by K R Hill
For a minute they sat in silence.
“Well,” said Connor. “That went smoothly.”
“Holy crap,” said Bartholomew.
“Ashley, I need to get another vehicle. It’s only a matter of time before they find us.” He gestured with a nod to the helicopter shining a floodlight a few blocks away.
She mumbled.
Steam rose from the engine compartment. One side of the front bumper fell to the pavement.
“I’m going to grab another car,” said Connor, and hurried down the street.
Chapter 27
Dalton stumbled on a grinder as he walked across the warehouse. The machine turned on and raced a circle across the floor before he grabbed it. “I’m sorry about that.”
Connor laughed. “Don’t sweat it. Phase one is finished.”
“You did a good job. We’ll talk about the rest,” said Dalton. “But first I think you need to finish some business here.”
“Do you mean Ashley?”
“Yes, Ashley and your aunt, to keep them safe, like we talked about.”
“And your girlfriend will meet them? Are you sure?”
Dalton nodded. “She’s my fiancé. Her name is Jax. She’ll be waiting at Cancun airport. We have property down there, a compound, and a lot of friends. Ashley and Alma can stay with us. They’ll be safe.”
Connor walked across the garage to the office. As soon as he walked in the door, Ashley stood up.
“This is for the best,” she said. “But I’ll be waiting for you down there.”
Connor grabbed her hand and set a stack of hundred-dollar bills in it. “Listen, I have a friend waiting to meet you in Cancun. Her name is Jax. She’s Dalton’s fiancée. They own property and you’re going to stay with them. This is enough money to hold you guys over.”
Ashley touched her hair. “I know. I Skyped with her. She’s sweet.”
He touched her neckline and stepped close. “You’re right, it is for the best, but that doesn’t make it easy.”
She stared and searched his face. “All those things we spoke about—”
“Were real.” Connor hugged her tightly. “It’s crazy dangerous here—way too risky. Stay with Jax so I know you’re safe.”
“Would you let me talk?” Ashley looked over her shoulder.
When she turned back, he kissed her. “Listen,” he said, pulling away, pressing his forehead to hers. “When this is over, we’re going to get married. Everything I told you was true.” He raised the sleeve of her white blouse to reveal the bottom of her tattoo.
“What are you doing?”
He laughed. “I was just wondering if we have a little girl, will she be born with a tiny rose tattoo like her mom’s?”
She laughed and pushed him. “She might. But listen, please don’t tease me with nice words, Babe. We’ve been together too long. If getting married isn’t what you really want, and I mean really want, then just tell me.”
“Hey,” said Connor, touching her cheek. “That’s all I want, a future with you. Believe me.”
“I do.”
Nick leaned in the door. “Your Uber is here.”
“I guess that’s for—”
Ashley stood on her tippy toes and kissed him hard.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She walked to the sofa, rolled a big suitcase across the floor, and stopped at the door. “I packed my mini skirt and boots. The ones you saw me in, and I’ll wear them for you anytime you like.”
Connor’s mouth dropped open and he pointed a finger over a shoulder. “The ones you wore for the Russians?”
She smiled. “They were watching, but I wore that outfit for you.”
Connor followed her to the back door and made sure she got safely into the car. He closed her door and watched as the window opened.
“You have to promise me that you’ll go to your meetings while I’m gone. I need you unafraid for us.”
“Promise,” he said, and watched as the car drove away, stopped with its right turn signal blinking, turned onto the street and disappeared.
Nick closed the door behind Connor, and slid the dead bolt into place. “If everything goes well, you’ll be with her soon,” he said.
Connor smiled and walked over to where Dalton, Bartholomew and the doctor sat on an old Datsun roadster that had been cut in half.
“Don’t worry,” said Dalton. “Jax will take them right to our place. We got friends down there. She’ll be safe.”
“Hey,” said Connor. “Thanks for coming. Bart and I were up to our eyeballs in it. So, what do you think? Can we pull off the rest of this thing?”
