Unintended Target (Unintended Series Book 1)

by D. L. Wood

  “The flash drive!” exclaimed Chloe in a panic, jerking away from Jack.

  “What?”

  “The flash drive—I had it! I dropped it when I fell!”

  Dread washed over Jack’s face, his eyes now reflecting Chloe’s panic. He moved to crouch beside her, when suddenly a well-muscled man in a dark sports coat stepped briskly around the corner. He stopped mid-stride, his gaze landing first on the mess, then on Chloe. In the same second that recognition flashed across the man’s face, Jack was on him.

  Jack’s first blow broke the arm reaching for his gun. The second to the throat drove the man into the wall and left him gagging. The waiter scrambled crab-like away from the brawl as Jack slammed the man’s head into the wall. When he landed in a crumpled heap on the floor, Jack ripped the gun from beneath the man’s jacket. Chloe was still fishing through the wreckage from the tray. The waiter practically tripped over himself trying to stand, his eyes wide and hands splayed in front of him as if to wave Jack off. As soon as the waiter got a foothold, he maneuvered clumsily past Chloe while staying as far away from Jack as possible. When he reached the corner, he took off towards the lobby.

  “Let’s go,” Jack growled, grabbing Chloe under the arm and pulling.

  “No!” Chloe screamed as she shrugged him off. “I can’t. I’ve got to find it!”

  Practically dragging Chloe up off the floor, Jack ordered harshly, “Chloe! They. Are. Coming. Leave it! Come on!”

  Her shoulders slumped, and with a forlorn groan she shoved off of the floor and gave in to Jack’s pulling, taking his hand as they raced around a quick turn to the right, then ran full speed down a long hallway. They flew past several doors, but Jack didn’t slow.

  “Where are we going?” Chloe cried in between labored breaths.

  “Not sure—wait—right here,” Jack grunted as they reached the middle of the hallway and a door marked “Laundry.” He ripped it open as footfalls sounded from somewhere behind them. After darting inside, he shut the door quickly, but quietly. Several commercial-sized washers and dryers lined the gray walls. The steady rolling hum of the machines and the swishing of fabric inside the wet drums filled the room, masking their whispers.

  “Where now?” she asked as he turned over a heavy table, dumping a stack of folded towels on the floor.

  “Just a second,” he said, sliding the table over a few feet, then wedging the top diagonally between the knob and the floor. He handed her the pistol he’d taken off the man he disarmed, then pulled a Glock from his waistband.

  “That should give us a little time,” Jack hissed softly, striding across the room to a set of double doors on the outer wall. “Delivery doors,” he told her, his hand grasping the knob. “We go out here.”

  “To where?” Chloe said in a hushed tone.

  “Further down the front of the building. With the maze of hedges out there, we should be able to get close to the road without being spotted. After that we’ll have to just see.”

  Chloe huddled behind him as he opened the door and peeked outside. The service doors and the sidewalk leading away were shielded from the view of the guests by full, green hedges taller than Jack. They slipped out, letting the door close silently behind them. Trying to look natural and invisible at the same time, they followed the walk down the side of the building to where it curved around the back. Here the sidewalk hedges ended, exposing them.

  “We’ve got to head towards the road,” Jack said, as another marked car flew into the lot headed towards the others near the lobby. “And we better move fast.”

  Chloe’s pulse raced as they ran to the first long line of tall hedges encircling the closest house unit, just a few yards away. As quick as they could, they pushed their way between the long, flimsy branches, which scratched and pulled at them until they fell through to the other side. They landed in the private courtyard of the house which, fortunately, was completely empty. Picking themselves up, they dashed across the yard and tried to peer through the hedges to the other side.

  Chloe rubbed a long welt drawn up on her forearm, left by one of the branches. “What now?” she said, panic rising in her tone. Everything was closing in. She’d lost the flash drive. Sampson was seconds away . . .

  “Sidewalk. We’ll have to book it to the next house. Then we just keep going till we get as close to the road as possible. Then we’ll have to see if we can cross to the car.”

