“My husband is packing. We don’t have much with us, but he’s getting it all ready.”
“Time is of the essence, and we don’t want to keep you here longer than necessary. Ethan was cautious on our way here, but there’s never any certainty that we weren’t followed,” Quinn said, earning an approving look from both mother and bodyguard.
“Very well. Apparently, a couple of days ago someone visited Becky in the hospital. We didn’t know about it. Becky thought he was an employee of the hospital and said he was there briefly, left an envelope, and then was gone. She completely forgot about the whole incident until this afternoon when we started going through the gifts she’d gotten in the hospital. One of the gift bags had an envelope in it.” She paused and swallowed, her calm demeanor cracking for a moment. “The envelope is addressed to you, Ms. Sanders. We haven’t opened it. It says it should only be opened by you in the event of the death of Paulie Romano.”
“What did you just say?” Ethan asked.
“Paulie Romano left an envelope for Quinn in my daughter’s room. We had reservations about how safe she was in the hospital because a news reporter managed to sneak in dressed up as a nurse. We had no idea that this man had also been in her room.”
“What day was it that he was there?” Quinn asked.
“The day after you stopped to visit her.”
“That would have been the day that you were released from the hospital after your accident.” He looked at her and saw the moment she’d figured it out.
He pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Caleb, asking him to send a picture of Romano. It wasn’t long until his phone beeped, and he looked down at a picture of the dead man. In all the craziness, he hadn’t taken the time to look at a picture of him. In the brief glimpse at night that he saw him before his brains were splattered everywhere, he hadn’t appeared familiar. Now, looking at a picture of him with good lighting, he could see it. He turned the phone so she could see the picture.
“The weird guy, when we were leaving the hospital. The one that bumped into me. Remove the glasses, and it’s definitely Paulie Romano.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Shit. Remember how he looked at you like he knew you?”
“I bet he told him that he saw me. He would have had the people he trusted in his organization looking for me.”
“But they didn’t know it was you when they tried to run you off the road. Which means Paulie wasn’t behind the wheel?”
“Or he just didn’t get a good look at you at the time.”
Ethan didn’t want to read the letter while they were there. The Plummers needed to get gone and fast, but he also wanted to tear open that letter and see what was in it. He knew that Quinn was feeling the same urge. He glanced at Cole and saw that he was marking the time. They’d already been there longer than he was comfortable with, and Quinn still hadn’t gotten to see Becky.
“We need to go. Let’s go see Becky fast so they can make like a ghost and vanish.”
“You’re right. Can we have five minutes, or is that too much?”
“Five minutes, max. We’ll get everything closed up here while you talk to her.”
They walked briskly out of the living room, making a beeline for the back bedroom. Becky was sitting on the bed, dressed in pajamas, but she was ready to go. She looked better, but she was still weak and fragile. Her eyes went wide and filled with tears when she saw them. Quinn walked over and sat beside her, placing an arm gently on her shoulders. The girl leaned on Quinn and held on.
“Thank you for visiting. My parents knew I needed to see you before we leave, to thank you, and I wanted to tell you that I believe in miracles, but I’m scared.”
“I’m scared, too. This letter is the key to all this craziness.” Ethan sure hoped that was true, but he didn’t contradict her because he knew the girl needed the reassurance that it was going to be all right. “This will all be over soon. I promise.” Quinn kissed the side of Becky’s head and squeezed her shoulder.
“Are they all set to go?”
“Just waiting on you. Let’s make a date to sit down and get to know each other once you’re feeling a little better. I’ll take you out somewhere to eat—your choice—or if it’s too soon for that, I can cook you your favorite meal. Rumor is I’m a pretty darn good cook. Deal?”
“Yeah.” She sniffed and wiped her tears. “I would really like that. Could my mom and dad come?”
“Absolutely. I want to get to know the parents that raised such an amazing young woman.”
Becky managed a small smile, but it faded when Cole stepped into the room. Ethan knew by the look on his face that something was up. He indicated that Ethan should meet him in the hallway. The two women, one not quite an adult, didn’t miss the silent exchange, but Quinn did her best to distract Becky as Ethan left the room braced for bad news.
“What’s going on?”
“I think you may have been followed. I have the perimeter wired with an alarm system. One of the back alarms is going off. There’s a reason I picked a remote house with a lot of acreage and wide-open spaces. For them to come in, they would have to be really careful or risk being seen.”
“Son of a bitch. I was careful. How did they manage to follow us?”
“My guess is they slipped a tracking device on your car. They’ve known where you are on several occasions.”
“You’re probably right, which means my apartment probably is clean for listening devices—tracking my car would be easier to accomplish. Can we still get you out safely?”
“Sure.” He grinned cockily. “But it’s going to be a hot exit. I have a couple guys on the perimeter hunting whoever was stupid enough to try to breach my security. We aren’t sticking around to find out how long that takes.”
“You need us to lead them away?”
“Affirmative. I’m hoping whoever followed you is an idiot on the bottom of the food chain and doesn’t realize that he hit a gold mine here. Two for the price of one. I’m not holding out hope that that’s the case. In fact, I think it’s the complete opposite.” That they called in the big dogs to get to Quinn and Becky.
