Elena wrapped her hands around it. The warmth warming her. She slowly brought it to her lips.
The warm liquid burnt her tongue. Her lips.
And the harsh liquid went down her throat.
She coughed. Spitting out the liquid. Wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, and slamming the mug on the table. Watching as liquid spilt everywhere.
“Jesus! How can you people drink that stuff!” she cried, still coughing a little. “It’s disgusting!”
“Disgusting is not the world I would use.” The man across the table told her. Staring at her with hard eyes. “And just where have you been your whole life? Haven’t you heard the word coffee before? Haven’t you seen it? Tasted it? What’s wrong with you? Have you been living in a hole your entire life?”
“Luis.” Kieran glared at his friend.
“What?” Luis lifted his hands up in surrender. “I was just asking an innocent question.”
“Innocent my ass.” Kieran muttered under his breath. “Elena.” He slid into the seat next to her, taking her hand in his. “This is Luis Gomez. He’s been a friend of mine for a very long time.”
“Yeah, ever since we were in the army together.” Luis muttered, a grin spreading across his face. “This one is one tough son of a bitch, Elena.”
Elena raised a brow. “You two were in the army?”
“Only for about a year.” Kieran told her. “Turns out none of us were really cut out for it.”
“And were pulled into the Agency weeks after coming home.” Luis muttered, shaking his head. “I still think that we were kicked out on purpose. Those misconduct charges were bogus.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kieran rolled his eyes, cocking his head, looking at Elena. “He’s been going on about this conspiracy theory of his for the last five years, Elena. It gets old fast.”
Elena laughed.
“Now, why don’t you tell us about you, Elena?” Kieran finally asked. “Tell us, how do you know Victor?”
Elena sighed. Her hands dropping into her lap.
“To tell you that, I have to start from the beginning.” She whispered. Staring down at the oak table in front of her. “I grew up in this small town in southern Florida.” She began. “We were the typical American family. It was me. My nine sisters, my mother and my father. We went to school. My parents worked. My sisters and I played in the yard. We went to the beach. We goofed around, being normal kids. Playing hide and seek. Playing tag, but for the past few years I could tell that something was wrong. My mother and father were arguing more. They didn’t talk as much anymore. And then everything changed the day my father pulled us out of school and told us we were never going back. And everything did change. An electric fence was put up around our house, keeping us from wandering away from the house. We were prisoners in our own home. We never saw our friends again. We never graduated from school. We were doomed to live the rest of our lives in solitude. Until that night I won’t soon forget. That night when I lost everything.”
She felt her nails biting into her hands.
“I remember lying in my bed. Well it wasn’t much of a bed. My parents were too broke to afford real beds for us, so all we had were piles of blankets to sleep on. And then I heard the gunshot. I jumped out of my bed and raced down the hallway of that small house only to find two masked men pulling my mother towards the door. I tried to yell. I tried to stop them, but another man in a mask grabbed me by the arm. He started telling me these terrible things about my father. I didn’t want to believe them. My father was a good man. At least I thought he was. And I watched, as my mother was dragged out of our house and our lives forever. And I watched, as my father was shot right before my eyes.” She shook her head. “It was terrible. I saw so much blood. So much death that night. My parents. They fought well. I had no idea they could do stuff like that, and I thought I’d watched my own father die. I thought I’d lost him. I ran towards the door, trying to go after my mom. I opened the door. I remember it being so heavy. And I watched as explosions ripped up around the house, and a black van raced off into the distance. My mother was gone, and then I felt something stab me in the back. I felt weak. I felt tired. And then, everything went black.”
She stopped, dragging in another breath.
“When I woke up, I found myself locked in a dark room surrounded by all my sisters. It was so cold. We were all like ice.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, a chill racing through her body at just the memory. And that’s when everything changed. I soon learned that my father had been working on a project. He’d been building an operation that created soldiers. Well I guess you can call them assassins who went around killing anyone my father saw fit not to live in the world.” Elena shook her head. “I can still remember waking up in that dark room. Watching as that door opened and watching those men rush into the room. We were so scared. We were so hungry, and when they came in all they gave us was bread and water.”
Elena laughed.
“Bread and water. That’s what they gave us. I was so mad, that I threw the tray across the room. I yelled. I screamed, and when I wouldn’t quiet down one of my sisters ended up paying the price.”
“They killed her?” Kieran asked, hating the question.
Elena shook her head. “No. Worse. They raped her.”
Kieran’s breath hitched.
“It was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life.” She whispered. “And then they lead us out of the room. We walked for I don’t know how long. All I remember was eventually stopping in an arena. There were dozens of seats all around us. And the doors slammed shut behind us. And it was there that I saw my father for the first time since he’d been shot. The first words out his mouth when he saw us, was that our lives as we once knew them were over. My mother was dead. Her body parts had been sent to my father and he was on a path of revenge. All he could think about was the man who had done this, and he was determined that we were going to help him. He said that we were going to help him get rid of the people not worthy of living in this world and that we were going help him build a new world. A better world. A country that he believed was worthy of living in.