  Grabbing the long, reedy branches, he pushed them aside to create a hole, then stepped through. This time Jack held them for Chloe. They stepped out right in front of a swimsuit-clad guest carrying a tray of to-go coffees.

  Jack smiled and shrugged. “Lost,” he told the man, offering a guilty chuckle.

  The man nodded skeptically and kept walking, glancing back over his shoulder once after he passed.

  “We’re never gonna make it,” Chloe groaned as they hustled towards the next house.

  “It’s not over yet,” he urged, pushing through the next set of bushes into another private courtyard. “It’s a lot of property for them to search. We just have to keep moving.” This time three people were sunbathing around the pool. All of them looked up as Chloe and Jack broke through the hedge and strode across the lawn.

  “Hey, man, what—” one of them started.

  “Just a hide-and-seek challenge,” Jack interrupted. “Business conference. Sorry,” he apologized, giving an awkward little salute as they walked to the front of the house.

  They stopped at the corner to survey their options. They had made it close enough to the road that now only an open stretch of lawn stood between them and the tallest hedges lining the plaster wall separating the resort property from the road.

  “Now we run across.”

  “Out in the open?”

  “We’ve got no choice. They’ll be crawling all over this place soon. Ready?”

  Chloe nodded.

  They dashed across the twenty-yard span, nearly tossing themselves head first into the bushes at the four-foot-high wall.

  “Stay down,” Jack instructed. “I’m going to get our bearings.”

  Chloe nodded as he rose and peeked over the top. She sat with her back to the wall, her heart pounding and out of breath. Tears started down her cheek. What have I done? she thought, desperation clawing at her. I’ve lost our only evidence. And now we’re trapped.

  Jack sank down beside her. “This guy is fast.”

  “Why—what’s happening?”

  “He’s got a car on the road already.”

  “What?”

  Jack nodded. “Between us and where we parked. It’s possible he’s got another one going the other direction,” he nodded his head towards the far side of the LeClaire complex, “maybe just around the bend. So even if we manage to get to the car, we may not be able to drive it out of here.” He exhaled in frustration. “I should’ve parked farther down.”

  “We still couldn’t have crossed. I should have picked a different hotel—not one we couldn’t run away from.”

  Jack shook his head. “One closer to town would’ve had its own risks.” His shoulders sagged slightly and he exhaled. “This could’ve worked. I should’ve anticipated this. I . . .” He took a good look at her, taking in the tears for the first time. “Hey,” he said. “It’ll be okay.”

  Chloe shook her head in disagreement. “No. No, it won’t. It can’t. Because I lost that flash drive. The only thing we had—”

  “That’s not your fault,” he countered. “It just happened. Look, I really think we’re going to have to get out of here on foot,” he said resignedly. “We’ll still have to get across the road and into the forest, but if we time it right, we might not be spotted.” He sighed in frustration. “Thing is we’ve got no idea where that forest leads. We might just end up lost in there. If they end up using dogs—”

  “What about heading back to the FountainSea? If we could get to the edge of that property maybe we could find a way to get across the road unseen.”

 
; Jack shook his head. “They’ll be at the FountainSea soon, if they aren’t already. It’s why I didn’t park there to start with. And we’d be sitting ducks if we tried walking down the beach. I thought we’d be able to get to the Jeep. I never thought he’d organize a mass effort like this so quickly.”

  A nervous silence settled between them. “We’ll be fine,” Jack assured her, though he didn’t sound very confident. “We’ll just have to try for the forest. We’ll stick as close to the perimeter as we can. Maybe find a car we can use. Or bikes or something.” He took a deep breath. “Listen, if they see us, if this goes wrong, I’ll distract them. You just run—”

  They both heard it. A faint rhythmic buzzing. As confusion spread across Chloe’s face, Jack fumbled for his pocket, then whipped out the prepaid cell and answered it.

  “Yeah?” he asked hopefully, his eyes locked onto Chloe’s as she searched him for an explanation.

  Seconds passed as Jack listened, his face brightening with relief. “Oh, man,” he gushed at the caller. “Am I ever glad to hear your voice.”

