Nine

by Rachelle Dekker

  SIXTEEN

  ZOE SAT OUTSIDE on the cabin’s front porch. The sun was rising, and rays of light pierced the tree branches and danced on the forest floor. Birds chirped morning songs, and she watched a family of deer casually stroll through the gathered trunks, eating grass and weeds. The scene was calm and soothing, a complete departure from the situation she found herself in.

  When she’d come in from the rain the night prior, soaking and shivering, Lucy had announced she was tired and slipped into one of the downstairs rooms to sleep. After twenty minutes of awkward silence in the living room with Agent Seeley, watching him stoke the fire, the shadows of his figure hulking across the hardwood floors, Zoe knocked on Lucy’s door, but she didn’t respond. Zoe nearly burst in but thought better of it. Didn’t the girl deserve a moment alone?

  Eventually Zoe had taken the second room, and Agent Seeley took the mattress up in the loft. Sleep was impossible. Every time she felt herself drifting from reality, it would roar back to life in vibrant, distorted color and send blots of energy pulsing through her body. The more she told herself to sleep, the harder it became.

  After hours of struggling, she got up. She slipped into the bathroom for a shower, thrilled to find hot water and soft towels. Back in her bedroom, she discovered that a trunk at the end of the single wire-framed bed held extra clothes—men’s and two sizes too big for her, but dry and warm. She slipped into the black track pants and large hooded sweatshirt. In thick wool socks she wandered outside, trying her best not to disturb Lucy, whose room was still silent.

  Zoe couldn’t remember ever sitting outside to watch the sun rise. It felt like something people who lived in luxury did. Those who thought life was kind and happy. Who didn’t have to battle against the constant injustice of cruelty.

  People like her didn’t watch the sun rise.

  But maybe she should more often. It was quite beautiful.

  The door behind her opened, and she glanced back to see Agent Seeley walking out with two mugs in his hands. Steam rose from the cups and played through the soft morning light.

  “Please let that be coffee,” Zoe said.

  Agent Seeley gave a half smile and held one out. “A peace offering.”

  Zoe took the mug, feeling energized just smelling the delicious dark substance.

  “May I?” he asked, gesturing to the open space on the porch beside her.

  She sipped her coffee without responding, which he took to mean yes, and he inched away slightly as he sat. He towered over her, even sitting. His shoulder span was twice hers. It made her feel smaller than normal, and she sat up straighter to compensate.

  “Did you sleep at all?” he asked.

  “Do you actually care?” she responded.

  He gave a huffed chuckle and shook his head. “You really don’t like me, do you?”

  “I don’t trust you.”

  “How do I change that?”

  “Why do you need me to trust you?”

  “Because it would make this easier.”

  She looked at him with a mocking smile. “Easy is overrated.”

  He turned his face back to the forest, looking slightly annoyed. Zoe didn’t want to care but was struggling to ignore the fact that she sort of did. She tried a different approach.

  “No,” she said, “I didn’t sleep. I don’t know how one could sleep after everything you told us.”

  “You can’t,” he said.

  “Then why stay? You seem intelligent. Surely you knew what they were doing. Why not leave before it all went south?”

  “You ask that as if leaving was even an option.”

  “You always have a choice, Agent Seeley.”

  He looked at her, his eyes connecting directly with hers, causing her heart to beat a tad faster. “No, you don’t,” he said, holding her gaze a second longer than was comfortable before releasing it. “And you can just call me Seeley. Most people do.”

  Silence engulfed them again.

  “How does a waitress end up with Lucy?” Seeley asked.

  “Bad luck,” Zoe replied. She felt him glance at her, waiting for an actual answer. “She showed up at the diner I was working at and clearly needed help.”

  “And you just helped her?”

  “I didn’t know she was being chased by a band of tactical enforcers. I just thought she was a lost kid with no memory. She seemed so vulnerable, and I know what the world does to vulnerable.”

  “That sounds like experience talking.”

