by T. K. Leigh
“What was the point of having Whitman make those phone calls to me?”
“Charlie had escaped and I was certain his first stop would be to pay you a visit. I wanted you to think he was the one responsible for the phone calls so you wouldn’t trust him. The last thing I wanted was for you to put the pieces together before we could find your father.”
“And you didn’t think of just using me to get to him?”
“What do you think we were doing? Hell, I had people following you almost everywhere. Whitman had broken into your place on countless occasions to go through your mail, your cell phone, everything. And we got nothing! If you were communicating with him, we couldn’t figure it out.”
“Because my father is much smarter than you are,” I sneered.
“I’ll just let you believe that for now. We’ll soon see what kind of a man your father truly is.”
“What do you mean by–”
“All in due time.”
I studied him, hoping I could figure out what he meant by that, but he gave nothing away.
“Well, I can pretty much figure out the rest,” I said, breaking the heavy silence, trying to drown out the sound of him continually sharpening the blade. “Tyler ran the footage of Whitman breaking in. You freaked out that there was an ID of Whitman and a possible investigation, which could lead back to you, so you killed him. Then you were able to somehow hack into the database at Walter Reed and alter visitor records to make it appear as if Charlie had hired Whitman to commit all those murders Whitman had, in fact, committed at your instruction.”
“I particularly liked the special touch of leaving a photo of you and your mother at the crime scene.”
“Why did you do that?”
“So the police would reopen the investigation into her death and certain things may come out about your father. I knew he was still alive, and perhaps an open criminal investigation in which you were a possible victim would force you to finally divulge where he was hiding.”
“But Tyler beat you there and was smart enough to make sure law enforcement didn’t find those photos.”
“I certainly did underestimate his abilities. It was a mistake, but one I didn’t intend to repeat. After Charlie had been named as a suspect in all those murders, Mills, or Collins, came to me and said he was done, that he was ready to put an end to it and finally come clean. I had sensed his loyalty to me waning over the months, so I made sure I had a little insurance against that happening.”
“What did you do?”
“This…” He stalked toward me, revealing his iPad. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing… It was a live feed of what appeared to be surveillance footage. On the screen was a man about my age, chained to a wall of what I could only imagine to be a cold, cement cell. Surrounding him were several monitors and computers.
“What is–”
“Oh, of course you wouldn’t recognize him. It has been…what? Sixteen or seventeen years since you’ve seen each other?”
“Damian…?” I exhaled, a tear forming in my eye at the bruises and scars dotting his face, hands, and legs.
“Did you know he’s quite skilled with computers and hacking? So he had a dual purpose for me. Not only did he serve as insurance that dear old dad wouldn’t go to the police, but he’s done everything to make sure Charlie, and your father, have taken the fall for what some other bastard has done. It’s a good thing he’s remained useful to me, or he would have gone the way of his father and mother a long time ago.”
“It was you who tried to have Tyler killed when he decided to look into a possible connection with Bosnia, wasn’t it? And you killed those last few remaining team members of my father’s Ranger unit, right?”
“Guilty,” he said playfully. “Well, technically, I hired an old acquaintance from back home to do all that. I’m rubbish when it comes to explosives, but he has what I would call a very unique talent.”
“How did you know Tyler and his team would be going to question them?”
“Remember how I had mentioned your buddy, Damian, had remained useful? Well, I had him flag certain files in various government databases, particularly any of them having to deal with your father’s Ranger unit. I had eliminated most of his team members, except for two who had apparently gone underground. One day, we saw there was some activity on them. Then there was nothing for weeks, but I still couldn’t shake it off. Thankfully, Damian was able to find out the IP address of who hacked into the government database, who just happened to be one of Tyler’s guys, then broke through his firewall to see what information he had. Luckily for us, he had been able to locate the two missing team members. When I saw flight plans, one to somewhere in Oklahoma and another to Florida, I knew something was up. We had about an eighteen hour head start, but we still had to act fast. So we made sure both men suffered an unfortunate ‘heart attack’, then rigged the houses to explode when someone tried to enter. Of course, my man was smart enough to leave clues out in the open that would indicate someone was home so your boy would break in. And when he did… Boom.”
“Why? You killed the guys in the Ranger unit. What did you have to gain by trying to kill Tyler and his team?”
“Everything!” he growled, his face growing red. “He was determined to find who was responsible for everything and I knew he wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t have that happen, not until I finally got my hands on your father!” The vein in his neck flared and the wild look in his eyes reminded me of an addict desperate for his next fix. And that was precisely what Richard was. He had become so addicted to how powerful and in control he felt when he thought he was responsible for taking my father’s life that he had been trying to recreate that high over the past several years, but nothing topped it. This man in front of me was desperate and crazed, completely irrational.
“But if you were so anxious to get your hands on my father,” I said, snapping out of my thoughts, “why didn’t you do anything at the wedding? He was there. You were there.”
“It’s not just about your father. I need retribution, an eye for an eye, and just killing your father isn’t enough anymore. However, I did make sure he knew who I was, that I was still alive and not dead as I’m sure he hoped.”
