Instinctual

by Amanda Mackey

  There was a couple of minutes of silence. No one was game to speak. Everyone was waiting on The Lord to continue. He finally let out a breath and went on. “I had him immediately brought here so we could tend to his injuries, which as you can imagine were quite horrific. It’s amazing he even survived. We had him operated on by one of the best surgeons in the country who advised us that he could die during surgery. We held our breaths and so far, he’s proved to be one gutsy son of a gun. Of course, he’s in a coma and may never wake up, but after what he’s already gone through, I’m confident he’ll pull through.” The Lord coughed and then turned back to Carlos. “Now. This is where you come in, Carlos.”

  Talk about puzzled. How on earth could Carlos possibly be connected to any of this? He nearly choked on his cigar.

  The stunned look on Carlos’ face had The Lord offering a glimmer of an explanation.

  “Come, Carlos. Adriano, Stavros, leave us alone! We’ll see you back in my quarters shortly.” He flicked his hand towards the two silent accomplices in a ‘get lost’ gesture and pulled out a wad of keys to unlock the cell. The two men escaped without a sound, almost as if they’d never even been there.

  “Now, don’t be shy. Come over and let me explain what I’ll require of you. Yes?”

  Carlos slowly inched forward, nervous about what was going to be asked of him.

  The Lord must have picked up on it because he laughed before speaking. “Relax! You’ll carry out this job splendidly. There’s nothing to it. I’ve got to go away to take care of some business in London for a few days so I’ll be needing someone to watch over our man here. You’ll need to make sure his meds are up to date and check in on him a few times a day in case he wakes up. His urine bag will need to be replaced when it’s full and the saline solution will need to be replaced when it runs out.” The Lord pointed to the bag full of clear liquid hanging from a metal stand beside the bed. “I’m giving this very important job to you, Carlos.”

  “Me?” Carlos was in such shock he couldn’t think of another thing to say. What the hell did he know about all this shit? Sure, he’d wanted to be a doctor when he was a kid but to be thrown in the deep end with a man’s life at stake was so far beyond his capabilities that he nearly stumbled backwards with disdain at the notion. He was way in over his head. He’d freaked out when Kate had nearly collapsed. How was he going to deal with this? What if the guy woke up?

  The Lord walked over to the stainless steel tray and picked up a syringe and a glass bottle filled with a clear liquid, ignoring Carlos’ obvious shock.

  “Let me show you. It’s quite easy, I assure you.”

  Carlos had done many things, but injecting drugs into a stranger wasn’t one of them. He mentally tried to stop his hand from shaking. Sweat had formed on his brow and threatened to run into his eyes and blur his vision. He tried to inconspicuously wipe it without making the gesture too obvious.

  “This is the pain relief medication. All you do is insert the needle into this intravenous line and squeeze the syringe until all the liquid is gone. Only fill the syringe to the halfway mark. No more. We don’t want to kill him with it.” The Lord didn’t inject any of the liquid into the IV line but merely pretended in order to show Carlos.

  This was total bullshit. It felt surreal. He had to be dreaming. Doing all this to keep someone alive that may already be dead? Where was the sense in that? Carlos tried to swallow his anxiety but failed miserably as the remaining cigar embers dropped onto the floor.

  “Here. Let me see you inject the medication and then I know I’ll be able to leave you to it while I’m away.” The Lord handed Carlos the syringe.

  As Carlos studied the stranger on the gurney in more detail, a nagging feeling washed over him. The fucker seemed familiar. It was hard to tell with the guy’s eyes closed, but that chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, and dark hair. There was something about him. He couldn’t quite place it. Perhaps he’d run into him at some time during his involvement with The Organization.

  The Lord saw Carlos falter.

  “Is there a problem, Carlos? Did I underestimate your ability or loyalty? Are you not up to the task at hand?”

  “No, sir! No problem! I just thought I recognized the patient, that’s all. Obviously I was mistaken.” Still, there was a little seed of persistent suspicion that wouldn’t go away.

  Needing both hands, Carlos put the stumpy cigar to his mouth and held it with his teeth while grabbing the comatose man’s arm and inserting the needle. Very gently he squeezed the end of the syringe with shaky fingers and watched as the clear liquid disappeared. When the drug was injected, the heart monitor went crazy for a few seconds and then died down to a normal rhythm. For an instant Carlos thought it was something he had done but The Lord put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

  “That’s the body’s normal reaction to extra strong medication injected directly into the vein. It’s perfectly safe given in the correct dose. Good job! I think you’ll handle it brilliantly. Now let us join the others and celebrate.”

  There was certainly nothing to celebrate as far as Carlos was concerned. The only thing to celebrate would be his return home. This job hadn’t felt right from the get-go and now he knew why. He was way out of his depth. The arctic chill infusing the prison just got a whole lot colder and it was slowly seeping into Carlos’ body like poison.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jake screamed out in desperation as fiery, hellish grief held him firmly.

  “Kaaaate!” His arms, still raised where he’d been holding her, now looked silly, angled in a semi-circle in front. It would look to an outsider like he was in the middle of a game of charades. His heart imploded.

