I could hear gunfire behind me, signaling Derek and Lola’s arrival. The SUV beside me continued to push me toward the shoulder, every time getting closer and closer to the gravel on the shoulder. If I hit that at this speed, I was fucked. Up ahead, a semi was barreling toward us, but I just barely caught sight of it in the distance. We were headed for a hill and if I could keep the SUV in the other lane, the semi would take them out for me.
I backed off the gas slightly and then rammed back into them, keeping them on the other side of the solid yellow line. I rammed him once more, just barely pulling away as we crested the hill and the semi smashed into the SUV’s front end. My vehicle hit the gravel and I couldn’t correct the spin. The back tires hit the slope of the ditch and I lost control of the wheel, flipping the SUV several times as it rolled into the ditch and bounced out in the field on the other side.
I felt the jarring impact over and over as the seatbelt held me tightly in place. I would have a bruised chest for sure, but I was damn lucky I hadn’t been crushed in the roll. As my world hung upside down, I waited for the haze of smoke to clear. My vision was clouded in my left eye, but at least it was the eye that was already fucked up. I could tell my right wrist was fucked up from catching in the wheel as I tried to control the SUV. Other than that, I had a headache, but felt better than I should for what just happened.
Banging on the door had me drawing my gun, which I somehow managed to hang onto during the crash. Lola was at the driver’s side door on her knees. She tried to pull on the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Get the fuck out of there, Cap.”
I fumbled with the seat belt and pressed the release. “Fuck!” I took a few deep breaths as my wrist throbbed from landing on it. I angled my feet into the passenger side of the truck and tried opening that door, but it was stuck also. The window was cracked, so I smashed my boot into it over and over until it broke and I could kick out the pieces. Lola was there to help clear out the remaining pieces of glass and helped drag my ass out of the truck. When I was finally out, I laid on my back and stared up at the sky as the clean air filled my lungs.
“Jesus, Cap. What the hell were you thinking? Do you realize how close you came to seeing the devil himself? That semi almost took you out.”
“I was thinking it was the easiest way to get rid of those fuckers. How’s the semi driver?” I asked as I got to my feet.
Lola pursed her lips and pointed to where the semi lay on its side on the other side of the road. “He’s alive, but you could have gotten him killed.”
“What about the second SUV?”
“Got swiped by the semi. Driver’s dead, but we got the other guy in the back of our vehicle.”
“Good. Get him back to the office and find out what he knows.”
“What about Maggie? They most likely followed you from her house.”
I nodded. “It’s best if we stay away for now. If they followed me, it’s because they thought they could use me more than her. You and Derek head home and see what you can find out about this fucker. Send someone to pick me up. I’ll call Hunter and put him on high alert and deal with this mess.”
We headed back toward Derek’s SUV that was parked on the side of the road. The SUV that tried to run me off the road was now unrecognizable in the ditch, with the back end of the semi laying over part of it. There was no way anyone survived that crash. The driver of the semi was on the phone, walking in the field, so I took that as a good sign that he was alright. I made a call to the Pittsburgh police chief and explained the situation, leaving out the fact that we were taking a hostage with us.
Derek and Lola left within minutes and I walked over to the semi driver, making arrangements with him where he conveniently forgot about the other passenger in the second vehicle and in exchange was paid handsomely for his forgetfulness. It took over two hours for the police to show, ask their questions, and let us all go. The paramedics on the scene insisted on taking a look at me, considering the condition of my own vehicle. They wanted me to be checked for a concussion because of the large gash above my left eye, but I refused. They wrapped my wrist to stabilize it and tried again to get me to go to the hospital, but there was no convincing me.
When a Reed Security truck pulled up, I waved to the police and dragged my tired body into the passenger seat of the truck. Chance Newman from Team Four was sitting in the driver’s side. He worked with Gabe Moore and Jackson Lewis. Chance was the team leader and was lethal despite his lean appearance.
The kid was chewing on a toothpick with his hand slung over the steering wheel, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Chance had been with Reed Security for the past two years, but hadn’t taken on any big jobs yet. I was a stickler for giving the big jobs to my most trusted and seasoned teams. That was going to have to change with the pressure we were under.
Chance had shaggy, blonde hair that hung around his ears. I wanted to tell him he needed to cut it all off, that it wasn’t a military cut, but we weren’t in the military anymore. If he wanted his hair in his face, that was his problem, even if I did think he looked like a girl.
“Let’s hit the road.”
He put the truck in gear and took off toward Reed Security.
“You know, next time you could call me and I could take them out without you destroying company property.”
Chance had been a Navy SEAL sniper and thought he was God’s gift to weapons. The kid was good and he hadn’t yet talked about why he left the military, but then most of us had our reasons for getting out. Mine wasn’t because I wanted out, but because I was medically discharged. That was something that still grated on me to this day.
“The fuckers are dead. That’s about all I care about right now.”
“Everything good with Freckles?”
