22. CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 22

Chyler

Atlas and I left my apartment together but parted ways when he dropped me off near Madison’s townhouse. At this point, there wasn’t much more that I could hide from him besides Madison and Alexis. I trusted him to a point, but I would not risk their identities if our newfound relationship blew up in my face. Aside from the two of them, he knew everything else. I told him about Charlotte and our client who had hired her—us—to take out Roman Atwater.

I didn’t tell him whose house he was taking me to, and I had him drop me off almost a block away so that he wouldn’t know which one was hers. He might be protecting me now, but I needed to protect my friends, too. Once this was all over and the heat died down, I might be able to bridge my two lives together. But until then, all I needed was him. All I wanted was a future with Atlas. Sure, I would be choosing him over Madison when she so willingly chose me over Adrian. I was being incredibly selfish in that regard, and I don’t know if she would ever forgive me in the end for walking out on her after everything she had done for me. But she wasn’t alone; she had her parents—her family. I had no one in the end.

I found Madison and Alexis in the living room. Madison jumped up from the couch and ran over, pulling me into a tight hug.

“Chyler, I’m so sorry about last night.” She gave me a gentle squeeze and then pulled back, holding my arms in her hands and inspecting me for any damage.

Alexis would have updated her on what had happened either after she landed in Grand Cayman or waited until she got back here. Regardless, she already knew about what had happened after she left to pursue Roman and how it was the CIA who tracked us to the manufacturing plant and saw me standing over Michael’s bloody and mangled body. What neither of them knew was that Atlas worked for the CIA, and he was the one who caught me in the end.

“It’s alright, Mads. I’m fine. I’m here, and you got Roman.” I gave her a weak smile and ran my hand through my hair. “Let’s just get this over and done with. What’s the plan for tonight?” I was ready to be done with everything. I was no longer interested in working for Charlotte—for being the bad guy in all of this.

Madison gestured me towards the living room, and I sat on the couch next to Alexis while she took the chair opposite us.

“This will be a little different than we had expected. The client has requested a confession from Roman.” Madison flipped her hair over her shoulder and leaned forward, handing me a piece of paper with writing on it. Strange, but I'll bite…

“A confession?” I echoed. “Of what?” I gave her an incredulous look as my eyes drifted from hers down to the sheet of paper that she handed me. There was some information regarding Ataraxia, but it was very vague. I knew it was a drug that was going through clinical testing right now, but that’s really all I knew.

She shrugged. “Ataraxia. They want a confession from Roman that the drug is not new or stolen from a European lab. They want the truth about it. The whole truth.” I couldn’t help but scoff at the request.

If they wanted him dead, then why add in a confession for the drug? With Roman dead, everything would be shut down, and the drug would never even reach the market. It would become but a mere memory for anyone who was involved with it, to begin with. A confession wouldn’t change anything unless they now planned to keep him alive. Without Roman Atwater, there is no Ataraxia.

“Fine, whatever the client wants. I’ll get them the confession.” I sighed. I was running out of patience. I wanted to finish this job as soon as possible and get the hell out of here.

“Our last location is swarming with CIA agents and police right now, so we are holding Roman in the basement of the old soap factory.” Alexis pulled up her phone to check the cameras she had set up in the basement of the building.

We always ensured at least one camera was set up anywhere we handled our targets. Charlotte's one requirement was that everything be recorded and available for her if she requested it, and this would be no different. It wouldn’t surprise me if Alexis had connected her to the live feed already.

“Alright, so when do we leave?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

“Right now. We can’t waste any more time and risk him or us being found by the CIA.” Madison stood from her chair and crossed the room to grab her backpack from the barstool. “Let’s go, ladies. Our payday awaits.” She gave a saccharine smile and pulled open the townhouse’s front door. Alexis and I moved to follow her out the door, and I trailed slightly further behind her, pulling my phone out from my back pocket and shooting a quick message off to Atlas in hopes that he could keep our location hidden from the CIA.

Me: Soap Factory.

When we arrived at the old soap factory, Alexis dropped Madison and me at the back door of the building and left to park a few blocks away. We went inside and down the emergency exit stairs into the basement. I changed into my usual all-black attire in the back seat of the car. The hallway we took at the bottom of the stairs reminded me of a scene from Silent Hill. It was dimly lit, with a few lights flickering towards the end of it. It was cold down here; the walls and floor were solid cement.

