Long Way Home (Matthew Riker Book 3)

by J. T. Baier

  Then, while she was still looking, El Leon stepped out from the shadow of another hallway and punched Riker square in the face. She let out a whimper as her cousin fell.

  She suddenly went cold with fear. Fear for herself. Fear for David. Fear for Matt. If these men could take out Matthew Riker, what chance did she have of survival? Two others charged past El Leon—Officer Alvarez and Luke.

  An especially powerful tug on her arm caused her to turn toward the front just as her captor slammed into the crash bar on the front door and pushed it open. He dragged her over the threshold and out into the sunlight. Up ahead, she saw a black SUV parked in a handicap spot near the door. The third man who’d come into her classroom already had the car door open, and he was forcing David inside.

  She cast a glance backward as she was dragged toward the SUV, but the doors to the high school were still closed. Alvarez and Luke were too far back. She’d be in the SUV and gone before they even got outside.

  The terrible knowledge hit her like a fist—no one was going to save her and David. It was up to her.

  But the man was so much stronger than she was. She needed something. A weapon. Then she remembered Matt’s words to her a few days earlier. Plenty of things can be weapons.

  Her hand went to her back pocket, grabbing her keys.

  As they reached the car, the cartel man waiting there stepped aside. Looking inside the vehicle, she could see David already in the backseat, his expression drawn, defeated.

  Megan sighed, letting her posture droop. The man reached up and placed a hand on her head to guide her down, and that was when she struck. Keyring clutched in her fist and keys protruding from between her fingers, she punched the man in the face with all of her might. She felt an instant pain in her hand, but a gratifying thrill ran through her as she pulled back her hand and saw blood on the teeth of the keys.

  The man let out a yell and his hand went to his face, covering the puncture wounds. He looked at Megan with wide eyes, his expression a mixture of disbelief and disgust that someone like her had actually hurt him. She brought her right knee up, driving it into the man’s crotch. He grunted and doubled over.

  The other man, the one who had led her down the hall, was raising his gun, an equally shocked expression on his face.

  “Get in!” he said in a heavy accent, nodding toward the car.

  Megan crouched, positioning the injured man between her and the gunman.

  His face reddened with anger. “Get in!”

  She shifted even farther behind the injured man. There was no way the gunman could shoot her without hitting his buddy. He took a few steps to the right, trying to find an angle, but Megan moved with him, making sure he didn’t have a clean shot.

  The gunman strode forward, muttering in Spanish, his total attention on Megan. He never even noticed Luke walking up behind him, gun raised and pointed at his head.

  Riker struggled to breathe, squirming as El Leon tightened his arm around his neck, fighting to avoid being choked out. If he lost consciousness, he was a dead man, and Megan and David would be dead right alongside him.

  “I have very specific instructions from my employer.” The breath from El Leon’s words felt hot on Riker’s ear. “I am to take you to a predetermined location. Not in Iowa. Somewhere else we have in the United States. There we will spend the next few weeks together.”

  Riker reached up and put his hands on El Leon’s elbow. He tried to push it up, but it was like steel.

  “You may be asking yourself,” the big man continued, “why I am wasting breath telling you this. It is because I have so little regard for you and your abilities. You have killed many of my employer's hired men. I am significantly more skilled. As I have already proven, defeating you is not a problem.”

  Riker pulled down on the elbow. Again, it did not move. And that was a good thing. The arm was tightening, but Riker’s lips curled in a tiny smile.

  “As you go to sleep, remember this. I am bigger than you. Faster than you. And much stronger.”

  Riker’s hands clamped down hard, locking on El Leon’s elbow. He dropped his body down, dragging the arm. With a grip this tight, where the arm went, the body had to follow. Riker dropped his right shoulder and pulled as hard as he could. El Leon slid over his back with a grunt. The big man’s shoulder hit the floor and his body flipped over the top. He landed on the ground with a thud.

