“Was Dean’s death really an accident?”
Danny shook his head. “You two couldn’t have been closer if you were attached at the hip, could you?”
Tess frowned.
“Here you sit, tied to a chair in the middle of nowhere, and all you can worry about is Dean. It’s sad really that you have no life outside of your friendship with him. After he died, you let your career, and yourself, go.”
His words rang true, and she felt that all-too-familiar pinch of shame. She really should have tried harder to enjoy a normal life, a life like the one she’d shared over the last month with Jack. Her heart squeezed in her chest.
“No,” he continued lightly, “it was so easy. Dean knew I was getting in too deep and intended to tell the captain he needed to pull me from the case. I couldn’t let that happen so a little shift in the schedule, and one black ski mask later, I was free of one very large pain in the ass. Sal here started an argument with someone then blew their chest out while I hid in the back of the store. Dean was more worried about your safety than his own and did a half-assed job of checking out the store. It was a walk in the park to step out and blow his head off.”
Bile rose to the back of Tess’s throat as she struggled to control her rising anger and disgust. The man before her was an animal.
“What do you mean he knew you were getting in too deep? Why would he tell the captain?”
His explanation left her more confused than ever.
He chuckled. “Come on, Tess. You know as well as I do what Dean and I were working on. Don’t play coy with me. He told you every damn thing. Like you were his personal diary or something.”
“Is this about Dean being involved with the mob? Is that why we’re here?”
She watched as Danny eyed her warily for a long moment.
“All right, I’ll play your little game. The captain put Dean and me on a case. We had to go undercover, and I came to find that I liked what was going on around me. All my life I’d been told to stay away from this life, that it was bad news, that it’d bring nothing but misery to the family, but I couldn’t.
“The more I looked back at my family and deeper into the case we were looking into, the more I discovered. As it turns out, Dean’s father was the reason my uncle and father were thrown into prison, where they rotted until the day they died. Then they took my Uncle Ritchie to prison shortly after my father. After he was sent away, we fell into despair. My mother scraped away at three jobs just to make ends meet. I saw this as my chance to get even with Roman, and I started by getting rid of Dean. Then I took my uncle’s old nickname, The Old Man, to throw off anyone who got suspicious. You see, I didn’t know what kind of business my father and uncle were involved in all those years ago. I was so young; I wouldn’t have understood anyway. My mother never spoke of them or their work. She only instilled in me that I should never get involved with this lifestyle.”
Tess’s bottom lip trembled. “I thought you said you killed him because he was going to turn you over to the captain.”
As much of a relief as it was to know that Dean wasn’t really a crooked cop, she couldn’t help but feel slighted. Why Dean would have hidden something as important as going undercover was beyond her understanding, unless he was under strict orders to not tell anyone. No matter how she looked at it, she was still a little hurt he’d hidden something like this from his best friend. It shouldn’t matter to her now, for he was gone and she was about to be killed.
“Two birds with one stone.” He shrugged.
“So, why am I here?”
“The money,” he answered simply.
Tess shook her head with confusion. “What money?”
“Ah, now I know you know what money I'm referring to.”
Tess regarded him curiously before her expression cleared and realization stuck her. He was referring to the money Dean had left her. Why would he want her insurance money?
He’d asked her about any money she might have on hand when he and the captain came to her house the night of the kidnapping attempt. She’d thought the question suspicious at the time but had blown it off. Now, she wished she’d looked a little harder at his reason for asking.
“I see you’ve figured it out,” Danny said snidely.
“That money was a life insurance policy he set up for me. What do you want with it?”
“You see, we were undercover for almost a year. Most everyone knew I was a cop, but it was the perfect cover. They knew I’d do everything to keep them safe. The others loved the fact I could keep the department off their backs, but they watched me ever so closely, just in case I decided to turn turncoat. We’re all suspicious by nature, you see. All those times you thought he was on vacation or out sick, he was with me, skinning narks or slicing the occasional throat. You want so badly to believe he was a good cop, just doing his job, but in reality, he was just like me. Hell, he wanted to be me, be the boss, which is why he planned on telling the captain I was getting in too deep. Because in all reality, he was too.”
Tess fought and failed to suppress a shiver. Danny grinned.
“The money he left me was a life insurance policy. I spoke to the agent myself, but let’s just say it was his dirty money … Why do you want it so badly?”
Her body ached, and her head felt on the verge of exploding. If someone didn’t find her soon, she doubted she’d be conscious when the slicing and dicing began.
“I’m in a bit of trouble with a few people it’s not wise to be in trouble with. And even though I’ve come in and rebuilt this empire the way I imagine my uncle would’ve wanted it, even I’m not invincible. I need that money.”
“Is that why you killed Melanie? Because you needed the money?”
“Yes. I knew she had money, and after a little persuasion, she directed us to the safe in their bedroom, but that wasn’t enough. And if I’d taken money from her account, I would’ve been caught for sure. Melanie told me about the money Dean left you. I knew your aversion to banks and figured you would have put only a small amount in the bank and kept the rest in a safe, somewhere in that rundown shit-hole you call a house. We searched your house at least twice while you were out with your new boy-toy but were unable to locate the safe.”
