6. Emerson
Emerson
Hearing Thaddeus slip and call me by the nickname he’d always called me was agonizing.
Kick in the gut, slap in the face, rip my heart from my chest agonizing.
I’d spent a lot of time wishing my life had turned out differently.
Coveting every memory of Thad, craving one more day with him so I could cherish every last second.
But now, I’d rather have my fingernails torn out with pliers than ever hear him call me “my love” again.
I was not his anything.
I did that.
Even if it wasn’t what I’d wanted, I still left him.
“How’d you meet Jefferson?” one of the men asked.
I hadn’t been introduced to any of them, but now that all of them had taken off their masks, I did recognize the one who was talking to me. I’d seen him in Mexico with Thaddeus.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“None of your business.”
Ugh ! I didn’t have time for this. I hadn’t done anything to any of these people to warrant them treating me this way. Well, except Thad. He had his reasons but none of those pertained to our current situation.
Which was, they’d killed the man I’d worked hard to get close to—screwing everything up.
“Well, Mr. None-Of-Your-Business, it seems we’re at a stalemate.
Neither of us feels much like sharing and I got shit to do.
According to the woman over there, you have no plans to waterboard me tonight so I’ll be on my way.
Did any of you happen to pick up my purse after you so kindly rescued me after you killed Jefferson and Carlos and screwed my night?
” My question was met with silence. “No one? Really?”
“Seriously? Your boyfriend’s dead and you're asking about a goddamn purse?”
“Other than the fact I didn’t get to see who Jefferson was meeting tonight, I hadn’t got a lock on the girls he’s planning on moving tonight, so you screwed me out of eight months of my life.
My purse holds more value to me than he did.
As a matter of fact, you saved me a lot of trouble.
Though, all of my shit’s in a hotel room I won’t be able to get into now that he’s dead, and his security team will be swarming the place, which means all I have is what I’m wearing.
And I’m afraid a ruined pair of Gianvito Rossi sandals and barely ten-thousand-dollars’ worth of jewelry I have on won’t fetch me much.
Which really means you sending Jefferson to hell early fucked me twice—and I don’t have my purse. ”
“Come again?” Thad’s lips curled in disgust.
I ignored him and turned to the woman. She seemed to be the only person in the room who didn’t look like they wished they could shoot me.
“Are we done? May I leave now?”
“You still think she’s not on someone’s payroll?” the man who seemed to be in charge asked the woman.
“I’m Tatiana,” she started. “That’s Declan, Kyle, Brooks, Max, and you already know Thad.” Tatiana pointed to each man as she introduced them.
“You can leave, though you’re almost twenty miles from the warehouse and thirty from the hotel Jefferson was checked into. And as you said, all you have is a pair of Gianvito Rossis and I hate to agree with you, but they’re toast.”
“I don’t suppose you’d offer me a ride into town.”
“’Fraid not,” she answered. “But I will offer you my help finding the girls. Do you know where they are?”
Something I learned a long time ago was I couldn’t trust anyone, and I had no idea who any of these people were. I’d like to think that because Thad was obviously with the group, they were good guys, but I knew that meant nothing.
Good people turned bad.
I had no idea who Thaddeus Bench was now.
Ten years ago he was a fresh-faced sailor who’d just graduated from BUD/s and was on his way to save the world as a Navy SEAL. His moral compass had been set to true north and while I’d like to believe there was nothing that would make him deviate his course, I couldn’t.
I’d been weeks shy of graduating college and on my way to being a teacher. I’d had plans to mold and shape and educate our youth. It had been all I’d ever wanted to do.
And look at me now. I was in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle after the man I’d been pretending to be in love with was shot in the head outside of a building where animals were being savagely fought.
I’d lied.
I’d cheated.
I’d stolen.
I’d killed in cold blood.
Yeah, people changed. Even the ones who’d had their futures set in stone and goodness in their hearts.
“I appreciate your offer, but I’ll pass. ”
I picked up my shoes and started to formulate a plan. I’d been paying attention on the drive. I knew I only needed to walk a few miles and there’d be a hotel there. I could use their phone to call Jefferson’s security. I’d lie and tell them I’d escaped my kidnappers and needed help.
They’d come and get me.
After that? I’d wing it.
“You can—”
“I can’t, Tatiana. But again, thank you for your offer.”
“Whatever your plan is, it won’t work,” Thad told me.
“You have no idea what my plan is, Thad. So you have no idea if it will work or not, but your concern is noted.”
“Don’t mistake my concern for the well-being of my team for concern over whether or not you get to where you’re going.”
“You think I’ll rat you out to Jefferson’s security team?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’ll do. Tatiana was incorrect, you’re not free to walk out the door. Not until we’re ready to put your ass on a plane and send you back to the U.S.”
God, why did that hurt so bad when I was thinking the same thing about him?
“Seriously, Thaddeus. I thought you knew me better than that. They’d kill you.”
“I don’t know who you are, and as it turned out, I never did. And, no, sweetheart, they’d try to kill us and that’d waste valuable time. The only thing I give a shit about is finding those girls.”
Shit. That hurt worse. Way worse.
But it was the truth, he didn’t know me. At least not the new me. The starry-eyed girl he’d known in San Diego was long ago dead and gone.
Once the verbal dagger he’d successfully used to obliterate my heart started to fade I thought about what he’d said about the girls.
He was right.
The girls were the most important thing, and if it meant I had to trust them and they turned out to be not-so-good people after all and killed me, then at least I’d died trying to save innocent women who needed help.
Wasn’t that what I told myself every morning I’d woken up in the bed of a vile man? Over the years hadn’t I told myself a thousand times my crusade was worth dying for?
I dropped my shoes and set the earrings I’d been holding on to the buffet I’d been standing next to, and on a swift exhale I asked, “Is there some place I can use to clean up? I’d like to at least wash Carlos’ blood off my face, and maybe some of the puke, too.”
“Yeah. Come on, I’ll show you where the bathroom is and get you some clean clothes, I should have something that will fit.”
“Thanks.”
I followed Tatiana, and as I went, I glanced around the room that would’ve been a decent-sized sitting area if five large men weren’t taking up all the space.
None of them had sat down during their questioning.
All of them had stood with their vests still on and rifles still in hand.
Their presence was ominous, none of them looked friendly.
Except Tatiana—she seemed to be the voice of reason and I briefly wondered what they would’ve done with me if she wasn’t there.
The entire feel of the house was pretty much the opposite of Jefferson’s preferred opulence. The bungalow wasn’t horrible, it was clean and utilitarian. Lacking the grandiose ambiance Jefferson needed to feed his over-inflated ego.
Weirdly it fit the men who were staying there. If I’d had my choice, I would pick the cottage over the villa any day .
Even though Tatiana had told me their names, I couldn’t remember any of them. I didn’t have the mental capacity to store such useless information. There were more important things to worry about—like how I was going to get myself out of the clusterfuck Thad had gotten me into.
Once again, I had nothing. I was back at square one. Only this time it was worse—Thad had said they were taking me back to the U.S. It would cost a fortune to get back down to South America on my own and I hadn’t picked my next mark yet.
I smelled like puke, had a dead man’s blood on me, but I straightened my spine, schooled my features, and did what I always did—prepared for a world-class performance.
I was playing a part—and I was a good freaking actress.
I could do this . Always on my game even though on the inside I was scared as hell. I had no idea what I was going to do.
I was so screwed.
The only silver lining of me being worried about my new situation was I wasn’t thinking about how the man I’d loved for the last ten years had annihilated me with his words.
Any part of my heart that had been left intact after I’d left him was now crushed.