by Amity Cross
I had to hand it to myself. At least I put up a good fight.
I fell into darkness and I awoke into it.
My head ached something fierce, my brain throbbing against the inside of my skull like I was being beaten over and over with a rubber mallet. Thump, thump, thump...
The ground was hard and cold beneath me, and I flattened my palms against the surface. Concrete.
Coarse material scraped against my face, and I realized I’d been hooded. My entire head was covered, but I still felt my clothes and boots against my tender body. Whoever had snatched me from the street hadn’t been careful with my transport, and my left arm was numb where the circulation had been cut off. As awareness came back to me piece by piece, pins and needles exploded down my limb.
My breath condensed hot against the inside of the hood, my vision totally dark. No light leaked through the material, and it only made my heart pound faster.
X had failed to do the job on day one, and a part of me wanted to go back and change everything. What would’ve happened if I had been able to escape the city before X found me in my apartment preparing to flee? Where would I be now? In a much different place, that’s for sure.
Back then, X would've made it quick, but these men—whoever they were—would make it slow. Bile rose in the back of my throat at the thought of the things they would do to my body. They'd inflict the worst kind of pain and violate places that I'd vowed solely to X. They wouldn't stop until I was broken, and only then would they kill me.
Tough way to die, Mercy.
Tough way to die.
Twelve
X
Mercy didn’t come back.
I waited on the sofa, watching the flames in the fire, silence stretching on into the darkness. The longer I waited, the more my anxiety levels rose until I felt like I was going to explode. Was this how she felt all those times I went away and left her here?
I picked up the pliers from the box by the window and flexed them in my hand. Tangible. I’d do something tangible until she returned.
Dragging the box to the coffee table, I began to place the tools onto the surface, methodically positioning everything in one long assembly line. Mercy had complained until she was blue in the face about making bullets. She was crap at it but practice made perfect. Out there, you couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Rough around the edges sometimes had to fly on the run, but the better she could do something meant a higher success rate when it really mattered. Pressure was the real test.
I worked late into the night, assembling five different calibers of ammunition. When I ran out of supplies, I picked up a sliver of wood and began to whittle it with my knife, feeding the flames in the fireplace.
Hours had passed, and it was still silent. The cottage was still empty.
I began to pace, then I showered. Then I dressed for the day, vowing that if the sun began to rise and she still wasn’t there, I’d go look for her. Even if it meant I had to walk all the way into Exeter to do so.
I stood out on the stoop as the last flakes of snow that had fallen overnight settled on the ground. The sky had cleared enough that a few pinpoints of light shone through. A handful of stars trying to break through the chaos and fight the sunrise. Attacked on all fronts.
Mercy was missing. Narrowing my eyes, I realized that I couldn’t do this on my own, not with my mind in the state it was. My conditioning was unraveling faster every day, my ability to cope with the pressure was faltering. She’d been right all along. She’d been right and I’d punished her for it.
Swallowing my pride, I pulled the burner phone from my coat pocket and called the one man who would be able to help me. The only man who would.
Vaughn answered on the second ring. “X?”
“Mercy is missing.”
Silence. “Cut to the chase, why don’t you.”
“Vaughn.” He knew I wouldn’t call unless it was dire. I never needed help, but I needed it now. I wasn’t fucking around.
“Well, fuck. You need a hand?”
“She’s been gone since yesterday morning. She left a note saying she would be back last night…and she hasn’t come back.” He knew that Royal Blood and Intelligence were poking around Exeter. He was on high alert as it was, and now that Mercy hadn’t shown up…
“I’m assuming you have no way to contact her?”
“No.”
Another minute of silence. “Where can I meet you? We can start looking, and I’ll send out Hawkes and his team.”
“She took my car…” If I started walking now, I’d be in Exeter in about three to four hours… Too much time… I’d already waited too long as it was.
“Where are you, X? I’ll come and get you. Time is definitely not on our side on this one.”
I knew that notion better than anyone, but I wasn’t too keen on giving away the location of the cottage. It was our place. Our safe haven from the world. Its ongoing secret was sacred to me.
Vaughn took my silence as an annoyance. “If they have her…if Royal Blood have her, then it is my business,” Vaughn hissed. “I’m indebted to you, X. To both of you more than you will ever know. If there was ever a time to trust me, it’s now.”
“Vaughn, you don’t understand…”
“I understand completely,” he snapped. “I understand your need to keep your place with her a secret. I went through it, too. If they try and do the same thing to Mercy as they did to Lorelei… I have your back.”
I still hesitated, even though I knew he was right. Mercy was being held by Royal Blood, she had to be, and if that was the case, then who knew what the fuck they were doing to her right now. My hesitation was costing us precious time we didn’t have.
“Tell me where you are,” Vaughn pressed.
With a sigh, I tightened my grip around the phone and gave him the location of the cottage.
After all, our clean break had gone up in flames a long time ago.
It was exactly an hour after the phone call that I heard a car coming up the driveway.
Checking the gun I’d holstered underneath my coat and the knife I’d dropped inside my right boot, I opened the front door just as Vaughn got out of his car. He leaned against a slate gray sedan, his arms folded across his chest. The snow that had fallen overnight was almost gone, melted away by the patchy sunshine.
