Beck: Hollywood Hitman

by Maggie Marr

  “You know her?”

  “I know everyone I need to know.” Jax opened the door to the SUV. They ambled to the front of the little bungalow, the only well-kept one on the block. Jax knocked. “Mrs. Hernandez, it’s Jax Craig. Do you have a minute?”

  The door flew open. A tiny woman as wide as she was tall stood before them. She wore a brown housedress and an apron. “Jax, it is you! My God, I prayed to every saint in Heaven that you would appear on my doorstep today. Thank you, Saint Anthony, thank you! Come in.” She grasped Jax’s arm and pulled him into the house.

  “This is Beck, he works with me. He’s also the man assigned to take care Natalie Warner.”

  “Oh, dios mio, Natalie, I love Natalie so very much. And Rico, he loves her too. Not meant to be those two, but he will always love her. But Jax, the men, the came and took my Rico and I could not call the police because, well, you know, and I am so worried that he is in trouble.”

  Panic laced her voice. Her home was small but well kept . Beck guessed he could eat off the floor the place was so clean.

  “We want to find Rico, Mrs. Hernandez. Can you tell us anything about these men?”

  “They were big. One was dark like my Rico and one was light and blond like him.” She nodded toward Beck.

  “And they came to the house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did they leave anything, say anything that sounded important that would help us, like where they were going?”

  “All they said was Palook is waiting.”

  Beck shot Jax a look.

  “And Rico would go with them for the money he wanted.”

  “The money?”

  Mrs. Hernandez nodded. “I don’t know what for, I don’t, but it cannot be good the way these men look. They were not good men, not like you. Not at all.”

  “Has Rico called?”

  “One time.”

  “Can I see your phone?”

  Mrs. Hernandez tottered across the living room to the kitchen counter where she grasped her phone and brought it to Jax.

  Beck reached out and Jax set the phone into Beck’s hand. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get lucky. Beck scrolled and pulled the number he needed and plugged it into his own phone. “Got it.”

  Beck flipped his phone toward Jax an address on the screen.

  “Mrs. Hernandez, can I give you another phone? Can I keep this one for today?” Jax followed Beck outside.

  “Take it. Take it. Bring me back my grandson. I’d give you a million phones just to have my boy.”

  Beck stood at the open passenger side of the Escalade and tossed Jax a burner phone from the car. “Tell her I dropped in our numbers already.”

  Jax caught the phone and turned to Mrs. Hernandez. “I’ll be back tomorrow no matter what.”

  “Thank you,” She reached up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on each of Jax’s cheeks. “I’ve always known you would be a good man, even when you were a bad little boy.” She smiled and tugged at his chin. “Find my Rico.”

  “I’ll do everything I can.” Jax hustled down the front steps to the SUV.

  “You grew up here?”

  Jax jumped into the SUV. “I grew up everywhere, cowboy, just like you.” They both climbed into the Escalade.

  “You coming with me or am I going alone?” Beck pulled a Sig from under the seat.

  “What do you think?” Jax gunned the car down the street and took a hard left.

  “Not sure how you roll when it comes to breaking the rules.”

  “Rules? Cowboy, haven’t you figured out there weren’t any rules where I come from? Other than you don’t ever snitch or leave a soldier behind.”

  “Sounds familiar.”

  “Maybe more than you’d like to admit.” He whipped the car across two lanes of traffic and took a hard right.

  “Don’t really want to get stopped.”

  “Nobody’s stopping this car.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  Jax nodded a slow grin pulling over his face. “This is a Greystone vehicle—we don’t get stopped. At least not in L.A.”

  Beck took it in. He’d worked for an agency that was part of the government and above the law, but Greystone seemed to operate in this whole new world where even as a private entity they got all the perks of being part of the government.

  “Better phone it in to Remi,” Jax said. “Wait ’til we’re nearly there. But damn, cowboy, are you going to get an earful.”

  Beck would take the heat. He’d rather have all of Greystone pissed than find Natalie dead.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Spread your legs.”

