by Lexy Timms
“LUKE, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE! I WANT YOU IN MY OFFICE! NOW!”
Out of the frying pan...
“HOW THE HELL DID YOU wind up here?” The deputy director glared at him from across the desk.
“Happy to see you, too, boss.” Luke slumped into a chair and took a deep breath. He was wiped. Mentally and physically. But it felt good to be back in familiar places. Even the soul-destroying furniture, government- issued, the same in every department across the country, was a welcome distraction.
“Just tell me how you got here,” Randy snapped.
“I bummed a ride with two of the city’s finest.” Luke waved in the direction of the squad room. “As for how I got out, Dani got me out during a distraction. I bolted and came here. Had to water someone’s yard to get a ride. But...” Luke waved that away as a minor detail, “I’m sure it will be in the arrest report.”
“Fine.” Randy propped his feet against the desk, sending his chair creaking far enough backward that it was a wonder it didn’t break outright. “I think I’d rather not know.” He stared at Luke a long moment and sighed. “You all right?”
He looked concerned. Like he even meant it. Luke nodded, though it took some effort not to look surprised. He stretched, folding his arms behind his head. Damn, it felt good to be out. “Yeah. A little in need of a good pizza and some beer, but otherwise okay. The cell was a five-star, but the guards were your general mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers.”
“So where did you stash the girl?” Randy reached for a pad and pen.
“That’s a rather personal question, isn’t it, Randy?”
Randy gave him a very dirty look and sighed. “Don’t give me shit, not today. Just tell me where the girl is.”
Luke shrugged. “She’s still back there, far as I know. I tried to get her out, but she wouldn’t come.”
The pad dropped from Randy’s fingers. He whistled slowly. “How long ago did you get out?”
Luke sat up straight. Something in the question didn’t set well, and the gas in his belly suddenly wasn’t just from his body trying to eat itself for nourishment. “Uh... figure a twenty-minute ride in the police academy car, another ten to convince them to drive me down here, time lost in the system till you found me... maybe an hour or two total.”
“He must have found you missing as soon as you left,” Randy said, shaking his head. “When I got the word, I thought maybe he...” Randy stood and walked around to the chair behind the desk. He sat down and leaned back. “He put out a word this morning. ‘She marries or dies.’ I got it about five minutes ago. I thought it was meant for her father, now I’m not so sure.” Randy laced his hands together over his belly and regarded Luke soberly.
Something didn’t sit right. Sure, Randy had informants, but it all seemed a little too neat. “You got word awfully fast.”
Randy shrugged. “Even drug-addicts and pimps like gossip. For a month or so, the only word on the street was about Beyoncé. Hell, you needed to update your connection on Jay Z just to score.”
“No, I’m familiar with the distribution.” Luke waved him off, “I mean you. You got word pretty fast.”
Randy looked at him with a quelling stare. “I’m deeply invested,” he murmured finally. “Have been for years.”
“So then why the hell do you need a guest list?”
Randy sighed, and rubbed his forehead. “Because, by tomorrow, ‘word on the street’ will have it that she married and then Benny killed her, or that she was forced to marry and then he killed the groom, or both, or that he forced her to marry a corpse. You can’t exactly do a fact check on this, you know?” He shook his head. “I’m hearing about every name in the book being brought out here. Hell, half the names I’ve gotten aren’t even alive anymore. So, unless zombies start parading down the streets of Atlanta, all wearing fedoras and cheap suits, I gotta know who’s really gonna be there! It might be the one chance we have to snag everyone.”
“For attending a wedding?”
“Either you think I’m stupid or you really are!” Randy sat up fast and smacked his hand on the desk. “Some of the rumors have people who have been hiding off-grid, or been underground so long we’ve quit looking for them. Some even who fled the country are coming back, so I have to know who so the DA’s office can get their shit together and get the paperwork done. I need extradition,” he began ticking off on his fingers, “writs, warrants, searches, manpower!”
