Chapter 7

"Is this it?" the man ringing me up asks.

"I believe so," I respond, "Hold on. My wife is heading over. Hey honey, did you want to get anything else?"

"Just these few things," she says dropping some things on the counter.

I look at the piles of clothes. The sales associate smiles at that moment. Me and my wife look at each other. You could hardly even recognize Allure. She had a wig on. It's bleached blonde. She even manages to mask her Russian accent.

"Women, right?" I ask the sales associate, smiling at him.

He laughs, "Yeah right."

"So you agree."

"Excuse me sir?"

"You just sounded a little sexist. I'd like to see your manager."

"Sir I was just agreeing with you."

"Like my husband said. We'd like to see your manager," Allure states.

The sales associate seems a little nervous. He crosses into the backroom. We are in Toronto. The mall is relatively busy. There are a lot of people around. My disguise is a good one. I have a fake mustache and fake beard. I have on some glasses. It's been three weeks that we have been working for SOS. It's our third mission and we every day we got closer to finding out who is in charge of the Assembly now.

There is a family to the right of us. They are shopping for things. We are holding up the line. I noticed a few people behind us seeming a little antsy. To the right is a woman on her cellphone. Behind her is a man checking out women's clothes. He looks like he's shopping for his wife or something.

"Honey," I state.

"Yes darling?"

"What time is it?" I ask her.

"2 o' clock," she responds, looking down at her watch.

I turn. 2 o'clock. I see him standing there. The manager of the store. He's walking over to us. The sales associate is standing at a distance clearly afraid he is going to get in trouble. I look at the manager. He doesn't see past our disguises.

"Can I help you?" the manager asks.

"Yes," Allure says, "There's a fire."

"Excuse me."

Allure puts her finger in her ear. She looks annoyed. I know why. Love should be on the other end of that thing. She said the code word.

"There is a fire!"

The fire alarm goes off. Love is late but he manages to pull it off hacking into the mall's mainframe. People look around. They aren't panicking but they know what a fire alarm means. They start exiting. The manager is standing there. He gives us a look. The look is clear. He finally sees past our disguises once people start leaving the store. He finally understands what's going on.

"Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" he asks.

Allure takes off her wig. She shakes her orange hair free.

"I was hoping you'd come in the easy way," she responds to the manager, "Codename Inertia."

I remember Denny letting us know about our mission. Our target goes by Don Hathaway, previously known as Tony Lombardo. He's 29. His code name is Inertia and his team captain was Lady Sloth. He's 6'2". His specialties are hand to hand combat, bombs, sabotage and he was also highly proficient with the shotgun. He's been living life in Toronto for the past three years. A year ago he was contacted by the new Assembly. Since then he's been doing odd jobs for them running a local crime ring in order to smuggle high grade weapons from Canada into the United States. Our mission: Detain Codename Inertia and find out the identity of the person who was running the Assembly now that Tom was dead.

The store is empty.

"Not a chance," is his response.

He swings over the counter. He kicks me square in the chest. I fly back landing in the clothing rack behind me. Allure pulls out her gun. She's not fast enough. Standing on the counter he delivers the heel of his shoe to her forehead. She falls to the ground cursing. He pulls out a knife and jumps from the counter. He's landing right on her and his knife is pointed downward ready to impale Allure.

I throw a knife.

It lands right in his hand. It skewers his wrist causing him to drop the knife when it's only inches away from stabbing Allure.

He starts running, leaving the store and going into the mall area. I run over to Allure to make sure she's OK.

She's bleeding on her forehead but manages to say, "Go. Go after him."

The chase is on. This guy is not only strong. He's fast. He's faster than I imagined. He moves like lightening disappearing into the crowd. I see that he's on the lower level. I pull out my gun. I know I'm no good with guns and this place is too crowded to even try to shoot. People notice I have a gun. It alarms them. Fuck.

A woman screams. I throw the gun on the ground. No point. I have to get closer. I had to use knives.

I slide down the escalator, gliding on my ass past several people who seemed shocked and confused at what is going on. Sometimes I'm surprised by my own abilities, especially when I jump off the side of the escalator for ten feet, tackle Inertia to the ground and pin him.

