Code Blue

Lexi vs. The Interrogation

My neck hurt. That was the first thing I could feel when I came to: an aching pain in my neck from having my head tilted to the side for an extended period of time. I groaned as I straightened my neck and slowly opened my eyes, blinking to adjust to the dim lighting in the room. It was still dark outside, from what I could tell, the only light coming from a tall lamp across from me.

I was in a motel room, judging by the lumpy bed and minimal furniture. On top of the side table in front of me sat a half full water bottle, the sight of which immediately made my mouth go dry, so I press my feet into the floor to push myself upright, only to realize that I can’t move. Because my arms and ankles were strapped to the arms and legs of a chair with coarse pieces of rope. Because apparently that was something that happens in real life.

Lifting my hips, I tried to use my body weight as leverage to free myself from one set of ropes, but discovered very quickly that whoever tied the knots had some sort of knowledge of sea warfare, because they were unbreakable. I tried three more times, wiggling my hips against the chair and trying to move my wrists beneath the ropes to no avail, ending up just feeling exhausted and a bit hopeless. My captor was smart not to tie my hands behind my back, because I would be out of those binds by now, having been trained to subtly slip out of those kinds of knots.

Just as I’d gotten up the strength to try again, the motel room door opened and in walked the boulder of a security guard who had caught me snooping through Daniel’s office during the charity ball.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” he said, looking rather smug as he took a seat on the edge of the bed right in front of me, pulling a gun from the back of his jeans and laying it causally beside him on the bed.

“What’s going on?” I asked, a little groggy. I actually had a pretty good idea, but I figured it was probably best to act innocent as long as possible.

Leaning back on his palms, he tilted his head to the side. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“What?” I blinked, a little confused. I had a guess as to what he was talking about, but I didn’t want to incriminate myself. “It’s Lowry, right? We met at the Stafford’ charity ball.”

“Yep,” he nodded, seeming very relaxed for someone holding a person hostage. “And you’re Max’s girlfriend. Or so you say.”

He said that last part ominously, darkening the tone of his voice and staring me down as though he hoped it would get me to confess. Instead, I had told hold back a laugh. “What does that even mean?”

“It means that I don’t think you are who you say you are,” he retorted.

I mean, technically he was right. But I couldn’t afford to blow my cover. Not when I’d accomplished so much.

I’d been back to the mansion one other time with Max, to help him choose which clothes in his massive wardrobe to donate to charity. His parents hadn’t been there because he’d timed it so he wouldn’t have to run into his father, so while he was sorting his clothes into piles, I volunteered to go find some trash bags and slipped into Daniel’s office to see if I could discover anything else. I didn’t want to risk getting caught again, so I knew I had to be quick about it and took pictures of as many of the papers on the desk as I could in an amount of time that wouldn’t cause Max to get suspicious.

I had also managed to convince Max to take me back to the roller rink, though secretly, I think he loved the idea from the very beginning. While on a trip to the bathroom, I located a storage area in the back where the store of weapons could possibly be kept and relayed all of this information to Evan, who, along with the agency analysts, was doing his best to piece it all together.

We were close to finding something. I could feel it. Plus, Evan’s text from last night confirmed that he had put together some piece of the puzzle. So I couldn’t afford to blow my cover, even if I ended up dying in a motel room that smelled like wet dog. The mission could always go on without me.

Which of course meant that I had to give Lowry as little information as possible. Narrowing my eyes, I matched his stare. “And who do you think I am?”

“No one good,” he replied.

I supposed that was relative, seeing as I could say the same thing about him. “Do you ever make sense or do you only talk in riddles?”

His gaze became frostier. “I just find it curious that you don’t seem at all scared right now.”

“Of course I’m scared,” I shot back. That was actually the truth. The training academy had prepared me for situations like this, but simulations weren’t anywhere close to the real thing. My heart was pounding and if I wasn’t so securely tied to the chair, I’d be shaking. But I needed to keep my cool. The last thing I needed right now was to have an emotional breakdown. “I’m tied to a chair in a shitty motel room being interrogated my someone I don’t know. I’m scared shitless. But right now, my anger and confusion is outweighing my terror just a little.”

“What do you have to be angry about?” he scoffed. “If anyone should be angry, it’s Max.”

Also true. I spotted my phone beside the water bottle on the bedside table. If I could somehow get to it, I could call Evan for help. In the meantime, I needed to keep Lowry talking while I figured out a solution. “Care to explain?”

“You’ve been using him to get information on his father,” Lowry said matter-of-factly. “I found you snooping in Mr. Stafford’ office.”

“I wasn’t snooping,” I insisted. “I just got lost.”

