Explicit Memory

by Scarlett Finn

  The guards took the phone and left, while Flick watched the frustration in Antoine become apprehension. After the gunshot he had sent out two guards to help clean up the mess, or rather to confirm the kill. But, they hadn’t returned, nor had the two sent out to check on the staff guards. But it was difficult to get excited about the dwindling number of guards in the room when they still totalled so many.

  ‘I need to use the bathroom,’ Tawny said, squirming in her seat and pinning her gaze on Flick.

  ‘We’ve been here for quite a while,’ Flick said, wondering at the expression Tawny bestowed. ‘Mercier, you have to—‘

  ‘I am not that naïve,’ Antoine said.

  ‘You’ll have us here for hours,’ Flick said. ‘Did you have no plans to let us eat or tend to personal needs?’

  Gearing herself up for another fight, Flick’s gusto was diverted when a crash came from beyond the room. All eyes sprang to the door, and for a tense five seconds nobody breathed.

  ‘Ce qui se passe?’ Simone asked her cousin what was happening, and fearful of alerting them to her knowledge of their language, Flick didn’t flinch.

  ‘Je ne sais pas.’

  If Antoine didn’t know what was happening, then this wasn’t planned, and Flick’s smile seeped to her face. Her lover’s name was on her lips, but Flick didn’t speak. She turned around and looked at a wide eyed Tawny with a smile.

  ‘Maybe the bathroom break can wait,’ Flick said.

  ‘You! Take your group! Get out there and investigate that sound!’ Antoine commanded, and tried to push out of his chair, but was reminded of his injuries and collapsed back. Simone bounced forward in her chair, and with one hand on her wincing cousin’s knee Simone took a bottle of pills from her purse on the floor and held them to Antoine.

  ‘All of them?’ Flick asked, watching the five men Antoine had spoken to filter out with their guns drawn.

  Antoine swallowed down the pills with the wine he and Simone had been drinking all night. ‘Tais-toi,’ he sniped, and swiped away Simone’s hand from his leg.

  ‘Five guys,’ Flick said as casually as she could muster, because she knew it would rile him. ‘You must be uneasy… You send out two, who never come back. Then you send out another two who never return, and now you’re sending out five… that’s a lot of guys.’

  ‘Telephone!’ Antoine demanded of Simone, who fumbled a cell phone out of her purse to give to Antoine, who immediately dialled.

  ‘I don’t think they’re going to answer,’ Flick said, casting her eyes toward the ceiling as she relaxed back on the couch.

  Five short, sharp gunshots snapped to their ears, and her smile only got wider. ‘Putain!’ Simone’s outburst wasn’t appreciated by Antoine, but it was by Flick.

  ‘Maybe you should send out some more guys to see what that was,’ Flick said.

  ‘Come over here,’ Antoine said to Flick, struggling to get to his feet, even with Simone’s help. Obviously sitting in the same position for so long hadn’t done his injury any good.

  ‘You want me to come over there?’ Flick asked, and a security guard closed in on her to pull her up to her feet. ‘If I come over there, I’ll finish what I started.’

  ‘You will not hurt me,’ Antoine said, using the chair for support. ‘You will not risk the lives of your family.’

  The guard began to drag Flick forward but she lashed out, digging an elbow into his ribs and her heel into his shin. He cursed at her, and when he hoisted her off the floor she cried out, digging her fingernails into his arm in hope of being released. Her bound wrists limited her options, but she still kicked and struggled all the way to Antoine’s side.

  ‘Keep her behind the chair, against the wall,’ Antoine said, and gestured for two others to cover her as well.

  Three men on Flick alone was actually something of a compliment, but the gun against her temple lessened her glee. One man held her shoulders, one held the gun, and the third seemed ready for her to lash out.

  ‘Has he had enough time?’ Simone asked Antoine. ‘Rushe? Is he here already?’

  ‘We shall find out,’ Antoine said, taking a few steps toward the door. ‘You!’ he commanded another security guard. ‘Open the door.’ The guard did as he was told, and swung the door back on its hinges while holding his gun ready. ‘Stay beside it, you warn us if you see anyone.’

  ‘That’s your plan?’ Flick asked, then was jostled back against the wall when she tried to move. ‘Someone stands there until Rushe walks into his line of fire? If you shoot Rushe, then he won’t be able to retrieve your evidence.’

