Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) Read online

  What’s wrong with you, she thought as she closed the door to the bathroom. Back on the bed, Nathan lay there puzzled and thought . . . yeah, there’s definitely something between us.

  Later that morning, after both Nathan and Sam had gotten ready for the day, she asked to speak to him for a minute.

  “Okay, I wanted to talk to you about two things.”

  “What’s up?” Nathan asked while hoping that this wasn’t going to be an awkward talk about what had happened earlier. He didn’t want this talk to end with them just being friends or some other nonsense.

  “First of all, I want you to have this,” she said and handed him a rather small pistol.

  “I don’t know about this.”

  “What’s not to know? I may not always be there to help you out, and I want to know that you can protect yourself, especially if we’re going to be sticking together for a while.”

  “Well, it’s just that the one time I actually had to point a gun at someone, it didn’t work out very well,” he said and then described to her what actually occurred when he was taken by Jacob.

  “All right, so you didn’t take the safety off. That’s not a big deal. Look, I’ll show you how to work everything to do with this gun,” she said and proceeded to show him everything from where the safety was to how to load and chamber bullets.

  “That’s good, but I really hate guns, to be honest with you. I just can’t ever see myself pulling the trigger and taking another human being’s life, even if my own life was at stake.”

  By this time, Sam was a little frustrated. She only wanted him to be able to defend himself, and he was the one who said he wanted to stick with her. If he truly did want to stick with her, then he would have to at least learn and be willing to defend himself.

  “Look, I can respect that you value human life, but imagine if my life were at stake. Wouldn’t you want to be able to defend me in the worst situation?” she asked while trying to stay patient with him.

  He hadn’t thought of it that way. He had no doubt that if it were Sam who was in trouble, he would do whatever was necessary to keep her safe, even if it meant killing someone.

  “Yeah, I would.”

  “Okay. Well, we obviously can’t do any target practice in the middle of a city, but for now, I just want you to get a feel for it. You know, get used to the weight of it and everything.”

  “Okay, but there’s just one tiny thing that might be a problem.”

  “What is it?”

  “I have actually never fired a gun. Do you have any tips for me?” Nathan asked, sounding embarrassed.

  “Just line up the sights, and don’t think too much about what you’re doing. Your body should act on instinct. Just raise your hand, and in one smooth motion line up the sights, and then without hesitation, pull the trigger. Oh, and don’t forget to take the safety off this time.”

  “Okay, I’ve got it. So what was the other thing you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “Well, this is somewhat hard to say, but it’s become clear that you have some feelings for me, and it’s not that I don’t feel anything for you. It’s just that I think in our current situation, we need to remain friendly but focused. I think that any type of romance that you may want to go on would only serve as a distraction, and in my world, distractions can get you killed,” Sam said while biting her lip.

  “Why are you saying this? I know I felt something between us just a few minutes ago, and I know you felt it, too. There’s nothing that me caring for you or you caring for me could ever do to endanger either one of us.”

  “Look, this is the way I want it to be, so if you care about me, please just let it be that way.”

  “Fine,” Nathan said in a defeated voice.

  There was a long silence between them until Nathan chose to escape the silence.

  “I’m going out for a bit,” he said.

  “It’s probably not safe for either of us to be out by ourselves. We’re likely being hunted, you know.”

  “I’ve got this pea shooter now, and you have all your super training, so I’m sure you’ll be fine whether I’m here or not,” he sarcastically said as he opened the door and left.

  Sam couldn’t help but feel all mixed up inside after he left. Why did I cut off any chance of anything ever happening with him? I definitely did feel a connection just like he did. Why am I so stupid, Sam wondered. It’s not that she hadn’t wanted to tell Nathan that she had strong feelings for him. As a matter of fact, she would have loved for him to kiss her just a few minutes before, but the truth was that she was scared. This was her first and only experience with anything that even resembled a relationship. Back at the academy, there was no time for such trivial things, and now that there might be time to think of such things, she only found herself to be scared, confused, and socially challenged when it came to interacting with a man who she might love. At this point, she didn’t even know if there was any sense in trying at all. She felt as if she was a lost cause.