  There were no remnants to suggest that she had even been there. Nothing. He was totally alone in her bathroom, shocked and desperate, understanding fully why she had vanished.

  He dropped his arms and fell to his knees, a myriad of emotions driving into him. He didn’t feel the concrete floor that normally would have shattered his kneecaps. Arms rigid by his side, he yelled her name as if merely calling out would bring her back.

  “Kate! Where are you? Can you hear me?” Did he think she would actually answer? Of course, there was nothing. He was too late. He’d failed to save her and now she’d vanished and he had no way of ever finding her. Of finding her body. She was truly gone. He would never see her again. He was the only one who’d been able to help her and she him, but that window of opportunity had lapsed because of his sexual urges. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have wasted precious moments giving in to his desires?

  “Pleeeeaaassse. Baby, come back to me. I need you. I love you.” Despondency mingled with his shattered words, sapped his own energy. An unimaginable loss as his soul cried out for its other half. He couldn’t go on. Wouldn’t. Didn’t want to. He had nothing to live for now.

  She’d kissed him earlier. Really kissed him. It had been like before, maybe even better. He’d felt it. The magic was still there. She still loved him. There was no denying it. You didn’t kiss someone like that and not mean it. Was that now just another memory to notch up and fade with time? Fuck!

  His shoulders sagged and his body gave into the sorrow as he heaved in pain on his knees. He felt like he were free-falling into the dark void of Hades, an oppressive gloom stealing any light that may have been left from Kate’s presence only moments ago. Darkness. Hate. Anger.

  His mind turned to them.

  They had done this. They would have to pay.

  As he rose on his knees and arched his torso and head towards the heavens, letting out a threatening roar like a wild beast, he also vanished.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Where am I?” Kate shivered, trying to move but she was met with crucifying spasms of smarting pain that carved through her arms and legs. The only thing that turned was her head. Her eyes felt scratchy like they were filled with dirt. Maybe they were.

  She was back in her body. Of that, she was sure.

 
; It was hard to focus with the blinding sun and pounding headache. Her back ached from the rocky ground. One leg was angled in a grotesque manner and she knew that it had broken. She felt something caked onto her upper lip and nostrils. Was it blood? Where was she and how did she get there? The only thing that was clear was that she was outside and clinging to life. Scared and confused. Her hair sent tendrils over her cheeks, the ends glued to her skin. She felt like she was dying. Moving her head to the right and then up, she was met with a wall of dirt and embedded rocks. Even if she could move, there was no way she’d be able to climb her way back up. Holy crap! She’d fallen that far? And she was still alive?

  “Jake!” It was a mumble if ever there was one. She didn’t know why she had called Jake’s name and not Carlos, but for some inexplicable reason it had slipped out first. She was too weak to start analyzing it.

  “Help.” Her voice box had all but seized up, lips barely able to move. “Heeelppp meeeee!”

  Gulls hovered over the harsh sea cliff, crying as if to alert strangers of Kate’s whereabouts. They circled gracefully, wings still, riding the air currents. Against the harsh halo from the sun, the birds looked like winged beings from heaven, hovering ready to carry her soul off into the clouds.

  No one knew her predicament. Who would even think to look over and down the cliff? She shuddered, feeling desperately like this was the end. Final. It would take a miracle to be rescued.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jake found himself back beside his comatose form standing against the cell wall in the prison without having to do anything.

  “Whoa! That was unexpected! The last thing I remember is standing in Kate’s bathroom and now I’m back here?” He didn’t know whether to freak out or be in awe of his new ability. To move without walking. Hmm! That could prove useful. He would definitely have to practice it again. He’d heard of spirits being able to travel anywhere just by thinking of it but technically he wasn’t dead. Or was he? Was he already permanently untethered from his body only being kept alive by machines?

  He eyed the carcass on the gurney, feeling as if it were a stranger. He looked different, as if just a lifeless shell. In all honesty that’s what he was. His eyes, even closed, looked hollow and dead, his skin sallow and dull. Could he be…? Is that why he was out of his body? Destined to roam the earth forever?

  He knew that things had escalated with The Organization and they had put him in the crumbling penitentiary, but leading up to it was blurry. There were still only snippets of memory. Nothing concrete he could piece together. Why was he being kept alive?

  He hadn’t had the opportunity to tell Kate of his fate and now she would never know. Never be able to help. There was nothing left for him.

  As he slowly moved over to the unresponsive form that was his own, knowing that death would be better than a life without Kate, a gust of wind blew under the door, bringing with it the sound of voices. Men’s voices. He couldn’t be sure but as tired as he was, his senses were still as sharp as a pin. He wasn’t alone. He stood upright and in a flash was through the prison bars standing in the long corridor, listening and waiting. He had the intense urge to try and get some answers and to see the faces of the assholes who were keeping him prisoner.

  There! Laughter! He heard it again. Coming from his left hand side, right down the end. It wasn’t just the wind. It wasn’t the ghostly mutterings of lost souls wandering the halls. The voices were happy, celebrating something.

  Suddenly furious, he torpedoed down the hall towards the revelry, spurred on by vengeance. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t physically bring them down. Somehow he would find another way. Everything in his world had crumbled to the ground because of them. One way or another they would pay. Kate was gone. After all he’d given up to protect her, in the end it had been for nothing.

