5. SUTTON

I woke in the confined space of a sleeping pod. At first, I thought I'd been buried alive. And then I saw the light at my feet where the curtain swayed. When I'd been here last, this place was different. Now, she had more people working under her. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in this place and under her thumb. Even now as I forced myself out of the pod with the strange hazy fog in my head, I knew I couldn't stay.

The layout was the same. I found myself nodding at people as they walked by with large over the ear headphones blasting music in their ears. I needed to find Maura and I needed to get my things and leave.

Dragging my numb, sleepy limbs, I walked along a hallway, one hand on the wall to keep myself steady.

It was a cheap shot for her to spike my tea and put me to sleep. On the outside, sure, she had a maternal image, but inside, she was controlling, and that's part of why I left. I couldn't trust her.

"Where is she?" I asked a familiar face. Star, the female who'd been outside my apartment when I came through the trash chute. "Where—is—she?" I asked, pausing between each word to get my point across.

"Huh?"

"Don't play stupid. Maura. Where is she?"

She rolled her eyes before nodding at the open door of the dining hall I'd been heading. Maura never left this place, if she could help it, so I knew she'd be around somewhere, and wherever she was, I knew she had my things.

A door opened as I got closer to the end of the underground hallway. Maura clicked her tongue at me. "You're cranky still," she said. "You're twenty-five, Sutton. Take a break, pop something for your nerves."

"Listen," I said, holding myself against the wall. "I wouldn't have come here. You picked me up."

"I did it for your safety," she said. "People were sniffing around, looking for a hacker in the area. I know all the hackers. So, I had someone head over to you when I got the alert in the code that shut your computer. Erased everything." She shook her head. "Your laptop is in here, with the rest of your things. I had to make sure it wasn't you. You've got to understand that."

"Why?" I asked, breaking out in a chuckle. "You're not my mom. You can stop looking out for me. And if you asked, I would've let you look at my laptop and I would've made sure you knew it wasn't me who stole that money. I'm not dumb."

"Sweetie," she said, extending a hand to cup at my chin. "The mafia don't play. They were ready to come for you. They were ready to slice and dice." She snickered at her own words.

"I would've let you look," I told her.

"I did, anyway."

"And?"

"I know you didn't have anything to do with it," she said, although it didn't reassure me. I knew I didn't do it. "But I want you to stay. I want to make sure you're protected."

"Against that big man who came into my apartment?" I asked, smiling at her as she looked me over. "Because I can handle myself. I took self-defense classes."

"It's not the big man," she said. "It's the entire Alexeyev family. They're looking for someone to pin this on. Not so they can put them in prison, but for someone they can use as target practice. It's not safe out there."

"I'll take my chances," I told her. "And maybe if you didn't drug people, you might gain more of their trust."

"It was sleepy tea," she said, the corners of her lips curling into a smile.

I knew it was more than that. It was drugs. It didn't matter what she said. Drugs were drugs, and she was pumping them through everyone in here. Stimulants and sleepers. She couldn't have my trust back even if she needed to save her life with it. "My things," I said, holding out a hand.

"I know you don't have anything," she said, slowly shaking her head at me like she was disappointed. "So, I'll give them back. I don't want you to leave. You know it's safe for you here. Safe from anyone who wants to come and destroy your life, because they will try, and they will come to destroy it."

I hadn't seen her in years, but suddenly she was an expert in my life. It was almost funny, or perhaps that was the drugs running through my system. "Like I said. I can handle things. They don't know what I look like, they don't know my name, so unless you've given them anything like that, then I'm sure I'll be fine."

Maura gave me one of her long stares, examining me.

I waited outside for her to bring me my things in my backpack. I had my laptop, some clothes, and a wallet with money and ID. It wasn't like I'd prepared to be attacked, if I'd been prepared, I wouldn't have waited in my apartment for the man waving his gun at me.

"I'll know if you've put a keylogger on this," I told her as I put my jacket on and flipped the hood over my head. "So—"

"I didn't," she said. "You're not one of our targets, but I'm here for you if you need me."

"I don't," I said, plainly.

Approaching the vault door, I saw her shaking her head. She thought this was her way to get me back. I was great at what I did. She would've wanted me to stick around and become part of her team. I was beyond that, far beyond wanting to come back. I took one last look at my mobile phone screen, double checking the time. It was the middle of the afternoon.

