by Lynn, JB
“I guess I owe you, Maggie,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” I told him teasingly. “I’ll be sure to collect.”
I reached for the motel room door and pulled it open. Dwayne was standing there scowling.
35
Dwayne wasn’t the only one standing there, the rest of his motley crew were watching us also. The one who only had one arm, who I assumed was Jim, and a guy with a daisy tattooed between his eyebrows.
“Going somewhere, buddy?” Dwayne asked, giving me a hard look.
“Just walking my girl to her car,” Angel lied smoothly.
“Fitz can do that,” Dwayne said, pointing to the daisy guy.
Fitz leered at me. “It would be my pleasure, ma’am.”
“I hate being called ma’am,” I told him dryly, trying to control the wave of panic that was threatening to engulf me. I had to get Angel out of here somehow, but it was suddenly much more challenging.
“I’ll see you soon,” Angel said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“What?” I looked up and searched his dark eyes, trying to work out what he was thinking.
His gaze bored into mine, as though trying to make me obey him. “I’ll see you soon,” he repeated firmly.
“But—” I began to protest.
He silenced me by pressing a finger to my lips. “Go.” The tone he used let me know he wasn’t going to be changing his mind.
Not wanting to make him look bad in front of his “friends”, I began to walk away, Fitz trailing behind me. It made me nervous that he was following me. I wanted to call Gino and ask for advice, and maybe some backup, but I couldn’t with Fitz within earshot.
Tightening my grip on my keys, I turned and looked at the man. “I don’t need an escort.”
He gave me a wide grin, the kind that made my hair stand on end. “I’m just doing what I’m told. Ma’am.” I could tell by the emphasis he put on ma’am that he put it in just to annoy me.
“Suit yourself.” I shrugged as though I didn’t care that I had this creepy guy following me.
As I began to walk toward my car, I scanned the car park, fervently hoping I’d spot Patrick Mulligan.
My prayers were answered when I saw the redhead slumped down low, trying to hide behind his dashboard, one row of cars over.
Being careful not to drop Benny, who was still cupped in my palm, I pulled out my keys and pointed them in the direction of my car. Before I could even push the button to unlock it, Fitz snatched them away from me.
“Hey,” I protested.
He shoved them in the front pocket of his jeans and grinned at me. “Come with me.”
“No,” I said firmly. It was bad enough he was escorting me through the parking lot; I wasn’t going anywhere with him. Something dangerous glinted in his eyes and before I could even react, he reached out and latched on to my wrist with a grip that was so tight the pain shot up my arm.
“It’s not open for discussion,” he said in a low angry voice. “Come with me.”
Instinctively, I tried to jerk free, but his grip didn’t budge.
“Eyes, nose, throat, groin,” God coached from his spot in my bra.
I considered attacking Fitz, but I wasn’t sure I could win the fight, and I wasn’t sure Patrick could get across the parking lot in time to help me. Besides, I didn’t want to put Angel in any more of a dangerous situation than he was already. “Where are we going?”
His eyes gleamed with satisfaction at my capitulation. Without speaking, he began to drag me across the parking lot. His strides were long, and I had to jog to keep up. I glanced around trying to get Patrick’s attention, but I saw no movement from his car.
“Trouble. Trouble. Trouble,” Benny murmured softly.
I didn’t think the little mouse was wrong. I think this was going to be a bigger problem than I anticipated. Fitz dragged me across the parking lot and straight to a room on the first floor. He didn’t even need a key, he just turned the knob and it opened.
My heart dropped, knowing he and the rest of the gang had been set up in this motel and I hadn’t even known it. Fitz propelled me into the room, and I stumbled, falling on the bed.
I released Benny and he skedaddled away, hiding in the folds of bedclothes.
“Stay there,” Fitz ordered, pointing a finger at me.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“I want you to stay out of this deal we have going,” he muttered. “All we need is Angel’s goody-two-shoes gene kicking in and everything will be ruined.”
It made me feel slightly better that this despicable man had such a poor opinion of Angel. It meant that my former manny was worth saving. “He’s never going to help you rob a bank,” I said.
Fitz threw his head back and laughed. “We don’t need his help robbing a bank,” he said. “We need his help to steal something from the hospital.”
I frowned, confused. “The hospital?”
He nodded. “We’re heartless like that…or they are.” He chuckled as though he’d made some very clever joke, but I had no idea what he was talking about. He made short work of tying both my wrists and ankles, then tying my wrists to the post of the bed.
“What should I gag you with,” he murmured aloud.
“You don’t have to gag me,” I told him.
He glared at me and said, “Well, I could knock you out, but there’s no telling how long it would take you to regain consciousness and then you’d scream your head off.”
My stomach flipped nervously. Here I was, tied to a bed, and he was threatening to knock me unconscious. I glanced at the door hoping that Patrick would magically appear, but nothing happened.
