Chapter Thirty-Four
Aaron glanced at this watch for the fourth time in under an hour.
Still tied to the chair, Jenny continued to stare daggers at him as he fought to keep his focus on the deadly game he was playing for both their lives. His mind raged and it took every ounce of courage not to tell her the truth. He couldn’t stand Jenny believing he’d betrayed her, not even for a few hours.
It’s gotta look real. He reminded himself. It’s the only way to make this work.
Clark paced the room trying to keep warm. The heater ticked loudly as it cooled, the fuel in the small tank now exhausted. Trish also tried to fend off the cold, rubbing her hands together and holding them closer to the nearly-useless device.
“I thought you brought more propane.” she said, leaving the dying heater and stalking around the room.
“I didn’t think we’d need it,” Clark snapped. “I thought we would be gone by now. We should have left hours ago.”
She tossed him a sideways glance. “So much for your planning skills.”
Being a native of New England, Aaron was not the least bit surprised at how fast the room became an ice box, once the heater quit. He also noticed each verbal exchange between the two criminals becoming shorter and sharper than the last. He watched their breath come out in small puffs, each vapor cloud getting longer and more opaque as time went by.
Only a couple of hours in the cold, and they’re already at each other’s throats. Good.
Clark turned back to his cohort, his voice loaded with venom. “My plan is fine, if you would just do as you’re told.”
“My plan is just fine,” she mocked him, her voice tinny and whining. “Then why are we sitting in this freezer? I didn’t sign on for frostbite.”
“Oh, just shut the hell up,” he turned and closed the distance between the two, bringing them face to face. “Before I have to adjust your attitude again.”
Aaron heard a faint metallic ‘click’, instantly recognizing the sound. The switchblade knife in her hand had appeared out of nowhere, the gleaming blade resting along the inside of Clark’s right thigh.
“You ever touch me again,” Trish said, her eyes blazing with controlled anger. “And I’ll castrate you faster than you can say ‘Eunuch’.”
Clark’s gaze shifted, first falling on his partner’s burning eyes, then on the eight inches of cold steel she held uncomfortably close to his genitals.
Aaron watched as Clark stared at Trish for a long moment, his drawn face a mask of white-hot anger. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, Clark’s rage seemed to vanish, his face visibly relaxing.
“Don’t get excited,” he laughed. “I think I made my point last time.”
As the distance between the two expanded, Trish retracted the blade with an audible snap.
“Yes. You reminded me why I left you the first time.”
Aaron’s inner smile grew as he germinated the seed of an idea to pull the bacon from the fire. He cleared his throat loudly, breaking the tension.
“I hate to interrupt, but can you let her out of the chair? She’s freezing too,” he said, “At least let her move around to stay warm until we leave.”
Clark paused in thought for a second before patting the revolver in his pocket, “Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“We won’t.” he said.
Clark turned back to Trish. “You’re the one swinging around the big blade. So, go cut her loose.”
Her face painted in stark disbelief at his sheer audacity, Trish moved to the other side of the room, kneeling on the cold floor by Jenny’s side. “Prick,” she muttered under her breath while cutting through the duct tape holding Jenny immobilized.
Finally free of confinement, Jenny glared at Aaron maliciously. Rubbing her wrists, she worked to restore the circulation to her hands. “Thank you.” Jenny said as she walked unsteadily, moving toward the heater.
As she approached, he saw a strange light in her eyes. Before he could utter a word, she let loose with a right cross, slapping him sharply in the face. Strength-depleted and still foggy from the drugs, she nearly fell over from the recoil. He caught her in his arms just inches above the floor’s cold wood planks.
“You bastard!” she seethed. “How could you sell me out? I trusted you!”
She struggled in his grasp, trying to free herself. “Let me go! Dammit!”
“I didn’t sell anyone out,” he said, a red handprint beginning to appear on his cheek. “I’m just trying to save our lives. Don’t you get that?”
Her face inches from his, she hissed in anger. “I get that you’re giving them my project to save your skin.”
He gave her a sheepish look. “Whatever it takes to get us out of here alive.”
Effortlessly lifting her and standing her back on her feet, Aaron watched as she stalked off. Shaking her now-stinging hand, she threw a backward glance over her shoulder. “You coward!”
The cruelly-rendered words seared his senses, piercing his heart like a well-aimed laser beam. He clenched his jaw in frustration. He didn’t dare answer her condemnation aloud, so he moved to her side. “You have to believe me. I’m doing what’s best…for both of us.”
He lifted his hand to her shoulder. Eyes blazing in fury, she whirled around, knocking it away. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
“Jenny, just try to understand…” he started.
She cut him off, her eyes drilling into his with a poorly controlled mix of heated emotions. “Understand what? That you are giving them my life’s work, something you swore to protect. Or was that little speech about keeping me and my project safe just a pretty lie?”
He turned to avoid her searing, condemning stare.
After a tense moment, she turned away from him, shaking her head. “I believed you. How stupid does that make me?”
“You’re not stupid. I just…” he stumbled over his words.
Clark interrupted. “How much longer do we have to wait? I’m not the most patient man.”
Aaron paused briefly, still looking for some sign of understanding from Jenny, now sulking in the corner of the room. Seeing none, he turned back to face his captor. “Look, you don’t want to follow the delivery man up to the desk do you? It might look a little suspicious, considering the fact that you’re not a guest at the hotel.”
Clark paced, walking from one end of the room to the other and back. “I see. We check into the hotel and then pick up the package?”
Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “Easy as getting drunk.”
Clark stopped in the middle of the room, still for a moment as he contemplated the scenario. “But, most business travelers don’t come back to their hotels until the end of the day, right?”
Aaron looked at his watch again. “About two hours away.”
Clark also scanned his watch. “Makes sense. Okay, we wait.”
Aaron joined Clark in the center of the room. “Look, I just want this to go smoothly, so we can all get out of here,” he pointed at Jenny, “She’s in no shape to take much more of this cold. She should be in a hospital. I’m counting on you to honor your word and let her go.”
Aaron knew time was running out. He could feel it in his bones. Every instinct he possessed told him Majors would kill them both the instant he had what he wanted…and his instincts were never wrong. The time would have to be soon.
"Chain Reaction" Power Failure Book I Page 45