Chapter 26
Timmy wasn't having it. After yesterday's near miss, he'd come prepared to put up a fight and fight he did. The kid tried every tactic in the book to prevent us from leaving; most of them had been directed at me because we both knew Jason was a pro. Jason glanced at me briefly when Timmy reached for me, but I held my ground; remembering his warning that morning at breakfast.
I watched as he lowered himself to the floor in the classroom and sat Timmy down in front of him. He pulled out the watch he'd bought for Timmy earlier and fastened it around his son's wrist. For a moment Timmy looked at it-- fascinated by the superheroes on its face, but just as quickly, he lost interest and began to fuss. He knew we were going to leave him and his window of opportunity was quickly closing.
"Timmy." Jason said gently and much to my astonishment the kid fell silent and watched Jason. I didn't know why moments like these even bothered to surprise me anymore when it was clear to all that Jason was the baby whisperer. "Me and Michael have to leave for a little bit okay?"
Timmy shook his head vigorously. "No, no leave Timmy."
"It's only gonna be for a little while I promise. Look at your watch." he pointed to Timmy's wrist and the kid looked down. "When this makes a very special noise it means daddy and Michael are coming to get you." he said, then set a quick alarm so Timmy could hear it. "So when you hear that sound it means we're gonna come and take you home with us okay?"
He reset it for a later time and even though it seemed as though Timmy understood, he wasn't convinced. "Remember when we used to live at the other house?"
Timmy shook his head. "Of course you remember. I used to give you your own flashlight remember and there was a lot of flowers outside and you used to pick them and it made you itchy. Remember that?"
"An Timmy haf scwatch." he said, demonstrating just how he used to scratch his itchy hand. Jason nodded.
"Remember daddy had to leave you alone sometimes?"
Timmy nodded with a deep frown.
"And remember what I always used to tell you?"
"Daddy come back."
Jason grinned. "Exactly and daddy always came back for you right?"
The kid nodded, but he didn't look too happy about it. "Well me and Michael have to go to work now and you get to stay here and play with all your new friends." Jason pointed to a few of them. "See? they all want to play with you. So you get to play here all day and when your watch makes that extra special sound, it means daddy and Michael are coming to get you. Okay?"
Timmy nodded reluctantly, but I noted his fingers were still wrapped tightly around Jason's hand.
"Come on." Jason stood and Timmy latched onto his hand and followed him over to one of the many toy containers in the room. I watched as he picked out a few Timmy would like, but while he stared at the toys with obvious fascination, he stubbornly refused to accept them until Jason sat him down at a table and placed them before him.
He reached out hesitantly to pick up the fire truck and I watched with interest as the little boy who I had spotted sitting alone the morning before, walked over. He slid into the seat across from Timmy; undisturbed by the fact that two adults hovered. He picked up the stuffed bear from the table and secured it under his arm.
"I haf bunny." Timmy told him and the boy sat up straighter, looking at Timmy with narrowed eyes.
"No."
Timmy's eyes widened and he looked at Jason. "Daddy baby say I no have bunny."
I chuckled under my breath.
"Do you want to show him?" he asked as he pulled the said rabbit from Timmy's bag and handed it to him.
Timmy held it up and waved it around. "Timmy haf Bunny." he told the kid adamantly and when the kid held out a hand, to my surprise, Timmy gave it to him.
The boy took Bunny by one ear and held it up for inspection. Timmy watched him keenly as he did and I in turn watched with interest as the boy pulled the bear from under his arm and handed it to Timmy. The boy watched as Timmy carried out his own inspection and finally, Timmy gave his verdict.
"Bunny Bedder."
The boy nodded "Yeah." he said. "My bear no have..." he took a breath "no have dese earws." he gestured to Bunny's floppy ears and Timmy smiled; dimples and all.
A friendship had formed.
When Jason stood, Timmy glanced at him. "We're gonna go now okay? but we'll be back for you later today so just play with your friend, alright?"
To my surprise, Timmy simply nodded and turned his full attention back to his new friend. "I'm putting your bag over there alright?" Jason pointed to the bag shelf and with a quick glance at the shelf and back, Timmy nodded and that was that.