  Her naked flesh prickled in the cold air. The sharp scent of salt bit through the cold and musty air. Her shoulders ached. Her wrists were bound and chained to a pipe that ran along the ceiling.

  Was she underground? There were no windows and only one door. Aside from the rusty pipes overhead, the room was entirely concrete.

  The girl tapped Natalie’s right leg with the handle of the hard-bristled brush. Natalie shifted her weight, and the girl rubbed a handful of sea salt against Natalie’s inner thigh and then placed the brush against Natalie’s flesh and scrubbed. The other girl scrubbed down Natalie’s back. There was nothing kind, nothing gentle, nothing good in their touch. Strapped up like a piece of meat to be cured, they both scrubbed her with water and salt. Neither of them spoke except to order her to move one way or the other.

  “I can . . . I can help you,” Natalie breathed out. She’d been warned not to speak, but what other chance did she have? Didn’t she have to try to convince one of these girls to help free her?

  “You will be silent,” the girl scrubbing the inside of Natalie’s thigh ordered and moved to pressing salt onto Natalie’s belly.

  “I have money,” Natalie continued. “Lots of money and I can—”

  Smack.

  The girl’s hand landed hard and flat against Natalie’s cheek. Heat welled in her eyes and a tears trickled down her skin. She pressed her lips tight and her nostrils flared.

  “Silence,” the girl who’d hit her hissed. Her eyes were wide and lit with fury.

  Natalie licked her lips and closed her eyes. Her cheek stung with pain. God, how was this happening . . . why was this happening? Would she . . . would she get out alive? Natalie choked back a sob. Would she be permanently scarred like Estrella? How could anyone find her?

  She had to believe, wanted to believe, that Beck and all of Greystone and maybe even the police were looking for her now. Trying to find her, they would do anything to find her, wouldn’t they?

  She couldn’t even tell if it was day or night. Had no idea how long she’d been passed out or where she was.

  The girl behind her started rubbing her body with a rag. Once Natalie’s flesh was dry, they circled her in a white sheet and one of the giant guys came in the door and unchained her wrists. She followed them down the concrete hallway to a heavy steel door, which the girl who’d hit her opened.

  “He will come for you when it is time.” A tiny smile curled over her face. In that moment, Natalie noticed the scar, a burn mark shaped like a star on the girl’s left temple.

  Natalie gasped. God . . . her stomach coiled in horror. The pain . . . the pain Estrella had endured . . . the pain Natalie would face. Her breath caught in her lungs.

  The girl reached up and pressed her fingertips to the scar. “It is his mark I bear. My blessing to carry.” Her gaze remained on Natalie, a wild-eyed look that screamed her belief in Palook. “Pray to your God that you might find purification through the pain.” The girl shoved her into the room and the door slammed shut.

  Natalie turned and pressed her hands to her face, willing herself not to cry, not to scream, but to believe that Beck was on his way to save her soon.

  ***

  The building was long and low and sat back from the road with a chain-link fence sporting razor wire along the top.

  “I’ve got a guy inside,” Jax said.

  �
�What?”

  “Greystone, the Agency, we’ve got a guy inside. He’s deep cover, been planted for going on eight months. We hardly hear from him, but he’s in there.”

  “Couldn’t he have fucking let us know—”

  “Not how it works. You know that, buddy. He’ll need to extract with us. Code word is ‘dogma.’ Make sure you say it and he’ll hit the ground for you.”

  “What the fuck? You guys just letting this Palook guy run free—”

  Jax whipped his head toward Beck. “You remember how you don’t always know the true details of your missions?”

  Beck cocked an eyebrow.

  “Well, Estrella doesn’t tell us everything, okay? I’m guessing Estrella, Remi, me, and now you are the only people on the planet who even know about this guy. Okay?”

  “Fuck. What is this?’

  “It’s a fucking movement based on an obsession with a sociopath that is picking up steam in all kinds of places you wouldn’t believe. So let’s get the girl and the bad guy and get the hell home. What do you say?”

