Garret's Gambit, page 14
“Well, I saw her being led into the house, and I heard part of the conversation. They have Amy too.”
“Well, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We’ve got two of them now.”
“Exactly. And, at the same time, they’re still looking for Gregg. Apparently the guy trying to convince the boss to let Gregg go had moved him. He might have known more about what was going on and what they would do with him. Anyway, he moved Gregg, and these guys—who kidnapped Gregg in the first place—can’t find him now.”
“Shit,” Kano said. “That’s not good, … for a couple reasons. Gregg could be someplace where time is running out on him.”
“And it’s possible that we won’t ever find out where he is.”
“We have to track that asshole’s movements,” Kano said.
“Oh, I hear you,” he said. “I’m doing what I can, but, right now, we have to get the girls. I’ve already told Charles, and he’s on it. They’re tracking the dead courier’s life to find out where he could have moved Gregg. Chances are it’ll be not too far away. But we have to get there before anything else happens to Gregg.”
“I wonder why the courier backtracked, protecting Gregg?”
“Something Gregg said maybe.”
“It’s possible. Who the hell knows?” Kano stood up experimentally and gave his head a shake. “Damn, that’ll be a bit of a bitch for a while.”
“That’s okay. You’re up. You’re moving. You’re alive,” Garret said. “We’ve got to remember that.”
“Yeah, and I owe that asshole for the headache,” he said. He turned to face the house. “How many in there?”
“That’s the problem,” he said. “I only saw one, and that makes no sense to me.”
“He’s the guard on duty? Maybe he’s the one waiting for the others to come back.”
“Most likely,” Garret said, “so we don’t have much time.”
“No, we don’t have any time,” he said.
“So let’s go, if you’re up to it.”
Kano shot him a hard look. “Oh, I’m up to it,” he said. Blood still trickled down the side of his head, but he ignored it and said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter 13
Seated in the kitchen, Astra watched the gunman’s movements. He kept looking out the window constantly, as if waiting for somebody else.
She whispered to Amy, “Is anybody else here?”
Amy looked at her and looked at him, but he appeared not to have heard. She held up three fingers and then shrugged.
So three people were here, or at least Amy had seen three, but where were the other two? Were they still around here or had they left the property, out looking for Gregg?
It was a case of so many questions and no answers again.
“I still don’t understand why you want Gregg,” Astra stated, facing the gunman.
“You don’t have to understand,” he said. “I told you to shut the fuck up. Do I need to tell you again? Because I’ll tell you with my fists the next time.”
She shut up for a while, looking at Amy.
Amy nodded and turned her head a bit, so Astra could see the side of her face, which was puffy.
Her glare deepened. “You actually hit a tied-up woman?” she said. “What kind of an asshole are you?”
“An asshole who doesn’t have a problem hitting her nosy sister either,” he said. “I’ve got things to do and places to be, and I really don’t need to be here, listening to you.”
“Ahh,” she said. “So you’re waiting for somebody now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am,” he said. “And they ain’t coming any faster with your noise rattling around.”
“Sorry,” she said cheerfully.
He just glared at her.
“You know that, if you put us in a bedroom and let us lie down, we wouldn’t be bothering you,” she said.
He looked like he would almost consider it; then he shook his head. “No way,” he said. “I’m keeping you right where I can see you.”
“Okay,” she said agreeably. He looked at her suspiciously, but she just sipped her tea. She was totally okay to be here too, because it meant that the men would find them easily. As she sat here, Amy looked at her.
“I don’t know what happened to Gregg,” she said tearfully.
“Just have some faith,” she said, “that this will all work out.”
The guy sneered. “Oh, yeah, it’ll all work out.” And then he gave a big laugh. “Such a loser.”
Amy’s face twisted again.
Astra held up her hand and said, “Don’t bother, Amy. It’ll be fine. Don’t cry.”
Taking several long deep breaths, Amy searched her sister’s face.
Astra tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it was a little hard, considering the asshole remained in the room with them. Astra nodded toward the front door.
Amy frowned at her, looked toward the front door, and back. She raised one eyebrow and then gave a clipped nod. Immediately Amy sank back and stared.
Astra shrugged, sipped her tea, and motioned at Amy’s tea. “Drink up the tea,” she said. “It will make you feel better.” Amy sipped it quietly, as Astra studied the gunman.
He walked from window to window and back again, obviously struggling with impatience. And frankly, as long as he was impatient, that was good news for them. Now all Astra needed was for the good guys to come. She could only hope that Kano was okay and that he was there to help bolster whatever move Garret decided to make. Charles was right; she had to trust in their skills, ability, and judgment to do whatever they needed to do in any given situation. Regardless of how that might look to anybody else.
So many things in life were important that nobody really understood, and this was one of them. It was all about trust. And, for Garret, that was an even bigger issue now. Astra didn’t agree with what her sister had done, but, after seeing Amy and Gregg together, witnessing how deep their feelings appeared to run, Astra understood. They could have proceeded with their relationship in a better way, but, at the same time, at least it left an open field for Astra and Garret.
