Jewell (The Kings of Guardian Book 8)

by Kris Michaels

  Zane veered over to the shoulder of the road and willed the Humvee to go faster. Pieces of tire treads, hubcaps, and assorted debris flew out from under his vehicle. He could see brake lights ahead in all lanes. He barreled down the shoulder of the road. "Is this lane clear? He was traveling at over one hundred miles an hour, if he hit anyone stalled on the road the chase would be over.

  "You have a broken down vehicle three miles ahead." Zane immediately let off the gas and hit the brake. He needed the time to come to a stop without killing anyone.

  "Where the fuck is he?" Zane demanded

  "Once you stop he will be a half mile up. Middle lane. He's still in the car." Zane skidded to a stop about ten feet from a mini-van full of children. The woman who was attempting to change the tire looked up at him and then blanched. Zane didn't have time to explain the blood or the gun. He vaulted over her and ran like a mad man down the shoulder of the road.

  "Talk to me!" Zane slid over the hood of a vehicle and landed in the space between the far lane and the middle lane. The owner of the vehicle blew his horn and screamed at Zane. Zane popped up and started pounding the pavement, his stride eating the space between him and Lufkey. His single-minded attention was pinned on reaching that bastard.

  "Quarter mile. Wait, he's out of the car, and he's running. Get over a lane, and you'll see him."

  Zane zagged between a semi-truck and a bread truck and immediately had eyes on the bastard. He wanted that fucker alive and shooting him now wasn't even on his mind. He was gaining on the out of shape punk. Lufkey darted terrified looks at him as he tried to outrun Zane.

  A flash of headlights in a side view mirror caught his attention. That was all Zane saw before the driver of a Mercedes opened the door to the luxury sedan. Carter picked that moment to look back at Zane. The kid didn't see the door open and ran full speed into it. The vehicle's door and Vista collided. The door sprang forward and snapped back like a catapult. Lufkey flew backward landing in the road between the two stopped lanes of traffic. Zane was close enough to see the fall and the blood that sprayed the side of the white truck beside the Mercedes. No, no, no! He slid to a stop beside Carter and dropped to his knees.

  "I'm so sorry! I didn't… Oh my God! Is he dead! He has a gun!" The shrill wail of the woman's voice wasn't his concern. Lufkey was bleeding out. The corner of the top metal portion of the door over the driver's side window had torn Lufkey's carotid artery. Zane clamped his hand over the spurting bleed in a fruitless attempt to keep the fucker alive.

  "Tell me where your computer is." Zane leaned down moving his slick hand to try to stem the worst of the blood loss.

  Lufkey grabbed Zane's hand. He tried to shove it away and whispered, "Fuck you." Zane reapplied pressure, but the man's eyes fixed on Zane in a death stare. Lufkey's heart stopped before the man's last exhale echoed through the turmoil on the 495. Zane sat back on his knees and took in the chaos surrounding him. People were running toward them. He reached back and picked up his weapon before he stood. The crowd that gathered parted. Zane walked between two vehicles and headed back toward the tactical vehicle he'd taken.

  "He died. I couldn't save him."

  "We watched it happen." Traffic cams, of course. Zane nodded although Jared couldn't have known he acknowledged it.

  "Jewell is working a way to track Vista's computer. Turn around and walk off the ramp about eight hundred feet ahead. LEOs will give you a ride to the hospital. We'll have one of our docs on standby." Jared's voice once again directing him.

  "I'm not going to a hospital." Zane stopped and looked across the median at the vehicles driving the other direction.

  "You are going." That was Jewell's voice.

  "I'm fine." Zane wanted to puke. The pain in his head had buried itself behind his eyes. Without the adrenaline packed chase he was starting to feel the damage inflicted on his body.

  "You've been shot."

  He glanced down at his arm. He'd lost some blood. Either the bullet was still lodged in his bicep, or it was a graze. He didn't care to take off his shirt to find out. He took a deep breath to try to quell the nausea hitting him like a brick wall. "Been shot before."

