Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Honeybun

by Red Rose Publishing

  “Are you guys almost here?”

  “Two minutes away.”

  “Wilkie’s been found.”

  Alfric glanced at Pleasance. “Alive?”

  “Not so much,” Brita responded. “Shot twice, execution style, in his apartment.”

  He frowned, sighing, “I wish I could say I was surprised. Thanks, Brita.”

  “There’s more. His only living relative is a younger sister. I tried to contact her to inform her of his death. Alf, she’s missing.”

  “Missing? What does that mean?”

  “Missing, as in, she disappeared one day and no one’s seen her since. She’s been gone about two weeks.”

  Alfric sighed. “One of Raia’s kidnapped ladies, I’d bet. It looks like Wilkie might have been forced into working with Raia.”

  “That would be my guess, yes.”

  He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. At least his friend hadn’t betrayed him willingly. That was something. “Okay, thanks.” He disconnected.

  Pleasance touched his arm. “What is it?”

  “Wilkie’s been found dead in his apartment. Executed.”

  Pleasance bit her lower lip. “Damn.”

  Alfric nodded, pulling into the hospital parking lot. He parked on the visitor side and they climbed out, heading toward the main doors.

  “Are Brita and Percy meeting us here?”

  Alfric nodded. “I think they’re here already.”

  Ten minutes later, they entered a room on the third floor and found Brita staring down at a dark complexioned man who was lying on his stomach on a hospital bed. The sheet covering the prostrate man was mounded up around the posterior region.

  Alfric grinned. Butt shot. How humiliating.

  Brita’s dark, gold gaze lifted toward them as they came into the room and she gave them a little nod. She was quietly questioning the injured man in the hospital bed but she didn’t seem to be getting much of a response from him.

  Percy stood up from the chair he occupied on the opposite side of the bed, where he’d been keeping an eagle eye on the dark eyed man with too many holes in his nether regions.

  Obviously protecting his woman. Even if she didn’t want or need to be protected.

  The two Honeybuns shook hands. Percy smiled at Pleasance. “Are we on for the tailor shop ‘tomollow’?”

  Alfric chuckled, shaking his head. “We are. Unfortunately, I have a fitting scheduled for ten o’clock.”

  Pleasance giggled.

  “A fitting?”

  “Don’t ask.” He jerked his head toward the guy on the bed. “Any luck yet?”

  Percy shook his head. “Brita’s been going strictly by the book. I hate that damn book.”

  Alfric nodded. “Shall we do a book burning then?”

  Percy grinned. “I’m in.”

  Brita walked over to the door and said something to the two cops she had stationed there. Then she walked back to them. Alfric was surprised to see the cops in the hallway leave.

  Brita smiled at Pleasance. “I’m dying for something cold to drink. Would you like to join me?”

  Percy’s eyebrows lifted in shock.

  Pleasance glanced at Alfric and then nodded. “Sure. You guys want anything?”

  Alfric shook his head, fixing Brita with a speculative look. “I’m good, thanks.”

  Brita returned his gaze without expression. “You’ll keep an eye on the prisoner for me while I’m gone?”

  “Absolutely. He’s in good hands.”

  Brita lifted one light brown eyebrow. “Uh huh.” Turning to Pleasance she said, “Shall we go?”

  The Honeybun brothers watched them go and then turned to each other with shocked faces. “I’ll be damned.”

  Alfric nodded. “Let’s not waste time being flabbergasted. We have work to do here.” He walked over to the bed where the dark eyed prisoner lay on his belly, handcuffed to the bed. Alfric lifted the man’s records off the hook at the end of the bed and walked around until he could see his face.

  Percy quietly closed the door and then joined him beside the bed.

  Flipping the pages of the record, Alfric told the man, “I’m Doctor Honeybun. I’ll be giving you your rectal exam this afternoon.”

  The man’s shaggy eyebrows lifted upward like a matching pair of caterpillars and he made a strangled sound.

  Alfric looked at Percy. “Did you bring the gloves?”

  Percy shrugged. “We’re all out. You’ll have to go in naked.”

