As soon as she raised her hands, however, she wished she’d donned a different outfit. Her cropped T-shirt barely covered the undersides of her boobs and her loose pajama bottoms slung low around her hips, leaving her entire midriff bare.
“Get on the floor! Face down!” the closest agent added as Roy skipped in the living room, repeating over and over again, “Pretty woman, walkin’ down…Pretty woman, walkin’ down…”
The girdle and tight cocktail dress made his motions stiff and awkward, but Cesar managed to join her in a prone position on the floor. His voice was hoarse when he whispered, “What’s going on?”
“Maybe something to do with that job Sam called me in to help with?” She grimaced. The adrenaline had coated her tongue with its sour taste. “Which means this is all a big misunderstanding.”
If she hadn’t hacked into the emails of the director of the FBI, the authorities never would have found the government mole who’d recruited Americans to act as online trolls to spread Russian misinformation and propaganda.
With my help, hundreds of double-agents are either awaiting trial or have otherwise copped plea agreements and are doing time.
But perhaps these guys didn’t realize her sneak-a-peek had been deemed a necessary evil. Maybe they’d stumbled upon her little cyberpunk stunt and didn’t know she’d been cleared of any wrongdoing by none other than the director himself.
“Just do everything they say until I can get this straightened out,” she whispered, pressing her cheek against the rug. “Don’t give them any reason to shoot you.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” His face was turned toward hers and she tried to don an expression of calm confidence even though she was feeling the exact opposite.
“Hands behind your head!” the agent who took up a position above her commanded.
Once again, she was quick to comply. After she’d laced her fingers together over the back of her skull, she heard her best friend yell, “Ow! You fucker!”
One of the agents had planted a none-too-gentle knee into the middle of Cesar’s back. The adrenaline in her blood turned to pure, fiery rage. “Hey!” she snarled even as hard plastic cinched around her wrists. “Get off him! He’s complying! You don’t have to—”
That’s all she got out before the agent who’d cuffed her wrapped a hand around her ties and yanked her to her feet. The move was so sudden, she thought for sure she’d feel warm blood dripping down her arms from where the plastic ties had dug into her flesh.
“Easy!” She snarled. “There’s no reason for—”
“Shut the fuck up!” The fed spun her around and shoved her backward until her back hit the wall where Cesar’s framed and signed photo of Lady Gaga hung in a place of prominence. The breath whooshed from her lungs and the photograph jumped on its nail.Thankfully, it didn’t come crashing down on top of her skull.
“There’s been a m-mistake,” she sputtered. “If you’ll talk to Director Morgan, you’ll see I helped you guys bag one of the biggest busts this country has—”
“Take the director’s name out of your treasonous mouth.” The agent pressed her bound wrists above her head with one hand while placing his opposite forearm across her throat. White stars populated her field of vision when her windpipe was crushed. “He wouldn’t be caught dead in the same room with someone who conspired with Red Square to target Dominion Pipeline.”
Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen getting to her brain but, try as she might, she couldn’t make sense of his words. Red Square? The ransomware syndicate that sold their services to affiliate malware gangs on the dark web? And Dominion Pipeline? The largest fuel supplier to the Eastern Seaboard?
She’d never had occasion to deal with either entity in her work for Cyber Crimes.
“Do you deny it?” the agent demanded, his face barely an inch from hers. She could smell the stale coffee on his breath and feel the wet heat of his words fanning over her cheeks.
Yes, I deny it, you toad-eating cockwaffle!She wanted to scream. But the only thing she could manage was, “You’re ch-choking m—”
“We’re not here to hurt you, Miss Blue,” said the agent who’d been abusing Cesar. She glanced past the beast holding her hostage to see her best friend was on his feet. His wig was askew, there was fear and confusion in his eyes, but otherwise, he seemed mostly unharmed.
“Tell th-that to your p-pal h-here,” she wheezed and then cut her eyes to the fed in front of her. His dishwater-blond hair was trimmed military short. A muscle clenched in his jaw. And she would swear she saw cruelty and…pleasurein his beady brown eyes.
He gets a kick out of using his credentials and his authority to terrorize people.
Her hunch was confirmed when the other agent—she suspected the man holding Cesar was theleadagent—admitted, “Agent Waller gets overzealous sometimes. Especially when it comes to a government employee using her position and security clearance to line her pockets while putting this country at risk. But I’m sure Keith will be happy to release you if you’ll agree to come peacefully and admit what you’ve done.”
The stars in front of her eyes were going supernova. And the loud buzzing in her ears made the agent’s words sound tinny and far away. Even still, her inner smart-ass jumped into the fray.
“I’m being m-manhandled by a guy namedKeith? Just wh-when I thought my night couldn’t get any w-worse.”
The pressure on her throat increased and her oxygen-starved brain conjured up her sister’s face. Candy’s words drifted through her head.Why do you always have to make things so much more difficult?
It was a refrain she’d heard a lot growing up. What she’d always thought but had never said aloud was,Not everyone is born with an angel’s face and a runway model’s body. Some people have to rely on brains, wit, and sarcasm to make it in this world.
Despite her best efforts to log every move the agents made and remember every word they said—she planned to file a harshly worded complaint once this mess was straightened out—she couldn’t stop her eyelids from fluttering. And just when her eyes started to roll back in her head, she heard Lead Guy say, “That’s enough, Waller.”
