by R. T. Wolfe
They spoke of the three other children Nathan and Brie had after adopting Duncan and Andy. One was graduating in a few months. The twin boys would end their second years in college.
William Juracek would never see his daughter graduate from anywhere. Nickie could still hear echoes of the sobs from Sylvia's and Renee's lips and see the honest regret in Tommy's eyes.
The Reed golden retriever sat next to Nickie with its snout on her leg. She scratched him between his eyes and watched as his lids threatened to drift closed. He was a gorgeous creature, but she had a soft spot for Rottweilers. She'd spent valuable time with the breed. They may have saved her life. Granted, her time with the breed was through a basement window as she fed them scraps of food, but it was important.
"The ring is stunning," Brie said to her. "May I see it?"
Nickie didn't know if she was supposed to take it off or hold it up like a debutant. Luckily, Brie took her hand and pulled it closer for a better look. "So strong and simple. It suits you. And the rock. Sheesh, Duncan. It's you."
They laughed, and life was good. She had much to do, but life was good. She was going to be okay. Her phone buzzed. She checked the number. It was a voice mail from Gloria. She smiled. Yes, life was good. "I'll be just a minute," she said, excusing herself and making her way to the front room.
As she swiped her phone open and chose her voice mail, she looked over at the painting of Niagara Falls Duncan had drawn when he was seven, or was it eight years old? He truly was a superhero.
"Nicole."
Tears instantly filled her eyes and panic in her heart. Zheng. Zheng had Gloria's phone. She ducked from the view of the kitchen and squatted down on the hardwood floor. Biting the backs of her fingers, she listened until she tasted blood. "I have your Gloria. I expect you to come alone. Come to the southeast corner of the hospital. Now. You have fifteen minutes. Leave your phone where you are. I'll be able to triangulate its location."
Without telling them to do so, her feet moved softly. She slipped into the coat closet and took Duncan's keys from his pocket, then crept out the front door and pulled it closed gently. She took off in a full out sprint for the Audi, listening as she ran in the cold.
"On second thought, keep your phone and bring someone with you. I'd love to have an excuse to play with this delightful, caramel woman. Wouldn't we like to play, Gloria?" Nickie recognized the whimpers of the only true mother she'd ever known.
She tossed the phone in the trees, bolted to Duncan's Audi and put it in neutral. Rolling down the hill to the end of the street, she started the engine as she reached the Black Creek Bridge, then squealed the tires toward the hospital.
* * *
They all stood in the foyer, Red whimpering at the front door.
His uncle grabbed Duncan's shoulders. His fingers sank in until it hurt.
"Get it together," Nathan said. "Think."
"I can't think. I need to get home," he said as he searched his empty coat pockets. "I can find her cell from there."
The door was closed. She'd left without a word. After her phone call.
"You can find a cell phone?" Nathan asked as if he wasn't sure if Duncan was playing with a full deck of cards.
"Let Red out," Brie said. "He can find her trail."
Of course. Duncan opened the door. "Go on, boy. Find Nickie for me."
Red's feet sped down the drive to where Duncan had parked his car. His nose moved along the space void of snow and in the shape of the car. He seemed to find what he was looking for and sniffed in a straight line up the drive.
"No, boy. She's not this way. Red!" The dog ignored Duncan and kept sniffing low to the ground as he made his way up the side of the drive.
Duncan needed to get home to his equipment. His mind spun from taking Nathan's car to how fast he could locate the signal from her phone once he got home.
She wouldn't do this. Something wasn't right. His Nickie was in danger. He started for Nathan's car when Red took a detour into the trees. Was she in the trees? Duncan lifted his head and watched.
Red dug his nose in the snow and came up with something in his mouth. Wagging his tail and whining, he walked over to Brie, sat and spit out Nickie's phone.
Nathan's expression was pained as he looked to Duncan. Slowly, Duncan reached for the cell and brushed it clean. It was still working. He opened it to check her last text. The text was the one from him he'd sent the night before they met for dinner.
