by Unknown
“Who are you fooling?” she asked looking up at the sliver of moon peeking between the trees and puffy clouds. “Paula wouldn’t know where to begin to tell the police where to look for me. I have to get myself out of this mess.”
Carla took off her jacket and tied it around her waist. She decided to walk back in the direction they came from instead of getting lost in the dark woods. If she could make it back to the main road, she would cross the street and take the horse trail to avoid detection in case the gunman or the tattooed guy, were still looking for her. She had to assume both men had given up looking for her by now. She hadn’t heard another sound, other than her own breathing, since the footsteps.
She made it to the main road and limped quickly across the street and onto the horse trail. Carla had to find her bearings. The trail was familiar to her during the day but at night, nothing was visible, and she had to feel her way along the path. God, how did this day end like this? I really need to rewind it and start over for a better ending. She talked to herself to keep her mind off the eeriness of the dark path. She was a city girl and not into camping or trekking through pitch-black woods.
As she made her way down the trail, she remembered what ended her relationship with Greg. He was an outdoors type of guy and she knew that before getting involved with him. It was fun in the beginning, and she was fine doing the hiking and biking in daylight hours but when it came to nightfall, she chose to be home. That was always her rule. As the years went by, she learned he was an uncompromising person. When she suggested, they do something different other than play in the woods he would shut her down. If their vacations didn’t include exploring national parks and forests, he wanted no part of it.
After four years together, Carla decided she was tired of giving in to his demands and broke it off. Her signature perfume was not insect repellant, and she fancied to go out on the town with her friends dressed nicely once in a while. Since walking away from Greg, she had yet to find another relationship.
Now 28-years old, Carla seemed to attract men that felt they didn’t need to wine and dine her. Because she was athletic, the majority of the men she met were gym rats. She hated they assumed she didn’t eat to keep her figure or that she hated being girly because she was comfortable wearing sports gear. None of that was true.
Carla stopped walking to rest against a wood railing. The smell of horse manure surrounded her. She flexed her leg; the pain in her hip was giving way to a dull throbbing ache. It was too dark to tell if the wound was bleeding, but her jacket wasn’t any damper when she touched it with her hand. “I want to get home and pretend this day never happened,” she whined softly.
Tired, hungry, sweaty, and dirty, she pushed herself off the fence to continue down the path. She slowed after hearing a noise behind her. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Animals are out looking for food; don’t freak out at every sound you hear.” She kept her feet moving. They hit the dirt trail with a thud even though she felt she was walking normally.
Carla came upon a sign indicating that the bridle path was closed 100 feet ahead, and a makeshift detour was available. Feeling defeated, she slumped against a tree. She couldn’t take the detour path since it was unfamiliar to her. She had no choice but to turn back.
Tears threatened to fill her eyes, but she pushed them away. She was not a quitter. Somehow, this test was put to her for a reason, and she was determined to pass it. She traveled to China alone and back without a scratch, she could definitely find her way out of a suburb of her hometown. She straightened her shoulders and turned around to walk the distance to the main road for a second time. Large drops of water hit her on the forehead before a crack of thunder roared, and the clouds burst open in a downpour. “Great! Now it’s raining to top off my jacked up night.”
The rain would act as her tears as gloom consumed her. Her stride slowed as exhaustion began to take over. She’d been up since 5:30 in the morning and wondered how much longer this torture would last.
Not paying attention to her surrounding any longer, Carla let her guard down and it was too late to react to the hand that grabbed her shoulder and yanked her around. Her eyes widened with fear, but her voice held contempt as she said, “If you want to kill me, I won’t make it easy for you; I’ll fight you.”
The rain had drenched him too. His hair was slicked to his head. “I told you to stay put. Why did you take off?”
“Do I come across as a fool to you? I’m not an idiot who waits for the killer to come back to finish the job.”
“I’m not the one you should be worried about,” he said slowly.
Carla wiped the rain away from her face. She was soaked to the bone. The thin t-shirt she wore underneath her smock fused to her skin. “Then let me go. Let me go home and forget about this night.”
“I can’t do that and we can’t stay here and argue about it. Now let’s go,” he demanded.
He reached for her, and she drew her arm away from his grasp. “Screw you! I’m getting the hell out of here by myself. I don’t need or want your help. You’ve done enough for me tonight.”
“Lady, you’re making a big mistake. He will find you and kill you.”
“Who is HE and why me? I don’t know anything about what was going on in that bus shelter.”
“You’re in danger and I’m the only one who can protect you. I will do that if you will stop fighting me and cooperate.”
Wordlessly she backed away from him. The flash of lightning gave a brief glimpse of his face. He did not have friendly eyes and wasn’t a young adult as she first suspected. “This is bullshit. I’m not going anywhere with you. I did my part to help you, now let me go.”
