The Unwanted Spy

by Scarlett Haven

  The smile falls from Kal’s face. “So that part was true, huh? About you kissing West?”

  I nod. “Well, he kissed me. It was completely unexpected. And just as suddenly as he started kissing me, he stopped. Then he told me the kiss meant nothing to him, that I meant nothing to him, and then he stormed out.”

  Kal clenches his jaw. “West is an idiot.”

  “He can’t help how he feels.” I don’t know why I’m sticking up for West right now. I just don’t want Kal to be mad at our team leader.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” He looks at me with such emotion in his eyes. It’s like he’s trying to convey what he wants to say through the way he looks at me. I wish I could read him.

  “Get what?”

  He sighs, turning his attention back to the water. “Nothing, Roxy.” After a few seconds, he looks back at me. “Let’s just forget last night ever happened, okay? Let’s just go back to the way it was before.”

  My heart feels lighter at his words. “Yeah, okay. I’d like that a lot, Kal.”

  “And no more making out with random guys.” He stands up from the bench and walks back inside. He shuts the sliding glass door a little harder than necessary and the glass rattles.

  Great—I’ve made another Royal mad at me. Alek is mad at me. Kal is mad at me. West is... well, he’s always mad in general so does he even count? And Ian...

  I groan, covering my eyes with my arm. I’m such a freaking mess.

  How can one night go so horribly wrong? Everything was going okay until it suddenly wasn’t and I don’t know how to deal with any of this. One thing they don’t teach you at Spy School is how to have real relationships with people. Sure, they teach you how to have fake ones, but real ones are a lot harder. Especially when said relationships are with super complicated teenage boys.

  Getting up from the bench, I head inside. Nobody is in the living room, so I head to my bedroom, wanting to hide away for the next month.

  Nobody said being in The Royals would be so complicated.

  Case closed.

  After my very awkward conversation with Kal, I hide in my room.

  It’s safe to say that it’s dangerous for me to be around any of the guys today. I woke up to a fight with Ian, I had a fight with West and kind of Alek, too, and then I had a fight with Kal. Perfect, really. Now everybody is thoroughly mad at me—best way to start a Monday.

  Since we’re done for the day, I know I should be going for a run or working on my French courses, but the thought of doing any of those things is just meh. I would much rather sulk. I’m good at sulking. Sulking doesn’t make anybody mad, either.

  There is a knock on my door and I groan, sitting up.

  “What?” I yell, not wanting to move to open my door.

  The door opens anyway, and Kal sticks his head in. “West said to tell you, and I quote, ‘Tell Roxy to get her lazy butt out here.’”

  I roll my eyes. “Fine.”

  I am being kind of lazy and I probably should get out of bed.

  Kal walks away from my door, leaving it open, so I force myself to get up and join everybody in the living room. When I walk out and find Kal sitting on the couch between Alek and Ian and West is standing in front of them, I know this is going to be bad.

  Ugh, he’s forcing us to have some kind of team meeting. I really hope this isn’t going to be him forcing all of us to reconcile our differences.

  “Princess, sit down,” West demands.

  I glare at him for calling me ‘Princess’ as I make my way to the couch. Alek scoots over, making room for me between him and Ian. I grimace as I sit beside Ian, hoping he isn’t mad at me for sitting by him.

  “Everybody is mad at everybody at this point, right?” West asks.

  Kal shrugs. “I’m not mad at Ian or Alek, but I am mad at you and Roxy.”

  I huff in annoyance.

  Why does everybody have to be mad at me?

  “Can we all agree that Princess is the common enemy here?”

  My face grows warm and I have an overwhelming urge to punch West.

  “I’m more upset with you than I am with Roxy,” Alek says.

  I turn to him, offering a smile.

  At least Alek is on my side.

  But then he has to ruin it by saying, “But I am still upset with you.”

  I frown.

  Of course.

  “I’m madder at you, too,” Kal says.

