In Between Dreams (3 page)

Her mind unintentionally focused on George’s contagious grin as she drifted off to sleep.

two.

B
ailey’s dream began with her sliding open the glass doors leading from the deck to the interior of their modest hotel room. She glanced back to see the early morning silhouette of Hong Kong against a gray sky. Her eyes traced the skyline slowly, and she noticed the neon signs and the noise of the streets beginning to pick up. She took a breath of the smoggy air.

Hong Kong was an overwhelmingly large and crowded city. It seemed like no matter where Bailey was she was surrounded by people. This hotel room was the only place in the entire city where she didn’t feel like a sardine in a can. The city was relatively safe, but with any large city, there was always an overwhelming amount of people. The smells of the city were unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She always figured China would smell like Chinese food. However, the Chinese food she experienced was nothing like the Won Wok back home.

She saw a body imprint in a lounge chair. There was a small empty teacup on a small table next to the chair with a woolen blanket bunched near the foot. The room she entered was small, but the bed was large with little room to maneuver around the edges. There was just enough room on either side of the bed for standing. The room was white, almost blinding and Bailey squinted when she first came into it. She reached for the dimmer switch on the wall to turn down the lights. “That’s better.” Bailey sighed and looked at Mei.

Mei sat up. Her eyes were still puffy from crying. The entirety of her skinny frame was wrapped in the white fluffy comforter. The combination of layers and facial features somehow made her look even smaller then she already was. Bailey gently smiled at her, nodding as if to say hello before looking over at Sam. He was to the left of the bed, holding Mei’s hand in an apparent effort to comfort her.

Sam was a gifted linguist and acted as the translator in the various dream scenarios. He was always there if the group needed someone to listen but, even more importantly, bridge the cultural differences and cultural nuances. He spoke over six languages, including many of the Chinese dialects. He always looked like an unmade bed. He was in his midtwenties but dressed like a teenager. He wore a gray oversized hoodie with “The Classic Crime” scribbled on it that drowned his figure and his blond shaggy hair was almost always in his green eyes. He looked up and sheepishly grinned at Bailey as she entered.

Mei’s breathing seemed to calm down when Bailey entered. “What’s going on?” Bailey asked in a soft quizzical tone as she walked over to the large bed. She took Mei’s hand from Sam, enveloping it with both of hers.

“She won’t sleep.” Daniel’s Australian accent filled the room as he spoke for Sam from the other side of the bed. Daniel’s voice attempted to hide his frustration since he was obviously irritated they hadn’t made any progress calming Mei down. Bailey glared at him, giving him a disapproving scowl. Daniel was not good at setting the mood in a room. His demeanor almost always put Bailey on edge.

“I can see that,” Bailey said in a snippy tone.

Daniel lifted a dark eyebrow at Bailey. Daniel’s eyes were normally a bright blue, but they had darkened, either from frustration or maybe it was just the lighting in the room. Daniel’s dark brown hair was less than an inch long with bits of gray sprinkled throughout it. He had a tough-and-cool-guy aura about him. It might have been the way he walked or spoke but his presence just made him seem a bit conceited. In her head, Bailey would refer to him as “the superhot jerk.” But he was a jerk all the same.

He had the skin of a surfer and the mouth of a sailor, and he was always dressed in a way that would let every woman in the room know he had money. He wore a sleek sports jacket over a white V-neck undershirt and some dark jeans that were clearly pricey. They were rarely ever in a room with more than four people; his dressing up each day seemed a little overdone.

“Why won’t Mei sleep, Sam?” she asked Sam, knowing she would get a more detailed explanation from him.

Sam brushed his hair out of his eyes, pushing it all to the left side of his face. He gave Bailey a half smile, and Bailey noticed his day-old facial hair. She looked back for a moment to see that Daniel also had a five-o’clock shadow forming. She turned her attention back to the scrawny blond in front of her for an explanation.

On top of being a very gifted linguist, Sam had a very calming presence. Bailey had noticed this added benefit and was extremely grateful for it. It was in his overall demeanor—in the way he spoke, softly, never overbearing, the complete opposite of Daniel, who always assumed if he spoke louder he’d get his answer more quickly.

