Fallon's Flaw

by Dale Mayer

  When he woke up the next time, it was to more pain and a sharp agonizing cut into his shoulder. And again Quinn looked at him, smiled, and said, “Time for another nap.” Then he did the same pincher move on his neck. Gratefully Fallon went under. When he woke the third time, it was to sunshine. He rolled his head to the side to see Linny sleeping, curled up at his feet. He shifted his feet, trying not to wake her.

  But immediately she bounced up, looked at him, and said, “You’re awake.”

  “If that’s what you call it,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been shot.”

  She chuckled. “Well, that’s because you were.”

  “Good, I think,” he said. “I’d hate to feel this bad after just a rough night.”

  “Well, it depends on what we were doing,” she said, with a cheeky grin.

  He smiled and reached out a hand. “I presume you saved me?”

  “Well, you probably would have made it to the hospital,” she said, “but you were bleeding pretty badly.”

  “So we’ll just say that you saved me. I’m sure you’ll probably regret it down the road.”

  “I won’t regret it down the road,” she said instantly. She leaned over and kissed him ever-so-gently. “But I will tell you that you’re not going anywhere for a while.”

  “I’m not giving up now that we’re so close,” he said.

  “We’re even closer than you know,” she said, “because I heard the one guy talking on the phone. He said something about not having taken over either Bullard’s company or Kingdom Securities yet.”

  “Right, but we don’t have a location.” Just then he heard several sets of footsteps.

  “Actually we do,” Quinn said. “I’m staying here. Ryland is here to pick up the slack, what with your injuries.”

  “Are you sure about the location?” Fallon asked.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” he said. “At least I’m waiting for confirmation. Chances are one faction may still be here, but one more active one may be in France, so you might have to run command central for us from here.”

  “I can do that,” he said, trying to shift himself a bit, smiling up at Ryland. “Good to see you. I’ll be out of here soon.”

  “You’re not doing anything for a while.” Linny turned to Quinn and said, “Don’t even start with me.”

  “Hey, Dave’s on his way back,” he said, “or at least that’s what he said the last I heard from him.”

  “Actually he sent me a message, saying he had one more person to check out,” she said. “So here we were, arguing back and forth, so I told him to go check it out.”

  “Well, that’s great,” he said. “But we need more team members then. We’re losing them one by one.”

  “You haven’t lost any of them,” Linny snapped. “We’re all here.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Fallon said. “Just let me get up out of bed.”

  “You’re not getting up out of that bed for at least forty-eight hours,” she said firmly. “So don’t give me any more grief about it.”

  He looked at her, and an intimate smile slipped across his face. “Are you staying with me?”

  “Maybe, if that’s what it takes,” she said, chuckling.

  “So how did this happen while I was away?” Ryland asked, eyeing the two of them.

  She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “He doesn’t even know that you’re here. Not really. He’s too out of it yet.”

  Ryland looked at his buddy and said, “Hey, Fallon, I’m here. Looks like it’s your turn to lie low. And, by the way, we’ve got a few other guys coming in too.”

  “That’s just bullshit,” he said. “We got this. And you aren’t recovered,” Fallon said. “No way you should be back on active duty.”

  “Well, you can try and argue with the rest of us all you want, but it won’t do you any good,” Quinn said.

  “Damn it,” Fallon said, as he stretched back out again. “Fine, but it’s not like you to have things up in the air. Like it might be Paris, or it might be here.”

  Just then Quinn’s phone rang. He headed off to answer it, and, when he came back, his face was grim. “We’ll go do some reconnaissance,” he said. “Fallon, you’ve got twenty-four hours to get back on your feet.” Quinn turned and looked at Linny and said, “At the very least, that’s when we’ve got men coming in. In the meantime we have some things to clean up on our own.”

  She smiled, nodded, and said, “Fine, we need to put an end to this—and fast.”

  “Oh, we’re on it,” Quinn said. “Chances are we’re at the last step now. We just got an address from the phone Fallon took off one of our shooters, tracking back the last number dialed. Got his contact list. Everybody’s been tracking down as many of those numbers as we can. But one of them is in town here.”

  “Good,” Linny said. “Go get ’em.”

  Quinn looked at her, hesitated, and then walked over and gave her a big hug, saying, “I know you are hell on wheels, girl, but make sure you take care of this guy, until he’s able to take care of you.”

  She kissed Quinn gently on the cheek and said, “Don’t worry about us. We got this.” Fallon reached out to grab her hand. He reiterated her words and said, “I’ll stay long enough to get healed, but, Ryland, as long as you’re here, go with Quinn and see if anybody else is coming back.”

  “Everybody’s coming back,” Ryland said. “The showdown will happen, and it’ll happen fast. But we need to know all the players before we can get everything sorted out.”

  “You go do that,” he said. “Don’t mind me if I catch a nap now, while I can.”

  With that, the two men disappeared.

  Epilogue

  Quinn Santor headed out to the garage, looked at the vehicles, and grabbed the large armored vehicle with double-pane bulletproof glass. Ryland hopped in without a word. “Are you sure you’re okay to do this? You were hurt pretty badly.”

