Dornan laughs. “Two for one? That’s hardly fair.”
Bastard. “You don’t exactly have a choice, do you?” I ask. “You’ve got two sons left, Dornan. One of them hates you, the other one … well, he’s too stupid to understand why he should.”
“No deal,” Dornan breathes down the line. “One for one. Two for two. You better up your end of the deal, sweetheart, or this fine piece of flesh gets really acquainted with the pointy end of my knife.” I hear a scream in the background.
“That’s Amy. You know Amy, right?”
Fuck.
“You’re bluffing,” I reply desperately.
“Oh, baby girl,” Dornan says with a chuckle. “You know me so much better than that. You know I do not bluff.”
Jase is giving me a strange look.
“What do you want?” I ask through gritted teeth.
I hear him sigh on the other end, and I have no doubt that he’s taking great pleasure in this. “What do I want,” he repeats, and I imagine him pacing, knife in hand, as he contemplates my question. “What do I want …”
“Hurry up,” I snap, “before your son bleeds to death.”
“If he dies,” Dornan says, deathly calm, “I will kill this woman. I will fuck her to death with this knife, I will tear her apart, and I will make her child watch, do you understand? Elliot’s child will have to watch her mother die at my hand. Then I’ll sell his daughter on the black market for her FUCKING ORGANS!”
I have to pull the phone away from my ear when he yells that last part. An icy pit of dread begins to spread in my stomach.
The thing about bargaining with a madman is that you never know just how far he’ll go. I’m responsible for the deaths of five of his sons and his own father, Emilio. I doubt he’s bluffing about anything at this point.
“What do you want?” I repeat.
“I want you,” he growls. “You bring yourself here, you and Donny, and I will let these girls live. I will let your Elliot live. I will let Jason live. I will let your mother live.”
Sadness wraps around my neck and squeezes, harsh and tight.
“And then what?” I whisper. Jase is shrugging at me, as if to say, what’s going on, so I raise my palm towards him, mouthing hang on.
“Oh, Juliette,” Dornan says, in a voice that almost seeps out of the receiver and climbs down my own throat, choking me. “You’re not really that naive, are you? You know what comes next.”
Of course I do. There’s only one way things will end if I surrender to Dornan Ross. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up, especially when I’m breathing in the acrid stench of Donny’s vomit in this tiny room.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I ask him, feeling so lightheaded I could float away. I am going to die.
I.Am.Going.To.Die.
“Baby girl,” Dornan replies, “have I ever lied to you?”
I can’t answer; if I try to talk, I’ll cry.
“When you were a little girl, we had secrets, Juliette. You remember?”
“Yes,” I breathe, trying not to pass out. Jase is staring pointedly at me.
“This can be our secret,” he whispers. “Our last fucking secret. I won’t tell if you don’t.”
And with that, the line goes dead.
“Fuck!” I yell. I resist the urge to throw the phone at the wall.
“What did he say?” Jase asks, looking at the phone suspiciously. I shake my head, holding a hand to my stomach. “He wants to make the trade,” I reply.
“And the rest?” Jase prods.
I have no intention of keeping this from him, no matter how tempted I am to shield him from the painful truth. I will tell him. But I’ll be damned if I voice Dornan’s demands in front of Donny and Agent Dunn. They don’t get to know.
“Just being his usual asshole self,” I say.
Jase knows there’s more. Later, I mouth to him, tilting my head towards our untrustworthy hostages.
He seems to accept that for the moment. “Right,” he says, pulling the agent up by her arm. “That’s good enough. Help him walk. We’re getting out of here.”
“Where are we going?” the agent asks. “I’m supposed to pick my daughter up at five.”
Jase raises his eyebrows. “I guess you’re gonna be a little late,” he replies, opening the door and gesturing for them to get out.
Outside, it’s hot as hell. Humid and overcast. Even the sky is pissed off at the latest turn of events. It’ll be our last fucking secret. Dornan’s words are on constant loop in my head. I hate him. IhatehimIhatehimIhatehim.
