by Amity Cross
A million dollars? How the fuck was I meant to get that much cash?
“I know what you’re worth, Mr. Hancock. I’ve been in this business a long time and I don’t fuck around. No cops, no witnesses or her pretty face is gone, got it?”
I knew assholes just like this one and they always made good on their threats. My jaw tightened as I tried to keep my anger in check. “Got it.”
“You have two hours.” The line went dead and I think my heart stopped with it.
I understood that the guy must've been a right piece of work, but a fuckin' criminal? A wannabe mob boss with a couple of thugs? He smelt like cartel, but that was a stretch. Cartel wouldn't take a woman hostage and try and get small time money from someone with such a high profile as me. It smelt like drug money. Probably had an underground betting ring, ran coke and pills. Newbie shit. He'd seen the photo of me and Lilly and smelt some easy money and a way to assert his authority. Teach one man a lesson they’ll never forget and everyone else will fall into line.
No, he wasn't anything special. Big time career crooks didn't have to beat their woman to keep them around, they willingly sucked dick to be on their arms.
I suddenly understood why Lilly had run and tried to hide. She'd felt like it was her only option. If she gave up and stayed with the guy...there was no happy ending on that story.
Fuckin' Lilly.
I glanced back toward the studio, wondering if I should say something. Make an excuse. I didn't have time to worry about that. Which way was out?
My phone buzzed and I saw a text with Lilly’s address.
There'd be a car out front someplace, a dude or two watching for the moment I'd leave. They'd tail me, reporting to Major Asswipe on my every move. There'd be someone watching Lilly's apartment, too. They'd know if I was going to try something before I even got there. They'd be ready for it. The only thing I had going for me was the fact that I knew most of their tricks.
I didn't have a million bucks. Most of it was locked away in investments. If the band pooled all their cash, we might scrape in, but there was no way I was telling anyone. They'd try and stop me, call the cops and Lilly would be dead. I'd made a lot of stupid decisions in my life, but this wouldn't be one of them.
They'd rue the fucking day they messed with Rob Hancock.
Pressing my back against the brick wall of the studio, I peered out of the alley onto the street. I made one car on the opposite side of the road. The dude had just sat there in his sleek looking sedan for the past ten minutes, not moving, his gaze firmly planted on the front of the studio. Rookie twat.
There was zero cover, so I needed a fuckin’ miracle if I was going to ditch this guy. I spied a FedEx truck coming in the distance and wondered if I could duck out while it passed. The studio was on a corner, and I didn’t need to go that far to be in the clear.
When the truck hit the edge of the car, I ducked low and ran for the corner. A second later, I was out of sight and the truck had passed. Putting my head down, I kept walking, hoping that I hadn’t been made. Casting a glance over my shoulder, I wasn’t totally sure, but I couldn’t spot a tail.
I walked three blocks past a strip of shops before ducking into an alcove. Leaning against the doorjamb, I watched the way I’d come. Clear.
They really only put one guy out there? Seriously? This guy mustn’t be anything more than a glorified wannabe. Stupid, but still a dangerous wannabe.
Stepping back out onto the street, I detoured into a luggage store. I picked out a nondescript looking duffle bag and tossed it on the counter. The dude gave me a weird look when I asked him for bit of extra padding, but stuffed it to the brim with scraps of plastic wrap and cardboard. Zipping the top closed, it looked passable. Giving the guy the cash, I went back out onto the street and hailed a taxi. If I kept following the steps of my plan, then I wouldn’t get so amped up that I’d blow it. I couldn’t think about what was at stake.
I asked the driver to pull up three blocks from Lilly’s apartment. I’d never been here, but Major Asswipe had texted me the address. Watching the cab pull away and disappear down the street, I began making my way along the footpath, scanning shop windows and parked cars.
I found the asswipe’s man across the street from the apartment block, half a block down. Sleek looking sedan, obviously a rental, probably traceable to a spoof credit card. One guy sat in the front behind the wheel, his bald head shining through the open window.