Nick walked over pulling a workbench on wheels. The wheels screeched as they rolled. “I can’t help it.” He hunched his shoulders, wiped the workbench with a shop towel, hopped up and typed on a laptop. Not a minute passed before he started laughing.
“What is it?”
Nick looked up. “It’s just being back in the states is great. I can connect anywhere.”
“Porno,” whispered Dalton.
The others laughed.
“The doctor’s been filling me in,” said Dalton. “Now we need to get the paintings and cash.”
Connor waved a hand. “Maybe we’re screwed there. Falsen has them, but Zakai’s tracking Falsen. How can we grab him with that maniac around?”
“Dalton paced beside the wreck. “Maybe we’re looking at this wrong. I had Nick do some research.”
The doctor walked to a waist-high refrigerator, took out a few cans of beer, and passed them out.
Connor blew on the top of his beer can and wiped it off with his shirt. “What’d you find?”
“Some interesting stuff.” Nick leaned closer to the screen of his laptop.
Dalton said: “He found that Zakai has a wife and child. That’s a huge liability for a hitman. He may have been hell-on-wheels back in his day, but now he’s pushing sixty, with a family to boot.”
“What about this Falsen guy?” asked Bartholomew.
Nick stood up and shoved his hair behind an ear. “That guy is tricky. I had to go back ten years. Then I found the same woman kept popping up. She was a tenant in every building Falsen lived in.”
Connor walked across the work area, stopped and pushed some wrenches aside with his foot. “I got a hunch that might help us wrap this up quickly. Or it might get me shot.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Connor took a long drink of his beer. “Instead of trying to take out two killers, why don’t we get them to work for us?”
Dalton laughed. “You’re going to gamble on them wanting to live with their families.”
“Should we roll the dice and find out?” Connor looked around.
“Oh, that’s good,” said Dalton. “We give them a chance to live free with their families. All they have to do is get us inside the Ghrazenko building. Once we get in, we make a deal: Teddy Ghrazenko gives us the Cartel members who killed Sanchez and Daly, and he gets his paintings. If he agrees, he saves his own life. Ghrazenko senior will never know the paintings got stolen. Teddy’s power stays secure.”
Bartholomew nodded. “It might work.” He walked to a wooden crate and removed several Kevlar vests. “It’s the part about getting shot that I don’t like. If I go, I’m strapping on a vest. And I’m bringing my shotgun.”
Nick shouted and jumped off the workbench and ran over. “Boss,” he called. “Did you see this thing?” He leaned forward to touch the shotgun with the huge magazine.
“Nobody touches my baby.” Bartholomew pulled it away.
“I got two Jesse James automatics with hair triggers. I’ll teach you how to use them if you let me shoot it.”
Dalton tapped Connor on the shoulder. “You did say you had a sniper rifle, right?”
Connor pointed to the crates. “I got an M-24.”
“Did Ted hook you up?”
Connor shook his head. “He did. He’s in some bad trouble.”
“T
ed’s always in trouble. He sells guns.” Dalton hunched his shoulders.
“He’s pissed because you destroyed his Malibu, something about finding a .357 round stuck in the engine block.”
Dalton spun around. “One little bullet. He whines about everything, doesn’t he?”
Nick laughed. “Tell him about how my Volkswagen bug saved us that time.”
“Shut up, Nick.”
“Okay,” said Connor. “So, let’s try the family angle. Zakai’s family is in Mexico, right?”
“Yeah,” answered Nick.
“Then we work on Falsen. It sounds like he stays close to his woman. If we get her, she might save us a lot of time by getting hubby on our side. Can you find her, Nick?”
***
In the afternoon of the following day, they pulled into a strip mall in Wilmington. An oil refinery of towers and steel cat walks, stood two blocks away. The air smelled of rotten eggs. Small businesses lined Pacific Coast Highway, and each one had patches of a different color painted on its walls where city workers had sprayed over graffiti. Many of the windows and doors were covered with steel bars.
