"What should I call you?" she asked, after several seconds. Her voice was calm, and she no longer acted high. The effect of her sudden change in demeanor was chilling, as she no doubt meant for it to be.
"Whatever pleases you, ma'am," I said, locking eyes with her.
"Polite, aren't you? That's nice, but it won't help either of us. Did he have ID?" she asked.
"No," Bubba said.
"What did he have with him when you captured him?"
"A backpack," Bubba said. "Couple of bottles of water, some beef jerky. Cheap cellphone, plus an iPhone. Binoculars. Keys to a rental car, and a folding combat knife. Plus a camouflage poncho."
"Did you find the car?"
"No."
"Okay, stud," she said, putting her hands on my arms and leaning toward me, her face almost touching mine.
I felt the headrest against the back of my head as she put her lips on mine. I clenched my teeth and pulled my lips together tightly as I felt her tongue probing. After several unsuccessful attempts to force her tongue into my mouth, she stood up, smiling at me.
"Playing hard to get, are you, big boy?"
She reached toward me and stroked my cheek. Remembering what she did to Bobby, I wasn't surprised when I felt the blood running down the side of my face.
"I'm one of those girls who likes a challenge. Hard to get is what I want from a man. We'll have fun tonight, you and I. I'll take you places you've never been before. You'll feel things you've never even dreamed about, not in your wildest fantasies. And we have all the time in the world, so you just drag it out as long as you want. I like that."
"Sure you don't want to tell me who you are before we become ... uh … intimate?" She ran her hands over her bare skin, writhing as she licked her lips while maintaining eye contact with me. "You're making me all hot and bothered; I don't want to rush this, though. So maybe I'll just amuse myself with Bobby for a little while. You can watch; will that get you in the mood? Do you like to watch?"
"I'm in your hands," I said.
"Not yet, but before the night's over, you will be. In ways you would never imagine. Bobby and I will give you a preview. How about it, Bobby? Want to play?"
"Uh," Bobby said, swallowing hard.
"Aw, come on. I know you do. I won't hurt you. Not much. Now take off your clothes."
"Um, how about later, after we finish with this guy?"
"Now, Bobby. Bubba?"
"Huh?" Bubba asked, frowning, his hands shaking.
"Give me that knife so I can undress Bobby."
Bubba handed her Bobby's lock-blade knife, the one that he used to cut me free. She opened it with a flick of her wrist and turned to Bobby. Moving in close, she pressed herself against him. The poor fool wrapped his arms around her and began moaning as she writhed in mock passion.
16
Bikini Babe took her time with Bobby. She was enjoying her warm-up act, as she called it. In periodic asides to those of us in her audience, she would explain what she would do to him next, while we watched Bobby squirming, his eyes rolling in fear. After listening to him scream for the first few minutes of her ministrations, she ordered Bubba to put a ball-gag in his mouth.
"Too bad it's not an apple," she said. "We could roast him like a pig after I gut him."
By that point, Bobby was hog-tied, his wrists and ankles pulled together behind his back as he rested face-to-the-floor on his ample belly. In different circumstances, he might have been pitiful. But not now — I can never find it in me to feel sorry when a wanna-be badass gets a taste of what he serves up to others.
She rolled him onto his side and told Bubba to spin him 90 degrees, so that his so-far uninjured chest and stomach faced toward her audience.
"Or maybe we shouldn't roast him. Look at all that prime bacon." She ran her hand down his side, from his armpit to his hipbone. The pieces of razor blade glued under her fingernails opened four long cuts that immediately filled with blood.
"Reasonably well marbled," she said. "But fatter would be better. Maybe I should neuter this hog so we can fatten him up before we roast him."
She reached down as if to fondle him with her enhanced nails and then hesitated. Looking back over her shoulder and catching my eye, she smiled and blew me a kiss.
"What do you think, Stud? Ready to tell me your name? I'm getting bored with Bobby. There's not much to work with there. You look a lot more promising. Let's you and me play for a while. How about it?"