Madison placed her hand on my shoulder as we approached the room where Roman was held, and I turned to look at her .

“You got this, Chy?” She gave me a weary smile, and I couldn’t help but feel the urge to tell her the side of the last night that she didn’t know. I wanted to explain to her what happened between Atlas and me, that he worked for the CIA, and I had fallen in love with him. I stood there for a moment, just looking into her beautiful green eyes, and wished that this cluster-fuck of a world we were in was different. I wished that we didn’t work for Charlotte, that we were ‘normal’—whatever that was anymore. I wished she had never chosen me over Adrian and had her happily ever after with him. That foundation Atlas chipped away at back at The Landing was crumbling underneath my feet, and I was heading for a free fall.

One more time. I just had to pack it all away one more time, and then I was free.

Catching myself in my thoughts, I breathed in deeply and pulled myself under—under the thoughts and emotions that threatened to break me apart. My eyes fell empty, my body grew lighter, and I flipped my switch one last time. I turned myself into the emotionless, unhinged monster that I had created all those years ago—just one last time.

Madison flinched and released her hand from my shoulder when she caught my change in demeanor. How I carried myself now made it evident that the Chyler she loved and cared about was no longer there.

I bit the bottom corner of my lip and gave her a feral smile .

“I wonder if Roman Atwater knows how to sing.” I turned the handle and pushed the door open, stepping into the large, open room and closing it behind me.

Roman was secured to a chair next to a long metal table. Unlike the other times we had done this, he was not sedated and didn’t have a hood on his head. Not like I gave a shit about his condition. He would be screaming in pain and then dead soon enough. I was more than happy to give him his fucked up ending.

“Roman Atwater.” I sang with a lilt tone. “Nice to finally meet you after all this time. Have a good vacation? I’ve heard so many great things about the Cayman Islands.”

I picked up the knife on the metal table beside him with a smile that dripped malice. I slid the blade along it, making a sharp, scraping noise.

“It was lovely, actually. But I know you didn’t bring me here to discuss where I’ve been hiding out all these months. So why don’t you just skip the pleasantries and ask me the questions you really kidnapped me for.” He was so calm and unfazed by this situation that it pissed me off to no end. Not even an ounce of fear was showing in that calm fucking facade of his. I bit my cheek as I gripped the knife tighter and moved to stand directly in front of him.

“You don’t tell me what to do, you piece of shit. I am in control here. You are the one strapped down to a chair in the basement of an old building. Not me.” I hissed, and my eyes darkened as I glared down at him, taking my knife and setting the flat part on his shoulder, then dragging the sharp point along the side of his neck. I was going to make him bleed for days. Even if I had to drag his body to a new location later, I would give him the slow, agonizing death he deserved.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that to intimidate me, sweetheart.” He chuckled as if this was breakfast at fucking Tiffany’s.

I snapped. My vision bleeding red like it always did when the monster inside of me took over. When I lost complete control over myself. I pulled back and stabbed the knife into his shoulder, making sure it was in a spot that wouldn’t hit a major artery. He clenched his jaw and groaned from the bite of the blade. He didn’t scream, he just smirked back up at me like some psychotic asshole. What the fuck was wrong with this guy?

“You think you’re the first to come after me?” He gritted out. “To torture me? Try again.” His laugh was twisted and sadistic. It turned my blood cold, even with my switch flipped. If I were a monster, then he would be a demon that had crawled out of the pits of hell. “I know how this world works and how to beat everyone in it. I’ll tell you whatever your client wants to know because, in the end, it won’t matter. I always fucking win.”

I let go of the knife and punched him across the face, and when he turned back to face me, I punched it again. I punched him three more times before I felt my knuckles bruise and the skin break from the hits. He spat a mouthful of blood on the floor.

“With what you did to my employees, you’re no better than me, sweetheart. Your soul is just as dark as mine. We take lives, just in very different ways.” He hissed through his teeth, and he licked the rest of the blood from his lips. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. Taking lives? I thought he was trying to release a drug that saved and restored lives, not take them.

Roman laughed again, throwing his head back and turning his gaze to whatever got his attention behind me as he lifted it back up. I heard the click of a gun being loaded and turned to look over my shoulder.

“Welcome to the show, my friend,” Roman said amusedly. “I see you brought the gun; much more fun than her tiny knife.”

My eyes widened, and my gaze locked onto the one person I did not expect to show up here—the one person whom I thought was trying to keep the CIA off of me until I could finish my job. Staring at him, I snapped out of my off-state, and my heart began pounding in my chest.

