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Chapter 5
“Who are you?!” Chloe repeated, getting more and more nervous with every single passing second.
“Do you see a black car parked on the other side of the street?” she heard instead of an answer.
“Yeah,” she sighed while spotting the vehicle. “Tinted windows?”
“Exactly. Now, you go into the back seat and let the driver take you from there. Do not ask any questions. Understood?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she huffed. “I’m not getting into a car driven by a complete stranger! For all I know you might kill me or you might just be the very same person I’m running from!”
“Do you want to see your lover alive?” the voice said. “I am not the one who took him, but I know where he’s being kept. You do not have much time left before they’ll start torturing him.”
“Fuck,” Chloe cursed under her breath.
And she had to get out of sight like right now!
“What do you have to lose?” that one last question made her decide.
She had nothing to lose. She needed help. She couldn’t find Lex alone. Maybe she would manage, but no when she had to hide from the CIA in the same time.
What her life had become? Running ten years ago and running again, with a slight difference that now she had no idea why she was being chased.
“Ok,” she uttered, finished the call and walked to the other side of the street.
She opened the back door of the car and got in.
As the man had told her she did not speak through the whole ride. She was just silently praying she’d made the right choice with trusting that stranger.
***
Chloe was taken to slums on the outskirts of the city and as soon as she saw the building that she was probably to go into she was glad that she had a gun with her.
“Get out,” the driver spoke for the first time and Chloe just did what he told her without uttering a word.
She slowly made her way toward the door guarded by two bulked-up men.
Her first impression was that they were gangsters, maybe from mafia and she probably wasn’t that far from the truth.
“Gun,” one of them reached his hand to her and held it until she would give him her weapon.
“Don’t worry, you won’t be harmed in any way,” she heard a voice coming from the inside of the building. She connected it with the one heard on the phone earlier.
She sighed and very reluctantly placed her gun in the hand of the stranger.
“Will I get it back?” she asked.
“Sure, as soon as you’ll be free to go,” she heard.
Free to go, she pondered over those words. That clearly meant she would not be leaving when she would want to. She was dependant on that strange man now and didn’t like it at all.
It’s for Lex, she told herself and walked inside.
She was welcomed by a muscular blonde and very handsome man.
“Oliver Queen,” she raised her eyebrows in surprise. She knew him, of course she knew him! He was one of the most powerful drug dealers in the country and the CIA was doing its best to destroy his business from the inside. It was obvious that taking out one man would not change anything.
“Well, well, so I am well known back where you belong,” he smirked at her and gestured her the room on his right. “Or shall I say belonged?”
“Why would you want to help me?” Chloe asked, not engaging herself in any small talk. “What’s in it for you? I’m obviously on the run here, so I can’t do anything in the headquarters.”
“No, but there is one small thing I would like to know,” he said and kept smiling at her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. He thought he had the world in his grasp, that he was untouchable. Maybe he was even right at the moment, Chloe thought. Oliver was one of the top wanted men and the CIA was working very hard to gather enough proof and to infiltrate him to be able to put an end to lots of illegal dealings. Add to that Oliver’s recent expansion to selling dangerous weaponry and it pretty much explained why he needed to be destroyed.
“Shoot,” Chloe encouraged him, tired of everything. She was tired of her life, of that ten wasted years, tired of what she was doing. Had she made the right choice? Maybe she should’ve just given in to that witness protection program and found Lex when it’d all died down a little? Maybe there was no danger coming from Lionel anymore? Maybe he really was dead. Maybe she was being chased by ghosts. Or paranoid.
“I know that you’re on some track,” Oliver continued. “I know that the CIA is pretty close to taking down one of my major suppliers unit and I also know that there is a mole somewhere. You tell me who that is and I will tell you where you can find the Luthor.”
“And how can you possibly know where Lex is?” Chloe asked. It was a hard decision, she knew it. It was… betraying. Betraying not only the agency she was working for, but betraying her country, betraying her people. How many would be dead because of her? She knew there were two moles in Queen’s staff, but could she just tell him who they were? They would certainly be killed. Or maybe one killed and the other tortured and then send back to Langley with a message? Could she do it?
On the other side she thought when it would all finally end. When she wouldn’t have to keep sacrificing her own happiness, her future for others? Could she be that selfish?
But if Oliver really knew where Lex was… she had to save Lex. He had nothing to do with it. She’d done nothing more but hurt him and then hurt him even more. He didn’t deserve this. She shouldn’t have done this to him.
But it was too late.
Oliver was watching her face closely with a known look. He could tell she was just fighting herself, torn between her loyalty toward the country and love for one man.
He smirked again.
“I know where Luthor is, because recently a new player has appeared in the city.”
“Really? Who is it?” Chloe’s curiosity took the better of her again. After all she’d once dreamed of becoming a reporter. Just another dream that had been painfully squashed by the devil in human flesh – Lionel Luthor.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m doing everything I can to indentify this man. He hides himself well.”
“So, how do you…” Chloe started, but was immediately interrupted by Oliver.
“My men spotted Luthor being taken by them. They followed the car and I have a precise location for you. Unfortunately, the leader was not there, so I will just continue in snooping. Now… have you made your choice?”
“How did you even contact me?” she asked. “How on earth do you know so much?”
“Well, let’s just say I have more gifted hackers than the CIA,” the answer came. “In fact… I know pretty much about you… Chloe Sullivan.”
Chloe gasped. That couldn’t be real! That was reality, not some spy action movie!
“You won’t let me out of here if I don’t give you the names, will you?” she asked him.
“Names, hah?”
Shit, shit, fuck! Chloe cursed in her thoughts.
