06 All Bark And No Bite

by Jana Leigh

  “I am gonna go and get a soda,” Alex said and they listened as he walked and then the ping of the elevator. Someone was with him, Alex asked a few questions and they all listened, hoping Alex would get back on the phone so they could talk to him about the exact address.

  “Hang on,” the man said, he must be checking before Alex got out of the elevator. They heard a scuffle and then Alex yelling something.

  “Alex?” Lily yelled into the phone.

  Calli tapped on the taxi window and told him to get to the Digrossi building immediately. The cab driver shrugged and turned the car around. Calli stuck a hundred dollars through the hole at the driver and they felt the car lurch in response.

  “I can’t tell what is happening,” Lily whispered as the three women huddled around the phone.

  “Let me go,” Alex yelled and then called out for a guard, they heard the shot of a gun and all of them gasped.

  “Stop it, kid, I don’t want to have to hurt you,” a gruff voice said and none of the women recognized the voice. “Dammit, get back here kid”

  Lily shook and finally Alex came on the phone, “I am running out of the south entrance. Is there anywhere I can go?” Alex huffed into the phone.

  They could see the building right ahead of them. As they got closer, they saw all the police cars and other vehicles that were surrounding the place. Lily stretched up to see if she could spot Alex.

  Cali pointed, “There.”

  Jazz yelled at the cab driver to stop and Lily flung the door open. Alex dove in across all of their laps and Calli yelled to the cab driver to go, as they saw a huge, ugly man running toward them, the steel glint of the gun he carried flashed in the sunlight.

  “Shit,” Lily yelled and closed the door and the cab jumped forward as the cab driver yelled at the four of them that he was gonna stop on the next block and let them out. He didn’t want to get involved.

  Calli shoved another three hundred into the front seat and told him to drive to Harlem, they would give the address in a minute.

  There was chaos in the back seat and the women all tried to help Alex sit upright. Finally, they arranged themselves where Alex was sitting between Lily and Calli. Jazz leaned over and frowned at Alex, “Who the fuck was that?”

  “I don’t know. He wasn’t one of the guys who was in the office.”

  “What the hell happened?” Calli demanded, pulled out her phone, and called Bailey to let her in on what happened. They had to get ahold of the guys to tell them someone had gotten into the building. Alex quickly told them what had happened.

  “I wanted a soda while I waited, I was gonna drag one of the guys out to listen to me when I got back. When we got off the elevator there was this huge guy standing there. He grabbed for me and the guard jumped on him, and the big guy shot him. I think it was in the leg because the guard was still yelling. The big guy tried to pull me, but I kicked his leg and just ran. Then I heard another shot, I don’t know who and I went out the door.” Alex huffed. “Here is the address.” He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Calli, who read it into the phone twice and then threw it on the front seat.

  “Yeah, I know, we will. I will call when we have the baby,” Calli said and hung up.

  “The guys know where we are going, they’re going to meet us there. We are supposed to get our asses back to the hotel; however, when Bailey told them we had guns, I heard Jolly cussing. Bailey said the baby was in danger and we were going. Alex, you are staying in the cab,” Calli relayed to them.

  “We get there and assess the situation,” Jazz said finally.

  All the women nodded their heads. If Sam had sent someone to the building to get Alex, then he could know where the baby was as well. This sucked, Lily thought.

  ***

  “Are you a fuckin’ idiot?” Sam yelled into the phone. “I told you exactly what to do. It was so simple.”

  Sam and Junior knew the minute the Feds entered the building. Their cameras let them know. That stupid bitch had been playing them. It pissed Sam off that she thought they would fall for something like this. He knew when she suddenly showed up that there was something up. She didn’t look like the bimbo she tried to portray; besides, he recognized one of her so-called attorneys as a Fed. How stupid did they think he was?

  No matter, he knew where the baby was. It took him a long time to find it. Damn, his father did a good job telling her how to keep the kid off the grid. Whoever had her change names and addresses weekly. Their only mistake was using Kirby as a last name. Granted it was a common name, however, not too many Kirbys move. It was a matter of just checking their rental application. Man, woman, and baby—not too hard to put the pieces together.

  Finally they were going to end this. First the baby, and then the others. Sam would be long gone with his new identity. He refused to leave until Andres and his little friends understood he was still alive and they shouldn’t fuck with him. Just one trip to Switzerland to the clinic to change his face and he would be golden. That bitch thought she was so smart, taking his money, right, as if he would allow that. Sam had more money stashed just for this purpose. He knew the Feds were going to freeze accounts and try to get the money back.

  No, Sam had a nice stash of money, a villa in Spain, and a home in Italy. He just needed to finish this, and all would be well. He looked at his idiot brother who was sweating in the seat beside him. What a joy it would finally be to kill the whiny little weasel. That was his last step, he saved it so he could really have a good memory of his family to last him for a good many years.

  “Do you have it?” Sam asked Junior.

  Junior looked at him grimly, “Are you sure about this, I mean, blowing up a building with so many people in it. We are killing innocent people,” Junior said.

