“Is there any left?”
Angel took the bowl from my hands and got up. “You ate enough for today. I can’t give you more because you might get sick on me. You stomach is not used to having food in it yet.”
He walked into the other room and I walked towards the window so I could look out, but I immediately felt his firm hands around my waist, making me scream because my body was in so much pain. “Sorry, but you can’t go near any windows. And you can’t go anywhere without me. Understand?”
I looked up at Angel and he let go. His beautiful blue eyes traced my facial features. Whose eyes did he have, his mother’s or his father’s? They were brilliant and magical. Just knowing that they were on my face made me feel special. I looked down at his full lips and became mesmerized. I wondered how soft they were…
He turned away from me and I sank into the corner mattress. I began to run my fingers through my hair. It had gotten long since the last time I’d looked at it, or even noticed it. It’s down to my waist now, more brown than blonde because of the shack, but in the sun, it becomes a soft blonde, heavenly.
I sat there, staring at the wall. When I wasn’t able to feel any more knots in my hair, I French braided my hair from the top of my head to the tips. Angel came and sat next to me with a beer in his hands. We sat there side by side with our heads leaning back against the wall. He continued to sip his beer and look out at nothing.
“I was having a dream that one of the terrorists was choking me with a wire before I woke up. Then there was another one burning my wrist. That’s why I attacked you.” I was staring out at the wall absently, thinking about how my life would never be the same again.
He turned to me. “I don’t think that was a dream.” He ran his cool fingers down my neck. I flinched from his touch at first, but then I felt where he was touching. It was a little tender. “Your neck was very purple there when I first found you. I think you’re slowly remembering everything.”
I stared into his eyes. He didn’t look away at first. But then he took a sip of his beer and looked in the other direction.
“I don’t want to remember what I went through. I feel like I will be better off. But if I keep all this inside me, I will drive myself crazy.” I began to see flashes of things that I was remembering, but nothing definite. I ran my fingers across my face, frustrated. “At this point, I couldn’t care less what happens to me.” I blinked a few times, trying to come back to reality. “I’m scared of what my future will be like.”
He looked over at me, and then caressed my neck again slowly where the bruise was still somewhat visible, tilting his head to the side, mesmerized. “If you want to talk about anything, I’m here for you. This experience will make you stronger if you use it to your advantage.”
“Does that even taste good?” I asked him, looking at the brown bottle with orange script. I didn’t want to talk about any of this.
He tilted it so he could get a closer look at the bottle. “It’s actually really gross.” But he continued to drink it.
“So how did you know I was there at that campsite?”
He took a sip and said, “I didn’t. There was no indication that you were alive. I’ve been in this house for about a month, scoping the camp. The only lead we had on your whereabouts was a picture of a man in robes. After a lot of researching, we came up with Afghanistan. We had nothing to lose.”
Besides his life? “How come you’re the only one here?”
He laughed a cold short laugh and his eyes grew dark. “Because everyone else thought this was a suicide mission. Everyone backed out. The whole team. I was the only one willing to do this.” And I thought he was a daredevil or a risk taker. He began what I assumed was his assessment to make sure I was still sane. “Do you know what day it is today?”
I looked at him as he gave me a bag of ice. I pressed it to my eye and shrugged.
He took another sip of his beer and said, “It’s July 21st, and you’ve been missing for sixty-two days today.”
I looked down. A little over than two months, that’s it. It felt like I’d been missing for six months. I didn’t think I would ever see anything but those four walls before I died.
“How old are you Samantha?”
I’d been holding back on Angel, not throwing too much at him as I came back to the present. “I have no idea who I am. I didn’t know my name until you said it back at the shack. It has a familiar ring to it. But no matter how hard I think, it feels like it’s digging its way deeper in my skull.” I ran my free hand down my face and took a deep breath; trying to be strong for his sake, not mine.
How was it that I woke up with no recollection of who I am and how I got there? How was it that nobody familiar came for me? Why wasn’t the government helping here? Every question just brought dozens more in my head.
“Who is my father?” I guessed I’d start with an easy one.
Angel straightened up a little with respect. “Your father is one of the most respected men in the military. Ex-Lieutenant. Retired. But now your father is the most successful entrepreneur in the game.”
I look at him with confused eyes.
He finished his explanation. “Your father builds and distributes all of the United States’ military machinery. Anything from tanks to missiles and weapons.”
“If my father is so important, how is it that terrorists managed to kidnap me from my own home?”
Angel smiled dangerously, as if he were telling a scary story. “You went missing in Europe. You were on vacation.”
Shit! How was it that I couldn’t remember any of this? I squeezed my eyes shut and thought hard, but nothing surfaced. I needed time.
“So why are you here? Why isn’t there a whole army here?”
“The Secret Rescue Mission I work for is small, no more than fifty employees. The government doesn’t know we exist. We do the jobs that the United States ignores, like kidnapping overseas. Our own resources and our clientele’s payments fund us. We do jobs that our clients don’t want the government to know about. I have no clue why your father hired us instead of asking help from the government. That’s a great question for you to ask him when you get home.”