  Riker scooped his Glock off floor where it had fallen and leveled it at the big man’s head. “Maybe so. But you’re clearly not a wrestler.”

  He pulled the trigger, putting a round through El Leon’s forehead. The rapport echoed through the empty halls.

  When he was certain El Leon was dead, he pushed himself to his feet, using the wall for assistance. By the time he was standing, Megan, Luke, and Alvarez were running down the hall toward him.

  Megan reached him first. “You all right?”

  “Yeah. I may take Doc Hanson up on some of those pain pills though.” He looked her up and down and was relieved to see she didn’t appear to be injured. “You?”

  “Fine.”

  “She’s better than fine,” Luke said with a grin. “She stabbed one of those bastards in the face with her car keys.”

  Riker let out a pained laugh. “Where’s the kid?”

  “We made him wait outside,” Alvarez said. She gestured to El Leon’s body. “Didn’t want him to see, you know, something like this.”

  “Good call. So what happens now?”

  Before Alvarez could answer, a soft ring tone interrupted her.

  Luke bent down and gingerly pulled a cell phone out of El Leon’s jacket pocket. He looked at the screen and frowned. “Unknown number. Bogota, Columbia.”

  “Give it to me,” Riker said. After Luke passed it to him, he pressed the answer button and held it to his ear. “Hola.”

  There was a long pause before a familiar voice answered in English. “Not who I’d hoped would answer.”

  “No. I expect not.” Riker closed his eyes, his mind going over what was surely going to come next. The drug lord would vow revenge, still not understanding what he was up against. Riker would be forced to take the fight to him. Going up against a cartel boss on his home turf would be difficult, but Riker had no choice. This would not end until one of them was dead.

  But what the drug lord said next surprised him.

  “Mr. Riker, I am done with Kingsport.”

  Riker waited for a long moment, wondering if there would be more, some caveat or threat that put conditions on what he’d just said. But there was only silence.

  “In that case, I don’t think we have anything left to say to each other.”

  This time, the response was immediate. “Agreed. Goodbye, Mr. Riker.”

  With that, the line went dead.

  Megan looked at Riker, her eyes hopeful. “Is it over?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a smile. “It really is.”

  45

  Riker hobbled into the Kingsport police station on his crutches a few minutes after six the following evening. The last day and a half had been a whirlwind of activity, mostly consisting of answering the same questions again and again to representatives of different law enforcement agencies. He knew that as hectic as it had been for him, it had been even crazier for the person he was there to see.

  He found Officer Alvarez sitting at her desk in the police office, loading items into a cardboard box. She noticed him approaching and nodded to him. From a single glance he could tell she was even more tired than he’d expected her to be.

  She placed a final item into the cardboard box and closed the lid flaps just as Riker reached her.

  “Need a hand carrying anything?” he asked her.

  She shook her head. “I travel light. This one box will do me, and if I can’t lift this myself, I’m not sure what I’m doing with my life.”

  “Fair enough.”

  She gave him a look up and down. “How’s the leg?”

  He shrugged.
“Better than it was yesterday. Worse than it was two days ago. But they tell me it’ll heal.”

  In truth, he’d walked away from the fight with El Leon in relatively good shape. His nose wasn’t broken, nor was his hand. He would need to stay off the leg for a while—for real this time. But at least his brains weren’t sprayed all over the floor of the Kingsport High School, like his opponent’s were.

  “How about you?” he asked. “Holding it together?”

  “Just barely. Between the FBI and DEA asking me questions, I’d barely had time to breathe. Hell, even ICE wanted to get involved.”

  “Did my name happen to come up during the questioning?”

  “You know I can’t comment on that.” She paused, looking around the small bullpen. There were only two other officers present, and they were both on the phone. She spoke again, this time in a much softer voice. “Your name came up quite a lot, actually. They were especially curious how you got your hands on a Glock registered to the police department.”

  “They asked me about that as well. Multiple times.”

