Dirty Dealers

by Tia Louise

  I wish I had asked that question first. I would’ve taken another route. “Any clue where they were headed?”

  “None, but we have the signal. I will find her.”

  “Does Rowan know what’s happening?” I’ve finally reached the outskirts of the city, and I’m turning my motorcycle north into the hills leading to the cliffs.

  “I wanted to tell him in person.”

  So he can kill you, I muse. Shaking that thought away, I push on. “Let the king know I’m tracking them. As soon as you’ve found her, report their movements to me.”

  “Her Vespa went over the cliff. She wasn’t on it. Neither of them was, but at the Col de Guerre, the SUVs split up. They went in three different directions.”

  “This is why we have a tracking device. I need you to hurry. I’m at the bluffs.”

  “I’m at the palace now.”

  I lean into the wind as the bike climbs higher into the mountains. The air is heavy with rain, but I won’t let it stop me. I only wish I had a car. So many choices would be different in hindsight. I can only push through the regrets and focus on finding them before Blix does anything lethal.

  I reach the Route de la Turbie and follow the Boulevard d’Italie into the higher elevations. I can pick up speed on the straight ways, but when I reach the hairpin curves, I have to drop my speed all the way to a crawl. Otherwise, I risk going over the cliff along with Ava’s Vespa.

  Deep green trees surround the road the higher I go. I’m in the high altitudes, but deep in the forest. As more time passes, I get further away from signs of life. Still, I’m making progress. Between the speeding up and slowing down, my arms are weary, and it feels like I’ve been out here for hours. The sun is overhead but still behind a dense layer of clouds, and I’m starting to wonder where the hell Freddie is. I’m ready to pull the bike off to the side and check the app myself, when my earpiece crackles to life.

  “Logan—you there?”

  I barely resist the urge to shout at him. “Of course, I’m here. What’s taken so long?”

  “I don’t know if it’s the altitude or if he has her inside a steel container. It took some time to locate her signal.”

  “Am I headed in the right direction?” I don’t have time for explanations or technical details.

  “You’re close. Slow down and look for a road to Roquebrune. You’ll follow a tunnel straight through the hillside.”

  I’m not far from the turnoff, and I know the tunnel well. “Roquebrune isn’t large enough to hide them.” The medieval village is perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea. “I was here two years ago for the tennis masters. Ava will be recognized at once.”

  “You’re not going to Roquebrune.”

  I’m trying to understand. “Is he taking them to Italy?”

  “Tell me when you’re through the tunnel.”

  The road is straight here, and I’m way over the speed limit. “I’m approaching it now.” A bit further, and I’m plunged into darkness. The road curves, but it doesn’t take long for my eyes to adjust.

  “Once you’re out, look for the first road headed east. It comes up quick.”

  The tunnel is less than a mile long, and I can see the white opening rising ahead. I can’t help it, I open the throttle even more until I’m devouring the distance. I’ve got to make up for lost time. If Blix is planning to leave the country, he’s got an enormous head start.

  Rain hits me in the face when I shoot out on the opposite end of the underground passageway.

  “Shit,” I hiss, flipping the visor down over my eyes. I’m thankful for my leather jacket, but the stinging drops hit my exposed skin like pellets from a gun. “How much further,” I ask.

  “Did you find the road? It’s unmarked.”

  I ease off the throttle straining my eyes for the road. Trees pass. A cutoff fools me at first. I’m about to pick up the pace when I see it. Hidden in the trees, a very narrow dirt road. Tree limbs hang low over the entrance, and it’s dark and undisturbed.

  “I’ve found something, but it doesn’t appear to have been used in ages.”

  “That’s it. Take it.”

  Without question, I turn the wheel sharply, thankful for the shelter of the trees against the storm. The rain is picking up, but the canopy overhead makes it easier for me to go fast.

  The road isn’t winding. It’s a straight shot east and somewhat south, in the direction of the sea, only at a higher altitude. I have no idea what I’m looking for.

