Chapter 14
Rebel stared at the closed doorway after Saul walked out. She hated to admit it, but, as soon as he left, she felt so alone. The thing was, inside her room she had the privacy to bawl and cry and scream in frustration. But she couldn’t find the release to do any of those things. Inside she was just frozen.
Images of Samantha’s beaten body tortured her imagination. How could anyone do that to another person? It just wasn’t right. It was hard to think of what she might have gone through. Samantha might not have been Rebel’s favorite person, but Samantha was still somebody’s daughter, mother, sister, sister-in-law, cousin. Someone, somewhere, cared about her.
The fear, the torture and the torment Samantha had gone through was something Rebel wouldn’t wish on anybody. The depravity of the human condition was not something she’d been exposed to before this—not to this extent. And she was learning a whole lot she wished she could unlearn. She wasn’t sure she could sleep, even though she was exhausted.
The picture of that woman’s jaw, her face so damaged, her eye socket bruised and the bloody mess she’d been lying in—this would haunt Rebel’s dreams for the rest of her life. If one very small light burned at the end of this, Rebel was thankful the battered body she had found was not Tammy’s. But even knowing that, it could still be Tammy lying in a ditch somewhere.
Heartache and grief overwhelmed her. She walked into the bathroom, quickly shedding her clothes. A hot shower would help. Maybe clear her mind and her heart somewhat. Ease the stress in her system.
She caught a glimpse of her face in the bathroom mirror and winced. Somewhere between helping the poor woman and her arrival in this room, she had smeared blood all over her face and the palms of her hands. She stared at the haggard woman looking back at her and realized just how much this week had taken from her.
She turned away resolutely. There would be no quitting until she found Tammy. Unmindful of the time, she stepped under the hot water and let the heat pound on her back, her head and her shoulders. When she turned her face into the rainlike downpour, she wasn’t sure where the shower started and her tears stopped. Or how long she stood there, letting her emotions ripple through her system.
Finally, wrapped up in a towel, she walked toward the bed and gave her hair a quick towel-dry, then pulled out a T-shirt and panties to wear as she crawled into bed.
Her head barely hit the pillow, and she was tossed into a nightmare that screamed with rage and pain.
She woke less than an hour later, covered in sweat, her body shaking, panic coursing through her. She kicked off the blankets and lay trembling as the cool morning air dried off her sweat-soaked skin. She shuddered.
Her life had become this never-ending nightmare. She didn’t know how to get out of it.
As she lay wondering if it would be okay to search for the kitchen and get a glass of herbal tea, sirens ripped through the house. She bolted to her feet and froze. It wasn’t a fire alarm. The raging drive of an odd pitch had her slapping her hands over her ears. Footsteps raced outside in the hallway. She ran toward the door as Saul opened it from the other side.
“An intruder is on the property.”
She stared at him, her mouth dropping. “Holy crap, that’s the security alarm?”
He nodded.
She put on her bathrobe, slipping her arms through the sleeves, and returned to the hallway with him.
“Do you want to stay here?” he asked, searching her face.
She shook her head. “No, I’ll stay where you are. No way do I want to be separated from you guys.”
He nodded and led the way into the kitchen.
She glanced around at the empty place. “Where has everybody gone?”
“Foster’s in the security room, checking out the video cameras. He will have sent everyone off in different directions.”
“Then we should be there to show we are fine?”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “I’m here to keep you safe.”
She rolled her eyes. “That means you’re on babysitting duty. I can be in the security room with Foster just as easily as anywhere else.”
He seemed to consider that, then nodded. “Come this way then.”
He led her through several halls and up a short set of stairs into another room.
By the time they walked through the doorway she was completely lost as to how they got here. “This place is a maze. Nobody would ever find their way here.”
Foster glanced up and smiled at her. “I’m so sorry for disturbing your sleep,” he apologized.
She smiled at the older man. “I’d just woken up from a horrible nightmare, so this is a grateful reprieve. I hope whoever it is has not caused any real damage.”
“He’ll have to get to that point first,” Foster said cheerfully. “And I’ll make sure he doesn’t.”
She smiled. “I’ll just sit here. You all have something useful to do, I assume.”
