Common Enemy
Karen’s head hurt. Her mouth was dry, and everything around her was dark. And the smell… Her first thought was that she’d been thrown in a place with dead bodies.
Someone gently brushed her hair away from her face. “Ed,” a woman said, “she’s waking up.”
Another person kneeled by her side. Karen turned her head away, unable to bear the putrid smell coming from them. The woman hadn’t showered in a while, but that was nothing compared to the other’s scent.
“Where…” She took a deep breath and held onto the woman to sit up. She rested her back against the cold metal of the wall. Her eyes were slowly getting used to the darkness. Despite the filth, the sweat and the blood, she recognized these people. “You’re Rose’s parents,” she breathed out.
“Is she safe ?” Eva asked.
Edward coughed but kept looking at her. “Does she know about Matt Murdock ?”
“How do you know about him ?” she asked back with a frown. She studied the silent man in front of her. He wasn’t simply smelling bad. He was sweating, holding his arm against his chest, and shaking. There was blood on his arm. Something had happened to him, and he was trying to hide it. “What happened to the two of you ?”
“He followed me after I went to Fleur’s flower shop,” Eva replied.
That was on Sunday, Karen thought. She’d been there for almost a week. She’d rarely met anyone that tired in her life. “You ?” she asked, looking at Edward.
“He shot me when I went to check up on her,” he said. “The day after… The day Rose moved in with your friend.”
“Tu-”
“That day,” he quickly stopped her. He looked at Eva and smiled. “Can you check on the water ? She must be dehydrated.” Eva nodded and crawled away from them. “She doesn’t need to know everything,” he whispered. “She’s been through a lot. She’s worried, and she’s weak. Can you keep these things to yourself ?”
“What things ?” Karen asked.
“How long she’s been here, how bad I really look,” he added with a smile. “I told her I was getting better.”
“You smell…”
“I know. But I’d be dead already if it wasn’t for her,” he insisted. “Things are going to happen, and I don’t want her to lose her mind over causing me an infection. I can survive this, that’s all that matters.”
Karen nodded. At first, she refused the water Eva offered her, seeing how little they still had, but talking was too painful. She had to drink something, and Eva wasn’t taking no for an answer. She thanked her and looked at the cell around them before her eyes landed on the woman’s legs. “Why are you chained ?”
“He was still working on things when I got here,” she replied. “There was no door at first.”
“Are we underground ?”
“Somewhere close to the docks,” Ed replied. “Vanessa Fisk still has a few properties around here.” He moved away from Karen, freeing her nose as much as he could, and sat in front of her. “You have to tell me exactly how you got here.”
“Rose left Matt’s apartment early this morning,” she explained. “We know she isn’t who she said she was, so I followed her. I guess Dex followed me, too.”
“Where did she go ?”
“A coffee shop,” she replied. “She talked to the man from the print shop. Was he the one who attacked her last week ?”
Edward smiled. “They were alone ?” She nodded. “Good. Did she have a bag with her, something that let you think that she wouldn’t be coming back ?” Again, Karen nodded. “She knows, then. It’s good.”
“How ?” Eva asked. “Ed, is she going to put herself in more danger ?”
“Yes, but she has William with her,” he calmly replied. “They’re gonna find us.”
“And get killed !” she shouted. “Ed, she has to leave town, she has to get far away from that man, he-"
“She won’t,” he painfully stopped her, holding his arm against his chest. “She’s too stubborn to let go of me. She’ll come here.” He looked back at Karen. “Where did you follow her ?”
“Vanessa Fisk’s penthouse.”
“That’s where he got you ?” She nodded, taking another sip of water. “Good. When she notices you’re not following her anymore, she’ll go to your friend for help.”
“And then arrest him ?” Edward tried to talk, but Karen moved closer to him. “Who are you ? I know you’ve been keeping an eye on Frank. Is it Matt’s turn ? What’s gonna happen to him ?”