  I turn to him, thinking he’s talking to me, but he’s looking at West.

  I grin because maybe this little meeting won’t be so bad after all. Especially if all of us here hate West and we’re going to roast him. I want in on this roasting session.

  “Yes, we all hate West.” I lean back on the couch, getting comfortable. “Let’s talk about that.”

  West narrows his eyes at me. “That isn’t why I called this meeting.”

  Ian sits forward. “Let’s talk about how you broke the rule that you forced all of us to abide by.”

  “While we’re at it, why don’t we talk about the fact that I wasn’t even invited when you guys had a meeting about rules regarding me.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I could’ve saved you a lot of time by telling you that I’m not interested in any of you like that.”

  Lies.

  But I’m sticking to it.

  West laughs. “You could have fooled me yesterday when I had my tongue down your throat.”

  My face feels like it’s on fire and I sink farther into the couch, trying to make myself smaller. “A very poor lapse in judgment that won’t happen again.”

  “I’ve heard that before, but we both know I like a challenge.” He smirks.

  “We’re getting distracted,” Alek says. “West, you broke the rule.”

  “Didn’t we all break the rule?” West asks.

  The guys all look between each other.

  “What exactly is the rule?” I ask.

  West sighs. “We all agreed not to pursue you. No dating and nothing physical, like kissing, and definitely no falling in love. Having you on the team changes everything. And if we all fall for the same girl, that would be a disaster.”

  Oh. “Nobody else kissed me.”

  “Yeah, but the kissing rule isn’t the one I’m talking about.” He looks between the guys. I wish I could understand the silent conversations they have. Maybe in a few more months I’ll be able to read them, but I haven’t been with them long enough yet.

  “Maybe we all broke the rule in our own way.” Kal leans forward on the couch and winks at me when he sees I’m watching him. “It was a stupid rule anyway.”

  At least Kal doesn’t seem as mad at me anymore.

  “It’s a rule for a reason.” West raises his voice.

  “You broke it too. You just admitted to making out with Roxy.” Kal throws his hands in the air in frustration.

  I cover my face with my hands. “Oh, my god. Can we please stop talking about that? I don’t even like West, I don’t know why it happened, okay? But I just want to forget about it.”

  This will forever go down as the most embarrassing moment of my life. This is way worse even West dying my hair pink. This is the guys just torturing me.

  Nobody says anything. All four of them just look at me, which only makes my cheeks grow warmer.

  “I like things the way they were before yesterday. I like hanging out with Ian, I like training with Alek, I like the weird flirtatious relationship I have with Kal, and I even like fighting with West. I don’t want things to change,” I say.

  Ian crosses his arms over his chest. “You should’ve thought about that before you let West kiss you.”

  He is the last one I expected to say something like that. If Ian hates me this much, there really is no hope.

  I look at him and he’s glaring at me with such hate in his eyes that it makes my chest hurt.

  “I don’t want to go back to you ignoring me. I can’t go back to you pretending I don’t exist.” I put a hand on his forearm
and he doesn’t pull away, so I take that as a win. “Ian, please don’t be mad at me.”

  Before he can respond, West’s phone starts playing a loud tone. He holds up a finger and answers the call, so I turn my attention back to Ian.

  “Well, I am mad at you,” Ian says. “And I can’t just stop being mad at you. It’s going to take me a little while.”

  I frown. “How long?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe a few weeks or maybe a few months.”

  No. I don’t want that. I just can’t go back to the way it was after Kal got shot. It took so long for the guys to finally connect with me. Now that I know what it’s like to have them as my friends, I can’t take it.

  “You made her cry,” Kal says, smacking Ian on the arm.

  I wipe under my eyes. “It’s fine. Ian can feel however he wants. I’m just being a stupid girl.”

  I hate crying. I’m usually better at holding in my tears. If I ever cried in front of my mother, I would never hear the end of it.

  “Ian, take it back,” Alek demands. “I don’t like the tears.”

