by Amber Nation
“Well I’m sure you won’t have to wait much longer to see him,” Declan continued on. “I have a feeling Special Agent Charlie Hennings will be joining us very soon…” He walked around, with his hands steepled in front of him.
My brows instantly raised in a questioning manner. I was confused. Perhaps I had been hit on my head much harder than I initially thought. Did he just call Charlie a Special Agent?
He crouched down in front of me, grabbed ahold of my hair and jerked my head to where I was looking directly into his eyes. I tried defying him by averting my gaze. “Oh no,” he started mocking me, “you didn’t know that Charlie was undercover FBI?” Placing his free hand over his mouth, acting as if he didn’t just burst my entire bubble. “Oh, I guess I wasn’t supposed to tell, oops.” He let go of his hold of my hair, but not before giving me a little shove making me fall to my side.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, Charlie had been lying to me all along? Surely Declan was mistaken.
“Yes, it seems as if your little boy toy has deceived you. So I’m sure he hasn’t told you all about little ole me? Well, let me enlighten you and fill you in a bit.” He stood up and started walking around with his hands in his pockets, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
I suppose he didn’t, since he just crushed all my hopes and my future within a blink of an eye.
My guess was he did shit like this day in and day out. He could chew me up and spit me out without breaking a sweat. He exuded authority and I was sure he always got what he wanted, no matter how great the price.
“I, as you already know, am Declan Smith, one of the biggest, and I’m being quite modest, drug and human traffickers in the United States. Your brother worked for me, as a mule. He was stupid, but not always entirely useless. He worked the area of Brown County selling drugs and performing various “tasks” for me.” He actually used air quotes but even if he hadn’t his vagueness wasn’t lost on me. “Until he got even more stupid and careless and thought he could pull a fast one by me, and started skimming money off the top. It doesn’t sit well when people try to steal from me. I’m not a man that you want to displease.”
This was getting harder to hear, I hadn’t heard from Mason in a while, perhaps Declan caught up with him and he was now dead. His underlying meaning of displeasing him scared me even more.
“I had another mule that worked the Brown County area before your brother, but he got sloppy and ended up caught up with a woman. You may actually know her,” he quickly grasped his chin, “Emmalynne Morgan?” I flinched after hearing Emmy’s name, it was a knee jerk reaction. “Ah yes, I can tell you know exactly who she is. Seemed as if your Charlie had a bit of a thing for her too. God knows how she had all of these men fawning all over her. To me, she’s rather disgusting looking, letting herself go like that. Look at me, getting off track. Anyways, Corbin started stealing from me, which started his obsession with money laundering, which was why Charlie was assigned in Georgia. I wasn’t even on FBI radar yet…So as I was looking for Corbin, to get revenge, so was Charlie. It just so happened, that Corbin kidnapped your little friend, so as an end result, Charlie shot him once they found where he was hiding.
“Some type of conversation went on between Corbin and Charlie just before he was killed. Evidently, Corbin ratted me out, telling him all about my dealings and how I sell women for generous sums of money, which turned the FBI onto me. Of course, this is all just speculation. I’m sure the FBI would’ve caught wind about my operation with time, because let’s face it, it was inevitable, but Corbin led them to me much sooner.”
He was still walking around aimlessly, not staying in one place for too long.
“So, I do have to give Charlie props for doing my dirty work for me by killing Corbin. But now he just keeps poking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Now, I can see the questions looming in your eyes. Mason isn’t dead, yet…No, he was dumb enough to get picked up for a DUI, but he was soon transferred to the US Pen, because of all the drugs that were found on him and the evidence he had left behind, which some implicates me. So you see, Charlie has been investigating Mason all along, which in turn means he more than likely has been investigating you too.”
I wanted to throw up and proceeded to do so. Everything couldn’t have been a lie, could it? I tried wiggling around so I wouldn’t have to continue lying in a pool of my own vomit. Tears threatened to fall and I was willing them to stop even though a few managed to escape.
How could it all be a lie?
