by V J Lee
“Thank you all for being here. I have found some interesting information on our case that I would like to share with you. I happened upon a USB drive that has pertinent information on it. At first, I was concerned that being privy to this information was part of a setup by my captors, but after further investigation and hours of research, I found it to be credible.”
Petra raised her hand and cleared her throat, looking at Jock. Jock looked at Rissa, who just shrugged her shoulders. Jock said, “Yes, Petra?”
“Why is she even here, let alone running the meeting? I mean, isn’t she supposed to be on medical leave or something?”
Rissa answered. “I’m here as a primary source to pass on vital information that will help with cases from the missing women and men. Now, may we get back to this?”
Petra’s mouth formed a thin line in petulance, but she let her continue. Rissa straightened her suit jacket, fully aware that her bony frame made it hang on her like a child playing dress-up with her parents’ clothes. She felt like crap all the time and knew she looked it, too. She didn’t care as much about her looks, as long as it didn’t affect her credibility with the Agents. Petra’s comments certainly didn’t help.
“As some of you may know, Trevor and I checked out the Roth Clinic a while ago.” Rissa’s insides got warm and tingly, thinking about what she and Trevor did on that trip. Petra masked her expression and lowered her eyes to the floor. “It appears that my abduction was indeed their doing. This whole issue is fertility-based. They have been performing experiments on fetuses, then re-implanting them into the women’s uteruses. They tried using human women with Other male sperm, but it usually killed the women. Then they tried female Others with human male sperm, but got mixed results with too many variables. They spliced the DNA of Others into human fetuses, then implanted them back into the human females, receiving better results with fewer complications, but again, mixed results. The reason for capturing me was to try to entice me into telling them who was Other so they could, once again, try putting the mixed embryos into the Others or get Others’ sperm for more experiments.”
“I saw how you looked after they were finished with you. That wasn’t enticement, that was straight-up torture,” Davis commented.
It was somewhat sweet that everyone was seething with rage at her abduction and torture. Well, everyone except for Trevor and Petra. They looked like they couldn’t care less.
“So, where does this leave us now? They burned the old asylum they had held you in. It looks like they nuked the damn thing. No one knows where they went.” These comments came from Cruz, who had drove nearly a hundred miles for this meeting. Dakota was here from his end of the state as well.
“We do have other leads we are checking on, and we’re confident we’ll get some answers. Going forward, we need to keep an eye on any and all things fertility-based. Sperm banks, blood banks, fertility clinics, and the places that manufacture and ship fertility equipment.” As the words left her mouth, she felt the floor shift, and a wave of heat washed over her. Sweat began pouring down her back, right into the crack of her ass. There’s nothing like having swamp-ass in the middle of an important meeting, with your ex and his woman just waiting for you to fuck up.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Rissa, Rissa. Sit down, hun. Please, just sit down,” Jock pulled up a chair and helped her into it.
“Sorry, I must have blanked out for a sec. I’m good.” Why was everyone looking at her like they had just seen a ghost?
“No, you’re not good. You went bright white and almost passed out. This meeting is over. everyone goes except for Petra and Trevor. I need you two to hang back.”
Dakota and Cruz both came up to her, squatting down so they were eye-level with Rissa. Dakota put his hand on her knee and squeezed affectionately, then spoke. “Please, let me know if you need anything, anything at all. And we want you to know, Cruz and I are also on the hunt for these assholes, and when we find them …” He trailed off, eyes filled with concern and worry.
Cruz kissed the top of her head, saying into her hair, “We will never let them have peace for what they have done to you.”
She smiled. They didn’t linger, got up and walked out of the room.
“If you’ll excuse me, Jock, I have some things that need my attention,” Trevor addressed Jock and only Jock.
“No, you need to stay. Rissa has information pertaining to you and Petra.”
“Well, I’m not sure I can believe anything she has to say,” he shot back.
Jock jumped up out of his seat, planting himself in front of Trevor. “Is that how it’s going to be then? It’s okay for you to cheat and cover your shit up, but she keeps information from you, and she is the devil?”
“Well, it was kind of a big deal,” Trevor shot back.
Jock looked long and hard at Petra. “Yet you still talk to that one like a human being. You still share your child with her. She’s the one who deceived you, used you, and lied to you from day one. And yet, you hang on her every word.”
Even though a wave of nausea churned Rissa’s stomach and bile rose up in her mouth, Rissa still managed to speak up. “Jock, it’s okay. I get it, but there’s no need to defend me. That’s why I turned over all the information I found to Travis.”
Trevor finally looked in her direction, his eyes like ice. “Do you mean my brother, Travis? What does he have to do with any of this?”
As if he had been magically summoned, Travis Snow entered the room. He was as tall as his older brother and just as well built. His dirty blond hair was cut short, but stylish. He, too, had those beautiful green eyes. If Trevor were a mix of Thor and Captain America, Travis was all Captain America: classic, all-American and sexy.
Travis was followed in by four men in black suits and sunglasses. They looked like secret service men. Rissa couldn’t help but notice the look of total shock on Petra’s face. It was her turn to go white as snow.
