by David Stever
“Partner?” I asked.
Mike shook his head. “Too open. No way to go from here to there without being seen. The smart thing to do would be to go back to our car and wait for the feds, or send Eric back and you and I find a spot to observe until Quade shows up.”
“By myself—”
A click-clack interrupted Eric.
The all-too-familiar sound of a pump-action shotgun behind us. We spun around.
“The smart thing to do is to hand over your weapons and cell phones.” George Ainsley had a twelve-gauge leveled at us.
“George,” I said. “What are you doing?” George aligning himself with Keira did not surprise me, but him pointing a shotgun at us was a bit of a bombshell.
“Guns first.” Eric tossed his immediately to George’s feet, followed by his cell phone. “You two, c’mon.” Even if one of us tried to squeeze off shot, his shotgun could easily take out two of us. Mike and I threw our guns and phones and stood, instinctively taking a step away from each other. Clumped together, we’re one target; separated, we might have a chance. “Stop, right there, Delarosa. On the ground.” I sat beside Eric. He aimed at Mike. “Pull up your pant legs.”
He did, and revealed the empty ankle holster on his leg. “The gun is at your feet.”
“Stand up, lift your shirt and turn around.” Mike complied, showing no other weapon. “Sit back down.” He made me and Eric go through the same routine, and when he was confident he had all our weapons and phones, he threw them all into the grass.
No doubt now it was George who gave up the safe house. How deep was he in this? Were he and Keira partners? I didn’t buy it. I needed him talking and distracted. “Didn’t take you for a tough guy, George.”
“Life’s full of surprises, isn’t it?”
“This is a big one. Thought we were working together? Why don’t we talk about this before you find yourself in real trouble?”
“Nope.”
“Mary Ann and Katie, where are they?”
“You’ll find out.”
I noticed Eric’s hands were trembling. That can happen the first time you stare down the nasty end of a barrel, unsure of the motivation or mental stability of the person with his finger on the trigger.
“George, you want to tell us what’s going on here?”
“No talking. Stand up. Hands above your head. Walk to the barn. If any of you try to run, your girl Katie dies without a second thought.”
He marched us across the open space and when we were close to the building, the door rolled up. The structure was cavernous and empty, except for the white van we’d been watching for the past two weeks was parked on the left side as we walked in, and against the opposite wall was a long portable table with two computer monitors.
Mary Ann and Katie sat on the concrete floor against the rear bumper of the van with their hands tied behind their backs. One of the Russians—no idea which one was now the guard and which one was dead in the house—stood over them with an automatic rifle.
The door closed behind us and Keira approached with Beretta in hand. “Well, Mr. Delarosa, I never thought I would see you above ground again.”
“Frustrating when things don’t work out the way we want, huh?” I turned to Katie and Mary Ann. “You two okay?”
They nodded.
“Shut up and sit down.” George pointed the shotgun at Eric. “Except you.”
Mike and I sat cross-legged on the floor and the Russian tied our hands behind our backs with some twine, pulling so tight it cut into my already bleeding wrists. “A little snug, don’t you think?” He gave me a shove and knocked me over. I kicked out at him but he stuck the rifle in my ribs.
“You sure, Mister Superman?” he said in Russian accented broken English.
I got myself upright. Mike’s eyes scanned around the building and I could tell he was assessing and calculating every option. The girls were about twenty feet to our right. Eric stood, trembling, his face ghost-white. His eyes begged at me for help.
George said, “We caught a break, Keira. This is the hacker kid I told you about.”
She faced Eric and jammed the gun under his chin and put her other hand on his shoulder. “How serendipitous. Isn’t that how you say it, a fortunate accident or coincidence. If you’re the hacker George says you are, you just might save your own life.”
Eric’s brilliant computer skills kept him alive in prison. I hoped he would snap out of his fright and do the same here.
“I need to open a file, but it’s password protected. Can you do it?”
He nodded. She grabbed his arm and led him to the table, but he stopped. “If I open the file, you’ll let us go?”
