by T. J. Jones
"That's not what I mean, she's worried that Dinar is going to kill him like he did David."
"I don't think she cares what Dinar does to her uncle, she hates the guy."
"She hates her father too, but it's still kicking her ass that he's dead."
"Yeah, maybe I know what you mean." For seventeen, she was a smart kid. "Have you talked to your Dad?"
"The Sperm-donor?" She laughed at her own joke. "Maryanne is going to give him some money to go away. He doesn't want anything to do with me, he just wanted a handout."
"I know he's dense, but I think he figured out you're pretty special."
"Thanks Slater." She leaned against me and I put an arm around her for a moment.
"You can always pretend you're my kid." I laughed.
"You're old enough." She turned serious suddenly. "Maryanne sent me over. She has a meeting overseas this week, and she plans to lean on some of the bigwigs."
"Surprised they let a woman be at those meetings."
"She's not like most women. Anyway, she's going to tell them what Dinar has been up to again and explain the dollars and cents. She's going to go at it from the business side, bad public relations for everyone when a guy like that is whoring young girls all over the world. It's like her new crusade."
"Could be the fact that her granddaughter was kidnapped and she knows how it feels."
Jasmine shrugged. "Sounds like my grandmother. Anyway, she wants to know what you think. She doesn't want him coming after you for something she does, pretty obvious the guy doesn't like you."
"Tell her to go for it, anything we can do to get him. Maggie and I talked about it. Everybody at our house owns a gun now, we get a group rate at the range."
"We have two new security guards hanging around the house. Big, serious looking dudes with guns." She grinned up at me. "One of them is young, and extremely cute."
I played my part. "I'll have to have a talk with that boy."
Rashad Dinar's fortunes were fading rapidly. That week one of the cable networks ran a story about him highlighting the fact that he was self-made billionaire. But the story pointed out, there were things about the young, good-looking entrepreneur that didn't add up. They had uncovered connections to possible mob members, Russian Oligarchs, and most recently a disgraced US Congressman. What was going on behind the scenes? Inquiring minds wanted to know.
"He is not going to be happy when he sees that story." Maggie muted the television then returned to her breakfast. "At the least, he's going to have to stop kidnapping kids for a while. Sooner or later they're going to drag him into court to explain what he knows about Congressman Douglas and that whole mess. Could be that little girl is covering his butt, she's probably afraid to testify against him."
"Susan's sister knew her." I added. "She said she was the youngest girl there, but she knew how to get her way. According to Susan, Dinar's whole operation is in trouble, but you couldn't prove that by me. He managed to blow up my house just hours after we took Marie back to her grandparents, that takes some reach."
"All the security is working, right?" Angela asked. "He wouldn't try to get Gabriela back, would he?" The girl had finished eating and was on the couch, chatting on her phone.
"I doubt it. He's going to have a bad week if Maryanne Thatcher convinces her contacts in the oil business that he's a liability. If he loses his cash stream overseas, he's going to have trouble keeping things going here too. I'm guessing all those thugs he has working for him want to get paid on a regular basis."
"Where does uncle Gary fit in? I get that he was involved with kidnapping girls, but is he running things here in Florida for this guy?"
"Nobody knows, but it seems like he is pretty high up in the organization." I wanted to tell her something positive about her uncle, but there wasn't much good to say. "He told me he's only waiting to get close to Dinar so he can kill him, but Susan Foster doesn't believe that. That's the thing, was he here the other day to check in on you, or was he trying to grab Gabriela to make Dinar happy? We may never know. If the Feds manage to take Dinar into custody, Gary might just disappear forever."
"I thought Dinar had diplomatic immunity or something." Maggie said.
