Chapter 5
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Tricia woke slowly, her body stiff and sore, yet she felt a sense of peace. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was, but she didn’t feel that stark sense of fear and torment.
As she relaxed, she realized that she was awake, safe—at least some semblance of safety—with everything in her world seemingly calmer.
She stretched a bit and winced, feeling the stiffness and soreness in her body, a reminder of what she had endured.
As she slowly sat up and looked around, she found herself in a small bedroom, but one that she had all to herself.
She stretched back out, not wanting to get up and move, but her bladder now screamed at her to get moving. By the time she forced herself up and headed over to the small en suite bathroom, she heard the men talking on the other side of her door, and they were loud as hell.
She sighed, wishing she could go back to sleep instead of heading out to meet the men, as she had promised Rubin.
She didn’t really want to deal with people—or anything for that matter—but they were the ones who had done so much for her, risking their own lives to rescue her.
So, she couldn’t just stay here and avoid interacting with them.
She glanced at her outfit. She was still dressed in the black leggings and T-shirt that Rubin had procured for her.
It was fine. When she finished in the bathroom, she looked in the mirror and froze. It took her a moment to recognize the person staring back at her, and another minute to remember that she had agreed to this. She’d never been a brunette before. She was naturally blonde.
Yet, here she was, staring in the mirror at somebody who looked so different from her expected reflection, yet eerily familiar.
She shook her head, having never been one to change her hair color the way some young women did.
She had heard more than her fair share of insults and jokes about blondes being bimbos, but it had never bothered her enough to even consider a change.
Yet she’d agreed to this without a thought.
Then anything to stay safe had been everyone’s concern.
Pulling herself together, she headed to the kitchen, where the men were. Conversations stopped as she approached, even before she ever got to the kitchen. As she stepped into the room, all of them were seated around a table.
She winced. Even though only two more men were here, the sheer volume of men triggered an involuntary reaction of fear from her. Not wanting a repeat of her earlier entrance, she took a deep breath. She nodded to the group, then her gaze instinctively found Rubin.
He hopped up, smiled, and walked right over to her. “Hey, you look a lot better.”
“Do I?” she asked, with a knowing smirk. “I don’t necessarily feel it though.”
“Now that I can understand, but you do look rested.”
Her gaze went back to the two newcomers, who looked away, intentionally giving her space.
Oakley gave her a smile.
“I did go back to sleep. Sorry,” she muttered, looking at Rubin. “If some coffee were available right about now, I would take it as a sign that I had some chance of my life returning to normal.”
“It will return to normal,” Rubin vowed, “but maybe not as fast as you want it to.”
She slid a glance over at him. Then, spotting the coffeepot, she opened a kitchen cabinet, pulled out a cup, and poured herself some coffee. She walked over to the far end of the kitchen table and sat close to Rubin. “What do you mean by that?” she asked.
When he hesitated, she shook her head, her temper flaring, and she took a deep breath.
“Don’t hide anything from me, please,” she declared, and the men all scrambled.
Oakley went to work on the computer with one of the newcomers sitting beside him.
And the remaining stranger got busy cleaning his gun, which he’d clearly already done.
She looked Rubin square in the face. “My world has been a shit show, so I would just as soon know the truth and deal with whatever is happening, than to read between the lines to figure out whatever it is that you don’t want me to know.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you to know anything,” he began. “It’s just that you’ve already been through so much, and I hate to add to the pain.”
She laughed, but she could hardly control the bitterness in it. “And what I’ve been through makes me want to know exactly what’s happening.”
“Okay,” he replied. “Senator Forman has been taken to a secure location, so he is safe.”
“Why the cloak and dagger?”
“Apparently some bill is at an impasse.”
There’s always a bill, a meeting, a committee.
She brushed off the thought because this wasn’t the time or the place to wallow.
She’d gotten used to all the things that came with her father’s position.
He was a politician, and no matter what image he maintained in the eyes of the media, she knew so little about him.
Still, he was her father. “But he’s okay? ” she asked.
“Yes, he’s fine. But, until this voting is done, he needs to stay out of the public eye, and you need to stay safe. At least until he’s cast his vote.”