He changed to recent calls and found one from Gloria just fifteen minutes prior. Relief was short but intense. It was Gloria. She needed something. Okay. This would be okay. Was she sick? Someone in the family in an accident? Why didn't Nickie come tell him?
Waving his hands, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay, everyone. I overreacted. We've been under a great deal of pressure recently. It was just Nickie's foster mom. I'll call and make sure everything's okay."
He pulled out his cell and punched in Gil's number. His hands were shaking. He must be cold. As casually as he could, he started back for the house as it rang, but then realized no one else was moving. Nathan, Brie, Andy. Rose with Andrew Jr. Even the dog stayed put, everyone having some silent conversation between the six of them.
Brows dropping, Duncan continued. Let them stand out in the cold for nothing if they wanted. The phone shook in his hands as it rang. This was nothing. "Gil, it's Duncan."
"A little early for a Sunday, Duncan. Is everything okay?"
"Fine, fine. Everything is fine. Nickie got a call from Gloria this morning. Just a few minutes ago, actually. She didn't mention what it was about and left suddenly. I was calling to see if you knew anything about it."
There was a pause. It wasn't long but gave Duncan too much time to think. He realized his feet had stopped, too.
"She didn't show up for morning Mass and doesn't answer her cell. I'm in the car on my way over to check on her now."
Duncan squatted down like a catcher at the plate, except this catcher dropped his head between his knees. He needed his equipment. Now. Standing, he let the blood rush to his head and make him dizzy as he took off toward the garage.
"Duncan!" He couldn't ever remember Nathan raising his voice to him before.
"Nickie's in trouble. I need your car. I need to go. Now!"
"Let me get my coat. I'm coming with you."
"This is big." Duncan didn't have time for this. "It could be dangerous. I've got to go."
"You're going to wait," Nathan said, using the same tone minus the volume.
This was no time to be scolded like a high school boy. Duncan rubbed his hands over his face as he watched Andy jog to the house after him. "Where the hell does he think he's going?" Duncan asked Rose.
"I think they should take Red, too," she said. "He might be of help."
* * *
Nickie's hands shook so hard she could barely turn the steering wheel into the lane that led to the hospital. She had six minutes left and pulled over. Scanning the area, she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Duncan's GPS chip. She pulled her gun belt out from beneath her seat and secured it around her waist as she drove.
"Come on, Duncan," she begged. "I need you."
She inched to the southeast corner of the hospital with three minutes to spare. This didn't feel right. There was nothing here but the corner of a building. Snow-covered grass went for several yards between the brick corner and the parking lot. The back entrance was halfway down the length of the building. Time was running out. She needed more time.
Throwing her gearshift into park, she left the car running and got out. A man turned the corner wearing a waist-length jacket with the hood up. It wasn't him; she could tell. She walked his way regardless.
"Jimbo?" His face looked like meatloaf, fresh cuts and bright red swollen lips, cheeks and eye.
"Nickie." Tears were dripping over his cuts and off his chin. "I swear I didn't... They made..." He reached for her hands. His were covered in swollen red bruises. She took one o
f them and pulled his sleeve, exposing defensive wounds up and down the side of his hand and forearm.
"Take this," he said, pulling his arm away. He took a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "I don't know what it means. He's not alone."
He's not alone? Who else? How?
"He's crazy, Nickie. Crazy. I've never seen anything like it. He said he was going after my woman if I didn't meet you here. Go now. He told me to tell you, you have ten minutes."
"Ten? From when?"
"Go!"
She took the paper, reading it as she ran to her car. "Go to the warehouse by our crash." Their crash? That was by Duncan's house. There was no warehouse by Duncan's house. She backed up and floored it through the lot. As she drove, she pulled out her tablet and found a Google Earth app. What the hell was she doing?
