I find it easily and already several of the showers are in use. Inside there are eight showers, four sinks, ten lockers and open shelving with fresh towels and showering supplies. A quick look across the hallway reveals another bathroom full of toilets and sinks. This place is equipped for a lot of women. I quickly glance around for any signs of Rose, but don’t see her.
Not wanting to take too long, I hop into the first free shower and savor the hot water and soap as I bathe myself. My body feels loose and bouncy. I have an excitement racing in my veins and, as inappropriate as it is right now, I want to sing loudly and never stop smiling. I keep my singing restricted to inside my head, though, and bite my lips when I think I’m smiling too brightly. I have some horrible news to tell Rose and being giddy and happy is not the way I want to deliver it. Depending on when Blake got to him, there is a possibility Dean is dead or in a lot of trouble.
The reminder of their predicament is enough to take the smile off my face. Thinking about all the death that has surrounded me as of late takes away any happiness I’ve been feeling. I may have just had the best night of my life with Charlie, but it doesn’t erase the hell we’re stuck in, or how messed up I am inside.
I don’t see anyone when I’ve finished in the shower and change into some sweatpants and a t-shirt for training. The shoes feel weird to walk in, being brand new, and I wish I could go back to my old pair. They might be falling apart, but I like them. I like the familiarity that comes with wearing old clothing.
When I see Charlie waiting by our room for me, I return his smile, realizing mine isn’t as bright as his. In the ten or so minutes I’ve spent in the shower, I’ve lost some of the afterglow of our love, however he hasn’t. Not yet at least.
He takes my hand after I leave my clothes on top of our bed and then we walk towards the meals area that Martha hadn’t shown me last night. When we enter there are maybe thirty people already sitting in mostly silence, eating at eight rows of large tables, three deep. This place is massive. As I begin to wonder if there are enough people to fill up every seat, I spot Rose and Will sitting at their own table, and leave Charlie to get us our food as I rush over to them.
They notice me when I’ve almost reached them and, as they both stand to meet me, I wrap my arms around Will. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen him.
“Are you okay?” I ask him, my eyes searching him as I pull away. I swear he’s grown even taller than when I last saw him. He towers over me now, his shoulders are broader and I think his chest is even bigger. He’s getting muscles.
“I’m fine.”
“What are they feeding you, steroids?” I demand, turning to face Rose when she wraps me up in a hug, too.
“That’s what I asked him when I first saw him. What the hell happened to you? You’ve been gone for days, and who the hell hurt your face?” Rose touches my cheek, glaring angrily at my injury.
“Stan happened.”
“I’ll kill him,” Will growls, his words drowning out Rose’s own outburst.
“How about we focus on getting out of here. If Stan happens to eat a bullet on our way out, I won’t complain,” Charlie mutters as he places two bowls of cereal down in front of us. Mine is without milk, but I notice it’s twice the size of his.
I shiver at his easy comment about shooting Stan. I can’t fault him wanting to hurt Stan, but after all the death I’ve seen—especially caused by guns—I’m not sure I’ll ever want to see another gun again.
“What the hell happened to you guys? Where is Blake?” Rose asks me again, sitting down opposite Charlie and me. Will follows suit and we all lean closer to the middle of the table.
I suddenly have a very large lump in my throat. Now is the time to tell Rose. She needs to know about Dean, yet just how exactly do I verbalize the words? How do I tell her that the man she loves might be dead?
“Earth to Zoe?” Rose waves her hand in front of my face.
“Just give her a sec,” Charlie growls, but it doesn’t hold much bite. He knows that what I’m about to say will kill her.
I take a deep breath, not feeling any relief from the oxygen. “After you left, we overheard Stan and Martha talking. They were speaking about knowing we were coming. They had cops on the inside, cops at the station Dean was at.”
“What?” Rose’s face drains of color. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her look so pale. I grip her hand now across the table, not letting go of her.