  ‘He will not be shot,’ Antoine said. ‘We held your family for a reason.’

  ‘He’s taken out half your men already,’ Flick said, though she couldn’t be sure of that, she couldn’t be sure of anything.

  ‘Rushe!’ Antoine called toward the door. ‘We have your ladies! Don’t be a coward, you have nothing to fear! We have a proposal!’

  ‘You’re going to negotiate by hollering?’ Flick asked. ‘He might not even be out there.’

  Antoine’s eyes remained trained on the door, though his head tipped in her direction. ‘He’s out there. He has a compulsion, which I will never understand, to be near you.’

  ‘It’s called love,’ she muttered.

  ‘There is a way out of this!’ Antoine shouted at the door again.

  The guard at the door collapsed to the floor and it took Flick a few seconds to realise that he’d been shot. The blood that began to form a puddle beneath him was the only clue, as Flick could not see the actual injury. Antoine took a reflexive step back.

  ‘Do you want to form an orderly line?’ Flick asked, knowing that Antoine couldn’t send anyone else out there, because they’d be picked off one by one.

  But just then Rushe came into the doorway with his gun outstretched, and with three quick shots he took out three more guards. Ducking back behind the wall, Rushe held his gun around the doorframe and pointed it at Antoine.

  ‘You’re next,’ Rushe said.

  ‘We have a proposal,’ Antoine said.

  ‘No,’ Rushe replied. ‘You have a problem. A serious problem. Every man not in this room is dead. My associates and I have cleared out this place, and the feds are on their way.’

  ‘What?’ Antoine faltered. ‘That’s impossible.’

  Rushe shook his head. ‘Jansen, and one of my associates, got Serendipity out without me,’ Rushe said. ‘I wasn’t halfway to his location when Jansen called and told me it was a trap. I came back here, and I’ve been taking your men out one by one. The Hughes’ staff are free, and they called the cops. Jansen called the feds.’

  ‘He—‘

  ‘That’s the thing we never figured out, Kit,’ Rushe said to her, but watched Antoine. ‘The feds found out about Jansen’s off the books investigation. The Merciers took Jansen out when they found out the feds had approached him for the evidence he had gathered. It was the feds watching Jansen in the hospital. They wouldn’t let him out to go to Serendipity, so he had to bail behind their backs.’

  ‘The second captain,’ Liam said, from his place on the couch.

  ‘Witness protection. He wasn’t destroying evidence, he was collecting it,’ Rushe said. ‘The feds have known about the Merciers’ involvement for months. They’ve just struggled to put the pieces together.’

  ‘They have not!’ Antoine asserted.

  ‘They couldn’t get a handle on you. They didn’t know what you looked like, or where you were… not until you showed up on their doorstep with my woman,’ Rushe said. ‘Since then they’ve been watching you.’

  ‘You walked right into their hands when you took me in to make a statement,’ Flick said. ‘Why didn’t they arrest him?’

  ‘Jerome was who they wanted,’ Rushe said. ‘And they got an eyeball on him when he was invited to your engagement party. They’ve been monitoring his movements since then.’

  ‘Oh my god,’ Flick exhaled.

  ‘They were watching
you too, Antoine, which means they were watching my woman,’ Rushe said. ‘Also means they weren’t looking at me.’

  ‘Keeping us apart protected you,’ Flick said.

  ‘Did me a favour there,’ Rushe said. ‘Turns out they lost sight of you the night that Jansen left the hospital. Their operation was frantic. They didn’t expect you and Flick to leave here so suddenly. No one knew where you went… until Jansen called them tonight and told them you were here. He has his woman now, so there’s nothing to stop him from handing over everything he has and taking you and your uncle down.’

  ‘The feds are on their way?’ one of the security guards said, and Flick watched them all look at each other, and their dead colleagues on the floor.

  ‘You guys have no idea what you’ve walked into,’ Flick said. ‘Antoine’s not going to protect any of you. You’re all going to go down for life.’

  ‘Fuck that,’ the security guard said, and started for the door, but he paused at the reminder of Rushe.