“Nice place, X.” He let out a slow whistle as I locked the front door of the cottage. “It doesn’t suit you, but it’s a nice place.”
“You know what will happen if you leak its existence to anyone,” I snapped.
“Calm the fuck down,” he retorted. “Get in the car or I’m leaving you behind.”
He ducked back into the driver’s seat, so I was forced to take the passenger side. I didn’t like this position, I wasn’t in control and as Vaughn gunned the engine, I let a scowl settle into my features.
“Have you heard anything?” I asked, assuming that he’d sent his network of spies and narks to work while I had been impatiently awaiting his arrival.
“Nothing on Mercy…yet.” He eyed me as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the country lane that wound through the moor.
“Have you got anything?”
“You told me that Intelligence had been sniffing around,” Vaughn said, ignoring my tone. “So I did some digging.”
I raised an eyebrow. He’d obviously had his little birds out gathering information ever since Mercy and I had left the night before last. “And?”
“We had an informant leak to us that it’s MI6. They’re looking for someone.”
I snorted. Of course they were. “Who? You?”
Vaughn glanced at me. “No. They’re looking for you.”
After Paris, I knew that this might be an issue. Blowing up a building, assassinating a man in the middle of a rich suburb without cleaning up… There had to be a trail in there that led straight to me.
Thinking about the woman I’d followed, I now understood Weiss had been playing with me after all. Had he kn
own they were on my trail all this time? Was that why he’d given me that address? Was it to warn me or lead me into their path? I didn’t have any idea, and knowing him, it could be either. Weiss didn’t have a loyal bone in his body. The only thing that kept a man like him around was money and Royal Blood had paid him well. Now that he was captured and cast adrift…it was anyone’s game.
I should’ve been worried that my identity was out there for all the wrong people to see, but all I could focus on was Mercy.
“I need to talk to Weiss, but first, we need to find out where Mercy was taken from,” I said, ignoring Vaughn’s concern.
“Your first thought is that someone took her? How are you so sure?”
“If we have a location, we can spread out from there,” I said, ignoring him again.
“That’s going to be difficult considering there’ll be eyes everywhere.”
“Let them look,” I snarled. “Nothing will keep me from finding her.”
“X, if she hasn't gone to ground, it might be Intelligence who has her. If they do, then we’re fucked.”
I narrowed my eyes. It might be better if they did have her in custody, because if she were locked in some federal holding facility, I’d find a way to bust in and get her out. Whatever it took.
“If it’s Royal Blood…”
I let out a growl, and Vaughn raised his eyebrows. “Then I’ll kill every last one of them myself.”
“No doubt about it,” he replied.
If Royal Blood had taken her…then it was likely they’d torture her for information or use her as bait to get to me, or even worse…give her to the one man who I feared the most.
There was no use in thinking worstcase scenarios until it came down to it. Falling back on my training, I knew we had to take this in steps. Small steps.
“Hawkes has been out canvassing Exeter with some men,” Vaughn went on, trying to distract me. “We don’t have many on our side against Royal Blood, but we had enough to start looking. We should hear from him before we get back.”
Mercy could’ve driven anywhere, but Exeter was the most logical place to begin looking. It was the only city we’d been to in the area, and she’d been with me the whole time…apart from yesterday. Someone must’ve made her, kept tabs and when she’d reappeared, taken their chance. She would’ve been distracted, her mind scattered after our fight and my subsequent treatment. I couldn’t help but feel this was my fault.
It was my fault.
Vaughn’s phone began to ring, and he pressed a button in the center console. “Hawkes, talk to me.”
“We’ve found the car.” His voice filled the space around us as the call was filtered through the speaker system.
I glanced at Vaughn, but his eyes were fixed on the road. “And?”
“Abandoned, but it’s surrounded by Intelligence. They’ve got the whole block cordoned off.”
“Shit,” he cursed.
“No definite word on who has her, Sir.”
“We’ll check it out,” I interrupted. “Give us the location.”
“Are you sure, X?” Vaughn asked. “If they spot you…”
“Fuck them,” I snapped. “I want to see the car.” If I saw it, I’d know what to do. It was a stupid notion, but it would concrete my suspicions in my mind and they told me that Royal Blood had taken Mercy from me.
Hawkes gave us the address, and I plugged it into the GPS. It wasn't far from where we were, which meant that either Mercy had driven straight there, or she’d decided to stop along the way. Either could mean anything.
We parked the car a few streets over and walked the rest of the way, keeping our heads down. We were in a residential area despite passing a small hardware store, post office and Off-License along the way. Vaughn elbowed me as we came up to the location of the car, held up his hand and I slowed. We both peered around the corner at the same time and found the street crawling with uniforms and suits. It was a fucking crime scene, and it eliminated all chances to get a closer look.
“Spooks,” Vaughn said. “Dead ahead.”
