The front door squeaked as Doug made his way into the living room. He flipped on the lights to reveal the upstairs loft area and the bed in the space which looked awkwardly out of place. Desmond carefully made his way up the stairs to investigate and when he arrived at the top, the bed was empty, however the covers were wrinkled, and didn’t have to lean in close to smell the familiar light hint of coconut of Larke’s hair.
He made his way back down the steps and nodded to let Doug know that she’d been there.
They continued to search the house, Doug flanking him as they pulled open closets and peered around corners, until they came upon a long corridor that led down the middle of the cabin to where the bedrooms were located. As they entered the narrow hallway, an agent emerged from an open bedroom door with both hands firmly grasping a shotgun. As he drew back on the pump, Desmond and Doug retreated and took cover. Bullets ricocheted off the stone surrounding the fireplace, the marble on the kitchen countertop, and exploded against the thick wooden walls.
Desmond silently counted the rounds. When he heard the agent pause to reload, both he and Doug fired, and the agent crumpled to the floor. Only a beat passed before a second agent, one that they recognized from the safe house as Michael Vargas, entered through the front door firing a standard issue glock. Doug fired multiple rounds at Michael to keep his attention trained on him while Desmond fired from a different direction, hitting him the chest and wrist. He fell to the floor and Desmond ran over to press his shoe into the wound.
“Where’s he keeping her?” He demanded. Michael’s face turned beet red as he cringed in pain, but he offered no response. Desmond ground his foot in deeper.
“Really? You don’t think I’ll kill you?”
The sound of a gunshot in the air caused both he and Doug to turn back towards the corridor. Eddie was standing there with Dr. Lindholm, Gano, who was sporting an arrogant smile, and a very healthy looking William.
Desmond followed the length of Eddie’s arm to a rope that he gripped in his hand, and Eddie stepped to the side to reveal Larke on the floor with the rope fastened around her neck. Relief flowed through Desmond when he saw that she was alive, however, his relief was replaced by anger when he noticed that she’d been badly beaten. There were fresh bruises to her face and the area around her left eye was swollen. Her knuckles were crimson and her hands bled from grasping the rope to stop it from cutting into her neck. There were scratches along her legs from where she’d most likely been dragged across the floor, and he had also stuffed one of those same foam rubber balls in her mouth.
William lowered the gun from the air and pointed it at Larke’s head.
“She has a mouth on her,” Eddie began. “She was driving me crazy. I hit her, she didn’t shut up. I tied the rope around her neck, she didn’t shut up. Finally, I just had enough. Did she talk you to death during the time you lived together?”
Desmond clenched his jaw.
“Cat has your tongue?” Eddie goaded. Then he pointed at the floor. “Drop your weapons. I was not planning to kill her here, but I am not completely against it either.”
Doug and Desmond hesitated, and Eddie tugged on the rope which caused Larke to squirm on the floor. He continued to squeeze until both men had placed their weapons on the floor and kicked them out of arm’s reach.
“We finally meet,” Eddie began, his eyes locked with Desmond’s. “Imagine my surprise when I find out that the men Delgano had hired couldn’t complete a simple task such as abducting a stupid woman.”
He held up the rope. “She is practically weightless!”
Doug held Eddie’s gaze while Desmond kept his eyes on Larke.
“And for her to be able to elude Gano,” he tsked, “I knew that something was wrong. Delgano thought that it was a fluke at first, but I knew better. I always know better.”
He handed the rope to Gano who gave it another squeeze. Eddie watched with a slight grin on his face as Larke wriggled on the floor. Eons seemed to pass before he held up his hand to tell Gano to stop. When Gano released the tension on the rope, she stopped squirming and lay completely still on the floor with her eyes closed. Her only sign of life was the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
Desmond’s muscles contracted to move forward, but he willed himself to remain in place. Although he knew that Eddie wasn’t going to kill Larke because doing so would cause him to lose his bargaining chip, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t make it as painful as possible for her in the meantime.