  “I’m so sorry, Nathan. I’m just too messed up,” she said towards the door that he had just exited.

  * * * * *

  Trish heard a knock at her door, and after answering it, she discovered that it was Jacob.

  “Let’s go. I’m ready to pay this Lee guy a visit,” he said in an excited voice.

  “Okay, just let me take care of something, and I’ll be right out,” Trish said and then closed the door. She walked over to the bed where Jess was handcuffed.

  “I’m leaving, so the tape has to go back on. I’m really sorry.”

  Trish then applied the tape to Jess’s mouth. She hated to do it, but it simply had to be done. After that, she walked out the door. She and Jacob got into their car and made their way over to Lee’s apartment complex. They climbed the two flights of stairs leading up to Lee’s room and made their way to Lee’s front door. Jacob stepped to the side, and Trish knocked on the door. After a few seconds, Lee walked to the door and looked out of the peep hole to see only a small girl standing there. Who is she? Oh well, she’s kind of cute, he thought as he opened the door. Much too his dismay, he soon discovered that a large man was accompanying her.

  “Can I help you two?” Lee asked.

  Jacob pulled a gun from his pocket and pointed it straight at Lee’s head.

  “Yeah, we would like to come inside and have a word with you,” Jacob said.

  “Right this way,” Lee said.

  He was going to obey the man with the gun at whatever cost. Lee was 6’4”, and this guy who was escorting him at gunpoint was at least three inches taller than him. In terms of pure muscle, the guy was ripped. This must be how intimidated normal people feel when they see me, Lee thought to himself. As they made their way to Lee’s living room, Jacob began to explain exactly why he and Trish were there.

  “Look, I’m only here for two things. I want the flash drive that I already know you have, and I want the location of the place where Nathan Grey and Samantha Fisher are staying. If you give me those two things, you can get out of this alive, and if not, I’ll slowly cut off different parts of your body until you decide it’s in your best interest to tell me what I need to hear. Personally, I’m hoping for the latter,” Jacob said and smiled.

  The truth was that Jacob had planned to do the latter as soon as Lee told them where to find Nathan and Sam, but he figured that Lee might be a bit more cooperative if he didn’t know that just yet.

  “The flash drive is plugged into that computer right over there,” Lee said while motioning to the laptop lying on a desk in the corner of the room.

  Jacob turned to grab the flash drive, stupidly, and that’s when Lee struck. He leapt onto Jacob’s back causing them to both crumble to the ground and the gun that was once placed firmly in Jacob’s hands went flying across the room. Lee wasted no time as he began throwing punch after punch into the back of Jacob’s head. Trish, seeing that Jacob had clearly lost control of the situation, pulled out a small Taser from her pocket and si
mply walked up behind Lee and zapped him. As Lee fell off him, Jacob jumped to his feet in a rage. Then he jumped down onto Lee’s chest and put his hands firmly around his neck. He literally began squeezing the life out of him. Lee couldn’t breathe at all and felt himself beginning to lose consciousness. He looked deep into the eyes of the behemoth that had sat down on his chest and saw something unexpected. Jacob no longer had a face of hatred or rage. He was smiling. He had an expression of pure joy on his face as he was killing him. Lee thought that the devil himself couldn’t have such a crooked smile or hateful eyes.

  “Stop it! You’re going to kill him. We’ll never get any of the information we need if you kill him. Jacob, stand down!” Trish cried out.

  Jacob slowly let go of Lee’s neck and backed away.

  “You’re not going to tell me where they’re staying. You’re going to show me, and then if you’re lucky, I’ll kill you quickly,” Jacob said while looking down at Lee.

