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Echo stood on the street corner, scanning the horizon expectantly. Wu had messaged that he was only a few minutes away, but she was concerned what her neighbors might think, seeing her hanging around on the corner like a common prostitute. It was a common sight in the city, but out in the ‘burbs, along the rows of imposing mansions and sprawling estates, not so much. Even the cruelest of men made sure their paid sexual companions received discreet rides back to wherever, so as not to draw too much attention and start scandalous rumors.
Or they tried, at any rate. It was why she was anxious for her ride to arrive.
The black SUV finally crested the sloping hill and Echo breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god.” She muttered as the vehicle pulled up alongside the curb. Opening the door, she climbed into the passenger seat, spying Andre and Budd in the back as she closed the door behind her with a gentle click. Wu really hated it when people slammed car doors.
“We all good?” Echo asked, situating herself and buckling her seatbelt.
“Yeah, we’re good. I told Zoey I had some stupid school thing going on with the kids. That should buy me a few hours.”
“Is it just me or does using your kids as an excuse seem like a dirty tactic?” Andre said.
Wu levered a glare over his shoulder. “Says the man who claimed to have a pressing booty call.” He shifted the SUV into gear, disabling the self-driving feature so he could operate it manually. Self-driving required a route and they weren’t going anywhere in particular.
“Thought it would be less suspicious than saying I had a hair appointment to keep.” Andre waved a contemptuous hand over his bald head.
Budd shook his head, questioning (not for the first time) why he chose to surround himself with idiots. “I believe the point he’s trying to make is that we’re in the clear,” He cut in with a placating tone, “no one suspects anything and we have time to burn before anyone gets the inkling to start being suspicious.”
“Good. Because I still don’t have the faintest idea how we’re gonna solve this one.” Echo reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a hair tie. It was a nervous gesture, something to occupy her hands and her thoughts for a few seconds, but she rationalized to herself that getting the weight of her hair off her shoulders would allow her to focus a little more on the task at hand. “Or rather, how we’re gonna solve this without shedding blood.” She said, leaning back in her seat with a morose sigh.
“Pfft. Whose blood would that be, cause I kinda feel like the kids stuck between mom and dad during a divorce, y’know? Whose side do we take?” Andre asked.
“Will’s.” Wu, Echo, and Budd responded in unison.
Andre glanced around, a little creeped out by their accidental synchronicity, before nodding his head in agreement. “Yeah, I know, but I’d still feel bad killing Zoey.”
“Jesus, Andre!” Wu exclaimed. “We’re not killing Zoey! There’s a whole damn world of difference between shedding blood and killing a person!”
“Oh. My bad...” He at least had the good decency to appear shamefaced at even suggesting it. Before Budd could do it for him, Andre smacked his own hand upside the back of his head, not as hard as Budd would have but with enough force to show everyone he regretted his words. "Idiot." He said, mimicking Budd's drawl.
They rode in silence for a while, Wu driving them from one neighborhood to the next, though the scenery outside didn’t change much. Imposing mansions, immaculate lawns, and heavily armed security standing watch outside the gates to said imposing mansions.
Budd dragged two fingers over a bushy eyebrow in a contemplative motion. “Did anyone ever figure out how to make that mind-wiping tech a reality?” He asked. It had been years and years ago, something Arthur had mentioned offhand at one event or another, but sometimes that’s how long it took some R&D companies to churn out newfangled inventions. “Was that even us, or was it the Chinese?”
“The Russians.” Echo answered. “And no. The only way we’re wiping anyone’s memory is with a good ol’ fashioned lobotomy.” She clapped the flat of one hand over her closed fist, miming tapping a chisel into an imaginary eye socket.
Despite the grotesque imagery, Andre chuckled softly. “A lobotomy might make Will a bit more personable...”
Echo outright ignored the quip, lolling her head to the side to look over the center console at Wu. “Please tell me you’ve come up with something better than that.”
Shaking his head, Wu shrugged his shoulders. “Not really. I mean, either way you slice, it’s still a mess. We kill what’s his face and-”
“Hey! I thought you said no killing!” Andre said.
“-and it still doesn’t solve the actual problem.” Wu continued over Andre’s protests. “Not unless you magically whipped up a time machine we could use.”
“No mind erasing tech and definitely no time machines. Because if I did, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.” Echo slumped down even further in her seat. “Has anyone considered that there might not be anything we can do to solve this one? It might genuinely be out of our hands. And last I checked, it wasn’t in our job description.”
Budd nipped that thought right in the bud. “Oh, no you don’t, that’s quitter talk and I’ll be goddamned if I’m gonna take one more minute of this bullshit without doing something. It’s throwing everyone off their game. We just gotta... really put our heads together. Even if it means being stuck in this fuckin’ rolling death-box for hours until we do.”
There was no way of knowing who had the idea first but Echo reared up, grasping the headrest of her seat to yank herself around as Andre and Budd leaned forward excitedly, their eyes blown wide.
“We could-”
“How would we-”
“Come on, how many times have we-”
“Literally buttloads, but this isn’t some two-bit chump, it’s-”
“Which means it’ll be next to goddamn impossible-”
Wu tried to keep his eyes on the road while also attempting to keep up with their conversation, cursing the shorthand the three of them had developed over years of working together. It would be impressive, if it weren’t currently so aggravating. “What the hell are you talking about?” He asked, taking a second to glance back at Andre.
“Black bag ‘em.” Budd replied, as if it were obvious.
A second turned into several more as Wu stared at their reflections in the rearview mirror, horror dawning on his face. “The fuck?!” He quickly tore his eyes away, putting them back on the road before he crashed the SUV.
