Flirtation

by Samantha Hunter

  “You know that?”

  “No, it’s just a possibility. We, uh, got carried away. Once.”

  “Unlike you, my friend, to get carried away. But I think maybe it’s about time.”

  “You can get all misty-eyed on me later, Ian. Time’s short.”

  Ian looked outside the glass window where Sarah stood dressed in black night-gear from head to toe with a group of S.W.A.T. guys and federal agents. Everyone wanted in on this job; Maloso would be a big prize, but Ian was more worried about EJ, and now, about Charlotte. Thinking of Sage at home, very pregnant with their daughters, stiffened his resolve to end this soon, and well.

  “Then let’s go get her.”

  CHARLOTTE WISHED for the one millionth time that she never stepped foot outside that hotel room, as she sat tied and bound to a chair in the middle of the garage of what seemed to be a standard issue development house. Nothing stood out that she could use to identify where she was, and she’d been unconscious until just a short while ago.

  Her head hurt, her heart hurt, and when she moved her jaw, something very unpleasant popped and shot pain up to her eye. So she kept her mouth shut.

  In the end, all she could really be grateful for was that if the men who had grabbed her in the hallway had stormed into their room, they could have killed EJ before taking her. It was her only serious comfort to know that hadn’t happened. And she knew, in her heart, that EJ wouldn’t stop looking until he found her.

  She hoped that was sooner than later.

  There was the sound of a key in a door, and some men walked into the garage. They were well-dressed, casual but expensive, as if they were going out to play golf at an expensive resort. One man in particular watched her with sharp black eyes.

  “So you are Charley, my little psychic.”

  She met his stare. “You must be Lou, my little mob guy.”

  The men laughed and Lou nodded. “You have guts, I’ll give you that.”

  “Where’s my brother?”

  “You mean the other lying son of a bitch who stole from me? Don’t worry, he’s still around. I wanted to have you two thieves in the same place, so I could watch you both die. Family is important, after all.”

  Charlotte spit on the floor. “You are the son of a bitch, Lou. And you kill people, you steal from people, you sell drugs…”

  “Whoa! I have never sold drugs. Ask my buddies here—Giacco, have I ever sold drugs?”

  A big man by the door shook his head in all seriousness. “No way, Lou. Dirty things, drugs. Dirty money.”

  Lou nodded. “That’s right. Technology, and working the stocks, that’s more my gig.”

  Charlotte tipped her chin up. “You want to hurt me, hurt my brother. All he did was take some money, and we could give it back. You don’t need to hurt us.”

  Lou stared at her for a moment, and she was sure she could see that he was empty inside—there was nothing there but cold emptiness.

  “You don’t tell me my business, lady. You screw me over, I screw you over harder. That’s how it goes. That’s business.”

  She tried a different tack. “You don’t have to do it that way, Lou. You end up just hurting yourself more in the end.”

  “Really? And how’s that?”

  “You build up bad karma—it will catch up to you, you know,” she said.

  “What goes around comes around is what you’re saying?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I guess you could see me making things even with you and your brother as the same thing, right?”

  “Good one, Lou.” Giacco nodded heavily.

  “Shut up, Giacco. What the hell do you know?”

  Lou turned back to Charlotte, giving her an evil smile.

  “Anyway, you want to see your brother? Fine. We can arrange that.”

  Charlotte didn’t say a word, but felt like she would burst from the chair, worried and elated all at the same time that either they meant to take her wherever Ronny was—which could be a bad thing—or that the police were wrong and Ronny was not dead already, at all.

  Three seconds later she breathed a gusty sigh of mixed horror and relief when two men dragged Ronny through the garage door, his face bruised almost beyond recognition, and he couldn’t step on one leg. His hands were bound, and they shoved him roughly to the floor at her feet, his face hitting the painted cement with a sickening thud.

  “Oh, God. Ronny!”

