They talked about the dog and they talked about the weather, growing more comfortable with each other as the minutes passed. Michael started asking her about her life, and he seemed so sincerely interested that she was flattered. For some reason she found herself answering his questions, her professional façade flying out the window in the face of a curious boy.
“So you grew up in LA?” he asked. “What part?”
“Koreatown,” she replied. “My family runs a restaurant there.”
“I love LA. Why did you leave?”
“I had to get out of there.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to live the life they chose for me… Or marry the person they chose for me.”
“I see,” he nodded thoughtfully. “So what made you want to be an FBI agent?”
“I studied criminal psychology in school, and it led me into law enforcement. Everyone told me I could never get into the FBI, so that’s what I decided to do.”
“Stubborn any?” he smiled.
She grinned. “As a mule. After I graduated the academy I ended up assigned to the field office in Ukiah.”
It was as if all of a sudden he remembered why she was there, and his freckled face darkened. “What do you want with my sister anyway?”
“She’s not in trouble. I only need to ask her about the confession she witnessed.”
“Confession?” he was confused.
“When was the last time you spoke to your sister?” she asked.
“Uhm, yesterday morning… I think.”
Now she felt like she owed him an explanation, regretting letting her guard down in the first place. She told him about the kidnapping, and how Layla and Ramon had taken the confession that led to the child’s recovery. “Tell me Michael… Is your sister a trained hypnotist?”
Michael understood what had happened all at once. He’d spent his entire life watching Layla in action, and nothing she could make people do surprised him. He was suddenly reminded that the pretty girl sitting next to him was a cop, and he was still a law-breaker.
“Of course not,” Michael laughed it off.
“Then how did she do it?” Mina shot back.
You’ll have to talk to her,” he said, no longer worried. He was confident in Layla’s ability to defuse and deflect any suspicions. He leaned closer to pour her another cup of tea. “So… What do you like to do when you’re not busting bad guys?” he asked, changing the subject.
She smiled. “You’re gonna laugh.”
“Tell me.”
“I like to play online games.”
“Me too!” His voice took on a teasing tone, “What do you play, like farm games or beauty makeovers and stuff?”
“No,” she scoffed defensively. “I like to play battle games.”
He looked surprised, “Like military style? Guns and stuff?”
“No… More like fantasy,” she squirmed a little, embarrassed. “Swords and sorcery… Wizards and Dragons.”
“Really? What games do you like?”
“I used to really like Dungeons, but lately I’ve been into “Lords of the Underworld.”
He set his teacup down and slapped both of his palms down onto his thighs. “Oh my God… You’re Mulehead, aren’t you?”
She was equally shocked, “Wall Street Wizard?”
His jaw dropped as he studied the beauty that was sitting right before him, seeing her in an entirely new light.
This time she held out her hand for a shake, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
They smiled shyly at each other, a new kind of awkwardness between them.
He stood, gesturing to the stairs with his head. “Do you want to go check out the boards… I mean, while you’re waiting?”
She sized him up, surprised to find him more attractive the more time she spent with him. She finally smiled. “Game on.”
~
Layla lie immobile on the bed, overcome by misery and slowly slipping into shock like a trapped and wounded animal. Her throat was raw, and with a rubber ball firmly wedged between her jaws she couldn’t make a sound loud enough to override the blaring television. She gave up trying to cry out for help.
She could hear the stranger move about the room, going back and forth from the balcony to the mini bar. She couldn’t see anything through the blindfold, and the bleakness of her situation weighed her down with a heavy blanket of midnight blue misery.
Her last flickering hope hinged on her ability to get Senator Blackwell to hold her gaze for more than a few seconds, and she had her doubts that he’d even bother to uncover her eyes. If she did get a crack at him she wondered whether grief or paranoia would be the most effective at snuffing out his sadistic excitement. She held perfectly still, knowing that she must spare her strength for yet another unwanted battle with a monster.
It seemed to Layla that every time she allowed herself some optimism that life was about to take a turn for the better something happened to ruin everything. An ancient curse against her kind had driven her ancestors from Scotland, and they still hadn’t managed to escape it. Obviously, neither could she.
She knew what the senator was capable of, and she wondered if there was any way she could convince him to spare her life. She toyed with the idea of exaggerating her terror, of begging for mercy and giving him all the cowering and fear he wanted. She could play up her helplessness, like a bird feigning a wounded wing in the hopes that he’d let his guard down long enough for her to use her synesthesia on him.
Her stomach turned at the thought, and something inside of her knew that she could never go that route. No, he would like it too much, and she refused to give him any satisfaction. She would show no fear and go down fighting, doing her best to frustrate him and leave him with a hollow, empty victory.
She thought about Ramon, and tears she could no longer suppress soaked her blindfold. What would he think about her sudden disappearance? If only she hadn’t been so stupid she would be in his arms this very moment, and she had no doubt this would have been the night they made love for the first time. Thinking about everything she’d been denied spiraled her down even further into the depths of despair.
