by Marnie Perry
But what about Leyton, how did he feel about her? And more importantly how did she feel about him? She was certainly tender towards him, but was that because they had shared a harrowing experience, because she had watched him suffer? She obviously admired Leyton, just as she had admired him once, before he proved to her what he really was. But admiration was not enough, it was not love.
So, Lando or Leyton, which would she choose? If either. If she did choose Lando she would have a fight on her hands, he would not come to her willingly, not at first anyway, as much as he might want to. He was a proud man, proud and deeply troubled. It would take a very special woman to make him forget what had happened to his wife and his part in that. But then Adela Anne Faraday was a very special woman, he should know that better than anyone.
He felt an unmistakable stab just above his ribs when he recalled their time together, when he thought of what he could have had and now never would. Yes, Lando needed her, and she needed him, but was that enough for either of them? When it would take so much more to heal all their wounds. Maybe she would go with the safe bet, with steady, dependable but courageous Leyton? Of course after everything that had happened she might be desperate to get home, to leave this country and all the horrors she’d suffered here behind her.
Suddenly he tensed as a noise came to him from near the makeshift hideout. He turned to the others and put a finger to his lips. Then he heard a dog barking in the distance, he thought they had all been killed but one of them must have survived. Damn. They would certainly lead Glissando’s men here.
As quietly as possible he walked over to the others and whispered, ‘we have to get out of here.’ They both looked uncertain and Adela frightened but he added ‘we’ll be trapped in here; they can wait us out or come in, in force. We have to go. Now.’
Leyton said, ‘you go, I’ll stay and hold them off.’
Adela’s return whisper was urgent, ‘no, Ellis, we go together.’ She looked at Hennessey for conformation but he was looking at Leyton.
He took another weapon from behind his back and handed it to Leyton. Adela stared wide eyed as Leyton reached out to take it. She gripped Hennessey’s arm saying, ‘no, you can’t, I won’t let you leave him.’
Leyton put his hand on hers, ‘Adela, please, just go with him. I’ll be okay. Just please go.’
She shook her head as tears ran down her face. He said, ‘you have to get out of here, you have to live to tell them about Glissando and what he does here, what he does to people, like your friend, Desi.’ When she still would not be convinced he smiled a soft smile, ‘it’s been a real pleasure knowing you, Adela. We’ll see each other again, you’ll see. Now go.’ He looked at Hennessey, ‘get her outta here, Hennessey.’
Before she could speak or react Hennessey grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. The next thing she knew they were out of the hiding place and making their way through the woods. She pulled at her arm gripped in his hand but he held on tightly. She scratched at his hand and beat her fist on his back but he did not stop walking until they were in a sort of clearing.
He drew her to a halt and growled, ‘stop will you, just stop. Do you think Leyton would want you to be trapped in there with him?’
‘We should have all left together, we shouldn’t have left him, you shouldn’t have left him. You’ve killed him. But that means nothing to you does it, you’re a murderer.’
He was getting impatient now, ‘call me what you like, but it was his decision and it was the right one. If you can’t see that then Leyton just sacrificed his life for nothing.’
She became still and stared at him her eyes brimming with tears. He said gently, ‘we have to get you to safety; don’t let Leyton have died in vain.’
Just then shots came to them from the direction of the hideout. She wrenched herself free of him and began to run back the way they had come but he was too quick for her he grabbed her around the waist and half dragged, half carried her through the woods.
He was relieved to see that even though she was beside herself with grief and anger she did not make a sound as they ran, even in her pain she was sensible.
They crossed a small shallow stream, Hennessey intending to throw the dogs off their trail and had just made it to the periphery of the trees when they heard more gunshots, this time coming from the direction of the gate house which they could just make out through the trees. Hennessey recognised the sound of a rifle. Lando.
Hennessey turned to Adela intending to tell her to wait here while he checked on Lando when two men appeared from behind some trees directly in front of them with weapons raised, one pointing at Hennessey the other at Adela.
