by Dale Mayer
“Interesting. Well, this is your one chance. I suggest you tell me anything that will help us to capture this guy.”
“I don’t know. I gave you his place and his phone number. Isn’t that enough?”
“Have you ever been inside this apartment?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I have. But, well, just in the front. I never got a chance to walk on in.”
“Was he ever with anybody?”
He shook his head. “No, he meets his business partners elsewhere.”
“And where is that?”
“Another apartment down around the corner,” he said. “Just back the other way.”
“And why does he meet them there?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know why the dude does business this way,” he said. “I’m just trying to make a living.”
“Well, we’ll see what kind of living you get to make now,” he said.
Just then the police officers bolted up the stairs toward them.
Miles nodded and said, “This is the door.”
“We’re going in.” Immediately the officers drew their weapons and broke down the door. Shots were immediately fired from inside.
Miles glanced at Ross and asked, “Are you sure he lives alone?”
“Yeah,” he said, cringing on the floor. “Shit. I don’t want to get shot.”
But the cops looked inside and noted that it was empty. The door had been rigged to fire as soon as somebody entered. “This place was rigged.” They came back to Miles. “We need to go in carefully.”
“You hold him,” Miles said. “I’ll take a look.” And, with them hanging on to Ross, and the detective on his way, Miles took a slow, deep breath and entered. He crouched low, seeing tripwires all over the place, and pulled a multitool from his pocket and carefully snipped the wires. He didn’t see anything wired to blow, but more were wired to shoot. After clearing out three tripwires and making it through each of the few rooms inside, he called out to the front and said, “I think you’re good to go.”
“Do you think so?”
“Well, I’ve taken out three tripwires, but it’s anybody’s guess.”
One of the detectives walked to the window and said, “Son of a bitch. This place is a nightmare.” And just then a single shot rang out, coming through the glass and striking the detective’s shoulder right in front of Miles. Immediately the cops were on the run after the shooter, and the second detective who had just arrived took off as well.
Miles checked the officer’s wound and said, “Good thing it’s just the shoulder.” The officer nodded. Swearing, Miles carefully studied outside the window; the shooter had to be in the opposite building. Then Miles raced out to the hallway to see Ross still cringing in the corner. “Well, Ross, you got yourself into a fine mess,” he snapped. He grabbed the man’s arm roughly. “Come on into the apartment.”
“Hell no,” he said. “People are dying in there.”
“Well, I’m not leaving you alone out here,” Miles said. “So, you better come with me and sit still.” He went in to find the detective swearing and holding his bloody shoulder. “We’ve already got an ambulance on the way. Let’s keep you both below the window.”
“Who is the guy who lives here?” the detective whispered.
Ross answered. “He’s one freaky dude.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Well, the name he used was John Smith. But there ain’t nobody called John Smith in today’s age.”
Miles thought about that and nodded. “Maybe not. But hopefully this is the apartment we’re looking for.”
“He’s got tons of apartments. He moves packages. He’s a delivery man.”
“Yeah, he does,” Miles said. “But those packages he moves are women.”
Ross’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “No. No way. I’m not part of that shit.”
“Well, you better offer something decent for us to believe you,” Miles said, “because now your buddy is involved in shooting a detective.”
“That wasn’t me,” he said. “You guys already had me.”
“What do you know about the women? And don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know anything about women. Well, I know he lost one. Or one package. He lost a package, and he was pissed.”
“When did you talk to him last?”
“This morning,” he said.
That’s when Miles realized why this guy was breaking into Vanessa’s apartment. “You weren’t trying to break in to steal something. You were trying to break in to leave something.” He got up and held out his hand. “Hand it over.”
Ross shrugged and said, “I can’t. My hands are tied.”
“What is it that John Smith wants in there?” Miles asked, checking Ross’s pockets. Miles pulled out an audio listening device. “Really? You would bug her apartment?”
Ross sagged in place and nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t realize what for.”
“Sure, you did. You set this up so this guy could come and kidnap that poor woman all over again. What kind of bastard are you?”
Chapter 11
When her clothes arrived via a police officer instead of Miles himself, she dressed quickly in the bathroom and stood at the door to her hospital room, impatiently waiting for Nico to pack up his stuff.
“If I’d realized you were in such a hurry,” he murmured, “I’d have gotten ready a while ago.”
“Something’s wrong,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s something else.” And because she seemed to be in a hurry, he seemed to be going as slow as molasses.
Finally he stepped in front of her and opened the door. “Let’s go then.”
As they stepped outside, the guard looked at her in surprise. She smiled. “I’ve been sprung free, so I think that means your job’s over with.”
He shook his head. “Perfect. Glad to see a happy ending here.” And he turned and headed down the hallway.