  * * * * *

  Nathan had just walked out of the hotel, and he was feeling rejected, heartbroken, and stupid. He quickly made his way to a small bar across the street. He had never been the type to drink alcohol to escape his problems, but Sam’s rejection mixed with everything else that had happened over the last few days had taken its toll on him, and right then, he just needed relief. He sat down and ordered. Rum and Coke had always been his drink of choice. As he sat there and drank, he began to wonder how things were going with Lee and the flash drive, and to be honest, he just wanted to talk to another human being. He could call Michael, but Michael had always come to him with his problems, and he had plenty of them. It’s not like he needs to hear about all my problems when he has so many of his own, Nathan thought. He made the call to Lee.

  “Hello,” Lee said.

  “Hey, I was just wondering how things were going with the flash drive,” Nathan asked.

  “Slow, they’re going very slow.”

  “You weren’t up all night, were you?”

  “Most of it.”

  “I’m sorry, man. Get some sleep. We can wait a little longer.”

  “I might do that soon.”

  “Well hey, I was wondering if you could give me a little advice,” Nathan said.

  There was nothing but silence on the other end of the phone.

  “Lee?” Nathan asked in confusion.

  “Can I call you right back? Someone’s at the door.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Nathan assumed that the excuse of someone being at the door was just Lee’s way to get off the phone. Lee never did like listening to other people’s problems, Nathan thought while hanging up the phone. Nathan stirred his drink a couple of times and then downed it in one large gulp. He would need quite a few more drinks if he was going to even have a chance of curing his day.

  * * * * *

  “I can’t believe it! This is where they’re staying? This is where we are staying,” Jacob said.

  God, I hope that Sam’s a really good agent, Lee thought to himself while feeling very guilty for selling out his friend. What choice did I have, Lee thought while trying to give himself an excuse that might ease his conscience. The truth is that he didn’t feel like he had any valid excuse. Michael or Nathan would die before they ever sold him out.

  “Okay, Mr. Higgins, you’re going to walk with me into that hotel room right over there, and you’re going to be nice and quiet, or I’m going to put a bullet between your eyes. Do we understand each other?” Jacob asked.

  Lee nodded and did what he was told. Once he was inside of the room, Jacob bound and gagged him.

  “Don’t go anywhere now,” Jacob said sarcastically as he left the hotel room and went over to Trish’s room.

  “Okay, Miss Rogers, you’re going to call your friend Michael and tell him where you are and beg for him to come and save your life,” Jacob said as he handed her a phone.

  She dialed Michael’s number and waited for him to pick up.

  “Hello,” Michael said.

  “Michael, I’m in trouble, but no matter what happens, promise me one thing. Promise me that you won’t come for me. Run!” she said as Jacob snatched the phone away from her.

  “Listen, your lady friend here is about to die. You have twenty minutes. If I see any cops, if you’re late, or if I just feel like it, she will die. If she means anything to you, come to the Bright Inn.”

  “Which one?” Michael quickly asked.

  “The same one that your other friends are staying at. Tick-tock, Michael,” Jacob said while smiling.

  “If you hurt her, I swear to God that I will make you suffer in ways you can’t even imagine.”

  “Okay, broken soldier boy. Why would I be scared of someone like you who couldn’t even handle killing a few enemy soldiers back in the dessert? No, face it. You’re a broken and pathetic excuse for a man.”

  “I promise you that you’re about to find out exactly why you should be afraid of me,” Michael said and hung up the phone.

  “You can handle this idiot, can’t you?” Jacob said while turning to Trish.

  “Yeah, but I thought you wanted to deal with him?” Trish said.

  “I do, but I just figured that you could Taser the guy or keep him at gunpoint for a little while, so that I can go take care of Ms. Fisher and Mr. Grey.”

  “Yeah, I can take care of him.”

  “Good,” Jacob said as he exited the hotel room.

  Jacob went straight to Nathan and Sam’s room and casually knocked on the door. Oh thank God, Nathan’s back, Sam thought as she ran to the door. She opened it and was met by a fist. She fell to the floor. She was stunned but still aware enough to know that she needed to get some distance from the guy if she had any chance of getting out of this alive. She started quickly crawling backward. Jacob, slowly but surely, walked in, shut the door and set a large bag on the floor.

