by Lisa G Riley
She pulled on the table cloth until it dragged the floor and concealed him. After positioning the chairs back at the table, she took out her gun and released the safety. Her plan was to run to the hotel and get help, knowing without checking that a man like Brickman would have already cut the phone lines to the cottage. She knew if Jae weren’t severely hurt or worse, he would be right there with them, so she didn’t look for him or call out to him. She instead ran toward the parlor door, whispering, “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” just before she pulled it open and stepped outside into what looked like normal on a crazy day.
“Ah, my dear. At last we meet, but what have you done to yourself?” Brickman said as he looked her over, taking in her tear-streaked face and bloody clothes.
***
DINING room, Masco Cottage, 6:08:53
Jonathan watched Caroline run out of the house and then looked over at Ivan. “No!” he whispered urgently. “Don’t shoot. Let her go. It will play into our plans.”
Ivan nodded. “Okay, okay, I forgot. You get in the mode, you know?”
Gunshots sounded from outside, but unlike their own gunshots earlier, the gun they blasted from clearly did not have a silencer. Jonathan lifted a brow. “Maybe she got rid of him for us,” he supposed.
***
OUTSIDE perimeter, Masco Cottage, 6:08:26
Caroline said nothing; just raised her gun hand and fired. The shot went wild and she completely missed him as he ducked out of the way. So she kept shooting. She couldn’t calm down enough to focus on him or line up the shot. By the time she’d emptied the gun, he’d long been hiding behind a tree. He blocked her way toward the hotel, and wanting to draw him away from Brian and Jae, she turned and ran toward the forest.
***
MACKINAC Island, Masco Cottage, 6:04:55
“Excuse me?” Cesare said, her voice full of bad attitude and insult as she addressed Tomàs Guerrera. “Did you just call me a whore, you rag-tag, wanna-be crime lord motherfucker?”
Guerrera’s eyes narrowed. “So you do speak Espanol.”
“Shut up. I knew I should have put you down back at the hotel, but I was in too much of a hurry. You have been a pain in my ass since I met you, and I knew you were just waiting for the chance to catch me alone. Go away, Tomàs before I shoot you,” she warned and taking a shooter’s stance, raised her gun.
Tomàs laughed. “See, little cousin? What did I tell you? Your so-called girlfriend is a fraud. You heard what I just said about true colors, and I was right. I am always right about women.” He suddenly reached out and yanked Rafe from behind a cedar tree. Pressing the gun to Rafe’s side, he laughed at the look on Cesare’s face. “Ah, you are surprised, are you not, little whore?”
Cesare closed her eyes to block out the fear and surprise on Rafe’s face. She opened them again. “I’m so sorry, Rafe.”
Shaking and with his neck at an unnatural angle since his cousin had yanked his head back by the hair, Rafe tried a smile. “I always knew there was something special about you, Esencia.” His nervous gaze went to the gun she held in her hand. “I just didn’t know how special you are.”
Cesare sighed forlornly, feeling horrible. “Oh, Rafe. I --”
“Enough!” Tomàs said and jabbed the gun harder into Rafe’s side, making him wince and cry out. Cesare stepped forward. “Ah-ah-ah,” Tomàs warned. “Do not come any closer if you want this useless excuse for a man to live. Ah, you are surprised, I see. Yes, I know he’s gay. The whole family knows; we just let him think he was fooling us. It was fun to watch him sweat. Maldito maricón,” he sneered cruelly and yanked on Rafe’s hair even more.
Rafe grimaced, and Cesare could tell it wasn’t just from physical pain. His cousin had called him a fucking faggot. “Leave him alone and let him go,” she said to Tomàs coldly.
He laughed again. “You don’t have the power here. Throw out your weapon or my cousin’s blood will be on your hands.”
The sudden explosion startled them all, but Cesare recovered first and taking advantage of the distraction, pulled her stiletto from its belt clip, flicked it open and whipped it across the clearing where the five-inch blade landed precisely where she wanted it to: in Tomàs’s neck, below his Adam’s apple and thryroid gland and arteries into his trachea. He jerked and fell to his knees, making gurgling noises.