"The only immunity he had was Congressman Douglas and whoever else all that money bought him. After the fiasco with Douglas and Chrissy Michaels, all of Dinar's other friends in this country are busy covering their own asses, and I do mean that literally."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Total happiness for me has always been a fleeting thing. Not that I was an unhappy kid, but by the time I was a teenager I had convinced myself that making Angela Jeffries my girlfriend and the inevitable consummation that was to follow would make me truly happy for all of time. I'll admit, back then I mostly thought about the consummation, not the rest of time. There were short-lived moments when that seemed within my grasp, but those times were few and far between. For too many of the years that followed, I held onto the hope that she would suddenly fall in love with me, and we would both live the happily ever after that I had created in my mind.
With the benefit of hindsight and forty years of life experience, I now realized that being happy is a lot easier than thinking you could suddenly find it. But when I was young and obsessed with a girl with blond hair and blue eyes, I was taught that happiness never lasted long and you had to take what you could get. That had worked for me for a long time, and it had been the only reasonable way to approach my hopes that Angela and I would end up together, because in the back of my mind I was pretty sure we wouldn't.
But now there was Maggie. Being happy with Maggie was easy, we fit together naturally without a lot of thought, and my relationship with Angela was what it always should have been, just two close friends that had shared a lot of history and cared about each other.
The days flew by, and Maggie and I decided to spend the summer at the Jeffries Estate before moving into the smaller house she now owned a short drive down the road. The summer heated up and we swam in the pool, taught Gabriela English, and spent some steamy nights in Frank Jeffries old bedroom. Being happy was easy for a while, and as the weeks slipped away, so did our caution. No one knew where Rashad Dinar was, and Susan Foster called to tell us that she thought he was in hiding in the deserts of his home country, far from our happiness. Turned out, she was wrong.
"I have some furniture in storage Slater, we should think about moving it over here one of these days." Maggie and I stood in the living room of her new house. She was calling it our house, which was nice of her.
"We can use the job trailer whenever you want and get Luis and the guys to help."
"When are you going to move?" Jasmine bounced down the wide staircase that led to the second floor. "I can commandeer McCade to help. He supposed to be my personal body guard anyway, so if I tell him to come, he has to."
"How personal is this body guarding anyway?"
"I'm eighteen now Slater, you don't get to boss me around anymore."
"When did that ever work?" Maggie snickered.
"He keeps trying." Jasmine laughed. "So, are you waiting to move until your Mom gets back from her trip? I wonder how that's going to go, with Gabriela there?"
"Angela's house now, she'll have to get on board with it, or move out."
"Slater would love having the Mother-in-law move in, right Slater?"
I ignored that. "Dinar is still out there. We're hoping someone will put him in jail soon. I don't like the idea of Angela and Gabriela being there alone."
"They're alone now." Jasmine pointed out.
I don't believe in premonitions, but the hair stood up on the back of my neck and I had a sick feeling suddenly. "Damn that Butterfly." I said aloud.
"You're making even less sense than normal Slater." Jasmine commented.
"It's his personal superstition." Maggie explained. "Alright, we can go back to the house so you don't have to worry about them."
That didn't work out either.
As soon a
s we pulled in to the turn-around, it was clear that something was wrong. Jasmine's car was parked to the right side of the driveway, and one glance confirmed that all was not well. There were two small holes in the driver's side door and the windshield was gone save for a few shards of broken glass. The front door stood wide open and an alarm shrieked from inside.
I slid out of the driver seat and told Maggie and Jasmine to stay put. I thought at least Jasmine might listen, but they both burst through the door half a step behind me. There was blood on the tile near the door and Angela's gun lay near it, slid up against the center island of the kitchen. From above I heard the crazed barking of a dog and we all tore up the steps as fast as we could.
There were two holes shattered in the oak door that led to Maggie's old room, Gabriela's now, and the shots had come from inside. Duchess must have heard us come to the door, because I heard the dog slam against the door as it continued barking and snarling like a crazed beast.
"Gabriela, it's Maggie! Don't shoot." The redhead called out loudly. Within seconds the door was ripped open and the small Latino rushed into Maggie's arms. Duchess barely glanced at us, then raced down the steps. I could hear his claws scrape across the tile floor as he lunged through the front door. Oddly, he started barking again, maniacally. This time I didn't say anything, I just ran after the dog.