When he’d seemingly had his fill, Eddie turned back to the men. “But she is something, isn’t she? I was just telling her how fascinating she is. Even like this, she still does not fear me. Death maybe, but not me.”
He motioned to the doctor who retrieved a bar stool from the kitchen counter for him to sit on. He then sat ramrod straight on the bar stool and placed his hands on his thighs. “First of all, Larke will die here tonight. I’ve changed my mind. I need you to understand that if it weren’t for you, she would have had at least another one to two years of life.”
He then leaned forward as though expecting a response from Desmond. When he didn’t hear one, he snapped his fingers and Gano began to tug at the rope again.
“Do-you-understand?” He growled.
“I…understand,” Desmond forced between clenched teeth. Eddie snapped his fingers again and Gano stopped tugging. He then waved his hand towards Desmond.
“So, you are a Navy SEAL,” he said. “That is very interesting. Tell me, what made you decide that your life was worth that of a country that did nothing for you?”
Desmond unclenched his jaw. “And what makes you think that this country did nothing for me?”
Eddie’s eyes brightened. “I feel like we have a story coming on.”
“Ask him what part of Jamaica he’s from,” Gano called out.
Eddie waved away his words and went back to his stick straight position on the barstool. Desmond could feel the man’s stare affixed to his face, but he refused to take his eyes away from Larke. All he needed was one mistake and he’d be across the room in seconds to snap William’s neck, regardless of how many bullets he would take in the process.
“My father was a tyrant,” Desmond began, gaze unwavering. “Domineering. Authoritarian. He was the kind of man that you never questioned. Whatever he said was law.”
Eddie smiled as he scratched his jaw. “Sounds like a man after my own heart.”
“I’m beginning to realize that,” Desmond replied with a scoff. “You see, my father was a ship captain for a major cruise line. Eventually, he met my mother and moved her over to St. Andrew. Bought a big white house. It was kind of ostentatious if you asked me.”
Desmond glanced at him briefly to see if he’d made the connection, but Eddie just continued to stare at him as though completely engrossed in the story.
“This country gave both me and my mother somewhere to escape to. My father was an evil man and it wasn’t until tonight and talking to Gano that I realized exactly how evil he truly had been.”
Eddie’s eyes flicked over to Gano. “What is he talking about?”
“I think you knew my father,” Desmond continued, on a hunch. Based on Gano’s line of questioning, he realized that Gano knew exactly who his father had been. Therefore, Eddie probably knew too.
“And I think I finally understand that I am nothing like him, nor will I ever be anything like him, mainly because you’re sitting over there holding an innocent woman hostage, while I’m over here trying to save her life.”
Eddie swiveled to give Gano his attention. Gano gripped the rope tighter in his hand.
“Eddie, do you remember when you were about eleven and Mr. George was telling us a story about the man Delroy Harding? The one who they said beat his wife so badly that she ran off to the States to get away from him?”
Slowly, Eddie turned back to face him, his face exuding pure contempt. He rose from the bar stool and clenched his hands at his sides, the veins in his biceps th
robbing. He studied Desmond’s face and was instantly transported back to that day, standing outside that wrought iron fence. He remembered the woman that his mother had been talking to, and then the man that had pulled into the stone driveway. How could he have not seen it before? They had the same dark eyes. The exact same bone structure. The same height. The same build. How couldn’t he have seen it before? How could he have been so foolish? All this time he’d been trained on exacting revenge on Larke for what she’d tried to do, and it turned out that fate was just using her to bring the ultimate prize to his doorstep. What better revenge would it be to kill the only offspring of the man that had killed his mother?
“You’re his seed,” he spat. “You are the filthy seed of that murderous, soulless, vile example of a human being.”
Desmond didn’t respond.
“The first time I ever saw him was the last time I saw my mother,” Eddie continued. “To this day, her body was never recovered because no one knows where the steaming piece of shit you call a father buried her.”