It was Atlas.

And he had a gun pointed at both Roman and me.

Atlas was raging inside. The hand holding his gun shook uncontrollably from the fury that threatened to spill out of him. I wasn’t sure what to do; I didn’t understand why he was here and not back with the CIA, preventing them from finding us here.

Was the rest of the CIA with him? Did he lie to me and set me up? I was so confused that my head started spinning. Was he here to kill me? After everything that had happened between us over the last twenty-four hours? Doubt began settling into my bones, and I knew I was out of my mind to think he would risk his own career and life over me. What a joke I was.

“Atlas put the gun down. Please .” I held my hands up, taking a single step towards him. If he was going to kill me, I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“No, Chyler. This motherfucker’s life is not yours to take” His voice was dripping with venom, his gaze turning savage. “It’s mine.” He ground out; his breathing was so heavy that his shoulders rose and fell with each intake and release of air. He looked like he had sprinted across the city to get here in time. I don’t understand what is happening right now.

“What are you talking about? You and the CIA were protecting Roman. Trying to prevent us from taking him out.” He never confirmed any of that information with me, but I don’t see any other reason for the CIA to have tracked us to that manufacturing plant where we tortured and killed Michael unless their goal was to stop us.

“That’s where you are wrong. I was never trying to stop you. Even from the very beginning, I have always been after Atwater. I’ve always been helping you.”

I? He was after Roman?

His gaze snapped to mine as I took another step towards him, hands still raised. His stunning eyes, which burst with blues, greens, and browns, prevented me from moving any further. Why didn’t he tell me this last night? Why reveal himself now?

“Tell me, Atlas,” I spoke softly .

“You wouldn’t understand.” He gritted out through his teeth, his jaw clenched tightly.

“Try me.” I needed him to open up to me. I surrendered myself to him; he could do the same in return. I wanted to understand what was going on and how he was involved in all of this—because apparently, I was wrong about everything up until this very moment.

“I was your client, Chyler. I was the one who hired Charlotte to track down Atwater.”

No… Disbelief hit me like a tidal wave, and my eyes widened, my pulse beginning to race.

That couldn’t be… This entire time…

“Wait, so you knew who I was all this time?” I scoffed. Un-fucking-believable.

He wanted to accuse me of not sharing the skeletons in my closet with him when we started getting serious and vulnerable, but this— this —was worse than what I had hidden from him.

“No, I didn’t know you were working for Charlotte—at least not until I caught you at the warehouse. It’s why I let you get away—aside from the fact that I had fallen in love with you, I needed you to finish the job and find Atwater for me. To lead me to him before you took him out. That is why I added the confession layer to your job at the last minute. I needed to buy myself time to find you. I wasn’t planning on you giving me your location so easily.”

“But you work for the CIA. Why hire Charlotte in the first place? Why do you want him dead?” I couldn’t wrap my head around his words; this whole time, I believed the client was simply out for revenge over the drug being stolen—a way to prevent him from releasing it and taking all of the credit for something that wasn’t his, to begin with. But now…

What was that he said about taking lives but in different ways?

Atlas released a dark chuckle, the sound sending shivers down my spine. This side of him was turning me on—the good guy gone bad. The hero turned villain.

“I hired Charlotte to track down Atwater because even with the resources of the CIA, I couldn’t get my hands on him; I needed the additional help. But you were so quick to violence with your questioning of employees for information that you attracted the attention of the CIA. I had to get involved to redirect their focus so you could get the job done.

“The transfer to the Minneapolis Unit? That was all part of my plan. I pushed them to send me instead of two other agents who were more than qualified for the job. I had to be here so that I could give you more time, and when you finally got the information needed to catch Roman, I would be right here to take care of him myself.”

“But that doesn’t answer my question as to why you want him dead. Ataraxia is a stolen drug from a lab in Europe; what does that have to do with you?”

“ Everything , Chy.” He yelled. “It has everything to do with me because that drug murdered Kaleb. This piece of shit right here murdered my brother.” He gestured the gun at Roman, ready to pull the trigger and end his life within a split second .

I froze in shock at his words. Roman killed his brother? Was the drug overdose a cover-up?

“Atlas…” I whispered under my breath. I could feel my heart squeezing in my chest. He told me his brother had died when they were nineteen from a drug overdose. Was Ataraxia the drug that killed him? But I thought it was designed to cure addiction... And how was it even available back then? The more information he fed me, the more questions I had.

