At no point had I realized someone had climbed in beside me on the left before we departed.
I feel them before I fully register it. With the small amount of clothes I have on, I can feel the heat radiating through their layers of clothing.
My head slowly tilts toward the person.
My heart hammers in my chest as I desperately try to see who kidnapped me.
But they are all wearing ski masks. I can only make out their mouths and their eyes, but that is not near enough information to give to the police, if I ever get that far.
The vehicle picks up speed as we cruise onto the highway.
Panic then surges through me, “Please-”.
The person stationed beside me moves fast and a singe of pain reverberates into my neck.
For half a second, I don’t understand what’s happening.
Then the burn spreads and my limbs begin to feel heavy almost immediately. The panic in my chest lags behind my body’s sudden betrayal.
“No,” I whisper, the word barely leaving my mouth.
My vision slowly darkens.
The last thing I register is the person beside me steadying my body as I slump onto their lap.
Then the world around me disappears.
Chapter Nine
Everleigh
?Flashback.Age sixteen.?
My father stood on the opposite side of the study. He wasn’t the affectionate type so any distance between us was deliberate. Everything about him was deliberate and was always taken so seriously.
His expression was hardened and never soft, not even when he looked at me. His own daughter.
It felt less like standing in front of a parent and more like I was standing before a judge in court.
“I won’t be able to trust you fully until you know all there is to know about this life,” he said sternly. “Because in this role, weakness is adeath sentence.”
The words were said as a fact.
I nodded swiftly. I’d learned early that hesitation invited correction.
Learned, as in multiple beatings and emotional abuse throughout my childhood.
He turned slightly and gestured to the wall of shelves behind him. The shelves were huge, towering up to the ceiling. Every inch packed with books with volumes on Psychology, Behavioral science, Power theory, Negotiation, Manipulation and Deception. Subjects that didn’t belong in a teenage girl’s mind.
All that I should’ve been thinking of at that age was boys, sex and school. But all I had was the knowledge of an FBI agent at the age of sixteen.
“These,” he said, “are your inheritance.”
I followed his movement, stepping closer to the shelves. My fingers then brushed over the spines. I slid one book out from the shelf it was on. Body Language and Micro-expressions. I didn’t open it because I already knew what it would demand of me.
“You will memorize every one,” he continued. “Not just the words, but the intention behind them. Why people lie. When they lie. What fear looks like before it speaks.”
I swallowed, throat as dry as dirt.
