A Moments Grace
Chapter 14
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's. Anything else belongs to their respective creators.
Authors note; I want to thank those of you for your last reviews and for those that added this little story to their alerts and favorites list.
Sitting there I realized just how exhausted I was. My head was still pounding and for some reason I was slightly nauseous now. We sat there in silence for I don't know how long, Doug was unusually quiet, he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.
"So, they been treating you ok?"
"Yeah, I guess so, how about you?" I asked sipping at my now cold coffee, note to self cold coffee is nasty.
"Oh just great. So how do you like the place they put me up in? You know when they kidnap somebody and hold them against their will at least they do it in style" he said it with such contempt and disgust I was a little afraid to answer.
I sat there wondering what to say, I had a lot of questions, but I wasn't really sure that I wanted any answers at this point. Taking a deep breath I stared at the remains in my coffee mug, trying to get my nerve up.
" Listen Doug, I'm really sorry if I did anything that made you get into trouble you know. I went back to the hospital a few days after the accident and you were gone. I was worried that by you telling me everything that you did that it,well you know, they didn't like it so well or something."
Doug quickly answered leaning forward in his chair "It wasn't you. Ok so maybe they weren't too happy about it but it wasn't so much as you as a combination of things. Thats how I ended up here in THESE LOVELY ACCOMMODATIONS!" he had shouted the last part making me jump, thus spilling the last bit of my nasty cold coffee all over the sofa.
"Sorry about that, here let me get you a towel, don't worry about the sofa I could care less about the furniture. I've actually thought about trashing the room a few times but then I would have to have a chat with his Highness. He hates it when I call him that." Doug quickly got up going into the kitchen and coming back with a towel, handing it to me I tried to figure out if who I thought he was calling his Highness was who I thought it was.
"You do know that their listening to everything we say right?" He asked as he sat back down in the chair.I tried dabbing up the coffee stains from the couch, don't ask me why just for something to do I guess.
"Yeah, Ethan mentioned that." like I really needed him to remind me that we were being watched, the thought only made me more nauseous.
Snorting Doug got up again pouring himself another cup of coffee," To tell you the truth I'm surprised they don't have the bathroom bugged, but don't worry I've checked."
I got up bringing the coffee cup in and sat it down on the counter, I couldn't help wondering if I asked the wrong question or said the wrong thing if alarms or something would go off, or if somebody would come barging through the door.
"If you can't tell me thats fine, but what exactly happened anyways. They've been talking about your disappearance on the news."
Doug was quiet for a few minutes, so far so good nobody was barging through the door at least. I sat down in one of the bar stools by the counter waiting for Doug to answer.
"Did you know I have a sister? Well I guess not, I mean she's 4 years younger than me so by the time we graduated she was just entering high school. So anyways she's married, lives in Virginia now and she's got a little girl. I found out a few weeks ago that there had been an accident, I immediately took a leave to go see her." Doug was quiet, sipping at his coffee as he stared at the counter, actually I thought if he could have he would be burning a hole in it.
I was starting to get a bad feeling.
"So, when I got up there it was worse than I thought. She was pregnant you know, she hadn't had a chance to tell anybody yet, it was a boy. She miscarried and lost him. Her husband, Jeff, he's in a coma, swelling on the brain. They don't know if he's gonna make it or not. And you wanna know who caused the accident?" I just stared at him, scared to know the answer.
"Well, it seems our lovely protectors here, you know the ones that are here to save us and protect us, well it seems like it was just an unfortunate accident that my sister and her family just happened to be in THEIR WAY when they were out on their runs to keep us safe. Can you believe that? Their here to keep us safe but what about a few people that may get hurt or killed that just so happen to be in the way. Just collateral damage I suppose thats what they call it isn't it?" At this point Doug was stalking around the room, at times yelling at the ceiling or throwing pillows or cushions or whatever may be in the vicinity.
At this point I was kinda hoping someone would show up, I wondered what was keeping Ethan anyways? I wasn't eager to continue our conversation but this wasn't exactly fun either.
Glancing over at me Doug stopped, running a hand through his hair he let out an audible sigh." Listen Heather I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just go off like that. It's just with being locked up here and all, I'm worried about my sister you know. This is a really rough time for her. But hey at least our parents are there with her. They do let me call her, of course they monitor the calls, I have to make up bullshit stories everytime I talk to her about why I haven't been back up to see her."
"Do they know how bad things are? Well I mean, of course they do, but why do they keep you locked up here? It just doesn't make sense." At this point I was really confused, why would they want to keep Doug away from his family?
Sitting down in the armchair with a sigh Doug stared at me a moment "Well its not only that. You see Ethan, their newest little lackey came to see me, express his condolences and all that, well you see he showed up at my hotel room and I was already in a bad mood. So when I learned who he was and why he was there, well things got a little ugly. Somehow you came up, and I may have made some comments that they took a little too literally."
I felt my shoulders sag, oh good grief what did he do? "Exactly what did they take a little too literally?"
Doug rubbed at his face a moment, not meeting my gaze." I kinda said some things about not letting them ruin your life too and that well, I could make you disappear. But I didn't mean it as in harming you in any way, it was a combination of exhaustion, stress and a few bottles of beer talking. They didn't take it well as you can guess."
I was now the one rubbing at my face, I couldn't help thinking what kind of an idiot makes an offhand comment like that to THEM?
"I heard they sent one of the boys after you, I heard it didn't go so well." He was smiling at this point. " Let me tell you he was cussing about it for days, something about annoying little vermin challenging him."
