Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) Page 12

  “Good night,” Sam answered in a low voice.

  Why didn’t I say anything to him? I mean, I do like him, or at least I think that I might, she thought to herself. She sighed and smiled. Well at least he likes me, but why can’t I tell him how I feel? How do I feel? Lord, I’m hopeless, she thought as she finally closed her eyes and started to try to go to sleep.

  Chapter 14

  Michael sat on top of a sandy hill in Afghanistan with no one but his spotter. At this moment, this isn’t where he wanted to be at all. It is, however, what he had signed up for. He felt accomplished when he made it through boot camp. No one had believed that such a screw up like him would ever make it through boot camp, much less survive in a real combat situation. He used all of the doubt that people thrust upon him as fuel to make his dreams a reality. He not only made it through boot camp, but he was given the chance to be elite within his class. He was chosen to be a sniper. For the first time, he was accomplished, and people looked at him with a new sense of respect that he had only longed for before. He was no longer the broken boy who constantly needed Nathan’s help. No, now he held all the power in the world behind his scope. There’s one funny thing about that kind of power, though. It sounds great in theory, but once you’re there staring at some kid, who’s probably no older than you, through your scope and you realize that you hold the power to take his life right then and there, you may not want that power anymore. Michael had only encountered one type of person in this desert wasteland, and that was the broken kind. All men’s minds broke here after their first kill. Some of them grew to love killing their enemies, while others developed strange but understandable habits. They broke or turned around any mirrors in their sight, washed their hands constantly, screamed out in their dreams, and even at times grew suicidal. Which type of man will I be, Michael wondered while waiting for a signal.

  “There are two on our right,” his spotter said. Michael found the first target to his right. It was only a boy, a boy who was even younger than Michael. For a moment, Michael was overcome with emotion. The boy in his scope didn’t even look eighteen. He pushed all the emotion and all the doubt from his mind and simply took a breath. He pulled the trigger and watched the boy’s life expire in front of his eyes. On to the next one, he quickly thought while finding the next target. Another shot rang out and another dead boy hit the ground. A tear ran down Michael’s face as he heard his spotter say, “There’s one more on the left.”

  When Michael awoke, he was soaking wet from sweat, and he had tears streaming down his face. Why? Why that dream of all dreams, he thought to himself. He clicked the lamp on that was next to his bed and went straight to the bathroom. He turned the shower on as hot as it would go and got in. He scrubbed and scrubbed, but what he wanted to come off never would, regardless of how much he scrubbed. It was the dirtiest feeling you could possibly feel. You just hope that the water that’s boiling your skin and the cloth that you hold can somehow wash the stench of your own sins off, but unfortunately, it never does. As Michael exited the shower, his thoughts began to grow uncontrollably violent. Not toward anyone else, but instead toward himself. Nathan had always been there to help him through these issues before, but now he was alone. His current roommate didn’t understand. As a matter of fact, the guy thought he was crazy. Maybe on some level, Michael was crazy. Who can I talk to? Do I even deserve for anyone to try to help me through this, He wondered. No, I deserve the same fate as those people I killed, he concluded. After realizing how out of control his thoughts were growing, he retrieved some pills from a bathroom drawer. These were designed to help him work through what the doctors called post-traumatic stress disorder, but he knew the truth. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m only haunted by the choices I’ve made, and I deserve to be haunted by them, he thought. Still, the pills did seem to make him feel a sense of peace, or at the very least, a numb feeling. He popped open the bottle and took two pills. In that moment, he looked up and saw his reflection. It was a pathetic thing to see, or so Michael thought. Here was this weak, broken person staring back at him, and it just didn’t feel like that person in the mirror should be him. The sight made his stomach turn. He threw down the pills and punched the mirror sending shards of glass to the floor.

  “Is everything all right in there?” His roommate called from the other room.

  “Yeah, everything’s just great!” Michael said in a sarcastic voice.

  Many shards of glass had buried into his hand, and he was bleeding pretty badly. He then covered his hand with a bath towel and walked back to his bedroom and grabbed his phone. He quickly ran through his contacts. Nathan’s here. Maybe he could talk me through this. No, I don’t really want to bother him and Sam, but I hate to bother Jess again, he thought. Finally, he gave in and made the call to Jess.

  “Hey, Jess. I’m sorry about calling you so late, but I really need someone to talk to right now,” Michael said desperately.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  The truth was that this had grown routine for Jess. Jess was a nurse, and Michael had never liked hospitals, so anytime he had an emergency where he needed medical attention, he pretty much just called her. His dreams and fits of rage had grown more common lately, so he felt as if he were bothering her all the time. Jess didn’t really mind. She only wanted to see Michael heal somehow. She was always afraid that one day he was going to do something stupid that she couldn’t fix. She was afraid that she was going to come over and find him dead in that bathroom. God, how can she ever like you if she can’t even respect you, Michael thought as he got off the phone.

  Outside of Michael’s apartment building, Jacob and Trish sat waiting in their car. They were trying to see him to confirm that he was actually there.

  “So what do we know about this guy?” Jacob asked.

