by Ari McKay
“By the time we got to our cars, they’d be long gone. Better to let the cops chase and Herc to get a specialist on it,” he replied. “In the meantime, I want the evidence before it’s picked up by the campus cops. They can’t handle this, and the Raleigh police will have to call in the FBI. By the time they figure out jurisdiction, Finn could be dead. We’re not going to let that happen.”
“Hell, no, we aren’t.” Drew’s voice was a low, angry growl.
Joe opened the rear door again, and he saw campus police approaching. “Dead-eye, get here on the double. You and Joker both. I’m going to be stuck talking to the police, and I need you to lock this area down. Finn may have tried to leave us a clue, and if so, we need to find it.”
Within five minutes the entire Hercules team was there, except for Pixel, who was monitoring the feeds in the van. Joe had enough time to brief them on what he saw and set them to looking for evidence before he had to give a statement to the police. The conference organizers also wanted a report, but by the time the cops cut Joe loose, Herc had arrived. He shooed Joe toward his team before taking over the political duties, much to Joe’s relief.
Joe hurried over to Thunder, Dead-eye, and Joker, who were standing around something on the ground, not letting the cops at it yet. Joe was glad—screw jurisdiction. This mission was about Finn, and as far as he was concerned, Hercules Security had jurisdiction. “What have you got?”
“A note,” Drew said, his expression troubled as he looked at Joe. “It’s written in Urdu.”
Joe felt all the blood leaving his face. Urdu was the official language of Pakistan, and he was far too familiar with certain very bad elements who were based in that country. He crouched down, pulling a pen out of his pocket so that he could lift the folded portion of the note.
We know you killed our friends, the note read. Now you will pay.
“No.” Joe stood up, balling his hands into fists so tight that the pen he was holding shattered. “I know who did this. They were coming for me.” The ice in the pit of his stomach churned, threatening to make him throw up, but he clamped his jaw down on it. Now was not the time for panic. Not if he was going to save Finn.
“What does this have to do with you?” Tyson asked, appearing puzzled. “Are you sure this isn’t a diversion? Do we need to clear the convention center?”
“It’s the mission I was on in Pakistan. We were going after another part of that human trafficking ring Pixel found a few years ago. The damned cockroaches just kept coming back, and we thought if we could kill the leader, we could kill it once and for all.” Joe shook his head. “I guess we didn’t do as good a job as we thought, and somehow they must have found out who I work for. And they fucking took Finn!”
“Fuck.” Drew raked his fingers through his short hair and grimaced. “If this is revenge, then the clock is ticking. No way Finn is getting out of this alive unless we find him.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Joe turned on Drew, scowling. “I’m going after them. I won’t let them kill Finn, especially since it’s me they want.”
“I’m going with you,” Drew said in a tone that brooked no argument. “You’ll need backup, and I know the language.”
The last thing Joe wanted was this interloper tagging along when he had a job to do. “I don’t want you. I want D-Day. He’s better at this shit than anyone else.”
“Unfortunately, Daryl is in French Guiana with Emerson.” Herc’s voice came from behind them, and Joe turned to see his boss approaching. “Joe, you do need backup.”
“I’ll go,” Jason spoke up. “I went up against these guys before, remember?”
There was a squawk of protest from Pixel, but before he could speak, Herc shook his head. “I need you here to help Pixel. You’ve gotten almost as good at the electronics end as Pita, and unfortunately Pita is tied up at the moment. I can’t spring him for at least two days. Joker is right—he speaks the language, and he’s had more recent combat experience than anyone else. This is definitely a combat situation, so it’s the two of you. Dead-eye, you’re going to be auxiliary; we may need a sniper, so I want to hold you out of the thick of things. I have Pixel running Finn’s GPS tags now, so I want you two ready to go. Am I clear?”
“Clear, Herc,” Joe said, taking a deep breath. He didn’t want to work with Drew—he didn’t trust Drew to have his back if things fell into the crapper. At the end of the day, though, Joe also knew he couldn’t go into this without the resources of Hercules Security, so he had to play by Herc’s rules. For now.
