by Leigh Lennon
Ignoring me, he looks around me at Junior and smiles, “She looks so much like your Mama. A real beauty but with such a beautiful name, yet you call her Junior?”
“Why are you here?” My voice cracks. I’m a fucking bad ass, never taking shit from anyone. The man in front of me taught me this. The only thing worthwhile he shared with me. Yet, in all his teachings, I also only feared one other person and unfortunately, he also is the man standing in front of me.
“Ah, Aleksandra. You have done so well at keeping yourself hidden for years. That bulldog of yours, your handler, you call her, she’s really good! Been trying to bring me down for years, that bitch.”
“Mommy, he just say a bad word.”
My father laughs. “Are you sure that girl is only two? What the vocabulary on her.”
I’m not amused, not in the least. “We can discuss Junior’s advancements another day, Papa. I want you to leave.”
Grabbing my arm a bit too tightly, he brings me close, “I’ve just got my family back together. Like hell I’m letting you or my granddaughter go.”
It’s then I hear the alarm for the hospital sound. He smiles, “You got to love it when a plan comes together.”
17
Jake
I’m lighter than the air I breathe. I laugh at my analogy because fuck, I don’t think like this, yet Sasha, my Ginger along with my daughter, does this to me. When Ginger finally agreed to take a break and get some rest, I was able to make love to her, like she deserves.
However, when I woke this morning, she left a note saying she had gone back to the hospital, to be with Sylvie and Junior when our girl wakes up.
The second I cross the street to the hospital, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. It’s an instinct that has kept me alive many years in the CIA. Even still, the river of impulses that pumps through my body tells me all I need to know to take action. Cutting across the street in a jog, my intuitions are confirmed when I hear an alarm sound.
Before a lockdown of the hospital can be secured, I sneak in and take the back stairs to the 7th floor, the area that has been sealed up for Junior’s procedure. But I don’t recognize the guards. No, it’s not the guards Sylvie had placed for Ginger and Junior’s protection. In an instant, I recognize the man as I barely peep around the corner. Hell, I remember that mother fucker like it was yesterday. Shit, standing dead to rights between my family and myself is that ugly shitbag that put his hands on Sasha three years ago at the airport, her father’s goon.
My training comes back to me like I’m about to ride a bike but holy fuck, the internal heartbeat of my own chest has never felt like this. Sure, I always put those I protect before myself but none of them were my life, not like Ginge and Junior are.
Before I know it, I’m checking the rounds in my gun, and securing the extra bullets near me for easy reloading. The second I’m satisfied with my gun, I hear a noise coming behind, and before I know what’s happening, both Sylvie and I have our guns pointed at one another.
I don’t move it from her temple and she doesn’t move hers either. She has trained me, she taught me well that in a second our ally may be our enemy. “Jacob, lower your gun.”
No way in fuck I’m lowering it and I stay silent because again, her advice and wisdom of all the fucked-up training ops she dreamed up for us is now paying off.
“Jacob, I’m not the enemy here.”
Good, she knows what I’m thinking but there is more. “It’s funny, the second Stravos’ men show up, you are nowhere to be seen.” In her smile, I can tell she’s amused but I’m still not sure who I can trust. “If you have nothing to hide, lower your gun, Sylvie.”
She raises one hand, in an effort, I assume, to tell me she’s going to comply. “Okay, Jake, if I were you, I wouldn’t trust me either.” She’s the queen of mind games so I let these words fly over my head as if they are hot air balloons. Leaning down, she slides the gun over to me, but I don’t bend down to grab it. Sylvie has more hiding spots on her than a black hole. “But Jacob, answer me this. Burbank is up there, wouldn’t I have gotten him out?”
Ah, her theory is full of holes. “That is a weak fucking excuse and you know it. Especially if he is in on it.”
“I have not wasted my career for the past three years for nothing. I love your daughter and Sasha truly is the only friend I have in this world. Believe it or not, I don’t have a lot of friends pounding down my door.”
