Dauntless (The Agency Dark Affairs Duet Book 2)

by Amélie S. Duncan

  I bit my tongue. There was no talking to her right now. She was in no mood to listen.

  I finished up letting the soapy water hit my body to clear off what was on my skin. I was unsure if I would be allowed a bath. And if I was, I didn’t want Simon to touch me. She left, and I moved to the bed. Besides feeling sick, the heat and dampness of the room weren’t making me feel any less queasy. I needed more water. The door opened again, and Loren came and handed me one of his special waters and left. I drunk it down and laid back.

  It didn’t take long for it take me away to my dreams. To Elliott. I needed him. I needed him to find me. Soon.

  ***

  I had no idea how much time had passed. Without windows and with the light constantly switched on, it was hard to say if it was day or night. Every moment was too long. If this was another test, I certainly failed. I feared they won’t return, and I’d die alone without anyone ever finding me. Prayers filled my mind. But time remained suspended, and I remained alone; I was losing my grip. I was losing my mind.

  My stomach lurched. I reached the bucket, which had been moved closer to the bed, and made it just in time before I emptied the little I had left in my stomach, then wiped my mouth on a corner of the sheet. Subsequently I tugged the sheet the rest of the way off my body. I was too hot to bare it covering me anymore anyway. I was covered in sweat. Surprisingly, between my shallow intakes of air, I’d catch a whiff of my shampoo and body wash. When did I bathe? I didn’t remember it.

  Stop. I admonished myself as my head throbbed. Thinking took up too much energy, and I didn’t have much left. Though all I could do was wait. And as time moved on, I no longer cared if it was Loren or even Dimitri. I’d do whatever Dimitri wanted if he’d come for me. Then suddenly, as if my prayers were answered, the door opened, and Dimitri stormed in. The dark wool coat he had on still had snow covering it.

  He stopped at the side of the bed. His arms crossed. “You’re sick. How can this be? Did you take something I didn’t see?”

  I hesitated as I struggled to comprehend what he was talking about.

  “Answer me, damn it. Now!” he yelled.

  I coughed. “No, Simon.”

  “You’re lying,” he growled and started to pace. I dizzied following his speed. “You must have. Your health screen said you had no allergies. You can’t be reacting to the drugs. You didn’t react when they gave you the same thing on the boat. You’re… you’re doing this on purpose.”

  I didn’t know if that was a question to answer, but I didn’t have an explanation to give him.

  “You better pull yourself together,” he demanded, his tone harsh. “If you don’t, I’ll leave you behind.”

  I exhaled. That didn’t seem like a bad prospect to me. It was the first bit of hope I had of returning home, but I remained quiet. The door opened again, and another man entered the room. A slow shift of my head and I could see him. A stocky, sandy-haired male with a fake tan, dressed in a salmon sweater and khakis. I assumed him to be Loren’s husband, Mr. Olson.

  He snorted. “You gave her too many drugs over the last two days.”

  “Did I Thomas? Or did you put too much drugs in the water bottles?” Dimitri replied irritably. “She is an example of your sloppiness and incompetence.”

  I gasped. Days? I’d been here for a couple of days? They had been right all along about the drugs. It took my memory. My stomach sunk. Was this what they did to Angel?

  My head screamed as Thomas’s voice filled the room. “I can’t call a doctor, and you didn’t bring your nurse. What are we going to do?”

  “Calm the fuck down,” Dimitri said. “And stop talking in front of her. I’ve got to go. Put her in a bath to get her temperature down.”

  “That won’t work,” Thomas complained. “I don’t think it’s safe to bring her in the house. I can put her in the snow for a while. That should work the same.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Dimitri said abruptly. “She’d die.”

  “She’s sick and probably dying anyway,” Thomas said coldly. “She’s more trouble for us alive. She could tell someone what we did. We kill her and dump her off a boat later. No one knows her whereabouts. We’ll all be safe.”

  I shifted on the bed to try to move away—a useless attempt to get away from Thomas. I had underestimated him. He was just as dangerous. He’d kill me to prevent getting caught. I didn’t want Dimitri to leave me with him.

