Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (18 page)

“Are you mad
about it?”

“No, not at all
, but from now on just make sure you don’t come around me with a bat or any other weapon in general actually,” Nathan said and laughed.

“Okay
. I’m so glad that we got that talk over with. The usual?” Michael asked.

“No
. Definitely not. Don’t you remember the last time we gave Sam an energy drink?”

“Hey
, it was a pretty funny experience to me,” Michael said while laughing.

Nathan and Michael
walked into the store and bought some drinks. After they exited the store, a question came to Michael’s mind.

“So what
exactly is the deal with you and Sam? Are you guys a couple or what?”

“I really like her
, and I’m pretty sure she likes me, too, but just like with any relationship, it’s complicated. Okay, maybe it’s
very
complicated in our case.”

“
What about you and Jess? Is that going anywhere? I could tell that you really care for her.”

“Yeah
, I do, but for some reason, she just doesn’t see me that way,” Michael said while showing a hint of sadness.

“Don’t worry
about it too much. You’ll change her mind soon enough.”

“I don’t know
about that, man. Jess has seen me at my worst. It’s kind of hard to change someone’s mind after they’ve seen that.”

“You wanted to be a M
arine, and in spite of everyone’s doubts, that’s exactly what you became. When you set your mind to something, you’re capable of much more than you believe you are.”

“You know that’s
a sore subject for me. Why would you even bring it up?” Michael asked.

“I brought it up because it’s
a perfect example of the strength and determination you have inside of you. It’s understandable that you lost some of that determination in that desert, but when the day comes that you find yourself again, Jess won’t be able to help herself. There’s no way she won’t respect and want to be with such a driven person.”

Michael
, for the life of him, couldn’t understand how Nathan saw him in such a way. He had always been a screw up, or at least that was what he thought. Sure, he had his moments where he pushed himself farther than people thought he could go back when he was in the military, but even that ended up being for nothing.

“I hope you’re
right,” Michael simply said in order to end the conversation.

“Hey
, I need to talk to you guys back at the van,” Trish said while walking up behind them.

* * * * *

Back in the van, Lee had been sitting with Sam while everyone else stretched their legs.

“Hey
, you look pretty bad,” Lee said while noticing just how beat up she really was.

“Thanks a lot,” Sam responded.

“I’m sorry. I’m just concerned.”

“It’s okay.”

“I have a question for you.”

“What is it?” Sam
asked.

“Are you and Nathan a thing?
Like, are you two together? I mean, it’s none of my business, but I was just wondering.”

“Yeah, I think
we are.”

“Well
, just do me a favor, and be nice to the guy. I’ve known him since we were kids, and he’s had a lot of rotten luck with women. He’s a great guy, and I’m only asking because I’m his friend.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I mean
, I’m far from perfect, and he probably deserves a lot better than me, or at least a more normal woman, but hurting him is simply not an option for me.”

“Thank you,”
Lee said.

Just then the door swung open.

“Hey, guys. Trish wanted to talk to us all about something,” Michael said.

“I need everyone’s phones,” Trish said plainly.

“Why?” Lee asked.

“Every time
that Nathan made a call or texted any of you, we knew about it. That’s how we found every single one of you.”

Nathan was beyond embarrassed. He felt
stupid. Had all of this been his fault?

“I don’t know what to say. I’m
really sorry, guys,” Nathan said.

“It’s okay,” Michael
said instantly.

Everyone passed up their phones
up to Trish except for Sam.

“What about you? I know you have to have a
cell phone,” Trish said.

“It’s a government phone
. Trust me; no one is tracing this one,” Sam answered.

“Fine
, you can keep that one if you want to, but I still wouldn’t suggest making any calls on it.”

Trish then threw
all the phones out onto the pavement and began to drive away. The computer tech inside Lee could barely stand the sight of any device being destroyed, much less one of his own.

“So how about that drink,” Sam said to Nathan.

“Here, do you want a soda or some water?”

“What
, no energy drinks?”

“Very funny!” Nathan said
. 

Chapter 18

The group finally found their way to Orlando late that night, but something appeared to be wrong.

“This is just a storage facility,” Nathan said
in surprise by what was at the location of Sam’s supposed safe house.

“Is it?” Sam asked
with a smile.

They all entered this huge facility. After walking for a little while
, they stopped at a certain storage unit.

“This is it. Number thirteen,” Sam said.

There was a passcode
at the front of the unit. Sam punched in the code and Nathan lifted the door. To everyone but Sam’s dismay, there was nothing there.

“What’s
going on?” Michael asked.

“Look in the b
ack right corner,” Sam said.

