Chapter 13
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For Tricia, separating from the men she had been with for almost a week was unbearably painful, and, in her moments of rage, she blamed them.
Surely, they could have stayed with her to ensure she got home, right?
She knew that theoretically they were following orders, and it didn’t matter what anybody else had to say about it.
Things would happen the way they happened, and it wouldn’t involve them.
That still didn’t change the fact that she blamed them.
She sat here in a small room all alone with nothing but her clothes on her back, not even a phone.
Meanwhile, she was completely dependent on other people for coffee, water, access to the bathroom, …
basically everything. For the most part, she’d been treated cordially, but she was more than a little tired and fed up with it.
When somebody finally walked back into the room, she asked as politely as she could, “How much longer?”
The man smiled at her and replied, “Maybe another forty minutes.” Then he was gone. Maybe she wasn’t polite enough because he smirked as he left the room.
She groaned at that, but forty minutes was way better than getting no answer at all and was one hell of a lot better than the hours she still half-expected it to be. So, when forty minutes came and went, she realized that maybe she was right the first time.
About an hour and a half later she was finally escorted to a military plane.
She had no idea what kind it was, as she knew nothing about them, but she was seated all alone in the back, and it seemed to be a complete waste for just her.
Yet it was small enough to make sense to be only her and the pilot.
Then she saw two of the three men now come on board, as escorts she assumed, which made her feel somewhat better, except that it wasn’t Hayden and Rubin.
Just something about the way they looked at her was completely wrong.
She didn’t even know how to put it, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of a smile on their faces.
This was a job, the same as taking out the trash, and it definitely felt that way to her.
She tried to be friendly, but they were completely unresponsive, as if they had been told not to fraternize with the enemy or something.
She didn’t know what she’d done, if she’d done anything, or if this was just the way they treated people they didn’t want to deal with.
For sure, this was likely a job nobody wanted to do, but she was just trying to get home and hadn’t done anything to bring this on.
When the plane finally took off, she felt a measure of ease.
Something was much more comforting about knowing they were in the air.
She settled down to rest, hoping maybe somebody would come along with a cup of coffee or a bottle of water, but nothing was offered.
When she realized it would be a stark, uncomfortable, long plane ride, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but that seemed almost impossible too.
She asked multiple times how much longer until they landed.
One of them finally answered her and told her it would be hours yet.
She just sighed, closed her eyes, and waited. It seemed like forever, at least eight hours, if not ten. She lost track, and it’s not as if anybody was helping her keep up with it. When they finally landed, it made her heart feel so much lighter.
Everything should be fine now, maybe. She was escorted out of the plane and into a small dark vehicle, which also screamed government, and in some ways made her feel somewhat better.
She still hadn’t reconciled the fact that neither Rubin nor Hayden were where she expected them to be, which felt incredibly wrong on so many levels.
Yet she didn’t have any way to get a message to them.
Instead she was following orders every step of the way, with nobody doing anything to make her feel better about her situation.
Nobody was talking to her or making any gestures to make her comfortable.
It was literally just a job, and she felt it.
When she settled back into the car, more than happy to be out of the plane, she glanced around.
She didn’t recognize where they were, but she saw road signs to some extent, and they were in English, so she assumed they were back in the US.
Not that anybody had said so or had given her documentation, but, from one military base to another military base, she imagined that paperwork would be completely unnecessary.
It seemed as if the military operated in some very strange, secret world that the rest of the country didn’t know about.
Maybe it had to be that way; maybe it was the only way to keep people safe.
She didn’t know.
Right now, she could really use a friendly face, and that seemed to be the last thing she was being offered. The road and the drive itself just seemed endless. She leaned forward several times and tapped the glass, but they ignored her completely.
She had enjoyed access to the bathroom on the plane and had used it, but now she needed a bathroom break. When she finally pounded on the glass, the driver glanced at her. The divider window opened, and she stated, “I need a bathroom break.”
He just stared at her, then looked at the man beside him. She realized then that they had swapped out one guy with another, and the new man replied, “A gas station is up ahead.”
That certainly sounded familiar.
She settled back, hoping they would finally pull into a gas station.
With relief, she was escorted to the bathroom.
She quickly used the facilities and felt much better.
She washed her hands, washed her face, straightened her clothing, and, when she opened the door to step out, she saw the same man standing there, waiting for her, like a guard.
She sighed. “Still not safe, huh?” He looked at her and shook his head. With a nod, she asked, “Can I at least get a coffee and a bite to eat? I haven’t eaten in quite a while.”
He shrugged and shook his head. “No time.”
She frowned at that. “What are we rushing for?” she asked, truly confused. “Surely, by now, the panic should be over. We are in the US, aren’t we?”
He didn’t say anything but escorted her back to the car.
She was pretty sure if she made a break for it, she wouldn’t like the result. As she stood at the car, not wanting to get back in, he nudged her forward.
“Get in,” he muttered, and this time his tone was much less friendly.
She stared at him, nonplused for a moment. “Am I a prisoner?”
He just repeated in the same monotone, “Get in.”
His tone was harsh, bored even, as if nothing she could say would shake him.
He had a job to do—deliver her God-knows-where, and then he would be free.
He couldn’t wait to get to that point in his day.
She glanced around, but nobody else was here.
They were parked on the back side of the gas station, and it reminded her of all the same things that Hayden had done when he had been driving.
They always chose the least visible places, parked where most people wouldn’t see them, and chose the safest and quickest options for exits.
Therefore, it felt exactly as if nothing had changed.
As she glanced around, still frowning, her guard nudged her again, this time harder.
So now her escorts felt more like captors.
She got back into the vehicle, not having much choice.
She could have screamed, but what good would that have done? She had no idea if these were the good guys or the bad guys. They should be the good guys, since she was taken off a military base that she’d been safely delivered to, and yet she didn’t feel safe at all right now.
In fact, it felt a lot worse. When she sat back, she asked if she could borrow his phone.
His response was instant and clear. “No.”
“Can somebody tell Hayden and Rubin that I’m safe?”
He shrugged and replied, “They have been told.”
She wasn’t sure if that was true and then added, “I don’t know who would tell them.”
“Not my problem,” he declared, his tone snappy.
The driver looked at him, then glanced at her in the rearview mirror, as she asked, “Do you know them?”
He shook his head, his gaze returning to the road.
She sighed and asked, “What division of the military are you in?” Neither one answered her. “Do either of you even talk?”
“We talk,” her guard replied, “but we don’t make small talk.”
That was clear, but she found herself pushing, as if they were hiding something. She couldn’t quite let it go until she found out what was going on and who she was traveling with. The pit in her stomach grew by the moment. Everything just felt wrong.
It felt as if she had every right to be pissed off and to be fed up because it appeared that Rubin may have handed her over to somebody who wasn’t interested in her safety at all.
After all they’d gone through, what were the chances that somebody had pulled a fast one, and she wasn’t safe?
As she stared off in the distance, her mind was running, trying to figure out how she could find out more.
When she turned back to the men, she asked, “I would like to speak to your superior.” When one just laughed, she glared at him. “Why is that funny?”
“You’ll talk to whoever is waiting for us,” he declared, his voice bored. “In the meantime, you can just sit back and shut up.”
That was the first chink in his armor and the first clear sign that he was likely not who he pretended to be. She was in this situation with people she knew nothing about, growing more suspicious by the minute.
She tried to calm her growing panic as she watched the miles disappear, now wondering where the hell she really was, kicking herself for not paying attention. At this point, she had no idea what she was heading into and who would be waiting for her.
*
Mason stared down at the phone in shock. “What the hell?” he cried out.