She felt like kicking herself. If she’d followed Roman’s advice and put her money in a bank, this wouldn’t be happening. But she had trust issues, even with something as safe as a bank. But really, it hadn’t saved Melanie, so why should it save her?
Stupid, stupid, stupid…
“Well, that’s too bad.” Tess shrugged the best she could and immediately winced as the pain from her broken arm radiated through her shoulder, back, and chest.
Gathering her courage, she continued. “You should’ve taken better care of your finances. There’s no way I’m giving you the money. You two turned into the scum I always fought so hard to bring down, and while it kills me that’s how Dean turned out, I can’t do anything about it now. So, what now?” she asked with growing outrage. “You’re going to slice and dice me until I tell you where the safe is and the combination then you’re going to kill me?” she snapped angrily.
“Exactly. I originally intended to do this at your house, but that nosey-assed neighbor you're screwing got in the way and you shot at my guy.”
“The guy who attacked me in the garage,” she remembered.
“Exactly. When Sal grabbed you in the garage that day, he’d failed to see your new neighbor with you on the porch, and you quite surprised him with your hidden gun. After that, we knew we’d have to try something else.
“Then Sal and Tony here tried to take you from your bedroom, but once again, your hero came to your rescue. So, I figured our best bet would be to catch you out and bring you here. We could persuade you to disclose the location of your safe and the combination, then after Sal returns with the money, we’d just toss what was left of you into the lake.”
“You have it all planned out, don’t you?” She shook her head with astonishment.
He nodded. “We fully expected your brakes to give out before you got to Roman’s, but much to our surprise, they held until you headed home. It was sheer luck it gave out as you came to that curve. Your car won’t be seen unless someone walks past. That culvert is too deep to see the bottom from within a car.”
She’d thought her brakes were a little stiff and slow to stop and had decided to call and have them checked when she got back home. If she ever got home, she thought grimly. The way things were looking she’d never see that big old house again. Her only hope now was that Jack’s private investigator instincts would kick in, and he would come looking for her. But the possibility of Jack finding her, even if he did find her car, was slim to none. She could do nothing now but try to stall whatever it was Danny was going to do to her until she could discover a way to escape or Jack came to her rescue. Whichever came first she didn’t care, as long as one of those two things happened and she made it out of there alive.
Glancing to Danny as he stared down at her with a sinister smirk twisting his once handsome features, she did the one thing she was an expert at.
She mouthed off.
“Now what?” she spouted angrily. “You're going to kill me whether I give you the money or not. So why should I tell you where it is?”
Danny glowered down into her face before stepping up to the metal tray. Picking up a surgical scalpel, he held it up to the light then, reaching forward, skimmed the back of the blade across her bottom lip. “The way I see it, you have two choices. Either you can tell me willingly or I’ll take a little piece off every five minutes until you do.”
Chapter Twenty
Jack watched quietly as the black unmarked cop car leading them pulled to the side of the road and rolled to a stop.
Stepping out, Jack could barely retain his frustration as he shoved the passenger door shut and stepped out to meet them as they exited the car.
“Why the hell are we stopping?”
Captain Lewis held a hand up to silence Jack’s questions as he came to stand beside the trunk. “While on the way here, I called in the cavalry. The building will be surrounded when we bust in.”
“So you're certain she’s in there?” Jack asked as Robbie came to stand beside him.
“Roman seems adamant about it, and if there’s one person who knows how things work with this kind of people, it’s Roman,” Captain Lewis said firmly.
Jack was a mass of trembling hysteria. If he didn’t see Tess soon, see that she was safe, alive, and well, he was going to go insane. Thoughts of what the men holding her could be doing to her ripped across his heart like shards of glass.
“There will undoubtedly be a guard located outside the front of the building.”
“What about the rear of the building?” Robbie asked.
“The rear of the building sits along the river’s edge. There’s a boat dock located there, but I doubt there will be a guard, as there’s no other way to get there except through the building,” Roman said. “If anyone goes out the back to the dock … well, let’s hope they don’t get out to the dock.”
Captain Lewis nodded his agreement before continuing. “There will more than likely be only two men guarding the front of the building. They think no one knows they’re there, so security will be minimal.”
“How do you know that? We could be walking to our deaths,” Robbie said.
“We aren’t walking into anything,” Captain Lewis said quickly. “You boys, Roman, and Patrice, will keep your asses in the cars while my boys and I handle this situation.”
“You expect me to just sit idly by while you and your guys rush to the rescue? Are you crazy?” Jack erupted, throwing his hands in the air before coming nose to nose with the captain.”
“You’ll either sit there while we do our job, or I’ll cuff and stuff you until it’s over, which is looking more and more like what I should do,” Captain Lewis retorted hotly. Closing his eyes for a moment, he looked at Jack and frowned. “Look, son, I know you care about Tess. Hell, we all do, but you're a civilian, and I can’t take the chance of letting you, or any of the others, get hurt. We’ll get Tess back. You have my word on it.”
