Poker Face

by Noelle Winters

  The bar was oddly quiet when they got there. It should have been open and booming. It sent uneasiness through Ryan’s skin.

  “Should we go inside?” Dane asked, sounding as uncertain as she felt.

  There were a couple cars in the parking lot. “Let’s run the plates.” Maybe she would get lucky and they’d find Steven or Ross. Or even better, Veronica.

  One car was Steven’s. One was Ross’s. Yet, when they got to the front door to the bar, there was a large piece of paper on it.

  Bar closed due to family emergency.

  No sign of who had written it, and the handwriting was blocky printing that could have belonged to anyone.

  “Damn,” Ryan muttered, slapping her thigh with a hand. Was she wrong? No, she couldn’t be wrong. She opened the door, and was greeted not with hidden people, but an empty, dark bar. There was no noise, nothing. No one was there, despite the cars.

  What if Liv was part of the operation? What if she had been strung along the entire time?

  No. Ryan was taking a huge risk and she knew it, but she wasn’t going to let the doubt paralyze her. “We’re going to Ross’s,” Ryan declared. If he wasn’t at the bar, that was the most logical place for him to be.

  Dane saluted with a grin on his face. “Aye aye, Chief.”

  If Ross wasn’t there, they could check Steven’s place. Then Veronica’s. Someone had to be there.

  Liv didn’t let herself cry this time. Hearing Ryan’s voice had almost broken her, but she had remained strong. She was sitting in the corner of the basement in the bar, a gun pointed at her face. What had happened to Mocha? Veronica had forced her to let go of the lead. Was Gram okay? She was recovering, but still going through a lot of physical therapy.

  Liv wasn’t going to cry, but it was a lot more difficult than she expected it to be. She was going to be strong. She was going to get out of this terrible situation.

  Then Ryan’s voice faded, and so did Liv’s resolve. She sat there, legs folded underneath her and her head bowed. She could hear the sound of Veronica’s heels clicking against the wooden floor as she paced, the quiet sound echoing loudly.

  Liv focused on her breathing. In and out, in and out.

  “Stop moving,” Ross hissed.

  Veronica’s pacing came to a halt, but it almost stopped Liv’s heart. Who had he been talking to?

  The gun moved away from her face, but Ross kept it in his hand. He was sitting sprawled out in a chair by what she assumed was the entranceway, irritation plain on his face. What was he irritated at?

  The possible list was endless.

  “How do you know her?” Ross asked, turning his attention to Liv.

  Liv blinked, then frowned slightly.

  “The cop.” Ross gestured with his gun. “Ryan, or whatever her name is.”

  Liv opened her mouth and then stopped, hesitating. Was it a trap? Was he trying to get her to speak for some nefarious reason?

  “Just answer.” There was the hint of irritation again.

  “We dated in high school,” Liv answered carefully.

  “Lesbians?” Ross seemed amused by this. “You don’t look the part.”

  Liv pressed her lips together, keeping herself from making a retort. “Not all of us wear flannel.”

  Ross rolled his eyes. “You’re dating again?”

  “Yes,” Liv answered.

  “What does she know?” Ross fixed his gaze on her again.

  “About what?” Liv frowned.

  Ross waved the gun again. It made Veronica nervous, at least Liv guessed it did, based on how much flinching she was doing. “Cairo’s death.”

  Liv wracked her brain. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

  Ross looked at her with his eyebrows raised. “I’m not stupid.”

  Liv sighed. “We haven’t talked about the case much.”

  Ross studied her, trying to see whether or not she was lying, most likely. “You do other things?” There was a wicked gleam to his face.

  “Yeah.” Liv wasn’t going to defile their relationship by detailing it for the scumbag. “My Gram’s in the hospital so we haven’t talked a ton about the case lately.”

  “What does it matter?” Veronica snapped. “Just kill her and be done with it.”

  Liv’s eyes closed briefly, then she opened them again. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the only reason Ross was talking so much was that she was going to die. But it still struck close to home to hear Veronica’s statement.