  ‘Drop your guns, and you can leave,’ Rushe said. ‘I’ve stripped your colleagues out there of their weapons; there’s nothing behind me. My associates will let you leave if you don’t cause trouble.’

  ‘Associates?’ Simone asked. ‘Jansen is here?’

  ‘And Eric?’ Liam asked.

  ‘I sat out there until they had time to arrive,’ Rushe said. ‘Someone taught me that backup is important.’

  Flick smiled and wished that Rushe would look at her, but she couldn’t see him properly because of the men still restraining her.

  The guard willingly tossed his gun toward Rushe and took another from his hip. ‘I’m not going down for that guy.’

  Rushe let him walk out, and he was closely followed by his colleagues, who also discarded their weapons, until the only three men left were the ones on Flick.

  ‘There are easier ways to grope a woman,’ Flick said to the guy who had hold of her shoulders. ‘Ones that won’t get you sent down for life.’

  ‘No,’ Antoine said. ‘Don’t listen to what she says.’

  His desperation was showing, because he turned his back on Rushe to move toward Flick. But the remaining security guards didn’t loiter, all cast their weapons aside except one, who shoved a gun at the Frenchman as he passed. Rushe came into the room when the guards departed, and he closed the door to seal them all inside.

  Chapter Thirty

  ‘Are you scared?’ Flick asked Antoine, from her position trapped between him and the wall, where the security guards had left her. ‘Can you feel the panic? They’re on to you; they’ve been on to you all along. It’s over now.’

  ‘Non! Non! It is not!’ Antoine snatched hold of Flick, rotating her until her body was in front of his. ‘You will call them off,’ Antoine demanded of Rushe.

  ‘Are you going to run like a scared little puppy?’ Flick growled over her shoulder. ‘Run and hide, curl in the corner and lick your wounds? Now who is the coward?’

  ‘Tais-toi!’ Telling her to be quiet would achieve nothing, but the volume at which he did it betrayed his panic.

  ‘Set everyone free,’ Rushe said, taking a knife from his back pocket and tossing it toward Liam.

  ‘Non!’ Antoine exclaimed. ‘Non! Stop!’

  ‘You’re outnumbered now,’ Rushe said. ‘Your men are gone.’

  ‘We will shoot your woman,’ Antoine said, hauling Flick higher in front of him.

  ‘You do that, and you’re left with no way out.’

  If Antoine killed Flick, then the triumph would be momentary because he’d have no shield against Rushe. Obviously, the European came to the same conclusion, because he began to move for the door. If Antoine thought that she would go with him, then he was wrong.

  Flick threw back an elbow and both of them bowed. Then on throwing her head back, Flick made contact with Antoine’s face and he released her as he staggered backwards. Flick fell, and in the moment she made contact with the rug, there was another gunshot. This time the curse was in French.

  Whipping her head around, she saw Antoine collapse to the floor while clutching at his shoulder. Simone screamed and ducked to snatch a gun from her purse. After one static moment, she bounded to the seated Tawny, who screamed when Simone heaved her up to her feet. Using Tawny as a shield, Simone began to retreat toward the unconscious Antoine.

  Flick rolled onto her chest, expecting to see Rushe bearing down upon them. Instead, Lucia was the closest person, and she had her arms stretched out in front of her. Though they were still connected at the wrist, she had a gun in her hands, a gun from the deceased security man who lay at her feet. Lucia had been the one to shoot Antoine.

  ‘Lucia,’ Beverly gasped.

  ‘I guess bad-ass is in the blood,’ Liam said, and Flick’s own mouth fell open.

  But there was no time to be shocked. Spinning her attention toward Rushe, Flick was already on her way across the room toward him. It wasn’t until Flick got herself tucked behind Rushe that she took in the scene. Everyone was on their feet, crowded in front of the fireplace. Liam had a gun and Robert too. Both men stood guard at the head of the group.

  Antoine remained on the floor. Simone stood in front of him, holding Tawny against her, and pressing a gun under Tawny’s jaw. Rushe wouldn’t take the risk to fire with Tawny so close to the fray.

  ‘He’s down,’ Rushe grumbled at Simone, keeping his gun trained to her. ‘What are you going to do now?’

  ‘I could shoot her!’ Simone screeched. The wobble of the weapon in her hand was a great cause for concern.