  “How am I supposed to take back the truth?” Ian defends himself.

  “You’re not,” I say, then look between Alek and Kal. “I promise I’m fine.”

  “Guys, shut up,” West says, clenching his jaw. “Sorry, sir.” He pauses, his phone to his ear. “The team is having some differences of opinion, but we’re working through it.” West pauses again, then pulls his phone away from his ear, hitting a button. He waves us all closer around his phone. “Continue, sir.”

  I flinch when I hear Michael Sinclair’s voice on the other end.

  Crap.

  He definitely heard us all fighting. That’s not good.

  Michael Sinclair doesn’t like when a team fights. We’ll probably get some kind of punishment for it, or worse, maybe he’ll make us go to therapy. Now that sounds miserable. The last thing I want to do is talk out our differences. But I try not to think of those things and I listen to what he’s saying.

  “The Villareal family was able to find out some information from inside the palace,” Michael Sinclair says, talking about the case we’ve been working on.

  My parents have been working with the Saudi King to help find information on the assassin who killed his son. Now we know that the person who hired the assassin was the King’s oldest son—talk about family drama.

  “It turns out, the King’s oldest son was convinced by an advisor that he should get his younger brother killed, so he took out the hit per the advisor’s request,” Michael explains. “The advisor has been killed for treason and there is not going to be a war to avenge the Prince’s death. The case is solved. Good work.”

  I don’t feel like I really helped. If anything, I hindered the investigation. Still, I’m glad it’s resolved and there won’t be a war.

  “West, I would like to speak with you alone,” Michael says.

  West turns the phone off speaker and walks out onto the balcony. The rest of the guys scatter—Ian leaves to sulk in his room, Kal puts on his headphones and does something on his computer, and Alek leaves the condo, probably going to work out. I sigh, heading to my room.

  I guess this is just how it’s going to be for now.

  Us fighting.

  Us hating one another.

  But at least we helped stop a war.

  It’s my room too, Princess.

  Nobody talks to me the rest of the evening. To be fair, I don’t try to talk to them, either, but I’m also extremely embarrassed by the conversation I had with the guys earlier. I can’t believe West and I kissed. More than just letting him kiss me, I’m ashamed to admit to myself that I liked it. A lot.

  That stupid kiss ruined everything.

  The more I think about it, the more I know West was right to pull away and that angers me even more. I hate that he’s right.

  Things would’ve been a lot more complicated if West and I decided to date. That conversation we just had with the rest of the team would’ve been a lot more complicated, too. I can’t stop thinking about Ian. He seemed so hurt by the fact that I kissed West, and it’s because he has feelings for me, too.

  I thought how I felt was one sided. I want it to be one sided. I’m completely fine if I’m making myself miserable, but making Ian miserable with me is too much. He’s sweet and he deserves so much better than I can give him.

  Spy School has always been my number one goal. Being a Royal and getting on a good team. But now… my goal is complete. Obviously, I am going to have to keep working hard to stay on this team, but I never would’ve been distracted by attractive guys before.

  There are a lot of attractive guys at Spy School. The school is full of them. Kal and Alek weren’t the first guys to hit on me. But this definitely is the first time I’ve ever allowed myself to feel something back, and I didn’t even do it on purpose. It’s like I can’t even control my emotions anymore and I don’t like it.

  The bedroom door opens. I don’t even notice it at first, because the door is so quiet, but I jump as I see West walk through the door. I think he’s coming in to yell at me again, but instead he just climbs into the bed beside mine.

  I sit up, looking at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Uh, sleeping,” he says.

  “Why are you in my room?” I ask.

  He smirks. “I’m tired of sleeping on the couch, and this isn’t just your room. It’s my room, too, Princess.”

  I groan. “Seriously?”

  He just keeps giving me his frustrating smirk as he turns on his side, facing me.

  “You’d better be careful,” I tell him. “I might get too clingy if we sleep in the same room.”