We spoke briefly with the teacher before we left and Jason exited the classroom with a big smile and a satisfied expression. When he glanced at me I could tell he was ready to gloat...and gloat he did. "That was easy."
I shook my head. "Only because you had the kid to help you out."
"No, I could have made him stay anyway."
"Yeah well you didn't see him yesterday. He thought I was abandoning him."
He merely shrugged. "Timmy knows how to take advantage of you and you let him. It's as simple as that."
He was grinning from ear to ear; such a far cry from the quiet, shy man who had tried to pick my pocket not too long ago. I slung an arm across his shoulder and though he glanced around inconspicuously, he didn't move away.
"Do you think she'll remember to send us pictures of him today?" he queried as got into the car and pulled on our seatbelts.
"Pretty sure she will."
He nodded slowly, then bit his lip. "How long do I have to stay at the meeting and what kinds of questions is he going to ask me?"
"It shouldn't be too long, but with the chief, you can never really tell. The questions will be mostly about what happened that night. Why you were there, what did you see; that sort of thing. It's nothing to worry about, really."
He nodded slowly, but he didn't look particularly convinced. "Your dad doesn't trust me you know."
There was really no point in lying to him. "He just doesn't know you very well yet."
"He doesn't want to know me." He said, then frowned. "I don't know if I even want to know him either."
"Timmy spends a lot of time with him. You'll both have to find a way to make this work for his sake."
Jason shrugged. "I bet he thinks I'm some kind a criminal." He shook his head. "I guess I kinda am in a way but it aint like I ever killed anybody."
I remained silent as I pulled out of the parking lot and listened to him rant.
"Maybe it's cause he's gotta judge people for a living. Maybe that's why he's..." he trailed off with a sigh.
I didn't know what to tell him; my dad could be a hard ass and we'd been having the same debate since the moment I'd scraped Jason and Timmy off the streets. I could only hope that in time he'd get over his prejudices.
Jason was silent for the rest of the drive over to the Bureau and I used that time to reflect on Timmy, who was hopefully still as calm and happy as we'd left him. I wondered if I'd ever get used to the idea of leaving him at school everyday. I had already grown accustomed to having him with me all hours of the day. Jason and I had decided that he would go to school three days a week and spend the other two with my mom. I was slowly trying to convince myself that this was all necessary, but it had to be if it meant that he would learn to speak properly and make friends.
........................................................................
"What's he doing?"
Eddie glanced at me. "He came in this morning muttering something about 'criminal consultant.' He's been in with the kid ever since."
I looked toward the glass.
"You think this is going to be a slap on the wrist? Armed robbery is no joke, neither is kidnapping. You're not getting out of this one."
"Guess I'll have to just take my chances." The kid said, though some of the cockiness from yesterday had disappeared.
"Prison isn't like the movies you know." Simon continued. "You'll be lucky if you last a week with that smart mouth of yours."
He shrugged.
"You said you wanted a deal, well this is the best you're going to get. Your options are to work with us or spend time behind bars." Simon stood and Dave watched him; expression unreadable.
"Or I could just take my chances with the system and in no time I'll be as free as a bird."
Simon shook his head. "It's because you're smart why you're being offered this deal. You and I both know that you're not just walking away from this." Simon bluffed. "You have an hour to decide. After that I can't help you. No one can."
Dave watched him leave and when the door closed behind him, he looked down at his hands and closed his eyes. Eddie and I glanced at Simon when he entered the room grinning.
Eddie raised a brow. "You look pretty sure of yourself."
"I call dibs on him once he signs."
Eddie's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why?"
Simon glanced at the glass again; his smile widening. " I just spent an hour in there with him; he's smart Ed. I mean really smart."
Eddie glanced at the suspect; his frown deepening. "So?"
"Life at the Bureau is about to get a whole lot more interesting." He said, then rubbed his hands together with glee.
"What's the deal you offered him?"
"He confesses to being an accessory and testifies against Ronny and in return he gets to be our very own criminal consultant. He's going to make a great profiler."
"That's if he accepts." Eddie interrupted, looking far more grumpy than he had when I'd walked in.