His voice deepened as he said, “This is bullshit! I’m tired of debating with you. You helped me for a reason. So you know I’m not a threat to you.”
“Then tell me what is going on? One minute I’m waiting to catch a bus to go home from work and I wind up in the middle of a gun battle.”
“I don’t have time to explain.” He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Carla stifled a scream when his hand smashed against the wound on her hip. She tried to beat on his back with her fist but didn’t have the strength. She was at his mercy now.
Chapter Two
Zach dumped the complaining female in the passenger seat of the car. He crawled over her crumpled body to sit behind the steering wheel. He peeled away from the curb letting the tires spin on the rain-slicked pavement.
Out of nowhere, she yelled at the top of her lungs. “What the hell is going on? Why am I being abducted by you!”
“Can you please shut up and let me think!” He yelled back at her.
She had got quiet before she said in a low but authoritative voice, “Make this the last time you tell me to shut up. You’re not dealing with a timid female that will take that shit from you.”
Zach removed the wet baseball cap from his head and tossed it in the backseat of the car. He had to think of what to do with the woman with the big mouth. If she hadn’t been in the bus shelter, he would have completed his mission and been long gone. But now he had her. She was in the middle of everything that went down.
The whole plan had blown up, and he should have scrubbed it to regroup. However, it was too late to call a stop to it once she entered the bus shelter. This case was huge and required help from international police agencies as well as the FBI Special Forces teams and the ATF. He was infuriated that his backup was not in place as planned, and now her life rested solely in his hands.
“I’m talking to you,” she spat at him. “Where are you taking me? My family will call the police if I don’t come home tonight.”
He ignored her and concentrated on the hindrance of having her with him. He would have to call his commander to report the incident and that he had Carla Parker under his protection; that wouldn’t go over well. The plan had been set, and the execution was precise down to the last detail. How it got messed up in the flash
of an eye was beyond him. Carla Parker was supposed to be detained before reaching either one of the bus shelters in the area and replaced by a female ATF agent.
Zach frowned and looked at her. “Look, lady. I don’t want you here either. Until I can figure out a way to get you and me out of this mess alive, please sit over there and relax.”
He saw the disturbed look on her face. She appeared tough, but she was scared to death. He wasn’t making it any easier by being mean. However, she was working his last nerve. The shrill of her voice and the billion questions she was asking had his nerves on edge. Not to mention there were dead bodies in a bus shelter that had to be removed before anyone spotted them. Then she caused him to lose precious time by searching through the woods for her. All in all, a three-month plan to get to his target was a complete failure somewhat. The only good outcome was that Carla Parker was still alive. Only she wasn’t supposed to be with him.
He glanced at her again. Small scratches covered her cheeks and her hair had curled in tight ringlets with water dripping from the ends. The white uniform she wore was dirty and soaking wet. Her blood and the blood of the dead men covered the front of her pants and smock.
Zach couldn’t help but feel sorry the woman was beaten and bruised from a battle she had nothing to do with. He opened his mouth to say something then shut it. There were no words to say to her. If their positions were reversed, he’d be gunning for answers too. She had every right to be upset with him.
The ride had been silent for miles. The woman spoke softly. “I know this is the end for me. If possible, may I call my sister and mother and tell them goodbye. I don’t want them wondering what happened to me or to hear about my death on the news. I don’t even have to talk to them; you can send them a text message. My mother is disabled, and I don’t want her to worry if you can understand that.”
Zach tightened his hand on the steering wheel and clenched his jaw. He couldn’t reveal his identity and possibly blow his cover, but he had to let her know he was a federal agent to ease her fears. “I’m not going to kill you.”
She nodded her head and looked out the window. “I guess I’m supposed to believe that.”
“You can believe what you want to believe. You don’t have your belongings with you. What was in your purse other than your ID? Did you have an address book or anything that list your next of kin?”
“What?” She asked with a snarl.
He didn’t take his eyes off the road and repeated the question again. “What was in your purse?”
“Stuff like the keys to my apartment, my wallet with my ID in it. Makeup…stuff women carry in purses. Phone numbers and addresses for my relatives are stored in my phone.”
“Do you have your phone?”
“No, I don’t know what happened to it. I assume I dropped it in the bus shelter.”
“Dammit. Is the phone password protected?”
She answered dryly, “Yes, it is.”
“Good, that will give you enough time to contact your cell carrier and report it stolen. I’ll arrange to have everything on it erased.”
He felt her glare cut into him. She said, “Who the hell are you? I demand you tell me what’s going on and where we are going!” She pointed a finger out the window. “Why are we getting on the turnpike?”
Zach slowed the car as a semi-truck traveling at a high rate of speed came upon them. He let it pass. He’s survived a shootout and refused to be taken out by a truck rolling down a highway. “I can’t tell you that. However, I will let you know I’m a federal agent so you’ll stop worrying about me killing you.”
