Page 15 of In The Darkness

“But what if my father already paid that second half a million? What then? They aren’t going to keep this going forever,” she sobbed.

Nick slowly dragged the pads of his thumbs across the tops of her cheeks to dry her tears and smiled. “I think they’re just not very good at this. Most of them spend half the day sleeping because the leader is drugging them to keep them calm. This Clayton guy hasn’t been around since I got here, but Drist says he’ll be around soon.”

“Drist?”

“Short blond hair and way too many tattoos on his face,” he explained as his hands slid from her face. “The one who brought me when I first got here. He has a thing with guns. Probably means he’s compensating for something.”

Persephone couldn’t help but smile. There she sat in some rundown house tied to a chair and this man who claimed to be there to help her was making jokes about one of the men outside that room having a tiny penis.

She’d seen enough of Drist’s anger to make her want to believe someone had cut off his penis. Even that may have been too good for him, though.

Then it dawned on her that the name Clayton sounded familiar. “What’s the leader’s name? Clayton what?”

Nick moved his hands away from her face, and suddenly she felt alone, even as he crouched in front of her. Maybe she could trust him. God, she wanted to.

“Berger. My guess is that the FBI has kept him busy these past few days since he doesn’t make any secret of the fact that he’s the leader of the National Equality Militia,” Nick explained. “But Drist gave me the impression we might see him soon.”

Persephone looked up toward the ceiling as the name Clayton Berger settled into her brain. Where had she heard that name before? She had definitely heard his name, but where and why?

Focusing on Nick again, she looked down at him as he sat crouched in front of her and asked, “What does he look like, this Clayton Berger? Have you ever seen him?”

“Just a picture of him online but never in person. He doesn’t look like any of these guys, to be honest. He has short brown hair, light eyes, I think. Maybe blue. I’m not sure. He has a look like any regular businessman from what I could tell by the picture I saw. My guess is he’s the respectable face of the organization. Why?”

Persephone thought back to a night a few weeks before at the hospital. “Is he tall and thin?”

Nick nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much. Why?”

She knew there had been something strange about that man that night on her last shift of the week. He hadn’t seemed in as much pain as he claimed, so the doctor had refused to give him any meds for his supposed pain. He’d seemed more interested in talking to her about what made her choose nursing as a career than actually being in the agony he claimed he was in, and she’d suspected something was wrong with him.

“He came to the hospital where I work last month. He said he’d twisted his ankle and strained his back helping someone move, but he never really looked like he was really in much pain and the x-ray showed his ankle was just fine. I was the nurse who attended him, and all he wanted to do was talk to me about why I chose to become a nurse, if I liked living in the area, and things like that. I’m so stupid. I had a feeling something wasn’t right, but I still talked to him for nearly a half hour.”

“That was probably Berger getting a feel for you and where you worked since they grabbed you from the hospital, right?”

She nodded, disgusted that she hadn’t followed her gut that night. “Yeah. They were waiting for me at my car in the parking garage. That man pretended to be hurt just to get close to me? My father was right. He always told me working at that hospital put me in danger, but I never listened to him. Now my stupidity has cost him a million dollars and might cost me my life.”

Nick frowned and stood up in front of her. “No, it won’t. Your father may have lost that money, but I’m not going to let them do anything to hurt you. Just remember what I told you. Don’t fight them. They’ve been told to not mess up your face too much, so you should be okay. Hopefully, I can get to be one of the guys who goes with you tonight when we move to the new place in Winchester.”

“Will you help me escape then?”

“That’s the plan. Okay, I have to go. Just remember. Don’t fight them.”

He turned to leave, but Persephone hated the idea of being left alone in that room again with the gag stuffed in her mouth. “Wait! Don’t go. I’m going out of my mind sitting here for hours alone.”

Turning to look at the door, he sighed. “I don’t want to risk them getting suspicious of what I’m doing in here.”

“Please, stay for just a little while. You want me to trust you, but I don’t know anything about you, Nick.”

She waited while he decided if he should give in to her pleas and then silently rejoiced when he stepped back to stand in front of her. Persephone still didn’t know how much to believe in him, but God, she desperately wanted to.

“There’s not much to know about me,” he said with a smile that instantly calmed her.

“You say you’re not a cop or FBI. Then why would my father hire you to rescue me?” she asked as she sized up the man in front of her.

Tall and strong, she believed he could take any one of the men outside that room. But could he save her from all of them?

Nick lowered his head and said quietly, “I used to be FBI. Since I left, I’ve done work like this, among other things. Don’t worry. You’re in good hands. I’ve been undercover more times than I can remember. Never lost anyone.”

As he finished speaking, he winced ever so slightly before smiling. Persephone immediately suspected he wasn’t telling her the whole truth, but exactly what part was a lie? Had he not been in the FBI, or had he lost someone on a case? Or even worse, was everything he’d ever said to her a lie and he was just another one of the men holding her hostage for some stupid cause who would kill her at some point?

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