Simon didn't bat an eye. "He will." Then he glanced around the room. "Where's Timmy?"
"School."
Eddie chuckled. "Where would you be without Jason?"
I waved him away. "Get him back to his cell. I want to have a word with Ronny."
Simon gestured to the kid still sitting silently in the other room. "Don't you want to take a stab at him?"
"Later."
........................................................
His eyes were red, snot was running down his face and he threw everyone he could think of under the bus.
"It wasn't me I swear" he sobbed and I fought hard not to roll my eyes. He was a mess.
This was their fearless leader? This was the badass I'd saved for last? I pulled out the chair across from him and sat. "All the evidence points to you Ronny. Confess now and we'll tell the judge you were cooperative, but if you choose to let this drag out, you won't like where you end up."
He put his head down on the desk and sobbed. I shook my head.
How disappointing.
.....................................
~Jason~
It was no wonder he was the big boss what with the way he looked at you. It was like he could read your mind or something. Him and Michael were almost the same person, except Michael never looked at me like I was a lump of mud stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Michael respected me, while this man probably wished I'd never been born.
He had a kind of presence about him; the kind of presence people in power usually had; the kind of presence Michael had; like if he spoke, people wouldn't have a choice but to listen. I wondered if maybe one day Michael would end up running the place. I looked around the big office.
I wouldn't mind that; at least he wouldn't have to do anything dangerous; just sit behind a desk all day and tell people what to do. I shook my head. Michael wouldn't like that though; he loved getting his hands dirty.
When the chief shifted in his chair, I looked at him.
"Tell me why you were living on the streets."
"I thought we were gonna talk about the investigation."
The chief's eyes were cold and lifeless. "We'll get to that."
"I left 'cause my old man was an asshole."
He folded his arms before him. "In what way?"
"I thought Michael told you all of this already."
"I want to hear it from you."
I sighed. "He found out I was gay, he decided he could beat the faggot outta me and I wasn't gonna put up with it no more so I left."
The chief nodded, but his expression didn't change. "Michael says he kicked you out."
I shrugged. "He did but I would a left eventually anyway."
"How old were you at the time?"
"Fourteen."
He nodded again. "A fourteen year old out on the streets. How did you survive?"
I shrugged. "I did what I had to do."
"Like what?"
I didn't like the way he was looking at me right then; like I was something dirty and he was somehow better than me because he didn't have to do the things I'd had to do.
"You aint got no right to judge me." I told him and he raised an eyebrow. "Just because you had the easy life. If you ever went through the shit I went through, you wouldn't look at me that way."
"What do you think I see when I look at you?" he asked all calm like and it pissed me off.
"You think I'm some kinda criminal. You think I aint good enough for Michael."
"Are you?"
"I—" I hadn't really expected that question and now that he'd asked it, I didn't know the best way to answer him. I shook my head. "I guess it depends on how you look at it. I've stolen from people lots of times. Either I do that or I starve. Either I do that or my kid starves. People aint exactly handing out jobs to people like me out there so you gotta do what you gotta do." I told him.
"I aint never killed nobody before. I never hurt nobody either. Sometimes people let me mow their lawns or shovel snow off their driveway. One time I worked on a ranch. Sometimes I used to deliver stuff for people. Yeah I got an idea what was in those packages, but I didn't care, the most important thing was getting enough money so Timmy wouldn't go hungry, or so we could save for a place to live in and I'd do it all again too, cause I don't care what you or anybody else thinks. As long as my kid is okay, nothing and nobody matters."
"Are you pretending to care about my son so Timmy will be taken care of?"
I glared at the asshole. "Why would I need to do that for? I been taking care of Timmy myself all his life and we been doing just fine. I don't need to trick anybody for anything."
He was looking me right in the eyes; as calm as ever. "Tell me about Timmy's mother." He said, surprising me.
"Why?"
"Why not? Unless you have something to hide."
How did Michael put up with him? I couldn't imagine him like Michael described; the man who didn't care that Michael was gay and forced a school to let Michael go to prom with his boyfriend. How was this the same guy?
"What do you wanna know?"
"Start from the beginning. How did you two meet?"
