Chase

by Sidney Bristol

“Gabe—”

  “I have a hunch.”

  She stared at him, and he could feel the inner war. There was something to be said for an agent’s hunches. They were what kept him alive in the thick of it and gave him that added edge. This time it said the kids were here.

  “What do you want to do?” she asked.

  “Go in.” He pulled a set of slim rods from his pocket. He’d grabbed them earlier just in case they needed to actually break into the first house.

  “Shit. We don’t know they’re in there.”

  Headlights turned into the drive, slicing through the spaces between the boards. Nikki must have shut the gate, which was good for them.

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner of the house, listening to the idling of a car. From the whine of the engine, he was willing to bet it wasn’t the best-maintained set of wheels on the block. The headlights were too low for an SUV or truck, so it had to be a car. Probably something common, with four doors and a large trunk.

  The engine died and he held his breath. The car door clicked and creaked open. Older model, then, probably easier to transport people in the trunk. Some of the older land-shark cars could fit up to four bodies in them. He’d seen a few do just that in his time. The car door closed and a single set of footsteps scuffed the concrete up to the garage. The hum of the automatic opener broke the stillness.

  “Stay here.” He crossed the yard to the gate and pressed his back to the boards, peering between the slats.

  The garage door stopped halfway up and a woman ducked under it. He had the impression of dark hair, a glittery top, and long legs before she was gone.

  Gabriel opened the wooden gate, drew his gun, and ducked, going to a knee and sliding under the garage door as it closed. The dim garage held stacks of something.

  A cardboard box crashed into him. It was light, but the sudden impact tipped him back. He swept out with his foot, knocking the woman off her feet. He lunged, putting a knee in her chest as she landed on the concrete and setting the gun against her cheek.

  “Don’t you fucking move,” he said. “Isabella?”

  “Vete al carajo.”

  “También hablo español, Isabella.” The words flowed from him, faster than English. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm behind her back, then rose, hauling her up by force. Isabella cried out, no doubt experiencing a little discomfort. He didn’t have a lot of pity for a woman who helped kidnap and hold children.

  “I won’t say anything.” She turned her head a bit, glaring at him.

  “That’s fine. I’m guessing the people you helped kidnap and hold here will be willing to do all the talking.” They’d probably bury Isabella, and he’d give them a shovel to do it, too.

  The interior door to the house banged open. Gabriel tensed—except it was Nikki, gun up. He ground his teeth. He’d tell her to stay put if he thought she’d listen.

  “What the hell?” She relaxed a bit and switched her focus to Isabella. “That her?”

  “Think so. Lights?”

  Nikki patted the wall. A switch clicked and halogen lights flickered on, buzzing as they filled the packed space with harsh light.

  “Oh my God.” Nikki lurched down the three steps to the garage floor, her attention on something behind the boxes.

  “What?” he barked, not liking to be left out. He pushed Isabella forward. “Move.”

  She shuffled to the back of the garage where he could see Nikki kneeling next to a woman handcuffed to the wall of the garage. The boxes around her were broken and beaten in. Dry blood flaked off the side of her face, and her clothes had seen better days.

  “She alive?” he asked.

  “Yes. We need paramedics. Something.” Nikki held her fingers on the woman’s pulse for several moments.

  “Give me your handcuffs.”

  Nikki pulled her handcuffs out of the messenger bag that had become part of her. They should think about a better method to carry her gear. He was getting the point of how impractical the shorts were, but he was biased. There’d never been a better view than Nikki in those shorts.

  He relaxed a tiny bit once Isabella sported the new hardware around her wrists.

  “We know where Matt is? What’s the house look like?” he asked.

  “My guess is she’s dealing meth out of here. Lots of paraphernalia. Want me to call Matt?” Nikki rocked back on her heels and looked up at him.

  “Yes. Isabella and I are going to have a look around the house.”