I glance around the yard, taking in my surroundings. I barely had a chance to see anything on my way in. We’re in a large dirt parking lot surrounded by barbed-wire fences, an old air strip to one side, overgrown with weeds.
Yeah, pretty sure this “air base” isn’t on the US government’s map.
I look at Jase. “What now?”
He looks around, before his gaze comes to rest on one of the cars that brought us here. There’s not a soul to be seen, which is bizarre, because when we were arrested there were at least twenty CIA agents, if not more.
“We take that car,” he says, pointing.
“And go where?” I ask, squinting in the glare.
He shrugs. “Anywhere that isn’t here?”
I nod. “Sounds like a plan.”
***
Luis calls Agent Brennan’s cell while we’re driving. Jase is behind the wheel, and I’ve got the gun trained on Dunn and Donny in the backseat. Not that Donny needs too much guarding. He’s as white as a sheet, his eyes rolling around in his head. Sucks to be you right now, I think to myself. Agent Dunn is extra quiet, occasionally taking in a shaky breath but otherwise looking resigned to whatever fate we choose for her.
“Hello?” I say, answering the phone on the first ring.
“Bebé,” a thick accent sounds down the line.
“Luis?”
“Where you at, girl?”
I glance around. We’re on a desolate stretch of road, speeding away from the decrepit airbase as fast as this SUV will let us. “I have no idea,” I reply.
“No matter,” he replies. “I got you on GPS. You need me to save you again, Giulietta?”
Again. Christ. “How’d you get this number, anyway?” Suspicion burns inside me momentarily.
“Your pal Elliot called me, said you might need a lift out of my fair country,” he responds, and I exhale a sigh of relief.
“All right,” I say, “so where do we go? Because we’re just driving, and we’ve got two hostages in the back seat.”
Luis chuckles. “Good work, eh? Two hostages. You got those agents that took you?”
I smile. “One agent. One Ross brother.”
“The fuck?”
I stare at Donny. “Donny decided to pay me a visit. I decided to blow his kneecap off.”
Donny shifts in his seat, grunting in pain as his dark eyes glance at me. “Fuck you, bitch,” he sneers, clutching his knee.
I roll my eyes at him as Luis whistles down the line. “I’m impressed,” he says. “So, you gonna use him as a trade?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Something like that. We just need a way out of here.”
There’s a crackling over the line for a few seconds before Luis responds.
“Give me ten minutes,” he says, and the line goes dead.
Jase looks at me pointedly. I shrug. “He says ten minutes,” I respond.
We keep driving.
Ten minutes later, Luis calls back. And what he has for us — well, I think I’m going to owe him a LOT of money once this is all done.
If I’m alive, that is.
SIX
Luis directs us to a spot not too far from where we’re driving aimlessly. It’s a stark feeling of relief that washes over me as he relays the directions — I hate being at a loose end. It doesn’t take long to get to the place he’s sent us to, which is good, because my wrist is getting sore from a
iming at these assholes in the back seat. I open the window to try and get some wind on my face to keep me alert, but the moist, muggy air only makes me sleepier. In the end I crank the aircon until the inside of the car is like a refrigerator.
I’ve seen Pulp Fiction. I don’t want to micro nap and accidentally blow one of their heads off, Travolta-style. No. I need these two alive to use as bargaining chips.
Soon, we pull down a concealed dirt road, flanked by dense jungle on both sides. About ten minutes in, when the road is more like an obstacle course, it leads to a clearing.
A field.
With a helicopter parked in the middle. A fucking helicopter.
I feel my mouth fall open as I look at Jase, then at the helicopter in front of us, then back to Jase.
Jase looks just as shocked as I feel. “Home boy did good,” he grins.
I call Luis again.
“Is this for us?” I ask, peering out at the helicopter.
“That depends,” he answers. “Is it a chopper?”
“It’s a chopper,” I reply incredulously. “You got us a chopper in ten minutes? Who does that?”
He laughs. “I do. I got connections, bebé. Now get your fine ass on that helicopter, and try not to shoot anyone on there. I don’t need you crashing.”
“Thank you,” I say softly.
“I’ll add it to your bill,” he snickers.
