Author's note: Thanks for the great reviews on the last chapter, I was really happy you guys liked it as much as you did. Lisa is definitely coming into her own, which makes writing her all the more fun.

Chapter 23

Something like cautious hope trickled into her heart and Lisa returned his gaze with a half-smile. "Okay." She rubbed her hands. "Anything I can help you with?"

Jackson grimaced. "Let's not take it that far."

Together they walked back into the main room where Lisa sort of hung around, quietly observing him and his preparations for the meeting. He seemed agitated, nervous even, which did nothing to lessen her own anxiety.

Also, her mind was still reeling with what had happened before. In truth, there were so many more questions Lisa had wanted to ask him, but a nagging little voice in the back of her head had shushed her, insisting that they were probably worthless. She knew too little about what was to come to ask the right ones. Curiously enough, this little voice had strangely reminded her of Jackson's.

Either way, she had stood up for herself and made her point. Jackson had accepted it and had actually made an effort to accommodate her against his own wishes. To return the favor had only seemed fair. Were they on the right track?

Jackson was rifling through a file drawer and before Lisa could stop herself she quipped, "Are those all?"

He froze mid-movement and dawning comprehension crept across his face. "This is not the time, maybe later."

"Are they?"

"Go get some food, take a shower, work out some more, I don't care. We're not talking about this now."

Lisa didn't feel the urge to fight a useless battle just for fighting's sake, so she shrugged, a little too nonchalant perhaps, because Jackson snickered and returned back to his work. It was hard, though, to stay calm, as the faint sensation of peace gradually gave way to worried fear. Time had passed quickly, her hour was almost up. All that was left for her was to get ready to fulfill her part of the deal. A coldness worked its way up her spine, vertebrae for vertebrae, bristling the hair on her neck and with a shiver, Lisa hugged herself.

"Jackson, I'm going to my room, lock the door … and turn off the light."

Jackson looked up.

Turbulence on the plane, light flickering. That dread and nausea.

He waved the phone at her. "I don't have to tell you to sound convincing."

"No, you don't," she murmured.

"What?"

"You don't have to tell me to be convincing."

Lisa stretched out on her back and crossed her arms before she remembered that this was how corpses were laid out and with a dry throat, she curled up on her side. Jackson's legs entered her field of vision, coming closer and stopping just an inch before her. He crouched down with a sigh, blue eyes burning into hers in feverish determination, but he didn't speak. Neither did she. What was there to say?

He reached out to her with both hands and for a paralyzing split second, Lisa believed he was going to comfort her. A clicking sound brought her back to reality – the handcuffs. Jackson pinched her chin. "Break a leg."

Seconds later, she was alone in the darkness and this time, her destination wasn't the surface, but the bottom. Lisa threw herself into the vortex of her past with desperate courage, gasping with pain as she allowed the dark memories to pull her under and swallow her whole. Scared to death, she took a deep breath and dove down, forcing herself to relive every single horror in gory detail until her mind was spiraling out of control. Tears streamed down her face when she watched herself go through the flight from Dallas to Miami behind closed eyelids. Her grandmother's death made her scream in agony and Lisa punched the walls until her knuckles were bleeding.

Still, she urged herself on. One more.

The distant echo of his awful grunts and the smell of his body on hers ripped her world apart once again. Lisa could no longer hold down the bile that had risen in her throat and with a gut-wrenching cry she vomited onto the mattress. She kept heaving until her muscles contracted and her struggle for air turned frantic. Panicked, Lisa tried to get up, but she was too weak. You dirty little whore. Grimy fingers on her skin. Oh please no.

It was done.

Her retching had turned violent and she was losing the battle for air. Lisa coughed one last time and then, with a low, harrow moan, she fell unconscious.

----------

"… broke her. I'm not surprised, but amazed none the less."

What? Lisa blinked. Two pairs of legs.

"After what she cost me?" Jackson's voice, as cold as in her darkest dreams. "Killing her would have been too easy."

The meeting! Mustering all her strength, Lisa crawled forward. "I -"

Jackson's swift kick to the stomach doubled her over. "Shut up."

Slowly, her eyes traveled over to his associate, a man in his mid-forties, dressed immaculately in a sharp suit. At present, his forehead was wrinkled in evident disgust at the sight of her soiled figure.

"Please, sir," Lisa croaked, "please help me."

His unflinching stare shook her to her very core. She was nothing to him and Lisa doubted whether anybody meant a thing to this man.

Jackson sneered. "Yes, please do. Be a knight in shining armor."

"I'd rather not."

The two laughed and Lisa was petrified at how alike they sounded. The same dispassion, the same contempt, the same utter confidence in themselves and their superiority.

"So it's Jackson Rippner that you're going by nowadays?"

"Yes and I'd prefer for it to stay that way."

"Fine by me. Get Ms. Reisert a glass of water, I think it's time to talk."

Lisa pulled herself up into a sitting position against the wall and winced when the handcuffs cut into her flesh. Jackson's ex trainer stayed where he was and looked down on her, his expression impossible to read.

"My name is Colin Forbish, Ms. Reisert, I am an associate of Jackson Rippner, as I am positive you have gathered by now."

Oh hell, did these guys all have the same communication skills coach?

Jackson returned, more or less dropping the glass of water into her lap. Lisa couldn't detect the faintest hint of their common conspiracy in his eyes and she shuddered, hoping with all her heart that Jackson hadn't changed his mind. That would be her death warrant, for sure.

"Let's start with the obvious. You are not affiliated with Mr. Rippner?"

"I'm not." She swallowed hard, silently pleading for mercy.

Forbish didn't react at all to her obvious distress and continued. "You have no information about your whereabouts and hold no contact with anybody except Mr. Rippner?"

"No. Mr. Forbish, I-"

"Ms. Reisert, I ask the questions, you answer them. If this proves too difficult for you, I have means to simplify the matter. Are we clear on that?"

A single tear trickled down her cheek and Lisa bit down hard on her lip. "Yes."

"Good."

Jackson stood by, his posture alert, yet relaxed at the same time and his face was an example of detached amusement. He pursed his lips and smirked. "Smart girl."

Forbish ignored him. "Now, Ms. Reisert, when and how exactly did you meet Mr. Rippner?"