by Unknown
He held up his hands. “Calm down.”
“Then tell me the plan.”
“We’re going to distract them with some weak explosives. Make it look like a breach from the front wall.” He pointed to a piece of paper laying next to a rifle.
I leaned in to look at it closer and found a crude sketch of a house surrounded by a fence. “This is where Frankie and Lilli are?”
Blake nodded. “He’s got a strong concrete fence covered with stucco around his house and a steel gate. And cameras as well as guards.”
“So no sneaking in.”
He shook his head. “Nope, so we’re going to flush them out, make them think all the danger is over here.” He pointed to the wall at the front of the house. “Meanwhile, back here,” he pointed to a smaller gate behind the house, “is where we’ll come in, grab Lilli and get out before he even knows what happened.”
“Misdirection,” I said, using the magic term. It had been trick after trick ever since I met Blake, it was nice to see one that worked in my favor for once.
“Exactly.” He smiled. “We’ll have everyone looking where we want them to so they don’t even see what’s really happening.”
“After we get Lilli out, then what?”
He picked up a set of car keys and set them jangling with a quick movement of his wrist. “You two take off and head straight to the embassy.”
I looked at the keys and then at Blake. “You want me to drive? In Morocco?” A picture of the crowded streets and the overloaded buses lumbering everywhere, half looking like they were about to tip over, came to mind. I’d avoided driving in New York City due to similar conditions and now I was going to make a run for it in Casablanca’s urban crush?
“The embassy is just a mile up the street. I think you can handle that.”
A mile didn’t sound bad so I nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s doable. Where will you be?”
“This is where we part ways.” His expression grew somber and a heaviness filled his gaze, one of regret or sorrow. Blake took my elbow and pulled me into a small, private office, leaving the men to mill about and check their weapons one last time.
Shutting the office door to give us some privacy, he pulled me close. “This is our good bye.”
“Already?” I blinked trying to process the farewell. I’d wanted to go home the second I woke up in Frankie’s private jet. Hell, I’d even planned to run away from Blake at one point, but now that the moment was here, goodbye didn’t sound so good.
“Yeah, this is it.” Blake gave me a crooked smile and hugged me tight. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess, but I’m not sorry we met.”
I hugged him back and inhaled his musky scent one last time. “I feel the same way, assuming we all get out of this alive.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“Will you?” I raised my head and searched his face.
He shrugged. “I’ve been fine so far. I doubt Frankie is going to give me any trouble.”
“Right. He’s the piranha and you’re the great white shark,” I said, echoing the comparison he’d made when he first found out about Frankie. “You’re going to swallow him whole.”
“That’s the plan.”
He kissed me then. The kind of kiss you feel in your toes, that makes your spine tingle and your core tighten. I ran my hands through his hair one last time and moaned when he nibbled my bottom lip. Blake was dangerous, we had no future, but the way he could turn me inside out with just a kiss was almost worth the risk. Almost, but not quite.
He pulled away after a minute and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Take care, Ruby.”
“Will I see you again?” I hated how tremulous my voice sounded, hated that I even asked.
His eyes grew dark with what I took as regret. “Maybe. I never know where the job will take me.”
“Well, don’t be a stranger.” I traced his lips with a finger.
He wrapped his hand around mine. “So you wouldn’t be sorry to see me again?”
“No, but,” I gave a small laugh, “just make sure you’re not on a bunch of criminals’ shit lists next time. It’s been fun, but not a trip I would take twice, you know?”
“Duly noted.” He kissed my knuckles.
“Thanks, Blake,” I said somberly.
“For what?” He snorted. “All I’ve been is trouble.” He looked upset, not with me, but himself.
“You kept me alive. You kept me sane and...” I hesitated, nervous. “And you loved me.”
Blake cupped my cheek in his hand. “You did the same for me.”
