Payton
PAYTON
I wasn't able to sleep the night before seeing him again.
As I sat on the shuttle and bumped along the tracks, I thought about what he told me the last time we met up in the room. He didn't answer my question about what he would do when he got out, and I worried I overstepped my boundaries.
Stupid.
There were also many times throughout the week when I had to remind myself again it was nothing but a ruse to get out of Deathgate. I was a human woman who worked at a casino not too long ago. He was a hardened Vinduthi mastermind criminal. It didn't make sense for us to mix. Maybe that's why he skirted my questions.
I was even slightly concerned with how much I thought about him. Fear rose in me that almost swallowed me whole.
What if my feelings get in the way, and we both get caught? What if I pushed too far, and now he wants to find someone else?
"Welcome, advocates to the prison on Deathgate. We hope you enjoy your visit. The shuttle will depart in an hour."
One hour. Only one hour with him.
I adjusted my suit and exhaled before walking out with the crowd of other advocates. I got more adjusted to walking among them. I felt like my role in the mission improved greatly, but I could fall and crash even harder with each thought I had about Havek.
My palms began sweating as I walked through security. They barely examined me as usual and waved me through. Thanks to the near-magical clothing Alkard and Tessi sent to me, I wasn't even scared about being searched, but I was terrified about seeing him.
Whether it was my outfit looking even slightly off to him or hearing him tell me all of it was an act, the nerves hit hard. I overthought every single part of the scenario, something I never did when working at the casino.
When I was employed there, I knew I was targeted, that I would get flirted with and possibly groped. With Havek, I was stuck between wondering if our fa?ade was really just that or if he felt the same way. The warring in my mind brought out some of my biggest insecurities and I wasn't sure how to handle it.
The door to the meeting room opened, and I took my seat as usual. My fingers ran over each other in circles while I stared blankly at the wall.
What if he doesn't show? What if he just needed the parts? He didn't tell me when he was leaving on the Deathgate Express. What if he's already gone, and I never find him again? Were those the only chances I had to be with him?
Just as I made more problems up in my head, the door to the prison side swung open, and in walked Havek, escorted by his usual guard. I sat up straight, put my shoulders back, and lifted my chin, shoving down any insecurities I had.
"Good morning," I chimed.
Don't sound too excited, Payton. What's wrong with you?
"Morning," he replied softly. The tone made me uneasy.
Has something gone wrong?
The guard left the room, and Havek turned to watch him leave. I watched his back muscles flex and felt my heart palpitate. Something wasn't right, and I was scared.
"Havek?"
He didn't respond. He only turned around and looked at me with a gaze I hadn't seen from him before.
He walked toward me, and I stiffened in the chair. My eyes remained fixated on his, and he didn't break eye contact until he reached me. His eyes closed, and he smacked his lips before exhaling and dropping his shoulders.
His lips twisted into something almost like a smile. "I'm sorry, Payton."
Shit. The mission is blown. That or he found another advocate. I'm useless after all. Maybe he had to rat me out to get less of a sentence for the crimes. I'm screwed. We're screwed.
"Sorry for what?" I smiled like I wasn't panicking so hard my forehead sweat.
"For this."
He grabbed me by the waist and stood me up quickly.
For just a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me.
My hopes were shattered when he spun me around and put me in a chokehold.
"Havek!" I sputtered, grappling for his arm.
He didn't choke me hard enough to affect my airflow, but he held me against him tightly enough that I couldn't wiggle out of his grip.
Then something sharp pricked my neck. My mouth dropped, and my eyes widened.
"Havek," I said through shaky breaths. "What are you doing?"
"Let me out ," he shouted while looking at the camera.
"Havek, don't do this! Please, I-"
"I'll kill her!" The shout echoed off the walls and hurt my ear that he bellowed into.
"Inmate! Put down the shiv!"
I glanced over at his hand. Shiv? How the fuck did he make a shiv?
He used a shard of glass, what looked like a part of a mirror, glued and tied it to the end of an already sharpened stylus. I was unsure if my neck was penetrated or not, but I was still breathing.
How could he do this, put me in danger like this? I was a fucking idiot thinking he felt the same way about me.
My rage overtook me. I was already trembling, but once the anger kicked in, it was more from a desire to tell him off or fight him than being afraid of him.
"Inmate!" one of the guards yelled, pointing their gun at him through the glass pane on the door to the room. "I said put it down!"
"I'll tell them you had a plan," I whispered to him with a sly grin on my face. "I'll tell them everything. You remember that, Havek? The plan we made?" I kicked him in the shin. He wobbled slightly but didn't go down. "What happened to that, huh?" At the end of my question, I screamed. "How could you fucking use me like this? I trusted you!"
"Stop squirming," he whispered in my ear in his usual, smooth voice.
