Assassin Deception (29 page)

Deegan’s safe home was situated behind a massive iron door built into the cave. The walls to the cave formed beautiful patterns with different multicolored rocks within.

Chloe estimated the ceiling to be about twenty feet above them in most places. Different areas were sectioned off with small see-through panels, but for the most part everything was open. Deegan could watch her from almost anywhere.

There were no windows and Chloe wondered at ventilation, but could smell fresh air. Once the iron door swung shut Chloe felt her tears fall uninhibited from her cheeks. How would she ever get away?

“This is your room,” Deegan said, steering her into a huge area. This was the one room that was enclosed with another iron door sealing the entrance.

Chloe gazed about, wide-eyed. The cave walls had indeed been painted a rosy quartz pink to define the sleeping space. The bed was large and looked soft. A few stuffed animals rested on a stand nearby.

There was a washroom off to the side. The sink and toilet lay exposed and not enclosed within another room, again defined by see-through panels. Only within the tiny shower would she be offered a small measure of privacy.

Chloe stilled suddenly on a quick intake of breath. She wanted to bolt. Lying on top of her bed sat Salvare. Hesitantly, Chloe approached the doll. Her fingers closed around an arm and she pulled it to herself.

“I thought she would help you feel more at home,” Deegan explained.

“How…”

“How did I get her?” Deegan began. He chuckled. “I grabbed her first, the night you regained your sight. Sort of a trial run; she was as easy to snatch as you were. You never even knew she was gone. I hope you watch the kids better.”

Chloe remembered that night; she vaguely remembered Damien making reference to the doll, promising to retrieve her from James’ study. All along Deegan had it and they never realized? Then suddenly Chloe’s eyes narrowed at Deegan’s words. “Kids?” she questioned, swallowing hard.

“Sure, just a few,” Deegan replied. “It’ll be great.”

“How do you plan on having children?” Chloe asked, eyes scowling. She placed the doll onto the bed and faced him.

“With you of course, sweetheart,” Deegan replied, smiling widely.

“I wouldn’t let you touch me if you were the last man on earth! You really are crazy!”

Deegan had her by the throat. He had moved so quickly Chloe had never even seen it coming. His eyes glared into hers. She was almost lifted off the ground, struggling to breathe, flailing her arms.

“Don’t ever call me that! They all said it, but it wasn’t true! I witnessed a horrible tragedy when I was only a child. It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t speak. Don’t you ever be mean to me,
never be mean to me!
” Deegan raged. He shook her harder.

Chloe flailed helplessly, struggling, kicking wildly. Her fingernails dug into his arms and wrist, racking at him frantically with no response. Her eyes began to close, she couldn’t get enough air. He was killing her, crushing her neck.

She could feel her
medallion, ice cold, between the palm of his hand and her throat.
Home.
Salvator, her mind screamed desperately. She was slipping silently away now, her thoughts drifted within her mind. Misty fog began to settle within the recesses of her brain to creep cautiously forward in a rolling, surreal motion. His grip was too tight, she was powerless against him, she could take no more. Her small body stilled beneath him. Her arms went limp at her sides, her eyes rolled back into her head.

* * * *

“Chloe?” Deegan asked. His anger was quickly replaced with concern. His eyes widened in surprise, his grip loosened, and he released her onto the bed. She lay motionless and not breathing. “Chloe? What’s wrong with you?”

Panicking, Deegan tilted her head and puffed two breaths into her mouth after pinching her nostrils closed. He lay his head onto her chest, listening. Relieved, he heard her heartbeat and he once more blew into her mouth.

Chloe coughed and choked, gasping in large amounts of air. When she opened her eyes and saw Deegan poised over top of her she cried out fearfully. The sound that emerged from her burning throat was a ragged squeak. She tried to scoot back away from him, but he held her immobile.

“There, you see,” Deegan said, smiling down on her. He brushed her hair from her wild, terrified eyes.

Carefully he settled her head into his lap cuddling her to him. He lifted one of her slender hands to his cheek, feeling the softness of her fingers as they trailed across his roughened face. “I will take good care of you, haven’t I already proven that? Once again I’ve saved your life. You are safe with me, Chloe.”

* * * *

Too terrified to speak, Chloe’s throat throbbed horrendously. She took tiny labored breaths. She remained perfectly still while Deegan smiled down on her with obvious delight, thinking himself once more her hero. The man hovering over her wasn’t right in the head, there was no doubt in her mind. He hadn’t been speaking of a twin; Deegan
and Trevor were one and the same.
Oh my God!
What could be more lethal than an insane assassin?

Chapter Nineteen

“Deegan?” Chloe asked hesitantly, still somewhat confused. “Who is Trevor?”

Once more Chloe had spent a fitful night locked within a room as an unwilling captive of another, though she doubted Deegan would be as careful with her as Mitch had been. Undoubtedly Deegan didn’t fear Dirk’s wrath.

Deegan had left her shortly after he had revived her, claiming it was time for dinner. He had never returned that evening. Chloe had grown more fearful throughout the night. She wondered if he had left her to die, or if he would suddenly storm in and kill her.

When she had succumbed to her exhaustion in the early hours of the morning, wrapped in a tight ball in a thick comforter against the shivering chill of her tense, highly strung emotions, she awoke fearfully to Deegan sitting beside her on the bed.

