Page 32 of Triple Threat

“No. No, it wasn’t a video game, Love.”

I closed my eyes, the ball in my throat expanding, the tears pressing at my nose and the insides of my eyelids, my face growing hot.

Not a game… but you knew that didn’t you?

“I have never lied to you,” he said and I jumped, his voice much closer than it had been the moment before. “I will never lie to you,” he promised.

I sniffed and opened my eyes, dragging them up the length of the glass. He stood beside me, where I sat balled on the couch. His expression said it all. He was pained for me, for the way I was feeling, but he wasn’t entirely apologetic at the same time.

“What’s going to happen to me?” I whispered and he sighed deeply, shifting uncomfortably.

“Nothing bad, I can promise you that,” he said.

“Whoareyou people?” I demanded, rising, but he didn’t answer me. We stared at each other, barely a foot between us, and he didn’t move, didn’t budge. He simply searched my face with his worried bright green eyes and let me go when I walked away from him with a noise of disgust.

That had been two or three days ago.

I felt as though I had been wandering the big, empty mansion with its locked doors and hollow vibe ever since. A living ghost, waiting to become one for real.

I’d refused to speak to Conan, to even look at him. I couldn’t.

Those had beenpeoplefalling to their deaths on his screen – riddled with bullets, bleeding, hurting… sons and maybe daughters. Brothers and maybe sisters with families that would miss them, no matter what bad things they did. I mean, maybe some of those men had wives or God forbid,children,waiting for Daddy to come home that night – and he never would. The question rattling in my skull that I was too afraid to ask waswhy?Formoney?

I had survived without moneyevery daysince I’d aged out of the foster care system. I mean, I had been poor, sure, and my good grades in high school hadn’t been enough to buy me anything. I had worked, had scraped by for the longest time, but eventually… eventually the jobs and the money had run out but I hadstillmade it.

Hadn’t I?

I went down a hall I hadn’t remembered seeing before, trailing fingers along the wall, bare feet padding softly over carpet until I came to another set of stairs that I surely didn’t recognize.

Curious, I followed them down, a gentle half-spiral ending in a tile floor, the tiles broad, square, and a rusty brown color. No doubt something expensive that had a fancy name, but I certainly didn’t have one for it.

I peeked left, the hall stopping short, a door on the left, and a door on the right. I didn’t go that way. There were so many locked doors in this place, I just assumed they were locked, too.

To the right looked interesting. I turned that way and stood, listening, I always listened. I didn’t want to encounter anyone on these snoops. I mean, I knew Conan was probably watching, tracking my every movement, I just didn’t want to see anyone inperson.

The hall went down a way and ended, but on the left, there was a bank of windows, and to the right? Just more wall, some framed something-or-other on it. It was what was coming through the window that interested me.

Wavering patterns of light.

I stepped carefully, my bare feet silent against the tile floor as I walked gently, toes down first. The dress I wore today was a deep lavender silk, fitted toga style on one shoulder, the hem asymmetrical cutting a dramatic line to a point opposite the one shoulder that very nearly touched the floor. Or it would, if the material weren’t so light it floated when I walked.

It felt good against the skin which was part of the problem I had with the wardrobe that had been chosen for me… nothing about this captivity should feelgood. Not the accommodations, not the clothing, not the warm food in my belly with flavors meant to tantalize the tongue.

Nothing about being a prisoner should be comfortable. It made it hard to remember that Iwasa prisoner… that Iwasn’tfree to leave.

Still, when I laid eyes on the swimming pool, which was gently steaming beyond the glass, I wasweak. I took a deep breath and laid my hands on the door letting out a shuddering breath. I pushed.

The door swung open freely and I gasped. I had fully expected it to remain locked.

The smell of chlorine and pool chemicals assaulted my nose and I closed my eyes as memories flooded in.

Memories of my mother and father, them teaching me to swim at the community pool, the sun shining high in the sky. I didn’t even havepictures of themanymore. My meager belongings left behind in the warehouse I’d been sheltering in. The warehouse I wasn’tallowedto go back to.

I padded to the stairs and gathered the skirt of my dress in my hands, stepping down onto the first step into about three inches of bright blue water.

It was warm…

I closed my eyes and breathed in, listening to the quiet hum of the pool’s filtration system, the rhythmic hush of the HVAC system just beyond that. I turned and looked around. If there were cameras in here, I couldn’t see them. I could never see them, but they were always there. I swore Roan was always watching, his voice quick to come over the house’s intercom system if I strayed somewhere that I wasn’t supposed to be.

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