"Why?" I yelled. "So it makes me easier to kill? What is wrong with you?"
"Payton, stop."
Something about the way he said my name snapped me back into the trance he had over me. That wasn't the same tone he used when he said, ‘sorry for this.' That was his real voice. The one that told me he would dream about me.
"Listen to me," he whispered again.
"Inmate!"
"The original plan was dangerous," he said while I continued to squirm. While I recognized the tone in his voice, my trust in him was almost completely shot. "It would have gotten you caught or killed. I need you to believe me." I stopped struggling as much as I listened to his words. "I couldn't let that happen to you."
His words strangely made my heart warm.
It made no sense. I was being held captive by the Vinduthi I fantasized about all week. Why should I trust him? He flipped the plan on me without even telling me, and I was in distress. Getting caught or dying were the worst-case scenarios, but why would he do that if he knew it would make me panic?
"Why should I believe you?" I asked angrily.
"Two reasons," he whispered while keeping his eyes on the guards at the door. "Number one, there's a shiv to your neck. Number two, I'm not a liar."
"Seems like you are to me," I replied quietly. "You've deceived me this whole time."
"I know it seems like I am, but I promise I'm not."
"Put it down, inmate, or we'll shoot!"
"Listen," he continued. "I know I shouldn't ask for you to trust me right now. That's the last thing I should ask for. But give me just a little more time."
"I could be dead in a little more time!"
"You really think I would let that happen to you?" he whispered angrily. "Are you insane?"
" I'm insane?"
I believed him and wasn't sure why. The thought that he could hold a weapon to my neck and still convince me to trust him almost scared me more than a gun pointed at us.
More guards showed up at both of the doors, and a large Mondian wearing heavy body gear emerged from the crowd of guns. "Give it up, inmate!"
That has to be the warden. Of course, they would put a Mondian in charge. Experts in battle, terrible with emotions.
"Let me out!" Havek screamed again, this time his arms trembling from the volume and desperation in his voice. If it really was an act like he said, it was a damn good one.
The point of the glass slightly pierced my skin, and I winced. I felt him pull it back slightly the second I flinched, and I knew he told the truth. He would have held it there if he really wanted to hurt me.
But what was the plan? We were surrounded, there were cameras and audio feeds on us, and the warden had been alerted to the chaos.
Wait. Is he going to have us shot in order to get on the Deathgate Express?
"Is your plan to get us both killed?" I snapped, looking at him over my shoulder, careful not to move my neck into the shiv.
"We're not getting killed," he replied with a quick glance into my eyes. "We're getting out."
"On the Express?"
He shook his head. "No. Something better." He stomped his foot on the ground, and my body moved with him. I kept my neck as still as I could, but the shiv still pressed into my skin a little deeper. "I'll kill her! You really want to risk the life of an advocate?" He chuckled. "I doubt the Federation would like to hear about that, warden!"
The Mondian laughed. I saw his mangled teeth through the clear visor on his riot gear. "Go ahead! What does she mean to me?"
"An overbearing visit from your bosses," Havek shouted. "Getting the rest of your boys tossed in here with the prisoners. How do you think that's going to go?"
"Let them visit! Why would they give a shit about a human woman? That's the least of the Federation's concerns!"
Shit. I don't think this is going how it was supposed to.
"Havek," I said quietly, my throat closing up as my eyes started to well.
He leaned his head down into my neck, placing his chin where the shiv was. I felt his breath on my neck but was too concentrated on the warden and other guards surrounding the room.
They weren't going to go for it.
It was only when I heard a clear whisper from him that I started to pay attention. "Five."
Five? Five what? "Five what, Havek?"
"Four."
He's counting down.
"Three."
My eyes darted to the warden as I watched him open the door to the room, a large rifle pointed straight at us. He was going to shoot through me to get to Havek.
I always knew the guards here weren't exactly knights in shining armor. But this made it painfully real. They didn't care what happened to us, as long as they didn't lose control of the prison.
"Two."
Why is he counting down to our deaths? This doesn't make any sense! "Havek, he's getting closer," I whispered as my knees went weak.
"One."
I shut my eyes and felt my heart race through my chest, my blood pumping so fast that I was surprised it wasn't spewing out of the slight cut on the side of my neck. I waited for the gunshot, but something else happened instead.
A loud explosion sounded from far away, followed by a loud rumbling that got closer and closer to the prison. It was so loud that I wanted to cover my ears, and the ground shook. Havek held me tighter against him and kept our balance while the guards and warden grabbed for the walls.
Alarms blared across the prison. "Emergency Override. Emergency Override." A monotone, robotic voice sounded over the intercom.
There was loud beeping and the sound of doors opening. All the inmates were free. Every door in the facility had unlocked.
"Zero."