Avenged (Altered #2)(20)

He sat. He didn’t delude himself that this would be an easy meeting. No reason to stir trouble unnecessarily.

“Thank you.” Fields grinned, as if praising a student’s correct answer. “Now. Mr. Rickles has informed me that you roomed with him in San Antonio.”

“That’s right.” Nick turned to glare at his former roommate. “I took him in when he needed a room.” Bastard.

“He says you are friends with Seth Campbell, as well.”

He grunted. If this asshole thought he was going to find out anything about Seth or Blue from him, he was sorely mistaken.

“Where are Mr. Campbell and Miss Blueberry Michaels?”

Nick shrugged.

Fields tsked. “Mr. Degrassi. Now is not the time to be silent.”

“Don’t know where they are.” Which was true technically. Idaho was a big state. “We split up.”

The doctor’s mouth thinned. “Split up, you say. Exactly where did you go?”

Nick remained silent, only staring at the doctor. Their eyes held for a heavy moment before Fields’s brow dropped.

“I see.” He made a clicking noise in the back of his throat before nodding to Jeremy, at Nick’s left side.

The punch came fast and hard. The uppercut landed on his left jaw. His head jerked back and to the right, wrenching his neck and sending pain slicing along the entire side of him. Then, the agony of the blow started to set in. He gritted his teeth before he realized he must have bit his lip or tongue or something. His mouth filled with blood.

He spat the entire mess of it in front of him, at Fields’s feet.

“Now, then. Let’s try this again.” Fields folded his hands in front of him. “Where did you go?”

Still recovering from the punch, he glanced around him, taking stock of his options. Wincing, he recognized that things were about to get worse for him. As the pain laced through him, his priorities clarified.

Fields wanted answers. Nick needed to decide what answers he was willing to give.

Who sent him? Fine. They would be able to find that out easy enough on their own.

But there was going to be a lot here that he wasn’t about to spill, no matter how much they tried to beat it out of him.

His best bet was to convince them he didn’t know much.

Realistically, it made sense. He was a twenty-one-year-old new special ops soldier. How much could he know?

Maybe he could learn something in return.

“I went to Major Martins, at Sam Houston, and I turned myself in.” It was the perfect olive branch. It gave the impression of helpfulness without actually being helpful.

Fields smiled and nodded over Nick’s head, presumably at Jeremy. “See? I told you he only needed to see it our way.”

Nick smiled back, but it felt nasty. Rage boiled inside him, and he swallowed it down, the taste of blood still tangy in his mouth. “I aim to please. But the real question, doctor, is where did you go?”

Fields tapped his chin. “Now, now.” He gazed out the window. “Why are you here?”

“I came to get Kitty.” No real secret there, either.

“Such a knight in shining armor.” Jeremy sneered at his side.

“Well, I felt bad.” Nick glared at him. “If I’d known how much of a dickhead my roommate was, maybe I could have stopped her from being trapped here in the first place.”

The second punch caught him in the mouth. Those always hurt, with the face involved. But it had been worth it.

“Mr. Rickles!” Fields’s voice had sharpened. “This isn’t your interrogation.”

“Yeah, Mr. Rickles,” Nick added with as much of a grin as he could work up with his lips throbbing. “Keep your fucking mouth shut.”

Fields scowled. “Why would they send you?” He asked the question off-hand. “Why not choose more qualified people?”

That didn’t seem to deserve comment so he remained silent.

“There are more.” The doctor nodded. “Who is it?”

Here’s where the ride started. “There’s no one else.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Sorry about that.”

“This will be much easier if you tell me what I want to know.”

“Yep.” Nick smacked the end of the word. “But that doesn’t mean I know anything.”

Fields sighed. “You leave me no choice, then.”

Jeremy stepped in front of Nick, massaging his knuckles.

In response, Nick smiled at him.





Chapter Seven


The door swung open on a shriek. Jeremy and another guard shuffled in, dropping Nick in a bleeding heap in the middle of the room. He coughed, curling in on himself.

Kitty didn’t remember getting up from the bed or going to his side, but that’s where she ended up. On closer inspection, his face was broken, bruised, and bloody in countless spots, and he rubbed his ribs as if there was also damage she couldn’t see.

She glared at Jeremy from the floor, rubbing her fingers on Nick’s arm, afraid to hurt him more than he was. “He’s a mess.”

He shrugged, patting his hands off on his pant legs. “He wasn’t telling Fields what he wanted to hear.”

“Fields didn’t hit him.” She heard his smug triumph. “You hit him.”