Deadly Conflicts

By Amy N. Showers

Lilly Clemants thought she had left her previous life behind for a safe new one, but she finds out one cannot truly run from her life when dealing with the Agency. Now she must make sure that she can survive being back in a place she hates, convince others that she is towing the line, and that her ultimate mission isnt discovered. She also must deal with the love of two men in her life and not break either one of their hearts. All in a days work for this little flower while dealing with deadly conflicts at all times. Will she survive this, or will she break under the pressure?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543482683

Amy N. Showers

Amy Showers was born and raised in the city of Chicago, IL until the age of 13 when she moved to the small suburb of Berwyn, IL where she still lives today. She has been writing ever since she was 11 years old, even entered and won the Chicago Young Authors Award at the age of 11 with a book she had written and illustrated herself. At that time, she got the chance to meet several authors whom had read her work and told her that she had great storytelling capabilities. Encouraged by that she continued to write for years with the encouragement of a favorite English teacher in high school, and friends whom enjoyed her stories when she shared them. She also was the first in her family to finish college and get her Associates Degree in Computer Information Systems with a minor in Computer Networking.

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Copyright © 2018 by Amy N. Showers.

Library of Congress Control Number:             2018901502

ISBN:                   Hardcover                      978-1-5434-8270-6

                            Softcover                        978-1-5434-8269-0

                             eBook                              978-1-5434-8268-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/31/2018

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

To all my friends and my mother, Bernie, and uncle, Ed,

who have supported me in my writing and given me inspiration.

A special dedication to Mrs. Laura Wysinski,

my high school Freshman year English instructor,

who became not only a favorite teacher but a writing mentor

for my high school years and beyond.

CHAPTER 1

Armond is walking away from a building after he completed his mission. His long black hair is held back by a rubber band as his hazel eyes scan the area, always on alert. His six-foot-tall frame is always ready for action. He turns down an alley and finds a junkie and dealer in an argument.

I can’t do that. She is just a child. The junkie’s voice sounding as though she is begging.

He looks at the junkie and gauges her to be about five feet, six inches from a quick glance, but he does not pay much more attention to her looks as there is a child involved.

Yeah, but I know you want your next fix. Either I get to fuck her or you don’t get the goods. The dealer’s voice cold sounding as he speaks.

The dealer looks to be the same height as him, but he pays little attention to any of the other details on the man, eyeing a little girl. Armond watches the little girl. The girl has curly black hair and clear ice-blue eyes. She would be a beautiful woman when she grows up, if she was cleaned up and had her hair lowlighted. He also sees a spark in her eyes.

All right. Just once. Just let me have the stuff first.

The junkie agrees, and the dealer hands her a bag. He walks over to the girl and grabs her right arm and drags her to a nearby car. The little girl sees him for the first time; he reads the despair in her face. He could not bear it.

He quickly walks over to the junkie. Why would you do that to your daughter?

What is it to you? The junkie eyes him. All she is good for is nothing.

Let me help. My name is Armond. He offers the junkie his hand.

Victoria Theman. Victoria takes the offered hand slowly.

What is your daughter’s name? Armond asks.

Lilly, Victoria replies, watching the man in front of her curiously.

Take her to a local shelter then meet me in an hour. I will do the rest. Armond turns to leave just as the door of the car flies open. He watches as the girl flies out with the dealer in pursuit. He is in clear pain.

That little bitch bit me. He stands by the car, holding his crotch.

Good. You can take your stuff and leave me alone. Victoria grabs a crying Lilly and turns, leaving the alley after she throws the stuff onto the ground.

***

Several years later …

A group of people is surrounding a building. All of them are dressed in black with ski masks. Some of them are carrying large guns while others carry small handguns. They all enter a hole cut in the fence and rush up to the building. Four of them break off from the rest, and they enter using a different route.

Once the group is far enough away, I pull off the mask. My black-and-red lowlighted hair falls free, sort of like a wildfire with ash flying around. My ice-blue eyes could freeze the Nile with just once look as I survey the area quickly.

Lilly, are you and your team in? a voice in my ear asks. I look down at this point. I work for an agency bent on peace; unfortunately, to obtain and keep that peace, we kill to get to that result.

We are in, I respond into a minimicrophone near my mouth as the others pull their masks off. Two guys, and one other female.

