Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (16 page)

“Hello,
” Lee said.

“Hey
, I was just wondering how things were going with the flash drive,” Nathan asked.

“Slow
, they’re going very slow.”

“You weren’t up all
night, were you?”

“
Most of it.”

“I’m sorry
, man. Get some sleep. We can wait a little longer.”

“I might do that
soon.”

“Well hey
, I was wondering if you could give me a little advice,” Nathan said.

There was nothing but silence on the other end
of the phone.

“Lee?” Nathan asked
in confusion.

“Can I call you right back?
Someone’s at the door.”

“
Yeah, sure.”

Nathan assumed that the excuse of someone being at the door was
just Lee’s way to get off the phone. Lee never did like listening to other people’s problems, Nathan thought while hanging up the phone. Nathan stirred his drink a couple of times and then downed it in one large gulp. He would need quite a few more drinks if he was going to even have a chance of curing his day.

* * * * *

“I can’t believe it! This is where they’re staying? This is where
we
are staying,” Jacob said.

God
, I hope that Sam’s a really good agent, Lee thought to himself while feeling very guilty for selling out his friend. What choice did I have, Lee thought while trying to give himself an excuse that might ease his conscience. The truth is that he didn’t feel like he had any valid excuse. Michael or Nathan would die before they ever sold him out.

“Okay
, Mr. Higgins, you’re going to walk with me into that hotel room right over there, and you’re going to be nice and quiet, or I’m going to put a bullet between your eyes. Do we understand each other?” Jacob asked.

Lee nodded and did what he was told. Once he was inside
of the room, Jacob bound and gagged him.

“Don’t go anywhere now,” Jacob said sarcastically as he left the hotel
room and went over to Trish’s room.

“Okay
, Miss Rogers, you’re going to call your friend Michael and tell him where you are and beg for him to come and save your life,” Jacob said as he handed her a phone.

She dialed Michael’s number and waited for him to pick up.

“Hello,” Michael said.

“Michael
, I’m in trouble, but no matter what happens, promise me one thing. Promise me that you won’t come for me. Run!” she said as Jacob snatched the phone away from her.

“Listen
, your lady friend here is about to die. You have twenty minutes. If I see any cops, if you’re late, or if I just feel like it, she will die. If she means anything to you, come to the Bright Inn.”

“Which one?” Michael quickly asked.

“The same one that your other friends are staying at. Tick-tock, Michael,” Jacob said while smiling.

“If you hurt her
, I swear to God that I will make you suffer in ways you can’t even imagine.”

“Okay
, broken soldier boy. Why would I be scared of someone like you who couldn’t even handle killing a few enemy soldiers back in the dessert? No, face it. You’re a broken and pathetic excuse for a man.”

“I promise you that you’re
about to find out exactly why you should be afraid of me,” Michael said and hung up the phone.

“You can handle this idiot
, can’t you?” Jacob said while turning to Trish.

“Yeah
, but I thought you wanted to deal with him?” Trish said.

“I do
, but I just figured that you could Taser the guy or keep him at gunpoint for a little while, so that I can go take care of Ms. Fisher and Mr. Grey.”

“Yeah
, I can take care of him.”

“Good,” Jacob said as he exited the hotel room.

Jacob went straight to Nathan and Sam’s room and casually knocked on the door. Oh thank God, Nathan’s back, Sam thought as she ran to the door. She opened it and was met by a fist. She fell to the floor. She was stunned but still aware enough to know that she needed to get some distance from the guy if she had any chance of getting out of this alive. She started quickly crawling backward. Jacob, slowly but surely, walked in, shut the door and set a large bag on the floor.

“So where’s
your friend Nathan? Not here? Well, that’s perfect. We’ll have the place all to ourselves,” Jacob said in a crazed voice.

Sam got back to her feet an
d immediately remembered where her gun was. It was on the night stand by the bed. At this point Jacob was closer to it than she was. After seeing her look toward the gun, Jacob made an offer.

“Look
, you’re disarmed, and now so am I,” he said as he threw his gun to the side.

“
I’ll give you two choices. You can willingly surrender and things will be easier or we can do this the hard way. It’s your choice.”

“The hard way
, and it’s your funeral,” Sam said while putting her hands up into a fighting position.

“Great!”

Sam decided to watch his movements and try to counter them. There was no way she could take this man strength on strength, but she could definitely use his own motivation against him. Jacob came at her and swung with his right hand straight at her head. She easily ducked his hasty advance and landed a left hook to his ribcage. Then she fired a right upper cut to his chin, effectively knocking him backward.

“You can quit now and
get out of here still able to walk,” Sam said with a smile.

“Oh
, I like you. It should be especially fun slowly breaking you,” Jacob said in a sick voice.

