More than Money (Found in Chicago Book 1)

by Allison Michaels

  Diana stood several yards in front of me with a hand parked on her hip and a smirk on her face. Her blond hair was now a dark shade of brown similar to Collette’s. It made her even more unattractive in my book, especially since I now knew how rotten she was.

  “Richie and I had the situation under control. You were supposed to keep quiet, damn it. Now look what you’ve done.” A stocky man with a blond crewcut threw his hands up in the air. “We’ll have to use Plan B.”

  Carl. I’d seen pictures of him in Diana’s cubicle when we sat next to each other. His hair had been shoulder-length in the photos. He and Diana must have busted out the clippers and dye to disguise themselves to elude the police.

  “Chill, everything is fine. They’re not going anywhere, and the money is being gathered as I speak.” She walked over to him and ran a hand over his barrel of a chest. “We’re right on schedule. All you have to do is call her at the time you specified with information about the drop. You’re doing great, baby.” Rising up on her toes, she kissed him.

  His hands gravitated to her ass, and one of his legs slid between hers as they leaned against the wall. Huffing in disgust, I turned my head to the side to avoid watching them make out.

  Neil peered up at me from the faded linoleum. A folded bandana hung around his neck. Bruises colored the right side of his face, the eye almost swollen shut. Blood oozed from the gash in his lower lip. “You look like shit,” he muttered.

  Leave it to him to make a wisecrack under duress. “You’ve never looked better,” I fired back, half-joking. Truthfully, I was glad to see him. But damn if I didn’t feel horrible about him being dragged into my mess.

  “Still want me to get the tape and shut these jackasses up?” a man with a similar build and same blond buzz cut to Carl’s asked. He twirled the wooden baseball bat in his right hand like a baton.

  Diana smacked a final kiss on Carl and turned to face the other man. “Go ahead and grab it, Richie, but let’s hold off on using it. And get a rag or some tissues so we can get this bleeding under control.” Strolling in my direction, she tilted her head to one side. “I want to help you.”

  “How noble of you.”

  Ignoring my sarcastic tone, she stepped closer. “If you kick me, you’ll get another beating with that bat and a fresh piece of tape. I think it would be in your best interest to behave. Same goes for your friend.”

  “Give me a chair and I’ll be a role model hostage.” Neil shifted uncomfortably on the scuzzy floor littered with dust bunnies and clumps of dirt. “But first, I really need to go to the bathroom.”

  “The chair is fine.” She nodded at Carl, who rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “Bathroom privileges depend on your behavior.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I glared at her, barely resisting the spiteful urge to spit on her shoes.

  Diana lit a cigarette and smiled as she took a drag. “I have my reasons. A million of them, to be exact.”

  “You turned me down when I offered to split the prize.”

  “I was trying to be a good friend, something you proved you weren’t capable of when you refused to help me.”

  This confirmed what I had suspected when I’d heard her voice. She was still pissed at me for not giving her more money when she asked in the coffee shop. Taking Neil and me hostage and holding us for ransom was her method of righting what her fucked-up mind perceived as a wrong.

  “You cooked up a scheme based on a bunch of plots you’ve seen on crime dramas, jumped us when our backs were turned and called my girlfriend to scare her into paying you because you can’t handle the taste of sour grapes?”

  The smile slipped from her face. “You make it sound so melodramatic…so cliché. All I want is to live the life I should have begun living months ago. And I will, once your girlfriend makes good on her end of the deal.”

  “Well, it sounds like you have it all figured out.” I snickered and gave her a politician’s smile, fake as the color of her hair. “Nice disguise, by the way. No one will recognize you after you waltz out of here.” Sarcasm dripped from each word like the blood from my nose.

  “You know what? To hell with compassion.” Angling her head toward the door, she yelled, “Richie, what’s taking so long?”

  He ambled in with a handful of damp paper towels and a large roll of skin-chafing silencer. Standing behind me, Diana cleaned my face and pressed a length of adhesive over my mouth. Carl entered, toting a metal diner-style chair with vertical slats in the back and set it down clear across the room. He and Richie hauled Neil up and dragged him over to his seat. As Carl looped blue nylon cording around Neil’s chest and the seat back, I saw something that made my blood boil.

