“I get that, really,” Coco said and then she paused and then said slowly, “We haven’t talked about it. I mean, I know the basics, but what exactly happened that day?”
Anya stared at her and said, “It was the day I found out I was pregnant. I was sick as a dog, it sucked, throwing up everything I ate. I had to stop at a gas station, grab something for my stomach so I could make it to work. Pulled out and then had to pull over to throw up. If it would have happened either five minutes before, or five minutes after, I would never have seen a thing. It was the truck they used, that’s what I noticed. Who the hell would think a food service truck at the armory was normal. They were doing it early in the morning, before the shift change, heck, they would have been gone and off the base before anyone would have noticed, which is kinda scary. Anyways, I pulled over to puke, and when I stood, I looked across the street. I saw a man in uniform, and then a guy walked from the back of the truck to the man, he was wearing a food service uniform, but something was off. I was stupid, and just stood there and stared at him for a second, then he started pointing and yelling at me. I ran to my truck, by then there was a bunch of them, I knew they would ask me what they looked like so I sat and stared at each one as they were yelling at me, and two of them began to climb the fence to come after me. I pulled out and drove as fast as I could to get to Max’s First Sergeant. By the time I got there, people were arriving to work, I parked, and when I got out, I saw the man in the military uniform running toward me. I ran into the building as fast as I could. I knew he was behind me, trust me, it scared the shit out of me, so I started screaming. The MPs came and escorted me to the First Sergeant’s office. From there it moved so fast. I swear, it was like a blur, and suddenly I was in Nebraska.”
Coco stared at her and said, “But that isn’t all?”
Anya sucked in a breath and said, “No, after I made the identification of the military member, I was sitting in an office, and I overheard the First Sergeant and his superior talking. One of the men on Max’s team was involved, they didn’t know who, though. I think there was more to it because I heard the word election and Senator as well. That’s why they moved me so quickly because whoever they didn’t catch would know it was me, and I would be in danger.”
Coco frowned and said, “Did they ever find out who it was?”
Anya shrugged, “Celia never told me. But it’s why I left before their team came back. I asked a few times because I wanted to get in touch with Max, I mean, he was Maci’s father, and he should know that. But the answer was always there is still an investigation ongoing. Seriously, there was never a trial, nothing, so it was still ongoing. I don’t know how long an investigation takes but seems a little too long. But since they never took me out of witness protection, I am assuming whoever wasn’t found. So when all this went down I knew contacting him wouldn’t be safe, I don’t know what to do now.”
Coco nodded, “Okay so even if we do find Max we may not be able to contact him because we don’t know who they were talking about. So, I am going to ask this question and don’t get pissed at me.”
Anya narrowed her eyes. “No, Max wasn’t the one involved, I knew he wasn’t.”
“But really, you can’t know that. I mean, people lie, they hide shit all the time from their families,” Coco argued, and Anya shook her head.
“You never met Max, if you had, you would know. There was no way he would betray his friends, me, hell, the military, none,” she said firmly.
Coco looked at her and sighed. “Okay, well, we will see what Dad’s PI digs up. But right now, I think you need to relax and chill, go take a bath, I will watch for Maci and deal with her when she wakes up.”
Anya smiled at her best friend and said, “I missed you.”
Coco hugged her and whispered, “Damn right you did; I am an awesome best friend.”
“You really are.” Anya laughed and then pulled away. “If she wants to watch Nemo again, tell her no. I’m not sure her yelling ‘I’m gonna touch the butt,’ while in the pool was really appropriate. We may need to switch movies.”
Coco laughed. “I like it.”
“Well, Cars is off limits, she will talk like ‘Mater’ for months,” Anya said, and Coco burst out laughing.
Anya wandered into her room and sighed. This was the first time she had alone time since she had gone on the run. Maci was her focus; she had to keep her safe. She walked into the bathroom and started a bath, running the water as hot as she could tolerate and began to undress. She touched the scar on her lower abdomen where they had to do an emergency C-section and felt the tears in her eyes begin to gather. Dammit, Anya thought she had cried her last tear over this, but she was wrong.
Anya rang up the purchases of the customer in front of her who was chatting about her last pregnancy. Why in the heck do people begin to tell strangers about personal issues when they’re standing in line at a grocery store? Over the last eight months, since she had been relocated to Nebraska, Anya had heard a million stories. It was frustrating since she had gotten her degree to work with animals, not people. But here she was, working at a grocery store because she couldn’t use her education.
Anya smiled and said, “That will be thirty-two dollars and twelve cents.”
The woman laughed and ran her credit card and said loudly, “Just remember, make sure you ask for drugs right when you get to the hospital, you will need them.”
Anya smiled and nodded, handed the receipt to the customer, and then looked to the next one in line. Great, another woman who looked like she was ready to impart her wisdom on Anya. Great.
By the end of the day, she was exhausted as she walked to the back of the store to clock out and go home. On Friday it would be her last day, and she’d be on maternity leave. She was kinda happy about that too. Right now, standing on her feet all day with the extra twenty pounds she had to carry sucked.
