Desired in Darkness

by Heather Sunseri

  “Anything.”

  “Forgive me.”

  “Forgive you?”

  Romeo was walking toward us. I only had a few seconds, but I would save Ty’s life, then worry about what happened next.

  I grabbed my weapon and shoved it, grip first, into Ty’s chest. Instinctively, Ty wrapped his hand around the weapon.

  “Gun!” I yelled. “He’s got a gun!” I shoved him backwards so hard that he fell, waving my gun in the air as he tried to find balance. Police and security were instantly running at us, their own guns drawn.

  I backed up into the chest of a man. Romeo’s hand came up and circled my arm. “Well played, Brooke. He’ll live—for now. Let’s go.” He pulled me out the door.

  People were screaming and running around in a panic both inside and out. It was mayhem, making it easy for Romeo and me to hide in plain sight. Police and airport security were running toward the terminal without knowing what they were running toward yet. No one seemed to know that I had been the one who had yelled “gun.”

  “It’s over, Woody. Law enforcement is all around us,” I said. I dug my heels into the concrete.

  He pushed me forward, hard. “You let me worry about that.” He lifted the shopping bag so I could see. Peeking out of the top was the butt of a semi-automatic rifle. “You do as you’re told, and no one has to get hurt.”

  He forced me toward a line of taxis. I had a decision to make: yell, kick, and scream—draw attention to Romeo and me, and risk the lives of everyone around me—or comply and find another way out of this situation.

  When we reached the first taxi, a minivan, the African-American driver smiled. “Where to this evening?” he asked.

  Romeo reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a thin plastic bag holding a powdered substance. He messed with the plastic with his gloved finger, then blew a puff of dust into the driver’s face.

  The driver coughed and tried to rub the powder away. “What the fuck, man?”

  Romeo pulled a gun and pointed it at him. “Get in. You’ll drive us where I tell you.”

  The man lifted both arms to the sides. “Of course. Whatever you say, man.” He headed for the driver’s seat, and Romeo opened the sliding door of the minivan.

  There was no way in hell I was willingly getting inside that taxi. I jabbed a fist in Romeo’s face and tried knocking the gun from his hand. He didn’t even stumble. He tossed the rifle into the back of the minivan, wrapped an arm around me, and cupped a gloved hand over my nose and mouth. I refused to breathe in.

  Everywhere around us, travelers were running in a panic. I made eye contact with a little girl dragging a pink suitcase. She tugged on her mom’s coat, but her mom was forcing them along too quickly.

  “Breathe, Brooke. Don’t fight me. I will start firing at the people leaving the terminal. And it will be your fault. Now breathe.”

  When I had nearly passed out from holding my breath, I sucked in deeply, and I knew immediately that the drug was in my system.

  He guided me inside, and I sat on the bench seat directly behind the driver. The driver pulled away from the curb and asked, “Where to, folks?” as if nothing was wrong in the world.

  I thought briefly about opening the door and jumping from the moving taxi.

  “Don’t do it, Brooke.”

  I looked from the rifle to Romeo’s cold eyes, shadowed beneath his baseball cap. A tear slid down my face as I succumbed to the drug coursing through my circulatory system. “Okay.” I turned and stared out the back window at the men, women, and children scurrying around outside the terminal.

  “Turn around and tell me that you’re excited to be with me.”

  I turned my head to him. “I’m excited to be with you.” The words left my mouth in a slow monotone.

  But what surprised me was that I actually believed what I was saying.

  Chapter 33

  Declan

  After seeing Claire and Darren onto their flight back to Dublin, I was escorted back to the security offices to find Brooke. I was eager to get back to her. Special Agent Marshall had told me that an unidentified man had slipped the gun into Claire’s bag, and that, based on his build and height, the man was most likely Harrison. Which meant that he was somewhere inside this airport.

  I called Brooke for the third time. Still no answer.

  I called Dimitri.

  “Hey, mate,” he answered.

  “Any word from Brooke?”