He then came at her again. He was just
as reckless this time, too. He threw his first punch to the right side of her body, then to the left side, and continually he threw punches back and forth forcing Sam backward and into the bathroom in order to avoid his blows. He lunged at her again, as if to tackle her. She stepped to the left, grabbed him by his side, and pushed him headfirst into the bathroom mirror. He, along with hundreds of shards of broken glass, fell to the ground. This is when Sam chose to strike. She jumped on him and delivered blow after blow after blow to his face. He was beginning to go motionless, but he still had one trick left. As his face was being pounded, he reached down into his pocket and pulled out a rather large knife and planted it squarely in her right thigh. Her barrage of punches stopped as she reached for her leg out of pure instinct. Just then Jacob threw her off him and got on top of her and began unleashing a barrage of punches of his own. He hit her over and over in the face until what used to a beautiful face only consisted of cuts and bruises. When she finally lay motionless, Jacob dragged her to the area of the room with the beds and took her arm and twisted it until it was about to snap.

“You’re
going to call Nathan Grey and get him here, or I’m going to start by breaking your arm, and then I’m going to move on to much worse things.”

“I guess
you’re going to break my arm because I’m going to tell you to go to hell,” Sam said.

Jacob twisted her arm until a loud pop was heard. She cried out in agony. Jacob continued to twist
her arm until it became obvious that he was getting nowhere through this technique. He then did what any sensible person would have done in the first place. He grabbed her phone from the table at the small sitting area that was near the beds. Sure enough, the name Nathan was in her contacts.

* * * * *

Nathan was still sitting at the bar a short distance down the street, when his cell phone rang. It was Sam’s number. He didn’t want to talk to her right now, but he thought that he better answer it anyway. Something could be wrong.

“Hello,” he said as he answered.

“I don’t know what Samantha Fisher means to you, but if you want her to stay in one piece, you need to get back to your hotel room. If not, hey we have the flash drive, and I’m pretty sure that I can make this little bird sing in an interrogation, so by all means run,” Jacob said.

“Run a
way, Nathan!” Sam screamed in the background.

“I’ll be there in two minutes,” Nathan said and ran out of the bar.

Why in the world would I have left her? She said that we should stay together and what did I do? I stormed out like some love crazed idiot, and now she’s the one who has had to pay the price for my ignorance, Nathan thought.

“
God, I don’t want to kill anyone, but if it comes to that, please let my aim be true. Most importantly, no matter what happens to me, please keep her safe,” he prayed desperately.

It was
extremely cloudy and dark on that day, and Nathan could see the glow of the hotel sign up ahead. As he arrived and found his way to the room, he took the pistol from the back of his pants and sighed.

“God
, I hate these things, but here goes,” he said to himself as he placed his hand on the doorknob and gently opened the door.

As his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark room
, he saw Sam. She had been beaten almost beyond recognition. She was sitting there tied to a chair with a gun to her head, and the person on the other end of that gun was the same man who had taken him before.

“It’s so n
ice of you to join us,” Jacob said while raising his gun from Sam’s head and pointing it toward Nathan.

This was the opening that
Nathan had wanted. The gun was off of Sam, and it was time to strike. He clicked the safety off on his gun, and in one smooth motion he raised his gun and fired. What he saw next horrified him. Jacob fell to the floor, and he was motionless. He was clearly dead. Nathan was shocked, horrified, and scared, but at the same time, he was relieved. The person who meant so much to him was now safe. He lowered the weapon and then felt an extreme pain in the back of his head and heard a ringing sound in his ears. He hit the ground, and now it seemed that he was losing consciousness.

Chapter 16

Michael got in his car and raced toward the hotel room. He had only brought a baseball bat with him because he wasn’t exactly advised to own a gun, considering his mental issues. He didn’t have one, and there was no time to go and find a gun, so he made do with the only thing he had. As he arrived and parked, he noticed that Nathan was standing in front of his hotel room with a gun drawn, and he had a very worried expression on his face. What is he about to do, Michael wondered. As Michael exited his car and grabbed the baseball bat, Nathan opened the hotel room door. It looked like he was talking with someone. After a moment, Nathan suddenly raised his hand and fired a shot. A girl from a hotel room a few doors down ran outside. With a Taser in her hand, she approached Nathan from behind. Michael began carefully but quickly making his way behind the girl, who no doubt was going to try to hurt his friend. Suddenly, the girl stopped. It was as if she were shocked and unable to move after seeing whatever was in view of the open hotel doorway. Michael took her momentary freeze as an opportunity and leapt out from behind her. He swung the bat with all his might, but to his surprise, the small girl easily evaded the blow. He still felt the bat connect to something, however. He was sure of it. There on the floor lay Nathan. He had been knocked out at the well-meaning hands of Michael.

