It was nearly a week of doing absolutely nothing that finally did Reyna in. She hated sitting around. Had always hated it. Between Meghan’s insistence that she needed to rest and Sydney’s insistence that she couldn’t do anything she truly wanted to do, she was going stir crazy.
Not to mention the fact that she hadn’t heard from Beckham in all of that time. A full week of nothing. Was he really going to stay away? Had he really given up?
Eventually, she got so tired of resting that she threw on workout clothes and headed downstairs. She was already through her fifth mile on the treadmill when her brothers showed up and stared at her in shock. It took little convincing to get them to start training with her in their spare time. Since her cardio was already on point, they started her on weights and higher intensity workouts.
Four days later while working on self-defense training, Tye strolled into the room. “Tonight,” he said with a nod to Brian and Drew.
They straightened and nodded back. It wasn’t until he had left before they relaxed again.
“What’s that about?” she asked.
“Work detail,” Brian said.
“It’s stuff we do every day,” Drew said with a smile. “It’ll be fine.”
“Can I come with you?” she asked hopefully even though she already knew the answer.
“No,” they said as one.
“Come on. You’re training me. You could get me into the program or something. I want to be useful. Let me be useful.”
“It’s not about being useful,” Brian said. “It’s about keeping you safe.”
“I know. I totally get that. I don’t want to be kidnapped again or anything. Trust me. But I can’t sit around and do nothing. I’m going crazy.”
“I heard Meghan say that you could work in medical with her,” Drew said.
“No. I don’t want to work with blood and needles.” She shuddered. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was work in a hospital. Why did no one understand that? “I want to help. I want to make a difference. Take down the bad guys.”
She fake-punched Drew’s arm. Brian shook his head and adjusted her hand so that her thumb wasn’t covering her knuckles.
“If you punch like that, you’re going break your thumb.”
“I can be taught!” she said with a reassuring smile.
“Find something else,” Brian said with an exasperated sigh.
“Fine.”
But it wasn’t fine. She was sure there was something else that she could do for Elle besides work in that insufferable lab. She wanted to feel like she was really doing something. At least doing something that didn’t trigger her PTSD from her kidnapping. But no one would listen to her.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Brian said reassuringly. “I’m sure something else will open up and you won’t be stuck in this limbo for long. When we get back, why don’t we do something with you and Laura. It’ll be great.”
Reyna grinned. She was looking forward to spending time with her brothers and Laura some more. “That’d be good. Now, show me that flip thing again.”
Drew laughed and stepped forward into her space, showing her how to flip him over her shoulder.
“But your best option is to run, Rey,” Brian said, looking her square in the eyes. “Run as fast and as far as you can.”
“I know,” she told him.
But it didn’t help her last time. It didn’t help her against anything she had ever encountered. Running only did so much good. She wanted to know how to defend herself. Better yet how to stop any of this from ever happening to her again.
Reyna tore off her workout clothes and stepped into the scalding shower to rinse off her workout. Her muscles ached in the best way. But it was her mind that never shut off.
Sometimes when she closed her eyes at night she still remembered the person who had reached for her in Everett’s apartment. She could feel their hand clamp down on her arm. She could see their masked faces. Smell the fear in the air. Sense the disaster that was unfolding around her. Sometimes that hand dragged her under and the nightmares started. Sometimes she was lucky and it was only the needles that blurred her sleep. But usually it was B.
She shuddered at the images that unfolded behind her closed eyes. The water hit her in a fierce spray. She didn’t think these memories would ever leave her alone. When something traumatic happened, there were only two choices: sink into the pain or grow around it. It never went away. It became a part of her.
Reyna shut off the water with a sigh. She wasn’t going to sink into that pain. She would have to rise above. Take back control of her life. One step at a time.
She toweled off and wrapped her long dark hair up on the top of her head before exiting the bathroom. She screamed when she saw someone was in her room.
“Jesus,” Reyna cried. “Some warning next time, Jodie.”
“Sorry. Thought you were going to move into the shower, you were in there for so damn long.”
“What are you doing here?” Reyna asked as she yanked jeans and a T-shirt out of her closet.
“I hate this place. I mean, I don’t hate it as much as Visage, but I still hate it. How can you stand to stay cooped up like this? I can’t keep breathing recycled oxygen. I need to be free.”
“We are free.”
Jodie snorted. “Then try to walk out the front door and see if they stop you.”
They would. Reyna knew they would. Sydney had made it clear that she was too valuable to leave. Her and Jodie’s blood unlocked the answers to questions they had long been asking. No one was going to let them out to do whatever they wanted. On some level she understood it, but she’d been a prisoner once before and she didn’t relish being one a second time.
“Maybe we can try to get out of here?” Jodie suggested.
Reyna stepped out of the closet. “There’s no way out of here other than the heavily guarded way we entered.”
Jodie sighed. “There has to be another way in and out. We’ve never seen Sydney in this building but we know that she’s here. How does she get around? How is she so secretive? Plus, aren’t there other sleeper agents? They wouldn’t want to be seen if they’re playing spy, right? No one is supposed to know who they are? Which means we can find another way out.”
Reyna stared at Jodie for a split second before her jaw dropped. “Oh my God, I know how they’re getting around.”
Reyna stepped back into the closet and jiggled the doorknob that was all but invisible normally.