Budd furrowed his brows together, mulling over the beginnings over their plan for a long moment. “Where would we even take ‘em?”
Echo violently rolled her eyes. “How long have you lived in this city? I can count on both hands and feet the number of abandoned buildings at our disposal and would still need yours and Andre’s to keep going. We basically have free reign, so wherever the hell we want to take them.”
He couldn’t argue with that logic. The one downside to total capitalism was once someone cornered the market in something, the competitors usually didn’t last long against the monopoly that had been built. They really were spoiled for choice on abandoned real estate. “You really think we could pull it off?” Budd asked. “Remember who we’re talking about. This goes wrong and... it could get ugly. Like, permanently maimed and disfigured ugly.”
“It won’t go wrong. It’s four of us and only one of him.” Echo paused at that. “Okay, so the odds aren’t great but I think we could pull it off... with lots of planning.”
“Is it too premature to say it was nice working with you all?” Wu asked seriously.
Will exited out the garage door with purposeful steps, his long stride taking him past the flashier cars in his lineup to the sleek yet understated sedan at the very end. He wasn’t feeling particularly ostentatious and supposed that driving something that matched his mood would complete what he dubbed his mourning attire: a pitch black suit with a matching black shirt and tie. Even his cufflinks and tie-tack had been curated to match, the black tourmaline gemstones gleaming in the overhead lighting. If he felt like Death incarnate, then he was certainly going to look like it, too.
The car beeped softly as he approached, the fob unlocking the doors from his pocket. Will never quite understood proximity locks, as it just made people fodder for carjackers, waiting until the target had approached their vehicles to jump them and force them inside, but the manufacturers kept building them that way, so until they came to him for his advice (paid, naturally, never doing anything for free if you excelled at it), he just made certain to keep his wits about him when he was in the city. Not that anyone ever dared bother him, but still.
Will grabbed the door handle and in the reflection of the window, he saw a shadow barreling toward him. The movement jarred him from his musings on the exact subject, but just as Will turned to jam an elbow into his attacker’s face, the lights went out.
His swing made contact somewhere, but instead of a howl of pain, he received only a muted grunt. Hands grabbed for him but he deftly avoided them. Will had fought his fair share of battles with nothing more than a sliver of moonlight to guide his movements, and his instincts had him dropping into a low crouch, bracing himself with one hand splayed out on the concrete. He quieted his breathing, closing his eyes to focus on the sounds around him.
“I can hear...” Will tipped his head to the side, considering his surroundings. They were on his turf and he knew it like the back of his hand, giving him the clear advantage. “The both of you moving around. One near me, the other by the door...” He crept back carefully on the balls of his feet, wanting to move so his voice didn’t give away his position. “I suppose there’s no hope of solving this amicably, before you do something truly regrettable.”
His years of training, physical prowess, and home field advantage did nothing, however, to prevent the surprise blow that took his legs out from underneath him. Will tumbled to the floor, though thankfully, it wasn’t too far a drop since he’d had the foresight to take a defensive position. He managed to roll, falling on his shoulder to keep from smashing his face into the floor. There was a quiet scraping noise from beside him.
Someone had squeezed themselves under the chassis of the car, lashing out with a metal bar or heavy nightstick, some kind of blunt instrument meant to incapacitate, not kill. That boded well for him, at least in the short term. Will tried pushing himself back up, to avoid a second blow. The karate chop that landed across the back of his neck, however, knocked the sense clean out of him, giving his attackers enough time to push him down, pinning him to the ground to throw a bag over his head.
It took several seconds for higher brain function to return, and Will knew at this point, he only had two options available to him. He could keep fighting, against a foe most likely using night-vision goggles, all but nullifying his advantage over them, or he could go limp, allow himself to be abducted and figure out his next move once he could actually see the board he was being forced to play on.
Discretion was the better part of valor... but not that night. Will was already in one hellish mental state and this was the proverbial straw. Even in the dark, he saw his vision go red. The bag was secure over his head, which meant they needed to tie up his hands and feet next. A smart move, but it would preoccupy their own hands, giving him a very narrow window. Will waited, tensing his muscles.
The window never came.
The third man, Will thought with a bitter curse, dammit all to hell! That karate chop had really done the trick, causing him to forget about the assailant under the car.
One of the attackers knelt down on his shoulders, leaning forward with all their weight to keep his arms pinned to the ground. At the same time, another one hauled his legs into the air awkwardly to keep him from bucking loose, allowing the third to bind him up without fear of him breaking loose, which they did with aplomb, using heavy zip ties instead of rope or cloth.
Will contented himself with the fact that someone had finally been intelligent enough to send consummate professionals to his home, instead of a group of common criminals, the promise of dollar signs blinding them to good sense. These professionals had cleverly bypassed his security and alarm systems to break into his garage to lie in wait for him, hacking into his power grid to control the lights and made sure even in the dark, they’d have the upper hand. The thought that he was dealing with a worthy opponent placated him somewhat, and Will made a mental note to pass along his compliments to their boss, whoever it happened to be.
The weight finally lifted off his shoulders and Will was unceremoniously hauled to his feet, two of his assailants holding him by each arm as the third opened the garage door. There were no threats, overt or thinly veiled, just a team working in perfect unison, furthering Will’s positive opinion of them.
His mind’s eye painted a picture of the sight they all must have made, two burly men in masks dragging him down the driveway, tips of his shoes barely scraping along the concrete as they held him aloft, the third running ahead to open the trunk of whatever getaway vehicle they’d procured for the task. Will could only hope that they hadn’t been smart enough to remove the license plate, so that Echo could put a trace on the car when the other Suits realized he was missing and came looking for him. No way of knowing when that would be, but that’s why it was called hope.
