Chapter Twenty
Ash showed no hint of fear or alarm. That is, until he saw me. For an instant, I caught a flicker of surprise in the slight, almost imperceptible widening of his eyes. Then his stare was back on Red and his expression turned blank.
I fought back tears. Ash’s hands were cuffed behind his back. His feet were shackled with chains. His T-shirt was torn and his pants ripped at the knees. He wore no coat. The puffy eye, the swollen lip, the bruises on his arms. He’d been beaten. It was exactly what I’d tried so hard to avoid. I swallowed a moan of despair and cursed a world where the good suffered and the wicked thrived.
Red clasped his hands behind his back and paced around Ash.
“You could’ve lived,” he said. “You could’ve had a long, productive life, but on the day you touched her, you died. You just didn’t realize it.”
“We all have to die sometime.” Ash pushed himself up on his elbows and leaned against the wall. “Some of us just go sooner than others.”
“A philosopher?” Red chuckled. “The Navy Cross. The Purple Heart. I can see that you’ve had occasion to consider death closely.”
Ash tilted his head. “You read my file?”
“Getting your military file was a piece of cake for my guys,” Red said. “I like to have the advantage of knowing my enemy before I destroy him.”
I shivered with gut-chilling fear.
“It must rankle you a bit,” Red said. “Despite all your precautions, I found her because of you.”
“There’s a lot about you that rankles me,” Ash said, perfectly calm. “That you found me is a minor irritation in the big scheme of things.”
“A minor irritation?” Red let out one of his awful caws and pulled out a knife. “We’ll see what you think when I’m done with you. I hope you’re a fan of blades?”
“I respect blades,” Ash said. “I like them even better when my hands are free.”
“What are the chances of that?” Red said.
“I’d thought I’d give it a try.” Ash flashed a furious smirk. “On the off chance you craved a fair fight.”
“A fair fight?” Red laughed. “A uniquely American concept. Allow me to clue you in. If you take the fair out of the fight, you win. And just in case you haven’t figured it out, I always win.” Red motioned to Samuel. “We’ll start with his toes.”
Samuel crouched next to Ash and fiddled with his boots.
“Wait.” I leaped to my feet. “What are you doing?”
“My dear Rose.” Red tsked, keeping his eyes on Ash. “She’s so damn sensitive, always has been, since she was a little girl. I try to save her the grief, but she has this annoying habit: she’s curious. It’s like she welcomes the suffering that comes with the knowledge.”
He smiled and turned to me.
“Allow me to enlighten you, querida,” he said. “First, I’m going to cut off your friend’s toes, one by one. Then I’m going to geld this stallion. That should make him less mouthy and better behaved. When I’m done, I’m going to rip out his eyeballs and make him eat them, to make sure he’ll never dare to look at something of mine again.”
My stomach turned in horror.
“When he’s gelded and blinded,” Red said, “I’m going to very carefully carve out his heart and lay it on his chest while it’s still pumping, so we can all witness it quaking during the grand finale as I cut off the filthy cock he used to trespass on my property. At that point, I’m going to slice his heart like a ripe tomato and watch the motherfucker die.”
I stared at Red, terrified. My stomach ached. His sick mind was capable of all of that and more.
“Red, please,” I said. “You can’t—”
“What?” Red said. “You didn’t think I was going to let this son of bitch get away with fucking you, did you? And just to add to this teachable moment, you’ll watch the whole thing, right here, with me.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. The room spun around me. My stomach had turned into a heavy chunk of concrete. I tugged on the duct tape, praying for superhuman strength. The tape held up.
Samuel took off Ash’s boot and ripped the brace from his foot but, before he could peel off his sock, Ash’s body snapped like a rubber band. His knees crashed against Samuel’s head. The man careened backward and crumpled against the wall. Red whipped out his gun and centered it on Ash.
“No!” I cried out.
“Shut up.” Red kept his gun on Ash. “What the fuck was that about?”
Ash smirked. “I don’t like strangers messing with my stuff.”
Samuel stumbled from the floor, holding his gun in one hand and his forehead with the other. He groaned when he spotted the blood on his fingers. “Motherfucker.” He grabbed his gun by the muzzle and was about to bring it down on Ash’s head when I stopped him.