He didn’t believe me. To be fair, it wasn’t a very good excuse. “Sure.”

“Can you please untie me?” I asked, wiggling against the back of the chair. “This rope is starting to chafe my wrists.”

“Not until you admit it,” he shook his head.

“Admit what?” I played dumb.

“That you’re not who you say you are.”

Why the hell would I do that? His logic going in to this interrogation is all wrong. Being scared for my life wasn’t enough of a reason for me to blow my cover. NIA agents are trained not to give up any information, even in life or death circumstances. The only reason I’d maybe consider it would be if he was willing to trade secrets. But I doubted he knew anything that would actually be useful to me.

“For the last time,” I let out an exasperated sigh, wincing at the rope rubbing against my already raw wrists. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do.”

He still didn’t believe me and I didn’t know what else to say. Technically, he hadn’t even threatened my life, using the gun more as an intimidation technique, probably hoping he wouldn’t have to resort to violence. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t easily intimidated. Mostly because I couldn’t care less about what happened to me.

I did care about Max. I cared that his future was still so uncertain. I cared that he felt like he had no control over his life. I cared that he was so terrified to follow in his father’s footsteps. But most of all, I cared about the fact that no matter how this all played out, he would end up heartbroken.

That was my fault. And I’d have to live with that for however long I ended up living.

Inhaling deeply, I stared Lowry down, amazed to find that I wasn’t nearly as scared as I had been just a few minutes ago. I had nothing more to say. Whatever happened next was his decision.

Except that what happened next turned out to be out of both of our hands. Because before Lowry could react to my stony silence, the door of the motel room burst open and Max was standing in the doorway, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched.

“What the hell is going on here?” he said, absolutely seething with anger as he glared at Lowry.

“Max!” I called out, letting out a sigh of relief. Even if I didn’t care what happened to me, it was nice to know that I was safe for just a little bit longer.

His posture relaxed a bit at the sound of my voice, his expression softening as he stepped towards me, coming to a stop by my side as he immediately attempted to pull at the ropes binding me to the chair.

“I’m sorry, baby, I promise I’ll get you out of here,” he said softly, his gaze hardening once more when he realized he couldn’t undo the ropes by hand. Turning his frosty glare back on to Lowry, he demanded, “Untie her. Now.”

Although he didn’t look particularly pleased at the order, Lowry also knew better than to defy Max and pulled a switch knife from the back pocket of his jeans. Squatting down in front of me, he cut off the rope at my ankles first before freeing my wrists.

As soon as I was untied, Max pulled me from the chair and wrapped his arms around my middle to hold me against the length of his body. I was glad for the support, because being unable to move from that position had left my limbs feeling like jelly.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” he repeated over and over, rubbing his hand up and down my back to comfort me, turning his head to press multiple kisses to my temple.

“Why did this happen?” I asked quietly into his chest, allowing the warmth of his body to relax my nerves. I already knew the answer, but I had a feeling making Max angry about the situation would provide more insight into Lowry’s thought process.

“That’s a good question,” Max replied, keeping one arm around me to hold me against his side as he turned his gaze on his father’s security guard. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Lowry shrugged, looking a bit annoyed at having to consider Max an authority figure. “Just following orders.”

Following orders. That meant this interrogation had been performed under Daniel’s guidance. That meant that he was onto me, which meant we didn’t have much longer to put the puzzle pieces together. It also meant I didn’t have much more time to spend with Max.

I watched as Max processed the information, coming to the same conclusion about how all of this came about as I had, his jaw becoming tenser by the second. He didn’t lash out at Lowry, though, knowing that he had bigger fish to fry.

“Come on, babe,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my temple and gently guiding me towards the door, “let’s get you out of here.”

After retrieving my purse and phone, I followed him silently to his car, parked badly outside the door, a question coming to mind as I fastened my seatbelt. “How’d you know where to find me?”

Lowry had presumably drugged me while I was walking back to my dorm, once I was out of Max’s line of sight, so Max couldn’t have seen that I was taken.

“Trevor,” he responded, shifting gears and putting the car into reverse, “I got worried when you never texted me that you got back to your room okay, so I asked him to find your phone’s location.”

Of course. Of course it was Trevor who saved my ass. He’d only done about a hundred times at this point.

“He knows how to do that?” I asked, impressed.

Max shrugged. “Yeah, he’s pretty handy with computers.”

“Oh,” I nodded, coming to a terrifying realization. “Do you do that often?”

Not that I ever really went anywhere suspicious. The only person from the agency I had direct contact with was Evan, and since Max thought Evan was my brother, he wouldn’t care that I made frequent visits to Evan’s apartment. But the thought that he might be monitoring me made me antsy.

