Code Blue

Lexi vs. The Interrogation

                  

My neck hurt. That was the first thing I could feel when I came to: an aching pain in my neck from having my head tilted to the side for an extended period of time. I groaned as I straightened my neck and slowly opened my eyes, blinking to adjust to the dim lighting in the room. It was still dark outside, from what I could tell, the only light coming from a tall lamp across from me.

I was in a motel room, judging by the lumpy bed and minimal furniture. On top of the side table in front of me sat a half full water bottle, the sight of which immediately made my mouth go dry, so I press my feet into the floor to push myself upright, only to realize that I can't move. Because my human arms and ankles were strapped to the arms and legs of a chair with coarse pieces of rope. Because apparently that was something that happens in real life.

Lifting my hips, I tried to use my body weight as leverage to free myself from one set of ropes, but discovered very quickly that whoever tied the knots had some sort of knowledge of sea warfare, because they were unbreakable. I tried three more times, wiggling my hips against the chair and trying to move my wrists beneath the ropes to no avail, ending up just feeling exhausted and a bit hopeless. My captor was smart not to tie my hands behind my back, because I would be out of those binds by now, having been trained to subtly slip out of those kinds of knots.

Just as I'd gotten up the strength to try again, the motel room door opened and in walked the boulder of a security guard who had caught me snooping through Daniel's office during the charity ball.

"Oh, good, you're awake," he said, looking rather smug as he took a seat on the edge of the bed right in front of me, pulling a gun from the back of his jeans and laying it causally beside him on the bed.

"What's going on?" I asked, a little groggy. I actually had a pretty good idea, but I figured it was probably best to act innocent as long as possible.

Leaning back on his palms, he tilted his head to the side. "Why don't you tell me?"

"What?" I blinked, a little confused. I had a guess as to what he was talking about, but I didn't want to incriminate myself. "It's Lowry, right? We met at the Stafford' charity ball."

"Yep," he nodded, seeming very relaxed for someone holding a person hostage. "And you're Max's girlfriend. Or so you say."

He said that last part ominously, darkening the tone of his voice and staring me down as though he hoped it would get me to confess. Instead, I had told hold back a laugh. "What does that even mean?"

"It means that I don't think you are who you say you are," he retorted.

I mean, technically he was right. But I couldn't afford to blow my cover. Not when I'd accomplished so much.

I'd been back to the mansion one other time with Max, to help him choose which clothes in his massive wardrobe to donate to charity. His parents hadn't been there because he'd timed it so he wouldn't have to run into his father, so while he was sorting his clothes into piles, I volunteered to go find some trash bags and slipped into Daniel's office to see if I could discover anything else. I didn't want to risk getting caught again, so I knew I had to be quick about it and took pictures of as many of the papers on the desk as I could in an amount of time that wouldn't cause Max to get suspicious.

I had also managed to convince Max to take me back to the roller rink, though secretly, I think he loved the idea from the very beginning. While on a trip to the bathroom, I located a storage area in the back where the store of weapons could possibly be kept and relayed all of this information to Evan, who, along with the agency analysts, was doing his best to piece it all together.