  “I’m coming with you.” She wedged the phone between her head and shoulder while getting to her feet. “Hey, Matt. Any chance you’re here? . . . You are? We’re three houses down. There’s a Buick in the driveway. Knock on the garage.”

  “Please tell me he didn’t bring anyone with him.” He could see it now, the whole op thrown off the rails by the cops horning in on their action.

  “No, just him, unmarked vehicle.”

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  “It’s me.” Matt’s voice was muffled by the garage, but clearly distinguishable.

  Nikki crossed to the switches and toggled the garage door open.

  Matt ducked under the door, gun in hand. He glanced around the space, taking in the disheveled boxes and the handcuffed woman glaring at them all.

  “Shit. What did you do?” He eyed Isabella.

  “Grabbed the competition. Hold her, will you? We need to sweep the house.” Gabriel gave Isabella a little shove, propelling her toward the detective. “There’s one down over against the wall. She’s out cold. I’m guessing someone did a number on the woman.”

  He glared at Isabella, who stared at the wall, nose up. She might have been an attractive woman, but all he saw was a disgusting, vile person who had no qualms about terrifying innocent children.

  “You got this?” he asked Matt.

  “Yeah. Go on.” Matt took out a second set of cuffs and hauled Isabella over to the wall.

  “Come on, Nikki.”

  “Already ahead of you.”

  “What the hell? How did you get in so fast?” Last he knew, lock picking wasn’t a skill of hers.

  “She had one of those plastic stones. You know the ones you hide keys in? I just let myself in. She didn’t wedge that bar in place well enough.” Nikki lifted her pistol and walked slowly ahead of him, down the hall back into a sitting area, dining room, and kitchen combination.

  The table was covered in plastic with little bits of something here and there. The scent of acetone hung thick in the air.

  “Shit. Their meth must not be good quality. That shit reeks.” He swiped the back of his hand across his face.

  “Something tells me they don’t care.” Nikki aimed her gun through the open archway into the rest of the house.

  “She doesn’t have backup here. If she did, they’d have jumped us by now.” He flipped on the lights, but kept his gun out and ready.

  “The room is back that way.” She gestured to a hall they could now see across the living room.

  “Let me go first.” He stepped in front of her and advanced toward the hall. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and that same sense of foreboding weighed in his gut.

  He wasn’t going to like what they found on the other side of that door.

  “Lights,” Nikki said softly.

  He nodded.

  The overhead fan spun to life, shedding illumination from a single bulb. The house must have been as pretty as the outside once, but the inside was squalor. Trash parked on top of trash. Old pizza boxes. It was, in a word, disgusting.

  He walked slowly down the hall, eyes drawn to the door with multiple locks and a chain securing it shut.

  Isabella deserved the worst kind of retribution.

  “Don’t suppose there’s a plastic stone for these keys.” He opened the last two rooms to ensure there weren’t any surprises and almost retched. The second room smelled of old sweat and sex, while something must have been left to rot in the third.

  “God, that’s di
sgusting.” Nikki coughed.

  He closed both doors and returned to the first, holstering his gun and drawing the lock picks back out of his pocket.

  “Keep a watch out. We don’t know if she has friends nearby,” he said. It wasn’t unreasonable that another house on the block might house security for this one.

  Nikki kept her back to the wall, standing so that she could see the living room and him at the same time. Everything about her posture said she was in control. Damn, it was sexy.

  “What happened to just having a look around?” Nikki frowned, but kept her eyes peeled.

  “I saw an opportunity to grab her and I went for it.”

  He fit the picks in the locks and let his awareness shift to the feel of the tumblers against his fingers, the way all the little mechanisms fit together. The first padlock opened and he moved on to the next. Three locks and a chain secured the door. It wasn’t even an interior door. Someone had custom-fit an exterior door into the frame. They’d probably thought it was enough.

  “Ready?” he said low.

  “Yup.” Nikki pivoted, directing her gun toward the door.

  He knocked on the metal surface.

  “FBI, back away from the door.” Nikki pitched her voice so it carried.

