Chapter Fourteen
“It’s over, isn’t it?” Rach asked hopefully.
The look the two men shared didn’t reassure her. “We’ll see,” Wyatt told her in that non-committal way she hated. He came back to the bed and slowly eased down to lie on his stomach with a soft groan. He tucked a pillow under his head.
Dieter came to her side with a bottle of liniment and a wet towel. “Remember not to rub your face while you have it on your hands. The towel is for any spills. You’ll want to wash with soap once you’re done to be sure it’s all off.”
“Yes, don’t worry, I remember. And what did you mean by we’ll see?”
“Someone hired them to grab you, Rachael. The fact we stopped the hired muscle might very well not be the end of this. It could bring about an escalation or it could shut them down hard. We won’t know until we have the name of the individual who hired them. Which means at some point we’ll have to go downstairs to talk to the others and figure out what the gods have discovered.”
“If anyone could get the name from someone it’s them, right? I mean, can’t they just read the person’s mind and find the truth?” She wanted this to be over so that she could have a lifetime with Dieter and Wyatt. She wanted to stop watching over their shoulders.
“Considering you were shot, died, and had to be brought back by Apollo, I doubt they’ll do it the easy way. On top of that, you’re being mentally tortured by Hades, so I have a feeling they’ll be getting a lot of enjoyment out of beating the answers from the survivors.”
“True. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that asshat’s shoes right now. Between Uncle Adam—shoot, Apollo—and Ares, I’m sure they’ll beg to tell everything they know just to get it all over with sooner rather than later.”
“Won’t stop those two,” Dieter told her. He sat back on the bed and passed her another damp cloth. “They’ll keep going for the sheer pleasure of being able to finally beat on someone. They can also keep them alive for an indeterminate amount of time so they’ll be up there for a time, I’m sure.”
“Oh, my gracious,” Rach whispered, eyes wide. “I don’t think I would like that. I hope that they don’t do that. I don’t want someone tortured because of me. Yes, they deserve everything that they get, but I don’t like the thought of them being tortured.”
“Don’t think of it as torture. Think of is as excessively persuasive physical therapy for the evil of the world. It’s effective, and also a stress reliever for those no longer permitted to raze the planet in anger.” Wyatt shot a look at her and then at the bottle she held. “Less talking, woman, and more of your sweet hands on my back. Gently, though, if you would.”
“Sorry,” she said with a laugh, and filled her hands with the liniment so she could begin to rub the smelly concoction on his back. “Just tell me if I rub too hard, please?”
He let out a low groan and sighed at her touch. “I’ll definitely tell you,” he said. A small smile played around his lips as she rubbed. “Damn, that feels good.” Adjusting slightly, Wyatt tucked his arms under the pillow and let out a breath.
“I’m glad.” She was rubbing from his shoulders to his ass and back up again. “How about your sides? Do you want me to rub your sides as well?” She thought Wyatt was ticklish and didn’t want to tickle him until he was ready and willing to play. After all, tickling led to him tickling her and resulted in them all getting naked. It was exquisite.
“As long as you keep the pressure steady and consistent, you can do my ribs. They definitely could use some of the liniment.” He sniffed and then sniffed again. “Do I smell food and coffee?”
“Yes, someone was making food. I’m not sure who was making what, however. Perhaps Dieter will go and get us food and bring it up here and we can eat together?” She looked at Dieter and asked, “Will you go and get us something to eat, please? When you make it back up here, I should have Wyatt’s back and sides all rubbed down.”
“Can do.” A knock on the door interrupted their chatter. Dieter brushed a hand against her cheek and moved off the bed. He pulled the door open and frowned at Owen. “What’s up?”
“Ares is back,” Owen told him quietly. “He and Apollo are both back, actually. They don’t look too happy, but they apparently have a few answers. We’re meeting in the living room so we can be comfortable given Sir Whiney’s ass problem.”
“I heard that!” Wyatt shouted from behind him.
Snickering Dieter shot a look over his shoulder. “We’ll be down in five—eh, make that ten minutes given he’s still not up to full speed yet.”
Rolling his eyes, Owen nodded before heading down the hall.
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was in the living room waiting for whatever it was that Ares and whoever else wanted to talk about. Dieter and Wyatt had insisted that she cover herself with the blanket since she refused to put on jeans and a sweatshirt; she had been comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt so she saw no reason to make herself uncomfortable. After about the fifth time of Wyatt tucking the blanket around her legs, asking if she was warm and other questions that began to bug her, she stopped him.
“Nope, the blanket is good. It’s covering all of the parts that need to be included. Thanks for asking, though,” Rach replied with a grin. “How long do you think until they’re back?” she asked with a frown. “One would think that with them able to poof in and out of places, they would be able to easily be back like right now.”
