Dead Heat

by Allison Brennan

  Now or never.

  The one positive was that they exited on the short side of the wing, so anyone coming up the main stairs couldn’t see them. There were four doors on the right and three on the left. Double doors at the end of the hall. That, Lucy assumed, was Trejo’s suite.

  But where was Bella? Lucy doubted they had time to check each room, and she had no idea if there were others sleeping up here. If she were Trejo, how would she think?

  He wanted Bella why? Because she’d been kept from him? Because his name wasn’t on the birth certificate? Did he truly want a child, or did he take her as punishment for her mother who listed another man as her father?

  It could go either way, Lucy realized, but would Jaime Sanchez turn his niece over to a man who would hurt her? Or did he truly believe that living here would be better for her?

  For Jaime … it was punishing Mirabelle as much as it was keeping his employer happy. For Trejo … she leaned toward him wanting a prodigy. Wanting to keep her close.

  Making sure no one had emerged from any of the rooms, she made her way immediately down the hall to the door closest to Trejo’s suite.

  It was locked from the outside.

  This had to be it.

  She motioned for Michael to be lookout while she picked the lock, wishing that Sean were here. He’d take half as long as she. The twenty seconds it took felt like twenty minutes.

  She opened the door and they both slipped in. She had her gun ready in case she’d been wrong.

  She hadn’t been. There was a night-light next to the bed, bathing the room in a shiny pink glow. Everything was pink. Pink walls, pink comforter, pink rugs on the tile floor. And dark-haired Bella, curled into a fetal position, in a large pink bed, under a collection of letters that spelled ISABELLA in bright ballerinas.

  Lucy motioned for Michael to stay by the door, to listen. She walked over to Bella and squatted next to the bed.

  “Bella. Isabella,” Lucy whispered.

  She startled awake, a cry on her lips. Lucy put her hand over the girl’s mouth.

  “It’s Lucy. Lucy Kincaid. Remember me?”

  The girl nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. She pointed to her dresser.

  Lucy looked. There was a voice monitor there, the light flickering from green to red.

  Shit.

  Lucy put her finger to her lips. She gestured to Michael and Bella smiled underneath Lucy’s hand. Lucy leaned over and whispered directly into her ear and hoped the monitor didn’t pick it up, “I’m going to take you home. But no one can know I’m here.”

  She nodded.

  Lucy crept over to the door. If anyone came up, they’d know someone had picked the lock. She hoped and prayed no one did.

  She didn’t hear anyone outside the door. She went into the closet, wincing as the door creaked. She found shoes and a warm jacket. She handed them to Bella and again put her finger to her lips to remind her to be quiet.

  Bella had just put on her shoes when gunfire sounded outside the house. She sucked in her breath, loudly. Lucy prayed Trejo and his people were too busy dealing with Kane to worry about Bella.

  Lucy looked from Michael to Bella and for a split second was overwhelmed by the responsibility she had to protect these two young people. Michael put his arm around the girl and Lucy was relieved she didn’t have to tell him to keep her close. She picked up a small bag with ballerinas on it and handed it to Michael. He put the black box in it, then put the bag on his back.

  She held them back while she checked the hall. She heard voices at the top of the stairs, and closed the door again. Dammit, how could she get out of here?

  She searched the room, looked out the windows, didn’t see any other way out. She could jump two stories, she knew how to roll to prevent breaking her ankle or worse, but she couldn’t expect Bella to do the same. There was nothing to climb down, either. No balcony off her bedroom, no trellis, no tree.

  She pictured the layout of the outside. There was a balcony off Trejo’s bedroom. Could they get out from there?

  Michael tapped her and Lucy looked. Did he see that she had no idea how they were going to get out if they couldn’t go the way they came?

  He mouthed, I know a way.

  She nodded.

  He held his hand out. She knew what he wanted.

  She removed the small 9mm Kahr that was in her pocket. She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.

  In her pocket, her radio buzzed multiple times. Not one, two or three … but constant.

  Something was wrong.

  Really, Lucy, what’s right?