No Eric, no time for negotiations. Do what she says.
She smiled. “Aren’t you cute.” She tousled his hair with her hand and then stuck the gun into his ribs. “No, if you open my file, you might live another day. I haven’t decided about your friends.” She shoved him into a chair, then tucked the Beretta in the back waistband of her jeans.
Two lap tops were on the table, along with four monitors, plus Keira’s black bag sat beside her on the floor. She stood behind him and gave instructions.
I whispered to Mike. “George.” He knew what I meant. In any hostage situation with multiple captors, there was always one weak link. Keira was the smart one; the Russian was too stupid to have an original thought. Which left Ainsley. He was our leverage. From everything I learned about Keira and Bellamy, she played him. Had to be.
“So it was you and Keira the entire time?” I said. “Certainly fooled me. I thought you were mad and jealous of Tom and Keira being lovers, but you outsmarted us all. She’s a beautiful woman, too. Not bad, old man, scoring a woman forty years younger than you. Best sex you ever had, right?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Delarosa.” George took a stand in front of me and Mike. “Not even close.”
“Why the change of heart? You hated the two of them. Now you side with her?”
He shook his head. “It was me and Keira from the beginning. We developed the program. Tom only got in the way. When they were together, I felt betrayed. It was when you had me in the house that I decided to take back what is mine.”
“You forget she almost killed Mary Ann while trying to kill you.”
“She had nothing to do with that.”
Keira turned around. “Shut up, George.”
“So you gave her the location of the safe house and got two men killed and two more wounded.” I hoped a bit of taunting would dislodge him. “What’s the plan here, George? Hold us hostage—then what?”
Keira marched over and grabbed his arm. “Keep your mouth shut, and stay focused.” She kicked me in the ribs and knocked me over. Pain seared through my left side and I stayed down on the concrete, teeth clenched, telling myself to breathe through the pain. Anything we could do to disrupt the scheme would benefit, even taking a kick in the ribs. I heard Katie’s voice and opened my eyes.
“Did that feel good, bitch? Huh, did it? Johnny, they’re waiting for Tom Bellamy to call with the password. That was their ransom demand.”
I righted myself only to see Keira headed for Katie. “Touch her and I will kill you.”
It only motivated her. She struck Katie on the side of her face with an open palm. “I dare you to say one more word.” Katie fell over into Mary Ann’s lap and her sobs echoed through the barn. Keira came back stuck a finger in George’s face. “Stop talking.”
She went to Eric at the table and I looked over at Katie. Her head was still down, but I caught her eye. She sat up, whispered to Mary Ann, and began to cough. Violently.
Mary Ann struggled, but got to her feet. “She’s getting sick. You hurt her.”
The Russian aimed his weapon at her. “Sit down.”
“She needs some water.”
“I’m going to puke.” Katie choked out the words between gags and coughs.
Mary Ann stepped forward. “Let me find her so
me water. Please.”
The Russian moved closer and jabbed out with his rifle. “Sit down. Now. She is fine. No water. So what if she is sick.” He pushed her back to the floor.
I yelled, “She needs a drink, you bastard.” As the Russian turned away from the girls and headed for me, Katie stuck out her foot and tripped him, sending him sprawling. Mike rolled and got his feet under him, launched his body, and landed all two hundred and thirty pounds on the Russian’s head and neck, causing a loud snap.
I scrambled around, managed to get up—and threw myself into George. He fell hard on his backside, firing the shotgun as he went down. The deafening blast filled the building, followed by a piercing scream.
I got to my knees. Keira was on her back, holding her right side. She screamed, “You idiot. You shot me.” Her hands held her side as blood soaked her blouse and seeped through her fingers.
A few yards behind her, Eric was flat on his back, not moving. Oh, Jesus, no.
I checked Katie and Mary Ann—they were back to back, untying themselves. Mike made his way to Ainsley and put a heavy shoe on his chest to pin him down.