“She can’t shake this feeling of—” Sam took a moment to think, looking up at the ceiling as if it had the answers. Bailey was patient; Sam sometimes had trouble translating certain phrases back to English. Mandarin was one of the most difficult. “It’s a word that means regret and fear at the same time,” he explained. “She can’t shake it. She thinks that her boyfriend will find us and take her back, and if she sleeps, she won’t be able to escape. She’s afraid to sleep, because she thinks that her evil boyfriend will appear in her dreams and torture her for leaving.”

The group had saved Mei quite recently from a rough situation that she had found herself in with her boyfriend. Mei’s boyfriend was a member of a powerful Triad that had been keeping her captive for months.

Bailey nodded quickly. She turned her attention to Mei, giving her an empathetic frown. “Mei, sweetheart,” she murmured, lightly brushing one of her hands through Mei’s hair, knowing that calmed her. “No one followed us.” She waited a moment, looking at Mei as she listened to Sam translating her words.

Mei shook her head to protest and spoke quickly to Sam.

“How do you know?” Sam asked, translating Mei’s words. “How can you be sure? They are so much more powerful than you, and this is their world, not yours.”

Bailey’s face scrunched up in confusion. “World?”

Sam thought for a moment. “She said ‘world,’ but she meant ‘turf,’ I think,” he said, scratching his head and looking at the ceiling once again. “I think in context that is what it means.” Sam tried to give context to the discussion, which made his language and cultural combination invaluable. It helped in gathering cooperation.

Bailey scooted closer to Mei, making deeper eye contact. “I know you don’t think we know what we’re doing, Mei, but we do. This isn’t our first time,” she told her. “Halene, Daniel, Sam, and me. We’ve got you, we know what we’re doing, and we can protect you.”

The look on Mei’s face as she said one little word in Mandarin discouraged Bailey. “How?” Sam translated.

“How do we know what we’re doing?” Bailey, reflecting back the translation, tried to confirm what Mei said. Sam translated, and Mei nodded.

Bailey didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t know how to explain. She didn’t quite understand all the details herself. It was a dream; she didn’t know how it always ended up working out, it just…
did
. “We just know—” For the first time in a long time, Bailey was at a loss for words. She thought of Rodney, how much easier these dream missions seemed when he was part of them. Halene did his part now, but she was so much younger and so inexperienced.

If Rodney were here, Bailey could explain how many binds he had gotten them out of. How many times he had protected them and the people they helped. He was so smart and experienced. He had been the reason they got through. But he wasn’t there, so Bailey couldn’t say that. Bailey, for the first time in a long time, decided to lie. Not to give Mei a white lie like
“Yeah, that shirt looks great on you,”
or
“I already ate,”
but to knowingly, outright, purposely lie.

“You’re not the first girl we’ve had to rescue from the arms of a Triad member,” Bailey said with her head held high, her voice unfaltering.
Bailey could see Daniel tilting his head out of the corner of her eye and giving her his famous look. An expression that was often paired with the words “you have got to be shitting me.” Bailey gulped and continued. “We know this area and their turf,” Bailey lied through her teeth. “We know their tactics and processes, and if they try to come for you, we’ll know. We know what to do next. So, please, Mei. Get some sleep. You’ve been running on four hours of sleep in the last two days, and you’re going to need your rest while we plan our next move. We may need to move fast and we need your energy up.”

Sam looked confused as he spit out the words that he was instructed to say by Bailey. He looked at Bailey, giving her a disapproving look for less than a second before continuing.

Mei, listening intently, sat up and looked at her hands, tracing little hearts on the palm of her hand before looking up at Bailey and nodding. She spoke for a moment in what sounded like gibberish to Bailey and then looked at Sam, asking him to translate. “I understand, and I believe you are good people. I believe you think you know what you’re doing, but these men are not your average gang members. They are smarter, faster, better. They will find me. I cannot sleep. We must move.”

It was clear Mei was immersed in fear and couldn’t relax enough to allow any amount of solace. She had been threatened too many times, emotionally abused too many times. She believed her once jailers had the tactical advantage over the well-meaning rescue team that was trying to give her reassurance.