We wrestle. Inertia punches me in the back of the head. I elbow him in his stomach. I kick off of him. We hustle to our feet. People are screaming around us shocked at what is going on. We face off in the middle of the mall and I pull a knife out. He pulls one out too.

"You sure you want to do this?" I ask.

He must not know how good I am with a knife. He was going to learn today. People are watching us. A entire group of people. I think I hear people say something about calling the police. We don't have much time. We begin to circle each other. His knife stance is good. Not good enough. I slash forward. My legs extend outward from my body. It distracts him. He doesn't see my attack breaking through his defenses. I slash him across his arms. He squirms in pain and withdraws a little bit. He throws his knife into the other hand that has isn't injured. He must not have practiced with that hand because his technique changes. It's horrible. Now's my chance! I'm ready to attack him again when all of a sudden I hear a gun shot.

Panic ensues!

People are running. I turn to see who shot the gun. It is Ego. He's standing there with a smoking pistol. The gun was shot at Inertia. He shot Inertia in the leg! Inertia is laying on the floor now squirming in pain.

"What the hell?" I ask Ego, "I had him."

"You were taking too long."

The nerve of this guy. I am beyond pissed at that moment. I push towards Inertia who is bleeding out immediately. The blood is everywhere. I'm pissed. I only joined this because I was promised there would be no killing. Inertia didn't seem like he had long. He was bleeding out right here in the middle of the fucking mall because of Ego!

I slap him, "Stay with me."

"Ask him what we came to find out Desire," Ego tells me standing off to the side.

"Shut the fuck up!" I scream.

"You're kind of cute," Inertia says to me, "If I die, I'm glad you're the last person I see."

I'm panicking. I'm putting pressure on his leg wound. It won't stop bleeding! Blood is everywhere. What the fuck is wrong with Ego? How the fuck could he just do something like this.

"You're not going to die."

Ego shakes his head, "Unless he tells us who the leader of the Assembly is he will."

"Fuck you!" Inertia screams at Ego.

Ego shoots him again! In the other leg! I get up and push Ego so hard that he falls to the ground. I swear I want to take a knife at that moment and stab it across that perfect face of his. He's annoying the fuck out of me.

"I'm sorry," Ego says with a smile from the ground. I don't think he means it though. He's amused by this.

Meanwhile Inertia is struggling, "Fuck. This hurts..."

"If you don't want a couple more bullets I suggest you start talking," Ego tells Inertia.

Ego is getting back up. He's reaching for his gun. Inertia looks scared at that moment. He looks over at me.

"Wait. Wait. Stop him. Ok? Stop him. I'll talk. It's the 8th sin. The leader of the Assembly is..."

A gun fires.

Inertia is shot right in the middle of his forehead! Blood splatters everywhere!

He's dead before he can finish speaking. I'm shocked. I look back at Ego. Ego didn't get to his gun yet. Ego shrugs his shoulder with a clueless expression on his face.

"Wasn't me..." he says before realizing something, "RUN! DESIRE RUN! NOW!"

There is a sniper! Ego points up. On the second story there is a sniper. I turn to see who it is. It's Avarice! Why the fuck is she in Toronto? Did she know that we were after Inertia? Avarice aims at me and shoots again. I start running. Ego grabs onto my hand as though I'm not running fast enough. I shake his hand away. The audacity of this guy was killing me at that moment.

We run behind a store. Shots are flinging around us.

"Keep going!" I hear someone scream.

It's Allure. She is shooting a rifle from one of the stores. She is giving us cover shooting back at Avarice. The gunshots go back and forth. Allure is a much better shot though. She has always been one of the best shots I know. I realize it when Avarice stops shooting. She is retreating clearly realizing that Allure was getting close with her shots. Soon we are running into the parking lot. Ego, Allure and I empty into the parking lot where other people are. People are pointing. They are pointing at us.

The cops are pulling up!

Fuck.

Just at that moment a van crashes through a line of parked cars. It rams through them. I see Urge's head in the back of the van poking out. He's has a gun. He's shooting at the tires of all the police cars to disable them so that we can make a getaway. I realize the driver of the van is none other than Craving. No wonder he was driving so recklessly.