Someone shouted for Blake and he stiffened at the sound. With one last caress of my cheek, he went to answer them, which gave me a moment to wipe the tears from my eyes. Damned if I still didn’t carry a torch for the guy. My feelings angered me. I didn’t want regrets. I didn’t want to miss him, but it didn’t look like I would have a choice. We’d gone too far, been through too much for him to mean nothing. If I was honest with myself, he was everything, but I had to let him go. For his sake and mine.
“Ruby,” Blake called. “It’s go time.”
I squared my shoulders, sucked up my tears and went out to make this international action adventure thing my bitch and find my way home once and for all.
Chapter Nineteen
We took two vehicles to Frankie’s house. Blake and I in a dilapidated Jeep, which I would later use to drive Lilli and I to safety. The other, a dented, rusty Range Rover, which held everyone else on the team.
Blake turned off the headlights as we neared our destination and the Range Rover behind us followed suit. “We’re going to drive round back and wait for Lilli.”
“Wait?” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t you have to go in and get her?”
He concentrated on his driving for a moment, navigating around a particularly large pothole. The houses were big out this way. Through palm tree fronds, I caught glimpses of ostentatious mansions. Thick, concrete walls guarded the huge houses and steel gates blocked driveways.
Clearing the pothole, he answered my question. “No. We’ve got someone on the inside who’s going to bring her out.”
“How did you manage that?”
“Everything outside the US is based on who you know. If I know someone, I know everyone they know. The guys,” he nodded back to the Range Rover, “have relatives who work for Frankie.”
“They’re related to his muscle?” I asked horrified. I tried to picture how that worked, how it didn’t end in disaster. Someone would betray us, I just knew it.
Blake swerved the Jeep around another pothole, one that looked big enough to swallow a person whole. “No, they’re not that close to Frankie. I’m talking like maid and cook level. People that are invisible to Frankie.”
Something niggled at me. “Blake?” I put a hand on the dash board to steady myself as we ran into a pothole. Without the headlights Blake couldn’t see the smaller ones coming. The Jeep lurched like a drunk about to face plant and the steel frame shuddered, but with some quick acceleration Blake pulled us out.
“Yes?” He didn’t look at me, saving his focus for the road.
“You don’t know who told Ferrid about us, right?”
“Yeah, so?” He waved a hand. “I’m over it.”
“Well, I was just thinking about the staff at the Riad. What if they talked? What if they knew Ferrid?” The cook especially would’ve been able to overhear all of our conversations on the main floor.
“No,” he said quickly. “They’re vetted. They’re not random staff like Frankie’s set up.”
“And double agents are a myth?” I challenged. “No one has ever betrayed a mission in the history of espionage?”
“Okay, you’re right,” he conceded with a nod. “It’s a possibility. I’ll mention it in my report.”
I kept going, unable to let it go. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.“No one else knew about the op except those of us in the Riad, right? Seems to me that the cook or the housekeepin
g staff could’ve been a weak link.”
“They were vetted,” Blake said again, his voice short.
“By who?” I crossed my arms. “Did you vet them or were you just told they were okay? Do you even know if anyone was swapped out at the last minute?”
Blake sighed. “No, I didn’t vet them personally and no, I wouldn’t have known if someone new came in. It’s a decent theory. Like I said, I’ll mention it and it will be investigated. Now, can we please focus on the task at hand instead of Monday morning quarterbacking?”
“Yeah, sure. Sorry,” I said, flushing, thankful that the dark hid the color in my cheeks.
“Don’t be sorry.” He put a warm hand on my knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s a good instinct, something I’ve considered myself, but now is not the time.”
I felt my cheeks grow even hotter. Here, I’d been telling him something he already knew like I was a boss, when really I was just a fool.
We bounced through a series of shallow potholes. I felt like I was on a poorly constructed carnival ride. My seat belt went tight across my chest and I had to use both hands on the dash this time to keep myself in place.
