The Recruiters (20 page)

“
Have you done this before, Carlos? Do you even know what you’re doing?”

Carlos looked at me and grinned, “Nope. I’m a virgin. You’re my first.”

“
Cute.”

He patted the couch next to him, “Come. Sit. I won’t bite, unless you ask me to.”

I rolled my eyes as I walked over, “God, Carlos. Do you ever stop?” I said as I sat down.

“
Nope. Now give me your feet,” he said.

“
Excuse me? Give you my feet?”

He leaned down, grabbed my feet and pulled them up to his lap. “Yes, give me your feet,” he said as he pulled my shoes off. He began massaging my feet. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the arm of the couch, as I did he discretely pushed the record button on a small recorder and placed it on the floor under the couch.

“
Are you going to answer any question that I ask, Sarah?”

“
You keep doing that and I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” I purred.

“
Okay. When was the first time that you realized that you wanted me?”

I smiled but kept my eyes closed. “As soon as it happens you’ll be the first to know,” I said.

“
Ouch. Okay, tell me about your human life. What was your childhood like?”

“
My childhood? It was amazing. Mom and Dad took us camping for three weeks every summer – which gave me my active imagination and great love of the outdoors. They took us to the local college football games and basketball games – which gave me my love of sports.”

“
So you were rich?”

“
No, not at all. Not monetarily at least. I mean, we were well taken care of, but we definitely had friends who had more than we did. But we never felt like we were lacking anything because our lives were so full.”

He continued rubbing my feet. “Boyfriends?”

“
Boyfriends? I’ve had a few.”

“
How old were you the first time you had sex?”

“
How is that relevant to this interview?” I said.

“
It’s not. I’m just curious.”

“
Do you promise to keep it out of the article?”

“
Of course. I promise.”

“
Sixteen,” I said.

“
Wow. You got me beat by three years, you slut.”

I grinned. “Shut up. The first time you got laid was hundreds of years ago. Things were different then.”

“
Ah, yes. Victoria. She was a beauty.”

“
I’m sure she was.”

“
And your first husband? How long did you date before you got married?”

“
Three years.”

“
And you were married how long?”

“
Eight years.”

“
And your son?”

“
No, Carlos. Move on to something else, please.”

He rubbed the feet even more. “Have you always been this confident and strong?”

I laughed, “Confident and strong? Hardly.”

“
Give me a break, Sarah. You are too.”

“
Carlos. Most of the time, I’m scared shitless. But falling apart isn’t going to help anything. I just do what I have to do. If that makes me confident and strong, well, I guess I’ve been this way since Rob and Scottie were killed. Surviving that, forcing myself to not withdraw into my shell, was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“
Why did you? What kept you from just shutting off from the rest of the world?”

“
My family. I couldn’t leave them. There were times when I really wanted to. There were times when getting out of bed in the morning just to go to work seemed impossible. But I did it, because I didn’t want to let my family down.”

“
And when do you take care of you?”

“
Me? Why do I need to take care of me?”

“
Jesus, Sarah. Don’t you ever just take a day for yourself? Go to the spa. Get a massage. Relax. Do you ever do that?”

“
No.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because there’s too much to do. And that would just feel selfish to me.”

“
Getting a massage would feel selfish. You are ridiculous. Have you enjoyed this foot massage?”

“
Yes.”

“
And did it feel selfish?”

“
Well, no. But that’s probably because I didn’t know it was going to happen. If I had known ahead of time, I might have told you ‘no way’”

“
Sarah, women don’t tell me no. Haven’t you learned that by now?”

I pretended to look at my watch on my wrist. “And we’re back to the sexual innuendos. What’s it been? A whole five minutes?”

“
Hey. That’s a record for me. You should feel special.”

“
She is special,” Matt said as he walked in the room. He walked over, tucked himself onto the couch behind me and began massaging my shoulders. “He’s right honey. You should take time for yourself. You deserve it.”

I moaned. “Oh God. Well if you two come over and do this, then I will. This is heaven.”

Missy poked her head in the door. “Sorry to interrupt, Miss, I mean, Sarah,” she said as she kept her gaze away from us, as if she had walked in on something personal, something intimate.

“
That’s okay Missy. You’re not interrupting anything. What can I do for you?”

“
Is there anything else you need for tonight? Or is it okay for me to head out?”

I leaned my head back on Matt’s chest and closed my eyes. “I think I’m done for today. I’m beat. You go on home. Have a nice evening. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“
Okay. Night,” she said as she headed out the door.

“
She’s cute,” Carlos said.

“
No, Carlos,” I mumbled.

“
She’s not cute?” he said.

“
Yes she’s cute. No you can’t bang her.”

Carlos broke into a big grin. “Bang her? I wasn’t planning on banging her as you so eloquently put it. Just because a girl is cute doesn’t always mean I’m going to bang her. By the way, just out of curiosity, why can’t I bang her?”

