Garret's Gambit, page 13
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he said. “You okay alone?”
“No, he’s not,” she said.
“I’m okay,” Garret replied, and, without giving her a chance to say anything, he slipped from the vehicle and morphed into the shadows.
*
Garret lived in the shadows, and it seemed he loved the shadows in a way. It’s where he was comfortable, and an awful lot could be accomplished there, as long as he had a bit of room to work. He knew she didn’t like it one bit, but that was just too bad. It was one of the things that she must get used to, if or when they ever decided to see each other on a less formal basis. Certainly that relationship was something he wanted to pursue, but he wasn’t so sure about her. He kept catching something in her gaze every once in a while, and he wasn’t sure what that was all about.
He knew Charles had made a point earlier and then had nodded at him a couple times, as if to say, “Come on, boy. Step up.” But Garret wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen with that either. His wasn’t an easy business to be in and to also have a relationship. He’d tried it with Amy and had to admit that it had been a really shitty decision on his part. He couldn’t blame her for that, but, at the same time, it wasn’t exactly a decision made with much intelligence.
That was sad too, because Amy had deserved more than he’d given. Apparently she needed a lot more, and he just hadn’t known. It still burned him to think of what she and his brother did, but it no longer bothered him with the same intensity. He could now clearly see Amy as completely unsuited for him and realized that, as much as he didn’t want her, he probably should thank his brother for taking her off his hands.
As he walked to the house, he saw a woman in the kitchen. She answered a phone call, put it down, and then proceeded to fill a tray with food. He wondered if she was taking that to a prisoner, in which case, that would make for an awesome opportunity for Garret. He followed her movements, as she picked up the tray and headed out to the room up above the garage. But, as soon as a man let her in, she put down the tray, turned around, and threw her arms around him. It was obvious that her visit had been for something completely different than checking up on a prisoner. Unless his brother was the prisoner. As he studied the man’s frame, which was taller and skinnier than his brother, Garret knew he was going in the wrong direction there.
He made his way back to the kitchen, stepped inside, and listened to the conversation in the other room, but the men were involved in a poker game, accompanied by their raucous laughter, were also talking about some play in the latest football game. They were arguing, but it was good-natured, as if this group of guys came together on a regular basis to play cards or to watch sports.
Finding the basement door, Garret quickly stepped downstairs and searched. When he found nothing there, he texted Kano and said, “This looks clean. Come pick me up.”
“I’m already on my way back. Be there in five.”
Garret made his way up and realized somebody was in the kitchen. He just strode across the room, as if he were meant to be here, and headed out to the porch.
He heard somebody yell behind him, “Hey, what are you doing?” So Garret turned and quickly booked it over the fence. At that, he heard more calls behind him. “Somebody was just in your house,” the man roared.
Men threw back chairs, and Garret heard the ruckus, but he was over one fence, over a second fence, and now heading for the copse of trees on the side. He knew the men would be after him as fast as they could get here, but Garret was counting on the fact that Kano was coming to pick him up. Sure enough, by the time the vehicle got there, he was on the other side of the trees, still hiding in the darkness. He dashed out, making Kano hit the brakes, while Garret hopped into the front seat, and they took off, fast. Men came out through the trees behind them, but all they could see, at that point in time, were the taillights. He turned to look at Astra, checking in on her.
She stared at him. “That was a little close,” she said quietly.
“It was,” he said, “but we’re good.”
“You’re sure?” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, then faced Kano. “Somebody is in the room over the garage, but it doesn’t appear to be a prisoner. If that were my brother, no way he would have been imprisoned and yet free to walk around like that. He’d be out the window and on his way to freedom.”
“From what I know of Gregg, that is quite true,” she said.
Turning to her again, he grinned. “It’s all good.”
She just shook her head and sank back.
He faced Kano. “What did you find?”
“A definite possibility,” he said. “We’ll be there in a few minutes, and you can give me your take.”
As they pulled up to another property, Garret noted the house was set farther back, making it much harder to see anything. A single light was on outside the front door, and a single vehicle was parked in front; that was it. “Interesting.”
“This is his brother’s house,” Kano said. “I’ve checked the property records. It’s been in his family for generations, but the property tax payments are in arrears for at least the last two years.”
“So it could be something, could be nothing.”
“Exactly.”
Garret hopped out and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 12
“Don’t you think you should go with him this time?” Astra asked Kano anxiously.
“No, he’s just doing reconnaissance. If it looks more promising than anything we’ve seen so far,” he said, “then I’ll go help him.”
“I hear you,” she said, “but I just think he takes a lot of chances. One of these days, those chances will be too much.”
“That goes for all of us,” he said. “It goes for anybody driving, for that matter. One day your number’s up. No way to know when, how, or how far away that day is.”
“I know,” she said. “Even in my business, we always talk about getting in a hurry and making a mistake one day. We remind ourselves that, if we stick with it, we’ll catch them.”
