by S. K. Lessly
My body involuntarily shuddered when a swoosh of stale air mixed with the scent of copper, sweat and something else that reminded me of death hit me in my face. I wholeheartedly believed that moment that I was at standing at the gates of hell.
My nerves were starting to get the best of me. I closed my eyes and rubbed my belly, trying my best not to vomit from the putrid smell that was filling my nostrils.
Let me ask you this, have you ever been on the brink of doing something you know is stupid and you suddenly hear a still small voice, in your head, whispering to you, warning you not to do the stupid thing you’re about to do?
I heard the same voice except it was screaming at me to get my ass out of here. However, I didn’t move. I refused to let my fears get the best of me.
“Get a grip, Kenya,” I coached myself. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. You’re going to stick to your plan, do what you came here to do, and get out.”
There was no danger in what I needed to do; ask a prisoner a few questions. That wasn’t life-threatening. I wasn’t going to get close to him and I had read the manual showing how they handled interrogations here. The prisoners were all chained to the table they were at as well as the floor. This shouldn’t be a difficult task to accomplish.
With that thought in mind, I began to feel a little bit more confident in what I needed to do. I opened my eyes, took in the acrid smell and I walked through the door. As it slid back into its place, I looked down the dimly-lit flight of stairs before me.
“Maybe I should’ve looked for an elevator.”
I rubbed my belly again, gaining as much comfort as I could. The original feeling of hesitation started to flood my mind, again. I could turn around right now and call Misty once more. There was probably nothing this man could tell me that I didn’t already know, yet knowing this arrogant asshole, he’d do anything to make me feel stupid. In light of that, I could reschedule this simple interview when Misty was available and get her to come with me.
Then again, I could grow a set and go question this chained criminal myself. “It’s now or never, Kenya,” I told myself and made my move.
I began the journey down the steep narrow steps, holding onto the rail to my right as I descended. The pale halogen lights coming from above did little to brighten what I called the stairwell to hell, which caused me to move as cautiously as I could. That was fine with me; there wasn’t a rush or anything. It wasn’t like the prisoner had anywhere else to go.
My earlier call was to the guards in this place. I wanted to set up an interview with a particular prisoner and I didn’t have time to play games and wait for them to bring him to me once I got here. I felt the need to be quick about everything I wanted to do before it was too late. And, yes, too late felt like it was going to come when I least expected.
I got to the last step of the stairway and arrived at yet another closed metal door. There was another keypad next to this as well as an iris scanner. I keyed in a separate security code from the other doors and placed my eyes in the area needed for the scanner and stayed still.
I waited anxiously, hoping and praying that no one like Josh would catch wind of my presence here and was waiting for me on the other side. Josh was busy figuring out how to keep us safe, so he probably had no idea that I had even left the office. I was banking on him being too consumed with our safety to realize I was in the wind.
After a few more seconds, the door started moving. Once it opened fully and I stepped through, a brute of a guard was there waiting for me.
I smiled up at him. “Good morning. Are you Lieutenant Davies, the man in charge?”
I stretched my hand out to the man in greeting. Lieutenant Alfred Davies was maybe an inch or two taller than the Cooper brothers and wider. He was dark skin, mean-looking, bald, and had eyes as dark as molasses.
Davies took my outstretched hand in his and squeezed lightly.
“I understand you’re here to see prisoner 425977600,” he said, getting right to the point without formalities
I straightened and nodded once. “Yes, has he been brought to one of the interrogation rooms?”
Davies looked at me up and down and settled on my belly. “I know you have the proper security clearance to be in here and all, but are you sure about this? Considering your condition I mean?”
I tried not to let that last comment get to me, but as Lieutenant Davies backed up a bit from me as if I had a disease, I didn’t hide my disdain. “Lieutenant, I’ll have you know that I’m pregnant. I don’t have a condition,” I scolded bitterly.
His eyes widened and he stammered, “Yes, ma’am, I–”
“And furthermore,” I added, cutting him off. “I am quite capable of handling myself, pregnant or not. Now, if you don’t mind, I don’t have a lot of time.” I gave him my best stern look before I walked around his bulky frame and headed down the hall to where the interrogations rooms were located.
Before I made plans to visit this facility, I familiarized myself with the layout of the place. It was important for me to have an air of familiarity to my walk. I had to look like I knew what the hell I was doing to avoid any uncomfortable situations from the staff here. I couldn’t afford them calling Josh and telling him, that his pregnant wife was in the building having a nervous breakdown. That wouldn’t look good.
There were two floors to this place. The first was the level I was currently on where the interrogation rooms, security offices, a lunch area, and ammunition storage were located. There were a few alternative exits I could take to make it back up to street level as well. There wasn’t a worry that someone would know the origin of the exits. From my understanding and from the specs of the place, the exits emptied out into alleyways just like other stores along the market district.
