“We’re in this together, but I don’t think I can trust you,” he confessed under his breath.

Mercy bit her tongue and turned her head away from the fingers he had placed on her chin. She grit her teeth’s and huffed. “Then don’t trust me,” she growled. “Hate me, resent me, throw me out if you want, but we have more pressing matters.”

She forced herself to meet Andrew’s gaze again. He stared with a calculating look, the small cut on his forehead already scabbed over and healing.

Why now? They had been fine working together until now.

“What did Luci say to make you so scared?” Mercy whispered.

Andrew’s eyes hardened with warning and he tilted his head. Mercy looked away. “Luci didn’t do anything. I don’t get why you despise her so.”

“You don’t-?!” Mercy guffawed and rolled her eyes. That was rich. Mercy could feel the stab of serpent-tongued insults and the sting of a backhanded slap to her cheek. “Fine. Whatever. Just bring me the receipts for the armory, I’ll see what I can take without anything being noticed.”

Andrew dipped his head and sat up. He moved to leave but paused at the door. “Hey, Mercy? What if we get caught?”

“What?” Andrew was not the type to doubt or dwell on what-ifs. “We won’t _get_ caught, so I don’t see why you’re asking.”

“But we _could_ get caught. Do you think it’s worth it?”

It was Mercy’s turn to stand up straight. Her face contorted with confusion. “What is with you, Andrew? You’ve never doubted yourself before. We’re both competent and we both need this so we can have our free-“

Confusion turned to realization. Realization swirled to anger. “Luci _did_ say something. She knows what we’re here to do.”

To the normal eye, Andrew seemed stoic and unfeeling. But even his statuesque frame twitches when a nerve is hit.

Mercy flew forward, her hand seamlessly pulling her dagger from her pocket and pressing it to his neck. Andrew wasn’t a fool, however, and gripped her wrist to make her drop the blade.

Crying out, Mercy slipped her right foot under Andrew’s left and tripped him. Andrew pulled her down with him. They both rolled on the floor before eventually Mercy was on top of him, hair loose from her bun, eyes watering, and panting harshly.

“How much does she know?!” She croaked, squeezing Andrew’s shoulders tighter as he tried to wriggle from underneath her.

“Mercy, get _off_-“

“**_How much?!_**”

Andrew growled lowly, then let his head fall back onto the glazed wooden flooring. He closed his eyes and exhaled shakily. “She doesn’t know there’s anyone other than me… But she knows we’re here to embezzle.”

Mercy bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper. She pressed unnecessarily hard down on Andrew before she rolled off to the side on her back and pressed her palms into her eyes.

“You know what this means, right?”

Andrew nodded silently but his lip quivered. “We don’t have to…”

Mercy removed her palms from her eyes and looked to Andrew. She frowned and sighed. “Because of this, we’ll have to do more than embezzle funds. We better get paid extra for how much we’re doing for that pompous bitch of a duke.”

“Please-“ Mercy cut Andrew off by sneering. “You got us into this mess, I’ll get us out of it. Even if that gives you more of a reason to hate me. I will not let this mission get deterred because you were playing knight in shining armor for some estranged noble lady.”

And it was there that she left Andrew laying on the floor of the study, her eyes set with cold determination and her hand hovering over the slit she had put her dagger back into.