He was once again surprised when instead of being tossed into a trunk, he was shoved into a backseat, a hand on the top of his head to make sure he didn’t blindly cold-cock himself on the roof of the car. For kidnappers, they were oddly mindful of their quarry.
No sense in damaging the goods more than they have to...
They placed him in the middle seat, two bodies bracketing him on either side, pushing in so he had no room to flail about, if he felt the sudden urge to make an escape attempt. Three doors shut and the vehicle immediately took off. Will made a mental note that there were four of them, not three, that they had a wheelman who had been waiting in the car for them. If he did, in fact, attempt to make good his escape while they were en route, he’d have to account for the extra man.
Will started to say something, a witty quip or an idle threat, he hadn’t yet decided, when they took a corner too quickly. There was a thump from behind them, followed by a string of muffled screams and shouts.
Even muted as it was, he recognized the voice as clearly as though it were his own.
All thoughts of diplomacy vanished from Will’s mind. Whatever this was, they’d brought Zoey into this as well, as leverage over him or to increase their ransom demands, and for that, not a one of them would be making it out of this alive.
He’d make damn certain of it.
Rough hands shoved her down onto a chair and Zoey immediately launched herself forward, trying to snake out of their grasps. When they manhandled her back down, she shifted tactics. “Listen here, shit-birds, whatever these guys are paying you, I’ll triple it.” In her panic, her spit-slicked lips caught against the bag over her face, breaths sucking it in like a gag. She struggled against it, whipping her head around like an angry cat to free her mouth.
A knife blade pressed into the sensitive skin of her throat. That stopped her dead.
“She’s not just saying that.” Will proffered with a calm voice that made Zoey even angrier than she already was. She’d come out of the trunk ready to plant her foot up several assholes but hearing Will’s dulcet tones ordering her to stop had her itching for a different kind of fight.
“My employer is quite capable of securing a more lucrative contract for the four of you.” Will continued like he was discussing the weather. “Just say the word.”
The blade disappeared and for a moment, Zoey thought they might be free and clear, until the bag was lifted from her head. The static cling made her hair scatter in a million different directions, giving her a disheveled halo. She blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light.
Her jaw dropped.
“Wu?!” She exclaimed, a chill going down her spine. “What in the literal goddamn fuck is this shit?!”
She saw Will jerk his head in confusion before his own bag was removed and he too saw what she was seeing. Wu, Echo, Budd, and Andre standing in front of them. Once again, Zoey tried to stand up, and once again, she was stopped by a hand pushing her back down.
“Sit.” Wu said, rounding on Will to jab a stern finger directly in his face. “You, too. Both of you are going to sit down and shut up.”
“Are you going to kill us?” Zoey asked plaintively. She knew she was going to die in this godforsaken city one day, she just hadn't thought it’d be at the hands of those she considered her friends.
“I said shut up.” Satisfied they were going to cooperate, Wu motioned with his other hand for the Suits get the ball rolling before either Will or Zoey got any ideas about fleeing.
Echo stepped forward. “Welcome to your accommodations for the night. Sorry there’s no turndown service.”
They glanced around the hollowed out room. Tall, aluminum workshop lamps had been brought in, illuminating the cold walls covered in gang tags and crude language, rusted-out machinery and factory bric-a-brac littering the floor. Animals and homeless people had clearly been in and out of the building throughout the years, though the faint lingering odor of piss and shit suggested it had been some time since it had been used as a makeshift shelter from the elements.
An enterprising soul had dragged in tatty furniture to sit on, along with a thin mattress thrown on top a stack of wooden pallets but there were no personal belongings or clothes. It was a forgotten place, abandoned by those who had built it and abandoned again by those who had subsumed the husk.
“There is one exit from this side of the building.” Echo nodded toward the single door directly behind her. “We rigged it with extra security and it will only open from the outside, so don’t get any ideas. Same with the windows.” The panes of glass had been busted out of them years ago, letting in a cool night breeze, but there were new wire metal cages bolted to the frames. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who had put them there, not that it was really necessary, they were twenty feet up the solid concrete walls. Then again, this was Will they were dealing with, every possible means of egress had to be taken into account. “There’s a bathroom just on the other side of that wall, only a little disgusting but we put in a fresh roll of toilet paper-”
“The toilet don’t talk or sprinkle your taint with water, so I made sure to get those extra soft shit-tickets you like so much, Z.” Andre said, as if telling her so would make her less likely to decapitate him come the next evening.
Echo rolled her eyes. “Yes, there’s that... oh, and we’ve installed a snack bar.”
As though he were some prize bimbo on a game show, Andre waved his hand around a fancy wooden cabinet, incredibly out of place among the dried-up animal feces, graffitied walls, and busted up pallets. He opened the door of the cabinet to reveal bottles of water, packets of food, and most importantly (for Will), a decanter of dark brown liquor.
Will’s expression morphed into something less apprehensive. He forced himself to inhale evenly through his nose and exhale out his mouth. “Really? This was the best you could come up with? The Parent Trap? Via a hostage situation?”
“What part of shut up didn’t you understand?” Wu replied with a glower. He knew it wouldn’t have much effect on Will, who was pretty much immune to any sort of threats, but he did it anyway to make a point.
Not twigging to what Will was referring to, Zoey arched a brow questioningly, not wanting to risk speaking.
Seeing her look, Budd answered for Will. “We’re giving y’all twenty-four hours together, locked up in here, no phones, no distractions, no nothing, so you can figure your shit out. ‘Cause we’re tired of it.”
All the color drained from Zoey’s face. She shot Will a look of pure horror.
