by A. S. French
She peered at the man standing behind him, the ex-military she’d observed on the camera upstairs. Astrid glanced to the side as her partner flexed her arms and joined her; at least Grace was free.
Grace gritted her teeth. ‘You won’t get away with this, Gideon. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, you can’t assault a police officer and abduct people without serious consequences.’
Astrid scrutinised the room and what they faced: five hired goons and Gideon against her and Grace. She searched through the escape maps in her mind, calculated the odds of getting out unscathed and didn’t like the results.
Even if we get out in one piece, if Brady set this up, his security is all over this building.
Gideon dismissed Grace with barely a flicker of emotion. ‘I don’t care about you, Ms Crowley; your unfortunate situation was necessary to attract Snow’s attention. You’re free to leave at any time.’
He moved towards them, unconcerned about anything in the world, a master of his universe. Astrid was glad of his arrogance.
Grace swatted his confidence back at him. ‘We’re leaving together.’
He ignored her words. ‘I’ve learnt a lot about you in the last twenty-four hours, Ms Snow, all thanks to my new friend.’
He glanced behind him at the man with the piercing blue eyes. She could have grabbed Gideon then, pulled him towards her and used him as a hostage. But she didn’t, willing to let it play out a bit more.
‘You must have a pretty boring life to focus on me so much. I’m only a visitor in this vast country of yours.’
The smirk grew bigger, threatening to consume all of him. ‘Is that why you attacked me in New York and kidnapped my daughter? Because it was one of your tourist activities?’
Tension shimmered through the air. ‘Well, it was more of a rescue than anything else, but it was more exciting than going to the Statue of Liberty.’
She stared at the blue-eyed man. She didn’t know him, but there was something familiar about his manner.
Gideon’s smile faded into nothing. ‘None of that matters now. You’ll tell me where my daughter is, or the two of you will suffer.’
Astrid mapped out the room’s contents: the writing desk behind her, bookcases along the walls, and a single chair to her right. A thin layer of dust clung to the carpet. An aroma of violence to come lingered in the air, the atmosphere heightened as if a tiger waited to pounce on an unsuspecting antelope, and she was unsure which animal she was in that scenario.
She rubbed at the fading love bite on her neck.
‘Even if I did know where she was, I wouldn’t tell you.’
Gideon clenched his fists. ‘Are you a good woman, Ms Snow?’
A deep curve on Astrid’s lips made the world stop around her. ‘Not very.’
He was close enough, she smelt his expensive cologne. ‘You think your Agency training will save you against these five?’
She ignored his question and turned to the blue-eyed man. ‘You’re from the Agency?’ They’d promised to leave her alone, so what was this?
‘I’m on a break,’ he said.
‘They’ll know you’re here.’ The Agency didn’t let their agents out of their sight.
He seemed unconcerned and held up his arm. ‘Things have changed since you left, Snow. All field agents have a tracker implanted in them. They’re aware I’m here, but they won’t know what goes on inside this room Mr Gideon bought from Senator Brady.’
Gideon strode to the closest bookcase and removed a copy of Live and Let Die. ‘This place was purchased at a considerable price, but it will be worth it to spend some quality time with you, Snow.’
Astrid stared into his eyes, so black and deep, like a bottomless well. They dragged her in; she was sinking into his arrogance and drowning in his egotism. The others matched his smugness. If the blue-eyed guy were from the Agency, then this would be harder than she’d thought.
‘I read all your Agency files before taking this job.’
‘Did they keep you up at night?’
His laugh made the whole of his face vibrate. ‘You’re admired, but not well-liked is the consensus: a one-woman Terminator whose systems are riddled with malware, hell-bent on destroying everything around her. That’s my favourite quote about you from your colleagues.’
He kept her talking, and she knew he was trying to distract her before they attacked together. She had to wrest the initiative from him. In her head, there was only one map that would work.