  Zoe turned to him. “If you think we’re going to sit around a campfire and share our feelings, you’re mistaken. I still don’t like you, remember?”

  His face twisted in a grin he couldn’t hide, and he nodded. “I just think it’s weird that someone with obvious trust issues would help a stranger.”

  “Well, I’m a good person.”

  “Right, and I’ve never met a person who claimed to be good and wasn’t,” he said. He was using her words against her, but with a teasing, sexy glance that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

  She huffed and shook her head, suddenly self-conscious about the large men’s clothes she was wearing and her makeup-free face. She tucked her hair behind her ear and hoped it hadn’t dried wonky. Then she internally scolded herself for caring at all.

  “Sounds like you don’t trust me either,” she finally managed.

  “You’re not the only one with trust issues,” he said.

  She looked at him with curiosity, and he shook his head. “No way. I’ll share when you share.”

  The look in his eyes was one she recognized. She’d seen it in her own expression many times. Life had shaped them through pain. Through loss. And for a brief moment it united them. Made them the same. Until her brain reminded her that she didn’t trust him. That he represented the enemy she’d been running from her whole life.

  The one that had taken Stephen from her.

  She looked away from Seeley and, with the last gulp of her coffee, swallowed the cruel reminder of the little boy she’d failed. She was finished with this moment. She stood to go back inside when the door opened and Lucy emerged.

  “Hey,” Zoe said, glad to see the girl was still with them. “Did you get some sleep?”

  Lucy smiled and nodded. “Some.”

  Seeley stood as well, and Lucy shared a small smile with him. The three just stood there for a moment.

  Lucy broke the silence first. “What now?”

  “You decide what you want,” Seeley said. “You keep running and I’ll help you get as far away as possible. But that road will never end. Run now and you will be running forever.”

  “Or?” Lucy asked.

  “We try to recover your memories, find the files Olivia left behind, and—”

  “Burn it all down,” Lucy finished.

  Seeley nodded and waited as Lucy glanced at Zoe for guidance. For once she agreed with Seeley that it needed to be Lucy’s choice. “Whatever you want, I’m with you.”

  Lucy considered what had been laid before her, then she looked up at Seeley. “How do we burn it down?”

  SEELEY WATCHED OUT the bus window as the plains of Arkansas whizzed by. They were about a half an hour from their destination in the Ozarks. The girls had followed his lead, but he knew Zoe was watching him carefully. She didn’t trust him, and he knew she wouldn’t leave Lucy alone with him for one second. It was clear to Seeley that for this plan to work he was going to need Zoe on his side. She could easily sway Lucy to abandon the whole thing.

  Their bond was stronger than he’d anticipated but hopefully not infallible. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Zoe was sleeping, her head resting against the bus window, Lucy sitting beside her.

  He was struck by the power Zoe carried in her tiny frame. She was fiery, a quality he found himself drawn to. Her brown eyes pulled him in and warmed a place in his chest that had been cold for years. It was alarming. But it was a by-product of the ruse he was playing. Nothing more.

 
Seeley had decided to mold his character after Krum since the man couldn’t rise from the dead and complicate things. Bits and pieces of fiction mixed with his own truths had been convincing enough to keep the girls following him. For now.

  He squirmed in his seat. The large lady beside him shot him a wicked side eye and adjusted herself to take up more of his seat than she already was. He could have sworn it was intentional, because she knew there was nothing he could do about it.

  He fought off the urge to smack her plump face with the back of his hand and turned his attention back to the window. Sitting still was toying with his self-control. It gave him too much time to ponder things that were better left ignored.

  Like the fact that Lucy had remembered him. An unforeseen development that made him more vulnerable. He racked his brain for memories that could incriminate him. Had she seen him during the pursuit of her and Olivia? Did she know he was the leading supervisor on the disestablishment of the Grantham Project? Had she ever overheard him speaking with Hammon in such a way that would make her suspicious?