  “Chief Myers is taking full responsibility for arming you. Among other things. And Luke stuck to his story. You weren’t even at the farm. He called you when he found out your cousin was in trouble, and you two met at the high school.”

  Riker frowned. He hadn’t asked Luke to do that. Of course, he hadn’t asked Luke to help him cover up what had really happened the night of his father’s death either. Luke seemed to be making a habit of helping Riker stay out of legal trouble.

  “The questions aren’t that bad though,” Alvarez said. “You know what I really hate? The paperwork.”

  Riker chuckled. “Pretty sure you’ve been complaining about paperwork since the day I met you.”

  “We didn’t have much of it before you came to town.” She picked up the cardboard box. “Walk with me.”

  Riker did as asked, following her across the office. When they reached the door marked Chief Myers, Alvarez sighed.

  “Guess there’s no use trying to avoid it.”

  She opened the door and carried her box into the empty office. The walls were blank and the picture of Chief Myers’ son was no longer on the desk. She set her box down on the desk with a thud.

  “Welcome home, Chief,” Riker said.

  Alvarez frowned. “Interim Chief.”

  He met her gaze, his expression suddenly serious. “They’ll bring you on as the permanent chief.”

  “I don’t know. After all this…”

  “They will. Trust me. You’re a damn good cop, and everyone involved in this case is going to realize that by the time they are done investigating. And once they do, they’re not going to want anyone else in that seat.”

  Alvarez smiled. “Thanks, Riker.”

  “I mean every word.” He paused. “I’m leaving town.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight. As soon as possible. I just wanted to say goodbye to a couple people first.”

  “And I made the list? I’m honored.” She held out her hand and the two of them shook.

  “Take care of my hometown, Interim Chief Alvarez.”

  “And you take care of yourself. Now get out of here. I’ll have Officer Jenkins get the prisoner.”

  Five minutes later, Riker was sitting in interrogation room B when the door opened and Officer Jenkins led in Luke Dewitt.

  “How do I look in orange?” Luke asked.

  “Manly as ever,” Riker said with a smile.

  Officer Jenkins cocked a thumb toward the door. “I’ll be right out there if you need anything.”

  They waited until the police officer left before speaking again. Even then, Riker knew the room was wired for sound and video. They would have to watch what they said, lest they accidentally make another mess for Interim Chief Alvarez. There would be no talk of what went down at the farm.

  “They treating you okay?” Riker asked.

  “You kidding? I’ve got Doc Hanson in the cell next to mine and Chief Myers in the one next to him. It’s a party.” He paused. “You know, Doc is still convinced that the cartel is going to have us all killed.”

  “How about you?”

  “Nah. I believe what Nicolás Marcillas said. I think he’s done with Kingsport. I think we’ll live long, healthy lives in prison.”

  Riker saw the hint of sadness in his friend’s eyes. “Don’t give up, Luke. You may be able to strike a deal. You’ll serve some time, but it may not be a lot.”

  “Oh, I’m not worried about the time. I did what I did. I’m man enough to take the punishment. I’m only sad about all the years I wasted under the thumb of the cartel. I was a prisoner long before I put on this jumpsuit.” He met Riker’s eyes. “You got me out, man. Whatever debt you owed me, you repaid it and then some.”

  Riker stared back at his old friend. Luke had lost his way for a long time, and he’d done some things that were arguably unforgivable. But in the end, he’d come back into the light.

  “Consider us even. But that doesn’t mean I won’t call in a favor or two when you get out.”

  “From what I saw over the past few days, I don’t even want to know what kind of favors you ask from your friends.”

  “Tough to say. I don’t have many friends.”

  “Then let’s make sure you keep the ones you have.”

  “It’s a deal.” Riker held out his hand, and the two men shook.

  Just as Riker was about to turn to go, Luke spoke again.

  “Hey, I think I figured out what I want to do with my life after all this is over.”