  “Will it dead end?” I ask my remote guide.

  “No, but on the satellite image, I see a stone structure. It’s ancient, and it’s in an open location.”

  I’m about to ask more questions when the trees part, and I zoom into a clearing. Letting off the gas, I hit the breaks so hard, the back wheel skids to the side. My boots are down, and I’m able to brace the bike and catch my balance. In the center of the clearing is an enormous stone windmill—or what’s left of one.

  It’s tall, wider at the base and rising to a narrow top, which is broken and missing. The wooden arms of the mill are rotted away, and only one remains at its full length. I can only hope the thunder masked the noise of my engine. I kill it and roll back into the low-hanging trees to hide and have shelter.

  “What’s happening here,” I say, scanning the perimeter, looking for any signs of life.

  “It’s where Kass’s signal is coming from.”

  Dread filters through my chest like acid. This place is grey and deserted. No cars, no lights, no signs of anyone. It could be the rain making it appear empty… or it could be something worse.

  “I’m going in.” I rip the helmet off my head and check the pistol in my back holster. Safety off. The knife in my boot is backup.

  Clinging to the tree line, I make my way around the clearing, looking for any signs of guards or spies. I don’t see cameras. I don’t see anything.

  “I don’t like this at all,” I mutter.

  I decide not to waste any more time. I dart across the open space, glancing over my shoulder to be sure no one’s closed in behind me. Nothing is there. The opening is much shorter than I am and curved. The white stone is stained, and the words Pinot and Sicilia are scratched in the surface.

  Ducking into the narrow space, it opens at once to the large interior. Rough hewn blocks are exposed where the plaster has worn away, and it extends straight up to the broken ceiling. It’s dark, and drops of rain fall to greater and lesser degrees all around me. I see the giant gear near the ceiling with a thick metal post extending down to another giant gear. The grinding mechanism at least is intact, even if the means of running it is gone.

  “It’s empty,” I whisper. “No one is here.”

  “Impossible,” Freddie’s voice is equally quiet in my ear, as if he’s looking through my eyes at this abandoned edifice.

  Should I call her name? My boots make a shushing noise on the sandy floor. Little bits of gravel crunch with my steps. “There’s got to be a mistake…”

  Then I see it. Near the floor at the back wall is a small, black rectangle. The frame is painted aqua blue, and all around it is rotten wood and decay. My stomach tightens. Reaching around to my back, I pull out my gun, holding it right at my face as I carefully pick my way through the mill.

  “I’m approaching a tiny room,” I whisper.

  It’s completely dark inside except for white light filtering in through a narrow opening. Fumbling at my coat pocket, I take out my phone and switch on the camera light. Dust motes dance in the beam cutting through the darkness. It smells like mildew and musty earth. My throat stings, but I fight a cough.

  The light only allows me to see a small circle wherever it hits in this space. Tension creeps up my shoulders when it hits a small, metal card table. Water puddles around it, and my eyes land on what looks like an electrical cord.

  What appears to be the broken blade of a knife reflects the light back at me, hurting my eyes. I take a step forward, my heart beating faster. />
  “What is this?” I whisper, going to what appears to be a wooden desk against the far wall.

  I’m breathing fast as I approach. A sheet of white paper is pinned to the grey wood by a jagged Bowie knife. Around the sharp tip is brownish stain, and a tiny square is trapped against it.

  “No…” The word is out of my mouth before I even make sense of the ink on the paper. “Freddie…” The words die on my lips as my mind decodes what I’m seeing, the writing on the paper.

  Stop wasting my time. The clock is ticking, and either I get my money or you get body parts. I’ll send you the drop location, and remember, I make good on my promises. –B.

  My heart is lodged in my throat. Leaning forward, I try to calm my breathing. All I can think of is Kass.

  “What’s happening?” Freddie shouts in my ear. “Logan! Talk to me—what’s going on? Are you down?”

  “She didn’t even know.” My voice is practically feral. “He hurt her and she didn’t even know why.”