She stepped forward before anyone could react, grabbed Gideon by the wrist and twisted it back. He dropped the book onto the floor and screamed as she pulled him to her.
‘I can break his arm and poke his eyes out before any of you reach me.’ She increased the pressure on his fingers as he fell to his knees.
‘We get paid even if he dies,’ blue eyes said.
‘How much are you getting?’
‘A million dollars,’ he replied.
She laughed. ‘A million dollars between five of you? That’s hardly retirement money. Though I guess it won’t be between five of you once I’ve finished.’
One of the others finally spoke, the bald guy standing opposite Grace. ‘What do you mean?’
Astrid flexed her shoulders. ‘You and the hipster beard next to you,’ she nodded at baldy, ‘will have to deal with Grace, and that leaves the other three for me: blue eyes, nervous twitch and you with the trembling fingers. Only blue won’t come for me; he’ll let you two suffer first. I don’t know what he told you about me, but I’m guessing it wasn’t everything.’
She squeezed Gideon’s fingers and he squealed. She pulled him to the side and stood behind the large sofa.
‘You can’t stop three of us at once,’ nervous twitch said.
Astrid shook her head. ‘I told you, old blue eyes there will step back and let you two do the heavy lifting. I’ll throw Gideon at the closer of you. The other will have one eye on me and the other on this chair in the way. A split focus is a recipe for distraction. If you look at me, I’ll push the furniture into you; if you glance at the sofa to avoid it, I’ll punch you in the throat. Then I’ll do the same to whoever is unfortunate enough to be struggling with Gideon.’ With her free hand, she removed the pencil from her jacket. ‘Then I’ll stick this in one of those blue eyes and help Grace finish the rest of you.’
‘You’ve just told us your whole plan, you stupid woman.’ Hipster beard wasn’t as woke as he appeared.
‘I told you one plan. There’s plenty more where that came from.’
She scanned their faces, trying to work out how desperate they were. Blue eyes gave nothing away.
‘We don’t care about the cop,’ said the hipster. ‘You can’t deal with five of us at once.’
Astrid laughed at him. ‘How long have you boys been together? Less than twenty-four hours, I’d guess. Gideon must have recruited my friend from the Agency after I visited New York, so it’s strange he wasn’t involved in the debacle in the woods. You lot haven’t worked together, probably too reliant on using guns which you don’t have, thanks to Brady’s reluctance to allow unauthorised weapons in his home. Do you trust each other? Do you have a plan other than all rushing me at once? If you do that, I’ll blind the first bloke and squash the balls of the next. While that happens, Grace will get behind you and crack one of the Senator’s vases over someone’s skull. That’ll leave two of you against two of us; I like those odds.’
Gideon coughed as blue eyes spoke. ‘Make your offer, Snow.’
She grinned at him. ‘You said he guaranteed you a million dollars, regardless of what transpires here. I’ll give you five million, a million each, if you go now.’
Grace exhaled loudly as the men glanced at each other. Furrowed brows greeted Astrid’s proposal of financial reward, their frowns as dark as their clothes. The room turned fridge cold, the goons looking like something left over from the night before.
‘Don’t listen to her,’ Gideon squeaked. She increased the pres
sure on his wrist.
‘How will you get us the money?’ said blue eyes.
Astrid slipped the pencil behind her ear and took hold of her phone. ‘I’ll transfer it from my bank into an account of your choosing. Then you can split it between you.’
Grace looked as confused as the thugs. She whispered to Astrid, ‘Where did you get so much cash from?’
Astrid eased up on Gideon, holding his hand as if he was about to propose to her. ‘I’m a woman of many talents, Grace; acquiring cash is only one of them.’
Gideon’s goons gathered together, speaking in hushed tones. Mr Blue Eyes was the only one to keep his gaze on her. Gideon coughed up half a lung and stared at her.
‘This won’t work, Snow; those men are loyal to me.’
She couldn’t control her laughter. ‘Their only loyalty is to themselves and what they earn. Your pain is about to get much worse.’