Travis gave his brother a sad look, then turned his green-eyed gaze on Rissa. His eyes widened. “Are you feeling okay? You look really sick.”
“I’m fine, just a little tired and hungry. And I know that means I look like shit, so thanks for that.”
“Girl, you look like you need to eat non-stop for a month.”
Did she look that bad? Rissa knew she was looking pale, but she had applied a ton of foundation and concealer around the dark circles under her eyes, along with bronzer to contour against the light skin. Hadn’t it worked?
Trevor’s voice boomed. “Enough! What the fuck is this about?”
“Something about mom and dad’s accident never sat well with me, so I started doing some investigating. I hired a crack team to check out their plane. They discovered that a bomb went off in not one, but both engines. That’s what caused the crash. Unfortunately, they never found any proof as to who the culprit was, or why anyone would want mom and dad dead.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you thought it was foul play?” Trevor asked.
“It was just a gut instinct, nothing more. I knew how dad was with his plane and how his main priority was keeping mom safe. He would have checked that plane from top to bottom before they left.”
“Who? That’s why you’re here, right? To tell me you know who it was?”
Travis focused on Petra. She jumped from her seat. “Why are you looking at me like that? If this is her info,” she said, pointing at Rissa, “then you know it’s a lie. She proved she’s a liar.”
“I never lied to you, Trevor … just withheld information.”
“Same damn thing, and I don’t want to hear anything from either one of you. Travis, what did you find out?”
“There was a file on the USB drive Rissa had, labeled ‘my wife.’”
Petra was creeping to the door. The men in black blocked her way with their hands on what was obviously the butts of their guns.
“When I opened the file, there were pictures of a wedding with a beautiful bride and a distinguished doctor.
There were pictures of their honeymoon, of their new house, then pictures of his pregnant wife.”
“So, what the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
Rissa noticed how Travis’s wine-colored button-up shirt and black slacks made him look like an Armani model. He was a good-looking guy, but in Rissa’s opinion, he couldn’t hold a candle to his brother.
“That’s some nice language you have there, bro. There was a contract. A two-part contract that required the wife to give the husband a baby, and in return, he would dispose of our parents.”
“Why our parents? I still don’t understand where you’re going with this.” Trevor’s eyes flew around the room landing on everyone, but Rissa.
“I’m not done. Once our parents were out of the way and we received our inheritance, the wife was given permission to find you.”
The room went cold with Trevor’s rage. Funny, Rissa expected that his anger would be hot like brimstone and lava, but it was cold. He turned on Petra with a vengeance that Rissa had never seen, but before he could say a word, she screamed. “You’re going to listen to this? This came from that lying bitch. She obviously falsified all those documents. She’s framing me. The pictures must have been Photoshopped. You can put anyone’s head on a bikini body on the beach in Hawaii.”
“Travis, you want to explain to me how you were able to authenticate your findings?” Trevor asked his brother.
“There were several emails back and forth from the wife and husband after she moved into your house. We tracked the IP address, and it was indeed registered to one Petra Ezekiel.” He even went as far as reciting her credit card number. “She was then required to turn over Rissa and Jacob to the husband, a certain Dr. William Roth. The problem, was that she grew attached to the little guy and couldn’t give him up, so they arranged a deal to take only Rissa, but they needed it to look like they wanted Jacob first.”
The men in black were pulling out handcuffs, heading toward Petra. She was screaming that it was a lie, that she did nothing wrong. Rissa could feel the vomit traveling up her throat. She bolted out of the room to the nearest restroom.
* * *
Trevor was standing against the wall across from the ladies’ room, waiting for Rissa to come out. Jock had grabbed him after they hauled Petra out, and one of the guys handed Trevor some paperwork, telling him that he’d better be nice to Riss, or hell hath no fury like Jock.
His mind was going a million miles an hour when Rissa opened the door, a paper towel held to the back of her neck. He noticed when she came into the meeting that she was pale and had lost weight, but now she looked like death warmed-over. Part of him wanted to know what they did to her in that place, and the rest of him wanted to know what the fuck she was thinking with these papers he got.
Rissa jumped like he was going to attack her. He supposed he deserved that. The look on his face was probably a look of pure wrath.
Waving the paperwork in front of her face, he said, “It hasn’t been a bad enough day, finding out Petra arranged to have my parents killed, but now you want joint custody of my son? Why would you even think about taking me to court? How do you deserve any visitation?”
“I only want to see him. We don’t have to go to court, just let me see him occasionally. That’s all I’m asking.” Her eyes were dull, but hopeful.
“Not going to happen. If you want to see Jacob ever again, you will have to win your case in court. I may not be his biological father, but I have been the only father he knows, not to mention my name is on his birth certificate as the father. You are nothing to him.” He watched as she flinched. He knew it was a low blow, but lately, all his nice had been used up on liars, cheats and murderers.
Trevor watched as she tried to straighten her shoulders, but it looked as if it took too much energy, so she just sagged. “I guess I’ll see you in court, then.”
