Agent 7. The Shadows: Part I

▪️◼️Chapter Twenty Six◼️▪️

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING!
MATURE CONTENT!⚠️

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ALINA
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Matteo is standing on the other side of the doorway, across from me. The wooden, hand-carved door between us is shut but I have a feeling whoever is on the other side will be bursting through at any moment.

My eyes are trained on him, while his are honed in on the noises just outside the door. They are two live wires buzzing with electricity. I can see them pulsating and zinging with ferocity.

I wrap my arms around myself anxiously. I'm the most terrified I've ever been in my entire life while Matteo seems bridled with control. He's the most composed I've ever seen him, this is his domain.

I slam my hand over my mouth smothering another scream when a large man with a gun breaks open the door and storms into the room. In a flash, Matteo reacts, going through a series of lithe movements and quick thrusts until he disarms the man. No longer with a weapon the man clothed head-to-toe in black fights back with clenched fists. Matteo agilely uses the butt of the gun to slam into the man's head, instantly knocking him unconscious.

Matteo hardly has a moment to adjust his footing before a gunshot rings out from the hall like the clattering of cymbals and a bullet wizzes between the both of us.

This time I do scream.

I drop to the ground and curl into a ball in the corner—hyperventilating uncontrollably—as a second man bursts into the room, his gun aimed straight for Matteo's heart.

I suck in a gasping breath as I cover the back of my head with my arms and tuck my head between my trembling knees waiting for more gunshots to ring out and vibrate the walls.

I pinch my eyes shut but the gunshots never come. Instead, what sounds like a lamp, is knocked to the ground and shatters to pieces. There's more boisterous clatter and sounds of grunting and painful punches hitting their mark until finally I hear a loud groan, a thunk, and then pure, dreadful silence.

After awhile I hear his voice.

"Alina."

My head shoots up to find Matteo standing before me. His clothing is a tattered mess and his hair is in disarray, sticking up all over the place.

His large gloved hand is reaching out to me.

I eye it with uncertainty.

"We don't have much time." Matteo urges.

With a shaky breath I place my quivering hand in his steady hold and allow him to pull me up and usher me from the room.

"Wait!" I dig my feet into the floor.

Matteo slows his quickened pace to peer down at me from his side.

"My panties!" I say panicked, they were tossed aside somewhere by the couch. I don't want any trace of me left in this house. Matteo frowns when the mention of my discarded panties leaves my mouth. "A-and the lighter!
I touched the lighter!" I remember back to the moment I had convinced Borkov to smoke the cigar. I had taken the lighter out of his hands and lit it for him.

"I have them." He grunts before giving me a little shove and shuffling us from Borkov's house to the waiting car.

My body is a shivering mess on the ride back to the hotel. I'm freezing but sweating at the same time and I can't stop sobbing without tears as I rock back and forth. I'm not me, I'm a traumatized version of myself. A complete mess.