Part 24 (2/2)
”She's taken care of,” was his terse and still cold response.
Phoebe nearly swooned with such relief, she had to grab the edges of the chair she sat in. ”Meaning?”
His chiseled jaw lifted. ”Meaning I've got someone watching her day and night until this thing breaks.”
”Oh, G.o.d. No, Sam. You didn't call the FBI in, did you? To send someone in to protect her? They'll crucify you!”
”They'd crucify us. And no. It's not FBI, but it's someone I trust implicitly, and no one you need to know anything more about. Just know I've covered Penny and Mark's safety.”
Fear crept back up her spine, and the image of that poor man flashed behind her closed eyes. Penny's sweet, sweet face floated in front of her eyes, too. Gentle, una.s.suming Penny, with eyes just like Nina's and the thwarted mental capacity of a ten-year-old. ”You don't think they'll go after Penny, do you? How could they even know about her? I've kept her existence very quiet.” She jammed her knuckle in her mouth to keep from screaming.
Sam's eyes flashed a streak of concern like the old Sam would. ”They have your phone, Phoebe. I'd bet you've called her a hundred times from it. It wouldn't be hard to find her-and no doubt, you're on their most-wanted list. If you talk, let's just say, they're not gonna want that to happen. So they'll do everything in their power to find you and eliminate you.”
Oh, good. More death. If they didn't get her one way, they were sure to get her another. Overwhelmed, especially at the thought that Penny could possibly be hurt, she pleaded with Sam. ”Why don't we just go to the police, Sam? We need more help. You can't have this all on your shoulders. It's too much.”
Nina strode back into Sam's apartment, her phone in hand, her mouth twisted into a snarl. ”Because if we f.u.c.king do that, the tables will turn, and those douche bags'll give us up just like we're giving them up. So while we might save that poor guy's life in the middle of all that s.h.i.+t, we're f.u.c.king an entire community no one knows anything about-and not just our own community. That's why. Besides, we've handled s.h.i.+t like this before. It might not have been as f.u.c.ked up, but we've taken on plenty of a.s.sholes since the freaky-deaky began. We can take on more.”
Sam held up a hand to thwart Nina. ”We have a lot to consider, Nina. A lot more than just us at this point. First up, we need to figure out where the h.e.l.l this is going on.”
Phoebe pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. ”Because I transported out to, of all places, Bed Bath and Beyond before I could figure it out, right?” G.o.d. She could just kick herself for panicking like that. Ma.s.sage oil. How, in all that dire, she'd conjured up the idea of a ma.s.sage instead of the training ground for a team of skilled ninja a.s.sa.s.sins would haunt her forever.
Nina gave her head a gentle shove. ”You shouldn't have been there to begin with, nitwit. We told you-anything suspicious, get the f.u.c.k out. I think a pillowcase over your head is a little on the suspicious side, don't you, Brainy Barbie?”
Phoebe fought to keep the anger out of her voice. Okay. She'd made a bad choice. ”I just wanted to help. And if I hadn't taken that pill, Dr. Hornstein would have become suspicious.”
Nina tugged a strand of her hair. ”No. He would have thought you chickened the f.u.c.k out and then he probably would have tried to kidnap you later. You know-the kind of later where we would have been there to beat his a.s.s b.l.o.o.d.y?”
Sam placed a hand on Nina's shoulder and squeezed, though his face was still all business. ”Ease off, Nina. It's done. Here's the second part of this. The part that worries me. I know who the woman was that showed up at Phoebe and Mark's that night.”
”Who?” everyone said in unison, including Darnell and Wanda, who'd joined them.
”Her name's Meredith Villanueva. Stinky couldn't find anything on her at first, but he did a little digging and he came up with some things we need to be concerned about. I knew her name the second he said it, but I've never seen her before. Not many have. She works alone, and her ident.i.ty is one of the most protected in my field. It was a standing watercooler joke with us whether that was even her real name. She's a legend at the agency. She's a legend for a reason. Meredith's undercover skills are, bar none, some of the best in the world.”
”But wait a second, Sam,” Wanda said, her brow furrowed. ”If all of you at the FBI know of her, why didn't they tell you she was in the middle of this mess doing undercover work?”
Sam's face was dark and cloudy. ”Because she's not FBI. She's CIA.”
FBI. CIA. And Meredith had been almost DOA.
So many acronyms.
So, OMG, and BTW, enough already with the madness, and just as an FYI, this was not a ROFLMAO kind of fun.
CHAPTER 16.
Phoebe finally found the words to speak. ”So your one-night stand was a CIA agent? Don't all you acronyms ever talk to each other? You know, communicate so everyone's on the same page?”
Sam clenched his jaw, but he still didn't directly address her. Instead he spoke to the entire group. ”I don't know what happened. If you know anything about our agencies, you know, while we respect each other's work, we don't always love when someone else treads on our turf. My purpose at O-Tech was innocuous. I wasn't there to necessarily find anything at all that was of the magnitude this is. I was just burnt out from the job and needed a break from the crazy.” He gave Phoebe a pointed look before saying, ”And according to Stinky, O-Tech's clean. Which is exactly what I reported just a week ago. But that Meredith was there means there really was something big. I suspect she found that something big in the same way you did, Phoebe. What happened after that is all just speculation.”