  “You’re not going without me, buddy,” Ryland said. “There’s been somebody new in this deal every step of the way, but, at this point in time, I’m here, and the rest of the team is coming home. Let’s make sure we get this locked down, so none of us are targets anymore.”

  At that, Quinn looked at him, smiled, and said, “Sounds good to me.”

  “You said you got the address. Do you have any other information?”

  “Not much. The apartment belongs to a woman,” Quinn said.

  “Do we know what woman?”

  “Yep,” he said. “We do, indeed.” Ryland turned to look at him with a question in his eyes, and Quinn provided the answer. “It’s Isabella’s place.”

  Ryland stopped and stared. “No way Isabella would betray Bullard.”

  “I know,” Quinn said. “So I’m not sure what’s going on, but I suggest we find out.”

  Quinn drove through the double gates and Ryland said, “You believe that, don’t you?”

  Quinn nodded. “Yeah, I do believe that,” he said. “Bullard saved her life, put her through school, and has treated her like a daughter. So, no, I don’t think it’s her. But I do think it’s somebody close to her.”

  “But that’s the problem,” Ryland said. “Nobody’s close to her, certainly nobody who’s connected to Kingdom Securities.”

  “That’s what we have to figure out,” Quinn said. He turned and looked at Ryland as he drove down the road. “When was the last time anybody contacted her?”

  “I’m not sure,” Ryland replied. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m wondering if she’s even alive, or if somebody has conveniently made good use of her home because she’s not even there.”

  Ryland’s expression clouded. “That wouldn’t be good,” he said. “But it makes sense, if somebody hates Bullard that badly, they’ll hate everybody around him. Particularly somebody he really cares about.”

  “And that’s why we’re going there first,” Quinn said. “Are you ready?”

  Ryland smiled and said, “Always.” He prepared to face
the next challenge. “What exactly is the relationship between Isabella and Bullard?” Ryland asked.

  “She’s his half-brother’s daughter,” Quinn said.

  “And the half-brother’s dead, correct?”

  “No, Bullard’s half-brother was a captive for five years, before Bullard managed to track down his location and rescue him. A five-year period where the family had been to hell and back.”

  Ryland had been with Bullard for a long time, but this wasn’t a subject the man cared to talk about.

  “He often refers to her as his adopted daughter,” Quinn said.

  “So Bullard took over Isabella’s care when she was little.”

  “Little is relative. She was already fourteen or fifteen, I think. Is that right?” He paused, confirming the time frame. “Right, so she was already a little bit disgruntled over the move, and she hadn’t gotten along that well with her father. Then her father was captured.”

  “But the relationship between her and Bullard was good?” Ryland asked.

  “That’s my understanding, although I rarely saw them together. So I don’t know how good. Honestly, we saw an awful lot more of her when living with Dave.”

  “Right,” Ryland said. “Well, let’s go see what we’ve got.” They pulled up outside Isabella’s apartment. “Is this it? It’s pretty nondescript.”

  “It’s the last address I have on file,” Quinn said, puzzled, as he stared at the complex that looked pretty downtrodden. “Though this is not where I would expect her to live.”

  “Doesn’t mean she’s actually living here,” Ryland said.

  “No, that’s true. But, at the same time, we have to go by what we have, and this is it, though it doesn’t make sense.”

  “It doesn’t. I can’t see any family member of Bullard’s living here.”

  “Maybe they aren’t as close as I thought,” Quinn said.

  “Which makes her somebody of interest perhaps.”

  “Not necessarily,” he said.

  “We can’t give her a pass just because she’s family, not until we know more,” Ryland said.

  “We’re not,” Quinn said. “What about the rest of the team? What are they up to?”

  “Right now, they’re trying to run down Isabella’s latest movements,” Ryland said. “Of course they’re also still tidying up the mess you guys just went through, as they’re all trying to get home.”

  “Are they all coming home?”

  “Yep, if I had to leave my boat,” he said, “you can bet everybody’s coming home.”

  “What about your partner?”

  “Tabi’s gone back to her home. I didn’t want to persuade her to stay there, but, when she understood what we were up to, she was okay with it.”

  “She doesn’t seem like the type to be okay with it.”

  “I explained that I would be heading out on a mission, so she understood.”

  “Lucky you,” he said.

  “Absolutely. I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Ryland muttered. “I still can’t believe she cares as much for me as I care for her.”

  “And there’s nothing quite like the scenario you’ve already been through to highlight all the danger and to make you realize just what’s important in life.”

  “Exactly,” Ryland said. “It’s all good though. And she’s totally okay to be there temporarily.”

  “Will you bring her back to the compound?”

  “We’re discussing options,” he said, laughing. “She’s a nurse.”

  “Well, if we can get Linny to come over and run Bullard’s clinic,” he said, “we’ll need a nurse.”

  Ryland looked at him in surprise. “Wow,” he said. “I didn’t even think Lindsey would be interested in that. What is she looking at doing?”

  “Sounds like she’s a matter of a few months from getting her general surgery credentials, and you can bet that Fallon’s trying to get her to land here.”

  He chuckled at that. “Now that makes sense. And those two, they’re really an item?”

  “Finally.”

