บท 31: The Training Grounds (4)

"Why is that?"

Adam's question left her at a loss. No matter how hard she tried to think of a reason, Lillian couldn't come up with one.

"You know you can say anything to me, and I give you my word that Blake will never find out about it." Adam spoke up, trying to ease her mind.

"I-I…" She knew what she wanted to say to him, but she was having a hard time putting it into words.

"Come on! Just tell me already." Adam insisted. He really wanted to help the young girl, only if she would let him do that.

"I saw how they do the job." She finally mustered up the courage to say it out loud.

"You are afraid of what you will be asked to do if you go through with this?" He asked her, only to get a nod in return. "Look, little one. You are just a kid here. The most you will be asked at the moment is to fix things around here, and always be on time since Blake hates people who are lazy, or not punctual." He continued.

"Are you sure?" She finally looked up from the floor and asked him back.

"I am more than sure. I don't know what talk you two had, but Blake would never ask a child to hold a gun ever in his life if that is what you are worried about." Adam shook his head firmly. "As for the training part, you cannot expect him to let you crash at the place without actually getting anything in return." He added.

"You may be right. I do want to stay back here, but at the same time I don't want to get involved in anything which is remotely linked with what happened when they rescued me from the warehouse." Lillian finally admitted, laying out her fears before him.

She had been thinking about it since the old butler came to get her to the training grounds. There was so much going in that mind of hers. It was making her not only confused about what to do next, but also frustrated at the same time.

"W-wait what?" Adam ended up being confused after hearing her reply. "You are taking it all wrong." He began to clarify. "What we do here is nothing like what they were doing! It will be better if you have this conversation with Blake instead of me, but I assure you, young lady, we don't do things that way."

"You mean that I won't be involved in anything which is remotely wrong?" Lillian asked him again. She wanted to get all of her doubts clear before making her final decision.

"I won't call all of it fair, but trust me, they don't get innocent people involved in any kind of mess." Adam added to see her nodding her head understandably, but the girl was still no short of questions.

"But what guarantee is there that there won't be anything of such sort involved in the future?"

"I assure you that there won't be any, but I strongly suggest that you should discuss this further with Blake. And if it makes you feel any better, you will have the choice to walk away from all of this in the future if you feel like this place is not right for you." Adam answered her.

"I will have that choice in future?" Lillian spoke up. She wanted to clear her doubts, and didn't want to hold on to any misconceptions.

"People here don't usually have that choice, but you will. I will talk to Blake about it." Adam gave her a firm nod. "Though that will depend on your final decision."

"Thank you, but what final decision?" Lillian muttered under her breath.

"Whether or not you will be staying around her. I am sure that's why Blake called you here." Adam added with a nonchalant shrug.

"Training, I think?" She mumbled. She wasn't really sure of it, but it was what was going through her mind. Why else would he call her down here?

"I highly doubt that, but let's see where it goes. Shall we now?" Adam waved his hand in the air, gesturing her to continue walking towards the other end of the hall.

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"I thought you got lost somewhere on your way." Blake let out a light chuckle as soon as his eyes landed on the duo. He was leaning back in his swiveling seat. The room was more like a smaller version of his office upstairs. The only difference was that it was just to keep an eye on the training sessions.

It was easier to do it from here than from his office upstairs as he could always pop inside any of the training rooms instead of just looking over things through CCTV footages.

"I-I… got caught up with something." Lillian replied, stammering through her words.

"Not you! I meant him." Blake spoke up, pointing his index finger towards Adam who was standing behind Lillian. "I thought you would be here like ten minutes ago." He complained, getting up from his seat.

"I ran into this young lady on my way here, and so I was just giving her a tour of the place." Adam spoke up in his defence.

"You really showed her around the place?" Blake was a little doubtful. There was no way Adam would have shown a girl of her age all the rooms without any prior notice. There were some rooms which weren't quite suitable for a sixteen-year-old girl to see.

"Let's just say that I kept it to the hall." Adam replied with a shrug, his lips slowly curling up in a smile, one which showed off his perfectly aligned teeth.

"Good that you did, or else you and I would be having a real talk." Blake made his way around the table. Without wasting any more of his time, he approached Adam and engulfed him in a bear hug. It was after a long time that Blake was seeing his childhood best friend face to face. No matter how many texts they exchange, or how many minutes they spend on calls talking to each other, it would never be the same.