“Sit and eat,” he ordered as he checked me over, his sudden one eighty had me confused. I didn’t know if I could trust him or not, or even if I wanted him near me at this point, but the need to fill my stomach was greater than anything else at that moment. “I shouldn’t have let it get this far.”
I’d heard him mumble that last bit to himself, and it only served to confuse me more. Something wasn’t adding up here, and change in ‘living’ conditions, the sudden show of concern just didn’t make sense.
“Just spit it out,” I groaned between bites. I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was until now. I could only guess what I looked like but couldn’t give a shit as I was ravenous.
“I had an interesting meeting today, I met someone that’s extremely eager to get you back.” He stared straight ahead at the wall in front of him, his head rested in his hands, he looked almost as if he were ashamed. “There is more at play here than you are aware of Paige, and I need you to know I’m truly sorry for the way you’ve been treated over the last three days. And… the hand I’ve played in that.”
“Okayyyy,” At this point I didn’t have a clue what to say, I felt like I’d woken up and body snatchers had taken over the man before me. He ran hot and cold, and now he was just confusing me.
He sighed and turned to face me, I could tell he was debating with himself or at least the words he was searching for were having a hard time coming out. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, suspicion flooded me the longer he stalled. He got up and walked to the door, locking it before he turned on the T.V.
“That way no one will hear what I have to tell you,” he gestured towards the flat screen. Blaze had a serious look on his face now as he reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. “You’ve found yourself inside an FBI operation Paige, I know it’s through no fault of your own, however if you want to get out of this then I need you to start falling in line. I can’t keep you safe if you don’t.”
I almost choked when he made his confession, he should have given me warning before starting a twisted version of dinner theatre. Calmly I placed my sandwich down on the plate and looked him in the eye. “Tell me Blaze, did you fall and hit your head? If not I’d really like some of whatever it is you’re smoking because it must be some really good shit.”
“Don’t Paige, please don’t make light of this clusterfuck.” He sounded a little annoyed, but mostly resigned. Opening his wallet, he tossed it at me. Sure enough laying on top of my half eaten sandwich was Blaze’s FBI I.D.. Now I was just pissed.
“What the actually fuck?” I half whispered, half yelled, I wanted nothing more than to punch this guy square in the junk. I pushed the plate to the side and got up from the bed, I wobbled a little, and Blaze jumped up to try and steady me, but all that did was make me even more furious. ‘Don’t, don’t fucking touch me.”
I put a little distance between the two of us while I tried to calm myself down, this guy worked for the fucking government, and he had knowingly taken me hostage, and watched as I’d been abused. Suddenly, I felt a wave of nausea come on and made it just in time to empty the contents of my stomach in the waste bin next to the desk.
“All this time you could have helped me out,” I groaned, trying to steady myself as I stood back up. My nerves were shot at this stage, I straddled the line between laughing hysterically and curling up in a ball crying. “You allowed all that shit to happen to me, knowing you could have ended it at any time?”
“And would have blown my cover in the process,” He said unapologetically, picking up the trash can, Blaze placed it in the bathroom. “This investigation has been going on for almost a year, Paige, we could have ended it months back, however that didn’t come to fruition. I had my orders and I followed them, am I sorry for what you’ve experienced? Yes, and if circumstances were different I’d have made sure you weren’t a part of it.”
“But I am, aren’t I Blaze, and it’s no thanks to you,” I threw back at him, I’d heard the same speech a time or two from my uncle and cousin, I wasn’t about to let him off the hook that easily. “You’ve had plenty of time to come clean yet you chose not to.”
“Yeah okay then, if i had come clean in either of those rooms you were kept in, they would have taken me out on the spot, and then what?”
I let what he had just said sink in, it was true, there was no arguing with that but it still didn’t ease the sting knowing he could have got me out or let me go completely to begin with. Frustrated, I ran a hand through my hair, as I paced the room. “So my options are to either start to comply and then what? let those assholes do whatever to me or the abuse keeps going?”
“Comply yes, but only when you’re out of this room,” He started to clarify, his demeanor now a little calmer, I guess feeling as though I was becoming a little more amenable to his plan. “I have made it a condition that they don’t interact with you, it is clear that you won’t respond to them but you do somewhat respond to me.”
“Respond is a little bit of a stretch don’t ya think?” My words were more snarky than I’d intended, the annoyance was clear as Blaze shot me a warning look.
He stood up and made his way to the door, as he reached for the handle he paused a second, looked over his shoulder and shook his head. “Eat and shower, once you’ve rested properly we’ll go into greater detail of what I meant by complying, until then Paige try not to cause too much trouble in here, it will be easier for both of us that way.”