by Mike Dagons
Getting Yeltsin a ticket to the main event would take a serious bidder out of the game, which was actually a good thing. It would make Genesis look weak, but that didn’t matter to Melvin. As long as it bought Yeltsin’s silence, and didn’t hurt Genesis’ endgame, he was willing to do it.
The Russian’s eyes lit up with interest, but he didn’t jump at the opportunity. “How much will it cost? Certainly you’re not proposing I give you ten million dollars?”
“Its money well spent. In exchange, you spare Janie and her family their lives.”
“What about the money I already paid Ms. Delores?”
“It bought you the information I just gave you.”
“I want it back!” he barked.
“Okay, since I’m in a hurry, you can have the information for free, and nine million will buy you an invitation.”
“I appreciate you lowering the price, but it is still too high. It will not buy my forgiveness.”
“I lowered the price because you’re holding my daughter, and I want to end this peacefully. I am willing to take a hit to do this, but I will not bend over and let you fuck me!”
“You are amusing, Mr. Ryan,” he laughed. “I will accept your offer, but I will only pay you five million dollars, and it is my final offer.”
“Deal, I’ll call you with the account number receiving the bids.”
“Yes, and I will give you the girl when I receive the call,” Yeltsin glared at him.
Melvin studied him for a second, and saw that he was going to hold firm on it. “If we can put our guns away, we can make the necessary transactions right now if you wish?”
“Do as he says,” Yeltsin ordered, and his men holstered their weapons.
“You feel safe, Ryan?” Valow’s voice was in his earpiece.
“Yeah,” he holstered his Glock. He took out his cell and called Bender. “I need the name, Petro Yeltsin, added to the list of people receiving invitations. He is going to pay us five million for it. Give me the account number to give him.”
“Yeltsin does not have the kind of equity he’ll need to be competitive in the final phase. You don’t think it’s going to arouse suspicions when he bids enough to get an invitation? You can be certain Basin will be checking financials, and he will not be handing out spaces to people of his limited means no matter how many people he outbids to get an invitation.”
“I need you to handle any loose ends, and make it happen. Now give me the number.”
“Alright, if you’re sure we don’t mind having the hooligan underfoot while we’re on this job.”
“I’m sure we need to do this.”
“Then give him this number, and tell him he needs to make the deposit right now,” he read off a string of numbers to an account he had set up to receive Yeltsin’s money while they were talking.
Melvin relayed it to Yeltsin, who had his man store it in his cell. “Timing is essential to this operation, Yeltsin. I need you to make the money transfer now, please.”
It only took a few minutes to complete the transaction. While they were on the phone, Bender confirmed the deposit, and then immediately bounced it to another account. “We’re five million dollars richer,” he said to Melvin. “I need to get the ball rolling on this if my plan is going to work. I don’t have time to run it by you, so you’re going to have to trust me and give me your approval on faith.”
“You have it if you’re confident it’s in our best interest.” Melvin wanted to question him about it, but he couldn’t speak freely in front of Yeltsin.
“Of course I’m confident. I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few hours.” He put his cell back in his pocket and addressed Yeltsin. “We have received your deposit, and you’ll get your invitation when everyone else gets theirs. I believe this concludes our business for now. Please, let my daughter go.”
“If I do not get the invitation, you understand your whole family dies?” he sat Mel down on the floor between his legs, and held her shoulders to keep her from moving.
“We have an agreement, Mr. Yeltsin,” he answered impatiently. He had already wasted too much time, and he didn’t want to waste anymore exchanging threats. “According to my source, which is very reliable, the invitations will be distributed in a few days. You have my word that you will receive yours. Now, I need to get out of here, and back to taking care of business. So please, for the last time. Let my daughter go.”
Yeltsin released her, and she ran to him. Melvin scooped her up in his arms, and she hugged his neck tight. “I knew you would come,” she whispered in his ear.