  “Suddenly growing a conscious? Really?” Sam laughed and twisted his lips into a snarl and continued. “We stick to the plan, one way or another that baby is dying tonight. You wouldn’t let me go in and kill everyone, because you said you couldn’t handle that. Well, this is the next option, we don’t have days to sit and observe them. It has to be done tonight, by the morning there will be a warrant out for our arrest, and if we are still in the country, we will be in jail for a very long time.”

  Junior grimaced and nodded slowly. “I know, I know, but I thought maybe if we could find their car, we could just put the bomb in there, then it would only be them.”

  Sam looked at his brother in disgust and gritted out, “We don’t have time for that. Plus, I don’t really give a shit, we find out if they are home and then we set the timer. If they aren’t home, we set it to happen in the middle of the night. End of story.”

  “What if we are wrong?” Junior whined.

  “I am not,” Sam said confidently.

  Chapter Six

  Lily and the others sat silently as the cab drove through the neighborhood they were looking for. Whoever had the baby lived in an apartment building three more blocks down, it may not be the best neighborhood, but they had been smart. Hidden in plain sight.

  The driver pulled into a place that Calli pointed to and then let them out of the car. The four of them stood on the sidewalk looking at the building.

  “Which apartment?” Calli asked.

  “Fourth floor,” Alex said. “Apartment 4c.”

  Jazz turned and looked at Alex, “You see that diner, you go in there, call the guys, tell them we are going to the apartment. Have them meet us there and we will try to talk to the people, hopefully they will be willing to come with us, or give us the child.”

  Alex looked at the women who had just entered his life. He didn’t want them to go into this situation, but he thought about the baby and knew none of them would actually let that happen if there was a chance they could get her out. That was the way they were. Alex was happy he was a part of this family. They were something special. He nodded and hugged each of them and went into the diner and began making calls while he looked out the window.

  “Let�
�s go,” Lily said firmly and set off to the apartment building with Jazz and Calli behind her.

  ***

  “Look what we have here?” Sam laughed as he saw the three women walking across the street. “Get the kid, I will take care of them.”

  “What are you gonna do?” Junior asked.

  “Take care of all my problems in one fell swoop, just get the kid and bring him over to the building, we will tie him up in the basement,” Sam ordered and waited while the women walked into the building. “We will give them a few minutes to get comfortable. It is just the chick now, her husband wasn’t much of a challenge, but he didn’t give up any information.”

  Sam’s men had brought him the husband a few weeks ago, he had great fun torturing the man for information—not that he gave them any—but still it had been entertaining.

  ***

  “Apartment 4c,” Lily whispered and put her head against the door and heard some noise coming from the inside. “I think they are home.”

  Calli rolled her eyes and knocked on the door. They all listened while they heard footsteps and then a pause before a tallish woman opened the door and looked at them.

  “Can I help you?” Lily could tell the woman was very cautious and didn’t open the door more than a crack. She could also tell that she was tired and worn out, it was probably from being on the run for the last eight months. It had to be hard.

  “Hello, can we talk to you for a minute,” Jazz asked softly.

  The woman’s eyes got big, she probably just realized they were not sales women. “No, my husband doesn’t like company,” she said and went to shut the door.

  “We knew Michelle,” Lily blurted out and the door paused, the woman looked out again suspiciously.

  “I don’t know who you are talking about,” she said but held the door open to look at the three women.

  “Michelle Kirby,” Lily said slowly and she watched the woman’s eyes widened a bit more. “She grew up with us. We were best friends, we just want to help.”

  “Help with what?” the woman asked.

  “The baby, some very bad men are looking for her, and you. We just want to help,” Jazz said and Calli looked around the hallway to make sure no one was listening or watching, she even leaned over the side of the stairwell, but there was no one coming up, just a guy walking down to what looked like the laundry room from here.

  The woman looked around and then stepped back into the apartment and opened the door slowly. “Come in.”

  Calli and Jazz pushed Lily forward until they were in the small apartment. The woman was alone and they could see the small crib in the corner of the room, a bundle lay in it but from where they stood, they couldn’t tell if it was a baby or not.

  “What do you know?” the woman asked.

  “My name…” Lily began, the woman held up her hand, and stopped her.

  “Sorry, I don’t want to know your name. My husband is dead. They caught him a few weeks ago and killed him for information. I don’t want to know anything that will get me killed too. Listen, I am doing my best, but Michelle didn’t leave us with much. But she told us we had to hide Shelby, that is the baby’s name. We were waiting for a deposit and then we were going to disappear, but something went wrong and we didn’t get the money. My husband went to the bank to find out what was going on and they caught him. I haven’t seen him since. So he is dead. Now, I am alone and have no money,” the woman cried and put her hands up to her face.

  “Listen, we can help. We can get you new identities, money so you can get out of here,” Jazz said.

  The woman looked up at her and sniffed. “I seriously don’t think I can do this. I mean, I love Shelby, but I am not cut out to be a mom, I never was.”

