Man I am on a roll with these updates.

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Thirteen's POV

Ryder's pissed off with me.

Correction, he was pissed off with me.

Apparently after him somehow turning my pool to jello, locking me in my room with Cody, and finally fixing the pool...only for him to dye it red immediately after, is ok. But when I retaliate I've taken it too far.

Please. I was just getting started.

Ryder didn't seem to appreciate the effort I put into my work over this past week. Cody helped of course as he said he would. So really it wasn't entirely my fault.

All I had done was hide every single one of his guns, had Nicky set up a program on her computer that changed the code to his room every five minutes, and swapped out his shampoo with hair dye.

Apparently hot pink is not his color...or so he claims.

Although...both of us know better than to mess up the other's sleep. Especially since I hardly get any to begin with. It's like an unspoken rule not to mess with each other's sleep...

So when I woke in the middle of the night to fire-crackers going off in my room...I knew it wasn't Ryder.

I had jumped up and ran to the door as the room began to fill with smoke. I made it into the hallway, my entire body aching and protesting. I had been coughing as smoke poured out of my room and the smoke alarms turned on mixing with the remaining fire-crackers still going off.

My immediate thought had been Devin.

Right up till the point Ryder's door burst open and smoke began spilling out of that room as well.

This was Henri's way of telling us to knock it off. His way of cussing us out.

I didn't make it back to sleep that night, and neither did anyone else. Everybody had been woken up between the fire-crackers and the smoke alarms...everybody except Henri.

How convenient.

We had all piled into the living room and watched movies till the sun finally came up. Elaine had been non-stop crying, comparing fire-crackers to being shot at.

I'll have Ryder and Jason show her the difference later.

Nicky had finally gone off at her and told her to shut up...but with much more...colorful worlds. She cusses as much as Ryder when she's really riled up.

Chase had told Nicky to try to look at it from Elaine's perspective. He was just trying to ease the tension.

Nicky's brilliant response was that if she was getting shot at she wouldn't be crying, she'd be shooting back since that would make more since then wasting your precious last moments crying yourself a river.

And keep in mind Nicky couldn't hit what she was aiming at if it was two feet in front of her. Give the girl a video game with guns involved and she wouldn't miss a shot, give her a real gun...and we'd be lucky she'd anything.

But Chase shut up after that.

"Did you have a nice night?"

Both me and Ryder scowl at Henri, Ryder grumbling something under his breath that neither me or Henri catch...luckily.

"It would've been a lot better if there wasn't a war going on inside my bedroom at two in the morning." Ryder retorts.

Henri raises an eyebrow. "Well on a good note, it looks like you got your hair back to normal."

Ryder glares at Henri and Henri just waves at us before walking out of the room.

"Have a good day." He calls to us. Ryder turns towards me the moment Henri's gone.

"Is it bad that I really want to retaliate against him?"

I turn my icy glare on Ryder. "Don't you freaking dare." I hiss at him and Ryder holds his hands up in surrender.

I stand from my seat on the couch and walk towards the kitchen, limping as I do so. Luckily I'm able to put more pressure on my leg than before, and I finally convinced Henri to let me leave my room without the sling. Granted it took two days of non-stop arguing but I ended up getting my way.

My injuries are nowhere near completely healed but at least now I have a little more movement than before. Enough to fight if necessary. Though I'd probably end up ripping open my stitches but oh well.

I had also spoken with Nicky about the real reason for her showing up. I was right in assuming she needed my help and place to lay low for a little bit...but she can't stay here forever.

Nicky's used to moving around, a lot. She never stays in one place longer than she has to. And staying in one place for a long period of time makes her antsy, makes her volatile. She gets nervous no matter how safe the place may be.

She's just not one of those people who are comfortable in one place. No. She has to keep moving.

Luckily, Garrett seems to be leaving her alone...for now. Right now the only thing she needs help with is hiding from her past.

She won't tell me much about what's going on and I know her past is a sore spot for her. But now it seems to be catching up to her.

Which is how I came up with my brilliant idea to help her...as I've said before...Ryder owes me a lot of favors.

"Whatcha doing?" Ryder asks as he grabs another packet of popcorn. I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"Thinking," I reply simply as I toss some bread into the toaster.