It was a good thing I was sitting down at this point. "Who exactly are we talking about here? Wait nevermind, I don't want to know. So that night that one of them followed me, it was because...of what you said?"
Nodding Doug stared at me over the top of his coffee mug.
Once I was able to find my voice again, why did I all of a sudden have a large lump in my throat? "So thats why they have you locked up here? But, can't you just tell them you didn't mean it? It was just a misunderstanding?"
"Tried that, he said that may be the case however I have an underlying anger issue with them that they don't feel comfortable releasing me just yet." Doug grimaced standing and stretching.
"But how long are they going to hold you here?" I was starting to get really worried about how long exactly the conversation that they wanted me here for was going to last.
"Why don't you try asking Ethan that, see what he says. And speaking of the devil..." Doug walked around the coffee table picking up a cordless phone that had just started to ring.
"Pit of Hell may I help you? Oh yes we've had a lovely chat how about you? Hopefully they fired you,nope, well gives me something to hope for doesn't it? Yeah whatever" he shut the phone off tossing it onto the sofa. "Ethan says he'll be up in a few minutes, I'd tell you to make a run for it, but I know it would be useless. I'm sure one of them would be waiting at the front door for you." Glancing sideways at me, I'm sure I probably had one of those expressions on my face, he shook his head grimacing. "Ignore me, I just can't stand the guy is all."
Just then there was a light knock on the door, Doug walked over opening the door. He didn't even bother to greet Ethan he just walked over and plopped down in the armchair. Picking up a magazine he started flipping the pages, I was sure I heard a few of the pages tear.
"Hey Heather, we ready to go?" Glancing at him I bit my lip before standing up. "Yeah I guess. Take care Doug, I'll talk to you later?"
Doug glanced up from his magazine and smiled briefly "Yeah, you do the same ok?" Nodding I followed Ethan out the door as he called goodbye to Doug.
Shutting the door behind us Ethan was quiet as we made our way back down the hallway towards the elevator. Please don't let us go back down there I kept repeating to myself over and over again silently.
"So how are you doing?" Ethan asked as we stopped before the elevator doors, swooshing open we stepped inside.
"Tired" I replied rubbing the back of my neck.
Smiling Ethan patted me on the shoulder "I know, we're just about finished though. So ready to continue our conversation?"
"Do we have to?" I glanced over hopefully.
"I'm afraid so, we've got alot we need to talk about." Ethan stood there staring at me a moment before turning his gaze forwards.
This wasn't sounding so good.
He was quiet a moment before clearing his throat "Heather we've decided to continue our conversation in a different area. We've been talking and well, there are differing views on how to proceed."
Was it just me or was this elevator getting smaller by the minute?
"There were several options brought up, and also the concerns on how you would react to each one of them." Ethan was leaning against the wall, arms crossed watching me.
"You said I could leave after we were done? Are...are you telling me that I can't now?" I could feel the tears prickling, dammit, I hated it that when I got really got upset here came the waterworks.
Pushing himself away from the wall, Ethan stood frowning at me a moment. " No, Heather you misunderstood me. That's not what I meant at all. That hasn't changed at all, I promise you as soon as we're done here I'm going to take you straight home."
The doors suddenly swooshed open before us, I hadn't even noticed that we had stopped. Hurriedly wiping the tears from my eyes I followed Ethan as he exited the elevator, I noticed as we walked that we didn't pass anyone. The corridor that we were walking down sort of looked like the one from earlier, but I really couldn't be sure.
Ethan didn't say much as we walked, he just kept walking straight ahead. My mind kept replaying what he had said earlier in the elevator, just what exactly did he mean by how to proceed?
Finally the corridor ended and before us stood a lone set of double doors, they reminded me of the kind that were in my old schools gym, the long lever type that you pushed down to open the door. Opening the door Ethan beckoned for me to enter, walking through I had the distinct feeling that the room was fairly good-sized.
The first thing I noticed was a large white folding screen that had been set up, against the wall closest to us a was a round card table, two folding chairs sat around it. On the table were bottles of water, several cans of soda and different varieties of chips. It oddly looked as if it were set up for a poker game.
"Have a seat" Ethan motioned as he took the seat across from me. Glancing at the screen again I slowly sat down in the chair, I was hoping that perhaps the room was messy and they were just trying to cover it up.
"This is where we usually have our poker game when we can, which isn't very often. But we lucked out tonight, some of the guys were diverted over here for the night so we decided to take advantage of the situation." Ethan spoke as he was opening a bottle of water, taking a large swig he recapped the bottle setting it down.
"But since it's just the two of us right now, go ahead and help yourself. It was brought to my attention that you didn't exactly eat much of your lunch today." Ethan grinned as he munched on a chip, holding the bag out to me I sighed taking a handful of chips. I couldn't help but to keep glancing over towards that screen as I ate my handful of chips.
For some reason it was starting to make me really nervous, more so than what I already was.
Ethan must have spotted me glancing over at the screen, he looked over at it as well before dusting off his hands on his pants. Clearing his throat he glanced at me several times before taking a long drink of water."Heather, I should tell you that we're not exactly alone here. There's someone else who will be joining in on our conversation." Taking his cell phone out of his pocket he flipped it open setting it down. "If you would like to know who's behind the screen I can tell you. He's here to answer any questions or concerns you may have. And just so you know the screen was his idea, he knows how nervous you get so we're trying to do everything possible to make this easier on you."
I nearly choked as the words left his mouth. I was trapped with one of THEM only a few feet away.