I took a deep breath and looked down at my phone when it beeped. It was a message from Timmy's teacher. When I opened it I couldn't help but smile. It was a picture of Timmy and the kid we'd left him to play with; Liam, the teacher called him.
In the picture they were on the floor, playing with trucks. I was glad he was having fun; definitely better than the shitty day I was having with Michael's asshole of dad. Don't really know what made me do it, but I turned the screen toward him and held it up for him to see.
His eyes narrowed for a second and then just like that the angry expression just melted away. "Looks like he made a new friend." The chief said, a small smile on his face.
I nodded. "His name is Liam."
He looked up at me then and cleared his throat and just like that the asshole was back. I shook my head. Timmy had no idea how much control he had over these people.
I sighed. "Her name was Alex. She used to be a waitress at a little diner close to the place I used to stay at. I used to buy food there sometimes and sometimes we'd talk. Sometimes when I didn't have the money, she used to make me come there at night when it was closing time, then she'd give me the food they didn't sell in the day." I told him. "They were gonna throw it out anyway."
He was still sitting there all quiet-like; listening.
"I didn't really know anything about her, but she was kinda my friend for a while. She had her own place; sometimes she'd let me stay over so I could watch her TV and stuff."
"Just TV?" he raised a brow. I didn't like the look in his eye.
I shook my head. "That was just one time and we were drunk and ...it didn't mean anything. It just happened."
"How old were you when you found out she was pregnant?"
"Fifteen."
The chief rubbed his chin. "And you said she had her own place"
I nodded.
"How old was she?"
I shrugged. "I don't know...twenty something I guess."
He seemed to think about that for a bit, then finally, he nodded. "Go on."
"She got fired from her job a couple months after she found out she was gonna have a baby." I told him, remembering how freaked out she was when she told me she was pregnant. "She said...She said plenty of people would pay her a lot for a baby. She said plenty of people couldn't have kids and she could make good money if she sold him off to rich folks.
"I told her I wouldn't let her do it. He was my son too, but she said it was the mother's choice." I gritted my teeth. I remembered how much I'd hated her when she'd said it, but now that she was gone, I could see that she'd only been desperate. Life on the streets were scary if you weren't used to it and she'd been weeks away from being kicked out of her apartment.
"She eventually found some people interested in paying for a new-born. She was gonna sign some papers after the baby was born, then my son would be gone."
"What happened on the day she gave birth?"
I clasped my hands tight in my lap. "I was at the hospital. I told her I wanted to hold him first; just once before they took him away and she let me. The people who were gonna pay her off for him had to wait in the other room first." I bit my lip "She told me that as soon as she signed that would be it and I couldn't let that happen."
The chief nodded. "So you ran with him."
I nodded. "Yeah. He was so small. I was so scared but he was mine, I couldn't let her give him away like that." I took a deep breath. "It wasn't easy taking care of him. He was always crying and he was too young to leave him alone all the time, but I made it work."
"What happened to the mother?"
I shrugged. "I never saw her again after that. I didn't want her to take Timmy and a few months after, some guy she was with beat her up pretty bad. She died."
"Where's the guy now? Did you know him?"
I shrugged. "Probably in jail or something. I saw him around back then, but I never talked to him or nothin."
He nodded. "So you were about sixteen when Timmy was born."
I nodded. "Almost seventeen."
"Any regrets?"
I shook my head. "None."
For the first time since I'd met the man, he smiled at me. A real honest-to-god smile that I could even see in his eyes. "It's admirable what you did; choosing to raise a child when you yourself were a child."
I shrugged. "It's what a dad's supposed to do. Don't matter his age."
Again the chief nodded. "Tell me about your father."
I shook my head. "I don't like to talk about him."
"You should know that I ran a background check on you."
I shrugged. "Not surprised."
"I know your father's a cop."
I nodded.
"A good cop by all accounts."
"Maybe he is."
"Have you been in contact with him at all since you left?"
I shook my head.
"You know, you're in the missing children's database right? He searched for you for a long time after he let you go."