As she powered up, movement down the road caught her eye. A line of what looked like every squad car and emergency vehicle in town barreled toward the hospital. She wasn't in her usual town car. It was smashed. Or in one of the black and whites she drove during the day. That meant no access to a radio. Why hadn't someone called her cell? Instinctively, her foot left the accelerator and hovered over the brake as she reached for her phone. It was in the snow at the Reed home.
Gloria. She pressed the gas as she craned her head from the Audi's rearview mirror to the side mirror and back again. Nothing looked off at the hospital, but this had to be Zheng's doing.
She drove as she watched her tablet load, then typed in Duncan's address into Google Earth. There was nothing but trees. A truck driver laid on his horn as she swerved into his lane while manipulating the screen on her tablet. She searched around Duncan's house and found Andy and Rose's place. The fence around their backyard. Their barn. Could he mean their barn? No.
On the other side of the highway, back in the trees, she found something. It was a row of metal buildings. The access was from highway ten, not this road. Tossing the tablet on her passenger seat, she slammed on her brakes and spun into a U-turn.
Please be alive. Please, Gloria. Hang in there. I'm coming. Why didn't she think of this? Of course he would fucking go after the people she loved. Duncan knew to be cautious. His damned GPS. She even scoffed at him for it, she thought as she spun onto a gravel road with tall weeds sticking out of the snow. The tiny chip may be the only way she would get out of this alive.
She stopped in front of the largest building. It stood at the end of three smaller ones, all with single, oversized garage doors. She remembered this was the abandoned spot one of the town's contractors once used to store his equipment.
Movement caught her eye. A door opened.
Gloria.
Zheng stood behind her, one arm around her shoulders and the other holding a gun pressed into her temple. Her eyes were wide with fear, her mouth stuffed with a cloth and duct taped shut.
Nickie's heart pounded as she got out of her car. She did everything she could to be smart, to be calm. "Me for her, Zheng," she said as smoothly as possible. Her eyes scanned the area. There were two large garage doors to the left of a short, concrete staircase that led to a door; a regular door between the garage doors, another at the opposite end of the building's single window near the door Zheng stood in. No sign of the other people Jimbo mentioned.
He smiled. Over the years, lines had formed around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, but it was him. That same fucking demented smile. Backing up, he dragged Gloria into the dark.
Nickie ducked low and ran to the side of the building. She pulled her M&P .45 ACP from her gun belt and took it off safety. The glock in her boot pressed against her shin as she took the short stack of stairs to the open doorway.
She realized she was walking into a trap. She also realized she couldn't live another day if she didn't try to free Gloria. All she had to do was stall until Duncan found her. If he found her.
Gun drawn, she spun into the passageway and made her way back. This must have been the office wing of the building, while the other side stored the excavation equipment. The sweat forming at the base of her neck chilled in the cold air. Her breath led the way in front of her, giving away her location.
With few windows, it was dark. She hardly made it around a folding chair that sat in the hallway before his voice told her to stop. Without moving her head, she turned her eyes to the direction of it. He stepped out of the room just behind her with Gloria limp and defeated in his arms.
Nickie held up both hands and the gun. "Let her go, Zheng. This is you and me now."
"It would be nice to have some quality time between the two of us, yes. Think of the times we have to reminisce about. The years we need to make up for." He jostled Gloria, making her whimper. "Slowly, set the gun at your feet."
The exit door was open behind him; the room he'd just left was dimly lit like a window was in there. Still no sign of others. She obeyed, then pushed her .45 toward him with her foot, saving him the need to tell her to.
As he kicked it farther into the room, he said, "Now the one bulging from your boot. You really should learn to wear looser pants, Nicole. You might give someone the impression you enjoy exchanging sex for money."
Tears ran down Gloria's face.
"It's going to be okay," Nickie said to her as she removed the glock from her boot and pushed it along the floor.