The door of the van slides open. It's Love. He has all his infiltration gear on probably from using all the technology to hack into the mainframe.

"Get in. We're leaving. Now."

~

We get back to Pleasantville and I'm still steaming. We have to give the briefing to Denny before we are allowed to leave. He meets with us individually. When I tell Denny how reckless and stupid Ego was during the mission he doesn't even seem to react. He just takes notes! He doesn't even seem to be pissed off about it. Maybe that's why I take it into my own hands.

I walk out into the common area of the Steel room. I find Ego. I grab him by his collar and I lift him up off the chair.

"You piece of shit!" I say.

"Whoa! Whoa! What is the problem?" Ego asks.

"You sabotaged the mission. What do you mean what is the problem? You shot Inertia twice!" I respond to him.

"I didn't kill him. I was getting information. It worked. The mission was a success," Ego defends himself, "What the hell are you tripping about?"

"A success? Inertia is dead! We don't have a name. You call that a fucking success?"

I didn't sign up for this. All we got was it was the 8th sin. What the fuck was that supposed to even mean. Everyone knew there was only 7 sins. I didn't want people to die. We were supposed to be detaining the members of the Assembly. We were supposed to helping to reform them. How the fuck do you reform someone when they were dead? I'm so pissed that I want to fight him right here and right now. A part of me wishes that Ego is man enough to try to fight me. He isn't. His hands are loose on his side and he looks like he's honestly confused. He's playing this innocent role but I knew better. I saw him shoot Intertia twice when it wasn't necessary.

"Desire. Let him go," Urge states.

I look over at Urge. This wasn't happening.

"Are you taking his side?" I ask Urge, "Inertia is dead because of him."

"Avarice killed Inertia. That is in the report. She tried to stop him from releasing any information on the Assembly. It's not Ego's fault."

"You're wrong. He was going to die anyway," I tell Urge, "You should have seen how he was bleeding. Inertia was going to die Urge because of Ego."

"Let him go," Urge states walking over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder before getting a little serious, "Now."

It's not a threat. I don't think Urge would ever threaten but the tone is serious. I feel a shot to my stomach at that moment when he says it. I look over at the other agents in SOS. They are looking over at me. Denny has come out of his office. Mr. Steele himself is staring down at me from this railing watching what I am about to do. I'm causing a scene here and it's clear.

I push Ego off of me and walk away at that moment. I watch how people look at me as I leave. They are looking at me as though I'm the loose cannon.

Urge is driving us home afterward. I'm so pissed that I just stare out of the window the entire time.

"Can we talk about it?" he asks me.

"Go talk to Ego. Since you wanted to defend him."

"Desire. This isn't about defending Ego. This is about you. Ego didn't do anything that the rest of us wouldn't have. You just don't like him. Ever since he told you we were engaged before you've been ignoring it. There is huge tension when it comes to him. I wish you would just stop trying to sweep it under the rug with this passive aggressive bullshit."

I wasn't passive aggressive. I was aggressive-aggressive. The fact that Urge was supposed to be the love of my life and never told me about Ego is blowing my mind.

"You said I was your first," I finally say.

We are in front of our house. Urge pulls into the garage. I want to get out of the car but he locks the door keeping us locked in there. Urge wasn't going to let me out until we spoke about this. I knew him well enough to know that.

"You were my first," Urge tells me, "I wasn't serious with Ego. You have to believe that Desire."

"You proposed to him."

I don't like looking jealous. I hate it actually. Usually Urge was the one looking jealous. Usually Urge was the one going around threatening people because of me. The tables have turned in the past few weeks. I'd become that guy that Urge was. The idea of any man getting Urge's attention ever was a little too much for me to handle.

It was literally driving me crazy.

"I was young and dumb. I didn't know what a proposal was. It was something I read in a book when my dad wasn't beating me and forcing me to watch him kill people. I didn't know what love was. The first person that showed me attention was Ego back then. He was a friend. We never had sex. I think we kissed a couple times. That was it. You were my first everything. You were my first sexual experience. You were my first love. You were my first."