The news surprised me, but I didn't care anyway. My old man was nothing good. He probably did it to cover his own ass. "Well I aint interested in him or anything he's doing. I don't ever want to see his face again."
"What about your mom?"
I closed my eyes; I could see her clear as day in my head. "She never did a thing to stop it when he...." I swallowed. "Doesn't matter now anyway."
When I opened them again, the chief was watching me. "You can say what you're thinking." I told him. "I've got thick skin. I can take it."
"Out of all the pockets you could have picked that night why did you choose Michael's?"
I shrugged and looked away from him. "It was random." I lied. "Just saw some guy walking alone and I figured he'd be easy."
"If you could do it all over again, knowing what you know now, would you still have chosen him?"
I didn't answer him, just stared at the wall above his head and hoped he'd ask me something else or leave me be.
He waited all of five minutes before he said anything. "There's one question you didn't answer." He was still so calm I just wanted to punch the expression off his face. I didn't know how Michael cared for the asshole.
"What question?"
"Do you think you're good enough for him?"
I met his eyes but I couldn't understand what I saw in them. I looked down at my hands in my lap and then back up at him. "I know you think I'm not."
"Are you?"
I gritted my teeth. "He's the best person I ever met. He should be with someone just like him; someone who can take care of him same as he loves to take care of people, someone who's smart."
The chief didn't say anything, he just watched me. "He loves Timmy though and he says..." I couldn't look him in the eye when I said the rest. "He says he loves me too and I'm starting to think...that maybe he might for real."
I looked up when the chief unfolded his arms and leaned back in his seat. "He wouldn't have said it if he didn't mean it." He said to my surprise.
I nodded. "Your boy Timmy is something special." He told me then. "He's become a huge part of our lives in the short time he's been here. The truth is, we love the kid and my son loves you, so as much as I've been trying to deny it, there must be something good in you, because Michael's a good judge of character."
I didn't really know what to say to that so I said nothing.
"I don't know much about you so trusting you with my son doesn't come easy." He said. "but you're making him happy and I'll just have to accept that." He surprised me again by holding out his hand. After a second, I reached out to shake it. "Welcome to the family. Don't hurt him."
I nodded and swallowed hard past the lump in my throat.
.................................................
~Michael~
Something just didn't add up how could Ronny be the mastermind behind it all?
I looked at him; shaking like a leaf as he wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve.
"Tell me what happened that night."
He sniffled. "I want a lawyer."
"Listen—"
"I want a lawyer...the same one I was assigned. I want to talk to her."
I gritted my teeth and stood, then gestured to the glass. A moment later the door opened and I stepped through. "Cuff him, take him back to his cell then call his lawyer." I told the rookie agent who stood in the entrance.
I retrieved my phone from the observation room just in time to see a message come through from Timmy's school. The first was a picture of Timmy of his new friend Liam and the second a video recording of them both.
I hit play and grinned. They were both sitting around a tiny blue desk molding play-doh.
"See? You do dis and you woll it like dis." Liam was explaining to a very keen little Timmy.
"Micha no let Timmy woll it." Timmy replied and I laughed. The one time I'd told him he couldn't use his play-doh on the carpet at home and he'd decided to take it to heart.
Liam frowned at the news. "But you hafto woll it so..." deep breath "so it will look like dis." Liam held up his masterpiece for Timmy to see.
Timmy glanced down at his untouched piece and frowned. "Micha say no Timmy."
Liam frowned some more and seemed to contemplate the bad news, then to my surprise, he handed his masterpiece to Timmy and retrieved Timmy's untouched lump and rolled it into a similar shape.
Timmy's dimples showed when he grinned at his new treasure and the video ended.
I shook my head and chuckled as I exited the room. Kids were so.... I froze at the sight before me and cursed under my breath.
"Hey why the hell isn't he cuffed?" I questioned the rookie who was leading Ronny out of the interrogation room. He froze, then looked at Ronny uncertainly.
"I...he's harmless Michael, I figured I could just—" the agent broke off suddenly and I reached for my weapon when Ronny used the momentary distraction to reach around the rookie agent and pull his gun from the agent's holster. He wrapped his arm around the guy's throat and I cursed when I remembered I'd handed my own weapon off to Eddie before stepping into the interrogation room earlier.
