Chapter 19 Blake
BLAKE
We’d been driving for hours, and we were no closer to this elusive destination than when we entered the state of Colorado.
“Where are we?” I asked, staring at the vast landscape.
“We’re…somewhere.”
Snorting, I pulled out the map and tried to figure it out. “All I see is land and more land. Have you noticed there hasn’t been a single house or car for miles?”
“Yeah,” he frowned. “That’s weird, right?”
“Where did Cap say he was sending us?”
“Just away on an all-expenses paid honeymoon.”
“You should have had him specify. Hawaii would have been nice. Who travels to Colorado for a honeymoon on the verge of winter?”
“People who like to ski? I hear it’s supposed to snow. We’ll have to pick up some gear.”
I sighed, snuggling into my coat. Even with the heat running, I was already cold. The wind was whipping outside, and the temperatures had dropped overnight, leaving us with frigid air.
“Where are we going to get supplies? There’s nothing even close.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and this resort will have everything we need.”
I laughed at that. “Yeah, at astronomical prices.”
“Well, Cap did say all expenses paid.”
That was true.
“Can you check the GPS? I think we’re supposed to turn somewhere.”
I pulled it out and watched the blinking dot on the map as it approached a road that couldn’t actually be seen from where we were.
“There’s supposed to be a right turn up ahead.”
“Where? All I see is flat land.”
“Maybe past that copse of trees,” I said, pointing further ahead.
“This is ridiculous. There aren’t even any road names,” Parker grumbled. “We’re in the middle of nowhere with no actual reference as to where we are.”
“Well, let’s hope we don’t get lost. No one will ever find us.”
“Yeah, aside from the tags we still have.”
I laughed at first, but then looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean? What tags?”
“The tags in our arms.”
That didn’t ring true. “I don’t have a tag in my arm.”
“Uh…pretty sure you do. Cap insisted on it. Remember? After we were taken?”
“No,” I said, my irritation growing by the second. “I think I would remember getting tagged.”
Parker shifted uncomfortably in his seat, clearing his throat as he turned down the road by the trees.
“Parker, what aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing. I mean, it’s possible he tagged you when…when you were sleeping.”
Fire burned in my gut at the thought of them doing that to me. “And you let them?”
“Let is such a simple term. I mean, there was you and there was me. And we were both recovering from prison, and Cap insisted—”
“So, you let him?” I gasped.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time!”
“Right,” I laughed ironically. “A good idea for them to stick a tracker in us, and for the rest of our days, they’ll always know where we are.”
Parker glanced over at me, clearly not as concerned as I was. “Come on, Blake. What’s the worst that could happen? We know these guys. They’re good guys.”
“Yes, good guys who put a killer robot in our house and burned the damn thing down!”
“Technically, that was one guy.”
I snorted in derision. “One guy, but they all followed his lead. I’m telling you, we need to remove these trackers and escape from their grip.”
“You’re being a tad dramatic. Look at all Cap did for us. We wouldn’t even be together if it weren’t for him.”
That was true. Perhaps I was overreacting just a little. Then again, my house had just been burned down. I was bound to be a little cranky.
“You’re right. I’ll let it go.”
“Thank you.” Leaning forward, he peered out the windshield. “Is that—”
I followed his gaze, shaking my head at the massive house in the distance. No, it wasn’t a house. That was a freaking mansion.
“Holy cow. He wasn’t joking. That thing is huge.”
“Must be some kind of bed and breakfast,” Parker noted.
A few minutes later, we were pulling up to the gate, but there wasn’t a single soul in sight to let us in. Unrolling the window, Parker pressed the button on the intercom.
“Hello?”
“Parker, I was wondering when you were gonna show up. Took you long enough to get there.”
He looked at me, narrowing his eyes before answering. “Knight?”
“Good job, genius.”
“What the hell—”
“You’re at my house, and there are a few things you need to know before entering the premises.”
“Oh, hell no,” Parker snapped, shifting into reverse.
“Go ahead and leave, but there’s nowhere to stay for hours,” Knight continued. “Of course, if you stay, you’ll have the place to yourself. Your decision.”
Parker looked to me for advice, but I didn’t know any more than he did. “Give me a minute.”
Rolling up the window, he sighed. “What do you want to do?”
“We could leave and find someplace else to stay,” I suggested.