“I sent Blake after him. I couldn’t leave you guys, but I also couldn’t let anything happen to Dean. I sent him to take the car and go to him while I stayed behind to try and round all of us up. The fact that Blake isn’t here, means he got outside The Jail. It means he made it to the police station.”
“They were going to kill Dean?” Rose gasps.
“Yes, but I don’t think they were going to do that straight away. I think they would have waited until it was later, less conspicuous. Blake had enough time to get to him, and he’s better at this than us. He’s trained for this type of thing. He’s a great shooter and I just know he saved Dean,” I assure her, not having any proof of that. Not even a future dream to back my words up, except I saw Dean in that tux. I have to believe that was real. He has to be safe.
“You had a dream? You saw him alive?” Rose straight away latches onto that hope. I’m unsure if I should lie or not.
“No.” I drop my gaze from hers, hating the hurt and fear I see in her expression. Rose has always been our rock, always been the strong one. To see her crumbling… I just can’t…
She removes her hand from mine, her chair scraping the ground as she suddenly stands. She walks away from us, her hands fisting at her sides, her walk becoming more determined as she moves. I know she’s going to confront either Stan or Martha.
“We have to stop her.” I begin to get up, too, but Charlie holds my arm down.
“She needs to get this out. Keeping her from them won’t stop her for long. Go after her Will; make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid, or that they don’t do anything to her.”
Will quickly stands and goes after her.
“Eat.”
“You expect me to eat after this?” I blanch.
“Yes, then when it’s time for lunch, I expect you to eat, and also tonight at dinner. Then tomorrow, we’ll repeat.”
I want to roll my eyes at him, but I’m too worried to even do that. So I grab a handful of cereal and munch on it. Not really tasting it.
“That was worse than I imagined,” I tell him. Really, I pictured that going a million different ways. Having it be real is what has made it worse.
“Dean is going to be okay and, when we get out of here, they’ll be reunited and this will just be some painful memory that they’ll try to forget.”
I nod, not sure that this will work out as neatly as Charlie hopes.
“So tell me about his place,” I say, wishing for a distraction.
“It’s full of soldiers, all people who enlisted. I think they’ve all been specially chosen to be in this unit. This place is a training base, and I’m told people move around a lot. Mac said he’s already been to a bunch like it.”
“Mac?”
“Yeah, he’s a friend I’ve made. The only one, actually. He’s been in medical the past couple days, you might have seen him down there?”
“I didn’t see anyone except Harold, and another doctor.”
“Well, he’s nice. I hoped he might help Will and I escape The Jail, now I’m gonna hope he’ll help us get out of here.”
“Does he know what P.A.G.E. really is?”
“No, he believes their lies. It’s sad because as far as I can see, most of these people are good, brave Americans. It’s not fair that their loyalty is being used like this. They all think they’re helping their country.”
I shake my head, hating what is happening here.
Just before breakfast is done, Charlie takes me over to see a trainer called Shane. He wants to know who I’m partnered up with. When Shan
e tells him I’m partnered up with Mac, Charlie is relieved. I am, too. Martha told me I’d be partnered with Ethan, but either she forgot, lied or changed this because of my future dream. She’s always had a hidden agenda about having Charlie and me be together. Maybe she decided to change her decision to ensure nothing happens to us.
“Mac will look after you here, he owes me one.” Charlie squeezes my hand, looking about for Mac. “He must be out of medical if he’s your partner.”
I look around, too, and my heart drops when I see the man from my dream, Ethan, making his way towards us.
“Mac!” Charlie smiles warmly at Ethan before shaking his hand. “You all better, man?”
“Yeah, just a killer headache. This your girl?” He nods towards me, smiling easily when I stare at him. He looks confident, handsome and friendly. In my dream he’d appeared weak, injured and scared. What happens to him that turns him that way? What happens between us that we’re even in that position in the woods?