She clung to him so tight, he could feel her tiny heart pounding in her chest. “My man has called an ambulance for the nanny, so I suggest you get out,” he said to Yeltsin, and then he turned and walked out the door with Melvina.
“You copy that, Valow?” he asked as he ran down the stairs.
“Yeah, man, it’s on the way. Meet you at the truck.”
Melvin rushed out the building, and then ran across the street to his truck. Yeltsin and his men didn’t exit behind him, so he figured they were parked in the rear.
Jamil was sitting in the backseat, and when Melvina saw him, she squealed in delight. “Uncle Jamil, you said my daddy would come if I really needed him,” she threw her arms around the big man’s neck and hugged him. “He saved me, just like you said he would,” she grinned.
“I told you, right?” he chuckled. “Sit down, so I can buckle you in.”
“Wait, daddy! I have to get my doll you bought me for Christmas,” she started trying to stop Jamil from buckling her in.
“Where is it?” Valow stuck his head in the passenger window, and startled her.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Valow. I’m your daddy’s friend. I’ll get your doll. Where is it?
“We don’t have time, Valow. I’ll buy her another,” Melvin got in behind the wheel.
“Where is it, baby?” Valow asked her again when her eyes got teary.
“She’s on the sofa. She’s wearing a blue jacket.”
“Valow, don’t!” Melvin protested when he started to run away from the truck.
“Be right back,” he shouted as he ran across the street to the building.
He had just disappeared inside when the ambulance pulled up, and stopped in front. A cruiser pulled up behind it, lights flashing. Melvin sat nervously watching as the medics got their equipment out the truck and rushed into the building. The cops in the cruiser followed them inside. Damn him, and the stupid doll, Melvin thought. “The cops are on their way up, Valow,” he reported. “Get the fuck outtá there!”
They absolutely could not afford the delay or the exposure at this juncture.
Valow grabbed the doll off the sofa, and then hurried back out the door. “I got it, and I’m on my way,” he replied.
He heard the cavalry coming up, and instead of going down the stairs, he took the stairs up a flight, and then turned around and pretended to be coming down from the floor above.
When the cops got to Lisa’s apartment, and saw her door standing open, they stopped the medics, and then got in front of them.
Valow descended the stairs casually like he belonged in the building. The cops took their guns out when they saw him. “What’s going on?” he asked in surprise, like nosy people do.
“Sir, we need you to leave the building, now!” the lead cop commanded.
Valow hurried down the stairs like he was frightened by their urgency, and continued out the building. He ran back to the truck and hopped in the front seat.
“What the fuck were you thinking pulling a stunt like that?” Melvin shouted.
“The doll needed rescuing, man,” he grinned naughtily. Ignoring Melvin’s bad tempered outburst, he turned in his seat, and handed Melvina her doll. “What’s her name?”
“Susie,” she smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Valow,” she hugged it to her chest, and then laid her head against Jamil’s arm.
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“Yeah, thank you, man,” Jamil growled.
Melvin glanced at her sad face in his rearview. Jamil had told him that she was lonely, and her eyes said it was true. She had hoped that he would love her, but he had treated her indifferently. What the fuck is the matter with you? He asked himself.
He turned in his seat and took a good look at her. She had sandy brown hair, and hazel eyes like his son, Kendall. He had been hoping that it was a mistake, and he wasn’t her father, but she looked so much like his son. He had to own it.
“Melvina,” he called her name, and she wiped her tears with her arms, and then looked up at him. “You’re safe, and I’m going to take care of you and Susie, okay?”
“Okay,” she smiled, and then laid her head back on Jamil.
He gave Melvin an appreciative smile, and then hugged her to him.
Chapter 11
I was swimming underwater as fast, and as silently as I could. The men shooting at us were staying hidden behind the thick wooden piles, so Blue couldn’t target them.
Under the cover of the gunfire noise, I managed to sneak up behind them without being noticed. I swam around behind one of the pillars, before I surfaced.
