by Kailin Gow
No Ace.
No goons.
Shit.
Chapter 8
Dante Black/Parker James
I walked through the rows of parked cars, looking for Ace. Maybe he’d been hit over the head and was out cold somewhere. I even got on all fours and looked under all the cars. But he was nowhere.
Great, I thought as I meandered my way through the parked cars and walked away from the stadium complex.
When I reached the street, I looked around. Had Ace run off on his own, or had he been taken away?
Shit, Ace, where d’you go?
I turned to the right and walked along the east side of the stadium. Hundreds of music fans from the show were streaming out, many of them singing some of Rob’s most popular songs.
“Take me in the morning, and roll me baby… ooh, ooh, ooh,” a drunk young woman sang as her boyfriend tried to hold her steady. “Take me out at night and rock me baby, ooh, ooh, ooh.”
I walked on, going against the tide of fans who seemed to all be heading to one of the many bars down the street.
“Don’t leave me, honey,” a young man crooned. “I’m not finished with you yet. Don’t leave me, baby. You’ll make me lose a bet.”
Two young women wearing tight blue jeans and cropped shirts stepped in front of me, blocking my way.
“Damn, you’re cute,” the tall brunette said as she leaned into me. She looked into my angry eyes. “Yeah. You’re really sexy.”
“Are you with the band?” the other one said.
“Damn,” the brunette said. “I don’t care if you’re with the band or not. You are just so damned hot.” She giggled as she put her hand to my chest in a provocative manner. “Can I take you home?”
“Not tonight,” I said, peeling her off me.
“Well, then,” she went on, leaning into me again. “Can you take me home?”
I walked on and she finally let up.
Laughing and giggling, the girls fell into each other’s arms and then staggered their way onward to a bar.
I looked through the crowd. There was no sign of Ace anywhere. I knew he would never willingly walk out on me, walk out and leave me to fend for myself. If he did leave that parking lot on his own, it would be to get help, or because he had no choice.
But then again, he would have come back.
I hesitated as I turned the corner and came to the south entrance to the stadium.
“Where the hell are you Ace?” I muttered as I looked around.
“Looking for someone, handsome?” a tall, luscious redhead called out to me.
“No,” I said firmly. “Everything’s under control.”
“Do you want a Rob Raven t-shirt?” she went on. “Only twenty bucks.”
“No, thanks.”
“How about a poster then?” she said. “Only five bucks.”
“No.”
“You drive a hard bargain,” she said licking her lips. “How about a blow job for ten?”
I glared at her and she finally backed off.
My phone went off telling me I’d received a message. I walked away and pulled out my phone to look. It was from Ace.
This better be good, I thought as I clicked to open the message.
Sorry for running off on you. Those guys were about to come down hard on me. I knew you could handle them. I didn’t want to go back to the hotel fearing they would follow me. I’m down at that rental unit place by the interstate… the yellow building with the brown stripe and lettering. While I was fighting with them, one of the guys dropped a key to a storage unit and I think you’ll find it interesting. Come meet me here. I’ll be waiting for you in unit 22.
I let out a sigh of relief. At least he was okay, and he’d been smart enough to not give away the location of where we were staying. If in the process he managed to find something out about these guys, that was a bonus.
I got to the car Ace had scored for us and headed toward the interstate, drove a few miles and took the off ramp that would lead to the industrial park where the big yellow and brown building was.
The place was deserted.
“Great,” I muttered to myself as I parked the car and looked around. “No nosey busybodies to ask a bunch of inconsequential questions.”
I got out of the car and made my way to the main entrance. Inside, despite the clean corridors and shiny new doors on all the units, the place reeked of furniture that had soaked in water too long… moldy, musty, stinky.
I followed the numbered units and finally reached 22.
“You in there, Ace?” I called out as I entered the unit.
Everything went black as a plastic sack was thrown over my head and squeezed tight around my neck.
It all happened in a flash as I collected my thoughts, listened to what was going on around me, sized up the guy that has a hold on me, and counted the number of potential assailants.
Then it was time to move. Instead of resisting against the plastic bag clipped around my throat, I butted my head back, hitting the big guy behind me in the teeth. For a second, he pulled the bag tighter around my neck, but when I butted my head back again, this time crunching his nose, he let go as he fell back.
I pulled the bag off, gathered it up into on sturdy length of plastic and wrapped it around the neck of the guy who ran to me, twisting him around as I pulled tight on the plastic.
While I continued to squeeze the last breath out of the guy, another one came charging from my left, shoving me up against the wall.
I released the plastic bag, letting the dead man fall to the cement floor.
As the big guy crushed me up against the wall, I reached for anything I could get my hands on and found an extension cord. Better yet, I realized as I pulled it up. It was the electric cord to a sewing machine, complete with the heavy metal pedal used to operate the machine.
I flicked it up, sending the heavy pedal into the goon’s face. It only chipped a few teeth but gave me time to recover as he checked the damage. I shoved him off me, then gave him a solid kick in the chest.
