Once Upon a Disaster

by Holly Copella

  “No, absolutely not.”

  He frowned his disapproval and shook his head. “You lack imagination, Jade.”

  “I don’t take money from the mob, Vahn.”

  “You wouldn’t,” he corrected then grinned. “I would. How can you not like that plan?”

  She glared at him.

  He frowned and shook his head. “You’re not really a ‘see the bigger picture’ sort of woman, are you?”

  “When you come up with a good plan,” she snarled. “Please let me know.

  “You’re no fun, Detective Wesson,” Vahn informed her while shaking his head. “Our relationship can’t revolve solely around sex, you know?”

  Chapter Forty-five

  Bruno stood by the doorway in the television studio with his gun in his hand while watching the stairway. Cody paced the area in the back behind the seats with an annoyed look on his face. Vahn suddenly appeared in the backstage doorway with his semiautomatic trained on them.

  “Hey, Cody,” Vahn chirped cheerfully.

  Cody and Bruno spun with their guns aimed and were now locked in a standoff.

  “Take it easy. Let’s not do anything stupid,” Vahn announced then grinned. “I want to make you a deal. I have something you want, and you have something I want.”

  “Typical,” Cody scoffed. “What is it you want, Vahn?”

  “I’m not greedy, Cody. I only want one million,” he announced and mocked him with his smile. “I know you can spare it, especially since that flash drive tells you where the rest of the billions you stole from Jared have been moved.”

  “Give me one good reason why I should pay you a million dollars instead of just shooting you and taking the flash drive?” Cody demanded.

  “Because it’s not on me. Give me some credit for intelligence,” he replied. “I’ve had plenty of time to hide it. It’s someplace where you’ll never find it.”

  “And what about your detective girlfriend?”

  “Been there; done that,” Vahn teased. “I can find a dozen more like her, especially with a million dollars in my pocket.”

  “Where is she?” Cody demanded.

  He chuckled in his throat. “She’s a little tied up at the moment.”

  Cody glared at Vahn as he approached the stage area from the back. “After the shit you pulled, do you actually expect me to believe you?”

  “What? Helping her escape?” Vahn asked then grinned. “She had something I wanted.” He considered the comment then chuckled. “Well, she had a couple of things I wanted. Access to a million dollars was motivation too.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you your million dollars for the flash drive,” Cody announced firmly then raised his brow, “and Detective Wesson.”

  “Why not?” Vahn announced and shrugged. “I’m finished with her anyway.”

  Vahn disappeared backstage then reappeared with Jade. Her wrists were tied in front of her, and she had duct tape across her mouth. Vahn ripped the duct tape from her mouth then tossed her across the floor, forcing her to land just behind the desk.

  Jade managed to jump to her feet with her hostility showing. “You bastard!”

  Jade attempted to karate kick him, despite her tied hands. Without flinching, Vahn raised the .22 semiautomatic in his left hand and casually shot her in the chest. She cried out and flew to the floor behind the desk. He tossed the .22 aside while keeping his 9mm in his right hand. Vahn looked back at Cody and appeared satisfied.

  “Here’s the deal,” Vahn announced. “You and your brat pack walk out of here, you get my money, and I’ll meet you in one hour at the docks.”

  “Fine. One hour,” Cody snarled then pointed a warning finger at him. “But you had better be there with that flash drive.”

  Vahn waved them off then disappeared backstage. Cody didn’t even give it a second thought before motioning Bruno to follow him. Bruno hurried past the seats toward the stage as Cody disappeared out the main entrance. As Bruno approached the dead woman and the backstage door, Jade suddenly kicked his legs out from under him, sprang to her feet while tossing the ropes aside, and kicked him as he stood. Vahn appeared from the stage door and watched as Jade kicked the large man several times.

  Vahn smirked, pleased. “You are so hot.”

  She watched the big man fall to the floor then glared at Vahn. “I hope you realize how much being shot stings,” she snapped hotly then rubbed her chest revealing the bulletproof vest.