***
“So you’re not gonna tell us who you’re working for ?” Foggy asked, maybe for the tenth time since they’d all gotten into Rose’s car.
“No.” She turned to Matt and sighed. “How could you never tell me that you spoke to my mother ?"
“You never told me your name.”
“That’s the whole point of being undercover,” she snapped back at him. “None of this would’ve ever happened if you weren’t wearing a stupid mask. And why the Hell is it in your office ? Isn’t that something you should be keeping at your place ?”
“I moved it there when you moved in.”
“I didn’t ‘move in’.”
Foggy held onto Matt’s seat in front of him. “What are you going to do to him ?”
“I’d rather not know,” William said, glaring at her.
She looked at him in the rearview mirror and turned around the corner. “I hate driving here,” she mumbled, stuck one more time in traffic. That was one thing she’d never miss. She angrily hit the steering wheel and glanced at Matt. “Can you find him ?”
“How ?”
“I don’t know,” she shouted. “Until yesterday, our theory was that Daredevil was a ninja with night vision. I don’t care how it works, but it works. Are you like a search dog or something ?”
“No,” he sighed. “That’s not how it works.”
“Perfect.”
Rose decided to stop talking and focused on the road ahead, mentally listing all of the things she ignored.
First of all, she ignored how was Matt doing any of these things. It wasn’t her job to understand that, simply to write a name on a file. It wasn’t what she’d been asked to find out, but she now had to trust him to get her parents back, whose physical state she also ignored. She had no idea where they were, if Poindexter had any help other than Vanessa, if Karen was still alive, and if she’d still have a job to even go back to.
She parked in front of her shop and winced when she got out. It was still hard for her to see what had become of her hard work. Matt entered the building, William close behind him, but Foggy stopped by Rose’s side.
“I don’t understand,” he said in a quiet voice. “Do you know who did this ?” She nodded. “I’m just trying to sort out what was real or not. One second you’re sending Marci pictures of camellias, the next you're pointing a gun at Matt’s head.”
“I really was aiming at the couch,” she scoffed. “But I do like flowers a lot,” she added. “I went to college, got a degree, and then another one because I had so much money to waste.”
“But you’re from… whatever agency is signing your paychecks.”
She turned to him and smiled. “You’re helping the helpless and you also like making money. There are things you do for yourself, and things you do for others.”
Rose left the sidewalk and finally went inside. Foggy apologized to the few clients who’d been waiting for their appointments, promised that they’d call them back soon to reschedule, and hurried back to Rose as she was waiting for Matt to get changed. He got her to start talking, and he wasn’t about to give up on getting more answers.
“You think you need to protect people from Matt ?” he asked, looking at the closed door.
“No.” She stopped listening to his questions when she turned to the kitchen and watched William holding onto the sink for support. He was barely standing up anymore, and he hadn’t been able to take anything for the pain for a while now. “You two are going to the print shop,” she said.
“No,” they both replied at the same time.
She joined William by the sink and took the coffee pot from his hands. “You need painkillers. Foggy will drive you.”
“I have to find Karen,” Foggy replied, standing in the doorway.
“She’s right,” Matt told him as he was walking out of his office.
Rose turned around and frowned. She knew it’d take her some time to see him wearing the Daredevil suit. Knowing about him was a thing, seeing it was another. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, but she noticed that his eyes still weren’t looking at anything. He hadn’t been lying, but that fact only brought more questions into her already busy mind.
“You have to get him back there,” she said, turning back to Foggy. “Coming along would only put you in danger too. They’ll take care of him and make sure you’re safe.”
“He already has 3 hostages,” Matt added. “I don’t want to bring him another one.”
William didn’t even have the strength to argue anymore, making Rose even more certain of her decision. She tried to force him into holding onto her as they were going back to the car, but he refused, only to fall onto the passenger’s seat of his own car. She entered the print shop’s address into the car’s GPS in case he passed out and was unable to lead Foggy there and waited for the car to be out of her sight before going back to her apartment’s front door. Matt was waiting for her, hands on his hips, probably waiting for instructions that she didn’t have.
