“What happened? And Teeny…?” he asks.
I swallow the dry lump in my throat. I mouth the wordThomas. This is bad. Oh. My. God. This is so friggin’ bad.
“I figured.” Ethan propels himself another few inches closer until his mouth is near my ear. “Do you know where we’re going?”
I shake my head just enough to answer. Every movement sends waves of pain through my entire body.
“There’s some other person back here,” he whispers. “Besides the two people up front. I don’t know who it is, but he’s passed out in the front corner.”
I lift my shoulders to see who it could be and wince from the pain. There’re a hundred things I want to say to Ethan right now, but my body won’t cooperate. My eyelids droop. They’re too heavy to remain open for even a second longer.
Slam! My head smashes the floor again, and once again the blackness washes over me.
The fog clouding my brain seems a little thinner when I finally open my eyes again. It’s still dark. I’m still tied up. And my entire body still hurts.
The hollow sound inside the moving vehicle roars through my ears. I lift my head, slowly, testing to make sure the entire van doesn’t start spinning, and check on Teeny. She’s still knocked out behind me.
And then I hear Ethan. He’s whispering but it’s loud enough that I recognize his voice. The lower half of his body is still close enough to me that I can feel him, but his head and torso are bent away.
He’s talking to the other person who’s in the back of the van with us.
I nudge Ethan’s leg and he slowly twists around to me. “Anna, you’re up. You’ll never believe who’s back here with us…. Agent Parker.”
What? Agent Parker. What is happening?
“She’s beat up pretty bad,” he says.
“I want to talk to her.” I start moving in her direction and it’s tough. When I get close enough to see her, I’m shocked by her appearance. One eye is almost swollen shut and her lip is busted. Her clothes are torn and the closer I get, the more I can smell her, and it’s really not good. Seeing her here like this devastates me.
“Agent Parker, what’s happening?”
“Thomas,” she says then stops to use her shoulder to wipe a trail of saliva that escaped along the corner of her mouth. “I was instructed to stay in Natchitoches while Agent Williams went after Daniel Sanders.” It’s hard for her to talk, her top lip is so swollen it barely moves. “Your father gave us permission to use your home as a base. One minute I’m going over your case file at your kitchen table and the next I’m in the back of this van.”
She’s whispering although the road noise makes it near impossible to hear her. “He made me give up your location.” She breaks down and cries, “I’m so sorry, Anna.”
“Where’s Agent Williams?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” The van hits a bump and we’re all bounced against the metal floor. Agent Parker lets out a moan while tears spring to my eyes. We all need this van to stop moving. “The last time I spoke to him was yesterday morning.”
Ethan rolls around until he gets a little closer to Agent Parker and asks, “Who is the other guy? Is it the mole?”
She shrugs and I can tell even that small movement is excruciating. “He hasn’t taken the mask off.” Her eyes move to mine and she says, “I’m so sorry.”
Another bump makes us shuffle around the space.
Neither of us asks her anything else, mainly because it looks so painful for Agent Parker to move her jaw when she talks.
The van slows and then swerves off the road before coming to a stop.
There are a few tense seconds before the back doors open, then I’m being dragged out. My arms burn as hands yank me out of the van by my underarms and the pain radiates all the way to my fingers.
“You’re hurting her,” Ethan yells.
The hands let go and I flop outside the van onto the hard concrete road. It’s cold and my partially wet clothes are not helping.
And I’ve got to pee. Bad.
Ethan is pulled out after me, then dumped on the ground a few feet away from the van. His expression is hard to read as his eyes move between Thomas and Agent Parker, who is still inside the van. I can’t see her but I hear her moaning. Teeny hasn’t moved.