  “So where’s your friend Nathan? Not here? Well, that’s perfect. We’ll have the place all to ourselves,” Jacob said in a crazed voice.

  Sam got back to her feet and immediately remembered where her gun was. It was on the night stand by the bed. At this point Jacob was closer to it than she was. After seeing her look toward the gun, Jacob made an offer.

  “Look, you’re disarmed, and now so am I,” he said as he threw his gun to the side.

  “I’ll give you two choices. You can willingly surrender and things will be easier or we can do this the hard way. It’s your choice.”

  “The hard way, and it’s your funeral,” Sam said while putting her hands up into a fighting position.

  “Great!”

  Sam decided to watch his movements and try to counter them. There was no way she could take this man strength on strength, but she could definitely use his own motivation against him. Jacob came at her and swung with his right hand straight at her head. She easily ducked his hasty advance and landed a left hook to his ribcage. Then she fired a right upper cut to his chin, effectively knocking him backward.

  “You can quit now and get out of here still able to walk,” Sam said with a smile.

  “Oh, I like you. It should be especially fun slowly breaking you,” Jacob said in a sick voice.

  He then came at her again. He was just as reckless this time, too. He threw his first punch to the right side of her body, then to the left side, and continually he threw punches back and forth forcing Sam backward and into the bathroom in order to avoid his blows. He lunged at her again, as if to tackle her. She stepped to the left, grabbed him by his side, and pushed him headfirst into the bathroom mirror. He, along with hundreds of shards of broken glass, fell to the ground. This is when Sam chose to strike. She jumped on him and delivered blow after blow after blow to his face. He was beginning to go motionless, but he still had one trick left. As his face was being pounded, he reached down into his pocket and pulled out a rather large knife and planted it squarely in her right thigh. Her barrage of punches stopped as she reached for her leg out of pure instinct. Just then Jacob thr
ew her off him and got on top of her and began unleashing a barrage of punches of his own. He hit her over and over in the face until what used to a beautiful face only consisted of cuts and bruises. When she finally lay motionless, Jacob dragged her to the area of the room with the beds and took her arm and twisted it until it was about to snap.

  “You’re going to call Nathan Grey and get him here, or I’m going to start by breaking your arm, and then I’m going to move on to much worse things.”

  “I guess you’re going to break my arm because I’m going to tell you to go to hell,” Sam said.

  Jacob twisted her arm until a loud pop was heard. She cried out in agony. Jacob continued to twist her arm until it became obvious that he was getting nowhere through this technique. He then did what any sensible person would have done in the first place. He grabbed her phone from the table at the small sitting area that was near the beds. Sure enough, the name Nathan was in her contacts.

  * * * * *

  Nathan was still sitting at the bar a short distance down the street, when his cell phone rang. It was Sam’s number. He didn’t want to talk to her right now, but he thought that he better answer it anyway. Something could be wrong.

  “Hello,” he said as he answered.

  “I don’t know what Samantha Fisher means to you, but if you want her to stay in one piece, you need to get back to your hotel room. If not, hey we have the flash drive, and I’m pretty sure that I can make this little bird sing in an interrogation, so by all means run,” Jacob said.

  “Run away, Nathan!” Sam screamed in the background.

  “I’ll be there in two minutes,” Nathan said and ran out of the bar.

  Why in the world would I have left her? She said that we should stay together and what did I do? I stormed out like some love crazed idiot, and now she’s the one who has had to pay the price for my ignorance, Nathan thought.

  “God, I don’t want to kill anyone, but if it comes to that, please let my aim be true. Most importantly, no matter what happens to me, please keep her safe,” he prayed desperately.

  It was extremely cloudy and dark on that day, and Nathan could see the glow of the hotel sign up ahead. As he arrived and found his way to the room, he took the pistol from the back of his pants and sighed.