Hennessey reacted very quickly and shoved Adela forcefully aside. She hit the ground as Hennessey opened fire. One man went down with a bullet in his forehead. The other man was only wounded and one of his bullets had caught Hennessey in his left arm; he dropped his weapon as the pain shot through his arm causing his fingers to turn numb. He immediately bent to retrieve it just as Adela screamed out, ‘Sterling, look out.’ He looked up to see the other man his gun pointing directly at Hennessey’s head.
Hennessey dived for his weapon but he knew it would be too late and waited for the pain or the blackness or both.
But suddenly there was another shot that sounded like a cannon on the still night air and the man fell sideways, blood spattering the trees and grass as he fell.
Hennessey grabbed his gun and turned but froze as Lando came striding towards them.
He looked down at Adela who was gripping her shoulder and asked, ‘you all right?’
She nodded even though she looked anything but all right. He reached down and helped her up. Then he looked at Hennessey who was just getting to his feet never taking his eyes from Lando. He said, ‘that was some mighty nice shooting, Mr. Lando. Thanks’
Indeed it was, it was dark and the man had been only partially visible with numerous obstacles between he and Lando’s rifle.
‘Now we’re even,’ Lando replied.
Hennessey smiled and Lando noticed Hennessey’s arm, ‘you’re hit.’
Hennessey followed his gaze, ‘just a nick.’ It might have been just a nick but it hurt like hell.
Lando looked around, ‘where’s Leyton?’
Hennessey looked at Adela who bowed her head. He said, ‘he stayed behind to keep Glissando’s men busy while we got away. We heard shots from that direction.’
Lando stared at him for a moment then looked at Adela whose shoulders were now shaking. He wanted more than anything to put his arm around her and comfort her but what comfort was there for her right now? And anyway, they had no time for regrets or commiserations they would keep for later.
His tone was brisk, ‘I opened the gate, I think we should get outta here and wait for the sheriff in the relative safety of the street.’
Hennessey nodded and Lando took Adela’s arm, ‘come on, lady, we have to go.’
Still in shock and sorrow she let him lead her away and walked like an automaton between the two men.
They reached the gatehouse without encountering any trouble and were making their way towards the gate, when Adela cried out as she was suddenly and roughly hauled backwards by her hair into Glissando’s arms.
CHAPTER 45.
Both Hennessey and Lando turned simultaneously, both pointing their weapons at Glissando and both thinking, where the hell had he come from?
Glissando was smiling, or rather sneering as he held the long gold handled knife against Adela’s throat. “Well met by moonlight, gentlemen,” he misquoted, ‘and lady of course.’ As he said this he pushed the knife into Adela’s neck causing a small trickle of blood to run down her throat and onto her blouse. She winced but would not give him the satisfaction of crying out.
Glissando said, ‘she’s a brave one isn’t she? But I can feel her trembling,’ he moved his free hand to her left breast, ‘and feel the erratic beating of her heart.’ Adela twisted and turned but could not free herse
lf from his hold.
Hennessey could feel Lando tense next to him and said, ‘if she dies you die too, Glissando, you know that don’t you? Either by my Glock or Lando’s rifle, one or the other. Hey, I’ll tell you what, let the woman go and you get to choose which weapon you prefer to end your lousy, wasted, scummy life.’
Glissando’s smirk vanished and he pulled Adela’s head back by her hair and pushed the blade against her skin. This time it was more than a trickle of blood which oozed out of her neck as it snaked a trail between her breasts. She whimpered and Lando instinctively moved forward but Glissando warned, ‘one more step, Mr. Lando and she’s going to need a whole blood bank to save her.’
Lando halted mid stride and Glissando smiled, ‘that’s better. Now drop your weapons.’
Neither man moved to do his biding, so again he pressed the knife against Adela’s neck, and once more drew blood, and once more she gritted her teeth.
Glissando said, ‘you, Lando, throw you rifle into those bushes, ‘he tipped his head to the left. Lando did. ‘And you, Hennessey, throw your weapon at the traitor’s feet.