"I'm at your disposal, ma'am," I said.
She stood up straight and turned to face me. "You've seen a sample of the things I can do for a man," she said, as she sashayed over to stand between my knees. "Anything in particular that appeals to you?"
"It was all awesome," I said. "I guess it's up to you."
She stroked my other cheek, the one that was still intact, then bent toward me and kissed it. I waited a second, expecting to feel the blood dripping along my jaw, but it didn't happen.
"See," she said. "I don't always use my claws. I can be gentle if you're nice to me."
"I'm glad to hear that, ma'am."
"Let's try kissing again," she said. "But first, tell me your name. I don't like calling you Stud; it sounds too much like I'm treating you like a sex object."
She put her hand on my good cheek again, but she kept it in one place, curling her fingers a bit, letting me feel the bits of razor blade. "Tell me your name."
"Finn."
"Finn," she said. "Is that your first name, or your last name?"
"Everybody just calls me Finn."
"Okay, Finn. How about that kiss, lover boy?"
"I'm ready if you … Wait a second."
"Why, Finn? Wait for what? You're making me hot, baby."
"I don't even know your name."
She laughed, that perfectly normal, spine chilling laugh of hers. "I like you, Finn. Call me Carmen."
"You don't look like a Carmen."
"No? What do you think I look like? You want to give me a name? I can be anybody you want me to be. Tell me."
"Maybe we should stick with Carmen. It's starting to sound — "
There was a coughing sound from the left, and she staggered to her right as the right side of her head exploded. She collapsed in a heap between my feet. I tried to turn my head far enough to see the shooter, but I couldn't.
Dixon and Bubba jumped to their feet. There were more coughs, and Bubba fell back into his chair, a small black hole at the bridge of his nose. Dixon was on the floor, screaming.
"Shut this bastard up while I cut Finn loose," Mary said.
"You got it," I heard Aaron's voice say, as something muffled Dixon's screams.
"Are you okay?" Mary asked, as she sliced through the bonds that held me to the commode chair.
"Better by the minute. How did you — "
"I'll tell you later. I want to talk to the one I kneecapped and then we need to clean up and get out of here. Can you stand up?"
"Not sure," I said, grasping the arms of the chair and trying to rise. "Legs are still numb from being tied up so long. Arms, too."
"Well, you work on that while I see what this jerk knows." She moved away, and I turned far enough to see her rip away the duct-tape gag that Aaron had applied to Dixon's mouth.
Dixon gasped for air and started to scream again. She kicked him hard in the belly; his scream was cut off.
"Scream again and I'll blow out your elbow," Mary said. "I know it hurts, but you're a tough guy, and it won't be for long."
I saw that both his knees were shattered, bleeding profusely as he watched Mary.
"Aaron's with you?"
"Yes. He's sorting out a few bodies we left on our way in. Now, you focus on getting your arms and legs working while I interrogate this one."
"Dixon," I said.
"What?" she asked.
"His name's Dixon. He's in charge here."
"That much we learned from the guards we caught."
She rested a foot on one of Dixon
's damaged knees. "Where's Grissom?" she asked.
"I have no — "
Mary put weight on her foot, and he screamed again. "Don't waste my time, Dixon. And stop that screaming. It just makes me want to hurt you more. Believe me, there are things I can do to you that are more painful than stepping on your knee."
"Please, I don't know — No! Don't! I'll tell you everything."
I stood up, holding onto the chair. Turning, I saw that Mary held a combat knife, its point barely penetrating the skin of his lower left eyelid.
"Give me any more bullshit, and I'll cut your eye out, slowly. And remember, you've got another one to lose. I'm in a hurry. Start talking."
"Okay, okay. Grissom's at some kind of meeting in the Bahamas. There's this Russian guy he answers to, and they're all there. But I don't know where, exactly. He's gonna be gone for several more days. He's due back next week. They — "
"They, who," Mary asked. "You said they were all there, at this meeting. Who all is there?"