Her bladder was starting to feel uncomfortably full, and she wondered how long it would be before the senator returned. She recoiled at the idea of wetting the bed, but the thought that she might disgust him was a small comfort, and it renewed her determination to do anything she could to make this as unpleasant as possible for him.
She steeled herself, resolving to win the battle even if it meant losing the war. Maybe she deserved to suffer for getting herself in this mess; she had failed to heed Cali’s many warnings. She’d overestimated any fatherly feelings Teddy might have had towards her, and foolishly underestimated the lengths he would go in order to continue his research.
Obviously, there were some lessons that even smart girls had to learn the hard way.
~
Chapter Twenty-Two
HISTORY
~
Ramon pulled the nervous maid aside and interrogated her about what she’d seen. She was reluctant to talk, flustered and embarrassed, but between Cali’s emotional manipulations and Ramon’s insistent questioning she finally began to speak in a halting voice.
When she finished telling her story she hid her face in her hands.
“What did she say?” Cali asked, alarmed by the girl’s discomfort. “Did she see Layla?”
Ramon was disappointed. “No. She was cleaning a suite this morning when a man came out of a room across the hall… She only got a split second glance inside, but she said that it looked like the bed had straps attached to it… and whips laid out across it. She figured it was some kind of kinky sex game, so she looked away and pretended like she hadn’t seen anything.”
“The man… Was it the professor?” she asked.
“She didn’t get a very good look at his face, but she’s pretty sure that he wasn’t that old.”
Caledonia’s face reg
istered disappointment. “That doesn’t sound like something the professor would do anyway. He was creepy, but he wasn’t creepy like that,” she shuddered.
“We should check it out just in case,” he said grimly, his police training telling him to follow even the most unpromising lead to the bitter end.
“I suppose so,” she agreed. She didn’t have a very good feeling about it, but she wasn’t ready to admit defeat either.
Ramon turned towards the maid. “Vámonos.”
They followed behind her cleaning cart to the freight elevator, riding it up to the fourth floor. When they reached the room the placidly compliant woman produced the master key, and as soon as the door unlocked Ramon flung it open wide. Cali was right behind him, gasping in horror at the sight of Layla’s bound form lying perfectly still.
Ramon burst inside, reaching into his waistband to pull his gun on a man who was sprawled on the couch in a drunken stupor. The man blinked, burped, and held up his hands in a gesture of submission.
His voice was rusty, “I didn’t lay a finger on her.”
Ramon turned his head to yell at the maid, who stood frozen in the hallway with a shocked face. “Llame la policia!”
He spun back to see that Cali had already stripped off the blindfold, revealing Layla’s wildly rolling eyes. Cali produced a wicked looking knife out of nowhere and started expertly slicing through the leather bands holding the gag in Layla’s mouth. She pulled it off and flung it to the floor, moving on to sever the buckled straps that bound Layla’s wrists and ankles one by one.
In between great heaving sobs Layla caught her breath, “Cali! It’s h-him! He found me! It was him!”
Ramon produced a set of handcuffs, and after patting down the drunken man he handcuffed him to the arm of a chair and rushed to Layla’s side, cradling her head while Cali finished freeing her.
“We know what he did! That bastard Reed is going to jail for the rest of his life!”
“No! No, you don’t understand! He tricked me… He was going to turn me over to–” she started coughing, her throat raw.
“The police are on the way,” Ramon reassured her, brushing the hair back from her forehead. She shook her head violently, refusing to be soothed.
“No! No police!” she choked out before she was overcome by another coughing spasm.
Ramon helped her to sit up, and Cali led her to the bathroom, handing her a glass of water and wetting down a towel. She gulped down some water while Cali wiped at her raw wrists.
“Teddy tricked me… He drugged me…”
“Don’t worry, he’s going to pay for this.”
Layla had never seen Caledonia so filled with grim determination and murderous intent. She shook her head no, choking back another cough. “It’s worse than that! It’s Senator Blackwell,” she finally gasped out, “He was here! Teddy turned me over to him. He’s coming back for me in the morning! We have to get out of here!”
Cali’s eyes met hers, and together, they shared their fear of an even more formidable foe.
By the time the girls left the bathroom the police had arrived. One of them was speaking with Ramon while the other led the handcuffed man out into the hallway. “I want my phone call now!” he slurred.
“Is this the girl?” the officer asked Ramon, as if Layla’s frightened face and raw wrists weren’t enough to tell the tale.
Ramon approached her, speaking softly, “We need to go down to the station and make a statement so they can file charges.”
“I just want to go home,” she moaned.
“I know, but I’ll be right with you. We’ll make it as quick as possible.”
She nodded mutely, fighting back panic as he removed his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. All she could think was she needed to get out of this room and as far away from this hotel as possible.
The policeman came over to speak to her, obviously uncomfortable. “Ma’am… We need to take you to the hospital so you can provide us with a rape kit.” He gestured towards Caledonia, “Your friend here can accompany you.”
“No,” Layla said firmly. “I wasn’t raped.”