* * * * *

Back in Trish’s hotel room, she and Jess were talking.

“Please don’t
hurt Michael,” Jess said.

Trish thought for a minute.

“You know what? I’m actually tired of all this business. If Jacob isn’t back by the time your boyfriend gets here, then I’ll just let you two go,” Trish said.

“Thank you
, but he isn’t even close to being my boyfriend, and how will you deal with Jacob?”

“I don’t know
yet, but I’ll figure something out. You never know, maybe Ms. Fisher and Mr. Grey will take care of that for me.”

“Why don’t you just come with us?” Jess asked
.

“I just kidnapped you a few hours ago
, and now just because I show you a little kindness, you trust me fully? You definitely shouldn’t be so trusting, especially of people like me.”

“I think
there’s more to you than whatever it is that you do. You’ve proven that you’re kind, and if you want a new life, I can give you a friend and the support to start that life.”

Trish thought for a second.
Why is this strange girl so kind to me? Haven’t I been looking for a way out of my situation since I started working for Mr. Boyd? Shouldn’t I take this opportunity, no matter how ridiculous it sounds? I just don’t know, Trish thought. The two girls then heard a shot cry out. That wasn’t very far from here, Trish thought.

“Stay here. I’m
going to go clean up whatever mess Jacob has just created,” Trish said and exited her hotel room.

She began walking toward Nathan and Sam’s hotel room where
she feared she would find Jacob and two dead bodies. Why is this guy so stupid? You simply cannot question someone who’s already dead, she thought. She pulled the Taser out of her pocket. Once she got close to the door, she could see that it was standing wide open. Just inside the door was Nathan. He looked like he was in shock as he stared down at the floor. What is he staring at, Trish wondered. As she stepped behind him, she saw the source of his shock. Jacob had been shot in the forehead, and he was lying dead on the floor. Samantha Fisher was tied to a chair, and she had obviously been beaten up pretty badly. Trish was shocked, but honestly, she was also relieved. Nathan had just done what she herself would have ended up having to do eventually. She heard a sound behind her and quickly sidestepped her attacker. Michael missed her and plowed a baseball bat into the back of Nathan’s skull.

There was a moment of complete silence
, and then Michael crumbled to the floor.

“Oh my God! I’m
so sorry,” Michael said in a panic.

“Loo
k, the cops are probably going to be here any minute now, so I need you to do something quick,” Trish said before being very rudely interrupted.

“And just who are you?” Michael
asked in an irritated voice.

“I’m going to help you
, so does it really matter who I am?”

Michael only nodded in approval of her.

“Look, your friend Jessica is in room 116, and a man I assume you also know as Lee Higgins is in room 115. Go get Jessica, and then go get Lee. After that, meet me back here.”

“What a
bout Nathan and Sam?”

“
Don’t worry about these two. I’ll take care of them.”

“
All right.”

Michael ran to room 116 and opened the door.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done without you,” Michael said while embracing Jess.

“Thank you for coming
for me. It was stupid of you, but thank you anyway,” Jess said and smiled.

“Oh yeah
, we need to help Lee out, too!” Michael said, and then they headed off to the room next door.

Lee wa
s gagged and bound, but before too long Michael had him loose.

“I never thought I would be saved by someone lik
e you,” Lee said in a hoarse voice.

“Hey, what is that
supposed to mean?” Michael asked.

“Nothing
. Thanks a lot, man. I don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t shown up.”

Back in the
Nathan and Sam’s hotel room, Trish had just gotten through untying Sam. Sam wanted to rush straight to Nathan’s side, but she was in no shape to do so. She was dizzy from the concussion that accompanies someone just about anytime Jacob hits them once, much less a half dozen times. Her arm was also hurt, and shards of broken glass were jammed in her skin from her struggle with Jacob on the bathroom floor.

“No,
I’m going to get him up. You just lay here and rest,” Trish said as she laid Sam on the bed.

Trish walked over
to Nathan and felt for a pulse. His pulse was strong. Trish was not even close to being a doctor, but she assumed that Nathan was probably only knocked out. We don’t have time to be dealing with these kinds of things! The cops will be here at any moment, and we have to get out of here, Trish thought desperately.

She began slapping Nathan on one cheek after the other.

Nathan felt an extreme pain in his head, and now some other type of pain. Was someone slapping him?

“Wake up. You have to get up!
” a voice said desperately.

“All right,
just quit hitting me!” Nathan said while opening his eyes.

“
Sam! Where is Sam?” he asked the girl standing above him.

She only pointed to the bed. Nathan jumped to his feet
, and though he felt extremely dizzy, he made his way to her.