They were still exchanging shots with Choc, who had abandoned the dead body, and swam further out in the lake. I couldn’t see Rayce and Jamal, and I assumed they were sharing the oxygen tank underwater, because Jamal was a mighty big target.
Eventually, the gunfire would draw the cops, and we needed to be off the beach when they arrived. I figured Blue couldn’t see me or the Russians from his vantage point, just like I couldn’t see him, but we all knew he was up there. It was why the Russians were staying hid in the water.
Our earpieces were dead, so I had to worry about getting hit with friendly fire as much as I had to worry about the Russians. And I mentally kicked myself for failing to realize that was going to be a problem before I swam over here.
No more time to think about it. I had to take action. Being careful to stay hidden, I started removing my smock. It was loose fitting, and too easy to tangle a hand in to hold onto me. What the fuck, I thought, and took my bra off too hoping that being wet and slippery would give me a small advantage. I had a nice rack for a chick my size. If I was lucky, maybe my bare tits would be a distraction.
I reached down, and removed the Ka-bar sheathed at my ankle. Now, with the knife in hand, I sank back under the surface of the water, and stealthily swam up behind the first man. I plunged the knife into the back of his neck, and quickly snatched it out. The strong blade cut right through his cervical vertebrae, slicing his larynx and vocal cords. He didn’t, or rather, he couldn’t utter a word. Unfortunately, he splashed when he went belly up, and it made his friends aware of my presence. “BLUE, HELP, BLUE!” I yelled as they turned on me.
My cry for help, or my nakedness, distracted them and in that split second of hesitancy, I sprang into a backwards dive, kicking the gun out the hand of the man closest to me.
I had successfully made him lose his weapon, but it put me within his reach. He pulled me to him, and had me wrapped in a smothering bear hug, with my arms pinned to my sides, before I could do anything to defend against it.
Plastered to him, the knife in my hand became a useless appendage. He dipped underwater with me, and because fighting to free myself of his hold would have been a waste of energy and air, I relaxed and concentrated on holding onto the knife.
His eyes bore into mine gleaming with confidence that he could hold his breath longer than me. He was so sure that he was going to drown me effortlessly, that he loosened his grip so he could grope my ass. Confidence wins victory as often as over confidence causes defeat.
I opened my legs and wrapped them around his waist like I wanted to die fucking. It gave me the balance I needed to surprise the hell out of him by whipping my head forward and striking him in his nose.
Instantly, blood flowed from his nostrils in a ribboning stream, and the shock of pain caused him to relax his grip just enough for me to move my right hand. I shoved the knife into his side above his pelvis bone. It didn’t kill him, but it did force him to release me.
Desperately in need of air, I started to swim to the surface. I had barely taken a clean breath, when I felt his hand on my ankle pulling me back down. I didn’t resist the pull. I held the Ka-Bar in a two hand grip, and came down with it on top of his head, hammering the blade into his skull hard enough to puncture his brain. His hands dropped away from my ankle, and he started to sink, but my shoestring was caught in his watch band. It was like being fastened to an anchor. I started sinking deeper and deeper into the black water.
The knife was sticking out the top of his head like a joystick. I grabbed hold of it and tried to pull it free—learned real quick that I couldn’t. I reached down and tried pulling the shoestring free. I couldn’t get it untangled, and it was drawn so tight at my instep. I couldn’t get my shoe off either. Think, don’t panic, I warned myself. The knife was stuck in his head, but the blade wasn’t completely buried to the hilt. I took hold of the wrist that I was tethered to, and wrapped the string around the part of the blade that was still exposed and started sawing. It sliced through the string in one swipe, and set me free. The need to take a fresh breath of air was all I could think about. I started frantically swimming for the surface.
I didn’t know how deep he had pulled me under, but my chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. At Charter, I had learned some tricks to help me hold my breath longer, but this was not a training exercise. I wasn’t feeling the calm I had been taught to rely on. I was swimming fast for what seemed like a full minute, but I still couldn’t see the light of the surface. I started to wonder if I was swimming down instead of up, and I was about a second away from a full blown panic.