I must have fallen asleep sometime during the conversation because I woke screaming from one of my nightmares but I couldn’t remember this one. I didn’t even remember feeling sleepy when Angel was interrogating me. I woke up on Angel’s shoulder. He was still sitting in the same position with the empty beer bottle next to him. I came back to reality when I felt his firm biceps on the side of my face. I quickly moved away from him, feeling completely humiliated. The bag of ice was melted in my hand. It must have been a pretty long nap.
“I am so sorry,” I said, moving away from him a little more, leaning against the wall.
He looked over at me and smiled. “Get some rest. We’re going to need it tomorrow.”
I scooted to the next mattress over and looked at him one more time. He was still sitting, though now he was free to move without worrying about me. I closed my eyes and welcomed sleep once more. I just wished that I didn’t have to open my eyes anymore.
I woke up to the sound of rattling. I opened my eyes to look straight at a rattlesnake staring at my face. His beady eyes were focused on me, as his tongue tasted my fear in the air. I was about to scream when I looked at Angel on the mattress across from me with a finger on his lips. I stayed as still as I could when I saw him grab the rattlesnake’s head and tail in one swift move. He walked out the room, all this with the snake not even realizing his movements.
Angel came back empty handed and lay down on his mattress and closed his eyes. I got up slowly and lay down on his mattress by the wall before I had a chance to change my mind. I felt him freeze in confusion, but he didn’t say anything to me. I put my arm around his waist and buried my face in his back, listening to his slow heartbeat. Listening to his slow deep breathing. Smelling his fresh scent. If something, anything, wanted to come and get me, it would have to go through h
im first.
Chapter 3
I’m on the other side of the world. I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know who this person is who has been helping me when I’d lost all hope. When I thought that my life was over. Those dreams wouldn’t let me sleep. I kept waking up screaming and Angel would sooth me awkwardly until I fell asleep again. This happened plenty of times during the night.
Angel didn’t sleep, not that I could tell. Every time I awoke, he was laying face up, looking at the ceiling. Several gunshots erupted during the night, scaring the living crap out of me. But Angel assured me that this was normal in the Middle East. Though he always looked alarmed and unable to sleep. I wondered if that was the way it would be the whole time we were there…
I felt like I slept for about twelve hours on and off, finally sleeping in a mattress. I wished I could sleep soundly like I did after my rescue. But due to my frequent nightmares that I couldn’t remember once I woke up, it was impossible to get a good night’s sleep. I opened my eyes and heard shuffling around the room; the sun was just beginning to come up. I sat up and stretched my arms, trying to get the remainder of soreness out of my system. I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of his skin lingering on my own. I looked around and saw that everything was packed except for the mattresses.
I felt it as if I were still there, feeling a blow to my face. I spit out blood. I was surprised that all my teeth were still intact. He grabbed my hair and punched me again, laughing as if this was entertainment for them. The sun was shining brightly through the window on my right. The heat was unbearable.
“You are going to tell me where it is!”
I grabbed the edge of the door and shut my eyes tightly. This isn’t real, I told myself. I’m away from that nightmare. I shook my head and straightened up.
I wobbled for a little bit, still trying to come back to reality. I looked around the tiny room with the mattresses while I regained my composure. Everything looked dirty now, even the mattresses. The walls had dust and tiny smears everywhere. All of the windows had bars protecting them from intruders. I decided to get ready so when Angel came around we could get away from here quicker.
I walked down the hallway and found a toothbrush in the small room. I automatically made my way outside and filled a plastic cup with water from the sink inside to brush my teeth. When I went to the backyard, I froze at the view of the city. I was staring at women hanging wet linens in their backyards; men wearing long robes, walking around the busy streets. Crowded cement houses and buildings filled my view from the backyard.
After a few minutes of staring, I felt someone’s presence behind me. Thinking it was Angel coming to yell at me, I turned around to apologize and ran smack into him, dripping the water all over him. I was going to mumble sorry but something didn’t feel right. The smell was musky and old, nothing like the smell of Angel. I looked down and saw dirty long robes and leather sandals. I didn’t want to look up but I did, straight at his tan skin and overgrown beard. He looked down at me with a giant grin of satisfaction on his face, exposing several missing teeth in the process. I looked down to see a small gun in his right hand. I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
I felt like I was reliving a dream. I didn’t think that I was going to be in the position I am now. I thought I was going to be rescued and far away from this location. I thought I was going to be far away from this nightmare.
I looked over at the door and saw Angel pointing his gun at the terrorist’s head, tilting his head for me to move away. I quickly ducked away and ran towards Angel. When he pulled the trigger, I covered my ears and threw myself on the floor at his feet with a scream, feeling the hot leather on my cheek. Once I was down I heard the body behind me hit the floor as well.
Angel knelt next to me, pulled me to a sitting position and made me look up at him. I did, but my eyes are unfocused, lost. He shook me vigorously and said, “Samantha! Don’t do this to me now. Come on, snap out of it.”
I look into his eyes as if I’d just woken up. My eyes began to well up and I threw myself into his arms, crying like a little girl. Crying like the day my pet rabbit died. This was taking too much out of me. I squeezed his shoulders as hard as I could and said, “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, trying to soothe me quickly to calm down. He ran his hand through my hair. “But we have to go. Now!” I looked up at his blue eyes and they were wide with concern. His look made me come back to reality.