She released a dry laugh. “Seriously, you expect me to believe you are a federal agent?”
“Once again, you can believe what you want to believe. What you saw in that shelter was real. You weren’t supposed to see any of that.”
“I didn’t see anything! When the fight started, I was looking for a way to save my own neck—not watching you and those two goons going at it.”
“Trust me, you saw more than you realize and it was too much. What’s your name?” He had to be sure he had the right woman. He’d been following her for a few days, but at a distance. His detail was to follow her from work to the rapid station in East Cleveland where she would board another bus. From there another agent would take over so she wouldn’t become suspicious of one person following her daily. Today, that was supposed to end. His hunt would be over and Carla Parker’s life never would’ve been interrupted except for the short delay that was supposed to keep her from catching a bus.
She hesitated but answered. “Carla Parker. I guess I shouldn’t bother to ask your name since you’re a secret agent.”
“My name is Zach Murphy and I’m not a secret agent but a federal agent.”
“Are you with the Cleveland FBI?”
“No, but I am working with them and the ATF on a case. Where do your mother and sister live?”
“They live in Michigan, why?”
“Do you have anyone living with you? Do you have a husband, boyfriend, life partner, kids? I need to know if anyone has access to your apartment other than you.”
“Are you trying to be funny?” Carla asked frowning.
He curled his brow and shot her an austere look. “I don’t joke about my work. Look, I have to get anyone living in your house to a safe place. If you have anybody at home that you care about you need to let me know.”
She sighed. “I live alone. I have family in the city but not anyone that lives close to me. Are my mother and sister safe in Michigan?”
He nodded. “They should be okay. I’ll have agents check on them to make sure no one is snooping around.”
“Which brings me back to my original question; where am I going?”
“To a safe house until it’s clear for you to return home.”
“Whoa…wait a safe house? I can’t wrap my head around any of this. Please pinch me and tell me I’m dreaming?”
“If this was a dream, you’d be awake by now.”
“What about my job? I have a job and responsibilities. If I get fired, I won’t have a place to go whenever you decide it is safe for me to return home.”
“Carla, is that more important than your life? I don’t want to throw you in a safe house for the hell of it. Dammit, your life is in danger whether you want to believe this is real or not. That man you saw will mutilate you and feed you to wild animals if he gets his hands on you. Is that what you want?”
She covered her face with her hands and rocked back and forth. “I know I’m saying stupid stuff. I have to say it because then it stays unreal! This can’t be happening to me! I don’t have a reason for anyone to want to kill me.”
Zach would like to tell her it would be okay, but he wasn’t certain of that himself. Until he could get another lead on his suspect, Carla Parker was his responsibility.
Two hours later, he drove along a dirt road that led to a cabin nestled between acres of dense woods and tall pine trees. He turned off the car and stretched his arms. He looked over at Carla sleeping. Her head was against the window. He shook his head. Women were such a pain in the ass when they get messed up in his cases. He couldn’t stand the hysterical outbursts and them carrying on like children. Although, he had to admit this woman could probably hold her own in a fight. She was quick-thinking and her mouth alone would cause a man to surrender just to get away from her. Yet, she looked so tame while sleeping. It never ceased to amaze him how the pint-sized women were the hardest to contain. Aside from her being a pain, he had never had to protect a black woman before.
When he first joined the Special Forces division, he partnered briefly with a black female agent who was excellent at her job and they got along well. However, she left the force three months after getting married. Listening how his friend Rodney complained about black woman, he had him believing they were all evil.
Rodney told him black women were loud, standoffish, and stubborn. Zach couldn’t go by that since his female partner w
as not that way and he’d never been with a woman outside of his race. So he couldn’t relate to Rodney’s complaints about black women. In a way, Zach felt all women were standoffish and stubborn. Black women shouldn’t solely carry the label when he thought women of all races fell under that category.
Zach mostly worked alone except when special cases like the one he’s working now called for a partner. But, if he had to work with women again, he preferred they be lower in rank than him. And not because he felt he was a better agent, but because he would make the calls without getting any backlash. He let them know he was in charge, and they would have to be okay with that.
Zachary (Zach) Murphy, age 37, was single and vowed never to get tied down to one woman. He knew he wasn’t marriage material because he wasn’t family oriented. He didn’t care for children nor was he the sappy romantic who felt he should be married and have a family by a certain age. Holidays with his family didn’t excite him either. He missed almost every occasion that called for family get-togethers because he was off somewhere chasing the bad elements that plagued the world. Marriage and settling down were not a part of his vocabulary. He was married to his job and loved every minute of it.
He opened the car door and got out dreading he would have to wake the sleeping dragon to breathe her fire on him again. She was getting under his skin and the sooner he got rid of her, the better. She stirred in the seat before he could poke her.
Carla sat up straight looking around. “Where are we?”