Operative Temptation

Old lock

“Tires screeched on the wet pavement. Then a car door slammed.”

Kayleen's throat closed.Air burned in her throat. Adrian dragged her backward toward the open door of an armored black G-Wagon in the alley. Her boots dragged through gravel. Her knees buckled. She clawed at his coat sleeves.

"Let me go!" Kayleen slammed her palms against the doorframe. Her voice cracked.

The hum of the idling engine rang in her ears like a siren. "You're lying! You bastard, let me go!"

"Get in the car, Kayleen," Adrian growled. “His arm locked around her waist. Her feet left the ground. She hit the leather seat.”

He climbed in right behind her and slammed the door, shutting out every sound from the alley. Before she could dive for the far handle, Adrian reached across, grabbing her shoulder and pinning her back against the seat. The car surged forward, tires spraying gravel as it sped onto the main street.

"Don't touch me!" Kayleen yelled, swinging her elbow straight for his face.

Adrian caught her arm mid-air, his grip tightening on her forearm as he forced her down. "Calm down! Breathe! You're going to pass out before I even show you."

"I don't want to see anything you have!" Kayleen choked out. No tears came, just violent, dry gasps that made her ribs ache. She kicked out hard, her heel hitting the back of the front seat with a loud bang that made the driver glance at the rearview mirror. "Viktor saved me! I was ten years old! He took me in, fed me, gave me a name!"

"He gave you a sentence!" Adrian snapped.

He pulled out a military tablet from his inner coat pocket and tapped the screen, the harsh blue light washing over his face as he unlocked a file. "Look at this. Stop closing your eyes and look at the screen!"

"No!" She shoved her face into her shoulder, her whole body shaking as her boots rattled against the floor. "I'm not looking at your fake files! You made it up to mess with my head!"

"It's from the federal database." He forced the tablet in front of her face. She twisted away. He clamped a hand over her jaw and turned her head back. "October 14, 2009. Read the name."

She wouldn't. He tapped the screen. "Katarina Hale. Age ten. Arlington, Virginia."

Kayleen's eyes flicked to the photo. A little girl with messy dark hair and a red headband.

Kayleen’s eyes flicked open. The screen showed the scan of an old police report. Right in the upper corner was a photo of a little girl with messy dark hair, a gap between her front teeth, and a red headband.

Kayleen’s jaw trembled, her teeth clicking together. "That's... that's not me. Anyone can find an old picture of a kid…"

"Swipe down," Adrian ordered, loosening his grip on her chin just enough, though his gaze never left her face. "Look at the scar under 'Identifying Marks.' Left collarbone, three centimeters, bicycle accident at age eight."

Kayleen’s hand shot up to her neck, fingers digging past her jacket to feel the thin, raised scar beneath her skin. Her breath hitched. She yanked her hand away like the mark had burned her.

"No," she whispered. "No, no, no. My father was a deadbeat. Viktor told me he owed money to loan sharks and threw me on the street to pay his debt! He abandoned me!"

"Your father was Marcus Hale." He said it flat. "A state representative. He didn't owe anyone money. He was investigating Viktor.”

"You're making it up!" Kayleen screamed, lunging forward and grabbing the top edge of the tablet, trying to yank it out of his hands and smash it against the floor. "He didn't want me! Nobody wanted me until Viktor took me!"

"Viktor had his men snatch you off your front porch while your nanny was inside!" Adrian shouted back, twisting the tablet out of her grip and shoving her back against the seat. "He didn't save you! He took you to control your father. He raised you, washed your brain, and turned you into a weapon. He wanted to send you back to put a bullet in your father's head without you ever knowing who he was!"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Kayleen slapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, her head rocking back and forth against the headrest. "You're trying to mess with my head so I fail! You want him to kill me!"

Adrian stared at her, his chest heaving as he watched her fall apart. He didn't reach for her this time. Instead, he tapped a small audio file at the bottom of the folder.

"I didn't want to play this here." He lowered his voice. "I was going to wait. But you need to know before you go back. Before he puts another leash on you."

"I'm not listening," Kayleen whimpered, curling into a tight ball on the leather seat.

Adrian tapped the screen.

Static hissed through the car, followed by the faint hum of an old recording. Then, a man's voice broke through. It was rough, and raw with agony.

"...I don't care about the vote, Arthur," the voice wept, followed by the hard smack of a palm hitting a desk. "I don't give a damn about the Senate seat! Or the money!"

Kayleen’s hands slowly slid down from her ears. Her eyes opened, staring blankly at the dark carpet between her boots.

"Marcus, stay calm," a second, colder voice said on the tape. "If Viktor knows…"

"He has my baby!" Marcus Hale screamed, his voice breaking into a desperate sob. "He took my Katarina! Do you know what he's doing to her? She's ten years old! She's scared of the dark, Arthur! She can't sleep without her bear!"

Kayleen stopped breathing. Her stomach dropped, a cold, sickening shock rushing through her whole body.

"We are doing everything we can, Senator," the second voice said.

"I'll give him the votes!" Marcus sobbed, weeping like a man completely broken. "Tell Viktor I'll drop the charges! I'll give him the port access! I'll give up everything... just let me hold my little girl again. Please... just let me hold her..."

The recording cut off with a pop.

Silence swallowed the inside of the car.

Kayleen sat completely frozen, her hands limp in her lap, her wide, hollow eyes fixed on the black screen.

Adrian set the tablet on the seat between them. He watched her face as a single tear finally spilled over, cutting a clean track through the dust on her cheek.

"Your father has been waiting seventeen years for you to come home, Kayleen," Adrian said quietly, his hand reaching out to touch her cold, trembling fingers. "And Viktor spent every single day of those seventeen years turning you against him."