Hennessey shook his head, ‘no way, Glissando, just like a cop, an assassin never surrenders his weapon.’ Lando looked at him and Glissando moved the knife back to Adela’s breast and pressed it against her shirt, this time she hissed in pain as the blade sliced her skin just below the nipple. ‘The next one slices off her nipple.’ He warned.
‘For God’s sake, Hennessey.’ Lando snapped,
Hennessey cast his eyes Lando’s way and the two men kept eye contact for what seemed like forever until Hennessey, with great reluctance, threw his Glock at Adela’s feet.
Glissando pushed Adela’s head down demanding, ‘pick it up.’ She didn’t, so he forced her head almost to her knees this time causing her to let out a cry of pain, ‘pick it up, now.’
From her position she looked up at Lando who looked back. He noticed her expression was quite calm belying the pain and terror in her eyes. He nodded once, so without taking her eyes from his she bent down, picked up the gun and held it between her index finger and thumb as though it were a deadly rattle snake.
Glissando snatched it from her, ‘thank you, Katherina.’
‘Don’t call me that,’ she replied sharply, ‘it’s not my name.’
Glissando laughed in her ear, ‘yes it is, Katherina, the shrew.’
‘And you’re Julius Caesar, a man with delusions of grandeur, who died an ignoble death, just as you will.’ Hennessey chuckled as was expected at Adela’s words but Lando, although he admired her courage and her stand against Glissando even in the face of pain and death, was terrified for her and his terror made him lash out.
‘For God’s sake, woman,’ he barked, ‘don’t you know when to keep your mouth shut?’
He regretted his words instantly, not so much because of the hurt that momentarily replaced the fear in her eyes, but because he didn’t want the last words he might ever say to her to be angry ones. He was about to apologise when Hennessey said, ‘so what now, Glissando?’
‘Now? Now I kill you two and wait for the police to arrive when I shall hand over the shrew to them, she’s a wanted woman you know.’
Hennessey laughed, ‘you’re a real hoot, Glissando, you think they’ll just accept that Lando and I broke in here and did all this for, well, for what, for fun, to see if we could, what?’
Glissando giggled like a schoolgirl, ‘you’re on my grounds, you broke into my house, you killed my men. You’re the trespassers, I’m entitled to defend my property, my life, from would be assassins. And you shot me, Hennessey, with this gun, ‘he waved it to and fro, ‘but first you killed your accomplice of course, obviously not wanting to share the fee for this particular assignment, but I managed to get the gun away from you and shoot you.’
Lando looked at Hennessey who was still smiling but he sensed the tension in him. This must be a first for him, being on the receiving end of a gun, his own gun at that. But Hennessey obviously knew as well as he did that Glissando was probably right, the police would buy it, and even if they didn’t they would go along with it.
‘And her?’ He pointed at Adela, ‘why would she be here? Back up?’
Hennessey chuckled and Glissando sniggered, ‘we were having an affair,’ Adela tensed at this and her face conveyed her repulsion, fortunately Glissando couldn’t see her expression. ‘Yes, we met in England when I was there on business and fell for each other; unfortunately she fell much harder than I did. When I ended it she came to America looking for me, begging for one more chance and when I refused to pick up where we left off she hired you, Hennessey.’
Adela gasped and tried to extricate herself from Glissando’s hold before she threw up all over him. Funny how the thought of her and this odious repulsive man being intimate nauseated her more than the knife he held at her throat. He held her tighter still and she winced as he continued, ‘then you, Hennessey, recruited another killer to aid you in your assignment, Mr. Lando here.’
Lando’s raised his eyebrows and with more composure than she actually felt Adela said acidly, ‘they might think I’m a criminal, but they’re not stupid enough to believe I could have so little taste as to fall for a short, ugly, pasty faced troll like you.’
Hennessey laughed out loud thinking, that’s my girl. As for Lando he closed his eyes in dismay and fear. Glissando pulled her head back by her hair again and shoved the knife into the soft flesh of her neck and she yelped in pain.