"The others who work for the Russian. I don't know all of them, just the ones Grissom works with. There's a guy named Theroux, from Charleston, and — "
"I already know their names. Did you work for Joe Waters before Grissom?"
"Yeah."
"Who killed Waters?"
"This guy named Sergei. He works for the Russian. Maybe they were in the Army together; they've known each other a long time."
"Sergei, huh? Another Russian?"
"Yeah. He's like the enforcer."
"Does he have a last name?"
"I don't know what it is."
"Were you there when he killed Waters?"
"Yeah. He made us all watch."
"Us? Who?"
"Me and Sylvie and Bobby and Bubba. Everybody who worked for Joe. He and his buddy, they tied us all up, and his buddy was gonna zap us with a taser if we even blinked. Sergei broke all of Joe's bones, starting with his toes, and then his fingers, and he — "
"We already know that. Was the one you keep calling the Russian there?"
"No. Nobody ever sees him. When Joe went to meet him the first time, Sergei and his buddy blindfolded him. Same with Grissom."
"Does Sergei's buddy have a name?"
"Not that any of us ever heard. And they only speak Russian to one another. I guess, Russian. That's what Grissom said it was."
"The one you keep calling the Russian — does he have a name?"
"Uri Lavrov is what Grissom said, but he doesn't think it's his real name."
"I think you're lying about where Grissom is," Mary said.
Dixon screamed as she jerked the knife up. She slapped him, hard, across his face.
"Tell me where he is, or I'll take the other eye."
"I d-don't know, honest! I'd tell you if I — "
"Okay, enough. I believe you." Mary's pistol coughed after she interrupted him.
17
"How're the legs, Finn? Think you can walk out of here?"
"Yes. Where's Aaron?"
"He's going to sanitize this place before he leaves, make it look like a rival drug lord did this. Your rental car still around? Or did they take it?"
"Bubba said they couldn't find it, but they took my key. And my backpack."
"I've got all your stuff. It's right outside the door. Which one's Bubba?"
I pointed to his body. "The one that's all trussed up is Bobby; he's still alive, I think."
"Not for long. Aaron will take care of him. Put these on. We need to get moving."
She handed me a shopping bag containing a pair of jeans, a polo shirt, underwear, socks and running shoes. "Thanks," I said, once I was decent again.
"Your face is all bloody. You okay?"
"For now. It's just cosmetic; it was about to get a lot worse."
"I'll clean you up when we get to the car. Let's get out of here."
"I'm with you; lead the way. How did you find me?" I asked, as Mary led me through a maze of corridors and out into the night.
"Your phone. I got worried when you didn't call me this morning, so Aaron enabled the tracking on it."
"This morning? I've lost track. How long have I been here?"
"They caught you last night, sometime. Can you find where you left your car?"
"Yes. It's in a state park campground about two miles from here. I hiked in across the golf course. I was in the woods, up a tree overlooking the pool; I can find our way from there."
"This way," she said, following a driveway through an open gate.
We passed a beat-up Humvee on our way out, and I saw that the two halves of the gate were mangled.
"Stay with me, Finn. We'll follow the wall. This is the front entrance; the pool's in the back. How are you holding up?"
"I'm okay. The longer I walk, the better I feel. They shot me with a dart, some kind of drug. I overheard them say it would take 24 hours to wear off. I must be getting close."
"Could be. We don't know exactly when they caught you."
"Not too long after dark," I said.
"Then your 24 hours is about up."
"I'm surprised Aaron came with you. Did Jill give you the all clear?"
"Aaron and I decided to come after you. Jill was a little doubtful about it."
"How about Mike and Bob?"
"They were out of touch when we left the lodge, but we talked to them later. They were okay with it, I guess."
"You guess?"
"Aaron and I didn't give them much choice. He's awfully loyal to you. He told me he wouldn't be alive except for you."