  He’d removed his warm-up jacket after leaving the room, and now his neck was exposed. As was the tattoo on the right side. The one that read Babydoll in scrolling script with a green vine and ivy leaves winding through the lettering.

  Carl had mugged Collette in the parking lot back in October.

  Her attack had not been random. She had been specifically targeted as a way to get back at me. The fucker had hit her, sent her tumbling to the ground, and took her mother’s ring right off her finger.

  My fingers curled, and I trembled with rage, aching to swing both fists at Carl until his face turned to pulp. The broken nose he’d given me would pale in comparison to the beating he’d receive. My injury was completely worth the kick I’d delivered. And with any luck, I would do much worse to him before this ordeal was over.

  “Come on, guys,” Neil said as the men worked on securing him. “I seriously need to go. Take me now and you won’t have to untie me later.”

  Diana exhaled a white stream of smoke and tossed the butt to the floor, snuffing it out with the toe of her boot. “Go ahead, Rich. Just be quick about it. And don’t do anything stupid.”

  Richie looked affronted. “I might not be the mastermind of this operation, but I’m not an idiot.” He removed the rope from Neil’s ankles and took my friend by an arm, leading him toward the door.

  “What’s there to eat upstairs? I haven’t had anything since lunch because we were waiting around for these guys to show up.” Carl patted his stomach in a childlike fashion, making a sad face.

  “Awww. I never made it to the store. I’ll run out and hit a drive-thru. What would you like, baby?”

  I studied the area around me as they discussed dinner options, breathing through only one nostril. Based on the grocery shopping mention, the stacks of plastic totes and cardboard boxes lining one of the walls, and the washer and dryer, I figured we were in some kind of storage area in the basement of their house.

  “I’ll go ask Rich what he wants and head out.” More gratuitous slobbering occurred as they bid each other farewell.

  Carl rested against the wall and pulled out his phone. He was still messing around on it when Richie returned with Neil. The two men retied his feet and bound him to the chair.

  “Should I tape his mouth?” Richie asked his brother.

  “Nah. He can yell all night, and no one will hear him.” He reached over and pressed a button on a battered old stereo. Alice Cooper’s voice pinged off the concrete walls as he sang about freedom at full blast. The door swung shut, and the men went upstairs to wait for Diana.

  Neil barked out a laugh and yelled, “Oh, the irony. It could kill me.”

  I shook my head because it was one of the few reactions I was capable of showing. Neil sang along like we were at a damn concert instead of being held against our own wills in an abduction. His behavior was way too chipper.

  During a commercial break, he inclined his head toward the door and listened. When the next round of heavy metal hair-band songs began, he looked over at me and shouted, “Meet me halfway.”

  What the hell was he talking about?

  I got an answer when he rested the heels of his shoes on the ground and pushed his chair backward. He shoved and shoved until he faced the opposite direction, with his back to me. The light bulb
went off over my head. Mimicking the same motions, I turned myself around and pushed inch by inch. The bottoms of the metal legs scraped against the floor, but the sound was drowned out by the loud music.

  It took a while, but we eventually wound up back-to-back.

  “Hey, buuuuuddy,” Neil drawled. “You’re probably wondering why I’m in such a fantastic mood.”

  “Mmmhmm,” I hummed loudly.

  “When you’ve already been to Hell, stuff like this doesn’t seem so bad. But now is not the time for me to get all philosophical, so I’ll just get to the point. Numbnuts didn’t let me down. He really is the moron I had him pegged for.”

  “Mmm?”

  “I lied and told him I had to take a dump. He didn’t want to wipe my ass, so he untied my hands and gave me some privacy.”

  I chuffed out a laugh. Couldn’t help myself with how ridiculous this story was.