“ Ataraxia , the drug Atwater here is trying to release, isn’t new; it’s a drug that he previously tried to release but had to pull it due to problems with the formulation. Ataraxia is a rebrand and rework of an older drug that backfired—killing hundreds of clinical trial patients, including my brother, Kaleb.”

“You told me Kaleb died of a drug overdose. I don’t understand; Ataraxia cures addiction.” I looked at him with disbelief. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Atlas blew out a sigh and continued, “Kaleb had a drug problem when we were seventeen, and it spiraled out of control by the time of our eighteenth birthday. That’s when we heard about the first version of this drug, only back then it was called Relessen . It was being marketed as a drug that could save addicts’ lives. That it would cure my brother’s addiction. We couldn’t afford to wait until it was available to the public; they claimed it would take years to be approved, so he enrolled in their clinical trial program instead.

“They gave him a bottle of pills that he was instructed to take every day for three months and then slowly taper back to one pill a week afterward, provided there were no adverse side effects. They didn’t disclose any documentation regarding what was in Relessen . That information was strictly limited to those participating in the program. If Kaleb wanted to continue receiving the drug for free, he couldn’t talk about the trial or any information they provided him. If he broke his non-disclosure, they would remove him from the program and charge him for whatever he had already taken. He couldn’t afford it, and my parent certainly couldn’t either. The trial was his only option, so we never pushed further.”

Atlas ground his teeth as he spoke, the anger and rage clear as day in his tone. The more he said, the more my heart broke for him and Kaleb.

“After the drug began to take effect in the first week, we didn't have any doubts about it. Sure, it seemed too good to be true, but then he was clean for six months, and we were all getting back to where we were before his addictions had started. He was my best friend again, and we were closer than ever. However, in the last six months, everything started crashing down on us. He started getting sick, one unexplainable symptom after another, until eventually, one year to the day that he took his first dose… He died. Multiple organ failure.”

I couldn’t help but think back to my parent’s accident and how the driver of the vehicle that hit ours survived the crash but died of multiple organ failure a few days later in the hospital. The gears started turning in my head, and I thought about our age difference. I was fifteen when my parents died, and he was nineteen when his brother passed… I was twenty-six now; if I’m not mistaken, Atlas is thirty. I caught his birth year on his driver’s license when we were carded at the sports bar on our first lunch date.

Holy shit… the driver was a clinical trial patient…

My mind fell back to when I was dropped off at Madison’s house all those years ago, when the social worker was telling her family about my parents’ accident.

“Chyler’s parents died in a tragic accident. She is still emotionally recovering from the events of that night. We don’t believe she has properly grieved the heavy loss of her parents, but with time, she will start to heal. I can only imagine what she is going through inside her mind… In regards to the accident itself, they were hit by a suicidal driver. The driver had survived the accident and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. A few days after being admitted, the day they were supposed to be released, they died of multiple organ failure. Sudden and unexplainable. The doctors said they believe a drug overdose caused it…”

Coming back into myself, my eyes were glistening over from the memory. I looked at Atlas and felt my breath quicken and my pulse starting to race. Anxiety was pulling me under with the heavy realization that the driver who killed my parents was trying to kill himself before the drug did.

Atlas’s voice washed over me as I started growing numb.

“The doctors couldn’t give us an answer to the cause of it. It just came out of nowhere. Sudden and unexplainable is the terminology they used when they first told us. One day, we were out celebrating one year of him being clean, and the next, he was in the morgue of the hospital .

“ Relessen was not a single-dose cure for addiction; it wasn’t strong enough, and it required long-term use to remain effective. Most of the participants in the trials relapsed once they stopped taking it, and the rest—those who continued to take the drug, all met the same fate as Kaleb. They all died of multiple organ failure one year after their first dose. We were told that some of those patients who figured it out attempted to commit suicide to escape their already sealed fate.”

I cursed, my knees becoming weak and threatening to collapse from under me.

“Kaleb was poisoning himself faster than the drugs he was addicted to. His solution killed him faster than his problem would have. It destroyed his body; it was a death sentence in a bottle with a cheap printed label that promised life —release from addiction.