  “Isn’t she with you?”

  “No. I just put Claire and Darren on a plane. She’s probably talking to Ty back at the security offices. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

  We wound our way back to the TSA offices. As we turned the corner, I saw Ty in the terminal, surrounded by several uniformed officers. He was being held in handcuffs.

  I jogged up to them. “What’s going on? Where are you taking him?”

  “Sir, we’re going to need you to step out of the way.”

  Ignoring their order, I stepped in front of Ty. “Ty, where’s Brooke?”

  “Brooke?” Ty laughed. “She was just here a minute ago.” He looked around. “She’s with our friend. He called himself Woody.” He laughed harder. “What a funny name. Woody.”

  “Is he drunk?” a TSA agent asked.

  Ty’s expression slowly morphed into a concerned squint. “Woody. That’s not supposed to be funny, is it?”

  “No, Ty. It’s not funny. Tell me what you remember.”

  Special Agent Marshall approached us. “Take him inside the security office,” she ordered the officer who held him. “And take those cuffs off of him.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “That’s the deputy director of Kentucky’s Office of Homeland Security. He’s not drunk. He’s been drugged. Call an ambulance to treat him.”

  I stared at Agent Marshall. “Drugged? How do you know?”

  “Because I was just discussing this with Director Fairfax. We have every reason to believe that Woodford Harrison is using a drug to control people’s actions.”

  I scanned the terminal. “Where did you leave Brooke? Is she still inside the office?” I asked hopefully.

  “I don’t know,” Agent Marshall said. “She was using an office to call Deputy Director Jamison, but I haven’t seen her since.” She, too, looked around the terminal. “I assume she would have come out here with all the commotion.”

  “What commotion?”

  “Special Agent Marshall,” a man called from the open doorway of the offices. “There’s something you need to see.”

  Marshall traded a look with me, and we both jogged into the TSA office. The man led us into a room full of security monitors. “Over here,” he directed. He pointed to one of the higher monitors.

  The monitor showed a video of Brooke and Ty just outside the offices. Then Brooke stepped in front of Ty, and I knew the minute she drew her weapon.

  “What is she—” Agent Marshall pointed at the monitor.

  Brooke shoved her weapon into Ty’s chest and pushed him backward. Though there was no sound, I could see that she was screaming something. The people behind Ty began scattering, and officers ran in his direction.

  And that’s when a man came into view and circled his arms around Brooke.

  “Harrison,” I said.

  I turned and sprinted out of the offices. Agent Marshall was close behind me. We raced outside the terminal and started searching every vehicle, including the shuttles. There was no sign of Brooke.

  “He’s got her,” I said in a low voice. My mind raced. She still wore the GPS tracker—unless Harrison had removed it? Surely he knew from her past cases that we had the ability to track her.

  I quickly called Dimitri. “Harrison has her.”

  “For fuck’s sake, how did that happen?”

  “Track her,” I said. “And pick me up.” I tried to keep my voice calm. I feared if I spoke any louder, my voice would crack with the anger and emotion that was bubbling just below the surface.
r />   “We’re going to find her,” Agent Marshall said when I hung up.

  “Oh yeah? How is the FBI going to find her? The FBI should have dedicated all their resources into finding Harrison the minute they learned he’d shot her late husband—one of their own agents. And when they learned that Harrison was a rogue CIA agent who was killing people, the CIA and FBI should have fought each other to be the first to put an end to him like a rabid dog. Forgive me, Special Agent Marshall, if I don’t have much faith in the FBI right now.”

  I turned away from Erica Marshall. I knew it wasn’t her fault, and I couldn’t blame her for Harrison taking Brooke. But I could blame Director Waller. Brooke’s own father had placed her in danger by keeping information from her, by allowing her to have any part in drawing Harrison out. Waller should have insisted that a team of his agents would be the ones to continue where Mike had left off.

  Where had Mike left off? I wondered. I realized that I really didn’t know everything—not as much as Brooke and Ty probably knew. And I couldn’t be sure that they’d shared everything with Dimitri, either.

