21. Michael
The twist in my wrists is the first sensation I have as I become aware of my breathing and the voices nearby. With my eyes still closed, I reach one hand to the other to rub away the pain, but my arms don’t move.
“Hey. Are you awake?” Dana’s voice is a fraction above a whisper, and my mind swirls, trying to fit my timeline together like the pieces in a puzzle.
The strained muscles in my neck scream at me as I lift my head and attempt to open my heavy eyelids, turning my head in the direction of her voice.
My legs are sprawled out in front of me, and I’m not alone. To my right, Jack is unconscious and bound to a metal railing. He’s in a seated position, and the frigid pain in my ass tells me I am too.
“Mi—Grizz.” There it is again. Moving past my teammate, Dana’s worried eyes meet mine, and I jerk in place. She’s tied up and sitting beside the girl from her coffee shop.
My arms ache. I attempt to lean forward, but my arms are hooked over the railing I’m leaning against and tied behind me.
Realization sets in, and I remember the girl: Kaley. She was with us when we were taken, and now Dana is here too.
“What…they do…you?” I slur my words.
The kid sitting beside Dana looks down at her leg, which is wrapped and propped up on an old crate.
Kaley looks at me and then to Dana. Her eyes are wide, and she looks terrified.
“They didn’t do anything to her. She rolled her ankle in a gopher hole before they got her into the vehicle. They propped it up for her.” Dana speaks for her as Kaley sits still.
Her answer doesn’t make sense. In most scenarios, Kaley would be considered collateral damage. They should have killed her and left her body for the wildlife, but they’ve taken precautions to help her. The only conclusion I reach is that they really are only here for Dana.
Jack and Logan are out cold but alive. Their chests rise and fall with their breath.
“Wherrr…we?” My lips feel puffy. Jack’s leg twitches beside me. He’s waking up.
“It’s an old mining building—in the middle of nowhere.” Dana’s eyes focus on Jack as she answers me, and I follow her stare.
Worry settles in as I do the head count. We are missing Grey and Eagle. I take a look around, hoping to see them in a corner, but they are nowhere to be found.
Large iron machinery lies dormant on a cement platform almost twenty feet thick, and the sun peeks through wooden boards that have deteriorated over the years. The levels, stairs, and ladders I see from my position tell me this place is at least three stories high. There’s a flutter of wings in the rafters, but they’re too high up to make out any birds. There is no other sign of life.
Jack groans as he comes to. Since we were knocked out at the same time, he doesn’t know anything either, so I stay quiet, trying to figure out a plan.
The number of people who took us is my first worry. There is no one with us right now, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched.
A sob startles me, and I join Jack in looking at the girl.
“Hey, hey, Kaley. You’re going to be okay.” Dana tries to comfort her, and I watch her tamp down her own fear as she turns to me to back her up, but I don’t have the words.
I don’t want to tell her she probably is going to be okay, because it is Dana they will kill.
If Matteo is here to watch her assassination, he won’t leave without killing at least Jack, and probably Logan too. Or do I tell her that maybe Jessa, the friend Dana thinks is dead, might show up to save her and walk right into Matteo’s arms in the process?
My hesitation leaves Dana on her own, just like she always believed she was, but she doesn’t stay down. Taking a deep breath, she turns her attention back to Kaley.
“I’ll do everything I can to get you out of here. Look—they took care of your leg. If they were going to hurt you, they wouldn’t have used their supplies to wrap your ankle, okay?”
Kaley nods, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I’m scared,” she admits, and Dana reaches her tied hands out, resting them on Kaley’s arm.
“I know. I am too.”
Both women sit in silence as Jack and I make eye contact. Then we turn our attention to Logan, who’s tied along the same railing we are with his head bowed down.
“Hey. Do you know about the grow op?” Dana changes the subject, and Kaley’s eyes bug out as she purses her lips together.
“Um, yeah. We all do. How do you know about that?”
“It’s a long story. Why don’t you tell me what you know?” I know what Dana’s doing. She’s trying to distract Kaley from the worry of what is going to happen here, and it seems to be working.
Kaley’s eyes drift over to Jack and me as we listen in.
She starts on defense. “It’s not what you think. They have strict rules about how everything is run and who it gets sold to. It’s the only thing that’s keeping us from becoming a ghost town.”