  Alfric frowned. “I forgot to wash my hands after the last one…but…” he shrugged eloquently, “no matter. I don’t think that last guy had AIDS or anything.”

  Percy nodded.

  A dark, frantic gaze bounced back and forth between them, growing wider and more alarmed by the moment.

  Alfric threw the clipboard with the terrorist’s medical records on it in Percy’s direction. “Here, hold this while I jam my fingers up this guy’s ass.”

  The clipboard flipped through the air and glanced off Percy’s outstretched fingers, landing with a thud on the man’s bandaged behind. Alfric shoved the pillow into the man’s face to muffle the scream of pain as it landed. “Damn it, Percy, that’s why you lost your spot at second base.”

  Percy shrugged. “I tried to catch it. You didn’t warn me it was coming.”

  Alfric grinned at the man, picking up the clipboard. “Sorry about that, man. Soccer was really his game. He’s much better with his feet.”

  Percy nodded.

  Alfric retrieved the clipboard and began a rhythmic patting on the patient’s butt with it, shoving the pillow in his mouth every time he cried out in pain. “So…how’s things?”

  The man’s dark skin had turned nearly white and he’d begun to babble. Alfric leaned closer. “What was that? Did you say something important?”

  The man finally cried out, “What the hell do you want?”

  Percy leaned over the bed, causing the terrorist to scream into the pillow Alfric shoved into his face. He looked at the elbow he had inadvertently placed on the man’s backside as he leaned forward. “Oops, sorry, man. My bad. Now here’s what we need from you.”

  Fifteen minutes later, when Brita returned, Percy was back in the chair by the bed and Alfric stood looking out of the window. He turned as Brita opened the door. “The view from this window sucks, Brita.”

  Brita glanced at Percy, who smiled at her over a woman’s fashion magazine. “He’s not looking at anything but the sheets right now, anyway. How’s it going in here?”

  Alfric’s eyes searched the doorway behind Brita. “Where’s Pleasance?”

  “She’s waiting for you in the cafeteria. I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I got back so I told her to stay there.”

  Shrugging, Alfric tried his best to look innocent.

  Percy stood up. “We need to get going. Would you like to meet us later, at the usual spot?”

  Brita nodded, fixing him with a dark, gold gaze filled with speculation.

  Percy tossed the magazine he was reading toward the bed and headed to the door where Pleasance waited for them. A muffled wail lifted from the bed. Percy tossed a grin at Brita, who was reaching to pick the heavy magazine up from the prisoner’s backside where it had landed. “Oops, my bad. Sorry, man,” Percy said. “Later, beautiful.”

  The cafeteria was busy. Apparently, there was high demand for mushy, over salted vegetable soup and orange Jell-O. A stack of sketches on white napkins rested before her on the table. Having grown bored with sketching, Pleasance sipped her iced tea and looked around, trying to guess each person’s story by their facial expressions and the way they moved.

  Most of them didn’t appear to be happy stories.

  “Ms. Roberts?”

  Pleasance’s head jerked around to find a man she didn’t recognize standing there. Her alarm signals immediately started sounding. “Yes?”

  “Alfric asked me to come get you. We’re meeting him outside.”

  Pleasance frown
ed. “I don’t think…”

  “Please hurry, ma’am. He’s gotten a lead on Raia and we need to move fast.”

  Pleasance hesitated a moment longer. But finally, the man’s calm demeanor and matter of fact delivery cut through her natural reluctance. She stood up and grabbed her purse. “Lead the way.”

  “Maybe she went to the Ladies room.”

  Alfric stood in the center of the busy cafeteria with his fists clenched. His blood pressure was up around his ears. He had a very bad feeling. “She would have come back out by now.”

  “Maybe she got bored and decided to leave.”

  Alfric shook his head. “She wouldn’t do that.” His eyes drifted down to a nearby table, where a busboy was reaching toward a stack of napkins. “Stop!”

  The young man jumped and turned startled brown eyes to Alfric. “Sir?”

  Alfric got to the table in two strides and grabbed up the stack of napkins with sketches on them. He held them up for Percy to see. “She’s gone. This is where she sat.”