Unfortunately, his finger spasmed on the trigger and he shot Rafe who fell to the floor of the wood with his cousin. Horrified, Cesare watched as Rafe’s face went blank and lost all color before he fainted. She rushed over to the two men, kneeling down and pushing Tomàs off of Rafe, who by this time had awakened from his faint and was howling like a banshee. Cesare lifted his shirt and gingerly checked the wound. When she saw it was shallow and the bullet had gone right through, she sighed in relief. “Quiet, Rafe,” she muttered. “It isn’t that bad.”
The howling stopped and an indignant Rafe said, “Whatever, Esencia! How would you know? I’m the one lying here with a bullet in me doing God knows what to my insides and very likely slowly killing me.”
Smirking and laughing through relieved tears, Cesare said, “It’s a small flesh wound, sweets. The bullet has left the building,” she finished as she unscrewed a bottle of antiseptic that she’d removed from the small first aid kit she kept in her bug-out bag, which she’d worn as a back pack. She emptied the entire bottle onto the wound. Rafe did the only thing a person of his constitution would do when what felt like liquid fire met an open wound: he let his eyes roll to the back of his head and he fainted. Relieved, Cesare bandaged the wound and pulled out her satellite phone.
Cooper answered before the first ring had finished sounding. “Please come and get me,” she pleaded softly before he could finish his sentence that had begun with ‘Where the fuck’. “I’ll give you my coordinates if you’ll just come and get me. It’s not safe here and I’ve got two down -- one a neutral and the other an unfriendly.” Her first fight and it had completely unnerved her. Rafe was down because of her and all the blood flowing from both men was sickening. She looked over at Tomàs and shuddered. She’d just killed a man and she wondered if she’d ever be able to do that again. Just as she hung up she heard someone panting heavily and crashing through the forest, coming right toward them.
***
OUTSIDE perimeter, front, Masco Cottage, 6:09:31
“She’s gone into the woods,” Brickman addressed his men, all of whom had come running after hearing Caroline’s gunshots. “I’m going after her. Jonathan and Ivan, you’re with me --”
“I’d like to stay here and finish what I started,” Jonathan said.
“Do you mean to tell me that Keenan is still alive?” Brickman asked incredulously. “Yes, you will stay here -- you and Ivan both. Handle it. The rest of you come with me,” he said and turned towards the woods.
***
MACKINAC Island State Park, 6:12:00
BAM!
The second shot shocked Caroline as much as the first and she kept running, and tried to go even faster when she heard an imperious voice -- his voice -- demand angrily that the gunman stop shooting. Knowing that he was so close terrified her and sent her crashing prey-like even more carelessly and deeper into the forest.
Long after she couldn’t hear anything behind her, she ran.
Her breaths were explosive little bursts of fire as they blew through her lungs and her legs felt as if they had no muscle tone left, but she took deep breaths and clutched her own gun tighter.
And…
She ran and decided to take a left turn, one that she hoped would lead her out of the forest and eventually back toward the Grand Hotel. “But first, I’ve got to take care of Brickman,” she swore to herself. Suddenly she stopped and momentarily captivated by the surreal tableau before her, Caroline just stared. There was Cesare, a gorgeous model whose beauty was still quite obvious through the camouflage she wore, kneeling between two men who both had blood all over them.
As Caroline watched, the mode
l extended her arm and pointed east. “There’s a cave about twenty yards that way. Hurry!”
Caroline noticed she carried a phone and said, “Thank you. My husband’s been shot and my bodyguard is…is…hurt at Masco Cottage. Please call the police.” She took off towards the cave, never questioning why Cesare didn’t offer to help. She didn’t have the time to think about it. She was determined that she would face Brickman down. She was tired of running. Finding the cave, she ducked inside. She took a magazine from her pocket and loaded her gun again, and she waited. She knew Brickman would soon be there. She could hear him coming.