  More gunfire, on the southwest side of the property. She couldn’t bring Michael and Bella to the firefight.

  Michael listened, just as she had, then he went out. She and Bella followed. She heard voices on the main staircase, running downstairs through the hall, but no one was up here.

  Yet.

  Michael went directly to Trejo’s suite.

  The door was unlocked, and they all slipped inside. Michael whispered, “He has an escape tunnel, through the walls. Follow me.”

  Lucy said, “Michael, this is important. You need to take Bella to the truck and hide. Can you do that?”

  He nodded.

  “If anyone comes, you know what to do—only if you have to.”

  Again, he nodded and took Bella’s hand.

  He slid open what appeared to be a closet door. Instead it led down a dark, narrow passage, and then to stairs. “This goes under the complex, to the corner of the property,” Michael said.

  Lucy did not like closed, cramped places. Her fear was more than simple claustrophobia. It had to do with the time she’d been held captive for two days, trapped. Unable to move, unable to do anything but be hurt by the bastards who’d taken her.

  She stumbled, grabbed the wall, and righted herself.

  Michael glanced over his shoulder. She could barely see him; there were some dim lights, but they were few and far between. She focused on Michael, on Bella, and that Kane needed help.

  The tunnel ended at a ladder. Lucy climbed up and checked the door. It was locked, but it was a simple mechanism. She focused her pin light on the hole and picked the lock, then slowly pushed the door open an inch and held it. She surveyed her surroundings.

  They were in the far southwest corner, but there was a group of guards, at least six, surrounding the closest building only thirty yards away.

  Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse.

  She released the door.

  This constituted an emergency.

  She said into her radio, “Status? I’m trapped on the southwest corner of the house, in a tunnel. Guards are thirty yards away.”

  Silence. Had they heard her? Couldn’t Kane at least acknowledge her?

  Or was he incapacitated? She couldn’t think that he was dead.

  No one was going to die tonight. There had already been too much death, too much suffering.

  She heard in her radio, “Wait.” And that was it. She didn’t know if it was Ranger or Kane.

  She waited what seemed like an unbearable eternity, but wasn’t longer than a minute. Then the ground shook and she heard an explosion on the eastern side of the property. Lucy tumbled off the ladder, fell heavily on her butt.

  A distraction.

  Thank you, Kane.

  She quickly climbed back up the ladder and checked the door.

  All the guards were fleeing the area, heading east.

  She pushed open the trapdoor and pulled Bella up and over the ledge. Michael scrambled up behind them.

  “Do you know the way?” Lucy asked him.

  “Yes. Are you sure?” He didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t know if it was his sense of protection for her and the team, or his desire for revenge.

  She said quietly and firmly, “I’m trusting you with Bella. Go. Take cover.”

  She closed the trapdoor and didn’t watch as Michael fled with little Bella. She ran over to the building that the guar
ds had abandoned, plastering herself against the wall.

  She took several deep breaths.

  How had Kane created a diversion so far from his building? Why were the guards surrounding it in the first place? Is this where Brad was being held?

  Keeping her back flush against the wall, she slithered over to the door. Gun in hand, she tried the knob. It turned.

  She pushed the door in slowly.

  Someone was watching her. They were close.

  She turned, her finger on the trigger, ready to shoot.

  She stared into blue eyes.

  “Sean,” she breathed, not even a voice, just a sigh.

  He kissed her, hard and fast, then pulled her inside.

  “How did you get back so fast?”

  “I didn’t board the plane. You think I was going to leave you?”

  She hugged him, willed her heart to stop beating so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. Then she pulled out her radio and said, “Sean’s here.” No response.

  “Where’s Kane?”

  “I don’t know. He must have set the explosion to distract the guards so I could get out. I don’t know if he found Donnelly. I sent Michael back to the truck with Bella. We have to get to them.”

  Sean frowned. Lucy opened the door, looked around, and motioned for him to follow.

  Her radio vibrated and she halted, then pulled it out and listened.

  It was a code.

