Chapter Eleven
Abel
I search the guest bedrooms first because I figure that’s the least likely place that we’ll find anything but I want to leave no stone unturned. Next, I search Tom’s bedroom and master bathroom. I see a few things in his drawers and closets that I’ll never be able to unsee. I’ll leave it all to your imagination, though.
His bathroom is clean and orderly. There’s also nothing in there. The last door, other than the locked room, is his home office. It takes me quite a while to go through all his drawers and cabinets, but there’s nothing. I do find the code to his wall safe. I have to take down every picture in his office to find it. He’s really not that bright leaving the code in his desk drawer. It makes me wonder how he’s been able to keep the hard drive’s location so secure. I get the wall safe open. It’s full of money, jewelry, and a .50 caliber Desert Eagle that I’m sure he can’t handle.
“This gun would put you on your ass,” I whisper to myself.
I hold it for a moment, feeling its weight and cold metal. The only reason I know what kind of gun I’m holding is that my grandpa owned one. He could fire it. Grandpa was big and vigorous, even for an older man.
“I’ll take that,” Adam says and plucks the gun from my hands.
“You’re going to steal it?” I ask, but I don’t know why I’m shocked.
“This dude is going to steal a billion dollars from his investors. I don’t feel bad about taking his gun. Besides, he’s going to hurt himself with it.” He checks the clip. “Yep, it’s loaded and a round is chambered.”
“You’re right. He’ll end up shooting his foot off or killing the housekeeper. Take it.”
Adam takes the round out of the chamber and then slips the gun into his waistband. He’s pretty smart about guns. I guess he had training because of his job. “You should never put a gun in your waistband like this. I just don’t have anywhere else to put it right now.” It’s as if he can read my thoughts.
“At least you unchambered the first round. Just don’t forget you did that if you need to use the gun,” I say and wink at him.
“Anything in here?” he asks.
“Nope. Nothing upstairs so far. There’s a room that’s locked. I don’t want to go in. Here,” I say and hand him Tom’s key ring. “You check it out.”
Adam takes the keys, finds the one that fits, and goes into the room while I wait in the hallway. When he comes out, he looks a little green.
“Your boss is into some kinky stuff.”
“What do you mean?” I ask and wonder if I want to know.
“You know that book with the purple pain room or whatever?” he asks, and I laugh.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
“That’s what’s in there,” he says and rolls his eyes.
“Not your thing, huh?” I ask and bite my bottom lip. It makes me nervous talking like this with Adam.
“I have a lot of things, Dumpling. None of them are in there,” he says and winks.
I feel a blush heat my face but he’s already headed back downstairs so he doesn’t see it. There was nothing downstairs either, and Tom’s unconscious. We can’t get any more information out of him, but I have a feeling he’s not going to part with the information willingly.
“I’m going to torture it out of him,” Adam says matter-of-factly. “This has to end now. Find something to tie him up with.” I can feel all of the color drain out of my face.
“You can’t torture him.”
“I have to, Dumpling. You don’t have to watch but I need the information. There is a lot more at stake than you know, and we’re done wasting time.”
That’s when I see the picture of Tom and his parents at a villa, and something in my memory snaps.
“The villa is where he feels safe,” I murmur.
“What?” Adam asks and cocks his head to the side.
“I thought he said the villa is where he feels safe, but that’s not what he said.”
“What are you talking about, baby?”
“On one of our dates. Tom said something about feeling safe at a villa he owns with his parents. I was nervous so I misheard him. But I remember now. It wasn’t that he feels safe at the villa with his family. His family safe is at the villa. I bet that’s where the hard drive is,” I say and jump up and down with excitement.
“Are you sure?” Adam asks seriously.
“It’s the only thing we’ve got right now. And you can’t torture Tom. Not yet.” I know I’ll have no choice but to step back and let him do it his way if this doesn’t work out.
“Do you remember where the villa is, Abel?” He says my name, and there is a sharpness to it that sends chills down my spine.
“No, but I bet Becks can find it.”
“Let’s get back to her now. We’ve got to make it look like you and Tom here did the deed. I’m sure he’s already nervous about the situation with the dead Italian.”
