Free Of All the Luck! by Joanne Locker Page B

knew.  She wept.  Betraying her grandfather was the last thing she wanted to do and she was ashamed of herself.  The door to her holding cell suddenly opened and Xavier stormed inside, his face nearly purple with anger.  She cringed and backed away from the cold fury radiating from him.
    “No one was at that address, Angela, and that gives us a little problem, doesn’t it?  You see, I can’t tell if you are playing games with me, or if he got wind of this and moved.”
    Xavier’s voice was so low she could barely hear him and Angela knew the man was at his most dangerous.  “I gave you the only address I had!” she offered.
    “I don’t believe you.  You lied to me for seven long years and I believe you are lying now.  You should know better than to do that, girl.  I’ll give you five minutes to think about what is going to happen if you don’t talk to me.  You’ll either talk then, or wish you had.”  He turned on his heel and left her cell.  He gave orders as he walked down the hallway.
    Angela cried; she feared Xavier, and she feared her grandfather even more.  She wished with all her heart she didn’t know where the General was hiding, but she did know.  She’d overheard a conversation she wasn’t supposed to be privy to, and if Xavier punished her again, she would eventually break and tell him all she knew.  Her grandfather would die alone in a cell such as this one, and it would be all her fault.  The door opened again, but instead of Xavier, it was two men she’d never seen before.  They got on either side of her and grabbed her arms and marched her into one of the interrogation rooms she’d never seen before.  Her eyes widened in alarm as she looked around.  She struggled to get free, but she was no match for the two men.  Within seconds she was stripped from her waist down, and tied face down over a padded bolster that lifted her feet off of the floor.  There was no way she could escape whatever they planned to do to her!  But, her worst fears did not come to pass.  The two men left the room, leaving her in the humiliating position.  All she could do was wait and dread whatever was to come next.
    The door opened once again, but she couldn’t turn her head to see who had come into the room.  The person simply stood there for what seemed an eternity before Angela felt the jab of a needle into her right buttock.  “The price of betrayal is death!” were the last words she heard.  The poison spread through her system quickly, causing excruciating pain!  Death, when it came, was a blessing.
    Xavier entered the interrogation room after giving Angela some time to think about her situation.  His men reported to him that her butt and upper legs were welted and flaming red, and he hoped the fear of more punishment would serve to loosen Angela’s tongue and it wouldn’t be necessary to use the wooden paddle he had in his hand.  It was an unpleasant task, but one he couldn’t delegate to someone else.  As soon as he glanced at Angela, Xavier knew she was dead.  He quickly felt for a pulse, but there was none.  Angela was dead, and now he knew for certain that another one of his agents was in the employ of General Weatherby!
     
    * * *
     
    The smell of cooking food brought Ian from his bedroom.  “Something smells wonderful.”
    “Breakfast is almost finished,” Victoria told him with a smile.  “I made a fresh pot of coffee, too.  Help yourself.”
    Ian didn’t need to be told twice.  He was well aware that his cooking skills left a lot to be desired.  Even his coffee was terrible.
    “Victoria is an excellent chef, Jacobson.  Best of all, she loves to cook; but that means we get stuck with the cleanup afterwards.  I’d say it was worth it, however.” Griffin smiled as she put a platter of bacon on the table.  Next came scrambled eggs and hash browns with onions and red and green sweet papers mixed in.  Toast and orange juice were also part of the basic