Finally, he chose to tear a strip off a pillowcase and gag me with that, tying it tight around my mouth until my jaw ached. He patted me on the head, tossed my keys on the foot of the bed and said, “Be good.” With that, he left the room, leaving me alone.
After a minute, God scampered out of my bra, ran up my shoulder across my face, and perched on my nose so that I had to look at him cross-eyed.
“Well, now you’ve done it,” he declared. “You are never going to get out of this mess.”
I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but the gag made it impossible to speak, and I wasn’t too sure that he wasn’t incorrect.
36
“I guess it’s a good thing you brought the rodent along,” God said.
As though on cue, Benny raced up my arm and began to gnaw on the rope that Fitz had used to tie me to the bed.
I worked my mouth, trying to remove the gag, but wasn’t having much luck.
I looked at the lizard, perched on the tip of my nose, expectantly, trying to will him to help with the gag.
He seemed to be content to just sit there and pass judgment on everything. “This is a mess,” he said. “You should never have gone to see Angel. And where is Mulligan?”
I shrugged, unable to answer him, not just because I couldn’t speak but because I didn’t understand why my favorite redhead didn’t come to my rescue.
“What do you think he meant about heartless?” God asked worriedly.
I shrugged again. I still had no answers.
Meanwhile, Benny kept chewing. I could feel the rope begin to loosen and I began to twist my wrist in the hopes I could pull free from the binding. It took about ten minutes of tag teaming between myself and the mouse, but I was soon free. The moment my hands were free, I ripped off the gag and gasped for breath.
The lizard barely jumped out of the way before I knocked him off my face. “Thank you, Benny,” I said.
“Helpful. Helpful. Helpful,” the little white mouse panted, exhausted from his efforts.
“Repetitive,” God reminded him.
“Shut up, Benny was very helpful, unlike you, who just stood there talking.”
“What would you have had me do?” God asked. “Fan you with my tail?”
Ignoring him, I managed to work my other wrist free of the binding. “We ha
ve to get to the hospital,” I said. “We have to stop Angel from doing whatever it is they’re trying to do.”
“It doesn’t bother you that Mulligan didn’t show up to help you?” the lizard asked incredulously.
I shook my head, bending over to untie the rope that bound my ankles. “Maybe he’s on the clock,” I said, defending him.
“He had to see that Fitz fellow dragging you across the lot,” the lizard argued.
I shrugged. I really didn’t want to think about why Patrick Mulligan had let me down. I had other things to worry about right now, mainly making sure I didn’t let Angel Delveccio down. “I think I should call Gino.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” Benny agreed.
“For once, I agree with the rodent,” God said. “Call him. Send him to the hospital. You should go home.”
“You know I can’t do that,” I said, tugging as hard as I could on the rope.
“You know you should do that,” God countered.
“Well, you’re more than welcome to stay in this room,” I said, finally getting the knot to give. I kicked free of the rope and held out my hand, palm up, and Benny jumped into it. I looked at the lizard, perched on the pillow and waited for his decision. “Well,” I said. “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t let you go alone,” he said.
I extended my other palm and he ran onto it and scampered onto my shoulder.
“But you have to call Gino,” he reminded me.
“I will,” I said. “Once we get there.” I grabbed my keys, left the motel room and began to jog across the parking lot.
“What do you mean, once we get there?” God asked, holding on for dear life as I jostled him with my jogging.
“I have to protect Angel,” I said.
“Gino can protect Angel,” God said. “That’s literally his job. He gets paid to protect that family.”
“He’ll protect his body,” I explained. “He won’t do anything to protect his reputation. Angel likes his job at the hospital. I have to make sure he’s able to keep it.”
“He won’t be able to keep it if he’s dead,” God said.
“If you don’t have anything positive to say,” I muttered, “then kindly keep your thoughts to yourself.”
Reaching my car, I jumped inside. I carefully placed Benny in the cup holder and allowed God to run up onto the dashboard. I noticed that Patrick Mulligan’s car was gone. He really had deserted me in a terrible situation. I tried not to think what that meant, or how it made me feel.
I had other things to worry about. Mostly, keeping Angel safe and alive.
Considering how outnumbered I was, I wasn’t sure I was up to the job.
37
As soon as I got to the hospital, I kept my word and called Gino.
“What’s up?” he answered.
“I think Angel’s going to do something stupid. Come find us at the hospital.”
Before he could ask any questions, I hung up the phone.
“What’s your grand plan?” God asked as I climbed out of the car. “You know you’re outnumbered.”
“Me. Me. Me.” Benny practically jumped out of the cup holder.
I peered down at the little mouse who’d saved me twice already that day. “You want to come along?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” I looked at the lizard sprawled on the dashboard of the car. “What about you?”
“It’s not like I can let you go alone,” he said with a tired sigh. “But I honestly don’t know what we’re going to be able to accomplish.”
“We’ll have the element of surprise,” I told him, extending my hand so he could run up my arm and perch on my shoulder.
“That’s not much,” he muttered.
