CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
I came to, I knew Roger and I were in some serious trouble. I looked over and saw him lying next to me, re-bound and gagged, and it looked like he was in pain. I raised an eyebrow and he tipped his head toward the front of the cabin.
Whoever had done this to us was still on board, and I could hear him moving around outside. It sounded like he was readying the boat to leave the dock, but since I couldn't see anything, I couldn't be sure. The back of my head ached from the blow, and my arms and legs felt cold where the ropes had cut off the circulation. I started to feel the panic rising in my chest, but I quickly calmed myself by remembering all the times that Teddy had locked me in small spaces when we were kids. I had become a regular Houdini out of necessity.
I focused on dipping my head and slowly moving the gag out of my mouth. I needed to be able to talk to Roger and then yell for help when the time came. I made quick work of the gag and then turned my attention to the ropes around my wrists. Whoever had bound me had excellent training in rope tying. I knew this because the summer after Teddy had gone to Boy Scout camp was the roughest one, as I learned to undo the expert knots they'd taught him.
"Roger, do you know this person?" I whispered as I worked the knots. He shook his head. "Have you seen him?"
Roger nodded emphatically and then shook his head as he tried to speak through the gag, but whoever had tied it had made sure that his tongue was immobile, and that rendered his speech utterly useless.
"No, you don't know him?" I asked breaking down the question into answerable parts. Roger shook his head. "Does he know you?" Another head shake. "Have you ever seen him before?" Head shake, this time more emphatic as Roger continued to try and speak. "Hold on, hold on, I've almost got this undone," I said as I bit down on my lip and pushed the knot against a loose floorboard. That little bit of pressure was enough to loosen it so that my fingers could work it apart. It was tediously hard work, but I was afraid that if I didn't focus on getting us out of here, we were going to wind up on a ship out at sea.
I quickly undid the knot and then reached over and untied Roger’s gag.
“It’s not a man,” he blurted out. “It’s a woman. Young. Tall. Dark hair. She’s mad about something, but I don’t know what. I tried to talk to her and that’s when she knocked me out.”
“Roger, who the hell is she?” I whispered as I worked the knots around his hands before turning back to the ropes around my ankles.
“I’ll tell you who the hell she is,” a voice on the other side of the cabin said. “She’s a woman who is sick and tired of getting the short end of the stick.”
“Uh, hi,” I said, not sure how to approach the situation with a stranger who’d knocked me out and tied me up. “I’m Brooke, this is Roger.”
“I know who the fuck you are,” she said as she moved across the floor and stood over us.
“Riza?” I said in disbelief. “You’re Dax’s right-hand, aren’t you? You came to see me in my office.”
“Yeah, I was and I did,” she nodded as she looked down at Roger and me. I got the distinct feeling that we were being sized up, and that whatever she decided in that moment would determine how this whole situation played out. All the better to keep talking, I thought.
“Why did you tie us up?” I asked.
“Because I’m sick and tired of being the one who does the dirty work and never gets the credit,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’ve played second fiddle to Dax for most of my life, and I’m fed up. I’ve protected him and kept all the bad stuff at bay, and he’s never once thought about anyone but himself.”
“And you’re angry with him,” I said.
“Damn right I’m angry,” she scoffed, then as an afterthought, added, “You might not want to undo those ropes.”
“Why is that, Riza?” I asked.
“Because if you try to escape, I might have to shoot you,” she shrugged in a way that made me realize she might not be acting rationally. I had assumed that she knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it, but as I watched her, I wondered if she’d experienced a break with reality and was now living in some alternate world where her sense of justice made sense.
“Riza, why would you want to shoot two people you don’t know?” I asked. I didn’t want to provoke her, but I needed to know what we were dealing with so that I could figure out a way out of here. Roger sure as hell wasn’t going to do it, since he was still wrestling with the knots around his ankles and looked like he might fall over at any moment. “Tell me why you’d want to shoot me and Roger.”
“Because you’re going to destroy everything my father spent his life building,” she said as if I knew exactly what she was talking about. “You, or people like you, killed my father.”
“Riza, how could we kill your father? We’re lawyers who are trying to help Dax,” I said.
“Fuck him,” she said as she stooped down and opened a lower cabinet and started moving things around. “Fuck them all. I’m sick of being their go-to girl who does everything for them.”
“Who’s them, Riza?” I asked. My brain was spinning as I tried to figure out how I was going to get Roger and myself out onto the deck. It was the only way we were going to be seen or saved, but I couldn’t move fast or she’d suspect what I was doing and might decide we weren’t worth the risk.
“All of them,” she said waving an arm across her body to indicate everyone. “I’m sick of it, you know? Don’t you ever feel that way with this idiot?” She pointed at Roger and I took a deep breath and hoped he would forgive me for what I was about to do. If I saved us from being shot, I was pretty sure he would.
“Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” I said rolling my eyes and then shooting Roger a hard look that said shut the hell up in any language. “They’re always making me do stuff that they think is beneath them. I get sick of it, too. That’s why I decided we were taking Dax’s case.”
“You decided that?” she said popping up from behind the cabinet to look at me. “You made that decision?”
“Yep, sure did,” I nodded. “I told them that they had to stop dicking around and get serious about our clients or we’d never make it.”
“And, how’d that go over?” she asked.
“About as well as you might guess,” I shrugged. I felt the knots around my ankles loosen and I knew that I was closer to being free. I looked at Roger and hoped that he understood I was providing cover so that he could keep working on his own ropes. He nodded slightly and I inhaled deeply, knowing he understood what I was doing.
“What made them listen to you?” she asked.
“I just told them my plan, laid out the map for how we were going to handle everything, and then said they had a choice,” I said. “They could get on board or walk out the door, either way, I was taking the case.”
“That’s pretty ballsy,” she said.
“Yeah, well, sometimes you just have to grab the bull by the horns and ride,” I replied.
“Too bad your story is total bullshit,” Riza said as she rose up from behind the cabinet pointing a loaded automatic rifle at us. My heart dropped into my stomach and I scolded myself for having been arrogant in assuming that she and I were on the same page.
Riza and I were definitely not on the same page. Not at all.