Luke had stopped listening. He got it; Randy didn’t need to drive it into his head. The shit was about to hit the fan even harder. Fine, he could deal with that.
But a bigger problem remained.
It seemed every decision he made anymore was between Dani and his career. He’d fled because he needed to report in, because he’d been left there by his support, and now she would die because he ran away? Damn the girl for not running with him. Damn her stubborn blind loyalty to a brother who was one step away from being in one of those movies where the deranged backwoods simpleton chases teenage girls with a chainsaw. She’d stayed so nothing would happen to David. Luke still doubted that anything would; Benny was keeping him as a pet. Once Edwin Rineheart, David’s father and the cause of this entire disaster left, David had collapsed.
Which had been interesting in and of itself. From all he’d known about David the man was used to working a plan, and always had something going. His father leaving like that had caught him with his pants down. David had been arrogant, dangerous, and self-absorbed, but he’d had the attitude of someone who was cock-sure and aggressive. Benny comes along, and suddenly David was playing Igor to his Dr. Frankenstein? The man wasn’t sane, and had fallen apart completely in a matter of days. And Benny not only coddled him, but seemed to be ignoring completely that the kid was just this side of a psychotic wreck.
And to top it off, Dani still threw herself in front of whatever bullets had headed his way. And there were plenty of those.
But this wasn’t about David. It wasn’t about Dani. This was about Luke. He’d been abandoned by the FBI, and everything was suddenly about poor him. Luke the victim. Luke the... well, some things were better off not said.
I just wish that underground gossip would work both ways. Maybe if I had a better picture of what was happening...
He shook his head. No, that didn’t fit. The thing that had thrown him into a knot was simple. It was that recording. The fact that his privacy had been violated. That was supposed to have been a night of passion and lust and, yes, yes, love... he loved her. He loved her, and that love had been taken from the careful box that separated Dani from duty, the divider that let him believe he didn’t have to make the choice, not yet.
Benny had taken that comfortable separation away and laid it out, dirty and sweaty on the breakfast table, and he’d laughed at Luke, ridiculed the tender part of him that he’d always kept hidden at work.
That was why he’d run.
“I have to go back,” he said suddenly, interrupting Randy mid-tirade with no idea what the other man had been saying. “I have to get out of here.” He was on his feet and halfway to the door before he even realized he was in motion.
“What?” Randy grabbed his arm and spun him back around to face. “It’s over! You’re compromised. In case you don’t recall, we’ve had this conversation before. And you still went back. And were captured for your troubles. Compromised means out, Luke. When are you going to get that through your head?”
“You said it yourself: They’re going to kill Dani. I’m not sitting out while they take away the only—” Luke swallowed hard. That wasn’t for Randy’s ears.
“So what are you gonna do? Waltz right back in there and pick up where you left off?”
“If I must, YES!”
Randy dug around in his pocket and came up with a cigarette, which he fumbled with and wound up shoving back into the pack when he realized he was in a government building and couldn’t smoke. “You’re going to be the death of me, you know that?” He paced around th
e room, keeping a wary eye on Luke like he expected him to bolt at any second. “Look, even if you did go back, he’s not going to give you enough freedom to run again. You won’t be able to get the list out anyway. You’re done! And if you think you’re somehow going to be able to save your damsel in distress, then you’ve got another think coming. You don’t think you’ll be under twice the guard if you go back there? You’re both going to wind up dead.” He threw himself into the chair which creaked in protest. “I understand your position, Luke. But speaking as your friend—not your boss, but your friend—there’s nothing you can do. Best we can do is put plan B into motion.”
“And that is?”
There was a long silence. “We’re working on it.”
“Working on it.” Luke shoved a hand through his hair, about ready to pull it out in frustration. “Yeah. I’m reassured. For shit’s sake, Randy, listen to yourself...”
“Maybe you need to listen to you. You think you can bust into a mob strong house and save some mafia princess before her old man comes in there to blow the whole thing up?”
