She placed both of her hands on his chest and smiled with stained teeth. “You looking for some fun, baby?” Her accent was barely noticeable.
Still holding the duffle bag in his hand, he gave her a charming smile, a smile I’d never seen before from him. He looked down at her. He tilted his head a little to get a good view, licked his lips, then came back to meet her eyes. My body shivered with that look, and it wasn’t intended for me. “Thanks, but I have company for the next few hours.”
She didn’t push herself on him. She removed her hands from his chest and said, “I’ll be around when you decide to change your mind.” She turned around and walked away from us. She said “when” as if she knew that he would change his mind.
Was he changing his mind already?
That was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen and I thought I’d seen some pretty interesting things so far. Angel watched her for a few seconds as she walked away. Finally, he turned towards the door and opened it. The smell was terrible; old liquor and cigarettes. The brown carpet was stained with cigarette burns. The bed was small, with an old quilt covering it. But that was it. The plain walls didn’t have any paintings. There was no TV. The bathroom was plain, but at least it looked clean.
Angel closed the door and deadbolted it. He threw the duffle bag on the floor and looked out the window before drawing the curtains. He walked towards the small bed and began to remove all the ammunition. He undressed, leaving only his briefs, and climbed into bed. I was still standing by the door, staring at him. Finally, I followed him to the bed and removed the old quilt before I undressed slightly and climbed in. I didn’t want to undress completely because the bed felt dirty.
I turned to him, wondering if he was cranky. “What’s up with this place? I mean Uzbekistan?”
He turned his head to me and looked as if I asked the most ridiculous question. Finally, he said, “This is a very different place. I’ve only come into this country once before because this is the one country that actually worries me. I don’t know, but it’s just a feeling that I’ve always had.” The whole time he was whispering, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear us.
He plopped onto his elbow his face was only inches from mine. I felt his cool breathing; his hand began to run through my puffy hair. He came down and pressed his lips softly to mine and said, “Try to sleep, we’re going to be in and out of there, okay?”
I nodded and turned to face the wall. Angel spooned me from behind and wrapped his arm around my waist. The walls were thin; I could hear the people next door having rough and energetic sex. I blushed, thinking that Angel was hearing the whole thing with me, but I heard his breathing and light snoring right behind my ear.
I wasn’t sleepy. But Angel was already asleep. I knew he was tired. He’d spent almost an entire day driving. I knew that whatever was coming wasn’t going to be appealing, so I tried to sleep myself.
Screaming. Someone was screaming. I watched him slit her throat. Her eyes went wide as her hand went to her neck. I thought she was screaming. But nothing came out. She didn’t stand for too long. She went down quickly, her eyes were open, although I already knew that she was dead. She was dead. She was dead. She was gone forever.
He was coming towards me. But I was already gone. My consciousness was already gone. That was the moment I went crazy.
I thought the whole time it was Hunter screaming from the pain.
But then I realized.
I was screaming.
I was screaming from the trauma.
And I screamed and screamed until Angel finally put his hand over my mouth, stopping me. “Samantha, you’re okay, I’m here with you.”
I whimpered as I turned towards him and buried my face in his chest. “It haunts me, watching her die, it haunts me everyday.”
He was rubbing my back, trying to console me. “I know baby. You’re going to need to see a therapist when you get home to help you with the nightmares.”
I looked up at him in the darkness. I could still see his shining eyes in the dark. “I don’t really have any nightmares. Not that I remember.”
He kissed my temple and said, “Yes you do. I usually wake you up a few times during the night to stop the nightmares from overwhelming you. I can hear you moan a few times, so I just wake you up or hug you and you usually stop. I was just too tired tonight, I must have missed it.”
I stilled. He didn’t get a full night’s rest because of my nightmares. I caused him to wake up a few times a night. How was he even functioning? At home, this would be normal. Like a mother waking up in the middle of the night to feed her baby. But not here. In the craziness we experienced every day. He should be really exhausted, and he’s not showing it.
“Sleep, I’m watching you.”
I felt him kiss my forehead one more time before I felt sleep take over my body.
We were close to my torture area when the sun set completely. I became aware of it because of the way my body was responding. I shook while Angel held my hand and kissed my knuckles. I just stared out the window. The desert was coming in view when Angel turned off the headlights.
I needed a distraction. And the first thing that came to my mind was more of a disturbance.
I wasn’t mad or jealous. But I had to know. “Are you into prostitutes?”
He turned to me with a little shine in his eyes then laughed. “I’m not into them, Sam. She was hot; I’ll admit that. But no, I’ve never had sex with one of those.”
One of those. Well, that cleared everything up. As if I didn’t know that Angel was the type of man who likes to have fun with women. And I didn’t know if I could agree with his ‘she was hot’ comment. “How many women have you been with?”
He looked at me again, this time with a serious face. “Why do you really want to know?”
I traced little circles on his hand, not meeting his gaze. “I’m just curious.”
He shook his head and said, “I’m not going to answer that. It’s not appropriate.”
