FOURTY
Gracie had finally fallen asleep, cuddling her rabbit close. A child's mind had such a miraculous ability to shut off when it overloaded.
“Is she okay?” Zeff asked.
“No thanks to any of you,” Jess snapped.
Zeff didn't respond, which Jess was glad for. She moved around, looking at the cage. She knew it was a matter of time before the room started filling with water. The cage would be covered first, and Jess couldn’t stand by and let her daughter drown.
The frame itself was bolted to the floor and would require a wrench to loosen the nuts. But the sides were pieced together with slot-head bolts. Jess dug in her pocket and found some change. Maybe she could unscrew the bolts enough to separate it and get Gracie out.
“Don't do that,” Zeff said. “Not yet. They are giving Krysin time to get here. They may not wait if you start trying to escape. They can divert the water in at any time.”
“Why are you here?” Was he some plant to watch them from the inside, like on that movie where the bad guy was in the room pretending to be dead all the time?
He moved a step closer, and Jess moved away. He held up his hands as if in surrender. The manacle on his right wrist pulled tight. “I'm not going to hurt you. Did they say anything after they knocked me out?” He reached up and touched the spot on his head. He winced and pulled his hand away. There was fresh blood on his fingers.
Jess shrugged. “They used the word traitor, but I didn't understand the rest, something about a police record maybe? I'm not sure.”
“Not exactly. My real name is Ondrej Dragunov,” he said softly. “God, I haven't used that name in almost five years. I'm an undercover agent with Interpol. I was assigned to infiltrate Aleksandr Volkov's organization. It's taken this long just to get into his inner circle. He asked me along on this trip because of my American ties, or so he claimed.”
“Well, Agent Dragunov, I think your cover’s been blown,” Jess said dryly.
Zeff, or Ondrej, whoever the hell he was, chuckled, though there was little humor behind it.
Nina chose that moment to remind them she was there. “I'm glad you two can flirt and laugh at a time like this. Perhaps you don't realize we're going to die.”
Damn, she'd missed that memo. Thanks for the 4-1-1, bitch! Jess glared across the room at her. “You know what, if you want to talk, why don't you tell me how the hell Cody got involved in this and supposedly killed Jarred.” She may not have liked him, but Jess knew Cody hadn't deserved to die.
“Oh, there was no supposed about it. Cody was quite an amazing man, in and out of the bedroom.”
Ewww. It wasn't that Nina was unattractive. She was a little above average height, maybe five-seven, and slender. She had sable-colored hair and hazel eyes. She was still pretty for a woman in her early fifties, but she was old enough to be Cody's mother. Jess blinked. Holy Shit! Was she who Cody had been with the other night?
“Cody met a girl while attending university in California. The woman who was killed in the accident.”
“Myla,” Jess said.
Nina waved her off. “I never knew her name. I only know what Cody told me, so shut up and listen.”
Jess arched an eyebrow at Ondrej, who shrugged.
Nina leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “Myla was ordered to befriend Oksana and get Ivaylo—the tattooed man—access to the house without my son there. Once that happened, they called Krysin and made a demand.” She shrugged. “He didn’t meet it, so they killed the boy and gave him another hour. When he didn’t meet that deadline, they killed the oldest girl and gave him one last hour. Of course, my son came home too soon, and they ran, taking the child with them.
Nina lifted one foot and removed her heel, tilted it sideways, and let the water pour out of the toe. “When they were far enough away, Ivaylo had Myla dump the baby in a trash dumpster. According to Cody, she went back and found the baby alive. Apparently, she didn’t have the stomach for such things. Since she couldn’t go to the cops, she made plans to get the baby away. Cody claimed she hid the baby in plain sight, right there at the daycare, claiming she was caring for her niece, and no one questioned her about it.”
Nina did the same to the other shoe. “She found a guy headed to Arizona on one of those Internet bulletin boards. Not knowing who else to turn to, she went to see Cody. She figured he'd help her out.” Nina shook her head. “Cody wanted nothing to do with her, of course.”
Of course not, why would he want to be involved in saving a kidnapped baby’s life?
Nina smiled. “She'd blackmailed him. Seemed he'd gotten drunk one night and killed someone in a hit and run. He'd never been caught, but Myla had been in the car and sober enough to remember. Cody said that's when he hatched his plan. He'd get rid of Jarred who'd usurped his place by marrying you, and get rid of Myla and the kid at the same time.”
Jess’s stomach churned. God, why had she never seen Cody for the monster he was?
“So what was the plan?” Ondrej asked when Nina didn’t say more.
Nina looked disdainfully down her nose at him and directed the answer to Jess. “Cody told Myla he was taking her to a safehouse, had the vehicle follow him, and then ran them off the road. He hiked down to make sure they were both dead, then called 9-1-1. Cody had taken the baby with him, so that he could ensure she survived the accident to lure Jarred down the hill without waiting for backup.”
Jess couldn’t stop the gasp from escaping. Good Lord!
Nina studied her for a moment, then motioned toward Gracie. “He planted the kid when the fire truck arrived, popped the gas tank, and lit the insulation under the hood. Then he stood back and watched it all go down. As you American's say, the rest is history.”
Cody had killed Jarred, Myla, some poor guy who'd given a woman and a baby a ride, and an innocent person in a hit and run while he had been drunk. He’d planned on killing Gracie in the explosion. As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, he’d expected to profit from it all by marrying Jess and getting access to blood money. God, she was going to be sick.