“What now ?” he asked.
She shrugged. They had no lead. Nothing. She was hoping that William would find a way to convince Marianne to give her something to work on, but in his current state that seemed compromised. “Back to Vanessa’s, I guess. We get her phone, you call Poindexter and ask him to meet you. He’s left Karen’s wallet for a reason.”
“You know it’s a trap, right ?”
Rose nodded. That was a bad plan, but she’d only come up with it a few seconds ago. “We don’t really have a choice.”
“You drive, I’ll join you in a bit,” Matt said, already walking towards the stairs next to them.
“Why ?”
“What ?”
“I have a car,” she explained. “Do you feel the need to jump from one roof to another for some reason ? There’s a car.”
He pointed at himself. “Suit.” He then pointed at the camera above her head. “New York.”
“They’ll all mysteriously get deleted,” she scoffed. “Wait here, I’ll get the car.”
***
As soon as Eva closed her eyes, hoping to finally get a second to rest, Karen helped Edward and they walked to the other side of their cell, a few feet away from its first guest.
“So…” Karen whispered. “How bad is it ?”
“It’s not the arm,” he replied. “What bothers me is the fever. When it spikes, I’m at risk of losing consciousness and not waking up. I need water, antibiotics, and an amputation,” he finished with a smirk. “How are you doing ?”
“It’s not the first time something bad has happened to me.”
“I know,” he said with a wink. “But it’s not what I asked.”
She looked at the closed door. “He’ll kill us when Matt gets here.” Edward didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. “He’ll never forgive himself for that,” Karen whispered, mainly to herself.
“I don’t think she will either.”
“Why is she doing that ?” she asked, turning back to face him.
Edward scoffed. That question alone required more time to be answered than what they had on their hands. “I think it’s because she believes in people like Matt Murdock.”
“Like Frank Castle ?”
“She’s still on the fence about that one,” he replied with a smile, remembering all of the conversations they’d had about the famous Punisher. “She has no doubts about your friend.” He looked down and sighed. “Has he been good to her ?” he asked. “Poindexter said something about them dating. Fleur told me she was staying with him, so…”
“Well, I… I don’t know if it’s really dating since-”
“I’m dying, Miss Page,” he stopped her. “The lies they told each other don’t matter to me. I just want to know if he was good to my daughter.”
“Yes,” she replied. “He cares about her. We all do. She’s, uh… she really is nice,” she finished, laughing.
He smiled at her, muttered something she didn’t hear, and slid his back down the wall. She checked if he was still breathing and conscious, and walked to the other side of the cell. Karen was still looking for a way out, but there was apparently none. She’d tried to open the door multiple times already. They were trapped, waiting for Matt and Rose to find them so they could die.
They should’ve trusted her, Karen thought. They should’ve told her about their suspicions. They would’ve worked together against a common enemy instead of against each other. But it was too late now.
Something clicked on the door. Eva immediately opened her eyes. She crawled closer to the wall, but Karen didn’t. As soon as Dex’s face was on sight, she rushed and tried to run past him. He effortlessly grabbed her and threw her back inside. She hit her head on the concrete. For a second, Karen thought that Eva was screaming. She wasn’t. It wasn’t her. She painfully lifted her head up and looked at Dex.
“Hello, Karen,” he said, barely covering the desperate screams coming from behind him.
Dex took a few steps back. The screams grew even louder. When he came back inside the cell, he placed Vanessa’s body down on the ground, and left.
***
At least Foggy’s constant flow of questions earlier had had the merit of making things less uncomfortable, Rose thought. After 5 minutes of driving in complete silence next to Matt, she’d begun to regret not having him take the rooftops. Now, after 15 minutes, she was even ready to turn the radio on. It had been so much easier when they were lying to each other. With the truth between them now, the silence was getting painful.
“I screwed up,” she said, still looking at the road. “With Vanessa. I, uh… When William and I went there earlier, I shot a vase. I wanted to scare her.”
