Chapter 9
O nce again, Amy was caught by the arm and dragged out into the larger room. There she saw Terk and Wallace. She shrugged off the arm holding her and glared at her guard, then walked over to sit down beside Wallace. “You guys get a better welcome than I did?”
“I did,” Wallace replied cheerfully.
“Of course,” she muttered. “I’m just the bait.”
He leaned over, wrapped an arm around her, and gave her a hug. “But one hell of a cute bait ,” he muttered, chuckling slightly at her frustration.
She groaned. “Glad you’re in a cheerful mood.
” He just smiled and kept his arm around her.
She could tell that the atmosphere was crackling, and that something had shifted, but she didn’t know what for sure.
She looked over at Terk curiously, but he had a bland look on his face, not giving away a thing, but it was easy to see that something was afoot.
She wanted to ask if their plan to plant seeds in the minds of these bad guys had taken root.
Yet she had to remember that a receiver could be among those very bad guys.
Just then Wallace, as if realizing that she was struggling to keep her mouth shut, gave her a gentle squeeze, and whispered, “It’s all fine.”
And it felt fine; she just didn’t know why or how.
She glanced around in confusion, wondering what had changed.
Her guard joined the other two guards here, who seemed cheerful, laughing even.
They made coffee and sat here, presumably waiting for the boss to show up again.
She noted that Dom was missing, probably getting in trouble with the big boss again. That made her smile.
When the boss did show up, he looked over at everybody and nodded. “Now we can begin.”
She wasn’t sure what they would begin, but she looked over at Wallace to see him studying the boss curiously. Maybe Wallace didn’t know what they were about to begin either. That concerned her a little more than she cared to admit. She waited, watching the boss curiously.
He walked over to Wallace and asked, “Remember what you said?”
“Which part?” he asked, with a note of humor.
“About finding others like you.”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“I think I’ll take some of your advice,” he muttered. “I don’t really want to be watching everybody twenty-four hours a day, and that seems to be what I’m heading for.”
“It is exactly what you’re heading for,” Wallace declared, with a nod.
At that, Dominic walked in, the last bully to join the group. When he saw everybody sitting down and settled, almost in a friendly state, he snorted. “Who started the party and forgot to invite me?”
The boss shrugged. “Sometimes you’re not welcome at the party.”
Dominic glared at him. “Just remember that I am the party.”
“You are, until we find somebody to replace you.”
At that, Dominic glared at his boss. “You’re talking about replacing me?” he asked. Such a note of incredulity filled his tone that it was obvious such a travesty had never occurred to him. He turned and pointed a finger at Wallace. “Is this your doing?”
Wallace stared at him. “What have I got to do with any of this?” he asked, motioning around the room. “This is your game, not mine.”
“Yeah, you better believe it,” Dom declared, with a sneer. He then turned to the boss. “Forget it. You’re not replacing me.”
“I’ll decide,” the boss replied mildly, but his gaze was watchful.
Suddenly an odd thickening of the air filled the room.
Amy had heard that idiom used before and had never really understood what it meant, but now she did.
She actually felt emotions were alive and well in this room.
She felt feelings , as if tangible objects.
Wow. She actually sensed this humanlike change in the atmosphere itself.
She wondered if Terk had caused this shift.
At that thought, she frowned. She hoped it was a good change, but she feared it was something ominous.
She shifted ever-so-slightly closer to Wallace, wondering what the hell had just happened.
It was akin to watching men rattle sabers or something similar; another phrase she had heard and hadn’t ever seen or thought about much before, but now understood exactly what that meant too. She watched as Dominic and the boss man stared at each other, and then the boss laughed.
“Whatever,” he said, with a wave of his hand to Dom. “You can stay as long as you cooperate.”
Amy frowned. She wanted to glance at Terk and Wallace without anyone noticing but decided against it right now.
Had Dom changed the atmosphere in the room with his anger, his fear?
She would have to ask Wallace and Terk about that later.
Then she backtracked, trying hard not to shake her head for all to see.
No way in hell was Dom this good at energy work.
No, this had Terk’s name written all over it.
And, if the boss man thought Dom was doing this, all the better.
Could be just woo-woo enough to give the boss man even more reasons to not trust Dom.