“What’s the deal with the roads?” The roads were in serious disrepair and didn’t match the fancy neighborhood they ran through.
“Cheap thief deterrent,” came the short answer. “The owners of these houses have money and they want to make it hard to get in and out.”
“They don’t have police?”
“The police are corrupt here. You’d have to bribe them to get anywhere and that’s only if the thieves don’t already own them.”
Blake hit the brakes and swung a left while the Range Rover kept going straight. He drove a bit further and then went right, rolling to a stop behind one of the tall fences.
I peered out the window, making out a small gate. “We’re here?”
“Yep. This is it.” He shifted the Jeep into park.
“So now what?”
“Come take the driver’s seat and I’ll gear up for my date with Frankie. Then we wait. When Lilli comes out, we hustle her into the Jeep and you haul ass to the embassy.” He unbuckled his seat belt and I followed suit.
“Which is where, exactly?” I peered down the street, hoping to find my bearings and came up empty.
He pointed to the road in front of us. “Go straight, turn right and then left on the main road and go down about a mile. You can’t miss the embassy. It’ll be all lit up with a US flag. Okay?”
“Got it.” I winced though, thinking of all the potholes. I just hoped my reflexes were up to the task.
We both stepped out of the Jeep. Blake to get his gear together in the back and me to settle into the driver’s seat. I buckled myself in and went over the instrument panel, making sure I knew where the lights and gear shift were.
Blake leaned against the front of the Jeep, a rifle in his hand and a small pack on his back. I rolled down the Jeep’s window.
“Hey, pssst,” I whispered.
“What?” He came to stand by the driver door.
“What do we do now?”
“We wait for the explosions and then Lilli.”
He went to stand at the front of the Jeep again, leaving me to drum my fingers on the steering wheel. We waited so long I began to think it was a bust, but then I heard it: A loud boom that shook the ground followed by the sound of rubble collapsing.
Blake snapped to attention and aimed his gun in front of him, waiting. I gripped the steering wheel tight, ready for action.
Someone shouted. Guns went off. Another explosion, this one stronger, but still no sign of Lilli. Had we come all this way, blown up everything for nothing?
“Where is she?” I whispered to myself. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire punctuated my question.
Poked my head out the driver’s side window, I called out to Blake, “What’s going on?”
He shook his head and checked his watch. “I don’t know. She should be here by now.”
“So what do we do?”
Blake stared at his watch, thinking. “One more minute and I’m going in.” Another explosion rocked the ground, this one powerful enough to send debris from the front of the house raining down onto us at the back of the big mansion. Blake sprinted to the passenger side and jumped into the Jeep as small rocks and wood glowing red with fire bounced off the vehicle.
Even though there was a roof over my head, I still ducked anyway. I couldn’t help myself.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, jumping as a big piece of stucco slammed into the Jeep’s hood. It bounced off and fell to the ground, leaving behind a grapefruit sized dent.
“A hell of a lot of explosives.” Blake frowned. “Something’s not right. I’m going in.”
“What should I do?” I felt a flutter of panic at the idea of Blake running into danger.
“Stay here, wait for Lilli. When she comes out, go. Don’t wait for me.”
“Are you sure?”
He gave a curt nod. “I’m sure. I’m going to be stuck here a while cleaning up. Don’t wait and don’t worry, okay?” Blake gave me a reassuring smile. “I know what I’m doing.”
I swallowed hard and nodded mutely.
I thought he would get out of the car and run off then, but instead he leaned in toward me and we shared one last kiss. The world was exploding around us, but it couldn’t compare with the sensation of his lips on mine, the rough scrub of his beard stubble or the familiar musky scent that I would always associate with Blake. I drank him in, my mouth moving urgently under his. We both ran our hands through each other’s hair, holding on tight, pressing close.
And then he let me go. Before I’d even fully registered the end of our kiss, he was gone.