The gunman turned and looked at Astra. “What’s that look on your face for?” he snapped.
Immediately she dropped her expression and stared at him steadily. “I was thinking of happier times,” she said.
“Yeah, well, keep thinking of them,” he said, “because all you’ll have is memories.”
“And why is that?” she said.
“Because, by the time this is over,” he said, “you’ll probably be dead.”
“No need for that,” she said. “I don’t know anything, and neither does my sister.”
“Says you,” he sneered.
“It’s obvious you’re waiting for somebody to come,” she said, “so I don’t know why you’re getting all pissy at me, when it’s them you’re mad at.”
“Because you are where you don’t belong,” he snapped.
“I was looking for my sister,” she said, with a motion at Amy. Amy stayed quiet and just shuffled a little closer to her. “What else would I be doing?”
“Well, you shouldn’t have come,” he said, turning to lean against the counter. And, just as he did that, she thought she saw movement behind him.
She nodded slowly. “I get that. So let me and my sister go,” she said, “and we’ll disappear out of your life completely.”
He laughed. “Too late for that, bitch,” he said. “You made your choice. Now you’ll have to pay for it.”
“Surely we can talk about this,” Astra said fearfully.
“No,” he said. “And you sure as hell can’t offer me enough money to backtrack on what I’m doing here. That’s not worth my life.”
“Killing people who have nothing to do with anything?” she asked.
“Yeah, exactly,” he said.
“How did you lose Gregg in the first place?”
“We didn’t lose him,” he snapped. “I told you that.”
“Right. Why did the other guy betray you and let Gregg go then?”
“He didn’t let him go,” he said. “He moved Gregg. Big difference.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess,” she said. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s a double-crossing asshole, I imagine,” he said. “I don’t know why else he’d do it.”
“Unless he had sympathy for Gregg.”
“I don’t give a shit how much sympathy he had for him. He had a job to do. That’s all there is to it.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess, but it’s kind of sad.”
“Not sad at all,” he snapped. “It is what it is.”
“I just don’t understand what it would take to have somebody go against all this, knowing that his life would be in danger.”
He scratched his face and said, “Honestly I don’t know either. It makes no sense to me.”
“Okay,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll both get some answers.”
“Not likely,” he sneered. “The only answers you’ll get are the ones you don’t want to hear.”
“Such as?” she challenged.
“Such as what’ll happen to you,” he said.
“And we’re back to that again. I can pay you.”
“You just finished telling me that you couldn’t pay for your sister.”
“Yeah, I can hardly pay to set my sister free, if I’m here. You’ve taken both of us. I would pay for her, and she would pay for me, but, with both of us here, obviously we can’t do either.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re an idiot.”
She stayed quiet, wondering who the hell the idiot in the room really was. But no point in arguing with him. She just smiled and said, “It’s not the first time I’ve been called that.”
“Usually that’s the term reserved for me,” Amy said.
“Not so bad though, was it?” Astra said.
“It was terrible,” she said. “You were always the brainy one. You were the one everybody loved. I wanted everyone to love me, but we weren’t alike at all.”
“No,” she said. “And we still aren’t. I am much calmer, more reserved, whereas you are a little more naive, and a whole lot more about the fun in life.”
“But I have heart,” her sister argued.
And, at that, Astra looked at her, smiled, and said, “You do, indeed. We have to remember that, no matter how this all turns out. We have to remember that heart is what’s important.”
“Spare me the sob story,” the guy snapped. “Nobody gives a shit.”
Amy just smiled, a little teary-eyed, then reached across and grabbed Astra’s hand. “Please tell me that we’ll make it through this.” Her gaze fell to her belly.
“I’ll tell you what. We’ll do everything we can together to make it through this,” Astra promised her. “We both deserve a happy future.”
Amy sat back and sighed. “I just want Gregg,” she murmured.
“Got it,” she said. “You don’t mind if I pick up Garret then, do you?”
Amy looked at her in surprise and then started laughing. “Oh my,” she said. “You know what? That makes so much more sense, when I think about it.”
“Right, you’ve no idea how jealous I was way back when.”
“You should have said something,” Amy said. “Because, oh, my gosh, that would have been so much better for him too.”
“Well, you saw him first,” she said. “So I kind of had to wait until it was over with.”
“Are you two serious? Are you fucking serious? You’re sitting here talking about your boyfriends?” Their kidnapper stared at them in shock and disgust.
“Why not?” Astra asked with a smile. “Is that something we can’t talk about?”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You know you’ll fucking die in the next couple hours, right?”
Amy gripped her fingers really tight.
Astra glared at him. “You don’t have to upset my sister like that,” she snapped.
He shook his head. “Get a grip,” he said. “This isn’t a bloody tea party.”
She looked at her teacup, smiled, lifted it up, and said, “Actually it is. So here’s to us and to whatever the future brings.” With that, she had a big sip of tea.