Fuck, I don’t have time for Sylvie’s games and for some reason I want to believe her. Burbank is her world and getting him out, especially if things go bad, would be her number one goal. I assume and hope it would be after getting my girls to safety.
“When did you leave?” I ask.
“I’ve been gone for an hour. I went back to the hotel when Sasha surfaced. Shit, Jake, if something happens to them, any of them, my life will be over. They have given me purpose. Please, Jake. Plus Luchen and Morry are in there.” Though we are barely audible, I hear the plea in her voice. Leaning down and picking up the gun, I return it to her, but not before I say something she needs to hear.
“If I’m wrong, Sylvie, I swear on my mom’s grave, I’ll hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands.”
Her eyes don’t falter at my threat. “I wouldn’t expect any different.” The second she takes her gun, we both spin around when the door to the stairwell opens from behind. I point toward the door for her, while I steady my gun on the shadow as someone climbs the stairwell to the floor where Ginger and Junior are.
Feeling the eyes of Sylvie over my shoulder watching both the stairwell and the door, the footsteps get more pronounced as he or she gets closer.
Leaning over, as the stranger’s foot comes into view, I pull back the safety of my gun, ready to take him out if need be, though the noise would give away any advantage we may have so this is the last thing I want.
The second his face comes into view, I’m about to say drop it, when I almost have to suppress a bark of laughter. The person standing in front of me is Mack and I’ve never been as happy to see the ugly son of a bitch as I am right now.
“What the fuck?” I whisper and his only reply is a smile. Looking over at Sylvie, relief even washes over her when she lets out a huge breath of air.
I’m listening, hoping he may have more intel on what is going on, since he walked the hallways of the hospital while the lockdown was taking place. He starts, “All I know is there was a man seen in the ER with a gun.” But I know they would never be stupid enough to show their intentions, not these career criminals.” It’s as if Mack can read my mind, “Either it’s shit timing on their end,” he points to the floor where Sasha and Junior are, “Or it’s a smoke screen.”
Going with the latter, we both nod. I walk over to Sylvie still guarding the door, to inform her that this is a well-orchestrated plan. That means rescuing Ginge and Junior has just got a lot harder.
18
Sasha
Where the hell is everyone? I wonder to myself. Looking around, I know this floor was cleared and then filled with a shit load of Burbank’s men. He reads my mind, “No one is coming and if they attempt to, like your lover boy, they will not last long.”
All I can think about is Jake. The thought of something happening to my man makes me sick. I can almost taste the vomit in my mouth but he’s also Junior’s lifeline. Standing close to Papa, in order to shield Junior from my words, I plead, “Please, instruct your men not to hurt him. He’s Junior’s only hope for a marrow transplant.”
“That is rubbish, my dear. With my resources, I can find someone for her. Anyway, she’s my heir after all. Your brothers never have given me a grandchild and I need someone to run my business one day.”
I want to spit in his face but this sort of diplomacy will never work with my father. “Papa, please, don’t do this. Let Jake give her what she needs, then do with him what you feel.” I shudder at my words, at trading Jake for Junior, but it surely is not what I’m planning. I kno
w once Jake gets in here, he will find a way out of this cluster fuck.
We sit in silence while Junior falls asleep, something she has done a lot since this sickness has taken over her life. Once my spitfire, she is now reduced to several naps a day.
Looking at my dad, knowing that I can speak in peace, I ask, “How is it you found us now, after three years?” I want to know who the mole is and who’s been selling us out.
“Ah, Aleksandra, you have always been one for dramatics, my dear. You are hoping for something big, something mind-blowing, like I have someone on the inside, right?”
“That was always my handler’s suspicion,” I add.
