Gorgeous Misery (Creeping Beautiful)

I look around again. But this time, I really look around. Then I go to the bedroom and flip on the lights. The bed is made and nothing is out of place. And at this point, I should not be surprised. He just told me he hasn’t been home in a while. So who was he leaving that message for?

I check the closet. Like the fridge, it’s empty. No clothes, no shoes, no nothing. Then I check the tiny bathroom. Not even a toothbrush in the cabinet mirror. Not even a bottle of aspirin.

No one is living here.

So again. Who is he leaving that message for?

One more to hear, Wendy. Press play.

“You know how to find me. Stop playing around, Wendy.”

Beeeeeeep.

“No more messages. Press one to delete. Press two to keep as new. Press—”

I press stop and lean against the counter.

I am perplexed. Because none of this makes sense. I don’t even know why I’m here. In fact, I should leave. Now.

The phone rings.

I consider not answering it, but I’m like a fucking cat in this respect. Curiosity is going to get me killed one day. I pick up the receiver. “What?”

“What did you find out?”

“Who are you?”

“You’ll know that soon enough.” I’m about to protest, but he keeps going. “We have common friends. And by friends, I mean… you know, friends.”

“Like who?”

“James Fenici for starters.”

“Fuck you. You do not know James Fenici. Throwing his name around won’t get you far with me. He and I? We’re barely acquaintances. We’re definitely not friends.”

“Well, obviously, I know Nick.”

“So you say. Just because you called his phone doesn’t make you friends with him.”

“I know he’s supposed to be dead.” There’s a pause after that. Maybe he’s thinking about these words the same way I am. But then he whispers, “I know who he left behind too. And if she finds out he’s still alive…”

Sasha. It always comes back to fucking Sasha. “If she finds out, what? Her little heart will break? She’ll leave her husband for Nick? She’ll ruin her whole family for some stupid promise that never really meant anything in the first place? Too late for all that, ha ha ha.”

“Wow. You definitely have feelings about this, don’t you?”

“Fuck you. I’m outta here. I don’t even know why I came. I don’t know who you are or what kind of game you’re playing. And who cares where Nick is? He can take care of himself.”

“That he can, Wendy. That he can. But consider this before you hang up and go back to your sad, lonely, pathetic existence out in those hillbilly woods you live in or rambling around on the open road. I’m someone you want on your side. Trust me.”

I scoff loudly. “Do you think I’m afraid of you? Do you even know who I am?”

“I know exactly who you are. You’re missing the point. You don’t know who I am, Wendy. And your gun can’t protect you from me. Because I can get in your head. And once I’m in, there’s no way to get rid of me until I decide to leave.”

“Big words. I’m shaking.” I feign a yawn. But both the words and the yawn are just a well-practiced ruse. Because I understand what he’s telling me.

I know exactly what he’s telling me and a chill runs up my spine just as the word forms in my head.

PSYOPS.

Whoever this guy is, he is Company PSYOPS.

And there are only two living Company men who can do what this guy claims he can do.

One is Donovan Couture’s second personality. And he’s in a coma in Adam’s mansion back in Louisiana.

The other guy… is Merc.

CHAPTER TEN - MERC

TODAY

“You better start talking, motherfucker.”

Nick Tate sounds the same. It almost creeps me out how much he sounds the same. And it occurs to me that I would’ve recognized his voice anywhere. Even if I didn’t suspect he was alive.

“Where’s Wendy?”

I picture him the way he was the last time we were together. I didn’t kill anyone that night. I wasn’t an active shooter in the Santa Barbara massacre. I was the getaway driver. Well, captain, since our getaway car was a boat.

But even though I wasn’t part of the attack, that whole thing—the mansion on fire up on the cliff, the way everyone’s faces were lit up orange from the flames, the moon that night, Sasha crying and screaming when she realized Nick was staying behind with that worthless drug lord so that James could escape with the files we needed—all of it is burned into my brain. It was branded on me.

It is one of those defining moments. That’s what it was. Maybe even… the defining moment. The first moment in my life that truly mattered. The first time I started thinking about being part of something bigger than myself. Part of something good instead of evil.