His fierce eyes were leveled onto her and she cowered back into the pillows, whimpering for him not to hurt her. Her throat was bruised, her words were tiny, weak, and her splayed hands shook.

At once his expression changed dramatically and he smiled when he told her to shower and dress for breakfast.

“Pancakes!” Deegan declared excitedly. With flourish he placed a large plate in front of her, splashing a generous amount of maple syrup onto them, with strawberries and whipped cream. A steamy mug of black coffee followed with cream and sugar.

He sat down beside her and shoved a huge fork full of food into his mouth. He chewed lazily for a while, studying her. “I hope you like my cooking, I hear yours is to die for,” he said, and chuckled outrageously at the lame joke.

“I did not kill Mitch,” Chloe replied. She had yet to take a bite of her repast.

“Man, you should have seen the look on his face when I walked through the door. Obviously Dirk had found out I was somehow involved in James' death and got word to him. Can’t imagine how he knew, though.

“Poor guy went for his gun, the one that you took, then he went to stand up, couldn’t do that either. He really was pathetic, flopping about like a fish out of water. Finally he just lay groaning on the couch.

“It would have been a merciful act to take him out, but I feel for the guy. His wife is something else, one hundred and ten pounds of mouth, the mother of all shrews…never stops! I did you a favor, you know, knocking him unconscious before you came back. He wants to kill you, can’t say I blame him. But if you don’t mind, I’ll be doing all the food preparations.”

“I’m not hungry,” Chloe said, hanging her head.

“You’ll eat when you’re ready. Though you should be grateful I’m feeding you. Deegan wouldn’t like it,” he replied, then shifted uncomfortably with the admission.

Chloe’s ears perked at that information. “Why wouldn’t Deegan like it?”

“I never got pancakes,” he answered.

“When didn’t you get pancakes?” Chloe asked. She eyed him steadily. His head was somewhat bowed, his eyes downcast as though reliving some type of sad experience. Then just as suddenly he perked up and seemed to change.

“We can watch TV, you know,” Deegan replied instead, his chest puffing with pride. “I’ve piled up a great selection of movies, even classics chicks like.”

“Deegan, why didn’t James ever figure out who you are?” Chloe asked. She knew beyond doubt all of his men were screened intensely. James should have caught on to this man. He wasn’t right in the head; James should have seen it.

Deegan looked at her with a calculating smile. “James sent this nice shrink to save me from myself. You can’t imagine the manipulating skills you can acquire from a good shrink. James, the dirty bastard, sent us to this place out of the way…beyond out of the way, to keep us quiet, to protect your father and his precious Damien and Dirk.

“Mom died eventually. They weren’t mean to her or nothing, she was just so sad after Dad died she couldn’t take it anymore, the loneliness. Her son was a vegetable, poor little guy couldn’t speak for the longest time, pitiful, really, and heartbreaking.

“The shrink was a decent sort for the most part, at least in the beginning, intrigued with the kid. Fed him all sorts of power-boosting crud mixed with vitamins, because he was so small for his age and didn’t want to eat. He finally hypnotized Trevor and told him he was Deegan. The man who was killed was Trevor’s dad, not Deegan’s. Deegan never saw the man murdered, it was more like a bad dream. I could speak after that.”

Chloe was studying him. A split personality? But they seemed to be aware of one another. Referring to each other in past tense and the present. As though they were one in the same and not exactly separate entities. How could that be possible?

“I’m not insane, Chloe, I assure you,” Deegan began. “The only way I could cope with my dad’s death was to invent Deegan, only he stopped being an invention. He developed emotions and thoughts. Trevor and I are the same, but different. Trevor has the anger, but I kill for him; he isn’t nearly strong enough. Trevor is the trapped child. I’m the man who looks out after him.

“It’s a perfect arrangement, really. Trevor is given the power back through me. It was hard at first until we decided where each of us fit. It took a long time for me to coax him back and console him.

“The doctor really did a number on the poor kid. I had to look for him after a while. I could always hear his crying, just about drove me nutty. Sometimes when I heard him cry the tears would drip from my face. I had to stop that. Hardened assassins really shouldn’t be blubbering like babies. But we got through it.

“It’s like having two heads on one body, Siamese twins, only separated by thoughts…though we hear each other's.

“By then the shrink was getting nervous and we were getting bigger, a lot bigger. We’d outgrown him substantially by the time we hit sixteen, or maybe even before that.

“Two heads are definitely better than one. When one of us was at a loss the other knew exactly what to do. We came up with the perfect plan. I’m sure you can imagine the doctor’s surprise when I killed him; he was my first. I took his identity, then killed him, me, off again in a staged accident, becoming Deegan for good.

“No one knew about Deegan. The doctor had told James that Trevor never spoke again, then later said he’d died altogether. It wasn’t for me really, he did it because I was his little lab rat. I made my own identity. It was surprisingly easy. The doctor had done the leg work to stage Trevor’s death. I simply stepped into a new role. I was able to infiltrate James’ stronghold by garnering a reputation for myself.”

Chloe could see Deegan’s agitation rising. “Is that why you killed him, the doctor, because he used you?” she asked with trepidation. The man before her was a ticking time bomb; she could feel his anger radiating from him. Although she felt certain pity for the trapped boy he had been, it still didn’t garner him sympathy for the man who had almost killed James and kidnapped her.