by Fiona Palmer
‘So the medallion was the key. Without that, you’d still be none the wiser,’ said Taylor.
‘Yep. Only I was happy to just ignore this information, carry on as normal, but now with Ryan in trouble I thought Salvatore might be able to help,’ she said.
‘How? By having a drug lord to drug lord chat kind of thing?’ said Anna sceptically.
Jaz shrugged. It was pretty much what she’d thought.
‘Shit, Jaz. So now you’re waiting to call him? This is crazy.’ Tay paced around Pax’s kitchen. ‘How did Sal take the news?’
Every so often Anna and Tay would think up a new question for her, which she tried to answer. ‘He was a little shocked, I guess.’ He’d reacted the way a normal person would and that seemed wrong. Shouldn’t a killer and drug dealer not really give a shit?
‘How are you feeling about it?’ asked Anna. Always so thoughtful.
‘To tell you the truth, it’s a little weird. I’m not sure how I should be feeling about it. Speaking with him just made it all the more confusing.’
The sound of his voice as he called her name still rolled around in her mind, along with the look on his face as she left his office. Jim and the other guy had stopped work to see if they were needed but Sal had waved them away.
‘She is never to be harmed, you understand?’ he’d told them sternly. ‘Ever.’
Sal had walked her to the front door and then they had an awkward goodbye. Jaz got the feeling Sal was scared to let her leave in case he never saw her again and it made her think of her mum. To have someone you loved just up and vanish.
‘I’ll call you in two hours,’ she’d said to reassure him before walking out. She’d snuck back to her Jeep, making sure she wasn’t followed, and then parked in another spot, waiting to watch Sal who left half an hour later. She followed him from a distance, when he pulled in to Jamison’s street, only then did she go back to the gym and her friends.
‘Do you think he can be trusted?’ asked Tay, bringing Jaz back from her thoughts.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ she said before checking her watch again. ‘Time will tell.’
Time had gone fast with talking about Sal and their meeting. And as always, it was a relief to have it off her chest, no secrets with her friends, and they helped share the burden. Jaz pulled out Sal’s card from her pocket and played with it while Anna went and got one of the untraceable phones from her special room.
Anna had spent the last week doing the room up with a fresh coat of paint, new carpet and fancy lockable storage cupboards. It looked fresh, modern and more like Anna’s place. She’d also designed the special medical room and had Tilly and Cody on the job. Slowly they were gathering building supplies, which they stored in the gym ready for construction.
‘Time to call?’ asked Tay.
He was as eager as Jaz. Tay had grown close to Ryan also; the training, the mateship. It was nice to know she wasn’t alone in this crazy plan to get Ryan home safe. Both her friends backed her without a second word. Sure, they probably thought she was nuts but they truly understood Jaz and knew she’d probably do it without them if it came to that.
Jaz dialled the number and Sal answered after one ring.
‘Very prompt,’ he said.
‘I try to be,’ said Jaz, who felt relief at the playful tone in Sal’s voice. Was it good news or was he just in a good mood?
‘Reece is alive,’ said Sal, getting straight to the point. ‘Jamison has him at the port warehouse. He’s unsure what to do. At the moment he’s waiting for his men to finish their background checks to see if he is who he says he is. Jamison’s worried he might even be working for another dealer. He asked me if he was one of mine but I swore he wasn’t.’
‘You don’t think they’ll kill him?’ Even saying the words made her stomach roll like the choppy sea.
‘I’ve kept my head with Jamison because I don’t trust him. He’s like a slippery snake. He could say one thing and do another. No one double-crosses him. The fact that Reece is still alive is only because of Jamison’s daughter but he knows he has to make a decision soon. He has men sifting through Reece’s flat and checking every detail. If that comes up clean then your man maybe safe. But like I said, I wouldn’t trust Jamison.’
Jaz wondered how long before Jamison’s men came across the fake details? The backgrounds made were never meant to withstand a deep check. If they called the schools or the police about his assault charge, anything like that could reveal the lies. It could be any moment. They had to act fast.
