Page 4 of His Witness To Protect

“There’s no way I’m leaving my house in the middle of the night,” Brie argued.

“I’m not asking for your opinion,” Mack retorted. “It’s not safe. I won’t let you put yourself in jeopardy.”

He paused for breath and continued, “Do you have any ideaof the kind of danger you’re in? This man, this monster, he tortures his victims – women like you; he rapes them before killing them in ways you couldn’t even imagine.”

At that moment, Brie was scared to death. She started imagining what unspeakable things the killer would do to her next after his first attempt to get rid of her by burning her alive had failed. She felt extremely grateful that Mack was with her that night because she couldn’t have escaped on her own.

Gripped with fear, she finally heeded to Mack’s words, and they made their way in his car out of town to the nearest FBI safe house.

CHAPTER FIVE

The journey to the safe house seemed like a long one as Mackand Brie sat silently in the car. Mack occasionally stole glances at Brie, but she looked as pale as a ghost. She looked extremely worried, and Mack could understand why, so in a bid to lighten the mood, he tried picking up from where their conversation ended before he noticed the fire in the house.

“So,” he began, “Do you go back home often?”

She grunted a barely audible reply, rebuffing his attempt at conversation.

Brie didn’t seem responsive until Mack urged her to talk about her past relationship once again.

She hesitated to talk about her relationship with Bryan. Still, the caring look on Mack’s face and his kind words made her talk about the hard times she had to go through: Starving herself to lose weight for his validation, and most of all, the emotional torture he had put her through during the four-year relationship. She also mentioned how she thought she had finally made him happy when he proposed to her, but little did she know that her journey with Bryan was going to end in a very painful halt that shook her heart and self-esteem. She still didn’t trust anyone like she had trusted Bryan, and the discovery of his infidelity was the greatest blow to her. Still, she wasn’t ready to admit it all to Mack, who listened sympathetically to her.

Mack gave a look of pity when she was done talking and handed her a box of tissues from his glove compartment when he noticed she had started crying. Despite all the sad stories Brie had told him, he couldn’t help but feel that she was hiding something. Of course, he didn’t pressure her to tell him. After all, they had just reunited…yesterday?

Mack made a quick stop at a 24/7 convenience store and urged Brie to get some new clothes since she was still in her sky-blue nightgown. He held out his card to her, and she reluctantly accepted it after he insisted. The cold night air seemed to rush into the car the moment Brie opened the door, and Mack felt the chills, not only from the breeze but from thinking about all the abuse Brie must have had to endure.

Watching her walk into the store through the driver’s window, he started to think of how she was in high school. She had lost a significant amount of weight but still maintained her beautiful curves. She still did that thing with her glasses where she’d push them high up her nose bridge whenever she was nervous, and he could tell from the massive bookshelf she choked with books in her room that she still very much enjoyed reading.

In the middle of his reminiscence, she walked out of the store in jeans and a T-shirt, her mousy hair covered in a beanie with little curly strands dropping to her face, and his heart skipped a beat. He wondered how he could still be attracted to her after all these years; she quickly approached his car and hopped in. She handed him his card immediately and forced a weak smile.This is going to be a long night,he thought.

They arrived at the wired gates of the safe house a little bit past midnight, and Mack showed the guards his ID before he was let through the gates. He led Brie into one of the rooms while heheaded out into the balcony to make a call to his superiors, briefing them about the recent happenings.

“Agent Mack reporting,” he said into the phone. “We’ve arrived at the safe house.”

A disembodied voice replied, “Well done. Keep a good eye on the girl. She’s part of the investigation now.”

“Yes, sir”

“The sketch artist will be arriving tomorrow morning, so get ready,” the voice continued.

“Yes, sir,” Mack replied again and hung up.

As if the insomnia they experienced at Brie’s place wasn’t enough, they couldn’t bring themselves to sleep once again and ended up talking, this time about Mack’s life.

“Why did you decide to join the FBI?” Brie asked, realizing he’d never really told her. “I know you’ve always liked murder and crime documentaries, but I want to know the whole story.”

Softly, almost whispering, Mack began to talk.

“My brother was a police officer who was working on a case connected to the devils. One day, my brother’s team got some intel that led them to an abandoned warehouse.”

His hands tightened into fists. Brie reached out a hand to touch his. He gulped.

“It was supposed to be a regular drug bust. It wasn’t. They were set up.”

He clenched his teeth and was quiet for several minutes. Brie waited patiently.

Closing his eyes, finally, he spoke the words that had haunted him for years.

“They were blown up. Nothing was ever found. The warehousewas burned to the ground. Nobodies could be recovered. My brother never had a proper burial. I never got to say goodbye.”

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