Best Laid Plans

by Allison Brennan

  Lucy was surprised as well. Such a deduction showed not only intelligence, but keen psychological interpretation. Far beyond a normal sixteen-year-old.

  But nothing about Elise Hansen was normal.

  “She didn’t know about him, however,” Peter said, glaring at Brad.

  “What I meant to say is, as soon as Elise gets what she wants, she’s going to disappear and you’ll be left here with five hostages.”

  “You know shit.” He glanced at the clock.

  He was definitely waiting for something. Probably for Elise to call. Then he would either kill them all and disappear, or tie them up and disappear.

  Except Elise wasn’t going to call. Elise was using Peter Rabb just like she’d used Robert Garza and James Everett and even Mona Hill. Lucy understood her much better now—and her growing knowledge terrified her.

  “Peter,” Lucy said, “let the boy go.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  Lucy almost breathed easier.

  Then Peter burst out in laughter. “When pigs fly.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Elise Hansen sat in the chair and played with the knife. She was ambidextrous, which helped, but she preferred her right hand. But it would be a while before she’d be able to use her arm, and she didn’t even have mobility with the broken wrist.

  It sucked.

  But if she wanted, she could still throw the knife at the fat sniveling perverted asswipe and pierce his heart.

  When he was done transferring the money.

  She yawned. “It’s been forty minutes, dumbass. Are you fucking with us? Because if you are, I’ll call Pete and he’ll kill your boy.”

  “Don’t. Please. I’m doing everything you want.”

  The turd was sweating. Seeing him sweat and squirm and beg had been fun at the beginning, but now she just wanted to be done with him.

  She looked over her shoulder. “Jay? How much do we have?”

  “Three point one million.”

  She sighed and leaned forward. Her body was sore from when the fed had knocked her down, “saving” her life. And Toby was mad that Elise hadn’t known she was wearing a vest! How was she supposed to know? Was she supposed to feel her up? Right. And even if she had known, how was she supposed to get that tidbit of information to the idiots Toby had hired to kill the bitch? Why didn’t they shoot her in the head? She didn’t have a bulletproof skull.

  “Jimmy,” she said. “You’re being slow. Which makes me think you’re fucking with me.”

  “I’m not! I swear. Come see. The network is slow. I don’t know why, it’s just taking a long time for every command. I don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried everything.”

  “Maybe if Pete fucks your wife? I can have him FaceTime you while he tears her up. That would be fun. Maybe that would motivate you. Naw, it would probably just turn you on. Especially if I have Pete spank her.”

  “Please don’t hurt my family.”

  “Oh, no, Daddy, I wouldn’t think of it. Spank me, Daddy. Harder.” She laughed. Oh, damn, she was having fun. “Jay, make sure Daddy isn’t lying to us.”

  She watched as Toby’s right-hand goon walked behind the desk. He pressed the gun to Everett’s temple and looked at the screen. “It’s going, Elise. Forty-seven percent.”

  “This is the fourth account! Don’t you guys have broadband or a T3 connection or something? Are you in the fucking stone age of the Internet?”

  Everett was shaking. “They could be updating the system. Or doing maintenance or … I don’t know, I don’t know!” he sobbed.

  Her phone vibrated and she saw that she had a text from Pete. Shit, that guy was needy. She’d told him to do one thing and this was the third time he’d texted her. But she looked, because she wasn’t stupid. If there was a problem, she needed to know about it.

  She pulled her phone from her pocket and read the message. “Oh, shit! I don’t fucking believe it. Toby is going to be thrilled.”

  Jay gave her an odd look. She rolled her eyes. She didn’t care what the goon thought. She called Toby.

  “Hey, big brother, I have some in-ter-est-ing news.”

  “Everett is dead and we have my money.”

  “Our money,” she corrected. “Almost as good. Your two favorite federal agents showed up at Everett’s place. They’re disarmed and tied up, waiting for us.”

  “Kincaid and Crawford?”

  “Kincaid and Donnelly.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pete just texted me.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “He’s harmless.”

  “He’s an idiot.”

  “True. So? Can he shoot them? Gut them? Maim them? Rape them? Cut their fingers off? Hey, I can get Donnelly’s dick for you. Box it up with a pretty bow.”

  “Shut up.”

  She laughed.

  “Something’s wrong.”

  She stopped laughing. She liked playing games, but Toby had the best instincts of anyone she knew, even herself. And she was pretty damn magnificent.

  “Get out.”

  “What?”

  “It shouldn’t be taking this long. He’s stalling, or the feds are already there. How much do we have?”

  She looked over at Jay. “Toby wants to know how much we have.”

  Jay looked at his tablet. “Three point three.”

  She repeated the number. Toby swore a blue streak, and she held the phone away from her ear.

  “Elise, dammit! Are you there?”

  “Sorry. Dropped the phone.” She winked at Jay. “You were saying?”

  “Do exactly what I say,” Toby said in a low voice. “Tell Jay to stay until we reach ten mill, then kill Everett and disappear. But you need to leave now.”

  “What about the agents? I don’t like Kincaid. She looked at me funny. I think she’s psychic or something.”