“This is serious ghetto.” Connor shut off the engine and looked around. He opened a folder and flipped a page. “This is what we have: Nick pulled up a couple photos of Falsen.”
“What are we doing here?” Bartholomew turned in the front seat.
Connor held up a photo. “We’re here for Falsen’s woman. Her name is Tasha. Nick’s been tracking her down. With a brilliant bit of detective work, he noticed that in every photo she has stripes or dots or sparkles on her fingernails.”
Bartholomew looked at the photo and laughed. “I don’t need a detective to tell me she needs to drop about fifty pounds.”
“We think she’s in that nail salon,” said Connor.
“Why here?” Bartholomew looked around.
Connor flipped up his sun visor. “Nick put shoes on the pavement and showed that photo around. He got a hit right there in Saigon Dreams nail salon.”
Dalton, sitting on the back seat, raised his chin toward the shop. “So, Nick, who helps you capture Tasha?”
Nick laughed and waved a Taser pistol in the air. “I think I got it. All I do is point and fire, right?”
“You’re going to zap her in broad daylight?” asked Bartholomew.
Connor opened the door. The warning bell started ringing telling him that the key was still in the ignition. “If you zap her, you have to carry her out. That’s a big woman. A lot of fried chicken went into that. She’s got be pushing two hundred pounds.”
“I’ll bring her out and I won’t even need the Taser. I’ll show you how it’s done. I’ll use my charm.” Nick opened his door and walked across the parking lot.
“Charm? Oh crap, we’re in trouble now,” said Dalton. “You guys better be ready for this. I don’t think he’s ever spoken to a real woman.”
Connor watched Nick approach the shop. He stepped inside and a Vietnamese woman walked over and stepped behind the counter. For a couple seconds they spoke. Then Nick reached into his pocket and pushed a green bill across the counter.
The woman took the bill, stuffed it in her bra, and pointed to a customer.
“I got ten bucks that says he has to zap her,” said Dalton.
“I’m with you,” said Bartholomew. “She’s gunna protect her man.”
Connor watched Nick walk over to the woman. He pulled a chair over and sat down. Tasha leaned forward and kicked a container away from her feet, scooted forward three or four times, and climbed out of the chair. Once she got to her feet, she grabbed her handbag and hit Nick across the side of his head.
Nick staggered back, holding his hands in the air, trying to block the handbag.
“Oh,” said Bartholomew. “She hit him with a left. Nick staggers back. The heavyweight comes in with the handbag, swings and connects with the other side of his head.”
“Should we get in there?” asked Connor.
“No,” said Dalton, laughing. “Give it a minute. I’m enjoying this.”
Nick staggered backward as the woman swung the handbag, hitting him in the head and arms. He blocked several swings as he stumbled into the window. His head hit the glass, and the window shook.
“Oh,” said Dalton. “I thought that window was going to pop for sure.”
“I’m going in.” Connor jumped to the pavement and ran. Just as he entered the salon, Nick doubled over and jerked quickly upright. His head caught the woman on the chin and knocked her back a step. That gave Nick room to move, and he pulled out the Taser and zapped the woman.
Vietnamese workers screamed and ran.
Tasha dropped to the floor and flopped about like a fish on the deck of a ship.
Connor patted Nick on the shoulder. “You charmed her.”
Nick wiped blood from his face. “She attacked me like a beast.”
Bartholomew laughed as he bent over and lifted one of the woman’s arms. “You’re a bad dude. Grab her legs.”
Dalton hurried across the parking lot and unlocked the back of the SUV. Nick and Bartholomew struggled with the woman hanging between them.
“Time to roll,” said Connor. “Four men abduct a woman in broad daylight. That’s going to go over really well with law enforcement.” He jumped behind the wheel, started the engine, pulled on to PCH and merged with traffic.
“Hey, she assaulted me. That handbag thing was hard as hell. Look, it cut my face.”