“Don’t hurt him,” I said. “He’s not part of this. I’m the one you want.”
“Hey, lady.” Ash squinted through his swollen eye. “Stay out of this one. Will you? Let me take care of these clowns.”
“Who the fuck are you calling a clown?” Samuel looked to Red.
“If you walk like a clown and act like a clown, then you’re a clown,” Red said. “Do you think you can manage to do your job without fucking it up? I told you he was a marine.”
And a SEAL, but Red didn’t say that and neither did I.
“Red, please,” I said, when Samuel approached Ash again, this time with a lot more caution. “I swear, if you let him go, I’ll give you the flash drive.”
“Oh?” Red said. “What do we have here? She suddenly remembers she does have it after all.”
Ash sneered. “She doesn’t have shit.”
“I do too.” I had to convince Red that I had the drive for sure. “Without it, I was of little value to the Feds. It was the only way I could ensure that they would offer me witness protection and deal with me fairly. And if you hurt that man, you’ll never get it back.”
Red’s voice oozed with glee. “Is that so?”
The blow caught me between the ribs and slammed me against the couch with the force of a Mack Truck. All the breath swooshed out of me. Thirty seconds was a century when one couldn’t breathe, when every nerve in my body screamed and every cell begged for oxygen.
“Have you forgotten, querida?” Red said pleasantly, grabbing a fistful of my hair. “I can be very persuasive in person.”
My scalp burned under Red’s grip. His fist got me again, this time across the face. My brain rattled in my skull. My mind struggled to grapple with the misplaced sound filling the room. It was getting louder.
Red’s fist froze in midair. A few drops of sweat glimmered on his flushed face. His head swiveled as his black eyes shifted from me and fixed on Ash.
Ash’s face split into an unrecognizable grimace. Was he...laughing?
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Red said.
Ash laughed louder.
“Didn’t you hear me?” He stomped across the room, dragging me along by the scruff of the neck. “Shut up.” He landed a foot between Ash’s ribs.
Ash made a strangled sound and curled around his knees, convulsing on the floor with more laughter.
“Why won’t he stop?” Red said. “Stop laughing.” He hurled me at Ash. “Make him stop.”
For a moment, I just lay there, catching my breath. My scalp smarted and my face throbbed, but Ash’s body heat warmed my cheek and the scent of him appeased my lungs. His heart drummed hard against my ear. I lifted my face until we were eye to eye.
“Ash?” I said. “Pay attention. Stop laughing. You’re making Red mad.”
“I’m trying.” He slid out from under me and sat up between chuckles. “I’m really trying. It’s just that...” He laughed some more and this time, when he shifted his body, I ended up behind him. “It’s so funny.”
“What is it you find so funny?” Red demanded.
“You,” Ash said. “You pathetic, wretched bully. You think you’re shit-hot and instead you’re hot-shit. You make a living off preying on the weak and the helpless and beating on women. What you saw in that clip? It was a woman enjoying herself, a reaction you’ll never get.”
He was provoking Red, funneling his attention away from me. But Red wasn’t used to anybody challenging his authority. His lips trembled with rage that usually led to murder. I gritted my teeth and begged God with all I had to spare Ash’s life.
I suppressed a gasp when Red grabbed a fistful of Ash’s hair, switched opened his blade and pressed it against Ash’s exposed neck, right above the spot where his pulse beat steadily.
“Please, mi amor.” I knelt on the floor and kissed Red’s feet. “I beg you. I’ll get you the flash drive. Right now. You were right. It’s in the cottage. But nobody will ever be able to find it except me. It won’t take but a moment. Por favor. Let me get it for you.”
Red’s kick sent me reeling backward. “This motherfucker’s not going to survive me.”
I bounced off the wall, shook off the impact and crawled back to Red on my knees.
“I can get you the drive,” I said. “And the day after tomorrow? I’ll tell the judge whatever you want me to say. I’ll tell him that you’re right and I’m crazy. I swear, I’ll never try to run away again, but please, don’t kill him.”
