Agent Rogue

Chapter 24

Jameson snatched me by the hair and ripped out the earpiece. He brandished it in the light, callously laughed to himself before shoving it in my face, almost in my mouth.
"You think you can outsmart me, is that it?"

He threw it to the ground and stamped on it, making sure every wire tore by rubbing it into the concrete.

Before I could react, his balled fist struck me across the face, knuckles busting my nose.

I gasped as the pain hit, veins burning as a streak of blood dripped down my nose, marking my lips and chin. My throat gargled, making me gag at the taste of metal.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did that hurt?" He laughed but I only hissed through my teeth, biting back an insult to avoid another beating as the throbbing in my nose transformed into a mild headache.

I looked at the bomb: 28:02.

Scotty claimed to have a solution, but what could he do now? I adored him, but he could not have stormed the building, fought Jameson and diffused the bomb in time.

I glanced around the room. It was so cold, so lonely and dark with its shadowed corners cut by the sterile light hanging over me. I was powerless, left to bleed on my own as my doomsday clock counted down before me, my pride and dignity diminishing with every tick of the digits. Just as the Doctor once said, I was staying in the dark – underground – where I belonged.

There was hope for me once. When I met Scotty, I found a friend where I least expected to. While others rejected my company, Scotty embraced it, not an ounce of judgement from any of his words or actions regarding my past and present. Collins was always at my defence when I needed him. From the moment I signed onto the agency, he respected my introverted nature, understanding that silence often spoke a thousand words, while sharing a connection to Alistair. And Gabby had been an angel since the moment she strolled through the office doors for the first time, lighting up the office with her smiles and words of faith of optimism.

Then there was Derek Barnes. That man crashed into my life like a wild comet, and somehow I found myself basking in its wake. If I had opened that door again, or if he ran after me on the rooftop, he would have fit into my life so well.

The short time we held together managed to form a bond stronger than what I was ready for. Spending every moment of every day with one individual for weeks, constantly battling life and death, created a stubborn link. We learned so much about each other through our actions rather than words, becoming closer than any average pair would in months.

And I had thrown that all away. All that trust tossed aside for the sake of being right.

I groaned and let my head fall, hair blanketing the rest of the room. He was gone, now, likely propped up against the bar on that cruise ship, chatting up another girl as I was nothing. Perhaps I was not as important to him as he was to me. I was just a bit of fun after a tense night of fighting; a girl that was... there. His name had been carried around the office before, labelling him as a flirt, and I was another addition to the collection.

Knowing that, I still cared. I still latched onto the hope that I was catastrophising his nature and his words were true. I was not another notch on his belt, nor a girl that happened to be there, but a woman he felt something for because she felt it too.

If I died believing the only recent happiness in my life was fake, my past won.

I looked up at a stumbling crash, finding that Jameson had tripped over the bomb, barely steading himself. His eyes widened in terror, silently praying he would not trigger it so early.