Blue eyes pulled away and spoke for the mercenaries. ‘We want ten million. Then you can do what you want with him.’
Astrid turned to Grace. ‘Will you hold Gideon’s hand for me?’
She dragged his complaining bulk to Grace and handed him over before switching her focus to blue eyes. He held out a slip of paper to her.
‘Transfer the payment into this account.’
‘What put you into the Agency’s bad books?’
He peered deep into her face. ‘I didn’t complete a mission as expected. Now I have to wait to find out the consequences.’ There was a slight tremble in his fingers as she took the number from him. ‘But I’d rather get my retirement pension now and forget about the Agency.’
‘Do you think Gideon’s wealth and influence will protect you from them? No amount of money will help you, Mr Blue Eyes. They’ll scour the planet for you, and when they find you, which they will, they’ll make you an example so no agent will do anything like this ever again.’
He didn’t appear too concerned. ‘You escaped from their clutches.’
‘I’m a special case.’ She moved from him and used her phone to find the correct bank account.
‘Once you’ve transferred the money, what’s to stop us from taking you away as well?’
She typed two levels of password security into the screen as she spoke.
‘Is that their idea?’ She nodded at the others. ‘I don’t think you’re stupid enough to take that risk. Go back to the Agency and face your punishment. If you’re good enough, they won’t want to waste you. What was it you failed to do for them?’
She hit send on the screen. Thirty seconds later, a phone vibrated in his pocket.
‘I was supposed to kill someone, and I refused.’
He removed the cell and checked it. He shot a brief look to Gideon before going to the others and giving them the news. She watched him speak to them like a leader instructing his soldiers what to do. They shuffled out of the room without a second glance at Astrid or Grace. Only Mr Blue Eyes remained.
‘You should forget all this nonsense and take your punishment like a good little agent.’
‘People still talk about you in hushed tones at the Agency, Snow. Some of those higher up the food chain would have you back, maybe even as the Director.’
Her lips trembled as she laughed. ‘Now I know you’re messing with me, Mr Blue. Who was it you refused to kill?’
He moved towards the exit. ‘I loved him, but he was a double agent.’ Sadness bled out of him. ‘Sometimes, deception is so close to you, it’s impossible to see it.’
With that, he left. Now she had to decide what to do with Gideon. Grace let go of him, and he collapsed onto the floor.
‘I don’t think I’m happy with you giving them all that money, even if it did get us out of a tight spot.’
Astrid stood over Gideon as he squirmed on the carpet. ‘Don’t worry about it. If I don’t send the bank a confirmation code in the next hour, the cash reverts to me.’
It was Grace’s turn to laugh. ‘They won’t be happy when they find out.’
‘Which means we haven’t got a lot of time to find our serial killer and discover where Alex is.’ She bent and grabbed Gideon by the collar. ‘But I need to deal with this specimen first.’ She dragged him across the floor and dumped him in front of the empty fireplace. ‘How do you see this ending, this situation between you and me?’
He pushed his back into the wall, wiping sweat from his forehead. His face was a picture of despair, eyes narrowing and teeth bared. She guessed it must have been a long time since anyone treated him as badly as this.
He spat the words at her.
‘There’s plenty more mercenaries in the world. I’ll find the right ones and make you suffer for what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter how many times you escape from me; I have the resources to get you someday.’
Astrid sighed. ‘You’re not even a pale imitation of a man, Gideon; you’re something scraped from the bottom of my shoe. I don’t think you care about your daughter at all; you just want to punish her mother. And you’re upset with me because I’ve embarrassed you twice, and your self-respect is in the toilet right now. Pride will make you keep coming for me, and that’s a problem which needs a dramatic solution to end this.’
She removed the pencil from behind her ear and rolled it between her fingers. Grace grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the side.
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Well, I could stick this into his eye and perforate his brain. What do you think?’ Her grin was infectious, but Grace wasn’t happy.