“How so?” Dana keeps her eyes on Kaley, and her body relaxes a little.
“Those fields are what pays us all. Well, the adults anyway. Minors aren’t allowed to work there. We can only work harvesting and planting the lavender out front. Once we come of age, it will be our choice to stay on and help out. Dale coordinates most things. He’s kind of a natural leader, and everyone listens to him.”
“I thought you were going to college.”
“Oh, I am. Where do you think the scholarship came from?” The way she says it makes me think she once lied to Dana about funding her higher education. “The reason for all of it is to keep us afloat, and to help us kids get a good start in life, should we want one. Our town is made up of old folks who don’t want to give up their homes. Many are displaced, some are vets, and then there’s us kids. We take care of each other. Not everyone works directly in all of that, but we stick together. The money we make gets saved for things like health care, medical bills, school. We buy our coffee from a local coffee shop to keep the new owner in business because we kind of like her.” She lets her sentence linger to give her words the chance to settle in.
Kaley is telling Dana they do this to keep their humble way of life going, to keep the local businesses operating.
“What about Gerri and the ladies? What do they do?” Dana asks.
Kaley’s smile is unrestrained. “They were our pioneers. It was them and their husbands who started the op decades ago. It was smaller back then. A few of them returned from the Vietnam War to a town that was almost gone. There was nothing left at home for them, and they started growing and selling in the city to make ends meet. Long story short, but the rest of it is super interesting, too—they stepped on some toes that belonged to organized crime, and they made some changes.” She keeps her voice low. I sit quietly beside Jack; neither of us has looked away since she started speaking. “They changed their business model. They focused on selling to middle- and low-income classes who used it more for medicinal reasons than recreation. Then, when Betty’s daughter came up with the idea to start a lavender farm, everything kind of fell into place. The lavender farm is totally legit, but it’s also a front.”
“So Bonnie is Betty’s daughter, and she runs the lavender side with her husband?”
Kaley nods. “But it’s not what you think. We’re not like a criminal gang. I guess on paper we are, but no one would choose to grow and sell if there were any other options. We can’t keep everyone safe and healthy if we have no income, and this isn’t exactly a tourist destination. We don’t want our neighbors to lose their homes, and they don’t want their kids to get shipped off to child services, or our friends to get shoved into a system that won’t think twice about leaving any of us behind. All we have is each other.” Kaley shifts in her spot, then winces as she looks down at her leg, and the reminder of where we all are floats back to the surface.
“Betty had a sawed-off shotgun today in the shop.” Dana can’t hide the shock in her tone as her eyes go wide, and Kaley snorts.
“Yeah. She was kind of a badass in her day. Still is.”
Dana nods in agreement.
No court of law would allow anyone involved to go unpunished, but Kaley’s argument is a strong one, and it sparks my compassion for all of them. This town shares the goal of survival. Not expansion, not greed, not violence. These are just people who want to wake up in their homes, mind their own business, see their kids grow up, and keep to themselves, and I wonder if Kaley is right. Would they walk away from it all if they could?
Without a word, I exchange a glance with Jack before turning to Logan, who is now awake and listening just as intently.
“Grey, Eagle?” He speaks low, and I shake my head, telling him we don’t know anything. Then I follow his gaze over to Dana, who is staring back at him intensely.
“What’s going on?” Instinct pushes me to ask the question.
Logan pauses for a long minute, glancing between Dana and me.
“They have the files.” His disappointment is evident, but I’m confused.
“What files?” I lower my voice. “And who are they?”
He pauses again; an uncomfortable tension hangs in the room. I get the feeling Logan doesn’t want to be the one to tell me whatever I should be hearing, but he doesn’t have the luxury of choice.
“It turns out Dana had the files we were looking for in her backpack.”
My face contorts as Logan answers.
We checked her backpack last night, before I?—
No.
That was why she went to the coffee shop this morning. The files we’re all looking for were there all along. She must have grabbed them when I was out cold.
My eyes prowl across the cold cement floor and back up to Dana. Parting her lips, she looks like she’s trying to find the words, and I blink hard to stifle my anger. Of course we’re all still lying to each other. I haven’t told her our worst lie of all yet, and I bear most of the blame for our situation.
I’m a heartbeat away from asking her to explain when Logan speaks again.
“As for the they part—you are not going to believe this.”