  “Do you know Morse code?” she asked Sean.

  He nodded and pulled them back into the shack.

  He took her radio and listened to Kane’s message.

  A minute later he said, “They know where Donnelly is but they can’t get to him. Kane wants us to meet up with him.”

  She nodded. What other choice did they have? They’d come here to get Brad; they couldn’t leave him now. Trejo would certainly kill him.

  Sean led the way out of the shack. One guard had returned. Before they were spotted, Sean knocked him out with a karate chop to his neck.

  Sean led the way to a barn on the southern edge of the property. The guards were close, inspecting the corner of the mansion where Kane had lit the fuse.

  Lucy saw Tobias and Trejo at the front door of the mansion. Trejo started running toward the barn. She hadn’t seen Sanchez yet. Where was he?

  They stayed in the shadows. The benefit of having young guards was that they were inexperienced. They looked for a leader, and whoever was supposed to be in charge wasn’t giving the orders. Lucy and Sean ran to the back of the barn where Kane and Ranger had taken cover.

  “What the hell happened?” Kane said.

  Sean responded. “They spotted me on the mountain and tried to grab me. I knocked out one of the guards and hid in the shack where I found Lucy. If you hadn’t set off the charge, they would have found me.”

  Kane turned to Lucy.

  “I didn’t know Sean was here,” she said. “I needed the diversion to get Michael and Bella to safety.”

  “Where are they?”

  “The truck.” She hoped.

  Kane nodded. “Donnelly is inside the barn. He’s in a bad way. He knows we’re here, but we couldn’t get to him.”

  “Trejo is coming.”

  “They’re going to kill him,” Ranger said.

  Kane concurred. “They know there’s a breach; keeping him alive creates more problems.”

  “Plan?” Sean asked.

  “We go in hot. That’s the only way.” Kane looked at Ranger. “You go with Kincaid. I’ll go with my brother.”

  Sean tried to object. Kane was firm. “It’s safer” was all he said.

  Ranger had a knife in hand.

  Lucy bit her lip, took a deep breath, and nodded that she was ready. She didn’t want to do this. She had to.

  Or Brad would be dead.

  They left their post, walking around the exterior of the barn in opposite directions; Lucy with Ranger and Sean with his brother. Ranger took lead. First guard he saw he took down with a quick karate chop, not unlike the one Sean had used only moments ago. Lucy followed him around to the front of the barn. Sean and Kane rounded the opposite corner a half minute later. They made eye contact then rushed the doors together.

  Lucy didn’t know what to expect. What she saw was Jaime Sanchez and Vasco Trejo standing over a bloodied and beaten Brad Donnelly.

  Sanchez immediately fired on them. Trejo took cover in one of the stalls. Sanchez followed, then fell to the ground as someone—Kane? Sean?—shot him. He wasn’t moving.

  Lucy dove for cover as well, her gun in hand, looking for Sanchez or Trejo, but the stalls made it difficult to get eyes on the suspects.

  She saw Brad lying in the middle of the barn. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive.

  Kane said, “Cover me, hard.”

  Lucy was stunned when he ran over to Brad. Ranger and Sean immediately laid down a round of gunfire to cover him, and Lucy followed, now that she understood what he wanted. Kane dragged Brad into a stall to protect him from the cross fire.

  They crouched behind old equipment, uncertain if Trejo and Sanchez were dead. Ranger motioned to Sean to check the stall where Sanchez disappeared, and motioned for Lucy to guard the door while he checked Trejo.

  Sean called out, “Sanchez is dead.”

  A moment later Ranger said, “Trejo disappeared.”

  Kane said, “How the fuck did he get out?”

  “This place is full of holes in the wall. He must have slipped out. He’ll be in hell soon.” To Lucy he said, “You sure the kids are clear?”

  “Yes,” she said. If Michael had obeyed her.

  He cares for Bella. She saved him; he’ll save her. Lucy had to believe in him.

  “Plan B,” he said and pulled out a detonator.