  “I’m dying, are you’re thinking of getting rid of me too?” Dimitri said tersely and scoffed. “She dies, you and Loren will go to jail. I’ll make sure of it. Now go do as I say and get her ready. I’ll be back in a couple of hours, and she’d better be alive or the both of you won’t be.”

  My heart beat so hard I could feel it pounding in my ears. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Get Loren in here to clean this room up. I don’t want her lying in filth. You get her dressed in something of Loren’s for our travel.” He touched my hand. “I’ll be back soon.”

  My eyes widened, and I coughed. “Don’t. Please. Take me with you…” I murmured.

  He cupped the side of my face and smiled. “Oh, you want me now? You’ll have me for a while yet, Gia. You can relax, but don’t give Thomas a reason to punish you while I’m gone. If you behave, I’ll have a doctor check on you before we leave Washington. Now thank me for my generosity.”

  “Thank… you, Simon,” I murmured, though even with my sickness, I wasn’t completely lost to him, yet. I needed to keep him wanting me alive. I needed to pretend to obey.

  “Good girl,” he said. I swallowed down my repulsion when he patted my head like an obedient puppy. He then turned to Thomas and said, “don’t disappoint me again,” before leaving me with him.

  Thomas glowered at me then went over to the door. He opened it and yelled out, “Loren. Get down here.”

  She appeared at the door jamb with a lunch bag in her hands. “Yes, Sir.”

  Thomas wiped his hand down his face. “Get inside here and don’t dawdle.”

  Loren dropped her head. “Yes, sir.” She rushed to pass Thomas who pushed her along, making her stumble inside.

  “The path ahead has not been shown to Dmitri. He will see my way once it’s done.”

  My mind raced on about what this meant. Was he off to prepare the bath or was he planning to leave me to die? “No… please no,” I pleaded.

  He walked over and covered my mouth and nose with his hand. “You don’t speak.”

  I gasped. My hand moved to grip his, but I was slow. I whimpered.

  “Sir,” Loren stepped up to his side. “You pray for guidance, and I wait for your word?”

  He looked at her and suddenly let go. I coughed and choked as I struggled to fill my lungs with air.

  “Yes… Yes,” Thomas nodded quickly. “You pray with her, and I’ll seek the way forward for the two of us.” He closed the door behind him and locked us inside.

  I tried to appeal to Loren who was fidgeting as she looked down at me. I didn’t have a mirror, but I could somehow feel the bruises and sickness on my body. That couldn’t be unseen and surprisingly brought tears to her eyes.

  “You look really sick,” she said despondently.

  She held the juice pack for me to sip and I tried to sip. In truth, I didn’t care about myself. I was more worried about those I care about that needed me. “Please bring a phone, so I can speak to my dad. He’s ill too. Please just let me say goodbye to him. Tell him I love him.” I choked.

  She covered her face with her hands. “That’s awful. I’m sure he knows.” She leaned over my ear. “They’re not in danger. You’ll need to trust me on that.” She tilted her head toward the camera. “No more speaking.”

  I took a short breath. Dimitri didn’t have people on my friends and family. I was relieved to hear that, but I wasn’t going to stop talking now. Not if there was a chance she’d let me go. I had to try.

  “Please help me,” I pleaded. “I’m starting to want the E-comply drugs. Is that h
ow it happens? Will it damage my brain like Angel? She thinks she’s playing a game. She doesn’t know what’s real anymore.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “Stop. Please. She will be fine. In a few months, you will go home and will be able to put this behind you.”

  “I’ll be dead,” I pretended to sob. “Or I’ll lose my mind, like Angel.”

  “Please don’t tell me more,” she cried and shook her head back and forth. “Angel will be fine. Simon says she has Dane and with you out of the way, they have a real chance now.”

  Was this the reason why she was so willing to go along with hurting me? She was justifying hurting me in her own messed up way of helping Angel. “Dane and I are now friends. We had decided it. Why do you think I was back in Seattle? We had parted ways.”

