by Mel Odom
Ruby lights glowed to sudden life against Remy’s chest. He knew he was only a heartbeat from death. Carefully he bent over and placed the pistol on the pavement and awaited further orders even though he was pretty sure he knew what they would be.
“Get on the ground!” the man ordered. “On the ground now! Facedown! Hands on top of your head!”
Remy followed orders and took care that his hands were always outstretched from his body so they wouldn’t think he was reaching for a weapon. His heart felt like it was going to explode.
Memories of other times he’d been arrested back in New Orleans flashed through his mind. It was hard to believe that he was going to survive such an encounter when there had been so many close calls back then.
The rough pavement chewed at his cheek. He had to force himself to lie there when footsteps pounded in his direction. In the next instant someone blinded him with a flashlight beam while someone else jumped in the middle of his back and raked his arms behind him.
Hard metal bit into his wrists and secured his hands behind his back.
“I’m with NCIS,” Remy said. “My ID—”
Someone punched him in the back of the head and snarled, “Shut up.”
“Hang in there, Remy,” Will said over the earpiece. “We’ll get you out of there as soon as we can.” Then one of the FBI agents stripped the earpiece.
Blood from a split lip tasted warm and salty inside Remy’s mouth. He shut up and stayed where he was as he was roughly frisked. But he hoped Shel was still safe.
>> 2035 Hours
Slowly, not offering any sudden movement that might panic Bobby Lee Gant, Shel raised his arms. “Hey, bro,” Shel said. “I don’t know what you’re smoking, but I just came in to check out tattoos.”
“Who is he?” Bobby Lee demanded.
The young woman behind the counter shook her head. “He just came in. He was asking about tattoos.”
“Bobby Lee!” the big man from the back room roared.
Shel recognized the man from the file Remy had downloaded. His name was Ralph “Spider” Gemmell, a known associate of biker clubs.
Bobby Lee swiveled and pointed his pistol at Spider. “Back off, man!”
Spider came to an abrupt halt. “You don’t want to do this, bro. It’s gonna end bad if you do.”
“I ain’t going to jail!” Bobby Lee screamed. His eyes rolled in panic like an animal’s. “They ain’t gonna take me to jail!”
“Dude,” Spider said, “it’s just jail. Ain’t like they’re gonna lock you up forever.”
“They ain’t locking me up at all!”
Shel thought about reaching for the pistol at his back. But he knew if he did, he was going to have to use it.
Let it ride, he told himself. Let this develop. He’s smart enough to realize he isn’t going to get out of this without getting hurt.
At least, Shel hoped that was true. Whether Bobby Lee was sober enough to do the right thing was another question.
Outside, through the large windows that overlooked the parking lot and Doggett Avenue beyond, two unmarked sedans with flashing lights shrilled to halts. Car doors jacked open, and men in Kevlar armor and FBI jackets took up ready positions behind cover.
“FBI?” Bobby Lee said in surprise.
Well, Shel thought, he isn’t so high or panicked that he can’t read.
“It ain’t supposed to be the FBI,” Bobby Lee moaned. “It’s the Marines. The Marines are supposed to be after me.”
“Maybe they’re not after you,” the woman behind the counter suggested. “Maybe they’re here after somebody else.”
“Who?” Bobby Lee demanded.
The young woman flinched back. “I don’t know. I was just saying.”
In the next minute, though, a man on a loudhailer stripped away that illusion. “Bobby Lee Gant! This is the FBI! Put down your weapon and come out with your hands up!”
Bobby Lee whirled around just in time to get lit up by ruby spotter lights. He glanced down at his chest and cursed.
“Give it up, bro,” Spider advised. “They got you cold. You can still get out of this in one piece.”
A lithe movement put Bobby Lee next to the young woman at the counter before anyone could move. He roped an arm around her neck and pulled her body back against his.
“I’m getting out of here!” Bobby Lee declared. “Or I’m going to kill her stone dead! I swear I am!”