“Clear, sir,” Drew said, appearing grimly satisfied.
Joe put on his best poker face; he couldn’t let Drew see how pissed off he was. Finn came first, and finding him was all that mattered. “I want one of the executive protection SUVs, full auto weapons, and every kind of nonlethal load we have available. If we have to frag a whole location, I want to make sure we don’t get Finn by accident. I’d just as soon tranq these assholes and kill them later rather than risk anything happening to Finn.”
“You can have anything you need,” Herc replied.
“Pixel, do you have a fix on Finn’s GPS yet?” Joe asked. He turned and started walking toward the front of the building, not caring if Drew came along. He was going to head after Finn, and damn anyone who got in his way, and that included Drew Martin.
“I’m pretty sure they’re jamming the signal,” Chris said, an exasperated edge in his voice. “I’m working on it, but these guys are pros. I can’t get a lock on them. I’ll keep you updated.”
“Shit.” Joe thought quickly, turning over options. “What about traffic cams? Have the cops had any luck with that plate?”
“No love,” Chris said. “The number you gave is from plates reported stolen two days ago. The cops haven’t spotted the van—or at least not a van with those plates or a busted window. My guess is they’ve already ditched it. Either they had a backup vehicle already prepped or they’ve stolen one. My money is on the backup.”
“Yeah.” Joe knew these people had kidnapping down to a science, it was how they made their money. However, they’d want to avoid detection, too, and that meant one thing. “South. They’d go south, I’m sure of it. Running for the empty areas past I-40. There are lots of places where there’s nothing but farms and woods for miles, all the way down to the Cape Fear River. Can you listen for any reports of suspicious activity? Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll break in, or a bunch of foreigners will scare the crap out of some local paranoid.”
“On it,” Chris said.
Joe stepped out of the convention center, turning and heading for his car. Drew was right on his heels, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. When he reached the vehicle he unlocked it and then got in and fastened his seatbelt. Drew slid into the passenger seat. He glanced at Joe as he buckled up.
“What’s our first move?” he asked.
Joe wished he could ignore the question, but he couldn’t. At the moment he really didn’t give a damn about professionalism, but he had his orders.
“I’m going back to HQ.” He started the car, putting action to words. “I’m picking up one of our executive protection vehicles, which all have GPS locators and trackers. I’m going to load up every damned weapon I can find and hope that Pixel gets something. Until he does, I’m following my gut. You may know Urdu, but I know Raleigh, and I’ve gone up against these guys before. They don’t want prying eyes for what they’re going to do. They want something, or they would have just killed him outright. They’re either going to sweat him for info, or they’re going to try to set up an exchange. They must know they can’t get him out of the country, not from here. Not unless they have a private plane, but I don’t think that’s what they want. I’m betting what they want is me. They just don’t know who I am. Yet.”
“They sure as hell won’t find out from Finn,” Drew said. “He’d probably rather die than give you up.”
“Yeah, which is stupid.” Joe grimaced. “He should te
ll them what they want. I’ll go with them. Anything I have to do to save him. Even if it kills me.”
Drew let out an amused snort. “That’s probably what he’s thinking right about now, too. He’ll do anything to save you, even if it kills him.”
“I won’t let that happen.” Joe said the words with utter conviction. He would save Finn. Anything else was unthinkable. “Just don’t get in my way.”
“I’m not planning on it,” Drew said, his voice quiet but determined. “I want to get Finn back, no matter what it takes.”
Joe tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Yeah, I get it. I don’t trust you to have my back, but I don’t care as long as you get Finn out. That’s all that matters to me.”
“You may not trust me, but I’ve got your back. For Finn’s sake, if nothing else.”
“Don’t ask me to believe that.” Joe growled in disgust. “I know what you want, and I know that if I’m not in the picture, you get it. So spare me any insincere words of support.”