Katie was free and ran over. “The gun in her waistband. In the back,” I said.
She crouched beside Keira and pulled the pistol out from under her. Keira swung out at her, but Katie gave her a shove that resulted in a long, agonizing scream.
“I’m shot,” Eric yelled, and I was relieved to hear his voice.
“Eric, don’t move,” I said.
Mary Ann untied me and Mike, who ran to help Eric. I had Katie hold the gun on George, and told Mary Ann to find a phone and call 911. She dug the Russian’s cell from his pocket. “Tell them to connect you through to Scott Quade with the FBI,” I said.
Mike had pulled off his shirt and used it as a compress to put pressure on Eric’s chest. “Need an ambulance, too.”
George crawled to Keira. “Honey, honey, don’t worry. We’ll get out of this. It was an accident and you’ll be fine. I’ll take care of you and we can start our own firm, just like we planned.”
“Shut up, you old fool. There is no you and me.”
“What…what are you talking about…of course there is. It was our plan from the beginning…I know I let you down, but I made up for it, didn’t I? Tom is the one who will pay, not us.”
“It was never you and me, don’t you understand?” She looked up at me. “Will you get this idiot off me?”
Mary Ann pulled George up to his feet. “C’mon, Uncle George.” She sat him on the bumper of the van. Pain etched across his face. Her words hurt him more than any stun gun would.
I took off my sweatshirt, balled it up and gave it to Keira. “Hold this on your side.”
I went to Mike and Eric. “How is he?”
“I think the bleeding has slowed but I’m worried he’s going into shock. Any water in here?”
There was a slop sink in the corner and I found a few rags and soaked them. We put them on Eric’s head and face and it brought him around a bit. From what I could figure, when the Russian went down, Keira and Eric must have headed our way, only to be caught in the spray from the shotgun blast.
I took the pistol from Katie and she ran to help Mike as I went to the computer table and took Keira’s stun gun from her bag. I called for Mary Ann to join me and we stood above Keira.
She saw the stunner in my hand and her eyes went wide. “What are you doing?”
“I found it in your bag. How serendipitous.”
“Nyet, please…please.”
I held it out to Mary Ann. “She caused you a lot of pain.”
She hesitated. “I…I don’t—”
“Let me show you.” I shoved the stun gun into Keira’s crotch and gave her a shock she’d never forget. Her thin body flopped around and she curled up in a ball, screaming.
Mary Ann winced, stepped back, and looked at me as if I were a monster. “I owed her that.” I held the device out to her. “Your turn. It will feel good. Trust me. Touch it to her skin and press the button.”
“You sure?”
I nodded. “For you and George. You deserve it.”
She took the gun and bent down to Keira. “This is for my sweet uncle.” She touched it to her neck and fired. A long, low guttural moan filled the building. It sounded like a wounded animal who had gone off to die. “And this is for destroying my family.” She shocked her a second time. Keira let out a grunt then went silent.
Mary Ann stood, her chest heaving. “You’re right. That felt damn good. Can I keep this?”
“All yours.”
I had no idea where we were, Mike said at least thirty miles outside the city, but it seemed as if it was taking forever for help to arrive. We took turns keeping pressure on Eric’s wounds. Keira began to stir, her body recovering from the shocks.
Finally, I heard cars outside and I opened the roll door. Quade hopped out of his sedan as an ambulance and two state troopers pulled in behind him.
“Hey Keira, your ride is here. And it’s not Aeroflot.”
47
Doctor Marisa Alvarez examined the fluid level in my IV bag and decided another round was in order, explaining I was dehydrated to the point of doing some serious damage and needed to stay in the emergency room of St. Helen’s Hospital until she deemed me fit to leave.
“I came in six hours ago. Unless you put bourbon in the bag, it’s time for me to go.”
She smirked. Some people have no sense of humor. The EMTs transported me and Eric in the same ambulance. When we pulled into the hospital’s emergency entrance, they whisked Eric into surgery and parked me in the ER, where the lovely Dr. Alvarez and a nurse bandaged my wrists and stuck an IV in my arm. I told them about the burns to my body and caught them looking at each other when I showed them the location. Embarrassing.