The other female is Chinese and has brown hair and green eyes. Her body is slim with curves in all the right places, standing at five-seven. Her name is Anna; her parents didn’t want her to be labeled with having a Chinese name since they were US citizens. One of the guys is black, with brown hair and hazel eyes. With his muscular build, he looks like he hits the gym whenever he can. He only stands a few inches taller than Anna at five-eleven. His name is Sean. The other guy is Korean, with black hair and brown eyes. He is muscular, but not as much as Sean. His is a lean type of muscular, standing at five-nine. Like Anna’s parents, they were US citizens, so they wanted him to have a US-sounding name. So they named him Derrick. I sigh and look up at them all. I had all the female curves a woman could want, but being stuck at five-four, yeah, I am one of the shortest agents in the agency.

I take the earbud out of my ear connected to the minimicrophone, drop it, and crush it beneath my foot. The others follow suit after I do it. Are you sure you guys want to do this? Once this plan is in motion, there is no turning back. My eyes meet each of their eyes, hoping I was getting my point across.

The three of them nod at the same time, like they knew I was going to say this, making me smile. I knew my team knew me well.

Yeah, we have to get out. There is no turning back now. Besides, it will be suspicious if we return and their golden agent doesn’t. Sean pulls a bomb out of his bag. For about six months, we have been devising a plan to get out of the agency without having to die to do it. I don’t even get fazed at the golden agent remark due to the fact that I knew that is what I am.

Okay, let’s find the boiler room. I give the command, and we all take off, moving quickly though the building. Having already seen the full schematics of the building, we quickly find the boiler room. Sean gets to work next to the boiler. Pulling back, he is hooking up a bomb to the boiler. When the bomb explodes, it will destroy the building and kill then burn the bodies of anyone inside the building at the time of explosion.

Once I set this, that is it. Our lives in the agency ends. We will end up running for the rest of our lives, Sean explains. Are we sure we are all ready to take that risk?

I am for sure. I want a somewhat normal life again. Anna nods, ready to get out of the agency. Even if I cannot go back to my family. Even if I could find them.

I just want out. Derrick looks at everyone.

I sigh. Knowing what Anna said about family is true. I still want to try. I just want to get out to try and find my mother. Even if it is just to see her from a distance. I look down at the ground, finding what I am looking for and bending over. I pick up a cell phone and hit the speed dial. Two minutes. I hang up, drop it, then smash it.

Sean sets the bomb, and we start to run. We quickly run through the building the way we came in from, but then we turn to the back side of the building. We run out as I watch a unmarked black van come around the corner of the building. The back doors swing open, and I am the first to jump in, then it is Sean, Anna, then finally Derrick. I look out the back door and find a man with short black hair, dressed in all black, running around the corner where the van came from before the doors closed. A few seconds later, the building blows as we drive off in to the night—into a new life.

***

The man drops to the ground as the explosion starts from inside, then it blows the outside walls. Armond, what is going on? He hears in his ear.

The building has just exploded, and I just saw a van with some agents in it. It looked like three, but there could have been more than that. I could not see clearly enough, Armond responds. I am going to need some backup out here to search the rubble. I think Lilly was still in the building. He looks at the now burning building in shock. This wasn’t his first bombing, planned or unplanned. It was just the uncertainty of what just happened.

After five hours of combing the rubble, there was no sign of Lilly’s full remains and the remains of three other agents. Some of the remains, sir, are unscannable. A man walks up to Armond with a clipboard.

Shaking his head, Armond grabs the clipboard to look over the results. This can’t be. She would not give up her life like that. I know this for a fact. But I did not see her in the van.

Come back in to the agency, Armond, the voice commands. Armond turns to get into a van that drives into the night and back to the agency. With his head in his hands, he just wonders, What went wrong?

***

A week later, I am walking down a dark alley when I hear a fight. Just give me what I want, bitch, and I will leave you alone, I hear a male voice say.

No, a female voice replies.

I quicken my steps to find out what is going on, turning the corner into the alley. I find a young girl with brown hair fighting with a man twice her size. The man has a knife.

I would let her go if I were you. My voice is strong and commanding.

He grabs her around the neck and brings up the knife. I would leave if I were you, girly. This has nothing to do with you.

I think it does. I narrow my eyes at him, waiting for his next move. He quickly turns her around and stabs her in the stomach then comes after me. Before he can get a few feet closer to me, I pull my gun and shoot him in the heart and head. After holstering my gun, I quickly rush to the girl’s side. Don’t worry. I will get help. I tell her, and she grabs my arm, keeping me from leaving.

No, just please tell my mother I love her and that I am sorry, she gets out before drifting into unconsciousness. I pull a wallet from her pocket. It has an ID that has the name April Summers on it.

Sighing softly, I pull out my cell phone, hit a speed dial number, and wait for an answer. Once I hear a voice, I say, I need cleanup and help. I then give the person the address of where I am.

"Don’t worry. Help is on its