Chapter 8
A my looked up at him, teary-eyed, and asked, “They didn’t hurt you?” He shook his head. “Good.” She glared at the men around her. “Remember that I don’t want you hurting him.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” one of the men said sarcastically, with a sneer for good measure. “We’re all very concerned about what you want right now.”
She shrugged. “I get it. You don’t give a shit about me at all,” she declared. “The fact that I’m even back here in this nasty hellhole just pisses me off. What’s the matter? You didn’t like the fact that I escaped last time?”
“You wouldn’t have escaped if we hadn’t let you,” stated one of the guards. “So just shut up and sit down while we wait.”
She sat down beside Wallace, her gaze on Terk, but her gaze was so obvious and so intense that Wallace nudged her. When she turned to face him, he gave her the tiniest headshake. She sat back and waited.
“You guys still didn’t tell us what you’re after,” Wallace noted.
“No, and I also told you not to talk, as you’ll find out soon enough. Why can’t you be like this guy here and just be quiet?” asked one of the three men facing them.
The door opened without warning, and she jolted. One of the men gave her a smirk, as if to say she was in for it now. She stiffened when she saw the same arrogant guy from before. “So, it is you again.” She groaned, staring at him with animosity. “What’s the matter, Dominic? Can’t leave me alone?”
“I want to,” he declared, with a hard glance her way, “but you keep getting in my way.”
“Then just let me go,” she said instantly. “I’m not part of this, so just let me go.”
“We grabbed the wrong guy before, and now we have the right guy. Knowing that you won’t exactly cooperate, we’ve decided to keep you as part of the group.”
“ Lovely ,” she muttered.
He gave her a fat smile. “On the other hand, if you’re nice, you might survive this.”
She glared at him. “Yet I’m hearing a maybe , as in a very slim chance of that happening,”
He shrugged. “You told me that you didn’t have anything to do with this guy.”
“I didn’t tell you any such thing,” she declared in astonishment. “You didn’t even ask.” He glared at her, and she shrugged. “If you can’t ask the right questions, how am I supposed to know what you want?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “I would be quite happy to just smack that look off your face,” he began, with a stern gaze. “But I happen to know that people want things right now, and they’ll want them from you too. So, we’ll just hold off on that for the time being.”
“I’ve noticed you’re not quite so cocky or arrogant this time. What happened, Dom ? Did you get in trouble for my leaving?”
“You weren’t supposed to leave. We didn’t release you to go.”
She stared at him. “Hang on a minute. Are you telling me that I’m not allowed to do anything but what you tell me to do?”
“Exactly,” he confirmed. “Too bad you didn’t get that message the first time.”
“Even if I got the message, why on earth would you think that anybody who’s been kidnapped and held against their will would play by those rules?”
“If you want to stay alive,” Dom stated, glaring at her, “that’s what you should do. Of course, if you don’t give a shit about staying alive, that’s a whole different story. However, I presume you do care about these people and keeping them alive?”
Her jaw dropped. “So, I’m here to be tortured so you can get information from these guys?” she asked, her voice faint. “That’s how Machiavellian you guys are?”
He glared at her. “I don’t even know what the hell that means, and I don’t really give a damn. I don’t need to be dealing with whatever you’re spouting,” he hissed. “What I want is answers.”
“Sure,” she muttered. “Fly at it.”
Dom nodded. “I figured you would probably be a little more cooperative as long as you were with him.”
She nodded. “That’s possible,” she muttered. “I probably feel a little calmer around him.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s to be expected, you being female and all.”
She stiffened, but Wallace gripped her hand.
Meanwhile, Dom turned his attention to Jonas, who sat quietly off to the side. His lip curled even more. “Now, what to do with you, now that we’ve got you,” he muttered. “That’s a problem.”
Jonas nodded. “It sure the fuck is,” he stated, his tone low and deadly.
She stared at him, really quite delighted at Jonas’s response.
Dom laughed hysterically. “Threats, threats, threats,” he muttered in a mock tone. “I really don’t give a shit. I get it. You’re upset and pissed off. Whatever. Just deal with it. We have the upper hand right now. That’s what counts.”
“Is that all that counts though?” she asked, staring at Dom. “Surely there’s more to life than that.”
“There probably is, but, if people like you would just shut up and would just get out of my face about it, I could get on with what I need to do.”
“When’s the big boss coming?” Amy asked, smiling. Dom glared at her, and she shrugged. “He was here last time. Did you get in trouble?”