  “He’s a former marine and sniper. He served some time in Afghanistan, but then apparently he lost it. He was deemed mentally unfit to serve and sent home shortly after he got there,” Trish answered.

  “So he was a sniper who was broken by simply pulling the trigger. How weak can you be?”

  Jacob scowled at the thought of such a weak person. Jacob had always hated these types of guys. The ones who signed up to go do a dirty job and then suddenly grew a conscious when it was time to perform were pathetic to him. To him, they were not only weak, but something about them was also disgraceful.

  “This is one that I’ll enjoy making squeal!” he said with excitement.

  At that moment, a large van pulled up with a girl inside it. She got out and walked straight to Michael’s door. She knocked and then, after a moment, entered.

  “Who is the girl?” Jacob asked.

  “I’m on it,” Trish answered while flipping open her laptop.

  “How are you going to find that out on there?”

  “If the girl is entering his house in the middle of the night, it stands to reason that he knows her, and if he does know her, I can easily find anything I want to know about her through any social networking pages that he may have.”

  “Well, what have you got?” Jacob impatiently asked.

  “Her name is Jessica Rogers, and she’s twenty-three years old. She only lives a few blocks from here.”

  “I think we have a way to make Michael tell us whatever we want him to,” Jacob said with a laugh.

  * * * * *

  “Oh my God! Are you okay?” Jess quickly asked as she noticed Michael’s bloody hand.

  “Yeah, the mirror just kind of jumped out at me,” Michael said in a joking tone.

  He had never known why, but just having Jess near him seemed to naturally calm him. Two seconds ago I was ready to kill myself and now I’m making jokes, he thought.

  “This isn’t funny, Michael!”

  “I know,” Michael said while hanging his head.

  “Look, I know that you don’t want to even consider this, and I’ve talked about it a hundred times before, but I think that you might need to start
talking to someone again. Not like me, but a professional.”

  “I’m fine. Look, you can just go if that’s what you came to say.”

  “But I haven’t even cleaned your wound yet.”

  “I’ll be fine. I can clean it on my own. Just go,” Michael said and began walking back to his room.

  “Stop, Michael. I’m just worried about you. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, then please at least consider doing it for me,” Jess said while closing the distance between the two of them.

  Michael looked into her eyes and saw all of the concern and sadness that his own pain had caused her. How am I worthy of such compassion and understanding? Who am I to disappoint such a beautiful and magnificent creature, he asked himself.

  “Okay. I’ll go when all of this business with Nathan is over. I promise.”

  Michael then hugged Jess. He was hugging her not only to show her that he cared about her, but also because a part of him needed to feel someone close to him more than ever right then. After their longer than normal embrace, Jess said, “Now let’s get to work on your hand.”

  After Jess bandaged Michael’s hand and finished assessing his physical and mental condition, she determined that it would be safe to leave him alone. She told him goodbye and left.

  “Hey, I think that she’s leaving,” Trish said.

  “I think we should follow this one,” Jacob said.

  “Why?”

  “We’ll make Michael come to us.”

  “All right. That’s actually not a bad idea,” she said while putting the car in gear.

  They followed Jess four blocks to her apartment complex and parked just a few feet away from her. Jacob stepped out of the car and began to walk toward her. After noticing the giant of a man who was walking toward her, Jess quickened her pace to her apartment. Then she heard a voice from behind her.

  “Stop or I’ll blow your head off,” Jacob said.

  As she turned, she saw the large man with his hand inside of the sleeve of his coat. He was holding something that she thought had to be a gun.

  “I’ll scream.”

  “And when you do, you’ll die. Now, this is how it’s going to work. I’m going to tell you what to do, and you’re going to comply, or you’re going to die. Do we understand each other?” Jacob asked with a grin.

  Jess didn’t answer him immediately. She was too consumed by fear to speak or even move. What does this guy want with me? What should I do, Jess wondered as she examined the man who may very well kill her soon.

  “Here is a little bit of advice for you. I don’t like to repeat myself.”

  “I understand,” Jess said.

  “Good. Now walk to that car right over there and get inside casually.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You don’t ask the questions. You just do as you’re told. Do you understand?”

  With a simple nod, Jess turned and walked to the small black car that she had been instructed to go to and got in the back seat. Jacob then entered the car, choosing to get into the back seat, also.

  “Where are we going now?” Trish asked from the front seat.

  “We need to find a place to stay for the night. It needs to be somewhere close to Lee Higgins’ apartment. He’s the one we’re going to see tomorrow.”

  Lee Higgins? Could he be talking about Michael’s friend, Jess wondered. As they drove to the hotel room, Jess began to wonder what would happen to her. Would she even be alive after tonight?

  After arriving at the hotel, Trish went inside and got two rooms. Upon getting Jess out of the car and escorting her to the front of the two rooms, a disagreement occurred.

  “She’s staying in my room,” Jacob said with authority.

  “Over my dead body,” Trish quickly said.