That’s got to be one long goddamn bill by now.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I ask.
“The chopper will take you to a safe house,” he answers. “We rest for a few hours, then we get to your man Elliot.”
Relief floods through me. “Thank you,” I repeat quietly. And then, “Why are you helping us?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment.
“Luis?”
“My mama would have wanted it this way,” he finally replies.
“Oh,” I say, and then he’s gone.
***
Donny starts wailing again and calling me a whore when Jase and Agent Dunn transfer him into the chopper. I have a brief fantasy of pushing him into the rotor blades and watching him explode into a gory mess, but reality is much less exciting.
I need him. He’s my bargaining chip.
It’ll be our last secret.
I’m angry when I think about Dornan’s words. So fucking angry. I can’t wait to watch him burn along with Donny.
Agent Dunn is pale and quiet again as Jase and I don ear muffs. He’s sitting next to his brother in the back seat, far away from the controls. It was really a no-brainer putting him in back. He would totally cause a crash and sacrifice himself just to spite us. I’m up front with Agent Dunn, who I know won’t dare to touch anything. I don’t offer ear protection to Donny or the agent. I want them as disoriented as possible by the time we get where we’re going.
The pilot looks like a shady dude, judging by the gang tattoos on his arms. Anxiety spikes in my chest as I have to wonder who we’re selling our souls to in order to get ourselves out of this sticky mess.
I don’t really want to know, but I do know that I’m going to owe somebody everything if we make it out of this alive.
And that’s a mighty big IF.
The chopper ride is brief and uneventful. I’ve never been in a helicopter before, but I’m not exactly paying attention to the scenery. No, I’ve got a white-knuckled grip on Agent Dunn’s gun, making sure I don’t look away from her. In the back, Jase is doing the same with Donny, with Agent Dumbass’s gun trained on his older brother.
I wonder if someone has helped the poor guy by now. It’s going to be a bitch for him to swallow anything for the near future.
Oops.
SEVEN
We’re in the air for maybe thirty minutes when the helicopter starts descending sharply.
I peer out of the window, taking in our surroundings. We’re about to land on the rooftop of a large building. Looking closer, I see a skull painted on the concrete helipad, surrounded by a ring of bright red paint, in place of the standard H. It’s not a regular skull, though. It’s a skull with the letter Z crossed through the middle, a spray of blood-spattered roses woven around the skull.
My stomach drops. Luis has brought us to a fucking Skullz compound.
I almost take my own head off spinning around to look at Jase. “Are you seeing this?” I ask him.
He looks pale. Donny peers out of the window, and when he sees the Skullz insignia, he starts to giggle maniacally.
“Oh, you assholes are screwed,” he laughs. Jase responds my grabbing his brother’s neck and squeezing as hard as he can without busting Donny’s windpipe. Donny’s eyes bulge out of his head as he scrabbles to get Jase’s grip off his neck, but pretty soon his eyes flutter shut and he slumps to the side, completely knocked out.
I lock eyes with Jase and raise my eyebrows. “What do you think?” I ask quietly.
He shrugs, his dark eyes clouded with something — concern, anger? The way his fists are tightly coiled suggests he’s stressing the fuck out, but of course he’d never come out and say that.
“I think we need to watch our backs,” he finally replies.
“Do you trust Luis?” I murmur, as quietly as I can.
Jase appears to snap back to the moment, whatever troubled thoughts he had pushed down for the sake of being alert. “Do I trust Luis?” he repeats. “I did trust Luis.”
The nervous pit in my stomach starts to churn anew.
Agent Dunn watches on as Donny remains slumped in the back corner of our five-seater chopper, her face a mixture of fear and apprehension. I turn back to her and smile sweetly. “You got anything to say?” I ask her. She shakes her head quickly, dipping her eyes to her lap.
I jump in my seat as a dude clad in black fatigues and holding an AK approaches my door. I’m pulling out the pistol I swiped from Agent Dunn when his face comes into focus and I see that it’s Luis. I relax slightly, but I don’t take my hand off the gun. He slings the AK over his back by the strap and opens my door, letting in the deafening noise of the chopper blades’ rhythmic wop-wop and the overwhelming humidity that exists beyond the cabin’s air-conditioning.