Luke was silent a long moment, while he counted to ten. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that, Randy. You know as well as I do that that girl is no mafia princess. She’s had more training than that comedy sideshow that brought me in here today. Second, yeah, I do. I’m going to bust right in there, get the girl, and together we’re going to bust out of there before her old man comes in there to blow the whole thing up.” He paused. “I only need a hundred dollars.”
“What the f—? Seriously?”
“Randy, you’ve been my boss for how long now? Four...five years? We’ve gotten to be friends, right?”
“And you think I’m going to give you a hundred dollars.”
“Come on, biggest sting in history for a hundred. That’s a steal!”
Randy’s eyes rolled. He took a long, deep breath. With shaking hands he found the packet of cigarettes and worked one free. “You’re crazy.”
“You’re even crazier if you think you’re going to get away with lighting that thing in here.”
“The hell with regulations.” Randy lit the thing and took a long drag. His face relaxed. Hell, his entire body relaxed. “And you’ll get me the list?”
“You seem to think I’m staying for the wedding.”
“You go back in, you sure as hell are staying for the wedding. I’m not wasting this much effort on a half- dozen candy asses I could have picked up off any street corner.”
“You have such a way with words, Randy.”
“Wedding or no deal.”
It was Luke’s turn to pace. “Yeah, fine, whatever.” He turned to face Randy, arms crossed. “Do I get the hundred or not? I don’t have any cash on me, and my cards are... well, nowhere to be seen. My wallet seems to have gone missing. “
Randy took a long drag on his cigarette as he thought this over. “Where’s the stick?”
Luke’s hand twitched. He almost dug into his pocket out of reflex. “I couldn’t get it,” he heard himself saying. “I had to move too fast. I’ll....” He waved his hand, rubbing the thumb over the palm in the age-old tradition of needed the palm greased. “I’ll bring it with the guest list.”
“What’s the hundred for?”
Luke slapped his thigh and he held it out again. “Lunch, okay? Come on!”
Randy shot to his feet and dug into his wallet, pulling out four twenties. Luke grabbed them, and the one Randy tried to put back. “I should send my mother a present.”
“And how the hell am I supposed to pay for my own lunch?”
“Maybe the chief will take you out. You and he seem to be getting along so well.” Luke nodded behind him at the guy clearly seen through the glass in the door, who was glowering just outside, his mustache quivering with suppressed rage.
He left before Randy could swallow his cigarette.
Luke flung the door open and was halfway through the office before Randy could even frame a response. Somewhere behind him he heard shouting. All four-letter words. Luke didn’t so much as pause. He careened down the steps and found the officer who had processed him in. “You!”
“Yes, sir?” The policeman had that reserve between respect and anger that most did when told that the FBI has moved into their town and you’ll be kowtowing to us from now on, thank you. Knowing Randy’s charm and diplomatic skills, he’d probably offended half the force by now. There wasn’t an officer in the place who wasn’t ready to see him leave.
“Those two cops who brought me in?”
“Yes, sir, James and Hardy.”
Luke blinked. “Really? Damn, that’s so close. Get them back here for me, would you? Tell them all possible speed.”
“Yes, sir.” The man looked confused, but Randy had done one thing: He’d asserted that the Bureau was in charge. This poor man was already paging the officers in question.
“Oh! One other thing. I need to go to a Hallmark store, where’s the closest?” The man stared at him so long, Luke just waved him off. “Never mind. Get James and Hardy. I’ll meet them out front.”
CHAPTER TEN
Dani had gone through several stages of her emotions in the past few days. She’d been enraged when Benny had locked her in her room under armed guard, gotten pissed when David had Luke taken, been embarrassed that morning at breakfast. And as for the night the recording was made... there weren’t even words for that kind of humiliation.
But through it all, she’d felt little fear. She’d been afraid for her brother; he’d been hurt worse than she’d imagined. She’d been afraid for Luke, for if Benny found out Luke was a cop he’d kill him. But until today, Dani hadn’t been afraid for herself. Not truly.