“And everyone went along with it?” Luis asked.
Elena shook her head. “No. Not at first. Well I shouldn’t say that. I didn’t go along with it and my father was furious. I took several beatings. And then I don’t remember feeling anything at all. All I remember was going through the motions. Learning how to fight. Learning how to use different weapons. Speaking a dozen different languages. I learned everything there was to become an assassin. They drugged me. I was the perfect soldier. The perfect assassin. The ultimate weapon. My father’s favorite. That is until just a few days ago.”
“What happened a few days ago?”
“I was standing on the rooftop. Staring through the eye of the rifle into Victor Alejandro’s house. He was my target. He was the man responsible for building bombs and blowing up the cities. Or at least that’s what I’d been told. I was just about to take the shot, when I saw his family.”
Elena rose from her chair, turning and pacing along the floor.
“That’s all it took. One look at his family, and everything came rushing back. I remembered my own family. I remembered being in that basement. I remember being beat. I remember learning how to use different weapons. And I remembered all the different people I had killed for him. The one person who I swore would never turn me into a monster had turned me into a monster. He had destroyed me. He had destroyed my life. My family, and it was at that moment when I saw Victor’s computer screen. He was FBI. But by the time I’d realized it, it was already too late. A black van pulled up in front of their house and five people dressed in black jumped out of the van.” She paused a second. “It took me a moment to figure out what I was going to do. But when I figured it out, there was no going back. I ran as fast as I could to his house. And I went in. I took out one of the armed guards. I got his three kids to safety, and then I went into Victor’s office wher
e two men were holding a gun to his hand telling him to write a suicide note. And I put everything together. Victor wasn’t the terrorist. My father was.”
A tear ran down her face.
She brushed it away.
“I was so mad. I had been brainwashed for years, thinking that my father was a good man. Thinking that he was saving the world, and here he was, sending men to kill an innocent man. So I did what I had to. I walked into the room. God, if you could see the surprise on their faces, but when they realized that I had my memories back it was over. They came after me. We fought. And I was almost dead. But Victor, he saved my life.” Elena smiled. “He killed one of the men that had a gun pointed at my head, and then it was just me and Erik. The man who had raped my sister.” She shook her head. “We fought for a while, until finally, I stabbed a knife through his chest. I have no regrets on killing that man. He deserved to die.”
“Elena—“
“But that wasn’t it. Victor and I were on our way down stairs, when one of his daughters came running towards us. She was frantic. A woman had taken Victor’s wife, Sonya, and had shot his daughter in the arm. Thankfully it was just a flesh room. I left Victor and his family at the house and ran after the woman. After his wife. And it wasn’t until I was crossing the street that I recognized her. The woman was my sister. Carmella.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kieran reach for her.
She dodged his hand, turning and walking around the counter. She stopped, staring out the sliding glass door out into the brightness of the day. “I hadn’t even realized she’d been my sister for years. I’d been in a trance. Having no idea what I was doing. But when I was staring at her on that rooftop I felt as if I was staring at a stranger. She had this look in her eyes. A cold, dark look that I hated seeing. It broke my heart to see it.” A sob rose up in her throat. She lifted her hand, covering her mouth. “I tried to reason with her but she was in a trance. Just like I had been for years. I tried to tell her I was her sister, but she didn’t believe it. All she could think about was how Abel kept telling us how good I was and she was sick of hearing about it. She was going to complete the mission, and do Abel proud. She was going to show him how good she was. And if I tried to stop her, she would kill me. I couldn’t let her kill them. I couldn’t. We fought, and then, she fell right off the roof.”
She felt the sob rack her body.
She felt strong arms wrap around her.
“It’s okay, Elena.” Kieran whispered in her ear. “It’s okay.”
She buried her head in his shoulder. This time not caring. Tears rolling down her face.
“After that, I was livid at my father. Livid at what he’d made me and my sisters do. We were monsters. We didn’t think. We just did what he asked us to do. It was crazy!” she shook her head. “And I swore that he would pay for what he’d done to all of us. I blame him for Carmella’s death. So I went back to the facility. Acting as if nothing had changed, only everything had changed.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I never thought he would find out what had happened. I never thought he would know that I didn’t kill them. Only, the tracker he’d had put into us gave him full access to all of our missions. He received video and audio of everything we did. He saw what I did, and he brought Victor and his family out. Shooting them right in front of me. I went crazy, and then, he came after me. I barely escaped there in one piece. Everyone was after me. The soldiers. My father. My sisters. I managed to escape the facility and I have been running ever since. I’ve been running, and as soon as I’m ready I’m going to go back and finish what I started. I’m going to burn down the organization and stare at my father as I pull the trigger. He deserves to die and I have to save my sisters.”
She pulled back, staring up into Kieran’s eyes.