Beside her, Saul muttered, “Keeping you alive and well is useful.”
She shot him a look. “I’m fine. Go do your hero stuff.”
At that term Foster chuckled. Saul glared at her.
She stared at him in surprise. “What did I say?”
“Nothing,” he muttered. He shot Foster a hard look. “Right, Foster?” But Foster was laughing too hard.
She shrugged. “I’m glad you guys are having fun with this, but what about the intruder?”
Saul reached out and tapped the monitor. “There he is.”
Sure enough, a black-dressed figure slid alongside the guesthouse.
“Don’t even know where that building is,” she said.
“It’s my house,” Foster said with a note of outrage.
“Oh, dear,” she said. “That doesn’t sound very good.”
But the intruder slid past Foster’s house and raced across the distance toward the main house. While she watched, a second man stepped in, his arm straight out, connecting with the intruder’s throat. And just like that the intruder went down.
“Oh, my God! Is that one of our guys?” Then she recognized the shape and snorted. “Of course that’s Stone. No way it isn’t him.” Inside she was elated. Not only had the response time been very short, but they had caught the intruder. Then another thought crossed her mind. “Do you think there’s a second man?”
Saul said, “Almost certainly. No reason for them to come alone on a mission like this. I’m presuming you know why they’re coming?”
She shook her head.
“The only thing that’s changed is you. They’re here for you.”
She stared at him in horror. “But I’m nobody.”
“Apparently you’re somebody who had the USB key. You’re the one who’s been the driving force behind the search for Tammy.”
She shook her head. “That is not good. I didn’t want anything to do with any of this.”
She sat back in her seat a little dumbfounded, considering that any of this revolved around her. “The focus should be on Tammy,” she announced. “This has nothing to do with me.”
“And what if there was more information than what was on the USB key, and they think you might either have a copy of it or a second key?”
She shook her head. “Hell no. I didn’t know anything about that first key, so how could I know anything about a second one?”
Foster turned to look at her. “Any chance two different parties are involved in this? And the key went to one while the other party either doesn’t know that or thinks you might’ve kept a copy of it?”
Her jaw dropped. “This is getting way too convoluted. Why would a second party be in this?”
“What if somebody was selling information to the highest bidder?” Saul asked. “That could involve many interested parties.”
Saul’s words cut through her heart. “If anybody did that, it would have been Samantha. Tammy would have nothing to do with this. And I mean, nothing.”
The men nodded. “We hear you. That doesn’t make it so. Something’s going on, and it’s tough because we don’t have the right people to talk to. We need Daniel and Tammy.”
At that, Rebel saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Gasping, she pointed. “Look!”
Sure enough, a second man dressed in black was in the kitchen. She bounded to her feet. “He’s inside the house,” she cried out.
“Keep her here.” Saul slipped outside the security room.
She didn’t know where Dakota or Merk were or if anybody could communicate with them. Saul shouldn’t be handling this guy on his own. She headed to the door behind him.
Foster’s voice cut through the small room. “He’ll handle it just fine on his own.”
“What if that guy’s not alone? What if there’s more than one man in the kitchen?”
Foster leaned forward to study the monitors. “At the moment, there is just one man.”
“Can you tell if the others are nearby?”
He pointed to different monitors, showing her. Stone and Merk stood over the first man, still unconscious. Stone reached down and grabbed one arm; Merk grabbed the other, and they hauled him toward the house.
“Where’s Dakota?”
“He’s on the far side of the property.”
“So that leaves Saul all alone.”
He glanced at her. “Saul will be just fine.”
She bit her lower lip. “I have self-defense training.”
“But are you very good against bullets?” He tapped the monitor for her to see the intruder had a gun.
“Oh, my God!” She bolted for the door, opened it and raced after Saul. She tried to retrace his steps, but she faced multiple hallways and different stairs. By the time she made her way to the kitchen, it was empty.
And she knew she’d done something wrong. And so very foolish. Under her breath she swore, “Shit.”
But, knowing where the cameras were so Foster could keep an eye on her, she walked into the kitchen and proceeded to put on coffee. She figured such a mundane task could bring the intruder to her, and Saul could go after them or anybody watching her.