Now it all made sense, Charlie rescuing Emmy, and why no one would tell me what in the hell had happened. Of course they didn’t, because it would reveal his cover. But that meant Emmy knew, she knew Charlie was FBI. And if she knew, then chances were that Grady did too. It was all suddenly clear, the pieces to the puzzle finally all fit. It took some wiggling and rearranging of the pieces, but at last everything made sense. Grady knew, which was why he helped Charlie come up with a front, working at Emmy Lou’s. Vomit threatened to make a reappearance, but I swallowed it back.
“Now in turn, I have to kill you and Charlie. Perhaps I’ll let you watch Charlie die first. Hmm…Decisions, decisions.”
My stomach plummeted, he was going to kill me? What had I done?
“I would’ve spared you, but someone had to turn into a slut the first chance she got. If you were a virgin, I could sell you and make millions. Those luscious breasts and that ass, men would be drooling over it. But virgins get more money, and I’ve been trying to cut back on the human trafficking, it isn’t in demand as much, and it’s so much harder to find a pure woman these days. So since you are no longer a virgin, I’ll just settle for killing you.” He reached down and grabbed a hold of my hair once again, and jerked me to where I was sitting up.
“Ouch!” I screamed! I was trying not to give him the satisfaction of a reaction, by trying not to make any noise at all, but it was seemingly inevitable. My head was already in pain and he was just making it that much worse by jerking me around by my hair.
I pulled my head back, untangling out of his grasp, but yanking out some of my hair in the process. He immediately back handed me across the face, causing me to yell out again.
“Tisk tisk. Big mistake sweetheart. But my, aren’t we feisty? I kind of like that in a woman. Tell me, are you a firecracker in bed? Do you like to be handled rather roughly? I’ll bet you’d love it, to be draped across my knees and spanked, bringing out the hellcat that is lurking beneath the surface? To be shoved down on your hands and knees, and have me forcefully drive my cock into you from behind? Oh I can see it now, look what just the thought of taking you is doing to me?” He indicated down to his rather large bulge hidden beneath his pressed trousers. “Perhaps before I kill you, I will take you first.” He bent back down to my level and got up right in my face, his breathing coming out in forceful pants, directly in my face. His breath smelled distinctly like bourbon and cigars. “I bet you’d taste amazing, why don’t we have a sample now, shall we?”
I immediately spit in his face, then reared back and slammed my forehead into his nose. Pain radiated through my skull once more, and I felt extremely dizzy.
“You fucking bitch,” he screamed out. It was muffled due to his hand being cupped over his nose and mouth, blood was dripping down onto his crisp, clean white shirt, staining it.
I knew by the way I was feeling, that I either had a concussion, or was well on my way towards one if I sustained anymore blows to the head.
A commotion erupted right outside the door to where I was at, sounding like a scuffle. Maybe someone was coming to save me, I wanted to feel relief, but I didn’t know who would be on the other side of that door. I hoped to hell it was the Police and not Charlie, because if the information that Declan told me was true, I didn’t want to see his face again. Not now, not ever.
But the feeling of relief was short lived, as I ended up seeing stars, as a butt to a gun Declan was holding came around and hit me on the side of the head, kn
ocking me unconscious once again.
(Charlie)
Grady and I burst into the room after taking down at least four of Declan’s men. We were both extremely winded, due to one man who proved to be a challenge. He was a huge beast of a man, the veins protruding along his body and his bulging muscles. The nefarious beast put up one hell of a fight, but in the end our drive to get to Maggie caused us to win.
It was Grady’s shot that took him down, while he had me in an arm bar. The fucker could’ve broken my arm, in which he almost succeeded, but I would’ve kept going so I could save Maggie and stop Declan’s shit once and for all.
The room was dimly lit and was extremely dingy and musky. My eyes honed in on Maggie who was bound at her hands and around her ankles, but it was her lack of movement which had my stomach clenching. She lay there, seemingly still, and all I wanted to do was rush to her side. I still had the matter of Declan Smith to attend to, and seeing the current state Maggie was in, made me want to kill him all the more.