  Jewell hummed a noncommittal response. She changed the topic, and for that he was glad. "They ID'd the man Carter hired to kill you. We have an address. LEOs are there now, and some of Jared's people are en route. He has a computer. It's being brought in."

  "Jewell, I didn't kill Lufkey. The hitman tried to kill me. It was him or me." Zane turned and started walking toward the off ramp.

  "I know. You aren't the man you used to be." Her voice was soft and reassuring. He saw the flash of blue strobe lights to his right at the apex of the exit Jared had directed him toward. He turned and walked that direction. Running tonight's events through his mind, he wasn't convinced that he'd changed in the last two years.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jewell glanced out into her work center. She was waiting. Again. Waiting for the computer, waiting for Zane, and waiting for her brothers. Her phone rang at her console, and she picked up the receiver.

  "They didn't check the younger man's vehicle." It was the same voice that had alerted her that Zane had been taken and then again told her where he was being held.

  "What do you mean?" Jewell looked at the license plate of the car Lufkey had driven. It was registered to a Franklin Callaway. There was no record of the man in any of the databases they'd checked. It had to be Lufkey's car.

  "Apartment building parking lot. A 1975 orange piece of shit Vega. I'll watch it until you show up."

  "We're on it." Jewell was typing as she spoke, sending the information to Jared and a request to have the car impounded and any computer components brought to her immediately.

  She hit send and listened carefully. She could hear traffic in the background, so she knew the man hadn't hung up.

  "Is he well?"

  "Who? Zane?"

  "That is who you know him as."

  "He was shot. He was still able to chase down the man we were after."

  "You have closure then?"

  "No. The perp died in a freak accident. We need his computer to find closure." Jewell didn't know why she told the man the truth, but he'd helped them, and Zane trusted him.

  "I will stay until people come for the car. Treat him well. He is one of very few people in my world that I care about."

  "I love him." Jewell felt the need to reassure the man.

  "I know he loves you. He is lucky."

  "How so?"

  "He still feels." The line went dead.

  "Hey, who told you about the second vehicle?" Jared's head was buried in a folder as he opened her door and strode in.

  Jewell blinked clearing her mind and tried to process Jared's question. "What?" She didn't hear half of what he'd said.

  "Who told you about the second vehicle?" A flurry of movement at the bottom of the theater caught both of their attention. Jason and Jacob bounded up the stairs.

  "Jewell, how did you find out about another vehicle?" Jacob asked as he followed Jason through the open doorway.

  "The person who was working with Zane. He called and told me that the men on scene had failed to secure the vehicle Carter arrived in."

  "Fuck, we ran the plates of all the vehicles in the parking lot, right?" Jason asked as he flopped down in Zane's chair.

  "Yes, we did, and we are in the process of cross-referencing them with the occupants of the building, but it wasn't a high priority. I think we all were focusing on the incoming computer. We would have figured it out, but it could have taken us hours." Jewell admitted the oversight. Her people were good, but there was only so much they could do in the time they'd been given.

  "I'm not pointing fingers, just making sure we were working it." Jason leaned back in the chair. "I'll be glad when this nightmare is over."

  A silent agreement c
overed the office. The memories of the events the Bravata and Vista had brought upon Guardian and its members rolled through Jewell's mind. She needed to find his computer and then she needed to get into it. If the bastard hadn't booby-trapped his system, she should be able to find a way in. Jewell leaned forward, suddenly exhausted. She'd been through an emotional wringer tonight. Her nerves were shot, and she needed… she needed Zane.

  "He is in-processing downstairs. He'll be here in a minute." Jacob spoke up breaking the heavy silence. Jewell turned her head and blinked at him. Had she said that out loud?

  Jacob crossed in front of her and sat down on her workstation desktop. "I figured you were worried." Jewell nodded. She couldn't let her brothers see it, but she'd been terrified. The second they saw Zane on top of the dead man she'd finally been able to breathe. And then she couldn't. The blood that stained his shirt from his arm and the blood that ran from the gash in his cheek were vivid on the video feed. Bracing herself for him to be hurt and seeing it were two different things.

