Part 3 of The Edge of the World
Perma-note: Dames’ name is Dexter in this series. I’d already named him before Book 2 came out so I’m keeping it that way here 😀
Summary: Maya and Alana are being held captive and are on their way to an unknown location. When they make a rest stop, they are presented with an chance to make a break for it.
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Disclaimer: Characters/canon belong to Pixelberry
“Okay seriously, are the handcuffs really necessary?” Alana gestured by pulling at one of her wrists, which was bound to the headrest of her seat; the handcuffs were small enough that her wrist was pulled far back, preventing her from moving around too much.
As a result, she had to rest her elbow along the window with her forearm bent back, rather than let it hang uncomfortably in front of her, as she kept her other hand on the steering wheel.
“We had to keep you in check somehow, while I helped deal with that one.” Harley chuckled.
Alana had been driving the van for the past half hour or so, while Harley was giving her directions. As soon as he had restrained her to her seat, he’d turned to assist the fake Damien in binding an unconscious Maya. She was now lying on one side of the backseat, while said robot sat on the other side, watching her.
“Oh please,” she scoffed. “She was nearly knocked out. I highly doubt that she could’ve tried anything.”
“True,” he remarked. “But we also happen to know what you’re capable of. You’ll have to forgive us for being a little cautious.”
The fake Damien sighed, rubbing his jaw where Maya had punched him at one point. “For such a tiny person she really packs a punch,” he muttered in annoyance.
“You boys saying you couldn’t handle that precious little girl?” Alana smirked. “Guess Eros really knows how to make ‘em.”
“You know you’re being awfully mouthy for someone being held at gunpoint.” Before Harley could say anything further, some movement in the backseat caught his attention. “Well, look who’s waking up!”
————–
Maya’s head was pounding. She could dimly hear female and male voices conversing around her. Then memories of the events from the museum came flooding back to her, as she started to become more aware of her surroundings. Her limbs still felt a little numb, but the effect was fading gradually.
She flexed her fingers experimentally, before she stirred and opened her eyes to the dark interior of a moving van, the tinted windows blocking much of the sunlight from outside.
Realizing that she was lying on her side in the van’s backseat, she tried to push herself off the seat only to find that she couldn’t use her arms; her wrists had been handcuffed behind her back.
“You’re awake.” Next to her, she heard Damien’s voice, which she quickly remembered wasn’t actually from him. The match was sitting on the other side of the backseat, watching her impassively.
“Nice seeing you again, Maya.” Harley was watching her with a bright smile from the front seat. “Sleep well?”
Maya bristled and immediately let an unsavory remark slip out of her, only to find her words were muffled. It seemed that a cloth had also been tied over her mouth. She shifted awkwardly in her seat to sit up, letting out a frustrated noise over the limited support from her arms thanks to how tightly the cuffs were locked around them.
Harley saw her fumbling and chuckled. “Sorry about … all that,” he nodded to her bonds. “You put up quite a fight earlier and all the screaming was giving him a headache.” He pointed at the Damien-copy in a mock-accusing fashion.
“Speaking of which,” the copy cut in, “You want some water?” he held out a water bottle in front of her. Maya looked at it skeptically, then back at him. Unable to speak past her gag, she just huffed angrily and looked away. Seeing her face, he smirked. “Don’t worry Maya, I didn’t spike it if that’s what you’re thinking.“ He gestured to the lid. “See? It’s totally sealed.”
“Let it go, Dexter. If she doesn’t want it, she doesn’t have to.”
Wait, what?
Alana’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, so he’s a robot copy of a detective and his name is Dexter?”
Maya snorted behind her gag, her frustration momentarily forgotten. Seriously, can Rowan West be anymore cliché?
Dexter shrugged. “Laugh all you want. Our father picks the names. Now do you want the water or not?”
She didn’t want to take it. She really didn’t. But at the same time, there was no way she wanted to stick around these guys for too long. An opportunity to escape could present itself anytime and when that happened, the possibility of being dehydrated was not the best idea; not to mention it would help with this goddamn headache she had. Hesitantly, she nodded.