He’s taller than Charlie, has an incredibly fit body, dark chocolate colored skin, warm, light brown eyes and a short military haircut that all adds up to a very attractive man, and I hate that I just thought of him as attractive.
“Are you sure there isn’t someone else I can be paired with? Why can’t Ethan go with your partner?” I ask Charlie, tempted to scoot passed him and quickly beg Shane to swap me with someone else. Martha said I would be paired up with Ethan, by doing that does that ensure my dream comes true? What happens to Charlie?
“Ethan?” Charlie gives me a strange look before he shakes his head lightly. “They won’t let us swap. It’s okay. I trust him unless you get a bad feeling off him?”
“I do,” I quickly say, knowing that the only bad feeling I get is that I’m losing Charlie.
Charlie assesses my face, his hand tightening around mine. He then turns to face Ethan and let’s go of my hand. He grabs Ethan roughly by his t-shirt.
“You do anything to Zoe, anything that she doesn’t like and I will kill you. You owe me, and I’m cashing in. You protect her like she’s your fucking family. Don’t screw this up.” He pushes Ethan to emphasize his words.
“Charlie!” I hiss, looking around us to see we’re getting a lot of attention.
Ethan appears shocked by Charlie’s outburst. “I wouldn’t hurt her. Why would you even say that?”
“Give me your word.” When Charlie pushes him again, I reach out and take hold of his arm, wedging myself in between them.
“I promise, I won’t hurt her or let anyone else hurt her,” he promises Charlie. I hear how serious his voice is. He straightens his shoulders and I wouldn’t be surprised if he added a salute to Charlie, although I’m thankful when he doesn’t.
“Will you be okay with him?” Charlie keeps eyeing Ethan, no longer seeming to like him at all. It scares me how sure he is about my instincts and how far he’s willing to go just based on my word. It makes me feel worse for lying to him. I don’t get any bad feelings from Ethan, which means whatever happens to Charlie isn’t his fault. He just might end up being the result of what happens when I lose him.
“Yes, we’ll be fine. I feel better already. Thank you,” I assure him quickly, looking away from Ethan and trying to appear relaxed to Charlie.
“You look upset still…” As he steps even closer to me, I feel the protectiveness radiating off him. If we had been somewhere more private I might have thought his actions were hot. I push those thoughts away.
“It’s just because of my conversation with Rose. Have you seen her yet?” I change the subject.
Just then I see her come back into the meals area where she stands next to a butch woman, who looks as big and muscular as any of the guys here. I know instinctively not to ever mess with her. Rose looks distraught and my heart breaks for her, but I don’t get a chance to talk to her because Shane calls to everyone to begin training.
Charlie gives me a quick kiss goodbye, still needing to find his partner, and sends a vicious warning glare to Ethan.
“Whoa, never knew how protective Nico could be. I thought he was a chill guy.” Ethan watches Charlie leave before turning his attention to me.
“Sorry about that.” I shrug at him, taking a step back, needing to keep some distance between us.
“How did you know my name is Ethan?” he asks me, crossing his arms over his middle and accentuating his chest and shoulder muscles.
“Umm… Charlie must have mentioned it.” I shrug again, looking at the crowd quickly dispersing around us.
“Nah, he doesn’t know my name. No one here does. I’ve always just been Mac. I know hardly anyone’s first name here.”
“It might have been Martha. So what are we doing first?” I ask, keen to change the subject. The last thing I need him knowing is that one of my dreams has been about him, which is how I know his name.
“Right, first we warm up. My favorite is the circuit. Every place I’ve been to has a great one and this place might have my favorite.” He claps his hands in front of him, another smile gracing his face. He has perfect white teeth. “Come on.” He waves me over to some stairs I saw people running down earlier. Thankfully, Ethan doesn’t start running down them, too.
“Why are we being left alone? Don’t you train as a group?”
“Usually we do, but for a few days at the end of the month we spilt up into our teams. We have mock missions on the last Saturday of the month. So we get to train by ourselves, working on whatever we want.”