  Charlotte strained against her bonds, wanting to lift her brother from the floor, but she was tied too tightly. Ronny groaned, lifting his face up, and glared at Maloso.

  “I told you, she had nothing to do with it. It was my game.”

  “Yeah, and I was born yesterday.” Lou nodded to Giacco and the big man walked over, giving Ronny a solid kick in the ribs, and Charlotte screamed, begging them to stop.

  Lou walked up to her, so close she could smell the overdose of aftershave he wore, and she almost gagged as he pinched her chin hard between his fingers and lifted her face to his.

  “You worried, lady? You should be.”

  She shook her face loose of his grasp, feeling desperate. “What do you want from us? Tell me, just don’t hurt him anymore!”

  Lou made clucking sounds. “Oh, sorry. No go. You want to play in the big leagues, you play by our rules. But don’t worry—” he dragged a finger down the line of her chin “—I don’t plan on hitting your brother any more right now. Because I know that the best way to hurt him now, is to hurt you.”

  He drew his hand back and Charlotte braced herself for the pain but it didn’t come. Someone was calling Lou’s name, staying the swing of his powerful arm.

  “Boss, there’s a problem. You need to come in here.”

  “This can’t wait? You see I’m busy here?”

  “It’s the New Jersey deal. Things are going bad. They want you on the phone now.”

  “Jesus, when it rains it pours! All right!”

  He looked down in disgust at Charlotte and Ronny, and Charlotte let her breath go, grateful beyond words that the New Jersey deal was going bad.

  “Looks like you two can have a little quality time together. But don’t worry, this won’t take long.”

  The men all filed into the house, glaring at Charlotte and Ronny in turn, and then the door closed behind them and they were alone.

  “I told you to get out of town, Charlotte—how’d they get to you?”

  “Long story. Ronny, how could you do this? How could you have gotten involved in something like this? And dragged me into it as well!”

  Through his bruises, he met her eyes, shocked at her temper. “I was doing it for us. I wanted to stash enough money away so that you wouldn’t have to work those stupid jobs anymore, and we could live right.”

  “You’re trying to tell me you did this for me?”

  “Well, sure.”

  Anger beyond words gripped her, and she didn’t have the words to tell him what she thought of his plan, but if they lived through this, he was going to get an earful.

  But then she saw something that made her love him all over again. He was wiggling his hands loose.

  “Ronny, how…?”

  “I’ve been messing with this tape all afternoon, finally stretched it out enough so I could still look like I was tied up, but loose enough to get free so I could make my move when I had the chance.”

  “Ronny, I love you.”

  He grinned, scooting behind her chair and pulling at her bindings until she was able to help and within a minute, was free herself. Hope blossomed, and she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

  “I thought you were dead.” Sobs choked her, and he hugged her back, but then pulled her up to her feet, closing his eyes with pain as he stood.

  “I’m not yet, but we will be if we don’t get outta here…”

  “Yes, right. But where will we go?” she asked.

  “It’s pitch-black out—if we can get away from the house into the woods, make it t
o the edge of the swamp, I don’t know, maybe we can flag someone down for help in the morning,” he suggested.

  “Anything is better than standing here. Let’s go.”

  Miraculously, there was only one guy outside the house, and he stood a good distance away, closer to the front door. Luck was on their side again.

  “This way.” Ronny had to lean on her, and it was slow progress to the edge of the woods, but once they were in the trees, he picked up a large stick from the ground to lean on, and they made better time.

  Better time to where, exactly, she had no idea, but as far away as they could get from Lou was the best direction she could imagine. She’d heard about this area, and that there was a good deal of wildlife—including black bears and bobcats—but better to deal with the animals out here than the ones back at Maloso’s house, she thought.

  “There have to be some other buildings around here, people—it’s a wildlife refuge, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but we have no idea where we are.”

  Charlotte signaled him to stop for a moment, trying to think about the rough direction they’d taken from the road, and closed her eyes tight, trying to re-imagine the map she’d seen on EJ’s computer.