The problem was, her hands were shaking. When she finally turned on the coffee, she pivoted and leaned against the counter.
Only to see a man dressed in black with a gun pointed at her head.
She sucked in her breath. And stared at him. This was not how she had planned her morning.
*
Saul slipped into the dining room as the man headed to the kitchen. Saul decided to go around. Heading back the way he’d come, he took a different direction and came up on the far end of the dining room. He heard the sound of light footsteps. Steps that could only belong to Rebel.
She was supposed to stay with Foster. What the hell was she doing down here? Just as suddenly he heard motion in the kitchen, and he shook his head. Coffee. He crept closer, knowing the sounds that attracted him would definitely attract the intruder.
“There you are, bitch.”
The words seemed to hit his heart. He snuck over to the side entrance to see the man standing with a gun trained on Rebel. Her white-knuckled grip showed the tension she otherwise refused to let the gunman see.
“What the hell do you want?” she asked. “This is not your home. You’re trespassing. We handed over the USB key, and we were supposed to get Tammy and Daniel back.”
“Which they couldn’t do because they don’t have them.”
Saul watched her straighten in disbelief.
“As I have them.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I don’t give a shit if you do or not.”
“Where are Tammy and Daniel?” she demanded.
“I have them.”
“Did you torture them like that other asshole did to Samantha?” Her glare was direct, and, as much as Saul wished she would not dive face-first into trouble, he had to admire her courage and tenacity.
“No. But Samantha deserves what she gets. She sold the data she stole from Daniel, but someone else got wind of the deal. They hired me to act as a go-between and convinced her to sell it to me instead. So she’s a thief and a double-crosser.”
“But why? Why did the first buyer want the information, and why would you care?”
“According to Samantha, the other buyer was looking for blackmail material to gain concessions. Whereas the company I’m selling to is looking to crash the market share, pressuring your company into a takeover at a much cheaper price.”
“And how does Tammy fit into this?”
“Damn bitch figured out what was happening, so she took a copy of the information and proof of Samantha’s involvement to turn over to the head of the company.”
“She should’ve taken it to the police.”
The man shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what she should’ve done. She can’t do anything about it now.”
“So what do you want from me?”
“I need a copy of Tammy’s information. Otherwise I can’t get my fee.”
Rebel stared at him and shook her head. “The only key I found was turned over to the other guy to get Tammy back. And we got Samantha back for that. But now you need a copy from me to get Tammy and Daniel back?” She held out her hands and spread them wide. “Where the hell do you expect me to find a copy of that information? If it even exists, which I doubt.”
“It exists. These IT people, they never make a single copy. They always make a backup copy. And I want that copy.”
“Is it worth killing over?”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
Saul watched the relief wash over Rebel’s face. “Is Tammy still alive?”
He nodded. “Still, this won’t end well if I don’t get that backup copy and fast.”
She shook her head. “I’m not interested in doing any deals until I get Tammy back. I already paid the initial price, and all I got was a dead IT supervisor.”
“What do you mean, dead?”
Saul watched as Rebel nodded slowly.
“Samantha was alive when I found her. But she died in minutes. That asshole who beat her to death was also responsible for killing a homeless man, then shot two of his own men.”
“Very interesting.” The intruder thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess everybody has a price.”
Suddenly the gunman stepped back into the shadows. Saul slipped farther back.
“Tell me who is out there.” The gunman shifted his gun and said, “Now.”
She sighed and said, “I don’t know who’s out there.”
Saul walked into the kitchen casually.
When she stared at him in shock, he just shrugged.
The gunman turned, the gun now pointed at the two of them. “Where’s a copy of the material you handed over?”
“On my laptop,” Saul said.
“I need a copy.”
Saul tilted his head, his gaze locked on the intruder’s eyes. “I can do that. But I need my laptop and something to copy the data to.”
The gunman fished into his pocket and pulled out a USB key. “Put it on this.”
Saul shook his head. “I’m not doing anything with a gun held on her.”
The gun shifted to him.
Saul turned to Rebel and said, “Get my laptop. It’s on my bed, honey.”