  Beck chambered his bullet. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “I’ve got a couple distractions in the back.”

  “Remi’s on his way. He’s letting LAPD know.”

  “We’ve got ten? Fifteen?”

  Beck nodded.

  “Saddle up, cowboy. Let’s go.”

  ***

  “My darling Natalie, do you know why you must pay?”

  Natalie lay flat on a metal table with her arms outstretched and tied down. A white sheet covered her naked body.

  Hot bile climbed the back of her throat. This room was brighter. Across from her, Rico sat tied in his chair with a gag in his mouth. His head didn’t hang down quite the same way as before. Was he conscious? Did he get to watch her be tortured? Was he the reason she was here?

  Palook ran his fingertips across Natalie’s cheekbone. A shiver shot through her. “You don’t know, do you?”

  He turned behind him where the two acolytes who had bathed her and scrubbed her knelt on the floor with their hands clasped in a prayer to Palook. A burning fury lit their eyes, a wild adoration for Palook and what was about to happen. Three others wearing the same robes with shaved heads knelt beside them. Behind them stood a row of three men—the two who’d dressed up and grabbed her at the premiere party and one other.

  “You must pay because you are a whore who aggrandizes your whorish and wanton ways. You lead the pious and righteous astray. You, like Estrella, will serve as an example and a reminder of what happens to whores. What must happen to whores so that God may again love us.” He held out his hands and a smile crossed his face as he turned away from her and toward his group of his followers. “My children, what I do now, I do for you and for our world so that we might be saved, so that we might purify and condemn those who would lead us into the abyss.”

  “You do this for us,” they chorused back.

  Natalie lifted her head. A fierce blood lust burned brightly in their eyes. Palook motioned to the girl who’d hit Natalie in the face, and her smile widened. She rose to her feet and walked to Palook. He kissed each of her cheeks and turned away from her. She went to a table against the wall, lifted a piece of rolled cloth, and walked back to Palook. He slowly unrolled the cloth, and with each twist of his wrist Natalie grew sicker.

  What was in the cloth? God, what had he used to destroy Estrella’s face? Was he really doing the same to her? Tears burned her eyes. How would she get through this, the pain?

  The glint of hard metal flashed. She gasped. A knife, sharp and wicked with a jagged edge, was in Palook’s hands. He turned and lay the cool flat of the blade against her cheekbone.

  “This steel forged in fire by man shall cleanse your soul.” He tilted the blade and pressed. The warm heat rolled down her cheek and then the pain flashed. How deep? How hard? She bit into the gag in her mouth. Pain flooded her. Joy in the eyes of Palook’s followers.

  He held the knife high above his head and turned to his followers. “This is the blood of the whore! Let her be forever cleansed!”

  “Let the blade made by man slice the wicked away and she shall be forever cleansed,” they chanted back to him. He turned to his acolyte, and she took the knife and handed him another.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Gunshots rang out. Natalie ripped her gaze from Palook toward the door on her right. The sound of metal clanking across concrete and smoke. Was it . . .? God, could it be?

  She couldn’t yell out, she couldn’t scream, and with the smoke rolling in waves and the coughing and the shrieks she couldn’t even see. The ties on her wrists jerked free. God, no, was Palook taking her somewhere else? Somewhere he could slice and dice the rest of her? She curled her hand into a fist. She might be drugged, but she could still move—she lifted her fist to reach out and heard his voice.

  “Nat, baby, it’s me. I’m here.”

  The tears started as he lifted her and she curled against Beck. Sirens wailed in the distance. She closed her eyes and pressed her face to Beck’s chest. Finally, thank God, he was here to save her, he was here.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Estrella’s plan was predictable. Oh so predictable. She played the entire scene just as he’d known she would. The only surprise was the rapidity with which Natalie’s current lover had found them.

  Ah, but the game had just begun, hadn’t it? After years of running and hiding and having to get the blood in the most despicable ways—even for his taste—he was now strong. Nearly as strong as Estrella. Her army, no matter how big, was at Greystone. His army? Ahh, but his army was secret and well-placed and now in nearly every country, every government, every city, and yes, even within Estrella’s beloved fortress.