***
“FAN out,” Brickman told his men after he’d lost sight of Caroline. “If you find her, don’t touch her, just call for me.” He hurried off into the direction in which he thought he’d seen her run. A few minutes later he realized he’d gone in the wrong direction and stopped to assess his options. And then he heard it: a sneeze. Smiling in anticipation, he turned in the direction of the sound.
CAROLINE shivered and sneezed. She sniffled and sneezed again, three times in rapid succession. She didn’t bother to muffle the sound. She was rewarded a few minutes later when Brickman came sauntering into the clearing in front of the cave. She watched him, amazed that this pale little man who looked so harmless was the monster who had been terrorizing her for the past two years. She lifted her gun. “Don’t come any closer.”
Brickman stopped, and then to her amazement, he smiled. “Why, you can’t possibly mean that, my dear,” he began and took a step forward.
Caroline shot between his feet. He stopped immediately, actually looking put upon. “I said don’t move,” she warned between clenched teeth. The man is delusional, she thought as she stared at him. His once spotless white suit was now covered in grass stains and dirt and his blonde hair was lying flat in areas and sticking straight up in others. But his eyes, she thought. His eyes held an unholy light that bespoke pure evil. She had to shoot him. She knew it and had relished the thought of doing so all during her trip through the forest. But now that the moment was upon her, she found it difficult to shoot.
“You won’t shoot me,” he said with full confidence. “You’re unable to,” he finished and began walking toward her again. Again, she shot between his feet, telling herself that if he moved again, she’d take out his knee or leg.
“You won’t shoot me,” he said again and this time there was amusement in his tone. Having no choice, Caroline did what was necessary and shot him in the knee, but her bullet was not the only one she heard. Another exploded from a gun at the exact same moment and Brickman was spun around by its force.
“She won’t, but I will,” Brian said to the man who now lay prone at his feet.
Caroline let out a cry that held both surprise and elation and ran over to her husband. “You’re all right,” she exclaimed. “Oh, Brian, you’re all right!” Making sure she was careful of the arm held against his body in a makeshift sling, she hugged him around the waist. “I was so scared.”
“Me too, baby,” Brian admitted as he looked down at an unconscious Brickman while he pressed a kiss into Caroline’s hair and held her close with his good arm. “Me too.”
***
BRIAN awoke with a start and automatically reached for Caroline before he remembered where he was. After making their way back to the cottage, he and Caroline had been airlifted to a hospital in a town called Petoskey, which was about forty-one miles away from the island. The island’s medical center could have handled them, but he’d wanted to check on Jae as well as get Caroline and himself looked at, and both of them needed rest. Jae had been airlifted minutes after the police had arrived at the cottage. The bullet had gone through Brian’s shoulder, leaving a small exit wound in the back. Jae had been shot in both the head and the arm. The wound to his head was only a flesh wound and the bullet had creased his scalp, while the second bullet had not exited his body, glancing off bone in his arm before settling near his rib.
Jae was going to be okay, but he likely would have died if emergency services hadn’t been called so quickly. Brian sighed and shifted, wishing for his wife. She had her own room down the hall and had been given a clean bill of health by doctors. She and the baby were fine. He knew she was resting, but he just had to see her. He threw the covers back off his legs. He heard the door open, but didn’t look up, in no mood to argue with the nurse about him leaving his bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Brian looked up and smiled. Her hair was a matted mess and the hospital gown she wore was far removed from her usual fashion style. His heart lifted. She was all his. “Hi. I was just coming to get you.”
“You shouldn’t be out of bed,” Caroline said, rushing across the room to the bed where she gently pushed him back against the pillows and then began to fix the covers.
More tired than he wanted to admit, Brian went down easy and let her fuss a bit before taking her hand. “I miss you.”
She bent and kissed his forehead, her lips lingering for a few seconds. “I miss you too.” She pulled a chair over and sat next to the bed. “Are you in pain? Do you need anything?” She put her hand on his forehead in the way his mother used to do to check his temperature.