“Me, too. I would ask you to take Quinn—”
“She won’t come. She’d end up fighting it, and that would make her more of a liability.”
“You pegged her.”
“It’s my job.”
“We’ll lure them away. Are you ready to go?” Ethan didn’t love the situation, but there was little they could do to change it.
“Locked and loaded; we just need the little lady in there.” He tipped his head to the room.
“She’s ready.”
When he walked back in the room, Quinn was helping Becky stand—the girl was wobbly. Cole took two strides to her and scooped her up. With another trademark cocky grin sent toward Quinn and a tip of the head to Ethan, he walked out of the room.
“We need to be a distraction for them. Someone managed to follow us here, and I’m hoping to draw whoever it is away from the house so they can get out quickly. But it’s possible it’ll be a hot extraction.”
To her credit, she didn’t so much as waiver as she strode to the front door. He was terrified to let her leave that house. Most likely they’d been instructed to bring Quinn in alive. Ethan was collateral damage, but even so, he hoped that they’d been told to leave him alone. They didn’t need the heat of a dead detective to bring the whole DFPD down on their heads. Rodriguez was bad enough, but she’d survived. That didn’t mean that the other officers weren’t gunning for the SOB that had tried to gut her, and it didn’t mean that the bad guys wouldn’t gut Ethan. He wanted to tell her to tuck and run, but he knew that would tip their hand. Their only option was to walk out of that house like they had no clue what was going down. Before he could overthink it, she took the decision out of his hand, opened the door, and walked outside. He followed, and as soon as they were outside, she grabbed his hand and squeezed.
“What a colossal waste of time. I swear
if we keep chasing our tails like this, we’re never going to catch this son of a bitch.” Ethan wasn’t expecting Quinn to strike up a fake conversation, but he went with it.
“I know what you mean. I feel like we’re treading water against a current and we can’t get anywhere.”
They were almost to the car when he heard a noise. A twig snapped, and Ethan spun, placing Quinn behind him, his gun out of his holster. There goes hoping they would let them get out of there without incident because standing behind him were two huge men with guns drawn, looking to take him down and grab Quinn. Hell no! Not a chance that was happening. Not today. He was outgunned and didn’t know how to get them both safely in the car. He would have shoved her toward it, but he had the keys and couldn’t get them to her while he had both eyes on the assholes in front of him. This wasn’t going to go down the way he’d planned. Cole needed to get Becky and her family out of there, and he needed to get Quinn out of there, as well. Panic was welling inside him until he felt Quinn slide her fingers into the waistband of his pants.
“Give us the girl, and we’ll let you walk away. Our beef isn’t with you.”
“You’re out of your freaking mind if you think I’m going to let you walk away with her.”
“I read the letter while you were with Cole. It has everything you need to take them down and to find me. But be quick about it.” Still gripping his pants, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed the back of his neck.
“What the fuck?” he said as she stepped back and around him, her good hand out in surrender, her hand that was still in the cast also raised and Ethan felt his world tip off its axis and go spinning in the wrong direction. “Quinn!”
“You have what you need,” she said, and he knew that the cryptic statement was directed at him and not the two heavily armed men she was approaching.
Ethan couldn’t do anything without risking injury to her. He watched impotently as she took another step and then another away from him. He still had his gun drawn and pointed at the two men, but there was nothing he could do to stop them as the first man grabbed Quinn, spun her and twisted her uninjured arm up and behind her. Ethan knew that if she wanted, she could get out of that hold in a second. Sweet Jesus, she was sacrificing herself to get the Plummers out of there. She mouthed the words, I love you, and it’s okay as they dragged her backward toward the trees, where they presumably had their car stashed away. Ethan stared until he could no longer see them. When he heard the sound of squealing tires, he stood cemented to the ground. Cole was suddenly next to him.
“What are you still doing here?” Ethan asked with a bite to his tone.
“Everything just went south. They got the jump on one of my best guys. He’s dead. My other guy came barreling into the house a minute ago. I sent the Plummers with him. He’s taking them to another safe house, and I have several people there ready to guard them. But I have to stay here and see to the business of dealing with a dead employee who happened to be a friend, as well. I called 911, and they’re on their way. We’ll get her back.”
Ethan felt like an asshole for not considering Cole’s feelings at the moment. He’d lost an employee and friend, but all Ethan could think about were the words that Quinn had said. In his terror, he’d forgotten that she had fiddled with his pants. At first, he thought she just used it as leverage to keep her balance as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him goodbye. Realization dawned on him, and he grabbed the back of his pants and tugged out what she had slipped into his waistline. It was the damn letter from Paulie Romano. The envelope was torn open. He grabbed the single sheet of paper out and read it twice. The blessed thing wasn’t long. In fact, it was short and succinct and had every bit of information they needed to take down Vance Duprey, but all Ethan cared about was the last sentence. Ethan held the winning hand. The look on Quinn’s face as she was hauled away haunted him, but the letter in his hand was all they would need to demolish Vance Duprey. But it was the last sentence that held all the information he needed to know.
