No One to Trust (Hidden Identity Book #1): A Novel

by Eason, Lynette

  And then they were gone.

  David turned to stare at the empty room. Empty except for the dead body on the floor. And the row of snakes in their aquariums lining the far wall. All of the bullets had missed the glass cages.

  “Clear in here, what about there?” Chase asked. He moved toward the black door and on the count of a silent three, pulled it open.

  Together, they rounded the doorjamb. And found stairs that led down. Chase hit the light and went first while David watched behind. Within seconds Chase was back up. “No one’s down there, but this guy is one sick dude.”

  “What is it?”

  “Snakes. Lots and lots of slimy creatures.”

  David grimaced. “Yeah, they’re his pets.”

  “Nasty.”

  They shut the door and scanned the office once again. “My gut is shouting at me,” David said. “Stand ready.”

  “There’s no one here.”

  David looked around the room. “He was warned we were coming.”

  “Definitely,” Chase said. “Our shooter was waiting for us to come through the door. He didn’t come running when the shots went off outside the office. We’ve got the guards but no family. Guards who were watching the stairwell. His wife, daughter, servants aren’t here. No one’s here. And yet, someone went to the trouble of getting Summer and bringing her up here. So I’ll admit that’s a good indication that he’s still here.”

  Adrenaline surged. “He may have been warned, but it wasn’t soon enough. He didn’t have enough time to do anything, but—”

  “—hide,” Chase finished for him.

  “He’s definitely still here.” David turned in a full circle.

  “I’m pretty sure I said that first. But where?”

  “I don’t know. Here. The shooter was here. What was he guarding?” David nodded. “He’s here. Somewhere close.” David looked at the black door behind Raimondi’s desk. “Okay, he wouldn’t be down there, not with his family.”

  Chase shook his head.

  Papa Bear reported in. “All still clear out here. Little Lou got down the elevator with Doc. Ron’s helping them sneak out of the building, then he’ll be back if they don’t run into any trouble.”

  “Thought he was entertaining the gas guys,” David said.

  “Police made ’em leave when they couldn’t find any gas issues.”

  “Right. Keep me updated.”

  “Will do.”

  David looked back at Chase. “Raimondi’s got to have some sort of emergency plan,” David said. “A place he could go if he felt threatened or … whatever.” He nodded and looked around with new eyes. “It’d be just like him.”

  “Where?”

  David did another three-sixty. “I don’t know. We’re on the twenty-sixth floor.” He studied the desk. Looked at the floor. “Tap the floor, the walls. Move the furniture.”

  Papa Bear reported in. “All still clear.”

  Adam was in the back of David’s mind. Near the window, he looked out and down. “Put us back online, Blue. I need eyes.” David jiggled the mouse on Raimondi’s desk. The monitor flashed blank for a few seconds then six black-and-white pictures popped up. All pictures from different cameras.

  The front door of the building, the street view with law enforcement pulling up, the elevators. He clicked and he gaped at the next screen that showed up. Georgina sat on a bed with her hands clasped in her lap. Her mother sat next to her, looking older and more frail since the last time he’d seen her.

  Chase said, “I think I have something.”

  “What?” His mind still on the images on the screen, he barely registered Chase’s comment.

  “Scrapes on the floor. Slight and not really noticeable if I wasn’t looking for something.”

  David waved him over. “Look at this.”

  Chase joined him and leaned over to examine the monitor. “Whoa.” He backed up and tripped over one of Raimondi’s smaller aquariums. It tilted, tipped, and crashed to its side.

  Footsteps.

  David stood and pointed his weapon at the door.

  Summer, followed by Papa Bear, stopped in the doorway. David lowered his weapon.

  “What’s going on?” Summer asked. “What happened?”

  David glared at Papa Bear, who shrugged. “She bolted.”

  She held her weapon at her side.

  “Chase tripped,” David said. “Where’s the guy who snatched Summer?”

  “I knocked him out,” Papa Bear grunted. He rubbed his knuckles against his lips and blew on them. “Got tired of his trashy mouth.”

  David said, “We’ve got to move faster.” Into his mic, he said, “Stall the cops. I don’t want them up here yet.” Raimondi was his to deal with. “Did Ron go with Doc and Little Lou?”

  “Copy that,” Blue said. “And no. Ron’s down here stalling. He’s singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and acting crazy. Cops have to deal with him before they can come your way. And when they do, they’ll be taking the stairs, it seems like the elevators aren’t working for some reason.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t let them hurt Ron, please.”

  “I’ll intervene if it comes to that. Looks like Ron’s pretty capable of taking care of himself.”

  “He is.” David went to the bookcase and asked Chase, “Where are those scratches?”

  “There. Where you’re standing.”

  David examined the floor, then the bookcase, running his fingers over the shelves, the books, the sides.

  46

  Laura Todd shook against her mother and eyed Raimondi with a stare full of hate. The little one had tuned out and shut her eyes. At least they were quiet kids.

  It was Marlee who had nearly sent his nerves over the edge. He ground his molars together and raged at his stupidity. He should have left the mother and daughters alone, but he’d given in to his desire to hit Summer and David hard. He should have just had them killed. The husband would have been the perfect patsy.

