Slowly she removed her hands from her eyes. It was time to grow up, she told herself harshly. It was time to get past the phobias from childhood and deal with her fears like an adult.
But as she moved out from the protection of the boxes she started to tremble. Fear gripped her in its unflinching grasp and shook her roughly. She stopped at the edge of her hiding place, shaking and weak. She couldn’t move a step forward.
“…have to kill him.”
The voice floated down the stairs, cold and matter-of-fact. They were talking about Michael. Her heart plunged in her chest.
This is it, she told herself grimly. Either you walk through the darkness and up those stairs, or you can listen to those men shoot Michael and the FBI agent and Gloria and her baby.
She hadn’t heard any noises coming from this floor of the warehouse. Chances were none of the cops had waited on this level to search for her. Why would they bother? They’d said the warehouse was surrounded. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She forced herself to take one step toward the stairs, then another. She kept her eyes fixed on a distant window as she placed one foot in front of the other.
Her toe collided with something heavy and she almost cried out. Biting her lip to keep the sounds in, she looked down and saw a heavy box lying at an angle on the floor. She moved around it carefully, then continued moving toward the stairs.
As she reached the steps, the darkness became more complete. Very little light penetrated this far into the building. That was good, she told herself. They wouldn’t be able to see her as she got closer to them.
A vise seemed to close around her chest as she moved away from the last bit of light. She was sure the men above her would hear her heart thundering and know she was coming.
It was an excruciatingly slow process. On each stair she had to stop to breathe, then force herself to take another step. When she finally reached the next floor and turned the corner, there was another comforting beam of light striping the floor from tiny, narrow windows high in the wall. Saying a silent prayer of thanks, she used the glow to find the staircase to the next floor.
It took almost as long to navigate that staircase. As she reached the top, the men’s voices became clearer. They were on the floor above her. She was almost there.
She froze when she heard one that sounded as if it were right next to her. “We’ll draw straws,” the man said. “Short straw pulls the trigger.”
He wasn’t next to her, she realized, growing limp with relief. He was at the top of the stairway. But she would have to get past him to find Michael and the others.
As she rounded the corner and faced the last set of steps, another wave of relief poured over her. There were lights above her. She wouldn’t be climbing into total darkness.
Edging up the stairs, one at a time, she moved painfully slowly, waiting for a telltale squeak of the wood to reveal her presence. But God was watching out for her, because the stairs didn’t make a sound.
When she reached the top, she plastered herself against the wall, trying to gather courage to peer around the corner. When she finally got up the nerve to look, she saw several bare light bulbs in a room down the hall. Were all the cops in the same room as Michael?
She had just started to edge down the corridor toward the light when she heard a thumping sound coming from behind her. She spun around, expecting to see a Midland cop looming over her. But no one was there.
The thumping sound came again and she slipped into the room it seemed to be coming from. She saw three vague lumps on the floor.
“Ellie?”
Michael’s incredulous voice came from the first lump, and she dropped to her knees beside him.
“Are you all right?” she asked in an urgent whisper.
“I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
“You didn’t think I’d leave you, did you?”
“Yeah, I thought you’d leave! That’s what I told you to do.”
“Well, I guess I didn’t listen again.” As she was talking she ran her hands over his body, discovering that his feet and hands were tied.
“This rope is so tight,” she said, struggling to undo the knots.
“Slow down and concentrate,” Michael said, moving his fingers to brush her hand with a featherlight touch.
“I think it’s getting looser,” she said, her heart thumping and her hands clammy. “Hold still.”
He obediently kept perfectly still while she tugged the last knot free from his hands. He shook off the ropes and bent to undo his ankles. “Get started on Givens.”
She moved to the next person and felt the FBI agent staring at her. “Who are you?” he whispered.
She didn’t bother to answer. Tugging on the ropes, she felt the first knot give. Thank God the cops had been rushed and done a sloppy job.
Leaving Givens to finish untying his feet, she moved over to Gloria. The woman’s hands and feet were tied, as well. But they hadn’t tied up the child. He clung to Gloria, his face buried in her neck.
“Don’t worry about me,” the woman said, her voice urgent. “Leave me and take Rueben. Get him out of here! Keep my baby safe!”
“We’ll get both of you out of here,” Ellie whispered as she struggled with the knots.
Before she could finish untying the woman, foot steps echoed in the hall outside the door.
There was no way she could get out of the room. Looking around frantically, she realized they were in a bare room, with no place to hide.
“Corner,” Michael hissed to Ellie.
No light penetrated the corners of the room. With out hesitating, she slipped into the corner and hid her face against her knees. Thank God Michael had insisted she wear dark clothes.
Peeking between her knees, she saw that he and the FBI agent had draped the ropes over their ankles and wrists to make it appear they were still tied up. They had retreated into the shadows, but it was horribly obvious to Ellie that the ropes no longer bound them.
A man appeared at the door and hesitated before he came in. He held a gun in his left hand, pointed at the floor.
She heard Michael suck in a breath. “Hobart?” he said, clearly shocked.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Ellie realized why the young man looked familiar. He was the rookie Michael and his partner had been training. Beneath the bravado in the young man’s voice, Ellie could hear the fear.
