by Lexy Timms
Ouch. Maybe she had been a gangly teenager, but she’d wager she was coordinated enough now... Stop. Just stop. You’re getting distracted.
Instead Dani looked at Katie, who pressed her lips together and then nodded.
“David, why don’t you and Katie show me how it’s done then? The sun’s shining, and from what I saw the court’s in good shape. Why don’t you two go off and play a game? I’ll go and change and watch from an upstairs window. It’ll give me a better view. Then I’ll come down and play.”
David straightened up and grinned at Katie.
Katie looked ill, but nodded anyway.
Of course, she’s terrified. That’s normal.
Right?
Except, Dani’s gut seemed to be trying to tell her something else. She just couldn’t figure out what it was.
DANI WATCHED THE GAME from her window. David and Katie used to be very evenly matched, but Katie had kept up with the game while David hadn’t. Through the open window she could hear them talking, David growing more and more sullen as the game went on. Dani sent a prayer that he wouldn’t run off in a snit when he started losing. C’mon, David, don’t wimp out on me now...
She bounced in place, amping up her adrenaline, getting ready to move.
She wouldn’t have long. Bless Katie for catching on. Dani just hoped she was good enough to pull it off, and Luke wouldn’t be in the shower.
She backed up to the door of her room, keeping an eye on the tennis match unfolding before her. David missed the point, so Katie had the serve. David seemed to be refusing to let her serve, his body language clearly demanding a “do-over”.
Damn it, not now! She wished that she could have warned him, gotten him in on it, but he hadn’t been picking up on the chess conversation. And after the events of the other night, she didn’t dare say anything in the open.
They played another set. Although Katie tried to make it look good, to keep David’s attention, he was outmatched. Reluctantly, and with more than a little pique, he tossed the ball to her.
Katie raised her racket and looked to the house, to Dani’s window. She raised her hand and hoped Katie would see the signal. Then, stretching as far as she could, Dani gripped the doorknob which she’d already unlocked as silently as possible, all while leaning toward the window, trying to see what was going on outside. Katie tossed the ball into the air and brought the racket overhand, hard, smashing the ball as hard as she could.
It flew well over David’s head, and he didn’t even try to stop it. The ball sailed out of the court just as Dani flung open the door. The guard’s head hit the wall as the window downstairs shattered under the impact of the ball, and Dani went racing down the hallway.
The guard on Luke’s door had fallen for the alarm and had already left his post. Dani burst through the door into the sitting room after fumbling for only a minute with the hairpins which had served her so well on her own door. Luke was coming out of the bedroom, looking confused, trying to see what the alarm was all about this time.
“RUN!” Dani shouted, and grabbed his wrist. Thankfully, Luke was quick on the uptake and took off after her. He followed her down the main stairs, jumping down them three, four at a time in a breakneck speed that would have severe consequences if he were to miss one.
At the bottom floor, he turned and ran to the left, to the front door.
“NO!” she cried, and took off after him. “Wrong way—that’s where they’re all gathered!”
Luke wasn’t listening; he spun across the tiles and ran to the office door, barely getting it open before diving through it. He leapt, throwing himself to the floor and the accent rug that lay beneath a small table holding a vase. He peeled up the rug and grabbed the USB stick and jumped to his feet.
“It’s been here the whole time?” Dani gasped, wondering why she hadn’t thought of that before. How many times had David been over this room and missed it?
“I’ll explain later!” he said, and peeled out of the room again. She barely got ahead of him as the alarm shut off. They only had minutes at best.
She motioned for him to follow and ran into the kitchen, skidding on the tile and vaulting over the island. He followed, if a little less gracefully. She made it to a small door in the back of the kitchen, the place were deliveries and vendors came unobtrusively so as not to disturb the residence.
She pulled the door open just as he hit the doorframe hard, and rebounded, rubbing his shoulder.
“Go right, stay down, take the left into the alley. Once you’re in there, they can’t see you from the house.”
“Come with me,” he said, breathing hard, looking to the kitchen and the house beyond. There were voices, people talking angrily. Somewhere a door opened and closed.
She wanted to leave. Damn, but she wanted to leave. But what about David... Katie... what would happen to them if she just up and disappeared? “I can’t.” She shook her head. “David, Katie...”
“Katie?” He stopped. “She knows I’m a cop!”
“I know! How...”
“I told her.”
It made sense. They hadn’t been able to talk about it last night. Dani had been too afraid the room was bugged. She shook her head. So far Katie hadn’t said anything. So far as she knew. This wasn’t the time or place to debate the matter. “Look, you need to get out quick! Just go. Bring help. I can’t go, not now.”
Luke looked at her, at the kitchen. They could hear voices. People were returning to their posts. Any minute now there would be a cook, an assistant coming through the door. It was only a matter of time.
“GO!” she hissed at him.
He grabbed her, kissed her hard. Her heart stopped, and for a moment she melted against him. This... this was why she was risking everything. For him. Only for him.
Then he turned and bolted out the door. Keeping low, close to the shrubs. In a minute he’d be away. Safe. She’d done her job.
Now to keep from getting caught.