“Exactly, and one day you will. Everybody that’s on your docket, everybody that’s on your radar, one day you’ll get them.”
“I think patience is the hardest thing to learn,” she murmured.
“Many people don’t ever learn it,” Kano said. “Something like this, there’s no easy way out, and there’s no easy way forward,” he murmured. “All we can do is wait.”
“God, it seems like all I’ve done so far is wait.”
Just then the car door opened, and she faced a handgun. She stared at it in shock. “Ah, Kano?” but he’d been knocked out in the front seat. “Shit,” she said. She looked at the stranger, grinning at her. “Who the hell are you?”
“Your sister’s looking for you,” he said.
She stared at him in shock. “Have you got my sister?”
“I do,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go. I’ll put the two of you together.” As he dragged her from the car, she tried to look back at Kano. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing compared to what we’ll do to Gregg,” he said. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“I didn’t want to come,” she said, desperately searching for answers that would get this guy to understand why she was there. “We’re looking for my sister though. She said that Rick had her.” She studied the goon. “I don’t think you’re Rick though.”
“No, I’m not,” he said. “Rick is my brother.”
“Right, that was the only connection we had.”
“Of course,” he said. “My stupid brother just couldn’t keep me out of it.”
“Well, there weren’t a whole lot of choices in this instance,” she said. “Do you have my sister?”
He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I just say that?”
“Maybe,” she said. “I’m desperate to find her.” Rick’s brother shoved her toward the house, and Astra could only hope that Garret saw her.
Her gunman asked, “What were you guys doing here?”
“I wanted a chance to see the house, to see if I should call the police,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Well, that ain’t going to work,” he said.
“Apparently not,” she said. “I still don’t understand what you want with her.”
“It’s actually her boyfriend we want.”
“Well, he’s missing,” she said, giving him a hard look. “Are you telling me that you don’t have him?”
“No, we don’t, but that’s the end game.”
“I still don’t understand why. Why does anybody want him?”
“Hard to say,” he said. “It’s all about information.”
“So you just won’t tell me?”
“Why should I?” he said easily. “For all I know, you’re wired.”
“Wired?”
Just enough puzzlement was in her tone that he groaned. “You and your sister are two of a kind.”
“Somehow that doesn’t seem very complimentary,” she snapped.
He chuckled. “No, it sure as hell isn’t. Nothing but dumb broads, … both of you.”
Inside, she was elated because, as long as he thought that of her in that way, he wouldn’t put too much stock into anything that she might do. And, as she’d already learned, there wasn’t a whole lot she wouldn’t do to protect those she cared about.
As they walked closer to the residence, she said, “Wow, this is a gorgeous house.”
He jerked her arm, hard, and said, “It is, and it takes an awful lot of upkeep to keep it that way,” he said. “It’s been in the family for generations, so I won’t let it go now.”
“Ah,” she said. “You need money.”
“Doesn’t everybody?” he snarled. “And you’re worth money.”
“Wrong. No, I’m not,” she said. “I don’t know who told you that, but I’m really not.”
“Oh, I think you are,” he said. “I just have to find out who’ll pay.”
“Well, I’m the only one who would have paid for my sister, and there’s nobody else to pay for either of us, if you’ve got us both,” she said in a reasonable tone.
He didn’t even comment on that.
“Besides, it’s not money for us you want anyway, right? It’s actually her fiancé, isn’t it?”
“Are they actually engaged? God, he is welcome to her. All she does is complain.”
Astra hid her smile at his comment because that was such a perfect description of her sister. “That doesn’t mean she’s not terrified,” she said.
“Oh, she’s terrified all right. All she wants is him.”
“Well, of course she does. She loves him, and she’s been worried sick about him.”
“Well, he can have her, if we can find him ourselves.”
“And that’s where the trouble lies. So you weren’t the ones who kidnapped him?”
“Yeah, we were, and we stashed him with somebody, only that somebody moved him.”
Her eyes widened at that. “Ouch,” she said. “Betrayed from within. That sucks.”
“In a big way,” he said. “Now would you just stop talking.”
She was silent for a few moments, until they entered the big house.
He twisted her arm and said, “Wait here.” And he let her go. She stood here, rubbing her sore wrists and easing the pain in her shoulders. She looked around; the house had very little in the way of lights on. She didn’t know if that was because of the cost of the power or if it was part of the ambient mood he was trying to maintain. She turned and realized he hadn’t left; he’d just been standing behind her, looking for something. Something he then looped around her hands.
She looked at it in dismay. “Is that really necessary?”
“Don’t want you to do anything to get away,” he said. “One sister’s bad enough to look after. I’m not chasing around after the two of you.”
He dragged her forward into the kitchen, where her sister sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. Astra stared at her sister and asked, “Amy, are you okay?”
Amy hopped up, only her hands were tied too, and so were her feet. She looked up at her sister and started to cry.