“Any hotel would do. At least there wouldn’t be killer robots.”
That was true, but honestly, I was exhausted. “Maybe just one night wouldn’t hurt. I don’t think I can drive anymore.”
Rolling the window back down, he pressed the button again. “Alright, we’ll stay, but all your robots better be put down during our stay.”
“I’ll take them all offline,” he drawled.
“Fine. What are the instructions?”
“Park in the garage. I’ll have it open for you. When you get inside, walk into the kitchen. There will be an instruction manual in the first drawer. Make sure you read it.”
“That’s it?”
But he didn’t answer.
“Fucking perfect. An instruction manual to stay at a house. You know, I miss the old days when you used a simple key to enter a house, and a landline was all you needed. Whatever happened to those days?”
“And we didn’t have trackers in our arms,” I grumbled.
“You know, I remember going to school without a phone. Nothing happened to me. I couldn’t text my mother for anything, and somehow, I survived.”
“Ha! When I was in sports, I had to call after my game was over. And if the line was busy, you were just stuck at school until the line was open.”
“And look at where we are now. I vote that when we get home, we have nothing fancy in our house,” Parker suggested. “Only landlines and no cable TV.”
“That’s fine with me. I don’t even watch TV.”
“And no sound machines to sleep at night. Just the sounds of nature to help us drift off to sleep.”
“Ooh, and we’ll buy some vehicles that are from the eighties, where you still have to roll down the windows manually, and there are no CD players.”
He snorted. “There are no CD players now. You have to pay extra for that.”
“Well, I’m perfectly fine with local stations and no fancy features in the car.”
“It all costs extra, anyway!” he snapped.
“If you get in an accident, they’d rather total the vehicle than salvage it because of all the electronics!
It’s such a waste. Well, let me tell you something, I’m not raising my kid in an era where they can’t get in a little car accident without having to buy an entirely new vehicle. ”
“Agreed.”
“So, that’s it. We’re going back to a simpler time.”
“And we won’t let our kids have phones or social media.”
He nodded, reaching over to grip my hand. “I love you, wife.”
“I love you, too, husband,” I grinned.
The garage door was open for us up ahead. We pulled inside and the doors immediately closed. But before we could get out, machine guns swiveled in the corners, directed right at us.
Parker sighed. “I fucking hate technology.”
Our first glimpse of the inside of the mansion was not at all what I expected from a man like Knight. Instead of sterile walls and metal furniture, marble coated almost every inch of the house.
“Is this the Venetian palace?” I murmured, taking in the opulence.
“Something like that.” He dropped our bags on the ground and stared up at the gigantic winding staircase in awe. “This thing is…
“Over the top?”
“Exactly. And to think, we might have stayed here instead of ending up in the torture kingdom.”
“I’m not sure this is much different.” I walked over to a painting on the wall and studied it. “This has to be from Kate. I can’t see Knight having a painting unless it depicted a murder.”
“Hey, do you think he has a torture basement?”
I spun and faced him. That was a very interesting thought. “Let’s check it out.”
We wandered around the house, searching every nook and cranny along the way. So far, there was nothing too crazy.
I opened the pantry door in the kitchen and studied the contents. The expiration dates were all good. “Do you think he sent a maid out here to freshen things up?”
Parker snorted. “Do I think Knight trusted anyone to come on his property and rifle through his stuff? Are you crazy?”
“Possibly,” I said, grabbing a box of Cheez-It. “I mean, how else did he get this stocked in time for us?”
“Maybe they come out here regularly,” he said, searching the fridge. Picking up a half-gallon of milk, he looked at the date. “It’s fresh.”
“See? That’s weird.”
“Unless…” His eyes scanned the room. “Unless we’re not alone. Maybe he has house guests.”
“Who do you know that Knight would invite out here to stay? Better yet, who do you know that would come willingly?”
“We came,” he pointed out.
“We didn’t know we were coming to his compound. I highly doubt I would have said yes to this.”
He wandered down the hall past the kitchen, taking a right. “Hey! I think I found the basement!”
Rushing over, I waited with bated breath as he jiggled the handle. “It’s locked.”
“Really? I didn’t get that when I jiggled the handle and nothing happened.”
“Hey, don’t get snippy with me, mister.” Popping another Cheez-It in my mouth, I munched on it as Parker studied the keypad. “What do you think he has down there?”
