Before:
"Mina, don't worry. Everything is going to be okay. I won't let anything happen to you--ever." Parker said.
He had a death grip on my arm and I wanted to shake him off even though that would make me look like a bitch.
Ken was sitting in the corner, quiet and remote and that was starting to scare me a bit. Mare was chewing on her fingers and I could see the blood starting to gather around the rim of her fingernails.
The men had surrounded our camp while we slept and yanked us from our tents, their guns glaringly beautiful in the moonlight. I wondered what would have happened if we hadn't stumbled into an illegal farm.
The assumption we were going to be killed wafted from our skin and it stained the walls and reeked. This was our last hike, our last hoorah before we had to head back to campus and I had reluctantly agreed to it because I had fallen in love with the red rocks and bright sky at night.
I had craved to see that one more time before these men did whatever it was that they were ordered to do.
It was clear they were taking orders from someone and I thought I had an idea of who that was.
It was hard to see who was under all the tactical gear but there was nothing I could do to forget those cold, dead eyes. They had focused on me under the black face mask and hat pulled low.
My body shivered as I remembered his heavy hand wrapping around my waist and pulling me from my sleeping bag. The way his fingers gripped into my skin and kept me close while his low, smooth, voice gave out orders, had scared me. Why was he holding on to me?
Parker's fear had made him stupid and he tried to charge at us. He hadn't made it far before he was knocked unconscious by the butt of a gun.
Parker getting hurt set everyone off into their own fight or flight actions. Ken and Mare started struggling and screaming while I pushed away from the man who was holding me in a way I had never been held before.
I turned on my heel and brought up my hands to push his body away from me.
"I didn't say you could move." The low voice said, chilling my face and soul.
A knife appeared and pressed against the underside of my chin stilling me for a moment. I don't know why I did what I did next but I pressed the sharp side of the knife into my skin. The searing pain as the knife enter my body was nothing compared to the look the man gave me.
A look I didn't want to see again.
But fate is a tricky thing.
*******
Alma is Flying
Nothing was keeping her skin attached to the membrane. She was going to detach and float right up out of her skin. It took one snort, one inhale, one dissolved tongue for her to say goodbye to her existence. The Shadow Alma sat in the corner and watched as her physical form melted into the mattress and floated into pure euphoria. It laughed at Alma because the high would eventually invite a crash and there was going to be a reckoning then.
Alma would cease to be and she would cry about it
, the Shadow Alma thought. It would be glorious, tragic, and the possible end of Flesh Alma. But it didn't know what to do about the other large shadow in the corner that kept watching her, probing and probing...and asking...and...
What a fiend.
You're Gonna Hold That, Ben
"Fuck" Ben muttered, punching in numbers that would bring him the nearest medic.
He had disobeyed orders to try and reach Alma. Ricci had made it clear because of her state she was off-limits but that had not stopped his pursuit. Alma was the closes thing he had to see Mina and he had stalked the woman relentlessly.
It was clear from the get that Alma was a drug addict. Ricci had called off hard inquiry because he felt that her state of mind was too fragile. Ben had not agreed and it ended in a blowout that forced Ricci to demand that Ben stay away.
Of course, when Ben heard an answer on the other line, his suspicions were confirmed.
Ricci ALWAYS knew.
"C-137." A curt reply filled his ear and Ben felt relief and fright.
"Corner of Jasper and Kent. 27-Active. Response Required."
"Confirmed. En route."
Confirmed? Ricci had definitely been keeping tabs on him. Medics had already been on stand-by without Ben's knowledge.
Goddamn it.
Ben still wasn't an expert at reading Ricci, no matter how long they had been together. The older man only showed what others needed. Right now, that probably didn't matter, because his boss had told him to be careful with Alma. He didn't know that talking with her about Mina would set her off.
He heard Alma's front door open and two men in all black gear with bright red fluorescence crosses walked in. They nodded their greeting but headed toward the back of the apartment.
It wasn't that long before he was informed that Alma was in stable condition and his phone was vibrating in his hand. He hit the green button.
"How are you going to take responsibility for preying on Alma?" Ricci's Boston voice intoned.
"I didn't know it was going to happen." Ben gritted his teeth, trying to speak calmly into the receiver.
"You knew it was a possibility and took the risk," Ricci replied smoothly.
The guilt roared back to life and memories he'd wanted to forget flooded into his frontal lobe.
"The situation is now out of your hands, Ben. Alma is very much off-limits. Do I make myself, clear?"
Something violent ripped into him--wanting to fight for the right to help bring Mina home. Despite what Ricci said, he thought Alma knew more than what she initially said.
But Ricci's word is the law.
"As it seems, I need you back at the bolt house. There was some interesting intel from Trey Montenero's first lieutenant."
Disbelief fueled into anger, "I thought you were going to let me handle that interrogation."
A heavy silence chastised him, "And interrupt your little side mission? Choices Ben."
More like 'fall into line before I put you back.' Ricci didn't usually tolerate disobedience. It really showed how much he cared about Mina's safe return that he wasn't punishing Ben or pulling him out of the operation altogether.