“Are you okay? I am
so
sorry that I left you.”

“It’s okay. You came back for me. That’s all that matters
now.”

“Look
, I don’t mean to interrupt you two, but we need to get out of here before the cops get here and start asking questions about why you killed a man,” Trish said.

“
All right, let’s go,” Nathan said while scooping up Sam in his arms.

The truth was
that Nathan was extremely confused. This was, without a doubt, the same girl who had been with Jacob when he was kidnapped. Why would she be helping him? Couldn’t she be leading them straight into a trap? He shook off his confusion and doubt. Who cares why she’s helping us. Beggars can’t be choosers in a situation like this, he thought to himself. As he and Trish walked outside, they met Michael and the rest of the group.

“Okay
, we have six people and only four seats in my car,” Michael said.

“I’v
e got a car,” Trish said.

“I’m riding with you,” Lee said to Trish.

Lee was confused, and he knew that Trish had the flash drive, so he wanted to keep an eye on her. Why would this girl who just Tasered me a few minutes ago, have such a change of heart so suddenly, he wondered.

“Fine
, but where are we going?” Trish asked.

“
We need to go back to my place and get my laptop so I can unlock that flash drive,” Lee said.

“
I have a van at my house that we could all easily fit in if everyone wants to switch vehicles,” Jess said.

“
That’s definitely a good idea,” Trish said.

She really didn’t care if
everyone could fit in one vehicle together. What she was thinking about was the fact that the security cameras at the hotel had likely caught much of these events on tape including their vehicles. A fresh set of wheels would likely keep them from having to deal with any law enforcement.

“
Okay. Lee and I will go get his laptop. The rest of you will go get a different vehicle and then meet me and Lee back at his place.”

“W
hat are we going to do then?” Michael asked.

“Safe house,” Sam said in a very w
eak voice. 

“What?” Nathan asked.

“There’s a safe house that we can go to in Orlando.”

“Great
, we’re off to Orlando then,” Trish said.

“
All right, then let’s move, people,” Nathan said as he ushered Sam into Michael’s car.

As Lee and Trish got in the car and began to leave
, Lee broke the silence between them.

“I don’t trust you,” Lee
simply said.

“I don’t blame you. I T
asered you.”

“
So why did you have a sudden change of heart?”

“I found a way out of a life that I never wanted to be living i
n the first place, and I took it.”

“It’s really as s
imple as that?”

“
Yeah, it’s as simple as that.”

“
So what can I do to get you to trust me?” Trish asked.

“Well for
starters, you can give me the flash drive that you have.”

“Here,” she said while reaching into her
pocket and handing him the flash drive.

As their conversation was ending, they
pulled up to Lee’s apartment complex.

“I’ll run in
and get everything I need to unlock this device,” Lee said while exiting the car.

He ran as fast as his body would move to his room and went ins
ide. He grabbed everything he would need to do the job, and then one more thing caught his eye. For some reason, he simply couldn’t leave this item behind. He grabbed it and exited the building. As he got back down to Trish, the others were just pulling up. He loaded his gear in the back of the van, and he and Trish jumped in.

“Okay
, we’re officially off now,” Jess said from the front seat as she began to drive. 

In the very back of the van
, Nathan held Sam. He felt terrible for how beaten and battered she looked. If he had only been there, things may have been different.

“
Don’t look at me like that,” Sam said.

“Like what?” Nathan
asked.

“Well
, you used to look at me in a sort of mesmerized way. It was like I was the only person in the room. Now all I see is pity in your eyes. Do I look that bad?”

“You look just as mesmerizing
to me as ever. I promise you that. I’m really sorry that I let some stupid feelings I had for you endanger you. I promise that you won’t ever have to worry about that happening again.”

“Well
, that’s pretty disappointing,” Sam said while looking up into his eyes.

“Disappointing? W
hat do you mean? I thought you would be relieved.”

“Yeah, you see
, the truth is that I’m just a little scared. Everything is so new to me, and you just seemed so nice. I couldn’t help but feel as if I was rushing toward something so great, but at the same time, so terrifying. I was hoping that you might not give up on me just yet. I’m not perfect, and I don’t know how to act or what to do in this situation, but if you want to explore it, I think I’m game,” Sam said.

“I definitely want to explor
e whatever’s happening with us.”

With that
, he gently reached down and gave her a light kiss on the lips. Her face was beaten and bruised, but in that moment, she was perfect to Nathan.

* * * * *

Back in Washington, Dan and Jason were in a meeting with Mr. Campbell.

“How hypocritical is this? We take the fight t
o anyone around the world who’s trying to build weapons of mass destruction, but we won’t do one thing about the people in our own backyard who are selling those same weapons to our enemies,” Jason said in frustration.