“Jae?” I asked in my most pathetic, confused voice. “What’s going on? Where am I?”
Cyryl wasn’t buying it, his eyes rolling with exasperation. Jae just crouched down in front of me with a deep scowl set on his brow.
“Don’t try to run,” he told me in a hard voice. “There’s nowhere to go, and Sam is looking for any reason to shoot you.”
I rounded my eyes, letting tears spill out. “I d-don’t understand,” I whimpered. “Why are you doing this?”
Jae’s expression tightened, but Cyryl scoffed.
“Just hurry up, Jae,” he snapped, pulling a Glock from the back of his pants and pointing it at me. “One wrong move, and I’ll shoot.”
I shook my head frantically as Jae cut my cable-tied hands apart. “Shoot?” I squeaked. “But I haven’t done anything wrong! I went over this with Kai… He thought I was like… a spy or something. Ask him! He said he was letting me go!”
Jae grabbed my upper arm, hauling me to my feet. “Just… stop it, Danny,” he muttered, pushing me past Cyryl and into the damp corridor outside. It was narrow, but he didn’t direct me to the stairs on my left. Instead, we went right, and he pushed me into an old bathroom.
“You need to take everything off,” he told me in an expressionless voice. “Take a shower if you want, and there’s clean clothes there.”
I turned to face him, wrapping my arms around myself like I was terrified. “Jae, what’s happening? Are you going to kill me?”
His gaze flicked up to meet mine for a second, and regret shone through. Then it was gone, and his eyes shifted away. “Hurry up, Danny. The shower wasn’t technically approved by the boss.”
I drew a shaking breath, looking around. But it was way too soon to make a break for it. I had no clue what I’d find waiting at the top of those stairs… I needed to bide my time and gather intel. So I took another step toward the exposed shower cubicle before giving Jae an uncertain look.
“Are you going to stand there and watch me shower?” I tried to sound horrified by the idea. Normal women would be, I think.
Jae folded his arms, looking uncomfortable. “Yes. Now hurry up .”
Acting shy and humiliated, I stripped out of my Catwoman costume—or what was left of it anyway—and cranked the water on the shower. It was cold, but there was only one tap, so I figured I would make do. Under any other circumstance, I’d have probably played up the “I can’t shower while you watch” act, but I really did need to wash. The last thing I needed while being held captive was a bad case of vaginal infection from the gun oils.
I showered quickly, scrubbing my whole body with the chemically harsh soap Jae had left beside the shower. After less than two minutes, he was tapping his foot and muttering at me to hurry up, so I focused on getting the important parts clean, then dressed in the sweatpants and T-shirt they’d provided.
The pants were too long, and the T-shirt loose around the chest, but they weren’t falling off me. I had to assume they were Moana’s, seeing as she was the only female in Kai’s crew.
Jae cleared his throat when I was done getting dressed, and I looked up at him in question.
“I need your watch, too,” he told me, nodding to my wrist.
I inhaled sharply, covering it with my hand. “But… it was my grandmother’s…”
Jae winced. “Sorry, Danny. Boss said everything.”
Simmering with anger, I reluctantly took the delicate silver watch off. It wasn’t my grandmother’s, seeing as I was an orphan. But I still didn’t want to part with it for personal reasons.
Jae gave a heavy sigh as he took it from me, tucking it into his pocket.
“Will I get it back?” I asked in a small, pleading voice.
He grimaced and shook his head. “Probably not. Come on, we’ve been too long down here already.”
Giving a couple of whimpering sobs, I let him grab my arm to lead me back into my prison cell again. He pushed me to sit back down, but he didn’t tie my hands. Instead, he left Cyryl with a gun trained on me and left the cell for a minute. When he returned, he had a camp mat—barely thicker than a yoga mat—and a blanket.
“How long are you holding me here?” I asked, begging with my eyes as I wrapped my arms around my body. “I’m not worth anything. No one will pay a ransom for me.”
Neither one of them answered me, though. They just left the room, locking the door after themselves and leaving me in solitude. I listened to their footsteps fading away, counting how many steps they took before opening the door at the top of the stairs. Sixteen.
I released a long sigh when silence fell, and stood up from my chair. The camera in the corner of the room still watched my every movement, though, so I couldn’t give anything away. Jae and Cyryl’s visit had given me something to work with.
Acting like any normal, scared person, I tried to look out the barred window on the door. Then I let my shoulders slump, and I retreated to my pathetic “bed” in the corner of the room. Sinking down to the ground, I curled up in a ball and pretended to cry myself to sleep.
They were keeping me alive for some reason… They wanted something from me. But what? They couldn’t possibly know I was Guild just from that comms device. Plenty in the private sector had the funding for cutting edge tech like that, and there were hundreds of companies operating in the elite private mercenary sector. None as good as the Guild, though.
So what did they hope to gain from questioning me? I had no doubt torture was in my near future. Why else keep me in a cell like this? It sure as shit wasn’t for pillow fights. Nope, they wanted something that they thought I knew, and I was willing to bet they planned to torture it out of me.
I mean… they could try .
Jae was going to be the weak link. I could exploit that, if I could get him alone.
For now, all I needed to do was whimper and cry. Look terrified and deny all knowledge of spies and mercenaries. I was just Danielle, an innocently naïve bank teller from Cloudcroft, California.
19
T hey left me alone long enough that I took another quick nap, and it helped to clear the remaining drug haze from my brain when I woke once more. I subtly stretched out my muscles while pretending to pace the room anxiously, and was relieved to find no injuries other than the bruise on my head. A little stiffness, but that was to be expected. They’d likely stuffed me in the trunk of a car to get out of Shadow Grove unnoticed.
Eventually, footsteps sounded on the stairs, and I readied myself to play the innocent, confused victim role under torture. Two sets of footsteps, one lighter than the other. The door opened and Mo entered with a hard scowl set on her pretty face. I caught a glimpse of Sam behind her, an AR-15 in his hands, but Mo kicked the door shut to leave him on the other side.
It was cute that they thought one guy with a gun could stop me… but who knew what was above ground? Probably at least five more guys with guns.
“Mo!” I exclaimed, throwing myself into the act once more. “Thank fuck you’re here. What is going on? Why am I here? Your brother—”
“Stop it!” she barked, making a slashing motion with her hand. “We know you’re lying. We know you targeted me to get close to Kai.”