Michael walked to the back wall and examined it for a moment.

“There isn’t anything here.”

“Oh
, come on. Does the girl with the hurt leg have to do everything around here?” Sam exclaimed as she limped to the back of the unit.

She slid her hand across the back of the wall until she felt a switch
. Then she flipped it. A small doorway began to open up on the back wall. The newfound doorway led to a staircase.

“Well
, come on, everyone. The door automatically closes after one minute,” Sam said.

They all made their way down
the stairs and found that they were in a small two bedroom apartment.

“How is any of this possible?” Lee asked.

“The CIA owns this facility, and unit thirteen is coincidentally always full,” Sam said.

“
This is pretty impressive. We should be safe here for quite some time,” Trish said.

“I hope so. Look
, I’m going to write down the passcode for the main door down right here,” Sam said while motioning to a piece of paper on the counter of the apartment’s kitchen.

The place was
fairly nice. It wasn’t really designed to house six people, but it would have to do for a few days.

“
So we need to talk about sleeping arrangements. There are only two beds, and there are six of us. I’m sleeping in here,” Sam said while motioning to one of the bedrooms.

“I call the other room,” Jess said.

“Well, I’m definitely with you then,” Michael said.

“Oh
, no you’re not.”

“What? Why not?”

Let’s just say that I would be more comfortable without someone of the opposite sex in my bed. How about you Trish? Would you like to share the room with me?” Jess asked.

“Sure
, why not,” Trish said.

Michael then turned toward the couch
, only to find that Lee was already asleep on it. Lee was exhausted. He had only slept a couple of hours in the last two days.

“Great! Where am I
supposed to sleep?” Michael asked.

“There are some covers and pillows in the closet near the bathroom. You can take the floor tonight
, and maybe Lee will let you have the couch tomorrow night,” Sam said.

Nathan felt a little bad for Michael. He always gets the short end of the stick. Where am I going to sleep
, though? I could sleep with Sam, but it’s not like I can be the one to suggest it. That might seem odd to her, Nathan thought while staring at Sam. What is he thinking so intently about, Sam wondered.

“Nathan
, are you coming or what?” Sam finally asked.

“What?” Nathan
asked.

“Oh come on
. You were always going to be in here. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve slept together,” Sam said casually.

“What!” Michael asked
in surprise by what he had just heard.

“She didn’t mean
it the way it came out. We truly have
only
slept together,” Nathan explained.

“Sure, sure,” Michael
said while winking at him and then giving him a thumbs up.

Nathan no longer knew what to say
to Michael, so he just walked into the bedroom with Sam and shut the door.

“What did he think I was talking about?” Sam asked.

“Think about it Sam,” Nathan said.

“I don
. . . ” Sam said before being cut off.

“No
. Really think hard about it, Sam.”

“Oh! He thought
. . . ”

“Yeah,
he did.”

A long silence engulfed the room
. Finally, Sam broke the silence.

“Why
did you come back for me today? You could have gotten yourself killed, you know. You picked the worst possible time to raise your gun. He was pointing his gun straight at you when you raised yours.”

“I could never leave you
, and you’re wrong. I picked the best possible time to shoot.”

“What do you mean?”

“I waited until he turned the gun away from you. I didn’t really care where it was aiming as long as it wasn’t aiming at you.”

“Nathan
, that was very stupid. You know that I’m the one who should be protecting you.”

“You have protected
me before, and I’m confident you will again, but you have to know that I will always protect you, too,” Nathan said while wrapping his arms around her.

His arms were bigger and stronger than Sam had initially thought they were. Somehow
, she really did feel safe in his arms. She slept more peacefully that night in his arms than she had been able to since this whole ordeal began.

* * * * *

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

“So what’s the deal with you? What’s
your story?” Jess asked.

Trish told the same story
she had previously told to Michael and Lee.

“Wow! T
hat’s amazing! So can you read me?”

“
You might not like what I tell you. I don’t think your friend Michael did when he asked me to prove that I could really read people that easily,” Trish said.

“Oh
, well what did you tell him?”

Trish then told her about
her own assessment of Michael.

“He really is broken
, isn’t he? I worry about him a lot. I wish I could help him somehow.”

“Broken things can be fixed,” Trish
simply said.

“What are
you saying?”

“I’m
saying that if you are truly this guy’s friend, then you shouldn’t give up on him.”

“You’re
right. Okay, now tell me what you can read about me.”

Trish stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts.

