Bravura (Portentous Destiny Series Book 3)

by S. E. Rose

  “Miss Greene, a pleasure to see you again,” Mohammed says from across the room. I turn and see him sitting in a chair, flanked by two large security guards. “Please have a seat,” he says calmly and motions to the two empty chairs next to Xu. Mei sits down without thinking, but I pause and look at Mohammed. “Tsk, tsk, Miss Greene. You were so unreceiving of my hospitality last night, but I must insist that you join us this afternoon.” One of the guards raises a gun and points it at my head. I slowly sit, glaring at him, my fists clenched in rage.

  “Now that we are all here, maybe someone can enlighten me as to the whereabouts of my USB drive. I must admit, I did not foresee getting back my property to be such a difficult task,” Mohammed says as he rises and walks over toward me. I cringe as I smell his cologne and feel the heat of his body. He places a hand on my shoulder, and I jump. He motions for the guard to go to Cody and the guard walks over and rips the tape from Cody’s mouth.

  “Touch her and die, Mohammed,” he snarls, giving him a look that could freeze fire.

  “Now, now, Cody, I thought you’d be so much more cooperative once I had your ‘princess’ here with us.”

  “I already told you, I don’t have the USB drive,” he growls.

  “And wherever could it be?” Mohammed questions as he runs a hand through my hair.

  Cody sighs. “Honestly, I don’t know. Zoe found it at her apartment. It must have fallen out of my bag, and after that, I assume she stuck it in a desk drawer for safekeeping.”

  Mohammed yanks my head up to look at me. “And where did you put it, Zoe?”

  “I…I put it in my desk drawer,” I answer.

  “Lying is unbecoming on you,” Mohammed says. “I guess I’ll need to be clearer as to the importance of this drive.” He pulls a gun out of a holster under his jacket and holds it to my head. I can feel the cold metal pressed against my temple. “Now be a good girl and tell me where the hell my drive is?”

  I feel a tear run down my cheek. “I gave it to someone because I couldn’t read the files. I was confused because I thought it was mine. I wanted them to figure out why my files were encrypted.”

  “Really? And who is this someone?” he asks, stroking my face with the gun.

  “Jesse, I gave it to Jesse,” I blurt out before I have time to truly think of an answer. The words have left my mouth before I realize that I am throwing my cousins’ uncle under the bus. He’s the first name that pops into my head and it’s not untrue. He did get copies of the files. Shit, why did I say that? Cody gives me a curious look. I try to shrug slightly.

  “And who is Jesse?” he asks.

  “Jesse Ryder,” I say.

  “As in Ryder Enterprises?”

  “Yes.”

  “Interesting,” Mohammed says as he lets this bit of information roll around in his head. He types something on his phone and turns to the one guard. “Ready my plane. I think Miss Greene and I will take a little trip to visit Mr. Ryder.”

  I hear a whimper from Mei.

  “Oh, where are my manners? I believe we have other guests to attend to, and I have completely been overlooking them,” Mohammed says as he looks over at Mei and Xu. He snaps his fingers and the other guard walks over to behind Xu and Mei.

  My eyes go wide as I realize what’s about to happen. I frantically look to Cody, and he looks at me with such love that I can feel it from across the room.

  “I love you, Zoe,” he says and then he’s up and I realize in that second that somehow, he has untied his hands. He turns and grabs the gun from the guard next to him and shoots him and then turns and shoots the other guards. I hear the gun cock against the side of my head. I want to tell Cody I love him, but I freeze in fear and close my eyes, wanting Cody to be the last thing that I see before the bullet pierces my skull.

  I hear a shot. The sound reverberates around the room. I feel nothing, and I wonder if this is what death feels like. I feel a calm come over me. Perhaps death isn’t so awful. I’m not in pain…but wait…I’m still in pain, but not my head. I can feel my ankle throb and my arm where I was shot yesterday.

  “Zoe!” I swear I can hear Cody. “Zoe!” I hear it again, and then I feel someone shaking me. I hear crying, and I don’t understand. Who is crying?