  I ran back inside the terminal and stormed into the security offices.

  “Sir!” a man yelled. “Can we help you, sir?”

  I didn’t see Ty, but I heard his voice. “Look, asshole,” he was saying, his speech slurred. “I don’t know how he found me, or how he managed to drug me. Where is Agent Marshall? I’m not speaking to you anymore.”

  I followed the voice into the room where Ty was being questioned by three agents. Ty had a hand held over his forehead, but as I entered, he looked up.

  “Declan. Man, I’m sorry. I don’t know how—” He already sounded more coherent than he had moments earlier.

  “I need you to come with me.”

  “He’s not going anywhere,” one of the agents said. “We need to question him further when this drug has worn off.”

  “And you’ll get to,” I said calmly. “But a paramedic is right outside and wishes to treat Deputy Director Jamison with an IV in order to flush the drug out of his system more quickly.”

  The agent must have bought the story, because he waved us off.

  Ty got up and followed me. “Man, my head is hurting. And I swear ten minutes ago I would’ve jumped into oncoming traffic if Romeo had told me to. Whatever happened to me is scary as shit.”

  I held a finger to my lips, indicating for Ty to be quiet until we were away from TSA. I didn’t want to chance them detaining him further. I saw Agent Marshall speaking with a team of people, and I tried not to look her way as Ty and I slipped out of the offices.

  “Let’s go,” I said. We hurried out of the terminal. David and Dimitri were at the curb, waiting for us.

  Ty and I climbed into the back seat. “Go!” I ordered.

  Dimitri had a tablet in his hand. “Head east. He’s taking her back toward Lexington.”

  I couldn’t help but feel like we’d been exactly in this place before. Following a dot on a map because a crazed madman had taken the woman I loved to God knew where. But this time, I felt even more helpless. Harrison had no reason to keep Brooke alive once he realized that she was never going to submit to the dominance he wanted over her.

  “Did he give her the drug?” I asked Ty.

  He massaged the back of his neck. “Not that I saw. But if he has, he’ll have complete control. It’s crazy. I wasn’t able to resist anything he ordered me to do. I… I wanted to do it.”

  I squeezed my eyes tight at his words, then raked my hands across my face. I had to keep my focus until I had her back. “But you remember everything? Were you coherent?”

  Ty squinted, appearing to think about that. “Yeah, I remember. And I knew what was happening, mostly. There was a part of me that knew what I was doing was awful. But—” He slammed a fist into the back of Dimitri’s seat. “Dammit! I was a slave to that bastard.”

  “He’s getting off the interstate,” Dimitri said.

  “How far away are we?”

  Dimitri didn’t answer. I leaned forward in the seat, watching the map over his shoulder. “The dot has stopped,” I said.

  “Give it a few seconds.”

  We watched intently while the pulsing dot remained still.

  “How far away are we?” I asked again. Was it possible we were about to catch up to them?

  “Not far, but I have a bad feeling. What if he discovered her GPS tracker?”

  “What do you mean? How? There’s no way he knows about those earrings. Is there?”

  Chapter 34

  Brooke

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked. My voice was calm and quiet. And I felt… off. I felt that I was in the wrong place. I wanted to be in that car, and at the same time I didn’t. And it didn’t even matter what I wanted. I had no will of my own.

  The driver was swerving slightly, and I prayed we didn’t end up wrapped around a tree. Every once in a while, Romeo directed him to make a turn. For the most part we had been on the interstate, but now we were on a country road. We were generally going in the direction of Shaughnessy.

  Strange. I was coherent enough to know where I was, but I had no control over my actions and sometimes my thoughts. This must be the difference between borracheromine and scopolamine. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be processing thoughts or remembering anything if I had been drugged with scopolamine.

  Of course, the jury was still out on whether I would remember any of this later.

  “You’ll see soon enough.” Romeo placed an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, very much the same way Declan might.