She hooked up a second bag and made some notes on an iPad. “You’re not going to like this, but I want to look at your burns again.”
“Any ugly men doctors here? You being attractive makes it all the more humiliating.”
She ignored me and pulled the curtain around the bed, threw off the sheet, and flipped up my gown. She did her inspection then covered me.
“You came in here with the blonde woman and she has burn marks on her neck, same as yours. Judging from your injuries, my guess is something really bad happened to you.”
I shrugged. Lady, you have no idea.
“Plus your blood screen showed traces of ketamine.”
“Date rape drug?”
“Yep. A sedative, used for anesthesia years ago. Puts the person into a trance.” I understand her curiosity, especially with the cops and FBI hanging around, but my gut told me to keep my mouth shut.
She got the message. “None of my business?”
“I own a bar, McNally’s. Not too far from here. You should stop in some evening.”
“Now why would I do that?”
“Free drinks?”
She smiled. “The nurse will give you some ointment to take with you. Put it on your burns and your wrists until they heal. Discharge papers when the IV bag finishes.” She patted my leg. “Take care of yourself, Mr. Delarosa.” She disappeared through the curtain.
“Hey, call me Johnny.” I hoped the torture marks on my body would turn her on, thinking I was some secret agent. It always worked for 007.
Quade flung open the curtain and stood at the foot of the bed. “He’s out of recovery and being moved to a room. They took a shitload of buckshot out of his arm and upper chest. Lucky to be alive. He caught the edge of the shotgun blast. The surgeon says he will be back to normal in no time.”
“Prayers answered. I never intended for him to be this involved.”
“I need an official statement from you.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Sure. I’ll come by the bar in the morning.”
“Katie?”
“Sixth floor. Waiting for Eric to wake up. I told her to go home, but she won’t leave him. I brought her food bu
t she won’t eat either. Mike and Katie saved his life. Doctor said he lost a lot of blood.”
“I’ll find her as soon as they kick me out of here.”
“I want to say I’m sorry about the way everything went down. We needed more eyes on the park. My fault.” He moved around the bed so he was next to me. “You went through hell. What an evil bitch. Shocking what happened to you.” He bit his lip and tried to keep a straight face.
“Is that supposed to be funny?”
“We hoped you would make contact, but I guess you were tied up, huh?”
“Get out. If I want jokes, I’ll go to a comedy club.”
“Laughter’s a stress reliever. Later.” He smacked my foot and pulled the curtain closed as he left. I could hear him chuckling as he lumbered through the ER. Nothing wrong with a good-natured ribbing and I wouldn’t live this one down for a while. Good thing I am not a cop anymore—the squad room would be filled with jokes about my shocked balls.
***
It took another hour for the IV bag to empty and for the nurse to complete my discharge papers and send me on my way. I stopped at the sixth floor nurses’ station to check on Eric, and then found Katie asleep in a chair in the waiting area.
I nudged her shoulder. “Hey.”
She opened her eyes and stretched her long body. “Oh, hi. How are you?”
“I’m fine, but I want you to go home.”
“I need to be here when he wakes up. His surgery was successful. Did Scott tell you?”
“He did. Wonderful news, but he’s going to be knocked out till morning. Nothing for you to do here. C’mon, let’s go. You need food and sleep.”
“No…I don’t want him to be alone.”
“You’ll be back before he wakes up. The nurse told me he woke up in the recovery room and wouldn’t stop talking, so they gave him a sedative.” That drew a smile.
“As long as I am back in the morning.”
We got to the lobby and remembered neither of us had a car. She rode with Quade from the farm to the hospital, so we called for a taxi and ended up at a late-night diner.
A waitress put coffees in front of us. Katie’s eyes were rimmed with red, between tears, pain, exhaustion, and the past two days of hell.