Confused, I got up with Angel and walked back into the house. We walked past the small room and I realized that all of the duffel bags were gone. “The truck is packed. We need to move out,” he said, as if he could read my mind.
He kicked open the front door and shot another terrorist in the head as we ran to the truck. I climbed into the front seat as Angel dodged for the driver’s seat. The truck was an old Jeep Wrangler. The truck screeched and launched forward, moving faster than I thought possible. I had to hold on to anything I could find so I wouldn’t be thrown around all over. Where he got this truck from was another mystery to me.
I had no time to cry like a baby because he grabbed my jaw and made me look at him, hurting me a little since I was still in pain. “Can you please do me a favor, don’t go anywhere alone, okay?” I just looked at him as I saw a few different expressions go through his face: worry, anger, and frustration.
I nodded and rested my head on the headrest and closed my eyes once he let go of my face, trying to get myself together again. I was definitely getting tired of this. As if being captured wasn’t bad enough, imagine looking over your shoulder or worrying about where you’re going to wake up.
“Are we being followed?” I asked Angel as he checked for ammunition while still driving.
“Not that I can see,” he answered as he switched to third gear.
I sat up and looked at Angel’s face. He was concentrating on his driving. His jaw line was perfect, model looking. His skin was faultless and clear, and it had that tiny hint of glow on it that every woman craves. His tattoos were a magnificent work of art that must have taken days to perfect. While his eyes were drawing and addicting, his buzz cut said, “Danger! Keep away!”
“So, how did you become whatever you are?” I asked, since it seemed like the heat was over. I leaned back again and closed my eyes, listening to his calm voice. I began to unbraid my hair and run my fingers through it, calming down instantly. Anything to keep my mind occupied would help me right now.
“I became a U.S. Navy Seal at the age of eighteen. Then, I was appointed by my captain to join a group called the SRM, the Secret Rescue Mission. A group designed to rescue victims in your situation being held by terrorists or for ransom. High-end people, like your father, qualify for our work. Unfortunately, the average society does not qualify for the service our organization has to offer. Nobody besides the people we’ve helped in the past know we even exist. And there’s a lengthy non-disclosure contract that has to be signed by anyone we’ve helped.”
I left my mouth half open as an oh. I changed the subject by saying, “Where are we going anyways?”
He turned to me, mesmerizing me with his blue eyes. “The plan is to drive down to India where there will be a chopper waiting for us. It’s too risky to drive over to Europe since the Iraq war is current in the west, and Russia is a country I like to avoid. So India is our best choice right now.”
I looked out the window and released a deep breath. Kids were walking to school wearing blue tops and khaki bottoms. There were only some women in sight, covered as usual. The street was dusty, there were chickens running around. Some men were burning trash in the middle of the street, making it hard to see in front of us. We were driving up a small hill and he turned in another intersection. We’d left the rural area behind and were now in a busy highway.
There were numerous military Humvees in the street, back to back. They were all the color of sand. The Marines were driving around, scoping the area. For a secon
d I felt safe, even though I could hear gunshots at a distance. They all turned left while we continued straight ahead for a few miles. Disappointed, I turned my head from the window’s view.
I just looked at him. My mind was playing tricks on me I’m sure. But his face was unique. I think he chose the wrong career. With a face like that, he would have become a successful model or actor. Though women would have stalked him on a daily basis. But then again, I couldn’t imagine walking past him down a street and not noticing his beauty.
He looked at me with his piercing turquoise eyes then looked away. The lean muscles in his arms called me in, I tried really hard not to trace the lines in them. The tattoos on his right arm were unique. Blues, greens, oranges, his tattoos were like a collage of artwork. They consisted of skulls, fire, and angels; there was even some sort of red flower in them. I made a mental note to ask him about the meaning of his tattoos.
I tried to shake my head but I couldn’t. He looked like someone straight out of a sci-fi novel with a deep dark secret. Right when I was going to look away, Angel made eye contact with me one more time that almost took my breath away.
But as quickly as it came, it left. He looked at his rearview mirror and I saw his eyes widen with concern. He swerved the truck to the right so hard that I came crashing on top of him; he gripped my body by the waist to prevent me from getting hurt. His elbow hit my forehead so hard it almost knocked me out. The swerve was too late because a missile hit the rear of the truck, flipping it forward in the middle of the street. I hit the back of my head on the side window and this time I did black out.
When I came back to consciousness, I heard steam somewhere in the truck. Angel was lying next to me on the roof. He immediately got up and looked around at the damage. I could hear cars driving past us. But I had a feeling that someone was coming for us, fast. He shuffled through the rubble in the truck for his automatic and began to pull me out by my arm, shooting pain straight to my brain. I grabbed the duffle bag right next to me and threw it over my shoulder. It was heavy, and I’d lost my sandals somewhere, so my swollen feet were bare. My head hurt a little from the crash, but other than that I was fine. Angel seemed to be in one piece as well, no surprise there.
My Sweet Escape: A Touched by an Angel Novel Page 3
