Rogue Renegades (Rogue Trilogy) (8 page)

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Regaining consciousness
, Abby remained still and kept her breathing even. If she was being watched, she didn’t want her captors to know that she was awake. She remembered being shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart and then blacking out. With her eyes closed, she listened intently and heard no sounds of movement or anyone nearby. Her right cheek was sore and would undoubtedly be bruised after she’d landed on her face. She’d fallen unconscious so quickly that she hadn’t had a chance to break her fall.

She opened her eyes a fraction and saw a white ceiling overhead. Carefully glancing around, she
determined that she was alone in the small room. She lay on a narrow cot with a thin, uncomfortable mattress. Apart from a toilet and basin, the room was empty. A metal door with a barred window was the only way out. The floor and walls were as white as the ceiling, which gave the space a clinical vibe. This wasn’t a hospital room at all. It was a prison cell.

Sitting up, Abby’s head spun from the residue of whatever drug the agents had used to knock her out. Whoever they were, they weren’t from her agency.
The Black Squad didn’t drug people. They killed them.

It didn’t take a genius to guess that
her kidnappers had something to do with Ryan. The irony of her situation almost made Abby smile. She’d feared being caught by her own people but had instead been snared by someone else’s. Ryan had to be somewhere in this building and she figured he was also being held as a prisoner. She assumed that his boss had had him under surveillance and she’d been brought in for questioning after being seen with him. It would be vital for her true identity to remain unknown. If Logan Matthews caught wind that she was being held by another agency, he’d do everything in his power to gain custody of her. She didn’t have to feign a shiver at the thought of what he’d do to her.

Tottering over to the basin, she drank some water and splashed
some on her face to help wake her up. Apart from feeling a slight nausea and the bruise on her cheek, she was physically unharmed. Thankfully, the drug was already fading from her system. She’d been unconscious for an hour, according to her watch. God only knew how Ryan was faring. If he’d been captured by her team, he’d have been in small pieces by now.

She sat on the cot with her back against the wall
and waited for another fifteen minutes before someone finally came for her. Hearing footsteps approaching, she brought her legs up to her chest and prepared to put on the act of her life.

Cowering when the door opened,
she stared at the black suited agent fearfully. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“On your feet,” he responded without answering either question. A couple of inches shy of six feet, his hair was
black and his eyes were a cold, pale blue.

“I know my rights,” she said as she stood. “I want
to make a phone call.”

The agent smirked as he took her arm. “We’re not
the police, Ms. Parker. You have no rights in this building.”

They had her purse and
they knew her name and address. That didn’t particularly concern her. Abby had had many identities during the past decade and she could change herself into a new person at any time. It was sad, but she could walk away from the life that she’d created without a second glance.

“I don’t know who you are, but you can’t just kidnap innocent people off the street!” she said, knowing full well that he could because she’d done the same thing herself many times.
No one had ever lived to complain about the treatment that they’d received at her hands.

“Shut up and walk,” he said tonelessly. His grip
on her upper arm was tight enough to leave bruises as he walked her down a series of hallways.

Abby could have broken free at any
time, but chose not to. She had no idea where she was or what was the quickest way to escape. More information would be necessary before she took drastic steps to free herself.

She saw no exit signs
during the journey, just more hallways and doors with barred windows. They finally stopped at a door and the agent knocked. The door was opened immediately and she was pushed inside.

Ryan
tensed when the door opened and he tried not to react when Abby was marched inside. Another new agent that he hadn’t worked with before had his hand wrapped tightly around her bicep. He wore a cruel smile that still managed to leave his eyes expressionless. Trevor’s standards had slipped since during the past year if this was the kind of people that he now employed.

“Ms. Parker,”
Swift said and pointed at Ryan. “How do you know Agent Sheldon?”

Blinking in convincing astonishment, she shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know him
at all.”

Swift
nodded at the dark haired agent and he slapped Abby across the face. Ryan noticed the brief flare of rage in her now stormy gray eyes. “Try again, Ms. Parker,” Aaron sneered. “We saw you together in the park and on the train. Tell us how you know each other and you’ll make this a lot easier on yourself.”

Catching Abby’
s eye, Ryan gave her a nod.

Interpreting that as encouragement to tell the
m the truth, she touched her now bruised left cheek and noticed the smirk on the agent that had hit her. “I was with a group of tourists in a small village near Rio when we were surrounded by armed men. Two of the men were about to drag me away when Ryan stopped them. He pretended to claim me and took me back to their compound. He kept me safe for four days and then made sure I returned to my hotel room unharmed.”

Swift
stared at the young woman incredulously. The story was the same one that Sheldon had told them, but he didn’t believe it. There had to be more to it than that. They were working together and he wanted to know what they were planning.

“We did a background check on you, Ms. Parker,”
Swift said and watched her carefully for a reaction. “We found something very interesting. Abigail Parker didn’t exist twelve months ago. In fact, there’s no record of you anywhere before that time.” Staring into her eyes, he silently dared her to lie to him. “Who are you and who do you work for?”

Abby’s mind
raced, searching for a solution as she cataloged the room. There were four agents standing within ten feet of her. Ryan was secured to a chair in the middle of the room and an older man stood a few feet behind him. He wore a dark gray suit rather than a black one and he was obviously the man in charge even though he remained silent.

