Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

Kent and the other guy murmured to each other.

“Yes, sir. I’ll call you as soon as we land.”

Rustling sounded.

“Is he pissed?” Kent asked.

“Well, he isn’t happy,” Marge replied. “He isn’t convinced that the girl knows nothing of Belanger’s uniqueness. He thinks the boyfriend could help us there.”

Kent chuckled. “Torture the Brit in front of her, and she’ll spill everything she knows.”

“Exactly. Now get your ass on the internet and see what you can find out about George.”

“Hey,” Kent called. “What’s your boyfriend’s last name?”

Nicole opted not to respond.

A sigh sounded. Soft footsteps approached. Then Marge stood beside her. “Enough of the sedative should’ve worn off by now for you to have an inkling of the position you’re in,” she stated matter-of-factly. “As long as you cooperate, I’ll be your friend. Refuse, and Kent and Rylan will be your new friends. Piss me off, and I’ll join the pilots in the cabin and ignore whatever sounds come from back here while Kent and Rylan convince you to play nice. My employer only told us to bring you in alive. He didn’t specify what condition you should be in.”

“Davies,” Nicole blurted, borrowing the name of one of the dorm residents. “George Davies. The third.”

Rylan snorted a laugh. “More like turd.”

Marge frowned. “Oh, would you grow the hell up?”

Kent laughed. “Ask her where he’s from.”

Marge stared down at Nicole. “Well?”

“London,” she improvised.

Marge cast Sean a glance. “You forgot to restrain him, Einstein. He’s going to be a problem when he wakes up. Bind his hands.”

As Marge rejoined the others, a new voice muttered, “Amateurs. Here. Use these.”

Kent arrived and slipped some white zip ties onto Sean’s wrists. After tightening them enough to cut off the circulation to Sean’s hands, he left.

Minutes ticked past. Since Nicole no longer had a watch and could spy no clocks within view, she didn’t know how many. The sounds of an Avengers movie filled the cabin. Endgame was her guess. Nicole listened to the scenes play out and tried to use that as a time estimator.

Half an hour?

An hour?

Marge spoke suddenly. “Have you found anything?”

“Yeah,” Rylan replied sullenly. “We found out there’s a shitload of Georges in England.”

“Doesn’t his last name narrow it down?” she asked impatiently.

“No,” Kent said, “because there’s a shitload of Davies, too.”

“Well, use her social media profiles to figure out which one it is,” she ordered.

“We tried,” Rylan said. “But Becca doesn’t post any personal information on her profiles. Just a bunch of cutesy cat videos and shit like that.”

Kent laughed. “Did you see the one with the cat attacking the alligator?”

“Yeah. That was hilarious.”

Marge released a long-suffering sigh. “Just stay focused and keep looking. I’m sure our employer has a team working on this, but it would be nice if we could find something they can’t.”

Nicole thought it interesting that she didn’t mention their employer by name. Was that for her and Sean’s benefit? Or did the others not know whom they worked for?

“We’re on it,” Kent promised.

“I’m going to go make some calls in the bedroom,” Marge announced. “Leave the girl alone until I say otherwise.”

That sparked a few grumbles, but these guys seemed to knuckle under pretty quickly whenever Marge told them to do something. She was clearly the highest-ranked member of the team.

A door closed.

Kent and Rylan muttered a few disrespectful comments they were too afraid to say to her face. The other men remained quiet and just kept watching the Avengers movie.

Another half hour crept past.

Sean’s boot moved.

Nicole glanced at it before peering at his face.

His eyelids were parted just enough for her to glimpse a hint of his brown eyes. As soon as he saw her looking at him, he winked.

Since her back was to the others, she gave him a faint smile.

Movement in his lap drew her attention. Though his wrists were tightly bound, the fingers of his right hand formed the sign language letters O and K.

Meeting his gaze, she gave a slight nod. “My head hurts.” Nicole spoke so softly that the others couldn’t hear her over the engine noise. But Sean should catch her words. “And my mind is still sluggish.”

His jaw tightened. Amber light brightened his eyes before he closed them.

After a few seconds, he cracked his lids just enough to show his eyes no longer glowed.

“We gotta narrow this down,” Rylan muttered. “This is taking forever. Try his phone again.”

“I can’t,” Kent grumbled. “It’s password protected.”

“Hey!” Rylan called. “What’s the password to your boyfriend’s phone?”

Nicole said nothing.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Becca! I’m talking to you. What’s the password to George’s phone?”

“I don’t know,” she lied. While her phone was a plant given to her by the network, Sean’s wasn’t. Sean’s contained the phone numbers of every Immortal Guardian stationed in North Carolina; their addresses; and the numbers of their Seconds, Chris Reordon, and all the special ops team members. She couldn’t let these people get their hands on that information.