  “Zoe! Open your eyes, baby, please! Princess, I’m right here! Open your eyes!” I hear the crying now, loudly. I feel hands on me, arms around me. And I smell him, Cody. My eyes pop open, but I don’t see anything at first. It takes me a second to realize that I’m not blind, I’m just pressed tightly against Cody’s chest. Cody pulls back and looks into my eyes. He’s fuzzy and I realize it’s because I’m crying. The crying is me. I see him through my tears. I suddenly grasp that I am very much alive and I’m shaking.

  “Cody?” I croak. I reach up and touch his face, not believing my eyes. I can feel the roughness of what looks like a day-old facial hair growth and the heat of his skin. His hands run over my body and I wince as he touches my arm.

  “We need to go, Zoe, now,” he says. He releases me and unties Xu. Xu reaches for Mei. I watch them embrace and Cody pulls me up and I stare at him, my mind a complete blank.

  “Can you walk?” he asks softly, gently touching my cheek. I nod. I’m honestly not sure. I don’t even understand what just happened. I take a second to look around the room and realize that Mohammed is lying on the floor with a bullet wound to his head. Cody turns me away and leads me to the elevator. He’s still holding the gun. Xu reaches down and takes a gun off the floor. We run to the elevator and get inside. No one speaks as we descend.

  The next few seconds happen in slow motion. As the world goes from silence to bedlam. The elevator doors open, and I hear a helicopter and sirens. The scene that is unveiled is chaotic. Armed guards are storming the building, we all throw our hands in the air, and I hear the clink of the guns Cody and Xu were holding as they are placed on the ground. I see a helicopter hovering outside and police cars. Men in SWAT-style gear are in the lobby with guns raised.

  And then through the sea of men in uniforms, I see him, Jack. He looks at us and runs toward me.

  “Zoe, Cody, are you alright!?” Jack yells. He’s holding my shoulders and gazing up and down my body. Cody nods. Jack looks up at the blood on Cody’s head.

  “You need someone to look at that, Cody,” he says. Cody nods again, clearly not concerned by the cut on his head.

  Jack says something to someone behind him. A moment later, we are being ushered by men in black uniforms toward ambulances. Xu, Mei, Cody, and I are all put in the same ambulance and Jack comes to the door. He puts his hand on my knee.

  “You did well, love, very well. I was able to get the signal off Mei’s phone. I had just landed when you sent me the text. I had enough time to alert the security forces on the ground, but it appears you all were able to get out on your own.”

  That reminds me. I reach into my pocket and pull out the other drives. “Here,” I say. “I found these last night and I copied the rest of Mohammed’s files onto the red one.”

  He looks a bit surprised but takes them and sticks them into his pocket and pats it. “I’ll have someone get right on these.” I nod.

  Xu clears his throat and speaks. “It was Cody. He saved us.”

  Jack looks at Cody and smiles. “Military training paid off, eh?”

  “I don’t like to use it but…” He trails off and puts his arm around me, pulling me tight against him.

  Jack nods. “I see. Mohammed is upstairs then.”

  “Yes,” Cody answers.

  “I’ll meet you all at the hospital. I need to wrap up a few things here,” he says.

  We nod, and Jack reaches over and hugs me. “I’m glad you’re alright, Zoe.”

  I manage a small smile as Jack shuts the ambulance door. A few minutes later in an ironic twist to my day, the ambulance pulls up to the same hospital I left this morning. We are escorted inside, and Dr. Zhang emerges from an exam room.

  “Miss Greene?” he asks, his eyebrow
s raised in surprise.

  “Dr. Zhang?” I say, probably looking just as surprised.

  “Are you alright?” he asks.

  I nod and look over at Xu and Cody. “My boyfriend and our friend were injured and need to be treated.”

  “I see.” He gives me a suspicious look. “Will I ever be getting the real story?” he asks as he spies armed guards standing behind us.

  I smirk. “Uh, probably not.”

  He laughs. “Very good then,” he says and stretches out a hand first to Cody, then Xu, and Mei. Once the introductions are done, we follow him into an exam room where he patches Cody and Xu up with a few stitches. As he brings in the discharge paperwork, he looks over at me.