  TWENTY-THREE

  Chloe sat quietly, straining to understand who was on the phone as Jack quickly recounted the critical aspects of their situation for the caller.

  “. . . All that’s left is the forest across . . .” He stopped mid-sentence to listen. “The Jeep’s over there, but if they see us, we’ll never get to it in time . . . Yeah, okay. . . . No, two, three minutes, tops. They’ll find us eventually . . . How’s he going to . . . okay. Hold on.”

  Jack met Chloe’s gaze, his eyes alight. “Here, hold this,” he said, handing her the cell, then ripping a branch from the bush. “I’ll explain everything later, but right now, I just need you to trust me. Okay?”

  She nodded. Twisting around, he shoved the branch onto the wall ledge, easing it out so it lay across the top and would be noticeable from the other side. He dropped back into a squat and pressed against the plaster.

  “In a couple of minutes a car’s gonna pull up right here,” he told her, taking the phone again. “We’ve got to hop over the wall and get in. Fast. Okay?”

  She nodded her understanding.

  He put the cell up to his ear again. “Okay, it’s done . . . All right, just let me know.”

  He turned to Chloe. “He’s going to tell me when,” he said, and grabbed her hand. “Just go when I go, got it?”

  She nodded, her heart racing even faster than before. His hand was steady, but perspiring, suggesting he was nervous, which made her even more nervous. The seconds seem to drag, and she tried to peer through the thick bushes for any sign of Sampson. A couple of times they heard what might’ve been aggravated voices barking in the distance, but no one had come closer than that.

  And then Jack pressed the cell tighter against his ear, his stare still focused on Chloe, as if trying to channel confidence into her. “Okay . . . got it,” he told the caller.

  “He’s through. Almost here,” Jack said, apparently relaying whatever the caller was telling him. He rose up as high as he could without putting his head above the wall ledge. She followed him. She heard the sound of a car engine rolling toward them, growing steadily louder.

  “And three, two, . . . now!” He pulled her up and pushed her ungracefully onto the ledge, the thick bushes tearing into them as he hoisted himself after her, then rolled off. She was already at the rear door of the grey sedan, yanking it open and diving inside as the car started to roll.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Jack yelled as he dove in behind her and slammed the door shut.

  Tires squealed as the driver pulled wide and spun into a one-eighty, gunning it back towards the roadblock he’d just come through.

  The officer manning the roadblock was yelling into his radio and diving behind the wheel of his patrol car, which was straddled across both lanes of traffic. As the sedan rocketed towards him, the officer revved his engine, but didn’t move, apparently unsure of which way to go to best block the sedan. At the last second, the sedan’s driver pointed the car towards the front end of the patrol vehicle, aiming for the little bit of open road between the patrol car and the narrow gravel shoulder.

  “It’s not wide enough!” Chloe screamed as the officer, apparently changing tactics, leveled his weapon through the window and began firing.

  “Get down!” Jack bellowed, forcing Chloe’s head into the seat as two shots popped off. The sedan’s left side collided with the patrol vehicle, metal screaming against metal and glass shattering as the impact spun the patrol car away and they rocketed past.

  “Stay down,” their driver ordered, pressing the pedal to the floor as the car approached ninety miles per hour. Behind them, sirens sounded. “They’ll catch up quickly. Listen—we’ll be coming up to a bend soon.” A side road flashed past. Then another. Suddenly, the driver began to slow. “Nothing there but trees. You’ll have just a few seconds before they can see us.” The sirens grew louder. “I’ll slow down as much as I can. You roll out—”

  “Roll out?” Chloe echoed incredulously.

  “Chloe, just listen,” Jack said firmly, pressing his hand against her arm.

  “Yeah, roll out. There’s a lot of brush. Get under it. Wait till they’ve gone by—then walk about twenty yards into the trees. There’ll be a car waiting.”

  “What about you?” Jack asked.

  The driver snorted. “Don’t worry about me. You got it?”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah.” He turned towards Chloe. “Jump for the shoulder and roll. Ok?”

  She looked at him, petrified.

  “Jump and roll,” he reiterated and squeezed her hand.

