Hustler_A Second Chance Romance

by Rye Hart

  I had them.

  Now I knew where those fuckers were.

  I stuck the address in my pocket and ran back down to the car. There were no sirens in the distance, which meant the police were still basing themselves out of the bank. I jumped into the beat up car no one would miss and cranked up the engine, then sped off in search of the address on the paper.

  Weaving through the back roads, I chanced the main road to get to the proper side of town faster. I took the only other highway out of the town, and because it wasn’t barricaded off yet I had to make a choice. I looked down at my phone and picked it up in my hand, then dialed 911 and stuck it to my ear.

  There was a good chance I couldn't take both Jesse and Kenneth at once, not with the guns they were packing. And if going to jail meant keeping Grace alive, then I was willing to do it.

  I was willing to do anything for her and our child.

  “911, what’s your emergency?”

  “Hello. Yes. My name is Ryan Park, and I am headed out to 6801 U.S. Highway 1082. It’s probably an abandoned home on the outskirts of Tell City, and the men who robbed City Central Bank are there with the money as well as the hostage they took.”

  “Sir, did you say the men who robbed the bank?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “How do you know this information?”

  My eyes started combing the abandoned houses for the right address. I knew if I told the dispatcher the truth, it could lead to my arrest. But it also meant it could lead to the arrest of Jesse and Kenneth before they could kill Grace. It was a chance I had to take if my child was going to have any sort of healthy life with their mother.

  I only hoped Grace wouldn’t feel the need to bring my child to see me in prison.

  My child deserved better than that.

  “Because I was one of the men who robbed the bank as well,” I said.

  I heard the sharp intake of air on the other end of the line and continued before the dispatcher could say anything else. “I made a mistake, and I can’t take it back. But they’ve taken the woman I love, and she is pregnant with my child. I can’t let them hurt her.”

  “I’m sending an ambulance and police your way. Sir, do not approach them. Wait with me on the phone until the police—”

  But I hung up the phone before she woman could finish her statement.

  I drove down the windy, dusty road just outside of town. I counted down the numbers, my eyes peeled for any signs of life in the abandoned sector of town. I had half a mind to kill them both and leave Grace to be found and taken care of by the ambulance headed for us. But there was a sliver of hope that bloomed in me. If I could obtain a lawyer that would take pity on my situation, I might be able to get a reduced sentence. Maybe I could get out with enough time to still be a somewhat active participant in my child’s life.

  But all of that fell to the back of my mind when the cabin number came into view.

  I pulled the stolen car up behind a car I didn’t recognize. I climbed out of my car and stuffed another magazine in my gun, then headed for the door. I wasn't waiting for any police to get there. I was settling this once and for all.

  I had unfinished business, and I needed to look Grace in the eye and apologize.

  Barging into the house, my gun rose immediately. I leveled it at Jesse as my eyes scanned the room. I found Kenneth with his hand trembling, and a gun trained at a slumped figure in a chair.

  Holy shit.

  Grace was out cold.

  “What the fuck did you do to her?” I asked.

  “I knew it,” Kenneth said. “I told you, Jesse.”

  “What the fuck did you do to her?” I screamed again.

  I pressed the gun right between Jesse’s eyes and backed him straight into a wall.

  Jesse grabbed my shirt and knocked the gun out of my hand. I tackled him to the ground and threw my fists into his face. I felt his nose crunch underneath my fist before his knee was thrust into my stomach. He rolled us over and I blocked his punches, and I heard Kenneth laughing in the distance.

  Throwing a punch straight into Jesse’s throat, he began to choke. I rolled us back over before I got up, then I kicked his gun off into the corner. I picked mine back up and grabbed him by his hair, pressing the gun to his temple.

  I saw a look of panic on Kenneth’s face as Grace began to stir.

  Kenneth cocked his hand back and I popped off a warning shot. It buzzed right by his head and he flinched. Grace was slowly coming to and I watched Kenneth fist her hair, then he ripped her blindfold off as I pressed the gun back to Jesse’s head.

  “Wakey, wakey,” Kenneth said. “Time to pay up.”

  “I can’t believe you blew this fucking job for some pussy,” Jesse said, choking.

  “I didn’t blow anything. It was the two of you who had another plan behind my back,” I said.

  “Damn right. I put it in place to save our ass. When you came in talking about changing shit up, I knew something had happened. That you had some conscience setting in or some shit. Didn’t know it was because you got a bitch pregnant, though.”

  My blood ran cold. “Ryan?” Grace asked.

  She whimpered as Kenneth yanked her head back.

  “She’s pretty, you know. Got a nice pair of lips. I bet they’d feel nice around my cock.”

  “I swear to God, I will fucking kill you if you touch her,” I said.

  “Ryan, stop,” Grace said, with a whimper.

  When I cocked my gun against Jesse’s head, he began to panic. His body began to shake with nerves as Kenneth clenched his jaw. He threw Grace’s head forward and leveled his gun right at her fucking stomach.

  He was a sick bastard, and I had half a mind to shoot him on the damn spot.

  “It’s clear that you care about this woman,” Kenneth said. “But it was stupid for you to come after her.”