I closed my car door and headed toward the hospital’s door. When Katie had been in her coma, I’d spent a long time at this place, and every time I approached the door, a low level depression settled over me.
“Hey, you,” a deep gravely voice called from behind me. I whirled around to find crime reporter Jack Stern striding toward me.
“Great,” God said, diving into my bra. “All you need to do is explain to the investigative reporter why you’re here.”
I swallowed hard and pasted a smile on my face. “Jack!”
“I thought that was you,” Stern said. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting a friend.” I thought that was at least a half truth. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “Work.”
“That’s what I like about you, Jack, you’re a man of so many words.”
He chuckled. “Sorry, it’s a professional habit, keeping things close to the vest.”
I nodded my understanding. “Well, I’ve got to get going.” I turned and started back toward the hospital.
“What do you think about organ harvesting?” Jack called after me.
I let out a heavy sigh. I didn’t have time to get into a serious conversation with the reporter. “What about it?”
“I mean, are you an organ donor?”
I nodded. “That’s what it says on my driver’s license.”
“And it doesn’t freak you out that somebody else could end up with your organs?”
“Considering I’ll be dead,” I said, “I don’t see how I’ll have much use for them. Somebody else should be able to live their life, don’t you think?”
He shrugged.
“You’re not an organ donor?” I asked incredulously.
He shook his head.
“Why not?” I asked. For me, being an organ donor for someone who needed a kidney, an eye, or a heart seemed like the logical choice to make.
“I did a story once,” he said. “The granddaughter of a billionaire was dying. She needed a pancreas. The billionaire found a genetic match, had the organ harvested from an unwilling donor, and had her pancreas implanted into his grandchild.”
“Did she live?”
“She was killed for her body part,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“No,” I said. “Did the granddaughter live?”
His head tilted as he studied me. “Would that make it okay?”
“No,” I said slowly. “But I know what it’s like to think you’re capable of doing anything to keep someone you love alive.” After all, that’s how I had fallen into the assassination game and found myself on the Delveccios’ payroll.
“That woman, that one who was slaughtered for her body part,” Jack said, with more than a tinge of anger, “she had every right to live.”
I held up my hands in mock surrender. “I’m not arguing with you; I’m not even sure why we’re talking about this.”
“Because I’m working on a story that there’s an organ harvesting ring working out of this hospital,” Jack said darkly, then turned on his heel and stalked away.
I hurried toward the entrance to the hospital.
“Heartless,” God murmured.
“I wasn’t being heartless,” I told him. “I just was wondering if the woman’s death had resulted in keeping the child alive.”
“Not you,” God said. “Fitz, he said heartless.”
“I’m not following,” I said, breezing through the entrance to the hospital and nodding at the security guard who knew me well from all the visits I’d made.
“They need Angel to help them steal something,” God said slowly, to make sure I understood what he meant. “What if they’re stealing a heart?”
38
I stumbled at the thought of Angel helping them steal a human heart.
“He wouldn’t,” I said.
“And you would have never become a paid killer,” the lizard pointed out. “People do strange things for strange reasons.”
“If he feels that he owes this guy his life,” I said slowly. “But I still can’t see him stealing a heart meant for someone else.”
“Do you have any better ideas as to what we are doing here?” God asked.
I didn’t answer because I didn’t have one.
&nbs
p; “We don’t even know where to find him,” God pointed out.
I paused for a moment outside the cafeteria, looking inside, half expecting to see Delveccio devouring a bowl or two of chocolate pudding, but I didn’t see any familiar faces within.
“How would you steal a heart?” God asked.
I shook my head. I had no idea.
“Chopper. Chopper. Chopper.”
I lifted my hand so I could look the mouse in the eye. “What do you mean?”
“Transport. Transport. Transport.”
“Oh, he’s much smarter than he looks for a creature that spent too much of his life running on a wheel,” God said. “He’s right. Chances are, if they were transporting a heart out of this hospital, they would do it via helicopter.”
“So, if we can get to the roof…” I murmured.
“You might be able to prevent this atrocity,” God agreed.
I hurried down the hallway, searching for the first sign I could find that would lead me to the stairs. The last thing I needed was to get stuck in an elevator.
“You still don’t know how you’re going to stop them,” God pointed out.
“One problem at a time,” I muttered. “First, we have to find the helicopter.” I turned the corner and saw a sign leading to the stairs. I blew through it and began climbing. Three stories later, I was bent over gasping for breath.
“You really need to take up some form of regular exercise,” God lectured. “Every time there’s an emergency, you end up sounding like a beached whale.”
I wanted to tell him to be quiet, but I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to get that out.
He wasn’t wrong, I was in terrible shape. I climbed one more flight of stairs and saw the exit to the roof. Unfortunately, I also saw that the door said no exit, and there was a warning that there would be an alarm tripped if the door was opened.
“Now what?” I gasped.
“Maybe we should wait here,” God suggested.
“We don’t even know that they’re going to go out this way,” I said.
Suddenly, I heard a distant thudding outside. It was moving closer.
