Devin looked at the faux fur rug. “Okay, that’s a bit much, but whatever…”
“What is, Baby?”
Devin tweezed the bridge of her nose. “Okay, Lori? Babe is bad enough but no baby. Baby makes me crazy. Please refrain if at all possible.”
“Gotcha. Fair enough Baby…lady. Babedy…Blady…Lady.”
Devin’s last Lori nerve was starting to get used up. She looked around the room. Anything that could help. A computer. A telephone… she couldn’t use that in case they were monitoring.
“So,” Lori said, “What do you wanna say for your next message?”
Devin plunked down in the chair behind the desk and thought for a moment.
“Devin?”
Devin weighed all the possibilities. What would rattle them?
“Baby?”
Sis. That was what she needed to address next. Then she realized – Richard! The first guy said he was pretending to be Gunnar Leise. She needed to call her partner Mike. Run a trace, do some fingerprinting. So many thoughts were going through her mind.
“Oh My God!” she heard Lori start to scream. “DEVIN? SOMETHING”S HAPPENED TO HER!!!!”
Devin sighed. She spoke calmly into the phone. “Okay, Lori? You need to calm down. Seriously.”
“Oh… right. It was just quiet.”
“I was thinking.”
“Fair enough.”
Devin took another pause to think.
“About what?” Lori couldn’t help but ask.
“FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!!”
Why on earth was this her outside help?
“Alright… here’s what I want you to send out as my next message.”
As Devin said the words into the phone, she knew in her very soul that this was going to be a turning point. This was going to change everything. She wasn’t sure if it was the best thing to do or the thing that would get everyone killed. But clearly they had no intention of saving these people, so whatever she did would have to be better than the fate that awaited them.
Wouldn’t it?
66
Kaden Conroy looked across the green room at Everett Cale. He glanced up and noticed there were only two security guards now. Where there used to be like a dozen guarding them. He made eye contact with her. He was looking for answers. He was looking for a way out. But some hot eye contact would do for now. If he was going to die, maybe he could go out with a stupendously hot lesbian girlfriend.
Kaden looked over at her again. At that moment, she did something surprising. She stood up.
The huge Security Guard who looked like the beefy guy from that Hamburger Harry’s commercial started flailing his arms like he was gonna go apeshit.
“SIDDOWW”
Everett Cale tilted her head and looked at the guy.
“Sorry…what?” Everett said.
“I SAID SIT THE FUCK DOWN.”
Everett was seeming kind of brave. Maybe it was because that boss guy Gunnar or whatever his name was had taken off. He and some other guy had taken Ray Kitson off somewhere. No one imagined it was anywhere fucking good.
Everett Cale gave the security guy a little smile. GOD, she was gorgeous.
“Can’t I just stretch my legs a bit? I was getting a cramp.”
The guy with the gun wasn’t sure what to do. She started walking towards Kaden. She sat down next to him.
“There,” She said. “Just needed a little walk.” She smiled at Hamburger Harry again. “Thanks.”
The fat fucker made a noise like, “Mm hmmpph...” or something, no one could resist her.
Then thankfully he walked away. With a whole giant green room to guard and still like 30 celebrities in here, they weren’t nearly as covered as before.
Kaden looked at Everett.
“Hey,” She smiled.
“Hey…you okay?” he whispered.
“Sure…” She said.
“Hey… don’t worry about that shit before. with the polygraph.”
“Oh, that…”
“Yeah…” he took her hand. What the fuck? If he was going to die he wasn’t going to be pussy about doing what came to him to do. “You’re still amazing.”
Everett looked at him. She smiled. “You’re sweet, Kaden.”
Kaden felt himself start to blush. Which so never happened.
They both watched the security guards way across the room.
“So,” She whispered to Kaden. “You feeling brave?”
Kaden turned to her. Maybe she felt something for him too. Maybe she could go back to being gay after tonight. Maybe just tonight she might feel something for him. Why was he so in love and he barely knew this woman. Everything just seemed so huge and heightened.
“Sure,” he said. He was lying. His heart was pounding with her closeness.
“Good…” Everett said. She checked out the fat fucker security guard across the room, then back to Kaden Conroy.
“Because the way I see it, we may be next.”
Kaden looked down. He swallowed hard, suddenly scared shitless of getting shot in the head like Sally Bixby or Glynn Fielding.
“Yeah,” Kaden said. “I guess.”
“So… you want to do something about it?”
Kaden looked at her. Her eyes were the color of grass. Or a leaf. Or a pool table felt. Or the hat of the guy on the Lucky Charms box. This gorgeous green. He was more in love than ever.
“What did you have in mind?”
She leaned in so her mouth was right on his ear as she whispered. If this was all he ever got, it was actually enough. Even if the next word made his heart jump out of his chest.
“…Escape,” she said.
67
Richard stood by the backstage Engraving station. He spoke directly to the camera.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I think you don’t really understand the urgency here.”
