. But she was also calculated. It was a terrifying combination. All he could do was thank whatever powers at work that Ainsley was on their side of things. Because had fate turned out differently, and Ainsley were an enemy instead of an ally, it would be a battle already lost before the bloodshed could even begin.

Clayton could sense that both Luke and Colton saw and felt this when watching her.

Ainsley noticed their silence and looked back and forth between them. "What are you all looking at?"

None of them replied so Ainsley shrugged and went to work on pulling out the knives from the bags and trying to untie each bag from their rope while Luke was resetting the switches on the panel.

Colton turned to Clayton. "What did mom say?"

"She thinks that the Directors gonna be pissed about the mission."

"He probably will be." Colton scratched the back of his head; his brother noted the dark circles under his eyes.

"Have you been sleeping?" Clayton asked.

Colton shrugged. "I've been getting a few hours."

"Why only a few hours?"

"He's been in here at two in the morning every night," Luke said from the other side of the room.

"What?" Claytons' eyebrows pulled together. "Why have you been in here so late? Don't you and Carmen train in the mornings?"

Colton shook his head. "No, I've been training in the mornings and at night when I can't sleep. Carmen locked herself in her room. She barely comes out and when she does, the only person she talks to is Alexa."

Clayton noticed Ainsley's pause in movements out of the corner of his eye.

The morning after the mission, no one else said a word to Carmen besides Clayton. Even he kept his conversations with her to a minimum. When everyone boarded the plane that afternoon, Carmen sat in the back cabin by herself. Clayton was surprised to see that even Colton had chosen sitting in the front cabin, which he hated to do, instead of sitting with Carmen for the plane ride home. When everyone was talking amongst themselves, Clayton subtly slipped to the back, using the excuse that he had to use the restroom. When he stepped inside the back cabin, he saw Carmen staring out a window in silence. She instantly began wiping her eyes when he came in but as he walked past, he saw the wet cheeks and felt pity ripple through his body. For a moment he actually debated staying in the cabin with her. But he knew that Carmen would rather give up her right hand then even sit in silence with him, it might only anger her more to find out that he would've done it because he felt bad for her. So, he held his head high and continued on past her, leaving her back to being alone. Once they arrived back at The Compound, Carmen went straight to her room. However, Clayton didn't ask for updates about her, so he had no idea that she'd failed to train or talk to anyone for the past 3 days.

"Good," Ainsley suddenly said. "She can stay there for all I care."

When none of the boys said anything else, Ainsley finished untying the last bag and let it fall to the ground as sand spilled out beneath it. "I'm getting a broom. I'll be back."

Once Ainsley was gone and out of earshot, Clayton looked back to his brother. "You need to get her back into training."

"You think that I didn't try?" Colton asked. "Besides, I'm still mad about that little stunt she pulled in Vegas. She didn't need to say it like that, I've never seen Ainsley that hurt before."

Clayton sighed. "I don't blame Carmen. Ainsley should have done her own research, it was her family, it was her responsibility."

Colton stared at his brother with wide eyes. "I can't believe that you're defending Carmen right now."

"I can't believe that I'm defending Carmen." Clayton pointed to himself as he shook his head. "But the fact that I am defending her should say something. You know that I don't like her, you know I don't want her here, but she's stuck here whether any of us likes it or not. So, make sure that she's trained so she isn't pulling more shit like what happened in Vegas all over again."

Colton knew this was a losing battle, so he sighed with defeat. "Fine. But I'm not going to drag her out of there kicking and screaming so if she says that she doesn't want to do it and won't listen to me, then I don't know what to tell you."

"If it gets to that point then I'll get involved."

Colton laughed. "Yeah, because I'm sure she would rather hear that from you than me."

"She shared a hotel room with me." Clayton shrugged with a teasing smile. "She must like me a little bit."

"Keep telling yourself that." Colton clapped his brother on the shoulder as he walked passed him. "I wouldn't be surprised if she has a dart board in her room with your picture on it."

"If that's the case then let's hope she has Ainsley's aim!" Clayton called out to Colton, who was walking to the doorway.

Colton scoffed. "She has Ainsley's attitude, that's for damn sure."

Clayton shook his head with a smirk. "No." He stared at the sandbags that had been stabbed and slashed on the floor. "Ainsley's attitude is definitely worse."

**

If there was one thing that Colton was dreading, it was knocking on Carmens bedroom door. He'd been standing outside of it for the past 2 minutes trying to convince himself that knocking wasn't a bad idea. She hadn't spoken to him at all since the night of the mission in Vegas. He'd tried knocking on her door the day after they returned home but she'd only ignored him and didn't bother to answer. Later that day, Colton had been talking to Sophie who'd informed him that her girlfriend had been checking up on Carmen occasionally throughout the day and bringing her food since she didn't want to come out to face anyone. According to Sophie: Alexa was the only one that Carmen wanted to be around.

Colton only rolled his eyes in agitation when he heard this. He was tempted to ask Alexa how Carmen was, but he couldn't shake the image of Ainsley's face from his mind when Carmen told her about their father passing away. Colton had seen Ainsley take hits from grown men twice her size and still come out the other side victorious and with a sinister smile knowing that they could never harm her enough for it to bother her. But Carmens words alone were worse than any hit that Ainsley could have taken.

