by Geonn Cannon
Muldoon said, “Who have you told about this? Who knows about the pills? Who hired you?”
Ari said, “Gonna kill all of them? That’s a lot of murders. You guys want to take turns, or has one of you always wanted to be a serial killer?”
“I looked up your agency while you were out. I like that cute little redhead you work with, Dale Frye. You share a home address, too. I bet she knows everything about your business. Or if not, there was a little pillow talk going on. Either way, we’ll pay her a visit once we take care of you. Tell us who else knows and we’ll make sure whatever happens, it’s painless. Quick. Maybe we’ll just pay them to keep quiet. Everyone gets to live. But if we have to work for it, the boys might want a little something extra for their efforts. Oborin has plenty of pills to go around.”
Ari’s focus tightened as soon as he said Dale’s name. The more he spoke, the more her blood pounded in her skull. She focused on him despite the fact the floor still seemed unsteady.
She forced her eyes to lock onto him despite the swimming in her skull. “You’ll die bloody.”
He patted her cheek and smiled. “We’ve got time.” He pushed himself up and walked back to the door. “We’ll want to wait until full dark before we do anything. Everyone’s got a camera now, even way the hell out here. Anton, keep an eye on her.”
“Out here?” Ari said. “Where exactly is that?”
“That doesn’t concern you.” He opened the door and Ari looked past him to see a white, waist-high wall topped with a wooden rail. Panic seized her as she recognized it as the railing on Lindholm’s boat. Her head wasn’t unsteady; the world really was swaying from side to side. She was on a boat. They were taking her out into Georgia Strait or the ocean but it didn’t matter. They were going to put her in the water.
Panic overtook her. She pulled on the chain holding her hands over her head. “Wait. Stop, that’s… don’t do this. Please.”
Muldoon ignored her and pulled the door shut behind him. Before it closed she saw someone move along the railing. It was a brief glimpse but it was enough for her to recognize Dubov, the one player she thought she could count on as an ally. She dropped her head and tried not to despair. If they were out on the water, if she was surrounded by people who were willing to kill in order to keep their secret, then she really didn’t see a way out. No one knew where she was. Hell, she didn’t even know where she was. There was no rescue coming.
“This is going to hurt,” she whispered.
Oesterle moved off his seat and took the position Muldoon had taken in front of her. “Don’t say that, sweetie. It’ll all be fine. We’ll chuck you off the boat so Phil doesn’t have any blood to clean up, then Coach will just shoot you in the head once you’re in the water. Nice and quick. If you cooperate, tell us who else you told about our pills, we can give you another one of Kris’ roofies before you go over. You’ll sleep through the whole thing.”
Ari shook her head. “I didn’t mean that. I just… my arms are killing me right now. I think what I’m about to do is going to hurt like a motherfucker, but I don’t see any other option.”
He glanced at the cuffs and shifted his weight. “What you’re going to do? What—”
Ari closed her eyes and shifted her arms. She screamed as the anguished nerves were shocked into an unexpected shift, her human muscles pulling and twisting until her arms were narrower and her hands had become paws. She pulled them free of the cuffs and, eyes tearing up, forced an instant shift back to human hands. Pain shot from the center of every finger and radiated through her palms and up her arms in waves of electricity.
Oesterle’s eyes widened and he fell backward, but Ari was faster. She grabbed his shirt collar with one hand, clapped the other over his mouth, and threw herself against him. They fell to the ground with her on top. She brought her legs up to the soft fleshy part of his torso between his ribs and hips and squeezed. He pelted her side with punches and tried to buck her off, but she held on tight. Muldoon’s threats echoed in her head. What he would do to her, what he would do to Dale and Diana. She bared her teeth and squeezed tighter, watching his eyes slowly go flat as she cut off his air. They were going to dump her in the water. Adrenaline surged through her at the thought, rage overriding fear as Oesterle’s eyes finally rolled back in his head and his body went limp.
