The Fey (40 page)

When the lights were on, she had seen her
leather jacket crumpled near the door. Feeling her way toward the
door, she picked up the jacket then dropped it. The jacket was wet
with urine. Her only possibility of warmth was fouled. Knowing that
she wouldn’t smell much different in a few hours, and not willing
to risk getting too cold while she was injured, she put the jacket
on. Feeling along the wall in the pitch-black room, she sat down in
the corner farthest away from the door.

Alex stuck her hands in the pockets of her
jeans. Her fingers felt along the stitching of her right pocket
until they found the loose string. Making certain that her
movements were hidden from any night vision video camera, she
tugged on the loose string opening the cotton pocket to inside of
her blue jeans. Her fingers worked along the jean fabric until they
found what felt like an extra stitching. Unraveling the stitching,
she felt a thin piece of plastic.

Relief coursed through her. She broke the
piece of plastic in half to turn on the GPS locater imbedded in the
ball of her hip.

Letting out a breath, she forced herself
into the sleep that her body needed to heal.

FFFFFF

Northern Scotland

Once again, John Kelly Drayson was on his
way to the farm Scotland to avoid being killed. Within fifteen
minutes of learning that Alex had been taken, he was sitting in the
back of an armored vehicle on his way to Buckley Air Force Base. A
jet to Iceland then a commercial plane to Edinburgh under the name
John Rasmussen. He was escorted by British secret service to the
train station in Northern Scotland where Tom Drayson waited for
him.

Stepping off the train, John felt exactly as
he had when he was fifteen years old–terrified and very alone. Tom
Drayson touched his arm then caught him as John collapsed, weeping
like a child. His sister Rita prepared his old room for him and her
boys tiptoed around him. No one knew quite what to say.

John tended sheep, mended fences and cleared
out stalls during the day. The hard physical labor helped sooth his
anxious mind. The days passed without memory but the nights were
awful.

Unable to sleep, he worked on his research
paper because it was the only thing that reminded him of who he
was, who he had been. He dreamed of Alex every night. His eyes
bounced open every morning, his heart racing with the hope that she
was laying right there under his arm.

The last time he was in Scotland, he had so
many big plans. He would study hard, move to America, become a
doctor, make lots of money, and find her, the woman from his dream.
He dreamed of her the night his father died. Then, after
acknowledging his roommate’s sister’s first visit in more than two
years with something intelligent like: ‘That’s cool, Max,’ he fell
into bed. Closing his eyes, he watched the same dream over and over
again until he awoke exhausted for class. He stumbled, barely
awake, through his morning then barged in on her in the bathroom.
She had just stepped out of the shower. One look into her laughing
eyes and his life changed forever.

He had achieved every dream the moment he
met Alex and lost it the moment he failed to keep her from leaving
the hotel. He knew it was irrational, but he blamed himself. He
could have stopped her. He could have said something to break the
trance. He could have… but he didn’t. And, in that one moment of
inaction, he lost every single thing that he had worked a lifetime
to achieve.

And the only thing that mattered–Alex.

Staring at the familiar ceiling of the room
he lived in more than a decade ago, he had come full circle.
Starting with nothing, he returned with nothing.

Nothing but a fool’s hope that he might see
those laughing eyes again.

F

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

October 12 – 3 P.M.

Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado

“
Sir, I have a signal,”
Alex’s Sergeant said.

He pointed to the computer screen. Alex’s
friend worked in her small office under Buckley Air Force Base.

Raz looked over his shoulder, “Thank
God.”

“
What does that mean?”
Matthew asked.

“
It means that Alex is
alive and able to turn on the tracking signal in her hip. It means
that we can determine her location and what to do next.”

“
If she’s alive, we have
hope,” Colonel Gordon said.

“
Let’s go get her,” Troy
said. He was ready get into action. The sitting around worrying and
wondering was almost more than he could handle.

“
I’m sorry,” Raz said. “We
can’t do that.”

“
Why? We know where she is
being held. We’ll just go and kick some ass.”

“
They will kill her before
we even get close,” Colonel Gordon said. “Alex knows that. I’m
sorry, Captain. We need to work our plan and trust Alex to endure
what is to come.”

Matthew made a noise then sniffed his nose
to hold back his emotion.

Troy looked over at Matthew, “Hey man,
remember S.E.R.E.?”

Matthew stiffened. His mind flashed to the
memory of laying on the cold tile, sobbing, while Alex sang
children’s songs to him. He could almost hear her sing “intsy
wintsy spider.” Matthew’s brown eyes shifted to look at Troy,
“Yeah.”

“
I mean you were with her,
but I heard that the staff was completely freaked out by our
Alex.”

Matthew nodded his head. “She didn’t bat an
eye. She told me once that they have asked her to annotate her
S.E.R.E. tapes to explain how she managed to never show fear. She
refused. She said living through it once was enough.”

“
If she wasn’t affected by
S.E.R.E. then why would someone try to break her down by holding
her captive now?”

Raz looked up from the computer screen to
Troy.

“
I’d be surprised if any
record of Alex’s S.E.R.E. exists. Her fathers probably destroyed
the file,” Raz said. “I’ve looked for it and I can’t find
it.”

Troy laughed. For the first time since he
learned that Eleazar had Alex, he felt like everything was going to
be all right. He caught Matthew’s eyes and Matthew started to
laugh.

“
Why?” Raz
asked.

“
They’ll be lucky if they
make it out alive,” Matthew said.

Raz looked from Matthew to Troy. Shaking his
head, he returned to Alex’s computer hoping to find something that
would help him to decide what to do next.