“Great,” she muttered, with a mock smile. “I didn’t realize he was in such a dangerous field.”
“These bills are worth megabillions,” he noted.
“Billions,” Oakley repeated for emphasis.
“Even trillions to the right person,” one of the new men noted.
“The point is, this is the most feasible working theory that we have to date, barring more intel,” Rubin added, getting her attention back. “We don’t know who is attempting to influence these votes—or even which party for that matter—but we can’t let that happen.”
“Wait, so the current theory is that I was kidnapped to force my father to vote a certain way? Jesus, you would think that fairness and honesty existed in this world.”
Her tone was mocking, and Rubin chuckled. “I think so, but, in some cases,” he explained, “whoever has the might, whoever has the money, gets the deciding vote. I’m sure your relationship with the senator—”
She cut him right off. “My relationship with my father is not on the agenda here.”
“I’m sorry. … I didn’t mean to—”
“Sorry,” she interrupted, with a wince. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“I get it.”
Tricia sighed. “So … we still have a problem.”
He nodded. “We don’t know who is after you or why. However, with this particular political angle, we fail as a nation when the Constitution is for sale, which it should never be,” Rubin explained.
“Of course not.”
“But that doesn’t change the fact that somebody is trying to influence the outcome in Congress by kidnapping you.”
“Depending on how these votes go?” she asked.
“Yes, it’s quite possible,” he replied. “The good news is, you are safe right now. And, while you’re here, there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t stay here longer.
We still need to get your paperwork anyway.
I could just drop you off at the consulate, but we don’t want to put the consulate in any danger either at this point. ”
She stared at him and asked, “Are you saying it’s that bad? I just expected you to take me to the consulate. They should be able to get my paperwork done. Then I can go home.”
“Not yet,” one of the men replied in his rich, deep tones.
She jerked around, almost forgetting other people were in the room or nearby.
“That’s Hayden,” Rubin pointed out to Tricia, but with a warning for Hayden in his next words. “He’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s not wrong. The one sitting with Oakley is Trent.”
“So, he’s right. What does that mean then?” she asked miserably.
“The voting is in a couple days. The powers that be want you to stay out of the country … and safe in the meantime.”
She frowned. “And yet a couple days,” she noted cautiously, “is not out of the realm of possibility anyway, considering that I don’t have paperwork. I’ll have to wait a certain amount of time before I can get my documents and leave the country, correct?”
“Short of a private plane, yes,” Rubin clarified.
All the men nodded too.
“But surely we don’t really need all of you.” Tricia glanced at them.
“There’s actually six of us,” one of the men supplied helpfully. “And you’re right. Some of us will follow the trails of the other kidnappers—and two of us already have—which will hopefully lead us to the boss man who wanted you kidnapped,” he shared.
She stared at him. “You’re Oakley, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “I am.”
“And you were there when I was found. Were you not?”
“Yes.” Oakley smiled. “I didn’t expect you to remember me.”
“I wasn’t that out of it,” she muttered. “You were driving most of the way, weren’t you?”
“Yes, but you slept most of the way,” he added, with a laugh.
She nodded. “I did sleep all the way over here. I was exhausted, and that was the first—”
“It’s fine and good that you got some rest,” Oakley confirmed. “You were in rough shape, and we were just happy to keep you safe and secure.”
She sat back, studied the four of them, and then let out a long sigh. “Okay, so four of you are here, and two others on this team are elsewhere. Is that how it is?”
“Yes,” Rubin agreed. “One of us may join the other team members, but we’ll see if that’s needed.”
“He really means, if you allow it,” Oakley clarified.
She turned to Rubin, puzzled.
He smiled. “I’m the team lead, and I may send someone if it’s necessary and if that’s okay with you. Meanwhile, we’ll just stay here and keep watch.” Rubin nodded to the one guy sitting far down the line. “Again, this is Hayden.”
Hayden lifted a hand, but his gaze was quiet, deep.
She stepped forward and reached out her hand. “Hayden, thank you so much for being here,” she whispered.
He gave her the gentlest smile, which turned him from dark and moody to sweet and gentle. She couldn’t imagine anybody seeing him as anything but a gentle giant, but his size alone would tend to make most people run a mile in the opposite direction, and she said so.