  He didn’t look back, just kept motoring towards the party that he was sure was in his honor.

  He abruptly stopped outside two large timber doors adorned with brass doorknobs. If he wanted inside he was going to have to utilize his newly acquired skill.

  Closing his eyes and taking advantage of his new talent with all the concentration he could muster, he willed himself to cross through the doors to the other side. Very slowly, not game to look, he felt himself pass through a very dense field of energy. At one point it almost felt like being submerged underwater. Weightless but aware of the pressure surrounding him, he likened the sensation to being part of the door or the door was a part of him. He wasn’t quite sure which. The heaviness surprised him. It was like being given his cumbersome body back again as he moved through the timber and then found himself standing in a large, expensively furnished room, vastly different from where he had just come. Another world, if he didn’t know better. No expense had been spared on anything and it was nearly impossible to comprehend that he was in a prison. It looked more like an up-market apartment at a casino for high rollers.

  At the far end of the room sat four men, three of whom he recognized instantly.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Over five thousand miles away in Rockford, Illinois, Robert Fitzpatrick’s private phone in his study rang. No one ever called on the secure line unless it was absolutely necessary. He’d been waiting on this particular call for the last two days.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Rob! It’s Gary.”

  “Hi, Gary. Do you have the information I asked for?”

  “I was able to gather some, yes. I think you’ll find it quite interesting.”

  Ever since Robert had spoken to his daughter Kate days earlier, his cop instincts had been working overtime. An instinct to find out all there was to know about Carlos Santini. It was in a father’s best interests to know whom his daughter was dating. His hunches were never wrong. In his long career on the force he’d had to use those same instincts on numerous occasions to bring down criminals. To assess danger and make decisions, sometimes based on nothing more than a hunch. Something was off. He could taste it.

  He hoped for Kate’s sake that this time he was wrong, that his hunch was nothing more than a father’s over protectiveness. That he had been worrying for the last forty-eight hours for nothing. That the festering seed of doubt was just because he missed his daughter like crazy.

  Still, even if the information he was about to receive proved inconsequential, it was worth a little digging around to put his mind at ease.

  Gary Spillane was an old friend of Robert’s who was ex-CIA and had some extremely useful contacts in the Italy. He had been based in Rome for the last six years, still heavily involved with the military, and was one of the few people that could be trusted. Gary owed Robert a favor from days gone by and was due to pay up.

  “What have you got for me, Gary?” Rob lifted both feet off the floor and placed then on his desk, ankles crossed as he sat back in his office chair.

  “It seems our friend Carlos isn’t as squeaky clean as he likes to make out. Grew up on the streets of New York with his old man. Born into a life of crime. Became a small time crook as a young teenager and progressed into The Organization by the time he was seventeen. His old man was a full-time crook and his mother was a big-time gambler. She used to fritter away much of the dirty money her husband brought in. The parents stayed for a few years in New York and then vanished. No one has been able to track their whereabouts since. Carlos was taken off the streets and given a life far better than the only one he’d ever known. The kid started out dealing in cigarettes and progressed to harder drugs. As far as our source knows he’s never taken the stuff, just delivered it. He’s also dipped his fingers into illegal arms. After working for the US based cell, he was transferred to Italy. He’s been heavily involved ever since.”

  Robert’s body tensed. His hunch had been correct yet again. His daughter was involved unknowingly with a criminal. A criminal in the very Organization that had killed Robert’s brother. His blood burned as he squeezed the phone’s receiver.

  “You’ve done g
ood, Gary. I appreciate this.” The anger in his voice was evident. He tried to rein in his emotions. Gary would know the significance of this new piece of information. He knew how Robert’s brother had died and at whose hands. Robert was grateful his friend didn’t bring it up.

  “We’ve been allies a long time, Robert, and I owe you big time for saving my ass ten years ago. I would have died in that warehouse explosion if you hadn’t warned me at the last minute to get out. How did you know it was going to blow?”

  “I honestly don’t know. It’s hard to explain. Just a feeling I get in the pit of my stomach. Just like now, Gary.”

  “You’re the man, Robert. Spot on once again. How are you going to deal with this?”

  “I need to make contact with our undercover spy. Have you heard from him?”

  “Not for a week. It’s a little strange that he hasn’t made contact but he’s never let us down before. I’m sure we’ll hear from him any day now.”

  “Hmmm. I hope so because we need to get the ball rolling on this, pronto. My daughter is in danger and I want this on the top of the priority list. It looks like I’ll be visiting Italy sooner than I expected.”

  “Are you going to inform Kate?”

  “Not yet. The less she knows the better. I want to deal with this as quietly as possible. Keep digging, Gary, and keep me informed of any additional information. The more I know, the better. I want to know where Carlos is, what he’s eating for breakfast, and what time he takes a piss. Did you hear from the watcher?”

  “Yes. He’s proving to be somewhat unreliable, though. He lost Kate after she entered a restaurant. Reckons she never came out and he waited until the place closed.”

  “Did she realize he was there?”

  “I think so. She appeared to look straight at him but he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain on that.”