  As soon as he pressed the button a giant explosion rocked the mountain. Lucy fell to the ground, her hands on her head. She couldn’t hear anything, but felt Ranger pulling her up.

  Go, go, go.

  He was shouting at her, but she couldn’t hear him.

  She scrambled up and ran with him. She glanced back. Sean was helping Kane drag Brad out of the barn.

  When she emerged through the doors, her eyes widened at the sight of the mansion engulfed in flames. “Chopper,” Ranger said.

  She shook her head. “Michael and Bella. They’re at the truck.”

  “I’ll get the fed out on the chopper,” Ranger clarified. “You go to the truck.”

  The four of them, bringing Brad with them, ran toward the landing pad. Ranger jumped into the chopper. “I need to hot-wire this.”

  Sean leaned over and pressed some buttons, did something else that Lucy missed, and twisted a wire. The blades started turning.

  “You rock, Little Rogan,” Ranger said.

  Kane strapped Brad into the copilot’s seat. “Take him home, Ranger.”

  “Roger that.”

  They ran low, out of the way of the blades, toward the edge of the mountain as the chopper lifted into the sky. No guards were around to shoot them down. The entire complex was on fire.

  “Let’s get those kids home,” Kane said and led the way.

  * * *

  Michael left Bella in the truck with the black box and told her to hide behind the seats. Then he crawled twenty feet up to get a better vantage point.

  He knew that they’d been seen.

  He’d tried to hide, to stay low, but the backpack Lucy had put the box in practically glowed in the dark. He didn’t realize it until Bella said she heard something. He glanced back and saw that they stuck out like a big pink thumb.

  He’d dumped the backpack in some bushes and ran with the box all the way to the truck. Hid inside. But they’d been followed.

  So he lay there, gun out, watching. Listening.

  He heard nothing.

  Then an explosion—bigger than the one at the prison—made him slide down the mountainside several feet.

  He lay there stunned, his arms over his head. When he could t
hink, his first thought was that he didn’t know how to drive the truck. If everyone was killed, how could he get off this mountain with Bella? He never wanted her to see what he’d seen.

  He reluctantly took his hands off his head and crawled back up to the road. He peered carefully. From the location of the smoke and light, the mansion must have exploded. That had to be the work of Kane and the others. The general wouldn’t blow up his own mansion.

  Relief flooded through him. He would wait here, just like Lucy told him to do. He pulled the St. Jude medal from his shirt and kissed it, like he’d seen Father Flannigan do. Maybe there was a God after all.

  He’d started crawling back down to the truck when he heard the chambering of a bullet.

  He looked up. The general was standing on the path above him. His white clothes were dirty. Or was that blood? Definitely blood. His hair was as wild as his eyes. He had a gun only twenty feet from Michael’s head. He wouldn’t miss.

  “You. I saw you. I didn’t believe it.”

  Michael had Lucy’s gun in his hand, but his hands were flat on the dirt. The early dawn was still hidden while they were among the trees, and the gun was black. The general must not have seen it.

  “I will rebuild and I will dance on your grave,” the general said. He spit on the ground, staggered a bit, then slipped. He clutched his stomach with his free hand. He’d certainly been shot. He was bleeding. But he still had a gun on Michael.

  Suddenly the sound of a helicopter rose over the sound of the fire. The general half screamed in rage as he turned his face to the sky. “That bastard stole my chopper!”

  Michael didn’t know or care who he was talking about. He aimed and fired the gun at the general. He pressed the trigger over and over, remembering Javier and Richie and Tommy and all the others this man killed. He was crying, no sound, just tears running down his face as the bullets stopped coming out of the gun. He still pressed the trigger, because evil always came back.

  Then he heard crying. It wasn’t him, it was a little girl.

  Bella.

  He looked in front of him. The general lay on the edge of the path, his chest a bloody mess, his eyes open and glazed.

  He was dead.

  He couldn’t hurt anyone again.

  Michael crawled back to the truck. He found Bella huddled on the floor, her arms over her head. He said, “Bella, it’s okay. I killed the monster. He can never hurt us again.”