“Angel,” I said. When he looked at me I said, “Really, I’m just curious. I’m not going to judge you by the number.”
He looked at me a few times with worry. He took a deep breath and finally answered. “I don’t know, more or less than forty.”
I looked over at him in shock, he wasn’t joking. What was I supposed to do? Get mad? We weren’t a couple. And if it did happen in the future, why would his past concern me? I should judge him according to our time together and our future. Right? But did I think that he would have said yes to the prostitute if I weren’t there? I didn’t know. How could I trust him around other women? That was where I became confused.
Was I supposed to share my number? “I’ve only had one partner,” I blurted out before I had the chance to bite my tongue. Well, I’d already made an ass of myself so I might as well clear it out. “I mean I think it was only one terrorist, but I’m not sure.”
I continued to look out the window. I felt him staring in my direction, but I wouldn’t meet his eyes. He didn’t push me. He just kissed my knuckles as we continued driving, leaving them cool and calm.
I saw the campsite. Everything was quiet there. It was mostly dark, except for a few tin houses. Angel stopped the Hummer about a mile before it and we got out. He came around to me and looked into my eyes. “Are you ready?”
I nodded when he pressed his lips to mine. I hugged his waist for a minute, while he wrapped his good arm around my shoulders. I inhaled his aroma; I felt his heart beat on my body. But I let go. It took the whole world for me to let him go, but I did. We needed to get this over with.
He turned to the duffle bag and handed me a flashlight. “Don’t turn it on unless I tell you to.” He turned to the duffle one more time and came with the large sniper rifle. It was almost as long as me. He handed it to me as well. I looked at it curiously, but threw it over my shoulder. Angel already had the automatic and the grenade launcher over his.
We walked the long boring desert until lights were
visible. Angel held his hand up and I immediately stopped. He stretched out on the ground. I was pretty sure what was coming, so I did the same and handed him the rifle. He looked through the scope until he focused on someone. He aimed straight for the guy on the tower. He concentrated before pulling the trigger. I was surprised at how quiet it was. He took out a few more men around the compound before he got up.
He handed me the large gun and we began running. Everything was quiet. There were some men walking alone around the camp, but Angel took them out. Everything was exactly the way it was the day I left. We made it to one of the tin houses and Angel looked in the window. It was deserted.
I saw it first. I ran towards it until I made it to the door. Angel said something, but I kept going. The shack was completely empty and no larger than an average bedroom. I saw the small window that was always on my right and I climbed in. Angel whispered something I couldn’t understand then took a deep breath and climbed in behind me.
It reeked. I had to cover my nose and breathe through my mouth. It was light enough for me to see my surroundings. My feces were still sitting on the chair, along with blood and urine. There were maggots and flies everywhere. I turned my head and my body threatened to vomit.
I don’t know what I came in here for. My body brought me here. I felt like I’d left something here. I couldn’t remember. I took my camera out and began snapping pictures. Angel walked up to me and looked like he was about to say something, but then he decided to back off. About five minutes later I saw something shining in a corner where the bucket of dirty water was still sitting. I walked towards it and picked it up. It was my mother’s silver charm bracelet with small diamonds and pearls. This was what I’d come back for. It was dirty, but it wasn’t tarnished. I opened the small locket that I’d added to it a few years ago. My mother’s picture was missing.
I put my face in my hands and began to cry. I’d just wanted to see her face. I wanted to look at the familiarity of her eyes, even though they always looked cold whenever they turned to me. I wiped my tears. We needed to keep going. This isn’t the place to get emotional. Angel came next to me and clasped the bracelet on my arm securely. He took my hand in his and led me out through the window. I left without looking back.
We continued looking through most of the houses until we made it to one that didn’t have any windows.
This one caught his attention. We walked quietly towards the small door. It was locked. He pulled a few pins from one of his pockets and began fiddling with the lock. He concentrated quietly for a few minutes until I heard it click. Quietly, he removed the lock picks and opened the door. We slipped inside and he closed the door completely, leaving us in pitch-blackness. I remembered that I had the flashlight and turned it on.
We were inside where they kept all their ammunitions. I had the flashlight in my hand, and luckily, I’d decided to keep the camera with me. I didn’t know what to illuminate first. The room was the size of an elementary school gymnasium. There were guns of all sizes everywhere. I became overwhelmed. I ran towards some of the hundreds of stacked boxes. I opened the lid and pulled out what looked like a giant bullet, the size of my arm.
I broke down. My arms began to shake uncontrollably. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t control my body. I dropped the flashlight and was about to drop the bullet when Angel came behind me and took it.
“This is a missile of some sort. If you drop it, it might explode.” He began to examine it. He brought up the flashlight and held the logo at an angle so I could see it. “It’s the same logo, Samantha.”
And it was. They all had it. Forgetting about the time and where we were, we spent the next hour opening boxes, looking through every single thing, and taking pictures so we could have evidence of what we’d found.