‘Jaz, let me help. Let me lend you some of my people,’ said Sal.
‘No,’ Jaz replied quickly. ‘I don’t want to be in debt to you. I already feel bad about coming to you in the first place.’ Then she realised she should be a little nice about it all. ‘Thank you, though, for finding out this information. It means a lot.’
And it did. If this whole thing wasn’t some sort of trap, mind you.
‘The door code is 200634. Be careful, Jaz. Please think about staying in touch when you get Reece out. I’d like a chance to get to know you.’ His voice was melancholy.
Jaz memorised the number before she spoke. ‘You’d have to go straight before I’d even consider it.’ Then she hung up and relayed it all to her friends.
‘Do you think it’s a trap?’ asked Anna, while Tay called up Cody and Tilly. They needed all the help they could get.
‘I’m not sure.’
‘What’s your gut telling you?’
‘It wants to trust Sal, but I don’t know if that’s just stupid foolishness. A small part of me hopes my drug lord father has some sort of a kind, loving side. Do you think I’m pathetic?’ Jaz felt pathetic. More the fact that she didn’t want to be hurt or made a fool of.
‘No, not at all, Jaz. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t wish for that. We want our parents to be good people. Anyway, right now I don’t think we have the luxury of not believing him. It’s all we have to go on. Let’s hope Cody and Tilly are on board with the plan.’
‘And what plan is that?’ Jaz asked. From where she sat they hadn’t planned anything yet.
‘The “get Ryan back” plan.’ Anna slammed her hand down on the kitchen table.
‘Right,’ said Tay as he put down his phone. ‘Cody and Tilly are on their way, plus Tilly is contacting the commander.’
Jaz winced. She hoped they all wouldn’t get into trouble for this.
‘Don’t stress,’ said Tay. ‘Tilly said the commander wouldn’t want to miss it.’
Just how much trouble would she be in with the agency, Jaz wondered. But this was Ryan, so she didn’t care how much hot water she got into.
‘We have to go about this right,’ said Jaz when Cody and Tilly turned up. They all sat huddled around the kitchen table. The boys leaned forward on their elbows as they tried to work out the best plan of attack. ‘I don’t want anyone hurt. Everyone must come home safe.’ Ryan wouldn’t like it if someone ended up dead because of him.
‘I agree,’ said the commander as he walked in the back door of the house. Anna had let him in.
‘Sir,’ said Jaz. She was a little starstruck and momentarily forgot his name was Ian.
‘So, what have we got?’ he said sitting down next to Tilly.
All eyes went to Jaz, she had all the information.
Anna threw down some photos she’d done up on Jaz’s request. Everyone started looking at them as Jaz spoke. ‘This is Jamison’s warehouse where Ryan is being held. The main door has a code.’ Jaz repeated the code and they all nodded that they had it stored in their mind.
‘And there is also a camera,’ said Cody. ‘But that’s easy to black out.’
‘Good. You can be in charge of that,’ said Jaz. ‘Now, we don’t know what we will be facing on the inside. So once we get that door open I want Tilly and Cody left, and Tay and Ian right.’ Jaz wanted Tay protected and the best way to do that was to put him with the best. She was yet to see the commander in action but from T
illy and Ryan’s stories, there was no better agent.
‘Best time is just on dark,’ said Ian, his voice so strong and sure.
This was probably a walk in the park for him. Ryan had told her once how he’d taken down an opium grower overseas, killed all his men, set free the slave labour kids, and with hand grenades had decimated the plantation. Just listening to the story had seemed like some action movie or that TV show she liked called Strike Back. It made her wonder if these so-called fictional movies and shows were actually based on a lot of real events and truths. Who would really know?
They kept talking and planning for hours, pausing only for coffee and the Subway rolls that Anna grabbed for them. When Tilly’s stomach rumbled people from two states over could hear it.
Soon they had the operation planned out as best they could.
‘Is everyone right on their position?’ said Ian.
‘Yes, I wait in the car in case we need a fast getaway,’ said Anna.
Her face was flushed and her teeth clenched together. She was as excited as she was scared to death. Jaz knew that feeling.