There was a late model black Jeep parked in the yard. The side windows were tinted, but I could see through the windshield. Gary Jeffries sat behind the wheel, hands at ten and two, waiting patiently. I walked up to the vehicle with my gun pointed directly at him and Gabriela called Duchess back into the house. Within moments, Maggie and Jasmine were next to the truck with me, both screaming obscenities at Gary and pounding on his window. The glass came down an inch.
"I need to talk Slater."
"You lousy piece of shit, where's Angela?" Maggie was beside herself, screaming irrationally, and Jasmine ran around the back of the Jeep trying to see inside, then started pounding on the passenger door.
"Stop you two. Let him talk." I lowered my gun and stepped back and the girls stood beside me. After a couple of seconds, the window came down.
"Dinar has her. He came here for you Slater. He blames you for most of his troubles, you and the Thatcher woman, and he figures you put her up to it. When he couldn't find you, he grabbed Angela. He has a house on the coast and a boat to make a run for it tonight. He said if I don't bring you to him within two hours, he'll leave pieces of Angela for us to find and feed the rest of her to the sharks. He'll kill her for sure if the cops show up."
"How many men?"
"There were six, but they're disappearing in a hurry. They know he's going to worry about his own ass and they're trying to save themselves. Hard to say, but I'd guess by the time we get there it might be three, maybe four."
"You still planning on killing him?"
"I plan to try. If I bring you to him, he might slip up and give me that chance. He's been really paranoid lately, always has a gun in his hand and he's pretty good with it."
"You're not going with him?" Maggie said incredulously. "You can't possibly trust him! Maybe he wants to save Angela, but he's not going to give a shit if you get shot."
"There's no choice Maggie. He will kill Angela without batting an eye, you know that. What are the odds of sneaking a gun in there?"
"I've got one, and none of the guys dare mess with me, but I'll have to strap your hands to make it look good. Hopefully I can sneak a gun to you when we get there. The guy at the gate will check you over, so no cellphone either."
"We can follow you, call the cops at the last minute." Maggie said frantically.
"Maggie, one thing looks wrong, he might just shoot her out of spite. Gary gets an extra gun in there, maybe the two of us can kill that bastard."
"We have to go, he said two hours. It's only half an hour there, but God knows what he's doing to her."
"Maggie, it's the only way. Give Gary your gun, it's smaller and he can hide it easier. Here, take mine. If you don't hear anything within an hour, call the police."
"Gary, where are you going? How can I tell the cops where you are without knowing where you're going?" She started to cry.
"Sorry, but I don't want to lose two nieces today. I'll do everything I can to get Slater back to you Maggie, and your sister."
"I hate you, don't promise me anything."
I handed her my gun. "Here, can I have yours?"
"Slater, no." She pulled me into a hug and I returned it briefly, then pushed her gently away.
"Maggie, we have to try this, it's Angela's only chance and we don't have much time." I ran around the Jeep and climbed in the passenger's seat. A quick glance in the mirror told me all three of the girls were in the yard watching us drive away.
There wasn't much of a plan. We had to get by the front gate and the guard there, then be escorted into the house where somehow, we had to dispense with however many men Dinar still had, free Angela, and kill Dinar. It might have seemed remotely possible if I had any faith in Gary Jeffries. With time, and Susan Foster's help, we might have been able to coordinate something, but we didn't have that luxury.
Dinar was reaching the point of desperation. He had watched his empire crumble in the last few months, his wealth disappear, and his iron grip on his empire began to crumble. It had occurred to me, that should Rashad Dinar completely lose control of his business, the old Diablo Blanco might do well should he live through the coming conflict. If somehow Gary Jeffries managed to kill Dinar and I also fell victim to a stray bullet, there would be nothing stopping Gary Jeffries from returning to his former life. He could take over the trading of young girls in south Florida and rebuild the child trafficking operation that had taken us all down this dark path to start with. I didn't want to trust the Diablo, but until Angela was free, I had no choice.