  “I’ll always come after her,” I said.

  “Aw, how sweet,” Kenneth said flatly.

  “Drop your gun, or she dies.”

  “You wouldn’t,” I said.

  He cocked his gun and Grace started to cry heaving sobs as she leaned forward. Spit was dribbling from her mouth and her eyes were screwed shut. She had bruises all around the crown of her head. I was seething with anger. She probably had a concussion and needed serious medical attention.

  Where the fuck were the police?

  “Drop. The gun,” Kenneth said.

  I watched the barrel of his gun press against her side and she winced. Fuck. They had me and they knew it. I held up my hands and released Jesse, then dropped my gun to the floor. I kicked it away from us before Jesse could get his hands around it, then sent my knee flying into that fucker’s stomach.

  He went to his knees and I saw Kenneth flinch.

  I saw Jesse crawling across the floor toward the nearest gun and I tried to stop him, but Grace crying out in pain caused me to whip my head around. I saw Kenneth tugging at her hair, pulling her eyes upright to watch me.

  Watch my every move as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I wonder how she feels, carrying the child of some lowlife criminal,” Kenneth said.

  “Ryan. Help me,” Grace said, breathlessly.

  I heard another gun cock and I looked over to my side. Jesse’s trembling, trigger-happy hands were leveling a gun at my head. A bit of blood was trickling from his mouth and the smile on his face rolled my stomach with disgust. I knew he would shoot me. He’d blow my brains out right in front of Grace before killing her himself.

  I held up my hands as my eyes turned back to Kenneth.

  “On your knees,” he said. “Hands behind your head.”

  “No, Ryan. No, please,” Grace said.

  “It’s okay,” I said, as I got down. “Everything’s going to be all right, Grace.”

  “Please. Don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you want. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t hurt him.”

  “Such a heartfelt plea,” Kenneth said. “Too bad it won’t do
any good.”

  “No! Please! Don’t kill him!”

  “Grace! Look at me. Look at me. Eyes on me,” I said.

  Tears were dripping down her face as she turned her wide eyes to mine.

  “Focus on me. Only me, and nothing else. Can you hear me?” I asked.

  “This is bullshit, boss. Can I kill him now?” Jesse asked.

  “I need you to be strong for me, okay?” I asked.

  “Ryan, no,” Grace said, with a whisper.

  “Jason and Harper are going to need you. And our child is going to need you. You have to be stronger than you ever felt possible, but I know you can do this,” I said.

  “Ryan, please. Get us out of this. I know you can. You’ve always been so smart. Smarter than you ever—ever thought,” Grace said.

  “I love you,” I said. “And if it’s any consolation, this was my last job. I was looking up two-year colleges to go to and everything.”

  “I believe you,” she said, breathlessly. “I believe you, Ryan.”

  “You need to take care of our baby, okay? He or she needs to grow big and strong. And they’re going to have the best mother to do that with.”

  “Ryan, don’t.”

  “And Jason? He’s going to need you, too. He’ll be angry at first, but he loves you. Adores you, even.”

  “Please,” Grace said, as she began to sob again.

  “It’s okay,” I said, as Jesse pressed his gun to my head. “I promise you, everything is going to be okay.”

  I was hoping the police would get there soon before they fucking blew my brains out. Every second I could stall them and draw this out meant I stood a chance of making it out alive. But even if I didn’t—even if Jesse ended my life—I needed to know Grace was going to make it out of this unharmed.

  Which meant hearing the sirens rolling down the street before I gave in.

  “Do you remember the first time I ever saw you?” I asked.

  “At the dance?” Grace asked.

  “No. Not then. It was across the auditorium at some shitty pep rally for our football team,” I said, with a snicker. “You were wearing a red and white sweater and a pair of skinny jeans. Your hair was down and you were rolling your eyes just like I was. I thought to myself, ‘There’s a girl that gets me. She hates this shit like I do.’”

  “That’s when you first saw me?” she asked.

  “It was. And it was the moment that changed my life. You changed me, Grace. In ways I can’t even describe. I hope that even through all this, you can see how much I love you. How much I’m willing to do for you to make sure you’re okay. To see that you’re taken care of and safe.”

  Though I didn’t hear sirens, I did hear tires rolling down the street.

  Fuck. Maybe the police in this town were smart after all.

  “All right. I’m done,” Kenneth said. “Kill him, Jesse.”

  CHAPTER 29

  RYAN

  I was sitting behind bars, my hands cuffed to a metal table. I’d been here for days, my mind rattled with everything that had happened. No one would allow me updates on Grace’s condition, even if she was carrying my child. I knew she was pregnant. I knew she had just been trying to get into Jesse’s head.

  But I needed to be sure that they were both okay.

  I was ready to make amends for all the wrong I’d done. But I knew I was still going to serve time. I was going to be here for a while, even with the very best deal a lawyer could throw my way.

  It made me sick to think I would end up like my father.