Luis was looking at her with wide eyes.
“You’ve barely been functioning for eight years?” Luis asked. “Kieran—“
“Not now, Luis.” Kieran held up a hand, shushing his friend. He turned to Elena. “Elena, “Elena, tell me something. What do you really know about the world? About the place we live in?”
Elena jerked her head up, surprised by the question. “I don’t know much about it at all.” She whispered. “I haven’t been out in the world for a long time. Everything I know about it I’ve read in books. But nothing is quite like I read about.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s so big. There’s so many people. And there’s vicious creatures.” She wrapped her hand around her wrist, staring at the scar of the snake bite. “A snake bit me.”
“It’s not just full of vicious creatures, Elena.” Kieran whispered, throwing his arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Elena. There’s something I want to show you. There’s so much for you to enjoy here, and I want to be the one to show it to you.”
“Kieran, I can’t just leave.”
“Yes you can.” Kieran told her, grabbing his leather jacket off of the chair and throwing it over her shoulders. “Elena, you don’t have the tracker in you anymore. They can’t find you.”
“But my sisters. I need to get them out.”
“We’ll get them out.” Kieran told her. “But first you need to rest. Let all your wounds heal and then we’ll go get them. I promise.”
“We?”
“You really think I’m going to let you do this alone?” Kieran raised a brow at her. “They killed my friend, Elena. I am damn well going to take them down with you.”
“Me too.” Luis stood up from the table. “I’m in too.”
Elena stared at them.
“They’ll kill you.”
“No they won’t.” Kieran told her, his hand wrapping around hers. His eyes bright and so sure. “Now come on. There’s something I want to show you.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Come on you little bitch. Where are you?”
Sabrina stared down at the phone. Tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Feeling frustrated and losing her patience.
“Dammitt, Abel, where are they?” she muttered, staring down at the gadget in her hand. Waiting for Abel to send her the coordinates to where Elena was located. She couldn’t help him if she didn’t know where the little bitch was. She couldn’t do the job, if she couldn’t find her.
The phone vibrated.
She braked at the stoplight. Looking down at the phone.
“Tracker is gone.”
She stared at the text, watching as it flashed across the screen.
Her blood boiled.
Her temper escaladed.
Next to her, she heard a horn beep.
She turned her head. Looking at two teenage boys that were staring at her.
One of them gave her a smile.
The other licked his lips.
She smiled, revving the engine.
“Pathetic.” She muttered under her breath. “I could kill you in an instant.”
The light turned green.
She turned, giving them the finger and stepping on the gas. Racing down the street.
The tracker was gone, she couldn’t believe it. No one had ever removed the tracker from the back of their neck. It was too dangerous. If you hit the wrong artery. The wrong vein you could end up paralyzed. Or worse, dead.
She knew Elena didn’t want that.
She smirked a little.
Maybe the girl was smarter than she’d given her credit for.
She blew out a breath, taking the exit towards the hospital and pulling into the parking lot.
She stopped the car. Turned off the engine. And slowly stepped out into the North Carolina air. Staring around at the ambulances and police cars.
The aftermath of Elena’s fight against the organization.
She shook her head.
How could she be that stupid to go up against the organization? Didn’t she know it was a suicide mission?
She blew out another breath. Lifting her head, staring around her at the bright blue sky. The bright yellow sun. Staring at people walking on the side
walk. Watching as people laughed. People talked.
How could people live here? She wondered to herself, disgust filling her as she stared around at the place. It was so cheery. So pretty. So bright. And it was so freaking hot!
She wiped a hand across her forehead.
The organization hadn’t gotten to this place yet
But it would.
And soon it would be like any other city.
Destroyed, and a mass grave yard to so many. She laughed. She couldn’t wait to see it.
She turned her head again, staring off into the distance. She knew that Elena wasn’t here. But where was she? This was the last place anyone had seen her. She couldn’t have gone far. She was new to the world. She didn’t know anyone.
But she had a man helping her.
She remembered Abel telling her that.
He must have been the one to remove the tracker, and he must have brought Elena somewhere safe. To his home.
God, the man was stupid. She thought to herself. So freaking stupid! He had no idea what he was doing. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into. And now, because of Elena, he was going to die.
A laugh escaped her throat.
She closed her eyes.
She thought about Elena.
She thought about the girl Elena had once been.
About what she’d liked.
There had to be a clue in there somewhere to where Elena would go. To how to find her. She just had to figure it out.
And her eyes snapped open.
A grin spread across her lips.
As a little girl, Elena had always loved the water, she remembered. She had always loved the ocean. She loved animals. She loved nature. There’s only one place she would go.
The aquarium.
Now that Elena was off of the serum, it would be one of the first places she would go.
And Sabrina would be there waiting for her.
She reached behind her, her hand wrapping around the gun at the small of her back. She stared down at it as she held it in her hands, and then lifted her head.
Today was the last day Elena would cause Abel any pain.
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