  “Yeah?” Riker asked, genuinely curious. “What’s that?”

  Luke gave a sheepish smile. “Assuming I ever get out of here, and assuming I can find someone who would let me, I think I want to honor Coach Kane’s memory the best way I know how. I want to be a wrestling coach.”

  Megan was waiting on her front porch when Riker pulled up to her house. He grinned when he walked up and saw his packed duffle bag sitting on the porch next to her.

  “Wow, are you really that eager to get rid of me?”

  “Not at all,” she said. “But I’ve seen the way you’ve been ever since yesterday morning. You can hardly sit still. I’m thinking it’s you who’s eager to get rid of me.”

  “Not on your life. But you’re right. It is time for me to be moving on. There’s something I need to do.” He took a seat next to her on the stoop, groaning as he stretched out his injured leg and set his crutches down next to him. “How are the kids holding up?”

  “Pretty well, actually. We’ve got trauma counselors on-site and there have been a few justified freak outs. I spoke to David and his parents. I think his dad is more upset about what happened than David is.”

  That made sense to Riker. After all, it had been his father’s actions that had put the boy in harm’s way.

  “What about Blake?”

  Megan considered that a moment. “He wasn’t in school today, so I stopped by the hospital. Physically, he’s going to be in a cast for a couple of months. Emotionally? He’s having a hard time dealing with the role he played in what happened. Before yesterday, it was all theoretical to him. He’d never seen any real violence. El Leon somehow got his number and contacted him. He felt like it was his big opportunity. Somehow, he didn’t consider the consequences.”

  Riker thought back to his conversation with Luke. In many ways, Blake was like him. He’d behaved terribly and caused great damage, but in the end, he’d stood up for what’s right, despite the massive danger to himself.

  “I hope he’s going to be okay,” Megan said. “I hope they all are.”

  “With you as a teacher? How could they not be?”

  A sly smile crossed Megan’s face. “I also had an interesting conversation with Mr. Harlen today.”

  Riker grimaced, remembering how the high school principal had kicked him off campus the day he’d visited to have lunch with Megan. “Let me guess. He wants to sue me for the property damage I caus
ed while fighting El Leon?”

  “Not exactly. He wants you to speak at a school-wide assembly.”

  The blood drained from Riker’s face. “That’s way worse.”

  Megan laughed and put a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry, I told him you wouldn’t be able to make it. But believe me when I say, Mr. Harlen is a big Matthew Riker fan. I overheard him using you as an example of what Kingsport students can accomplish when they put their minds to it.”

  Riker shook his head and chuckled in surprise. “This town, man.”

  Megan’s face fell. “Yeah. Honestly, I’m having a hard time dealing with the fact that so many people looked the other way or even profited from this stuff with the cartel. I thought the people in my town were better than that.”

  “It is shocking,” Riker allowed. “But look at it another way. It was the bravery of the people that stopped the cartel in the end. Luke, Chief Myers, even Blake. They all did the right thing when it came down to it. And then we’ve got people like you and Officer Alvarez who never stopped fighting for what’s right. All of you were willing to die to protect Kingsport. You fought even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. And you won.”

  Megan squeezed his arm. “Thanks, but you’re leaving one important character out of the story. None of this would have been possible without you leading the charge.”

  Riker considered that and shrugged. “That’s true, but I’m the product of years of world class training. Uncle Sam invested a lot of money in preparing me for scenarios like this. The rest of you didn’t have that. But you did have your morals, your courage, and good old fashioned Iowa stubbornness. Turns out, that was enough.”

  With that, Riker pushed himself to his feet. It took far longer than it should have, but he made it.

  “Want me to help you with your bag?” Megan asked.

  “No,” Riker hoisted the duffle bag over his shoulder, then held out an arm. “You can give me a hug though.”

  She stood up and pulled him into a tight embrace. “Thank you for coming, Matt. I’m glad to know I still have a family member out there, and he’s actually a good guy.”