With that he indicated to the cameraman to widen out, which he did. Capturing the whole scene. The engraving station was built to look like a backstage bar, with bar stools pulled up to it.
And there in front of Richard, sitting on a stool and being pinned against the bar behind him by two security guards, was Ray Kitson. A shadow of his former self. He was beaten and broken and looked terrified.
Richard continued casually speaking to the camera.
“This is where the winners come to get their names engraved on their awards once they’ve won.”
Richard started the machine up with a whir, and pulled out the engraving pen.
“And we thought it’d be fun, since we aren’t giving any awards out to do some engraving anyway. And we thought we’d start with Ray Kitson…”
Ray made a noise like, “Nooo!” But they’d put duct tape over his mouth. So it came out as a muffled cry. A stifled scream. The kind you have in your dreams.
“Oh, yes. Ray…” Richard said. “And I thought why get a tattoo when this is so much more painful… I’ve decided since you’re such an…” Richard looked into the camera. “If there are any children out there please cover your ears…” he looked at Ray again. “Since you are such an asshole. I’m going to give you a nice cursive engraving of the word asshole right on your arm… How would that be?”
Ray made a noise. He screamed again under the duct tape.
“I’m sorry, what?” Richard said. “No? Not your arm?”
Ray shook his head back and forth. His eyes pleading.
“You’re right. Not your arm.”
He looked at Ray Kitson. “Why do it on your arm when I can do it directly on someplace way more painful…and way more important to you?.”
He yanked down Ray’s pants.
“We’ll keep the camera up here folks, but trust me you’ll know what’s happening.”
With that Richard moved the engraving pen over Ray’s dick and began burning the word Asshole into it.
Ray screamed and flailed against the two security guards.
“Hold still!” Richard said. Then as he wrote he began sou
nding it out. “Aaaaaaaaaaa…….Sssssssssss….”
At that moment Richard heard Sis in his headset. “Richard get in here now! We’ve got a problem.”
Richard stopped the flesh burning engraving pen. “Oh… You know what? I’ll have to finish this in a minute.” Then he looked into the camera. “And you at home… I’ll tell you what… 10 million dollars in the next five minutes and I won’t finish the word. It’s up to you.”
He turned to Ray. “It’s up to them. Hopefully at least some of them still love you. Your fans…the idiots who paid money to see you in those shit movies of yours that they fucking forgot about two days later… Hopefully they’ll help you out here.”
He started to walk away then looked back at Ray. “You better fucking hope so.”
68
Sis was glaring at Richard. “Find her.”
“We’re trying.”
Sis pushed herself away from the console and stood up. She started to pace back and forth.
“Did you see what she said?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you?”
“Sis I’m right here, I was right next to you. I saw it.”
Sis stopped and shook her head. She rewound the TV and watched it again. A newswoman on another channel was standing in front of the camera holding her Blackberry and reading from it.
“Detective Devin Jones is still sending messages out. This one reads, “All not what it appears. Ask Sis.”
Sis hit the mute and threw the remote across the room.
Richard looked at her calmly. “You’re going to want to find that later.”
“She’s going to fuck this whole thing up for us.”
“She’s not.”
“Richard, find her. And when you do, kill her.”
Richard looked nervous. “Oh I will find her all right. Don’t you worry…and killing her, well that’ll be a pleasure.”
69
In the celebrity green room, Everett Cale slowly and quietly slipped her shoes off. She wiggled her toes, like their freedom had been the purpose of the exercise.
Kaden looked at her feet next to him. God, even they were gorgeous.
She leaned in close. She smelled like sunshine. And sweetness. “The way I see it, the guards - the two of them can only handle so much at a time… so I’m going to create a distraction and when I do, we go.”
“Yeah. Got it.” Then he realized. “Where?”
“I’m not sure yet… But we run like fucking hell to get there.”
Kaden nodded, taking it all in.
Everett leaned forward, she caught the eye of Brady Branson. She nodded him over. He mouthed “Are you crazy?” She looked around. The guards were both in the next room stuffing their faces with food that looked a lot less disgusting a couple of hours earlier. Finally he scuttled over to her.
“I’m getting out,” She whispered. “We’re gonna die here.”
Brady looked behind for the guards. “No way…”
Everett held his gaze. “You coming?”
Brady smiled. He couldn’t help it. She had guts. “Sweetheart, I can’t…I can’t do it.”
“Will you help me?’
Brady looked at her. She knew he would do anything for her. He’d told her as much the last time they worked together. Forgetting about the whole I have a wife thing.
Everett spoke quietly. “Create a distraction for me?”
Brady looked around. The fat guard was coming back into the room. He scuttled back to his seat just as the fat guard made his way into the room, cradling his gun and a messy éclair.
Everett surreptitiously looked over at Brady, he gave her a wink. Game was on.
Everett turned to Kaden. “Get ready.”
The fat security guard finished his éclair and walked past the line of celebrities, looking like he was trying to look tough. As he made his way right past Brady Branson. Brady stood up and looked wobbly.
