Kasey went through basic without an issue, then she was given the opportunity to either go into Intelligence or into the Security Forces. She chose Security. From there she worked her way up until she was also given the chance to make a lateral shift into Intelligence. She had found her niche and loved it.
“You know, when I first came into Intelligence the asshole men tested me. I know it happens all the time, especially since I was a female, and it didn't bother me. However, my asshole dad made a big ta-do about it and fucked my relationship with the others for a while. Until they realized not only would I never share anything with my father, but I also joined them in their feelings about him. He was a dick, and that was being nice,” she said and then stared intently at the spider in the corner; the fucker was big. When her father was given his appointment into the job he now held as the Joint Chiefs, Kasey knew his time was coming to an end in the military. She loved what she did, but she was sick of seeing the pious asshole all the time, and the need to act like she actually liked him. Plus, she knew she would make more money on the outside, and that currently sounded good. Not that she needed money, she didn’t, her mother’s death had set both Kris and her for life in that department. But still, she couldn’t not work. So she would find something, using a head hunter she had talked to in the past.
Bo moved and drew her attention back to him. She sighed and whispered, “Sucks to be inside my head. Even I don’t want to be in there, too many screwed up memories.”
She placed Bo gently on the bed, and made sure he was sitting where a guard couldn’t see him if he came by, because she knew they would kill him. Then she would need to kill them, and shit would totally go down. It would be a mess and yeah, she would totally escape, but it would be a fucked up escape. Damn, Kasey needed to get out of her fucking head, she was going to drive herself nuts.
Workout, she needed to do her daily workout and get shit off of her head. She got on the floor and began. These fuckers weren’t going to break her. Never.
Chapter Two
Ridge, Torch, and Loki had slept the whole way over to Nepal, they were in a cargo hold, and most people would have been freaked to fly this way. But they were used to it, so they could relax and sleep when needed. When they took off, they had agreed to get as much sleep as they could now, because when they landed, it could be a while before they would get a full night’s sleep.
So when they heard the change in the engine all of the men woke up and looked around. They had to be close, because they were slowing down and landing. Ridge stretched and then settled back into his jump chair and pulled out the papers one more time. They knew she was being held by the North Koreans, they just weren’t sure where. But once again, it had to be on the Consulate’s land, unless they had somewhere else they were using, which would really be in their favor but Ridge knew they couldn’t be that lucky. The only good part was due to the fucker who hacked into countries databases; most of the countries were more than willing to allow Ridge to access the Korean Embassy through their land but they wouldn’t help. In fact, the only thing they would do was accept a call from our State Department in which they were asked to check their security system, which meant they should turn it off so he could slip in and back out without setting off a shit ton of sirens.
Right now, he wasn’t sure who he needed to ask, because they had to get on the ground and do a recon before they made that call. Loki and Torch were also ready to get on the move to make sure they got where they had to go in order to make sure they had his back.
The men were silent as they felt the large plane touch down. They had to wait until someone came in and told them the coast was clear for them to come out, which meant they could be here for ten minutes, to ten hours. Either way, they were finally in the same country that Kasey was being held in.
“I’ll check out the transport before I hot foot it to the border. If it sucks, I’ll let you know to find something else, if not, I’ll make sure I leave you a little something there to use in case you need it,” Loki said and Ridge nodded.
They weren’t able to actually bring too many weapons, hopefully they wouldn’t need them, but truthfully they probably would. Which meant they needed a backup plan and some weapons in case. They had a contact here however. Hell, with all of the guys in the club, they had contacts in almost every country around the world.
“Right,” Torch said and then looked at both men. “I have a meeting set up with the locals and also another meeting with someone who is gonna help you if you need to get the fuck out of dodge.”
Ridge nodded and then pulled out the paperwork needed for both him and Kasey to get across the border. He tucked the passports and IDs into his pants pocket and then they continued talking until finally the back cargo door began to open. They all got into the crates they were supposed to be in. The plan was for the crates to be unloaded and then once everything was done, and the site was clear, they would get out. The airport was a fair distance from where they needed to be, so hopefully the pilot wasn’t lying when he said he would have a car at the airport waiting for them in the parking lot.
Ridge leaned back against the crate walls and thought about Kasey, seriously he hadn’t expected to fuck her that night. It had been a bad night though, a lot of shit had brought stuff to the surface for him just before they moved their club to San Diego. The Furies helped the Ops Warriors with a situation they had, which meant they were carrying weapons and had a standoff on the Ops Warriors’ land with a bunch of pricks. It hadn’t gone completely as planned.