My mind raced, wondering why my dad hadn’t said anything to any of us.
“And Charlie? That was you?”
“I still don’t know why he made it so easy for us to find him. After all those months of him on the run, he just called you on your cell phone, allowing Damian to trace the call. Imagine my surprise when we found out it was from your condo. I called a favor into my buddy, the agent who had been leading the investigation into all of Charlie’s murders, and gave him a lead on the location. It’s not a coincidence he was assigned that case and, like most low-paid government workers, he was more than willing to help me stage a suicide in exchange for a heavy payoff.”
“Agent Suarez?” I asked.
“I met him years ago during a fundraiser at one of my hotels in Washington. I heard he had a certain talent and knew he may end up being useful to me one day. He was more than willing to put an end to Charlie, then try to pin his death, and a whole slew of others, on your father…particularly when I showed him classified documents naming him as the man behind dozens of acts of treason, including the embassy fire. Agent Suarez has a very twisted sense of patriotism.”
“Didn’t quite work out for you, though, did it?” a loud booming voice bellowed out. We both snapped our heads toward the front door, surprised to see my father standing there, holding a pistol.
Richard rushed toward me and cut my restraints, lifting me out of the chair and holding me against him, the knife to my throat. “I’ll kill her!” he hissed, pressing the cold metal against my skin. I whimpered, feeling as if I was staring death in the face.
“Why? What do you want with her? She didn’t do anything!” my father argued, taking slow steps toward us. “You want your revenge against me for not saving your wife, then take it but Serafina
has nothing to do with this and you know it.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Frankie! She has everything to do with this. I’ve been looking forward to this day for years. I thought I’d be happy knowing you were dead, and I was, but it faded. I’ve tried recreating that high for years now. Years! Nothing’s worked. And I know there’s only one thing that will! Finally killing you isn’t enough. I need something more! An eye for a fucking eye, Frankie!” he screeched out in a shrill voice.
“You already killed my wife! Let Serafina go and take me! Then we’re even!”
“No! As long as she’s still alive, we’ll never be even! Did I forget to mention that my wife, the love of my fucking life, was pregnant? I will never have peace in this world unless I do this,” he said, the blade pushing into me even harder, drawing blood.
“You won’t be able to walk away from this,” my dad said, trying to rationalize with him, but I knew it was useless. Richard was mad, completely irrational.
“I don’t care about that! I don’t want to walk away from this! I should have died in that forest, but I was sentenced to live a life without my soul mate instead! I welcome death at this point. But, first, I need to make this right! I need to restore the natural order of things!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him raise the knife. Fear washed over me as it closed in on me once more. Time passed in slow motion and my entire body trembled, the blade growing closer with each drawn-out second.
I met my father’s eyes, wanting the last thing I saw to be one of love. “Lo siento,” he whispered as a loud gunshot echoed.
Stunned, I looked down to see blood streaming down my chest as I fell to the ground.
Tyler
“WHERE IS HE?” I hissed, pressing my gun against Ranko’s throat as Eli drove through the streets toward the hotel Richard ran. I still couldn’t believe he was behind it. I had done background checks on the guy and came up empty. He was clean… A little too clean, which should have been a giant red flag. Instead, I chose to believe he was simply a man who had never done anything to bring attention to himself. It was eating me up that this had gone on for months when the answer was right under our noses.
“What makes you think I’m going to tell you?” he spat out in a thick accent, his blue eyes narrowed on me in a malicious way. “Go ahead and report me to immigration! I know people who have been waiting for their hearing for years! You don’t scare me!”
“You’re absolutely right. Deportation is one thing. You could sit in a holding cell for months, maybe even years, while your removal hearing is pending. So threatening deportation won’t really work, will it? But imagine if you get a visit from Emil Kovac, your old boss, who you stole… How much was it, Eli?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder as Eli continued to drive.
“My sources say it was over a hundred million.”
I whistled, smiling coyly at Ranko. “That’s a lot of green. I’m sure Kovac is just itching to get his hands on you. From what I’ve heard, he’s a bit of a sadistic fuck, isn’t he, Eli?”
“Sure is. I heard he hooks up electrodes to his victims’ testicles. He likes to watch them suffer, usually for days, before finally killing them.”
“Days…” I shook my head. “That’s a long time to have to suffer through that kind of torture, don’t you think?” I sighed. “So, what’s it going to be? You can tell me where your buddy, Viktor, is. Or you get to enjoy a few hundred volts of electricity running through your balls. Your choice.”
Sweat dotted his brow and his body began to quiver. “Hibiscus,” he said softly.
“What was that?”
“He owns a vacation rental on Hibiscus. He asked me to meet him there this afternoon, said it was very important.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he answered quickly. “He doesn’t fill me in on any of the details. He just tells me where I need to be and when, and what he expects me to do. All I know is he was planning something big today.”
“Something big? Like what?”
“He said this was the end game.”
