Special Agent Maximilian (4 page)

“Stop crying, Kanya. No one has heard your sorrow except those of us who are locked in here with you. Nobody will come. We are doomed.”

“Yes, please have mercy and stop those incessant tears. They haven’t helped us, and neither has the screaming for help. You’re just driving the rest of us crazy.”

Kanya whipped around to the complainers, her temper flaring. “Can’t you understand? I don’t want to be here. Father and Mother will be frantic, my grandmother is old and my disappearance will kill her. How can I live with that on my conscience?”

In the dim lighting, Malee, the oldest girl of the group, crawled to Kanya and took her hands. “Please my friend, don’t blame yourself. This is not your fault. We’ve all been kidnapped against our will.”

Solada, the youngest at thirteen and the prettiest of the girls, spoke up for the first time in twenty-four hours. “Malee, what will happen to us? We know we’re on board a ship and it’s been sailing for two days—”

“No, no, Solada. We were drugged. Who knows how many days they kept us here before we regained consciousness? We could have been traveling for a week or more—” Tears were still noticeable in Kanya’s voice.

Malee cut in, not wanting to alarm the fifteen girls who were sprawled around the floor on bare mattresses. She was the undisputed leader, not only because she was the oldest at sixteen, but also because she was sensible and strong and her caring attitude made the girls feel protected. Because of this, they allowed her to distribute the food and water and, most importantly, whenever one of them lost control, the hugs. That had frequently happened in the beginning. But not so much now.

Most of the shattered, weary girls just wanted to get out of their stinking, dark, container-prison and face whatever was waiting for them at the end of their horrific journey.

Except they had no idea what to expect, but Malee did. She’d heard the rumors about other missing girls in her village. How they’d been forced into prostitution. Or made to do hard labor for families who kept them prisoner. Her brothers had warned her not to be alone on the streets.

If only she’d listened…

Because of his disappearing stunt, Nik knew he’d be in trouble with Maya the next time he saw her, but he had some hard thinking to do. And he couldn’t do it when her green eyes were scrutinizing him, demanding the truth. He’d never known anyone else who had the ability to drill a message in with their eyes, but those emerald sparklers held such power; they messaged,
don’t even think of bullshitting–just don’t
.

Not a born liar, telling fibs didn’t come easy for Nik. Hell, he’d never
had
to lie before; that skill wasn’t in his makeup. His old man hadn’t cared enough about what he did, so lying to him hadn’t been in the cards. And once he’d left the Bastard behind, he’d been his own man. Even during his SFT—special forces training—and all through his deployments overseas, he’d been straight-up, a man who stood by his word, a strong believer in a certain type of conduct.

After living with a phony scumbag for the first part of his life, his fear that those genes would appear in him had kept him rigid in his personal rules of behavior. Which could be why his men had so much respect for Lieutenant Commander Baudin, that they followed him anywhere—some to their death. And it was also the reason Nik had state-sided himself. He couldn’t trust his reactions any longer. They were skewed now, abused by the PSTD that plagued him mercilessly.

Acting the part of someone else—an estranged brother he never knew—would be a huge feat for him. Except that he’d made a promise and he knew he’d procrastinated long enough. Becoming comfortable with all the lies that would entail was leaving him anxious and unsettled, but the time had come.

The deal Max had talked him into wasn’t going to go away. He knew it. They’d agreed he’d get a lot more information from inside the FBI field office than on the street. And the only way to do that would be as Special Agent Maximilian. Making up his mind, he figured he’d visit Nellie the next day—he still couldn’t get used to thinking of her as his mom—to find out more about his brother’s history.

As he passed O’Reilly’s, a fun bar, he decided he’d better grab some dinner rather going to bed hungry. Feeling comfortable in the air-conditioned bar, he found an empty spot in a booth and ordered a Guinness.

He checked his surroundings and enjoyed examining the old wooden bar, an array of glasses and liquor bottles highlighted by the huge mirrored wall and the hundreds of unusual mugs hanging from the ceiling. Cool yet quaint–a real tourist draw.