  My body is shaking, and I have to rein in my fury against the king, against Freddie, against all of them, before I do something I’ll regret.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Freddie orders. As if he has the right.

  “I let you do this to her. I let you hurt her…” Pain twists my insides. “She can’t even fucking see!”

  Staggering back, my leg hits the metal card table. Turning, I grip it by the sides and hurl it with all my strength against the wall. I hear it collapse in a heap on the wet floor. My phone is on the desk, the light still shining on that fucking knife stained with her blood. My head feels like it’s splitting in two. The black is taking over my vision. I’m raging and hopeless, one thought ringing clear in my mind: I’ve got to find her.

  “Logan, talk to me.” Freddie is in my ear, and I reach up to claw the earpiece away, but just as my hand reaches it, he stops me. “Send me a picture of the letter.”

  My stomach tightens at the request. “It has her blood on it…”

  “Logan, think like a guard. We have to see it. We need to analyze it.”

  Rage burns red in my chest, but I go to the table. I push my wet hair out of my eyes and lift my phone to snap the photo.

  “Sass,” I whisper, reaching forward to pull the knife out.

  I slip the weapon in my boot, replacing the smaller knife currently there. I put the letter and the tiny chip in my pocket, vowing with each step I will break every bone in his body.

  I’m just about to leave, back to tracking, when a strange sound makes me pause…

  Strength

  Kass

  I vaguely recall Taz jerking me up from the floor and carrying me to the van. Without care or ceremony, he throws me inside on the rubber-mat floor and slams the door. I close my eyes and beg for unconsciousness. My insides are flayed. Cameron… I can’t even help him or retrieve his body.

  A few moments pass and the door opens again. Ava stumbles as if she’s being pushed into the vehicle as well. She crawls quickly to where I’m lying and puts my head in her lap.

  “Kass… are you okay?” Her voice trembles and I hear her tears. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  She touches the wound on my forehead, which I’m sure is clotted and bruised. From there, she moves to my side.

  “Your pants are soaked with blood.” She tries to move my side, but I whimper and pull away from the pain. “I’m sorry!” she cries.

  Two doors slam and the engine starts. We’re pulling away from the windmill, leaving my little brother behind. I curl forward as my insides collapse.

  He’s in there alone… He needs me… We can’t leave him here… I don’t even know where here is…

  “Can you talk to me?” Ava whispers, smoothing my hair away from my face. “Did they shoot you?”

  “No,” I whisper, tears flooding my eyes.

  Ava thinks I’m answering her, but I’m crying for my little brother. I can’t save him. I can’t help him. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find him again.

  Despair rolls over me like a tidal wave. More tears are on my cheeks.

  “Kass, you’ve got to be strong,” she whispers, wiping my tears with her hands. “Stay with me. Think of your brother. Think of Logan.”

  “Logan,” I whimper, but I’m unable to find hope in even that warm memory.

  “Yes, Logan!” She’s whispering, but her voice is faster. “I know he’s searching for us. Last night when he returned from watching you, he said he would only sleep for a few hours before he went back. When he sees we’re gone, he’ll search… He’ll find us. They all will.”

  This information digs its way through the numb surrounding my brain. “What are you… What?” It doesn’t make sense.

  “Logan’s been watching you every night since you left Occitan. He stays all night, but Rowan made him come in last night and rest.”

  Every night… I remember the certainty he was there. I remember smelling his scent. I remember falling asleep secure.

  “He was there?” I whisper.

  Blix shouts from the front. “Stop whispering or I’ll gag you both!”

  “She needs help,” Ava’s voice is less defiant this time. “Can you give me bandages, please?”

  “No.”

  We’re moving slower, stopping and starting, and the noises from outside tells me we’re in a city. People are all around us, people who could help us, but they don’t even know we’re here.

  “She’s bleeding all over the floor,” Ava argues. “If you’re planning to hide us, whoever finds this van will know we’ve been here by the blood.”