  “Unfortunately, there was no medicine cabinet or drawers for me to look through. Your psycho coworker showed up as he retied my wrists. Man, did she rip him a new one before he explained why I’d been let loose. Anyhow, he paid more attention to her than what he was doing and didn’t notice how I flexed my arms. As a result, I’ve got a lot of slack, but not enough for me to free myself. I need you to work on untying the knots. It felt like he made two.”

  Holy shit. A spark of hope ignited at the chance to walk out of here before our abductors fled to another state or country with the ransom money. With adrenaline surging through my veins, I felt around until my fingers brushed against Neil’s.

  The first knot seemed pretty basic, but trying to undo it by touch alone was tougher than I anticipated. I wrestled with the simple twist and grew more agitated with each failed attempt.

  “Stop,” Neil ordered. “You can do this, Ryan. Take a few deep breaths and focus. They’ll be busy stuffing their faces for a while, so we have a decent window before one of them decides to check on us.”

  He was right. I had to get my head on straight and treat this situation the same as a pain-in-the-ass spreadsheet that didn’t balance out. Frustration made me sloppy. Clumsy. And right now, it was vital to be sharp and nimble.

  I closed my eyes and used the techniques I’d learned years ago from my track coach to even out my breathing. With my lids still firmly shut, I raised my hands and ran my fingertips over the knot. A visual formed in my head. Using my thumbs and index fingers, I squeezed and twisted around the sides over and over until there was some movement.

  “Hell yeah!” Neil exclaimed as the ends slipped through the loop. “The first is always the hardest. You did it once, and you can do it again.”

  True that.

  A little while later, the cord snaked to the floor. I attacked his chest binding next, utilizing the same squeeze-and-twist technique until it also loosened. Neil praised me and dug into his ankle restraint, flinging it aside once he had removed it.

  He scraped up a corner of the duct tape and ripped it off the way my dad used to remove Band-Aids when I was little. “I’m sorry. There’s no nice way to get this stuff off.”

  “I know,” I gritted out. “Get me out of this damn chair. We need a plan so we’re ready when those bastards come back in here.”

  Neil moved behind me and got to work. “You ever watch a WWE cage match?”

  I smirked. “Anything goes and everything is a weapon.”

  After he had freed me, we ironed out the details of our sneak attack and got into place on each side of the doorway. It wasn’t long before the stairs creaked to announce the approach of at least one of our captors. Neil raised his eyebrows in silent question. Ready?

  I nodded, widening my stance. The doorknob turned, and Carl entered first. By the time he saw me, it was too late. The chair I’d been sitting on before he left crashed into his head and chest on a hard swing and he fell to the floor.

  “What the..?” Richie bent toward his brother and Neil jumped on his back, slapping the piece of duct tape we had saved over his eyes. The man’s hands flew up to his face. Neil slid off and kicked him in the balls, which sent him tumbling to the floor. Taking advantage of Richie’s temporary incapacitation, Neil tied his wrists and ankles together with a series of intricate knots.

  In the meantime, I continued whaling on Carl as Ozzy Osbourne wailed in the background. He curled into the fetal position in an attempt to protect himself as I dealt blow after blow with the chair. But nothing could protect him from my wrath because my crazy train had flown off the rails.

  I beat him for breaking my nose.

  I beat him for hurting Neil.

  And I beat him for harming Collette.

  “Where’s the ring?” I demanded, kicking him in the ribs.

  Droplets of blood sprayed across the floor as he coughed. “What ring?”

  “Where’s the ring you stole from my girlfriend?” The tip of my shoe connected with his ribs a second time.

  “Diana has it,” he sputtered before passing out.

  Neil tossed me two lengths of rope. I tied Carl up while he moved the tape from Richie’s eyes to his mouth. Neil coiled the two remaining pieces and handed one to me before closing the door behind us as Richie squirmed on the floor. We pulled them over our heads and wore them crossbody style to free up our hands as he led the way up a flight of stairs.

  When we reached the landing, Neil held up a hand. Pressing his mouth to my ear, he whispered, “I have no idea what we’re about to walk into. She might have heard us fighting and is waiting with the bat or a knife.”

  I nodded in agreement and cupped my hands around his ear. “I’ll go first.”