I watched as Ronny pressed the gun to the side of the rookie's head and my blood ran cold. When Ronny met my eyes, he smiled.
................................................................
~Jason~
"Tell me about your friends."
"They're not my friends. Just a buncha people I used to hang out with a while back."
"Okay, tell me about them. What are they like? How did you come to meet them?"
I shrugged. My phone beeped again, but this time I ignored it. "At first it was just me, Ronny and Red."
"Red?"
"Yeah, he was Ronny's brother. They were twins. I heard he's dead now though." I said, I felt the hollowness in my chest at the thought. "We met way before Timmy was born and back then, I guess we were friends. We used to survive together; run cons on people and stuff and we were good at it. We lived all over the place and we looked out for each other you know?"
The chief continued to watch me.
I bit my lip. "I didn't tell you this but...they helped me get away with Timmy at the hospital. They distracted the right people and it worked. If it wasn't for them I don't know if I'd have him in my life right now."
"Do you think you owe them for that?"
I shook my head. "Plenty a times I saved their lives and plenty a times they saved mine, it's just what friends are supposed to do." I said. "but then they wanted to do more than just small cons and I didn't want any part in that. I had Timmy to think about and if I got thrown in prison or worse..."I shook my head.
"What was their response to you not wanting to graduate to bigger cons?"
"They weren't too happy, but they didn't make too much of a fuss over it. They'd helped me take care of Timmy plenty of times so they knew I had to watch out for him but that's when they decided to start recruiting more people."
I paused.
"Go on."
"Ricky was the first person to join. Ronny helped him get away from some cops after they'd caught him robbing some old lady. It's why he's so loyal I thin; nobody ever gave a rat's ass about him before he joined the group. Anyway, little by little they kept recruiting more people and in about six months we had Ricky, Martin, Sharon, Joseph, Paul, Sophie and Stanton.
"Who's Stanton?"
"He died on a job. They were gonna rob a place but another gang was already there and it got crazy. He got shot. After that, I decided to stop completely and I told them I was done. Ronny was mad, he didn't want me to leave, but Red understood. He asked me to recruit one more person for them before I left. I figured it was the least I could do after all the years we been friends."
The chief nodded. "who did you recruit?"
"Dave. I met him one day trying to con some people with a card trick. I thought he was pretty good so I asked him if he wanted to join. At the time he was still living with his family. He wasn't a street kid like the rest of us, but he was interested, so he showed up for jobs when we needed him and went back home to his cozy little life afterwards. The others didn't like him much and Ronny didn't think he was really one of us because he didn't live the way we did, but he was good at conning so he got to stay."
"How long did you stay with the group after you recruited him?"
"Two months." I told him. "I saw them every now and again afterwards and in the beginning I'd still help them out on one or two little jobs but after a while we drifted apart and I rarely saw them again. The night Michael found us together was the first time I'd seen them again in almost a year, but I think maybe they were still keeping tabs on me because they knew about me and Michael."
"Tell me a little bit about Dave. Do you trust him?"
I shrugged. "I don't think I trust anybody, but back when I was a part of the group I didn't have a problem with him. Pretty sure he's smarter than all of us and he was great with Timmy and good at everything he did, but he didn't like it when anybody told him what to do and that used to drive Ronny crazy."
"And what about Ronny? Sounds like he was the leader."
I shrugged. "He liked to think he was and I guess in a way he was since most people listened to him."
"Do you think he's dangerous?"
I nodded. "He's good at manipulating people and he's good at pretending. One moment you think he's a harmless innocent guy and the next, he's stealing the shirt right off your back. He's got one a those innocent-looking faces you know? But he's the type of person who'd shoot a guy in the head and smile while doing it. You can't underestimate him or you'll be sorry."
"Have you ever seen him commit murder?"
I shook my head. "Never, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did."
The chief nodded again. "Is there anything else you want to tell me about him?"
I thought about it for a second. "One thing I can say is that if he cares about you, you can trust him to watch your back and you can be sure he'll be there for you no matter what, but the moment you cross him, you better watch your own back because you better believe he'll be coming after you with everything he's got."