“Well, that just keeps getting more and more interesting, but… do I have to remind you that the more time you spend here playing with me the more pain your beloved feels?”
Chloe shivered.
“And to answer your question… no, I will not let you out of here free. You help me, I help you. You don’t help me, I send a message to the CIA through… you… or your body. We’ll see.”
Chloe could sense his hungry gaze on her and it disgusted her.
“Ted and Brandon,” she just said.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I’m not lying. Those two are your moles.”
Oliver smiled broadly.
“You see? That wasn’t that hard,” he said. “Now…” he reached to the back pocket of his jeans. “Here you go.” He handed her over a small sheet of paper. “That’s the address. Better hurry. We want to see you two happy, aren’t we? Better to save him on time.”
Chloe quickly snatched the paper from him and without saying anything more she hurried toward the door.
“Chloe!” Oliver followed her. “You can take this car.” She looked back at him to see what he was pointing. “It’s stolen, so when you’re done just leave it on some street with keys in the ignition, ok?”
She kept looking at him, stunned.
“What?” He beamed at her. “You really did me a great favor, so now consider us even.”
“Thanks,” she just said, took the keys from his hand, then her gun from the man by the door and got into the car. She started the engine and did not look back.
***
Half hour later Chloe stopped the car. She decided to hide it in the woods on the long gone path and take a walk from there. Anything else would be just too suspicious and Lex’s life was at stake.
Very carefully she got closer.
It was a small wooden house that stood alone. Probably bought to spend some time surrounded by nature instead of the lights of a city, but now it looked abandoned.
A perfect place to hide somebody, crossed Chloe’s mind.
Just when she reached the back of it she heard a car engine nearby. Somebody was just leaving.
Unfortunately, Chloe couldn’t take a good look at the person behind the wheel.
Right after the car disappeared her thoughts flew away from it, because she heard a scream.
A scream of pain coming from no other person but… Lex.
Her heart ached painfully and without thinking she just rushed forward and looked through the window.
She could see Lex, in a chair, half naked, tied up to it and with a bag over his head. There were two men in the room with him, doing…
Chloe had to look away from Lex’s hand.
She had to do something! She had to do something now! She could not let the person she loved suffer like that!
A second later she burst through the door, holding a gun in her hands.
She took the moment of surprise while the men stopped and gaped at her.
“Wha…” one of them started, but Chloe just pointed and fired. Pointed and fired.
Soon they were lying dead on the floor.
It wasn’t the first time she’d gotten rid of somebody, so she didn’t put much thoughts to it. She’d been trained to shut down her emotions and those men definitely deserved what they’d got.
Only that training hadn’t helped her when it came to love, she thought with sarcasm.
But love opened her heart again, made her feel once more, made her alive again... and it was all worth it.
“Lex…” she moaned silently as she took a better look at him.
Maybe it wasn’t that bad. Maybe Chloe had seen worse in her career, but watching the person she loved without a shirt on him, with an obvious burn on his torso that had probably come from boiling water and his right hand without two fingernails…
She just snapped and started crying.
“Chloe?” Lex yearned and she barely could hear him.
“Honey, oh honey,” she kept whispering and took that bag from his head.
His face was tired, bathed in sweat as well as the rest of his body, eyes bloodshed, but still he looked at her with a glimpse of happiness in that blue gray depths. Happiness that he saw her.
“Oh Lex… I am… so so… sorry,” she stammered and gently undid the ropes, so he would be free.
He did not stand up though. Instead Chloe just squatted by him and carefully put her hand on his laps. She did not want to cause him more pain.
“You… came…” was all he uttered.
“I’m sorry I’m so late…” She was sobbing now and kept looking into his eyes. She couldn’t look at his hand nor his chest. Not now. She would do that later when she would have to dress that wounds.
“No, you’re just in time. Thank you for coming… What… what happened?”
“I have no idea,” she quickly told him about her betrayal and her deal with Queen. “That was the only way, though I feel like crap for doing it. But I feel even more terrible while seeing you like this.”
“Don’t worry… about it…” he hissed while straightening his back. “It could be much worse.”
“Well, actually that’s true, honey. I came just in time. I can’t even think about what would’ve happened if I’d…” she stopped while reminiscing on all the tortured victims she’d seen in the past.
“Yeah, two fingernails less and a little burn won’t break me so easily.”
“Did you see them?” Chloe asked. “Were they CIA?”
“I have no idea. All I saw… well, my head was down and I… I had that bag over it… but I saw female heels. That’s it. A female was here. I got the impression that she was in charge. She did not say a word in front of me though. She left a moment ago.”
“I saw her car, but couldn’t catch anything more. Damn it!” Chloe cursed. “Honey, I’m sorry, but we have to go. She can be back or… some more men.”
“I know,” he sighed heavily and slowly got to his feet, wincing slightly.
“Can you go to the car? I parked nearby.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll manage. Don’t make me so incapacitated.”
She reached his face and kissed him softly on the lips.
“That’s much better,” he whispered and kissed her back, sliding his tongue into her mouth.
They couldn’t get into more heated session, because that would involve him putting his arms around her and grazing his chest against her. It wasn’t a good idea, besides he was exhausted.
“You need your shirt. Where is it?” Chloe asked.
“Torn,” he pointed the floor. “They ripped it from me.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s ok. Where can we go?”
“I may have an idea… I saw a motel by the road. That kind with small houses with single rooms. We can stay the night there and then… then…”
“Then we’ll fake your death. And mine,” Lex finished.
“I hope they’ll believe.”
“They will. We’ll leave an undeniable proof… let’s blow up the motel.”
“If there’ll be no people in there,” Chloe added.
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