Page 69 of Bastard

That was all Storm and I needed.

“Will it hurt them?” Georgia asked.

“Oh no. They just slowly go to sleep. Not so slowly they can stop anything, but not so fast they get hurt falling.”

I gave Georgia back the phone and went to Dombrowski. “You got gas masks lying around?”

“Of course. They’re in the weapons locker. We can enter the 7th floor from the stairwell once we know the hostage takers have been affected by the drugs.” He spoke as we walked.

Storm grimaced as he grabbed zip cuffs and more ammunition. “They barricaded the doors.”

“We’ll get through.” He held up a case marked Breaching Charges. “But we need to move fast if we want this done our way.”

The explosives did their job. Inside we found three masked men pointing guns at us, but they were so woozy they couldn’t keep them steady. Disarming them took seconds. Dombrowski helped Storm immobilize them while I checked on the hostages. Everyone was asleep against the wall. I wasn’t surprised since the lab was just down the hall.

In the lab the two main hostage takers were asleep on the floor beside Sam. I found the phone they were broadcasting from and stopped it before going to Sam. Her head was at an awkward angle, but they tied her down to the chair again, so she hadn’t slipped and hurt herself.

High speed fans turned on, quickly ventilating the area, but I left my mask on until I got the all clear from Clancy. While I waited I cut Sam and Adriana free, settling them comfortably on the ground.

Storm came running in and grabbed Adriana’s hand, sitting beside her while we waited. The hostage-taker’s phone had three apps open. One was the live video I’d stopped. The other was a GPS app that had this room highlighted, as well as a route that took them into the building’s basement. The third app was a note taking app. The only two entries were a manifesto and a list of conspiracies that detailed all the ways Sam was going to destroy the government.

Adriana groaned and Storm ripped off his mask. He was his own man and there was nothing I could do to stop him anyway.

“Baby? Can you hear me? Baby?”

I had never, ever seen Storm like this. Gentle, distraught, fucking vulnerable.

Then my ear buzzed with the all clear and I did the exact same thing. “Sam?” I scooped her up and cradled her against my chest. “Wake up, gorgeous. The bad guys are gone now.”

“I feel weird.” Sam stumbled into the apartment.

“Clancy said it would take several hours for the full effects to wear off.”

“This is bullshit.” She began ripping all her clothes off and threw them in the trash bin. “I can’t fucking believe some fucking conspiracy group got so fucking worked up over my identity that they took us fucking hostage! And broadcast it!” She screamed. “Why do they care so much about one rich baby going missing? People go missing every day! Babies, children, women! If they put that same energy into helping people who actually need help, maybe we’d make the world a better place!”

She stormed off for the bedroom. I stayed a safe distance away. She needed a chance to be angry and let it all out. “You’re right.” She went straight through our room to the bathroom and started the shower. “Your story captivated them. They lost sight of the fact that you’re just a person trying to figure your life out.”

Sam glared at me from under the water.

Instead of joining her like I usually would, I stayed out. She yelled a few more times, mostly repeating the same ideas over and over. It seemed to help because she finally sat down, curled around her knees, and cried.

I took that as my cue and slowly undressed, giving her time to work through all the things she was feeling. Then I sat down beside her. “You make a lot of excellent points. And you have a lot of money and influence to do something about it.”

She groaned into her knees. “Great. Another thing to add to my plate.” Then she huffed. “You’re right though. I will channel my anger into changing how things like this work.”

“Good. Can I touch you now?”

She shrugged, then nodded. I moved behind her, leaning against the steamy shower wall, and started massaging her neck. Sam groaned and leaned all the way back until she relaxed into me. “Life was easier when it was simple. Just me and my work. Dinner with Hazel and Yara. Trips with my parents. I could read headlines, shake my head, and then forget about it.”

“Life will get easier again.” I dug into a knot in her shoulder. “You’re working on that already. One day it will be similar to your old life. Only I’ll be in it and when you get angry about something you can use your money to change it.”

“You really think that?”

“I might be glossing over some things, but yes. Your life doesn’t have to be conquering space and the world. That’s what Bernard, the Feyereisens, and Randall Cork wanted. Everything they built was designed to make them richer and more powerful until they controlled everything. It was sick.”

“That’s true.”

“And if you don’t want to run anything, don’t.” I didn’t care if she followed in Georgia’s footsteps and carved her own path. I just wanted Sam to be happy.

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