  She heard the smack of a hand against a cheek, heard Veronica gasp. Ross had hit her.

  “You’ve spent more than enough time trying to scare her off,” Veronica muttered. That sparked recognition in Liv’s brain. The lights off, the rocks through the window – had that been them? It made sense. But why scare her?

  “Shut your mouth,” Ross said, clearly irritated. Then he turned to Liv, and crouched down next to her. “Your girlfriend will come for you, won’t she?”

  Liv tried to keep her face dispassionate.

  “Oh, she will.” Ross smiled. “Good.”

  “You killed Cairo?” Liv asked, not sure why she was asking.

  Ross studied her. “No.” He smiled.

  “We might as well tell her,” Veronica muttered, clearly across the room and as far away from Ross as she could get.

  “I didn’t kill her,” Ross said amiably.

  It was scary, how Ross could go between friendly to angry so fast. Was that how he had hid his facade, had managed to function as a bartender for so long? And where did Veronica fit into that?

  “See, Cairo figured out who was helping me,” Ross said, his attention on Liv. “We had to dispose of her.”

  “So you’re gambling?” Liv didn’t have all the pieces. She wished she did.

  “We did at first.” Ross sat down cross-legged, but his back was to a wall and the gun was still in his hands. “Poker. Sports betting.” He exhaled slowly. “Then a friend of mine introduced me to this drug runner, Teep.” A feral grin slid over his face. “That made much more money than anything else.”

  “Then why did you gamble?” Liv was drawing on all the hours she’d spent watching criminal TV. “Was it to hide the money?”

  “Bingo.” Ross pointed a finger at her, like a fake gun. “Money laundering.”

  “Using one illegal business to hide the other.” Liv realized she shouldn’t have said that, but Ross was nodding.

  “You know why I’m telling you, right?” Ross asked.

  Liv nodded. Her lips trembled but she wouldn’t let the tears course down her face. She was stronger than that. No matter what had happened in her life, she would hope until the end, and she would face death as strongly as she faced life.

  “So have you killed people?” Liv asked, trying to draw out the conversation.

  “Only the ones that could talk.” He chuckled. “I don’t like people that can talk.” He mimed cutting his throat. Then he laughed again.

  Liv shivered in fear.

  “Police!” Ryan kicked the door to Ross’s house open, Dane right behind her. Her gun was drawn and held in front of her, just in case they encountered someone. There was no one there. The house was eerily quiet.

  She put the gun down, adrenaline fading. What was going on?

  Maybe there would be some evidence. “Think we should go?” Dane asked, drawing her attention.

  Stubborn as hell, Ryan shook her head. “I want to look around.”

  Dane nodded, then headed towards the kitchen. Ryan picked the living room.

  An hour later, they still had nothing. No papers out of sort, nothing that tied Ross to either of the crime scenes or the transactions in Cairo’s account, or Steven’s.

  “Damnit.” Ryan hit her hand against the wall, frustration clear in her voice. Then she stopped. The wall felt hollow. A slight frown on her face, she started tapping the wall, listening to its echo. There was something behind it, where no door led to.

  Seriously? A hidden room? What did she
live in, a spy movie?

  Then a small set of stairs, like to an attic, fell out of the ceiling, causing Ryan to scream.

  Dane laughed.

  “Jerk,” Ryan said, sticking her tongue out at him. “I’m going to go investigate.”

  She headed up the stairs, crawling up over years of dust and insulation. Why hadn’t she brought gloves? She was going to have to scold herself later.

  There were a few ceiling tiles she could move, and when she looked down, she could slide into the room that had been behind the hollow wall. It was much easier to find the door that way, and she popped it open, revealing Dane standing there with his eyebrows raised.

  “You find the weirdest shit,” Dane said.

  Ryan laughed, half giddy and half terrified. That was true. She headed further inside. It was a short passageway, with two doors that had padlocks. One of them, however, was unlocked.

  Her heart racing, Ryan pulled the padlock off and heard the door start to open. Its creak was almost deafening in the near-silence.

  “Help me,” came a weak, feminine voice.