My arms and legs were suddenly too weak to propel me, and my lungs screamed, “BREATHE!” And I could not stop myself. I took a breath reflexively.
Water rushed into my nose and down my throat, burning like liquid fire. I coughed inadvertently, and took in more water. It hurt, and that added to my panic and disorientation. I was just about to acquiesce to death when I felt an agonizingly hard tug on my hair. Immediately, the lake spit me up into Blue’s arms. I was wide eyed, scared shitless, coughing and spitting up water.
Blue hoisted me up over his shoulder, and I threw up on his back. The rotor wash of the helicopter hovering overhead whipped my hair around in my face, and I couldn’t see or hear.
Blue secured me in one arm, and then he started swimming. Apparently, I had been swimming horizontally instead of vertically, and was a good distance away from where I started.
When we reached the pier, Blue pushed me up the ladder and onto the deck. Now that the noise of the helicopter was gone, I could hear sirens. “We didn’t have time to get you up in the copter, Severe. You’re going to have to ride with me.” Blue shoved my arms into his thick leather jacket as he spoke. The coat was heavy, but I welcomed the warmth it gave me. “Severe, the cops are coming, baby. We need to ride fast, so I want you to hang on tight. Can you do that?”
I spit up some more of Lake Michigan when I tried to answer him, so I just nodded yes. I was out of it, but I understood that we did not want Genesis connected to the deaths on the beach. With four team members out the country, we didn’t have the personnel to spare to a CPD investigation.
Blue pulled his tee shirt off over his head, and then he lifted me up, and placed me on the rear seat of the custom Harley Wide Glide. I rode a Ducati 1199 bike, so I felt at ease on back of the Harley.
Blue got on in front of me, and took off before he sat down. I wrapped my arms around his waist, and placed my feet on the pegs, as he flew off the pier, and hit the beach kicking up sand.
Blue gunned the big bike, and it leaped over rocks and sped down a path near the retainer wall. We bounced down a flight of stone steps and drove through a more populated area of the beach to get back on the road.
I was feeling exhausted and
safe, so I snuggled up close to him, laid my face against his back, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 12
Melvina was asleep, and the men rode in silence, each in his own thoughts.
Melvin thought about the enormity of the contract he was undertaking. Genesis was a new security agency, so he considered himself fortunate to have the very best on his payroll, and the necessary resources to fulfill any regular contract, but this job was not normal. It was a monster that was continuously growing limbs.
They had already encountered so many unexpected obstacles that even with the brains, brawn, and firepower he had backing him, he feared the outcome was not going to be favorable.
Still he was pressed to go forward because if by some miracle they managed to succeed, the money Genesis would earn would be obscene. The money wasn’t his sole reason for accepting the job. Like Blue had said, the card was a time bomb which they had inadvertently helped to fuse, by putting it back into play. It was a mistake that needed to be fixed, and they needed to fix it.
With four of Genesis’ heavy hitters out of the country, the manpower was spread thin, making Janie’s betrayal a more pressing problem. He was being forced to deal with it when he should have been concentrating solely on the job.
Melvina was another unexpected problem. He knew that he was blameless, but he still felt somehow responsible for the kid’s miserable existence. He had to talk to Sam and get her settled before he could do anything else.
Melvin pulled his truck up to the gatehouse at his parent’s home. The guard recognized him immediately, but he didn’t open the gate until he had verified the people in the car with him were invited guest.
After the truck was inspected, he continued up the drive to the house. Sam’s car was parked in front, and he pulled the truck to a stop behind it.
“Jamil, I need you to wait here with Melvina while I talk to my family.”
“I know it ain’t my business, but what you plan to do about Mel after the danger has passed? Send her back to Janie, and then just go back to your sweet life like she don’t exist?”