Saving Each Other (BWWM Romance) (12 page)

“That’s expected, you took quite a spill when you were rescued.”

“Rescued?” I had no idea what he was talking about. Both he and Mallory had very concerned looks on their faces, which only made me more afraid of what they would say.

“Tamara, you were kidnapped and held in captivity for twenty-three days. Does any of this ring a bell?” he asked me. I tried to think back. I remembered the last meeting I had with Rory Corp and government officials then it flooded in.

“All I remember is being hit in the parking lot and taken away but I-I can’t recall anything else.”

“Okay, well it’s as I expected. While you were being rescued, you hit your head after you fell about eight feet. You didn’t need any surgery but your memory was damaged, short term only though. You also had a bit of malnutrition but it wasn’t too bad, you have recovered well.”

“Oh,” I answered, at a loss for words.

“If you feel okay, the police have been waiting to ask you questions.”

“Yeah, we can do it now.” He nodded and left.

“I’m so glad you’re okay. I missed you.” Mallory hugged me again, careful not to hurt me.

“I missed you too.”

“You really can’t remember anything?”

“No. I remember darkness though, like never ending darkness. I remember two men, like their voices but not their faces.” I sighed heavily, it was a weird feeling not being able to remember anything.

“It’s okay, I’m sure it will all come rushing back to you.”

“Tamara, ma’am, can we have the room please?”

“Sure.” Mallory left me alone.

“Mr. Simms, Mr. Fuller, what are you doing here?”

“We have a few questions for you.” The name Simms ran through my mind, bringing back a weird memory. I was talking to a man, a very good looking man, about my company. I saw pictures, sad pictures. Pictures of drugs and-and dead people.

“I-I thought the police were questioning me,” I said when I shook out of my thoughts.

“There is something you should know. Now we understand that you are experiencing memory loss so this might jog your memory.” He showed me a video, it was of me. I was talking about how I had been kidnapped, and then why. Something about my company doing illegal things with drugs and guns.

“Now, you must know that it isn’t true. We think it is some ploy by another activist group to bring us down.”  Activist…the word brought back another memory. I was talking to that man again, about him being an activist.

“There were pictures,” I said aloud. I remembered the pictures of the guns and drugs disguised in the oil barrels.

“They were fake.” Mr. Fuller said. I didn’t believe him though.

“What about the men who took me? What are the police doing with them?” I didn’t know why, but when I thought of the man in my memories, I felt inclined to protect him. I wanted to know where he was, I needed to know for some reason.

“What we tell you has to stay in this room, do you understand?” Both the suited men looked at me with stern faces.

“Yes,” I lied, I wasn’t sure I could keep whatever secret they were about to tell me.

“The police didn’t find you, the company did. We have the men who kidnapped you and we are grilling them for intel.”

“Intel on what?”

“We want to know how much they know about us. They seemed to know a lot though.”

“So it is true then, we have been doing illegal things?”

“Look, it was all for a reason. We had to get into the drug trade because the company was losing money at catastrophic levels. Then, the Iranians were offering us a lot of money for our access to guns, all kinds of them. It was the only way to save the company,” Mr. Simms explained. What kind of CEO would do that?

“You put everyone in jeopardy, me too. I was kidnapped and help in captivity for--“ suddenly I stopped. A flood of memories came back to me. I could think of his name, Dan, but all I could remember were things about him. He was kind, even though I was his captive. I remembered the bad food and then the good food. I remembered eating breakfast in the kitchen with him…how weird.

“Uh, Tamara? Listen, we have to put this to bed, get the FBI off our backs. They really set it off with that video. It’s all over the news,” Simms said.

“Are you going to kill them?” I asked. They didn’t answer me, which struck fear in me.

“You don’t need to know all the details. Just rest, hopefully you will feel better enough to return to work soon. We need you in our corner to get everyone off of our backs,” Simms said to me. I didn’t get a chance to answer before they both left and Mallory returned.

“Are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine. I’m just hungry.”

“I’ll get the nurse to bring you something.” She left me alone again.

The hospital food was horrible but it settled my stomach. I was suddenly very tired and groggy so I drifted off into sleep easily.

“Wake up, Tamara,” Dan’s voice whispered into my ear. He kissed me softly on my cheek before my eyes fluttered awake.

“Hi.” I turned my head to him and smiled. His hair was disheveled from sleep, but he looked cute that way.

I looked down at our naked bodies and the memories from the night before flooded back into my mind. How it felt when he touched me, every part of my body caught on fire. And when he was inside me, I swear I could lose my mind from just how right it felt.

“Are you hungry?” he asked me as he pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear.

“No.” I didn’t think I wanted anything else except him. He ran his hands down my arm, stopping at my waist.

“I keep thinking about last night,” I whispered to him and bit my lip nervously as I looked up at him. He smiled wryly at me and licked his lips. He leaned down and kissed me softly. I returned the kiss immediately, moving my body closer to his. He licked my bottom lip, asking permission to enter my mouth. I accepted and his tongue met mine. The kiss broke too soon, but I was gasping from the sudden intensity.

“Me neither…I don’t think it’s ever been that good for me before,” he said to me.

“Yeah, not for me either…what do you think it means?” I asked him. I couldn’t quite explain my feelings for him, I didn’t know him enough to love him… did I?