I spared a quick glance in Grady’s direction, to make sure he knew to get to Maggie immediately, and I quickly prayed that she was only unconscious, I didn’t want to fear the worst.
Looking in the direction of Declan, he was standing there with a handkerchief pressed to his nose and a gun trained on Maggie. I had to think quickly of what to do next, I slowly advanced a little closer towards Declan, my gun held at my side.
“Why don’t you point that away from her, she isn’t the one you want.” I said as I inched a little closer, I was trying not to make my movements too jerky or too quickly. I didn’t want to spook him into firing the gun. If I could get him to lower his weapon, I could make my move and disarm him.
Declan seemed to mull over my statement, and ended up shrugging his shoulders and pulled down the handkerchief, giving me a view of his bloodied face and busted nose. “She may not be the one that I initially wanted to kill, but she broke my fucking nose!” He growled.
“She was defending herself. Come on, lower the gun and let them go. Let’s settle this like men.” I knew I was egging him on, but if I could just direct his attention towards me, Grady could pull Maggie out of the path of destruction.
Finally, he lowered the gun only to swing it over towards me, pointing it now in my direction. I heard Grady move towards Maggie, and as much as I wanted to spare a glance at her, I had to keep my eyes trained on Declan.
“Drop your gun,” he yelled.
I put up a hand and slowly lowered myself to the floor, “Ok, I’m going to slowly put my gun on the ground.”
Standing back up to my full height, I heard Grady yell, “She has a pulse!”
I immediately felt relief rush over me, now they just had to get out of the room.
Declan’s eyes were still locked with mine, and I wondered who was going to make the first move. I began moving forward once again slowly, inch by inch.
“Don’t you fucking move!”
“It’s over Declan, the FBI are on their way as we speak.” Which wasn’t entirely true, once Grady was able to get Maggie out of the building safely, he was to call for an ambulance and then call and inform the FBI of our location.
Was it a little presumptuous on my part? Of course, but failing wasn’t an option.
“It’s not over until I say it’s over! This is all your fault, Charlie! If it wasn’t for that loud mouth Corbin, no one would know anything about my operation yet.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Declan. The disappearance of girls is what gave you away, Corbin just confirmed it for us. Give it up, you’re done!”
That seemed to rile him up, and he grew even angrier than he was before. His face turned a bright red in color and his eyes grew hard. It was as if time started running in slow motion, I saw Declan begin to squeeze the trigger of his gun, as I started to drop to my side, the bullet barely grazing my flesh. The pain dispersed where I was hit, but I had to mentally block it out, as I fell to the ground and quickly reached for my gun, training it on Declan and firing several rounds.
His body jerked numerous times, as the rounds entered his chest, and he fell to the ground. I stood up, grabbing my side and walked over to where he was lying, so I stood directly over him. I had one bullet left, and I wasn’t going to take any chances of him being able to have the luxury of waking up again, so I aimed it at his head and pulled the trigger, making my mission complete, shooting Declan Smith right between the eyes.
I walked outside, my speed pretty slow, it wasn’t every day that I got shot, and that bitch hurt. By the time I made it, a helicopter was landing and my supervisor, as well as my dad came out of it. I saw the ambulance which had Maggie in it and I knew my boss wasn’t going to let me check on her before I left, but what did I care? I walked towards the ambulance, just as Mikey was shutting the doors.
“Is she ok?” I asked, the guilt was thick within my chest. Maggie was in this mess because of me.
“She’ll be ok. She has a concussion, but I won’t know more until the doctor sees her and she gets a scan of her brain.” Mikey said. I could see Grady sitting next to her through the window at the back of the truck.
“Keep an eye on her, will ya?” I said to Mikey, “I’m going to finish up here as quickly as I can, and then I’ll be at the hospital to see her.”
“Sure thing, Charlie.” He looked to where my arm was covering my side, “You’ll need to get that checked out too.”