Every single thing there had my father’s logo on it. Including the boxes where they were stored. I cried. A lot. I dropped his rifle, on the floor loudly; I collapsed on the floor, buried my face in my hands, and cried. I’d been alone here. I was alone and tortured. And my father had been supplying these men. I knew my father thought that he was responsible for everything that had happened; he was right. I hated him.
Angel dropped in front of me and calmly removed my hands from my face. I looked up to him, his beauty. I looked into those eyes and my heart tightened. For the first time I saw something different in his eyes. He was in front of me and kissed my nose, my eyelids. He came closer to me and kissed my lips, slowly. His lips soothed the pain away. I lost control a little and even forgot why I was crying. I came up on my knees as well, grabbing his black shirt in my fists and became absorbed in his kisses. I tightened my grip on his shirt and brought him closer, if that was possible. I moaned between his lips and inhaled his smell. I bit his lip hard enough to feel him stiffen a little.
He broke the kiss and turned his head slightly, listening. I didn’t know what he was doing until I heard rustling at the door. Angel felt for the gun on his thigh as he got up and slowly approached. After aiming the gun at the door for a few seconds, everything went quiet. He felt for the door, and then came back to me.
He sat in front of me and caressed my cheek, smiling sadly. He was bleeding a little from where I’d bit him. He held my hand. I smiled at him. I couldn’t help it. He made me happy even in the worst situation possible. “The door is locked again.”
My smile faded and I looked at the door again. “So we’re stuck here now?”
He got up and looked around. “Not exactly.” He walked towards the wall and said, “I’m going to break through the wall. Stay behind me.”
I got up and we collected all of his guns. Angel took the rocket launcher and aimed it at the wall; I hid behind his large body. I heard the explosion through my covered ears, while Angel turned around and covered my body with his. As soon as everything settled, Angel picked up both of his Magnums and began shooting.
They were coming from every direction; some of them were behind me. I tapped Angel’s shoulder a few times so he could shoot behind me. But there were too many men, dozens probably. So we began running, fast. There were just too many of them to handle. Angel continued to shoot as we made our way to the desert where the Hummer was waiting for us. Angel threw the keys at me as he continued to shoot down the men following us. We jumped in the Hummer and I drove away while Angel shot the trucks down with the grenade launcher.
He directed me where to drive while he was still out the window with his automatic. After about an hour, Angel came back into the Hummer and dropped the smoking guns on the floor. He sighed and covered his face with his hands.
I drove in the direction that he told me. It was my turn to drive while he gathered his thoughts. I drove overnight. I drove as the sun came up while he slept beside me. At this point, I didn’t know where I was driving. But I kept driving. I wanted to get as far away from there as possible. I saw a sign that said Egypt and turned in that direction.
Finally, I was beginning to feel calmer. My eyes began to droop. We were in the middle of the desert. I was getting tired. After a few hours of driving in the daytime, I pulled over, too exhausted to continue.
Chapter 11
The sun was beginning to set when I opened my eyes. The Hummer rumbled loudly as Angel drove silently, facing forward. I looked out the tinted window to see the beautiful countryside and old farmhouses in the distance. The view was phenomenal. I took the camera out and began snapping pictures again, including more of Angel. The golden rays were blinding but couldn’t diminish my view of him.
“Where are we?” I asked, stunned.
Angel looked over at me for a brief second. His blue eyes gleamed with gold because of the sunlight. “We’re well into Turkey. You were sleeping for a while.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling like an idiot. I’d slept this whole time while he’d been driving? I looked at the dashboard. 7:47pm.
Everything came flooding back to me. We went back to that place. Where I was tortured. My father’s logo was everywhere. I buried my fa
ce in my hands and that’s when I felt the charm’s cool surface on my cheek. I looked at it closely. The diamonds were still intact, though there was one missing, and my mother’s picture was gone. I needed to keep my mind composed. I needed to keep my mind busy.
“After you fell asleep, I didn’t know where to drive, so I went to where it said Egypt.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve kept myself under control. I was just frustrated about your father, you know. But you actually did well. You went in the right direction.”
“So where exactly do you live back home?” I asked, trying to change the subject from my father.
“D.C. Though as soon as I go home I’m quitting my job. I think I’ve had my fair share of war; I’ve had enough of it actually. I think I will become part of the FBI.”
I looked at him surprised. “Really? You seem like someone that would try to go higher, like the CIA.”
He smiled slightly, and a dimple emerged. “Not at all. I just want a normal job. A nine to five. Sick days, holiday pay. But at the same time, something that will never bore me. Give me a little action and I will be a happy man.”
I thought for a moment. “I’m studying Forensics. I wanted to work on crime scenes. But now I don’t know after all this.”
He changed the subject quickly without acknowledging my sentence. “Hey, you said you didn’t have a boyfriend back home, right?”
I tilted my head in curiosity, “No.”
He looked out at the road and turned on his headlights. “When I went to meet your father at your house, there was this tall blond with tears in his eyes the whole time.”
My Sweet Escape: A Touched by an Angel Novel Page 12
