by Dale Mayer
That meant a ton of places where somebody could hide, but it wouldn’t have been the most comfortable of spots, so Rob would have to choose his poison. Plus it didn’t make for easy access, unless Rob left one of the storage units unlocked. Still, that would give away his hiding spot pretty easily.
So Rob rented an apartment here as a foil, just to have a hiding spot in his—or someone else’s—storage locker? That could work. That could explain where he disappeared to when the cops were after him, when Lennox had trailed him out his own apartment’s patio doors.
Lennox walked to the unit that was hers, used the combination lock, and quickly opened it. He wondered at a woman who kept packing boxes. Grabbing up one large bundle, he moved it out and quickly locked up. Nothing else was in here, just the packing boxes. He shook his head and muttered, “She really wasn’t planning on staying.”
“Maybe not,” a man said from the shadows, “but I could have persuaded her to.”
Lennox froze. He turned to see Rob, standing in front of him, with a handgun drawn. “Wow,” he said. “This is a little repetitive.”
“Hardly,” Rob said. “I’m surprised you’re still alive.”
“Why? Because of your buddy?”
Rob shrugged. “Much better to have a very dedicated and motivated killer coming after you,” he said. “Chances are you and I would be equal, but that guy looked like he might even have us beat,” Rob said with a laugh.
Lennox thought about Stefano. “He’s active military. Just not our country.”
“Of course not,” Rob said. “Not even sure what country he is. I think his sister was Norwegian.”
“But you didn’t care, did you?”
He shrugged. “Nope, I was just looking for a good time. Needed to work off a little lust.”
“And how is it that you think a good time is beating up that poor girl as badly as you did?”
Rob grinned widely, a wild look in his eyes.
“But that didn’t stop you, did it? And it doesn’t matter how young she was either,” Lennox said. “You still beat her up and raped her.”
“I like rough sex,” Rob said. “I’m looking forward to playing with Helena.”
“So all that talk about wanting Helena for yourself, … what’s that about?”
“Well, I do want her for myself,” he said, “but I was just trying to throw you off your stride.”
“By telling lies and false tales?”
“Sure, why not?” he said. “Besides, it’s not that far off,” he said. “I’ve been fascinated with her ever since I saw her the first time. Unfortunately, that night that I met her, she was already in a tight clench with you. Hence the need to work off some lust.”
“So you were interested then?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “She’s dynamite. But she’s also definitely yours, and that made me really angry. Because, if I’d just met her earlier, she wouldn’t have given a shit about you.”
“She doesn’t like rough sex,” Lennox said. “So that wouldn’t work with her.” The fact that he was even talking about Helena with this guy made Lennox furious.
“She’s gorgeous, and why the hell should you have her?” Rob snapped. “And then, after what you did to me,” he continued, “I couldn’t think of anything else. I just wanted to make sure she was mine, that you knew it, and that you died knowing it. And I’m the one who’ll be banging her forever, not to mention having the occasional punch up,” he sneered.
“Over my dead body,” Lennox said.
“Exactly,” Rob said, with a big smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Asshole,” Lennox said. His gun was in his waistband tucked in the back. But it would be that much harder to get to, considering Rob already pointed his gun on him. Lennox needed a diversion. “Don’t you ever have any remorse about how you hurt that poor girl?”
“She’s just a woman,” Rob said. “I’ve had lots of them too. That one, in Thailand though, I don’t know why, but I just needed to tear her up a bit. Helena needs to get to know me, and she’ll adapt to my ways soon enough.”
“Helena and I have known each other since we were kids,” Lennox said quietly. “She’s been my sister’s best friend forever.”
And that stopped Rob in his tracks. “Really?”
“Yes,” he said, “really.”
“Oh, well, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “If you’re not around, she’ll turn to me.”
“She knows what you’ve done,” Lennox said. “She knows that you raped and beat up that girl and turned her brother to try and kill me.”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t do it on my own,” he said. “His brother was in the same jail.”
“And why is that?”
“Because they were over there together at the same time. And his brother was doing drugs. Got picked up and tossed into jail. His sister was raped because the druggie younger brother was supposed to be sharing the same suite with her and wasn’t there to protect her, and the older brother was off at a meeting or something. He wasn’t there to protect either of them. So the younger brother turned on the charm and the guilt to make older brother believe that it was you who had hurt her. And that, if the older brother didn’t finally get in the act and defend the two of them, then their lives were all completely ruined because of you, Lennox.”
“How could you even do that to some guy? He’s out there, fighting for his country.” Lennox saw yet another parallel between Stefano and himself. “Doing the right thing. Here he’s got a shitty brother who was supposed to be protecting his younger sister, a sister who got beaten up and raped by an asshole, and then you prime up that guy, and you turn him in my direction.”
“Right?” Rob said, laughing. “It’s perfect.”
“Not perfect,” another man said from behind Rob.
Rob froze and backed up flat against the storage units, so he could face the new threat. And there was the kidnapper, Stefano. Lennox quickly pulled the gun from the back of his waistband and pointed it at Rob. “Now what will you do, Rob?” he asked. “There’s two of us now.”
