Court wanted to put up a fight. Every bone in his body told him to. He had been used and now Kia was going to pay for his ignorance. He had been so- he couldn't even think he felt so betrayed and angry. He'd been studying her and watching her and he brought them straight to her! This was his fault!

The man came up and tapped Court's cheek, grinning. "It's okay. I'll take special care of your girlly here." He tried to jerk away, but found that a man had come up and put the barrel of a gun to his head. "Now, you're a smart boy. Don't do anything stupid." He wanted to yell out that if he was a smart boy then he wouldn't have gotten them into this position in the first place.

Instead, he watched Kia. She was standing still, her eyes calmly looking straight ahead. She looked fine, but he could see the muscles in her throat working and knew she was sucking on her tongue and he knew that if he would put his hand against her skin, she'd be trembling. God, he was so proud of her and so disgusted at himself for trapping her! He fucking did this!

He watched as his employer nodded to one of the men behind him and a moment later a man dressed in black Kevlar came around holding a tray with syringes.

"You can't do this to her!" Court yelled, but it was no use and he knew it. Two men held him in place as he was injected, his vision already starting to blur and noises starting to fade, but he was around enough to see Kia look away and whimper as she, too, got a taste of the dark side.

Kia knew when she woke up in the morning and found her shirt wrinkled that she was going to have a bad day. When she was run off the road, the day had gotten considerably worse, but this was topping it all off. It really was. She felt the loss of her mother, but somehow she felt prepared for it. There was something natural about her not being there with her. In some way she knew she'd been prepared for this moment when she'd lose her. Shouldn't she be more upset? She should be hurt and full of sorrow that her mother was gone! She knew it would come later when she had time to think. Now was not that time.

Now she was somewhere in a plane. She had already tried opening her eyes and surveying her surroundings, but there was a cloth over her eyes so it didn't matter. At least her hearing had returned and that was enough to keep her from hysteria.

"We're going down," someone said and she heard shuffling. Someone had probably just gone to a window.

"So, Kia, my darling, how are we feeling?"

She didn't know who this boss guy was but she really hated him. "As if you care."

"She still has bite!" he said with a slight laugh. "We'll cure that."

It wasn't until then that she noticed that there was an arm next to hers. It had stiffened when the boss man had made that last remark and somehow Kia knew that it was Court that was next to her. She had wanted to trust him. There was something likeable to him, but he's the one that had done this to her! He'd asked for her trust and her cooperation and looked what happened! What was going to happen to them? Did she really want to know?

She felt the plane jump and shake as it touched ground and she felt the whole thing shudder to a stop. A rough hand grabbed her arm and she almost cried out in pain. Instead she moved where he pushed her, blindly walking until he stopped and took off her bandana, pushing her down the stairs.

There were trees everywhere and humidity clung like a second skin. She practically tripped down the stairs and fell hard on her knees when she hit the bottom. The brusque hand grabbed her again and yanked her to her feet, pushing her forward through the mud into the brush. She tried to get a good look of where they were, but she couldn't. Nothing stood out. There were trees everywhere, the kind you see in a jungle terrorist movie, and the mist hung heavily above the ground. She could hear bids chirping and the rustling of Hell knew what, but none of that helped her situation.

Finally she saw a camp ground ahead. Her stomach turned over and over as they got closer. She knew that the boss-man and Court were behind her and she knew she wasn't going to like whatever was ahead in those tents. They didn't look welcoming and she was beginning to feel her breakfast coming back for a second go. No time for such trivial matters, Kia, she told herself. She had to keep going without worrying about her nerves. She had to come out of this bad dream!

They walked through the camp to the other side and she was thrust into a large canvas tent. What was in there? There were two cots. The end. There was no big secret, no big horrible man with torture devices. Just two cots. What was going on?

She was pushed down onto one and she waited while Court was thrown to the other. With efficiency, they each had their hands cuffed to each side of the cot so that they were on their backs on their own cots. Now Kia was getting nervous.

Boss-man stepped inside. "I don't know why I'm being so nice. Maybe because I'm a nice guy. Court, you've served your purpose. I won't be needing you anymore. Tomorrow we'll send you home." But Kia knew that wasn't what he meant. They were going to kill Court tomorrow. Why did that bother her? It shouldn't, but it did. "As for you," he turned to her, a slight twinkle in his eye. Tomorrow you and I will have a nice chat." He laughed and walked out of the tent, leaving mean, hard hand guy outside the flaps. "Good night, I suggest you sleep well, you have a busy day tomorrow."