“You try doing it on a regular basis and then we’ll talk, young lady,” Ares growled when he came into the room. On his heels were Apollo and Artemis. “Good to see everyone here and in one piece.” He threw a look toward Wyatt, Rachael, and himself that seemed to take in a lot more than it should.
“Ah, well, yeah, it does rather suck to have all that power at your fingertips and whatnot. So, what were you able to come up with, Uncle Ares?”
“Not as much as I’d have liked. For the most part, they were thugs for hire. They got paid to show up, help knock the truck off the road, and then grab you. If any resistance occurred, they were authorized to shoot, but only to ensure your kidnapping went smoothly. Apparently, whoever hired them didn’t bother to mention who you’d been living with, and the fact you’re a feisty little thing. Good for us, bad for them.
“One guy seemed to know a bit more. He’d actually had a face-to-face meeting with the individual who hired him, and then he hired the others. He only had a first name—Jack. Jack met him in a restaurant with low lighting and loud music so our friend was slim on details even when we pulled his memories out. We checked out the restaurant, but there’s no surveillance on the property and not a lot elsewhere around it. But you might be able to dig something up, Owen. You seem to have a knack for it.” Ares pulled out a piece of paper and passed it to the man. “That’s all the details of the location, time, and basic description of the guy we could get out of him. One thing that apparently bugged our little leader was something Jack told him. That the closer Rach was to death, the happier his client would be. But she could not be dead. On the brink was good, fully dead not. Basically, he’d given them the option of beating you into submission during the kidnapping.”
“Great, well, I’m happy as hell they didn’t get to the whole beating-me part.” Rach looked at Owen and then to her men. “So whoever it was knew the limits of what the gods can and can’t get out of a person. They knew to make sure the lighting was dim, music loud, and so on. Damn, they’re good.”
“Not necessarily,” Mikhail said. “Spymasters have been using tricks like that for decades. The music screws up how you hear a voice, and low lighting or lighting that shifts changes how your mind sees the face. While I do agree with you on the part about knowing the gods would try to pull out memories, it’s not the first time the technique has been used.”
“He’s right,” Nolan piped up. “We were all taught the same thing when we started on the black ops. Stay to shadows, and pitch your voice differently so you can never be identified out in public. Hunching your shoulders to appear smaller or padding your clothing to appear larger is another useful tool. Hell, all you have to do is watch some of the movies out of Hollywood to see most of the techniques put into practice for an entirely different purpose. Where do you think makeup artists learned so much of their trade?”
“This is true. I guess that I hadn’t much thought about all of that before. I’m not one who lives much for spy sorts of things,” Rach told them. “But they are good. So maybe they’ve had training like what you guys have had. If they knew how to handle keeping themselves secreted away like, that it’s reasonable to think they would have served in some sort of police or military way before.”
“Or an old-school spymaster as an instructor,” Gareth said quietly. “We don’t have enough information to go on anything. For all, we know these jackasses could have done research on the net. You can find anything on there if you look hard enough. Fuck, you can buy way too many things off websites if you know where to look for them. We need to work the angle of this mystery person. No assuming it’s a man, either, Owen. We need to figure out who went in before the meet time and who left after within a wide window. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t immediately get up and leave after a meeting. It’s a surefire way to be identified or followed.”
“I’ll start with a two-hour window, and widen it if necessary,” Owen said. “Was there anything you found that might help in narrowing this down?”
“The only thing was what appeared to be a small scar at the corner of the mouth on the lower lip,” Apollo told him. “It was hard to see, and we might be reaching, but we agreed there was something there. Maybe a trick of lighting, but it seemed too consistent with the person's movements in and out of the shadows.”
“Well, that’s something, at least,” Owen muttered.
“If the person has ever been arrested and had that scar when booked, it would be in a database somewhere. It would be a defining mark, so that’s something very good. Not a lot of people have scars around their lips, right? What about earrings or those stretcher things that people put in their ears to create holes. Or even their nose or lip and so on? Jewelry, like a watch or necklace?” Rach was just tossing out suggestions.
“Nothing,” Apollo said.
Gareth leaned forward to shake his head. “It doesn’t matter. We have to work with what we know, and while it’s next to nothing, it’s all we can base our searches on. We can’t make any assumptions about this person. We go with the time, the location, and the possible thin scar on the lower lip by the corner of the mouth. That’s it. Anything else is conjecture. Stick to the facts, and we build from there. Owen, you’d better get going. Ares, you guys have to try and get more for this man.”
“We’re still working on him, and the others, but we’re kind of sure the lead guy’s the only one that might know more. We’ll get back to you with anything more as soon as we have it,” the god said as he pushed to his feet.
“What can I do in the meantime? I hate sitting on my hands like this. It’s driving me crazy not having anything to do and not being able to help. I feel as if I’m a burden to everyone.” Rach reached for Dieter’s hand.