The damp heat hits me in the face like a slap, and warm, suffocating air fills my lungs. Luis smiles and offers a hand up for Agent Dunn to get out. When she doesn’t move, I give her a gentle shove towards the open door and she half steps, half falls into Luis’s open arms, all awkward with her cuffed hands. I cannot imagine her being out in the field very much. I glance at Jase once again before taking Luis’s hand and jumping down onto the hot concrete roof beside him, the briefcase firmly clutched in my hand.
I’m so amped up I almost walk the wrong way, into the tail rotor. So much for chopping Donny into bloody pieces. I almost do that to myself before Luis shoots out a hand and steadies me.
The chopper is powering down, but the noise it puts out is still deafening.
“You brought us to a fucking Skullz compound?” I scream at him, above the noise.
He shrugs. “You got a better idea?” he yells.
I look around me, nervous as hell. The Skullz Cartel is bad news, always has been. Bitterly detested by the Gypsy Brothers, they’re a Colombian Cartel at odds with Emilio’s Il Sangue business interests. Unlike Il Sangue, the Skullz haven’t branched into bikers yet. Gypsy Brothers members and Skullz Cartel members have been picking each other off for decades.
I sure as shit don’t want to be in the crossfire if they decide to go to war again.
Luis directs us to the front of the helicopter. I take Agent Dunn’s elbow and steer her away from the chopper.
“Sometimes, it’s better the devil you know,” I snap loudly, never taking my death-grip from her elbow or my eyes from Jase.
She actually holds my gaze this time, instead of looking back to the ground. “Is that why you’re sleeping with Dornan Ross?” she asks. “Better the devil you know?”
I raise my eyebrows at her; the bitterness in her voice is resolute
. “What?” I ask, dumbfounded.
“You heard me,” she shouts above the noise.
I shake my head incredulously. “I’m going to kill him,” I yell in her face. “And if you keep using that tone with me, I’ll kill you too, blondie.”
My veins feel like they’re sizzling again, that rage inside me a beast that cannot be long contained. “You fucking work for the man!” I add. “And you’re giving me a hard time?”
She just stares at me. I decide I’m not getting an answer from her and turn back to the chopper in time to see Jase kick Donny’s unconscious form unceremoniously to the ground before disembarking from the aircraft himself. Luis and Jase exchange terse words that I can’t make out, before they each grab an arm and start to drag Donny’s sorry ass towards us.
Once we’re clear, the chopper takes off sharply, blowing dust and hot air in its wake.
I watch it fade into a tiny spot in the cloud-streaked blue sky, and then it’s gone.
“What the hell are we doing here?” I ask Luis, my ears ringing.
“Hiding. Finding sanctuary,” he answers back, swinging the AK around into his grip again and holding it down the length of his torso with his free hand. It doesn’t look easy, balancing Donny and a machine gun, but he manages. His finger hovers over the trigger. Ready to fire. Great.
“This way,” he says, heading for a set of stairs at the far edge of the roof.
I look at Jase one more time. “What the hell?” I hiss as he carries Donny past me. He shakes his head tersely.
“Just don’t speak once we get in there, all right?”
I roll my eyes at him.
As if I’d ever be able to keep my big mouth shut.
EIGHT
We walk into a room, and what a greeting the Skullz Cartel members give us.
We’re on a large, stuffy patio dotted with wicker pool furniture that looks like it’s seen better days. To our left, a large rectangular pool shimmers in the bright light, a refreshing oasis that I’d give my left arm to be able to jump into right now.
Except, you know, the guys with the guns.
I see at least twenty sub-machine guns aimed at us before I decide to stop counting. Fuck. Behind the sea of gun power are members of the Skullz. Some are young and muscled, some are old and chubby, and all of them are heavily tattooed. Some are dressed in jeans and shirts, others in their bathing suits, drops of water still clinging to their skin.
Gypsy Brothers: The Complete Series Page 55