“He’s going out of town tomorrow morning. Surprise trip.”
“Do you know where?”
“Shanghai. I booked the flight for him. He’s going to the Chinese,” I say, and the familiar feeling of dread creeps into my stomach.
“We’ve got to get to the villa and get the drive soon. He won’t take it with him. It’s too risky. The Chinese mafia could just kill him and take it once he’s on their turf. But we’re running out of time. He’ll probably move it soon if we arouse too much suspicion. Then we’ll have to start all over again,” Adam says and grabs Tom by the shoulders.
I help him carry him upstairs. I wait in the hallway again while Adam strips him down. Once he’s naked and under the covers, we find a condom in the drawer, take it out, crumple it up, and throw it in the bathroom trash. I doubt he’ll check to see if it’s really used. Ew.
Before we go, we wipe my prints off the safe door and put all the pictures back. We don’t have time to clean the whole place down but that doesn’t matter. If we do it right, this will all be over before Tom has a chance to get suspicious.
Adam’s got his bike, so I hop on, and we speed back to the church. When we get there, a big black SUV is parked in the alley.
“Stay out here,” he instructs, and I nod my head yes. Just then, a big man gets out of the SUV and starts to walk towards us. “Never mind. You’re better off coming in with me,” he says and grabs my hand.
Adam pulls me through the church’s back door and locks it behind us. He chambers a round in the Desert Eagle and I’m glad he took it. I don’t know where his other gun is, but this one is big, scary-looking, and it makes me feel a little safer.
Downstairs, we find Becks tied to a chair by rope around her stomach and legs. A man is standing over her, holding a gun to her head, while another large man stands nearby.
“Ah, it’s Adam the Savior. Just the man I was looking for,” the man says in a voice that carries just a hint of a Russian accent.
“Vladimir. What are you doing here?” Adam says through clenched teeth.
“I’m here for the hard drive. Do you have it yet?” the man asks and then hits Becks on the side of the head with the gun. I hear a sickening pop when the metal makes contact with her cheek. She yelps and touches her hand to her face.
“Not yet, but we’re getting close,” Adam answers.
“It doesn’t look like you’ve had any trouble spending the advance,” Vladimir says and waves his gun around to indicate the electronics equipment and the church.
“I had to have a place to work. It’s not like I bought a yacht. I’ll have it for you soon. I swear,” Adam says and squeezes my hand tight.
“I don’t like this answer. I want the drive now. My intelligence tells me that Tom Hunt is about to sell to the Chinese since you thwarted his sale to the Italians. You have three days. After that, I start sending Sophie back to you in pieces. As an extra incentive, she only has one more day’s worth of medication left in her little pill bottle. You should work fast. Ticktock, Mr. Reid,” Vladimir says and then walks out with the big man trailing behind him.
Adam collapses into a chair and puts his head into his hands. He’s trying to breathe deeply but I can tell he’s starting to panic. I’ve never seen him fall apart, and it’s frightening. What could be so bad that’s it’s shaken him this much?
I run to the kitchen and get a bag of frozen corn for Becks’s cheek. She presses the cold bag to her face. “I don’t think it’s broken. It sounded worse than it is,” Becks says and half smiles at me. “Do you guys have any more information?”
“We do, but it can wait,” I say.
“No, it can’t. I’ll pop a couple of extra strength Tylenol and work on whatever you found. So spill and stop looking at me like that,” Becks says in much better spirits than I expect.
I tell her about the villa, and how I don’t know where it is. She rolls her chair back over to her computer and starts clacking away at the keyboard with one hand while the other holds the corn to her face.
“I’ll go get you the pain meds. Where are they?”
“In the bathroom upstairs. Can you bring me a diet soda too?”
“Sure, be right back.”
I find the pills and grab her a cold soda. I take them to her and she swallows them. After she hands me the corn, she says, “I need both hands to work this out.”
I take the corn back to the freezer, and when I get back, Adam is still sitting in the chair with his head in his hands. “You can’t fall apart right now. You have to stay strong for a while longer. We can do this,” I say and take his hand.
“You’re right. While Becks is locating the villa, it’s time for me to tell you everything,” he says and laces his fingers through mine again.
Finally.