“Shit,” I muttered just as my phone vibrated in my pocket. “Eli. Step on it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Keeping my gun trained on Ranko, I fished my cell out of my pocket, a number I didn’t recognize flashing on the screen.
“Burnham here,” I answered curtly.
“Tyler?” Jenna’s small voice sobbed out. My face immediately paled, knowing Mackenzie was supposed to be having coffee with her at this precise moment. I hated that I had insisted they get together at her place, the home she shared with Richard, instead of somewhere else. I convinced her to go right into the lion’s den.
“Jenna, are you okay?”
“No! Richard, he…”
“What happened? Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” she choked out. “I was getting ready to go into the restaurant this afternoon, and he was crazed. Manic. I had never seen him like that before. I tried to get away, but…” Her voice became strained, her cries growing louder. “He attacked me. I thought he was going to kill me. The last thing I remember was him slamming me against the wall in our bedroom. The next thing I knew, I was being woken up by the head of housekeeping. It’s Wednesday, and she cleans our condo every Wednesday. God knows how long I would have been locked in there if she didn’t come. I didn’t know where else to go so I went to Brayden’s, but he’s still at work. I’m just really scared to be alone right now.”
“Jenna, did you text Mackenzie today and ask her to meet you for coffee?”
“What?” she asked, sounding confused. “No. Why?”
I let out a long breath and tried to control my nerves. “Don’t worry about it. Have you gone to the police?”
“Not yet. I didn’t know what to do so I called you first.”
“Good. I’m going to text Martin to come get you. He’ll bring you to my place and make sure nothing happens to you.”
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“No,” I said dejectedly. “I don’t think so.”
Eli turned onto Hibiscus and Richard’s car, as well as a dark sedan, came into view, parked a block ahead of us.
“I’ll be in touch,” I said quickly, then hung up.
Pinning my gun against Ranko’s temple one more time, I growled, “Stay here!” Jumping out of the car, Eli following, I tread carefully on the gravel driveway leading up to the simple one-story beach house Ranko said he was to meet Richard this afternoon.
Every crunch of rock seemed to be amplified ten-fold as I listened to two distinct male voices reverberating from inside the house, one with a thick eastern European accent that had to be Richard. I chambered a round and gingerly walked up the wooden steps and onto the porch, my feet light.
I peered into the window and my heart dropped when I saw Richard holding Mackenzie, a knife at her throat. I tried to see who Richard was talking to, but was unable. I feared the worst would happen if we went in through the front door. Richard would be able to see us and react before we could even get off a shot. Meeting Eli’s eyes, I signaled that we would head around the wrap-around porch and enter through the back door. Nodding, he followed.
My heart echoed in my ears as I turned the knob of the door, hoping the low click didn’t alert anyone to our presence. Before I could make sense of what was going on, a gunshot sounded and I snapped my head up to see Colonel Francis Galloway, Mackenzie’s flesh and blood, holding a smoking gun, both Mackenzie and Richard falling to the ground in a heap.
“No!” I bellowed, firing at Francis before I had time to figure out what just happened.
“Hold your fire!” Eli shouted when Francis fell from the two shots I was able to get off to his shoulder and chest.
“He killed her! It was him all along!” I ran to Mackenzie, cradling her in my arms, blood pouring from a through-and-through bullet wound to her upper chest.
“No,” she squeaked out, her breathing strained as her eye
s met mine. “He killed Richard.”
“What?” I studied her, looking for an answer.
“He’s not a monster. He slew the real dragon. If he didn’t, Richard would have…” She swallowed hard, her breathing uneven as she shivered.
“I’m so sorry, Serafina,” I whimpered, her body growing limp in my arms. “I should have gotten here sooner.”
“No,” she breathed, grabbing my arm with her cold hand. “You have nothing to be sorry about. You gave me something I never thought I’d ever have.”
“What?” I asked, barely able to see through my tears.
“A home.”
I let out a loud sob, not caring that anyone saw me cry. I wanted them to see me like this, to see that I was human, that I couldn’t bear the thought of history repeating itself.
“Promise me one thing,” she said, her voice growing softer.
“What’s that?”
“Save our baby.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our baby comes first. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”
I shook my head, refusing to listen. “Stop talking like that. You’re going to be fine. It’s just a shot to your shoulder. People survive those wounds all the time. It barely grazed you,” I choked out, staring at the blood covering my hands. I was more than aware that even typically non-fatal bullet wounds could become fatal if not treated in time.
A slight smile crossed her mouth. “You’re a horrible liar.”
“I’m not lying. I’ve waited my entire life for you. Do you think I’m just going to let you give up?”
“Please, Tyler. Promise me. If it comes to having to decide, you’ll choose our son.”
I continued to shake my head, the reality of having to make that decision gutting me.
“Please…” Her breathing grew shallow and I knew she was on the brink of losing consciousness.
Sighing, I nodded, although the thought of losing her ripped me apart. A content smile crossing her face, she closed her eyes as she struggled to breathe. Sirens grew closer and closer, but they still sounded like they were miles away.