  Muffled sounds inside the room had his gut clenching. What kind of conditions were these kids living in?

  He pushed the door into the room and held back, ready to throw himself in front of Nikki if the prisoners were violent. Who knew what living like this had done to them?

  A lamp cast light on two women huddled against the wall, next to the window. Four children clustered around and behind them. They were dirty, and from the stench, he was willing to bet they hadn’t had facilities or a shower in a while.

  “Becky? Becky Silva?” Nikki still had her weapon up.

  A little girl with dark eyes and blond hair peeked out from around the women. She was the smallest child by far, and her hair had the same wild curling quality as the woman’s in the garage.

  “Becky, you’re safe.” Nikki lowered her gun. She tilted her head slightly toward him. “We need to call this in.”

  “Come out, guys. We’re going to get you help.” He stepped into the room and the children shied away from him. What the hell had Isabella done to them?

  “How do we know you’re really FBI?” a Hispanic woman asked. The oldest child could have been her doppelganger.

  “Would you like to see my badge? We’re not going to hurt you.” Nikki reached into her bag and pulled out the slim wallet that contained her credentials. “I’m Supervisory Special Agent Nikki Gage. What’s your name?”

  “Where’s my mom?” Becky asked. She thrust her chin forward, and damn, but he could see Nico in her already.

  “She’s with a friend. He’s helping her,” Nikki replied.

  “I want to see her,” Becky demanded.

  “I’ll take you to her.” Nikki held out the badge for the woman to look at.

  “Do you have an ID card?” The woman barely glanced at the paper.

  “I do. That’s smart to ask for the badge and ID.” Nikki slid the card out from behind the badge and held them up. “We can call the local office, too. We came to investigate a tip thanks to Nico.”

  “He’s working for them,” the woman snapped.

  “He’s also working with us.” Nikki’s entire focus was on the room of hostages. She exuded security, calmness, and comfort. He couldn’t handle the situation with the same kind of grace, so he stepped back and let her lead.

  “I want to see Sarah,” the woman demanded, yet there were notes of fear in her voice.

  “Okay, follow us.”

  Nikki turned and walked slowly back the way they’d come from the garage. Gabriel followed, though he didn’t like having anyone at his back. These people had lived for God only knew how long in this environment. Who knew what they’d do? Hostages weren’t his strong point. More often than not, the people he hoped to save were already dead by the time he arrived, so he’d have to trust Nikki. He was just glad they were all alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nikki finished wiping down the kitchen counters, or at least enough to satisfy her need for order for now. The whole house needed bleaching after what had happened here.

  The three women and four kids sat around the dining table that had held Isabella’s current inventory of meth all of an hour ago. They ate cereal and drank juice, their gazes darting around, as if they suspected someone to shove them back into the prisonlike room.

  They’d kept Isabella out in the garage, away from her former prisoners, to help keep them calm. Isabella still wasn’t talking, and Nikki didn’t expect her to. There wasn’t any reason to offer her a deal unless she couldn’t help it, and after what she’d seen of the room, Nikki didn’t want to offer her a deal.

  Gabriel stepped into the doorway, and for half a second all movement ceased. He’d passed some test and everyone continued on with what they were doing with barely a beat missed.

  “We need to talk,” he said, looking at her.

  Nikki crossed the floor to him. Mari, a Hispanic woman, pushed to her feet, glaring at them. Her husband, also former military, was a city engineer. Gabriel merely turned and walked into the living room. Nikki let Mari go first, unsure including her was the right idea, but she’d made it impossible to leave her out.

  “What is it?” Mari asked, keeping her voice low.

  “You aren’t going to like it.” Gabriel placed his hands on his hips and glanced at the floor.

  “Me, or Mari?” Nikki asked.

  “Neither of you are going to like it. Hell, I don’t like it.”

  “Tell me,” Mari said.