‘I can’t let you do that.’
Astrid snapped the pencil in half and dropped the pieces onto the floor. ‘There’s only one thing important to Gideon, and that’s what I’ll destroy if he doesn’t back off.’
She returned to him as he staggered to his feet. He’d regained his arrogance and a smirk, his injured wrist hanging at his side.
‘You can’t beat me, Snow.’
‘What did Mr Blue tell you about me?’
He twisted some movement into his broken fingers, grimacing as he did so. ‘He wasn’t the first to spill the beans about your career in the Agency, but he gave me the fascinating details. There’s nowhere for you to hide from me.’
‘I’ve no intention of hiding from you or anyone else. I’m going to ruin your life, Gideon. I’ll destroy your reputation and drain your wealth from every bank account you have.’
He slid backwards across the wall. ‘You’re not capable of such a thing.’
She stared at him, but it was something else she saw: someone else; someone hiding in plain sight.
Astrid pushed her face into his. ‘I’m going to set up a time-delayed internet post addressed to the major news sites in this country and YouTube, Twitter and all the other social media outlets. It will provide evidence linking you to a white supremacist paedophile ring.’
He clutched at his chest while she pressed her fingers into the marks on her neck.
‘All lies,’ he said.
‘All of it will be convincing, genuine enough to ruin you completely. If I don’t input a delay password every day, it will be posted immediately. If you do anything to harm me or your daughter and her mother, the information will be online within minutes.’
She moved from him and headed for the door. Grace scrambled after her and out of the room as Gideon howled behind them.
‘Can you do that?’
Astrid left the question unanswered. It was close to midnight, and most of the guests had filtered away. Tired-looking staff wandered around like drunks at a wedding.
As they neared the exit, Brady was standing by the door. He held his hand out to her.
‘You’re a woman of constant surprises, Ms Snow. Are you sure you don’t want to work for me?’
They brushed past him and stepped into the night air. A row of cars waited for patrons with less money than when they’d arrived.
‘You take the car home, and I’ll get a taxi,’ Astrid said.
Grace narrowed
her eyes in surprise. ‘And why would I do that?’
‘I have to give Christina Sanchez some bad news.’ She told Grace about what she’d found on the surveillance videos; or rather, what she hadn’t discovered.
‘Won’t it be better if both of us are there?’
Astrid stepped towards the closest empty cab. ‘By the time I get there, it will be gone midnight, and our partnership will be officially over. You’ve already got someone keeping tabs on you.’ She nodded at Tanner, who was glaring at them through the haze of cigarette smoke as he strode from the mansion.
Astrid opened the car door. ‘Don’t wait up for me.’
She gave the driver the address, but it wasn’t for the Sanchez home.
23 Secret Love
It was a new day when she knocked on the door.
‘This is a pleasant surprise, Snow.’
Cope dragged her inside and pushed her against the wall. A stack of books tumbled onto the carpet as the Detective thrust her tongue into Astrid’s mouth. Cope’s nails dug into her palms and drew blood. When they separated, Astrid was breathing heavily. She stepped over the mess and into the room.
‘I’m not here for that.’
The place was as she remembered it: a tip covered with mountains of books stacked in no particular order or system. She picked one up and studied the cover.
Cope removed a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. ‘Are you breaking up with me?’
‘How old were you when you realised you enjoyed inflicting pain on others?’
Smoke circled the room, creating a nicotine haze and irritating Astrid’s lungs. The Detective pursed her lips and pondered the question.
‘I never took you for a prude, Snow.’ Her eyes sparkled as she peered at Astrid. ‘Didn’t you know sadomasochistic sex is the new normal? Millions of women have discovered their inner hidden pleasures and aren’t afraid to show them to the world.’ She dragged on the cigarette. ‘Or are you here to tell me you regret what happened between us and you’re consumed by shame?’
‘That’s not what I’m talking about, Jules. I want to know when you realised you enjoyed killing people.’