  Alfric took off running, toward the parking lot, with Percy right behind him.

  Pleasance looked dubiously at the black SUV and then around the parking lot.

  “Please get in, Ms. Roberts.” The man beside her grabbed her arm and tried to push her into the car.

  She dug her heels in. “Where’s Alfric? You told me he’d be here.”

  “He’ll be here shortly. We need to get inside the car where it’s safe.”

  Pleasance shook her head and reached for her cell phone. “I’ll call him and tell him to meet us here.”

  The man grabbed her hand and shoved her hard toward the open car door. “I’ll take that phone, thank you.”

  Pleasance cried out and started kicking him, screaming. He reached over and touched something black against her neck and Pleasance jerked and went still.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  He turned to find a young man hurrying toward him. Slamming the door, he climbed into the front passenger seat of the SUV. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Alfric and Percy emerged from the hospital at a run. The sound of squealing tires caught their attention just as a black SUV with deeply tinted windows turned out of the lot. A young man ran toward them.

  “I think those guys just kidnapped a woman.”

  Alfric looked at Percy and they took off running.

  They climbed into Percy’s gold Solstice and Percy had the car moving in the direction the SUV had gone before Alfric had his door closed. Alfric yanked his cell phone out and punched a number into it. Brita’s voice came on the other end.

  “We’re on Capitol, heading south toward I70, in pursuit of a black Ford Expedition, believed to contain a reluctant Pleasance Roberts.”

  To Brita’s extreme credit she didn’t ask for any further explanation. “I’ll send cars. Stay on the line, Alf.”

  Seconds later, sirens sounded all around them as several nearby units were called to the chase. They hit the ramp onto I70 at about sixty miles per hour and Percy struggled to keep the low-slung Solstice on four wheels as they hit the curve.

  Alfric had his Glock out and was checking the chamber.

  Two black cruisers with flashing lights and sirens blaring flew past them on either side and Percy fell in just behind them.

  “Talk to me, Alf.”

  “We’re in pursuit on I70, cruisers ahead.”

  “What happened with Pleasance?”

  “She wasn’t in the cafeteria when we got there. A guy in the parking lot said he saw a woman getting kidnapped. We pursued the Expedition from the parking lot.”

  “Do you have a license plate on the car?”

  Alfric shook his head, “Negative.”

  “Okay. I’ll be at the station in five minutes, as soon as you get the plate I’ll run it.”

  Two more cruisers screamed up highway I70 from the south. They swung across the median and fell in just behind the Expedition, sliding quickly up on either side of the big, black car.

  The SUV suddenly threw the brakes on and the two cop cars shot past. Then, the driver of the Expedition swung the car hard to the right and took the ramp.

  “He’s leaving the highway, heading north on 421.”

  Percy swung the Solstice to the right and followed the two cruisers up the ramp. As they hit 421, the cruisers ran up alongside the SUV and Percy slid in right behind it. Alfric looked at the license plate and swore. “Brita, call off the dogs. I’ve got this.”

  Silence met his statement. “Like hell. What’s going on, Alf?”

  He sighed. “These are my guys. Or they were my guys, before they shut me out.”

  Brita swore. “Are you sure?”

  Alf looked at the special, two character license number and it all suddenly made sense. “Yeah. Unfortunately I am. I know where they’re taking her.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  They followed the big SUV into a warehouse parking lot. It stopped in front of a loading dock door. Two men climbed out and stood on either side of the car.

  The two-story warehouse building had been one of the agency’s many hidey-holes, so far off building lists and real estate inventories that it would never be traced back to the government. On paper it appeared to be under Korean ownership. A storage facility for rubber bath toys.

  The agents referred to it as Rubber Duckie central.

  Alfric climbed out of Percy’s car with his Glock in firing position. The man nearest the building reached toward a shoulder holster.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  The man stopped in mid movement.

  “Come over here by Parks.”

  Emmett Clark had sent his second and third best men to grab Pleasance. His best man was standing in front of them with his Glock in his hand. “What did you do to her?”

  Brent Jacobs and Dave Parks exchanged a look. Finally, Jacobs shrugged. “We just tazed her, Honeybun. She’s okay.”