“Sick and fuckin’ tired.” Andre added. “You couldn’t act like adults, so this is what you get. Kidnapped... like a bunch of damn kids.” He was floundering, and Echo stepped in before he started babbling pure nonsense.
“It’s affecting business. Our business, our mission. It’s not just the you two, it’s all of us. And all of us are sick of your infantile drama bullshit.” Echo put her hands on her hips, ponytail swinging behind her as she spoke emphatically. “So we’re making sure you have no excuses to sort this out. Get back together, break up, we don’t care what happens, as long as it happens. Now, there’s one security camera, back in that corner,” She waggled her fingers in the vague general direction somewhere over their shoulders, “in case some murdering hobo or a gang of raccoons comes busting in and you need our help, but we have it angled to give you guys your privacy and there’s no audio, so we won’t be tempted to listen in. Or have our fragile minds warped by hearing you two have make-up sex. So yeah... until tomorrow night, you’re not going anywhere.”
The screeching sound of metal on metal echoed off the walls as Budd opened the rusty door, the push bar squeaking from disuse. “Ladies first.”
Echo backed away from Will and Zoey, not breaking eye contact with either of them. “If this isn’t taken care of by tomorrow...” She didn’t finish the threat, letting their imaginations fill in the rest with worse than she could probably ever come up with.
After they filed out, the door closed with an ominous slam, the sound of tumblers falling into place as it was locked behind them. Quiet settled in around Will and Zoey.
Zoey drummed her nails on the arm of the chair. “Well, at least now we're allowed to talk.”
With an unamused roll of his eyes, Will crossed a leg over his knee, folding his arms over his chest, adamantly refusing to speak.
“Or not.”
The room was hot and stuffy, enough that Zoey’s hair clung uncomfortably to the nape of her neck. Every time she tried to gather it up so her neck could breathe, her arms would eventually get tired, and the cycle would repeat itself. My kingdom for a hair tie, she thought despondently.
Despite the busted out windows above their heads and the cool, concrete surroundings, the summer temperatures had been insane and a few hours after sunrise, their temporary prison had become a hotbox.
The heat wasn’t doing Will any favors, either, in his all-black suit, but at least he wasn’t wearing jeans that had absorbed enough sweat to become like a second, painful layer of skin. Just moving around caused the inseam to rub against the inside of her thighs hard enough she could feel welts forming, and there was no way even the tiniest amount of physical exertion wouldn’t saw her legs clean off.
She groaned, flopping back on the moldy couch, feeling like she was going to melt into a large puddle of armpit cheese and butt sweat. For a brief moment, she had considered stretching out on the diseased, dilapidated mattress but there wasn't enough money in the world to ever convince her to lie down on that. Just the thought of lying on years of baked in piss, shit, and come made her sick to her stomach. Her eyes landed on Will, who had turned his chair away from her when she had deemed the couch safe enough to get comfortable on. He sat, still as a statue, staring at the opposite wall as though it were the most interesting thing in the world.
The combination of being kidnapped by her own employees and dumped in a room that was doing its best impression of a third world country a half-mile away from the frickin’ surface of the sun was irritating enough, but Will’s cold shoulder had her teetering on the edge of insane anger.
Not that she had any right to be angry, but her brain was cooking inside her skull, muddling any good sense.
“Are you really going to ignore me all day? You heard Echo, if we don’t put this to bed, they’ll...” She trailed off, not certain what the Suits would do if they came back to find them still at odds with one another.
“There is no Plan B, no threat they would ever follow through on. This is a desperate attempt on their part, which means there will be no consequences for treating you as though you don’t exist. So.” Will took a delicate sip from his bottle of water and resumed his staring, even more flagrantly than before.
“So,” Zoey said, picking up where he left off, “you’re gonna keep letting this fester, like a big baby bitch. I mean, Jesus Christ, come on, Will, I said I was sorry, why you can’t just-”
Will reared around in his chair to glare daggers at her with such fearsome alacrity that Zoey was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. She froze in place, eyes widening in surprise at his naked rage.
“You cheated on me, Zoey, saying sorry isn’t the band-aid you think it is.” He started to turn back around, to continue ignoring her in peace and quiet but her contemptuous attitude about their current predicament that she had caused uncorked a bottle he’d been trying to keep sealed. In one smooth motion, he rose to his feet and crossed the room to stand in front of Zoey imperiously.
“Not only is just saying sorry and expecting me to just be okay with it not a cure-all, your snide remarks about how I’m emotionally handling your gross infidelity is not making it better.” The more he talked, the more furious he became, pulling himself up to his full height over Zoey as everything he’d been holding back came pouring forth. “The immaturity, the sheer callous indifference... it’s ugly, Zoey. It’s made you ugly and unbearable to be around. If that’s your definition of being a ‘big baby bitch’, then so be it. At least it’s better than being an actual bitch.”
Zoey’s jaw hit the ground. “You did not just call me a bitch!” She shouted, twisting around on the couch so she could stand up on it, the only way she could get halfway to looking at Will square in the eyes. “You don’t get to call me that!”
“I didn’t call you a bitch, I inferred you were a bitch, there is a difference... not that you’re intelligent enough to understand it.” He muttered the last part under his breath, but not so quietly that she wouldn’t hear him.
“Oh, so now I’m a stupid bitch? You know what that makes you?” She asked, pushing her fingers into Will’s shoulder to jostle him back. “The guy who fucks stupid bitches, so really, it’s your own goddamn fault!”
“It’s my fault you cheated?” Will scoffed at her in disbelief. “The mental gymnastics of that is astounding.”
She narrowed her eyes, but the fierce expression was somewhat lessened by the fact that she was balancing herself shakily on a ratty couch cushion. “I think I liked you better when you weren’t talking.”