I kissed his calves, his thighs and pressed my face against his groin, giving up the little that I had left, my pride, self-respect and dignity, willing to turn into the lowliest creeper in the universe if it meant Ash’s life. Ash’s eyes were beaming with defiance, but I kept groveling. I had a mission too. He was not going to die today.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said. “I mean it, Red. Whatever. Tie me, cut me, bleed me, beat me; I swear, I’ll beg for more if it pleases you. But if you want the drive, if you want me, you must let this man go.”
I managed to shock Red into a stunned silence. In all my years of captivity, I’d made a lot of concessions and I’d done a lot of things I loathed to do, but I’d always fought him. Never before had I offered him what he wanted most: complete and total submission.
The offer must have enticed him, because his eyes fell on me and his groin visibly hardened. I knew he needed that thumb drive. He couldn’t return to business as usual without it. He didn’t let go of Ash, but the cold tip of his blade slid down my cheek and crept across my chin.
“Remember your oath, Rose.” The blade tickled my trembling lips. “I’m going to enjoy everything you promised me.” He sheathed his knife and released Ash, flinging him against the wall.
Ash slumped in the corner. Our eyes met. A warning gleamed in his stare. He and I both understood that I’d only bought him a little time. Deep in my heart I knew that Red would keep him alive, but only until he had the drive. After that, Ash was a dead man.
“To the cottage,” Red barked.
Samuel hesitated. “I’m waiting for the all clear.”
Red snarled. “We’re leaving right now.”
“But—”
“Now!”
That sound. Ash was at it again. This time, his chuckles were full of scorn. “You’re upset, Red, I get that,” he said. “I’d be upset too, if I were you.”
“Shut up.”
“You wonder how she performed so well for me,” Ash said, “especially when you can barely get her to react to you. You wonder why she liked it so much with me, while she hated it so much with you.”
“You have a death wish.” Red glowered. “You like to run your mouth. Your gloating is premature. I’m not done with you yet.”
“Nor I with you,” Ash said. “You and I? We have unresolved issues.”
“And you need to learn some respect.” Red moved quickly. He leaped in the air, only to tramp down on Ash’s injured foot with his body’s full heft.
The crunch of bones breaking resonated beneath the acoustic cupola. Ash’s foot crumpled beneath Red’s brutal stomp. With a groan, he rolled onto his side, curled into a shuddering ball and went still.
I opened my mouth to scream but wailed instead. I crawled on my knees over toward Ash, but a pair of sturdy legs blocked my way.
Red spat on the unconscious man. “Speaking of unresolved issues...”
He lifted me up and forced me to stand on shaky legs. My entire body shivered in shock. My knees refused to hold me and my swollen ankle throbbed with jolts of pain. And yet my pain was nothing compared to Ash’s agony. He’d tried so hard to heal his foot.
“I’m tired of this bullshit,” Red said. “We’re going. Bring him.”
Samuel balked. “But, boss—”
Red barked. “I said bring him!”
Red dragged me out of the room and through an expansive living room. He surprised the armed men lounging about, who rushed to pick up their weapons and follow their boss across the house to the back door. My eyes struggled to adapt to the brilliant sunlight streaming through the windows. I blinked to clear my sight. Ahead of me, I spotted a guard flanking the inside of the glass-paneled door and beyond it, a trio of Suburbans parked on the driveway.
“Grab the keys,” Samuel commanded and the guard rushed to follow his orders.
I craned my neck. Samuel and another man carried Ash between them. Pain distorted his face, but his eyes were open. Thank God. At least he was conscious. My eyes welled with tears. His foot dangled listlessly from his leg.
“Hold on, boss,” Samuel said. “We need a security sweep.”
“No more delays,” Red said. “We’re going now.”
Red threw the door open and stopped in his tracks. Standing right before us, dressed in a white coat embroidered with the High Mountain Veterinary Clinic logo was Jordan Meddler. Our eyes met briefly before his expression changed.
“Hello.” He smiled brightly, taking us in as if the sight of a half dozen armed men surrounding two tattered prisoners was commonplace in this neck of the woods. “Sorry to startle you. I’m looking for one of my patients, a scrawny Maltese with a shabby coat, a sour disposition and an injured paw.” He put his hand in his pocket. “Let me show you a picture.”