  He shook his head, looking at the open door at the top of the next flight. “No. We’ll do it together. I’ll go high. You go low and aim for her knees.”

  I gave him a thumbs-up and shrugged off the age-old men should never hit women rule as we continued to climb. It didn’t apply when a guy had to defend himself against a weapon-wielding bitch. I’d shed enough blood for one day and had no desire to add a stab wound or cracked skull to my list of injuries. If she came at us, we would have no choice but to take her down with force.

  Standing next to each other on the top step, we listened for any noises or sounds that could help us figure out where Diana might be. I was fully convinced that her sadistic ass was standing right around the doorframe with the bat in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. Crouching down, I assumed a defensive lineman position and waited for Neil’s prompt.

  “Go!” he growled, lunging forward.

  I did the same, charging out of the stairwell and into a small kitchen.

  An empty kitchen.

  He pointed at a hallway. We tiptoed across the floor and down the dark, narrow space. Lights flickered at the end. Neil peeked around a corner and motioned for me to back up. He stopped me in the middle and whispered, “She’s on the couch watching TV.”

  “I’ll grab her from behind. You go around front and tie her arms and legs while I hold her down.”

  We crept back to the end. Neil removed the coil of rope from his body and held it in one hand. When he jabbed a finger at her, both of us sprang into action. I rushed up to the sofa and reached down to put Diana in a headlock. She turned her head before my grip tightened enough to immobilize her, and bit my forearm.

  Sharp, excruciating pain tore through the limb. I shouted and reflexively let go. Diana scrambled across the cushions and darted toward the front door. Neil gave chase and grabbed her by the hair. She yelped as he dragged her back to the couch and slammed her back down in the same spot. “Sit,” he ordered. “And stay, or I’ll rip out another chunk.” As he stood on her feet while binding her hands, he said, “Come here, Ryan. You need to see this.”

  31

  Ryan

  I moved around the side of the sofa and stopped in my tracks.

  The necklace tucked under Diana’s sweater had come out during the scuffle. A small diamond ring dangled from the thin chain, glinting against the black yarn. In a show o
f defiance, she tried to head-butt Neil as he secured her wrists. He leaned back, narrowly avoiding a skull smack.

  “What part of stay didn’t you understand? Jesus, my dog listens better than you.” Holding her legs together, he dropped his knees to the tops of her feet and began trussing her ankles. When he finished, he stood and snapped the chain off with a sharp yank.

  “That hurt, you dick!” Diana snapped.

  “We’ll tell the 911 operator to send an ambulance for you.” Neil slid the ring off and held it up between his fingers. “Coming at you,” he said to me, tossing it in my direction.

  I caught the bauble and slid it into a jeans pocket.

  Elation warred with outrage as I watched the sick, twisted woman I had once considered a friend continue to struggle against her restraints. Envy had spawned jealousy and hatred, turning her into a bitter, violent person. Although I had seen her catty side many times, I never thought she was capable of harming someone with more than words. My broken nose and the teeth marks on my arm clearly proved otherwise.

  “This is all your fault, Ryan. If you had just given me the ten grand when I asked, none of us would be here right now.” Diana blew her bangs out of her face and glared at me. “I bet you’ll think twice next time someone asks you for help. How’s your arm? Did I break skin?”

  My mouth opened to unleash verbal hell on her. But before a single syllable flew out, my jaws clamped together. Launching into a tirade would accomplish nothing positive. And I’d be damned if I allowed a delusional whacko get a rise out of me.

  Instead, I stalked to the kitchen and looked around the small room for a telephone. I wanted out of this house. Now. My and Neil’s cells sat on a counter. Rummaging through a stack of unopened mail, I pulled out a utility bill. I powered up my phone and dialed 911. Using the address on the unopened envelope, I gave the dispatcher our location.

  I grabbed Neil’s phone and the roll of duct tape lying on the table before heading back to the living room.

  “How’d you get those Freddy Krueger arms? Did someone douse you with gasoline and strike a match after you pissed him off? Or did you light yourself up?” Diana asked Neil with a sneer.