Chapter 1 #2
Now that she’d found this place, how exactly was she supposed to get into it? Yes, she’d found the gate right where she’d been told it would be, but it was locked, and there was no camera or microphone or any sort of button to push to alert whoever was inside that she was there.
Climbing the gate was out. It was topped in rusty barbed wire. If she tried to get over it, she was only going to cut herself into ribbons. The fence attached to the gate was eight feet tall and also topped with barbed wire. Also covered in bushes, too.
Someone seemed to have gone to a lot of trouble to make this place difficult to spot. In fact, if you weren't following specific instructions, she doubted you’d ever even know it was there.
Part of her wished that she didn't know the place was there. Then again, given her reason for trying to find it, she knew that wasn't really true. It was only her fear talking, she wanted to be there. More than that, she needed to be.
Glancing around again, Kate wasn't sure what to do. She couldn’t get in, but she couldn’t leave, and there didn't appear to be a way to alert the house’s occupant of her arrival.
So she guessed that meant she was camping out right where she was, until a car came or went.
However long it took, she couldn’t afford to leave.
Not yet.
Not until she saw him.
Not until she explained everything. That she’d lied, that she hadn't done what he’d ordered her to do. That she’d kept the money and put it to another use. That now she was desperate for his help, even though she knew he wouldn't want to give it to her.
Still, she was desperate enough to be there. To seek him out despite what had happened between them. Surely a part of the man she remembered, the man she’d once loved, was still inside him.
Deciding to wait inside her car for someone to show up, Kate had just turned around when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, like they really were ghosts, she was surrounded by six large figures all dressed in black, faces covered, all armed, all pointing those weapons right at her.
A startled scream escaped as she froze.
What the hell?
Who were these people?
And why were they pointing guns at her?
What exactly made them think she was any sort of threat?
She was wearing black tights and a denim dress, with a flared black coat thrown over the top.
Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and decorated with a ribbon tied in a big bow, and she wore black ankle boots.
There was absolutely nothing about her that screamed danger.
Unless …
Were these people into something criminal?
Just because the man she remembered would never have broken the law didn't mean that he was the same person he’d been back then. After all, she never would have predicted he’d have tossed her away like trash. Especially given the circumstances.
Obviously, she’d never really known him at all.
But still … this?
This was crazy. This was wrong. This shouldn’t be happening.
Without exchanging a word, one of the men suddenly reached out and grabbed her. Before she could blink, she’d been roughly shoved up against her car, her hands yanked behind her back, and her wrists secured with those plastic cuffs—no zip ties—she’d only ever seen on TV before.
“Please … I don’t … what are you … I haven’t … I just need …” Kate rambled, unable to finish a sentence. Unable to finish a thought. She was so far outside the realm of what she understood that she couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to do.
This wasn't what she’d been expecting when she came out here.
Still no one spoke, she was just turned around again, five of those weapons still aimed directly at her, while the man who had grabbed her maintained a hold on her arm like he expected her to run away.
How exactly he thought she was going to do that she had no idea, but they obviously thought she was a whole heck of a lot more of a threat than she actually was.
“Please,” Kate tried again. “I'm not here to cause trouble. I just need to talk to Leo.”
Was it her imagination, or did one of the men holding a weapon stiffen a little as she said the name?
Since he didn't immediately confirm that he was Leo and didn't give any indication that he recognized her, even though they’d known one another since childhood, she had to assume it was indeed her imagination.
Maybe Leo had turned out to be a scumbag, but he wouldn't keep pointing a gun at her.
He would know that she wasn't a threat to anyone, that she’d never even had a traffic ticket, she was about as squeaky clean as it was possible to be.
She also wasn't there to cause any trouble. All she needed to know was whether Leo was there. And if he was, she had to ask him if he’d be willing to help her.
“Is Leo here?” she tried again. These men may as well be carved from stone for all the reaction she got from them. They didn't speak, didn't even look at one another, just stared at her, their weapons unwavering, the man beside her maintaining a grip on her arm that was just shy of bruising.
Leo mustn’t be there. It didn't seem like they’d ever even heard of him.
Or maybe they were trying to protect him?
If he was there, she had to know. It was quite literally a matter of life and death.
Fighting through the fear swamping her, ignoring the way her body trembled and her shoulders and wrists ached from being restrained, Kate tried to stand taller, tried to sound confident when she was anything but.
She had to do this. Had to find out if they knew Leo.
If they didn't, she had no idea why she’d been given this address and told to go there to get the answers she sought.
“If you know him, it’s really important that I speak with him,” she told them.
“I mean, life and death important. I'm not here to hurt him or anything.” Although she would have thought that was a given, the number of weapons pointed at her told her it wasn't. “We know each other. Well, we did. When we were younger. It’s imperative that I talk to him. I need his help with something. Well, I'm hoping he’ll agree to help me, although there’s a chance he won't. Anyway, if you could just get him, or call him, or text or something, that would be really helpful. I can just … wait here like this, I suppose, until he comes?”
It sounded silly to offer that, because Kate knew she would remain cuffed until these men decided otherwise, but she was trying her best to be agreeable, remind them that she was no threat, and that they were in charge.
Besides, she couldn’t let herself believe that they were really going to hurt her.
Kill her.
If she thought about that too deeply, she was going to fall apart, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. Not with how high the stakes were.
“Please,” she whispered, a few tears sneaking free despite her attempts to pretend to be strong and confident.
One of the men moved suddenly. Lowering his weapon slightly, he reached up to pull the mask he was wearing off.
Then all of a sudden, she was staring into a pair of eyes she could never forget for as long as she lived.
Never forget the pain she felt the last time she saw them.
The way she’d begged and pleaded only to be ignored.
“Leo,” she whispered.