28
Not for the first time in the last twenty minutes, Quinn found herself wondering what the hell she’d been thinking. But it didn’t take long to remind herself of the answer. She’d been thinking about getting Ethan out of the line of fire. She’d also been thinking about getting Becky out of that farmhouse safely. The girl had been through enough already, so Quinn threw herself on the proverbial grenade. And she would do it again, but the look on Ethan’s face had nearly destroyed her will to stick with the plan. The plan she’d made up on the fly as soon as she had heard the two men approaching. She only hoped Ethan understood why she’d done it and that they were able to act quickly because she knew that she didn’t have a whole lot of time before her time was up.
They didn’t drive long before they pulled into a sprawling complex on the outskirts of town. A six-foot stone fence ran the length of the property. One of the men was driving while the other man was sitting next to her, a gun at her side. When they pulled up to the gate, the driver rolled down his window, and after he entered a code into the keypad, the gate swung open, revealing the sprawling mansion on the other side of it. They pulled up to the front of the house, and the driver got out, marched around to the side of the car, and opened the door. She crawled out after a small shove in the side from the gun.
“Let’s go, bitch,” Goon Number One said while tugging on her arm that was in the cast.
“Lay off, man.”
“What’s it to you?” he snarled at the man climbing out of the car behind Quinn.
“Nothing to me, but if you don’t deliver her in one piece, I reckon the boss is going to be mighty pissed at you.”
Quinn saw that the jerk had the good grace to look uncomfortable about that very idea. Inwardly she smiled, but outwardly she made herself look like the docile little woman, willing to do anything to get out of there alive. She was definitely planning on getting out of there alive, but she was far from a docile little woman.
“I’ll take her to her room, and you go find the big guy.”
“Yeah, sure, man.”
Quinn didn’t like the look he sent her way, like he didn’t believe for a second that the other man was going to deliver her to the room and keep his hands to himself, but Quinn knew better. There was no way he was going to touch her.
“Sorry about jerking your arm so hard; I had to make it look real,” Harrison Black whispered through clenched teeth. If she wasn’t standing next to him, she wouldn’t have seen his lips move.
“Keep it up. They might be watching us.”
“Oh, you can count on that. That SOB sliced one of the guard’s throats back there. I couldn’t stop him. For that alone, I’m taking him down.” That seemed like a very hands-on way to kill someone. Was it The Fixer? Without a minute to process more, he jerked her toward the house. Once inside, he dragged her up the stairs to the second floor. She played right along, tripping and crying out where necessary.
The room he brought her to was dark and small, as if it was meant to be a closet. It had a small window that didn’t allow for much natural lighting due to the side of the house that the room was on and the late hour of the day. She could tell that night was fast approaching and suspected that they’d wait for dark to enter the house. Harrison shut the door and pretended to frisk her while loudly asking if she had any weapons or a cell phone on her. She answered truthfully to both questions. She had no weapons, and her cell phone was in her purse in the car. When he was kneeling at her feet, he looked up at her and smiled grimly. After a moment, he stood, and as he turned to leave, he looked at her one last time, and she noted the worry in his eyes. This could go down good, or this could go down really bad. She opted for door number one.
After she was alone, she paced the room. He hadn’t tied her up. He’d said there was no need to tie her up—the room was being guarded. All clever words to let her know what she was up against. When she had seen that Harrison was one of the two men behind them at the farmhouse, she’d almost
cried out with relief, then she saw that the man next to him had blood on him, and she didn’t want to chance that he’d shoot Ethan. She’d looked at Harrison and tried to communicate what she was about to do. He couldn’t compromise the operation, and it was clear to her that he was thinking about taking out the other man at that exact moment. Instead of letting that happen, she slipped the letter into Ethan’s waistband. Kissing him goodbye was the hardest thing she’d ever done—even harder than leaving that house all those years ago—because now she knew the good in life. But it had to be done. She saw with crystal clear clarity that this was the only way to stop this from continuing.
Quinn walked right toward Harrison, forcing the other man to cover them. Ethan could have taken him out. He could have ended it there, but he hesitated when Harrison stood to the side, blocking the other man slightly. No doubt he was scared he would hit Quinn, but she hated the confused look on his face—the fear that was evident. It was obvious to her that he worried that Harrison had flipped to the other side. She mouthed that she was okay to him, hoping that he would understand that Harrison wasn’t a threat, but that they had to do it this way. If Ethan managed to get her out of that situation without injury to himself or her, the Plummers were still in danger, and in Quinn’s mind, this was the only way to take down the monster who called himself Vance Duprey.
“What the fuck happened?” Captain Bob Wickman’s voice boomed as he climbed out of the car.
Ethan was pacing back and forth as what appeared to be every police car in the city pulled up. He raked his hands through his hair and stopped and looked at his mentor. Where did he start? How did he explain this mess to the man who trusted him to finish this case? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Caleb’s car come screeching to a halt on the lawn. One of his best friends in the world, and he had no idea how much Ethan had deceived him in the last few months.
“We came to talk to the Plummers. They had information that was pertinent to the human trafficking case.”
Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Page 28