Dani closed the door as quietly as she could and ducked back up the servant’s stairs, just missing coming face to face with the cook, who was talking loudly to one of the other servants about spoiled children who make work for other people.
Letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, she took the stairs two at a time. They led to the side of the house her room was on. She could slip back before she was noticed. In theory.
She raced up the stairs as quietly as she could and paused on the second-floor landing. Two men were walking down the hallway and she had to wait for them to pass.
“...wouldn’t mind that duty...” one of them said.
“That’s probably why you don’t have it,” the other one said. “Messing with the boss’ niece isn’t a great idea for continued health. Or life.”
“She’s not his real niece,” the first one argued, “and it might be worth it just to have those legs wrapped around my waist.” He chuckled. “Besides, there’s that other one. She’d damn cute. Not as athletic, but I would...”
The voices began to fade as they walked by. One phrase stood out. “... both be dead in a few...” the second one said, and then they were gone.
Dead?
Dani raced up the last flight and peeked around the edge of the doorway and into the hall. No one was there. She half-jogged back to her door and knelt by the unconscious guard. She patted his cheek.
“Hey, hey, are you all right?” she asked, repeating it over and over. Gradually, the man started to come to.
“Are you okay? I heard an alarm and then a thud. Are you okay?”
He leapt to his feet and held his head, instantly regretting his fast movements.
“Someone hit me,” he snarled, rearing back away from her. It was flattering, actually.
“Who?” Dani asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
“I don’t know.” He looked at her for a moment, and something passed over his expression. He’d considered her, but looking at her slight frame and long legs he’d dismis
sed the possibility of a pretty, petite little girl taking him out like that. “Get back in the room,” he said, thumb indicating the door. “I don’t know why the hell that was unlocked anyway.”
“Relax—you don’t have get huffy. I was just trying to help.” Dani slunk back into her room as the man grabbed a walkie-talkie and began speaking into it.
Dani walked into the room and took a deep breath. Katie was wrong. The queen was expendable, too.
After all, the king was safe now. Wasn’t that the whole point of the game?
CHAPTER NINE
Luke floundered in the alley. He hoped Dani was right about not being seen from the house, because his legs felt like rubber and his knees wouldn’t hold him anymore.
Somebody skipped leg day. Actually, there were no weights or anything in his prison to work his legs. He’d done crunches and sit-up and push-ups, but nothing for the leg muscles that had slowly begun to atrophy without something to keep them stimulated. It wasn’t that he missed squats. He needed aerobic activity, something to work the cardiovascular so his heart could pump the oxygen to his legs at the supply they needed.
He grabbed a dumpster and leaned on it, taking deep breaths. He forced his legs to move forward, promising them that the breakneck panic speed was over, and he would behave, walking like a nice boy. His legs didn’t exactly believe him, but he forced them along anyway, wondering just how long it took to get out of shape.
I used to be able to run for miles without stopping.
Yeah... since when? You haven’t gone jogging more than twice in the last three months.
By the time he got to the end of the alley he was walking more or less normally again, and his breath was no longer coming in short gasps. Vowing that if he got out of this alive, he’d go jogging at least six days a week for the rest of his life, he glanced around. Multi-million-dollar mansions on tree-lined streets, manicured lawns and fences that varied from boundary markers to great edifices of privacy, sporting signs threatening the fool that tried to breach them. The alley was for the little people: garbage collection, deliveries, stray dogs. Vital to those who needed such things (except for the stray dogs) but invisible, beneath notice, therefore unseen.
He came through the alley in jeans and t-shirt that had “SCREW IT” emblazoned above an enlarged cartoon wood screw and a plank of wood. Even if he’d been going to quirky or even mildly eccentric, he was woefully unprepared for a stroll in the wealthiest area of Atlanta. At the very least his jeans should have been designer. A haircut or even just a shave would have done wonders.
He appeared to not be unique in his assessment of his inability to blend in. He’d gotten a few blocks toward town when he saw a cruiser rolling toward him. Relieved because he’d been waiting for the thugs to come after him for the last ten minutes, he turned and waved them down. From their expressions, that was the last thing they had counted on.
“Can we help you?” the driver said, eyeing him as if he were last week’s leftovers.
“I’m Agent Luke McConnell, FBI. I work for Deputy Director Randy Addams.”
“What are you doing out here?” the other one asked, not looking like he believed him.
“We’re going to need to see some identification,” the driver added, making no move toward something helpful. Like his radio. Cell phone even? Anything?
“I don’t have any ID,” Luke said, with a sinking feeling that told him exactly how this was going to go down from here. “I just escaped. I was kidnapped.”
“I thought you said you were a fed.”
“I am.”
“You’re trying to tell us that someone kidnapped a fed?” The driver exchanged glances with his partner, who snorted and looked away. Hell, this was going on Facebook. Not in a good way.
“Look, just take me to the station; I need to check in...”
“We can’t do that,” the second guy said with a shake of his head.
“Why the hell not?”
“Not without proper ID.” He shot a look that clearly said, ‘This guy is crazy’ to the driver, who nodded.
“I don’t have any ID.”
