The driver. An unpleasant quiver went through my stomach as I thought about that. What if we did have a leak? What if the leak was someone inside Caballo? What if it was the driver?
It wasn’t good, but it would explain a lot.
“Akker?”
“I think we should get out of here.” I snatched my shirt off the table where it had fallen. “I’m going to go find a car. You stay here.”
I was out the door before she could speak a word. Our room was on the far side of the building, facing the Whataburger next door. There were a couple of minivans in the parking lot, a sports car, and a half-dozen sedans. I focused on one of the sedans, thinking it would be the easiest to hot-wire because it was slightly older than the other models parked around it. I was rounding the landing on the stairs when I heard more than saw several cars pull up. I stopped behind a pillar and watched as a family of five got out of one of the cars. The other, however, contained a single individual who seemed to be studying the back of the building with an inordinate amount of interest. The look on his face made me a little nervous, but I didn’t think much of it until I saw him pull a silencer from a small pouch that must have been open on his lap. A second later, I watched as he screwed it onto the barrel of a 9mm Glock.
I turned and ran back to the room, expecting a bullet in the back as I struggled to get the damn key card to work in the lock.
“We’ve got to go! Now!”
Chapter 8
Eva
Akker grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the motel room without warning. I didn’t even have time to grab that damn, flimsy cardigan they’d had me dressed up in. Instead of running toward the stairs, Akker pulled me in the opposite direction, leading the way around the far corner of the building. There was another set of stairs near the manager’s office. Akker paused there, peeking around the corner, before dragging me behind him. I nearly tripped once or twice because of the heels they had me in for today’s photos, wishing I’d thought to kick them off at some point.
I didn’t want to know what we were running from. I glanced behind us once, but didn’t see anything. It was late afternoon in the heat of summer. Most of the tourists staying here were either out exploring the city, or taking a nap. There was almost no activity at all at this place.
Akker pulled me across the street, under a highway overpass, running along the sidewalk like we were late for a bus or something. People honked at us, yelled out the windows of their cars. So much for secrecy. A part of me expected more bullets to fly, but nothing happened. After half a mile or so, Akker slowed down, still dragging me but at a fast walk instead. We came upon a pretty little park surrounded by tall, luxury apartments, a lifetime away from the dingy motel in less than a mile and a half. As we passed cars parked at the curb, Akker threw a glance at each, almost as if he was shopping for a new car.
Was he shopping for a new car?
“What are you doing?”
“We have to get out of here.”
“Can’t you call your friends?”
He didn’t respond, but the flexing muscle in his jaw suggested the answer to my question was complicated. His hesitance to rely on his own people sent a shiver of fear straight through my soul.
As we approached an old Ford two-door coupe, Akker stopped me in the middle of the sidewalk and sidled up against me.
“Cover me.”
“What?”
“I’m going to break into this car and hot-wire it. I need you to block me from the view of people in the park and people walking by on the sidewalk.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just stand here and look like you do. When there’s a beautiful woman around, all anyone will remember is your face.”
“But won’t that—”
“It’s only for a few minutes. I’m quick.”
“Hopefully not too quick,” I said, nervousness making me a little cheeky. He smiled, leaning close to drop a kiss on the tip of my nose. Then he was gone, sliding inside that car so smoothly that I didn’t even see him test the handle. I turned toward the park, peering across the clean grass and sturdy playground equipment, pretending I was looking for someone. A couple of moms were pushing their kids on the swings, a couple playing tennis on a well-maintained court on the other side of the park. A couple of teens were sitting at a picnic table talking, an older gentleman sitting on a bench, watching the moms. A typical collection of humanity, everyone pretty much minding their own business. I found myself focusing on the old man, hoping it wasn’t his car we were about to take off with.
“You okay?” some guy on the back of a bike asked as he came to a stop beside me.
I jumped a little. I wasn’t watching the sidewalk, hadn’t seen him coming. “I’m fine. Just waiting for a friend.”
“Anyone ever tell you you look a lot like that model in the Victoria’s Secret campaign?”
“No, but thanks. I take that as a compliment.”
“It was meant that way.” He studied my face a long moment, a small frown twisting his expression. “You do look familiar, though. Do you live around here?”
“Hey, babe!” Akker pushed open the Ford’s door and leaned toward us. “Time to get out of here.”
“Oh, there he is!” I cried, twisting to look at Akker. “I don’t know how I missed him!” I climbed into the car, slamming the door as the biker began to speak, cutting off whatever it was he was about to say. Akker pulled into the traffic quickly, leaving the man to wave and yell in the rearview mirror.
“What if someone calls the police?”
“We’ll be at Caballo by then. I’ll have someone return the car in the morning.”
“But—”
“It’ll be fine, Eva. I know what I’m doing.”
I glanced at him, then took a harder look. He was paler than he’d been before. He touched the heavy bandage over his wound a few times, making me wonder if the pain had reached a higher threshold. If he bled out before we could get to Caballo… I wasn’t sure what I’d do.