“It’s a lethal weapon.” Dalton laughed and dropped sideways in his seat.
“We wanted to run in there and help,” said Connor, glancing over his shoulder as he drove. “But you were working the charm. And by the way, you better make sure you tape her wrists together before she wakes up and kicks the shit out of all of us.”
Bartholomew whispered: “The handbag was a lethal weapon.”
Connor looked over his shoulder. “I say we leave her at the doctor’s place. We’ll open the garage door and drive right inside and shut it behind us. Guess who’s going to watch her, Nick?”
“No, why me?”
“Make sure she has enough water. Keep her handcuffed.”
Chapter 28
When they reached the doctor’s garage, they waited in the alley and told the doctor to unlock the big rollup garage door. Once it opened enough, Connor drove inside and parked.
Nick and Bartholomew jumped out, opened the tailgate and pulled the woman out.
Connor walked to the office as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He had just stepped through the door when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey,” said Dalton. “We need to get back out there before Falsen’s alerted. If he hears about what happened in the nail salon, he’s gunna take off. It could take months to find him.”
Connor opened the little refrigerator, took out a bottle of water, and looked at his phone. “You mean I can’t call Ashley?”
Dalton pressed a plastic bottle to his lips and tilted it up. When he finished drinking, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “I don’t even think she’s landed yet.” He patted Connor on the back as they walked out of the office.
“I was thinking it’s what, a five-hour flight? Then she goes through customs and immigration, and she should’ve been there by now.”
Dalton tossed him the keys to the SUV, and said: “you gotta relax, Sergeant. As soon as you cross the border, you’re in the Third World. Things move slower down there. Now come on, we got business to take care of.”
Connor backed the SUV into the alley, waited behind a trash truck, and turned into a side street. In a few minutes he was driving down one of the main highways through Long Beach. At the first red light he glanced at Dalton. “This is all worth it, right, Lieutenant?”
“Is it worth it?” Dalton stretched his legs and looked down at the water bottle in his hand as he twisted on the top. “If you would’ve asked me that question right after the murders, or even a couple years afterwards, I would’v
e jumped up and said hell yes it’s worth it. But then time goes by and the memory of the squad sitting in that bar Panama City with Sanchez, laughing about how he backed those jar heads into a corner with a cue stick, well, it just sort of faded away.”
Connor drove a few blocks and waited for him to continue, then said: “But you hired me to take the case.”
“Because my last case in the states stirred up the whole Sanchez thing. I found out that Teddy Ghrazenko was involved. He dealt with the cartel that murdered Sanchez. I couldn’t just let that go.”
“I still dream about that kid.” Connor twisted his hands on the steering wheel.
“Me too.”
Connor rocked as he drove and wiped sweat from his palms onto his pant leg. After several minutes he said: “Me and Ashley have been talking about getting married.”
“Oh yeah.” Dalton slapped him on the shoulder. “That’s something I didn’t expect to hear in this conversation. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Lieutenant. But—” Connor bit his lip, twisted the wheel.
After a moment, Dalton said: “But you’re having second thoughts about making a family.”
Connor nodded. “I couldn’t protect that little boy.”
“Hey,” said Dalton. “We did a lot of good down there. We killed some bad motherfuckers for Uncle Sam. But we paid the price That memory scarred us.”
“Yeah.” Connor glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Bartholomew swaying on the back seat, the music from his ear buds sounding faint and tinny.
“Listen, I know this sounds crazy from a soldier, but the only remedy I ever found was love. If that memory can make you afraid to love, afraid to have a sweet, innocent baby, then the bad guys won.”
“That’s the best you got?”
Dalton nodded. “What do you want, a catchy little phrase on a magnet to stick on your fridge?”
“I want you to tell me how to get past it or work it through. You were my commanding officer. You’re supposed to be Yoda.”
“Yoda? You kidding me? I’m just a guy sorting through all the crap too.”
“We’re getting close. You want to do this thing?”