She opened her mouth to protest when the gun shifted her way, and the guy in black said, “Do it now or I’ll shoot him.”
“I thought you weren’t into killing?” She glared at the gunman, making Saul grin.
“As there are already dead bodies, I can make it look like it’s not my doing.”
She gave a shuttered look, turned and walked from the kitchen.
Saul smiled when he saw no victim stance in her spine. She was pissed.
She went upstairs, and, within a few minutes, she came back down, carrying the laptop. She put it on the kitchen table, opened it and turned it on, then stepped back.
Saul walked over, put in the USB key, quickly accessed the information Merk had emailed out as a copy to everyone and copied it over. When he was done, he pulled out the key and handed it to the gunman.
Just as it was supposed to cross hands, she stepped forward. “No, wait.”
Saul turned to look at her.
“Not without getting Tammy first.”
The gunman cocked the gun and held it against Saul’s head. “I give the orders.”
She glared at him. “And I’ve been cheated. You give the orders right now to release both of them, and I want them back here.”
“Or I just shoot both of you, grab the information and run.”
“What makes you think you’ll be able to run?” she taunted. “You get nothing if I don’t get everything. We need two hostages back—you want the information. It’s a simple trade. You must have somebody watching over them. You get them delivered right now to the front gates here. We’ll walk you out. You get the key. We get our people.”
He glared at her in frustration. “I’m the one with the gun, so, you see, that gives me the upper hand.”
She snatched the key from Saul’s hand. “And now I have the USB key, so if you’re planning on shooting both of us right now, do it fast before I kick the bones in your nose through your brain. Or you can make a deal.”
He stared at her in frustration. “You don’t understand how this works, bitch.”
She gave a feral smile. “No, I didn’t learn how to play terrorism well. I failed kidnapping class too. But I can tell you one thing, I passed martial arts. And I will push your brain out the back your head and use your nose to do it. So tell me right now if you’re up for this deal.”
Her tone was so damn fierce that Saul almost didn’t recognize it.
“Pull out your goddamn phone and make the call.” When he didn’t move, she snapped, “Now!”
“You really think you can kick me faster that I can shoot you?”
“I can’t guarantee that bullet won’t stop me.” She wasn’t alone as Saul had some pretty fine skills himself. “What I can guarantee is that”—she made slow steps, widening the gap between her and Saul—“between the two of us, you will never walk out of this house.”
He pulled out his phone and made a quick call to leave the two hostages at the front of 427 Remington Park. “I’ll meet you out front.” Then he turned to her. “Done.”
She nodded. “I hope that was a real call you made. Because I’m doing the countdown on your life now.”
Saul wished he could reach out and gently hold her hand, but the distance between them prevented that. Instead he spoke softly to her. “It’ll be okay. Just take it easy.”
The gunman snorted. “You are totally nuts to have her in your life. How can you ever trust she won’t kill you?”
Rebel laughed.
Saul smiled. “I trust her just fine.”
The gunman shrugged. “Your funeral. You make sure everyone else stays away. I don’t know who else is here, but let’s make this simple, no bloodshed. You guys brought it to this point.”
“We did this?” Rebel growled. “No, you and the other greedy selfish cowardly asshole, hiding behind guns and threats, did this.” Then she laughed, like a loon.
Even with a ski mask on, the gunman couldn’t hide the fear in his eyes.
Saul was pretty sure that was Rebel’s game plan.
Abruptly she stopped, midlaugh. “But we’ll finish this for sure.”
The gunman stepped back, waving the gun between her, then Saul, then at her again.
“Our guns have been trained on you from the moment you entered this kitchen,” Saul said.
At his words Dakota, Merk and Stone all stepped inside the kitchen.
The intruder took one look at the guns trained on him, then glared down at Rebel and snapped, “So that’s where your bravado came from.” He slowly lowered his gun.
She shoved her face into his. “Like hell it was.”
The gunman stepped back and glanced at Saul. “She’s one crazy bitch. If you are willing to take a walk on the wild side, that’s your problem, buddy. But I prefer to wake up in the morning and smile at my woman, not check to see if she’s ready to kill me.”