All that had suddenly changed. Now she stood in her room and wrapped her arms around herself while Katie sat on the bed, trying to be invisible.
“He’s mad,” Katie said reasonably as Dani paced in circles for what seemed forever. “He probably didn’t mean it.”
“He is mad,” Dani agreed in a small voice. “Mad enough to do just what he says he will.” Dani turned to the girl. “I didn’t know what kind of man he was all the years I called him my uncle. Or maybe I guess I did at some point, and I just didn’t want to admit it. I mean, what kind of guy shows up to a cookout with a bunch of guys in suits carrying Uzis?”
Katie shrugged, as if not believing her. “After all these years, you really think he would kill you?”
“Katie, I know he will. I’ve met some... pretty rough people. I’ve seen that look on his face before and, yes, he will kill me.” Dani looked around the room, not really seeing it. “At least Luke is safe.”
“You’re worried about him? A cop?” Katie half-mouthed the word, but Dani’s head reflexively spun to the wall where the guard stood, as though she could tell if he’d heard the girl. She raised a hand to Katie in a gesture of suppression.
“What he is doesn’t matter!” Dani hissed, her heart pounding so fast in her chest that it was a wonder she didn’t have a heart attack.
“You love him.”
“My family’s beaten him up, kidnapped him, dragged him off, and tried to have him killed, Katie. Whatever feelings I have for him also happen to be irrelevant. This is the kind of thing that ends a relationship, don’t you think?”
“Your feelings aren’t irrelevant,” Katie replied, leaning back and stretching out her legs, toes pointed like a ballerina’s. “And, just for your information, your family kidnapped me and is currently holding me hostage, but I don’t see that as your fault.” She glanced at her sideways, from under her lashes as she said this, her voice calm and steady, like she meant it.
I don’t deserve a friend like her... if someone had kidnapped me, I’d hate every member of their family. Dani dropped her head. “I know, I know, I’m sorry, I really am...” She waved her arms in frustration. “It’s just that...”
“It’s just that you’re not in love with me,” Katie finished for her. “That’s the difference
. You’re in love with him, that’s why you risked everything, even your life, even mine, because you’re in love. Punching through that window and acting like a bubble-head was enough to get me shot. Hell, just being in a short skirt in front of your bro—whatever, the fact is that you did ask me to take a big risk, maybe even bigger than you realize, to save him.”
Dani winced, hearing for the first time the frustration and anger Katie hid so well. “I shouldn’t have asked that,” Dani said quietly, feeling about two inches high right then. “I had no right.”
“You did if your feelings matter. Dani, I didn’t have to say yes. I didn’t have to be part of that. You didn’t see what happened out there when the window smashed. You didn’t see me...” Katie stood and began demonstrating the actions she was describing, “...putting one little foot over the other and bending the knee like a little girl trying to figure out if she did a ‘boo-boo’ and widening my eyes and even...” Katie put a finger in her mouth to give that ‘oooh’ look like something straight out of an old romantic comedy.
“You didn’t!”
“Of course I did!” Katie flopped back down on the daybed and draped one leg over the other, so unlike the bubble-head she’d been a moment ago that the change was startling. Dani was impressed, and began to wonder if there was place in her world of hired adventure for someone with skills like that.
“Dani, that was the worst. To be... that in front of... all of them. I saw how I was looked at, I saw in their eyes what they wanted to do to me. All of them. I expected that. But I did it, because... because you helped me so much when we were kids, because I never had a sister, because... I don’t know why, just because.”
“Because you love me?” Dani smiled.
“Yeah, a little. Not like I’m changing from dating men or anything, but like the way I want to think how it would be to love a sister, yeah I do.” Katie looked up with that winsome smile, and Dani couldn’t help but laugh right along with her, feeling incredibly lucky to have found a true friend in this whole mess.