  “No,” she said. “Dimitri said that you needed to come to help Angel.”

  “And Angel told me to come to you,” I said. “She believed you were a good friend to her. She trusted you. Dimitri and Walter brainwashed Angel into thinking she would hurt her precious little daughter by being around her. Isn’t that sad? She’s afraid of her own baby.”

  She started sobbing now. “She’ll… she’ll get better. She forgave me. God forgives.”

  “Will you be forgiven again?” I asked. “Choose you this day who you will serve.” I didn’t know the exact verse I quoted from the Bible, but I could see it had an effect on her.

  Tears poured down her face. “Stop speaking,” she wailed. “Don’t speak or I’ll tell…tell Thomas to make you quiet.”

  “Yes, go on and do that,” I continued. “What will you tell your babies? What if they take them away to punish you like they did Angel and you only get to see them when he feels generous? You must help me and help the police end this.”

  “I… I can’t,” she said. “And you need to be quiet, or you will be in trouble.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going to stop, and I’m not going to forgive you. You’re just as guilty as Dimitri. He has an out: he dies. You go to jail for kidnapping.”

  “What can I do?” she wailed. She touched the gold chain around her neck that had a cross at the end of it, and tucked it back inside her sweater.

  “Bring me to safety, and I’ll make sure you don’t do jail time,” I said. “I’ll say you were coerced.”

  She hesitated. “But Thomas… I can’t let him be hurt. He saved me. It’s better they don’t find you.”

  I swallowed the fear that gripped my chest at her words and kept speaking. “You could fight for him outside,” I said. “But both of you locked up won’t help.”

  She wrung her hands, her eyes shifting from me to the door. Even though I was sick, her confliction gave me strength and Hope. Please.

  “Can…can you move?” she stuttered her eyes lifting toward the camera.

  “Yeah,” I said coughing, clutching my stomach.

  Her hands shook as she struggled to take the chain necklace around her neck. She murmured as her fingers moved over the cross.

  The cross—she twisted it into a key!

  I swallowed down my excitement as she tried the key on the lock. Once. Twice. A third time and she shook her head. “I’m sorry. Thomas will be back at some point…you can try to talk to him.”

  I shook my head. There was no chance Thomas would help me. “Let me try,” I pleaded.

  She shook her head. “No…I…I don’t know.”

  “Please try a couple more times,” I begged her.

  She sucked on her bottom lip. “Oh…all right. One more time.”

  For the first time in years, I prayed with all I had for the lock to give.

  Click.

  Click.

  Click.

  It didn’t work.

  I found a strength I didn’t know I had and stumbled over to the door and put my weight against it. She twisted again, and this time it unlocked. She opened the door, but I knew we weren’t in the clear yet.

  “Thomas is in his thinking space upstairs… only Dimitri looks at the cameras,” she admitted. “I can help right now, but this is the end for us too. No matter what you say, I won’t help again. I have no clothes to give you. There is nothing back here.”

  I nodded in agreement and wrapped the sheet around me as best as I could manage. This was my chance, and I wasn’t going to lose it.

  She turned the lights off in the hall, and I followed her in the dark. Outside the room was freezing and my body shivered with the cold, but I was determined to keep moving. Ahead of us was a short flight of concrete stairs. It led to a steel storm door with the first window I’d seen since I’d been there. Outside of it was the light of day and snow. She glanced back at me. “You’ll freeze. It’s not too late to go back. You were here longer than he planned.”

  “Why am I still here?” I asked as she helped me up the stairs.

  “The FBI came looking for you,” she answered. “It had been too dangerous to try to move you.”

  My heart constricted. Elliott came to look for me and didn’t find me. He must think I’m gone. I pushed away those thoughts. I didn’t have time for that. I needed to get moving. “I should go…you just point me where the road is.”

  Her head jerked around from side to side. “I can’t leave you. If Thomas finds you first without me, he’ll be angry with me… I don’t want to go with you. I don’t know what to do or where to take you.”