13
>> Spider’s Tattoo Shop
>> Doggett Street
>> Charlotte, North Carolina
>> 2037 Hours
The young woman screamed and tried to break free from her captor. Bobby Lee popped his forearm up and hit her in the mouth. She stopped screaming and remained still.
“Try that again,” Bobby Lee yelled, “and I’ll hurt you bad! Do you understand me?”
The young woman nodded and shivered in fear.
“Don’t do that, bro,” Spider said. His voice was more calm than Shel expected. “If you just stay calm, Bobby Lee, you’ll come out of this all right. I promise. But if you go off half-cocked, you’re gonna get a lot of people hurt.”
Shel forced himself to remain still. Any move on his part would turn the tattoo shop into a bloodbath. He didn’t know why one of the FBI snipers outside didn’t drop Bobby Lee Gant in his tracks. Shel also wondered where Remy was.
Spider stepped forward slowly. “Give her to me. She don’t deserve none of your trouble.”
“Well she’s in it now,” Bobby Lee snarled. “All of you are. Whatever happens to me is the same what happens to you.”
Moving slowly, Spider took another step toward Bobby Lee.
Shel’s breath locked down in his lungs. Don’t, he thought. Bobby Lee wasn’t holding together well. He wasn’t going to handle the situation.
“Give her to me, bro,” Spider said.
Bobby Lee shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t. ICANTICANTICANTICANT.”
“Yeah, you can.” Spider took another step. “That there’s my blood, Bobby Lee. My sister’s girl. I promised my sister I wouldn’t let any harm come to her.” He gestured with one hand. “You got to give her to me an’ let me get her outta this. C’mon now, bro.”
“No.” Bobby Lee shook his head like a scared child. Unshed tears gleamed in his eyes. “I heard stories about what prison’s like, man. I ain’t gonna go. They ain’t gonna do something like that to me. I ain’t gonna be no . . .”
Spider wouldn’t stop moving.
Shel knew that was a mistake, and it was like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion. He wanted to tell Spider to stay back, that the FBI snipers would put Bobby Lee down without hurting the young woman if it came to that, but he couldn’t. If he spoke, he would further split Bobby Lee’s attention and ratchet up the tension.
It was at a time like this, Shel knew, that his brother Don would have told him to pray. But Shel had never been a big believer in the power of prayer. He had prayed on occasion, but he’d never been able to put his heart into it or really believe.
Instead, he remained still and hoped that he was wrong about how events were about to unfold.
“Bobby Lee, listen to me.” Spider took another step. He was close enough now that he could have reached out and touched the pistol in Bobby Lee’s hand.
Bobby Lee pointed the pistol and squeezed the trigger without warning. The detonation filled the tattoo shop with rolling thunder.
Spider recoiled only slightly. His head jerked to one side. Shel saw the ugly wound in the side of his face and the huge exit wound in the back of Spider’s head. Death had to have been instant, but he remained on his feet for just a moment. Then his legs went out from under him and he sank to the floor.
“I told him!” Bobby Lee shouted. “I told him to stay back! It wasn’t my fault he didn’t listen!”
Even though he’d seen it happen before, Shel couldn’t believe the suddenness with which the violence had erupted. He watched Spider fall in the p
eriphery of his vision, but he kept his eyes on Bobby Lee. Beside Shel, Max bunched, ready to leap into action. Shel stilled the Labrador with a hand signal and Max subsided.
One of the sniper’s ruby dots flicked to the exposed side of Bobby Lee’s head and tracked across his face. Even though he couldn’t see the light, Bobby Lee instinctively pulled back more tightly behind the young woman. She shuddered as she cried. Tears tracked her face and blood ran down her chin.
Shel continued to hold his hands up and offered no threat. He debated saying anything until the young woman started fighting against Bobby Lee.
“Don’t fight him,” Shel instructed. “Just—”
“Shut up!” Bobby Lee roared. “Shut up! Shut up!” He brought the pistol around and pointed it at Shel. Shel saw the young man’s finger tighten on the trigger and knew he was going to shoot.