Dexter scooted closer to her, reaching out and pulling down the cloth covering her mouth and then bringing the bottle to her lips. Maya guzzled the water as he tilted the bottle for her. She’d been far thirstier than she’d thought she was, what with all the insanity that had gone down not too long ago.
“You took the water after all. And you let him feed you.” Harley was watching her from the rearview mirror with an intrigued smirk on his face. “It’s so interesting how quickly a familiar face makes you let your guard down, isn’t it Maya?”
Maya clenched her fists as she mentally sifted through numerous creative ways to tell him how wrong he was. It was tempting. So tempting. But then she stopped herself; this was likely some other sick experiment Eros was trying out on her. No way was she giving them the satisfaction of losing her temper first itself.
Instead, she turned her attention back to Dexter. “I could’ve drank that myself, you know.”
“I’m sure you can,” Dexter replied coolly. “But the cuffs stay on, Park.” Just as he said that, he refastened the cloth over her mouth.
Maya could feel her anger rising more by the minute and hearing her name being spoken like that from this robot that had dared to impersonate her man wasn’t making it any easier. Fighting the urge to kick him in his smug face, she just focused on what Damien would tell her in a dangerous situation like this.
We can’t let emotions get the better of us. We have to play it smart.
Damien may have let his emotions overrule his judgment himself many times during this whole debacle. But in this specific situation, he would be calming her down. These matches were not like the ones she’d seen before. They were clearly capable of harming them – given how Harley had managed to overpower Alana – and they were armed as well. Maya leaned back against the window, brows furrowed in worry. There had to be a way out of this.
Then, something on the floor of the van caught her eye. It was on hers and Alana’s side of the vehicle.
She looked carefully at Dexter, who was staring out the window. Harley was typing something in his phone. Maya fixated her gaze on Alana until she met her glance; then she quickly darted her eyes towards the object on the floor of the van. She shifted closer to the edge of the seat, subtly enough not to catch Dexter’s attention; making it seem as if she was adjusting her position.
Alana’s expression remained calm and neutral; only her eyes flitted from Maya towards the area below her before focusing in front of her almost immediately. They’d just taken an exit from the highway and were headed towards a signal. She slowly pressed her foot on the accelerator, approaching the signal rapidly just as it turned red.
Harley saw the signal and frowned. “Slow down,” he said. When they continued going faster, he looked to Alana accusingly. “Hey, it’s a red light! Slow down!”
“Oh! Sorry!” Alana was feigning surprise and Maya braced herself on the edge of her seat, knowing exactly what was going to happen, her foot quickly darting out and pushing the object under Alana’s seat. Alana quickly slammed the brakes, stopping the van exactly at the line before the signal and throwing everyone forward.
The momentum of the sudden brake forced the object on the floor to roll forward under Alana’s seat to where her feet were. Just as Alana was jerked forward, she bent a little further, her fingers quickly grasping the object and tucking it carefully into the waistline of her dress within a matter of seconds.
Dexter sat back up from where he’d been thrown forward. “What was that all about?” he demanded.
“Well excuse me,” Alana said defensively. “But it’s a little hard to drive properly when one of your arms has been folded back like a chicken wing instead of, oh I don’t know, steering?”
“Less complaining, more driving,” he replied. “And watch it with the brakes! We’re already behind schedule with the pit stop.”
She shrugged. “It’s your van, not mine. There’s definitely something wrong with it.”
“The tires probably lost air or got damaged during all that speeding,” Harley muttered. “Had to drive all over the place to lose those guys.”
Alana glanced at Maya, maintaining eye contact with her for a few seconds before looking ahead again. Maya looked between Alana and the two robots curiously. There was obviously something she’d missed when she’d been unconscious, and she had a feeling it had to do with their so-called car trouble – or whatever Alana was claiming it to be.
Perhaps their chance at escape was coming up sooner than she’d thought.