  “This van can be washed out with bleach and a garden hose,” Taz says, as if washing away blood is a regular occurrence.

  It probably is.

  Ava falls silent, and we continue on. She strokes my hair, and I vaguely wonder if I’m bleeding all over her. I wish I could see her face. I know she’s thinking about our plan and wondering how it’s possibly going to work now. All I feel is hopeless.

  Blix takes an abrupt turn off the road and stops. His window lowers and he speaks to what I can only assume is Dev, the hairy gorilla who usually does his heavy lifting. I hear gates opening and we start to move again, slower this time. We go a bit further and stop for good. He kills the engine, and they’re both out. The metal door slides open, and I’m roughly dragged out of the bed.

  “Walk,” Taz orders, and I do my best to limp.

  My hip throbs, and I feel fresh blood oozing from the open wound. My head aches from where I slammed it against the stone doorjamb, but none of it matters. All the life drained out of me when they shot Cam.

  “Take them both to the back,” Blix says, sounding less like an animal now. I suppose his blood lust has momentarily been assuaged. His tone turns disgusted, and he’s at my side. “Clean her up.”

  “What?” Taz is equally disgusted.

  “I’ll do it,” Ava says, then quickly changes her tone. “Please let me do it. I’ll be gentle with her.”

  “Gentle?” Blix’s lip curls over the word. “Who the fuck said to do that? This bitch tried to kill me. She’s only alive because of you.”

  “Please,” Ava says again, even more demure.

  A beat of silence passes. “Five minutes,” he says to Taz. “Watch them.”

  “Right.”

  We’re shoved into what I can only assume is a massive cargo hold. The noises and the echoes remind me of where I worked in Miami counting boxes and making sure the drugs passed through as they were intended.

  Taz stands in the doorway of a small bathroom while Ava touches my forehead gently with a wet washcloth. She’s so close to my face, I can see her clutched brow. I can see her full lips pressed together, the fine line at the corner of her mouth.

  “Your hair has blood in it. I wish—” she says quietly.

  “No talking,” Taz shouts.

  His loud voice sends a pain through my head, and I wince.

  “Do you have any ibuprofen?” Ava is
no longer demure with Blix’s chief thug. “Different pants she can wear?”

  “What the fuck do I look like? The corner drugstore?”

  God, I hate his sarcastic mouth. Taz and I have never gotten along, but we’ve always co-existed because we had to. Now that I’m on the way out, he’s lost even the smallest traces of human decency.

  “So I clean her up, and she puts bloody clothes back on? I don’t think that’s what your boss had in mind.”

  He takes a step forward, and my insides cower. “You think you know what the boss has in mind? You have no fucking idea, queenie.”

  A knot is in my throat, but I feel Ava turn into a rod of iron at his sickening threats. It’s as if his nastiness makes her stronger.

  “Shall I ask him? Or shall I tell him you’re trying to intimidate your queen.”

  “You think that means anything here?”

  Her shoulders drop, and I’m growing weary of standing on my injured hip. Just as I’m about to say forget about it, the unexpected happens.

  “Wait.” Taz leaves us alone in the tiny bathroom.

  Ava inhales a sharp breath and turns to me. My heart is beating faster. I can’t see if we’re alone, but I can tell by her enthusiasm we must be.

  “You still with me?” She says in a voice one notch above a whisper. “I need you Kass. You have to help me.”

  Tears flood my eyes, and I shake my head. “We’ve got to go back there. Can you find the way back?”

  “Where?” She pulls away to glance out the door.

  “The mill… we’ve got to get back to the mill. Cameron—”

  “Put these on her,” Taz tosses something to her.

  “They’re huge.” Ava takes my hand and puts it on what feels like cotton. “Sweatpants,” she tells me.

  “She can fucking go naked for all I care.”

  “Thanks.” Her tone is sarcastic, but Ava takes my hand and moves me around to the opposite wall.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t look,” she snaps. “Pervert.”