The heat had become brutal over the last few weeks and Nik enjoyed the coolness inside. Just as he received his big platter of Irish stew, a commotion from the street caught his attention. A short dude had pranced—no other word for it—past a group of drunks and they’d stopped him. Riled up with liquor and bad behavior, they started pushing him around, playing with him like he was a ball they could throw from one person to the next, only to be roughly shoved once again.

Hell, even if the victim wanted to defend himself, the twisted idiots were making it impossible with their relentless rowdiness. Not liking this crap, Nik began to head out the door, to get involved and put an end to the nonsense. By now, the revelers were having so much fun that they’d accelerated their rough playfulness to assault. Losing whatever common sense they possessed, their teasing had turned vicious and fists and feet were their weapons now.

Within a few minutes, Nik had taken control. Hard shoves to scatter the majority, a powerful backhand to the idiot who didn’t want to end his fun, and a threat of calling the cops ended the confrontation. By this time, the poor sucker, who never knew what had hit him, lay in a pool of blood, cuts on the back of his head making most of the mess.

Nik picked him up and hauled his ass into the restroom at the bar, letting the waiter know not to touch his plate. “No problem, sir. I can warm it up for you when you’re ready. Be glad to. And a fresh glass of beer will be waiting for you. Man… I never saw anyone move that fast.” The white-shirted, apron-clad fellow shook his head and rushed over to the bar where the rest of the customers were recounting the happenings they’d witnessed through the bar window.

Nik supported the shorter guy, his own six-feet-three-inches towering over the now recovering victim. “Hey, quit trying to hit me. I’m the one who stopped the others. Come on now, settle down.” Wrapping his arms around the smaller man soon stopped the nonsense. “Calm down. You’re safe now. They’re gone.”

“Where am I?”

“In the restroom of O’Reilly’s. It was the closest place.”

“Sure, n’ I know what you’ve got on your mind and the answer is…hell no!”

In a flash, Nik dropped his arms and let the other guy fall to the floor. “Are you fucking kidding me? Man, I just saved your life.”

“Which doesn’t give you the right to think I’ll repay you with my body.” Scurrying on his knees in retreat, the bleeder finally hauled himself up using a sink as leverage.

“Your body? Repay…
Repay
? What the hell are you talking about? I don’t want anything from you—certainly not your skinny a—! Jesus, some people are nuts!”

Nik backed off, his hands out in front as if warding off a scary image. He grunted and delivered a few more mumbled curses before he stormed from the room, heading back to his table where the steaming platter and admiring glances awaited.

Shaking his head, he was astounded that he hadn’t lost it altogether in the bathroom with that freak. Imagine! The little twerp thinking he was after payback. Unbelievable!
Crazy people…

“I’m sorry, man. I get all kinds of—”

Interrupting the apology from the long-faced idiot, Nik growled, “Get away from me.”

“Hey, I wanted to thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now fuck off.”

“Well, you don’t have to be like that about it. It was an honest mistake.”

Nik glared at his follower and, for the first time, noticed the dude’s outfit: skin-tight jeans—the one style of today that he couldn’t stand—topped with a short-sleeved silky white shirt buttoned half way to show off a tattooed chest that was surprisingly muscular.The younger man’s blond hair was too well kept to be natural, especially after the ruckus he’d just endured, and Nik thought he could smell the faint odor of a hair product, like the kind he’d noticed on some women.

The waiter approached, holding out a wet, white towel and a purse-like shoulder bag and handed them to Nik’s pest. “I think this is yours, sir. I remembered seeing you carrying it before those wackos attacked you.”

“Thanks, man. How sweet! I totally forgot about it.”

“No wonder. Those animals were vicious. I’m glad I noticed it.”

“Me too.”

The waiter passed over the white cloth. “And this will come in handy to clean off the blood.”

Taking the rag, the nuisance swiped it over the back of his head, down his chest and over the arm where dried blood still appeared. “I’m just
so
upset at having to deal with, first, being violently attacked, and then making a huge error in judgment and accusing this hero of a—”

“Look, could you hold this love fest anywhere else but here. I’m trying to eat in peace and you two are putting me off my food.”

“No problem, sir. How about I bring this poor fellow a bowl of stew, on the house, of course, and he can thank you properly?” With a suggestive wink at Nik’s nemesis, the waiter rushed to the kitchen.

