Page 2 of The Fixer and the Fugitive

No one had ever asked her that before. She looked away before she answered. “Maybe I wanted to break the family legacy.” Both her parents had been in jail at one point and might be again for all she knew. It wasn’t as if they’d ever been real parents, the kind who cared about her and kept in contact. Based on her memories of them, jail was a much better place than imagining them let loose on the streets to cause havoc.

“You graduated high school despite missing a hundred days your senior year.”

She blinked at him, realizing for the first time she had no idea what this was. The thought made her uncomfortable. She had spent so long at the mercy of the system, she’d learned all its ways. Wrong behavior equaled punishment at the hands of the higher ups. He was the highest of the higher ups, but this didn’t feel like a punishment, at least not so far. She shifted slightly and uncrossed her arms. “Yes,” she said, because what else could she say? It wasn’t like school had been hard. If she’d been able to attend, hadn’t been shunted from home to home by the state, maybe she would have been like one of the nerds she used to torment. As it was she’d been able to show up and pass all the tests, without ever having done the reading or requisite homework.

“You were the best marksman in basic.”

“Not so hard to accomplish,” she said and squinted. Did his cheek flick upward with amusement, or was that her imagination?

“Not only in your unit, but out of everyone in basic that entire year,” he added, and now it was her turn to flinch. No one had told her that, of course. Probably hadn’t wanted to make her cocky. Rather, cockier.

The Colonel leaned back, eyes boring into her with rapid assessment. “In fact, you’re a pretty good soldier.”

“Thank you,” she said slowly. Was he hitting on her? He was old. She was too far gone to be grossed out by that. Instead her mind went to all the ways he might help her. If she got dirt on him, with proof, it would be like gold in her pocket. She softened her expression and leaned forward, smiling a little as her hand eased closer to his on the table. “What can I do for you, Colonel?”

His expression didn’t change, but somehow the air in the room became colder. He took a breath, held it, and let it outslowly, silently. “It’s more a question of what I can do for you, Private.”

Her smile deepened. Her hand inched closer to his, but somehow she couldn’t bridge the last centimeter, couldn’t make herself touch him. It was as if there was some sort of invisible force field around him, stopping her advances. It bugged her, settled next to her heart and poked in a way that made her squirmy. Why, though? She’d been with old men, powerful men, all the men she wanted, and some she didn’t. This was an old game, nothing new. What felt different in this moment?

The Colonel tipped his head slightly and she had the uncomfortable feeling he could read her thoughts. She squirmed again, fighting the urge to pull back and cross her arms protectively again. It was a while before he spoke again. She had the sense he had weighed his words, sifted them so they’d be perfect.

“Sit up, Private, and put your hands in your lap. Wipe that smirk off your face. I have a wife at home and daughters your age. I do not want what you are pedaling. Let’s get that clear up front so there will be no misunderstanding. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir,” she said and realized as she did so that she was now sitting at attention, hands in her lap, completely incognizant of how she’d gotten that way. Did her body obey him without her consent? She didn’t like that, didn’t like it at all. And yet she couldn’t seem to undo it. It was as if he’d cast a spell and bound her. All she could do now was listen.

He rested his hands on the table. “You’re going to leave this assignment and work for me. You’ll receive special training and then further instructions. I’ll send you where, I’ll tell you when. But if you ever try a stunt like you tried here today, your time in the army will be over. You will find yourself buried in misery so deep, you will never recover. Clear, Private?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, voice unrecognizably meek and tremulous.

He might have relaxed slightly, it was hard to tell. He took another of those deep breaths and eventually spoke again. “I’m privy to all the details of your life, even the ones you think you’ve kept hidden.”

She blanched. The things she’d tried to keep hidden were so numerous it was difficult to pick which was the most mortifying. Her face felt red, eyes teary. When he spoke in a softer tone, it was nearly her undoing.

“This is your chance to start afresh, Private. But you need to make a clean break of it. You think you’re using these men, but you have it backwards. They’re using you. Enough of this. Be a better woman, soldier.”

She swallowed, with difficulty, past a hard lump. Anger, hurt, or embarrassment? She didn’t know. Maybe all three. She gave a little nod, it was all she could do.

The Colonel gave her what might have been a smile and, if she didn’t know better, might be something like approval. He knocked on the table between them. “Pack your things. Your new life begins now.”

Chapter 1

She stood in the rain for what might have been hours, not bothering to check her watch. Previously the watch had meant a lot to her, had meant everything. A six hundred dollar Swiss diving watch wasn’t something to take lightly. But now she didn’t think of it as she stood perfectly still, waiting and watching. It was raining, a fact she only vaguely registered. She was probably soaked, maybe shivering. She didn’t care.

The man emerged from the building at last and she made her move, stealthy enough to be a shadow, slipping so close behind him it gave her a small thrill, even in the midst of such misery. How many people had gotten that close? Not many.

He prickled with awareness and straightened, alerting his driver who tossed her against the car, his arm at her throat.

“Drop it,” the first man said in the tone of someone telling an errant puppy to let go of a stolen sock. The driver did so immediately, trained to act on orders like a seal waiting for a fishy reward. He stepped back. The two men regarded her together.

“In the car,” her target said.

The driver opened the door for them both. They slid inside, waiting to speak until the driver closed the door.

The Colonel stared at her, waiting her out while she shivered and dripped all over his fancy leather seat. “I’m ready to come inside,” she said, voice soft but firm.

He regarded her in that way he had, that way only he could. It was at once comforting and terrifying. “All right.”

She blinked at him, trying not to reveal her shock. She’d expected to have to fight for it, to lay out all the reasons she was done. She should have known better, though. The Colonel had never acted the way she thought he would. For that she was forever grateful.

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