“Tina?” she heard her boss say and she kept walking. “Hey, Tina? How are you feeling?”
Anya stopped and closed her eyes, that was right. Her new name was Tina Higgins, she was from upstate Minnesota, her husband had died in a car accident, and she had no close relatives. Tina wanted to get away from the memories, so she took off in her car and settled here just because she liked the look of the small town. Really? Anya wanted to know who had the job of setting up the background information in the Marshal’s Program and how they got the job because whoever it was needed to get a life or give her one. Shit, her background had to be the most boring shit ever. Of course, she understood how they had to do that since they needed to seem harmless and shit, but still, it was fucking sad.
“Sorry, I was in my head,” Anya said to the older man who owned the small store. She actually hated lying to the man; he was so nice. “I’m doing pretty good; I just can’t wait until she comes out, you know?”
The older man smiled and nodded. “Well, if you get too tired take a break, and if for some reason you want to go on maternity early, let me know.”
Anya nodded, “Thanks.”
She punched out, and then moved to her locker and got her things. The house they rented for her was only a few blocks away, and Anya walked to work every day. It didn’t do much good to drive, it would be a waste of gas. She sighed and then walked back through the store and waved at the cashier who took her place.
Anya was in her head; she was feeling alone and sad, so she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. The young man who bagged and carried out groceries was the owner’s son, he had downs syndrome, and he was adorable. And he had become attached to Anya. So when she walked out of the door as he was pushing carts in she should have paid attention. But she was in her head.
“TINA!” he yelled and released the cart he was holding to wave at her. It made the carts veer off; you know how some do when a wheel is wonky. Anya looked up just before the row of carts hit her on the side, which caused her to fall over and land very hard on her stomach.
A pain shot through her body that made h
er cry out, people came running from all over the place. Anya could hear them, but she didn’t pay attention. She had her arms cradled around her stomach as she rolled.
“Call 911!” she heard someone yell, and then she blacked out.
Anya opened her eyes as she lay in her tub of water, damn she had been in there long enough, so her fingers were pruned. Too much woolgathering, she thought as she let the water out and got out of the tub. The mirror was fogged over, and she wrapped a towel around her and wandered back out into her bedroom. She heard Maci and Coco in the living room laughing. She had her time alone, but hearing the sound of her daughter, Anya smiled. Time alone didn’t make her happy, Maci did.
She changed and walked into the living area where Maci was jumping next to Coco who had her phone out and was playing a game it looked like.
“What are you doing?” Anya smiled.
Maci turned to her and yelled, “I choose you, Pikachu!”
Anya frowned and shook her head. “I’m not sure what that means.”
“Pokémon GO!” Maci yelled, and Anya groaned. She had kept her daughter away from that phenomenon because of this very reason.
Chapter Five
“Okay,” Loki said talking to his screen, seeming to talk to no one. “This is weird.”
“What?” Torch asked and moved to look over his shoulder.
“Well,” Loki said, hitting buttons on his screen. “Fling sent the file the military had on the asshole who was selling the weapons. But part of it had been redacted, like a whole fucking lot. So, I decided to hack a little, you know, to see if I could find out what they took out. The file is sealed, like way the fucking sealed. I can’t hack into it at all; there are so many protections on the damn thing.”
Torch frowned. “Have you tried to use your clearance?”
Loki rolled his eyes as he looked over his shoulder. “Duh, hence the hacking. Our clearance is top notch, and still, I was denied.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Torch said and leaned over him further, and then Ox joined the conversation while he was standing at the stove cooking them something to eat.
“Sure it does,” Ox said and shrugged. “The government has a ton of files that are locked down as top security only. Like Kennedy’s death, the whole grassy knoll thing. Heck, I bet they know who killed him and Marilyn, but they don’t want to tell us because it would show they somehow failed.”
Torch shook his head. “Brother, you need to get out more.”
Ox turned around and shook his head. “No, man, I’m serious, have you read some of those books they have out there. I mean, Area 51, Kennedy, and other shit, come on, they know more than what they’ve released. That’s why no one trusts the government. If they would actually be truthful and shit, they wouldn’t have those issues.”
Loki ignored both of them and kept trying to hack into the file. Torch was frowning, after what happened to half his team, and Anya, he had re-upped. That was when he met Fling and the others; they are the ones who saved his life. Because the way he was going before meeting them, he would have been dead on a mission soon enough. He had become reckless, and that would get you dead in the military.
“Dude, what the hell were you into back then, I thought you were just a grunt?” Loki muttered.
Torch growled and said, “Fuck off, you know I was in Special Forces.”
Loki snorted, “Well, it seems like there’s something going on here we’re missing.”
Torch frowned. “Like what?”
Loki turned around and looked him in the eye. “Have you ever heard of the military busting some dude for selling weapons, and even if the assholes who were buying them got away, they took a witness and gave them to the Marshal service?”
Torch frowned, and he thought about it. “If they were terrorists, it’s not too hard to figure.”