He took her hand and kissed her fingers. “My temperature hasn’t changed in the quarter of a minute since you checked when you kissed me,” he teased her and smiled when she flushed guiltily. “I’m fine, temperature’s good. They’ve got some powerful antibiotics here.”
“And good doctors. How’s your wound?”
“Aggravated and hot. In other words, as well as can be expected. How are you two?”
“Baby and I are fine,” Caroline said with a soft smile that appeared and disappeared just as quickly. “I want to go home,” she whispered as if she were confessing a sin.
“As do I. I’m getting sprung tomorrow morning,” Brian said with a relieved grin. “What about you?”
“This afternoon. They just want me to take it easy and rest as much as I can.”
“Then that’s what you’ll do. Climb in here with me.”
Caroline didn’t need any urging, and being careful of his arm, joined him in the bed to take her usual position with her head on his chest. She entangled her legs with his. “I don’t want to leave here without you.”
“And I don’t want you to,” Brian said. “We’ll see if they’ll bring a cot in or something.”
“Yes, but that will just be for show, because unless it’s uncomfortable for you, I’ll sleep with you in this bed.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Brian agreed, but knew his words were falling on deaf ears because his wife had dropped off to sleep.
AN hour later Brian looked up from the newspaper he was reading when his door opened again. He shook his head before Jack Winthrop could open his mouth to greet him. Moving the newspaper aside, he showed him a sleeping Caroline and then put his finger to his lips. “She needs the rest,” he whispered.
“Oh,” Jack said in understanding in a quiet voice. “How is she? How’s the baby?”
“They’re both doing just fine,” Brian answered and folded the newspaper to shake his friend’s hand. “How are you, Jacques?”
Jack was lowering his long frame into the chair next to the bed. “Quite well compared to you, thanks.”
“You didn’t bring Tracy with you?”
“She wanted to come, but had to attend a closing on one of her properties. At any rate, I’m not just here to see how you’re doing. I’ve also come to learn all you know about Brickman.”
Brian nodded. “We’ve talked to everyone else over the past twenty-four hours, why not you?”
Jack grunted. “Been bugged by the local police, huh?”
Brian snorted. “And the state police, the FBI and the DEA.”
Nodding, Jack said, “I guess the state because much of what happened took place in the state park, and you already know why the FBI and DEA are interested.”
“
Right. Okay, so I’ll start with Jonathan Brickman. Quite simply, he saved us. After all the smoke had cleared from those flash bangs they’d thrown into the house and Caroline had disappeared, he took care of my wound as best he could and then told me where she had gone with Brickman hot on her trail.”
“He didn’t say why he was doing it?”
“I didn’t ask. My primary concern was Caroline, so I grabbed my gun and headed out.”
“And Jae? Did Jonathan Brickman take care of him as well?”
“Yes, I believe so. He and the guy he was with said they’d take care of my friend. They also said that they’d already called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that Jae was shot twice and needed a hospital. That’s why he was helicoptered out so quickly.”
“Right, and it jibes with the 9-1-1 recordings. I stopped in to see Jae, but he’s sleeping soundly.”
“That’s good. I’ll go by later to see him again. Have they located Brickman’s brother yet?”
Jack shook his head. “Nope, nor the guy you described or Ida Lopez. She’d cleared out of the hotel. On the bright side, she left a nice packet addressed to the FBI in the room. It contained several tapes, information about international accounts and keys to several safety deposit boxes. And the tapes are a bonanza. Care to guess what’s on them?”
“Just tell me.”
“The guy taped every damned thing. They haven’t gone through all of them yet, but a couple from two years ago have him giving orders to find a woman whom we assume to be Caroline and kidnap her. And a more recent one has him murdering the woman in Italy. Brickman, even with his injuries, is screaming bloody murder.”
Brian narrowed his eyes. “Is he in this hospital?”
“No, he’s not, so settle down, killer. They got him and the other two goons that were with him in the forest chasing Caroline.”
“And what about that model?”