“Sit DOWN!” The security guard barked.
With that his friend, the wiry looking security guard marched back into the room to see what the commotion was.
Brady Branson staggered forward. “Man, I don’t feel so good…”
With that he stumbled and fell over, clutching his side and screaming. He started having a convulsion, complete with eyes rolling into the back of his head.
The guards looked totally panic stricken. They looked at each other.
“What the fuck do we do?”
“I don’t know! Call Gunnar Leise!”
“No way! He’s going to know we couldn’t handle shit.”
“Then I don’t fucking know!”
Brady screamed in pain and started foaming at the mouth.
“Fuck! Do something! We’re going to get in shit for this.”
They looked around as if help would possibly come to them from this group, then back to Brady Branson who was working up a mouth full of fake foam for effect.
At that moment Kaden Conroy and Everett Cale were running down a backstage corridor desperately looking for an exit.
Kaden was running so hard he thought he might give himself actual appendicitis. “Where are we going?”
“The front! Let’s get out the front.”
They rounded a corner and stopped in their tracks. Up ahead they saw Ray Kitson up against a bar with two security guys holding him down. His pants were down and there was a weird burning skin smell.
“Shit…” Everett said. She looked around. “Okay, this way!”
She led him down another corridor, which mercifully ended at the door into the auditorium. They bolted into the theater and ran up the aisle to the front and out the auditorium door into the lobby.
They made a break for the front doors and when they got there something caught Kaden’s eye, just as Everett was about to slam a door open.
“Wait! Stop!”
She did.
He pointed up to the top of the doors. To the blobs of what looked like clay and the wires coming out of them.
“What the fuck is that?” He asked.
She looked at it. Closed her eyes. “Shit…”
She looked at Kaden. She’d worked with enough explosives on her action movies to know what the fuck was that indeed.
For the first time, she looked scared.
“That’s ‘We’re screwed’” she said.
70
Devin made her way along the administration offices to a security office in the back. The door was open and she saw a bank of monitors covering cameras everywhere.
On one she saw the green room. A bunch of celebrities sitting around looking terrified and worn out. Two security guards watching them.
On another she saw a corridor with three Security Guards looking for her, guns drawn.
On a third she saw the auditorium – where two more guards were going through row by row,
She picked up her phone; she knew she had to tell Bronco Bennett about the way out. She had to. She took a deep breath and dialed his number.
A few rings later she heard his voice.
“What?”
“I’ve discovered their escape route. And a way in.”
“Yeah, I know. The roof. I’ve got it covered.”
“No, not the roof.”
“I’ve got it Jones.”
“Bronco, listen to me.”
“Why don’t you just go be a celebrity, Jones.”
“Bennett, I got Tannis Overholt out.”
“Yeah. Fucking sure ya did.”
“Bennett! A patrol officer will be bringing her up any minute.”
“Wow, now you’re Superlady. Good work.”
“Bronco, seriously you need to hear what I’m saying.”
“I don’t need to do anything, Jones. Don’t you understand that? I can do whatever the fuck I want. Not the least of which is get you stripped of your badge for everything you’ve done.”
“Bennett”
“Goodbye, Jones.”
He hung up on her. Devin sat ther
e stunned. She shook her head. The only thing that broke her stunned silence was the sight on one of the cameras of a security guard in the stairwell heading up to where she was on the third floor.
“Fuck…”
Then she saw a sight that made her heart pound even harder. On another camera, there in the lobby, all by themselves…. Kaden Conroy and Everett.
“Everett,” Devin whispered. “What the hell are you doing?”
Devin pulled her gun out, released the safety, tucked her phone into her waistband and made her way out into the corridor.
She whipped around the corner, gun drawn. She saw the stairway at the end of the hallway the security guard would be coming out.
She saw the door open.
71
Bronco Bennett strode across Hollywood Boulevard to where Dan Milner, the Homeland Security Supervisor was standing with three of his men – well, two men and a woman. Bennett didn’t even bother checking her out. He could tell she was a hottie in that skirt and blouse. With long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. Normally he’d have made a move, despite the wedding ring he quickly noticed. That usually wouldn’t have fazed him. But he was so sick of female officers and their backstabbing bullshit cause of Jones that he couldn’t even be bothered making a move on this hottie.
“Milner, you ready?”
“Just about. Bennett these are a couple of my officers, this is Len Jackson and this is Denise-”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you.” Bronco gave them an insouciant nod. He really couldn’t give a shit who they were. “What do we need?”
Milner looked impatient. “We’re waiting for the helicopter, it’s coming in from Rampart. We’ve got 10 SWAT officers and some Navy Seals.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Denise Hayes eyed Bronco. “Lieutenant we have to make sure the helicopter can land on the roof without being impeded.”
Bronco flashed her a hateful look. Fucking pushy bitch.
“Excuse me, sweetheart, but I think I know what we need to do.”
This is Devin Jones Page 16