She stood up but kept her head down so no one could see her through the windows as she moved to the door. Her arms hung like baseball bats that had been nailed to her shoulders. She flexed her fingers in an attempt to get feeling back into them. Muldoon was onboard, along with Oborin and Lindholm. She’d seen Dubov, a fact which broke her heart, and she had to assume Aulie came along for the ride.
If she ran out onto the deck she would be swarmed in seconds. She couldn’t take down five hockey players by herself, especially in her current condition. She debated transforming into the wolf, but decided it wouldn’t be worth the risk. There were too many variables to account for. If any of them had a gun, if there were more men than she knew about, she needed to keep her head clear to make split-second decisions. Her life might depend on it.
There wasn’t much in the way of weaponry in the room where they’d put her. It made sense; no one was going to put their prisoner in the armory. But there was nothing, a blunt object or something heavy she could use to her advantage, she could see to make use of. She worried it was the head trauma and drugs she’d been given affecting her brain. If she had a concussion… she couldn’t think about that. She took a deep breath and scanned her options again. An empty table, a coffee urn that looked like it would cave in if she tried to hit someone with it, a tarp, some cleaning supplies.
She was debating whether she could spray some of the cleaner in their eyes when the door swung open. She had been crouching on the hinge-side, so she was out of sight when Oborin stepped into the room. “The fuck…” She saw his weight shift as he turned to look behind the door and her plan suddenly became very simple. It didn’t matter how big her opponent was; he was still being supported by two very fragile ankles. She braced her arms against the wall and, just before he turned, shot her leg out straight and kicked his ankle with all the strength she could muster. She heard something pop and Oborin shouted as he went down.
Ari hurled herself at him like a pinball. She wrapped her arms around his head and dropped, pulled him down to the floor, and bounced his head off the ground. Oborin had one arm free and wrapped it around her. His other hand came up into her hair and yanked her head back. He growled as he hurled her away from him. New pain bloomed through her body as she hit the ground. She looked up as Oborin struggled to get off the floor only to fall back down when he put weight on his ankle.
Her victory was short-lived when Aulie appeared in the doorway. He looked at his fallen teammates and then spotted Ari. Dubov came into the room behind Aulie.
Aulie said, “Goddamn it, Anton, you had one job!”
Ari doubted she could take one of them, let alone both at once, but she’d go down fighting. She pushed herself up on shaky arms just in time to see Dubov wrap an arm around Aulie’s neck. Aulie coughed and flapped his hands against his teammate’s beefy forearm but Dubov effortlessly put Aulie into a full nelson. He squeezed until Aulie was on his knees. He only let go when Aulie dropped both arms and went limp.
Dubov looked at her and held out his hands. He spoke in a rushed whisper. “I’m on your side. I swear. I saw everything that was happening back at the arena. I knew these idiots were going to do something, so I told them you had dirt on me, too. I mean, it’s technically true. I just wanted someone here to have your back if things went sour.”
Ari said, “When was that going to be, Tyler? When they roofied me? When they beat the shit out of me in the coach’s office?” He averted his gaze. “Forget it. We have bigger problems. Who else is onboard?”
“Just Muldoon and Lindholm. They’re at the other side of the boat. Phil’s driving, looking for a quiet place to… well…”
Obo
rin glared up at Dubov. “You cocksucker.”
“Yeah,” Dubov said, “my boyfriend says I’m really good at it.” He looked at Ari. “Is it an affront to, you know, female empowerment if I knock this fool out for you?”
“Be my guest.”
“Just try it, you fa—”
Dubov punched him before he could finish what he was about to say.
Ari said, “Think he was going to say ‘fabulous enforcer’?”
“Pretty sure, yeah.” He ran a hand over his face. “Okay. What next?”
“Do you have a phone?”
He shook his head. “Coach made us leave them in the car.”
“Shit. Okay, uh, what time is it?”
“Just after seven.”
