RP Chapter 10
Ouch. That stung. “Kace.”
“Don’t you Kace me.”
He tensed as he stared at her just as tense shoulders; he pulled the drive that had been weighing him down for the past twenty-four hours. He placed it gently in front of her. “The minute you get through this let me know.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Kace.” He began but clamped his mouth shut.
She glanced at him. “Yeah, Kyle?”
“Just, be careful.” He murmured, fear clouding what he really wanted to say.
“Of course.” She turned back to the jump drive and began to slip it into her desktop computer.
He let his fingertips graze her arm then out the door he went. Hoping he hadn’t just made the second worse mistake in his life. The first was never to tell her how he really felt.
~
Kacey glanced back at the slightly swinging door. She closed her eyes briefly then turned back to the screen of her computer. The first things were voice recordings. There were about eight of them in all and about ten minutes long. She glanced back at the little table by her door, her coffee was still there.
~
She went to get it, sipped the caffeinated liquid, tonight was going to be a longer night than she thought. She sighed as she sat up on her stool and plugged in her ear buds and pressed play.
She let out a tiny gasp as Donovan’s voice fell on her ears, but not in English, but French. He’d made it so only she could tell what he was trying to say, not Shawn nor his brothers, but her.
“Okay, Donovan, you’ve got me here, what are you trying to tell me?” she whispered as she listened. He wasn’t a traitor. “Well, that I already knew, my friend, but what are you doing?” she continued to listen as she sipped the coffee every now and then. She let out a sigh, exhaustion consuming her slowly. She wouldn’t give into it though. He was deep under cover trying to solve the highest mole they had at AS.
Kacey chewed on her lip as she translated the last part. “I’m hot on his trail, it is indeed a man, one who’s been there at AS for a long time, I’m pretty sure he’s figured out that I’m on to him, but I still can’t pinpoint it, there’s more info and Kace, I hope you’re listening, I’m going to need your help.”
She let out her breath and moved on to the fifty or so files that were on the drive. She scanned them quickly, taking the time to embed them into her mind. She almost chuckled as she began to recognize the silly little code they had come up with together while in middle school.
She finally got done mentally storing everything, he meant all of this for her, and only her. She couldn’t risk decoding it at AS, it was too risky. She went to one of the recordings again as he spoke her name in the French accent, she shuddered. “Oh, Donny, what have you gotten yourself into?”
\~~~
The ear buds were ripped from her ears making her scream, but it was cut off by a hand slamming over her mouth and an arm cut off her air by squeezing her throat. “Something you will never know.” The thick accent rushed over her.
Terror began to work its way through her, she couldn’t place the type of accent it was. She immediately began to fight, clawing at the man’s arm.
“You best stop it, or I’ll just kill you right now,” he pulled her off the stool slamming her face against her metal desk. “Now, give me the drive.”
She shook her head, and he slammed her down again. The pain ricocheted through her skull, as if she’d just been in a car wreck. She screamed but it was muffled from the hand over her mouth. If she couldn’t get air soon she was going to pass out. She struggled just as the elevator pinged letting them know someone would be coming down.
She reached out to the computer, hit the eject button but managed to drop the drive on the floor and slid it beneath the table with her shoe carefully as the man was distracted by the elevator ping. She snatched up an empty jump drive and handed it to the man.
He snatched it out of her hand and slammed her down against the table once more and let her go. She slid to the floor, feeling so much pain and limpness as she struggled to get air into her lungs. Tears sprang to her eyes from the burning sensation in her lungs and down her throat and from the fear.
Her head ached, her throat and lungs burned as if she’d just inhaled smoke. Her vision blurred but she didn’t know if it was because of the pain in her head or the tears. She gasped in a shaky breath, rolling to her side, her fingers connected with the jump drive as she reached her hand beneath the desk. She pulled it out and slipped it into her side pocket as she tried to sit up.
“Kacey?” a deep voice called and the next thing she knew she was in her brother’s arms. “What happened?”
She shook her head, no one would believe her she had been attacked in AS, let alone by someone with a strange accent. An accent, no one at AS had an accent, mostly country twangs, and some Boston and New Jersey accents, but nothing like the one that grated against her ears and skin.
Shawn jostled her gently, but she could barely make out his face. She felt the wetness against her cheek, she reached up, brushing the tears away. Shawn pulled her closer into his comforting embrace, it just wasn’t the embrace she wanted.
“Kacey, where’s Kyle?”
“I told him to leave.”
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“Because I’m mad at him and I don’t need or want him hanging around me like he has been.”
“Why are you mad at him?”
Kacey scoffed sending more pain down her throat. “Like you wouldn’t know.”
“Kacey?” the door flew open, and Kyle rushed in pulling her from Shawn, his breath rapid as he pulled her into him. “God, what the hell were you thinking? I tried to get here as soon as I could.”
Kacey tried to pull away, but Kyle wouldn’t let her. “This was why I wasn’t supposed to leave you alone.”
“And yet, you did, Kyle.” Shawn stood glaring at her and Kyle. “So, why did you?”
“Because she asked me to, she wanted to be alone, so I let her be.”
Kacey felt defeated, Kyle’s soft embrace was what she wanted, she moved closer to him, clutching his t-shirt. She was such an idiot, why couldn’t she not want Kyle?