Chapter 18 : Neriah

MKxx: Im throwing a party for my birthday are you free????

Ner14h09: what day is it?

MKxx: July 14

Ner14h09: I’m free that day. Where is it being held?

MKxx: bowling

Ner14h09: nerd

MKxx: im just broke.

Ner14h09: understandable. Are you free tomorrow?

MKxx: Yup!

Ner14h09: Can I meet you at the park again at 3pm?

MKxx: Sure. C u then

Ner14h09: Cya

I placed my phone on my bedside table to put it on charge. I stared at the calendar hanging on my corkboard and decided to cross off June fourteenth. Two weeks. Two weeks and we’d take them down.

“Maeve, I’m telling you it’s a good idea.” 

“Are you sure, Neriah? Ezekiel said you let a hostage of Zomji go because Elijah made him scream. I fear you’re going soft.” 

“No I’m not!” Was I? 

“Yes you are. Now tell me the ‘genius plan’ you have.” My leader mocked me. I huffed out a breath before re-stating my plan.

“I go to that party and assuming Maverick and the rest of his team will be there, we get Piltatria stationed outside of the alley. On my signal we get them in and take as many as we can, get more information and take down all of Zomji, leaders and all.” 

“What will that signal be?” Mave questioned, authority in her tone.

“I’ll come outside and a few minutes later, the rest of us just barge in.” I smiled, even though Maeve couldn’t hear or see it through the phone.

“Pretty solid plan, sis.” Ezekiel chuckled, leaning his hip against the kitchen counter.

“Shush up. It’s not like you’ve done anything this whole time, Ezekiel.” I smacked him on the arm before resuming my conversation with Maeve. “Should we go through with the plan?”

“I suppose so. How are you actually getting into the party though? Is it the inside link through-”

“Maverick. We uhm- date? But fake?” Not to my heart though, anything but fake what it feels like, the damn organ. 

“So you get extra info?” Maeve queried, her voice softening.

“Yeah. It works out. We have the address of the house of Zomji assassins. I believe five of them live there.” I gave her that important detail I’d left out in my many reports.

“Thanks for telling me this now, when we already have a plan, Neriah.” She scoffed before abruptly hanging up.

“Very nice. Call Elijah, Nova, Wren and Evelyn over. We need to discuss this plan so it wasn’t executed as badly as the last one.” I shivered at the memory of how crap our plan was. 

________________________________________________________

“Wait. We just like, take the guards out and take the suits?” Nova asked Ezekiel, whose plan we’d just heard.

“Yeah, it’s a foolproof plan if you ask me!” My brother smiled brightly and I scoffed.

“I reckon we might be able to take one person maximum. If we’re lucky it’ll be one of the good ones, loaded with info.”

“They’re highly skilled assassins, Neriah. I doubt that we’ll gut much info out of one of them. We’d need multiple.” Wren remarked. 

When I read over the files, Aurielle and Austin had been trained from the young age of twelve, under their parents' care of course. They started missions at fourteen. 

“Take the siblings. Torture one and make the other watch.” Elijah suggested, finally talking after being silent. Ezekiel and I stared at each other, before both of us blurted out, “Too far, Elijah!” 

“Fine! Take one of them.” 

“Eh. Good enough for a plan.” 

________________________________________________________

“I swear my plan is better than Ezekiel’s! I’m the smarter twin!” I pleaded with the rest of my team. “Evelyn, Wren, you weren’t even here when we took part in my twin’s horrendous plan.”

“Yeah, well we heard it!” Evelyn sighed, placing her head in her hands. 

“It wasn’t that bad!” Ezekiel smirked and I elbowed him in the ribs.

“It was so bad! We got caught and your plan was not foolproof!” I screamed out of pure frustration. 

“Calm down, Neriah! Geez!” My brother slapped a hand over my mouth.

“Yeah, okay, time out maybe. We’ll discuss our ideas and we’ll talk to you after that.

“Fine.” I pouted, getting up and leaving for my room.

“So we’ll go through with the plan but we need more information, like how long we’ll be waiting outside.” Elijah said, speaking for the rest of the group. 

“Got the answer to that.” I spoke, sifting through my messages with Maverick. “It starts at 8pm and I’ll go out at 9pm. Come in five or so minutes later?” 

“Sounds good to me.” Wren nodded her head.

“Yeah. Good enough.” Evelyn smiled. Ezekiel gave me a thumbs up, looking down at his phone and typing at the speed of light.

Brother Dearest 👹: u made me look like an idiot bak there

Neriah: Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. 

Brother Dearest 👹: its ok

Neriah: Do you like the plan though?

Brother Dearest 👹 still think mine is better tho 🙄

Neriah: Shut up.

I put my phone back into my pockets and Ezekiel mirrored my movements. The rest of the group was beginning to move out of our house. “Thanks for coming over. July fourteenth. Mark it down because if you’re not there I will go tell on you to Maeve.”

“Snitches get stitches!” Elijah snickered, walking out the front door. 

________________________________________________________

“I didn’t know what to wear, sorry.” Maverick sighed, placing his jacket on the grass.

“Hasn’t bothered me in the past.” I shrugged, taking out a bag of chips from the tote bag I’d brung. “Don’t shove your whole hand in.” 

“Alright.” He picked up the bag, tipping the contents into his mouth.

“Are you kidding me right now?” I laughed, snatching the bag back from Maverick.

“Are they chicken flavoured?” He asked, tilting his head to the side. 

“Uhh.. Yeah!” I checked the front of the bag, eating some chips. “Are your friends fine with me coming to your party?” 

“Yeah. They want to meet you.”  Thank god. 

“Oh! Wonderful.” I smiled. “I still am missing your favourite colour though.” 

“Hmm. Turquoise.” Maverick replied, drinking from a can of beer he’d brought. 

“Mine is red.” 

“Where are you from? I’m American and Irish.”

“You don’t sound like either.”

“So? I speak Italian as well as English.” 

“Alright. I’m slavic. From Poland.”

“Nice. You speak Polish? Or not.” 

“Eh. Bits and bobs.” 

“Say something then.”

“Kocham cię.” I don’t know if I do or my heart is kidding me.

“What did you say?” 

“Happy birthday.”

“Early, but thank you.” Maverick smiled. 

“Doesn’t matter too much though, does it?” I replied. He shook his head and picked up his phone. I assumed he was checking the time.

“Shoot.” He muttered under his breath. “I’ve really got to go. Sorry.” 

“Oh. Okay. Bye.” I kissed his cheek without thinking. I felt him heat up before pulling away.

“Bye.”