Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BECKETT
One would think driving for an hour with a bag over someone's head would be considered suspicious enough to be pulled over by a police officer.
They would be wrong.
At least in my case.
I had no clue where I was, other than the fact that we're an hour outside Nashville, but the trip here was uneventful.
Anita didn't talk. Honestly I think she was trying to come to terms with what happened between us.
She held a knife to my body, but I didn't back down. I proved what we could have together, even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I knew what that was yet.
Music played in the background. I learned something about Anita. Her choice in music matched her personality. Angry and kick-ass. Like a war song prepping someone to go into battle. I wasn't sure what that said about where things were headed for us.
For all I knew, I was a lamb being led to the slaughterhouse.
My gut told me Anita wasn't going to kill me.
Not today anyway. But I was riding in the front seat of her Jeep with a bag over my head.
I wasn't restrained, so that was good. I also had no way of contacting anyone, so if she left me in the middle of no-man's-land, then my day was about to suck.
I was putting a lot of blind faith in the woman in hopes of showing her I wasn't a threat.
I wasn't naive enough to think one instance would be enough to soften Anita toward me.
Truth be told, I doubted she would ever soften, but that was what I found attractive about her.
She didn't give a fuck about social norms. She lived life the way she wanted to, and I both admired her and wanted to live my life that way.
"We're here." We came to an abrupt stop.
"Would here be where you murder me?" It was a joke. Well, ninety-five percent of it was. That other five percent was the rational side of my brain telling me I was an idiot.
"I guess that depends on your intentions while you're here. You can take the bag off now."
I ripped the bag off my head and looked around.
Okay, so not the middle of no-man's-land but something close to it. What appeared to be a small compound sat smack-dab in the middle of nothing. No houses. Just a large building with smaller ones branching out in a semicircle. No neighbors. No roads. Just flat land as far as the eye could see.
"Is this home?"
"It is. Now get your ass moving. My teammates are likely to have questions since I put us in lockdown."
Lockdown? What the hell did that mean? I would have to wait to ask though. Anita was out of the driver's seat and across the property before I even had my seat belt unbuckled.
"What the fuck, Anita?" A woman who was not the one who broke into my house asked, "Is he the reason for the text?"
"Yes." One word. That was all Anita provided. No explanation. No reassurance I came in peace. Just one word that sounded a hell of a lot like an order.
"You're going to have to give us more than that if you don't want me to shoot his ass right here and now." Apparently whoever this woman was didn't give a flying fuck about Anita's order.
"He has some questions for Alexander."
The mystery woman's eyes bugged out. "So you thought bringing him here to witness what we're doing was a good idea."
Anita looked dead serious––heavy emphasis on the dead part––when she answered, "He knows his life is on the line if he makes one wrong step."
"He's standing right here." I pointed to myself. "And I swear I come in peace."
"Excuse me if I don't believe you, considering you're a federal agent."
I really needed to learn this woman's name if I was going to continue arguing with her. "Who are you?"
"None of your damn business," she snapped.
"It's Sloane," the woman who I recognized from my house answered.
"Shut the fuck up," Sloane hissed at her teammate.
"Well, Sloane. The federal agent part is dependent on what Alexander says. If he confirms my suspicions, then I will be handing in my badge."
Three sets of eyes looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head. To be fair, I hadn't even told Anita that was my plan.
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then I leave here and forget this ever happened."
Alexander deserved whatever was happening to him. Callahan had been right. Sometimes people needed to take the law into their own hands.
"You really expect me to believe you won't turn us in."
It was safe to assume Sloane wasn't my biggest fan.
"I can't tell you what to believe. I can only give you my word."
"Enough with the interrogation. Hi, I'm Nyx." She held her hand out for me to shake. "We met briefly before Anita kicked me out of your house for seeing you half naked."
"I remember. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. There's one more of us, but she stayed in lockdown." Then she looked over my shoulder. "Never mind. Here she is."
I turned around to see a woman about the size of Anita headed my way, but it was the young girl with her that threw me for a loop.
"Uhhh who's the kid?" The last thing I expected to learn was one of them was a mother.
Although the girl didn't resemble any of the four women standing with me, so maybe I was wrong.
"She's none of your concern. Just know she's here of her own free will."
Noted: Discussions about the young girl were off-limits. All four women took a defensive stance, and it was clear, whoever she was, she had a rough go at life because her first instinct was to avoid eye contact with me and hide behind Anita.
I was surprised to find the woman who just joined us didn't ask who I was or why I was here. She didn't say a word or even acknowledge my existence. The investigator side of me wanted to know what her story was.
"Enough with the introductions." Anita's biting tone caught my attention. "Alexander's this way." She hiked her thumb toward the middle building of the compound.
I followed behind like a lost little puppy.
It was easy to confirm all my suspicions about Anita once we walked into the room where Alexander was tied up.
He looked a little worse for wear. His face had been used as someone's punching bag.
That someone was likely Anita. Blood was dripping from his leg, but it was his chest that had me asking, "Did a bear attack him?
" What could only be described as claw marks ran down the center of his chest.
"No." She walked over to a table full of tools and grabbed a heavy-duty garden rake. At least that's what it looked like. "The Spanish Tickler. Nice way to shred the skin off a person."
Well, okay. I guess this was the portion of the day where Anita tried to make me squirm. It was obvious she had no plans of easing me into things.
"He's alive, right?" This whole thing would be pointless if he wasn't.
"Should be." Anita shrugged. "We're about to find out.
" There was no hesitation in her movements.
Anita walked the short distance to Alexander's body and swiped the tool down his chest. Alexander's head shot up like a jack-in-the-box while a bloodcurdling scream filled the room.
Chunks of flesh dangled from his body and the tool when Anita stepped to the side.
"He's all yours."
There were cases where I saw horrific shit, but nothing compared to watching it done to a person still alive. And yet Anita didn't look the least bit phased.
I pushed down the nauseous feeling and squatted in front of Alexander. "Bet you never thought you would be in this position."
"Fuck you," Alexander slurred. "Aren't you supposed to help people? This bitch is crazy."
I glanced over my shoulder at Anita. If him calling her a bitch and crazy affected her, she didn't show it.
"See, normally I would, but my boss told me not to touch you, so this is me following orders." Well, that wasn't how he put it, but I wasn't about to split hairs on technicalities. "But I would love to know what's going on between you and Deputy Director Banger."
Alexander smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know."
"Actually I would. Hence the reason I asked." No wonder he looked like shit if he had the same attitude with Anita. I doubted she had much patience for him.
"You don't get it." Blood and spit dribbled down Alexander's chin.
"I guess not, so how about you enlighten me."
"People like Bangar get to the top by crushing the good guys beneath him."
I tensed at his implication. It's what I suspected, but I didn't think Alexander would freely hand over the information.
"And how does he do that?"
"By taking cases away from agents like you. Then ruining their careers." I tried to hide my surprise, but apparently I didn't do a very good job because he chuckled. "You think I don't know everything he does? Banger doesn't work for the FBI. He works for men like me."
I was disgusted. I knew there were a lot of good agents in the FBI, but unfortunately the bad apples, such as Bangar, ruined it for the rest.
"Why should I believe you? You're known for fucking people over."
Alexander looked positively evil when he sneered. "That bitch isn't letting me out of here alive. I might as well take down as many fuckers with me as I can."
Now that, I could believe.
I stood up and glanced back to where Anita was leaning against the door. "I'm done. I've got the answers I came for." I was also done being a federal agent. I would find a new way to help victims. Possibly take a page out of Anita's book.