Picking my way closer in his blind spot, I halted when his phone started ringing. I was at the rear corner of the car, almost there...
“Yeah, no sign of him,” the guy said in a thick accent that sounded New York-ish. “He could’ve given Bennie the slip at the studio or he could still be there.” The guy still hadn’t checked his mirror and I stepped closer, setting the bag down next to the rear wheel. “I’ve got eyes on the building, boss. If he shows I’ll see him.” He lifted the phone from his ear and tossed in onto the dash of the car.
I probably had thirty seconds before he decided to check his blind spot. Leaning against the open window, I asked, “Are you here with Gorges Cassano?” When the dude started and fumbled at his waist, I drew my fist back and punched him in the temple as hard as I could. I’d dropped bigger assholes than this guy and when he slumped back against the headrest, I reached in and nicked his phone and gun, glad that there was no foot traffic behind me. Dickhead.
Shoving the gun in the back of my jeans, I picked up his phone, ripped off the back and dumped the battery down a drain in the gutter before tossing the rest of it back inside the car. Picking the duffle bag decoy, I jogged across the street and into Lilly’s building. I’d been out of the game for ten years, not that I hadn’t been a dick in between now and then, but I still had it. Fuckin’ amateurs.
There were no prizes for the asshole that made a mistake. If I couldn’t take this guy, then Lilly would die…and probably me, too. Wiping my mind clean, I took the stairs two at a time. No fuckin’ fear, Hancock. You made her a promise.
I knocked on the door sharply. This was where the steps of my plan ended. Everything that was about to happen wouldn’t run to a schedule. We’d either live or die. I’d find out which soon enough.
“Who is it?”
I wasn’t prepared to hear Lilly’s voice, even though I knew she was there. It wavered, betraying that she was terrified and I wrenched the door open, stepping into the apartment. Instead of laying eyes on Lilly, I came face to face with the barrel of a gun.
“Mr. Hancock, I presume?”
My heart skipped a single beat, then I was switched back on. I looked over Gorges Cassano, sizing the prick up. Sharp suit jacket, open collared shirt, shiny shoes, slicked back hair like he was the fuckin’ Godfather. All he needed was a fuckin' cigar and a pocket square then he’d have his costume down pat. He had blood splattered on his face and shirt and my gaze instantly found Lilly’s.
She was gaffer taped to a chair, her forehead bleeding, a cut in her perfect pouty lips. I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t move. There was a gun pointed at my head and all I could see was her. My Lilly.
My gaze fixed onto the asshole that had beaten her, sent her running for her life, abused and tortured her and all I could see was red. I was going to kill him. I was going to beat the shit out of him just as bad as he’d beat her, then I’d imbed a bullet in his head.
Realizing I wasn’t going to reply, Gorges gestured with the gun. “Turn around, Mr. Hancock.”
Grimacing, I knew he’d see the gun I’d nicked from his goon downstairs tucked into the back of my jeans. There was nothing I could do about it, so I turned. He wrenched it free and tossed it on the bed out of reach.
“No time for heroes, Mr. Hancock. I’m going to make this nice and easy for you. Now, drop the bag and step back."
“I’ll give you the bag when you cut her loose from the chair,” I said, my voice low and full of warning. Gorges sneered at me before positioning himself behind Lilly, the gun still trained o
n me. He slipped a knife between the tape and Lilly’s skin and she flinched. “Unharmed, if you don’t mind.”
The sound of cutting tape followed and one hand was free, then he cut the next, Lilly’s gaze never leaving me.
“Bag,” he said, holding his hand out.
“Her ankles.”
“Bag first,” Gorges snapped. “I know every trick in the book, Mr. Hancock. Give me the bag, then you get the rest of her."
My heart started to hammer in my chest, but I had no choice. He held a gun right at me and at this range, shit would get messy. There was a ninety-nine percent chance that he’d kill us anyway, so what else was I meant to do?