“Christ on a cracker, is that a secret door? Tell me it’s a secret door.”
“Beckham used it,” she whispered. She’d been trying not to think of him or the fact that he hadn’t been back. She still hadn’t seen him in over a week. “It’s locked from the outside though. I don’t know what security is on the door.”
“Fuck yes.” Jodie jumped up and rushed over to where she was standing. Jodie slid a bobby pin out of her lush black curls and was digging around in the lock. Reyna knew how to pick a lock, but she had only ever tried it on the shitty ones back in the warehouses. She couldn’t imagine that Elle would be stupid enough to have locks that could be easily picked.
Click.
The door swung outward soundlessly. Reyna stared at it in both shock and awe. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Hell yeah, my best friend taught me before…” Then Jodie trailed off as if realizing that she was divulging information about herself for the first time. She shook her head coming up out of the haze and held her hand out to Reyna. “Now, are you ready to go? Now or never.”
Reyna knew that she shouldn’t go. It was reckless and potentially dangerous. She should stay where she was and wait for someone to give her an assignment that she could stomach. But God, she didn’t want to live that life. She didn’t want to stay on a leash and sit down when she was told to and bark on command. Almost eleven weeks post-kidnapping and she’d only seen the sun for a few scant minutes. She needed more.
“All right. I’m in, but only for a minute, Jodie. I don’t want to get caught and get in trouble. I just want to see the sun for a bit.”
“Excellent! Whatever you say,” Jodie cheered as she rushed out of the door.
Reyna took a tentative step forward, glancing at her surroundings. She kept expecting someone to burst into the room and tell them not to leave. But no one came.
Reyna took one step out of the room and then another. No alarms blared. Nothing happened at all. She just walked into a neatly maintained corridor.
“Let me look at the door,” Jodie said. She messed with the handle a few times and then after another minute, the door was rigged so that the lock never clicked into place. “Easy peasy.” She opened and closed the door to show Reyna. “This is going to be fun. I swear.”
Reyna tried to relax as she and Jodie walked down the innocuous corridor. There were other doors along the way. Jodie tried a few of the handles but they were all locked like Reyna’s. Jodie shrugged and they continued on. The secret passageway was pretty boring once they got through it. Reyna had thought maybe it concealed an underground airplane or at least secret rooms that only top-level Elle members could access. Something! But all she got were more blank hallways and a stairwell. They went up five floors before the stairs abruptly ended.
Jodie pushed through the doorway first and into a tightly closed room. The doors were steel with heavy plated armor and a series of security measures to keep anyone from coming in…or out.
Reyna sighed. “Guess this is the end of the road.”
“We didn’t even get outside,” Jodie grumbled. “Maybe we can get through the security.”
“It’ll probably alert someone that we’re here.”
“Probably,” Jodie grumbled. “Fuck! We were so close.”
Reyna knew this whole thing had been too easy. They weren’t worried about anyone getting out of their room, because there was no way out of their bunker. They were as good as trapped.
Trapped. Oh fuck. Reyna put her arms around her stomach and backed away from the door. Her back hit the wall and she tried to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. But she felt sick at the very thought. She couldn’t be trapped again. She needed to get out. She needed a moment to live again.
She was still trying to get herself under control when the door behind them opened.
Shit, they weren’t supposed to get caught! They were only supposed to be here a minute and then go back. She hadn’t anticipated getting caught before they even made it outside. She had known it was a possibility, but still! This was not how this was supposed to happen.
Then the figure walked into the room and she nearly groaned. Trouble was in the building.
“Well, well,” Gabe said with a smile, “what do we have here?”
“Who the hell are you?” Jodie asked.
Reyna cringed. “This is Gabe. We met at my meeting with Sydney.”
“And you must be Jodie,” Gabe said, offering her his hand.
Jodie stared down at it then crossed her arms. “We weren’t doing anything.”
“That so?” His eyes crawled back over to Reyna’s and he arched an eyebrow. “Tired of being cooped up?”
“Amen to that,” Jodie said.
Gabe grinned at them both. “How did you get up here anyway?”
Neither of them responded and he just laughed.
“Pick the lock in your room? Yeah, I did that too when I first got here. Got me in some real trouble with higher-ups, but they kept me around. They need people like me.” He eyed them both. “Like you two too, as far as I can tell.”
“I don’t want to be used,” Reyna said.
“That’s all life does. Chews you up and spits you out. Get used to it.”
“How about this,” Gabe said, holding a hand up. “I have somewhere I need to be. I’ll be gone two, maybe three hours, tops. Why don’t you two come with me? Then when you come back, we can talk about how you can benefit from Elle by working with them. How does that sound?”
“Did someone send you to do this?” Jodie demanded. “Because if this is a trick…”
“It’s no trick. I’m doing you a favor.”
“No one does favors for free,” Reyna told him.
“And I’m not doing it for free. It’s a deal. I help you out for a bit and you come back and try to help our rebellion. Deal?”
Reyna’s eyes swept to Jodie. She lifted one shoulder. Reyna frowned. Yeah, they probably shouldn’t be leaving the premises for a couple hours, but they would be with Gabe. He was probably lying about this not being sanctioned from the higher ups. Why would he help them out anyway? She might as well take advantage of the opportunity if she could. Another one wasn’t about to come around.
“Deal.”