“Okay, and five years later, the terrorists aren’t a threat anymore, because come on, you know those fuckers don’t give a shit who ID’s them. So why would it matter if her location was discovered? I mean, five years, the military asshole is in jail, why the fuck would anyone give a shit now, it is not like she testified because she didn’t, the asshole took a plea,” Loki said, and Torch put a hand on the back of his neck, and he thought.
Since this had all come down, he hadn’t thought, he had reacted. Anya had his child, and they were out there alone. Now that he could think, Loki did make sense. What the fuck was going on? “We need to call Fling,” he said, and Loki nodded.
“Yeah, we do, and then we need to call our contacts and find out what the fuck is really going on. None of this makes sense. There’s something we’re missing, and until we find out what it is, we’re going in blind. That can cause a mistake, and there is no fucking way we can afford a mistake with this.”
“Fuck,” Torch whispered and pulled out his phone and began to dial.
“How in the fuck did you not know Max Merlin was still working for the government? I told you to make sure you kept track of him. If he starts asking questions we could all be dead,” the man yelled into the phone and looked out his window that overlooked Washington Monument. “We have worked too hard to let this come out now.”
“Listen,” he heard the man snap on the phone. “You paid me to make sure the woman was gone; I did that. She couldn’t ID anyone else, you said to watch Max Merlin in case he tried to find her, he didn’t after a month, so I let it go. I figured you would be more worried about the chick seeing your son’s face.”
The Senator turned and glared at the door like he expected the Secret Service to break it down any second. “Listen, I paid you a great deal to fix the mess my son got himself into. Over the years, you were supposed to make sure if anything developed you would contact me. This stuff with the asshole leaking information could ruin us all.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” the man snapped. “All of our asses are on the line because your dumb fuck of a son decided to lose his fucking mind and become involved with a terrorist group.”
“And I took care of him,” the Senator snapped.
“No,” the man growled. “You sent not only your son but his team into combat and got half of them killed, including your son to cover up his fuck up. So, I’m pretty sure you need me more than I need you, so chill out on the threats. You have a lot more to lose than I do right now.”
“We both do. If any of this comes out, they will bury us in a hole so deep we will never see the sun again,” the Senator said.
“I have a line on her. Merlin and one of his friends went up to Canada, they are using the network to help. They have officially been asked to help with finding and protecting Anya and her daughter,” the man said.
“Shit,” the Senator said and then continued, “that’s good for us, right? Since they are on the network, we can see what they find out.”
“Yeah,” the man replied. “I have already sent some men to the safe house one of their men rented. They should be there by early morning.”
“Good,” the Senator said. “Keep me updated.” He hung up the phone and then moved back to the window and looked out. He had done too much to cover up what his son had done for it all to fall apart now. His son died a hero, at least that’s what they said. His wife had been devastated, but then she was always too soft on the boy. He really thought being in the military would have sorted him out, made him a man, but he had fucked that up too. Well, there was no way he was going to allow everything he worked for to go down the drain.
They had all worked well into the night trying to figure out what they were missing. Ox and Loki had finally called it quits ten minutes ago, but Torch couldn’t. None of this made a damned bit of sense, and honestly, Fling and the rest of his brothers were just as confused as he was. The word they had received from the higher ups was, the file was locked down and was only able to be read in its entirety by the head of the Justice Department. Which sent up red flags for them all, but so far none of their contacts had been able to shed light on
the situation.
“What the fuck happened, Anya?” Torch asked the screen, and of course, he didn’t get an answer.
He punched in Coco Love’s name again and began to read; she had to be the key to finding Anya. They confirmed her father had been in Canada visiting Coco when Anya had left Nebraska. They had one incoming call from a pay phone, and then several more from a phone they couldn’t trace, it was a prepaid. Coco’s father had left the following day, and his daughter had disappeared after she dropped him off at the airport. Into thin air apparently. Her car was found in a parking garage not three blocks from the airport with her purse, cellphone, credit cards, IDs, everything left behind in the trunk. Her house was locked up tight, and when Fling called Love, the man hung up on him.
They pulled his phone records, and Love had not received a call from a strange number since he had gotten home; in fact, he had gotten only three calls on his cell: one from his manager, one from his record label, and one from the recording studio he had blocked out time to use. According to his credit cards, he went to lunch and Starbucks daily, acting like nothing was wrong, and his daughter wasn’t missing.
They tried looking at Coco’s business, but according to her personal assistant, Coco was incommunicado for the time being. She was dealing with some personal issues. Which in celebrity terms usually meant they were in rehab, but the woman had never had a damn drug or drinking problem. Torch had talked to Coco on the phone one time, and that was when he called to find out where Anya had gone. She hadn’t known but promised to call him if she heard from her, she never called.
Roadblock after roadblock, they weren’t getting anywhere, and with every second, Anya and his daughter were in more danger. Until they found out what the fuck was going on, Torch had a feeling they all were—he just didn’t know why. The asshole who was selling information was a pain in the ass. Torch didn’t give a shit why he was doing it, it was treason. After his last mission when good men were killed in the line of duty, it pissed him off every time there was someone who betrayed their country. His brothers-in-arms gave their lives defending this country.
Scorched (Furies MC Book 3) Page 4