Pure, murderous intent flashed in Will’s eyes. “You’re the one who wanted to talk.”
“I want you to get over this! I fucked up, I know I fucked up! But I apologized, you’re the one refusing to get past this. You didn’t want to talk to me, you tried keeping me out of meetings, going out of your way to make sure we wouldn’t even be in the same room at the same time! You didn’t even want to share a car! Honestly, what more do you want from me, when you won’t even meet me halfway?”
“I want you to actually be sorry, Zoey!” He all but screamed. “You cheated and then lied about cheating! And your so-called apology? ‘Whoops, that’s my bad, I’m sorry’ is not an apology! You want to meet me halfway? That’s just you being pissed about the fact that I’m pissed and refuse to accept said apology.” Exhaling, Will broke away from Zoey. He needed to calm down. He’d been in life or death scenarios on the other side of the world dealing with literal villains that had him less angry than he was at that moment, and he knew if he didn’t keep his focus, he might do something he regretted.
He turned his back, wondering how it had become so impossible to keep a level-head in intense situations like these when it involved her in any shape, form, or fashion. Will crossed the room, needing some distance between them. Those literal villains he’d dealt with, at one time or another, literally had the power to crush his balls in their hands, yet he always managed to stay one step ahead. One emotional betrayal from Zoey and he was ready to fly apart at the seams.
It was maddening.
“That’s not what I said.” Zoey said to his rigid back, a little affronted that he had boiled her admission down to such a bullshit summarization. "I wasn’t all ‘whoopsie poopsie, deal with it’ and you know that.”
Will braced himself on the wooden cabinet holding their supplies, fighting the urge to pour himself a drink. Alcohol and relationship blowouts didn’t mix. Instead, he took a deep breath and counted to ten. When he had better control over himself, he flicked his gaze over his shoulder at Zoey. “You might as well have, for all the effort you made.”
The moment had been singularly crystallized in his mind, a memory he wouldn’t soon forget, no matter how hard he had tried.
He’d caught her coming up the steps of the Casa, her hair and clothes in disarray, heels in her hand and her makeup smeared into large raccoon circles around her eyes. It was a walk of shame, though in Will’s experience with Arthur’s conquests, they were usually leaving the Casa, not coming into it. It wasn’t even a case of misplaced fury, Zoey just coming back from a party after she’d passed out drunk, looking guilty despite her disheveled innocence, everything explained away with a funny little story.
The man she’d cheated on him with had posted a video of their affair on Blink. End of story.
She tried playing it off at first, not knowing about the video, explaining to Will that she’d gone to a rave and ended up getting high and losing track of time. She’d left with a group of people she’d met, messaging Wu to let him know she wouldn’t be back until the morning, wanting to continue the party at someone else’s house.
Will had stood there, letting her bury herself deeper in the lie before confronting her with the video. He had watched her face as she watched herself getting plowed, moaning into the camera as the man filmed her from above.
Caught in flagrante delicto, Zoey sat down on the cobblestones outside the front door and confessed to the truth. The man had propositioned her at the party and she’d accepted. Yes, she was high and drunk, but she had wanted it, wanted him. He’d been a gorgeous young man and well-built, the kind of guy she normally never would have had the chance with and she took it. She’d placed her hand on Will’s, peered into his eyes and spoke the words he’d never forget.
“I know what I did was... the worst, but I promise I’ll never do it again. Do you think you can forgive me and we can just move on?”
No explanation, no guilt, no remorse, nothing. Will had felt like he’d been gutted, the entire world privy to her infidelity, and she’d just stood up and walked into the Casa like nothing had happened, still stinking like sex and booze.
And she wondered why he’d been treating her like a non-entity ever since...
He heard Zoey climb down off the couch, her sneakers scraping on the floor as she approached him. “So what, I can’t just cut right to the chase, I’m supposed to get down on my knees and beg for your forgiveness? Make some big show of crying and pleading for you to take me back? Mope around like a beaten dog until you take pity on me and agree to work things out? That sounds kinda misogynistic and I didn’t take you for a chauvinist pig, Will.”
“It’s not misogynistic to expect the woman I love to feel genuine guilt for cheating on me!” Will roared, rounding on Zoey so she could see just how much it was eating him up inside, that maybe seeing his heart laid bare would knock some sense into her.
Instead, she rolled her eyes. “Whatever, pig. I’ve embraced my sexual nature and I refuse to feel bad about it. Your hang-ups are your own.”
”My god, it’s like I’ve fallen in love with the sky!” He exploded, voice tinged with self-deprecating laughter at his own stupidity.
Zoey blinked at him in confusion, not understanding his point. “The sky?”
”Yes, the sky.” He repeated, visibly annoyed. “It... encompasses your whole life, the single source of light and water and air, everything you need to live, it’s why humans worshipped the heavens for centuries, yet it is entirely incapable of loving you back. You, Zoey, are the sky, and I’m the idiot still looking up expectantly, waiting for something you can apparently never give.”
Will then turned on his heel, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door. It was the only place they had for any sense of real privacy and he desperately needed to be alone.
After a moment, she heard what sounded like Will crying. At first, she didn’t believe her ears. Will Blackwater did not cry. He had too much self-control to allow himself to be so vulnerable. Crying was something other people did, not him. Once, while having sex, she’d accidently kneed him in the nuts and though he’d been in an indescribable amount of pain, not a single tear had escaped his eyes.
Zoey padded over to the bathroom door and sat down in front of it, wincing as her jeans grated against her skin. She carefully propped her legs up so she could rest her head on her knees and hugging herself, she started rocking back and forth to the sound of his muffled breathing.