The clicks of a dozen safeties echoed in the room.
“Easy, boys,” Samuel muttered behind me.
Jordan seemed blessedly oblivious to the danger. “Ah, here it is.” He whipped out his cell and, after scrolling through the screen, held up a picture of a mutt. “Have any of you seen it?”
Red tightened his hold on me. “Out of my way.”
“That’s not a Maltese,” Samuel pointed out.
Several of the other men grunted in agreement.
“It’s not?” Jordan stared at the picture and frowned. “You’re right. I think I have a flyer with a picture of the lost Maltese somewhere,” he added, holding his cell with one hand and grappling with his pocket.
A canister flew out of his jacket and clattered on the floor, trailing a hissing plume of smoke that blurred my view of Jordan as he lunged toward me. Red jerked hard to the left and, dragging me along, dove for the stairs. We tumbled down the steps into the basement and crashed against a rack of skis.
The rack fell on us. Something hit my head hard. I lay there, stunned, but Red dug himself out from under the pile of skis and pulled out his gun. He dove to the side of the stairs and exchanged fire with someone shooting from the top floor. More gunfire echoed from above. Glass shattered, men shouted, steps thundered upstairs where an all-out battle took place.
I took cover in the corner and yanked on my bonds, but still, the duct tape wouldn’t give. I looked down on the skis piling around me. I had an idea. I knelt on the ground and straddling the ski, secured it between my knees. I leaned back and bore down, jerking my hands back and forth, rubbing the tape against the edge.
Perhaps my earlier efforts had succeeded in weakening the duct tape. Maybe I had to thank the speed demon who kept his skis in top shape even in the preseason, or the diamond stone that had sharpened the edges of his skis to perfection. For once, hard work and luck favored me. The duct tape ripped and my hands went free.
I bolted toward the stairs. I glimpsed a few staggered faces behind the weapons at the top of the steps, Jordan, the sheriff and a couple of his deputies. Red caught up with me on the third step. He tackled me like an offensive lineman and wrestled me off the stairs while shooting at the men above.
“I’ll kill her if you come down,” he yelled.
“No more bloodshed,” the sheriff yelled back. “Let her go.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Red said to me, spraying the top of the stairs with more bullets.
I lunged in the opposite direction. If I could just lure him away from Ash and the others. But Red caught my leg and slammed me against the floor. I reeled. I might have gone out for a few minutes. When I came to, I had to fight to stay conscious. Red’s gun barrel was pressed on my forehead. He talked on his cell.
“Get the bird in the air,” he said. “Do it now.”
“They’re not going to let you go,” I said. “You need to surrender.”
“Shut up and stay still.” The gun’s hot barrel burned against my skull. “They’re not going to kill me, not while I have you.”
“Wherever you go, the Feds will follow.”
“Our trip to Hacienda Dorada just got expedited.” Red flattened against the wall and sneaked a look out the window. “We’ll fly out to Colombia today. Nobody can touch me there. You’re coming with me.”
I knew he had every intention of following up on his newest plan. I’d lived with the man for over ten years. He’d defeated every challenge to his rule, every enemy he’d ever faced. He’d kill to escape. He’d also kill to take me with him.
Red’s cell chimed with a newly arrived text. The roar of a nearing helicopter told me what the message was about.
“Get up.” Red lifted me up from the ground. He used his strength to manhandle me, wrapping his elbow around my neck. I perched my hands on his forearm and pulled down, trying to breathe, but his hold was solid and my world wobbled as unsteady as my knees.
“Now, pay attention,” he said. “And do exactly as I say.”
He kicked open the basement door and burst through the threshold, using me as a shield. The sun dazzled my eyes, but I blinked several times and took in the sights around me. We stepped into a sloping yard wedged between luxury homes. It opened up onto the backyard and the resort’s golf course, which followed the gentler contours of a green ski run.
“Out of my way.” Red pressed the gun to my temple and shouted, “Unless you allow that helicopter to land right now, she dies.”