I tossed the bag at his feet and the moment it landed, he knew it wasn’t filled with his ransom. With one long stride he was in front of me, cocking the gun and pressing it into my temple. I stared at Lilly tied to the chair, all bloody and bruised, her cheeks wet with tears and I snapped. The only fuck who was getting a bullet today was Gorges Cassano, slime bag extraordinaire. Faster than I thought I could, my hand flew up and grasped Gorges' wrist, pushing the gun away from my head and toward the ceiling. There was a defining boom as it went off, the bullet imbedding in the wall in a shower of plaster. Lilly screamed from someplace far away, my ears rung from the close quarters, but I didn’t need my hearing to beat the living shit out of this guy.
Kicking his feet from under him, we fell to the floor, me on top, and I smashed his hand against the hardwood, trying to dislodge his grip on the gun. I smashed it over and over as he struggled, but he clipped me in the jaw with his free hand, but not before I smashed his grip loose. The gun clattered to the floor and it was a desperate struggle to grab hold of it. I punched him in the face, the flat pack sound of flesh pounding against flesh sickening in the silence. I punched him again and again, blood erupting from his nose.
Gorges was stunned for a split second, but it was that tiny window that allowed me to grab the gun and stumble to my feet and out of the way. Aiming it at his head, my chest heaved.
Gorges glared up at me, blood dripping from his nose. "Rich fucking prick, aren't you? All fucking talk and nothing to back it up with. I bet you don't even know where the safety is."
I clicked the little switch that made the gun go boom. "You were saying?"
"Rob, please don't," Lilly pleaded. "Don't ruin your life for me."
I was kicked out onto the streets at sixteen, abandoned with nothing but the contents of my school bag and the first person to show me a little bit of kindness was nothing more than a criminal of the worst variety. To him, I was just another minion in his fucking gang to be manipulated. I was taught how to shoot ten different kinds of guns, I learnt how to handle myself in a fight and I learnt how to switch off that thing inside me that made me feel guilty. When you have to fend for yourself on the street, you have to be okay with following through or there were plenty of other fucks who were more than willing to take you out of the picture. You had to be prepared to kill.
If the cops didn’t pick me up on the way to that armed robbery, then maybe I’d be just like this fucker at my feet right now. Abusive, dangerous, lethal… I could’ve turned out so much worse than I had. I could’ve already killed someone.
Lilly tugged on my arm, somehow getting loose. "Don't."
If I pulled the trigger the world would be minus one piece of shit and Lilly would be safe from him forever. If I pulled the trigger, I'd become a murderer.
“I hear sirens,” she said. “Let the cops take him. Please."
My hand started to shake and with a grimace, I flipped the barrel away from the asshole’s head.
"Do you know how to fire a gun?" I asked.
"Safety's off, yeah?" she asked and I nodded. "Then I know how to fire a gun."
Reaching for something to tie his hands with, I said, “If you’re gunna shoot the cunt, shoot him in the leg. Asshole can’t run with a bullet imbedded in his thigh."
I hauled Gorges off the floor and shoved him into the chair, taping the cunt just like he had Lilly. He cursed at me, threatened all my living relatives, vowed to cut off my cock and feed it to me, threatened and insulted Lilly, but I didn’t listen. If I listened to his tirade of bullshit, then I’d take the gun and blow his fucking face right off. I’d do it for her.
Taking the gun from Lilly, I pulled her against me. “It’s gunna be okay,” I murmured into her hair. “He’ll never touch you again.”
The moment the cops burst through the door, they took one look at me with the gun in my hand, no matter that I’d flicked the safety and was holding it out butt first, and trained their weapons on me.
“No,” Lilly cried, angling herself in front of me.
“Step aside, ma’am,” a cop said.
Gorges started laughing like he was having the time of his life.
“That is Gorges Cassano. He kidnapped me, beat me and tried to get him to pay ransom.” She jabbed a finger at me, then pointed to the asshole tied in the chair. “Arrest him."
“Let them do their job, Lil,” I said, putting the gun on the floor and holding my hands up. “We’ll clear it up. Don’t worry about it."
The nearest cop pushed me face first in the wall and cuffed me. Right now, I looked like the bad guy, but it’d work out. Lilly was safe. She was okay.