She’d taken this whole façade way too far and regret started boiling over.
Andre exited the bathroom and closed the door behind him. “I would not go in there.” He called out as he squeezed through the RV to the little watch station Echo had set up in the galley. He glanced at the screens and then out the windows. They were parked a hundred yards from the building they’d locked Zoey and Will in, in case something catastrophic happened and they needed to get to them quickly.
“Anything yet?”
Echo shook her head, not looking away from the display of the feed from the lone security camera. “So far, so good.”
“That has to be a good sign, right?” Wu asked from his position, stretched out on the built-in settee. “Means they haven’t killed each other yet.”
“We can only hope.” Echo replied, praying she didn’t sound too worried.
Chewing on a protein bar, Zoey looked at Will in quiet contemplation. He’d spent about two hours in the bathroom before he had to escape, the heat and lack of air too much for him to bear. Sweating bullets, he’d divested himself of his shirt and tie, draping both over the back of his chair. In just his undershirt and slacks, he’d gone over to the cabinet and finally poured himself a drink. Then another and another, before parking himself back in his chair, decanter in hand.
Zoey didn’t blame him. She’d callously pushed him too far and he deserved something that would calm his frayed nerves. Swallowing, she folded the wrapper over the end of the protein bar and set it aside. She’d had two hours to think about what she was going to say, and more importantly, how she was going to say it, and with Will looking visibly less shaken by their earlier screaming match, now seemed as good a time as any.
Getting off the couch, she took purposeful, measured steps so that Will would hear her coming. Moving around the chair he was sitting in, she took a seat opposite him, mirroring their positions when they’d first been brought in. Zoey awkwardly scratched at her hair, the sweat and oils making it feel like she had an inch of dirt across her scalp. From her periphery, she could see Will watching her, balling a hand into a fist as he girded himself for the second round.
With a sigh, Zoey righted herself in the chair, sitting up properly so she was looking directly at Will. This was going to suck massive amounts of ass, but she owed him the truth. She licked her lips apprehensively.
“Do you want to know why I cheated?” She asked.
That caught Will off-guard. He regarded her warily. “Yes, actually,” He said sarcastically, "we've already established why."
Zoey gave him a flat look. “Yeah, yeah, because I'm a stupid bitch, haha, shut up. How long have we been together?”
“Romantically?” He asked, confused by the question. “Almost six months.”
“Six months... and before, you said I was ‘the woman you loved’.”
Cold dread settled in Will’s stomach as he realized where she was going. “You don’t love me.” He said matter-of-factly.
She held up her hand. “No, I... I don’t not love you, if that makes sense? You’re the only genuinely good thing in my life, and I care for you more than I ever thought possible. Y’know, since I thought you were gonna kill me when we first met.” Zoey tried to laugh but it came out forced and insincere.
“But you don’t love me.” Will reiterated.
“Ugh, okay, lemme...” She pursed her lips, trying to think of a less asshole-y way to explain what she had done and why. “Did I ever tell you about Caleb?”
Will lifted a brow curiously. “In passing. You two dated and then broke up. Right before your father died.”
“Okay, so the answer would be no, smart aleck. We didn’t just date, I was going to marry him. I wanted to have his kids, the house with the picket fence, everything. But he was way out of my league and we both knew it. He had these rich friends with supermodels for girlfriends and I was... trailer trash. I held onto him as long as I could, because I loved him so much, which only made it worse when he ended things. I was living at his place, so after we broke up, I had to move back in with my mom. I’d had our whole lives planned out but because I wasn’t the ideal trophy wife material, I lost everything when Caleb ditched me, the little shit.
“And I know you know what that’s like, to have your entire world come crashing down around you. I’m not, don’t think I’m comparing our situations, at all.” In a game comparing a painful breakup to a spouse dying unexpectedly, she would lose every damn time. “But when that kinda shit happens, it informs everything you do afterward, for better and for worse. So, you and I, we get together and at first, I think it’s going pretty great, because I don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re just after me for my money or for fifteen minutes of fame. We were having fun, you were happy, I was happy, until... “ She trailed off, realizing the next part was going to make her sound like the biggest, most inconsiderate bitch ever.
Will looked at her with rapturous attention, waiting for her to continue explaining. Zoey knew how much he hated being in the dark on anything, let alone something that personally impacted his own well-being, so she sucked it up, even if it was going to break his already broken heart.
“We were having lunch a couple weeks ago, and you got that call from Kowalski. You stood up, all huffy because you had to leave but you stopped to kiss the back of my head and said ‘I’ll be back later, love you.’ It was so casual and off-handed for you, but it was like the ground had opened up beneath me. I didn’t think for one second you were at the ‘I love you’ stage, because I didn’t think we were serious.”
He remembered the day in question quite well, as he hadn’t intended to utter those words in such a carefree manner, it had just slipped out, but it didn’t mean he meant them any less. The feeling had been growing inside him for some time, Zoey the second chance he’d never thought he’d get. He thought maybe it was a good sign for their relationship, that it would come out with such little effort because it was real, that maybe Zoey felt the same... and then four days later, she had cheated on him.
“Excuse me? Nearly six months in, and you didn’t think we were serious?” Will clenched his jaw so hard, Zoey thought he would grind his teeth into dust.
“Can you blame me? Like, seventy percent of our relationship was sex! You don’t really like to talk about yourself, unless you’re on your high horse about how smart you are, so most of our pillow talk was about hypotheticals or philosophy, what we’d do with our lives if we weren’t us or whatever. And everyone knew about us but when we went out, you weren’t hot to trot about making a big show of it, because of the ‘perceived impropriety’. So why would I think it was serious?”