  “It’s been a pleasure, Miss Greene. While I have enjoyed your company over the past twenty-four hours, I truly hope for all your sakes that this is the last time we’ll see one another,” he says. I laugh.

  “Me too, Dr. Zhang, me too,” I agree as a woman comes in and taps him on the shoulder.

  “Dr. Zhang, they need you for the meeting about the new PICU,” she says in English.

  Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrows both at her statement and the English. He smiles at me and shrugs.

  “Our hospital is expanding,” he explains. “I’m in charge of treatment for children with, well, special circumstances, shall we say. I’ll be heading up a new unit here.”

  “I see,” I say. “Well, good luck with it then.”

  “Thank you, Miss Greene,” he says and extends his hand. I don’t know why, as it seems completely out of my character, but I bat his hand away and pull him into an embrace.

  “You are very welcome. And thank you,” I say, pulling back to look at him, “for everything.”

  He nods and shakes hands with the others before excusing himself for his meeting. I turn back to them. Xu and Mei look shell-shocked. I have a feeling their lives have been very mundane up to this point, well at least Mei’s life. I hope beyond hope that they will be able to overcome this. Cody reaches over and pulls me to him and kisses my forehead as we embrace. I know at that moment that I will get over this, all of this, because not only do I have him, but I also have myself, and right now I know that is all that matters.

  Chapter 28

  Zoe’s Playlist: “Piece By Piece” Kelly Clarkson

  Jack is standing at the door of the hospital as we walk out into the late-afternoon light.

  “You alright?” he asks us. We collectively nod.

  “I have a car arranged to take you back to your apartment. We need to debrief,” he says and motions for us to follow him into a giant black van. We are driven back to the apartment. Two men in suits wait for us in the lobby. Jack introduces us to them. They are government officials with what Jack explains is the Chinese equivalent of his work, which is honestly completely a mystery to me. A third man walks in, and Jack introduces him as Vance Patrick. He is with Interpol.

  They lead the men up to the apartment. Jack pours himself two fingers of whiskey and sits down by the window.

  “So?” I ask him.

  “So, the data you sent me and the stuff on those drives you gave me this morning is going to open doors to the largest international investigation of human trafficking in the history of the world, that’s what,” he says coolly as he sips his drink. “I don’t know why Mohammed had those files mixed in with the project files, but he slipped big-time. That’s why he wanted the drive back, cleaning up loose ends and all. He just threw his organization under the bus and backed over it several times. I can see why he was so adamant to get it back. I’m actually surprised he didn’t go to greater depths to retrieve it earlier. It’s puzzling. Plus, we found encrypted files about contracts they had arranged with other criminal organizations on those drives you handed me earlier.” He looks pensive as he stares at me. “I’ll need to beef up your security for a while, but I’ve managed to keep your identity under wraps for the most part.”

  “Was everything a sham here? The company Cody was working with, was it actually Mohammed’s?” I ask.

  “Yes and no,” he answers. He’s cautious in his answer. “The company was Mohammed’s, but the other contract they managed to obtain this week, that is real. And Mohammed’s company is real, it just was created with, shall we say ulterior motives.”

  “I see,” I say as I drag my gaze to Cody. He’s sitting next to me, and he squeezes my hand.

  “I’m leaving with Zoe tomorrow, Jack,” Cody states as he locks eyes with him. “Ian can finish things up here.”

  “I can arrange that,” Jack says. “I just need all of you to tell us exactly what happened over the past day, and then you’ll be released from the investigation, as I am very certain you only know about Mohammed.”

  Cody nods, and we each launch into our own stories. The one man in a navy-blue suit turns on a recording device. They listen attentively as I explain the past twenty-four hours of my life, which now seem like twenty-four days. Mei chimes in with some details leading up to when I came to get her, explaining how she was trying to find Xu. Xu looks ashen as I describe walking on the trails alone and hearing someone behind me for a few miles. I continue to re-live each moment as I give them every detail. Cody keeps my hand in his, the entire time that I speak. It somehow brings me comfort.