They exited the hospital, but, even then, she felt everybody was going super slowly. She was moving as fast as she could, but it was still not fast enough because of her ankle. Although it felt much better, and she could put weight on it, she was still forced to use crutches or a wheelchair. Doctor’s orders. But it was amazing just how fast she could motor down the hallway on crutches. She just had to be mindful of her sore ribs. She didn’t particularly like crutches, but, if it meant getting back to her apartment and finding out whatever was going on with Miles, she would use them.
When they finally got outside, she stopped and looked at Nico. “Do we need to take a cab?”
He shook his head and pointed at an SUV, Miles hopping out.
She cried out, “There you are. I was so worried about you.” That stopped him in his tracks. She flushed, not realizing just how emotional seeing him again would be.
But he walked over and wrapped her up gently in his arms, then held her. She burrowed in deep, loving the fact that he didn’t even ask questions or make a snide comment but understood that she was desperate for that contact. When she realized that the others were probably having a hell of a good old look, she stepped back slowly and smiled up at him. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” he said. “We had a bit of interesting action.” Instantly she reached out to check that he was all right. He grabbed her hands and tucked her up close again, then murmured against her ear, “I’m fine.”
And finally realizing he meant it, and he wasn’t hurt or hiding any serious wounds, she relaxed. “Well, I’m glad to hear that,” she said, trying for a more neutral tone of voice. But when he grinned, his grin told her that he wasn’t in any way fooled. She flushed again. “So, is it safe to go back to my apartment?”
“Did you get my earlier message?” Miles asked Nico instead of answering her.
Nico nodded. “Techs should be at the apartment right now.”
“Techs for what?” she asked.
“Do you know a guy named Ross?” He pulled out his phone and quic
kly flicked through until he found a photo and held it up.
She nodded. “Yeah, he’s one of our neighbors. Real friendly guy.”
“Well, I caught him breaking into your apartment, trying to install bugging devices.”
She felt that bit of steady foundation she’d been working hard to firm up under her feet had washed away again. She stared up at him in shock. “He was what?” she croaked. She reached for his cheek and whispered, “Are you serious?”
With his arm still around her more for emotional support than anything, he nodded. “We caught him. He’s at the police station, and he’s talking. He was hired by your kidnapper.”
“Will the shocks ever stop?” She shook her head. “So, not only was this guy stalking me but he was using this guy as well?”
“Now, if only we could stop him from finding out that we’d caught Ross,” Miles said, “but it’s already too late for that.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. But he’d already taken the crutches from her and tucked them inside the vehicle, then helped her into her seat. With her safely buckled in, he walked around to the front seat’s passenger side, while Nico got into the driver’s side. There, Miles twisted to look at her and explained everything that had gone on.
“But then this Ambrose guy knows that Ross will talk?”
“Exactly. Which means Ambrose has a backup plan,” Nico said. “Otherwise he’d be worried and potentially would have taken Ross out rather than let him talk.”
“Or the information that Ross has is really of no value,” Miles iterated. “Any of those options are possible, but you can bet the police are all over Ambrose’s third place as well as Ross’s apartment.”
“So we have an awful lot happening on the case,” she said brightly, trying to see all the positive things going on. Because really, they had found the apartment across from the one where she had been kidnapped and held. And in her own apartment, they’d found a connection too, and, sure enough, it was a neighbor that she’d always thought was a bit flighty and young and just looking to score, but instead he was being paid to do all kinds of nasty things by this guy. “I wonder why Ross did that.”
“Money,” Miles said. “Apparently he’s a bit of a hacker and still hasn’t quite made the grade. Doesn’t have a steady job and potentially is a music lover.”
She nodded. “That’s his other love. Playing music and computer games. He’s pretty decent at his music from what I’ve heard from inside my place, but I don’t think he’s ever made it big anywhere.”
“So he needed money. And this offered him pretty good pay for very little work.”
“And he could have delivered that meal for me to my captor? Ross could have seen me tied up inside?”
“Ross is no saint, and, yes, he delivered meals to Ambrose. But Ross was not let inside these apartments as a rule, it seems. So Ross may not have seen you tied up. If we can believe Ross at all, he didn’t know Ambrose was delivering women. Ross thought Ambrose was delivering packages.”
She was amazed and saddened by everything she found out. “You think that you live in a normal world and that everybody around you is normal. Then you find out that they’re all conspiring against you.”
“Not quite,” Miles said. “You can’t judge everybody by one or two bad apples.”
“But you know that I will,” she said firmly. “It doesn’t matter if I really want to or not, but essentially I will because it’ll be this experience that I draw on.” His look was so understanding and compassionate that it almost brought tears to her eyes. Something she’d been desperately trying to hold back.
“I understand that,” he said. “And again that’s why you need some time to deal with this trauma on top of the previous trauma, so that they don’t compound in your mind.”
She gave a raw laugh at that as she stared out at the traffic going by and the people zooming by in a steady pace in the world outside, whereas it felt like everything inside her had come to a shatteringly screeching halt. She didn’t even know what to say, so she said nothing and slumped in the corner of the vehicle.
