The Hard Way: Taken Hostage by Kinky Bank Robbers 5

by Annika Martin

  “You took the fall,” I added.

  He said nothing for a long time. Then, “You make it sound noble. It wasn’t noble. And I’ve felt cold ever since. Cut off ever since. Except once in a while, with the four of us. When the four of us are together, I feel warm again. Connected again.” He looked up, and his expression was wild. “These past two years of us four together have been like a miracle. It’s been enough. It’s more than I imagined I’d have.”

  “What are you saying?”

  He brushed my hair back from my face. “I’ll bathe in his blood for you, that’s what. You’d never forgive yourself if your sister went to jail.”

  “We still have options.”

  “The more time we wait, the more dangerous things become.”

  “I don’t care. I think you want to hurt Hank. I think you feel like it will end Mahfoud when you hurt Hank, and that it will end your seeing that guard’s eyes when you close your own, but it won’t.”

  “Are you playing psychologist now?”

  “Yes, and I won’t let you give up on the high road, Odin.”

  “Sometimes you need one person strong enough to absorb the darkness. Of all of us, I’m that.”

  I looked at him, horrified. In a strange way, he was right—at least in that he could do it, that he knew how. Odin was offering a gift—his own soul for my sister. But we’d lose him—I knew that as sure as I knew the sun would rise. We’d lose him just as he’d lose himself. “Fuck that, we’re in a marriage now. You don’t get to leave or go dark. Period.”

  “You’ll survive.”

  “Are you out of your mind? No.”

  “You think you have a choice?”

  “Odin. No!”

  He turned away. The wind whistled through the tree branches. “A man like that, so careful. If there’s evidence, we won’t find it without his help. I know it. They both know it. They just won’t tell you it.”

  I squeezed his hand—hard. “Promise me, you won’t go after him directly.”

  “I won’t make that promise.”

  I felt nervous and so scared. “Promise for twenty-four hours. Something might come out of the break-in.”

  He stiffened.

  What? Would he not even promise twenty-four hours? “Somebody’s here,” he whispered.

  “Are you trying to get out of promising?”

  He shook his head.

  I stiffened. Shit. Had somebody followed us here? We were pretty much sitting ducks up on that platform.

  Odin pulled out his Sig.

  “Promise me. A full twenty-four hours.”

  He gave me a look.

  “Do it.”

  “Fine. I promise.” He stretched out on his belly, looking down through a gap in the boards.

  “What do you see?”

  “Nothing. Yet.” He directed me to stretch out on the edge of the platform, the part covered with the most wood, just in case shooting started, but of course he didn’t say that.

  “You think somebody’s going to just light this thing up?”

  “If it’s Denko? Yes.” he said.

  “You think it’s Denko? I thought we ruled him out.”

  “We never rule out Denko, goddess. And I’ve felt somebody out there, watching. It could’ve been Hank all this time. He has to know there are insurance investigators in town. I’d watch us if I were him…”

  “But it could be Denko.”

  “Always.”

  “And he’d shoot this thing down,” I said.

  Nothing.

  “I don’t feel anybody out there.”

  He lay there silently.

  “You promised.”

  He went back to scanning our surroundings and peering through the boards while I stayed small and still. He was in his insurance guy getup, and there was even some of the aging powder in his hair, but he’d taken his glasses off. He looked every inch the warrior now, dark and dangerous.

  “Should we climb down?”

  “We’d be so easy to pick off. This is my fault, goddess. I should’ve known not to come up here.”

  “Should I call Thor and Zeus? They could…” I trailed off. They could come and flank whoever was down there…if they weren’t busy breaking into Hank’s home, probably with their phones off.

  “Try. Leave them a text at least.”

  I texted to let them know where we were.

  “You think somebody could take down this structure?”

  Silence. I took it as a yes.

  “You see something?”

  “Don’t worry.”

  I waited, tracing the lines in the wood. “I’m not worried.”

  “I mean it. I’ll protect you.”

  I curled up and set my ear to the wood. The wood creaked when the wind blew; I remembered that from when I used to come up here. “I know you will. You would bathe in a man’s blood for me. It means everything to me that you said that. I won’t ever let you do that, but knowing you would means everything.”

  He turned to me then. “And what do you think Margie would say about this conversation?”

  I smiled. “Margie would know it’s love.” Odin’s attention was riveted just then to something below us. “What?”

  “Somebody approaching the structure.”

  “For sure?”

  “Stay small.” He clicked off the safety.

  “Odin, talk to me.”

  “One person only.”

  That wasn’t exactly comforting. And then I heard the soft thump of a foot hitting the bottom rung.

  “Somebody’s coming up!” I hissed.

  Odin swore softly.

  “Who is it?”

  “Stay still,” he said.

  Another soft thud and then another. Somebody climbing. Could he not see who it was? Was he going to shoot the person off? Push them off?

  “Is it Denko?”

  “Shhh.”

  “Talk to me.”

  “I’m not sure what to…”

  “What to do?” I wished I had a gun now, too. “Don’t be a cowboy.”

  “Come here. Look for yourself.” He pointed to a bare spot where it was just the metal lattice. “Look through that hole.”