I needn’t have worried. He drove smoothly, like a race driver, through the thick downtown traffic, pulling in and out of congestion until we were miles further than we should have been. I was relieved to see the Caballo building peek down at us from a block or two away. He pulled into a parking garage, leaving the car at the curb beside an elevator alcove. I saved him from having to come around the car to help me, jumping out before he could cross the front bumper, allowing him to take my hand again. He pushed me gently in front of him, keeping me close, but protected by the length of his body.
Was that just his training or was there more to it?
We stepped into the elevator and he used his thumbnail to expose a panel that I doubted many people knew was there. He entered a code and the elevator began to move, but it descended instead of rising.
“Where are we going?”
“A panic room. Somewhere no one will find you.”
After what seemed like a lengthy descent, the elevator doors opened on a long, dark corridor. Akker pressed his hand to my back, gently pushing me forward. At the end of the corridor were two doors. He turned to the left, unlocking that door with a code entered into a pad on the knob assembly. He reached inside and flipped a switch, pushing me once more to step into a brightly lit living room that was almost more luxurious than the suite back at my hotel.
I walked around the room, admiring the sectional couch that was covered in some sort of leather, the low tables made of heavy wood, and the bookshelves that were stocked with everything from Gone With the Wind to The Wind in the Willows.
“What is this place?”
“I told you; it’s a panic room. When our clients aren’t safe anywhere else, we bring them here until we can find a productive way to return them to their normal routine. It’s kind of a last-case-scenario sort of thing.”
“Why didn’t we come here first?”
Akker shrugged, then winced as he regretted the decision. “I didn’t want any bad guys to foll
ow us here. The place doesn’t do any good if someone finds out it exists.”
He stumbled a little as he made his way to the couch, then fell onto it with something of a groan. I tugged at his shirt, making him groan again as I lifted it carefully over his shoulder. Blood had soaked through the heavy bandage.
“You need a doctor.”
“I know.”
I picked at the tape around the edge of the bandage, but he pushed my hand away.
“Ox will be here in a few minutes. An alert is sent to his phone every time one of us accesses the panic room with our special code. He’ll bring a doctor and let us know what we should do next.”
“I can’t believe this is happening.” I sat heavily beside him, drawing my legs up so that I could hug my knees. “I thought the worst it would get was the strange packages delivered to my front door. To have someone fire at me this way…!”
“It’s scary, I know. But we’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah? What if he kills someone before you can do that?”
“Is there anything else you can remember about the threats? Anything about today or the night of the party you can remember, anyone you might have seen hanging around at either the hotel or the River Walk?”
I shook my head. “No one.”
“What about Femi? How well do you know her?”
I reared back a little, staring at him. I was hoping he was just joking, but he clearly wasn’t. “Femi is a makeup artist. What part of this could she be involved in?”
“The security camera never showed her leaving the suite. That means she was still there when Harry and Lloyd were lured away.”
“So?”
“So, what if she let the bomber in? What if she had something to do with that? And today, she was there when the mob got out of control. She looked me in the eye when I grabbed your arm. She knew I was going to take you to safety. Maybe she followed and told someone where to find us.”
“Femi wouldn’t do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“You can’t go around accusing people of things you can’t prove they did!” I stood up again, hugging myself as I walked to the shelves, trying to distract myself by reading the titles of the books. “There are very few people in my life I trust. Femi is one of them.”
“What about Danny? You told Ox you were going to replace him at the end of the month.”
“I am. And it’s going to be difficult for him, but it’s not something that would make him want to kill me! Besides, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything about the new management firm I hired, doesn’t know that I’m not signing the new contract he offered me. And it was his nephews that died. Why would Danny kill his own nephews?”
“Maybe that wasn’t his decision. Maybe they were collateral damage wrought by some hitman he hired.”
I shook my head. “Danny isn’t like that. He wouldn’t hurt me; he’s like my second father or something.”
“What about your dad? Is he the beneficiary to your estate?”
“Now you’re really pissing me off!” I cried, spinning on my heel. But the second I laid eyes on him, saw how pale and weak he was becoming, the anger quickly died. “Where is that doctor? You need help, Akker!”
He shook his head as I went to him, as I lifted his chin to look in his eyes. He was so pale! I felt sick just looking at him.
“I’m safe now. You need to go get yourself some help.”
As if in answer to my words, Ox came through the door followed by several other men all dressed casually. Two came over and helped Akker to his feet, leading him through the door he’d brought me through. The other two followed, leaving me alone with Ox once the door closed.
“He said there was a doctor. Is there a doctor? Are they going to take care of him?”
“He’ll be fine,” Ox said, going to a little cupboard against the wall that he opened to expose a minibar not unlike the one in my hotel suite. He grabbed two water bottles from the small fridge and brought them to the couch, encouraging me with a gesture to sit beside him. “Akker’s tough, and our doctor is well versed in gunshot wounds. Lord knows he’s seen enough of them since coming here.”