“I don’t know. I mean I know I have feelings for you, it wasn’t part of the plan.” He chuckled slightly.

“Well, none of this was part of the plan for me,” I giggled, referring to the entire kidnapping.

He stroked my face softly with his thumb, holding it in his hand. I moved my face and kissed his hand softly before I took it in my hand. We stayed like that for a while, my head resting on his chest and our hands intertwined. I could hear his heart beat perfectly, and I could swear that it matched mine.

“I know what it means,” he said after a while.

“What?” I asked him.

“I’m in love with you.”

I woke up suddenly, confused as to where I was for a little while. Then I saw Mallory sitting on the couch and all the wires in my arm. I thought back to the weird dream I just had, and then it all hit me at once. I think it even gave me a massive headache. I pressed the call button and had the nurse give me something for the pain and some water.

“Are you okay, Tamara?” Mallory asked me.

“I remember, I remember everything.”

Chapter Seven: Dan

I guess this was what Tamara felt like. I had been in a position like this before. Chained to a chair in a dark room, not being able to see anything. But it had been a really long time ago for me to be able to relate, now I knew and I instantly felt terrible. But it worked, I wouldn’t have been taken by them if they weren’t under investigation already.

The latch on the door was unlocking and someone entered. He even looked like he was into illegal shit, they probably hired some rogue group of hitmen to take Justin and me.

“Are you two ready to talk?” The large, burly man said to us. I looked over at Justin, he was barely conscious. They really put a beating on him because he wouldn’t shut his mouth, I just couldn’t see out of my left eye.

“We don’t have anything to say.” He struck me hard, the rings on his finger slicing my face right across.

“Tell us what you know.” I looked over in the corner and saw a red light flashing on the ceiling. There must have been people sitting a room somewhere who could see and hear us.

“I’m guessing you aren’t the police.” I thought back to when they invaded the country house, they wore uniforms but it didn’t seem like something the local cops were capable of.

“You’ve got that right.” He didn’t hesitate to answer.

“You were hired by Rory Corporation,” I stated, not as a question. I already knew.

“Yes,” he said simply.

“What else do they want? A recant? You can go ahead and tell them they aren’t going to get one. Judging from my current situation, they are already under investigation. It’s only a matter of time before the police find what I did and this case gets turned over to the DA, maybe even the attorney general’s office. But, we’ll just have to see.”

He punched me again, twice on either side. The blood dripped from my mouth easily and I felt my side teeth loosening. He really packed it all in those. I thought he was done but then he punched me just under my diaphragm, making all the air gush out of me. I had trouble breathing for a good minute afterwards.

“There is nothing you can do to me, or get me to do. I won’t recant anything, it’s already too late. You know it, and they know it.”

“Fine, well here’s a little message from the boss.” He pulled out a gun suddenly and I thought that was the end. I thought of Tamara immediately, I was glad she was safe. The few times I saw her smile were etched in my mind. I closed my eyes, ready for death to come. I’m sorry, Tamara, I love you.

The gun went off but I didn’t feel anything. I opened my eyes timidly. I couldn’t see much but I could make out Justin’s form. He shot him, he shot him in the head. I couldn’t say anything before he left me alone with my best friend’s dead body.

“Hey, man, I’m Justin. Mind if I sit here?” I was alone in the mess hall, the other soldiers were going about their meals alone.

“No, you can sit. I’m Dan.”

“Nice to meet you.” We shook hands. I had been alone on base for about two weeks now, after that it was like we were joined at the hip.

We did our first two tours together, the third one was when I was taken. I thought of him every day, I knew he was looking for me and he was. He was the one who found me. He risked his rank and everything for me and he didn’t care. He was my brother. I wasn’t ashamed of the tears that left my eyes. If it was the last thing I did, I would make sure Rory Corp never saw another day.

They brought me food twice a day, if you could call it food. I’m pretty sure it was oatmeal and the other was some kind of meat and potato slop. They didn’t bother to move Justin’s body away, I didn’t know how much longer I could watch him there like that. He deserved the proper burial, American flag and guns ‘a blazin’.

He only untied my hands so I could eat then they tied them back behind the chair. I thought the tendons in my shoulders were ready to fall off. A different man came every time so I couldn’t work out a schedule. It wasn’t my first time being held in captivity and escaping, I just needed to figure out a plan of escape.

I tallied every time they brought me food: two, four, six, eight. I’d been there for three days. I could already feel myself getting weaker, malnutrition. I’d lost a lot of blood and I was bleeding internally, I was pretty sure I had a broken rib too.

“Wake up, you have a special visitor.” I was shaken awake by the same man who had killed Justin. I couldn’t look at him without seeing red rage.

“Mr. Roberson. I’m so pleased to make your acquaintance, you probably already know me, don’t you?” The smug face of Chris Simms looked down at me, they had turned the lights on. I couldn’t open my eyes all the way, not just because they were bruised shut but because I had to adjust to the light.

“Yes, I do.” My voice was low and raspy, almost unrecognizable to me.

“You have caused quite the ruckus with your little ploy. Don’t worry, Tamara is safe and will be returning to work for us soon. No one will ever take us down with her in our corner.” I highly doubted that Tamara was going back to work for them, and if she was I was sure she had a plan or a damn good reason why. I didn’t doubt her for one second.