“Hey, come back here!” Nik yelled in the direction of the departing employee and swore when he didn’t get any attention. Next he turned his fixed stare onto the annoyance, who was making free with the other side of Nik’s booth. “Go away.” Nik’s tone brooked no rebuttal. And his accompanying glare would have sent every one of his men fleeing in all directions.

However, it had no effect on the intruder. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just stay here with you in case those horrible brutes are waiting outside to finish me off. I don’t know why some people feel that pounding the bejesus out of a poor fellow minding his own business seems acceptable. You were the only person who stepped forward to help me.”

“Hell, I’m sorry I bothered. Look how you repaid me, accusing me of… Bah! I’m outta here.” Nik shot to his feet and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. Dropping a couple of twenties on the table, he headed for the door.

Before he could make his escape, the annoyance whipped in front of him and held up the money. “Your dinner is on me. Please. I’d like to show my appreciation.”

“No.” Nik did an about-turn and headed up the street in the opposite direction, thinking to lose his shadow. Not so easy when the other person acted like a large dab of crazy glue. “For chrissake, leave me alone, will you? Go home.”

“I can’t.”

Fed up, Nik turned on the smaller man and shoved him against the wall. His eyes shooting lasers into the widened brown eyes of the other, he gritted his teeth, took a huge breath and asked the question he knew he shouldn’t. “Why the
hell
not?”

“They kicked me out. Kept all my stuff. I managed to take my bag with me, but they’ve stolen everything else.”

Nik’s chin dropped to his chest. He inhaled a huge breath to calm his raging temper. Finally, he spoke—slowly, enunciating each word carefully. “Then
go to the police
.”

“I can’t.”

That did it! Feeling like he was talking to a babbling idiot, Nik lost it and yelled. “Why the fuck not?”

“Because it was the police that took my stuff.”

Maya finally broke down and did something she’d sworn never to do again: she went to Max’s house. The last time she’d approached Max’s mother, Nellie, about his disappearance, it had been a disaster. The woman had shrieked, slid to the floor and left Maya feeling terrible for having shaken her world to such a degree that she’d collapsed.

Not wanting to put the nice lady through another incident like the last time, she’d purposely stayed away. Hell, until they found a body, they had no evidence Max was dead. Surmising anything at this point could drive a person crazy. He could have decided to take off; that was not likely, but without proof of wrongdoing, other than filing a missing persons report, his disappearance had languished under more critical and current cases. Sadly, there was never a shortage of those.

On her own, Maya had continued with the search to find her missing partner with zilch to show for all her efforts. It was like he’d disappeared into thin air. His apartment had been left in its normal state—bed slept in and unmade, his personal gear spread everywhere, and the contents of his fridge, consisting of orange juice, oranges, beer and white wine… oh, and a few condiments, looked normal. Seems like her partner had a fetish for vitamin C and alcohol.

His stylish suits, of which he had many, were all arranged on one side of the walk-in closet while the casual wear took up a smaller opposite space. Also, his personal paraphernalia like razor and toothpaste, hair gel, and dryer were still scattered around the bathroom, just as they should have been for a person without any plans of leaving. Truthfully, it had looked like the man had left for work and just never returned.

Approaching the front door of one the prettiest homes she’d ever been in, Maya swallowed and reached for the bell. Before it could ring, the door swung open and Nellie appeared, hopeful smile in place, her astonishing blue eyes shining.

“You’ve found my Max? Maya, tell me you’ve had some news. He’s not dead. I’d know.”

Fearful of Nellie’s reactions, Maya reached out her arms before admitting that they hadn’t heard a thing. When the older woman began swaying, Maya stepped into place to catch her and it was a good thing she did. Nellie’s instability increased and her knees gave way.

Maya held her upright and guided her to the plush porch swing before she went down fully. “Here, Mrs. Foster. Sit here and take a deep breath. You might like to put your head down between your knees for a few minutes.”