Despite the truth in the captain’s words, Jack had the overwhelming urge to crack the man over the head with a big rock, steal his gun and car, and head straight to Tess’s rescue.
But that would only put Tess in greater danger and land him in prison.
Nodding once, Jack listened to the Captain’s plans as more police cars stopped in a line behind them. Listening intently, Jack made plans of his own. He’d be damned if he’d let these guys rush in and save the woman he loved.
* * * *
Tess wanted more than anything to scream as the scalpel slid across her back in what felt like a serpentine pattern, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how terribly he was hurting her.
“For someone who always has a sharp remark, you seem extremely quiet,” Danny taunted.
This was only the first slice of the blade since his threat to take off parts. She was now tied to a standing structure that greatly resembled a medieval rack. Her wrists and legs were tied so she was spread-eagled, and while her jeans still covered her lower body, her top and bra had been removed, exposing her breasts to the men torturing her. Fortunately, Sal hadn’t asked, and Danny hadn’t offered, for them to have their way with her … yet.
“I’ll stop. All you have to do is tell me where it is.”
“Go to hell,” she spat through clenched teeth.
Blood slithered warm and sticky down her back to the waist of her jeans. Taking a deep breath, she fought the urge to vomit. The angle and the weight placed on it made her broken arm scream out in protest.
Closing her eyes, she sent up a silent prayer that someone would find her soon. After the one slice across her back and the pain of her broken arm, she wasn’t sure she could hold out much longer. The thought pained her as much as her injuries. She’d always thought of herself as a strong-willed person, but this little bit of torture served as proof she wasn’t as tough as she’d thought. It was definitely time to get out of the line of police work, if she ever got out of the warehouse alive.
“Ah, come on, Tess, it’s only money. Is it worth all this pain just to keep it hidden?” Danny sneered as he came to stand before her. Bile reached her throat as he trailed the back of one finger down her chest over the swell of her breast.
“You’re a strong one,” he crooned. “I thought you’d give up for sure once we hung you up by that broken arm of yours, but you didn’t. Then that slice to your back wasn’t shabby, and yet, you didn’t even scream.” He spoke with concentration as he took the peak of one nipple between his forefinger and thumb and squeezed. “I think I’m going about this all wrong. We didn’t try this with Melanie because she’d fucked half of us already, but you?” He grinned. “You’ve always been a little goody two-shoes. I tried more times than I can count to get between your legs, but you never showed the slightest interest in me.” He slid his hand away from her breast then trailed it down her stomach, then lower to cup her between the legs. “But now I have you right where I want you and where you can do nothing but enjoy the ride.”
Ripping the button free and sliding the zipper of her pants down, he sneered at her.
Her stomach pitched violently as she prepared herself for the worse torture she could imagine. All was about to be lost. There was no one coming for her and no way for her to get free. Closing her eyes, she prayed for this torture to be swift, followed by an equally swift death. Sure, she could tell them where her money was, but that wouldn’t stop them from what they were about to do. A single tear slid down her cheek as she accepted what was about to happen to her.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted.
Jerking his head up, Danny stepped away from her and pulled a gun from the back of his slacks as the large metal door slid open quickly.
Tess didn’t know what was happening as her back faced the door. The
sound of men grunting and falling to the cold, hard floor sounded around her. Turning her head to the side, she spotted Sal and Tony lying in a bloody heap, their perfect hair and hideous shoes covered in their blood.
Danny’s voice sounded with cold fury. “I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
Jack’s voice echoed in the now silent building. “Yeah, but you didn’t, did you?”
Tess wished more than anything that she could see what was happening behind her. Was Jack safe? Did Danny hold all the cards? But as much as she twisted and turned, her arm prevented her from doing anything. Fiery hot pain screamed through her, and the urge to give in to the unconsciousness tugging at her was almost unbearable.
Chapter Twenty-One
The sight of Tess hanging on that rack, blood pouring down her back and her obviously broken arm, twisted a white-hot pain in Jack’s stomach. But that was nothing compared to the fury that colored his vision red as he took in the sight of Danny standing before Tess, obviously about to rape her. Only the rapid gunfire surrounding him kept him from running across the room and gutting the man who dared to put his hands on the woman Jack loved.
Now, as he stood mere feet from a man he was completely shocked to see, his feeling had only intensified.
Jack and Robbie had taken it upon themselves to rush to Tess’s rescue while the captain and his men were plotting and planning, and from what Jack had seen as they rushed into the building, it was a good thing. If they’d waited for the captain’s go-ahead, they would have been too late. Fortunately, Captain Lewis had been right when anticipating the number of guards inside and out of the building.
Goosebumps dotted his flesh, and he ached to run to Tess, to release her from her torture and hold her close to him. But he couldn’t. Danny held a gun directly at Tess.
“Drop your gun,” Danny barked. “Or I’ll blow her brains all over the place.”
Dropping his gun, Jack watched as Robbie did the same.
The Stranger Next Door Page 17