I grunted in response, not wanting to talk with anyone about Maggie.
“You ran out of the office like your ass was on fire. We all heard you talking about her needing to go the hospital.”
“She’s fine. She passed out because she was dehydrated.”
“You obviously still care about her a lot to run off like you did.”
I rolled my eyes and stared out the window. The last thing I needed was a love lesson from someone I barely knew. Chance wasn’t someone that I had really gotten to know over the past two years. In fact, most of the new employees were still a mystery to me.
“I’m guessing the two of you still have some unresolved feelings.”
“Christ, are we on Oprah? You want to talk about my feelings?”
“I’m just saying that I wish I had gone back sooner to my wife. By the time I made the decision to get out of the military, she was gone. I didn’t have the chance to work things out with her.”
“She left you when you were active duty?”
He shrugged, one hand still resting lazily over the steering wheel as we cruised down the road. “She didn’t like that I wasn’t around. She wanted to have kids. It’s tough as shit to procreate when you’re gone so many months out of the year. I decided to get out, but by the time I did, she had already decided it was too late. She had been lonely and didn’t think I would ever put her first. When I walked in the door off my last deployment, her bags were already packed and sitting by the door. She said she thought she could do it, but that I would always be drawn to the action and even if I was out, I would get an equally dangerous job.”
“You did.”
“Yeah, but not until after she left. I still had to work.”
“So you regret not having the chance to see what might have happened?”
He nodded. “I always wondered if I had come home sooner, would she and I have kids right now? Who the fuck knows? It might have turned out exactly the same, but I’m still wondering.”
“Do you keep in touch?”
“Nah. She married some douchebag not too long after we divorced. Last I heard, she had the whole package; a kid on the way, a white picket fence, and a husband that’s home every night.�
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I blew out a harsh breath. “I wish my problems with Maggie were that simple. She doesn’t know what she wants. I can’t fix that.”
“Yes you can.” I looked over at Chance in confusion. “You straight up ask her if you’re what she wants. If her answer isn’t immediately yes, you move the fuck on. Life’s too short to waste on someone that’s not sure of you.”
“You just fucking said that you wished you knew what might have happened, asshole.”
“Yeah, but if it wasn’t going to work, our issues would have made themselves known real fast. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. If she’s not sure, she’s never going to be sure.”
“She says it’s not me, it’s her.” Did that seriously just come out of my mouth? Chance shot me a look that said ‘are you fucking serious?’. “I mean that she has to figure out what’s holding her back from committing.”
“Dude, you’re pussy whipped. Just straight out ask her and get it over with.”
I pulled my phone out and dialed her number.
“What the hell are you doing?” Chance asked beside me. He was right. She either wanted me or she didn’t.
“Hello?”
“Freckles, just tell me right now if I’m what you want.”
She sighed into the phone and growled in frustration. “It’s not that simple, Sebastian.” Chance was waving at me from the other side of the truck, but I ignored him and focused on Maggie. “It’s not about whether or not I want you. It’s about whether I can figure out what’s going on in my head.”
“I’m tired of waiting on an answer, Maggie. It’s been months and you’re no closer to telling me now than you were when you left.” Chance started smacking my arm and I fought him off with my left hand while I held my phone between my right shoulder and ear. “I need you to decide. It’s not that difficult. I ask if you want me and you say yes or no.”
“Where is this coming from? I thought you were willing to give me space to figure this out.”
Chance jerked the truck to the side of the road and reached across my body, pulling the phone from my ear. “He’ll have to call you back. Emergency.”
Chance hung up the phone and threw it at me. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“You told me to ask her. You said, ‘straight out ask her and get it over with’.”
“Yeah, but you don’t do it over the phone, you asshole. You ask her in person. That’s the same as breaking up with her over the phone. You just don’t do that shit. You’re gonna wake up one morning with your dick cut off.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say that then! You don’t tell someone to do something and then take it back after they already did it,” I yelled at him.
He ran a hand down his face and shivered. “Damn, that was brutal. I can’t believe you did that shit in front of me. I’m going to be on her shit list now just because I was in the truck with you. You have to fix this now. Tell her you were just in an accident and you hit your head, you’re not thinking straight.”
I sighed and sat back in my seat, waiting for him to pull back onto the road. “Fine.” When he didn’t, I looked over at him. “What?”
“Now!”
“I thought you said not to do it over the phone?” I yelled back.
“You can’t fucking wait now! You just practically broke up with her. You can’t leave her hanging.”
I rolled my eyes and glared at the shithead that I seemed to be taking orders from now. “I swear to God, if you’ve fucked this up for me, I’ll let the guys use you for target practice.”
“Just fix this before she comes after me.”
I dialed her number again and she picked up right away. “Sebastian, are you alright? I just talked to Hunter and he said you were in a really bad accident.” Thank God for Hunter.