“Mock missions?”
“Yeah, just whatever they cook up. Last pair standing gets a Sunday off training. Not that exciting, but we have a lot of competitive people here, myself included.”
I nod, feeling nervous that we’ll have to go through this in only a couple of days. I’m definitely not ready for any missions, mock or otherwise. Will I be expected to fire a gun?
“What type of mock missions have you had before?”
“I’ve done a maze, combat fighting, and a survival in the middle of a forest. We had no maps, no compass, no food supplies or water. We had to get to a certain spot and the first ones there won. That one sucked.”
“They sound hard.”
“That’s because they are. They want to see where you’re at, where your weaknesses lie.”
“I’m all weakness.”
“I doubt that. What’s your fitness like?”
“Umm... not the greatest,” I admit.
“How about weapon training? Have you had much?”
“I’ve had a few lessons with a handgun, but I’d prefer never to use a gun again.”
“Hm, well that might not be a problem depending on the exercise they make us do. You’ll have to use weapons eventually. My personal favorite is the 9mm Glock 18 machine pistol.”
“I hate guns, and I will never use one,” I assure him strongly while he glances at me, seemingly analyzing me, and it makes me feel uncomfortable.
They can’t make me shoot a gun; well, unless they threaten to separate me from the others. My heart sinks when I finally acknowledge how much they can control me with that threat.
When we finally make it outside, I squint at the glare from the sky outside. I let my eyes adjust and quickly take in our surroundings. There is a lot of space out here, appearing as big as a football field that is surrounded by a large fence covers and it must be at least two stories high. No way to jump over it, which would mean we will need to go through it or somehow under it.
“Let’s warm up before we stretch.”
“Where is the circuit?” I ask nervously, hoping it’s not as hard as I fear it will be.
“Around the side of the building. I think we’ll run that a few times.”
We round the corner and my fears are met tenfold. The circuit is massive. I know I’ll struggle to be able to run it once, let alone a “few times”.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groan.
“Trust me, it’s fun.” He jogs over to the start of it, beginning his h
ustle through what must be thirty large tires in a line of two. There are already several pairs running the circuit and they all look fit and competent. No sign of Will, Charlie or Rose, though.
I reluctantly move forward and struggle to make it through the tires, needing to stop halfway through to rest. Next up, I take hold of a rope and fly through the air and back again to where I started, too afraid to let go. Two more swings and I finally dump myself on the ground passed a dip that I imagine will be full of mud soon. A light rain begins to fall and I hesitantly crawl under some mesh and feel pain whenever I rest my legs, arm or stomach on something hard and sharp under me. When I get through that and get my feet under me, I’m completely covered in mud. Ethan jumps up next to me and I nearly scream in shock.
“You’re overtaking me?” I whine. I’m barely even halfway through the circuit.
“I have been training for this since I was sixteen. I’m happy to say I’ve gotten good at this type of thing.”
“Sixteen?”
“Yeah, went to military school, and as soon as I graduated, I enlisted.”
“Aren’t you sick of all this then?” I complain. I’ve barely had to do any training and I’m most definitely sick of this.
He shrugs at me, another grin taking over his face. He too is covered in mud. “Race you to the end?”
“Yeah, right.” I roll my eyes and watch him take off, running up a ramp that looks impossible for a normal person to get up, or maybe just impossible for me.
***
I make it to the end and collapse on the ground, causing mud to go all up my back and in my hair. I groan, unable to catch my breath, as Ethan drops down next to me, laughing.
“I guess you weren’t kidding, Holloway, when you said you weren’t that great at fitness. We’ll have to work on that.”
“I’m good at running, but not all that useless crap you just made me do.”
“It’s not useless; it makes sure every muscle gets a workout,” he explains, already next to me stretching. I force myself to sit up and do the same.
Taken By Choice (Taken Trilogy Book 3) Page 6