The prisoners here were housed deeper into the earth below my feet. As one could very well imagine, the prisoners didn’t get to see the light of day very often if at all. The only reason why they were here and still breathing was because of the knowledge they had about people and places that the DSO deemed important. Once that resourcefulness was gone, so were they. I wasn’t sure where they went and I didn’t ask. I really didn’t need to know. Besides, I could use my context clues and figure that answer out on my own if I wanted to. The point was that I didn’t want to know.
Anyway, back to Hell. As I moved down the hall, I heard heavy booted footsteps coming up behind me. I knew it was Davies, so I stopped and got out of the way, allowing him to take point.
We hit a few bends before we headed down a long corridor. There wasn’t that much light on the path. The atmosphere and smell brought back a lot of painful memories for me. I could feel my chest tightening and my hands getting clammy. If we didn’t get to our destination soon, I was going to turn around and run my pregnant ass out of here. We took a few more steps before Davies stopped at a plain gray metal door and looked at me expectantly.
“We have rules. Under no circumstances are you to touch the prisoner. He is shackled by his ankles with chains bolted to the floor in front of him. His wrists are cuffed with a twelve-inch chain. However, it’s not bolted to the table. But don’t worry about that because you will never be alone with him for any reason.”
I started shaking my head as he said the last part of his well-practiced speech. “No, Davies, that’s unacceptable. I need to be alone with the prisoner.”
Davies shook his head. “I can’t do that, ma’am.”
“You have to. What I have to talk to the prisoner about is national security.” I moved closer to him. “Do you know who my husband is?”
The look in the man’s eyes told me he did. And yes, I knew it was poor taste to bring his name into this, but it was the only way to get my point across. Davies didn’t speak nor did he confirm that he knew Josh. I decided to plow ahead with the assumption that he did know my husband.
I still pressed on just to be sure. “I will take your silence to mean that you do know him. Since you know him, you also know that I wouldn
’t be here without his permission. He would be here on his own if he weren’t chasing down other leads.” That was a lie. Sometimes you had to take extreme measures to get what you wanted. I continued, “So, I have to do this. I need to speak with the prisoner alone.”
“I still can’t let you in there by yourself. Look, ma’am, yes, I do know your husband, quite well actually. I also know that you mean more to him than breathing. Therefore, if I let you in that room alone and he ever finds out, that would be the end of me. And between you and me, I’m not ready to meet my maker just yet.” He shook his head.
I huffed and looked down at my jeans and flats. I knew what he was saying was right. It didn’t matter if I got what I needed and left here unharmed, Josh would still blow this place up. I tried to think of another way to get me a private meeting with the prisoner. Consequently, nothing came to mind. Therefore, I decided to plead to his sensitive side.
I brought my eyes back to Davies’ emotionless ones and smiled. “Davies, I understand the situation you’re in. Really, I do. However, please understand that I’m in a bit of a pickle. What I have to talk about is of grave importance and not for everyone’s ears. It is a matter of my own life and the lives of my family. Please, you have to trust me.” I touched his arm and looked up at him pleadingly. If I knew how to bat my eyes at him I would have. I just gave him my saddest puppy dog face and held my breath.
Finally, the man caved just a little, but it was enough. He turned around to open the door. When I heard the lock disengage, I breathed out. Davies turned back around to face me.
“I will be your escort into the room.”
I fixed my mouth to protest.
He raised a hand. “You can take that or you can turn around and come back with your husband. Either way is fine with me, but I will not let you in that room alone, understand? You can trust me. Whatever is said in that room will stay in that room. You have my word.”
We stared at each other while I contemplated a plan B. I couldn’t think of a single thing, so I had to take this man at his word. I nodded and smiled. “Yes, of course. I have no problem with compromising. This is your show, Lieutenant.”
Davies grunted and activated his mic at his wrist by touching the earpiece connected to the back of his ear. He lifted his wrist to his mouth, “Brody, I need you to kill the recording in room five. Yes, that’s right you heard me. Keep the feed open and clear out everyone in the room but yourself. Do I make myself clear?”
When Davies brought his arm down, I assumed he was satisfied with the response he’d received from his man. He looked at me and placed his hand on the door handle. “Are you ready?”
I took a deep breath before I nodded.
Davies proceeded to turn the knob and push the door open. The door surprisingly screeched loudly as it moved inside the room. I couldn’t see past Davies’ big body into the room. It was the way as he opened the door that kept the occupants in the room hidden from my view. So, I took this time and asked myself again if I could do this.
You have to for Josh.
“You have a visitor,” Davies barked inside the room then shifted out of the way.
I came face to face with Noah Baxter.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Misty
The second we left Jared’s apartment, having left him alive, Shane started his truck and immediately got on the phone with Jacks. He wanted to move up the meeting with that CIA woman to later today or tomorrow at the latest. He didn’t get into specifics with Jacks about the reason why; just that it was imperative that he made that happen. Once he ended the call, he scuttled into his thoughts, leaving me with my own.
I watched Shane as he drove. The tension along his body mirrored the same in mine. This shit was fucked up.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, trying to get him out of his head.
He didn’t answer me. For him to be so close to me, goodness, he felt so far away. My heart went out to him. Here he thought we had everything under control and to learn we were so far behind had to be bothering him something fierce.