“I’m okay. I just..” I looked over at Chance who was miming for me to say I hit my head. “I hit my head and I wasn’t thinking straight. I know you need time. Take all the time you need to figure this out.” Chance started slashing his hands through the air in a negative gesture. “I’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready.”
Chance threw his hands up in the air and looked out the window.
“Sebastian, you know I want you. It’s never been about us. I need to figure some things out about me or we don’t stand a chance. There’s something else I need to talk to you about, but now’s not the time. I’ll call you tomorrow night, okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.”
I hung up and looked over at Chance. “What the fuck was all that?”
“You just totally fucked yourself over because you told her to take as much time as she needed. You can’t walk that back.”
I rested my head against the headrest and blew out a breath. “You know, I was handling this fine until I talked to you. You’re like the killer of relationships.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“Has he said anything yet?” I asked Derek as I walked into the interrogation room.
“Nothing. He’s stonewalling us.”
I walked into the room with a pair of wire cutters. They were really the only tool I thought was necessary during an interrogation. Pain was everything, but the fear of your finger being cut off was worse than the pain. I had let my anger build over the rest of the drive back and then I took an hour to get my body cleaned up and my wrist in a proper brace. I was pretty sure it wasn’t broken and as long as it got better, I wouldn’t be heading to the hospital. Unfortunately, I would need help for this because my left hand wasn’t as strong as my right and more importantly, I wasn’t stupid. Going in there alone with an injured wrist was a good way to get myself killed.
“Who sent you?” I asked the bloodied man in front of me. Derek had taken his time beating the shit out of this guy. He was tied to the chair at the wrists and feet. His gun and a pack of smokes were sitting on the table across the room.
“I’m not saying shit. Do your worst.”
I grinned at him and took a step forward, handing the wire cutters to Derek. I grabbed his right hand and pulled his finger out for Derek. The man struggled and his breathing accelerated, but he didn’t say a word.
I turned to Derek. “What do you think? First knuckle or second knuckle?”
“Personally, I think I’d prefer the first knuckle first. Then, if I caved, I’d still have most of my finger.”
“But if you didn’t cave, you’d have to deal with the same finger being cut off twice.”
“That’s true. Plus, the middle knuckle is thicker. It’s more difficult to cut through. I might pass out faster.”
I shook my head. “That just takes away all the fun. Maybe we should do his toes.”
“You can still walk without toes.”
“How does that work? Toes give you balance.”
“Apparently you can get toe fillers. Some people even get prosthetic toes.”
“Really? I’m not sure I’d want a prosthetic toe. It’d be so tiny. Do you have to have like a special box to keep prosthetic toes in? Imagine how easy it would be to lose those. Then you’d have to keep getting spares made. That could cost you a lot of money.” I scratched my chin. “Come to think of it, maybe we should be going for something that he can’t easily replace. I’m sure if there are prosthetic toes, there are prosthetic fingers.”
“Sure. Like a robotic hand or something. We don’t want to make life too easy on him.” Derek snapped his fingers like he suddenly had a great idea. “We should just chop off his dick.”
“You can get replacements for that also.”
“Seriously? Like a fake dick? How does that work?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how they do it for men, but they can make a dick out of female parts, so there must be a way to do it for a dude.”
“How do you know this shit?”
“I read about it in a magazine in the hospital.”
I turned back to the shithead in the chair that looked a little paler now than he had when I walked in.
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“So what do you think? How about I leave it up to you? Do you want prosthetic fingers, toes, or a dick? Although, keep in mind that your dick won’t work the same and you probably will need assistance in the bedroom.” I grimaced a little and looked him over. “What’s it gonna be?”
“I..I..” He was breathing heavy and his eyes kept darting between Derek and I.
“You don’t want to choose?” He shook his head furiously. “He doesn’t want to choose,” I repeated to Derek. “Alright, I guess we just go for the most painful. Do you want to do the honors?”
“Dude, I’m not touching his junk.”
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
I reached forward and pulled at his zipper and the button on his jeans.
“No! No! You guys are fucking crazy,” he shouted at me.
“You know, you’re making this very difficult. If you sit still, it’ll be a lot faster for you. If you keep wiggling, I might chop off your balls too. No offense, but I don’t want to be this close to your junk, so be a good boy and sit still so we can get this over with.”
I took the pliers from Derek and hovered over him with the pliers.
“No, please! I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Jesus Christ, get that away from me.”
I assessed him for a moment, tapping the cutters against my lips. “Anything?” He nodded. “If I think you’re lying to me, I’ll chop off your fingers, toes, and your cock.”
The man was sweating profusely and shaking in the chair. I noticed a wet spot spreading across his pants.
“Ah, shit. He pissed his pants. Alright, let’s get this over with before it really starts to stink in here.”
The man nodded vigorously and tears started leaking down his face. Personally, I had never had to dole out torture before. I didn’t like the idea that I would be purposely inflicting pain on another human being, but this was different. Someone came after me and I knew they wouldn’t stop until they got what they wanted.
Cap_A Reed Security Romance Page 9