  "We will need to debrief him, but after that, we'll give you two a little time alone," Jason added.

  "Do we have an ETA on the computer?" Jewell asked because if she acknowledged the kindness of her brothers, she'd probably cry andthat would piss her off and then she'd cry harder. She glanced down at the entranceway willing Zane to walk through it.

  Jared looked at his watch. "Probably another thirty minutes out, and our guys should be at the identified car in about five minutes, give or take for traffic."

  Jewell nodded. "He'll watch it until they get there."

  "Did he say that?" Jacob picked up one of her pencils and frowned at the lack of eraser. He bounced his index finger against the mangled metal band. "You really need to start chewing gum or something." He turned and tossed the pencil into the waste basket and raised his hands in victory when he sunk the shot.

  "Five bucks says you can't make that again." Jared dared his brother

  "Oh, shit." Jason and Jewell said the words at the same time.

  "Jinx! You owe me a coke!" Jewell laughed and pointed at Jason.

  "Oh, I see how it is. I get shot while the bosses play games." Zane stood at the door, and Jewell launched toward him. His 'oof' when she collided with him was followed by a strong, one-armed hug. The tears that she'd pushed away earlier cascaded down her face. She buried her head into his chest.

  "Shhh… I'm fine. I love you." His whispered words were only for her.

  Jewell squeezed him tighter and echoed his words against his chest.

  One of her brothers cleared his throat. Jewell snuck her hand up between Zane's chest and her face and wiped at her tears. He held her until she took a step back and nodded her head. She glanced at his cheek and winced. "Holy shit is that a burn from a bullet!"

  Zane lifted his right hand in a placating manner. "I'm fine."

  "You're fine? You're fine?" Jewell could hear the hysteria in her voice and stopped, snapping her mouth shut.

  Zane advanced on her and put his hand around her neck tipping her head up. He stared at her hard and nodded. "I'm alive. I'm a stubborn bastard, and nobody was keeping me from coming back to you."

  "Not even his doctor." A tall blond man with blue eyes stood behind Zane. Jewell hadn't even seen the man come into her office.

  "Is he your doctor? Why do you need a doctor?"

  "He doesn't. That hard headed man has a concussion, a bullet hole and a bunch of other boo-boos, but he knows the drill. I, on the other hand, was summoned."

  Jason stood and extended his hand to the doctor. "Maliki. Thanks for coming in. If you can give us about a half hour, I'll meet with you in my office, and we can talk."

  "No problem. I only followed him up here to make sure he didn't pass out halfway up the stairs." Maliki turned on his heel and left the office. That was when Jewell noticed the light flashing in the theater and an escort waiting for the doctor. Her people were hanging out in the break room until the visitor left. All monitors and screens had been blacked out. The fact that he wasn't cleared in her section spoke volumes.

  "Zane, have a seat. We need to go over what transpired tonight." Jared motioned toward his chair. Jewell watched carefully as Zane lowered slowly into the chair. He didn't flinch or grimace, but she could tell by the way he held his body he was sore.

  "Start from the beginning." Jared leaned back against the wall and got comfortable.

  "Jewell called me in, which meant something had happened?" He glanced over to her to fill in the blanks.

  "Yeah, he popped up in the chat room." She nodded toward the screen.

  "With what?" Zane asked.

  "Birthdates. Yours, Jared's, Jacob's, Nicolas's, and Jason's." Zane squinted at her as if he was trying to decode the words.

  Finally, he nodded and turned back to Jared. "As soon as I left the apartment building I knew the buffoon that the hitman took out was following me. I had to drop my keys to give him enough time to knock me the fuck out."

  "Who was following you and reporting to Jewell?" Jacob's question was a logical one. Jewell knew Zane wasn't going to answer it the way her brother would like.

  "A friend."

  "Care to elaborate?" Jason asked.

  Zane turned to him and stared at him for several seconds before he replied, "No."

  Jared broke the silence with his next question. "What happened at the apartment building?"