  He needed to play his cards smart. Recover the memories they needed while keeping her from discovering more than he wanted her to know. Could they even do that? Was the pursuit of his goal worth the risk of her stumbling onto something else?

  It had to be.

  Seeley cleared his throat, ignored another glare from his seat partner, and ran through the plan again. Over and over, writing it onto his brain, so that the man he was pretending to be felt real because the disguise was so ingrained.

  It wasn’t that much of a departure. It was the man he used to be, the one he’d hidden after losing Steph. After Cami had been taken from him. It was painful to bring him back out. It made him susceptible to emotions that led him back to the places he’d long abandoned. But he was a soldier, committed and loyal. He’d do what was needed for the job at hand. Failure wasn’t an acceptable outcome.

  The bus rolled into their final spot, and with a sigh of relief the fat woman beside him stood, freeing his body from her captivity. He waited as people stood to leave, until Zoe and Lucy had passed his bench, and then he stood and followed them off.

  The air was crisp, as the early morning had gradually given way to evening. Seeley took a deep breath and focused his mind. He enjoyed the Ozark air. It tasted and smelled different here than in other parts of Arkansas. He wouldn’t call it home—that entailed feeling a certain way about life—but he preferred it to other places.

  “Seems like a strange place for a world-renowned psychologist,” Zoe said. She tucked her black hair behind her ear, her eyes wandering the area. Seeley ignored the way her hair fell like silk to her collarbone and tried not to wonder if her cheek was as soft as it appeared.

  “That’s the point,” he lied. “Who would suspect we were here?”

  The truth was that Xerox sat deep in the wooded mountains an hour’s drive from where they stood. But they couldn’t know that. Unless Lucy remembered. Then he’d have to maneuver that carefully.

  He looked around for anyone suspicious.

  Zoe stepped up next to him, Lucy tucked closely behind her. “And someone is just coming to us?”

  “She said someone would meet us here.”

  “Didn’t she trust you enough to give you her location?”

  “Apparently not.”

  Of course, Seeley knew exactly where the doctor was, but according to her, the story that Lucy believed was crucial to opening her mind enough for her memories to be recovered. Lucy needed to believe in what she was doing. She needed to believe in them. So they played this little charade, which Seeley could do without.

  “Gina Loveless has worked with Grantham on occasion, so she understands the threat anyone standing against them poses. She’s being careful,” he said.

  “And you’re sure we can trust her?” Lucy asked quietly.

  “Yes,” Seeley answered.

  “Funny how your word doesn’t make me feel any better,” Zoe said.

  Seeley spotted his accomplice, a young man dressed in jeans and a zipped blue jacket, across the moving sea of travelers. He was right on time.

  “Come on,” Seeley said, turning as the man moved toward the back of the building.

  “Are you sure we should just be following him?” Zoe asked.

  “Are you going to question every move I make?” He glanced back at her without slowing his stride.

  “Yes,” she replied with confidence, “until I have a reason not to.”

  She was irritating. And amusing. And responding exactly the way he would if their positions were swapped. But she was also following, just with little enthusiasm.

  Seeley continued around the station’s corner and along the long brick wall that led them to the back. The man was sliding open a white van door and waiting for them.

  “Getting into a van with a strange man in a blue windbreaker goes against everything I was ever taught in my self-defense classes,” Zoe teased.

  “Don’t worry, I have a gun,” Seeley said.

  Zoe shook her head. “Still, nothing you say makes me feel better.”

  Lucy giggled softly. “You two are funny.”

  Warmth spread through his chest. Seeley pushed it deep into his gut. He needed to keep that part of himself in check.

  He approached the van and met the extended hand of the young man. “Seeley,” he said, shaking hands.

  “McCoy,” he replied. “Sorry for the cloak-and-dagger. There aren’t any security cameras on this side of the building.” McCoy peered past Seeley and smiled at the girls. He slipped his hands into his coat pockets and nodded toward Lucy. “You must be Lucy. I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s nice to put a face with the name.”

  Lucy looked confused and glanced at Zoe. “I don’t know what that means.”

