Seriously Jake. You need to stop watching those old movies on TV. Didn't you say you watched Arsenic and Old Lace the other night, Sabrina said.
That's beside the point. There's something up with these ladies. They're not as innocent as they seem.
Neither are you, Max said.
Very funny. What's this secret meeting stuff about? I thought maybe they had some kind of senior dating site or something, but not the way their guarding what they're doing and the words I'm hearing come out of that room are not about any kind of dating. It's got to be something else.
Just do your job, Max said.
Got it. And by the way, Gertie asked me to make sure Sabrina brought the knives when she comes over later so they could practice.
Jake shut off his phone and tamped down the frustration. Maybe his siblings were right. It could be completely innocent, and he'd blown this whole thing out of proportion. There had to be a perfectly good explanation.
"I'm going to kill the bastard." Gertie's voice boomed through the closed door, followed by hushed tones.
He sure as hell didn't imagine that. Should he worry even more than he already was?
If he could just make sure nothing bad happened in the next couple of hours then it would be Sabrina's problem.
CHAPTER FOUR
Bring some knives. Sabrina glanced again at the text as she went to the home around four to relieve Jake.
"See ya, sis." He kissed her on the cheek. "Good luck."
"You're in a hurry."
"Yep." Without another word he bounded down the steps and trotted toward their rental home a few doors down.
Jake was not known to be so short on words, especially after his earlier texts. Uncertain as to the whys of his hasty exit, Sabrina smiled at the women sitting on the living room couch. "Good afternoon, ladies."
"Did you bring your knives?" Gertie asked.
Before she could respond, Lois chimed in. "Jake said you were really good at throwing them."
"No I think that was Max," Annie said.
"It doesn't matter, does it? As long as she shows us a few tricks it will all be fine." Gertie placed her hands on the table in front of her and smiled.
"We need to protect ourselves. Thank goodness Annie had her pepper spray with her or who knows what would have happened."
"Jake didn't mention anything about trouble." No wonder he'd hightailed it out of there. No doubt he was goofing off, which had brought out those crazy texts he'd sent out a couple of hours earlier. He never took things seriously until it was too late.
"It wasn't his fault." Gertie patted Sabrina's hand. "I think he was doing some of that Skyping stuff with his girlfriend and was distracted. She's quite attractive, I couldn't help but notice. But then again Jake is a cutie. Anyway, Annie didn't want to disturb him and went to pick some wildflowers when somebody tried to snatch her. Luckily she had her pepper spray—"
"And a big mouth," Gertie added.
"Well, there's that as well. But all's well that ends well. Jake suggested that you might show us some of your moves just in case we get into a bind again."
Sabrina snorted. "I bet he did. What do you ladies have in mind?"
"Target practice. Give us some pointers to show us how it's done," Lois said.
"We found some targets in the garage that will work. We already have them set up in back," Annie said.
"Did you ever throw knives at a spinning target?" Gertie asked as they all walked out the back patio doors.
"You mean like in the circus?" Sabrina shook her head and tried not to smile. The ladies looked so serious. "I'm afraid in my line of work there's not a big call for that kind of skill set."
"That's a shame. It would have come in handy sometime I imagine," Gertie said.
"Let's start with the basics." Sabrina pulled some wrapped knives out of her purse. "It's all about the weight and trajectory. Knife throwing is less about strength than finesse. Fluidity is the key. No jerky movements."
"We're old. Shaky is part of who we are," Gertie added.
"You ladies will do fine." She drew in a deep breath and hoped she was right. "Before I give you ladies the knives, place your weight on your dominant leg, rest your other foot in front of you."
"Woah…" Lois called out as she began to wobble, and Sabrina rushed over to steady her. She glanced at the three of them steeped in concentration. These were the women Jake was worried about being hired killers? He must be getting soft in his old age.
"Now raise your dominant arm in front of you so that it is perpendicular to the ground."
"Which way is perpendicular again? I forget," Gertie said as she raised her arm up toward the sky.
"Perpendicular is a ninety degree angle. Annie has it right." Sabrina went around and helped them. Once satisfied, she returned to her position. "Now pretend you have a knife in your hand and bring back your elbow so that the knife is alongside your head. Make sure you aren't too close to your head because you wouldn't want to accidentally cut yourself when you throw it. Now practice that movement a couple of times."
"When do we get the real thing?" Gertie asked as she pumped her arm every which way but the correct one. "And do we hold it by the blade or the handle?"
"You can't hold it by the blade. You'd cut yourself, wouldn't you, Sabrina?" Lois asked.
Sabrina figured she surely needed her head examined for taking on this task as she repositioned the ladies to do no harm—at least she hoped. "True and not true. You have to be careful, but it depends on where the weight lies within the knife. For our purposes the weight is in the handle, so that will be our grip point."
Somehow that seemed to satisfy their burgeoning curiosity, and they went through the exercise, gaining a bit in confidence. Although maybe she was being overly optimistic.
"Now shift your weight from your dominant to your non-dominant leg to create forward momentum. At the same time, swing your forearm forward from the elbow so that your arm is straight out in front of you. This is when you release the knife. Practice this swinging motion several times to get the hang of it before we move on to the real thing."