“Since when have I not cooperated?” Dominic asked, his gaze narrowing at the boss man.
“Damn near every day,” the boss stated, with a long-suffering sigh. “Constantly bothering me with petty issues that really aren’t worth my time.”
“Like what?” Dom asked in astonishment.
She wasn’t sure what had just happened. She couldn’t help but glance from Terk to Wallace, and that glance gave her insight that they were doing something on an energy level, probably nonstop.
She knew by that weird expression of concentration on both their faces, yet almost a blandness to their gazes.
Not wanting to draw any attention to them, she made sure to avoid looking directly at them but studied the kidnappers in front of her instead.
If Terk and Wallace were doing something, would it blow up in their faces or would it get them out of here?
She knew that they were obviously attempting to do something that would free them, but that didn’t mean it would be quite as successful as they hoped.
Dealing with bad men like this didn’t ever turn out exactly the way they wanted it to.
These power-hungry, money-hungry assholes always waited for the next opportunity to take charge and to be in control.
Amy watched for the ensuing fireworks, and they weren’t long in coming.
The boss looked around at everybody and announced, “Here’s the deal. Nothing’s to change for the next couple days,” he murmured. “I want them kept here, kept quiet, and you better feed and look after them. Do not injure any of them,” he added, with a note of warning.
The men looked at each other, frowned, then over at Dominic, who was barely holding back the sneer from his face.
She wondered what the hell was going on, but some power play was happening here that she didn’t quite understand.
The boss walked over to Dominic, speaking directly to him. “You especially. Leave them alone.”
“What’s this? They’re your pets now?” Dominic asked in a taunting voice. “You trust them over me? Even though I’ve been working with you all this time, suddenly you don’t trust me?”
“I didn’t say I don’t trust you,” he clarified. “I’m just telling you, very specifically, to leave them alone. Whether I trust you or not, I do know what you can be like, and I don’t want them hurt.” And, with that, the boss man turned and strode out again.
Dominic turned to them. “What the hell did you do to him?”
Wallace stared at him. “What do you think we did? Nothing, of course.”
Dominic snorted. “I’m not as gullible as he is. I don’t quite understand what you might have been able to do, but I do know that some people can do all kinds of shit, and right now it seems to me as if you’re trying to shuffle the deck.”
“Even if we were,” Wallace suggested, with unexpected humor, “what would you expect us to do? We are your prisoners, after all.”
Dom nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think the boss thought of that. He doesn’t really understand just what can be done in this world.”
“And you do?” Terk asked curiously.
Dom again nodded, a smirk on his face. “I do. I’ve certainly seen a lot of psychics and what they can do, and I’ve certainly heard about even more,” he declared in a controlled fury.
“Some crazy dude worked for the US government who could do all kinds of shit. He would be awesome to work with, but you could never trust him.”
“Why is that?” Terk asked, his voice lowering softly.
At that point, she realized it must be Terk himself who Dom was talking about.
Dominic sneered. “Think about it. Do you want to work for somebody you can’t trust?”
“Why couldn’t you trust him?” Wallace asked in the same confused tone. “This guy, what did he ever do to you?”
“He didn’t do anything, but I wouldn’t let him do anything either. You couldn’t trust somebody like that, couldn’t let him into your inner circle, because you don’t know what he can do. If you don’t know what people can do, they’re dangerous.”
“Ah, well, that is a good point,” Terk agreed, with a nod of his head. “Such an interesting concept.”
“Not a concept at all,” Dom argued, with a sneer. “It’s a simple fact.”
“So, can we go back to our rooms now or have a cup of coffee at least?” Amy asked the guards, who were standing around, looking as if they were wondering what they were supposed to do next.
“You don’t need coffee,” Dominic declared.
“And yet that would hardly be considered looking after us , now would it?” she asked, with a wry tone.
“So, who’ll be the first one the boss man fires—or shoots—when I tell him that we couldn’t even get a cup of coffee because Dom said so?
” At that, Dominic strode to her, glaring down on her, trying to intimidate her possibly.
She shrugged. “You think you can scare me by standing over me?” She shook her head.
“I heard what the boss man said myself, as did you guys.”