“You are not a burden, Rachael,” Dieter said quietly. “You are a precious gift, and ours. We’ll find something to keep your hands busy for the next while. Get your minds out of the gutters all of you,” he said looking around the room. Most of the guys were checking their cuticles, or looking around aimlessly, while a couple others were whistling off key. “Fuckers.”
“If you’re up for it, you can come out with me to shoot some bottles. I’ll even put you in close enough you might hit them,” Mikhail said. “I need to put all the long-range weapons through their paces, so you might as well come help. It’ll give you something to do and might also help you understand a sniper’s state of mind regarding their weapon. We’ll bring Kasper, too, since she’ll pout if we don’t.”
“Sounds good. And I’m not a terrible shot, but I’m also not as good as you and Kas.” She gave Dieter a grin. “What about my guys? Can they come along to cheer me on? Besides, I have a handgun I’ve been working on that I need to test out, and I think one of them would be perfect for that. It’s built to withstand hand-to-hand combat without accidentally going off. I hope.”
Mikhail’s lips slowly curled into a devious smile. “I think testing it on those two is perfect. So yes, they’re welcome to come along. We’ll head out this afternoon to do some preliminary setup and see how bad a shot you really are. Or not. I have a feeling you have a natural talent that’s just waiting to be discovered.”
Ares snorted at that and shrugged. “We all know where she’d get that from.”
“Her mother?” Artemis asked with big, innocent eyes.
“We’re going to be having words, Artemis.” Shaking his head, the god ushered the other two out of the room. “We’ll stay in contact. Behave, the lot of you, and no more trips into town until we know who we’re dealing with. Especially you, young lady,” he said, pinning Rachael with a hard look.
“Don’t worry, if I want or need something from town, I know to ask someone else to go for me. I know I don’t have to worry about going, not with you guys all here and ready to do whatever I need. Same with the other women. These guys would never let them go without ensuring that they have everything they want and need as well. Right?”
“Right,” Wyatt said with a smile.
Ares grunted, continued to stare at her a moment, and then nodded. “Talk soon,” he said before spinning on a heel to stalk out of the room. They could all hear him asking Artemis what the fuck she was thinking before absolute silence announced the gods were gone.
“I’m off to the computer room,” Owen said. “Someone remember to feed me every couple of hours if you would, please.”
“I will personally bring you food,” Rach assured him. “Thank you, for everything. Everyone. Thank you for everything you are all doing to help me. To keep me safe. It means a great deal to me that you are all going out of your way to keep us all safe and happy.”
“Thanks, Rach,” Owen said. He left the room with Nolan and Stefan on his heels, the three men chatting about ways to narrow down the search for their mysterious Jack.
“You’re family, kid,” Gareth said. “We would do the same for anyone else in our family.”
“Damn straight,” Thomas told her. “We’re kind of impressive that way.”
“Modest, too, apparently,” Mik muttered. He got to his feet and stretched. “We’ll head out after lunch if you’re good with that, Rach. That way you can go have that naked swim time with your guys. Make sure you wear actual pants when we go outside, though, if you wouldn’t mind.” With a wink, he left the room whistling softly under his breath.
“Damn, that man is far too knowing,” Rach grumbled. “But he’s right. I’m ready for my naked swim with my guys. Wyatt, Dieter, you ready to take me swimming? Did you ask Owen to turn off the cameras in the pool area so we can do so without anyone else watching us?”
“We’ll mention it to him as we go past the room. Best to do it while he has no distractions. Otherwise, he might forget and then claim mental anguish and make us pay for his shrink bill.” Dieter hopped to his feet and offered a hand to pull her up. The other men were slowly filtering out of the room talking about a variety of things. “We need to grab some towels from the laundry room anyway. I seem to remember someone mentioning we were nearly out down there the other day.”
She snorted. “He wouldn’t dare claim mental anguish around me. You guys, he might, but then again, I’m sure you’ve all seen each other naked at least a time or two.”
Dieter shared a look with Wyatt. By silent agreement, they blanked their expressions. “We’re not at liberty to discuss anything of such a sensitive nature,” Wyatt said in the bored, done this a thousand times tone they’d all perfected. “If you wish to restate the question in a less leading manner, we may find it in the goodness of our hearts to give you something of a satisfactory answer.”
Rach began to laugh. “You both know there’s nothing sensitive about me talking to you boys about what you’ve seen and haven’t seen with each other. I know that you two saw each other naked, so I’m confident the others have seen you naked as well. So just give it up, babe. I’m not complaining. I think it’s fun, actually, that you guys are able to be so free with yourselves.”
“It’s a trap, Wyatt, don’t go there,” Dieter told him. He pulled her out of the room while Wyatt kept working on a reply. “Give him a break, sweetheart. He’s still working on unscrambling his poor little brain from the accident. Let’s go get ready for our swim. He might have worked out his next non-responsive answer for you to shoot down by then.”