Nina cracked her knuckles. ”Does this mean we're gonna have more letters of the alphabet breathin' down our necks, Sammy? You know, like the CIA?”
”If Meredith was in deep cover on a long-term a.s.signment-that might be what buys us some time. You have specific contact times-usually weekly-and if you don't send out a distress signal, you're on your own to get the job done. It's only been a week since Meredith disappeared-that wouldn't draw a whole lot of attention, but I make no promises. She was pretty far gone by the time she got to us-if she didn't contact someone, it was only because she was half out of her mind in pain. It looks like it would take all reason away. Even CIA reasoning.”
The panic Phoebe kept forcing down rose again, and this time, she couldn't stop her fear for Penny from spewing from her mouth. A fear that almost immobilized her. She'd promised her mother she'd take care of Penny at all costs. If it were the last thing she did, Penny would be safe.
Her hands gripped the chair's arms when she jumped up, her legs shaking. ”We have to go back in there, Sam! It isn't just about that man in there anymore. None of us are safe until we catch those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Oh, my G.o.d! What if they find Penny? She can't defend herself-she's still like a child! She trusts everyone!”
The room went silent, all eyes trained on her.
If gulping were still a verb in her world, it would've been audible.
Nina was the first to cross the room with furious feet. She stood in front of Phoebe with narrowed eyes. ”This Penny? Bet she's not your pet gator. She's gonna be one of those big surprises, right?”
Phoebe shot Nina a guilty look, but she remained silent.
”Answer me, Phoebe,” Nina roared, her face a mask of yet another level of angry. She whipped up a hand in her sister's face. ”Wait. Lemme ask in a way you can relate to. So, is this gonna be one of those surprises, Phoebe? You know, like on f.u.c.king As the Days of Our Bold and Beautiful Loving Hope Turns-or whatever the f.u.c.k you call that crazy s.h.i.+t you watch. This is where the suspenseful music plays and some chick named after something stupid like a town in Georgia does the big secret reveal, right? One of those secret reveals that p.i.s.ses her sister with the very cool name right the f.u.c.k off?”
Phoebe lifted her chin, but she didn't back down. She would not apologize for Penny. But she would own the last of the secrets she'd kept with her head held high. ”Yes. Yes, it is.”
Nina's lips thinned, turning as white as her skin. She pointed in the direction of Sam's bedroom, giving Phoebe a nudge. ”You? Get in that m.u.t.h.af.u.c.king bedroom and get the f.u.c.k in there now. Wanda? Come with. I'll need a witness when the clan wants to know why I killed a b.i.t.c.h!”
Wanda was instantly at Nina's side, taking her arm. ”Oh, no. We will do this like adults, if I'm going to have any part of it. Your temper's gotten us into enough trouble as it is, vampire maker. Next you'll be turning Phoebe into triple vampire. So you will remain a lady, or I will beat you into one.” Turning to Phoebe, she muttered from the side of her mouth. ”March, young lady.”
Phoebe's eyes sought Sam's for a brief moment, pleading for support, but he chose to look away. Instead, he directed his gaze to Darnell. ”Let's go sit down. I have to read the rest of the files Stinky sent. I could use your help, man.” He slapped Darnell on the back, and the two of them headed toward the kitchen.
Leaving Phoebe and Nina the Human Guillotine alone.
Phoebe plodded into the bedroom on reluctant feet, but she kept her head held high and her eyes on the only thing that would save her from Nina's wrath.
Wanda. Jesus and a Tiffany's box. Thank G.o.d for Wanda. She was probably the only thing between her and a beating by roped garlic.
Wanda stood by the bench under Sam's window, her eyes scanning each of the women. ”Girls, I'm going to say this once. Keep it clean. And if you want to pummel each other like nothing more than common thugs-I will hit you with my shoe. Hard. Often. With so much glee.” She rolled her hand in a forward motion. ”Carry on.” Plunking down on the bench, she crossed her legs and smoothed her skirt over her knees, giving them both a beaming smile.
Nina surprised Phoebe when she didn't instantly attack. There was no rus.h.i.+ng her this time. Instead, she let the seconds tick by with her displeasure, making Phoebe sweat.
It was like experiencing the look your mother gave you when you knew you'd gone too far, but she wasn't ready to offer the spoken words for how too far was.
Which had then, and obviously now, always made her ramble stupidly. ”Look, Nina. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know how to tell you. I was so afraid, and caught up in this mess, that as the ball got rolling, I just ... I don't know! Penny was just one more pressure to add to this huge mess. You had a lot on your plate. I didn't want to add to it. No one knew about her-not even the doctors I was seeing.”
Nina remained stone-faced, her eye trained on Phoebe with a look of such disappointment, she felt an acute sting.
Her instant reaction to her sister's stoic silence was to launch an attack. ”And you did this to me to begin with. You never would have had any reason to know about Penny if you hadn't pushed me. So this is sort of all your fault.” Ah, deflection. Welcome back to the fifth grade, Phoebe Reynolds.
Wanda clucked her tongue and shook her finger. ”Phoebe,” she said in that kindergarten teacher way she had. ”Tsk-tsk. Unfair. Yes. This was Nina's fault. Established. Every bit of information withheld after that's on you, sugarplum.”
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