Ari nearly choked at the horror. She’d been incommunicado for over eight hours. Dale had to be absolutely terrified. There was nothing she could do about it yet, though. And calling at that moment to say she was safe would be a lie anyway. Better to wait.
“We’ll deal with that once we’re safe on shore. Oesterle said that the plan was to shoot me once they threw me overboard. That means they have a gun, right?”
“They have a couple, actually. None of them are loaded.”
Ari said, “Why not?”
“I wasn’t just sitting on my ass while they were planning your murder.”
“Okay. Better for no one to have guns, I guess.”
Dubov moved to the knocked-out men and dragged them into the corner. He reached for the handcuffs that had been holding Ari but stopped short when he saw they were still locked.
“How did you get out of these?”
“I have little hands.”
He looked at her hands, looked at the cuffs, and then shook his head. “Well, I don’t have the keys to them, so we’ll have to find another way to tie them up.”
“Sure. Okay.”
She began searching through the drawers for anything that might be useful. “Once we’ve taken care of them, we need to get back to shore to call the authorities.”
Dubov hesitated. “Yeah. About that… do you have any idea how to drive a boat?”
“How hard could it be?” she said. Dubov looked pained. “Okay. Yeah. But we’ll worry about that later. Keep looking.”
He nodded and continued his search.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lindholm’s boat was more of a yacht. Ari remembered seeing it when she followed him for a day early in the case. The bridge on top of the cabin where they’d locked her up, enclosed on three sides but open at the back. She pushed the door open with her foot and peered out to confirm the ladder was where she thought it would be. Aulie, Oesterle, and Oborin had been secured with their belts and locked in the small bedroom at the back of the cabin. Dubov found the roofies in Oborin’s pocket and slipped one to each man the same way they’d drugged Ari. She tried to feel guilty, tried to worry it might interact with the Cyn already in their systems, but she couldn’t muster either emotion.
Lindholm and Muldoon were the only two threats left to deal with. Ari left the cabin with Dubov behind her. Muldoon’s voice was echoing off the curved lines of the boat, joining with the thrum of the engine, so she knew to keep quiet as they made their climb. At the top of the ladder she moved quickly to the right and kept low. The bridge didn’t have a door and she could see Lindholm and the coach standing together at the console. She pressed her back against the railing and waited. It was darker than it had been when she woke up, but there was still a chance it was bright enough Muldoon would notice her when he walked by.
Dubov had remained on the ladder. “Coach! She’s bawling her eyes out. Says she wants to talk, but only if you’ll spare her girlfriend.”
Muldoon sighed. “Christ. Little girls doing a man’s job…” He walked out of the bridge. “Are the others watching her?”
“Yeah,” Dubov said.
“Well, get out of the way so I can—”
Dubov grabbed the front of Muldoon’s windbreaker and pulled, twisting at the waist. His other hand was wrapped tightly around the ladder rail but he still almost fell with Muldoon. He let go and the coach shouted a curse as he was flung onto the lower deck. Ari ducked around the bridge doorway as Lindholm was spinning around. She had once been told that the actual punch was not as important as the placement of it, and she aimed at a spot on his jaw just behind his chin. He rocked back on his heels and she was close enough at that point to kick the side of his knee. He went down and she stepped behind him.
“You want to go down with the drug-pushing, roofie-pushing, attempted murdering coach, or do you want me to tell the cops you were cooperative? We can go either way and, frankly, I haven’t gotten my fill of beating the shit out of you guys yet. So what do you say, Phil? Wanna be a hero?” She considered her choice of words. “Well… less of a villain than the rest of these guys, at least.”
He nodded slowly.
“Good. You have the keys for the handcuffs you guys used on me?”
“Coach has ‘em.”
Ari looked at the ladder. Dubov had gone down the ladder to deal with Muldoon, and she could hear them scuffling down below.
“Tyler? You doing okay down there?”
He didn’t respond, but she heard a punch land.