  It had bothered her that Jacob loved to torture and kill people, but that’s not why she didn’t want Jessica to stay with him. She feared what type of torture a sick individual like Jacob might decide to conduct on a woman alone in his room. The very thought of it sickened her, and she wasn’t about to just sit by and let something like that happen to any woman.

  “You know that can be arranged! As a matter of fact, I don’t know why I’ve dealt with you this long.”

  Trish immediately pulled a gun from her side.

  “Look, we can do things my way or see how messed up your face looks on this sidewalk. It’s your choice, Jacob,” Trish said in a much stronger and authoritative voice than Jacob had previously heard her talk to him in.

  “Fine, have it your way, but just know that when you pulled that little gun out you signed your own death certificate.”

  After that last threat, Jacob retreated into his room. Trish and Jess then entered their own room.

  “Thank you,” Jess said.

  She knew that she had just been saved from the worst type of experience that one can possibly go through.

  “Don’t thank me just yet,” Trish said.

  Trish then got some things out of a large bag that she had been carrying and escorted Jess to the bathroom. She handcuffed her to the tub railing. Afterward, she stuffed a large sock in her mouth and taped her mouth shut.

  “I told you not to thank me too soon. Well, good night.”

  As Trish went to her bed and turned the lights out, she had only two things on her mind. The first was how she was going to manage to get rid of Jacob before he actually made good on his promise and killed her. The other was something that she hadn’t thought she would feel if she were ever faced with the situation she had just been faced with. Trish felt extremely guilty. She had been a part of terrifying this girl who was imprisoned in her hotel bathroom, and for what? Just because she knew some guy who might know some things that would paint the organization that she worked for in a bad light. No, this isn’t what she had thought life would be like when she was approached by Mr. Boyd. She dreamed of a life without rules where she could reach her full potential. All she had found for herself was a world of constant cover-ups and death. Nothing was right. She reached up and turned the light back on and walked into the bathroom. She reached down and took the tape off the scared girl’s mouth. After she removed the sock from her mouth, she took her handcuffs off and escorted her, still at gunpoint, back to the bedroom.

  “Look, I may have handled things wrong a second ago. There’s no need to be scared of me. If you do as I say, then I promise you will get out of here alive and unharmed. Now I want to treat you civil, but I can’t have you running away or that idiot that’s next door might actually kill me, so do me a favor and make this night easy and the tape and sock won’t be necessary,” Trish said in the friendliest and calmest voice she could muster up.

  “Thank you,” Jess responded.

  “I’ll leave the handcuffs off until we go to sleep, but for now, feel free to turn on the TV or whatever.”

  As the night went on, Trish and Jess exchanged small talk, and when it was time to sleep Trish handcuffed her to the bedpost. Trish felt bad enough just handcuffing her at the end of the night. It was as if she were treating this girl like an animal that she could simply cage at will. It felt wrong. I really should have picked a different career, she thought while feeling disgusted at her own soft heartedness.

  Chapter 15

  Nathan woke up in his hotel bed and turned over. There lay the girl that he had come to like, and like a lot. There lay Sam. What does she think of me, he wondered. Her hair was a mess, and she might have looked the worst Nathan had ever seen her, but still, the sight of her made his heart jump in a way that he hadn’t felt in years. He had spent so long chasing his first love Holly that he had never really stopped to consider that someone so strange, so beautiful, and overall, so much better for him could be out there somewhere. If she does feel something for me, great, and if not, well then I’ll just have to make her see me in a better light in the future, he thought. He looked over and saw the same camera that she had taken pictures of him with and had an idea.

  “S
hould I get a little revenge? I don’t see why not,” he said to himself.

  He then began snapping pictures of her, and almost on cue she woke up.

  “What are you doing?” Sam asked in surprise.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I guess I just figured that one good turn deserves another,” Nathan said with a smile.

  “You are going to give me those pictures. You know that, right?”

  “Well now, I know no such thing, Ms. Fisher. In fact, I think that I may just share these with the group when we get back to Lee’s,” Nathan said in a joking tone.

  Sam then sprang to her feet, and Nathan took a quick step backward.

  “Come on, give it to me. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt again.”

  “Oh, you just caught me off guard back in Birmingham. I’m ready for you now.”

  Sam reached for the camera, but Nathan pulled it away. He then held it above his head. With his 6’2 frame and his unusually long arms, he was able to hold it just out of her reach.

  “Very funny. Now give it to me before I actually do get mad.”

  “Oh no! You’re going to have to take it from me if you want it.”

  “Fine, but just remember that you asked for it,” Sam said.

  At that moment, Sam plowed into Nathan, effectively knocking him down on top of his bed. She was frantically reaching for the camera that he had a death grip on when it suddenly became apparent to both of them. She was lying on top of him, and her face was only inches away from his. She could feel the warmth of his breath and the pounding of his heart, or was that her heart pounding? At this point, she couldn’t tell. She was short of breath, and at any moment she just knew that her heart would jump from her body. He turned loose of the camera and placed both of his arms on her back. Is he about to kiss me, she frantically wondered. She jumped off him instantly.

  “Umm, I’ve got to go shower. Just leave the pictures if you want to,” Sam managed to say before retreating into the bathroom.