“Torture chamber. Definitely. Probably a panic room. Possibly a few dead bodies just rotting away.”
He punched in a few numbers, but nothing worked. The damn door wouldn’t open. “I guess we’re not going to find out.”
“What?” I gasped. “Are you telling me that after two minutes, you’re just giving up?”
“I don’t know the code,” Parker snapped. “What do you want me to do?”
“Keep trying!”
“Yeah? And what if we keep trying, but there’s some kind of safety on here where the whole house will blow up if we enter the wrong code too many times?”
I snorted at that. “Like he would blow up his own house.”
“He definitely would. Besides, he blew up our house with absolutely no qualms about any of it.”
He had a point there. “Fine, let’s just see what else there is in this massive house.”
Wandering through the upstairs was like going through a maze. There were so many wings and interconnecting doors. The place was crazy.
“There are so many rooms,” I said in awe. “What do they do with all of them?”
“Have slumber parties for all their serial killer friends,” Parker grunted.
“Seriously, have you noticed there’s not a single TV in this house?”
“Yeah, that’s weird. All the way out here in the country… what do they do for fun?”
We both looked at each other and laughed. “Target practice.”
“There has to be a gym around here,” Parker said, heading back downstairs. “Hey, didn’t he say something about staying here for a whole year with all of Reed Security?”
“I think so. Can you imagine staying here in this house for a whole year?”
“With that many rooms, they could spread out. Just think, I could take one room tonight, and you could sleep in a different room.”
He chuckled, glancing back at me as we proceeded down a long corridor toward what I hoped was the gym. “Why would we sleep in different rooms?”
“Just for the fun of it. I mean, think about it. I wouldn’t have to listen to you snore at night.”
He stilled, turning back to face me. “My snoring?”
“Well, yeah. You sound like a truck driver hitting the Jake brake.”
Laughing, he scratched his jaw. “Really. I had no idea my snoring was so bad.”
“Oh, come on!” I laughed. “Haven’t you ever wondered why I bury my head under my pillow at night? Or why I’m so crabby in the morning?”
“Actually, I just thought that was your sparkling personality.”
Wow. Okay, that was a low blow. “I was just teasing. There’s no need to be rude.”
“Rude? It’s our honeymoon, and you want to sleep in a different room!”
“I was making a joke about how massive the house is! Besides, it’s not that big of a deal. Couples sleep separately all the time.”
“Yeah? Well, call me crazy, but I don’t want to sleep apart from my wife.”
“I don’t either!”
“Then why did you suggest it?”
“Again, it was a joke,” I snapped.
“Well, maybe your joke will come true. Then I don’t have to hear you vomiting first thing in the morning,” he said, turning on his heel and marching away.
I stood there, mouth gaping at how ridiculous he was being. “Excuse me for vomiting while your child plays ping pong on my stomach first thing in the morning, mid-morning, and every evening!”
“Yeah!” he called over his shoulder. “For the rest of my life, I’m gonna hear about how this is all my fault. In fact, everything will be my fault! If the kids act up, it’ll be my fault. If dinner gets burned, it’ll be my fault. If you’re sick for any reason, it’ll be my fault!”
“It will be your fault if you keep up this attitude, buddy!”
He stopped suddenly, spinning around to face me. “Let’s get something straight. I am not your buddy. I am your husband.”
“I’m well aware. I was at the ceremony, remember?”
“It seems to me you’d rather have a housemate than a husband.”
“If that were true, I’d pick a woman. At least she wouldn’t leave the toilet seat up and miss the laundry basket every time she puts her dirty laundry away!”
“Well, if I had a male roommate, at least I wouldn’t have to hear him bitching at me all the time because I didn’t put the dishes in the dishwasher!”
I gaped at him, completely baffled. “It’s right there! You mean to tell me that you can’t take the extra two seconds to open the door and slide the plate inside? Is it really too difficult for you to handle?”
“No, it’s not, but I would also appreciate not being bitched at over a dirty plate the moment I come home.”
“Oh, trust me,” I laughed. “I was bitching at you before you even walked through the door.”
“You know what?” he snapped.
“What?”
“I don’t think I like this honeymoon very much.”
“Neither do I!” I shouted.
“Fine.”
“Fine!”
I was about to walk away when Knight’s voice came over a loudspeaker. “Didn’t I tell you to go directly to the kitchen and read the manual?”