I take a deep breath. I guess it was different. How could I be mad at Urge anyway? Denny was my ex boyfriend and he was in town, regardless of if the relationship was real or fake. I'd dated boys before Urge. I've never loved any of them like I loved Urge. Did it matter what came before us now that we had each other?

I nod, "You're right."

"Of course I am," he responds, "I love you. You are the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. I have no desire for anyone else but Desire."

I lean into him. I kiss him. I bite down on his lip. I suck on it. Hearing him admit his love to me is amazing. Before I know it my hands are down Desire's pants. I'm groping him as I kiss him. His dick is swelling in his pants. It gets harder and harder.

"You're right?" I state.

"You sure about that?" he laughs, letting me pull harder on his dick and squirming in pleasure, "You should apologize to him."

"Wait hold on."

"Just do it. He's a friend more than anything. It was your idea for me to get some friends. I finally have one," Urge states, "Just apologize to him OK? Or else."

I can't help but smile, "Or else what?"

Urge grabs me up. He pulls me out of my car seat and into his lap. I'm across his lap. He opens the car door and dunks me over his lap. He pulls down my pants. Urge gives me a hard slap across my ass. He slaps my ass cheeks hard.

"Or else I'm going to have to punish you," Urge states.

"Damn. I like the sound of that," I respond.

He slaps me harder. Once. Twice. His hand stings my ass. It turns me on. After each slap he rubs it for a few seconds. He grabs my ass cheeks feeling each one at a time. It feels so fucking good. I moan, scream and squirm underneath Urge begging him to stop but secretly loving every moment of this. He slaps me harder over and over until my ass is red and stinging.

"Now that I punished you," Urge says, "I'll have to kiss it better."

He leans down over my ass and licks. His tongue teases my ass cheek. It makes it's way to the crack of my ass. He plays around the hole of my ass. He gets closer and closer. He spreads my cheeks apart. Just as he is about to put his tongue deep in my ass his phone vibrates. It's a message.

I know the sound.

"What is it?" I ask already annoyed.

"A new mission. Tonight. Fuck. They found a lead based off of the clue about the 8th sin."

We just came back from a mission. I realize at this moment that SOS sends us out more than they send the rest of their agents. Maybe it's because the SOS agents were weak as fuck and got nothing done. There was a reason they were using my team.

This was supposed to be a job but this was taking away from time between me and my man. My asshole was burning and dripping wet. I needed Urge inside of me desperately.

"Dammit. Don't we have time? Let's do a quickie."

"Now you know once I get in that thing I'm going to want to be in it all night," Urge tells me, "So let's just wait until the mission is over."

"OK, where are we headed this time? Beijing? Capetown? London?"

"California. San Francisco to be precise. And actually...you aren't going."

"What?"

"Supposedly it's a small mission and really dangerous to send a whole group. Headquarters just wants me and Ego."

I look over at Urge. You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'm beyond pissed at that moment. I slide out of the car. My pants are half down and I pull them up with an attitude.

"Fine."

"Desire...don't be like that. It's work. Please. Baby."

"It's fine. Go do your job," I respond.

"You're not mad?"

Mad. I was pissed. I was steaming. I can't let Ego keep coming in between my relationship though. I can't let him keep effecting it. I am so mad that I feel sick though. The idea of Ego and Urge on a plane together for a few hours made me sick. What if they were sharing a hotel room together? What if it was only a single bed? What if Ego saved Urge's life?

I can't think about this. It's driving me crazy.

"I'm fine. I'm going for a walk."

Urge looks at me as though confused and wanting to say something. I think passive aggression goes right over his head because he just nods and smiles. I walk away.

I am so pissed that I forget where I am in Pleasantville. I'm just walking. I pass John's house and wave him over. He throws me a beer. I open it and wave at him again smiling. Down the street I notice a sweet old couple on their porch drinking lemonade. They wave at me and I wave back.

This was supposed to be my paradise. Why the fuck was it not my fucking paradise?

I keep walking.