"Why did Dinar come back? Once Douglas went down, I didn't think he would dare show his face in this country."
"He was already hiding here when that happened. He's not popular at home right now either. He's been skimming from his clients all over, and that doesn't play well in the Middle East. He'll be executed if they catch him. His only chance now is to make a run for Russia and hope his friends there will protect him."
"Why is he bothering with us?"
"He wants me to keep things going here, thinking he can turn it around somehow. But you've been making him look bad. He has to kill you to warn everyone in the organization what will happen if they get out of line."
"He trusts you that much?"
"Not really, that's why he has Angela."
"He gives you Angela and kills me, then what?"
"Then I kill him."
"But if you get Angela and he gets away, you could go back to the old life, just disappear."
"I said I was done with that, Slater. If Dinar doesn't kill me, I'm going to kill him. Either way, I'm not going to be the one dragging kids into that life."
"You understand I don't trust you, not even a little bit."
He flashed a rare smile. "I'd think you were an idiot if you did. Unfortunately, before we get there, I'm going to have to zip your hands together and tie them to the grab bar. The guy at the gate is no rocket scientist, but he isn't going to believe you're my prisoner if you're not strapped."
"I figured as much, but at least I'll have my hands in front of me. How am I going to get the gun from you?"
"I'll have it in my belt, but we'll have to play it by ear. Rashad is good with that gun of his too."
"So you said, but if he gives me anything to shoot at, I can put him down."
As we neared the property, Gary pulled over and zip-tied my hands as we had discussed, then we continued on. We were still a good distance from the ocean when he turned down a small road that led north and we turned into a long driveway surrounded by sea-oats, then drove up a hill to a small gatehouse. The big house stood higher up on the hill. I could see the expanse of the inland waterway beyond it, but the pr
operty was set back away from the main body of water in a natural harbor. There was a large dock jetting out into the rushes and the boat tied there looked big enough to be seaworthy. I could see movement, at least one more person to deal with.
"Does Dinar think he'll be free and clear if he heads out to sea?" I asked.
"My guess is he plans to head south and catch a ride on something bigger, then find a place where he can't be extradited. So far, he hasn't been charged with a Federal crime, but he does have that subpoena hanging over his head. If your friend Susan has her way, I know enough to put him away for a long time."
"Plenty of reason to put a bullet in you too." I advised.
"That's crossed my mind, but I'm here for the same reason you are, Angela. We could shoot our way in, but he'd kill her for sure."
We drove up to the gate and a short, stocky man in his thirties bent down to look inside the Jeep. He smiled at Gary. "This the guy?"
"Yeah, tell the boss I'm coming in." He unbuckled his seat belt and walked around to my side of the truck while the guard picked up his phone and spoke briefly into it, then pushed the button to open the gate. Gary opened the door on my side and pretended to fuss with the strap that held my hands up to the grab bar. He glanced at the guard as he walked around behind the Jeep. "You got a knife? He isn't going to try anything between here and the house, just cut him loose from the bar so I can drag his ass out."
"Wouldn't want to be you, Dude." The man said as he leaned in and cut the zip tie with a quick flip of his wrist. He backed away and stood up just as Gary Jeffries lifted his gun and hit him with a vicious swipe across the back of head, grunting with the effort. If he lived, the man would have a serious headache for a few days. Gary grabbed him by the collar and his belt and pulled him into the tall grass beside the gatehouse, then climbed back into the driver's seat.
He glanced at me and shrugged. "He was playing for the wrong team. That's one we won't have to worry about."
Gary pulled me out of the truck, gun in hand, and shoved me toward the front door just as it opened. A big man with an automatic rifle stood aside and motioned us in without comment. Another man, similarly armed, stood half way up an open staircase staring out a high window at the driveway. Fortunately, the road turned slightly and as tall as the grass was, I was sure he hadn't seen what had just transpired at the gate.