  Zoe shook it off, as if to say it didn’t matter. “And you’re going to take us to this Gina Loveless?”

  “Yeah,” McCoy said. “Get in.”

  Zoe was shaking her head, her eyes darting between Seeley and McCoy. Seeley knew trouble was coming before she spoke.

  She grabbed Lucy’s hand and pulled her backward. “This doesn’t feel right,” she whispered.

  Lucy’s face dropped into fear, and now Seeley could see both of them questioning. He cursed in his throat and held up a finger to tell McCoy they needed a minute.

  Zoe turned then, leading Lucy back the way they had just come.

  Seeley took several long strides and met them as they moved. “Zoe, stop.”

  “No. I am not okay with this,” she said.

  “Is he a bad guy?” Lucy asked.

  “No,” Seeley said. “He’s here to help us.”

  “Says you,” Zoe said.

  “Stop.” Seeley reached forward and grabbed her shoulder. “Stop!”

  She ripped her shoulder away. “Don’t touch me.”

  He stepped in front of her and put his hands up in surrender. “Wait, okay? Please.”

  “Give me one good reason why we should get in that van with him.”

  “Zoe—”

  “No, this should be on our terms. If this Dr. Loveless wants to help so badly, then why can’t she come to us? To a place we can vet and secure? This feels like a trap.”

  “And where would you like her to meet us? Where in the Ozarks did you have in mind? Ever been here before? Does this parking lot work?”

  Zoe gave him a vicious glare.

  “I understand that you don’t trust people,” Seeley said, “but we don’t have time for this.”

  “I don’t feel good about it.”

  “The way you feel is irrelevant. What matters is protecting Lucy. Frankly, that is all I care about. And right now, you are the only thing standing in the way of making sure those after her don’t find her.”

  Zoe looked as though Seeley had verbally assaulted her.

  He chanced placing his hand on her shoulder again and dropped his tone to a softer level. “I know you’re trying to protect her, bu
t you’re putting her in danger.”

  She dropped her eyes, and he could see her mulling over what he’d said. Lucy gave her hand a squeeze, and Zoe turned to look at the girl.

  “I think we should go with them,” Lucy said.

  They held each other’s gaze, speaking without words, and Seeley wished he could read their minds.

  “Are you sure?” Zoe said.

  Lucy nodded, and Zoe responded in kind. “Okay.”

  She released Lucy’s hand, and the girl turned back toward the van. She started moving away, and Seeley stepped to follow when Zoe placed her hand on his chest, drawing his eyes. He was unable to ignore the way his heart raced at her touch.

  Her eyes were dark, her expression dripping with venom. “If anything happens to her, it’ll be on you.” She shoved off and turned without another word.

  Seeley watched for a second as she strode toward the van, slowed his heart, and silenced the battle beginning to wage in his gut. For the job, he’d do whatever was needed.

  SEVENTEEN

  THE VAN RIDE was quiet and long. Zoe dared a glance at Seeley a few times. Each one found him staring off, lost in his own thoughts. Her own mind was raging for her to jump out of the van, take Lucy with her, and hide away in a cave where no one could ever find them.

  That wouldn’t be so terrible a life. Just the two of them surviving off the earth, away from the world and the corrupt nature that had created Lucy. Zoe had already experienced enough of this world to be done with it. But had Lucy?

  She hadn’t even been given the chance yet. That’s what they were doing here, Zoe had to remind herself over and over. They were giving Lucy her freedom. Or at least, Zoe prayed that’s what they were doing.

  The van pulled off the main road and onto smaller, twisted side streets. The signs of the city became fainter, until the small streets turned to dirt roads and took them farther from civilization. Suddenly the forested terrain cleared, and before them was a farm. Or what used to be a farm. A large main house sat in the center, with a detached garage, barn, and tall silo shadowing it behind. Unkempt fields stretched out to either side, and the van’s tires kicked up dirt and made clouds in the air right outside Zoe’s window.