  Now he was trapped.

  If he had been smart, he would have built a secret passage out of the hallway. But he’d deliberately closed this part of his home off. So that if one of his prisoners escaped one of the four rooms lining the hall, he or she would have nowhere to escape to.

  And now the time had come for Raimondi to use his secret as a hiding place. For him and his family. He’d tucked Rosalinda and Georgina away in the farthest room on the left. They’d been shocked to see his secret area but had followed him at his urging when he’d explained they were being attacked by a competing organized crime family.

  Agostino hadn’t had time to get rid of Marlee, and the woman had screamed at Raimondi as soon as he’d entered the room. A punch to her face shut her up, and he wondered why he hadn’t just shot her with the gun he now clutched in his right hand. He wrapped his fingers in her hair and yanked. She screamed and he pulled her to the next room and shoved her toward a chair. With one last yell that was a cross between a screech and an angry roar, she sank into it, burying her face in her hands. Raimondi grabbed her by the back of the neck and placed the gun against her temple. “Shut. Up.”

  Her lips clamped together and she kept her eyes squeezed tight. She shook so hard, he vaguely wondered if she’d be able to stay in the chair. Waving the gun at the kids’ mother, he said, “Any of you makes another sound, and you’re all dead.”

  She simply pulled them closer to her and turned away from him.

  Agostino had soundproofed everything back here. Raimondi wasn’t worried about anyone hearing anything past the bookcase in his office, but he didn’t want to be annoyed by their cries. He had some thinking to do. He left them and shut the door, clicking the dead bolt behind him.

  Agostino stood in the middle of the hallway and Raimondi clutched his chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack? I thought you were watching Georgina and your aunt?”

  “What’s going on, Uncle? You may fool Auntie and Georgie, but I know there’s no attack.
Why do you need them out of the way?”

  “Well, it’s an attack all right, but by David Hackett, not another family.”

  His brow shot up. “Hackett’s here?”

  “Indeed.”

  “He bring the cops with him?”

  “If not, they’ll be here soon enough, but they can search all they want, they’ll never find us.”

  Agostino looked a little doubtful but Raimondi didn’t care. He’d see soon enough. They just had to wait them out. David and his little band of wannabe heroes would search and find nothing and be gone.

  And Raimondi would move his family out to his estate and put this place on the market.

  Either that or he’d just burn the building down.

  That thought made him smile for the first time that day.

  David motioned Summer back and down. She dropped behind the desk, confused, but knowing this was not the time to ask questions. She still shook from her encounter with the man on the street and worry for Adam pierced her.

  David looked at Papa Bear. “You got her?”

  “We’re good.” He leveled his weapon at the bookcase. “Can watch your back too.”

  David nodded to Chase and sent him a grim smile. “You ready?”

  Chase nodded.

  When the bookcase began to move, Summer sucked in a deep breath. From her position behind the desk, she peeked around the corner and could see a door revealed by the moving bookcase.

  David reached out and twisted the knob. It opened inward and now Summer could see down a long hallway.

  “Alessandro! I know you’re back there! Show yourself!” David pointed his weapon down the hall.

  Silence echoed.

  A cry sounded and Summer tensed. That was the cry of a child. She saw David and Chase exchange a concerned look. “Raimondi!”

  Chase shook his head. “We’re sitting ducks if we walk down that hall. All he has to do is pop out of one of those rooms and we’re done.”

  “Be careful. Hold your fire. If he pops out, he’ll have a hostage in front of him.”

  Chase nodded. “I’ve done this a few times.”

  “Alessandro! You’re not getting out of this one. Come on out.”

  47

  Raimondi knew they’d found his hiding place.

  Hackett.

  He’d learned too much about Raimondi during his short time as a part of the family. Because anyone who dated Georgina was immediately welcomed—that is, put under a microscope.

  Of course Raimondi had done a full background check and David’s past had panned out. Gambled a little too much, but his finances said he had self-control. And he was Sam’s friend and co-owner.

  Sam had been a loyal partner too. His enthusiasm and his love of money had made him an easy man to manipulate into doing whatever Raimondi wanted.

  David had killed that profitable business too.

  But before all that, Georgina had been crazy about him.

  So Raimondi welcomed him. At some point he even figured he might be his future son-in-law.

  And David hadn’t been put off by the organized crime ties. He’d seemed to relish it. Only Raimondi had soon learned David had been playing a role. “The man should have been nominated for an Oscar.”

  “What?” Agostino looked at him. Looked at Marlee. Gazed at the mother and her two girls.

  “David. I believed him just like Georgina did.”

  “Focus, Uncle. How are we going to get out of this?”

  Raimondi heard David yelling at him. The oldest girl, Laura, had let out a holler that left no doubt that someone was back here. He considered shooting her, but that would lead them to the exact room where his hostages were, where Raimondi and Agostino were, and he wasn’t ready for that yet.

  Think. Think.

  A plan formed and he turned to Agostino. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

  David waited and got no response. He said, “We’re going to have to go after him. He could sit back there forever.”

  “You need us in there?” Ron asked.

  “No. Not yet.”