“I’m usin
g a false identity because I’m married to a very bad man,” she lied. “He is the son of a mob boss and he’ll kill me if he ever finds me. No one runs from the mob,” she explained in a flat tone.

Ryan
frowned at that. Abby had sounded all too convincing. He’d never even considered that she might be married. No wonder she hadn’t been frightened by being kidnapped and being held as a captive. It seemed that she was already used to being a prisoner in her own home.

Swift
searched for a lie in her pretty eyes and didn’t see one. “I’m afraid that you have seen too much, Ms. Parker. I’m going to save your husband the trouble of tracking you down. Kill her,” he said dismissively to the agent that had escorted her inside.

Ryan
opened his mouth to shout in denial and heard Trevor protest from behind him, but Abby was already in motion. She moved so fast that he had trouble tracking her as she smashed her left elbow into the nose of the agent holding her. Spinning, she drew his handgun and shot him in the right shoulder. Dropping to one knee, the bullet that had been aimed at her head by one of the other men missed her by inches. She pivoted to shoot the second and third agents in the shoulders as well before either of them could fire another shot.

Swift
wasn’t a field agent and watched in numb disbelief as Abby took a few quick steps to the downed agents and picked up their guns. She shoved one into the top of her jeans and pointed one at him and the other at Trevor. He didn’t reach for his weapon. It was clear that she’d end his life before he even came close to touching his gun. “Let’s not be hasty,” he said and licked his suddenly dry lips.

“Shut up,” Abby told him tonelessly. She’d shut her emotions down, ready to kill if she had to
, but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. No one had died, yet, but they would if they stood in her way. “You,” she gestured at the man standing behind Ryan. “What is your name?” She’d heard him countermand his subordinate’s order and she was willing to give him a chance to save himself.

Remaining calm in the face of possible death, Trevor couldn’t help but admire the young woman’s skills.
It was obvious that she was highly trained and also extremely dangerous. He almost wished that she was one of his employees. “I’m Trevor Watts. Who are you?”

“Abigail Parker,” she responded with a wry smile
. Abby dropped her eyes to Ryan to judge his reaction to seeing her defend herself. He was stunned after watching her in action and his mouth was still open slightly in shock.

“You didn’t know
she was an agent,” Swift realized. “She duped you as well.” He laughed, but it cut off when cold steel was pressed up against the back of his neck.

“I told you to shut up,” Abby said. “If you open your mouth again, I’ll put a hole in you.”

Trevor shifted his stance slightly, bringing her attention back to him. “Who are you working for? How do you and Ryan know each other?”

“I don’t work for anyone and I met Agent Sheldon for the first time in Brazil,” she said flatly. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Ryan’s heart lurched as he realized that they were mirror images of each other. They were both rogue operatives and had met by a simple twist of fate.

“What now? What is your plan?” Trevor asked. She was in control and she was utterly unpredictable.

“Ryan and I are going to walk out of here and you’re not going to send anyone after us,” Abby said. “If you do, they will die.”

Ryan
almost flinched at the dead certainty of her words. The woman that he knew was still somewhere within the steely, unfeeling exterior that he was seeing. He hoped Abby would be able to reemerge once they were out of this mess. He hadn’t forgotten the reaction she’d had after killing the bandit back in Brazil. His death had tainted her and she’d asked him to help her to forget it. She might have been an agent once, but she was trying to leave this life behind her. Thanks to him, she was back in the thick of it again.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow Agent Sheldon to leave,” Trevor said regretfully.

“Fine. I don’t have a problem with killing you all. You’re less than bugs to me,” Abby said with a shrug and prepared to pull the trigger.

“Wait!” Trevor shouted, cringing away as she called his bluff. “
Why are you so insistent that Ryan should be freed?”

Dropping her eyes to
Ryan’s again, Abby let a spark of emotion show. “I owe him.” He hadn’t really saved her life, she was more than capable of taking care of herself. He’d given her much more than that. He’d given her the chance to feel again, even if the emotions had been fleeting.

“The button to release the restraints is on the wall behind me,” Trevor said.

“Is that true?” Abby asked Ryan.

“Yes,” he said, speaking for the first time since Abby had been brought into the cell.
Deep down, he’d known that she wasn’t a helpless damsel in distress. She’d killed the thug in Brazil and had cleaned up the mess like a pro. He was surprised to find he wasn’t at all disappointed that he’d been wrong about her. It was strangely refreshing to meet a woman that was just as deadly as he was.

“Set him
free,” she instructed Trevor. “But keep your hands where I can see them.”

Keeping both hands in the air, Trevor backed up to the wall
. He was reluctant to turn his back on the unknown agent. He fumbled for the button and pressed it, then stayed with his back to the wall.

The restraints clicked open and the blood rushed back to
Ryan’s hands and feet. He spent a few moments massaging away the pins and needles then stood. Swift stared at him with pure hatred as he crossed the room, pulled his jacket open and took his gun.

“Should we
erase them?” Abby asked Ryan softly. She was willing to follow his lead on this since they were his people, or had been before he’d become a renegade.

Trevor’s bowels went loose almost to the point of soiling himself when his former agent turned to survey him coldly.

“No,” Ryan decided after a short contemplation. “I don’t think they’ll be stupid enough to send anyone after us again.”

Trevor shook his head. “You’re free to go,” he promised. Sweat had beaded on his forehead and a droplet ran down to the corner of his eye. By the time he’d blinked it away, the two rogue agents
had disappeared.

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