The officer exchanged a glance with Ramon. “We still need to take her in and get her checked out…”
Layla shook her head vehemently, her voice rising with hysteria, “No! No hospital! I want to go home!”
“Okay, okay… Take it easy,” Ramon said gently, searching her eyes.
She heaved a breath, struggling for control. “Ramon. I’ll be fine. I just need to get out of here right now.”
“Let me talk to them.” Ramon pulled the officer aside and the two men spoke in hushed tones.
He returned to take Layla by both of her hands. “We’re going to skip the hospital, but we have to go in and make a statement before we can leave. There’s no way we can get out of it. I promise to get you home as soon as possible. Alright?”
She nodded, watching numbly as he winced at the raw skin on her wrists.
“Let’s go, I have a first aid kit in my car.”
Ramon took Layla firmly by the waist while Caledonia retrieved her purse from where it had been tossed aside on the dresser. They made their way down the hallway to the elevator, past more police and the nervous hotel manager who was hurrying in to secure the room. Layla felt lightheaded when they stepped out into the fresh night air, leaning onto Ramon, scarcely able to believe that she’d really made it out of there alive.
When they got to the car, he sat her down on the passenger side, pulling a first aid kit out of the glove box and inspecting the scrapes on her wrists and ankles. Caledonia stepped aside to call Calvin.
Ramon rubbed ointment on her scrapes while Layla watched him mutely. He clenched his jaw in anger at the thought of the professor and bit the inside of his cheek, fighting for control. “Tell me what happened,” he finally said.
“Ted– The professor, he-he tricked me into meeting him at the restaurant. He said my father was coming to meet me… He must have put something in my tea, because the next thing I knew I was in the room.”
“Who was that man?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Don’t worry,” he said angrily, “Neither one of those bastards will ever bother you again.”
She looked over at Cali gesturing angrily as she spoke with Calvin over the phone. “I’m not worried about them.”
Caledonia returned, reluctantly bringing more bad news. “There’s an FBI agent waiting at the house to talk with Layla.”
Ramon exhaled with frustration. “Agent Kim. She was after me all day to set up an interview with you. She’s suspicious about the confession, and she’s the type that doesn’t give up easy.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Cali reassured Layla, “I’ll take care of her when we get home.”
Layla slumped back into her seat, meeting Cali’s eyes. “I have to get out of town… He won’t quit now… Now that he knows I’m alive he wants to kill me.”
“Who?” Ramon was alarmed. “The Professor?”
Caledonia shook her head no. “Just drop it for now. They’ll never believe us.”
~
Ramon pulled up to the police station and parked in front. “You’re gonna need to leave your weapon in the car,” he advised Cali.
“I already stashed it,” she replied.
The cousins stayed side by side, taking a seat in the receiving area while Ramon went to speak to his fellow officers. “Don’t worry,” Cali told Layla, “We’ll make this quick.”
“How did you find me?” Layla asked.
“The DEA had a tracker on your car,” Cali explained.
“That’s good,” Layla said, no more surprised about it than her cousin had been. “But how did you find the room?”
“Ramon had a hunch. Thank God for him… If he hadn’t shown up for your date I’d have had no idea what happened to you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was so stupid.”
Cali put a reassur
ing arm around her, pale blue with sympathy. “It’s okay. I know how much you wanted to find your father.”
“So did Teddy,” she replied, his name bitter on her tongue.
Ramon returned to them, and they could both see that he was seething with anger.
Caledonia looked up in alarm. “What happened?”
“The man in the hotel room… His name is Joe Stewart. He’s a private detective in town from Los Angeles.”
“That makes sense,” Cali nodded.
“He’s claiming that she’s a working girl,” Ramon said through gritted teeth.
“Working?”
“A prostitute,” he scowled. “He’s telling them that he contracted with Layla for sex… And get this– He’s claiming that Reed is her pimp, and that he set up their date. He says that if we press charges the professor will back up his story!”
Caledonia didn’t think she could hate professor Reed any more than she already did, and if she ever had another chance, she could imagine cheerfully slicing him into little bloody bits.
“Let’s get out of here,” Layla said urgently. She was jumpy, looking over her shoulder nervously every time a car drove past the station.
Ramon was indignant, “No way! You need to press charges! We need to fight this thing!”
Cali and Layla exchanged a look. They didn’t share the faith that Ramon had in the system; neither one of them had ever seen it work in their favor.
One of the policemen from the hotel room came in and pulled Ramon aside, “I hate to break it to you, but it looks like this guy’s got a pretty believable story.”
“He’s lying!” Ramon raised his voice.
The officer looked over towards Layla and back at Ramon, lowering his, “How well do you know this girl anyway?” He leaned in to speak conspiratorially, “Listen, from one cop to another, he says she specializes in real kinky stuff. He claims that everything was consensual… She’s a high class hooker that specializes in S&M.” The man looked back over his shoulder at Layla with a smirk, his avid, prying eyes making Ramon want to pound the look off his face.
The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) Page 20