Not too many people knew about Ridge’s past, he didn’t broadcast it to everyone. Mostly because really, what did he have to bitch about. He had a great childhood, one of the best. His parents were awesome, his friends were awesome, and Ridge, well, before he became Ridge he was ‘Jacob Thomas’, a normal guy with a normal past. Then he joined the military, which did him well. It was all he ever wanted, then the Gulf War began. Finally, he was going to be able to do what he had been trained to do. Fight for the freedom of others, and fight for his country. He had been proud, hell, he still was proud of it, or he would never have allowed himself to be recruited.
He seriously thought he would be a lifer in the military, but shit went down and he took a bullet to the chest and they thought he would kick the bucket, but he didn’t. Instead, he lost a part of his lung and had a cool scar on his chest as a medal. Because of the absence of his lung they medically discharged him, gave him a pension, and told him to have a nice life. It sucked, because he had literally had no other plans, he was just cut out, and he felt betrayed by the Corp.
In addition, after being in the military for four years he got a call that broadsided him. Jacob always thought his parents would be the ones mourning for him, not the other way around. It didn’t make sense, nor did it fit into his plans for the future of giving his mom something she constantly bugged him about, a grandchild. No, instead some dumb muther fucker had broken into their house with the intention of stealing them blind. His father, who could only be called a huge mean muther fucker to people who didn’t know him, always kept a gun in his nightstand. However, before he could get to it, the intruders had killed both him and Jacob’s mother. It was senseless, and for weeks afterwards Jacob had gotten drunk every single fucking night to try to block out the past. Torch was the one who pulled him out of that drunken stupor. Since then, Ridge relied on his brothers in arms and at the club to be his family, so when he lost anyone, it fucked with him. Kasey had been the first one he had let in besides the guys. He didn’t like to think about anything happening to her, so he had pushed her away. Kasey had been persistent, and for one night Jacob Thomas had forgotten to keep the shield up, and fucked things up.
So what did a guy who had a degree in Business Administration, a ten-year military resume that had leading missions and superior knowledge in weapons on it, and was completely fucked up in the head doing? He joined a motorcycle club and tried to find his place in life. He still struggled with all of
that, but honest to God, on the long flight over from the States to Nepal, Ridge had finally pulled his head out of his ass, because of the thought of Kasey not being in the world wasn’t acceptable; and not being in his life, was even more not acceptable. So the woman had a surprise when he got her ass outta prison. But he would deal with that later. Right now, he needed to focus.
Kasey walked down the hall warily, it was time for her daily questioning. She would give them credit for being persistent. Before she left, she had placed Bo in the small vent behind her bed. The little monkey was used to it, she put him in there every time they took her from the cell. He could have used it to get out of the building, but he never did. He was always waiting for her when she returned.
As she walked into the room, Kasey paused and then fixed a blank expression on her face. This was different, after four months of only seeing the same four men, now a woman was standing there. The room was still the same, one chair in the middle with a light shining down on it. Kasey had seen when she first arrived the stains on the floor, she knew it was blood, and she supposed they were trying to freak her out, but it hadn’t. It only pissed her off thinking about who was in this room before her. They wore a uniform, and had a sidearm on, but she wasn’t military or the police. Instead, she had a strange emblem on the side of her shirt and she was staring at her intently. Well, this was gonna be fun.
“Sit down,” the woman said briskly and Kasey smirked.
“Make myself comfortable?” she said.
The woman shrugged and said, “I do not care one way or the other for your comfort.”
Kasey chuckled and thought, so they were going to play this game, yeah this was gonna be a blast. “Alright,” Kasey said as she sat down with a loud exaggerated sigh. “Let’s get to it.”
“Certainly,” the woman said and she walked around the room, seeming to look Kasey over as she did. “You have been charged with spying on the Korean Consulate.”
Kasey shrugged and said, “Not spying, I was walking to my car, not sure if you are all confused about the concept of walking to my car, but in my country, walking to your car is not a secret code for spying. It means, I was literally walking to my car when your people kidnapped my ass and brought me here. Now, once again, I’ll ask, can I leave?”
The woman stared at her intently and Kasey held her gaze, refusing to seem weak or afraid of anyone. Yes, this was a fault of her, she knew it, and her superiors knew it. But hey, try having a father who was a dick and powerful, it was a survival instinct she had honed. So she held her stare and the woman’s eyes seemed to light up with excitement, which was a little unsettling since that meant she was gonna cause her some pain, and she was going to enjoy it.
“I think you will remain here as long as it takes to ascertain if you are indeed a spy, or if you are a stupid American who seems to think we are stupid as well. Let me assure you, I am not stupid. You see, I’m a firm believer in looking at the facts, and all the facts in this case point to you being a spy. So, in order to prove that you are not a spy, you need to truthfully give us some information. So far, you haven’t been cooperative in this endeavor so they called me in. Do you know why?” the woman asked.
Kasey smiled and said, “‘Cause you want to be besties with me. I know, I’m hard to resist and all, but I already have a bestie. I’m good.”
The woman shook her head. “They told me everything was a joke to you, while some may call it cute and adorable, I do not.”
