Beating Ruby by Camilla Monk

having attempted to dissect me alive on an operating table. Creepy-hat’s life as a quadriplegic was a short one; Dries showed up later that night, equally displeased by the table thing, and shot him in the head. I know, it made me cry a little too; even supervillains can be dads, after all.
    At the moment, however, there was no time to reminisce. Alex and the Caterpillar quite obviously knew Creepy-hat, and they knew that I knew him too, and that I knew that they knew . . . You get the idea. Things didn’t look good.
    “Island, have you ever seen this man?”
    I looked up to find myself sucked into Alex’s tranquil gaze. I shook my head negatively, holding the tablet with a white-knuckled grip.
    He sighed and extended a hand to swipe across the screen. When the second picture appeared, I’m pretty sure I gasped, even though I tried to stifle it. Every single hair on my body stood on end as I stared at the SUV Rislow’s men had used to kidnap me. The pic appeared to be a still from some sort of traffic camera. The car could be seen driving along a river—likely the Hudson—and there was a timestamp in the top right corner. Sat. 2014/10/27 14:27:21. I had been sitting gagged and handcuffed in the backseat at the time.
    Trust the CIA to come up with an early and unique birthday present: footage of your own kidnapping. I averted my eyes and pushed the tablet back into Alex’s hands. “I’ve never seen that car. Sorry.”
    The Caterpillar brought the cigarillo to his lips again. He blew another smoke ring. I gazed at it until it had completely dissolved, half mesmerized by the rich, roasted aroma floating in the air, half desperate for something to focus on, to carry me through this hellish interrogation game. The feeling of warm fingers wrapping loosely around my left hand jerked me back to reality.
    Alex was touching me. I looked down where his hand now held my arm, his thumb brushing the underside of my wrist, sending shivers up my arm. “Island, you shouldn’t say things you’re not confident you could repeat during a lie detection test.”
    I didn’t understand immediately. I mean, I understood his words, but I didn’t connect them with the careful pressure on my wrist or the sympathetic stir of his lips when my eyes darted to his face. Under his thumb, I felt my pulse flutter.
    He was the lie detector. That bastard was checking my fricking pulse! I snatched back my hand as if I had been burned, burying it into one of my pockets with a glare.
    “I’ve said all I have to say!” I snapped. I also tried to pump my chest, but I don’t think anything actually happened because I have no muscles there.
    The Caterpillar crossed his legs and stubbed out his cigarillo in the car door’s ashtray. “Listen to me, Miss Chaptal. I have yet to decide whether you’re a talented actress or just some exceptionally unlucky airhead who’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time—but I’ll find out soon enough.”
    I opened my mouth to lash back at him, but he cut me off before any sound could come out, going on in an increasingly cold tone. “We’ll see each other again. Until then, you will assist Agent Morgan in his mission to recover EM Group’s money.”
    “I’m sorry . . . I what ? ”
    “I understand that your contribution was crucial to the Ruby project and that you knew Mr. Roth well. I can’t see anyone more qualified to help us, especially since you might be his accomplice,” he concluded with the faintest smirk.
    “ Hey! How can you—”
    “Island.” Alex’s voice was still soft, but I didn’t miss the warning undertone. I wasn’t allowed to say out loud that his boss was full of himself and, as a direct result, full of shit.
    “I’ll take you back to EMT. We have a lot of work to do,” he said.
    Already ignoring us, the Caterpillar reached inside his jacket for a silvery cigarette case, by way of dismissal. A muted clicking sound indicated that the doors had been unlocked; Alex