“I’ll be ok. Just take care of her.”
Mikey jumped into ambulance and I watched as my life descended away from me. I could feel my heart literally breaking as the ambulance moved further and further away in the distance. For when Maggie woke up, she wasn’t going to like what I had to tell her, what I should’ve confessed so long ago.
“Charles,” I heard my father’s stern voice approaching. I wasn’t ready for this conversation but, I needed to get it over with as quickly as possible.
After several long and grueling hours of explaining every single detail of what happened and why I chose to proceed the way I did, I was finally able to go to the hospital.
My father insisted on another ambulance coming to the scene of the crime and taking a look at my side, and after a few bandages, it was decided that I would live.
After making my statements, and of course getting lectures, I left my father and the rest of the FBI team behind, literally and figuratively. I handed my badge and my issued Glock to my boss, told him I was done and walked off, and damn if it didn’t feel liberating.
I was surprised to see everyone standing out in the hallway, right outside of Maggie’s room once I arrived. I approached Grady to see if he could fill me in on what was going on.
“Maggie just regained consciousness about twenty minutes ago. Her doctor wasn’t letting anyone inside of the room since we aren’t family. So he is in there talking to her now and discussing her condition, then he will ask if she is up for visitors.”
“I snapped at her doctor telling him that we are her family, but he wouldn’t listen,” Toby chimed in, but avoided my eyes. “They should’ve let at least one person go in, I’m sure she was terrified waking up all alone in a hospital room, after being kidnapped and having God knows what happen to her.” He scoffed, which was when his eyes went to mine. So apparently everyone here knew that I was behind this.
“Guys…” I wanted to explain that I was only doing my job and following orders.
Gio stepped forward almost getting in my face, “Now is NOT the time, Charlie.” And that was all he said, as he went back to his spot standing against the wall, folding his arms across his chest.
The doctor came out into the hallway and looked at everyone, we were all practically bouncing on the balls of our feet, and we wanted to see for ourselves that Maggie was ok. At least I knew I did.
“You can all go in. Now, you must not stay long, because she needs her rest.”
Once the doctor moved out of the way, Toby was the first one to rush the doors, apparently to hi
m it was a race and he wasn’t wasting any time.
Grady stopped me on the way in, “I’m going to go back to check on Emmy. I think it’s time you told Maggie, don’t you?”
It kind of irritated me that he thought he knew when it was best for me to tell Maggie about my job, well ex-job that is. But I shrugged it off and walked inside the room. Maggie was lying in her hospital bed, clutching Gio to her like he was her lifeline.
Seeing her cling to him was like a kick to the face. She should be clutching onto me for comfort, for relief, not Gio.
I noticed the outline of faint bruising on the side of her face, which would more than likely be a bit darker come morning.
Toby and Tessa were huddled together, just watching the interaction between Gio and Maggie. I could tell things were still pretty strained between Toby and Gio. I never got to hear the entire story of what happened, so I wasn’t sure how bad things were.
I cleared my throat to get Maggie’s attention, because she wasn’t looking towards my side of the room. Gio let go of Maggie and took the seat that was placed right beside the hospital bed, and everyone turned to look at me. Everyone but Maggie.
“Maggie,” I stammered, as fear settled in the pit of my stomach because she still wouldn’t look at me. Did she know already? Grady couldn’t have told her, because she was still unconscious in the ambulance on the way here.
She defiantly turned up her chin, and at long last looked in my direction. Her eyes were narrowed, and the once warmth that was reflected in her eyes, was replaced by pure ice.
“Is it true?”
“Maggie…”
“Charlie…IS. IT. TRUE?” she asked again, biting out each word.
I continued to look into her eyes, hoping that her expression would soften towards me.
I sighed, “Yes, it’s true. I’m an FBI Agent, well at least I was, until I quit an hour ago. I was sent here undercover, first it was to get the inside scoop on Corbin Montgomery, then that led to the bigger fish, Declan Smith, which also included your brother, Mason.”