  Her concentration was broken by the sound of yelling and a gunshot. Then there were more gunshots.

  “They know we’re gone, c’mon!”

  “No, wait.” She listened, and there was a strange sound, like firecrackers, something bursting, and then some more gunshots. “Why would there be so much shooting just because we’re gone? Who are they shooting at, each other?”

  “I don’t really care who they’re shooting at, let’s just get the hell out of here.”

  She turned to him, hardly able to see anything but the outline of his shoulders in the dark. The sliver of moon offered some light, but barely.

  “No, don’t you see? It’s the police! They found me!”

  “Why would the cops find you?”

  “So much has happened, Ronny, I can’t explain it all now, but we have to head back toward the house. If we bear more to the right, we should come out at the road, and have enough distance to see—”

  “No way. If it is the police, I’m certainly not walking back and letting them get me—I just got free from these guys! C’mon.”

  He grabbed her arm but she pulled away, confused at his response, but adamant that they needed to go back. She had to make him listen.

  “Ronny, I know them. I know one of them, one of the police. He’s…just trust me. He’ll help us. You don’t have to be afraid.”

  Ronny was silent, staring at her in the darkess, and she heard him sigh in disgust. “Did you go and get yourself involved with a cop, little sister? Damn…”

  “I’m your big sister, Ronny, and well, yeah. He’s a good man. He’s been keeping me safe from the mess you got me into. They were investigating me because of you—they thought I was guilty of the thefts. How could you do that to me?”

  “We’re back to that again? Do you really want to have this conversation here, right now? Are you crazy? I told you, I was trying to do a good thing,” he said sullenly.

  “Right, okay. But it didn’t work out that way, did it? And now we need help. EJ’ll help us. Come back with me, Ronny. It’ll be okay,” she pleaded.

  “I’m not goin’ anywhere, and you aren’t, either! I’m not going to get blown into the cops by my own sister!”

  She stood frozen in the darkness, disbelieving what she was hearing. What would he do? Drag her along? Just like Lou’s men did?

  “Ronny, I love you, but I’m sorry, I’m not going with you.”

  “Fine, have it your way, but I’m outta here, and don’t you dare—”

  He was cut off when he hit the ground with a solid thud as she grabbed the walking stick and jerked it away. Charlotte winced, tears stinging her eyes, but she wiped them away. She was going to do what was best for Ronny, and for herself, even if it hurt him now, it might save him later.

  “What the hell? Ow!” He struggled to stand, searching the ground for another source of support, but found nothing, his bad leg collapsing beneath him as he fell again on the uneven turf.

  His voice was loud, belligerent. “You’d do this to me? To your own brother?”

  “What about what you did to me? Doesn’t that count?”

  “I had good intentions, I wanted a better life for us. You are just going to leave me here crippled in the woods so you can go snuggle up with your cop after you help him arrest me!”

  Charlotte shook her head, regret and pain choking her. In the darkness of the woods, she saw now what she never managed to see before in the clear light of day, because she’d wanted family of her own so badly. So much she’d given up her own self-respect to have it. Maybe she couldn’t see her brother’s selfishness sooner, but she was getting a good dose of it now, and thanks to EJ, she had the confidence to deal with it.

  “I still love you, Ronny, but I don’t have to put up with this. You did a bad thing, and you have to take responsibility for it.”

  She turned away, leaving him alternately cursing and begging as she started walking back toward the house. As she got closer, she could see lights flashing through the trees, and there was a massive crunching of footsteps through the forest. Her face ached where she’d been hit, her eyes were blurred with tears, and branches swiped her bare arms as she marched forward. They would find her, and Ronny, in a minute, so she just kept walking toward the light.