Eddie grabbed the rope from Gano and pulled vigorously on it, slicing an even deeper gash into Larke’s palms as she shrieked out in pain. He then turned to Desmond and watched the way he seethed with anger and cringed as though the rope had been slicing into his own flesh. That was when he realized that killing Larke was still the best recourse.
He would show Desmond that no matter how hard he tried, he was still going to fail at protecting her. And, he could think of no disappointment greater than failure for a former US Navy SEAL. Especially when that person was the Navy man’s own beloved wife.
“Damn it, just stop,” Desmond shouted, no longer able to restrain himself as he watched rivulets of tears roll down Larke’s cheek. Eddie handed the rope back to Gano, pulled a gun from behind his back, and pointed it towards Desmond. Then, he barked his order at William.
“Kill her.”
Desmond no longer cared. Eddie could shoot him wherever he pleased, but there was no way that he was going to watch Larke’s execution right in front of him. Not after everything that they’d been through. Not with everything she meant to him.
As he started to lunge forward, he felt the whiz of a bullet pass his ear and land in William’s chest. The bullet made contact before they heard the glass break behind them, and two shots followed just as quickly as the first. Stunned, William looked down at the blood pooling on his shirt before collapsing to the floor.
After the third shot landed, Desmond lunged towards Gano, knocking him off of his feet and the rope from his hand. Gano stumbled backwards into the kitchen and Desmond crouched over Larke and began to unwrap the rope from her neck. Doug pulled a gun from an ankle holster and fired in Eddie’s direction while more bullets flew through the window from outside, sending debris flying into the air. A piece of a porcelain vase hit Dr. Lindholm in the head and he fell to the floor, unconscious.
Eddie scrambled behind the kitchen counter and fired shots over the top of the counter, ducking as Doug fired back. Desmond pulled the rope from Larke’s neck and placed his hands on either side of her face. Although she was still breathing, her eyes were closed.
“Larke,” he called, but his attempt was short-lived as Gano pounced on him from behind. He rolled to the side so that they wouldn’t fall on Larke’s body, while Gano wrapped his legs around his midsection, and an elbow around Desmond’s neck. Unfortunately, Gano hadn’t looked up Desmond’s history as Desmond had previously hoped.
A backhanded fist went flying into Gano’s face, and his grip slackened enough for Desmond to force an elbow into his jaw before climbing to his feet. He then landed three quick blows to Gano’s face before pulling him up to stand. Gano used his size to try to push Desmond into the wall, but Desmond looped his foot through Gano’s and forced him to the floor. Gano then flipped over onto his stomach and attempted to stand on his own, but Desmond placed a blow to the back of his neck, and he fell back to the floor where he lay motionless.
Desmond moved back over to Larke but heard a loud curse behind him. He turned and saw Doug holding his stomach, a blood stain increasing in size between his fingers.
“Doug, are you okay?” He called after him.
“Yeah man,” Doug groaned. “It’s just a flesh wound.”
The entire room seemed to slow as Eddie watched Desmond poise over Larke to pick her up from the floor. If this was the end, then there was no way that he was going to die before she did. Desmond’s partner had been shot and was out of commission, and he knew that the men shooting from outside were only a few minutes away from storming in. Therefore, he only had a few minutes to complete his task.
He tucked the gun in his waistband and charged after Desmond. His momentum didn’t cease as he made contact, and they both slid across the room a few feet away from where Larke was laying. Eddie reached for the nearest object he could find—a lamp that had been sitting on an end table—and aimed it for Desmond’s skull. Desmond jerked away at the last moment and the lamp crashed into his shoulder instead, firmly lodging pieces of porcelain into his skin.