  He shrugs. “Clingy isn’t bad if you like the other person.”

  Does that mean he likes me?

  But he doesn’t elaborate and I’m not going to ask.

  I stare at West. His eyes are closed, but he’s not asleep, yet. But, somehow, he looks less intimidating right now. Maybe because he isn’t towering over me. Or maybe it’s because his blue eyes aren’t glaring at me. He is relaxed.

  When I first moved into the condo, I was really hurt by the fact that West would rather sleep on the couch than be in the same room as me, on a comfortable bed.

  Maybe West doesn’t hate me as much as he did when I first came here. Though, I wonder if he ever really hated me. He just acted like he did. He voted for me because he wanted me here. I don’t think that has changed. Or... maybe it has, I don’t know. West is confusing.

  I wonder how long their ‘rule’ has been in place. Did they decide the rule the first day I was introduced to the team? Maybe they made the rule on the way to the airport while I rode in a separate car. Maybe that is why they kept their distance.

  It just seems like a silly rule.

  But maybe it’s not silly, because even with the rule, I still have these feelings that I shouldn’t have. And even though I don’t want to admit it, I do have feelings for West. I like him.

  Oh, my gosh.

  I’m clingy.

  West is right.

  I freaking do like him, and us kissing only amplified my feelings.

  The problem is, I don’t want to like him. I don’t want to like any of the guys.

  Why does it have to be so complicated?

  West’s eyes pop open. “I can literally feel you staring at me.”

  I just grin.

  He sighs. “Go to sleep, Princess. Tomorrow is going to be an insane day. Trust me, you’ll need the sleep.”

  He’s probably right.

  Since we didn’t train today, I’m sure we’ll have to train twice as hard tomorrow to make up for it.

  I roll over, facing the wall instead of facing West. Maybe I can get some sleep if I’m not actually looking at him, but my mind is still racing.

  I don’t know how to fix this problem. How do I fix my relationship with the guys? How do we grow and move on from this?

  My stomach feels like th
ere is a pit in it that keeps growing larger and larger.

  What if my feelings for the guys keep growing like they have? The more I get to know them, the more I like them. I don’t know how to handle my growing feelings for any of them. It’s so… complicated.

  Maybe it was better when the guys were being mean to me. It was better for Ian to ignore me and Alek to say snarky comments. It was better for West to treat me like dirt because then I could ignore what I was feeling. Now… it’s too much and it’s too hard. How am I supposed to deal with this?

  “Princess, stop thinking and just go to sleep,” West mumbles.

  How does he even know that I’m not asleep?

  I close my eyes, trying to listen to his command. If I don’t go to sleep now, I am going to be tired all day tomorrow. It’s already going to take a whole lot of caffeine to get me through the day.

  Finally, I drift off to sleep, but I still dream of fighting and kissing.

  Tuesday, October 31

  He has a death wish.

  My heart races as I sit up abruptly in bed. I let out a scream in horror as a bright light blinds me.

  I am going to murder West Newman. Let it be known that today, Tuesday, October thirty first, will be the last day he will ever draw breath because I am going to choke the life right out of him.

  “West freaking Newman, what the heck?”

  He grins, blowing the air horn once more. I jump again from the loud noise, my heart racing even faster.

  I get up, about to tackle him, when he turns and walks from the room. I hear him blow the air horn in the other room. There is a thump and lots of yelling.

  Ah, so that wakeup call wasn’t just for me, then.

  How in the world did the other guys not wake up from the airhorn in my room? It was so loud my ears are still ringing.

  As I am standing up from my bed, about to see why West is waking me up at two o’clock in the morning, West walks back into the room. He is fully dressed and ready for the day, which is definitely not a good sign.

  “Get dressed. Wear comfortable clothes—tennis shoes, not those stupid flip flops you usually wear. And bring a jacket, too,” West says. “But do not pack a bag. You have five minutes.”