  “It was just a pussy .22 caliber,” Vahn scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Grow a set.”

  Jade glared at him. He caught her look then smiled and chuckled.

  “We’d better go,” she announced. “We don’t want to keep Cody’s ambush waiting.”

  She again rubbed her chest then looked at her aunt’s leather jacket. There was a bullet hole in the chest. She stopped and examined the hole straight through the jacket. Horror crossed her face as she glared at Vahn.

  “You put a hole in my jacket,” she cried out.

  “Come on,” Vahn groaned. “That jacket is old and ratty. So what if it has a bullet hole?”

  “This was my aunt’s jacket,” Jade protested. “She gave it to me the day she died. I don’t care if it’s old and ratty.”

  Jade took off the jacket and examined the bullet hole that went straight through. She checked the liner, which ripped with little effort. Jade groaned and examined the rip.

  “Great,” she scoffed, feeling defeated. “Now I’ll need to have it repaired.”

  Jade was about to slip into the jacket when a flash drive fell to the floor. Vahn and Jade stared at the flash drive.

  “Want to be careful and not lose that,” Vahn remarked. “We may need that as a bargaining chip.”

  She uncertainly picked up the flash drive, stared at it, and then looked at Vahn. Jade removed the flash drive Rafael gave her from her cleavage.

  Vahn appeared puzzled and pointed. “I thought he only gave you one.”

  “He did,” Jade remarked and studied the second flash drive. She then looked at the torn jacket and sank into thought. “It must have been in the lining of my jacket.”

  “Did it fall through a hole in your pocket?” Vahn asked. “Happens with my keys a lot.”

  Jade slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t fiddle with computers,” she replied. “I don’t have any use for a flash drive.” She then eyed Vahn. “It must have been my aunt’s.”

  Vahn stared at her as she drifted into thought. Jade was taken back to the day her aunt gave her the jacket.

  “Okay, so it was your aunt’s,” Vahn replied. “Does it matter? We should meet Cody’s ambush before he decides to come back for us.”

  “Yeah, we will,” she announced then looked around. “There has to be a computer around here somewhere.”

  “Why do we need a computer?” Vahn asked.

  “I want to see what’s on this flash drive,” she replied. “I have this really weird feeling.”

  “If it’s that important to you,” he announced then pointed toward the door. “I saw an office down the hall.”

  As they hurried through the stage door, Jade stopped in the doorway and eyed Cody’s man lying on the floor just inside the hall. Vahn casually stepped over him.

  She glared at him with annoyance. “Did you ever meet anyone you didn’t kill?”

  “He’s not dead.”

  “He looks dead.”

  Jade reached down to take the man’s pulse. Before she could even touch his wrist, Vahn captured her arm and pulled her away from him.

  “Okay, maybe he’s dead,” Vahn casually replied. “That was self-defense though. You’ve killed more people tonight than I have, so quit nitpicking.”

  Chapter Forty-six

  Vahn opened the office door, allowing Jade to enter first. Jade looked around the dimly lit office and found a working light. The room brightened considerably. There wasn’t a desktop computer, but she saw a laptop on the desk. Despite the messy state of the office, the laptop hadn’t bee
n crushed. Jade sat before the desk and checked the laptop. It still worked. She inserted the flash drive and opened it. Vahn stood over her shoulder and watched with mild disinterest.

  “So what am I looking at?” he asked.

  She saw there was only one file on the flash drive. Jade opened the file to reveal several smaller files. Jade stared at the files with some surprise.

  “The files on this flash drive were created the day before my aunt died,” Jade informed him then shook her head with disbelief. “The creator was Russ Thomas.”

  “Should I know who that is?” Vahn asked.

  “Russ Thomas worked at my parents’ accounting firm,” she informed him. “He was accused of murdering his wife and her lover in a hotel room. He ran from the police and supposedly jumped to his death from the twelfth floor of the Strafford Hotel.” She remained curious while opening the files. “Why did my aunt have a flash drive belonging to Russ in her jacket pocket?” As the file opened, Jade relived that day in her aunt’s office. She suddenly sat forward and stared at the file. “I could be mistaken, but this looks a lot like blackmail.”