Radios crackled. Several armed deputies backed out of the side yard. The helicopter’s engines roared as it buzzed the house. The flag that identified the seventh hole bent and snapped violently as the helicopter landed on the green. A pair of patrol cars screeched into position around the helicopter, but nobody interfered with the landing.
It wasn’t just the local sheriff surrounding the house. The FBI was there as well, wearing their distinctive jackets and protective vests, taking cover behind cars, structures and bushes. I also spotted men on the roof of the neighboring houses. Red saw them too.
An unnatural calm took hold of me. Those snipers were my companions on a one-way journey, gauging their shots as we advanced, calculating their trajectories, making the choices they’d have to live with for the rest of their lives.
In a moment of complete clarity, I realized everything. “The most effective defense is an intelligent attack and the most effective attack is the one that disables your opponent fast and for good.” Ash had made the hard choices from the outset. He’d studied the situation, evaluated the options and weighed the strategies. He’d known that Red wouldn’t be easy to defeat in court. He’d anticipated that Red would use his money, power and influence to prevail. At that point, Ash had decided that the only viable way of freeing me was to confront Red on Ash’s terms, turf and time, and for good.
Along the way, he’d also made decisions about who to trust with what. Not only had he taken advantage of his firm’s intelligence capabilities, but locally, Ash had relied on the sheriff and Jordan to back up his plan. He must have also used his personal contacts to identify someone trustworthy in the FBI, because they were here, now.
Part of me was mad that Ash hadn’t shared the full plan with me. The other part understood that in more than one way, he had. We had to be fluid. We had to be smart. He’d told me the truth from the beginning. He’d compartmentalized the information to orchestrate a complex plan because it was the only way to beat Red’s extensive surveillance. And it had worked. Almost.
His complex strategy also explained why he’d made that sex clip, managed to get it to Red without raising suspicion and lured him to the cottage. The clip was possibly the only object in the world capable of provoking Red’s fury beyond caution, the only way of getting Red to show up when and where Ash wanted him.
As I stood there, surrounded by all those armed men, watching the helicopter’s rotor blades spinning as it waited on the green, the explanations crystallized in my mind. The defeat at the cottage had also been part of Ash’s plan. So had been Ash’s capture. That’s why the guys had been wearing bulletproof vests. That’s also why they’d scattered during the attack. The only reason why the cottage had fallen to Red in the first place was because Ash had wanted it so. Yes, I was sure: Ash had plotted to get himself caught in order to ensure Red’s capture.
“Easy now.” Red’s gun knocked against my jaw. “One step at a time. Walk toward the helicopter.”
I put one foot in front of the other, moving slowly, limping on my swollen ankle. It was hard to breathe with Red’s arm so tight around my neck. I was thinking furiously. Once caught, how had Ash managed to lead the others to Red’s location?
Of course. Jordan’s presence at the back door hadn’t been coincidental. He’d known about the plan. A memory of the day that I discovered the stitches on Ash’s foot flashed in my mind. Ash had said that Jordan had taken care of the tiny cut. Jordan—who had plenty of experience embedding pet microchips—had implanted a microchip locator in Ash’s foot.
It explained not only the cut and the stitches, but also Ash’s behavior in the theater room. He’d tried to distract Red as he waited for the others to get a lock on the microchip and get into position for the takedown.
Complex as it was, his plan had worked nearly perfectly. Except for one glitch: me.
Ash had never intended for me to get caught. I was sure about that. Athena had to be the name of the contingency plan that the guys had put in place to lead me away from the fray. Ash expected that I’d escaped with Wang, whose primary mission had been to protect me in case of trouble and to facilitate my escape. My capture had thrown Ash’s plan into disarray. And now these men would allow Red to escape, because he had me.
“Scram,” Red shouted to the FBI agents nestled behind the terrace. “Do it now or I’ll shoot her.”
The men scampered out of sight. The helicopter got closer with every step, and so did a life of servitude in Hacienda Dorada.
Time slowed down to a crawl. My mind opened up to a world vibrant with detail. I could see the spectrum in the sunlight. I could hear the subtle swoosh of the clouds rushing by. I could taste the salt of the mountains’ minerals on my lips and whiff the scent of three seasons dying beneath a layer of frost.