Rob glared at Stefano and asked him, “What’s your problem? Lennox is the one who beat up your sister.”
“No,” Stefano said, his voice heavy. “I spoke with my brother.”
“Oh, that lying little weasel,” Rob cried out nervously. “You know he’s nothing but a drug pusher, right?”
“I know,” Stefano said. “And I kept thinking that maybe he would get better. He’d been teaching English and doing well, then started to slide. That’s why my sister was there visiting him. We knew he was struggling again, and we thought having her there would help.”
“And yet,” Rob said, “she got badly hurt there too because of Lennox here.” Rob motioned his gun in Lennox’s direction.
But Stefano shook his head. “No,” he said. “I talked to Lennox, and then I talked to her. I already realized that it wasn’t Lennox when I initially met him in the apartment here. But I had to go back and talk to my brother to make sure.”
“How could you know it wasn’t him?” Rob said. “He was there. I saw him.” And this time, Rob’s voice was getting out of control and echoed throughout the locker room.
Lennox knew Gavin would have noticed how long he’d been gone by now too.
“Because I shot him. You,” Stefano said. “We raced through the streets, and you ended up torching the small shed we were in, and it went up in flames, then I shot you.”
Rob shook his head. “Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t me. It was Lennox.”
“Even though I was badly burned, I know that I hit you with my shot,” he said. “I suffered for the burns and for the bullet hole in my cheek,” he said. “That’s also why we stayed in Thailand for as long as we were, so I could get treated. My brother was then too scared to say anything because he was afraid you would come back after him.”
“And again I think you’re misguided,” Rob said with a light laug
h. “That was Lennox, remember? It’s all Lennox.”
“My brother made it very clear. He overdosed and was saved and was in the hospital recently, since he got out of jail. He’s been a much different person.”
“When did this happen?” Rob said in a derisive tone. “Your brother is nothing but a drunken user. A junkie.”
“Yes, to all of that,” he said, “but now he is going home, and we will work to make his recovery happen. This was just a few days ago. After you resurrected this mess. That’s why he had an overdose. Because he realized what he’d done.”
“He hadn’t done anything,” Rob said.
“Yes, he did. He directed me to the wrong man. On purpose. And for what? For money? For drugs? Drugs that he then took and overdosed on. He’ll turn over a new leaf,” Stefano announced, his accent thick, guttural.
“No,” Rob said. “He’s nothing but a useless man.”
“No,” Stefano said. “He has time. He is young. He can make a better life.”
“Then I should have killed him,” Rob snarled.
“Yes,” Stefano said, “you should have. And you should have killed me.”
“I can do that now,” Rob said.
But Stefano immediately cocked his weapon and said, “I don’t think so.” Instead of killing Rob, he shot once, and Rob’s knee exploded, and he went down screaming.
Immediately Lennox turned his gun on Stefano. “He’s down,” Lennox said. “In our country, we don’t shoot men who are down.”
“I know,” Stefano snarled. “You’re weak too.” But he held his gun on Lennox as he walked closer to Rob. Then he crouched in front of Rob and said, “I want you to take that gun of yours, and I want you to put it against your own head,” he said.
Rob was crying as he shook his head. “You’re nuts! You’re crazy!”
“No,” Stefano said. “I’m not. But now I see clearly. And I know that you are as bad as my brother said. And that you are the one who raped my sister.”
“You could fucking ask her.”
“I did,” Stefano said slowly. “And she confirmed what I already knew. It was not Lennox.”
“How the hell could she know that?” Rob asked, moaning, his hand on his knee.
“Because you are not shaped like him.”
Lennox realized his massive upper chest in this instance was as good a descriptor as his height and his hair and eye color. Because it confirmed the moment of truth that they all needed here. Lennox walked to Rob and gently took his handgun from him. Lennox reached down and lifted Rob’s T-shirt. “Do you see?”
Stefano looked at the scar on Rob’s side, from when he shot him, nodded slowly, and said, “Yes, I see.” He punched Rob hard with his fist. Stefano stood, looked down at Lennox, and said, “Now what?”
“I’m not sure,” Lennox said honestly. “I need to know you’re not coming after me again.”
“No,” he said. “I’m not.”
“And Rob?”
“He needs to die,” Stefano said calmly.
“Well, he does,” Lennox said. “But, if you do that, then it’s murder, and that’s a whole different story.”
“You will protect him even now? After what he’s done against you?”
“It’s not that as much as our level of honor involved in this,” he said quietly. “Rob is a mess. He needs to go to jail for the rest of his life,” he said, “but I still need answers.”
“What answers could you need?” Rob muttered as he came around. “There’s nothing else to tell you. I hated your fucking guts, and I wanted this guy to kill you. As a plus I would take Helena as mine. And I would beat her up and bash the shit out of her whenever I wanted to. Just for the fun of knowing that you couldn’t stop me.”
“I get that,” Lennox said, as he stared down at Rob. “Which means you’ll always be a threat to her.”
He laughed and laughed again. “What will you do? Honorable Lennox won’t shoot a man who’s down,” he said. “It’s not who you are.”