  Lily stepped forward and said, “It is okay, I will take her. If you will let me.”

  The woman looked at the three of them and then at the baby laying in the crib. “I just want her to be happy and safe.”

  “We can do that, we can take her and make sure they never find her. We are already working on sending them to jail, here, you can call the FBI, ask for Mr. Riley, he will confirm this all.” Lily insisted when the woman looked at her skeptically.

  She nodded and then stepped back, “Can you wait while I call?”

  “Sure,” Jazz said and leaned back against the wall.

  Calli and Lily stepped back to give the woman some room. They watched as she went to the crib, grabbed the phone, and called information. Gosh, who knew it was so easy to call the FBI. They listened as the woman was shuffled around to several different places and told her story more than once, but it was when she said the Digrossi name that it seemed like she made headway.

  Lily looked out of the window and hit Calli. “Shit!”

  Calli looked and they saw Junior holding onto Alex’s arm. “They found us.”

  “Who found what?” the woman said nervously.

  “The Digrossi brothers,” Jazz said grimly.

  “Oh God,” the woman cried.

  “We need to get out of here,” Lily said and spun around to help the woman gather things for the baby. She hung up the phone, but Lily could hear Mr. Riley yelling into the receiver. Shit, they were gonna be pissed at them.

  ***

  “Yeah, I can see the building, Bear,” Alex said into the phone. When he called Bailey, he found out that they were already on their way here. The guys had heard the shooting and gone to find him. Bailey had called and told them what happened.

  “This is a cluster fuck, what the hell were they thinking?” Bear growled into the phone and Alex could hear the men agree with him. He felt like he should defend the girls, after all they had rescued him.

  “Hey, they were thinking that you guys were taking too much time. Not to be a pain, but you all talked about walking outside the lines sometimes, but you have been going by the book. The assholes weren’t,” Alex said quietly in the phone.

  Bear chuckled and said, “I see we have made some headway with the whole trust thing.”

  A hand reached and grabbed his phone, hung it up and tossed it on the table and grabbed his arm. Before he knew it, Alex was face to face with Junior Digrossi, his half-brother and fucking scumbag. Alex opened his mouth to yell and then felt a poke in his ribs.

  “One word and this whole place gets shot up. Look at that little kid over there, he will be first,” Junior whispered to him and Alex shivered at the man’s menacing tone.

  Alex allowed himself to be pulled out the diner door and across the street. He struggled a little to slow the man’s progress, hoping to buy enough time for someone to see, or the guys to get there. It didn’t work, Junior dragged Alex down to the basement where he saw Sam Digrossi bent over and messing with something.

  ***

  “Take this card and go to the hotel, tell the men there you need to see Mr. Riley, he will help. We will make sure you have money to live on,” Calli said and pushed the woman out of the apartment and said urgently, “Hurry.”

  The woman nodded and ran down the stairs. Calli stepped back into the room. “Still no names, we won’t be able to tell anyone how we found the baby.”

  “I don’t care,” Lily said, standing over the sleeping baby. “We need to get Alex and get the hell out of here.”

  Jazz pulled her gun out of the back of her waist and Calli did the same. “We will get Alex, you get the baby ready to go.”

  Lily nodded and watched her two friends walk out of the room. She looked around, there wasn’t much, but there was some stuff to tide them over until they could get to the hotel. Formula, diapers, and a couple of changes of clothes. She looked for a diaper bag and finally found one in the bedroom. Wow, they had really had nothing, she thought, and then paused and ran for the living room. Fire Alarm? Was that a shot?

  The baby began to cry.

  ***

  Calli and Jazz walked out of the room and stayed against the wall so Junior and Sam wouldn’t be able to see them unless they were on the same floor. They held
their guns like the guys trained them to and edged around the stairwell, Jazz let out a deep breath when no one was there.

  “What about the people in the apartments?” Jazz whispered and Calli said, “Shit.”

  They paused and Calli knocked on a door, when a younger man answered the door looking disheveled, as if he was sleeping, Calli said, “NYPD, evacuate the building.”

  “What? Where is your badge?” the man said suspiciously.

  “Right here,” Calli said, holding up her gun while the man’s eyes widened. “I don’t have time for this, get your neighbors out.”

  Jazz laughed, reached behind her, and pulled the fire alarm down.

  “Bitch,” Calli chuckled a little and shook her head. She put her finger to her mouth to let Jazz know they should be quiet. DUH! Jazz thought and then edged to the stairs, one floor at a time they made it until they were on the bottom floor. People had run out quickly, at least the alarm worked.

  They could hear Junior yelling at Sam and they moved closer, the brothers were in the maintenance room. The door stood open as they began to exit, Junior pushed Alex out of the room suddenly and Alex saw the girls and their raised guns and hit the floor and put his hands over his head.

  “What the fuck?” Junior yelled and then saw the guns and jumped backward. Calli shot the gun and it hit the doorjamb of the room.

  “Alex, get up and run,” Jazz yelled and fired quickly as the young boy scrambled on his hands and knees for the stairs. “Get out, call 911.”