Stone Cold Undercover Agent

Jaime thought back to The Stallion’s odd statement about searching half his life for the perfect woman. He couldn’t make sense of it, but that had to be connected to this.

“At that point, it was just six of us. The Stallion lined us up and, one by one, he inspected us.”

“Inspected you how?”

Gabriella visibly shuddered, and Jaime hated that she had to relive this, but she did. If they were going to put The Stallion away, she’d probably have to relive it quite frequently.

“He touched our hair and...smelled it.” She audibly swallowed, hugging herself so tightly he wished he could offer some comfort, some support.

But he was nothing to her.

“He had one of his cronies measure us.”

“Measure you?”

“You know, like if you’ve ever been measured for clothes?” She turned to face him again, though her dark eyes were averted. But she gestured to her body as she spoke. “Shoulders, arms, chest, hips, legs, inseam, and the guy yelled out each number and The Stallion wrote it all down on this little notepad.”

She was quiet for a few seconds and instead of pushing this time, he let her gain her composure, let her take the time she needed.

Time wasn’t on his side, but he couldn’t...lose the humanity. That was his talisman. Don’t lose your humanity.

“He dismissed everyone except me.”

Jaime didn’t know how to absorb that. He could picture it too easily after everything he’d done with and for The Stallion. The fear she must have felt having been taken for no reason, having been chosen for no reason that she understood.

It was dangerous to fill her in on the things he knew. But he had already entered dangerous territory when he had allowed himself to behave differently enough with her for her to figure out who he was. What he was.

“He’s a sick man,” Jaime offered.

“A sick man who is very, very smart or very, very lucky since he hasn’t gotten caught in eight years. Probably more than that.”

“Yes. Listen, there are a lot of things The Stallion does. But this thing you’re involved in... He told me something just now about how he spent over half his life looking for the perfect woman. That women are basically stupid and you shouldn’t dirty yourself with them unless you find this perfect specimen.”

“Oh, how lovely. I’d love to show him how stupid I can be. With my fists.”

He smiled at the irritation in her tone because it was life. A spark. It wasn’t that shaky fear that had taken over as she had relived her kidnapping experience.

“Let him have his delusions. They might get us out of this mess.” He wanted to reach out and take her shoulders or...something. Something to cement this partnership, but he was still a strange man in her room who’d ripped her shirt. He had to be careful. Human. “Between what you said and he said, I think that’s what he’s been doing with this arm of things. Searching for the perfect woman.”

“So that’s what the measuring was, then. He has a perfect size, I just bet.” Gabriella rolled her eyes. “Disgusting pig. And then when we got here he, like, tested me. He would ask these questions, and I never answered. I only fought. For weeks, every time he opened his mouth, I’d just attack. I thought maybe that’s why...”

She took in a shaky breath, still hugging herself. Jaime hadn’t been lying when he’d said she might be perfect. She was smart, she was strong—not just physically. Strong at her core.

“I thought for sure I would be raped, but I never have been, and I’ve never understood why.”

“He thinks women are dirty. At least, in this context of looking for the perfect woman. I can’t rationalize a madman, but the point is that you were brought here because he thought you could be the perfect woman. The fighting, I guess, proved to him that you weren’t.”

“I thought that for the longest time, but that isn’t it. Jasmine—she was brought here my second year—she didn’t fight him at all. She told him she’d do whatever he wanted as long as he would let her go. I was the only one who fought, but he hasn’t touched any of us. No matter what our reactions were, he found us lacking in some way, I guess.”

Gabriella shook her head. “So, he brought us here because we were a possibility, then he tests us and decides we’re not perfect, but then why does he keep us?” She looked up at him for answers.

Jaime hated that he couldn’t give them to her—and that hate kept him going. Because at least he still had a conscience. He’d started to worry. “That’s where I come in. I’ve been working my way up to get close to figuring out who he was. When I did that, it was decided I’d stay and get enough information on him that we can arrest and prosecute.”

“And you don’t have that yet?”

“Not to the extent my superiors would like. Which is why we came up with a plan.”

“Let me guess. You can’t tell me about the plan.”

“Actually, this one I can. A little. You’re a gift to me.”

She physically recoiled and he could hardly blame her.

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve slowly become his right-hand man and as I learned about the girls he keeps locked up...I wanted to get close to one of you to figure out how I could get you out. How we could all work together to get you out. So I convinced him that a woman would be better payment than drugs or money. I mean, I get paid, too, bu—”

“Of course you do. I’m sure you get money and a horse and forty acres of land. The payment of a woman is simply pocket change, right?”

“Gabriella.”

She began to pace the tiny room, her irritation and anxiety so recognizable to him he started to feel the same build in his chest.

“This is insane,” she muttered. “This is so impossible. These things don’t happen! They don’t happen to people in my family. They don’t happen to people! This is movie craziness.”

“No. It’s your life,” Jaime returned firmly. He needed her to focus, to get past the panic. “There’s one of his compounds that has the most evidence on his whole operation, and it’s the only one that I don’t know where it’s located. So, as I work with him right now, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. If you’ve been watching, paying attention, listening...you might have the answer. But we have to pretend like...”

“Like I’m the gift to you. And you can do whatever you want with me,” she said flatly.

“Yes. But the key here is that it’s pretend. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ve done a lot of things that will stick with me for a very long time.” He stopped talking for a few seconds so he could regain his composure. He didn’t like to think back at some of the chances he’d had to take or some of the people he’d had to hurt. Though he hadn’t actively killed anyone, he had no doubt some of the things he’d been involved in had led to the death of someone else.

There were a lot of terrible things you could do to a person without killing them.

He had to get hold of himself, so he did. He forced himself to look at Gabriella. She was studying him carefully, as though she could see the turmoil on his face.

To survive, he had to believe this was a very special woman who could see things no one else could. Because if she could see these things and other people could, as well, they would probably both end up dead.

“I know it sounds crazy,” she said carefully, “but I know what it’s like. I’ve helped hide drugs that I’m sure have killed people. I’ve had to dig holes that I think were...so he could bury people. I’ve had to do terrible things, and sometimes I’m not even sure that I had to. Just that I did.”

“No.” He took a step toward her and though he knew he had to be careful so he didn’t startle her, he very slowly and gently reached out and took her hand in his. He gave it a slight squeeze.

“We’ve done what we had to do to survive. In my case, to bring this man to justice. We have to believe that. Above everything else.”

She looked down at their joined hands. He had no idea what she saw or what she felt. It had been so long since he’d been able to touch someone in a kind way, in a gentle way, it affected him a bit harder than he’d expected.

Her hand was warm and it felt capable. She squeezed his back as though she could give him some comfort. This woman who’d been abducted from her family for eight years.

When she raised her gaze to his, he felt an odd little jitter deep in his stomach. Something like fear but not exactly. Almost like recognizing something or someone, but that didn’t make sense, so he shook it away.