She sidled next to Annie. "You were a pitcher before weren't you?" Sabrina held the woman's arm.
"How did you guess?"
"Because you're throwing like it's a baseball. When you throw a knife your arm should swing straight up. Pretend like your chopping wood instead of tossing a baseball."
"Annie was the star pitcher of the softball team we were on in college," Lois volunteered.
"Scared all the boys away, I'm afraid." Gertie snorted before continuing. "They thought she'd show them up, and she mostly did."
"Except for my Will. He wasn't intimidated by my athletic ability." Annie clucked. "Still miss the old pain in the neck even after all these years."
"Did you marry him?" Sabrina asked.
"Nope, married safe, reliable, Harry." She wiggled her eyebrows up and down. "But he was more than a bit boring in and out of the bedroom, if you know what I mean. Will and I…well…we would have had tons of fun and a whole lot of laughs, but Daddy thought he wasn't right for me."
"We told you not to listen to you father," the other two voiced in unison like they'd said it a thousand times to their friend.
Annie shrugged. "Too late for that now."
"What? He never married, and you're a widow. You should look him up some time." Gertie smiled as she glanced at Lois.
For a moment or two, Sabrina contemplated life passing her by, especially as it related to Kane, and wondered if they were both too focused on the future to enjoy the here and now. Maybe she needed to slow down and enjoy this thing they had together. Snippets of time together here and there weren't cutting it anymore. She didn't have to take every assignment The Alliance sent her way. More of her time would free up, and they might be able to see each other more often.
Balance. Maybe Kane was right when he always talked about that.
She shook off her thoughts. "Alright, ladies. Are yo
u ready for the real deal?"
"You betcha," Gertie responded and held out her hand.
"Now grip the knife loosely but firm. Allow it to slip from your hand once your arm is pointing toward your target and your wrist is perfectly straight. Do it at that precise moment, and the knife will fly out of your hand and stick into the target."
"Maybe you should paint some bulls-eyes on those targets to give us something to shoot for," Lois said.
Sabrina figured they'd be lucky to hit the target at all. "Let's see where we're at after a couple of rounds, and we'll go from there."
Their first attempts were horrific. Gertie complained about the glare from the sun that was setting, and Lois said the targets were too small. Annie didn't complain too much, although she was the only one of the three who actually hit the target. Several of their shots went so far off course that Sabrina'd be rummaging through the bushes to gather back all her knives. She should have thought through that whole "bring your knives" idea when Jake suggested it.
Annie had some athleticism going for her, which gave her an advantage. A small one. Sabrina couldn't decide if she was happy that the ladies were so bad or not. There was a sense of safety in their lack of skill.
After their third round of practice shots, and at after six-thirty by now, they were losing daylight. Sabrina had a perfect excuse to wrap things up. Besides, her brothers would be coming by soon for dinner.
"I'll retrieve the knives, ladies. You keep practicing the motion without the knives. Muscle memory will kick in soon. By tomorrow you ladies will be pros at this."
Maybe it was Jake's weird conversation from earlier that had Sabrina mentally sidetracked. Maybe it was a bit of anxiousness after not seeing Kane for nearly a month. That was the longest they'd ever gone since they'd gotten together a year ago.
Weird how she and her siblings had come full circle in their lives, starting with her and Kane, followed by Jake and Tessa, and then Max jumped on board this crazy relationship train as well with not only Gianna but also her younger brother Mick. Not surprising that Max had quickly taken over the parenting role as well. While she'd be loath to admit it to him, it was a role he played well based on her own experience. Despite less than ideal circumstances, she couldn't imagine having a better parental figure than Max.
Now where were those knives? The dirt and trees at the perimeter of the property were not conducive to this kind of search, especially given the late hour. Maybe she should have enlisted the ladies' help, but that might have turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. They were nice enough ladies, but they did have a tendency to get sidetracked.
Sabrina drew in a breath as she spotted one of the knives stuck in the dirt. She pulled it out and found a couple more close by. Still missing a half dozen more. She should have had them practice at a closer target. She'd move it in for the next round tomorrow. No sense making more work for herself.
She couldn't say how long she'd been gone—maybe close to a half hour—but as she sauntered back toward the house, the ladies were nowhere to be found. A sense of foreboding skittered down her spine as she looked over her surroundings. They'd started the barbeque, had the steaks resting by it, and had even prepped some margaritas, but the women were all missing.
All three of them.
Her first instinct was to text her brothers. But after the trouble she'd given Jake that afternoon, she knew that wouldn't be the route to take. How far could they have gone? None of them were known for their speed.
Unless somebody had gotten to them.
But surely she would have heard something.
She ran back through the bushes toward the beach. The temperature had dipped probably close to fifty now that the sun had gone down. She couldn't spot anyone on the desolate stretch of land in the middle of frickin' nowhere.
Hesitant to go inside and search further, she spotted a flicker of what looked like a bonfire down the road at the very edge of the curve. The ladies had told her earlier that they'd heard the home down there was vacant. They'd mentioned something about it being owned at one time by an old friend of theirs.
