(1) bonus. the ace of hearts

(1) bonus. THE ACE OF HEARTS [ace's parents]

CHICAGO—1987

Tessa Waring had one assignment: catch Blackwell, the man who had used his skill set to con over fifty million dollars from the rich and wealthy.

The con artist didn't work for anyone, and he didn't have any connections tying him down. He was nothing but a faint whisper of a myth to the public. Tessa would never admit this to her supervisor, but she actually liked what Blackwell was doing. His targets were always wealthy individuals who made their money through corrupt ways. There was the feeling that whenever he struck, a sort of vigilante justice would be brought about.

But what she didn't like about Blackwell was the fact that he was one hard mother-fucker to find.

The entire agency had been tracking him for the last couple of months, and every time Tessa thought she was close, the con artist would slip out of her fingers. Not to mention, no one knew what he looked like nor even his first name.

Tessa stepped outside of the coffee shop to clear her head. The chilly Winter Chicago air reinvigorated her determination; she had to find Blackwell. As a new agent, it was important for her to prove her worth.

Her phone pinged, alerting her that the agency had gotten new intel. It was a message from her supervisor. It read: Our source believes Blackwell will be at the Chicago theatre at 18:30 tonight. Be ready.

A wisped sigh escapes Tessa's lips. Her watch read 14:20, meaning she had quite some time before tonight's attempt would be underway. All the recon had been done, and her mission ready. All she needed to do now was to wait.

Her eyes scanned the city block around her for something to occupy her time. Her gaze landed on Grant Park. Might as well go for a jog, she thought.

Tessa proceed to tie back her wild dark red hair and started running pass the trees. She'd always loved this little green area within the bustling city. Suddenly, the voice of a stranger stopped her in her tracks.

"Hey Red!" The man shouted.

Tessa turned to see a striking figure. The man was tall, well built, and wore nothing but a thin jacket to brace the Winter cold. The man had beautifully dark hair, tousled ever so slightly that it jerked her heart. Though it was his eyes that struck her most.

Alluring, unusual, and memorable were all words that were begging to be used as descriptors. It could have just been the light, but his eyes light brown eyes seemed to be mystical. Each word tugged at her mind, but she finally settled on one: golden.

"Do you want to play a game?" He asked with a small, tugged smile.

The question pulled Tessa out of her muse. "What kind of game?" She cautiously responded. She was a spy after all. The only games she knew were those that involved violence. Those were fun with her partners, but definitely not with bystanders.

The man gestured to a deck of cards set up on a wooden table. "Just a simple card game."

Cards were all about probability, and Tessa just happened to love statistics. The way math and probability lead to calculated actions amazed her. She probably would have been a statistician had the CIA not recruited her.

"What's your name?" Tessa asks.

"I'll tell you if you win," the man winks.

Tessa gives a small nod. She had almost four hours to kill anyways, might as well do something interesting with it.

The man and Tessa sit down on opposite sides of the table. A sense of determination washes over her, as if she absolutely needed to win a card game in order to protect her pride. She had no problem admitting that she had a pride issue—she was at the top of her class at Langley. Her most sacred possession, this pride, had been cultivated over countless hours studying, crude remarks from superiors, and simple failure. It had to be protected as she moved from one stage of her life in school to a field agent.

"Alright Red," the man says. "Pick any one of these cards, put it back into the deck, and I bet I can guess what it is."

Tessa focuses intently as the man shuffles the cards of the deck. Her hand wavers, but she finally settles on a random card—the Ace of Hearts.

"The parameters you've set up are too easy," Tessa challenges as she grabs the rest of the deck. This move elicits a surprised eyebrow raise from the stranger.

Tessa continues, "You can probably shuffle them a certain way to guess the right card."

She begins to shuffle the cards altogether. After thirty seconds, Tessa is finally satisfied she'll win. With a content look, she gives the cards back to her opponent, who is now more fixated on the magnetic girl sitting in front of him than the cards.

The man sifts through the cards with an all-knowing amused smirk. He quickly holds up a card to her without even looking at the deck: the Ace of Hearts.

Tessa's brown eyes go wide. "How did you know?"

The move impressed her probably more than the average person, simply because she understood the mechanics of it. There was a mere 1.92% of the stranger being able to get the right card by chance.

Tessa wasn't someone who believes in chance, or fate, or whatever you wanted to call it. More likely, she concluded, he was able to focus on the one card she picked out as she shuffled everything. But even that requires apt skills.

The stranger chuckles slightly at her confusion. "Lucky guess, Red. Now you have to tell me your name."

Tessa shakes her head against the cool air. Not only was that stupid, since she was on a mission, but it also wasn't like her to give in. "We never agreed that I would tell you my name if I lost."

The two spent the rest of the afternoon in no-strings-attached company. She didn't tell him any personal details, and he returned the favor. They were both believed the other was just a passer byers in their life.

Until 18:30, that is. Tessa made a generic excuse to leave for the Chicago theatre. She bit her lip as she walked away from the man, not looking back at both his figure and this afternoon.

—

Tessa sat through the entire performance of the musical "Song and Dance," barely focusing on anything happening on stage. Her dress was too tight, and her gun was obscurely hidden in her purse. Tessa was too busy scanning the audience for anyone even remotely suspicious. Finding Blackwell was the only thing on her mind.

That was, until the lights slowly became lit again at the end of the show, and someone familiar caught her eye—the man with golden eyes. They made eye contact at the same time.

Her brown ones clashed with his golden ones. Scrambling thoughts ran through Tessa's disbelieving mind. She didn't believe in fate, that was true, but she did believe in the cruelty of luck.

This twist was the cruelest of them all.

That man—the man with the golden eyes, the man that was able to keep track of 52 moving cards, and the man who sat in the same audience—had to be Blackwell.

The man begins to back out to the exit with a knowing smile. Tessa, as determined as ever, tried to chase him in her dress, but lost him in the unforgiving crowd. A string of curses are hurled into the air. In part, because Tessa had lost her target, though also in part because the man with golden eyes was her target.

She was a CIA agent. He was a wanted con artist. It would never work.

Suddenly, her phone pinged again in the middle of her plight. This time, the number was unknown. "Meet me, Red."

Tessa's heart unwillingly started to beat faster, and it wasn't due to the draped night on the cityscape. It was stupid, but she ran back into the center of Grant Park, where she saw the golden eyed man sitting at the table with a deck of cards in his hand. He had on another intrigued smile as she approached him.

"Good evening, Agent Tessa Waring," the man said as he gave her another cocky grin.

He extended a hand to meet hers. So somehow, the man had known the entire time that she was a federal agent sent to capture him. Yet he still approached her. Tessa couldn't believe that she had been out-played—again.

But nonetheless, Tessa met his hand with hers. "It's nice to meet you," she responds, cheeks flushed. "And you are?"

His golden eyes crinkled. "Matthew Blackwell, con artist."

—

Sophie: "Thank you all for 2 Million. I wrote this a while ago, and it's being released now as a mini-prequel. Thoughts?"

Octavia: "Wow your parents were cute...So what happened to you?"

Ace: "Shut up you somehow tinier Tinkerbell."

Octavia [rolls eyes]: "Anyways... Galatea has selected Kidnapped by the Agent to be made into an interactive app with sound effects and sassy quips! Support the story by reading the interactive version for free in the link in the bio!"

Ace: "Any changes in the new story?"

Octavia: "You're hotter."

Ace: "—Um."

Octavia: "Legit it's true, go check it out. ;)"