The block was stuffed full with Intelligence. There was no doubt as to who it was. ‘Official’ and ‘government’ was stamped all over the place. My muscle car was parked on the side of the road, people milling about it talking heatedly. The area had been cordoned off by police tape and traffic was being diverted. There was a hive of activity around the car and across the street where a phone box stood. Had she called somebody? She’d told me everything…there was nobody left for her to reach out to.
Even if I could get Mercy out of this, we would never be safe. Not with our faces plastered all over Interpol watch lists.
“If MI6 had her, there wouldn’t be this level of investigation,” Vaughn murmured. “Forensics are working on the phone booth…”
It was the light bulb moment I’d been hoping for. “Royal Blood.”
He glanced at me, worry creasing his forehead. “We need to get in touch with Hawkes. I’m not sure how much time we have to track them down before the trail goes cold.”
I backed away from the corner slowly. “Then we get in touch with Hawkes.”
If they had a forensics team sweeping the scene, that meant there was blood. It meant she’d fought and maimed or killed… She was too valuable to them to kill straight up. They needed information, a bargaining chip…a hostage. Mercy probably got one or two of them before she could be knocked unconscious. If she'd killed one, they’d take the body with them.
I latched onto the fact that she’d fought.
People always talked about finding their match…Mercy was mine. We were both fighters. She’d fight this.
We retreated back to Vaughn’s car, remaining unseen by the eyes at the crime scene.
“This is bad, X,” Vaughn murmured, shaking his head. He brought the engine to life and waited a moment as it warmed up. “It’s real fucking bad.”
I didn’t have it in me to snap at him.
“If she talks…”
“She won’t talk,” I bit out. “I trained her too well. She’s the best I’ve seen in a long fucking time. She won’t talk.”
I knew it as well as she probably did at this very moment. If she couldn’t get out, if we couldn’t get to her in time, then she’d die before she betrayed us. Betrayed me. She was in love with me, after all.
Staring out the front window as we sped through the city back to the distillery, I knew it in every fiber of my being. If I’d felt it before, I’d been too stupid to realize it. I told her I thought I could, I used it to torture Allaire in Paris and I'd implied that I did…but I’d never said it. I’d never told her when it fucking mattered.
I loved Mercy Reid.
When I got her out of this, I’d finally be able to say the words.
I love you.
Thirteen
Mercy
I held my breath, desperately trying not to open my mouth.
A hand fisted into my hair and held me down in the water as I struggled and shook my head. One minute, two minutes…who knew how long I fought.
Drowning right now would suck, even though I knew they wouldn’t allow it.
I was pulled from the water and thrown backward onto the concrete floor. I landed hard on my shoulder, coughing uncontrollably as my body heaved in lungfuls of air. I was soaked to the bone, my hair stuck to my face, my rib throbbing from where I’d been kicked before being knocked unconscious.
I’d woken in darkness and had been torn from it just as harshly.
I’d been in this room with a single man, who hadn’t told me his name, for what felt like hours. Time had ceased to be something I held onto. From the moment I woke, he asked question upon question about who I was and where I’d been. At first, I’d been lashed to a chair, and when I’d remained silent, I was backhanded around the mouth until my teeth cut the inside of my cheek and I’d bled down my chin. When I still kept my mouth shut, I was transferred to a tank of water. Now that I was lying on the floor, I realized another
man had joined the first.
He was staring down at me, his craggy face and silver hair marking him to be about sixty years old. He’d had a long time to perfect the whole bad guy thing.
The old man nodded to my questioner and I was hauled up from the floor and shoved against the tank of water. A hand was fisted into the hair at the nape of my neck, and once again, I was held above the water, ready for another dunking. Awesome.
“I expected you to be strong,” he said as the man held me over the water, my nose grazing the surface. “Though I never expected him to want to teach you.”
Don’t answer him. I readied myself to breathe deeply, holding onto an image of X. I was his anchor, he could be mine.
“I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, Mercy Reid,” the man cooed from above. “You may refer to me as The Watchman.”
The Watchman.
I held my breath tightly as I was pushed under, my hair twisted painfully. If I were in my right mind, then maybe I’d be thinking of all the things that man did to X. Maybe I’d be afraid of all the things the mere mention of his name conjured up. The fact he was here seemed to seal my fate, but I still had something he wanted. Something he wanted enough to torture me personally for.
Well, I had news for the asshole. I wouldn’t let the fucker win. These lips were staying closed from now until the end of time.
Good fucking luck.
I held and held, my lungs burning. X would be coming for me. That was if Mei didn’t find him first. Fuck, Mei. If they grabbed him before he could get to me… I’d shot myself in the fucking foot.
I was pulled from the water and hauled back to the chair. I coughed so hard I had no chance of fighting back, my wits were scattered and the only thing I could think about was sweet fucking oxygen.
“Stick my head in there all you want,” I gasped as water dripped from my soaked hair. “I still don’t know what you want from me.”
“We can play this game until the end of time, Mercy,” The Watchman said.
I’d learned enough from X and watching spy shows to know that when you were in the unfortunate situation of being captured, plausible deniability was the way to go. I wasn’t on the government’s side, I wasn’t an American CIA agent in the hands of Russian Intelligence, I was the bad guy in the hands of the even badder guy. There were no rules here and they knew it.