When they pulled up to the front of her apartment, Miles got out and helped her onto the sidewalk, then grabbed her crutches and nodded to Nico, who drove away again. “Now where is he going?”
“To park the vehicle,” he said. “There isn’t any street parking here.”
She nodded. “It’s one of the reasons I like it,” she said. “I didn’t have to worry about vehicles parked all around the place. It would always be moving traffic.” And, when they got to the front steps, she looked up and groaned. “This doesn’t look like fun.”
He chuckled and said, “Grab your crutches.”
She looked at him in surprise and said, “I have my crutches.” She took them from under her armpits held them together.
“Hold them,” he said.
She instinctively grabbed them, and he bent and scooped her up into his arms and carried her up the steps. She looked at him in surprise. “It’s very unusual to get carried when you’re an adult,” she said.
“Maybe, but I’ve had to do it many times.”
“I’m pretty tall. Most men wouldn’t even try.”
“You’re tall but lean and light as a feather,” he said.
She snorted at that. “You should hear my photographer. She’s always moaning and groaning that I should lose weight.”
He set her down at the top of the steps with an astonished look. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “I think it’s the death of the actual modeling industry. You can never be a healthy weight for them. They always tell you that the cameras add ten pounds, and they can’t afford that.”
“Then they need to find better cameras,” he said. “In this world, where we can put a person on the moon, why can’t we find a camera that doesn’t add ten pounds? How about a camera that takes away ten pounds? I’m sure that would be something that would sell like hotcakes.”
She chuckled at that. They quickly maneuvered through the first set of double doors at the main entrance and into the hallway and then to her apartment. There she found a guard outside, the same one who she had seen inside the hospital. She stopped and stared at him, then said, “How did you get here before me?”
He grinned. “I walked.”
“Oh. That explains it,” She gave him a bright smile and entered her room. All her smiles fell away as she saw three techs inside her apartment, scanning things with devices in their hands, going over everything in her apartment. She turned to look at Miles.
“Just in case Ambrose or Ross were already here once before,” he said in a low tone. “So don’t talk if you don’t have to.”
She pinched her lips together and hobbled into the kitchen. There she stopped and looked around. The techs had placed a lot of the equipment they needed on the kitchen table, but the counter itself was clear. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d shopped or if her sister had, but the one thing Vanessa really wanted right now was coffee.
Miles seemed to anticipate her needs though, as he moved the coffeemaker forward so he could fill the back canister with water and then hunted in the cupboards for coffee grounds.
“I have beans and a grinder,” she offered.
“Point me where,” he said and proceeded to follow her instructions to make the coffee for her pot.
With that dripping, she headed slowly to her bedroom. She was grateful that she found no techs working here. She looked back at him and whispered, “Is it safe in here?”
He shrugged. “I’ll find out.”
As she made her way to the bed, he disappeared behind her.
But he was back in a few minutes and nodded. “They’ve already checked this room,” he said.
“Good. And it’s clear?” She knew he had just said that, but, for whatever reason, she really wanted to have it as coldly clear-cut as she could make it.
“Yes, your bedroom is clear.”
She nodded and slowly sank down on
the bed. “Now the doc said I could go home and take it easy,” she said. “He didn’t say I couldn’t have a shower though, did he?”
“Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
She shot him a look. “The question is, can I tolerate being in my skin one more day without it?”
“Ah,” he said. He stood beside her for a moment and nodded. “How about a bath instead?”
She looked up at him, puzzled. “What’s the difference?”
“A bath means you won’t have to stand on that bad ankle. You’ll sit and wash your hair, and you’ll soak away the feeling of somebody else’s hands on you.”
She winced. “I forgot about my ankle,” she said, kicking her legs up so they were both elevated. “It’s not that bad.”
“You don’t want a bath?”
“I want a bath too much,” she admitted. “But a lot of strangers are here. With a shower, I could get in and get out faster and be clean. But a bath? I’d want to soak and relax and feel like I was home alone. But, with all the strangers around, it doesn’t feel that way.”
“Well, it could be if we wait a few moments.”
“Will they be done that fast?” she asked. She shifted back on the bed and stretched out full-length. “If that’s the case, I could wait.”
“How long can you wait?” he asked as he walked to the door. “I can ask them.”
“Please do,” she murmured. She watched as he stepped out of the bedroom and closed the door gently behind him. She was almost surprised he did that. It was the first time she’d been in a room alone, except for the hospital bathroom, since she’d escaped. It felt both good and bad, as if the umbilical cord between her and Miles had stretched enough to allow him to do that.
Of course he hadn’t been there in the hospital the entire time. She’d been there, but Miles had left Nico, another equally dependable and strong alpha male to look after her. So she hadn’t necessarily felt the loss of Miles’s presence quite so badly. She was more than a little worried about what would happen when these two men had to leave her though, as she’d become accustomed to having them here. And it had only been twenty-four hours. Like, what did that make her? Besides a pitifully weak woman? That’s the one thing she refused to be though.