‘You don’t get out of the car,’ Jaz said to her softly. Anna may be a good shot but she wasn’t prepared for one-on-one combat. ‘I can’t have anything happen to you. Okay?’
Anna nodded almost as fast as a woodpecker who hammered his beak into a tree. Her friend was not going to stay at the gym and wait. She’d demanded she have a job. ‘But you get to go,’ had been her reply. ‘I promise I won’t get in the way.’
Sitting in the car was the best Jaz could come up with, and Tay had backed her up on this after initially wanting her at the gym.
So the three of them would be riding this mission together, a first. In a way it was comforting and yet it scared the hell out of Jaz. These were her closest friends who she couldn’t live without. Yet they had watched her go off on missions and supported her. You couldn’t wrap people up in cotton wool, you can’t protect them or prevent them from wanting to help. It was a large ugly pill to swallow.
‘Right. I’m going to go and get ready,’ said Cody standing up. ‘I’ll get the spray can. And I’ll meet you all at the rendezvous point.’
‘I’ll bring cable ties, tape and extra bullets.’ Tilly pushed back his chair and reached for the last Subway roll. He smiled. He was ready for a fight. ‘See you all soon.’
Tilly walked out whistling a tune, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
The commander stood next. ‘I always did like Pax’s place. It always felt like a home, or a shelter, I guess.’ His eyes took in every detail of Pax’s kitchen. ‘It still feels like he’s here, and I keep expecting him to walk out from the back room with one of his God-awful shirts on.’
Jaz and Anna glanced at each other. Yeah, they knew exactly how he felt.
‘So you’ve been here before?’ asked Jaz. She didn’t remember ever seeing the commander here.
‘I spent quite a bit of my younger days here, before you were born. Then in later years I’d stop by mainly for papers and a quick catch up with Pax. He was one of a kind.’
Ian’s words were spoken with so much admiration Jaz felt like hugging him, but she didn’t. Instead she watched him walk to the back door with no further conversation or goodbye.
‘Then there were three,’ said Tay. ‘Is anyone else pumped?’
‘And shitting bricks?’ said Anna.
‘I’m doing both,’ said Jaz. ‘I have so many worries. What if we are too late? What if someone gets hurt?’ She couldn’t say die. But that was what she meant. What if someone died? It could even be her. Save Ryan only to die in the process. How very Romeo and Juliet.
‘Jaz, you have to stay positive. Remember what the commander said. You need to see our plan working, visualise it coming together, being prepared for anything. We can do this,’ said Tay as he got up from the table to join his friends.
‘Besides, there might only be one guy holding Ryan. This could be a walk in the park!’ Anna was so optimistic it was adorable, so much so Tay couldn’t resist putting his arm around her.
‘Exactly,’ he agreed.
Anna could have said the moon was green and that tomorrow the Martians would land and Tay would still agree with her.
‘Okay, so we need to make sure our alibis are in place, we get our guns ready, leave mobiles at home, change into black, pick up the getaway car—’
‘Oh that sounds so James Bondish,’ said Anna.
‘No, it’s more like The Blues Brothers or Gone in Sixty Seconds,’ said Tay.
‘I would LOOOOVE an Eleanor to drive.’
Jaz clapped her hands together, making her friends jump. ‘Are you guys listening,’ said Jaz gruffly. ‘Focus. Bullets, blood, mayhem. It’s all about to get serious.’
‘We know that Jaz,’ said Tay. ‘It’s just nerves.’
Tay did look a little green around the gills and he still hadn’t taken his arm away from Anna.
‘We know what’s at stake.’ Anna reached out and pulled her into a three-way hug. ‘I want you both to be careful. I love youse so much.’
As Jaz hugged her friends, she wondered what the outcome would be? To get Ryan would she lose someone else? Would this moment be the last with her friends? There were no answers and there was no point thinking this way. Jaz couldn’t predict the future, all she could do was trust in her team, believe they could do this and see it through till the end. Jaz just hoped she could keep her head if and when she got to see Ryan.