  “There’s no such thing as psychics.”

  “Yeah, well, she was suspicious.”

  “Tell Pete to kill them all.”

  “Are you sure?

  “Do what I say or I will kill you, Elise. You’ve been pushing me this week.”

  “I’ll kill you first,” she said in a singsong voice. “Stop, Toby. You know I love you more than anyone in the whole wide world.” She winked at Jay. “You’re my big brother.”

  “Then start listening to me, little girl!”

  “Hey, I’m moving. You don’t have to be such a bully.” She kissed the phone and hung up.

  “Jay, come here.”

  The big lug lumbered over. She stood on her tippy toes and whispered, “The boss says when we get to ten mill, you know what to do.”

  Jay nodded.

  She loved stupid hunks.

  She kissed him, because she knew he hated it when she did that, then she turned to Everett. “Good-bye, Jimmy.”

  “Please. My family. Don’t hurt them.”

  “They’re better off without you.” She didn’t say that they, too, were going to be dead, because then he might not finish giving her brother back his money.

  Well, their money, because they were family.

  * * *

  Sean heard every word Elise said.

  He and Kane were in the office adjoining Everett’s. Sean had hooked up his own computer to the network and was slowing everything down, while simultaneously transferring the money to a different account than what was being shown to Everett and the goon watching him. He estimated that Everett had transferred just over two million dollars to Tobias before Sean set up the account to siphon off the funds. Now every transaction went directly to an FBI-controlled account. He kept the transfer moving slowly because there was no doubt in his mind that Elise would kill Everett as soon as he was finished.

  Kane had drilled a small hole in the wall and inserted a camera so they had eyes in the room. They also had ears because Sean had a microphone attached to that camera.

  He whispered, “They have Lucy. I have to go.”

  “N
o,” Kane said. “Do your job.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Kane glared at him. “SWAT ETA is less than five minutes. I can’t do what you do.”

  “I don’t care about the money.”

  “You stay here. I’ll go.”

  Lucy was the love of his life; if anything happened to her he would never forgive himself. Or Kane.

  “I’m trained for this,” Sean said.

  “I trained you,” Kane said. “We can both save Lucy, but only you can do this.” He waved his hand at the computer. “Now do it.”

  He left before Sean could argue with him anymore.

  Sean could barely focus. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, then stared at the computer, the numbers rapidly scrolling in front of him. Tobias’s people thought they’d only received three point three million, but nearly eight million had gone through, out of nineteen different accounts. Sean had diverted the difference into the escrow he’d set up, but he didn’t like Tobias and his people having any money. They could do a lot of damage.

  It was just Sean on-site until the FBI SWAT team arrived. He sent Leo Proctor, the FBI SWAT team leader, another message, updating him on the status of Everett and the money transfer, plus the fact that Elise was getting ready to bolt.

  But he couldn’t just let that little bitch go.

  He launched an app he’d written and accessed all phones within range. He had to turn on her GPS before she left the building. He found Elise’s phone on the network through the wireless function, then mirrored her chip on his phone.

  Everett changed escrow accounts. Sean hesitated.

  “See? It’s going faster now,” Everett said next door.

  “Good,” Elise said. “Toodles!”

  He heard the door in Everett’s office open. He manually typed in computer code that would turn on her GPS. Even if she’d disabled it, there was a factory setting that allowed the company to blind track their customers. Sean hacked into it and programmed his phone to track Elise.

  Then she was gone, and the twentieth escrow account was already drained. Shit! Everett switched to another account, and Sean siphoned off more of the funds than previously, but sent false data to Everett’s system so he’d think he had more money.

  Sean had to stay on top of the computer transactions. As soon as Everett changed escrow accounts, Sean had to piggyback on the new transaction or lose it.

  It had been next to impossible for Sean to let Elise walk out of the building. But Kane was right—the more money Tobias had, the more damage he could do.

  That woman was a psycho.

  Every passing minute felt like an hour. Proctor finally sent him a message that they had arrived.

  Sean informed him of the change, that Elise had left but Jay was holding a gun on Everett, and Lucy and Brad were being held hostage at Everett’s house, along with the Everett family.

  Kane is on his way—if he’s not already there. Give your people a heads up.

  He heard nothing from Proctor for a minute. Everett switched accounts and started blubbering next door.

  “This is the last one,” Everett said. “There were twenty-four, I swear.”

  “There’s supposed to be twenty million. Where’s the rest?” Jay said.

  “I don’t know! The computer says you should have all the money.”

  “My bank says I don’t.”

  Jay. He was Mona Hill’s contact. The one to whom she’d sent the ten-second video of Lucy chained up and about to be raped.

  Sean wanted to beat the bastard senseless.

  He had to control the rage. He wasn’t an angry person. He’d always been fun loving. Carefree.

  Not always. He’d been extremely angry when his parents had died.

  And then when he’d been expelled from Stanford because he’d hacked into the computer network and exposed one of the professors as a pedophile.

  And then when he’d been at MIT and learned someone was stealing the pensions from retirees.