Kasey watched as the woman walked around her again, and when she was behind her, Kasey heard the door open and someone else entered the room, though they remained behind her she wasn’t stupid enough to look back. It would show weakness and worry, and she wasn’t going to show a damn thing to them.
“Really? ‘Cause I kinda wanted you to think I was cute and adorable,” Kasey said dryly.
She heard some shuffling and then the woman walked back around to the front and nodded to whoever was behind her. Kasey stared and felt someone get close and then whoever it was reached around and held her head and tipped it to the side, exposing the side of her neck.
“You are funny, I hope you remain funny when we give you this shot, you see I don’t have the patience the others do when getting the information I need, so I just move things along a little fast by giving you something that will loosen your tongue a little,” the woman said and Kasey fought rolling her eyes. Really they were going with that?
“Come on, really?” Kasey said with a bored tone in her voice. “Truth serum? You do realize that doesn’t work, right? I mean, even a lie detector test is not reliable. Are you in the twenty-first century?”
The woman shook her head with a glare. “You will speak soon enough.”
Kasey felt the prick of the needle in her neck. She refused to even flinch, so she just stared at the woman. Whatever they were giving her hurt like a bitch when it went in. The sting moved through her neck and head, down to her shoulders, and still Kasey stared. The person released her and she tilted her head back and forth a little.
“Wow,” she said. “I really need to see a masseuse when I get home. I’m really tight.”
The woman glared and then nodded to the person to leave the room. Kasey refused to let her see that whatever they gave her was making her lightheaded, and a little dizzy. What-the-fuck-ever, she thought as she stared. They stayed this way for fifteen minutes just staring at each other.
The woman took a step forward and tilted her head and smiled at Kasey. “Now,” she started and Kasey blinked her eyes a little and then looked at the woman with determination in her eyes. Whatever they gave her was making her dizzy, but she fought it. There was no way she was going to give them shit. “Why are you in Nepal?”
Kasey paused for a second, and thought before she spoke. That was the key to beating this shit. One of the first things they learned when they became Intelligence workers. Truth serum in any form doesn’t work to actually make you tell the truth, it’s a drug which impeded messages being sent from the brain to the mouth, which in some circumstances would affect the person’s ability to lie. The way to beat it, was to think slowly, and be patient.
“Well,” Kasey said slowly, when she heard her voice she wanted to grimace, it sounded slow and slurred. “I was sitting in my apartment one day and suddenly I thought. ‘Hey, I have never been to Nepal and I should totally go’.”
The woman stepped forward and swung her arm and backhanded Kasey in the cheek and her head snapped to the side. She didn’t yell or call out shit, instead she righted her head and looked at the woman with steely eyed determination, well, at least she hoped it looked like that, it could be a bit more like a confused puppy, but oh well.
“Well shit,” Kasey said slowly as she concentrated on what she was saying. Before speaking she ran her tongue to the corner of her mouth where she felt a trickle of blood, she had cracked the corner of her lip. “You know, I hate it when you get a cut in the corner of your mouth. Do you know how long that takes to heal? I mean, if I wanted a big sub sandwich I would break that thing open every time I opened my mouth, it sucks.”
The woman ignored her and then said, “Your name is Captain Kasey Monroe, you are in the United States Air Force. Why did they send you to Nepal, who are you looking for?”
Kasey once again slowly thought about her words and she said, “Okay, so I wasn’t just sitting there thinking I had never been to Nepal, jeez, you have no sense of humor, you know. I was actually at work fucking around on the internet when I saw a picture of Kathmandu and thought. ‘I seriously need to go there, because I love the name Kathmandu’.”
The woman swung again and hit her in the same spot. Shit, that is gonna leave a mark, she thought and laughed to herself. Not like she had cover-up make-up laying around in her cell, but then she was sure the men who were watching her didn’t give a shit what she looked like, her hair being a prime example of that.
“Stop messing around and give me the answers I want,” the woman said calmly a
nd Kasey rolled her head back and stared at the woman.
“This one time, at band camp…” Kasey started and the woman hit her, but she kept on talking, “there was this chick, she was a fucking slut…” the woman hit the other side of her face this time and Kasey kept on going, “I was dating a dude who played the trumpet…” the woman hit her again. “She hit on him right the fuck in front of me and do you know what I did?” Kasey forced out as she glared at the woman who had her arm raised ready to hit her in the face again. “I took the flute she played and shoved it up her ass…” The woman hit her again and Kasey felt the blood flowing from her nose, the corner of her mouth, and possibly elsewhere but who cared, she wasn’t going to break. “I got kicked out and sent home, the moral of the story? If you want to blow music out of your ass, piss me the fuck off, I’ll make sure you are able to play a symphony when I’m done with you.”
Shattered (Furies Book 2) Page 3