“Maybe this is a good time to make an exception,” Lennox said, but he was torn. “How did you keep track of her all this time?”
“Besides Stefano’s intel? John,” he said. “And Sasha. Individually. I paid them both.”
“They were both involved?” Lennox had been afraid of that and already had the Mavericks running the financials on those two. Hearing this would hurt both Helena and Carolina, but Lennox would put in a good word to have both of them thrown in some Polish prison, to keep the Red Cross from getting any fallout because of their greed.
“Yes. And you should have heard them rant and rave at me separately when they found themselves kidnapped by this guy.”
“Wow,” Lennox said. “The Red Cross will really have a fun time cleaning up the rest of their staff, won’t they?”
“I thought Sasha and John would both quit after this anyway because they figured they would get found out eventually.”
“Yes,” Lennox said. “I’ll pay them a visit too.”
“Of course you will,” Rob said. “You might as well just shoot me,” he said. “It’ll be easier that way.”
“No,” Lennox said. “I’m not doing the job.”
Stefano squatted beside Rob and held out his gun. “You can do the job yourself. None of us want you around anymore.”
Rob glared at him, snatched the handgun from Stefano’s hand.
Immediately Lennox held his gun to Rob’s head.
“I’m not shooting him,” Rob said. “But I’ll be damned if I go back to a fucking jail again.” And he shoved the gun on his jaw and pulled the trigger.
Silence.
Stefano stood, looked down at the body, and said, “It’s the best way.”
“Only raises another mess of questions,” Lennox said, “because of that handgun. Your handgun.”
“I will leave it behind,” he said. He had gloves on, and he held them up and said, “They won’t trace it to me.”
“Then you better leave,” Lennox said quietly, but a hard look was in his eye. “And make sure I don’t see your ass ever again,” he said, “or it’s mine.”
Stefano gave him a ghost of a smile. “Enjoy the years with your woman,” he said. “And, if you ever see any more assholes like this guy …”
“I’ll do the same thing I did last time,” Lennox said. “I’ll report him to the authorities and will make sure he gets punished for what he did.”
Stefano nodded. “It’s much better for everyone that Rob’s gone.” And, with that, Stefano melted into the shadows and disappeared.
Epilogue
“Are you sure I can’t look now?” Helena complained good-naturedly, her eyes shut.
“No,” Gavin said. “You don’t get to look at anything right now.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. Gavin had her in the passenger side of his Jeep. They were heading to Lennox’s, and Lennox and Carolina were expecting them.
“And we would have been here a long time ago,” Gavin said, “but you’re the one who wanted to stop and get flowers.”
“Of course I did!” she said, as her arms tightened around the big bouquet. “It’s my first visit to Lennox’s house.”
“Hardly a visit,” he said. “You’re moving in.”
“I am,” she said, a blissful smile on her face.
Lennox was, indeed, a lucky man, Gavin thought. He didn’t know how the hell these two had finally gotten past their differences, but they had, and that’s what counted. And now here Gavin was, taking her to Lennox’s house, while she took her first step into their future. Gavin pulled up to the front, parked, and said, “Now I’m coming around to your side.”
“Okay, okay,” but she hopped out impatiently and waited for him to grab her arm. As they got to the sidewalk, he said, “Now you can open your eyes.”
She looked up to see the stone-and-cedar Tudor house in front of them for her very first time, one that Gavin had seen many times. “Oh, my goodness,” she said, “it’s gorgeo
us.”
The door opened, and Lennox stepped out. She cried out, handed off the flowers to Gavin right before she raced forward. Lennox opened his arms, and she dashed into them. Lennox picked her up and swung her around in his arms.
Gavin stood back and smiled up at them. “You two look perfect together,” he declared.
“Good,” Lennox said. “It’s taken Carolina and me a couple days to get everything ready.”
Gavin nodded. His phone went off just then. “Hang on. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Don’t bother,” Lennox said. “I can tell you all about it.”
He looked at his phone and back at his buddy and asked, “What is it?”
“The next job,” Lennox said. “I’ve got your orders here. I was going to hand them to you before the call came through, but you guys were late.”
Gavin laughed. “Am I going alone?”
“No,” Lennox said, “you’re going with a friend. You just don’t know which one.”
“And you?”
“I’m running ground crew,” Lennox said with a grin. “I get to stay here with my beautiful Helena.”
“Okay, that’ll be pretty sucky on my part but perfect for you. Do I get to come inside for a bit before I head out?”
“Sorry, bud.”
Just then a military vehicle pulled up to the front of the house.
Lennox held out a brown envelope to Gavin and then pointed. “That’s your ride.”
“What about my gear?”
“It’s all waiting for you.” Lennox turned Helena around and said, “Say goodbye to Gavin.”
She lifted a hand, confusion on her face.
Gavin smiled and said, “I’ll be back.”
“We’ll wait for you,” she said.
He shook his head. “Don’t bother. I won’t be back for days yet. Have a good one.” And he hopped into the truck and headed off. He had the brown envelope from Lennox, but that’s all he had. He looked at the driver and asked, “What are your orders?”