Before Shel could move, two sledgehammer blows chopped into his chest and one caught him in the right shoulder. The impacts vibrated through him and drove him back as pain washed away his thoughts. The sharp bite of intense agony told him the vest hadn’t stopped all of the bullets. As he fell, he managed to grab Max’s left foreleg.
Hold on, Shel told himself. Hold on. He tried because he knew that Max might attack. Without him there to back Max up, Bobby Lee would gun him down. Shel tried to maintain his grip, but the white-hot pain sucked him into a whirling pool of blackness.
>> 2040 Hours
Helplessly Victor Gant sat handcuffed in the back of the FBI sedan and watched his son write his death warrant. Victor spoke through the wire mesh that locked him in the rear seat.
Urlacher was crouched behind the driver’s side door with the loudhailer clutched in one hand and a pistol in the other.
“If you kill my boy,” Victor threatened hoarsely, “the deal’s off. I won’t tell you nothing. You hear me?”
“Hold your fire,” Urlacher said over the radio. He didn’t turn around or even acknowledge that Victor had spoken. “Nobody shoots until I give the word.”
Adrenaline flooded Victor’s senses. In frustration, he pulled at the handcuffs that kept his arms behind his back. He watched the violence unfolding in the tattoo shop and tried not to be sick.
For the first time in years, Victor was afraid. Fear hadn’t touched him like that in a long time. And he couldn’t remember the last occasion he’d been concerned over anybody outside of his own skin. Not even for Fat Mike, who’d been with him for over thirty years.
But he was afraid now for his son, whom he’d barely gotten to know. A man was supposed to be afraid for his son. Victor didn’t want to be, but he saw so much of himself inside Bobby Lee that he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him.
And he was scared to death that something terrible was about to happen. All he could do was sit and watch.
“Bobby Lee,” Urlacher said over the loudhailer.
Inside the tattoo parlor, Bobby Lee spun toward the line of cars out in the parking lot. He brought the pistol up to the side of the young woman’s face. The barrel was superheated from the recent firing. She jerked her head away as the barrel seared her flesh.
Don’t shoot, Bobby Lee. Victor willed his son to hear him. She’s just scared and hurt. You still got her. But for a moment he thought Bobby Lee was going to shoot anyway.
Instead, Bobby Lee pulled the pistol back and clubbed the woman’s ear. She stumbled and nearly fell, but she stayed on her feet in front of him. A handful of ruby laser dots danced across Bobby Lee’s face.
Victor stopped breathing and waited for one of the snipers to empty Bobby Lee’s brainpan.
“Hold your fire,” Urlacher ordered.
Bobby Lee yanked the woman in front of him again. He propelled her to the door and opened it a little. “I want a car!” he yelled. “And I want an airplane standing by at the airport.”
“Kid’s seen too many movies,” the FBI driver said quietly.
Victor cursed at him and kicked the back of the seat.
Urlacher and the FBI driver ignored him.
“Bobby Lee,” Urlacher said, “I’ve got your father in the car with me. He doesn’t want you to get hurt. He wants you to surrender.”
“You lie!” Bobby Lee yelled. “My old man wouldn’t give in to nobody like you!”
Urlacher turned to Victor and spoke through the mesh. “It’s your play. You want to talk to him or sit on the sidelines?”
Victor hesitated only for a moment. “I’ll talk.”
Urlacher nodded at the driver. “Get him out of the back.”
Gingerly the driver eased back and opened the rear door.
Looking back, Urlacher locked eyes with Victor. “You try to run, I’m gonna shoot your legs out from under you. That’ll probably spook Bobby Lee; then these men out here will blow him out of his socks. You be sure and think about what you’re doing.”
“I am,” Victor gritted. He didn’t try to get out of the car. “Can you make this go away too? If I give you what you want?” If Tran didn’t kill him first.
Urlacher hesitated. Victor wouldn’t have believed the man if he’d just said yes like it was nothing.
“It’ll take some doing,” Urlacher said, “but I can convince the right people that what you’re going to tell us will be worth it.”
“Even after Bobby Lee killed them men?”
“It’ll be a tough sell,” Urlacher admitted. “But I’ve sold worse.”