Matt tilted his head towards her and nodded. “I threatened to send her to jail, knowing that it would mean that she’d never see her son,” he admitted.
“Yeah, I did that, too. When did you see her ?”
“After Dex went to your shop. I guess you weren’t talking to your insurance,” he sighed.
Rose tried to remember when that was. When she did, she closed her eyes for a second. “Holy shit,” she breathed out. “I went there, too. She was on the floor. That’s when you…” He nodded. “We’re both going to Hell.”
Before the uncomfortable silence settled again, Matt sighed. “I’m sorry I broke into your shop.”
“It wasn’t a real shop,” she replied, her hands tightening around the steering wheel.
“How you felt when it was gone was real,” he argued.
“I’m a really good liar.” She stopped the car and looked at him. “Helmet. I don’t have power over private surveillance.”
Matt put it on and followed her, wondering why after going to such lengths to find out about who he was, she was now trying to protect his identity. He also wondered why she’d lied about the shop, but he knew these were questions he’d probably never get answers to. He got to apologize, and that was as far as he’d get.
As they were crossing the parking lot, he checked on the building and stopped. “Wait,” he said, putting his arm in front of her. “There’s no one here.”
Rose furrowed her brows. “She’s got a full security team, bodyguards, a doorman and a driver. Her midwife is probably still there.”
“It’s empty.”
She pushed his arm away and rushed to the front door. She opened it herself for the first time and froze. “Shit,” she whispered.
They both ran upstairs, jumping over the bodies of what used to be Vanessa’s security team. Matt wasn’t hearing any heartbeat from them, but they hadn’t been dead for long. They entered the penthouse, calling for Vanessa. She never replied, and they met back in her living room after checking all other rooms.
Rose’s heart was racing. She was having a hard time breathing, her wet hands were gripping her knees. “I left,” she whispered. “I told William he wouldn’t come back; I should’ve stayed and-”
Matt put a hand on her back and helped her stand straight. “You’d be dead. William would be, too. Did you see blood anywhere inside ?”
“No.”
“He took her,” he said. “He wants her and the others for a reason.”
That didn’t help the guilt, but they were probably still alive somewhere. Rose looked around the room one more time. She’d threatened Vanessa. The only trace of violence in that room was the vase she’d shot herself. She took another long and deep breath before walking to the open kitchen on her right. She needed water before having a panic attack. She froze when she made it to the sink.
“Matt,” she called, “There’s blood on the floor.”
He joined her and kneeled by the large pink puddle. “Not a lot, but it’s blood,” he agreed, smelling the faint metallic scent. He focused on what wasn’t blood and frowned. “Not water, not urine.”
“She’s been drinking apple juice a lot.”
“That’s not it.” Matt stood up and looked behind him. “There’s more by the door.” They walked out of Vanessa’s apartment, stopped by a few more of these puddles containing the mysterious substance tainted with blood, all the way back to the parking lot. “I don’t think I’ve smelled that before,” he said. He turned to Rose, whose heartbeat was getting worryingly fast. “Are you okay ?”
Rose was paler than ever. She was staring at the last puddle at their feet and swallowed the node stuck in her throat. “I think Vanessa’s water broke.”
***
Over the past few days, Edward had done his best to remain calm and keep the pain away. He’d been successful so far. But now that a screaming woman had joined them, crying and kicking, begging for help, he was finding it hard to stop the pounding in his head. Each scream was shaking his entire body, and the fever was getting too high for him to keep tracks of everything happening around him.
A couple feet away from the injured man, Karen and Eva were trying to calm Vanessa down. No one could understand a word she was saying, but she seemed to be in a lot of pain. Karen tried to ask her what had happened, but Eva was slowly losing patience.
“Do you think that’s what matters now ?” she shouted above everyone else’s screams. “I’d like to know if my daughter is safe, too. But there’s a pregnant woman here, and she’s in pain. Your friend can handle himself, she can’t. You know her,” she added. “What’s her name ?”