  I crawled over and put my eye to a spot not covered by the wood. The guy coming up wasn’t large. A local? He wore a winter cap, the hipster kind of hat that was fashionable two years ago in L.A. I wouldn’t have known things like that when I lived here. I would’ve thought that cap was cool and cutting edge now. There was something strangely familiar about the form. Maybe the corduroy work jacket. Did I have a jacket like that once?

  “What are you going to do?”

  “You don’t recognize her?”

  My heart jumped into my throat. “Her?”

  Just then the climber peered up. Brown eyes. Red hair. Fine, pretty features.

  My sister Vanessa.

  I rolled back onto the wooden plank part. “Fuck!”

  Odin studied my face. “Your call.”

  “What?”

  “How we play it. How we play any of it.”

  I grabbed my glasses, but I didn’t put them on. “She’ll know me. Even in this disguise…”

  “I could distract her and rattle her while you climb down.”

  “One glance and she’ll know me.”

  “There’s always a chance. You look very different.”

  I shook my head. “She’ll know my eyes. She suspects I’m still alive. Here I am at the ski slope. I’m in my fucking habitat. And no, you’re not going to rattle her.”

  “Is it so bad?”

  “Her knowing that I’m here in town?” I asked it hotly, but it was a fair question. “God, when I think of how I let her down. I abandoned them.”

  “You feel guilty facing her—”

  “I abandoned them! I wanted a funner and more exciting life, and I left them.”

  “You never meant to stay away. That was out of your control. I see you paying for that.”

  “Candy-coat it all
you want. I decided to help you guys rob the bank instead of being a good fucking sister who keeps her eyes on the prize.”

  “Do you really think that, goddess? Would you go back and do it differently?”

  “No.” I turned back over and looked through the peephole. She was two-thirds of the way up. When she looked up next, I saw her as an outsider might see her, a young woman, determined and beautiful. It made me ill to imagine her going to jail. I couldn’t let it happen.

  Odin put a hand on my shoulder. “Would it be so bad? Seeing her? Surely she’d forgive you.”

  “It’s not just that.”

  He waited, and I got the feeling he’d already known it wasn’t just that. That he knew it was more. “Ice.”

  “It’ll hurt because I want it too much. Seeing her again when it can only be for a moment will hurt. Not being able to hang around with her or go back with her will hurt. If she loves me more than she hates me, that’ll hurt, too.”

  “You don’t always get to decide how love happens,” Odin said. “It’s pesky that way.”

  “Dammit.” I struck the tears from my eyes. “Okay.” I sat up and pulled the nose off my face.

  “Who am I?”

  “You’re my husband.” I rubbed the stupid nose putty off my cheeks. I didn’t want to look like a mutant. “Always and forever.”

  Odin came to me and thumbed a bit of putty makeup off my cheekbone, and then he kissed me. “You look beautiful.”

  The creaks of Vanessa climbing drew nearer. I took a breath as her hat and then her head rose up over the side of the platform. She gasped.

  Odin grabbed her wrist. “Easy.”

  She barely acknowledged him. Her eyes were wide, fixed on me, and then she smiled. “You are here!” Her smile was like the sun. “Oh my god, Melinda! You’re alive! I knew it!”

  I stood, wanting to go to her. “Vanessa…”

  Odin pulled her up.

  And as soon as she was over the edge she came to me, throwing her arms around me in a big Vanessa tackle hug. “I knew it!”

  “Nessie!” I said, using her kid name, holding her tightly. I pulled back and looked at her. “Oh my god. Look at you! How pretty you are!” I pulled her to me again. “I’m so sorry, so sorry.”

  She stiffened then and pushed me away. “You’re here in town, alive, and you don’t even come home? What the hell?”

  “There wasn’t a choice.”

  “No choice? You can climb up here, but you can’t come through our front door?” The anger was coming now. “What did we ever do to you—”

  “It’s not you guys.”

  “No? Really?” Vanessa was full-on crying—raging, really. “You let us think you were dead!”

  “I know.”

  “You know what it did to Candy and Kaitlin? You dying? And me? And then you’re buying those Paris Hilton comforters. And those fucking notes? I thought I was going insane.”

  “I’m so sorry. I wanted to help.”

  “You think we care about you sending money? You think that makes up for anything? And then I would think, no way, if it’s her, she wouldn’t leave us alone to fight for ourselves. But then you’d say something about Paris’s dog that only you would say, but then I’d think no, they identified your body, totally burned. How could you?”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “Sorry isn’t enough.”

  I shook my head, throat clogged with emotion. Sorry was all I had.

  “Burning is a horrible way to go, did you know that?” Vanessa said. “I researched it.”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat. It was so Vanessa to do that.

  “Kaitlin has nightmares about it. What the fuck!”

  “It was for your safety.”

  “How is that for our safety? We’re struggling out here! Do you know what’s happening?”

  “Of course I do. It’s why I’m here.”

  She looked over at Odin then. “Did you make her stay away? Do you know that she has sisters who need her? Do you have any idea?”

  “It’s not him, Vanessa. I had to.”