  Vahn looked at the computer screen. There were several pictures downloaded onto the flash drive file. As they flipped through them, they saw a series of events involving a much younger Cody and Jared Carmichael. Cody had a gun in his hand, and both men stood over two dead men with bullet holes in the backs of their skulls and a pool of blood surrounding their heads. Cody and Jared were smiling and laughing despite the grisly scene.

  “That’s Cody,” Jade announced then pointed to the second man in the pictures. “But I don’t know who that is.”

  Vahn’s eyes widened as he straightened and immediately became tense. “Jesus,” he practically gasped. “That’s Jared Carmichael, the notorious mob boss.”

  Jade squinted and looked at the picture more closely. “Damn it, you’re right!”

  Vahn suddenly laughed and shook his head in amazement. “You got them, Jade,” he announced while grinning. “You have hard evidence that both were involved in a professional hit. The pictures don’t lie.”

  “Whoever took these pictures must have been one of Russ’ clients,” Jade announced. “When he was going over the client’s accounts, he must have stumbled upon this.”

  “Perhaps he intended to blackmail the mob,” Vahn remarked and eyed her. “That’d get you tossed off a twelve-story building, no questions asked.”

  Jade sat back in her chair and sank into thought while shaking her head. “This is big,” she gasped then glanced at him. “Do you have any idea what Cody or Jared would do if they knew we had this?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s where Russ and the swan dive off the twelve-story building came into play,” Vahn remarked.

  Jade stared at the computer screen with a strange look that quickly turned to horror. “He’d kill anyone who had it or saw it,” she gasped softly then slowly sat forward while staring at the screen. “It wasn’t an accident!”

  “I know,” Vahn replied while giving her a strange look. “We just covered that.”

  “No,” she announced and looked at him as the color drained from her face. “No, the crash that killed my parents and my aunt. She had this evidence. Somehow they knew she had it, and they killed them for it.” She then stared blankly at the screen. “She knew she was in trouble, so she hid the flash drive in her jacket and then gave her jacket to me.”

  “You’re saying, Cody--”

  Jade sneered, pulled the flash drive from the port, and sprang to her feet. “That motherfucker killed my family!”

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Nearly all the windows within the first-floor lobby were broken. Glass was scattered across the blood-spattered floor, and most of the lobby furniture had been trashed. A few dead gang members lay among the mess, their bodies riddled with bullets. The elevator dinged. As the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Cody’s henchman fired inside, spraying the empty elevator with a barrage of bullets. He stopped when he realized it was empty.

  “Damn it,” Cody snarled as he walked out from behind the main desk. “What’s taking Bruno so long to get that flash drive?”

  “Maybe Vahn won’t crack. Bruno may not be as persuasive as you think,” his hired man announced. “Want me to go back upstairs and check on him?”

  “No, lock out the elevator, in case Vahn got the slip on him,” Cody announced while running his fingers through his bleached white hair. “We’ll keep an eye on the stairs and wait for him to come to us.”

  The henchman approached the elevator and flipped a switch, causing the elevator alarm to sound. As he turned to leave, Jade dropped down from the elevator ceiling panel. The henchman spun to the gust of air and the soft thud of her feet hitting the floor. Jade spun into a roundhouse kick, hit him in the face, and easily took him down.

  Cody heard his man striking the floor, became alert, and turned, aiming his gun at Jade. She appeared unarmed and made no motion to reach for any concealed weapons. Cody stared at her, obviously surprised that she wasn’t actually dead, then frowned and shook his head.

  “I should have known,” he scoffed. “Were you and Vahn in on it together? Or did you con him too?”

  Jade leaned against the elevator doorway while folding her arms across her chest. She didn’t even attempt to defend herself. Her hatred for Cody wouldn’t let her back down or run from the monster who killed her parents.