  Ryan’s eyes widened. It was her missing teenager, Jasmine, bruised and bloody on the bed. “I’ll radio it in.”

  She heard the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Ryan froze. “What are you doing?”

  “You just couldn’t let it go, could you?” Dane sighed. “Now you’re making me do all the dirty work.”

  Ryan’s cheeks burned. She had been wrong. It wasn’t the Chief who had been protecting them, it had been her own damn partner. “How could you do this?”

  “Money forgives a lot,” Dane said amiably. “Now give me your gun.”

  Ryan took off both her gun and her Taser and kicked them backwards.

  “I’ll take your radio and the rest of your equipment, too.” Dane sounded amused.

  Ryan knew exactly what she wanted to do with that amusement, and it wasn’t going to end well for Dane.

  “Shoes and socks off.” He waved the gun at her.

  She stared at him. “Really?”

  He tilted his head and changed the position of the gun a bit.

  Ryan sighed, and did as she was told. In the coldness of the evening, running barefoot was going to hurt more than it could potentially help.

  Dane handcuffed her hands behind her back, then pushed her into the room with the broken girl. “You know I’m a good shot,” Dane said.

  “Yeah.” Ryan had gone with him to the ranges more than once.

  “If you try and run, I’ll kill Liv.”

  Ryan swallowed thickly. He was smart, too, knowing what she cared about most. Her own life was slightly negotiable. Liv’s wasn’t.

  Dane picked up the body of the teenage girl and led them back out behind the house to a large van with a mesh grate between the driver’s area and storage. He opened the back and shoved first Jasmine, then Ryan, inside it. Ryan leaned slightly, testing the lock on the back doors.

  “It’s not going anywhere,” Dane said, irritated now.

  Ryan shrugged. “Was worth a try,” she said.

  He chuckled, and then slammed the trunk shut and left them in the dark.

  30

  Monday 7th November; 10pm

  Ryan wasn’t certain who she wanted to shoot first, when she was placed in the basement in the bar. Dane or Ross? Or even Veronica? It was a tough choice. But the red marks on Liv’s wrists and the bruises provided ample incentive.

  Maybe all at once, if she got the access.

  Still, Ryan had learned her lesson and was silent. The broken girl was next to her, apparently awake but not speaking. Instead she just dozed against the wall. She was there, but not really there.

  She, too, had learned her lesson.

  “Use the van and clean it?” Ross looked at Dane, who looked back at him. They were ignoring Veronica.

  “Makes sense.” Dane nodded.

  “Up.” Ross grabbed Liv’s wrists bound behind her back, and Dane slung the woman across his shoulders in a firefighter’s hold. Neither of them bothered looking at Ryan.

  Instead Ross held up the gun so Ryan could see it. Biting her tongue so hard she tasted coppery blood, Ryan followed. It was back to the same van they had just arrived in. The wind was rushing against them, biting at Ryan’s face and exposed arms. The last thing she wanted to do was get back in the van.

  “You could have kept us in there,” Ryan muttered.

  Dane patted her cheek. “Shut up.”

  Ryan gritted her teeth, biting back all the words she had to say about his conduct as a police officer and a human being.

  None of it was pleasant.

  Jasmine was shoved in there first. Then Liv, then Ryan. The truck bed was shut unceremoniously, and then silence reigned. Ryan could hear the faint noise of Ross and the others talking, but she couldn’t make it out. There was plexiglass or something noise-canceling between where they were stored and where the driver rode.

  She tested the strength of the handcuffs around her wrists. They hadn’t bound her feet, at least not very tightly. It was either that or they’d have to carry her.

  Hopefully, that would be their fatal mistake.

  “Ry?” Liv’s voice was whisper-soft.

  Ryan scooted towards her, trying to press as close as she could. “Hey.”

  Liv awkwardly pressed a kiss to her lips, made even more awkward by the bumping as the truck started moving.

  “Can you help me?” Ryan kept her voice low, just in case they could be heard somehow. She doubted it, but being safe rather than sorry couldn’t really hurt in this case.