They might have meandered that way to investigate. In fact, she'd be more surprised if they hadn't.
With a new direction in mind, she jogged down the shore, determined to catch up with three little old ladies who had more energy and life than she could have imagined. Jake's earlier texts about them being senior assassins surged to the forefront of her thoughts.
Naw, they couldn't be.
CHAPTER FIVE
"Hello ladies," Jake announced as he walked inside the house.
Max trailed behind as he checked his phone for word from Gianna. Then was stopped by the lack of noise level. "Wait. Why is it so quiet in here?"
Jake turned around to look at Max. "Where the hell are they?"
Max's senses pulsed as he and Jake split up. He went left, and Jake went right. Then they pounded up the stairs to the second then the third floor. They reconvened on the first floor and rushed through the kitchen to the outside.
"Dinner's been started." Jake pointed toward the steaks that sat on a plate outside the grill by the pool.
"Drinks have been served as well." Max pointed to a pitcher and smelled. "Margaritas. Where the hell are they?"
"Target practice. Knives. Trouble." Jake started to run. "Beach. Gotta be." They ran together through the thicket of small bushes and trees toward the shore.
Max's heart pounded as he yelled, "Sabrina!" No response. After all the dangerous missions they'd been on singly and together…no, he wouldn't think like that…she would have…
"Is that them down the beach? By that fire?" Jake pointed toward a spot nearly a mile down the shore. The wind had begun to pick up as the season hadn't quite hit its stride yet. Droplets of rain filtered down from the sky as they ran.
Max yanked out his phone and called his sister. "No answer."
"It's not like Sabrina to not answer her phone," Jake added inching up Max's paranoia even more.
"That's what worries me." His shoes were half-filled with sand as they slugged along the shore and headed for the only place where they spotted signs of life.
"Sabrina," Jake called her name, but no one responded.
Max's bad feeling barometer had hit its maximum level at that point. "Gertie, Annie, Lois!" He called and jogged along with his brother, but as they got closer, he noticed that no one was by the fire. But based on the smattering footprints near it, someone had been.
They glanced at the house nearby, and Max nodded as they jogged up the path toward the back deck. Music filled the air around the house, spilling onto the beach area, while it seemed every light remained on and pulsing in the early dusk hour.
Jake nodded in the language of brothers who knew each other's thoughts and retrieved the weapons he had stashed under his jacket. Max did the same. Finding Sabrina pulsed on Max's mind non-stop. This should have been simple. What had happened?
They made their way towards the home and peeked inside the windows covering the back. Max shook his head as the wide open space inside gave no clue there was anyone lurking about.
The sound of something breaking propelled them inside. At least it wasn't a bullet.
"Get your hands off me," said Gertie's voice.
Finally Max was able to draw in a breath.
He motioned for Jake to go toward the left while he headed right. It sounded like she might be towards the front. He tried to remember what the home looked like: circular drive, trees…crap he couldn't think of what it looked like. What kind of covert operative was he if he hadn't thoroughly scoped out the area?
It would be nice to know what they were up against. Who they were up against. How many they were up against. But at this point, he had to plan for the worst.
Jake had morphed into work mode the minute Sabrina couldn't be located. As much as Max chided his brother on his laid back posturing, he couldn't dispute the fact that when push came to shove, Jake could be relied on more
than anybody he knew, besides himself and Sabrina. And maybe Gianna.
He sorely regretted not having been able to spend as much time with Gianna lately as he wanted to. Taking over Jennings' job full time had been a recent decision for him. He hadn't even confided in his family about his new role with The Alliance. He'd only talked it over with Gianna as a fait accompli. He was still trying to convince her to come work for him as well. She had enough years at the NYPD that she could still collect her pension, but in the meantime her time would be freer. Besides, he needed somebody with her investigative skills and enjoyed being around her. Her work schedule demanded way too much of her time, and it was taking its toll on her. And, if he were being honest, on their relationship as well.
Now he suspected she was getting closer and closer to agreeing to his terms. With Mick leaving for college, he could tell that she enjoyed the idea of having more free time and flexibility in what she did or didn't do on a daily basis.
"Drop it." Sabrina's voice broke through his thoughts bringing about both worry and relief.
Her voice wasn't too far away, and not seeing her made it impossible to get a handle on how to approach the situation. Fear tickled at the base of his spine as he texted Jake: First floor, north side of building.
Seconds later, he heard the faint sounds of his brother's footsteps. They approached from opposite sides. The unknowns made his heart speed up.
"Put down the weapon." Sabrina's steady voice brought him a momentary level of comfort. "Nobody needs to get hurt here."
He and Jake nodded simultaneously and made their move. Then came the chaos.
* * *
"What in the holy hell is going on here?" Jake shook his head at the scene.
Lois had managed to put a chokehold on a kid who couldn't be more than sixteen or so. Annie had a frying pan in her hand, poised over the kid's head, and Gertie had that small caliber weapon pointed at him as well.
"Lois, you need to loosen your grip." Sabrina's voice went up a couple of octaves as the kid's face started to turn red. "He's not going to do anything. He's outnumbered."
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