  Xu tells us how he was abducted while waiting for me at our agreed upon rendezvous location. He was knocked out and taken back to the room where I found him.

  It’s Cody’s story that brings tears to my eyes. He had been beside himself when I didn’t return home. He tried to get ahold of Xu and me, but with no luck. He called another driver, and they went out to the forest. The guards told him that I had been picked up, and then Jack’s text came through as he too had spotty cell coverage that day. He immediately called Jack, but Jack was already getting on a plane. At some point, while he was heading back to the apartment, Jack was able to get him a message to let him know that Rob had gotten my Find Friends alert, and they were tracking me to a warehouse area on the river. That’s when Cody jumped in a car and sped off to find me. He ignored Jack’s calls from the plane to stop and wait for him.

  Jack had taken the liberty of getting some colleagues on the ground over here to get a helicopter and some cars and try to take down Mohammed. Jack alludes to a larger international investigation, a cooperative effort amongst many countries. Apparently, Mohammed had been a wanted man for quite some time. Unfortunately, Mohammed’s folks got wind of an impending takedown, and in the chaos of Xu and me escaping, Mohammed was able to get away.

  Xu chimes in that he had made it across the river but was spotted by Mohammed’s security force as they had assumed we’d both swim straight across. That’s when they brought him to the office complex. Cody had been abducted by more of Mohammed’s security force that was still locking down the warehouse as the helicopter was closing in on the location. He was knocked out and also brought to the office complex. Apparently, Mohammed was very sure I would turn up sooner rather than later because they had seen that I was shot. They decided to lie low while attempting to pick up our track.

  I guess Jack wasn’t the only one tracing Mei’s phone. Apparently, so were Mohammed’s security people. That’s how they located us and set the trap for us to fall into without even knowing. I cringe remembering my intuition warning me multiple times. I promise myself to always listen to it in the future.

  Cody finishes, and we all sit in silence. The late-afternoon sky has now given way to twilight, the last remnants of pink sinking low in the sky as dark blue takes over the horizon. I can see the moon rising higher in the sky. The men from the Chinese government and Interpol thank us for our time and leave.

  “You’ll leave tomorrow?” Xu asks.

  Cody nods.

  Jack stands. “I guess I’ll leave you to pack. It was…” He gives a small laugh. “I’m not sure ‘a pleasure’ is the right phrase considering, but I’m glad to have made your acquaintance,” he says to Xu and Mei. They shake hands
, and Jack turns as he walks toward the door. “I’ll see you back in the States. I have a few things to wrap up here before I head back home,” he says to Cody. I walk over to him and wrap my arms around him.

  “Thank you, Jack,” I whisper as I kiss his cheek.

  “Of course, love, of course. I’m impressed by you and all your skills,” he says with a slight chuckle. He smiles down at me as he leaves. Just before he closes the door, he turns to me. “You have a lot of bravura, you know that?” I give him a quizzical look as I don’t know the meaning of the word. He doesn’t explain, but instead gives me a wink and then closes the door.

  Xu and Mei also stand. “We should go,” Xu says. “I’m sure you have much to do.”

  I walk over and give Mei a hug and then Xu. “I’ll miss you both. Promise you’ll visit us,” I say.

  “Of course, Zoe,” Mei says as she pats my shoulder. We embrace one last time and Cody gives them both a hug as well. Somehow, I know that with everything we’ve all been through together, Mei and Xu will remain our friends for the rest of our lives. The door closes and suddenly the apartment seems very empty, very silent.

  “Come here,” Cody whispers, and I sink into him. We stand holding each other for minutes in complete silence. “We should pack,” I say, breaking the silence.

  “Yes,” Cody says, but doesn’t move. Pulling back, he takes me by the hand and pulls me toward the bedroom. I look around debating what to pack first. I pull up my phone’s dictionary and look up the word “bravura.” Bravura means a show of daring or brilliance. I chuckle to myself. I suppose I was daring and brilliant for a millisecond. I didn’t know I had that in me. I turn and bump into a wall, Cody. I look up at him. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispers, his eyes fill with tears as he stares at me. “For just a split second, I didn’t know if I could react fast enough. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”