I closed my eyes and breathed in the mountain’s cool air, the fragrance of peace, beauty and freedom. I gave thanks for a life that had tossed me a huge bonus of happiness right there at the end. Ash was out there, far or near, it didn’t matter. He was alive and his rifle’s range would close any distance with deadly accuracy. He was a man who owned his hard choices, lived with them and suffered them in his nightmares, even when he understood his choices to be right.
I spotted him then, kneeling next to Wang behind a patrol car casing the seventh hole. My pulse raced. Ash braced his rifle over the hood and squinted through his scope. The telescopic sight would show him the details on my face and my expression all the way to the white of my eyes.
“It’s whether you want to make your own decisions or whether you want to play someone else’s game; whether they’re gonna kill your guys or you’re going to kill the ones who want to kill your guys before they kill you.”
Time to make my own decisions. Time to fulfill my personal resolutions. No prison would ever prevent Red from selling drugs and destroying the lives of innocent people. No protective detail could ever keep him away from me. As long as we both lived, I was his to keep.
But I had a chance to end it now, even if Red’s death meant mine too. It seemed like a fair trade to rid the world of evil, protect the ones I loved and free myself for good. I was the only one who could do all of that.
Ash might have recognized the resolve on my face. His head popped up from behind his scope. His eyes went wide. His lips pursed. “No, no, no.”
I mouthed the words. “You go out fighting.”
I’d practiced the motion with Ash a thousand times before. It took but a second. I braced myself for the pain, then planted my front leg, claiming my real estate. I bent my knees and wrapped my hands around Red’s elbow while pulling down with all my body weight. At the same time, I wrapped my right leg behind his and threw my body toward his shoulder.
The dog came out of nowhere, a sable blur that rocketed out of my peripheral vision and collided into Red like a high-speed projectile.
Neil?
The thoughts raced through my mind. How could it be? He’d been taught to stay away from fighting. Ash took every precaution never to allow the dog near danger. We were a good twenty miles from the cottage.
But it was him, and he sank his teeth into Red’s forearm, just an inch or two above the hand holding the gun, growling like a wild beast. The three of us went down together. Fur flashed before my eyes. Fangs pierced flesh and ripped tendons. Shots rang out, so loud that they hurt my ears. There was howling, snarling, screaming and blood, and yet the fierce three-way struggle continued.
The wolf bred into Neil took over. His attack became primal. Red punched Neil on the face and kicked the dog to the side while I struggled to free myself from his clutch. For an instant, he let go of me, grabbing the dog by the collar and angling his arm to aim his gun at the beast leaping for this throat.
I tackled Red with all my strength. Additional shots rang out from his gun, loud and yet somehow muffled to my bewildered brain. I lunged for Neil, enfolding him in my embrace as we tumbled together away from Red. More shots rang in the air, sharp and clear. Red’s body jerked with the impact of the snipers’ bullets. Thump, thump, thump. People shouted. The helicopter tried to gain altitude, spun out of control and crashed against the mountain. Fire, smoke and debris raged in the wind of the explosion, breaking windows and setting a patrol car on fire. People dove every which way to take cover.
I huddled with Neil against the wall, hugging the dog to my chest. For a moment, the world went mute. Then Neil whimpered and nuzzled me with his big head, caramel eyes fastened on my face. A loud swoosh filled my ears. His breath came in short, sharp pants. So did mine.
“My dear friend.” I petted the lovely, courageous boy. “I would’ve never allowed him in my house if it hadn’t been for you. You were the best caretaker ever.”
I stared at the blood dripping from my hand. So much blood. It smeared Neil’s fur, coated my arms and soaked my shirt. I fumbled through my coat and found the little flashlight attached to the keychain and unscrewed the top of the battery compartment. It was hard. My hands didn’t want to work. But it seemed important that someone should have the thumb drive that slid out and onto my hand. So many people had died because of the information it contained.
The sights before me blurred. The pain burning inside me eased. I let out a long rattling breath. Relief. Red was gone, unable to kill anymore. The rest of my friends were safe. Ash was alive. I’d defied the course of my life, challenged the expected outcome and gained my best years in the bargain. No more running. No more hiding. No more fear.
It was done.