"Yeah. I'm not sure why he keeps saying that. He would have been okay."
"That's not the way he sees it."
"I know. I'm still surprised he came with you. I didn't know he did field work these days."
"He doesn't, but given my recent problems and what we heard from Dixon and company, he thought I might need a hand getting you out. He really didn't want to turn me loose on my own, I could tell. But he kept that to himself."
"What do you mean by what you heard from Dixon?"
"Aaron didn't tell us everything about the phones he gave us," Mary said. "Once I raised the alarm with him, we went to his place. Have you seen it?"
"No, never."
"He's got all kinds of stuff there."
"Stuff?"
"High-tech gear, and some odd characters working for him, too. Hackers. Anyway, he has remote access to these phones. We used your phone to eavesdrop on Dixon and his minions. They were in a room with your backpack, where they went through what you were carrying when they caught you."
"I'll be damned. That pisses me off. He's been listening in on me all this time."
"Get over it, Finn. It saved your hide. Sylvie planned to make designer handbags out of you."
"Sylvie? That's the bikini babe?"
"Yes. Dixon's girlfriend. She was one sick woman. Disgusting, too."
"Disgusting?"
"I don't want to talk about it. But she had the hots for you, 'Stud.'"
I swallowed hard. "Thanks for saving me. So how much did you hear?"
"Not a lot. We listened in long enough to hear that they captured you, and that Dixon told them not to question you until tonight, when the drugs wore off. Then we had to hit the road to get here in time. Once we left Aaron's, we couldn't eavesdrop. That equipment's not portable."
"You cut it pretty fine, as it was," I said.
"Oh, we were in control of the house before they started interrogating you. Once Sylvie decided to make an example of Bobby to soften you up, Aaron left me to keep an eye on things while he searched the house."
"Keep an eye on things? How?"
"I was in their security control room. This place is really something. They have motion sensors and night-vision cameras all through the area. There's a perimeter that's maybe 200 yards out from the wall where they can see everything that moves. That's probably how they found you to begin with.
"Plus, that room you were in was wired. It's like a reco
rding studio, for audio and video. Soundproofed and everything. I had a ringside seat; full color video and high-fidelity sound of what Sylvie was doing to the one named Bobby. There were a bunch of recordings of her other sessions, too."
"I'll be damned."
"Maybe so, but not tonight. You still doing okay?"
"Yes." We were well into the undergrowth, now. "We're about ten minutes from the car."
"You just left it in a campground? Weren't you worried the management might notice?"
"It's a state park; you pay on the honor system by dropping an envelope in a box. I set up a tent and left some stuff around to make it look like I was out fishing."
"Where did you get a tent?"
"I stopped at a sporting goods place on my way here."
"Clever," Mary said.
"Not clever enough. I walked into a trap."
"Lighten up, Finn. Remember what you told me. You can't control everything all the time."
"I made an amateur's mistake. I'd be a handbag if it weren't for you and Aaron."
"Several handbags. But an amateur wouldn't have had me and Aaron to save his ass. Now, let it go."
"Easier said than done."
"Tell me about it. Maybe Jill can do a group session for the two of us."
"Are we going back to the lodge, then?"
"Yes. Aaron was already starting to narrow the search for Lavrov down to the southern Exumas before this. Now that we know he's got his direct reports with him for the next few days, I'll bet Mike and Bob will send us after them."
We pushed through the scrub in silence for another few minutes. When we found the car, Mary helped me break camp and pack everything into the SUV. She swabbed my face with a damp paper towel.
"You'll heal. Just a few deep scratches. It looked a lot worse before I washed the blood off. I'll get some ointment at the first place I see. We should keep moving, though."
"You keep saying that. Is somebody chasing us?"
"You never know. They had the keys to this car, remember? The license number is on there. We don't know if they passed it on to somebody before Aaron and I shut them down."
Villains and Vixens Page 8