"No, it's really not. You see, you don't care what I do to you, Nicole. You helped me learn that from your reactions to my presence in your townhouse and when I took part in your press conference." He reached for the glock with his foot as he tightened his grip on Gloria. Gloria squeezed her eyes shut and her shoulders shook. Pushing with the side of his shoe, he brought her glock close to where he stood. "You really should see a shrink about your self-worth issues. You have no fear of pain. No fear of what a person like myself might be capable of."
He brushed his gun from the crown of Gloria's black hair, digging it down her cheek and over her shoulder. "The ones you love, on the other hand..."
"Okay." Nickie couldn't stand it any longer. "You're right. I need a shrink. You've got me scared. You're right," she repeated as her eyes burned. "Let her go." She inched her way to him.
Using the toe of his boot, he pulled a chair from the room and sat Gloria in it. He pulled something from his pocket and took her arms behind her. Nickie heard the unmistakable sound of a zip tie.
"Have a seat, my Nicole." He gestured with his head toward the folding chair already in the hall.
Chapter 25
Andy had insisted on taking his Jeep. Duncan bounced in the passenger seat on the way to his house with Nathan and Red in the back. His leg bounced with nerves. His leg never did that. He was about to put more of his loved ones in jeopardy. Instead of his platoon, this time it would be his family.
"Pull up to the front," he said. Opening the door before the Jeep stopped completely, Duncan took off over the brittle, dry asphalt to his granite steps. Taking them two at a time, he realized Nickie had his keys.
He ran the length of the porch, then jumped. Punching in the code to the garage door, he looked around as it raised enough for him duck beneath. His uncle, brother and Red were close on his heels. He dipped beneath the moving door and through the one to his service entry. Adrenaline soared through him enough to make him nearly forget to disengage the alarm.
Sprinting the two flights of stairs, he sucked air as he barged through the French doors to where he kept the equipment used to hack into a phone's GPS. Except, he wouldn't be searching for a phone's GPS. The sounds of the pounding feet that followed him were of little consequence. Red's barking was barely heard.
He hooked the equipment needed to locate Nickie's two GPS chips up to his desk computer. If she didn't at least have them in his Audi, he had no other plan of how to find her.
Holster first. He connected the system, then used the lengthy code matched with the chip. As he waited, his leg shook and he realized his uncle was on the phone.
"Who are you calling?" It
came out harsher than he'd intended.
"Dave."
"Captain Nolan? Of course. Wait." Duncan couldn't think of a reason not to. It simply wasn't sitting well with him. "Good. You're right. Good." His entire body began to rock with the leg.
Andy and the dog stood next to Nathan, both statue still.
A soft ting sounded and Duncan turned to find the location of Nickie's holster. Zooming in, he realized it was in his house. Of course it was. She left it on one of the hooks near the coat closet in the foyer. He pounded the sides of his fist on his desk. Forcing his body to calm, he ground his teeth at his stupidity and switched over to the code for the chip in her gun belt.
As he kept his eyes glued to the screen, he leaned back in his chair and ran a hand along the top of his head. He held on to a clump to keep his head from exploding, to keep the sounds, images and smells from his stint in the Middle East from imploding his brain, keeping him from his Nickie.
This blip was monumentally more discouraging. The closer it came to his house, the more air that seeped from his lungs, threatening never to return. Upstate New York, near Seneca Lake, to Northridge, to just outside of the north west side of town, right where his house stood.
His face fell into the palms of his hands. She'd left it here, too. Of course she did. Why would she carry a holster or a gun belt to a visit with his aunt and uncle for scones on a Sunday morning?
Somewhere he sensed a large body standing behind him. It was his commander. Together, they surveyed the line of limp bodies they had dragged from the helicopter. Forcing his glance downward, he surveyed the blood that covered his hands. Only some of it belonged to him.
"Duncan, we have work to do." He nodded. Body bags to fill. Paperwork to complete. But first, they needed to protect their fallen chopper from insurgents. Except, he had no will to protect anything.
"Duncan," the voice said louder. "Look at the damned screen." Strong hands shook his shoulders, and he opened his eyes.