Lando took a step forward but Glissando keeping the knife against Adela’s throat said simply but chillingly ‘don’t.’
Lando stopped dead and Glissando sneered and into Adela’s ear whispered, ‘I said you were brave and you are, brave but foolish. If you speak again I’ll sever your vocal chords.’ As if to enforce his warning he shoved the knife further into her throat so that she couldn’t even swallow. He said, ‘that’s better. Anyway, as I was saying, you can rest assured that even if they don’t believe my version of events they’ll go along with it, and the shrew will spend a lot longer in this country than she ever intended, although not in the comfortable surroundings she had envisioned.’
He raised the Glock and aimed it at Hennessey, ‘I can’t begin to tell you how much and how often I’ve wanted to do this, Mr. Hennessey.’
Both Adela and Lando tensed as he squeezed the trigger very slowly savouring the moment. But Hennessey seemingly very relaxed said, ‘haven’t you forgotten something, Glissando?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘What about Leyton? He knows the truth too.’
‘Oh, him. Poor Detective Leyton, he’s had such a bad day, accumulating in his untimely demise, untimely for him that is.’
He squeezed the trigger some more just as a voice behind him said, ‘I ain’t demised yet, asshole.’
Glissando instinctively turned to the voice as Leyton fired his weapon. His eyes were misty with pain so his aim was not good but he managed to hit Glissando in the arm that held the Glock. He cried out and dropped it; Adela pushed away from him and threw herself to the ground.
Hennessey and Lando reacted with inhuman speed as they drew weapons from behind their backs, aimed them at Glissando and fired simultaneously. And kept firing.
Glissando stood swaying looking down at his body as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, then looked up at the two men. Hennessey fired one more time hitting Glissando right between the eyes. He went down never to get up.
The two men stood for a moment gazing down at the dead man then looked up quickly as Leyton gasped out, ‘Adela!’
They both followed his gaze as he began to crawl towards Adela still lying on the ground.
Lando got there first and knelt beside her, he turned her over slowly and gently. His hand came away covered in blood. He turned her all the way over and saw the knife sticking in her side. She must have fallen on it as she hit the ground. He pressed his ear to her chest listening for a heartbeat, it was faint but there.<
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Hennessey looked at Lando’s bloodied hand which he noticed was shaking then at Adela’s white seemingly lifeless face. He took out his phone to call an ambulance at the same time saying to Lando, ‘don’t pull the knife out.’
It was evidence of Lando’s preoccupation with Adela that he did not snap back, “I know that.” He pulled his shirt over his head and pressed it gently to the wound in her side. The hilt of the knife was keeping pressure on the wound and he wrapped the shirt around the blade of the knife trying to stop the flow of blood.
He hoped she would not regain consciousness just yet, the pain would be excruciating he knew. But as if to defy him one last time she opened her eyes and met his. Her lips moved but no sound issued from them. Lando whispered, ‘shush, shush, don’t talk, and try not to move.’
But her voice weak and faltering she managed to get out, ‘Gli…Glissando?
It was Hennessey who having called 911 squatted down beside Lando who answered, ‘he’s dead.’
‘Are...are you cert…’ That was as far as she got. Both Lando and Hennessey turned to look at Glissando’s body riddled with bullets. And it was Hennessey who again answered, ‘oh yeah, we’re certain all right.’
She was obviously in great pain but she smiled and they knew she was thinking about Olivia and that she was now finally free of him. Then she looked at Hennessey and her smile faded. She became agitated and tried to rise but Lando held her gently but firmly down, ‘I told you, don’t move, the ambulance will be here very soon.’
But once again she defied him and the pain as she said to Hennessey, ‘please, please leave her be now, just do this one thing for me before…before I…. Then all debts are paid.’ Then she lost consciousness. Lando once again pressed his ear to her chest, she was breathing, just. He looked at Hennessey who was looking at Adela a strange look on his face.
Just then they heard a montage of voices yelling and leaves rustling as people came through the woods towards them. Hennessey leapt to his feet and aimed his gun towards the sounds.