He watched as she put a shaking hand on the wall to help support her as she made her way down the hallway.
“Pendejo!” Cruz yelled out at him. Turning in the opposite direction, he faced Dakota and Cruz.
“We’re going after the fuckers who did this to her. You in?” Dakota asked.
“We won’t wait to see what the Agency wants to do with them,” Cruz said. “We are going in with axes to hack off their dicks and balls, then shove their balls in their mouth and their dicks up their asses!”
Even Dakota gave Cruz a sideways look, before he said, “Yeah, I’m not gonna touch either of those. By the time I’m done with them, there won’t be anything left to shove anywhere.”
“I will take these bastards down,” Trevor interjected.
Cruz and Dakota looked down at the floor. They felt that their head-bowing routine restored respect and humility, despite their vulgarity. They agreed to go after the sick fucks for what they did to Rissa, and they wanted—needed—to clarify their motivation, but Trevor spoke first.
“So we are perfectly clear, we will be going after these sick pieces of shit for everything they did to everyone … my parents, Jacob, those poor men and women who are missing.”
“But not for me.” He turned toward Rissa’s voice, to find her standing by the restroom door. “It’s okay, Trevor, I get it. How could you defend the honor of someone you can never trust? Someone who wants so badly to be a part of your son’s life? I am a monster,” she commented facetiously. Pushing open the ladies’ room door, she turned back. “In case you thought I was eavesdropping or spying on you, I just came back for my briefcase. I left it in the restroom. I suppose I should have just cut my losses.”
“You know what, Trevor? We don’t want you to help us hunt these scumbags down. We’ll do it without you.” The words came out of Cruz like a curse.
“No, really, Cruz. Let him help. We may need a human shield, and I think he would be perfect for stopping bullets.” Dakota and Cruz both gave him a dirty look.
Rissa opened the door without making eye contact with anyone—she just turned and walked off.
“Let us give you ride home,” Dakota yelled down the hall at her. She shook her head and kept going.
Cruz and Dakota glanced back at Trevor. If looks were combustible, Trevor would have been engulfed in flames.
Chapter 19
Two weeks passed quickly, and Trevor entered the courtroom in a black pinstriped suit with his over-priced lawyer. He had no idea why Rissa wanted to go through with this. She didn’t have a leg to stand on. He lost all train of thought, as he saw her stand shakily at the front of the room with none other than Barry Goldsmith, the Agency’s attorney, for fuck’s sake. She trembled visibly, but not because of fear. She radiated confidence. The shaking was due to whatever was going on with her health.
For the millionth time, he wondered if her health had something to do with her capture. He still never found out what was done to her. He didn’t want to know, afraid it might change the bitterness he had for her. She looked so pale, the same color as the white marble columns in the courthouse. She had lost even more weight, and the skin that was visible, hung on her bones startlingly. He shook his head and told himself that he didn’t care, that she would be fine. The Agency had access to the best medical research in the world, and that of other worlds, too.
As he walked up to take his place on the defendant side at the front of the courtroom, Rissa never so much as glanced his way. She wore a black pencil skirt and blazer with a white Oxford that hung on her like it was about to fall off. Her hair was up in a tight bun at the back of her head, but he noticed that her once-shiny mane was lackluster, at best. She had on more makeup than she normally wore, but it didn’t mask her sunken cheeks. She looked like a ghost. He turned away from her, not wanting to feel anything for the woman he once thought he knew.
She was making him come to court to fight for his son, for God’s sake. She wanted Jacob in her life, but he had refused, and she should have just dropped it. This whole process was just going to cause her more pain and suffering.
Judge E
vans was hearing their case today. She was an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair and wire-rimmed glasses. She knew about the Agency and the Others, so they didn’t have to watch what was said. This hearing was closed to the public and also other members of the Agency. It was the judge, Trevor and Rissa, and their lawyers. A screen was set up for Petra to participate by video conference from the jail she was being held at. There was no court reporter, no bailiff, no one, but them and the judge. To the outside world, this hearing never happened.
A child custody battle was unprecedented within the Agency, and Trevor wondered which Agents would be responsible for enforcing the terms if Rissa got her way.
The judge walked in, and everyone remained standing until she spoke. “You may have a seat,” she said. Rissa almost fell into her chair. “Ms. Jackson, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, your honor.”
“Are you under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Because I have test kits in this very building …”
“No, your honor. I’m not on anything. You are more than welcome to check.”
Her lawyer stood. “Your honor, if I may.” He shuffled through papers. “This is a medical report from the Agency’s medical professionals about my client’s appearance. If I may approach the bench and let you see this.”
“You may.” Rissa’s lawyer, Barry Goldsmith, handed a file to the judge.
She opened the manila folder, turning page after page of documents, until she looked up with motherly concern in her expression.
“Ms. Jackson, I am so sorry for all of this.”
Trevor’s lawyer stood. “If that’s evidence, we have the right to see it.”
“It’s not, and you don’t. I’m sure if Mr. Snow wanted to know what happened or what’s going on with Ms. Jackson, he would have asked. You may sit down, Mr. Dower.”