“I would never worry about something like that with her.” Saul wrapped his arm around Rebel’s shoulders, tucked firmly against his side, so she wouldn’t charge into the middle of the play going on. There was a time to be fiery and a time to be moderate. Right now things were shifting quickly. Being in the middle of a gunfight was not a position he’d like to see her in. With everyone else now surrounding the gunman, the roles had changed.
“You need to let me go,” the gunman said.
The gun hung uselessly from his fingers. Nobody made a move to step forward and take it.
“Why is that?” Merk asked from behind him.
“Because otherwise your friends won’t make it. They might make it to the gate, but, if I’m not there, they won’t drop them off.”
“That’s easy. We’ll move you to the gate for them,” Dakota said. “We won’t forget how you came into a friend of ours house with a gun, waving it around, making demands, uttering threats. Plus you’ve kidnapped two of our friends, which is not only an act of war but something we’ll not forgive easily. Now you’re here acting as if you’re the boss?”
The gunman shot a look at Dakota and snorted. “He who has the gun is the boss.”
“Guns are not the be-all and end-all,” Rebel snapped. “And right now a lot of bosses are in this kitchen, and you’re not one of them.”
He shot her a look of utter dislike. “You need to watch your mouth.”
“And you need to watch for my foot to connect with your nose.”
He dropped back as if she had made physical contact.
She smiled, shoved her chin upward. For some reason Saul found it incredibly cute. He tugged her closer and dropped a kiss on her temple. She turned and shot him a look of complete shock.
He chuckled. “I couldn’t resist.”
She shook her head and muttered, “You’re nuts.”
The gunman shook his head. “He’s a complete whack job if he’s interested in you.”
She turned to glare at him, but Saul kept her tight against him. “I suggest we take this party outside. I would not appreciate anybody shooting up Richard’s house.”
“We also need to get the hostages, if there’s any chance of them coming,” Rebel said with emphasis.
Stone stepped forward and nudged the gunman. At the same time he pulled the gun free from the man’s fingers. “Outside,” he snapped.
The gunman walked silently forward. So many men had guns trained on him that he’d be a fool to try anything.
But Saul didn’t trust him. Saul hadn’t gotten this far in life without having a few tricks up his sleeve. What he didn’t know was if anymore gunmen were outside. The men exchanged hard glances.
They split up, two of them leading the gunman out to the gate.
Foster, as if understanding what was going on, opened the gate from the control room.
Saul wished he could send Rebel back to Foster but knew she would never allow that to happen. He kept the farthest back, hanging tightly to the wild card named Rebel, keeping an eye on everything going on around him, his gaze searching for hidden threats. He slowly led her forward. She tried to break free of his arm, but he clenched his arm tighter around her shoulders and said, “Wait. We don’t know if he’s alone.”
She froze. Her gaze darted in all directions.
“We’ll get there. It’s all about timing now. I don’t want him to hit the gate before the vehicle arrives with the hostages.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
But he didn’t ease up his grip. She was too impulsive to understand how sensitive this exchange was. Anything could go wrong, and then the five of them would be dead, and the gunman would be laughing his head off. That was not the way this would go down.
As Stone and Merk pushed the gunman forward, a vehicle drove down the long driveway. It was fronted by a private road and then veered off on to become this long drive up to the gated residence. As the vehicle came closer, Merk stepped off to one side and disappeared into the shadows. Stone stood right beside the gunman, his weapon out of sight.
The vehicle opened up. Two men got out. They opened the back doors and dragged out two people. Hearing Rebel’s gasp beside him, Saul clapped a hand over her mouth. “Hush.”
She nodded frantically, but she still tried to wiggle free of his grasp. He wouldn’t let go. It was damn hard to hold her back though.
In a harsh whisper he said, “No.”
She stilled and shot him a look of dislike. He grinned. But he refused to let up. The hostages hit the ground, both unconscious. The gunman took a step forward, speaking to his men. “We’re leaving now.”
“What about your buddy?” she asked bitterly. “I guess you’re okay to leave a man behind.”
He ignored her, walking over to the vehicle, USB key in hand. He slid into the back seat; they got into the front of the vehicle and drove off.