  “She didn’t want to stay away,” Odin said. “It was the hardest thing she ever did. I promise, she did it for you.”

  “How is her fake death for us? How in the world does it help us to lose our sister?”

  “It keeps you safe,” he said. “It was the only way.”

  “I call bullshit,” Vanessa said.

  I loved her for saying that. For that spark she still had.

  I took a deep breath and explained about what happened. I told her about being in the robbery and staying around with the guys. How I’d wanted to escape from the farm, it was true, though I’d never intended to stay away them forever. But my guys’ powerful enemies realized I was important to them. They even tried to kill me. “These are really dangerous people, Vanessa. They would think nothing of using me to bring them down. And if they knew I was connected to you and Candace and Kaitlin, they would use you. They would hurt you to get to us, to get us out of hiding. You could die.”

  Vanessa regarded me uncertainly, eyes bleary with unshed tears.

  “Not a day goes by that I don’t want to walk in that front door,” I said, voice cracking. “Not one day. Not one hour barely. But it’s not safe.”

  She tightened her hands around mine. “We miss you so much.”

  There weren’t words. I shook my head. “But I read about the outbreak, and we couldn’t stay away. It’s such bullshit.”

  She brightened. “That insurance investigator who came…is he your friend?”

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, he seemed like he believed us. Nobody else believes us. And he just seemed…like your people.”

  “He’s very much my people,” I said.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Who are these enemies? The police?”

  “Just…really bad people.” Luckily Odin took up explaining that part, using vague terms. An international agency, he called them. A powerful organization that they once thought was a force for good. But it turned out to be evil. It was a lot to swallow. He went into specifics where he could.

  “Can’t you sneak back? Come for Easter. It would mean so much. Especially now…with everything.”

  “Vanessa, these people are incredibly dangerous.”

  She hugged her arms around her chest. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I know you probably hate me,” I said, confessing my worst fear—that she and the girls would hate me.

  “How could we hate you?”

  “I jaunted off with robbers—”

  “You’re my sister,” she hissed. “I’ll never hate you. I love you.”

  Something lifted from my heart just then. I grabbed her arms and pulled her into a hug and just held her for an embarrassingly long time.

  Finally I pulled away and looked at her some more. “You are more beautiful than ever.”

  She looked away, embarrassed.

  “I get the newsletter.”

  Her face broke into a smile. “Oh my god! I was wondering if you were one of the subscribers. I would look at the list sometimes.”

  “I live for that thing.”

  “Can I tell Candace and Kaitlin?”

  “I don’t think you should.”

  She pursed her lips. She knew I was right. “You know they think people out there are buying that fucking comforter model out of a love of fine sheep products.”

  “Tell me how they are.”

  Vanessa caught me up on our sisters. Kaitlin had been accepted at Madison, the best college in the UW system. She’d become Facebook friends with the girls on her dorm floor, and it was a frenzy of excitement, but they weren’t sure whether she could go now. I told her Kaitlin had to go—we’d buy more comforters, or maybe arrange a scholarship—and we talked about getting Candace back to school.

  We talked about everything but the cheese, and Tim Zietlow dying. The fact that Vanessa might do time. I wante
d her to go to it first.

  “How did you know I was up here?”

  “I saw your car.”

  “I thought we hid it better.”

  “You hid it great, but you can see it through the trees in one spot. It’s where you always used to park to come here, and I got used to spotting it.”

  “I didn’t think you knew.”

  She looked away. “We knew. We knew you weren’t happy. And I come up here sometimes,” she added.

  “You do?”

  “Not to ski, don’t worry. Just to channel a little of you when things are hard. This was always your special place. You would come out here and climb around and ski in the winter, and you would come back so alive and energized, and I need that.” Her eyes fell to Odin’s hand and then mine. “Hold on—you guys are married?”

  I gazed at Odin. “Newly.”

  “And the insurance investigator is a member of your gang.”

  “Um…it’s complicated,” I said.

  “What does that mean?”

  Odin sparkled at me. “It means your sister is very much loved.”

  “Oh my god.” Vanessa searched my eyes. I couldn’t tell how much of it she figured out, but then she just beamed at me. “You always made your own rules.” She turned her eyes to the horizon, then. She had more to say. I saw it, and Odin did, too. “That’s why I come here. I need some of your mojo. What are we going to do? We didn’t put that cheese back in the shipment. I would never have, and neither would the girls. You know we would never—”

  “I know,” I said. “We know you didn’t put that cheese back in the shipment.”

  “You do?”

  “We’re pretty sure it was Hank Vernon.”

  She did a dramatic double-take. “Are you shitting me?”

  “No.”

  “Hank Vernon? You think he came and took it from our garbage?”

  “Basically.”

  “Wait…” She narrowed her eyes. “You think Andy told him about the plug thing? Because that’s what we don’t get, why Andy would ever lie. He’s not like that.”

  Odin lowered his voice. “We don’t think Andy lied. We’ve come to believe Hank crawled in the window and unplugged the cooler—”

  “Oh my god,” Vanessa said hotly. “The high south window?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he knew we’d toss the cheese,” she said. “So he waited. But how did he get it on the truck and…”