Dom turned his attention to Jonas. “I could shut her up, you know?” Dom began. “She won’t like it, and I really hate women’s tears and the screams. Jesus, they always make it sound as if you just beat the complete crap out of them, when all you did was pop them because they needed it.”
Amy stiffened at that, but, with Wallace patting her hand, she realized Dom was probably just trying to get a rise out of her.
As she watched the interaction between Dom and Jonas, she realized something else was going on here.
“You two seem to know each other,” Amy noted.
“Is he one of the assholes who works for you?”
Jonas shook his head. “No, I was wondering about hiring him for the same job that I had been looking at you for, but I figured he was too unstable.”
At that, Dom glared at him. “Like hell.”
“So you know him as Dominic too, right?” she suddenly asked Jonas.
Dom glared at her.
Amy muttered, “Oh, right. I’m just supposed to shut up, aren’t I?” She chuckled.
“Yeah, too late,” he muttered. “Believe me that I’m counting every one of the mistakes you make right now, and I’ll be sure that you pay for them. All of them.”
She stared at him. “I’ll pay for something when I don’t even know what I did?”
“Remember that part about shutting up? Any chance you could try that? Even just for a minute for the sake of my sanity?” Dom asked.
She shrugged. “Oh, I can try, but I can’t help but wonder, when you two clearly know each other and when clearly something is going on between the two of you.” She considered Dom for a long moment. “Since you’ve kidnapped me twice now, I really want to know what’s going on.”
“Nothing’s going on. We got wind of MI6 creating a new team, so I applied. That way I could get the details on what they were looking for—and not get accepted,” he said, with a laugh. “They can use whatever excuse they want for that,” he added, “but I know the truth.”
“Yeah, you’re too unstable,” Amy declared, with a nod. “Anybody can see that.”
Dom sucked in his breath and stared at her. “Have you got a death wish?”
“Nope. You know what I do have?” she replied. “I have a really short temper when it comes to assholes like you, kidnapping me a second time, and then planning to use me as a bargaining chip,” she muttered.
“If you had anybody decent looking after you, they would have protected you.”
“Looking after me?” she repeated, stiffening and glaring at him. “Is that kind of like needing a keeper? As if I can’t look after myself?”
“I would say, from the looks of it, you really can’t look after yourself, now can you?” Dom asked, with a sneer. “You do see where you are for the second time?”
She slumped back in place. “Good point,” she muttered.
He burst out laughing. “If you weren’t so damn ugly, I might think about keeping you around.”
She snorted. “Wow, just when I think that maybe something human is inside you, you go and open your mouth again, and some other shit pops out.”
He stared at her. “You do realize that I can have you killed at any moment.”
“You do realize that I can die at any moment, regardless, right? Just walking around here in this toxic sludge is likely to get me killed, particularly after I’ve spent however long down in this unhealthy piss-hole,” she said, glaring at her surroundings.
“You guys really know how to show a girl a good time.”
“If you want a good time,” Dom whispered, his voice dropping in a threatening tone, “I’ll let the men have you.”
“Yeah?” she asked, daring him. “You and how many others?”
He stared at her in shock.
Getting a telepathic message from Terk, she gave a slight nod at his suggestion. She wondered why Terk had been so silent up until now. She smirked at Dom. “You have no fucking idea what you’re up against, and I’m getting really tired of your shit.”
Dom stared at her, then shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that bravado of yours is all a bluff,” Dom replied, “but I have to tell you, you’re working that angle pretty well.”
“ Uh-huh ,” she murmured, staring at him. “You’ve got no idea what I’ve got working.” And, with that, she settled back. “Now, if you have your threats over with, I need water.”
“I don’t give a shit what you need.”
She glared at him and repeated, “I need water.”
He groaned and bellowed, “Could somebody please get the diva a bottle of water?”
Almost instantly a bottle was placed beside her. She popped the cap and took a long swig. Then she handed it to Wallace. “You need some?”
He nodded and took a swig, then handed it over to Terk. Terk had a drink and then handed it to Jonas. By the time Jonas had a drink, the water was gone.
“That looks to be have been completely choreographed, planned, sharing that drink,” Dom pointed out. “What the hell?”
“Or maybe we are all just thirsty, you idiot,” Amy replied. “You might try using some common sense as you try to convince everyone how psychic you are.”
Terk added in a calm voice, “We’re just trying to be cooperative.”