Outside the secret vaulted space, and out of the parking lot it was built within, I took in the cool, fresh air.

"Fuck," I grumbled, flicking my hood.

I walked back in the direction of the apartment. I wanted to know what the situation was. This man had acted alone, someone from the Alexeyev mafia. Everything I knew about them told me they weren't lone wolves, they did things together, one to watch and one to fight.

As the fog cleared in my brain and I grabbed a water and a hot dog from a vendor on the street, I continued to head back toward my apartment. I couldn't go back there, but I could scan the street to know what the current situation looked like.

There were police cars and more officers than usual near the building. Someone must've reported the gun shot, which meant now my apartment would be swarming with officers trying to piece together the events, and that meant my computer would've been taken in for evidence, and—

I paused on the street as a thought crossed my mind. There were things in that place I'd never want anyone to find, ever. It opened a pit in my stomach. If someone saw anything inside there, I'd die of embarrassment.

My sex toy collection. It started small, literally, small dildos, but then I liked to find unique ones. Monster cocks made of silicone and bright colors. I'd amassed quite the collection, and that collection might've made it look like I'd torn my ass to shreds, but that wasn't the case, my ass, when in that situation, was perfectly lubed and still perfectly tight.

Taking myself into the alley, I paused and pressed my back against the wall before drinking the entire bottle of water. My body was panic ridden. Those dildos had taken years to collect, getting that many again would've taken forever.

There wasn't any way I was getting back into that apartment, at least not until the police cars had left. I was kicking myself, not literally, but I should've been prepared for an event like that. I had the system on my computer to wipe the drive.

I made my way across the road to the coffee shop opposite the apartment building. It was nice there. I could charge my computer, use their Wi-Fi, and drink something to wake me, more than I'd been rudely awoke by the aftereffects of the drugs Maura had put in my system.

Picking spot in the cafe where nobody could see my computer screen and my back was against a wall, I felt like I could finally breathe.

My senses were alive with everything happening. People talking, coffee brewing and milk being steamed. The intense smell of coffee was like heaven, if heaven was overworked and understaffed, and the people talking had turned to arguing.

With my coffee in hand, I took a sip, trying not to get overwhelmed. I plugged my Bluetooth earphones in and relaxed my shoulders, rolling them around as the numb drugs were starting to completely wear-off.

I had the apartment wired with cameras, and that included a small camera overlooking the front door too. Unfortunately, any recordings they took were stored on the computer I'd wiped. But it was nice to see the apartment again, even if there were people inside, inspecting every detail, I was furious.

"Fuckers," I grumbled, barely able to hear myself through the loud music banging in my ears.

While the security footage floated on my screen, I looked through file history to see what Maura had been searching for. She hadn't touched a single file, or she'd erased her fingerprint on them. I ran programs in the background, trying to uncover any malicious programs she'd installed while I was knocked out.

Trust no one. A lesson I learned early on in my life. I couldn't trust anyone. A birth family who abandoned me, an almost adoptive mother who used me at every opportunity, and friends who tried their best to be nice, but all they wanted was for you to spy on their significant other. So, I had nobody, truly. I didn't mind it. I could hook up with guys whenever, and I had a skillset people begged me to use. I was alone by choice.

"Wait," I grumbled, spotting a face appear in the corner of the camera. Someone was examining my computer. They'd already laid a sheet of plastic, ready to unscrew and peel back the fixtures. "Santiago."

I knew him. He was another one of Maura's ‘adopted' street kids, except, he used Maura's last name, Zims. I suppose that explained why he wasn't underground with everyone else. He was working for the police now.

Maura had always wanted one of us implemented in different areas and departments. The more of us out there, the more control we had. From within the police force, Santiago would've had access to all types of data, and usually, I wouldn't be worried about someone having my computer, but if there was anyone who could uncover anything from it, it was Santiago.

"Fuck."

There was incriminating content on the drive. Evidence I'd collected. I'd been looking into the hackers who'd taken that money. It was a large amount, and there was a forum user, Cerbertaur, a mix between Cerberus and minotaur, who'd bragged. I assumed it was Maura, but now, I had no clue, and everything I'd found was on that drive.

If there was anything still on it. I had to get it first.

I needed to see what Santiago was doing.