  I thought about my child. I wondered if it would be a boy or a girl. If she would have Grace’s eyes and my hair, or my eyes and her hair. If he was a boy, would he enjoy sports? Or science, like Jason? Fuck. Jason didn’t even know what had happened. He was probably calling me, trying to get in touch with me. He was stuck at home with no way of knowing where I had gone. He had to be scared out of his mind.

  I closed my eyes as tears rose to them.

  I prayed that Grace and Jason and everyone else that I loved would be safe and happy. I prayed that what I had done wouldn’t ruin all of them like my father had ruined me. I prayed that they all knew that I loved them and that they would just let me rot in prison and go on with their lives.

  “Mr. Park?”

  I lifted my head and looked at the well-dressed man that had entered the room. “Yeah?” I asked.

  “I’m here to speak with you on behalf of the United States Government.”

  The man sat down in front of me and folded his hands-on top of the table.

  “Areyou my lawyer?” I asked.

  “No. I’m not your lawyer,” the man said, with a grin.

  “Then why are you here?” I asked. “I thought I was meeting with my lawyer.”

  “Depending on how this conversation goes, you might not have to.”

  “I’m listening.”

  I looked up and saw the guard walk away from the door. I felt fear flood my veins as his shadow marched down the hallway. I looked around and saw the remaining guards disappear from view, leaving only me and the sharp-dressed man at the table.

  “Here,” he said. “This might make you more comfortable.”

  The man brandished a key for the cuffs and unlocked my wrists from the table.

  “Thanks,” I said, as I rubbed my wrists.

  “My name is Supervisory Special Agent Knox.I work with the FBI.”

  I sat back and closed my eyes. This was it. I was in deep shit. The feds were here to put me in a hole so deep I would never see the sun again.

  “Mr. Park, I’m here to talk to you,” he said.

  “Why me?”

  “I know you used specially-coded electrical equipment to take out the power and the back-up generators to City Central Bank.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said.

  “Don’t play that game, Ryan. I’m offering you a chance at freedom in exchange for your expertise.”

  “I don’t have an expertise.”

  “Actually you do. You’re one of the most incredible coders in the game. And that means you’re even better at cracking those codes. You implanted a tailor-made code into an aging piece of technology that took out both the main power and the side generators to an entire bank in less than eleven seconds.”

  “The code was pre-”

  I snapped my jaw closed as the agent in front of me grinned.

  “You pre-coded the code, then fused it with the technology you used before the robbery.”

  “And if I did?”

  “Do you know how many years of schooling it takes for men to pull off things like that?” he asked.

  “Three?” I asked.

  “Try thirteen. If they’re lucky.”

  “How do you know all this?” I asked.

  “That’s my specialty. And I’ve been tracking you down for a long time.”

  “You have?”

  “The jobs in Washington State. San Diego. Colorado. They were brilliant. Well-timed. None of them would’ve been executed to the near-perfection they were without you. It took our own coders days to break down the code you wrote, in order to trace your path.”

  “So why didn’t you take me down before?”

  “Because you were hitting big cities. States with very strict laws in place for men like you. I was biding my time and waiting for you to strike an area like this. With a less-than-razor sharp police force and lax laws that would allow me to have this conversation with you without drawing attention.”

  “So, what is this? Are you recruiting me or something?”

  “You are a genius. And it’s very like the FBI to hire men like you in exchange for cooperation and helping us counter the type crime you’ve been so adept at committing.”

  “So you’re offering me a job,” I said.

  “Working with the FBI cracking codes and teaching our men how to identify and catch men like you,” he said.

  “And in exchange for that?”

  “You serve
no time.”

  “No time?”

  “At all.”

  “Whatsoever?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Seriously.”

  “As serious as the information I have on Grace.”

  I felt my heart stop in my chest as the blood drained from my face.

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “Take the deal.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “Take the deal, Ryan.”

  “Fine. Yes. I’ll work for you in exchange for no time. I’ll do whatever you want. Where is Grace?” I asked.

  “She’s getting released from the hospital today,” the agent said. “Her concussion is abatingand her ribs are healing nicely.”

  “And the baby?” I asked.

  “As healthy as can be,” the man said with a smile.

  Relief flooded my veins. My forehead hit the table and I allowed the tears to fall. Grace was okay. Safe. Strong. And still carrying my child who was also safe and strong. My shoulders shook as the agent continued to sit in front of me, but I didn’t care what he saw. Or what he heard.

  My plan had worked.

  Grace and my baby were alive.

  “We need you to help counter crime, to help us create better security systems for financial institutions like the ones you hit.”

  “Done,” I said, as I sniffled.

  “Since you turned yourself in and cooperated, the FBI trusts you. For now.. A full-time job with benefits and a decent salary any man with a child on the way could be proud of.”

  “Thank you,” I said, as I lifted my head. “Thank you so much.”

  “I’ll send the guards back and they’ll get you your clothes back. Go home and you can meet your younger brother there.”

  “Jason? He’s ok?” I asked.

  “He was really worried about you, but he’s fine.”

  “Where is this job? Where will I be going?”

  “Someone will be in contact with you soon.”

  “Agent Knox?”

  I stood to my feet as he knocked on the door to be released.

  “Yes, Mr. Park?”

  “Thank you again. Really.”