“Once word got out that Roman’s drug was killing its users, he pulled everything out of public view and had the DEA cover up his mistake. No one ever knew the full extent of what had happened, the death toll—Kaleb's story. Because he was a known addict before the trial, they covered up his death, declaring it an overdose. AN OVERDOSE. ”

His voice cracked with his last words, and he let out a choked sound, running his free hand through his hair, tugging at the strands, then running it down his face. He still held the gun pointed at Roman’s head.

I had never seen a man so broken—so hell-bent on revenge for a love lost. I couldn’t help but see my parents standing behind him, their hands on his shoulders, trying to comfort the broken soul standing before them.

They would have loved him, too.

I loved him even more in this moment.

We had a common enemy in the end. Roman Atwater.

“I waited eleven long, excruciating fucking years to find Atwater and get revenge for the loss of my brother, my best friend. Kaleb was everything to me, and he took that away with the simple promise of life. That is why his life is mine to take. I am owed his life for Kaleb's.”

I swallowed and nodded, attempting to take another step toward him. When he let me, I continued further. Three slow steps later, I was standing chest to chest with him, my eyes not breaking their hold from his.

“I’m so sorry, Atlas. If only I had known…”

He cupped my cheek with his free hand, and I brought mine up to cradle the back of it, pressing my cheek firmly into his warm palm.

“I know, but now you know the truth and why I am the one who is going to kill him.”

I broke our contact and looked to where Roman was still strapped to the chair. He was right. This wasn’t my life to take; it was his, and I would let him have it.

Nothing mattered anymore, only him. I was finally free to love him.

The sound of heels clicking on the cement ground echoed through the room, interrupting us, and Roman began laughing in his chair, a twisted and dark laugh. I turned to look behind Atlas and found a woman walking towards us. She was wearing glossy black heels and a dark crimson fitted suit. Her deep red hair was pulled back into an elegant bun. Her lips matched her outfit and hair, a blood red. She stopped a few feet away from Atlas and me, crossed her arms over her chest, and grinned as she took in the scene before her, setting her gaze on Roman.

“Took your sweet-ass time getting here, baby.” He spoke, lifting his head to meet hers, and licked his lips.

The woman sucked on her teeth and then clicked her tongue, “I warned you this would happen if you weren’t careful, but look here; I’ve delivered you the client that wanted you dead.”

I knew that voice…

“I’m strapped to a fucking chair and had a knife at my throat. You could have prevented that by keeping your bitch in line, Charlotte.”

Charlotte? No…

“Charlotte?” I turned my head between Roman and the woman in utter disbelief. “That’s not possible; why would Charlotte be working with you.” I gave Roman a pointed stare. This couldn’t be possible. Why the fuck would Charlotte work for Roman if Atlas hired her to kill him. How the fuck? Am I in some kind of twilight zone?

“Because, like all good girls, Charlotte listens to money.” He gave a smug smirk and chuckled. Charlotte sighed and inspected her nails, rolling her eyes at him .

“Oh please, you know I own you, Roman. Don’t even fucking try to act like the big man here; you are nothing but a worm under my heel. I’m the reason you can get away with anything and everything, not the other way around. Your enemies are wising up.” She spat.

I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around their exchange.

“Charlotte, what the fuck is going on?” I blurted out. I have never seen Charlotte in person; no one has ever seen her. Why was she suddenly showing her face now, and why was she here? The mystery woman I have worked for for over three years stood before me in all her fiery-red-queen glory.

“Let me just keep this short and sweet for you, Chyler… Atlas here hired me to kill Roman because of his brother, and I’m sure he’s already told you that story—so I won’t bother boring you with repeated details. But Roman reached out to me recently to go after whoever was hunting him down. When he found out it was us, I couldn’t refuse the deal he offered me. So, of course, I am handing our client over to our new client.” She gave a smile that oozed malevolence.

“No,” I growled. “You aren’t going to lay a finger on him.”

That is where she was wrong. No one touched what was mine, and I would not let her take Atlas from me. I tightened my grip on my knife and moved to step towards her.

“Ah, ah, ah.” She waved a finger in front of me and chuckled. “Now, that’s not the way I trained you, Chyler. Seems like someone needs a refresher .” She cooed and snapped her fingers. “Girls. ”

Madison and Alexis entered the room, and without a single second of hesitation, I was shot in the chest with a dart, my vision slowly turning hazy and my limbs becoming weak. I looked at Atlas; he had fallen to the ground as I fought whatever was in that dart.

“Madi—” I breathed out as the darkness claimed me, and I collapsed to the floor next to Atlas.