Once the signal turned green again, Alana took a few more turns and then pulled into a gas station, parking next to an air pump. “All right. Dexter, you stay with them.” Harley said as he stepped out of the van. “I’ll handle this.”
Maya racked her brain for a solution. Then a thought occurred to her and she realized that her restraints needed to come off for it to happen. She already had a very good idea of what Alana was planning on doing. But there was no way they could try to escape together in their current position, that too, with both Dexter and Harley right there; they’d easily overpower them.
Now if they were separated? Surely one android would be easier to handle, wouldn’t it?
There was no time to dwell on it too much. This was likely the only time they’d ever stop somewhere. We could reach wherever they’re taking us anytime and then our chance will be gone. It was now or never.
With that thought, Maya reached out and gently nudged Dexter’s leg with her foot. He watched her curiously before pulling down her gag. “I need to go to the bathroom,” she said.
Dexter frowned at her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Now?”
Harley was still standing outside, leaning halfway into the van. “And I suppose you need to go too?” He scoffed, peering at Alana.
“It would certainly make the rest of this journey more tolerable,” she answered coolly.
“How do I know this isn’t some trick?”
“I did just drink an entire bottle of water,” Maya said. “And it’s been a while since the museum.” She looked directly at Dexter and swallowed her pride as she continued. “Please? It’s urgent.”
I just asked a robot permission to go to the bathroom. Eros, I swear to god I’m gonna make you pay for this!
Dexter stared her for a few moments, then sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But only one of you goes at a time.” He reached behind her and unlocked her handcuffs. Maya stepped out of the van, rubbing her wrists and momentarily enjoying her freedom of movement.
Harley was watching her carefully before turning to Dexter. “I’ll go with her,” he said. “You keep an eye on the other one.” Then he took Maya by her elbow. “Let’s go.” Maya tried not to grimace at the extra pressure Harley put on her arm as he pulled her along. She turned to take one last look at Alana.
“Hurry up and do what you have to do, Park.” Alana said simply.
Harley maintained his firm grip on Maya’s arm as he led her behind the store to where the bathrooms were. Given that they were in a public place, he kept his body language casual. Maya did the same as she forced herself to look ahead. Her mind was racing as she thought through her plan again.
Would this work? If the escape route she was hoping for wasn’t there, then that would leave her on her own with two robots. On the other hand, she would still be stuck with them if they took off together from here. So there was nothing to lose either way. This was a risk she had to take.
Harley stopped just outside the bathroom’s entrance and released her. “You’ve got ten minutes.”
Just as Maya started forward, his arm suddenly shot out and pressed against the brick wall, blocking her way. “Before you go in,” he leaned slightly closer to her so that only she could hear what he was saying. “Father wants you alive, as I’m sure you know.” Though Maya was listening to him, she continued to stare past him as he continued. “Now while I would never disobey that rule, there are other rules I can certainly bend.”
Someone passed through the area and Harley quickly plastered a cheerful smile on his face, never breaking his gaze from Maya. “After all, I was designed to be rebellious as shown in your perfect match quiz results.” His voice had a threatening edge to it. “Think about that when you consider your actions.”
Maya swallowed hard as she tried to quell the uneasiness settling in her stomach. Then she looked back at him, maintaining his cold stare with a steely gaze of her own. “It’s getting late,” she said. “Shouldn’t you call your daddy for an update? Wouldn’t want to miss your bedtime story.”
Harley’s eyes visibly darkened at the insult, but his expression remained the same; clearly too mindful of the public surroundings to act on his threat. “Ten minutes,” he repeated as he pushed himself off the wall, allowing her to go inside.
As soon as Maya entered the bathroom and into her stall, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Burying her fingers in her hair, she leaned forward and took several deep, shaky breaths as she somehow managed to collect herself. There was no time to break down now. Once Alana made her move, she had to be ready.
While she finished what she had to do, her sight had zeroed in on a window in her stall. It was small, but still big enough for her to squeeze out. She climbed onto the toilet seat as quietly as she could and worked at unfastening the locks on the window, pushing it open gently.