  Gabriel screwed his lips up in a grimace. “My boss is headed here. He thinks our best bet to lure the man who had you kidnapped back here will be to keep you and your kids here.” Gabriel grimaced.

  Mari’s eyes widened and she jabbed a finger in Gabriel’s chest. “What? Stay in this place?”

  “I know, I know. I want you out of here, too, but let me explain?” He pushed her hand aside.

  Nikki tamped down on the urge to push the woman back, off her man. It was a completely irrational thought, but it was stuck in her head. Another thing to figure out how to handle if they were going to continue to work together.

  “Wilson rewards your husband for doing what he’s been asked to do by calling here and getting Isabella to let you out long enough to talk on the phone for a few minutes. If Wilson can’t get a hold of Isabella or you, then he’ll know we’ve been here. Aiden wants to clean this place up and set up here with you, then man the phones to keep Wilson in the dark while we catch him unawares. I realize it’s a scary plan, but it’s the best we have right now.”

  “You’ve been through so much. We realize this is a lot to ask of you, but at most, we’re talking about a day or two.” Okay, so Nikki didn’t know that for sure, but that was what she was hoping for.

  “What if they come here?” Mari asked.

  “Have they before?” Gabriel asked.

  “No. Just the junkies.” Mari glanced away, clearly not on board with the plan.

  “It would help us put an end to this,” Nikki said.

  “Fine. I will talk the others into it. But—I get a gun. I have a license. My husband made sure I knew how to shoot. I don’t want to be unprotected again.”

  “I’ll see what we can do.” Nikki didn’t like it, but it would be many sleepless nights before these people were able to rest in peace without waking at the threat of shadows, much less real danger. Besides, Mari had only asked for a gun. Not the bullets.

  Gabriel grimaced but didn’t protest her decision.

  “Let’s talk to the others, then?” Nikki gestured at the dining table. Already a little soap and water had improved the morale. The kids chattered and women talked.

  Matt stepped into view from the garage. He’d stayed with Isabella on the off chance she’d start to talk.

&nbs
p; “Anything?” Gabriel asked.

  “Nothing.” Matt shook his head.

  “Come on, we’re going to have a chat.” Nikki ushered them all into the dining nook and took a seat.

  Matt and Gabriel remained standing, but leaned against the cabinets, doing their best to appear nonthreatening.

  “I’ve agreed to stay here, to help trick Isabella’s people into believing we are still captured.” Mari laid her hands against the table top.

  “What?” Sarah stared at her.

  “We will have an FBI agent in the house,” Nikki added.

  “And there will be an increased police presence,” Matt chimed in, jumping onto the plan with zero information.

  “You can’t be serious,” Sarah said.

  “I am. And you should be, too. If we don’t do this, if they find out we escaped, you think they’ll just let us go? We help them. We end this. Then we move on.” Mari spoke with authority. She might have never been enlisted like her husband, but the woman had the knack for command.

  “That’s easy for you to say. It’s your husband out there.” Sarah leaned forward.

  “Watch what you say,” Mari warned and glanced at Becky.

  Nikki leaned forward, drawing both women’s gazes. “Sarah, this is a hard situation and it’s tough to understand, but I get where you’re at.” Nikki clasped her hands in front of her, steeling herself for the sharing of personal details. Sharing wasn’t her strong point, but she’d learned from watching Gabriel and the truly great agents that sometimes the personal connection made all the difference. “It’s not fair that because of Nico, you’re put in danger. I get that. I really do.”

  “How could you?” Sarah rolled her eyes, on the verge of tears.

  “My dad made enemies. He makes them simply by doing his job. I grew up in a fishbowl, always watched, always protected in case someone who wanted to get back at him came for me. It’s not an easy way to live, am I right?” She paused until the women had nodded. “You can walk out of here now and try to put this behind you. Wilson may decide tracking you down is too much trouble. Or he may come after you.” She glanced at Becky, sitting at her mother’s side, back straight and a spoon clenched in her hand. This experience would change her forever, but Becky was a tough kid.