  Alfric felt his blood pressure climbing in his chest. He raised the pistol toward Jacobs and his hand was shaking. His finger tightened on the trigger. “You just tazed her? An innocent woman. Just tazed her.” Now, his voice was shaking.

  He felt as if his head would explode.

  Percy stepped forward, half placing himself between his brother and the two men. “Deep breaths, Alf. Godric’s on his way. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” He didn’t want Alfric to go to prison for shooting the two men…no matter how much they deserved it.

  Parks lifted his hands, palms out. “Hey man, calm down. We needed to keep her quiet that’s all. The boss said to bring her here.”

  Sudden understanding sparked in Alfric’s mind. Emmett Clark was using Pleasance to keep him under control. Just as Raia had used his parents. “Emmett wanted to send me a message…is that it?”

  Jacobs shrugged. “He didn’t fill us in on the why’s and what fors. We’re just following orders.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you that you were harming an innocent woman?”

  Parks looked uncomfortable. “We don’t know for sure she’s an innocent, Alf. She was working with Raia.”

  Alfric glared at Parks. “Well I do. You could have asked me.”

  Jacobs frowned. “It’s obvious you’ve got feelings for the chick, Honeybun. You’re not exactly objective.”

  Alfric lowered his gun and took two quick steps toward Jacobs. One punch with his left fist set the big man on his ass on the ground, rubbing his jaw.

  “My objectivity has never been an issue you turd.”

  A red, BMW two-seater roared up and screeched to a stop behind Alfric and Percy. Godric climbed out, carrying a small black bag. “Where is she?”

  Percy jerked his head toward the Expedition. He was reluctant to leave Alfric for fear his brother would do something they’d all regret. Percy had never seen his cool, collected brother so hot.

  A moment after Godric leaned into the car, Pleasance sat up, looking a little wobbly but okay. Alfric fought an almost tangible urge
to run over and make sure she was okay, he felt as if he needed to keep an eye on the two goons in front of him. “Is she all right, Dric?”

  Godric placed a hand under her arm and helped her out of the government-issue SUV. Percy hurried over to take her other arm. “She will be.”

  “Get her into Percy’s car.”

  Alfric kept the gun pointed at the two men until they had Pleasance safely ensconced in the Solstice.

  Parks frowned. “You don’t need to keep the gun on us, Alf. We’re on the same side.”

  “Are we? You could have fooled me.”

  “We were just gonna hold her for a while, Honeybun. We wouldn’t have hurt her.”

  Alfric backed toward the Beamer, keeping his gun up as insurance. “You already did, Jacobs. It worries me that you don’t seem to understand that.”

  As Alfric reached for the door handle, the sound of rotors beating the air above their heads suddenly rose above the noise of traffic on nearby I70. A large, black shape lifted up from behind the warehouse building across the street.

  The first bullets sprayed the shiny sides of the Expedition and hit Jacobs in one thigh and across the chest. He went down hard.

  Alfric screamed across the roof of the Solstice to Godric. “Get the hell out of here!”

  He jumped into the car and Percy hit the gas hard, driving toward the Expedition and jerking to a stop in front of Parks and the still prostrate Jacobs. Parks yanked the door open and jumped inside. Alfric turned to look at Parks. “Jacobs?”

  Bullets peppered the side of the Solstice and Percy swore.

  Parks shook his head. “Dead.”

  “Okay Perce, get us the hell out of here!”

  They swung wide and sped out of the parking lot. Godric’s red sports car was already half a mile away, moving quickly toward the open stretch of highway I70 ahead. He took the ramp at about sixty, tires squealing wildly, and pulled onto the highway.

  They found him waiting for them under the first overpass. Percy pulled up behind him and Godric climbed out. “Take my car. We’ll draw them away.”

  The sound of rotors split the sky above the overpass and a few exploratory bullets tore into the asphalt, kicking up sharp chunks of road that pinged against the cars and the concrete supports. Ducking behind the open car door, Alf grabbed Pleasance’s hand and pulled her out of the Solstice, using the concrete supports of the overpass to hide their movement from one car to the other.