“Track your phone?” he lifted his eyebrows in surprise, his eyes immediately flooding with concern that I might actually think he was the kind of person who would do that. “No, this was the first and only time, I promise.”

“Okay. I believe you,” I said. Because I did believe him. Max had never lied to me before. I knew he didn’t always tell me the whole truth, but I also knew that was because he was trying to protect me. So I trusted him when he said he didn’t have me under surveillance. Settling back in the car seat, I allowed myself to relax as Max pulled the car onto a main road I recognized, only to tense again when I realized the headlights weren’t pointed towards the university. “Where are we going?”

“To my parents’ house,” he replied, keeping his gaze on the empty road.

“Why not back to campus?” I just wanted to go to bed and right now the closest bed was in my dorm room.

He turned his gaze to me momentarily and I could see the anger in his eyes and the way his knuckles were bulging against the steering wheel. “I need to have a serious conversation with my dad.”

“Now?” Surely the family dramatics could be saved for another time. I, too, wanted to know the details about why Daniel wound send Lowry after me, but I also wanted to get reacquainted with my pillow. The investigation could be postponed until I wasn’t so weary.

But apparently Max felt a sense of urgency, or maybe he was just pumped full of adrenaline, because he returned his gaze to the road and nodded. “Yep.”

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it, I sighed and closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window, deciding to get as much sleep as I could until I was forced to face Daniel Stafford again.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remembered was being gently shaken awake by Max.

“Evie. Babe, we’re here,” he whispered, smiling softly when my eyes fluttered open. “I know you’re probably exhausted, but just bear with me for a couple more minutes, okay? You can sleep inside.”

I wasn’t sure sleeping in the same house as a crime lord who was suspicious of my identity was a good idea, but I was honestly too tired to argue, so I allowed Max to help me out of the car. I practically wrapped my body around his arm for support as we walked towards the back door and entered the mansion, stopping at the bottom of the main staircase, where we found Claudia Stafford waiting for us.

Despite the fact that she’d obviously been woken from sleep, as indicated by the silk robe she was wearing over matching pale blue pajama set, she still looked the epitome of grace and elegance.

“Maximillian! Evie,” she smiled warmly, reaching out to squeeze her son’s arm affectionately. “What a nice surprise.”

“Is it?” Max lifted an eyebrow upwards, suggesting that he didn’t think his mother was an innocent bystander in all this. “Where’s Dad?”

“Away on business. He’ll be back in the morning,” she replied vaguely, her brow furrowing in concern. “Is everything alright?”

Max shook his head. “Not at all.”

Despite the lack of detail in his response, Claudia didn’t ask any more questions, seeming to understand the mood of the situation. Nodding, she gestured up the staircase. “Well, you two should get some rest. You look exhausted.”

Leaning forward, Max pressed a hard kiss to his mother’s cheek before wrapping his arm around my waist to help me up the stairs. He supported me the entire walk to his room, only letting go once I’d collapsed on top of his bed.

“It’s okay, you know,” I murmured, feeling a new wave of exhaustion overcome me as I slipped beneath the covers after kicking off my shoes and lay my head on a pillow, but did my best to keep my eyes open. “I’m fine.”

“It’s not okay,” he shook his head and sighed, stepping out of his own shoes and climbing under the covers with me. Turning on his side to face me, he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, speaking softly. “I know my dad and I have our issues but I never thought he’d bring you into it.”

“I still don’t understand what happened.” That was only half true. But it seemed like something I should say at this particular moment.

“I’ll explain it to you, I promise,” he said, his thumb stroking gently over my cheekbone. “Now’s just not the time.”

He was probably right. I was going to pass out at any moment and I wanted to remember anything he chose to tell me about his father.

“Okay,” I whispered, because I couldn’t get my voice to go any louder, “I just want you to be okay.”

“I’m great, now that you’re safe,” he assured me, the smallest smile lifting the corners of his lips.

I believed him. I had no reason not to, but it still felt completely natural to believe that he truly did care about me. It hurt a little too, because I knew that the more his feelings grew, the more his heart would shatter when all of this came crashing down. And my heart wouldn’t get away unscarred either.

“Come on, let’s get some rest,” I said, feeling my body on the brink of succumbing to sleep. Turning to the other side because I felt like I was about to cry, I closed my eyes and hoped I’d fade into dreams before the tears came.

“Goodnight, baby,” he whispered, scooting closer to me and wrapping one arm around my middle so that he could pull me back against his chest. Leaning over, he pressed a soft kiss to my cheek. “Sweet dreams.”

I didn’t respond, but I knew that when all was said and done, this would be the memory that I kept forever.