“No money either, I suppose?”
“No, why?”
“That’s vagrancy,” the driver said, seizing on the thing he did know how to process. “You need to move along now.”
“I’m trying to tell you that is what I want to do!”
“Don’t get argumentative, buddy,” the passenger warned. “You don’t want us to haul you in.”
“Yes,” Luke nodded his entire torso. “Yes, that is exactly what I want. Haul me in!”
“Not without the proper ID!” the driver said, and shook his head. “There’s paperwork.”
“WHAT?”
“Hey, look at it from our perspective: you claim to be a fed, but you don’t have any ID...”
“I am a federal agent. I’m stationed in D.C., on assignment here in Atlanta!”
“...you don’t have a badge, you don’t have ID. You could be a crazed vagrant, for all we know.”
Luke dropped his head and counted to ten. He looked at the two policemen and sighed. He held up his index finger to signal them to wait a moment and backed off from the cruiser, onto the sidewalk and over the edge of someone’s lawn. He signaled them to wait again, unzipped his fly, and pulled out his cock and began watering the grass.
“HEY!” the cops yelled in unison, and clamored out of the car. One of them, Luke thought it had been the guy from the passenger side, grabbed Luke’s left wrist and slapped a pair of cuffs on him. He reached for the right one.
“Mind if I shake it first?” Luke asked, trying to be polite.
“Put it away,” the cop growled, and waited until Luke was decent again, then force-marched him to the car. His partner opened the door and they crammed him inside.
“You’re under arrest,” the passenger said, pulling a small card from his pocket. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say and will be used against you. You have...”
Thank freakin’ goodness.
Luke tuned him out, making affirmative noises at the right points, just thankful to be out of there. Even Uncle Benny couldn’t get to him here. At least he didn’t think so. There was always the chance that Benny had certain cops on the payroll, but Laurel and Hardy, here, were hardly likely candidates.
In short, he was safe.
But what about Dani?
Luke watched the streets disappear behind him as the car pulled out, headed downtown he supposed. He may have gotten out in one piece, but in order to do so he’d had to leave Dani behind, and no matter how he tried to justify it out it never felt right. At least Benny wouldn’t hurt her; she was his niece in practice if not in fact. He gave her candy... he loved her.
Do you really believe that? Benny is one of the most dangerous mobsters in the country. You seriously think that there isn’t a person in the organization who isn’t expendable to him?
David... maybe he shouldn’t have been so hard on him last night, but he had to admit that the boy setting off alarms to piss through a third-story window had been hilarious. Was that where Dani had gotten the idea? He looked back toward the house, now barely visible over the wall behind him as the cruiser slipped through the streets into less-elegant surroundings.
Please be safe. Please. Your uncle is a madman, and your brother is every bit as insane. Please, please be safe, hold on as best you can. I’ll come back with help. I’ll get every cop in Atlanta to come with me.
“SIR!” the passenger cop yelled. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND THESE RIGHTS AS I HAVE READ THEM TO YOU?”
“Yes,” Luke said. Every cop except these two. The rest, those I will bring, I swear it.
“What’s your name?” The passenger was taking notes for the endless pile of paperwork that followed any arrest, even for pissing in public.
“Luke McConnell.”
“Occupation?”
Luke looked at him, raised an eyebrow. He was suddenly curious how far he coul
d take this. “I’m a federal agent. Would it help if I gave you my badge number?”
The two cops looked at each other and the driver sighed. “Very funny, Mr. McConnell,” the passenger said. “Now tell us your real occupation.”
“I’m a flamenco dancer.”
“Like the bird?”
Luke sighed and watched the view through the car window. He let the cop ask the same question over and over, getting louder each time. It didn’t matter; it passed the time on the trip, and there was no point in answering if they weren’t going to listen to the answers.
He was processed and fingerprinted before he saw someone he recognized. When his identity was confirmed by a captain who’d shown up when he heard he was about to be escorted to debriefing, the two cops who arrested him suddenly seemed at a loss for words.
“Sir... uh... about that...”
“Listen,” Luke said with a grin. “I know, in that neighborhood, you have to be very particular about everything. Of course, in a place like that, it’s hard to call attention to your abilities, too. Let me see if I can help you boys out. Maybe I can get you transferred to someplace your abilities will be noticed and appreciated.” He paused for effect. “How about Grant Park?” he said cheerfully. Both their faces drained of blood.
“We’re fine,” one said.
“Thanks anyway, sir...” the other chimed in.
“We should get back...”
“Yeah, if there’s anything we can do...”
“There is,” Luke said. “Give me back that damn USB stick.” He held out his hand. It had been the only thing in his possession, and had been taken from him upon processing.
“LUKE!”
He knew that yell anywhere. Luke shot a glance to the agent that had come to escort him from the interrogation room. If anything, the agent, a man who looked too young to be out of high school, looked a little pale.
The patrolman dropped the stick in Luke’s palm and ran.
“Randy’s here?”
“He commandeered the chief’s office, sir.”
“I imagine the chief must be appreciative.”
The agent winced. “You don’t know the half of it, sir.”