“Shit…”
Lindholm now had a choice. If Muldoon was winning, he could choose to remain loyal. They would outnumber her and he’d still come out on top.
“Tyler! You need a hand, buddy?”
“Don’t worry about m…” He was cut off by the sound of a fist landing.
Ari looked at the console and reached out for the steering wheel. She grabbed it near the top curve and pulled down hard, turning the boat sharply to starboard. All the fragile human bodies onboard continued to obey the laws of physics. Ari and Lindholm were flung hard to the ground and fell away from each other. She heard the sound of two bodies falling on the deck below.
Lindholm spun around without rising from his belly. He reached out and grabbed her foot. Ari growled and brought her other foot up, slamming the sole of her shoe into the flat of his nose. Blood spurted down over his lips and he loosened his grip. She scrambled away from him and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. Lindholm rushed her. Ari rolled to the side. He attempted to change trajectory at the last second but ended up losing his balance. He fell against the console and Ari punched him again. Her hand was throbbing like hell, the knuckles raw and wrist numb from all the thick skulls she’d been slamming them against, but Lindholm went down.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay, okay, okay. I’ll drive you back to shore.”
Ari said, “That gun under the console doesn’t have any bullets in it.”
“What?”
His eyes betrayed him before he could catch himself. Ari reached under where he’d looked, grabbed the gun, and shook her head.
“You just lost your chance to surrender for real, Phil. On your feet.”
“Good luck piloting this thing yourself.”
Ari said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure we can figure something out.”
He got up and touched his nose. He hissed and let her lead him toward the ladder. Muldoon and Dubov were grappling below. Muldoon had his back to the ladder. Ari’s conscience poked her and told her that what she was thinking would be wrong, cruel, and bad sportsmanship. Then she remembered they had drugged her and planned to kill everyone she loved. That way she didn’t feel so bad when she put her shoulder in the center of Lindholm’s back and shoved him over the edge. He yelped as he fell so Muldoon turned in time to have his defenseman fall on top of him like a meteorite.
Dubov had seen what was happening and jumped back just in time. He checked to make sure they were both unconscious and then looked up at Ari with a smile on his face.
“You’re kind of destructive, you know.”
She shrugged. “They pissed me off. Tie those guys up. I’m going to see if I can teach myself how to drive a boat.”
He chuckled and went to wo
rk.
#
Ari retrieved the handcuff keys from Muldoon’s pocket and secured him to the wall. She gave him a roofie as well, but Lindholm was left semiconscious in a chair on-deck. Night had finally fallen and she had turned on the lights so she could see what she was doing. Dubov had his elbows on the railing, one foot crossed over the other with his fingers laced together as she made sure Lindholm was secured in place. Ari approached cautiously, very aware of the water rolling below. She put her hands on the rail but remained upright just in case there was a sudden shift in the boat’s movement.
“It’s okay,” he assured her.
“Uh-huh. Do you even know where we are?”
He pointed at a cluster of lights across the water. “See that? That’s Port Angeles.”
She furrowed her brow and pointed. “I thought that was north…”
“No. Home is back that way.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Damn.”
“You got hit in the head a lot. And you got drugged.”
Ari said, “Right. Speaking of which.” She passed him the pill bottle and wiped her hands in case handling the pills left residue. “I can’t believe I’m actually feeling grateful for the date-rape drug.”
Dubov said, “Even the vilest of things can have its purpose. I could keep knocking them out every time they wake up, but I think my knuckles would protest.”
“Tell me about it.” She flexed her hand. The knuckles were red and tender, and every movement of her fingers sent a weak protest of pain. “Thanks for the help back there.”
“I’m the enforcer. I protect my team.” He looked out at the water. “You’re more my team than any of those bastards.”
“Do you have any idea where Muldoon’s iPad ended up?”
Dubov said, “Yeah. When they said that’s what you grabbed, I made sure to keep track of it. Wait here.” He went up onto the bridge and came back with the tablet.