Lighting a cigar, I want to stop him, this is a hospital for crying out loud, but he’s not supposed to shut down a hospital either and here we are. “Well, part of your handler is right. I had a mole early on when I tracked you the Caymans. When that guy intervened with you at the airport. I found he had a sister. So, I started to have her followed but I didn’t get far. As soon as you were off the radar, I decided to track your guy. Jacob Davis or Jason Harrington or whatever the fuck his real name is, but that was a dead end. That bulldog handler of yours protected both of you well. However, I knew tracking that old fucker with the beautiful wife and kids in the Caymans was doable, especially when the two were in business. So I tracked Mack’s footprints and he led me to you.” Taking in a large drag, he continues, “But I had a guy in the CIA. Never could get too close to you so I had him killed. I was left only with Mr. Davis/Harrington and Mr. Sheridan.”
In my back pocket, I feel an alert for a text message come in. I cover myself, especially my backside with my coat and attempt to retreat in the bathroom.
“Not so fast, my beauty. Sarah here,” he points to one of his bodyguards who I have altogether missed is a girl, “will be escorting you.”
“Fuck, I have to change my tampon,” I screech, still pulling my sweater down over my pants.
“Go, but no funny business, girl. You of all people know how hard it is growing up without a mother.” In that moment, with hatred lacing his words, everything he’d ever been to me is erased. I am looking at a stranger, not the man that comforted me when I fell off my bike and needed stitches.
In the bathroom, I try to lock the door but Sarah the Amazon has the door cracked with her back to me. Taking my phone, I tap the screen, putting it on the floor where I can see it, but it’s out of sight from the Amazon.
Reading the text from Jake, I’m familiar with the keywords and know what they mean. I’m able to bend over, hitting any key, as instructed by Sylvie so many fucking times, and hit send. Leaving the phone there, I stand up, flush and leave the bathroom, knowing the rescue party is on its way.
19
Jake
“What is the plan?” Mack asks as the three of us are huddled on the stairs below the seventh floor in the blind spot of the door.
Sylvie grabs her phone and scrolls through what looks like schematics of the hospital. Of course, she may be the world’s biggest bitch but the lady is prepared as fuck for every mission. This does not surprise me, not in the least. “We need to find another way in.” Swiping her phone to the right, I see every floor with handwritten instructions she must have scanned in.
With the three of us skimming through her small screen, I bring out my own phone, wondering if I should even try to call Ginger. “You heard from your man or your brothers?” I ask Sylvie.
“No, not one of them. I left them all with Merida so I know they’d never leave her. If her father knows anything, he would have incapacitated them first.” Sylvie’s hard-core bitch persona is not in check. See, I found out a long time ago, the way to any part of her heart is through her brothers and the big oaf of a man she calls her husband. Incapacitated in our lingo means many things but Luchen, Morry and Burbank would not have gone down without a fight. Her eyes tell me all I need to know, so I don’t continue this subject.
As I’m weighing the decisions of calling my girl, I hear a door open to the seventh floor and we all get in position when we hear the steps closing in on us.
With all of us packing, we take our guns and steady it on the shadow approaching. But Sylvie is the only one with a silencer on her gun and signals to both of us to let her take the shot. Still with our guns ready, just in case, the next happens so quickly.
As he rounds the corner, the second Sylvie can tell it is one of Stravos’ men, she shoots him dead center in the forehead, before he can grab his gun to square off with her. Sure, we could have used him alive, but I can’t fault Sylvie for taking the shot.
Mack springs into action, “Jake, grab his feet, we need to get him to the next floor and then get back up here so we can access an air duct.”
Sylvie snickers because she knows there is no way Mack and myself can access the duct and it will have to be Sylvie and her small frame to get into the system. Sylvie in the five-foot-two-inch badass package, she’ll have no problem.
“See if you can text Sasha, You okay? But only that. She’ll know what to do, granted that’s if she gets it. If she sends you back anything, text me but only if you hear from her. I’ll have my phone on silent.”
Before we hoist Sylvie up into the vent, my text alert vibrates and her response is the letter Q but it’s all we need to know she saw the code and is aware we are coming for her.