“I don’t know, because I didn’t think our shared traumatic pasts and childhoods made for good pillow talk, so instead of focusing on what had already happened, I wanted to focus on what could happen? Building something together, based on our individual ideals and hopes for a better world.”
Will had thought Zoey knew him better than that, that he didn’t want to lament upon his dead wife or the physical and emotional scars his father had left on him, because she had gone through similar tribulations and didn’t like to talk about it either. He thought she knew when he talked about the two of them leaving their mark on the world, it was because he wanted her by his side when they did so. He thought she had felt the same way, the way she gazed into his eyes when they made love, clinging to him like she never wanted it to end... how could he have been so foolish?
“Exactly.” Zoey said, pulling Will from his morose thoughts. “So I was sitting there, eating my sandwich, realizing that everything that I had thought was just two people enjoying a convenient way to blow off steam with good company was wrong. You start replaying that shit in your mind, every word, every interaction, like when the hell did this all start? We were on two completely different tracts, relationship wise, and I never knew it, until that moment.
“All that in the future talk, it finally dawned on me what you were really saying. And I thought, ‘hell, I already care about him, now that I know what he truly want out of this, I can see myself getting there, too.’ I started thinking about the long-term, marriage, kids... and that was the same mistake I made with Caleb. I had our whole future planned out, only to lose everything, and I refused to fall into that trap again. To be the idiot left holding the bag again, because my eyes got too big for my stomach. Or heart, or whatever works for this metaphor, I don’t know. Either way, I saw myself going down that same route and... I panicked.”
Balancing his elbow on the arm of his chair, Will rested his chin on his enclosed fist, staring at Zoey as though she were a puzzle he would never be able to solve. “So you decided that instead of talking with me, explaining our disparate romantic situations, honestly discussing your apprehensions and coming to some amicable resolution, you would just go out and fuck the first person who gave you the time of day?”
Zoey groaned heavily. “I don’t really know what I was thinking. It was just too much and I needed to get out of my own head for a while. I didn’t go to that rave with the intention of cheating on you... I just wanted to get high and have some fun, disconnect from reality for a few hours. When Roy propositioned me-”
Will cut her off with a derisive snort. “Roy. You cheated on me with a guy named Roy. Of all the unbearable indignities...”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Will Blackwater, the man with the most fakest sounding name in all of human existence...” She glared at him contemptuously. “You done?”
With a wave of his hand, he indicated for her to go on.
“Anyway. When Roy propositioned me, I wasn’t exactly in my right mind. Drunk, high, emotionally confused and numb. Not a good combination.”
“He took advantage of you?” Will said, body language shifting at the implication.
Zoey stomped out that thought before it could take root. “No. If anything, I took advantage of him. He was just at the right place at the wrong time, and I stupidly thought if I had some sort of... palate cleanser, I could get ahead of everything I was feeling, get some perspective, y’know? Did I want to risk it all with you and potentially get my heart broken, or did I want to be like Budd and Andre, with a string of one-night stands following me to my grave?” She sat leaned back in her chair to stare up at the disgusting ceiling. “What I wasn’t counting on was that sack of dicks posting a video to Blink.”
It was Jezza all over again, everyone at school finding his live feed of her in the shower, except this time, it was worldwide. Now everyone knew what she sounded like when she orgasmed, and her trolls had clipped the audio, posting it over video of barnyard animals, because that trope hadn’t been played out yet.
“Even if he hadn’t, what did you think would happen after your epiphany? That if you came down on the side of commitment, you would hide the fact that you cheated from me, hoping I wouldn’t find out?”
“I said I didn’t know what I was thinking!” Zoey screamed to the heavens. She dropped her head, staring at Will with tear-filled eyes. “I didn’t want to be the hateful cunt that dumped you after telling me you loved me, and I didn’t know if I wanted to open myself up to getting hurt again, so I selfishly decided to completely cut you out of the decision-making process, and I thought I was protecting myself from getting hurt but I... hurt you instead.”
Something shattered inside of her. “God, you didn’t deserve any of it and I treated you so horribly, but I thought if I acted like it was no big deal, you would just know where I stood and you wouldn’t love me anymore and we could go back to just having fun, without all these big emotions involved, but you didn’t stop, you wanted to 'talk it out', and it made me so goddamn angry...” Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, her whole body shaking from the bottled up grief. “Oh god, I hurt you, Will, and I am so fucking sorry for all of it.”
Covering her face, Zoey leaned forward on her thighs, sobbing miserably into her hands. “I’m sorry I’m your sky.”
She’d fucked everything up and tormented Will with her callous dismissals because it was easier than facing the truth, that she had destroyed the one good thing she had on a drunken, misguided whim. Instead of owning up to it, she had treated his anger like he was the one blowing things out of proportion, blaming Will for not being able to get over it, so the onus would be on him, not her.
She cried until there was nothing wet left in her, until her muscles ached and her skin felt wrung out from dehydration. With a shuddering breath, she collapsed back onto her chair, the world blurry from the lingering tears.
A bottle of water and the silk pocket square from Will’s suit jacket appeared before her. He stood in front of her, patiently waiting for her to take them. She did, wiping her face off and blowing her nose, utterly ruining the pocket square. Tossing it on the ground, Zoey greedily drank from the bottle, the water soothing her scratched throat.
“Thank you.” Will said from above her.
Water dribbled down her chin as she craned her head up to look at him. “For what?”
“For genuinely apologizing for what you’ve done.” He replied, turning to sit back down in his chair.
“Oh.” It was the one courtesy she refused to afford him, and apparently the one thing he had wanted. “Does that mean you’re not mad at me anymore?” She asked, only aware of how ridiculous it sound after the words left her mouth.