  “Vahn is doing a little errand for me,” she informed him, showing no emotion. “He’s taking the information Greg collected on you, along with your billions, or should I say along with Carmichael’s billions, to the FBI.”

  Cody’s jaw tensed at the mention of Jared’s money, but he refused to respond.

  “I guess it’s going to be a photo finish,” she informed him. “Who’ll get to you first? The FBI or Jared Carmichael? Personally, I hope it’s Carmichael.”

  “You want to see me tortured and killed in some macabre manner?” he teased with a less than humored smirk. “That’s dark, Detective.”

  “I’ve been told I lack empathy, particularly when it comes to two-bit thugs and killers,” she hissed.

  “I’m far from a two-bit thug,” he informed her and grinned. “I’ve created an empire from nothing. I’m also the man pointing a gun at you, so you may want to show some respect.”

  She laughed while smirking. “That’s not going to happen.” Jade unfolded her arms and revealed a flash drive in her hand. “I found this little piece of incriminating evidence in the liner of my aunt’s jacket. It must have been there for more than ten years,” she informed him.

  Cody stared at the flash drive in her hand and allowed her words to sink in. “Your aunt?” he remarked then nodded knowingly. “Amanda Quinn.”

  “You’re smarter than you look,” she replied.

  “That’s been my bargaining chip for years,” he informed her then indicated the flash drive. “Do you have any idea what’s on that stick?”

  “Everything Russ Thomas had on you and Carmichael,” she replied then raised her brows. “You remember Russ Thomas, don’t you?”

  Cody frowned. “Yeah, I remember Russ.”

  “You framed him for a double homicide then you or your men assisted him off the roof of the Strafford Hotel to make it look like suicide,” Jade replied.

  “I had some serious issues back then,” he casually reported, almost sounding sincere.

  “Then I’m sure you also remember killing my Aunt Amanda and my parents to recover this incriminating piece of evidence against you and Carmichael,” she snapped hotly.

  “I remember that too,” he replied. “I suppose a heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ won’t cut it, huh?”

  “For killing my aunt and my parents?” she remarked then considered the comment before shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

  His eyes then pleaded with hers in a slightly mocking manner as if they were playing some macabre game. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” he asked then i
ndicated the gun in his hand. “Seeing how I’m the one with a gun aimed at you.”

  “I was fifteen years old,” she informed him. Her eyes turned hateful. “I was fifteen when you sent three thugs to my uncle’s house to find this evidence.”

  He gave the comment some consideration then seemed to recall the incident. “You can’t have hard feelings about that,” Cody interjected. “Your uncle killed those men, so we’re even on that one.”

  Her eyes narrowed while glaring at him. “My uncle never killed anyone,” she insisted with an evil look in her eyes. “I killed your three men.”

  Cody stared at her a moment and appeared slightly surprised by the confession. “I’m truly sorry, for what you’ve been through, Detective,” he announced. “Which is more than I ever got from those who ruined my childhood.” His look then turned demanding. “What you hold there is key to my survival. I may not be able to stop Vahn from turning evidence against me with our money laundering and whatever else Greg had on his computer, but as long as I have Russ’ blackmail to hold over Carmichael, he can’t touch me. I can outrun the law; I can’t outrun Carmichael.” He tightened his finger on the trigger. “I’m going to ask you very nicely to hand that over. I don’t want to kill you, Detective, nor do I have to. Killing you won’t change anything at this point. However, if you don’t hand over that flash drive, I’ll be forced to kill you. Don’t make me do that.”

  “You won’t kill me,” she informed him with little concern.

  He stared at her then raised a curious brow and chuckled. “Are you willing to stake your life on that?”

  “Actually, yes,” she replied.

  “I’d love to know why,” he remarked then grinned. “Enlighten me, Detective.”

  The barrel of a semiautomatic was placed against the back of his head. Cody suddenly tensed and attempted to look behind him without turning his head. Vahn took the gun from his hand and grinned.

  “Because I’m standing behind you with a gun to your head,” he replied.