“When you get my text, make sure you have your guns ready. And if possible, if my brothers or husband are still alive, try not to shoot them. Especially Luchen, Jacob.”
I nod because even with as much as I hate Luchen, he’s in love with my Ginger, I know he’s at least on my side.
When we get back to the doorway entrance, with the door securely closed, I work out a plan in my head when Mack says, “I go in first, you fall back behind me.”
Shaking my head, I only say, “No fucking way, you have a family, too.”
“True and I’m not planning on dying today, but you have a little girl who needs you. Fuck, they haven’t taken your marrow yet. You need to live.”
I hadn’t thought of this, of how my girl could die if something happens to me and that Ginger would be all by herself in this world. “So, don’t fucking be a hero. And anyway, this is what Anna would want if it were you making sure one of my devils would live, I know you’d fucking make it happen.”
He’s right and for that reason, I nod in agreement. “I wish we had eyes or ears in there. I hate that Sylvie is going in blind.”
Looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed, he states the obvious. “You worried about Sylvie’s welfare now?”
I only shrug because, yeah, something inside of me has changed. “She threw herself in front of Ginger when I flew back to the Caymans to sort out shit with you and me.”
“Well, fuck, that lady does have a heart of sorts.”
“She sort of loves the shit out of Junior, too.” I add.
He shakes his head saying, “Only you and Sasha would take a beautiful name like Audrey Margaret and shorten it to Junior. “
“It fits her, though.” As we banter back and forth, both scared as fuck, I receive a text from Sylvie. Looking at my phone, I had forgotten how I had Sylvie programmed.
Heartless Bitch: I have eyes on S and Jr. The room connects with another room. Let me go in through there and I’ll enter when you get to Junior’s room. If you make it that far, that is.
Showing Mack the phone, he laughs at the name I have for Sylvie. “Ah, shut up, I put that in there before I knew she saved Ginger’s life.”
Mack reads the phone, “Glad to know the bitch has a lot of faith in us.”
Three minutes go by and I feel my phone alert me to another text.
Heartless Bitch: Okay, you fuckups, I’m in the room closest to you, try not to shoot me. Enter the fucking hallway and remember, don’t kill my brothers or husband either, if they are still alive.
Mack reads it and laughs. “She’s sure fucking wordy for a woman in a life or death situation.”
> I only snicker at my friend. It’s all I do before we enter the hallway along with a fuck ton of uncertainty.
20
Jake
Crouching at the door, to get off a shot if someone aims for Mack right away, he opens it slowly and the hallway is empty. Junior’s room is just four doors ahead on the left-hand side with Sylvie in the adjoining room.
Mack ascends while I follow. The biggest area of vulnerability is the hallway we have to cross once entering from the stairwell but it’s empty. I stop at one of the rooms that Burbank’s operatives were supposed to be stationed in and Mack hangs out in the doorway, out of sight from the people that are holding Ginger against her will. Walking into the open room, I see a man I recognize laying on the bed. Feeling for his pulse, he’s actually alive which is a stark difference in how Stravos normally operates.
Opening the door to the bathroom, I see Morry knocked out on the floor, still alive but not able to help us. Going to the next room, just catty-corner from where Sylvie is, I see another man in a bed but he’s dead, no pulse, and my heart stops. This is a man that gave his life to protect my girls. I’m confused by why one died and the other is conscious.
Checking the bathroom, I walk in to see Luchen, who is starting to come to. Gently taking the tape that covers his mouth, he sees me and I respond immediately, “Sylvie, she’s okay, she’s across the hall and has eyes on Sasha and Junior.” Holding his head, he tries to stand and it takes a second when I feel my phone vibrate. “Ah, your sister is wondering what is taking so long. We thought we’d have company and gunfire.”
“They have a bomb. They are grabbing Junior and leaving Sasha here. The bomb goes off in an hour.”