  Declan. I loved Declan. Why was I here with Romeo, whom I loathed? Nothing was making sense to me. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to shake away the cobwebs.

  I resisted Romeo pulling me close, but he only pulled tighter. With his other hand, he held mine, rubbing my skin with his calloused thumb. Bile rose in my throat.

  He had killed my husband and my baby, and now he’d killed so many others that we didn’t even have an accurate count. All I knew was that I would personally make sure we gathered enough evidence to guarantee he was put away and never again saw the light of day.

  That was if I made it out of this alive.

  I had to hang on for now. I had to be smart about this. Declan would be on the way. Romeo, of course, had taken my phone and thrown it out the window near the airport, but there was still the tracker in my earrings. Dimitri would know where I was.

  With my free hand, I used my thumb to move my engagement ring round and round on my finger—a habit I’d picked up since I’d begun wearing it. My ring finger shrank in the cold weather, and the weight of the stone made it difficult to keep the stone facing outward, which was convenient, because right now I didn’t want to draw attention to the piece of jewelry that meant so much to me. I managed to slide the ring toward the end of my finger and shove it inside the pocket of my jeans.

  How I was capable of even having those thoughts surprised me. Perhaps I’d received a small dose of the drug. Perhaps its effects were wearing off. Regardless, I couldn’t stomach the thought that Romeo might take my engagement ring.

  I was concentrating so hard on wriggling the ring deep inside my pocket that I didn’t even notice that Romeo was staring at me.

  No, not at me. At my ears. One, then the other.

  “Take them off.”

  I drew back. My hand flew to my throat. Surely he wasn’t asking me to remove my clothes. “What? Take what off?”

  “The earrings. Take them off.”

  My eyes widened slightly. He knew. Somehow he knew Dimitri had wired my earrings with GPS tracking.

  When I hesitated, Romeo reached out, and I swore he was going to rip the earrings from my ears, not even caring if he cut right through my lobes.

  “Okay,” I said. “All right. I’ll remove them.”

  One at a time, nice and slowly, I removed my only hope of leading Declan and Dimitri to wherever Romeo was taking me.

  When I pl
aced the second diamond in his hand, he leaned forward in his seat. “Driver, lower the passenger side window.”

  The driver did as he was ordered, and Romeo tossed the two diamond earrings, worth thirty grand each, out the window. Declan and Dimitri wouldn’t be able to track me beyond this location.

  “Put the window back up,” Romeo ordered.

  A tear slid down my face. Despite feeling off in the head, I knew my situation was dire. I was emotional and defenseless. My head ached. And I was still partially under the influence of a drug I knew about only from analyzing it from afar.

  Still, I had resisted his order to remove my earrings. If only for a moment. That was a good sign.

  I looked out the window. It was so dark out I hadn’t been able to watch all of the turns we made, but the farms we were passing looked familiar, I was pretty sure we were close to Shaughnessy.

  Romeo leaned forward and pointed to the right for the driver. “Turn into the next drive.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Romeo leaned close to me, his hot breath against my ear as he whispered, “Look familiar? I’ve been getting things ready for us.”

  A chill moved down my spine, and though I wanted nothing more than to headbutt him, my body wouldn’t listen to my brain. “Is this—” I stopped myself. I knew where we were. This was one of the farms neighboring Shaughnessy—a farm Declan had wanted to purchase. The day before our engagement party, Declan had received a call and was told that the sale fell through.

  Now I understood why. Romeo had purchased the farm. He owned the land right next to my home with Declan.

  “I know how much you’ve enjoyed living in Kentucky,” Romeo said, “so I thought we could start our lives here.”

  I twisted and smiled at him. Why was I smiling at him?

  He touched my nose. “I knew that would make you happy.”

  We pulled up to an electric gate not unlike the one at Shaughnessy. Romeo pulled a phone from his pocket and pressed a few buttons. The gate began to open.

  “We have the best security money can buy.” He gave me another squeeze. “Nothing but the best for my Brooke.”