I moved my seatbelt off of my shoulder to release some of the tension from the belt so I could move closer to him. I ran my fingers through his hair at his nape and moved down to his shoulder. I massaged him. His neck and shoulders were so tight that I could barely get a grip. Still, I tried to soothe him as best I could, continuing to rub his shoulders, rake my fingernails along his scalp, and down his arm. I noticed the death grip he had on the steering wheel; I slid my hand underneath the hand closest to me and squeezed.
“Shane,” I called to him softly. “Baby, talk to me.”
I wasn’t sure when “baby” had become a nickname for us outside of the bedroom. I heard Shane use it a bit ago when he was talking about me to Jared. I wasn’t going to lie. I liked hearing him call me that meaningless term of endearment. It was just something in the tone of his voice. It dropped way down low and the bass increased as he said “baby.” The sound got the butterflies started in my belly.
It seemed only right to see if he’d react the same way to the nickname. The thing was, when I used it, I wasn’t ready for the outcome. After I dropped the title, Shane’s eyes fell to mine. The look I saw in his eyes, the emotion, he wasn’t holding any feelings back. He wasn’t hiding behind that tough exterior of his. I was staring into the eyes of the true Major Shane Marcello Cooper; guard down, nose wide open. My goodness...
With his attention all on me, I asked him, making sure my voice stayed soft, “What do you want to do? How do you want to play this?”
Shane squeezed my hand and kissed it before he returned his attention to the road. He didn’t let go of my hand. “I don’t know,” he finally said to me.
I tilted my head and gave him a small smile. “Yes, you do. Remember, I do know you. You’re not as complicated as you think you are.”
He turned back to me and studied my eyes before he resumed looking out of the front windshield of his truck. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re second guessing yourself for one,” I challenged. “And you need to stop it right now. You have taken all of the necessary steps based on the information given to you. You have played this right, Shane. You put security all over your brother and his family way before today; he was never exposed. You vamped up the efforts of finding known associates of Cupid the second you learned about him. We know that finding his list of assassins won’t be easy, especially not for this job. The point is, we have all of our resources looking into this.” I squeezed Shane’s hand to emphasize my point. “Granted, what we just learned is troublesome, but it’s not new information. Our timetable is just off. That’s it.”
Shane looked over at me and smiled. “Our timetable is just off, huh?”
I nodded and met his smile with a confident one of my own. “That’s right.”
We regarded each other for a few seconds before he chuckled a bit and shook his head. “That’s um… very sweet of you to say, Misty, but—”
“No buts, Shane. I don’t see anything different you could be doing right now that you haven’t done already. Trust me, I’m not patronizing you. Plus when have you known me to be sweet?”
His smile broadened. “You forget I know you just as much as you know me and maybe more. You can be very sweet when you want to be.”
I shook my head. “I highly doubt that. But we can debate that later. Listen to me. You are doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, chasing down potential leads and formulating a plan. So what’s the plan?”
Shane didn’t reply to me, he simply shrugged, took his hand from mine and leaned deeper into the driver’s seat.
I continued to stare at him in awe of this total shut-down moment. I’d known Shane for a long time. He wasn’t someone who dwelled on things he couldn’t change. With that in mind, I knew it was something more. This behavior had everything to do with him playing out everything in his head and blaming himself for the outcome. It was something that I was sure he did al
l of the time. The difference now was that he had me to bounce his ideas off; he didn’t have to do this alone.
“Let me see your phone.” I snapped my fingers and wiggled them until he started moving.
Without a word, Shane pulled his phone from the clip at his hip and handed it to me. I woke up the screen and saw it had a fingerprint security feature.
“Unlock your phone,” I said, pushing the phone toward his free hand.
“Use the pin to unlock the phone.”
“Okay. Tell me what it is?”
He looked over at me briefly and then back at the road. “It’s your military ID number.”
I stared at him like a deer in headlights.
Shane glanced my way and probably noticed I wasn’t moving and he smiled. “Don’t panic, I have codes in my phone for my brothers too. It’s something I did just in case something ever happened when we were in the field and one of you guys had to use my phone for an emergency. That’s all.”
I still didn’t move my eyes from him just yet. I needed a minute to recover from the initial thoughts running in my head. I said to him, apropos of what he had just revealed, “Yeah? Well, that’s a good idea, but don’t think I’m giving you access like that to my phone.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Thank you. I don’t want it. There’s no telling what’s on your phone.”
“Oh, nothing out of the ordinary, just my dick pic collection,” I told him keeping my eyes on his phone. I could feel the burn from his eyes and I grinned slightly, refusing to meet his eyes.
I unlocked his phone, found the number that I needed, and hit send. The phone began to ring through the car speakers. After a few rings, I heard, “Yeah, boss man,” come through loud and clear.
“Nickels, it’s me,” I replied.
“Oh, hey, Misty. Is um…everything okay?”
“Yes and no. Did you find anything useful on Cupid yet?”
Nickels paused a few beats and I could hear him pounding away at his computer in the background.
“Nah, nothing yet.”