Victor nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.” He slid off the seat and stood beside the car. He raised his voice. “Bobby Lee, can you see me?”
Bobby Lee jerked his head around. His Confederate flag bandanna hung askew and allowed his hair to trickle down into his face. He looked worried and scared and lost.
Just like a kid, Victor realized.
“I can see you,” Bobby Lee said. “What are you doing with them?”
“They got me under arrest.” Victor smiled like it was all one big joke and he was just getting to the punch line. He turned slightly so that the handcuffs showed.
“Why?” Bobby Lee demanded. He looked more lost than ever. He kept turning his head from side to side, trying to take it all in.
“Bobby Lee,” Victor said, afraid he was going to lose him, “look at me.”
Bobby Lee settled a little.
“You’re gonna have to turn yourself in,” Victor said.
“No way.” Bobby Lee shook his head vigorously. “I ain’t going to prison. I got me a hostage. They’re gonna give me a car and a plane, or I’m gonna kill this girl.”
The ruby lights hung on to Bobby Lee’s head, face, and exposed shoulder like a clutch of predatory insects.
“That’s stupid talking,” Victor said. “I cut you a deal. They’re gonna let you go free.”
Thirty years and more of dealing with Tran, and Victor was going to burn that bridge in a heartbeat for a son he barely knew. It almost didn’t make sense, but blood was blood, and Bobby Lee was his boy.
“Don’t need you to cut me no deal,” Bobby Lee shouted back. “I’m gonna cut my own deal.”
“They ain’t gonna let you out of here, Son,” Victor said in the calmest voice he could manage. “They can’t. Goes against FBI rules.” He didn’t want to tell Bobby Lee they could kill him in an eye blink because that might unnerve him even more.
“You scared?” Bobby Lee asked.
The question startled Victor. “No. Why?”
“Because you ain’t never called me son before.”
Victor hadn’t, and he only then realized he’d called Bobby Lee that. But it had seemed so natural calling him that when he was trying to calm him down.
“Just give up the girl,” Victor said. “Put your weapon down. We’ll get through this just fine.”
Bobby Lee hesitated; then he shook his head again. “I can’t. I don’t want to go to prison.”
“You ain’t gonna go to no—”
“Shut up!” Bobby Lee roared. “I don’t know how they got you here to lie to me, but I
ain’t gonna believe you! You ain’t never cared about me!” He pointed the pistol at Victor.
Not knowing what to do, Victor stood silent and helpless. His stomach turned sour, and bile burned the back of his throat.
“Get me a car!” Bobby Lee ordered. “Get me a car and a plane or I’m gonna kill her and kill as many of you as I can before you get me!” He fired three shots at the unmarked sedan where Victor stood.
The bullets smashed through the windshield and caromed off the top of the car. The federal agents ducked to cover. Victor never flinched, but he grew cold and still inside as he waited for the FBI to return fire.
“Hold your positions!” Urlacher ordered. “No one shoots!”
You’re a greedy man, Victor thought. Still wanting what I can give you. He watched the FBI agent from the corner of his eye, but his attention was focused on Bobby Lee.
“Get me that car!” Bobby Lee shouted.
Pride thrummed through Victor, but it was short-lived as he watched the big man with the dog slowly push himself to his feet behind Bobby Lee. Victor had clearly heard all three gunshots when Bobby Lee had shot the man at almost point-blank range. There was only one way the man was getting to his feet.
He’d been wearing a bulletproof vest.
And if he’d been wearing a bulletproof vest inside the tattoo shop, that meant he was some kind of cop.
“Bobby Lee!” Victor yelled. “Look out! Behind you!”
If Bobby Lee had turned instantly, if he’d trusted the warning, Victor knew he would have caught the big cop stone-cold. But he didn’t. He hesitated for just an instant, and by then it was too late.
14
>> Spider’s Tattoo Shop
>> Doggett Street
>> Charlotte, North Carolina
>> 2043 Hours
Shel struggled to focus through his swirling senses as he stood unsteadily on his feet. Bobby Lee was in front of him, his back to Shel, hugged in tight to his hostage.