The chief grinned. "Good to know." I watched him stand. "Michael's questioning him right now. I want you to talk to him."
I stood. "To Ronny?"
"Yes. I want to see how he reacts to seeing you." The chief was already across the room. He opened the door and walked out without another word.
I sighed and followed. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans and kept my head straight as we passed the agents sitting at their desks out in the other room. I hated coming to the Bureau. I didn't belong and it made me uncomfortable.
I followed him across the room and waited while he pulled open another door that I remembered; it was the one that would take us to the interrogation room; I hated that room more than anything.
I didn't realize what was going on when the chief stepped into the room. As soon as I walked inside behind him and shut the door, something slammed into me and I tripped, but before I could fall to the floor somebody grabbed my arm and pulled me against them. It really wasn't until I felt something cold and hard against my head that I even realized what was happening and by then it was too late.
"Keep still." a familiar voice whispered in my ear and I froze. " Everybody just do what you're told and nobody has to get hurt alright?" Ronnie whispered and for the first time since entering the room, I noticed who else was in it.
Michael was kneeling on the floor, checking on an FBI guy who looked like he'd been knocked out; he had a nasty cut on his head.
"Gun on the table grandpa." Ronny told the chief. " And don't try anything or I swear to god i'll kill him."
I shivered and watched nervously as the chief did what he was told. "Just take it easy Ronny, you don't want to do this." he said.
"Touch that panic button and you'll be wiping him off the floor." he said to Michael, who had been inching closer to the table. I flinched when he pressed the gun closer to my head.
"We're all gonna take our time and walk out the door. No sudden movements and don't try anything stupid. You're gonna tell your men to let me walk and I don't wanna see any guns pointing at me. You got that?"
"Son, there's a room full of agents out there. Think this through before you-- "
"I'm not your son and I don't need your lecturing. Let's go and take sleeping beauty over there with you."
Michael lifted the agent under the arm pits and dragged him with him across the room. The chief was the first one to exit and I heard him outside the door giving the other agents instruction not to shoot, then it was Michael with the unconscious guy and finally, Ronny shoved me in front of him and used me as his shield as we walked out.
The agents were all standing up; some at their desks, some at random places and they all stood there just watching us. "Just don't do anything stupid!" Ronny shouted from behind me. He was smart enough to walk with his back to the wall and very very slowly, we crossed the room.
My heart was beating so hard in my chest that I thought I was close to having a heart attack. I felt like I couldn't see straight and my throat was as dry as hot sand. I knew Michael was somewhere off to one corner and I heard him say something, but it was too hard to focus when I could be dead any second.
It felt like we'd been moving forever but I could already see the door to the outside. I wondered if Ronny would shoot me the second we got out there. I wondered if a room full of agents were really gonna let him get away.
Ronny stopped ad pulled me closer to him when the door suddenly opened and a guy came through. I swear everything happened so fast; one moment the new guy was just standing there looking at the two of us and the next, he'd pulled his gun and I heard it off off. There was too much shouting to think and I stumbled when I felt something hit me hard and i swear i could hear Michael shouting something at the top of his lungs but for some reason, I could barely even feel my legs. Ronnie kept me upright.
People just kept shouting 'hold your fire, hold your fire' and 'he's been hit' but everything was so crazy that I couldn't even concentrate on it all. A couple minutes later we were out the door and Ronnie was dragging me roughly across the asphalt.
When I saw another FBI guy running up to us, I was so glad, I almost wet myself, but then something that didn't make sense happened; the FBI guy gave Ronnie some keys and ran back the way he'd come.
That's when i realized the FBI probably had dirty agents. I wished I could tell Michael but the world around me wasn't making any sense and my shoulder was starting to hurt real bad. I shook my head and stumbled into a car Ronnie shoved me into.
" Hang in there Jason." he said as he got into the driver's seat beside me "I'm gonna need you alive for what we got planned." My head started to hurt real bad too and I couldn't tell how long after that before the car moved and I realized for the first time that not one of those agents had rescued me.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
THANKS FOR READING!
-DoUbLe.A
-unedited.