Chapter 6

The next morning is the usual as they had breakfast before leaving to work. Mark brings Tiffany to school because he is going to come and pick her up after school.

Mark drives off and finally comes to this small building on the outskirts of the city. He parks his car and walks inside the building. No one is in the hallway. He walks down the stairs and stops in front of the big wall with one door. There is only a finger scanner on the wall. He scans his finger, and the door opens. JD and Jackson are on the floor. It looks like they are bored. Mandy, the IT guy, is sitting behind his desk, typing away some documents. JD stands up from the ground and sits on his chair when he sees Mark. 'Yo, I saw that you are bringing Tiffany here in the afternoon. Awesome. She is a kickass girl.' Jackson glances at JD. 'What! That violent girl is coming here? The first thing she did when she saw me was kicking me against the shin. She is not okay.' Mark sits on his chair and leans back to stare at the ceiling.

The afternoon comes fast, and Mark is leaning against his car, waiting for Tiffany. The kids from her class see Mark and waves at him. Some even came to high five him. There are also informers. 'The math teacher kept his distance from miss Tiffany. Normally he'd try to sit next to her or give her free drinks, but he did not even look her way. I think that he is intimidated by you. Or that they would talk bad behind him after what you did yesterday.' Mark grins. 'Tell me if he acts clingy again. I'll make sure he disappears this time.' The boys thump him up. Tiffany sees the group of scammers. She comes close, and before she can say anything. He pulls her in for a hug. The boys see them, and they yell and whistle to them.

'Let me guess. Mr. Lee is coming this way, isn't he?' Mark has a devilish grin on his face. 'Oh, you bet he is. He's glaring at me right now.' Mark gawks at Mr. Lee and kisses Tiffany at the same time. He even went as fas as to touch her here and there. Tiffany tries to remove his hands, but he is too strong for her. Mr. Lee can no longer watch and leaves. Mark is satisfied for now, so he goes back to hug mode. 'Can you stop hugging me, you greasy ball?' He let her go and lead her to the car. 'After you, my sweet and savage lady.'

They arrive at the destination. It is a small building in a remote place. 'So, you work here? As in what? Don't tell me that you are running some illegal underground man-only hostel.' Mark holds her hand. 'Yep, you should be proud because your man is the number one host in here. They can't live without me.' They walk inside the building, going down the staircase. He scans his finger for the second time to open the door. JD is standing right in front of them. He throws with confetti. 'Welcome to our man cave. Don't mind the amount of testosterone flying through the air.' The one sitting with his back turned to them is Jackson. 'That's the one who ran away from me that night. Am I right? The sissy one.' Comments Tiffany while pointing her finger at Jackson. Mark closes his eyes and laughs. JD snorts. Once you are on her wrong side, you can't escape her sharp tongue. He is still a victim of it. 'Hey, sissy. Come here and welcome her.' Yells JD. 'You too, Mandy' But Mandy does not want to socialize with her. 'Mandy? That's some kickass name for a guy.' Tiffany finds it very interesting. Mandy's interest in her peaks up. He finds himself getting up and walking over to where she is standing. He lifts his hand and wants to welcome her. But Mark is the one who grabs his hand. He looks like a wolf protecting his lady from other male wolfs. 'Don't even think about it unless you are prepared to fight me with your life on stake.' Mark growls at Mandy. Tiffany finds it rather rude of Mark to be like this towards his friends. 'He is trying to be nice to me. Don't you dare and start a stupid childish fight, you number one shady male host!' JD understands why Mark has fallen for her. 'You have fallen for her because she is rude to you, and trashes you around, and doesn't treat you like the ladies you have met until now. They either fall for his looks and physics or run away because they are intimidated by the way he glares at people.' Tiffany disagrees with JD. 'Well, he did look scary at first, but he is a total douche, a pervert, and a little kid that needs to learn a lesson or two. That face is only a weak facade, and once you break through it. Tsk, just unrecyclable trash. One big chemical waste.' Mark turns into a red glowing big ball. He looks away and covers his face with his hand. What's this? He is feeling it again. If they were just alone, he would have pounced on her. 'See that? He likes it.' Tiffany pokes Mark on his arm. JD is amused to see Mark losing it. He claps his hands in joy. 'The big scary guy is k.o.ed by a little girl. Nice.' Jackson is in the middle of a freak show. 'You have a disgusting fetish, man. You turn into a horny weirdo when she curses you out? Not something for me.' He looks sickened. But Tiffany does not remain silent. 'Jackson is single, I guess. Being lonely like how Mark used to be, and you will be turned on by everything. Also, your age. I'm guessing that you are somewhere in your prime year. 35? Don't give up on your love life. Or your manhood will give up on you and will start rubbing itself against the first living thing it sees. Seeking for some attention.' She raises her eyebrows. Jackon gives up. He sighs and leaves without fighting back. Mark pulls her in and kisses her forehead. 'Go easy on him. He just broke up with his girlfriend for being a weak loser.' Tiffany looks sad. 'Aww.' She killed him and is now burring Jackson.

Mark makes Tiffany sit on the couch. He gives her a cup of coffee and sits down next to her. 'I think that you notice that I am not a casual office worker.' Mark begins. Tiffany nods her head and takes a sip from the hot coffee. You can say that we work for the government.' Tiffany jumps in. 'Like some special organization specialized in catching the bad guys?' She adds. 'Well, yeah. We go after international criminals. And the day you met Mark for the first time was him at work. The drunk guy was a chess piece for us, but you interrupted his work. He had no other choice but to knock-out the guy and call the police. And there was an injured civilian on the location, which was you. Those two guys who followed you where lifestreaming. So it would have been a bad idea to go with the original plan.' Tiffany thought about the gun. 'So that's why the gun... I'm sorry that I ruined your mission.' JD turns to Mark, who is consoling Tiffany. 'She saw your gun? Dude, you did not report that shit on paper? Not even to us.'

'I had it under control. Why report something so trivial like that?' Trivial? Both JD and Tiffany are thinking. She grabs him by the collar. 'Is that why you kidnapped me and tortured me because you couldn't kill me? You mountain goat.' Mark holds her hands and tries to calm her down this time. 'I thought of making you a little scared so that you would keep quiet.'

'But what about his face? Those boys filmed everything, and a lot of people recognize us whenever we go somewhere. Isn't it dangerous for this goat now that his face is all over the internet?' She points out. 'It doesn't matter for our identities. We all use our real names and keep a low profile on the fake names. You see, in movies, they keep their real identity as low profile as they can, but we work the other way around. It is like hiding your most important thing somewhere exposable and not in secret. Humans like to dig deeper than necessary. They don't look at what is in front of them. It works well for us. It's a victory for us. Before they even realize where they did wrong, it's game over for them.' Jackson makes it easy for Tiffany to understand it. Tiffany nods her head. 'I understand.' JD reminds her. 'And you are exposed to danger as well. Let's give Mark a round of applause for suicidally exposing himself to you. Now he needs to work twice as hard to protect your life and his life.' The three guys and Tiffany clapping their hands. Mark bows down to them.

They sit behind Mark's desk. 'So, you, JD and Jackson, are field agents? Mandy is the IT guy. You excel in combat, JD is a doctor and Jackson....' She fell silent. She forgets about his specialty. 'An organizer, damn it. He told you twice. Someone who makes sure the whole operation is going smooth.' Jackson yells from behind his desk. She ignores him. 'A pigeon. I see.' JD chokes on his coffee. Mandy shows a small smile on his face.

It's getting late. But the guys still have some work to do. Tiffany does not want to leave Mark and go home alone. She lays on the couch and falls asleep. Mark covers her up with his blanket.