When he came toward me again, I swung the sewing pedal at his face, clipping him on the side of the head. But he grabbed the pedal. Grinning like an idiot, he pulled on the pedal to bring me to him.
Do you really think this gives you the edge? I thought as I went with the flow and charged him. Pulling the electric cord taunt over his neck, I pushed him back then noticed the pair of old, pointed scissors set on the old sewing machine. I fisted them and drove the sharp point into his gut.
Surprised, he pulled back, looking at me with a frown.
“You ought to check out the content of the unit before you decide to invite someone over to kill him.” I brought the pointed scissors up to drive it deep in his neck.
With a disgusting gurgling sound, he fell to his knees, then fell flat on his face.
Out in the hall, I heard someone coming. More goons?
No.
A kid… a mother.
“I’m telling you, Mom,” a young boy said.
I peered out the door to see the woman and son reach her unit a few doors down.
“I promise you, Devon, if your bike isn’t here, I’m not going to buy you another one,” the woman said. “This is the third time I have to come down here this week because you think we stored something here.”
“It’s in there, Mom,” the boy said with conviction. “It’s in there. I remember bringing it here the last time I came with Dad. I’m sure of it. It’s leaning up against those boxes of Grandma’s dishes.”
I quietly closed the door to the unit and looked at the three dead men lying on the floor.
What did they want?
Kill me?
Talk to me?
Question me?
“Who sent you?” I said softly as I looked down at my bloodied and bruised hand. “Who the hell told you to set me up and ambush me? And where was Ace?”
Chapter 9
Dante Black/Parker James
I waited for
the young boy and his mother to leave the storage unit before finally heading out. Luckily, they were only looking at the boxes at the entrance and had not ventured to the back where the dead henchmen were. Just in time, I had found a bike that fit the description of the one the boy was looking for, and shoved it towards the front end of the unit to be easily found. But it took a while for the young boy and his mother to reach that end. By then, it was late and darkness had fully enveloped the city.
After a quick look around the parking lot to make sure there were no other surprises, I headed to my car. The young family was gone and the parking lot was empty.
When I got into my car, I mentally kicked myself for being so negligent. I was allowing my thoughts of Summer to distract me and I couldn’t let it happen again. I had to concentrate and stay focused. Instead I was distracted and not thinking right. I should have known better than to trust that message from Ace. We had a code between us when it came to giving each other directions on locations to meet up. Ace’s message didn’t include that code. It was a trap, and I didn’t catch it.
But where was my right hand man? If he was caught, they would torture him to get information out of him. He was still new to all of this, barely one year into my operations.
As I drove back to the hotel, I thought of Ace and the predicament he was in. He was a quick and strong kid, and while he had more street smarts than the average person, dealing with the thugs and goons of the Inner Circle was in a whole other league. Like the Spartans had tested and started training their young boys at age 7 or 8 into warriors, the Inner Circle also had a similar code, which I was the testimony of, thanks to my own dear father, who had tore out my own human heart himself in an accident that killed my mother and almost killed me when my heart was pierced through, and I had to had it replaced with a mechanical one; my father was a tough sonofabitch who raised me to be a warrior and a killing machine. Ace… had natural fighting instincts, a street smart sense, but he wasn’t as trained in fighting as the men who were after us.
I steered the car into the underground parking lot of the luxury hotel we’d booked and got into the elevator hoping that Ace had found his way back.
The elevator doors opened, and I peered up and down the hall before getting out. All was quiet.
The carpeting was the perfect buffer to my steps as I headed down to my room. Before unlocking the door, I pressed my ear to the solid black oak and listened.
Silence.
I slipped my keycard in and slowly pushed the door back.
“Ace?”
Silence.
Satisfied, I entered the elegant suite and immediately made my way to the bathroom. I turned on the cold water and let it run a few seconds until it became a bit colder and rinsed my hand off.
The cool water felt good on the bruises and as I watched tiny trickles of blood flow down the drain, I tried to make sense of what was happening.
Why had we suddenly been ambushed? Had Stanley recognized me? None of it made sense.
I looked in the mirror at my bruised face. A small amount of dried blood marred my forehead.
Just another scar to add to the collection, I thought as I turned off the water and wrapped my bleeding hand in a white towel.
Heading out into the main room, I called room service.
“Good evening,” I said politely. “I’m in room 1608. Could you please send up a few imported beers, some unsalted peanuts and a bucket of ice, please?”
“Any preferences for the imported beer, sir?”
“No,” I said. “Surprise me. But make sure that ice is solid… not just little chunks of ice floating in cold water.”
“Right away, sir.”
I looked at the room I was sharing with Ace. The large living space took up most of the room with a bedroom on either side. We also each had our own private bathrooms. I was accustomed to the lavish lifestyle and luxury hotels were simply a part of it. It had become something that I hardly noticed anymore growing up as Dante Black, an heir to a billion dollar enterprise. But Ace was still excited and impressed by the degree of luxury money could buy.