“Vanessa,” Karen calmly replied.
Eva crawled next to Vanessa and held her hand over her belly. “Vanessa, hi,” she softly said next to her ear. “How far along are you ?”
Vanessa tried to talk, but another one was coming. She’d never experienced contractions like these before. This was more pain that she thought herself able to endure. These were starting in her stomach, but the pain was radiating all the way through her lower back and upper thighs.
“Almost 8 months,” Karen replied.
Eva waited for the contraction to end. “I think your water broke. Can I check how it’s going ?”
“Doctor,” Vanessa painfully said, panting.
“I’m not, but I had a child once. We’re all gonna take care of you until you can see a doctor, alright ?” Vanessa nodded, and Eva crawled back at her feet. She looked at Karen. “Take her hand and help her focus on her breath. Long deep breaths.”
“It hurts.”
“Even more when it hurts,” Edward said, joining them. “As long as your focus is on your breath, you’ll be able to manage the pain.”
Eva wiped her hands on the hem of Vanessa’s dress and checked on her cervix. She wasn’t a doctor, but some signs weren’t hard to read. She closed her eyes for a second and sighed. When she opened them again, she pulled on Edward’s pants until he kneeled next to her, a puzzled look on his face. “Is it her first ?” she asked. He nodded. “Good. I’ve heard it takes longer.”
“What-”
“I felt its head, Edward,” she whispered. “She’s having her baby.”
***
Not panicking was now impossible for Rose. It didn’t matter how many times Matt was telling her that it wasn’t her fault, she knew that it was wrong. She’d come and threatened a pregnant woman with a gun. Vanessa had no reason to want her father gone, no more than her mother. She’d lost it because she wanted someone other than herself to be responsible for it. She knew that she should’ve at least called her father to check up on him. She didn’t, because she’d decided that spending the night with Matt was more important. And now here she was, with another hostage. Two. Vanessa was probably having her baby. Rose knew nothing about childbirth and the time it took, but she didn’t want anyone to give birth and give Poindexter another hostage.
When she finally managed to breathe properly, she took her phone and kept ignoring Matt next to her. She was ready to face Marianne’s wrath if it meant finding the hostages faster. Before she was even able to call, an unknown number appeared on the screen.
“Who is it ?” Matt asked.
“Don’t know, but they’re calling the shop.”
“It could be him.”
Rose briefly checked around them, wondering if that man was hiding somewhere near. If he was watching them. “This is Rose Parsons,” she happily said, “how may I help you ?”
“So you’re done picking a name for good ?”
“Jessica ?” Matt almost shouted.
Rose checked her phone. “What- Why are you calling me ?”
A bottle fell on the other end of the line. Jessica swore but quickly went back to them. “Are you looking for the pregnant wife ?” she asked. “Because I just followed a van. It’s… less than a mile away from the docks ? There’s a heliport on top of the building.”
“How did you- I don’t get it,” Rose muttered. She turned to Matt and frowned. “Did you ask her to do that ?”
“When ?” he asked. “I haven’t talked to her since she lied to us about you,” he angrily added. “Jessica, have you seen Karen ?”
“No,” she replied. “And I’m not getting in there by myself. I’ve read about him, and I’m not bulletproof. Should I call someone who is ?” She mumbled something. “I’ve been following you, lady. You’re not very perceptive. But you know, I wanted to make sure you were telling the truth.”
“About what ?”
“Not hurting him. I’m waiting, get over here.”
Rose hung up and threw her phone back inside her car. If she wasn’t too worried about her father, she’d have told Jessica that she was impressed. Rose was a very perceptive person. She’d felt that she was being observed ever since she’d met the lawyers from upstairs. She’d never thought that Jessica Jones was one of the people watching her, and she was clearly an even better friend than she’d first thought.
“You’ve met her,” Matt said when Rose drove away from the parking lot.
“The night of Foggy’s dinner party.”
“She called us the next day.”
“I know.”
“I asked you out that same day.”