  “I know, right? After all that bickering? The last time I was here, and they both were around, I wanted to just lock them up in a room, until they got it out of their system.”

  Quinn chuckled. “You’re not the only one, and they weren’t very amiable to such a concept. But they got there eventually.”

  “Good. That should make Fallon want to live here too.”

  “Yes, especially right now. He’s pretty soft and malleable.”

  At that, they had a great chuckle at their friend’s expense.

  Ryland parked on the street. Quinn said, “It’s bad enough of a neighborhood that I almost don’t want to leave the vehicle here.”

  “Well, this one we can leave quite happily,” he said. “Any of the others, I’m not so sure about.”

  “Right. Still pretty rough to see this though.”

  “It is. But let’s go see if she’s here.”

  Quinn pulled out his phone to check the address, then said, “She’s on the third floor.” Shaking his head at that and still not quite believing the circumstances here, they got out and locked up the vehicle. They headed up to the apartment. There was no elevator.

  Ryland swore at that. “Good thing it’s only the third floor.”

  “What’s the matter? Didn’t you eat your Wheaties?” Quinn teased.

  Ryland snorted. “I did, but some of the injuries are still a little stiff,” he said, glaring at him. “I’m fine,” he said. “So don’t try sending me back.”

  “Like hell,” Quinn growled. “You should take the time you need to heal up completely.”

  “Everybody is coming home,” he said, “and it seems like most are dinged up, to one degree or another, so don’t get your panties in a twist. We’ll all be here to make sure we all get through whatever’s going on. The problem is, whatever is going on, makes no sense at all,” he said.

  “You would think that it would have been a lot easier to run down.”

  “Too many people involved,” he said.

  “That’s the truth.”

  So, as they made their way up the stairs, Quinn entered the third-floor hallway and immediately wrinkled his nose.

  “Wow,” he said. “It seriously reeks in here.”

  “Not exactly an awe-inspiring place to live, is it?”

  “It’s disgusting.”

  Quinn glared at the surroundings, as they found the number on the door. With a shake of his head, he rapped hard on the wood, which seemed to be rotting in its frame. When he got no answer, he looked at Ryland, then knocked again. On the third time, they still got no answer, but somebody across the way opened the door and glared at them.

  “If nobody answers, nobody’s home,” he said. “Are you freaking stupid?” It was some young guy with his hair standing up on end, looking like a Mohawk that may have been wonderful the previous night, but it was now showing the decay of a rough night.

  “Do you know who lives here?”

  “So, let me get this straight. You’re waking me the hell up, and you don’t even know whose door you’re knocking on?”

  Quinn wanted to shake him by the neck and rattle something loose, but instead he asked, “We know who we thought was living here, but it doesn’t look like an area we thought she’d be in.”

  “She? Dude, no woman lives there. You need to get your information updated.”

  “Well, we’re trying to,” Ryland said, exasperated. “So can you give us a hand or not?”

  “It’s a guy,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  “Do you know what guy?”

  “No clue, I think it’s her old boyfriend.”

  “Who’s her?

  “Jesus,” he said. “Isabella, of course.”

  “Well, that’s good. That’s who we’re looking for.”

  “Well, she’s not here,” the guy said, completely unhelpful.

  “Do you know where we’d find her?”

&nbs
p; “Nope, once she let that idiot move in, she pretty well had to move out.”

  “Do you know how long ago?”

  “A long time ago,” he said. “I don’t know, man, I can’t keep track of time.”

  “Okay, you got anything else you can tell us? About where she went, where she works, anything?”

  “What do you want her for? She’s a nice girl, and you shouldn’t be bothering her.”

  “If she’s a nice girl, what’s she doing here?”

  “It was the boyfriend,” he said. “I don’t think she realized what she was in for, but you know? That’s what happens, and our slumlord’s been making this place a hell of a lot worse, every step of the way.”

  “She didn’t have to stay in a place like this though, did she?”

  “Hell if I know,” he said. “I didn’t know her that well.”

  “Did you know the boyfriend?”

  “Yeah, a loser. He still owes me money. So, if you find him, tell him that he still owes me twenty bucks.”

  “Well, I will, but who should I say he owes it to?”

  The guy snorted. “It’s Ozzie, man.”

  “Ozzie, okay, great,” Quinn said, nodding his head.

  The guy snorted again and walked back into his apartment and slammed the door.

  At that, Quinn turned and looked at Ryland. “Nice area.”

  “You think?” he said. “Not exactly what I would call a nice area.”

  “Nope, but still she’s not here, so where the hell did she go? And where’s this guy?”

  “He didn’t give us a name, did he?”

  “No.” They looked at each other, looked at the door to Isabella’s, and Quinn quickly picked the lock, letting them in. Immediately the smell hit his nose. “Good God, I wonder if he ever cleaned this mess.”

  “Probably not since Isabella left, which was a long time ago, whatever that means,” Ryland said, with half a sneer.

  “This place might have been nice, at one time. But it’s been a very long time.”

  “You can’t do much if you’re poor,” Ryland said.

  “Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you have to live like a slob. Looks to me like this guy just lives like this because he’s too lazy not to.”

  “Well, let’s take a look.”