“I think that you’re a natural born caregiver. You are excellent with Michael. You took care of Sam back in the van, and you gave me a way out of the life I was living, even when I didn’t deserve it. You’re the best kind of friend a person can have because you give without ever keeping a mental record of how much you’ve received. You’re picky when it comes to romance, though. You want the person you’re with to be well put together in most areas of their life. Someone like Michael, in his current state, would be an embarrassment to you. You secretly hope that one day he’ll be more put together, or at least more mentally stable, so there may be something between the two of you. He’s someone you could be with for the rest of your life and be happy with, but he’s not someone you would be proud of, and therein lies the problem.”

“That’s
not true! I’m not interested in or ashamed of Michael,” Jess said in an irritated voice, but the biting truth that Trish spoke was reality.

“Oh
, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” Trish said.

“It’s okay
. What you said is actually not that far from the truth. I guess it just hurts to face your true self.”

“You have no idea,” Trish whispered to herself in the night.

The next morning Sam woke up to a lot of loud noise, and Nathan was gone from her side.

What in
the world’s going on in there, she thought. As she walked to the living room, she saw the source of all the noise. There, sitting on the couch, were three grown men glued to the television and playing video games. Their voices seemed to have absolutely no volume control.

“Oh
, you’re up,” Nathan said while momentarily glancing back at her.

Of course
, I’m up, you dummy. You woke me up, Sam thought.

“Hey
, over here,” Jess said while motioning for Sam to come into the kitchen.

“It’s really odd
, isn’t it? I’ve never seen children so obsessed with a game, much less grown men,” Jess said.

It was certainly odd to Sam. She hadn’t seen a video game since the early nineties
, and a lot had changed about them apparently.

“Hey
, watch this,” Jess said.

“Hey
, Michael.”

“Huh?” Michael responded in a robotic voice.

“My top just fell off,” Jess said.

“That wil
l be fine,” he blankly said.

“Amazing,
just amazing” Trish said while laughing.

It was strange. Sam had been worried about someone like J
ess stealing Nathan’s gaze, but it turned out that her worst enemy was going to be a few pixels on a screen.

“
All right. I have to get back to it, guys. I don’t want to, but unfortunately I have to,” Lee said while getting up from the couch.

“Why did you bring
a game station?” Trish asked Lee.

“When I saw it in the apartment
, I just couldn’t leave it behind, and besides, it helps me relax. I’m sorry, though. You may never get Nathan back,” Lee said while smiling at Sam. 

* * * * *

Back in Mississippi, Margaret was being forced to deliver less than good news to Mr. Fields. Fields had just gotten out of the hospital and was in no mood for bad news. At this point, he only wanted the people who had thrown him from a car to be found and killed.

“Mr.
Fields, sir, it appears that Jacob is dead and Trish is missing,” Margaret said.

Fields was stunned. They had killed his best soldier and taken his smartest one
captive.

Maybe it’s
about time I called to get a little help on this one, he thought.

“Leave me,” he simply said to
Margaret.

She quickly complied. He
picked up the phone and called the man he least wanted to talk to in the world.

“Hello,” someone
said on the other end of the phone.

“Yes
, Mr. Boyd, this is Fields. I’ve encountered a big problem, sir.”

“What is it now?” Boyd snapped
at him.

Fields explained the entire situation to Markus Boyd.

“Well, you’ve really screwed this one up, haven’t you?”

“I’m sorry
, sir. I just thought I would call and seek your council because we both know what’s on that flash drive. It has to be retrieved soon.”

“I’ll make some calls and get done what you should have been able to do
yourself.”

“Thank you
, sir,” Fields said.

“Don’t thank me just yet. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do to punish you for this royal screw up,” Boyd said and hung up the phone.

Punishment? What does he mean by that, Fields wondered in fear.

* * * * *

On the top floor of a large skyscraper in New York City, Markus Boyd picked up his phone and dialed John Campbell’s number.

“Hello,”
Campbell said.

“Okay
, I don’t know why your operatives stole my data, but you made a royal mistake when you crossed me!” Markus screamed into the phone.

“Calm down
, Markus. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well
, then you sure as hell better figure out what I’m talking about soon, because every twenty-four hours that I don’t have the location of Samantha Fisher, a top-level agent of yours will die. If I get too impatient, your family will die, John.”

“
All right. I’ll have a location for you by the end of the day, so just calm down for a minute.”

“You have twenty-four
hours, John. Maybe an agent dies, and maybe I choose to kill your entire family. You better deliver a location,” Markus said and then hung up the phone.

Campbell
knew he could deliver the location of Samantha Fisher because every agent’s cell phone had a tracking chip inside it. It really would be effortless finding Sam, but still, Campbell didn’t feel good about giving her up. He walked out of his office and found Burt Jones.