  And when he found the foster kids locked up, malnourished, beaten—and some of them dead—in an old Mexican prison.

  Yes, he had rage because he hated bullies. He hated people who preyed on the weak and innocent. Who stole money from old people and abused children. But he didn’t just have angry feelings about these bullies, he acted. Because if he didn’t, who would? The FBI couldn’t stop these people, not all of them. The FBI had known about Lucy’s rapist after the bastard raped and killed one of their own agents, but couldn’t find him for five years. Had they done their job right the first time, Lucy would never have been kidnapped and raped.

  And that bastard Jay would never have seen her suffer. Even a ten-second clip was ten seconds too many.

  Jay was talking too low for Sean to hear. Sean shut down the network completely to buy more time.

  He sent Proctor a message.

  Now or never—I shut down the network to stall, but Jay just realized that they’re missing seventeen mill.

  Sean closed down his laptop and stuffed it in his bag. He walked over to the peephole and saw Everett frantically typing on his computer.

  “I’ll shut down, then bring everything back up.”

  Jay grabbed Everett by the collar and hauled him out of the seat. “Who did you tell? Did you call the police?”

  “No! No, I swear, don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt my family.”

  “Too late for that.”

  Jay pressed a button on his phone. A text message? A sign to Elise? Or Tobias?

  “We’re going,” Jay said.

  “Just don’t hurt my—”

  Jay hit him on the head.

  “Shut. Up.”

  Sean sent Proctor a message saying that Jay was on the move with Everett.

  He’s holding a .45 and has another weapon under his jacket.

  Almost immediately, Proctor responded:

  We’re in place. Stay where you are.

  Sean complied because there was no way he wanted to get killed today.

  Jay left the office and then there was silence. For a long, long minute, total silence.

  Suddenly, bright lights flooded the building from outside. A bullhorn bellowed, “FBI! Freeze! Drop the weapon or we will shoot.”

  There was movement outside, but Sean couldn’t see anything through the closed blinds.

  A single rifle shot echoed, then there was commotion.

  But it was only the one shot. They’d taken out Jay, who was their only link to Tobias.

  Sean looked at his phone and saw that Elise was in a vehicle, her signal moving too fast to be on foot.

  Jay wasn’t their only link.

  “Rogan!” a voice called out.

  Sean opened the door to the office where he was hiding. Leo Proctor, in full SWAT gear, came down the wide office corridor, flanked by a team of six. He told the men to fan out and search the building.

  “He’s dead. He refused to comply, and we couldn’t let him leave with the hostage.”

  “You get no complaints from me.”

  “Casilla wants a full report.”

  “He’s going to have to wait. This isn’t over. They have Lucy.”

  “Casilla knows that Lucy and Donnelly are hostages. We have a team there. Our top hostage negotiator is already on scene.”

  “I’m not going to the house,” Sean said, though that’s exactly what he wanted to do. “Elise Hansen is on the move. I’m tracking her.”

  “Shit, Rogan, you can’t—”

  “And how long until you get someone in place to track her?”

  Proctor spoke into his mic. “Dunning, Quiroz, meet me at base stat.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. You’re going to turn everything over to Quiroz. It’s up to him if you get a ride-a-long.”

  Two minutes later, Sean was showing Ryan and Nate how the GPS tracker worked, and where Elise was. He made up a bunch of technical jargon to make it sound far more complicated than it actually was. Ryan said, “Just come wit
h us, but don’t do anything stupid.”

  “No, sir,” Sean said with a straight face.

  Nate sighed, but only Sean heard him. He caught Nate’s eye and stared. Nate understood. He didn’t say a word.

  Ryan grabbed one of the FBI SUVs and Sean navigated from the passenger seat.

  Elise was only a few miles away, but she was going in a familiar direction.

  “I know where she’s going,” Sean said. “She’s going to Mona Hill’s place.”

  “Who’s Mona Hill?” Nate asked.

  “She runs a prostitution ring, but she’s also one of the people Elise hooked up with when she arrived in San Antonio. She doesn’t know the area well, so it stands to reason she’ll go to the one place where she’s comfortable.”

  “You’d think she’d be running,” Ryan said.

  “Maybe she’s picking up something. Like money.” Or killing Mona Hill, another loose end.

  “How certain are you?” Nate asked.

  “Ninety percent.”

  “I know a faster way. I think we can beat her there,” Nate said.

  “Give it to me,” Ryan said.

  Nate navigated and Sean considered what he was going to do if Mona Hill ratted him out.

  He would have to cross that bridge if and when he came to it. He still had the trump card about her sister, and he would use it.

  “Kane learned that Mona Hill has a connection to Tobias,” Sean added. “A connection that isn’t solely through Elise. I just want you both to be prepared.”

  “Your brother has been around a lot lately,” Ryan said.

  “Your point?”

  “What’s really going on?”

  “You know as much as I do,” Sean said. Almost.

  “Somehow I doubt that.”

  “Kane doesn’t tell me everything.” Which was true.

  “Turn left, then a quick right into the alley,” Nate said from the back. “This brings us right across from her property.”