  “Here we go,” said the driver. With the sirens bearing down on them they rounded a narrow curve in the road. The driver slammed on the brakes, slowing to about twenty miles per hour.

  “Now!” yelled the driver.

  Jack threw open the door and leapt for the brush, followed by Chloe. She cried out as her knee hit the gravelly shoulder before she tucked and tumbled into the dense underbrush that filled a three-foot-deep gully bordering the shoulder. Copying Jack she pushed through to the gully’s bottom, making herself as flat as possible.

  As sirens screamed by, she squeezed her eyes tight, hoping against hope.

  * * * * *

  Korrigan sat alone at a pristine dining table covered in white linen and fine china. The table was strategically positioned in front of the sitting room’s large window overlooking the hotel courtyard, and beyond that, the harbor. Korrigan methodically ate his brunch, cutting one piece of poached egg with hollandaise, lifting it to his mouth and swallowing. Then another. And another. He did this until the eggs were gone, then moved on to the sautéed potatoes, following the same ritual.

  The door to the enormous suite creaked as Vargas entered.

  “I thought you knew better than to disturb me during a meal,” Korrigan remarked caustically, never looking up from his plate.

  “I assumed you would want an update,” the tall, twenty-something offered confidently.

  Korrigan stopped slicing. “And?”

  “No sign of them since they lost the car an hour ago. They did locate Collings’s Jeep near the resort. But there’s nothing in it either.”

  Korrigan laid his gleaming fork on the table and glared at Vargas. “You interrupted me to tell me that there has been no change?”

  The rebuke failed to shake Vargas’s composure. Unlike most of Korrigan’s men, Vargas was not easily unnerved by him. The quality impressed and annoyed Korrigan equally. Korrigan’s surly expression remained static, but he pushed back from the table. “Get him on the phone,” he barked.

  Vargas fluidly retrieved a cell phone from the inside pocket of his dark suit. “He’s already on, sir,” he said, holding the phone out to Korrigan. “Just unmute it.”

  Korrigan reached for the phone, mildly pleased by Vargas’s forethought, though not completely surprised. Of all his men, Vargas was the most consistently capable. Not perfect, but generally very precise. H
e nodded sharply at Vargas as he snatched the cell and paced to the expansive window.

  “Sampson?” he growled, staring out at the crystal waters but not seeing them.

  “You know I’m in the middle of something here Korrigan, so make it quick.”

  “You should have them by now.”

  “Well, I don’t. And before you start in, it’s not for a lack of effort. They could be anywhere by now. This kind of thing takes time.”

  “Time is something I don’t have, Sampson. I paid you a lot of money precisely because I did not have a lot of time. You promised quick results. You promised me positive action. But I am getting neither.”

  “Hey, this landed in my lap less than forty-eight hours ago,” Sampson shot back angrily. “Don’t blame me for your people’s screw-ups.”

  “I blame you for your screw-ups. You have an entire department at your disposal. Use it.”

  Sampson snapped, “You act like I’ve got an army here. In case you’ve forgotten, this is a small outfit. And by the way, this is not my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing. Your interference is only causing more delay. Why don’t you just kick back in that five-star hotel room of yours, knock back another martini, and let me do my job. Because right now, you’re only getting in the way.”

  Silence thick with loathing followed, until Korrigan said in a low, smooth voice, “I don’t know who you think you are, but I’ll tell you who I am. I am the man who will take out of your flesh every cent we paid you if you don’t have those two here by five o’clock. You’ve seen what I can do. Have done. Will do.”

  “Look,” Sampson started, a slight hesitation suggesting he was rethinking his bravado, “take it easy. All I’m saying is—”

  Korrigan groaned in disgust. “Just find them. And while you’re out there keep an eye out for your spine. Seems you’ve lost it.”

  Sampson’s temper flared again. “You pompous—”

  “Just do it. And remember what I said. Five o’clock.”

  Korrigan hung up before Sampson could finish. The familiar rush that always followed the institution of fear in others washed over him. Next to wielding the power of life and death over someone, it was this he enjoyed most. The power to make others fear.