Stretching out her arms she hugged her friends, enjoying their warmth, their security and the love they had. And she prayed it wasn’t the last time they got to do this.
Chapter 29
The metallic scent of blood stirred his conscious, along with a damp mustiness that reminded him of a cold cave. Ryan drew a breath; the movement caused a sharp pain to radiate through his chest, broken ribs? Other parts of his body ached and throbbed, at least he knew he was alive. Death wouldn’t be this painful. Ryan wanted to open his eyes but they felt stuck together like bad conjunctivitis. He’d taken a few hits to the face, how many exactly he’d lost count, but they would have caused the swelling. He must look amazing if how he felt was any indication.
He breathed again, less painful now as he grew used to the familiar pain, but this time he noticed a hint of something sweet. Like the last remains of perfume days after it was applied.
Something cold and wet touched his forehead and he flinched, causing himself more pain. What the hell was it? Suddenly he felt water rolling down his face as if he’d been crying.
He felt the air shift and felt the presence of someone else in the room. Where was he? For a second he panicked.
‘Stay still,’ came soft feminine words. ‘It’s okay,’ she added. Her Filipino accent was thick.
Then it came to him. He was in the cell. Jamison’s cell that he uses for his girls. This poor abused girl was helping him. It only made him feel worse. It should be the other way around.
‘Thank you,’ he mumbled through cracked split lips that were dry and tasted like blood.
As if she had read his mind, he felt a wet cloth dabbed across his lips, making them feel heaps better. Then the cloth shifted back to his eyes and around his face. He must be a right bloody mess.
‘You take much pain,’ she said. ‘You hurt?’
‘A little,’ he said truthfully. Actually it was a lot, but with all of the pain from different spots all competing to be felt, it almost dulled into one ache. He focused his mind on Jaz, as he always did when things got too hard.
He’d taken the beatings, the questions, and stuck to his guns, repeating the same story. Only he knew it was just a matter of time before Jamison dug deep into his identity and found some anomaly. He was trying everything in his power to win Jamison over, to prove to him he was loyal. Even mentioning Annaliese and being worried about her. He could tell Jamison was unsure but it was Randall who was taking control of things. The big man took great delight in pounding his
flesh, trying to get him to confess.
‘How long have I been out?’ Ryan asked the girl. The days were hard to keep track of.
‘Long time. Other girl taken,’ she said softly. ‘Can you sit up? Drink?’
Ryan felt his chest; his clothes had been taken off except for his pants, his skin was slimy and crusty at the same time. ‘I think so.’ He pushed himself up into a sitting position, his hands protested as they pushed against the manky bed. The girl sat beside him and he felt a cup pressed against his lips. He drank the whole lot. ‘Thank you.’
Ryan dragged his body backwards until he could lean back against the wall. He tried to use his legs but the muscles screamed out, his feet felt like they were cut.
Overall, his injuries were ones that could be hidden later. If Jamison found nothing, maybe he would let Ryan go back to work and his daughter. If that was the case he couldn’t go back too damaged. Missing fingers and other body parts would be hard to explain. For now Jamison and Randall were keeping it all above board, well, as much as you could with torture.
‘Will they come for you again?’ she asked.
‘I reckon so.’
‘You strong man,’ she added. Her tiny hands touched his chest as she continued to clean him up.
Ryan almost laughed, he didn’t feel so strong right now. He wanted Jaz. Holding her again was the only thought getting him through at the moment. He would suffer whatever Randall wanted as long as he could kiss Jaz again. Nothing else mattered.
He wished he could pry open his eyes and see the girl helping him. Did she have raven hair like Jaz? ‘How long have you been here?’ he asked her.
‘Two days. They come for you then I clean you. So much blood,’ she said. ‘What you do, mister?’
‘I’m not actually sure what I’ve done wrong,’ he said. Ryan wasn’t taking any chances. For all he knew they could be watching him now, recording him, you name it. The girl could even be a plant to get him to talk. ‘Thank you for your help,’ he said, trying to find her hand. It was so slender. ‘How old are you?’
‘Nearly sixteen.’ Her words were whispered.