“Oh, Amy,” Astra said. She walked over to her sister and, even though her hands were tied with a rope hanging off of them, she lifted them over her sister’s neck and just held her close.
“I trusted Rick,” Amy said.
“Remember that thing about trust?”
“No, you’re the one who never trusts anybody,” Amy said. “I’ve always trusted everyone.” She wiggled out of Astra’s hold and sat down again.
Astra didn’t say anything to that because it was true. It’s just that she’d always wished her sister wouldn’t trust everyone so easily. She sat down beside her sister and asked again, “Are you okay?”
Amy nodded and looked at her guard. “Not that he cares,” she snarled.
Astra was surprised to see that kind of spirit in her sister in this situation, but it was a good sign. She looked at her captor. “Any chance I could have a cup of tea too?”
He groaned, as he rolled his eyes at her. “What the hell do you guys think this is? Some kind of Taj Mahal?”
“I guess tea’s expensive,” Astra said apologetically.
He glared at her. “I’m not that broke.” With that, he turned and put the teakettle on the stove.
She watched every move he made. At the same time, Amy stared at Astra, hope in her eyes. Astra looked at her and asked, “What did Rick say to you?”
“Just that I had a bigger purpose.”
“Yeah, they’re trying to find Gregg,” she said.
“Find Gregg?”
Astra nodded. “Apparently they lost him,” she said, adding a certain emphasis to the word lost.
At that, Amy’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God, did they hurt him?”
“I’m not sure they’ve hurt him at all,” she said. “It’s just that he’s disappeared. They had somebody looking after him, but either that person betrayed them or something happened to him. The bottom line is that they can’t find Gregg now.”
“Maybe he got free,” she cried out joyfully.
“In which case, that’s bad news for you,” her captor said. “It’s not like I need you guys, if we can’t get him anyway.”
“Isn’t that the leverage you’ll use?” Astra asked him. “Telling Gregg that you’ve got his girlfriend and her sister, so he would come and trade himself for us?”
“You don’t know Gregg all that well if you think that’ll work,” he sneered. “That’s not the kind of guy he is.”
Her sister glared at him. “He is so. He is very honorable.”
The guy laughed. “God, where does she get this shit from?” he said. “Gregg’s nothing more than a mark, and he works for a company that’s an even bigger mark, and that’s it. The guy is full of all kinds of shit. The fact that he’s actually got you suckered into it just means you’re an easy lay.”
At that, her sister started bawling.
He turned around and said to Astra, “Get her to shut the fuck up.”
Astra immediately pulled Amy into her arms and whispered, “You need to be quiet.”
Amy’s sobs dampened down slightly. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “You told me to stay put, and I didn’t listen.”
“Yes, I did,” Astra said in a wry tone. “But you never were very good at following instructions.”
Her sister sniffled and said, “I’m getting better.”
She didn’t say anything to that, since she hadn’t seen any sign of it. “I get that you just wanted out for a bit.”
“I wanted Gregg,” she said. “I thought for sure Rick could help. They work together. Gregg knows him. Rick knows the guys they worked with in the past. That’s got to be what this is all about,” she said. “It has to be somebody else from an old case that’s after him.”
“Maybe,” Astra said, “but I wouldn’t count on it.”
At that, their gunman turned and looked at her and asked, “What do you know?”
“I don’t know jack shit,” Astra said, with a smirk. “All I know is that he’s missing. I don’t know anything about the work he does. I barely even know this Rick guy,” she said. “Who is he?”
“None of your business,” he snapped.
She nodded and just stayed close to her sister. But he did deliver a cup of tea, strong, black, with no milk or sugar. Astra politely said, “Thank you.”
He nodded, grabbed the loose end of her rope, and tied it to her sister’s chair. “Now you’re not fucking going anywhere,” he said.
Astra just sat here, crestfallen, looking beaten down and upset, so he would think that she actually was. The last thing she wanted him to realize was that Kano wasn’t the only one who had been with her in the car, and she didn’t want anybody to go back outside and finish the job on him. All she had to do now was keep her and her sister both alive and wait for the cavalry or for their own opening to escape.
*
Garret checked for a pulse on Kano’s wrist. He was down as low as he could be to the ground, right next to the vehicle, his gaze constantly scanning the area around him. Even as he checked, he could feel something surging through him, and then he realized it was Kano’s pulse.
Kano groaned.
“Take it easy,” Garret said. “You’ve been hit over the head.”
“Where am I?” Kano said, reaching up to rub his forehead.
“You’re still in the car,” he said, “but I don’t think it’ll be long before somebody comes back to check on you.” He quickly opened the vehicle, helped Kano out, and moved him into the trees. Once in the shadows, he sat him back down on the ground. “Astra’s been taken.”
Kano stared at him in shock.
“I’m not sure how he got the jump on you,” Garret said.
“I don’t know. He came out of nowhere. I’d just turned to say something to her and got clobbered on the head. I don’t remember anything after that.”