  We walked through the trees and bushes that covered the area until we reached a clearing. It was the far end of a manicured lawn, that changed to rock and sand that led out to the water. If I tried to go in the water, I would die of hypothermia or drown. The house put me in danger of being recaptured. I had to think. My only chance would be to run to the road and try to get to a neighbor, but I would be sick, barefooted, and practically naked. If I made it, it would be a miracle. That and if someone was home and willing to help me. What if they were also members of The Agency? I had to try.

  Then Loren had an idea. “I’ll leave you in there while I find out where Thomas is right now.” She pointed to the glass enclosure around the side of the house. It was the patio I had visited with her when I came here with Tove weeks ago. Weeks. It seemed like years. “I’ll grab you a coat and my boots while you wait there. Then you hit me, and I’ll tell Thomas I was trying to help him by bringing you out, but you need to leave fast.”

  I shivered hard as I nodded. “Thank you.”

  She helped me walk, and I moved as fast as I could through the cold. Even though I was feverish, the snow was freezing on my feet and lower legs. I staggered as Loren half dragged me across the slate and gravel to the sun patio. She opened the door wide for me to go in, and there in front of us was Thomas. He was crouched down on the floor, with a backpack at his feet, hiding, but then he saw us. His eyes widened in surprise. Loren let me go.

  “Thomas,” she whispered.

  My legs wobbled, and I fell across the floor and hit hard against the coffee table, which broke on impact.

  Thomas crawled over on top of me. He covered my mouth and nose with his hand tight. “Get down on the ground and hide. Don’t say a word.” He gritted.

  I flayed my arms as I struggled to breathe.

  “Mr. Olson,” I heard Trish’s voice call out from a distance. “You back here? I saw you run when I rang the doorbell. You can’t hide. I’ve got a warrant. I don’t need your permission to start my search.” He let me go, and I crawled forward. Dizzy. Something hit the back of my head.

  “Stop it. Step away from her right now.” Warm hands cradling my head. “Can you hear me, Gia? It’s Trish.”

  Thomas? Everything went dark.

  Then came light, or was it a dream?

  I stood up and left the patio. Somehow, I had gotten away and was moving to the side of the house, and that was when I saw him. Elliott. He was in jeans and jacket storming through the house, knocking things over angrily. He was upset. He was desperate, searching for me.

  “Nobody is here. You’ve found nothi
ng,” Thomas complained coming up behind him. “You’re going to pay for everything you destroy.”

  “Sue me,” Elliott said bluntly.

  I swallow hard. That was my Elliott. “I love you,” I said. “I love you.”

  “Nothing here, Elliott,” Trish said coming back to where he was standing.

  “Now you need to leave,” Thomas said. “You’ve been here three times. I’m filing charges of harassment.”

  “I’m going,” Elliott said pushing a bookcase. He was strong, powerful, ready to tear the place apart to find me. Trish came up and shook her head. His shoulders and head dropped. They walked out of the room. Was he leaving? No. He can’t go. Grabbing a rock near me, I threw it with all the strength I had. It hit the side of the house, but no one heard. They were not there. I was left behind.

  No. NO. NO. I shrieked. Louder and Louder. “You can’t leave me. I need you. Help me, Elliott.”

  “Help is on the way, Gia. You’re safe now.”

  Trish? Had they come outside? Where is Elliott?

  Darkness pulled me under again.

  “Gia, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

  Clear eyes. Twisted smile above me. Dimitri.

  Sweat falling from his face onto mine.

  I was still on the bed in the room.

  Had my rescue been a dream??

  His body over me. Laughing.

  I screamed and thrashed as arms held me down.”

  “She’s been going in and out of consciousness, nurse.”

  “She’s tiring out. Let her rest.”

  ***

  Light streamed behind the blinds near the window I laid close to. Morning.

  I moved my head around; it throbbed. It was a hospital. I was no longer in the bedroom basement or the patio at Loren’s house. I was alive. I had been rescued. When? How? Was this real?

  “This is real,” a woman answered as if I had spoken. I moved my head toward the direction of the voice, and I recognized Trish, but it wasn’t exactly the Trish I’d come to know. Her face was pinched and pale.