*
Garret had come up to the house, was at the back door to the kitchen, while Kano was doing a search around the outside. Garret wasn’t sure what he saw. Both Amy and Astra sat close together, almost too close for comfort in normal circumstances, and yet Astra had a smile on her face, and she appeared to be talking to the man at the window. And it was a monster of a man at that.
When Garret felt the buzz of his phone, he pulled it out to see a note from Kano, saying he’d taken one down. With that, Garret swore under his breath. They hadn’t seen anybody else here, but it made sense that a guard would be outside somewhere. Garret could only hope just one guy was inside the house. At the moment he didn’t know if anybody else was being held prisoner in there, besides Amy and Astra. His brother being here would be too easy. But Garret sure as hell hoped he was.
Just then another vehicle pulled up, and he heard the engine slowing down. He frowned at that, sent Kano a quick message, and waited, studying the kitchen layout. The big guy straightened, when he heard the noise, and strode to the kitchen window, but he turned and pointed an admonishing finger at the two women. Then he disappeared from sight.
Garret slipped inside immediately, cut their bonds, pulled them out the back door, and whispered, “Head to the trees in the far corner.” Both of them took off without any argument, and, for that, he was grateful. He sent Kano another message, as Garret eased farther into the kitchen, closer to the front room.
He looked for anything that could be used as a big weapon to help take down the big man. He had his handgun, and that would do to a certain extent, but he’d seen guys with multiple bullet holes in them still plowing forward. He heard the big monster heading down the front porch steps, yelling and snarling at whoever had just arrived.
“About fucking time you got here,” he snapped. “What the hell?”
“We’re here. We’re here,” he said. “Shut your hole, and don’t get your panties in a twist.”
The big guy snorted. “You should be damn lucky if I do because, right now, I want to twist your heads off. You left me with those two little bitches.”
“Hey,” he said. “That was the easy job.”
“Well, did you find the asshole at least?”
“Hell yeah, we got him,” he said.
Garret stepped back and shifted, so he could look at the vehicle to see who they were talking about, and, sure enough, his brother was being unloaded from the car by one guy. Garret stared at Gregg and swore under his breath. Gregg wasn’t moving on his own power; his face looked like it had taken a beating, and his leg was dragging behind him. Not cool. On top of that, two more men had arrived with him, accompanied with a lot of raucous shouting. So the odds now were four to two.
He really wanted Kano to stay with the women, but he also knew that Kano wouldn’t. And neither would the women let him. The problem was, if the women got into the midst of this mess, they would never know who was where.
Luckily the driver got back into the car and took off. Three to two were better odds. Still, he sent a quick message to Kano with an update and asked him to make sure the women stayed in the trees.
After that, Garret slipped into one of the closets alongside the hallway, hoping for a place to hide where he could listen in and see just what the hell was going on here. As soon as he was in position, the front door slammed right beside him, and the guys talked among themselves.
“So this guy had him out in a shed, where he used to work. Damn near took us forever to find him.”
“Well, you got him,” said the big man from the house. “That should save our butts.”
“Maybe,” the first guy said, with a little less joviality in his voice.
“She’s a hard-ass bitch,” said a third man.
“Any idea why they wanted him?”
“No, and I don’t give a shit. Our job was to grab him, to keep him, and to move him back to France.”
“Not going to be so easy,” one guy murmured.
“It never is, but we don’t have any other options right now.”
“Did you send a message, saying we had him? When do they want him moved?”
“Yeah, we’re supposed to hold him here. Apparently she needs to take care of some other interference.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t affect us.”
“No, but we need to get paid.”
“Damn,” he said. “I want this over with and this asshole gone, before somebody else tries to spring him loose.”
“Yeah, well, just think about it,” he said. “We’ve got the two women, and we got him, so we’ll pass them all over, and they can deep-six the whole lot of them. I don’t give a shit, as long as it keeps us free and clear.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said. They were sitting in a living room, with Gregg sitting slumped on one end of the couch. Garret studied his brother’s face through the crack in the closet door, but it was hard to see how badly hurt he was or whether he was putting it on.
Just like Garret, his brother knew exactly how to play the game. If the bad guys thought you were more injured than you actually were, they eased up security. At least that’s what Garret hoped was going on, but it was all too possible that his brother was severely injured as well. And that would just make Garret even angrier.
“Do we know anything?”
“I already told you,” he said.
“I just want to get paid,” the second man said, in a tone turning whiny.
“We all want to get paid,” the huge man said. “It’s the only reason we’re doing this.”
“Yeah, did you ever think about that? You know? Whether or not there’s some guy up at them pearly gates, looking down at us, and saying, Hell no, you’re not coming in here. Look at what you did in your life.”
“No,” the big man said. “I sure as hell don’t think about that at all.”
“Don’t you start having second thoughts on us,” the other guy snapped. “It’s bad enough that Frank had his major freak out on us regarding this.”