***
After he left, I stared out into the night, my thoughts in turmoil, and my body buzzing from our kiss. That was it. The End. Fin. Done. Kaput. Whatever we had was over. Nothing would be the same once the night was over. I just hoped the change in the air meant escape and not a scenario where Frankie or some other gangster gained the upper hand.
Another bomb detonated, this one weaker than the last. The boom was soft and muted, like they hadn’t used enough explosives or something. Not that I knew anything at all about bombs, but thinking about it kept my brain occupied.
Where the hell was Lilli?
Time dragged on until impatience crowded me, jittery under my skin. A horrific thought occurred to me. What if Lilli never came? What if it was just me?
“Oh god,” I moaned, dropping my forehead to the steering wheel. Is that what the delay meant? That Lilli was dead? My breathing became short and tears hovered in my eyes. What was I going to do?
Well, first, I thought, sniffing back my emotions, I need to decide how long to wait. Naturally, I had no watch and the Jeep’s clock didn’t work. Blake had been my timepiece. Some black op this was. A beat up Jeep, bombs that alternately did too much damage and too little and no way to keep time.
Awesome.
I started to count. “One one thousand. Two one thousand.”
At sixty, I started over at one. I had no idea how long I would go for, but at least I could track time.
At the four minute mark, Lilli finally emerged, stepping through the back gate, furtively looking over her shoulder as she went. She wore a black robe and a hijab, but I recognized her by her shape and the lock of red hair that slipped past her head covering.
“Lilli,” I screamed.
She started and put a warning finger to her lips, a horrified expression on her face. Moving fast, but with a pronounced limp, she headed for me. I frowned when I saw the limp. Frankie had snatched her right after her surgery. I hoped he hadn’t made things worse.
Lilli slipped inside the Jeep, slamming the door after her. “Go,” she said, her voice tight. “They’re right behind me.”
Sure enough, a small group of men spilled out into the street, guns in hand. Before they could shoot at us, there was a massive explosion
and Frankie’s house collapsed in on itself while simultaneously launching big chunks of rubble into the air. Everyone ducked and took cover except me. I stared, transfixed at the explosion, my reaction dominated by one thought.
Blake.
Was he still inside? Did he get out? Was he hurt?
I wanted to run inside and search for him, but before I could act on that impulse, the men following Lilli started shooting. Their shots went wide though because another explosion blasted the air, shaking the ground and shooting rubble out at a pace that would rival a machine gun.
“Shit,” I said as I turned the ignition. The Jeep’s engine rumbled to life and I wasted no time in hitting the accelerator. Hoping my instincts were as good as Blake said they were, I aimed straight for the men at top speed. They either had to get out of the way or get run over. Thankfully, they all scrambled to the side and we roared past them, gaining speed as we went.
Figuring we didn’t have to worry about stealth anymore, I turned on the headlights. A good thing too, because a massive pothole deep as a five gallon bucket and wide as a suitcase yawned in front of us. Yanking the steering wheel hard to the right, we skirted its edges.
I breathed a sigh of relief and sent a silent prayer of thanks up to the heavens. However, the headlights in the rearview mirror told me we weren’t out of danger yet. Not even close. As if to prove the point, bullets thudded into the back of the Jeep.
“Get down,” I screamed, completely flooring the accelerator and doing my best to duck without losing sight of the road. Lilli folded herself into a compact ball, her eyes closed tight and her lips moving as if in prayer.
At the first cross street, I turned right and then left at the next street. This put us on the main road, the one that would lead to the embassy. The potholes weren’t so bad here and the Jeep sped along. Soon we were up to ninety miles an hour. So were the cars behind us. In fact, one of them was going faster, gaining ground and aiming to pass us.
Shit. How had they moved so fast? There’d been no cars in the road except the Jeep. Or were these new bad guys who were just shooting at us for the first time? I bit my lip, overwhelmed at being a target for multiple guns.
Lilli, for her part, remained huddled in her seat. She was so still, I became concerned.