  “Of course,” Liv answered without hesitation.

  Ryan shifted and turned until Liv’s hands were near her head. It was awkward and cramped, but it would do. “Can you get one of the bobby pins out of my hair?”

  Stupid men. They never thought of such things.

  She felt Liv’s hands comb through her hair, looking for the delicate bobby-pins that held her hair back. “Got one.”

  “Great. I’m going to take it with my hands now.” Ryan took it from her hands as carefully as she could in the dark of the truck. She closed her eyes, focusing on her lock picking skills as much as she could. As cheesy and unrealistic as it seemed, bobby pins were one of the easiest ways to escape handcuffs. She straightened it out into an L, then inserted the tip into the handcuffs so she could bend it to the angle she needed. It wasn’t that hard; handcuffs weren’t very secure when you knew what you were doing.

  Not that they told the criminals that.

  A soft click told Ryan her work had been rewarded. Letting out a fast breath, she took the handcuffs off, rubbing her wrists to promote circulation back into them.

  “Here.” Ryan could move better now. The first thing she did was use the broken part of the bobby pin to take out the zip tie around her ankles. It required inserting the straight end of the bobby pin between the locking mechanism and the zip tie, so she could just pull the end out without it locking automatically. “I can take off your bindings.”

  Liv held herself still, letting Ryan do the same thing to her zip ties and get them off of her wrists.

  Liv exhaled in relief, rubbing her wrists as Ryan got to work on her feet. It was awkward work in their cramped quarters, but it was necessary.

  “We’re severely outmanned,” Ryan murmured, settling so she was close to Liv and they could talk.

  “That’s putting it politely,” Liv muttered. The van was bouncing along, both Ryan and Liv bouncing with it.

  “I’m sorry, Liv.” The regret in Ryan’s voice was genuine.

  Liv shook her head; Ryan could feel her hair moving in the dark. “I got myself into this,” she said.

  Ryan kissed her cheek, or whatever part of Liv’s face she could reach. “We’ll be okay.”

  “Did you say that for me, or for you?” Liv chuckled.

  “Both,” Ryan drawled. The tension was straining between the two, and Ryan�
��s heart was racing. All she wanted to do was get out of the situation, and live her happily ever after.

  “Ross is the one who threw the rocks at the house,” Liv said suddenly.

  Ryan looked at her, surprised. Or at least as much as she could look in the dark. “Did he say that?”

  “Not in so many words,” Liv allowed. “I’m not sure how he knew where I lived, though.”

  It clicked in Ryan’s head, and she groaned. “Dane. I gave your address to Dane so he knew where to find me if he needed me.”

  Liv exhaled in a rush. She could only imagine what Ryan was going through with the whole betrayal of her partner thing.

  Ryan hesitated. “I took the flash drive.”

  “I guessed.” There was something quiet in Liv’s voice.

  “I’m sorry.” That was her second apology in as many minutes. “I should have trusted you.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it.”

  Ryan hadn’t considered that.

  Liv leaned in and kissed her. “It’s okay.”

  It was like a weight had been lifted off of Ryan’s chest.

  “I love you,” Liv said suddenly, catching Ryan off guard.

  They were quiet for a moment, the only noise the rumbling of the engine.

  “I love you, too.” Ryan kissed her again. This time she caught her lips, and they were able to actually kiss instead of mash lips against another body part.

  “You know we’re going to have to make up for this in an actual bed, right?” Liv said.

  Ryan chuckled. She squeezed Liv’s hand. “We will.”

  Jasmine was lying motionless and silent on the truck bed floor. Ryan felt a flash of guilt for not checking on her sooner. What if she was dying? What if she was dead?

  Ryan turned to her, checking for a pulse. There was one, and it was strong, too. As she looked at her she saw a pair of strong, dark eyes looking back. “I want to help.” The strength in Jasmine’s voice surprised Ryan.

  Ryan squeezed her arm. “You will.”

  The truck started slowing down, and Ryan’s heart started racing even faster. They would be okay. They would get out of it.

  They had to.