——–
Alana Kusuma was not one to act spontaneously; premeditated scheming was more her style. She wasn’t entirely sure if this idea of hers would work, but this was just supposed to be a distraction after all.
Besides, this sudden turn of events hadn’t exactly given her time to think things through. Especially now that she knew that these robots in particular were much stronger than expected. Sloane had said that matches couldn’t harm humans, and as a result, Alana had greatly underestimated these two when she and Maya had been grabbed at the museum.
She’d heard them discussing bringing them to some location and luring the rest of the group there. The plan sounded vague, but whatever it was, it was clearly working. Damien and his friends were most certainly on their trail by now. It was hardly surprising that Eros would use one of them to lead the others into a trap, based on what she’d already heard about them.
To make matters worse, Alana was clearly expendable in all of it. Why, she didn’t know; but she wasn’t going to stick around to find out. She’d thought that perhaps if there was a way to delay this little expedition, chances of making a getaway were higher.
So while driving, Alana had surreptitiously pulled the emergency brake from time to time. That had slowed the van down and when asked about it, she’d been able to play it off as car trouble.
Maya had been out cold during all this, but to her credit, she seemed to have caught on rather quickly to what was going on here. These matches clearly intended to keep a close eye on them and going up against both of them while in restraints was not going to end well.
Not even with the syringe Maya had covertly stolen from the robots and transferred to her.
But Harley being preoccupied with taking Maya to the restroom had presented the perfect opportunity now.
Once they left, Dexter climbed out of the vehicle, heading behind it to inspect the tires.
Alana immediately got to work at loosening her seat’s headrest. She pressed the button with her free hand to release the latch and used her bound hand to push up the headrest just past its maximum height. She then sat as tall as possible to conceal the change. Alana had done just enough that the headrest could easily be knocked off of the seat, but still looked as though it was attached.
“They look fine to me,” Dexter was muttering as he climbed back into the passenger seat.
“You know,” Alana called to him before he could shut the door. “It’s interesting that instead of you, Harley is escorting her back there.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Leaving me here with you.”
Alana sighed heavily in a show of nonchalance. “It’s probably a good thing he went anyway.” She commented dryly. “Maybe he just realized that she’s too much of a handful for you to deal with.”
Dexter turned to her, narrowing his eyes. “You know, you seem to be forgetting your role in all this.” He leaned across the seat, placing his arm on the shoulder of her seat.
“How do you know it’s not because I’m the only one who can handle you?” He cocked his head to the side, smirking. “I am a copy of your ex-partner after all. Don’t you think that gives me an advantage?”
Alana responded by leaning closer, readying herself. “You don’t know the half of it, love.” she whispered coquettishly. Her movement tugged at the headrest of the seat and it fell off, freeing her cuffed wrist.
Dexter immediately looked in that direction and frowned. “Hey, what-” Her other hand came opposite from the direction he was looking, stabbing the syringe into his neck.
Dexter let out a surprised cry, clutching at his neck. Alana delivered a powerful kick to his stomach, knocking him out of the vehicle. She leaned forward to slam the door and then in a series of rapid movements, turned the engine back on, put the van in reverse and hit the accelerator.
————
Maya had quickly wriggled out the window and crept across the yard right into the forest behind the gas station and bordering the highway. She made her way through the woods, taking care not to run too loudly. It was only a matter of time before Harley realized she was gone and would start following her.
Fortunately for her it was night time, so no one was around to see what she was doing. She hadn’t made one sound the entire time she’d been inside, not even bothering to flush; giving the impression that she was still inside.
Soon, she could distantly hear him calling. Time’s up.
Immediately, there was a loud SCREEEEEEEEECH of tires. Maya whirled around as she heard Harley shout in outrage.
I knew it. Whether Dexter was still with Alana or had decided to let her go, she couldn’t tell and was certainly not interested in finding out the hard way.
Taking that as her cue, she turned around and bolted into the night.
Looks like I’m on my own for now.