"You? Thinking? Do I need another bulletproof vest?" He teases.

"Oh, ha-ha." I retort dryly. I pull myself up onto the counter, wincing from the pain in my side. "Hey, Ryder?"

"Yes?"

"Remember that favor you owe me?" I ask super casually and he gives me a look of narrowed eyes and suspicion.

"Nope. No favors, not ringing any bells. Nope."

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

I cross my arms over my chest and stare him down, he keeps eyes contact with me and I raise my eyebrow, finally, he lets out a resigned groan.

"What do you want?"

I smile a victory smile. "Me and the boys are leaving today and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." He cuts me off. "You're leaving? How come I'm just now hearing about this?"

"I just now thought of it."

"The boys know?"

"They will when I tell them to pack their bags or I'm leaving them here at Henri's mercy."

"That's cruel."

"You're trying to get me off topic."

"That's a lovely shirt you're wearing and those bruises do wonders bringing out your eyes."

"Ryder." My tone holds warning. "You're not going to get me to drop this."

"Fine, fine." He waves his hand at me. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Nicky's not coming with us."

"How the hell is that my problem?" Ryder immediately ducks after finishing his sentence, looking around to see if Henri's anywhere around.

I laugh at him and shake my head. "She's in some trouble-"

"Tell her to go play on the freeway."

"And I want to you to have her placed under FBI protection." I finish, ignoring his interruption.

"You want me, to have her placed under FBI protection?"

"That's what I said."

"What have you been smoking?"

"Ryder." I groan. "All you have to do is hand her over to your dad and he'll take care of it from there. You literally don't even have to talk to her."

"I just have to get her protection? Like, a jail cell?"

I groan again and run my hand over my face. "No." I snap in frustration. "Not a jail cell, just take her to your father and have him assign some guard to her."

"Does she know about this?"

"She's just as strongly opposed to it as you are."

"Well then, there you go. Set her free to face the big bad world alone."

"She's not a fighter, she's a runner. She won't last very long without help."

That's a complete and utter lie. She'd last forever on her own, but the problem with Nicky? She just keeps running, and she'll always be running. Unless someone helps her to get rid of the ghosts in her past.

I'm not going to tell any of this to Ryder. Especially since he has no idea who she really is or what she's capable of. If I told him she's a hacker and thief he'd have her arrested on the spot. As far as he's concerned, she's just a normal girl...who also happens to be a complete genius.

"Then you can invite me to her funeral. I'll even bring some flowers."

"Ryder this is serious." I hiss. "You owe me a favor-several actually."

He groans and I feel victorious after seeing the look of defeat on his face.

"Fine." He snaps. "I'll take her back to the Bureau, but after that, I'm done. And this counts as six favors, got it?" I hop off the counter and give him a loose hug.

"You're the best."

"You better not forget that. Now, where is that cockroach anyway?"

"She's not a cockroach Ryder."

"She called herself one. I had no part in that."

"I somehow find that very hard to believe."

"What's taking so long on that popcorn!?" Devin shouts from the living room. I shake my head and smile and Ryder dumps the popcorn into a bowl and heads back into the room. I follow.

"We're leaving in an hour pack your bags," I say simply as I enter the room.

"What why?" Jason questions.

"We're going to follow the coordinates Lily left for me."

"Are you sure that's the best idea? You're still recovering." Chase says.

"While I appreciate your concern, it's wasted. Garrett's out there and we need to stop him and I'm thinking this list is as good as any place to start. I'm not going to sit around a moment longer than absolutely necessary."

"Am I coming with you?" Nicky questions.

"No, you're going with Ryder to the FBI."

"I'd rather die."

"That's harsh," Ryder interjects.

"Truth hurts," Nicky replies simply.

"It's not up for negotiation," I state, looking pointedly between the two of them.

They both give each other a look of disgust and then a glare before turning away from each other like children.

"Chase." I start and he looks up at me from his phone. "You might want to call Megan and say goodbye."

His face turns murderous and he grabs the pillow next to him and pegs it at me, but I've already ducked out of the room.

"What the heck does that mean?" I hear Devin ask.

"Nothing," Chase responds. "I have no idea what she's talking about. She's just making no sense, as usual." He says the last part louder so I can hear him. I just laugh quietly to myself.

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