With her arm, Nellie wiped away the moisture pooling on her forehead. “Don’t patronize me, young lady. If there was any way I could stop this ridiculous habit of fainting, I would do so in a heartbeat. But, due to an earlier injury, it’s not something I can help. Bear with me for a few seconds, let me catch my breath and I’ll be fine.”

“I was worried my appearance would upset you, and I was right. I’m so sorry. But I need to ask you a few more questions about Max.”

“No, I haven’t heard from him in weeks and no, I don’t know where he is. The last time I saw him, he brought his brother home and introduced me to a son I thought long dead.”

Whoa! That must have put you on the floor!
Not saying her thoughts out loud didn’t stop a fleeting grin before Maya could wipe it off. However, the canny woman saw it and nodded.

“I was out cold for longer than a few minutes, I can tell you. I remember coming to and looking at a man who wasn’t Max, yet was his double. I didn’t want to wake up in case I’d dreamt the image. You don’t seem surprised by my announcement?”

“I’m not. I’ll tell you why, but you go first.”

Nellie seemed lost in a world of her own, so Maya leaned forward to pat her hand and prompt. “You saw the stranger too? Max’s lookalike?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Except he isn’t Max’s lookalike, he’s Max’s identical twin brother, Nik Baudin. When they were babies, people—except for me that is—couldn’t tell them apart. Other than different clothes and haircuts, it’s still the same today. They’re identical down to that one dimple on the right cheek.”

“I don’t understand? How come Nik doesn’t live with you and Max?”

Nellie pointed at the other side of the swing and reached over to the nearby table. She produced two beautifully-painted fans and passed one to Maya to ward off the debilitating heat. Once comfortable, both women leaned back against the light-colored seating, pushed the swing with their feet and fanned the air.

Nellie seemed to be gathering her thoughts. Finally, she began. “Nik wasn’t with me because I had been told he was dead. You see, Max and I were fleeing from an abusive situation with my ex-husband while Nik was being cared for in the hospital where the Bastard had put him.”

“Hold it! You mean your ex physically abused him? How old was Nik?”

“The boys had just turned two.” Nellie proceeded to share the circumstances of her escape from one form of imprisonment to the next. “So we ended up here. Since I was completely devastated by Nik’s ‘so-called’ death, and we had nowhere else to go, we came here to live in New Orleans with my sister and her husband. Another bastard who’d obviously lied to me, and who is probably in hell chuckling with the devil.”

“You weren’t happy here?”

“Not at all. I tried to make things the best I could for my boy. But as their personal slaves, they made me—and Max as he got older—pay for our keep. Ha! In the end, we won. Max escaped as soon as he’d finished basic training and was accepted into the FBI. Then, first Ed, and eventually my sister Vi died and I inherited the property.”

“And you never remarried?”

“Are you kidding? I didn’t trust my judgment and would never take the chance of making another mistake like the first. In fact, I hated Max’s father so much for killing my other son that, after my divorce, I reverted to my maiden name and had Nik’s changed legally too. I wanted nothing to remind me of the animal I had married.”

“It must have been a shock to find that Nik hadn’t died. Is he here with you now?”

“No. That’s just it. He came that day with Max and then left, promising me he’d return as soon as he’d sorted out some personal stuff. I haven’t seen him since. I’d hoped you might have some word about either of my boys.”

“All I can tell you is that Nik is fine. I saw him yesterday in the market and he seemed well. My problem was that I thought he was Max, and I was furious with him for disappearing.”

“Oh, he’s nothing like Max. He’s hard and bitter, has a lot of ghosts, just like his mom.”

Maya giggled. She couldn’t help herself. Turning to the petite, gentle, ladylike person sitting next to her, she admitted to being shocked. “You? Hard? I can see bitter perhaps, but I would never have described you as hard.”

“Aha! But then you don’t know what living with the Bastard could do to a person. I got away. Nik had to hang on for another fourteen years before running.”

“You mean he ran away at sixteen?” Now Maya was shocked.

“Yes. After putting his father in the hospital. When he told me that part, I laughed, felt happier than I had in a long, long time. Payback is sweet, even if I wasn’t there. So you see, he is my son.”

“And you don’t know where he is now?”

“Actually, I do. He’s coming up the street. And a very strange-looking person seems to be following him.”