"You gonna knock at any point?" A familiar voice came from behind him, nearly making Colton jump from his thoughts. He looked over his shoulder to see Santana standing against the wall with her hands folded behind her back watching him carefully.

"Don't know," he replied, fully facing her. "I'm still debating it."

He knew that Carmen would be able to hear every word from the other side of the door and didn't care.

"I would." Santana shrugged with a half-smile. "Just to see what she says."

"She'll probably tell me to get lost."

"Well," Santana began, "if she does or you decide not to knock, you should come join me in the garden." She pulled a handout from behind her back to reveal a half empty bottle of vodka in her hand. "I've been hiding this in my room for a few weeks. It deserves to see some moonlight."

Colton chuckled and shook his head at his best friend. "If my mom catches you with that, she's gonna flip."

Kendra wasn't a fan of keeping alcohol in The Compound to begin with, and she only allowed the agents that were of age to drink. Santana and Sophie were still 20, although their birthday would be coming soon this November.

"Oh, please. I'm a skilled spy. I can hide a bottle of vodka in my room." Santana pulled away from the wall and rolled her eyes. "If you need me, you know where to find me. Good luck."

"I might take you up on that." Colton turned back to the door. "We'll see."

When Colton heard the elevator ding that alerted him that Santana had left the floor, he sighed and finally raised his fist to knock on the wood.

"Go away," he heard Carmens voice on the other side of the door.

"No," he responded. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

There was a moment of silence, and suddenly Colton heard the doorknob turning.

Carmen opened the door, her dark hair tied into a bun, and she was in sports shorts and a jacket. "What?"

"You need to come to training with me in the morning," he stated.

"No." Carmen began to shut the door but Colton stopped it with his hand and Carmen shot him an angry glare. "Why do you want me to go to training?"

"Because you put your life at risk every day that you don't. What about the day when you have a mission and you're not physically ready for it and it costs you your life? This shit isn't a joke, Carmen. I don't preach these things for my health. It's serious."

Carmen scoffed and turned around, letting go of her hold on the door. Colton took this as an invitation to open it more and step inside as Carmen went back to sitting on her bed. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"I'm not doing your stupid missions. I'm not doing any of it," she told him.

Colton stood in front of the opened door and crossed his arms. "What do you mean?"

"I'm done." Carmen shrugged. "I'm clearly not wanted here, and I have no interest in being in a place that I'm not wanted. You guys only want me for my brain so I'm not doing this anymore. Your brother was right, make sure he knows that when I leave. I would tell him myself, but I really don't feel like seeing his smug face when he hears me say it."

Colton huffed a loud breath and dragged his hand down his face in a stressed-out manner. "You're so stubborn."

"So I've been told," she simply replied.

"Well, if that's the case then I'm glad to see that you chose prison as where you want to spend the rest of your life."

Carmen shook her head at him. "They'd probably treat me better in prison."

"Oh, please, Carmen," Colton spat. "Grow up. You got into a fight with your sister. Do you know how many fights I've had with my siblings? Do you know how many times Ainsley and Clayton have had screaming matches? Especially about you? Stop acting like one argument is end-all-be-all."

"Really?" Carmen scoffed and leaned back against her pillows. "You wouldn't even sit next to me on the plane ride home. You refused to sleep in the same room as me because you clearly can't stand me."

"I'm allowed to be upset with you Carmen."

"No." Carmen swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood to take a step towards Colton. "You actually aren't. None of you have any right to have a say in this. What happened was between Ainsley and I, not me and your whole fucking team. You all turned on me in a second, and yet you had the audacity to come to my door the next day and try to ask me to come to training as if I have any place in this team. It's quite clear that I don't. You people arrested me, you won't let me speak to my mother, you stuck me with my twin who I haven't seen in five years due to her own choices and expected everything to be fine and dandy. You expected me to just let go of the fact that Ainsley's choices were selfish and that she completely disregarded her whole family like we were nothing. So, don't you dare think that I'm just supposed to walk in here and pretend that I am something to her. I don't care that I was harsh when I told her, she should have known. I shouldn't have had to tell her. She should have had the decency to check. You're telling me that if you left Clayton, out of nowhere, you wouldn't at least care about what happens to him? You wouldn't want to know how he was after years of no contact?"

Colton didn't know what to say. He couldn't deny for a second that if something had happened, and he was separated from his brother, he would indeed check on him every single day to make sure that Clayton was okay. A pang of guilt struck Colton and he pressed his lips into a thin line as he pushed back his shoulders. His voice went soft, "You said that none of us know you, and you're right. So, if you want us to know you then you have to let us. You have to at least try. I'll see you tomorrow for training. If you don't come, then I'll tell my mom that you made your choice and you won't have to deal with us anymore."

Carmen didn't respond. She knew that it was a threat, a threat of imprisonment for life. But Carmen was miserable here, she had no access to her life outside these walls and she felt trapped.

Choice? What a joke, she thought to herself as she returned to her bed and stared at the wall.