Kia was sweating. She couldn't help it. She didn't want tomorrow to come. She didn't want to see that man ever again. She didn't want to be there!

She closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. She could do this. She would get through this. She wasn't quite sure how yet, but she knew she would. This would just be some story to tell her grandkids. Ha! Grandkids, like she'd ever have any.

She yanked on her hands, testing to see the resistance of the cuffs. Yup, they were sturdy. It wasn't going to just let her free. As if she could have walked right out of the camp anyway.

"Are you okay?"

It took her a moment to realize it was Court who had said something.

A sardonic laugh was the first thing she could come up with. "Oh yeah."

But she felt him staring at her. She refused to take her eyes away from the top of the tent, but she knew that he was looking at her. He was studying her like he had the past three years. Three years? Why hadn't she seen him prior to now? Was he that good? Was she that readable? Was he her paranoia?

"I don't know anything."

He sighed, but didn't look away. Finally, she moved her head so she could look at him. His hair was spiky with perspiration and he had beads of sweat dripping down his face. His eyes were searching, but she refused to give anything up. She would not give in to any of them.

"Tomorrow, you just tell them whatever you know or they'll keep at it until they're satisfied. Don't waste your energy or your health on trying to be brave and noble. It won't get you anywhere. Just tell them what they want."

That was chicken shit if she ever heard it, but it was reasonable. "I don't know anything so they can say all they want, but it won't make any difference because I have nothing to tell."

"Don't make it hard on yourself. They'll strip it from you."

"Tough luck for me then, huh?"

He wanted to tell her to drop the attitude, but he was beginning to understand that it was who she was. She wasn't pretending, she really wasn't as scared as she should be. She was going into this with eyes open and, for the moment, she was fully aware that tomorrow might end up being worse then any horror flick she'd ever seen. He on the other hand, had to get out of these cuffs. He refused to let them harm her. Sure, he had told her those things to help her set her priorities, but he hoped she wouldn't have to use them. He had to get them out of here or he would die trying, not the cowardly way they had laid out for him.

Evening out his breathing, he reached his hands down toward the ground. This was a really bad angle, but at this point, he wasn't worried about that kind of pain. When his hands found the base of the cots and where they met the ground, he knew he had a chore ahead of him. Of course they wouldn't let him just lift up the cot and slip the cuffs under it. They knew that with their body weights, the cots would sink into the mud and making it close to impossible to make a quick escape. Oh well, a longer one would have to do.

He grit his teeth and pushed his limbs further and further, pushing his fingers along the cot pipes as far as they would go. He had to get this loop from around the bar. He had to! Just as his shoulder was about to pop, his fingers cupped the bottom of the leg and he was able make a hole around it, just enough so that he could get the cuff-

The tent flap opened and a man strode in, Court jerked his arms back into place. Listening more carefully, he heard the bustling of activity. What time was it? How long had he been digging around the bar? Long enough that now the camp was getting up for their morning activities. Shit!

The man grabbed Kia, removing her hands from the restraints, and forced her to her feet, her eyes strained with stress and lack of sleep.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was like a mantra in his head when they left, his hands once again going to the end of the bar. He had to free himself. He had to get her before they did something that she couldn't take. Then his hand was loose and he was able to get to his feet, lifted the cot from the muck to free his other hand. Cautiously, he moved to the tent opening and peered out. Only the beefy guy was standing guard. That could be taken care of easily enough.

Reaching out, he swiftly snapped the gaurds neck and pulled him into the tent, dropping him onto the ground before moving back to the opening. There was no one else around and he was able to run to the neighboring tent, getting his bearing straight as he listened for clues as to where Kia was. It didn't take long. He could hear Starkly from a mile away. That little shit whom he trusted to lead him. His own damn boss!

He stiffened and leaned closer against the tent as a group of men walked by. When he was sure that they were past him and not coming back, he darted across the camp and crouched by the tent with the voices. All he needed now was a distraction.

Yelling came from down the way and he knew they'd discovered the body. It was now or never.