I was hauled out of the apartment and down into the back of a waiting cop car. I watched as Lilly stood on the sidewalk arguing with a guy in a suit, a detective, as they brought out Gorges and dumped him into another car, cuffed and all bruised and bloody. I only wished I’d gotten in another few swings because looking at Lilly…I wanted to put the guy in a hospital bed. I wanted him drinking through a straw for the rest of his miserable life. He didn’t deserve to be walking.
The cop car drove away and I turned to see the detective wind an arm around Lilly as she tried to stop us. She was shrieking at him and then we rounded a corner and I couldn’t see anymore.
At the station, they took my prints and mug shot and I hoped to god that Sasha would catch it before it leaked out to every gossip mag in the business. They stuck me in a holding cell for what felt like hours until the detective I’d seen on the street came to interview me. I had nothing to hide, so I told them everything. The beating I'd given Major Asshole could be put down as self defense and as if they'd listen to a jerk like him. I told them anything they wanted to know and they told me that Lilly Hunter was really Fiona Shaw and I didn't give a fuck.
They told me she was waiting out front and wouldn’t leave until I was free. She wouldn’t even go to the hospital. Not until I was let out. Yeah, I loved her. You kinda realize these things when you risk a bullet in the head. Funny how shit works.
Just like the movies, I got a single phone call. Guess who the lucky recipient was?
Knowing I’d done nothing wrong, but still dreading making the call, I punched in the number for Sasha’s mobile.
“Sasha Montgomery.” Her tone was clipped and I knew she was wound up in a full on mood because of me.
“It’s Rob."
“Rob? Where the fuck are you?"
“Thought I’d better give you the heads up. I’ve been arrested.”
“What?” she screeched and I had to hold the receiver away from my ear. The cop standing beside me started to laugh.
“I’ll give you the run down when you get here, huh?”
“What did you do? Are you okay?"
"They’re not charging me.” I gave her the details for the cop shop I was in. “Time to work your magic, Montgomery.”
“Pray to fucking god I don’t need to use your balls in a sacrifice, Hancock.”
Despite the fuckin’ day I’d had, I started to laugh. “I like ‘em just where they are."
Lilly
They let Rob out of the slammer within twenty minutes of Hurricane Sasha blowing through the doors.
Gorges had a rap sheet longer than my arm and there was enough evidence from open cases back in New York to put him away for a very long ti
me. That wasn’t even considering the charges being slapped on him by Rob and I for kidnapping, blackmail, assault and all the juicy charges related to stalking and assault with a deadly weapon.
The detective that came to speak to us mentioned something about the FBI, but I had better things on my mind. I never had to look over my shoulder again. I was free.
“You really need to let them take you to the hospital,” Rob murmured into my ear.
I shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”
His eyes started to darken. “It fuckin’ hurts when you say that.”
When I refused to go to the emergency room back at the apartment, I was treated to a glam photo shoot with a female officer in the stylish locker room out back. The second set of similar images in a month. Had it only been a month since the night Rob ran to my rescue like fucking Batman?
I refused to leave because it was my turn to save him. This time I'd be the one who didn't let go.
We looked up from our seat in the waiting room as Sasha shook hands with the detective that had busted in with the uniforms earlier.
"We'll be in touch Miss Montgomery," he said before glancing at Rob and I. He gave us a sharp nod and disappeared back into the depths of the station.
"When did you become a lawyer?" Rob asked Sasha as she approached.
"Since I got this fucking job," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now, let's get the fuck out of here before someone changes their mind."
Rob planted a kiss on her forehead. “Aye Aye, Captain."
Rob took me back to the hotel. I couldn’t really go back to the apartment, but I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Wherever he was, so was I. I wasn’t going to let go of him again. Line of sight, twenty four seven. Well, maybe not that much.
Before I could kick off my boots, Rob had me in his arms and carried me toward the bed. He set me down amongst the covers and began unzipping my boots and undressing me like I was breakable. When he saw the bruises that were blooming on my skin, he let out a low hiss.