  "When I came around I was bound to a chair in the room. My arms were zip-tied behind my back. The dick who crowned me was locked in the room with me. The man I killed took the hired muscle out within five seconds of opening the door. From what I could understand, Lufkey had hired the goon to kidnap me and the hitman didn't like anyone knowing where he was based or what he looked like."

  "Common trend among hitmen, I hear," Jacob quipped.

  "Probably," Zane admitted. "I acted like the fucker had clocked me harder than he did and I listened. Lufkey was off the deep end. He blamed me, or who he thought I was for his brother's death."

  "The fire inspector's final report came in. The explosion was a result of a space heater and a damaged gas line. It had nothing to do with us. Although he also stated that there was no reason for the space heater to be plugged in and running. Personally, I believe Lufkey killed his brother and tried to solace his conscience by blaming us." Jewell listened to Jared's thoughts. She agreed with him. She'd read the report and had drawn the same conclusion.

  "He admitted as much. Assuming I was Jewell, he said it was my fault he had to kill his brother. It takes all kinds of crazy. Anyway, he said they didn't get to sit under the protective umbrella I'd erected any longer. That he'd already set plans in motion to ensure you paid. He said you'd lose one of your own and that by this time tomorrow she'd be dead."

  Jewell and her brothers exchanged dire filled glances before Jason asked, "Did he say Jewell's name?"

  "No. He said she. No names."

  "Fuck." Jason ran his hands over his face. "Jared, get ahold of Jasmine and Chad, make sure they are watching their six. Explain the threat. Jacob, call Chief and the Wonder Twins. I want mom and Frank protected at all times. Have them tell Joseph what's going on so he can ensure Ember is safe. Hell, tell Chief to keep Taty close. He probably knows about her by now. Adam and Keelee should be safe, but make sure they get the word, too. I know Tori and Faith have teams on them, but I want the team leaders notified to be hyper-vigilant. I'll call Gabriel and get word to him. Anna has been driving all over the city with Christian working issues for the shelter. She has an armed escort at all times, but they need to know."

  "What about Jade?" Jewell interjected.

  "She's undercover with the DEA. Do you think he'd be able to find any information about her?"

  Jewell bit her bottom lip and worried it for a bit. Her mind processed all the variables, and none of it came out in a tidy bow. It was a ball
of string with five ends. "I don't know. The birthdates he sent were all division chiefs. Why would he move from a major player to someone in our family? I don't know how he could extrapolate a bridge between the identified people and Jade. The Bravata was directing him when he went after Faith and Anna. Jasmine was also Bravata directed. I guess the question would be was he actually the one responsible for sending the Bravata after our families? If he was, then it makes sense he'd look, if not and the Bravata was directing the attacks… I just don't know."

  The silence of the room punctuated the end of her thoughts. There was no right answer, and everyone knew it. The bastard could have targeted any one of the women close to the leaders of this organization. Hell, for all Jewell knew Vista could have targeted any one of the women working for Guardian. It was like putting all your fingers in the holes riddling the dike and still needing your toes to keep the flood from coming.

  "Zane are you okay? Do I need to put people on you two tonight?" Jared asked following his own train of thought.

  Zane glanced over Jewell and slowly shook his head. "We aren't going anywhere tonight. She'll have the computer to work on. I'm not making her leave. I'll stay too."

  "There is the office we converted for her if you need to rest." Jared suggestion earned him a glare from Zane that Jewell was certain could peel paint off the wall.

  "Yeah, if looks could kill, my brother. Don't worry Zane. I'll get a cot or bedroll brought up here. You'll need to crash sooner or later." Jacob spoke as he was heading toward the door.

  "Thanks, I'll need it." For Zane to acknowledge his weakness to her brothers meant he was hurting more than he told her when he'd come into the office.

  "What are you going to do about Jade?" Jewell asked Jason as he stood.

  "I'm going to call the DEA. She's deep undercover. If they yank her, it will negate over eighteen month's worth of work. I don't have the authority to bring her home." He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels before he continued, "If I could I would."