Then Saturday night... he and Kara put work aside and enjoyed a night alone. The team had returned to Quantico, and Ryder convinced him a little R & R was in order. Matt remembered that... Reid was in jail, the investigation shifted to Flagler County, they could let their guard down. All the teasing and anticipation during the week they were undercover had culminated in maybe the best sex Matt had had in his life. Then...
What?
What happened Saturday night?
Sex... dinner... sex... sleep... morning sex... then they went to the resort gym to have a friendly racquetball game. Matt won, but he had to earn it and was wiped out.
“Lucky you,” Kara had teased as they walked back to their beachside cottage. “You get to decide on whether we eat first... or have sex.”
“Food,” he’d said, “I need energy.”
She’d laughed and kissed him. He’d never seen her so relaxed... socontent.They were both workaholics, but Saturday night they’d promised each other twenty-four hours without talking about work or the case. It had been bliss.
He’d ordered room service, and they enjoyed brunch on their patio. Their flight didn’t leave until ten that night so they were discussing what they should do that afternoon—after eating, having sex, showering, and packing.
“Maybe we should check in with Detective Fuentes before we leave town,” Matt had said as he drank coffee.
“I win!” Kara had fist pumped into the air.
He’d moaned. He had completely forgotten the bet he’d made her Saturday night over dinner that she would be the first to bring up work. They didn’t actually bet anything except bragging rights...
Then what happened? Think, Costa! What happened after was crucial to figuring out where he was, where Kara was.
Matt remembered they were eating brunch on the patio. Kara was drinking a mimosa and enjoying the late morning sun. She’d said something... he didn’t remember what... and then she got up and stumbled.
“What’s wrong?” Matt had jumped up as Kara fell to the ground. His head felt thick and his vision began to fade.
“Poison. We need to throw up,” Kara had said, putting her finger down her throat.
But she couldn’t make herself puke, and was then lying prone. He’d tried to get to her, then felt a sting in his shoulder and...
Nothing. He remembered nothing else. His hand unconsciously went to his shoulder, still sore from whatever hit him. A small, hard welt had risen from his skin.
The sting... he’d been tranquilized. Their food had been drugged, then they had been tranquilized.
Except Reid was in jail awaiting arraignment. If he had been released, Fuentes would have told Matt... wouldn’t she?
Matt didn’t know what to think at this point, other than he needed to find Kara.
“Kara!” he shouted.
He didn’t hear her, didn’t smell her, couldn’t even sense her presence.
Matt rose, his legs weak, but they held him up. In the dark, he couldn’t tell the time of day, how long he’d been here. Based on his stiff, sore limbs, it had been hours since he’d moved.
Kara had felt the effects first, but she was smaller than he was. What had they been dosed with? And then the tranq—it had impacted him like a brick—was Kara okay? Was she conscious?
Was she alive?
Slowly, using his hand against the wall to judge where he was going as he looked for Kara or an exit, he shuffled along, mindful that her body could be anywhere.
He reached the corner almost immediately, maybe ten feet from where he’d woken up. From the corner he paced off the next wall. He stumbled over several items, unsure of what they were. Maybe a chair, maybe garbage. He counted off the size of the room. Ten feet. Twenty. Thirty. No door, no shelves, just what felt like cinderblock walls with the occasional small obstacle. At about thirty feet straight ahead he felt a metal door. At first he thought it was a way out, but as he searched for a handle, he noted it was flimsy metal and there were ridges equallyspaced apart... a row of lockers? He walked along the row, counting. Twenty of them, each about eighteen inches wide. That made the room roughly thirty-foot square. The lockers ended and he felt another door.
Solid metal, but with a glass window. Thick by the feel, no light on the other side—either it was blacked out, or the other side of the door was just as dark as this room.
He tried the knob.
It wasn’t locked.