  Blue’s voice. “Cops are here. Staking out the building. Snipers are on the roof across the street. Stay away from the windows, they don’t know where you are.”

  Indecision warred within him. Summer was up here. If shooting started …

  “Even with vests,” Chase reminded him, “he starts shooting and we’re toast.”

  David pursed his lips and considered their options. And what he’d do in Raimondi’s shoes.

  “He’s got hostages. He’ll use them to his advantage. If he shoots us, there’s more where we came from. Right now, he probably just wants out. He wants to bargain.”

  “You willing to bet your life on that?”

  David winced at Chase’s choice of words. Bet. Another gamble. He glanced back at Summer. Then back down the hall. “Yeah.”

  “Okay, let me put it this way. Are you willing to bet my life on it? Because I’m not so sure I am.”

  David considered everything he knew about Raimondi. “Stay behind me.”

  Chase stared. “Back to back. You take care of what comes from the front and I’ll cover anything that comes from the rear.”

  “And I’ve got a good line of sight where I’m positioned,” Papa Bear answered.

  “Little Lou, you back on the bedroom balcony?”

  “Yep. Delivered Doc to the paramedics and managed to sneak back up here. Ron’s still doing what he can to delay the cops from getting up here, but they’re not going to let him get away with his stunts for much longer. They’ll probably tase him.” A slight pause. “Next time the bad guy better live on the first floor.”

  “Keep us informed with what’s happening on the street.”

  “Cops are on the ground, casing the place and forming a plan before they move right now. But it won’t be long before they’ll be in the building.”

  David raised his voice as Chase positioned himself at his back. “Raimondi, I’m coming to get Marlee. You shoot me and there’s a whole police department who’ll be coming up here.”

  A door opened and Marlee stepped out. David winced. She’d been beaten and looked like she might fall over at any moment. Raimondi followed close behind her, using her as a shield.

  Raimondi stopped and stared.

  “Let her go,” David said.

  “Not a chance. Now back up.”

  “I’m not letting you out of here, you should know that.”

  “You’ll let me out if you don’t want to be responsible for four people’s deaths.”

  Four? David raised a brow in silent question.

  Raimondi nodded to someone still in the room.

  David’s heart hit the floor when Laura Todd stepped into the hall, her face white and pinched. Sandy followed, clutching her big sister’s hand. Their mother brought up the rear. She held Sandy’s other hand and Agostino pressed a gun to the woman’s head.

  So, two captors and four hostages.

  Not good. “So what do we do now, Raimondi?”

  “You back up into my office.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “I start shooting until you do. I can spare three hostages, I really only need one.”

  True enough. “But I’ll take you out after you kill the first one.”

  “And Agostino will kill another. One of the children. Now are we finished arguing about who is going to kill whom? Back. Up.”

  David nudged Chase and obeyed, knowing his team was listening, planning on how to help. He hoped they planned fast.

  “Take out your earpiece. You too.” He nodded at Chase. “Throw them on the floor and step on them.”

  David hesitated. Raimondi dug his gun harder into Marlee’s ear and she cried out. A tear slipped down Sandy’s cheek, but she never took her eyes off of him, the trust and pleading there, making him swallow hard.

  Lord, please …

  The knowledge that Sandy was counting on him to get her away from another evil
man nearly strangled him. But he kept his cool and made sure his face showed nothing of his emotions. He pulled the earpiece from his ear and tossed it to the hardwood floor. Then settled his boot heel over it and stepped down.

  Chase did the same. Raimondi smiled and motioned for them to keep moving.

  David could only pray that Papa Bear had hidden Summer.

  48

  Hidden behind the desk, Summer peered around the edge to watch Chase walk down the hall toward her. David faced the opposite direction. Raimondi held Marlee at gunpoint and another man brought up the rear, with Olivia and her children. Summer’s heart shuddered within her.

  A tug on her arm brought her head around. Papa Bear placed a finger against his lips and motioned her toward the door. She nodded and slipped from behind the desk. They were heading back this way, and Papa Bear needed to get her out of the room so he could help David and the others. She understood that. They moved toward the door, Papa Bear motioning Summer to stay behind him. He stopped at the edge of the door and peered around it. Then snapped his head back inside.

  “What is it?” she whispered.

  “The man who attacked you and shot Adam is loose.”

  “Loose?” Summer swallowed hard. “So what does that mean?”

  He shut the door and locked it. “It means we’re trapped and we’re going to have to fight it out.”

  And David was backing through the door that had been hidden by the bookcase. Chase saw them and his eyes widened.

  Papa Bear pulled Summer to the edge of the door and raised his weapon.

  David said, “All right, we’re in your office. Now what?”

  “Move back against the far wall. Stay where I can see you.” He paused. “Is anyone else in the room?”

  David snorted. “Of course not.”

  “Because if there is, somebody’s going to die.”

  Summer felt her stomach rumble, the nagging queasiness she’d felt all day making her want to gag. She hated being afraid. Hated what it did to her.

  Raimondi said, “I’m coming out. If there’s anyone else in the room, he’d better show himself now. Otherwise Agostino will kill the woman, do you understand?”