  He sipped his champagne and gazed at the blue sea. He’d not even needed to go far once Natalie had been saved. No, his acolytes were many, and varied, and powerful, and they welcomed the honor of hosting him. They longed for a more sacred time when the natural order embraced the earth. When whores did not tempt nor try to run the world.

  Fucking whores. He would make them pay. He would make Estrella pay. He wasn’t finished with her. He’d complete what he started. He was coming for her and she knew it. Let the fear simmer in her blood until he drained her.

  She knew, and she tried to protect herself with her army of washed-up operatives. Hitmen. Has-beens, defunct and defective. Ha! Yes, he was already using her operatives against her.

  His phone buzzed. “This is Palook.”

  “We’re back. They’re downloading intel from the girl now. They haven’t announced the spy’s return.”

  “No, she wouldn’t.” Palook gazed at the ocean. “Estrella will try to bury where he’s been. Attempt to make it seem as though his absence and return has nothing to do with me. I know her, I know her well.”

  “Yes, master, you do. Each thing you tell me has come to pass. The closer I get, the more I know that she is evil and must be destroyed so that your mission may succeed and you can bring the glorious reign of our God to this earth.”

  “Yes,” Palook said. “The glorious reign.” There would be much blood and many, many faces that would need to be marked. Of this he knew and was certain. Soon his acolytes, the chosen of them, would be trained so that they too could deliver the mark to the whore.

  The day of Palook’s glory was coming. The day when the whores no longer usurped the power but took their rightful place behind their men. The time when this world returned to the natural and sacred order.

  “Master, I must go. I return to the whore and her people. I will contact you soon.”

  “Watch the returned spy closely. I wish to know that he has delivered the information as I wished him to so that we can begin what we have planned.”

  “Yes, master, soon. I will contact you soon.”

  The line went dead. Palook looked out at the ocean in front of him. Yes, soon, he would finish the artwork he’d begun on Estrella Leone’s face. Very, very soon.
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  Chapter Twenty-seven

  “Worldwide is pushing two weeks.”

  “I want to start on schedule.” Natalie held her phone and walked beside the pool, a wide-brimmed hat shading her face.

  “Lydia and Ted think it’s best to wait,” Ari said. “The doctor wants your skin to heal. They can take out the stitches and scarring in post, but they want to give you some time. This is a traumatic event. You were abducted, Natalie. A psychopath tried to slice and dice you.”

  “They . . . they still haven’t found him.” Natalie whispered into the phone, and her gaze drifted to the trees along the perimeter of her yard. Would she ever feel safe? Was this how Estrella felt every day? Suddenly the thick stone walls of Greystone didn’t seem so cold and foreboding.

  “Greystone will find him, the Feds—everyone is after this guy. He can’t hide forever.”

  No, but he could hide for years, as he’d done after he harmed Estrella.

  “We’re telling the press it was a small car accident that happened on the way home from the premiere. I’m telling people you were upset about your dad and left early. This is how everyone wants it played.”

  “I was upset about my dad.”

  Ari sighed. “I know. You’re an amazing woman with real talent and you don’t deserve all this . . . this shit.”

  Natalie squinted. Was Ari going to cry? There was so much emotion in his voice. She looked across the pool, where Remi and Beck stood talking.

  “Ted wants you and Beck to take Worldwide’s jet and go Ted’s private island for two weeks. Okay? Greystone and Worldwide are handling security. You’re leaving later today.”

  “What?”

  “Stacia packed your bags. Beck thinks it’s a good idea. We’ve taken care of everything. You leave in an hour.”

  Natalie closed her eyes and nodded. She didn’t like being told what to do, but damn, Ari and everyone who cared about her had agreed, and she’d better start listening to the people around her. “Okay,” she said softly. “Thank you, Ari.”

  “Don’t thank me, babe. Just go and try to put this behind you. They’ll get this guy, Nat, I promise, they will.”