Drew regarded Joe with disbelief. “You think Finn would miraculously become a fan of monogamy just because you’re not around? Please. Finn isn’t the type who can give everything to one man. If it wasn’t you, it would be someone else. He loves you, and you’re important to him, so by extension, I’ve got your back because I don’t want him to be hurt.”
“Yeah? Well he loves you, too, so I’m sure you know he’d be just fine eventually.” Joe shook his head. “Then you’d have him because you wouldn’t have to share him with anyone else he loved. The hookups meant nothing, that’s why I could live with them. I’m sure you’d live with them, too.”
Drew studied Joe, his eyes narrowed shrewdly. “You’re throwing the word ‘love’ around, but I’m not sure you understand how deep it runs with Finn. Just because he’s not monogamous doesn’t mean he doesn’t care deeply. Losing you would cause him a lot of damage.”
“I understand more than you think.” Joe glared straight ahead. He should probably just cut Drew off, but if anything did happen to him, he didn’t want Drew telling Finn how awful Joe was. Maybe, just maybe, he needed to get some of this off his chest. “Finn has been my lover, my partner, my heart… my everything for the last eight years. My reason to get up in the morning. I never tied him down because that would have killed his spirit, made him less the man that I love. You’ve been around him what, six weeks? I know that losing me would hurt him. I know it hurts him now to know that he’s hurting me by being with you. I know he wishes he could be just with me and be satisfied, but he can’t. And I won’t ask that of him, even if it means sharing him with you. Don’t presume to think you know what I understand. You don’t know me. You know nothing about me.”
“If you understand so much, why do you keep saying he’ll be fine if something happens to you?” Drew asked, frowning at Joe. “Why are you implying we’ll have a perfect life with you out of the picture, as you put it? Either you don’t really know how much Finn values you or you’re seriously undervaluing yourself. Which is it?”
The question pulled Joe up short, but he didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think about Drew anymore or let Drew inside his head. “I’m not implying you’ll have a perfect life, just the one that you probably want. Anything else is none of your fucking business,” he snapped.
“Don’t presume to think you know what I want,” Drew said, lobbing Joe’s own words back at him. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me, either.”
“Yeah? I know you want Finn.” Joe laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound. “I know that you want him enough to stick around when you see that he’s conflicted about you and how being with you makes me feel. He even offered to give you up if that’s what I wanted, but I’m not that selfish. As far as I’m concerned, you’re hurting him, but if he wants you, I’m not going to stand in his way.”
“Oh, you think I haven’t seen how this is tearing Finn up?” Drew’s eyebrows climbed to his hairline as he fixed Joe with an incredulous look. “You think I haven’t offered to bow out? You think I’m enough of an asshole that I can stand by and watch him hurt and do fuck all about it, unlike Saint Joe? Is that what you think?”
“I don’t think I’m a fucking saint,” Joe snapped. “But yeah, I think you’re a selfish prick.”
“It takes one to know one, then, because you’re still with him too,” Drew shot back.
“Yeah, and when I offered to bow out, he fucking announced to the whole company that he was in love with me.” Joe’s dislike of Drew only grew the longer they talked, but he was damned now if he was going to let Drew make him feel like shit. He could do that well enough on his own, he didn’t need this fucker piling on him. “I’d kill for him. I’d die for him. Can you say the same, Mr. Johnny Come Lately? He’d get over you a hell of a lot easier than he’d get over me. So if you think I’m selfish, fuck you.”
“I don’t think you’re selfish,” Drew said with a little shrug. “I think you’re being hypocritical, but more than that, I think you’ve got something eating at you that’s bigger than what’s going on between the three of us, and it’s coloring everything else.”
