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Nathan smiles softly. “I won’t forget.”
Carter swallows hard before nodding. “Okay…”
“Be good for Ace. Let him take care of you.” Nathan tugs the corner of the blanket up. Carter hadn’t noticed it was slipping. He suddenly feels much warmer, though he doesn’t think the blanket has all that much to do with it. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Carter eyes Ace one more time before taking a decisive step towards the SUV.
When he looks back at Nathan, the man is already gone.
It takes 2 SUV swaps, a helicopter ride into the mountains, and one more SUV to reach the safehouse. The place is bigger than he imagined. It's also not empty - guarded by a rotating staff of men that Ace explained are semi-retired. Like Nathan had said before, an agent can only work on an operation once. Then they've blown any possible cover. Men who want to stay involved in this life can guard safehouses, work backend jobs like technology or training, and provide backup for operations like men did tonight at the party.
Ace walks them down a long hallway, explaining that this is the biggest safehouse in the safehouse network since they expect a lot of survivors to want to come here, at least at first while they gain their bearings. Carter's room is right across the hall from Casey's. It's fancier than he thought it would be. He's too overwhelmed to ask Ace if they're all like that, or if it's special treatment.
“Have you heard anything?” Carter asks, his throat tight and voice rough. “Are they safe? On their way?”
“They got all the survivors out without incident, I know that much. But they haven’t finished yet.”
“What’s left?”
“They’ll set the building on fire to cover-up the murders.”
Carter wraps his arms around himself, wondering how long something like that should take.Not too long, right?And it shouldn’t be all that dangerous. The people are all knocked out or dead already.
Nathan will be fine.
He has to be.
“Do you want our medic to come check you out?” Ace asks.
“No, thank you.” Carter tugs at the clothes on his body, the fabric itchy and painful against his skin despite not having any fresh injuries. Maybe because they were given to him by Ace instead of Nathan. Maybe because they smell like generic detergent instead of the lavender stuff they use at the mansion.
He starts to strip the clothes off, not caring that Ace is standing right there.What’s one more person seeing him naked?Hell, Ace already saw him naked earlier anyway.
“There’s – uh – there’s food,” Ace says awkwardly. “I could bring you food?”
“No, thank you.”
Carter walks to the bed like a zombie. It’s about the same size as the one from the mansion, but it feels impossibly cold and empty as he crawls in alone.
“Do you want water at least? Some Tylenol, maybe?”
How long does it really take to set a fire?
Is Ace telling the truth, or is he waiting for Maison or Benny to show up and deliver the bad news to Carter?
Maybe Nathan is dead.
God, Carter doesn’t know what he’ll do if that man is dead…
“Carter?”
“No, thank you,” Carter whispers, not entirely sure he remembers what was offered.
“Okay.” Ace clears his throat. “The bathroom there has soap and towels, if you want to shower.”