“What the hell are you doing mixed up with those losers?” Michael asked.
“I see only one loser, and you’re it,” the other man said with a sneer. “You’re busting your rear end for chump change. Do you know how much money they’re pulling in every week?”
“Do you know what they have to do to get it?” Michael’s voice was relentless.
“The drugs are going to get sold anyway,” Hobart answered, his voice calm. “We’re just getting our share.”
“And does getting your share include killing innocent men?”
“You’re not so innocent, Reilly. You killed your own informant.”
“Is that what they told you?” Michael’s voice dripped with scorn.
“That’s what happened.” But Hobart didn’t sound as sure.
“I was there, Hobart. Ruiz pulled the trigger. I saw the whole thing go down.”
“You’re lying.” The young man raised the gun and aimed it at Michael. “They told me you’d give me some bullshit story.”
“Why would I lie? I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m going to die, anyway.” Michael nodded his head toward Gloria. “Why would I lie to her before she dies? She deserves to know the truth about what they did to the father of her son, before you shoot her.” He paused for a moment. “You are going to shoot her, aren’t you, Hobart? And the child, too?”
“Shut up, Reilly. Just shut up.” Ellie could see the kid’s hand shaking.
“All right, I’ll shut up. Why don’t you do the talking before you kill us? I’m guessing it’s going to take a little time for you to work up th
e nerve to shoot a baby. How did you find us?”
“Sam and I watched you leave in that piece of garbage car you stole.” He gave Michael a disgusted look. “You should have picked something better for your last ride.”
“Sam was in this, too?”
Ellie heard the despair in Michael’s voice and wanted to strike out at the man who was causing it.
“Nah,” Hobart said. “He didn’t know a thing. I told him I was sick and he took me back to the station. That’s when I contacted Ruiz. We called all the police departments between Midland and St. Louis and Chicago and asked them to watch for the car. As soon as someone called us and told us they’d spotted it, we knew where you were heading.”
“You’re a very obedient puppy dog, Hobart. Do you listen to every scumbag who gives you orders?”
“Shut up, Reilly.” The young man glared at Michael and raised the gun again.
“So how did you get the information out of Givens here about our meeting this morning?”
“That was easy.” Hobart smirked and lowered the gun again. “We talked to the receptionist at the FBI office and told her that someone might be trying to lure one of their agents into an ambush. When we said that he might be posing as a police officer, she got up and went to talk to someone. It was real easy to look at her log and see who you’d talked to. The Boy Scout here—” he waved his gun in Givens’s direction “—played it by the book all the way. He logged in the phone call and his intention to meet with the subject. All we had to do was find out what he looked like and wait for him to leave the building. We’ve been following him ever since.”
“You’re a smart guy, Hobart. Too bad you picked the wrong side.”
“I don’t think I did, loser,” he answered, cool again. “I’m the one holding the gun.”
He raised the weapon, aimed it at Michael and released the safety.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MICHAEL HEARD THE CLICK of the safety being released, and lunged for Hobart’s legs. He felt Givens leap up beside him and grab the arm holding the gun.
Hobart grunted once as Michael punched him in the gut. But even as the rookie cop doubled over, he tried to wrestle free of Givens.
The FBI agent grabbed his arm and slammed it against his knee, as if it were a piece of kindling he was preparing for a campfire. The cracking sound of a bone shattering filled the room, and Hobart fell to the floor.
Michael looked over at Givens. “Nice move.”
“Thanks.” He gave Michael an apologetic glance. “I figured I needed to do something to stop him, since it was my fault these guys found you.”
“Consider yourself redeemed.” Michael turned to ward Gloria and saw that she was struggling to free her hands from the partially untied ropes. “Stuff something in Hobart’s mouth so he doesn’t call for help. I’m going to untie Gloria. We need to get out of here.”
Michael heard the sound of cloth ripping as he freed Gloria, then hurried to the corner and drew Ellie away from the wall. Her skin was clammy and cold and she shook violently beneath his hand.
How in the hell had she managed to get all the way up here in the dark? He wanted to crush her against him, to reassure her that she wasn’t alone in the enveloping blackness. Instead he drew her closer to the others. Gloria stood holding the baby, swaying slightly. Givens held the gun, his expression icy and determined.
Michael couldn’t stop himself from giving Ellie a quick, hard squeeze. Then he took her hand. “Let’s go. We don’t have time for you to fall apart.”
She glared at him and opened her mouth to answer. It would be something blistering, he was sure. But he laid his hand against her mouth.
“No noise,” he warned.
She nodded and he took his hand away. Then he bent down to Hobart, who was curled into a ball on the floor, cradling his broken arm.
“What were you supposed to do to us?” Michael demanded after he’d loosened the gag.
“Screw you, Reilly.”
Michael calmly retied the gag, then kicked Hobart’s broken arm. Muffled by the gag, his scream was no more than a gurgle in his throat. He writhed in pain as Michael stood over him and watched.
Michael bent and removed the gag again. Hobart’s face was pale and shiny with sweat in the faint light from the other room. “One more time, Hobart. What were you going to do in here?”