From the streets where I found him, Ace was always thrilled with the rich finishes, the high-end treats and the majestic views.
Smiling, I thought of him again, worried about him.
It’d been a chance meeting that had brought us together. The poor kid had decided to hack the system of the wrong Russian and they went after him.
We had quite literally bumped into each other as he ran away from a Russian and I ran in to find a member of the Inner Circle.
I could see myself in his youthful face, the fear, but also the determination. I had immediately set aside my needs and had saved his life.
In return, he'd helped me out when I was in a bind… he’d been instrumental in getting me into a computer security system that I just wasn’t able to break through.
Within minutes, he’d successfully hacked into the system and I realized what a gem I’d found. I hadn’t wanted to lose sight of him ever since.
At 18, he was a good kid, loyal, discreet and talented in his own right.
“So, where the hell are you, Ace?” I muttered into the empty room.
A gentle knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts and brought me back to the pain of my bruised hand.
I headed to the door, but the second I opened it, I knew it was a mistake.
“A little message,” the goon said. “Courtesy of Stanley.”
He pulled out his gun, but I quickly slammed the door on his arm and pushed on it hard, squeezing his arm until he screamed. I ducked down and pulled out my own gun.
Shooting blindly, he waved his gun around until I reached up and knocked the gun from his hand. The man was silent for a second, but I knew better than to think the encounter was over.
He squeezed his arm out of the doorway and as I backed up, he kicked the door open, a fresh gun pointed at me.
But his trigger finger wasn’t as quick as mine. Before he could take aim, I shot him between the eyes, and he crumbled to the floor.
I could hear people down the hall opening their doors.
“What’s going on?” a woman said.
“Did you guys hear anything?” an old man grumbled.
“Damn kids,” another woman complained. “It’s probably just some drugged out fans from that rock show earlier tonight.”
I quickly pulled the dead man into the room and shoved him up against the wall.
Closing the door on the questions and speculations of the people out in the hall, I grunted my discontent. Damn.
Now what?
I quickly headed into my room to pack my bags and then rushed into Ace’s room to shove his things in his bag. With my arms full, I opened the door and peered into the hall.
The curious tenants had all returned to their respective rooms.
Perfect.
I got into the elevator and headed down to the basement parking lot.
Something was going down and I had to find out what it was all about. Instead of going after the Inner Circle, the tables had turned, and now I was on the run.
Chapter 10
Dante Black/Parker James
I drove around for about an hour, not only to ensure I wasn’t being followed, but searching for where to go from there.
The idea of booking another hotel room didn’t sit well with me. If someone was somehow tracking me, I had to assume it was through my credit card transactions. How else could they know what hotel I was staying at? With no cash on me, I finally decided to park in a quiet residential area and managed to get a few hours of sleep in.
The next morning, feeling hungry, cold and cramped, I decided to head down to Malibu. If there was anyone I could trust, it would be Summer’s Aunt Sookie. The spitfire of a woman who treated Summer as her own daughter, had always impressed me.
In her late thirties, she was a vivacious redhead who stayed in shape and took good care of herself. She could give a lot of twenty-year-ol
ds a run for their money.
I knew she had a lot of connections in and around Hollywood. She was an award-winning actress who’d worked with big time producers and who’d hobnobbed with the biggest directors of the industry.
And she had once mentioned doing a movie for Campbell Entertainment.
Hopefully, she’d be able to shed some light on what was going on with Campbell Entertainment as well as let me crash at her place for a while… at least until I could find Ace.
I reached the beautiful, all white beach house and pulled into the drive. The street was quiet with little movement about. It was early. I looked at my watch. Maybe a little too early. If I remembered correctly, Aunt Sookie wasn’t an early riser. She typically stayed up late, enjoying the nightlife, and she would get up in time for lunch.
The year that Summer had lived with her, she’d had to get up well before sunup every morning to teach an acting class at her Acting Academy.
I got out of the car and looked at the house. It sure was a cool place. Aunt Sookie, the eternal hippie, often referred to it as ‘The Pad’. The only color to the house was by way of the greenery that adorned the front yard and a few of the flowering bushes. But it was an elegant house that stood out from the others.
During the time that I had known her, not only had Summer lived here, but also the Donovans, who owned one of the largest data security companies in the world. Nat Donovan, Summer’s crush for years, and the oldest of the three Donovan children was on my radar as a rival and a possible hit, for years, until he disappeared.
From the looks of Summer appearing in England at the Queen’s charity event at the Albert and Victoria Museum, it seemed Nat Donovan, or who may seemed like Nat, had suddenly re-appeared.
Aunt Sookie was a saint the entire time I’d known Summer, and she had a hard time refusing anyone. Hopefully, she wouldn’t refuse me. I needed a safe and quiet place to regroup.
“Well,” I said as I headed up the walkway to the door. “Sorry to wake you, Sookie, but I’m here now. I might as well.”