Craving. That's who I can talk to. Craving always knew what to say. He'd at least understand my frustration. I knew my best friend was always there when I wasn't. I walk over to his house. They gave Craving a house not too far from mine. It's a 2 bedroom house. He lives alone. Lust and Allure are roommates but Craving chose to live alone for whatever reason. I come to check on him often because of the whole drinking problem that he has going on. I have to take care of him one way or another. I find his key under his rug. For an assassin Craving is probably one of the most reckless people that I know.

I open his door. It wouldn't be the first time I walked in on him. Normally Craving doesn't mind or anything. I walk down to his basement. Craving spent his first check from SOS on all sorts of gym equipment and I know that's where I'm going to find him. As I make my way down to the basement all I smell is straight up sex.

"FUCK ME! FUCK ME DADDY!"

That's when I see Craving stretching Ego on the bench chair. Craving is butt naked. He's using the weights as leverage. Ego is bent over in front of him taking Ego's dick. The slapping of Craving's body up against Ego creates loud slapping noises.

"You like the cock?" Craving is asking him.

I'm shocked when I see it. Some sort of Oreo swirl of muscles, sweat and man juices are everywhere. Craving has condoms all over the ground. I notice that my best friend has a really big dick to tell the truth. It's pink head slams into the dark ass of Ego. Ego is taking it like a pro too. I'm kind of intimidated watching how he bounces his ass back on Craving over and over.

"Yeah daddy. Give me your nut..."

Really? I knew they were wearing a condom but I was annoyed at Ego. Really? What kind of hoe was this guy? I shake my head at that moment and clear my throat. I wasn't going to let this go down.

Craving notices me.

"Oh fuck!" Craving says.

Ego looks at me. Craving tries to cover himself but Ego just has this smirk on his face. I hate this guy. I really think I hate this guy.

"Upstairs," I tell Craving, "Now!"

I go upstairs. I don't smoke but right now I wish I did. I'm sitting on Craving's porch when he comes up there. I can see the expression on his face. It speaks volumes to tell the truth. Craving makes his way out smelling like hot sex. He isn't wearing anything but boxers and he scares this lady who scurries across the sidewalk walking her dog. Craving has his puppy dog eyes on and brushes his hands through his blond hair trying to all of a sudden seem innocent.

"Before you get mad..."

"Does Love know that you're fucking the new guy?" I ask him.

"No and please don't tell him," Craving responds.

I shake my head. Love has been a dickhead to me but this was wrong. Craving should have known better than this.

"I don't trust him. You know he's Urge's ex. You KNOW they are going on a mission after this? Alone?"

"He told me. That's why we were doing a quickie," Craving states, "But relax. He already said he isn't interested in Urge."

"Yes he is."

"How the hell do you know?"

"LOOK at Urge. Who the hell gets over a guy like him?" I ask, shaking my head.

"Thanks. You making me look like a chop liver right about now."

Craving was a good looking guy. That wasn't the point. Urge was just Urge. I mean the eyes alone made him look like some sort of unicorn among men, let alone his dark complexion with it. Urge was some exotic animal. He was beyond beautiful and mysterious. I didn't know any men who just got over him.

"It's not that,' I respond, "I just don't trust him."

"You haven't been trusting a lot of people lately huh?" Craving asks, "Shouldn't you be happy? I'm taking him off your hands. If Ego is fucking me then he won't be fucking Urge."

"Or he can just be using you to get to Urge."

"Really?" Craving asks, "Because Urge is just 20 times the man that I am right?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. It's always been Urge with you," Craving states, "You always thought he was just the second coming. You've never even noticed me. Never."

"Noticed you? What are you talking about? You're my best friend."

Craving stops. He crosses his arms.

"That's the problem. I was friendzoned immediately. Did you ever consider the fact that maybe the reason why I couldn't commit to Love was because I had feelings for someone else? Did you ever even think about that? I said that I lost someone I loved..."

"Ardor. You were talking about your ex...Ardor right?"

Craving shakes his head, "No. I was talking about you. I lost you. To Urge."

My heart stops. What the fuck is happening? What the fuck is he talking about?

"Desire I'm in love with you. I've always been in love with you. You should have been with me. Not Urge..."

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