“Do your operatives get shot a lot?”
“Our operatives, our clients, even our secretaries from time to time—but that’s another long story. This line of work is dangerous, to say the least.”
“He should have gone to a hospital.”
“Company policy is that operatives make sure the target is secured before seeking medical help. And we prefer our operatives don’t seek out hospitals unless the wounds are life-threatening. We like to keep the police out of our business unless it’s necessary to involve them.”
“But that’s ridiculous! He could have gotten an infection or bled to death while he was trying to get me to safety!”
“But he got you here, and he’s going to be fine.”
I turned away from him, pacing in front of the fancy tables and expensive couch. “This is ridiculous!” I repeated. “My safety is not more important than his.”
“But that’s what you hired us for.”
“He has a daughter! If something happened to him—”
“I’m aware of his family situation. We all have families, yet we make the choice every day to work in this profession. To keep people like you safe.”
I smacked my hands on my hips, needing to voice my frustration somehow. “I’m not safe!” I cried. “Some idiot is shooting at me on the street! And breaking into my hotel room, leaving bombs to blow me up! What have you done to stop that? Put your operative in harm’s way and nothing more!”
“We’ve got the man who was shooting at you.”
I spun around, stunned by his words. Ox smiled, self-satisfaction written all over his face.
“Oliver saw the man with the gun and he pushed him into the river. We managed to fish him out and get him into one of our vehicles before the police arrived.”
“You got him?”
“Yes.”
“Then why were we running from the motel? What did Akker see that made us have to steal a car?”
“I don’t know.” Ox sat up, leaning forward a little as he rested his elbows on his thighs. “I’m not sure what Akker saw, but we have this guy in custody.”
“Did he tell you anything?”
“He’s not talking, but we have his identification, his fingerprints. Our investigative team will figure him out sooner or later.”
I dragged my hands through my hair, tangling my fingers in the heavy hairspray that was still holding the curls in place. I was struggling to keep my emotions under control, afraid if I lost control over my emotions, I’d lose control over everything.
“Then what?”
“When we know who he is, we’ll be able to figure out who hired him and why. When we have all that information, we’ll go to the police and end this thing once and for all.”
“I thought you people didn’t go to the police.”
“We do when it suits our needs. In this case, I think it might be the best way to keep you safe.”
I turned away, going back to the shelves, occupying myself by reading the titles on the spines of the books, trying to keep my mind too busy to allow panic to set in.
“Have you figured out who might be behind this?” Ox asked. “Any ideas we need to be aware of?”
“Akker keeps asking me that. He seems to think my makeup artist or my manager might be behind it, but that’s ludicrous.”
“Why is it ludicrous?”
“Because Femi is my friend and Danny lost his nephews in this mess. He wouldn’t have put them in danger just to hurt me. Besides, he has no motive to hurt me.”
“Aren’t you ending your contract with him?”
“Danny is not the vindictive type. Even if he knew about that, he wouldn’t hurt me over it.”
Ox just nodded instead of arguing like Akker might have done. “Is there anyone else in your life who might want to hurt you?”
I shook my head. “Most of the people in my life are photographers and hairstylists and costumers. I don’t have any close friends, and Danny keeps most people away from me, insisting on dealing with contracts and stuff all on his own. That’s part of why I’m firing him.”
“There’s no one?”
“Well, my father.”
“Where is he? Did he come to San Antonio with you?”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t travel a lot anymore. He has arthritis in his hips and knees.”
“Does he have any reason to want you disabled?”
I turned around, convinced he had to have lost his mind or something. But the look on his face was just as serious as any look Akker had given me under the same questioning.
“You people are definitely jaded. How could you ask me such a thing?”
“Experience shows that most of these kinds of attacks come from someone close to the target.”
“Other fathers might try to kill their daughters, but not mine. Besides, he’s retired with nothing more than social security to live on. He’s dependent on me to keep him in the lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed, as they say.”
“What about in your career? Any actresses you’ve annoyed, any rival models who’d like to see you out of the way?”
“My life is not some sort of bad movie plot. People don’t do that in the real world.”
“You’d be surprised.”
I shook my head, unable to wrap my mind around the imaginary world he was painting for me. Were people really that ugly, that unhappy, that cruel?
Ox unfolded his body from the couch and came to me, resting a hand on my shoulder. “I know all this is overwhelming. I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through today. We’ll do the best we can to get you out of here and back to your life as soon as possible.”
“Can you check on Akker? Tell me how he’s doing?”
“I will. But for now, you should probably try to get some rest. There’s a bedroom just down the hall here,” he said, gesturing to a doorway hidden behind one of the bookshelves. “There should be some clothing your size, as well. You’re welcome to take a bath, watch television—whatever you wish to do.”
Caballo Security Box Set Page 24