Hobart gave him a sullen look. “I was supposed to shoot all of you.”
“Even the baby?”
The other man nodded as he looked away, shame on his face. “I was going to put the gun in your hand afterward. You already killed Montero. We’d say you were cornered and killed everyone, then committed suicide.”
“Tidy.” Michael stood up and took the gun from Givens. Then he jerked his head in the direction of Ellie and Gloria. “Get them out of here,” he told the FBI agent. “And move fast. Once they hear shots from this room, they’re going to expect Hobart to come back.”
The FBI agent nodded and herded the two women toward the door. Gloria whispered into the baby’s ear, and miraculously, the child was quiet. Just before they stepped out the door, Michael stopped Givens with a hand on his arm.
“Ellie’s afraid of the dark,” he said in a whisper. “Hold on to her.”
The agent nodded, then they disappeared.
Michael didn’t hear a thing. Had they found the stairs? Had they managed to descend to the next floor? Or had Ellie freaked out?
She wasn’t going to freak out now, he thought, pride humming through him. In spite of her fear she’d managed to make her way up three stories in the dark. And done it in time to save all of them.
What was he going to do without her?
He pushed the thought from his head. He didn’t have a choice.
Bending down next to Hobart, he put his mouth close to the other man’s ear.
“I want you in the corner,” he said. “You can either move there on your own, or I’ll do it for you.” He looked deliberately at the broken arm Hobart cradled with his other hand.
The rookie understood the message and scrabbled painfully across the floor to the farthest corner of the room. Then he curled into himself again.
The kid wouldn’t be going anywhere. Satisfied, Michael looked around and saw the pieces of rope that had bound them. Picking them up, he quickly tied Hobart’s ankles together.
Then he pulled out Hobart’s gun and pointed it deliberately at the floor. He fired three shots into the wood, then paused. Finally he fired the fourth shot.
Shoving the gun into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back, he slipped across the hall and stood at the top of the stairs. Then he made what he hoped were convincing retching sounds, as if Hobart was tossing his cookies.
He heard a crude laugh coming from the other room. “It sounds as if the rookie didn’t much care for his assignment.”
Ruiz. Michael’s mouth tightened. Instinctively he turned toward the room where the other cops waited for Hobart. His hand hovered over the gun at the small of his back. It would save everyone a lot of trouble, time and money if he just took care of these guys right now. Animals who would kill an innocent woman and child didn’t deserve to live.
But after a moment he let his hand drop to his side. If he killed those men he’d be no better than they were. He forced himself to start down the stairs before he could change his mind.
When he reached the first floor there was no sign of Givens, Ellie or Gloria. Dread crept up his spine. Had Ruiz left someone downstairs to make sure no one escaped? Givens didn’t have a weapon. He’d be helpless if he came face-to-face with an armed man.
“Ellie!” His sharp whisper echoed off the walls, but there was no answer.
Maybe they were already outside. He moved to the door and peered through the tiny opening left when the door hadn’t been latched. No Ellie or Givens or Gloria. But he recognized the man lounging against a Midland unmarked police vehicle across the street, and his mouth tightened. Ruiz hadn’t been bluffing.
He’d left men outside the warehouse.
Michael moved swiftly to search the remainder of the first floor, sweat dripping down his sides and his heart pounding with fear. Givens wouldn’t have stopped on an upper floor. He knew as well as Michael that they had to get out of the building before Ruiz and the others realized they’d escaped.
Had they been caught? Was someone pointing a gun at Ellie right now, waiting for Michael to show up?
Moving toward the back of the building, he glanced into one dark and dingy room after another, checked behind all the stacks of pallets and abandoned boxes. There was no sign of them.
As he approached the end of a corridor, he saw a cluster of darker shadows against the wall. His heart rate rocketed and he slipped into a tiny room. When he peered around the corner, he counted only three silhouettes and closed his eyes in relief.
He heard whispers from the group and stopped immediately. What was going on?
“…nothing’s going to happen to you,” he heard Givens saying.
“You don’t know that.” The voice belonged to Gloria. It was surprisingly dignified and composed. “This is an answer I must have before we walk out that door. Will you do this for me, Ellie?” she asked.
“Of course,” Ellie answered. Michael saw her reach out and take Gloria’s hand. “You must have relatives who could raise him. Why ask me? You don’t know me at all.”
“I know all I need to know about you.” Gloria took a step closer to her. “When you first appeared and Detective Reilly knocked over the man with the gun, you could have run out the door and saved yourself. But instead you saved Rueben. You grabbed him out of the arms of that man who was threatening to kill him.” She paused, and Michael saw her search Ellie’s face. “Any woman who is willing to save a child instead of herself has goodness inside of her, and much love to give. If I am dead, I want Rueben to have that kind of love.”
Michael wanted that kind of love, too, he realized, his heart aching as he gazed at the two women. But he wouldn’t do that to Ellie. She deserved far better than he could give her.
“You’re not going to be dead, Gloria,” Ellie said gently. “Michael and Agent Givens won’t allow that to happen. But if the worst occurs, I promise I’ll raise Rueben for you. And I’ll try to be half as good a mother as you are.”
Two on the Run (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 21