“Yeah, well, you know what? I don’t give a fuck what you think.” Joe steered the car into the Hercules Security parking lot, pulling into a space and stopping. He turned off the ignition and then turned to look at Drew. “If I were a hypocrite, I’d’ve taken Finn up on his offer to dump you. If I didn’t love him, I’d leave him and this fucked up mess of a relationship that apparently isn’t making anyone happy. So what’s your angle, Joker? Because I may love Finn, but I don’t give a shit about you personally, and it won’t hurt my delicate feelings if you say the same.”
Drew studied Joe in silence, and then he gave a little “what the hell” shrug. “We don’t give a shit about each other for different reasons. I don’t know you well enough, so the only reason I give a shit about you is because Finn loves you. You’re important to him, so by extension, you matter to me. You, however, see me as competition. I’m an intruder, and you’ve got up some pretty thick walls against me even though you don’t need to. I don’t want to take Finn from you. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I don’t want to fuck up your relationship either. It’s older and stronger than mine. I know that. What I’d like is peaceful coexistence so we aren’t all in a fucked-up mess.”
“So tell me this, Mr. All I Want Is Peace, why don’t you just bow out? If you don’t want to fuck up my relationship, if you aren’t really competition, why don’t you just go away?” Joe snorted. “If my relationship with Finn is older and stronger, why are you sticking your cock into it?”
“I could bow out.” Drew inclined his head to acknowledge the point. “Finn and I talked about it. He didn’t want me to. I get what you’re saying, Morrissey. The newcomer ducking out is the more honorable move to make. I could still take a powder. It’d hurt a hell of a lot worse now than it would’ve a few weeks ago, but I could do it. So I do the honorable thing and break up with Finn… and then what? He goes back to hooking up with strangers? What if he finds someone else who strikes the same kind of sparks I did? What are you going to do then? Run that guy off too?”
Joe shook his head, feeling defeated. “It’s too fucking late for you to bow out now, and you damned well know it. Yeah, you could have done the honorable thing, but that time came and went, so now you’re stuck. I’ll be damned if I’m going to have you tell Finn I ran you off. I’m not doing that to him, and neither are you, do you understand me? Especially since I get the feeling there’s a price on my head. Someone has to be there for him, you asshole. And you got yourself elected.”
“I accept,” Drew said, a sardonic edge in his voice. “Now are you going to sit here and jaw at me some more, or are we going to go find Finn?”
A cold wave of pure rage flowed over Joe, and he was glad he’d left his gun back with the cops. If he’d had it now, he’d’ve been awfully tempted to shoot Drew and damn the consequences. He
spent a single second thinking about choking Drew to death, but then he decide it really wasn’t worth it, no matter how satisfying it might be for a few moments.
“Fuck you, Martin,” he said and then unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car. All he knew at the moment was that he had to save Finn, no matter what. Though it was starting to look like dying in the process might be a hell of a lot less painful than living.
13
When Finn returned to consciousness, he was aware of little things first. The chafe of restraints—real metal handcuffs, not zip ties—against his wrists. A dull ache in his shoulders said his arms had been cuffed behind the metal chair he was in for a while. A blindfold tied a little too tight around his head. He had no idea how long he was out, but he thought it was a pretty good sign that they were no longer traveling. Chances were good that they were holed up somewhere relatively close to Raleigh.
Not that it mattered if they hauled Finn all the way to Timbuktu. Joe would find him. Between Joe’s unrelenting determination and all the resources Hercules Security had at its disposal, the question wasn’t if but when the extraction team would arrive. All Finn had to do was stay alive long enough for them to get there. Whoever had taken him was fucked, but they’d be fucked even harder if Joe shifted from rescue to revenge.
Finn strained to hear any faint sounds that might give him a clue about where he was and if any of the people who’d kidnapped him were in the room.
“I see you are awake.” The voice came from in front of him. Male, deep pitched, with a melodious accent. There was no way for Finn to tell, of course, but the man had a tone to his voice that was both mature and used to command. “We have some questions for you.”
Finn’s mouth was dry, probably due to whatever they’d stuck him with, but he sat up straight and turned his head in the direction of the voice. “You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”