  EJ WAS GOING out of his mind. Where was she? They’d stormed the place with everything they had, and the surprise had been to their advantage. But while Lou Maloso and his goons were already on their way to a federal holding tank, there was no sign of Charlotte or her brother, save the bloodied and broken bonds they’d found in the garage. His stomach lurched to think that blood might be Charlotte’s.

  They’d been there for an hour already, and the search teams were heading into the woods. They’d be bringing in dogs soon. That was never good. Everything was in chaos as agents and cops from everywhere crawled all over the house and grounds like ants, ambulances appearing out of nowhere with sirens screaming, and the media was sure not to be far behind.

  But his thoughts were only on Charlotte. He wanted to go out and plow through the trees himself, but it was better to stay out of the way and leave the professionals to it—he would wait here, wait for her to come back. He didn’t plan on moving from this spot until he knew something, though he was afraid of what he might come to know. More afraid than he had been, ever, of anything.

  He didn’t realize he hadn’t moved a muscle in several minutes until Sarah and Ian approached him, concern written plainly on their faces, their tones trying to bolster him.

  “Hey, man, this was good work. Put away some major figures and with the evidence they’re turning up in that house, none of the guys are going to see the light of day anytime soon, especially Lou Maloso.”

  Sarah kicked at the dirt. “Not to bring up a sore subject, but won’t his, uh, associates, be looking to even the score? If…when we do find Charlotte, shouldn’t she go into witness protection?”

  Ian shook his head. “Typically, no. EJ’s friend Jennie seems to think we got the remaining core of Maloso’s men here, and the other stragglers will find work with other bosses, who are always anxious to take over new territory. They could care less if Maloso is out of the way. Though she can have witness protection if she wants it.”

  “But we can’t find Charlotte.” It was all EJ said, looking toward the woods, and Ian and Sarah exchanged worried looks, also afraid of what the final news might be, but then shouts went up, and lights flashed on out in the woods.

  Heart in his throat, EJ walked toward the spot where all the commotion gathered.

  And he saw her. Her face was bruised, tearstained and pale, but she was walking on her own with a search crew officer on either side of her, and when she raised her eyes to meet his, he started breathing again.

  “Charlott
e.”

  He stepped forward, tightly gathering her up to him. The men around them backed off. Ian and Sarah stood on the sidelines, grinning like fools.

  “Charlotte.” It was all he could do, to hold her and say her name, reassuring himself that she was really there, alive and whole.

  His.

  “Oh, EJ. I knew it was you, I told Ronny, but he wouldn’t come…” Her voice was trembling, but it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. EJ loosened his hold a little to look down into her face.

  “Ronny is alive? He’s out there?”

  She nodded, her eyes so sad he couldn’t bear it.

  “He just wanted to escape, but he’d h-hurt his leg and couldn’t walk…I took away his walking stick, and he fell. He wouldn’t come back to face up to what he did, but I think they’ll find him any minute now. He couldn’t have g-gone t-too far. I told him you’d help, but he wouldn’t come back with me, so I left him th-there…”

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”

  “It’s okay. I’m okay. I mean, I’m sad about Ronny, but this is for the best for him, too, I think. He doesn’t think so now, but maybe later, he’ll see…”

  EJ made soothing sounds, reassuring her that he was sure that was all true as he walked her back toward the front yard of the house, where an ambulance had been parked since they got there. Handing her over gently to the medics who helped her up into the ambulance, he looked back over his shoulder to see that she was exactly right. The search team had reemerged from the woods with a beaten and lame Ronny in tow.

  Charlotte was inside the ambulance, and couldn’t see, but he smiled at her, patting her arm.

  “Wait one second, darlin’. I have to see to something.”

  He stepped back to the ground, walking toward Ronny, intercepting him before they made it to the ambulance. He looked at the officers on either side of Ronny who held him up, and nodded.

  “Ronny Fulsom?”

  The bruised man looked up, worn down and exhausted, but EJ couldn’t find it in himself to really feel sorry for the man. Not after what he’d put his sister through.