Eddie swung again with the bare lamp pipe, concentrating the blows on Desmond’s left forearm. Desmond groaned in pain, but mentally followed the rhythm of Eddie’s strikes. When Eddie lifted his arm to bring the pipe down again, he used the back of his right forearm to block the attempt, then grabbed the pole with his left hand. Eddie forced his weight down on the pole towards Desmond’s neck, but Desmond pushed back until he was able to knock Eddie off balance. As Eddie stumbled backwards, Desmond released his fist into the man’s jaw, and as Eddie continued to move backwards, his fist continued to land. After everything that this man had put them through, he had him exactly where he wanted him. Eddie had used money as his source of power, but when it came down to hand-to-hand combat, he could barely defend himself. It was exactly what Desmond had wanted—for Eddie to finally realize how powerless he truly had been.
Eddie fell motionless to the floor, but Desmond’s fists continued to land until somewhere in the distance, he heard Doug’s voice calling out to him. He turned and Doug nodded towards Larke whose eyes were twitching. Desmond let Eddie’s head thud against the floor and went over to her, calling her name once more. When she opened her eyes and saw him kneeling over her, she’d thought for sure that Eddie had already killed her. It only made sense that Desmond would be at the center of her heaven.
“Des?” She managed to squeeze out, the metallic taste of blood flooding her mouth.
“Yeah, it’s me,” he soothed. “It’s Des. I’m here.”
Larke eased up and threw her arms around him, ignoring the throbbing pain that coursed throughout her entire body. She closed her eyes and took in his firmness and his realness, then squeezed him as tightly as she could to verify that he truly was there with her in the middle of the anarchy that had defined her life for the past few months. As long as he was around, she realized, he would let no harm come to her. The circumstances didn’t matter. All he had to do was just be there.
When she opened her eyes, she felt as though her heart had plummeted from its cavity. Eddie’s head was slightly raised from the floor, and a trembling hand pulled a hidden gun from his waistband. He aimed it at Desmond’s back and without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
Chapter Fifteen
Desmond felt the familiar trickle of thick, warm moisture. He tilted his head to look around the room, realizing for the first time that he was easing up from the floor with his arms still wrapped around Larke’s body. He then glanced over to where Eddie was laying and noticed the gun in his hand. From across the room, Doug, propped up on an elbow, aimed in Eddie’s direction. Suddenly, Gano stirred and climbed slowly to his knees, commandeering Doug’s attention. Gano searched until he spotted the gun lying next to William’s lifeless body and lunged for it, but Doug released two slugs in his direction before he could reach it. As he slumped to the floor, Eddie’s eyes glazed over in shock, realizing for the first time that it was all over.
He pulled back on the trigger of the pistol, but the click that resonated indicated that the chamber had been emptied. Desmond’s eyes narrowed into angry slits, and he made eye contact with Eddie one last time before pulling out a knife and launching it towards Eddie’s chest. As the knife penetrated, the gun lazily fell from Eddie’s fingers and his head hit the wooden floor, this time remaining permanently motionless.
Desmond finally registered the moisture seeping over his hand. There, in between his fingers across Larke’s back, was where Eddie’s final shot had landed.
A quiet gasp escaped from her lips as pain began to engulf her body and blood pooled on the oversized shirt she wore. This was no flesh wound. Larke had taken the bullet to her upper back and there was a good chance it had lodged itself in her left lung. It was an injury that he had seen many times. Soon, she would begin to aspire on her own blood and without medical assistance, she could die. Larke could die.
“Baby,” he finally managed.
Pressing his fingers into her back, the scene blurred as his eyes clouded. “We need some help in here,” he yelled towards the open front door. “We need some help in here right now.”
“Des,” Larke groaned.
“No,” he answered more gruffly than he’d intended. “Don’t talk. They’re coming.”
She touched a hand to the side of his face. “It’s okay, Des. I can go. You can let me go.”
Desmond squeezed his lids and clenched his teeth. “Never, baby. Just…just be quiet. Don’t talk anymore. Hang on. They’re coming.”
“Until death do us part, Des,” she continued.
He pressed his fingers even harder to try to slow the bleeding. “Not like this. Not this way. This was our second chance, baby.”
In Love and Rescue: When love is the perfect rescue... Page 23