  ‘Then we shoot you,’ Rushe said. ‘Game over... Or you let her go, and we let you walk... Run back to your uncle and tell him to get ready for prison.’

  The door opened, which caused Flick to spin, but when she registered that the new entrant was an armed Eric, she relaxed.

  ‘Sorry we’re late,’ Eric said, but Rushe remained intent on Simone.

  ‘You just got here?’ Flick asked Eric.

  ‘Yeah, sorry.’

  ‘But I thought…’ Flick gazed at Rushe’s back. ‘You were bluffing? You took out those men by yourself, you were alone… all of that, and you were bluffing about your “associates”?’

  ‘The rest was true,’ Rushe grumbled. ‘You were in danger. I was done waiting.’ So much for infinite patience.

  Too many guns in the place were trained on Simone. If this group was led by a lesser man, the woman would never have made it out of here alive. Staying behind Rushe, Flick peeked around his arm and prayed that Simone wouldn’t do anything stupid. Rushe might not want to hurt a woman, but there were other guns in the room now, and nerves were fried.

  Just as Flick began to think that Simone was considering hurting Tawny, maybe just for spite, she hauled Tawny toward the door. As she traversed the space Rushe moved around, keeping the Frenchwoman in the sights of his gun. Flick mirrored the progress, keeping herself enveloped in Rushe’s body heat, because the last thing she needed to do now was distract him. Although Tawny struggled against the movement, Simone got there.

  Tawny was too unwieldy a prisoner, and Simone had no muscle on her bones, so taking a hostage wasn’t an option. On reaching the exit, Simone propelled Tawny forward and used the cover of the flailing woman to make her escape.

  ‘Should we be letting her go?’ Robert asked.

  ‘Jansen’s in the lobby, so she won’t get far,’ Eric said. ‘She’s got nowhere to run.’

  Liam was already around her and Rushe. Sweeping Tawny off the floor, Liam carried her to the couch and laid her down. Watching him soothe his girlfriend, who seemed to be rather dazed, made Flick smile. Liam stroked Tawny’s hair and kissed her lips. Flick had never considered Liam as a lover in the past, but she concluded now that he was probably very attentive in that department.

  Turning to scan the rest of the room, she was met abruptly by the sight of her own lover, now facing her, glaring down from his intimidating height above her.

  ‘What?’ she asked.
/>   ‘It’s your mouth,’ he said. ‘It’s always your fucking mouth.’

  ‘You love my mouth,’ she teased, pressing a fingertip to his sternum, but he snatched it into his fist.

  ‘When it’s full,’ he growled, and swooping down he jammed his tongue against hers and forced all of his fury into their kiss.

  Hooking one arm under her ribs, he took her off her feet so he could straighten from his stoop but still maintain their kiss. His other hand caught her head, ensuring the suction formed by their lips remained intact.

  ‘We should get out of here.’

  The voice to their side shattered the fervent moment. Rushe didn’t release her, but her head drifted down to his shoulder when he turned to Eric, who had spoken.

  ‘Yeah,’ Rushe said. ‘Tawny, come on!’

  ‘You can’t leave,’ Beverly said, stumbling toward them. ‘The FBI are on their way.’

  Lucia and Vivian were on the couch, holding each other and crying, while Charles tiptoed around the room with Robert surveying the bloody scene.

  ‘No, they’re not,’ Eric said, and glanced at Rushe.

  Flick tsked at him. ‘You lied about that too?’ she asked.

  ‘Jansen will call them now,’ Rushe said. ‘I wasn’t gonna let him do it while I was standing in the room.’

  ‘So the threat was…’ Flick didn’t know whether to be impressed or angry. ‘You plan to take off before they get here? What should we do with Antoine?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Rushe said, looking beyond all the others to Antoine, who still lay on the floor. The European groaned and rolled over to begin crawling toward the door, picking up speed as his consciousness grew. ‘I’ll take care of that.’

  ‘You’re going to take him with you?’ she asked, burying her face against him.

  ‘Damn right.’ Rushe lowered his chin to seek her mouth again, but their kiss was brief.

  ‘Antoine is escaping!’ Charles declared, glancing at the stain of blood on Beverly’s favourite rug beneath where Antoine had been. Now the struggling Frenchman was disappearing through the door.