“Yeah, I know,” she replied in a quiet voice. “Let’s get them out, I really need to leave this city.”
***
When the morphine finally made its way through William’s system and he was thinking of asking to go back to work, Marianne stormed into her office, where she’d stored him and Foggy. Saying that she was pissed would’ve been an understatement. She took a deep breath and sat in front of them.
Instead of remaining quiet, like William had just decided to do, Foggy immediately leaned forward. “Madam,” he started, as if talking to a judge, “I don’t know who you are, but I can assure you that we all want the same thing here.”
“And what is that ?”
“Well… to get the hostages back ?”
“No,” she scoffed. “What I want is for people to follow protocol, not steal data and equipment to play cow-boy in the middle of New York. I also want civilians not to know about what I do for a living.”
“I have no idea of what you do for a living, I swear,” Foggy defended himself. “Big mystery.”
William looked up and shrugged. “They blew Fleur’s cover.”
“And she’s driving around New York with her target instead of being on the other side of the country !” she shouted. “You should be at your place, resting.”
“We should all be looking for Ed.”
“Keep digging, William,” she calmly replied. “You’ll be out of a job before you get out of that office.”
“But the host-”
“This is bigger than your friends, Mr Nelson,” she interrupted him. “I want them to be alive when we find them. But we have protocols in place to ensure that-” The phone on her desk rang. She hurried to pick up and raised a finger to shut the men facing her up. “Ballister.”
“Marianne?” Rose’s voice said. “How’s William ?”
“Alive,” he replied.
“For now,” Marianne added. “Where are you ?”
“We don’t know for sure, but it’s near the docks. Building with a heliport on the roof. We’re on our way and-”
“You’re coming back here,” Marianne stopped her, trying to keep her calm. “I’m sending a team to take care of the hostages.”
Rose scoffed. “He’ll kill them just like he killed the others. I’m with-” She stopped and sighed. “She knows who you are,” she whispered. “So yeah, I’m with Matt here, and Jessica Jones is also waiting for us on the scene.”
“You involved another one of them ?”
“She involved herself, but she’s there,” Rose corrected. “We’re gonna need a lot of medics, Vanessa Fisk is the 4th hostage and we think that her water broke. My father has been shot, and we don’t know about the others.”
“Fuck,” Marianne breathed out. “Stay out of it, we’re on our way.”
“Okay.”
Rose hung up, but Marianne kept holding the phone in her hand for a few seconds, looking at the men in front of her. Then, without Foggy understanding what was happening, she began calling more people in. Asked for more reinforcement. A sniper team. Two more to ‘collect’ things. The print shop, which had been filled with people so far, was getting empty at an alarming rate.
He leaned towards William and whispered : “All this for the hostages ?”
William slowly shook his head. “All this because Fleur has two of them.”
That didn’t help Foggy. His mind was all over the place. Rose didn’t have any hostages. People helping her, yes. But she hadn’t put a gun to Matt’s head again, he knew that it was only her way of keeping her friend safe.
When Marianne was finally done giving everyone their mission orders, she turned back to her prisoners and sighed. “You two wait for my call.”
“Okay.”
Foggy tried to follow her out, but William pushed him back into his seat. He asked what was going to happen, but he didn’t get a word in response. When they were all gone, less than 10 minutes later, William finally stood up and rushed to Marianne’s desk. He opened the first drawer, smiled at what was inside and threw a set of keys to Foggy.
“I’m too high to drive,” he said, already opening the office’s door.
Foggy’s eyes opened wide. “You want to steal a car ? She said-”
“She broke protocol first,” William insisted. “She should’ve put us in a cell until the end of the rescue op.” He looked at the hallway and then back at Foggy. “You’re coming or what ?”
Foggy immediately left his chair and followed him outside the office. That woman looked like she had the power to send him to jail for daring to breathe without her approval, but he was glad to know a bunch of very good lawyers.
***
When Rose put her phone away, tired of driving people around, Matt turned towards her and frowned. “I’m not waiting for your friends.”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Me neither.”