Bailey took a breath and looked at Daniel. Bailey’s “gift,” as Rodney used to call it, was her ability to calm anyone down. She had a charm about her that made people feel comfortable even in the most desperate of times. She could calm almost anyone down enough to reason with them, but she had her roadblocks. Mei obviously was not immune to her calming ability, but she was harder to work with than most because of the horrendous treatment she had endured. She had been put through so much that she got herself into this illogical, uncontrollable state. Fighting with her was useless, because Mei had become entrenched in despair and held her ground.

That was where Daniel came in. He wasn’t a calming force; he was not good with words. He normally didn’t know when to shut his
mouth. When he did talk, for whatever reason, people listened. He was the closer in most discussions. He tied off the discussions and brought them to an end. He was brutally logical and precise (when he needed to be), and when he opened his mouth, every other person seemed to focus and listen. Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or the almighty, “I’m better than you” vibe he gave off. Others understood; they did not argue.

Daniel plopped down on the bed next to Mei, making her obviously uncomfortable. Daniel was a strong man, and even though Mei knew that he was on her side, she was still frightened by his overall ferociousness. Mei scooted closer to Sam as she turned her attention to Daniel, looking him up and down. “Listen,” he said, his Australian accent was clear and his eyes focused. “As much as I love to hear you grizzle about how difficult it is to be on the run from your dingbat boyfriend who would have killed you if we hadn’t saved you, I think it’s time I stepped in.” He looked at Bailey to see if she would protest the way he was talking to Mei. Her face said she did, but she didn’t speak up. “We get it, your boy was the worst of the worst here in Hong Kong. That’s why we are trying to save you from this disaster. And even though you’ve kind of been an earbasher,” Daniel said in a cocky voice, “I don’t want you to die. I want you to live, and we’re your best shot for that.”

Mei only frowned, so Daniel continued, “we can’t get you out of here in your state. We want to leave; we really do. But we can’t get you on a plane or a train looking like this.” He looked her up and down. “You look like you’ve been on a bender.”

Sam took a breath in between translating to give Daniel a glare. “What is it, Blondie?” Daniel asked.

“What the hell does ‘earbasher’ mean?” Sam growled. “You know I don’t speak Australian slang.”

Daniel laughed. “You should probably add it on to your test plan for next time.”

Bailey shook her head at the two men. “Can we not?” she groaned. She knew why they didn’t get along, but she chose to ignore the issue. “It means ‘chatty,’ like she’s busting your ears from talking so much.”

Sam rolled his eyes and continued to translate, and after he finished, Mei looked at Daniel and then at Bailey before speaking to Sam quickly, “She said she’ll rest, but just a nap,” Sam explained.

Bailey grinned at her and kissed her forehead. “Thank you,” she whispered before getting off the bed, helping tuck her in. “We’ll be right outside of that door,” she promised softly.

Mei nodded, yawned, and closed her eyes before pulling the blankets up even more. “Good night,” Mei said in a heavy Chinese accent. She didn’t know very many English words, but it was sweet of her to try.

“Night,” Daniel responded as he ushered Bailey and Sam out of the small room and into the living room area, closing the door behind them.

The room seemed to breathe a collective sigh as they all sat down in the assortment of chairs and couches. The living room area was small. There was a glass coffee table in the middle of the room with two large picture books of the city. The walls were white, the floor was black, and all the furniture was a red velvetlike material and each piece of furniture seemed to be smaller than it should be. To the side of the living area, there was an unused small glass table with black stools. The art in the room was minimalistic, and the room seemed to have a cherry-blossom theme. Each painting had cherry blossoms on them. The foyer had a red door that led toward the hallway, and next to the door, there was a black cabinet containing a small fridge with all the hotel information resting on it. The cabinet was cluttered with a pile of Daniel’s empty mini bottles. Daniel couldn’t go very long without raiding the mini bar.

Daniel opened up the fridge and groaned before grabbing the last liquor bottle and made his way to the red chair that sat against the far wall opposite the door. He sat across from the small couch Sam and Bailey had slumped onto. Halene was on the floor, drawing a picture of Mei with tears in her eyes.