“
Because you’d break her heart and she’d quit because she wouldn’t be able to handle it. I don’t want to lose a good assistant.”

“
Is that the real reason, or is it really just because you’re trying to keep me to yourself?” he said

“
Ego check, Carlos.”

“
Ego check? What does that mean?”

“
It means check your ego because it’s out of control,” I said, grinning.

He gave an exaggerated pout. “I’m hurt, Sarah. I think your foot massage is done,” then he sniffed and wiped away a pretend tear.

I sat up and put my feet on the floor. “Ahhhh, does someone need a hug?”

He held his arms wide open. “Always.”

I smiled and turned to Matt. “Honey? Could you hook him up?”

Carlos started to put his arms down. “Ah, man,” he said.

I laughed as I turned and hugged him. “Just kidding, hun,” I said.

“
That’s more like it,” he said as he squeezed me tighter.

His hug lingered just a tad too long, though. “Alright, big boy. That’s enough. It’s time for dinner.”

“
Good. I’m starving,” he said.

He winced a little as he stood up. “You okay, hun? Promise me you’ll take it easy, okay? I need you back at one hundred percent.”

He grinned. “She needs me. I knew you’d come around, Sarah.”

“
Oh shut up,” I said, laughing.

Things weren’t perfect. Carlos and I were still healing. We still had to figure out this whole ‘running a government’ thing. We still had Malina to worry about and deal with. But despite all that, I knew, just knew, without a doubt, that this is exactly where I was supposed to be.

The End

Prologue

The wind whipped through my hair as I stared in horror, not wanting to believe what I had just seen and heard. I stared out our broken bedroom window as time seemed frozen. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t make a sound. I finally managed to choke out a barely audible “Carlos.” I knew he probably hadn’t heard, I barely heard it myself, but I couldn’t manage anything else. My whole world had just crumbled in front of my eyes and that was too much for me to comprehend. MOVE DAMN YOU! My mind screamed, but nothing happened.

“
Sarah! What’s wrong?” Carlos shouted as he burst into the room. I tried to open my mouth to tell him, but it wouldn’t move. I tried to reach my mind out to him, but I couldn’t even manage that. Nothing on me worked right, everything was broken, I was broken. Carlos came over by me and looked at the broken window. He stood right in front of me and stared into my eyes. Grasping my arms, he shook me slightly “Sarah?” he whispered. “Sarah, come on, please tell me.” I finally was able to move my eyes away from the window and look into his, but again, that was all I could manage. He pulled me into his arms and glanced around the room behind me. “Where is he Sarah?” he said as he pulled back to look at me. “Where’s Matt, Sarah?” That did it. He said his name. I felt the wail before it escaped my lips. Surprise and worry clouded Carlos’ face as my legs gave out and I crumpled into a heap on the floor, sobbing. Carlos sat on the floor and scooped me onto his lap, cradling and rocking me. “Oh my God Sarah, please! You have to tell me what happened. Come on honey, please try.” I held my palm out and stared at my scar – the scar that was an exact duplicate to Matt’s scar, given to us by the Peruvian chief. The scar that allowed me to feel Matt and allowed him to feel me when they touched. I began tracing it, lightly at first then harder, desperately, groaning and crying each time I did, until Carlos finally took my hands in his. “Don’t Sarah, we’ll find him, I promise we will, but I need you to tell me what happened first. You want to find him don’t you?” he said. I felt my head nod slightly. “You need to find him, right?” he said. I nodded harder. “If you don’t find him you won’t survive?” he said. That was the trigger that finally released my voice.

“
Yes,” I choked out between sobs. He brushed my hair out of my face and I looked at him, struggling hard to pull myself together. If you tell him, it makes it real, I thought, followed by: you fool, it was real.

“
She took him Carlos,” I gasped out. “She took him… she took him… she took him.”

“
What?” he said. “Sarah, who took him?”

Hate filled my eyes and venom spewed in my voice as I said, “Her, Carlos. Malina.”

“
Malina?” he gasped. “But how? How did she get in here?”

“
That’s just it Carlos,” I said, “it wasn’t Malina who got in, it was me.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, “What? Sarah, honey, you’re not making any sense. What do you mean it was you?”

“
She got passed security and into our room, because
she looked exactly like me
,”
I sobbed. “When she woke me up, it was ME standing at the end of our bed, and then she suddenly changed and it was HER. I tried to grab her, but she flung me into the wall, then Matt came at her, but she grabbed him by the throat and smacked his head on the floor, knocking him out. She tucked him under her arm and I came at her again, but this time she used the pain in my head to stop me. As I lay squirming on the floor, she told me: ‘You took something important from me, so I am taking something important from you. He is mine now, don’t try to find him, you never will.’ and, and, then, sh, sh, she, was, gggone!” I wailed. Saying it made it all too real. My heart felt like it had exploded into a million pieces.