Falcon (Kindred, #5)

FOUR-1

FOUR

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Whether it was soon or not, she had no idea. It seemed like it took a long time for her to see another soul, but she was grateful for it. Her shower had sapped some of her energy, and although adrenaline kept her on her feet for a while, Devon eventually had to take a nap.

Upon waking, she didn’t feel the need to lie in bed as she had for the past undefined period. Devon had to start building her body back up again. Tedious though it was, she began to pace the room, just to give herself something to do and to remind herself what it was to stand and walk upright. She would pace for as long as she could, varying the speed and length of her strides, then she would sit, have some water, stare at the canopy over her bed for a while and ponder who these people might be.

Wren was odd in that he seemed genuine in what he did. He was knowledgeable in the way he acted. He was deft and skilled with the medical supplies, knew the procedures and performed them while holding a conversation without giving much thought to what his hands were doing, suggesting to her that he was indeed a medical doctor of some variety, just as he’d claimed to be.

Bess she liked the best because the woman had zero expectations. Bess brought her food and water, she provided her with clothes and toiletries and seemed more intent on looking after her than asking her for anything.

Because Devon had no idea where they were, they could be in a house with a hundred rooms or this could be a single unit trussed up to look like an upper-class building. There could be a thousand people, another hundred women like her, or she could be all alone. Wren said he didn’t live here full-time, and that was an interesting fact. It might be difficult to find out when he came and when he left, but if she could make a break for freedom while he wasn’t here, the only people she may have to contend with were Bess and this enigmatic man she’d never met: the buyer.

She was slowing her pace and considering going back to bed when the door opened again. This time Bess came in with Wren. After they closed the door, they stood together in front of it.

“We’d like to ask you some questions,” Wren said.

Devon had stopped in front of the window. She folded her arms as she scrutinized them both. Maybe it was the invigoration of exercise or that she was finally feeling fully rested, but not only did she c***k a smile, she laughed.

“You’re kidding,” Devon said. “You want to ask me questions?”

“Yes,” Wren said. “It could be important. If you sit on the bed—”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I appreciate that you gave me medical care, I don’t know if you plan to slap me with a bill, whatever. I’ve asked for two things since I got here, neither of which I’ve gotten. So, unless your questions are A) which airports I’d like to fly from and to, and B) how much monetary compensation you can offer for keeping me hostage, I’m not going to answer a single thing.”

Devon didn’t remember ever being so confrontational or so sassy. She had a sense of humor, but she’d never been one to mock or ridicule with sarcasm.

“You don’t understand,” Wren said. “What we do is help people, women like you. Can’t you see that?”

“All I see is that your boss bought me at an auction, like I was some eBay listing. He brought me back here, and by the way,” she said, turning around to grab the curtains and thrust them open as far as she could reach. “I still don’t even know where here is! You’ve kept me locked in this room without answering any questions. I don’t even know what day of the week it is, what month of the year it is, I don’t know how long I’ve been here, I don’t know how long I was there. All I want to do is go home.”

“What do you think is waiting at home for you?” Wren asked. “I’ll tell you what’s waiting at home. Nothing. You’ve been gone for so long, I bet even your landlord has rented your apartment again.”

Bess slapped his arm and move forward. “Don’t listen to him, dearie,” she said. “This is difficult for you and you must be frustrated, especially now that you’re starting to feel human again, and here we are making demands.”

“It does seem a bit rich,” Devon agreed and allowed Bess to link their arms to lead them over to the bed where they sat down.

“You must be confused and hurt.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Wren said.

“You hush,” Bess chastised him. “You should never have let Raven coach you before you came in here. You treat this girl like a human being, not like a walking reference manual.”

“It’s because I understood them,” Devon said. She might still be groggy and Bess was right that she was confused, but she hadn’t missed how Wren had run out of here when he learned that she’d eavesdropped on her captors’ conversations. “I could have valuable information, but I have no reason to share it with you.”

“Why would you protect them?” Wren asked, marching over to stand in front of the women, who were still seated on the bed.

“I don’t know who you are,” Devon said. “You could be a rival g**g, grooming vulnerable women like me. You say you want to help people, and I agree that you’ve treated me well while I’ve been here, despite keeping me confined. But you don’t trust me and you don’t treat me with respect. You said that you wouldn’t let me go until I was back to full strength, but look at me, I’m healthy.”

“You have a long way to go,” Bess said. “We have to get you eating properly and build up some of those muscles. You’re still weak.”

“I’m alive,” Devon said. “And I bet not every girl who was in that place when I was can say that. Can you imagine for a second what they must be going through? And I still don’t know why I’m here, can’t you understand how that unnerves me? You tell me I’ll never see this man who bought me. But I can’t begin to understand why that is and that terrifies me. Who is he? What’s he hiding?”

“He won’t come,” Bess said, seeming upset while delivering a non-apology apology.

“But why?” Devon begged. “The information I have, I can take to authorities, and maybe they can take these people down.”

“That’s what we do,” Wren said. “That’s what he does. That’s why you can’t see his face.”

Devon didn’t accept that. “I don’t hang out with these bastards. Just because I see the buyer’s face doesn’t mean I’d know who he was or that I’d be able to share his identity with anyone.”

Bess and Wren exchanged a look. “We can’t take that chance.”

“You can’t or he can’t?” Devon asked. “He’s comfortable around the scum of the earth but won’t talk to one solitary woman? Telling you everything that I know gives you an advantage that you could exploit. Either you tell your boss to come here and face me like a man, or you let me go.”

“He won’t come,” Bess said, but she was talking to Wren. “I’ve tried.”

Wren rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve all tried. He’s not built for this and doesn’t know how to handle it. He won’t even talk to Swallow. Hell, he won’t even talk to me.”

What was it about this guy? Devon didn’t understand why he was so determined to shut himself off. She didn’t know who Swallow was or what significance the person had, but at least Devon wasn’t alone in being excluded from this man’s company.

“If he’s so desperate to know what I know,” Devon said. “He can ask me his questions himself. I’m not telling you guys squat. So if he won’t face me, you can let me go, and I’ll tell everything I know to the authorities.”

“You can’t go to the authorities. You can’t tell them about this, about us.”

Another demand, these people had some nerve. “So I’m supposed to pretend I wasn’t abducted and held against my will? You want me to forgive the men who did this to me?”

“No,” Bess said and stood up. “There is one person he’ll listen to. We have to try again.”

Bess and Wren went out of the room together. Lying on her back, Devon rested her hands on her upper chest as she contemplated the future. These people were now claiming they deliberately rescued her, like they were some kind of vigilantes. If that was the case, then they did need to protect their identities, like all good vigilantes did.

But it wasn’t enough for her. If they wanted something from her, she had to know more about them because if she relied on her assumptions and they turned out to be wrong, more innocent women could be hurt.

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