”God, no, I don’t think a word has been invented yet to adequately describe how mad I am at you. But at least now I know you didn’t cheat out of pure malice toward me.”
They gazed at each other in contemplative silence, the hurdle now crossed and neither certain what came next.
“So... now what?”
The door squealed open, Budd peeking his head in, not quite sure what he expected to find. Instead of a bloody murder scene or a scene straight out of a porno, he spotted Zoey and Will sitting in their chairs quietly. If he didn’t know any better, he would have sworn they hadn’t moved an inch since they’d been locked in.
“Hey, guys.” He said, taking a measured step through the doorway. “Your time’s up.” Budd felt Andre move in behind him, trying to get a good look over his shoulder.
“They kill each other? Is it gross?” Andre asked. He spotted the two of them doing nothing but stare at each other. “Awww... I was hoping they’d at least battle it out a little.”
“You wanted them to beat the shit out of each other?” Budd said incredulously. “There is something seriously wrong with you, brother.”
Echo muscled through the two of them, tossing elbows into sensitive organs to get them to move out of the way. She ignored their loud protests, tripping a bit as she broke free of their wide bulk. When she clapped eyes on Will and Zoey, cool as cucumbers, she felt hope building up inside her.
“You both okay?” She asked, taking in the empty water bottles strewn about, the half-empty decanter of whiskey on the cabinet, and clear signs the two of them had been occupying the space, but no signs there had been physical violence.
Will craned his head around, meeting her gaze. “Yes, we’re just fine. And eager to escape this shithole.” He stood up but didn’t move, waiting for Zoey to pick herself up so that she could go ahead of him.
Ever the gentleman, Zoey thought wryly, standing up with a groan. The temperature had dropped after the sun had set, but her jeans had done enough damage in the daylight hours that she was certain her legs would have to be amputated. She limped over to the door, Will walking behind her with a hand out, ready to catch her if need be.
Echo, Budd, and Andre exchanged glances.
“Y’all really worked everything out?” Budd asked, a disbelieving edge to his voice. “Or is this some boneheaded ploy to get us to lower our guards so you can kill us for kidnapping you?”
Zoey shrugged dismissively. “Why can’t it be both? Move, fuckheads, mama needs fresh air and some sweatpants.” She barreled through the door, basking in the night air that didn’t smell like the ghost of a million bum farts and semen. After a beat, she loudly exclaimed, “You assholes were out here the whole goddamn time?!”
“Told you we should have moved the RV.” Andre said smugly under his breath.
“I figured we needed to stick close by, in case of... accidental dismemberment or cannibalism.” Echo said when Will blinked at her in amused surprise.
“I’m not sure I want to consider a scenario where one of us engaged in accidental cannibalism over the course of a single day.” Will replied quixotically, moving between the three of them, equally eager to be free from their cell.
Taking several steps out into the night, Will cast his gaze skyward, only a hint of moon and stars visible above the glare of the city lights a few miles off in the distance. The cool breeze was a balm on his overheated skin and he gratefully soaked in the sensations of freedom, gifts from the indifferent heavens.
He snorted quietly at the irony of the thought. He heard footsteps behind him, his compatriots waiting with bated breath to find out what had happened, and the sound brought him back to reality.
Returning his gaze to the earth, he watched Zoey walking across the cracked, weed smattered lot toward the RV, struggling to take off her jeans with each step. Wu just watched her from the steps of the RV, horrified but unable to look away.
“C’mon, man, don’t hold out on us. How’d it go?” Andre asked.
“It went exactly how you wanted it to go. We talked, we figured it out, the end. You should be more worried about how things will go for the four of you, once Zoey is done celebrating freedom and remembers who locked her up in the first place.”
Zoey’s socked foot slipped on the stairs, causing her to trip into the RV, her dragon themed underwear on display for everyone to see, and Wu wanted to help her up but didn’t want to touch his half-naked boss.
“That may come sooner than you think.” Will said as Zoey batted away Wu’s hand, yelling at him indistinctly.
Echo stepped in front of Will, her expression telling him this was no joking matter. “Will. Cut the bullshit. We need to know what’s going on... the whole reason we did this was because your relationship drama was causing problems. We have to know if it’s going to continue being a problem. I mean, are you two staying together... are you going to leave the company?”
“No, and definitely no. We decided that for the immediate future, we needed a hard reset, go back to how things were in the beginning. I’ll stay on the board, and she’ll go back to barely treating me with even a modicum of civility.” He let out a breath. “And here I thought we’d bid adieu to the endless litany of robot jokes.”
“Is that... what you wanted?”
He fixed Echo with a frank look. “It was my idea. I won’t go into detail but I believe it is the most prudent course of action for everyone involved, Zoey and myself specifically.” A break would give her time to decide on what she wanted, if she wanted anything at all, and it would give Will time to process and heal his broken heart. At some indeterminate point in the future, if they chose to get back on the horse, it would be because they were both emotionally invested in one another. And if not... there would be little to no hard feelings about it. Until then, they’d agreed to be mature adults about it, to preserve the business and their contentious friendship.
Zoey tossed her sweat-soaked jeans in Wu’s face. So much for maturity, he thought to himself wryly, heading toward the RV to rescue Wu from Zoey’s wrath.
Will walked away, the three of them rooted in place as they watched him go.
“So... we did good, right?” Andre asked.
“I think so. Not the ending we really hoped for, but it’s better than accidental cannibalism. I’d chalk that up as a win.” Budd replied.
Echo lifted a shoulder in a shrug as Will offered Zoey his suit jacket, so she could wrap it around her waist instead of swinging cheeks where everyone could see. “Yeah... yeah, I’d definitely say it’s a win.”