“Why did you call, then ?” he asked. “They’re gonna try and stop you.”
“They’ll get there too late,” she replied. “I just wanted them to know that you and Jessica Jones would be there.”
“Why ?”
She stopped the car and checked around them. Jessica mentioned everything looking the same, and Rose was starting to understand. It would be too long driving around, and she didn’t know if the engine was distracting Matt from finding their friends. She motioned him to get out and follow her. “Can you find them ?” she asked, reloading her gun.
Matt turned to the buildings behind them and pointed left. “There.” Rose quietly followed him, trying to be aware of her surroundings. “You didn’t reply.”
“They’re sending more help.”
“To arrest us.”
“No,” she scoffed. “But I might’ve just lost my job for endangering two of you.”
Instead of asking more questions, knowing that he wouldn’t get a clear answer to any of them, Matt simply showed her the way to the next parcels. They were getting closer to Jessica and the hostages. He finally stopped in front of a building. Behind them, Jessica jumped from the top of a shipping container.
“Hey,” she said. Matt crossed his arms. “I know I lied, but-”
“Why are you here now ?” he simply asked.
“Because I’ve been a shit friend.”
Rose took a few steps towards her. “I think you being here broke the terms of your deal,” she whispered.
Jessica briefly nodded at her. “She’ll live whether I get to see her or not. But that’s what she would’ve wanted me to do, so I’m coming.”
“That’s how they forced you to lie,” Matt breathed out. He joined Rose and faced her. “That’s what you’re going to do next ? Hold Foggy and Karen’s lives over my head ?”
She looked at him, her mouth wide open. Of all the things he could’ve assumed about her and her job, that was his first theory. “That’s how much of a bad person you think I am ?” she angrily asked.
“You can’t be trusted, you lied about everything !” he shouted.
“Because you’ve been very honest,” she scoffed. She took another step towards him. “You know what ? Maybe we will blackmail you. We might even start with your mother.” This time, it was his turn to be shocked. “Lying about the horns on your head, I can understand. But I’ve never lied about my family.”
“Okay,” Jessica intervened. “I’m really… happy, that you took whatever that is to the next level,” she said, moving her hand between them. “And this is another proof that I was right about neither of you having any taste, by the way. But I thought we were here for them ?”
Rose nodded and looked away from Matt. None of this mattered. They’d free the hostages, and she’d leave that city for good. It was a terrible nightmare she couldn’t wait to wake up from.
“They’re inside,” he said. “But everything is… muffled. I think it’s a cage.”
“Poindexter is inside ?” Rose asked.
“Yes.” He tried to focus on the little he could get from the inside. “Vanessa’s having her baby, and there’s another one… Man. Hurt.”
“But he’s alive, right ?”
Matt let go of the hostages and focused on Rose. It wasn’t hard for him to guess the state she was in, but she was the only one of them with a gun. Gun that she’d already pointed at a pregnant woman. Dex wasn’t Vanessa, and he’d kill her before she had the time to shoot. He looked at her and nodded. “He’s fine.”
She let out a relieved sigh. They got there on time. Now she only had to get him out. Help was on the way. She finally allowed herself to breathe and led the way inside the building. Once they were inside, the large doors they’d just walked through closed in a loud metallic noise.
Jessica glanced at them and laughed. “He could’ve just put up a ‘This is a trap’ sign.”
“He knows you’re here,” Matt said.
“I can still punch my way out of here.”
Rose turned to look at her. “Do you want to ?”
“I don’t have a car,” she replied. “You’re stuck with me.”
Rose took out her phone and called for Marianne. She placed the phone on the ground and kept moving. They had to move forward before they all arrived and located her. She only regretted not taking the flashlight from the trunk of her car, now that they were stuck in a windowless hangar.
Behind her, Jessica put her scarf up and whispered : “How’s her father ?”
Matt slowed down to get closer to her. He checked that they were far enough from Rose and shook his head. “Not good.”