What You Don't Know (Sequel to "Secret Love")(Hunter Hayes/James Marsden)

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God Bless and Happy Reading!

The fog was impenetrable, so thick that Bethany felt she could hang pictures in it. She heard muted voices, felt dull fingers on her arms and face, but everything was slowed, as though she had slipped into a giant bowl of molasses.

It took long moments, but gently the oppressive feeling of uncontrollable numbness receded. She watched as nurses came in to check her pulse, as the doctor scanned her charts, and saw people passing outside through the glass window. Before her bewilderment ebbed entirely, she saw a short, blonde man glance into her sterile white prison.

Hunter.

Bethany's back tightened, and though she was unable to lift herself into a sitting position, she felt her neck pull forward just enough to heft her head off the pillow. Her eyes flickered to the shiny silver doorknob that would allow Hunter to enter her chamber, but he did not reach for it. He returned her gaze for only a moment before he continued down the hall. She let her head fall back and wrote it off as a product of her medication. Hunter had no reason to be here: how would he have even known she was in the hospital?

Another hour passed before she felt the pain in her knee, but that, more than time, aided in clearing her thoughts. Just as she was reaching to call for a nurse, a man entered, but not at all the one she had expected to see.

"Rory?" She examined the sound of her voice. It was weak, but still hers. She had not even realized how worried she had been about that detail.

"What are you doing here?"

Rory pulled the lone chair in the room next to her bed.

"Well, Beth, your mother is on a flight to come see you, so I wanted to be sure I got the chance to talk to you before she took you home."

Bethany eyed him like a criminal. "Why? Don't you work for Trenton? Shouldn't you be...wait...where is Trent?"

She heard the beeping of her heart monitor escalate wildly, and a nurse peeked her head around the door to check in on her. Rory merely gave her a meaningful look and sent her on her way before he calmly replied.

"Trenton is being held and interrogated. He'll never get out of the grasp of the law again, Bethany, thanks to you. With all the evidence you found, coupled with what our trained spies were able to recover, the trial at the end of the month is really more of a formality. You don't have to worry about Trenton McDermott anymore."

"Then what are you doing here? What do you want with me?"

It took Rory a lot longer to calm and reassure Bethany than it had to assuage Hunter's curiosity, but he remained patient with her. He told her that he was with the FBI, that they had orchestrated her murder attempt, and explained that Jeremy Willakers had never been a part of his force, but was Trenton's lackey and was being charged with abetting a murderer.

"So...you're with the FBI. The real FBI?"

Rory nodded and waited for the next question, which came as surely as he suspected.

"Jeremy was Trenton's guy, so who was I texting when I found all of that evidence? Who have I been communicating with all of this time?"

Rory tapped the side of his nose and smiled, seeming to congratulate her on something.

"We had Reese Thereon, who is a part of our undercover team, give Jeremy his number before Willakers gave it to you. Reese simply convinced Jeremy that it was not a real number and that giving it to you would validate their so-called "operation". From there it was fairly easy to hire a mimic to play Jeremy Willakers when you called and to respond to your texts as we felt was necessary. The real Willakers was never aware of these communications; he was just a really talented actor."

"What about that story Jeremy told me about the underground restaurant? He knew so many details about it! How can that be possible if he wasn't really a part of the FBI?"

Rory laughed. "Jeremy was really a dull door knob, Bethany. We, of course, were following you, and we knew where you had gone before you even had your meeting with Willakers. So I gave Reese permission to hand classified information to Jeremy under the guise of an attempt at story writing. The information you were given was the truth: all of that really happened, and we really did suspect Trenton was behind it. Willakers just thought it was some absurd tall tale Thereon concocted, but we used it to make sure you were keeping caution in mind. It may be needless to remind you, but Trenton did a very good job of charming you that night, and we worried that you were going to fall in love with him before we got the chance to find what we needed."

Bethany grimaced. He was right, and she was grudgingly grateful to him for protecting her. How could she have been so stupid? Trenton McDermott had never been anything other than a murderer and a liar and yet she had allowed him into her bed, and almost into her heart!

She took a deep breath.

"Was there anyone else undercover for this that I need to know about?"

Rory scratched his neck. "Do you want a list?"

She nodded weakly. "That would be helpful, unless you're willing to foot the bill for the several years of therapy I'll need without one."

He laughed, but obliged quickly enough, ticking off names on his left hand.

"Well, let's see: Benny LuMain, Darryl Reddock, Reese Thereon, myself, and a man named Markob Jakobie, who is currently dating your best friend Amanda Felton."

"Wait...Benny and Darryl? There's no way! They were both on set with me when I was working for Hunter!"

Rory nodded. "As I explained to Mr. Hayes earlier this evening, the plan to have you reintroduced into our little scheme has been in the works practically since the first time you and McDermott set eyes on one another. Obviously, we needed someone to keep a more vigilant eye on you. Darryl was doing a little double agent work at the time, and was in Trenton's confidence. He had been assigned the task of tracking your movements both by the FBI and by Trenton."

A fire broke loose in Bethany's stomach, remembering what Darryl had attempted to do to her time and again on Hunter's set.

"Why would you sic Darryl on me, Rory? He was horrible to me! Why would you have someone do that to an innocent girl?"

His head bobbed back and forth. "We didn't, Beth. Darryl did that all on his own, I'm afraid. He became as obsessed with you as Trenton, and made some very bad choices in response to those feelings. In fact, we took him off the mission when Hunter fired him, and so did McDermott. We all saw that he was trying to take advantage of the situation and that it was interfering both with your personal life and with the mission. I can't tell you how sorry I was to find out how far it had gone."

She turned her head away, but she actually believed Rory's story, if only because it made more sense that Darryl had gone rogue due to lust than it did to think the FBI had ordered an agent of the law to nearly rape an innocent girl behind dusty black curtains.

"Fine. Who is this Mark guy? The one dating Amanda?"

"Markob," Rory corrected. "He's a great guy, but of course you'll know that when you meet him. He has no intentions to stop seeing your friend, so I'm sure you'll make his acquaintance when you return to Nashville."

Bethany froze. She would have to go back to Nashville. Back to the quaint little house she used to share with her ex-fiancé, to the cafes and street corners she loved, but could never view the same way again. What waited for her there? Would Amanda even accept her back into her life?

She was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions. She had been so focused for so long on Trenton McDermott and whether or not he was a homicidal criminal that she had barely spared a moment to consider what would await her when the mission finally ended. At best, it looked bleak: she had lost Hunter, and she had left Amanda with no word on where she was going or why. The job she had once loved, and all the people she had worked with would all turn away from her now, since Hunter had made it clear he never wanted to see her again.

When she returned to Nashville, she would be alone. She would have to start from the bottom and scratch her way to the top...again.