Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

21: "Does the cat have your tongue?"

I was forced into a large, empty concrete room with nothing but saw dust from wooden boxes that must have once been in here covering the floor. There were no windows, only three lights that were used for the entire football-field-length room, and the two exits were blocked by each of the men. As far as I could tell there wasn't a way out this time and they were making sure that I wouldn't get lucky. The man that grabbed me stayed with the girl, who they called Tessa, and stood in front of me in hopes I would answer their questions.

"Tell us what you are doing here," the girl ordered again. I hadn't answered the first few times, but after her goon punched and kicked me I went along with a lie.

"I was moving the files for transfer. The boss wanted them moved before everything else to prevent exactly what could have happened tonight if I was actually after the information. You came after me without letting me explain, and with guns and threats there was no way I was going to stop. I was employed to test you guys; I had almost done it too. Your boss won't be happy to hear about this."

"Don't lie to me," was all she said. Her eyes turning dark and uncaring the longer I stared into them. She had clearly been in this business too long. I looked into her green eyes as I tried to assess how to handle this, but was coming up short. She seemed proud, confident, but there was something else, and I would have to exploit it to get out of here. There wasn't anything clear except that she had to be in control, if she didn't have control she was scrambling to get it. I had used that before, and lost. Now I needed something else to manipulate.

"I'm not lying," I said, but I could see in her eyes that she didn't believe me. I didn't miss the slight gleam her eye that said that I was taking this too far, and if I was going to play games, then so would she.

"Then let me ask you some questions," she vaguely replied. "Who is our boss? You know the one that supposedly hired you to do this job."

"Sam Hicks," I said without hesitation. I saw her straighten up slightly at the mention of his name, but she continued as if there was nothing wrong.

"And what were you looking for?"

"Nothing, I was just here to take files out of the room and if caught to escape. If I was captured I was supposed to not ask for Hicks, and suffer whatever consequences may occur," I answered smartly as I waited for her next question.

"I hate to be the one to tell you this," she sighed, pausing momentarily. "But whoever gave you your information is wrong." She allowed a few moments of pause to allow the information to sink in.

My heart started to race, and my pulse quickened to a dangerous rate as she leaned into tell me what I got wrong. I didn't respond, I let her finish her monologue.

When she realized I wasn't going to reply she took it on herself to get me to say something. "Sam Hicks isn't our boss. He isn't even the second in command in this family." I felt my face scrunch up in confusion at the way she said family, but I tried to ignore it. "He's a low level hitman we have. If we don't want to get our hands dirty then we send him out, but we can dirty our hands ourselves as well." When I still didn't respond to her words she asked, "Well? You were lied to and you have nothing to say?"

I didn't answer, I stood still and refused to speak. I had learned a long time ago that talking can only get you into trouble and I didn't want that here. I had to think of a way out, and I had to be alive to do it.

"Does the cat have your tongue or are you just upset you lost?"

I felt a smile twitch onto my lips at her words. I figured out what I could exploit, her fatal flaw in this moment in time. She was competitive, she had to win at everything; just like she had to have control. If she had control then she could win, and that's what mattered to her because if she lost in this business it meant more than just a few hundred dollars. That was why she hated that I escaped the first time. She had lost control, she had me cornered and failed to keep me contained. That's why she brought me here, to contain me better, but she failed once again. She gave away more than she intended and now she would suffer for it.