FFFFFF

October 12 – 7 P.M.
Olde Town Arvada, Colorado

Alex opened her eyes in the pitch black. She
had no idea how long she had been in this room. The dark silence
was disorienting. She might have been there a few hours or a few
days. If she wasn’t in so much pain, she’d think she was dead. She
closed then opened her eyes. Either way, she saw the same darkness.
Grunting with pain, she moved her hand in front of her face. She
saw the movement, a streak of light in the black, more than her
hand.

Sighing, she heard the sound that awakened
her. Rain was dropping onto the street. Accustomed to the silence,
her ears could almost hear individual drops of rain dance on the
street above her. She thought she heard the sound of water moving
through the gutter drains.

As her ears reached toward the symphony of
sound, her tongue expanded in her mouth. Her throat constricted
with thirst. She licked her dry lips.

“
Jesse,” Alex said as more
of an out breath than a word.

“
Don’t speak to me,
Alexandra. They can hear what you say,” Jesse said in
Spanish.

She looked toward the sound of his voice and
saw a spark of light beside her. She sighed. She wanted to talk to
Jesse. The idea that she couldn’t speak to Jesse was bone crushing
disappointing.

“
Tommy taught you sign
language,” Jesse said.

Alex signed: “You don’t speak sign
language.”

“
I only have to understand
it,” he said laughing. “They can’t hear me talk.”

“
I need water. I’m very
thirsty. The water they left is drugged.”

“
It hasn’t been that
long,” Jesse said.

“
It feels like days,” Alex
signed. “How long has it been?”

“
I’ve never been good at
that,” Jesse said,” and I’m worse now. Less than a day, I
think.”

“
They will most likely
leave me alone for three days,” Alex signed. “It’s probably the
rain, but I’m incredibly thirsty.”

“
You’re injured,” he said.
“That can make you thirsty.”

“
Can you get me some
water, Jesse?”

“
I have no idea,” he
said.

“
I can hear water in the
gutter drain. There’s a basement vent right there and the gutter
drain is just on the other side. I’m certain it’s intentional to
get me to drink the drugged water.”

“
It rains almost every day
this time of year,” he said.

Jesse went to the wall and looked through
the two inch high and eight inch wide space that served as a vent
for the basement. Someone had placed razor wire over the inside and
outside of the vent. Reaching through the vent and the razor wire,
he could touch the drain. Alex was right that this was
intentional.

“
I’ll be right
back.”

Alex rested her head against the brick
again. As time went on, she was getting more swollen and more
sore.

Rubber hose. The gift that kept on
giving.

She smiled and wondered what her mother
would say about the bruising. Maybe Claire could add sleeves to her
wedding dress. Remembering the beautiful silk dress, she drifted
into memories of John.

FF

After a day of ignoring him, she was dancing
with her arms around Max’s roommate’s neck at a beach party. How
did she get there?

John asked her to dance when Max left to
dance with some girl. She was dancing a couple feet from him, but
this man was like a planet. Drawn by his gravitational pull, she
drifted closer and closer to him until he put a hand on her waist.
She was a bundle of sensations: the cool sand between her toes, the
sound of the pounding surf, the music’s rhythms compelling her hips
to sway, and a rising heat in her belly.

Her mind focused on the list of reasons why
she was not interested in this man. First, he was not American.
Second, he was her twin’s best friend. Third, he was a bed surfing
slut. Fourth, he was just off limits. That’s all. O-F-F limits. Her
mind was convinced but her body burned under his hands.

“
Will you marry me?” John
asked.

He said something. What did he say? She
slipped back a foot or two to look up at him, “What?”

“
Marry me Alex. Marry me
tonight.”

She shook her head, “What are you
saying?”

“
I have this overwhelming
feeling that I cannot live another moment without you in the
center, the very center of my life.”

“
You’re drunk.”

“
I am that. Marry
me.”

Stepping forward to him, she felt a yearning
for him that she had never known. Her heart ached just looking at
him. His beautiful blue eyes were framed by his black curly hair.
Her fingers touched his full lips.

He looked away, embarrassed by her close
scrutiny.

She opened her mouth to speak. She’d tell
him exactly how they should not, absolutely should not get married.
He was O-F-F limits after all. But, no words came out. She closed
her mouth.

Trying again, she opened her mouth. Just
opened her mouth. And the words rose from the very center of her
being.

“
Yes.”

“
What?” he asked. He shook
his head as if he hadn’t heard her.

“
I’ll marry
you.”

“
Tonight?”

“
Why not?”

FF

“
Alex wake up,” Jesse
said.

Alex opened her eyes.

“
I think I can do it. Did
you use the bucket?”

“
No,” she signed. “I don’t
care if they have a mess to clean up. Plus I might need
it.”

“
Good girl,” he said. “Get
your bucket.”

Alex felt around the walls until she reached
the door. Bending down, she picked up the gallon bucket and felt
her way back to the spark of Jesse.

“
Hold the bucket above
your head. Right there,” Jesse said.

Holding the bucket above her head, just
under the basement vent, Jesse moved the razor wire tearing a hole
in the thin aluminum gutter drain. Jesse moved his hand, creating
an electric wall, which forced the water through the basement vent
and into Alex’s bucket. She stood with the bucket over her head
until the rain stopped and the gutters had completely drained.
There wasn’t a lot of water, four inches, maybe more, but it was
enough to keep her alive. Being careful not to spill the precious
water, she took one small drink.

“
Jesse?”

“
Yes?”

“
Will you stay with me for
a while? I’ve never really been alone.”

“
I’m always with you,
Alex.”

FFFFFF

October 12 – 8 P.M.
Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado

“
Sir,” Alex’s Sergeant
said.

“
Yes Sergeant,” Raz said
looking up from Alex’s computer.

“
Senator Hargreaves is
here and wishes to speak with you. Also, we received a message from
British Intelligence. One of their agents is traveling with Ben.
They should arrive in a few hours.”