by Geri Foster
Bruno shook his head slowly and bowed. “No, it had to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Marino was convinced you seduced his sister and she was no longer a virgin. He gave the signal for her to be killed. He no longer wanted her.”
“But she was his sister.” Mac ran his fingers through his hair. “Damn, she was so young. How could he?”
“You don’t understand do you, McKinsey?”
“What’s to understand? She was his flesh and blood.” It angered Mac that Marino would kill his only sibling when Mac had no one.
“He loved her in an unnatural way,” Bruno said. “She was his bride.”
Frank touched his stomach. “I think I’m getting sick.”
“Bride?”
“Sí, when she was thirteen he paid a priest to marry them. He’d planned to bring her home in the summer and they would live together as husband and wife.”
Mac narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “His sister?”
“Aw, shit,” Frank said.
“Angelina did not love him that way. She wanted to stay in the nunnery. Even the priest forbade her to go home. They found the padre dead. Hung on the wall like the Holy Christ.”
Mac closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t comprehend any of this. “So, he thought I’d touched Angelina, or his bride. And for that he’s been hunting me for years?”
“Sí.”
Mac glared at Bruno. “No one touched that girl. I stayed with her twenty-four-seven. I kept her safe.” Mac shook his head. “He killed her in cold blood.”
“That is why he keeps killing the young girls of his country. He rapes, tortures, and mutilates.” Bruno’s mouth turned down. “Then he murders them, and tosses their young bodies into the garbage like rotted food.”
“Bruno, you have to help us stop this.”
The Columbian looked up and Mac knew he was looking into the eyes of a man with little time left. “I think we are too late.”
“You’re smart, Bruno. No man lasts as long as you have without a few tricks up his sleeve.”
Bruno leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I have a little money set aside, a place to go, and a few passports. But I also have a family. Anything I do to help you, my family will pay for.”
“I meant what I said about protecting them, Bruno,” Frank reminded.
Bruno looked like he considered the offer before he glanced at Mac. “When Marino finds out that I didn’t kill you, my life is over, anyway.”
“But we can save your family.” Mac offered.
Bruno looked at Mac. “It is not my family you should be concerned about. I left a man at the girl’s house to wait for the bodies to be removed after the bomb exploded. This way we’d know the job was done.”
Mac’s breath caught in his throat. “So when two body bags aren’t carried from the house, the gig is up for you?”
Brody burst into the room, snatched up the TV remote and clicked on the television. “You won’t f-ing believe this!”
Em’s sister, Victoria, stood in the middle of the screen explaining that Em wasn’t in the house when it exploded. She was at a friend’s place in Bedford.
Mac dropped to his knees.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The car Mac drove turned the corner on two wheels as he pulled to the gated entrance of his apartment complex. After punching in the code, he sped to his apartment and raced up the stairs, leaving the car running.
He and Brody came to a halt when they noticed the door was open and heard Hershey barking inside. Mac rushed in and called Em’s name. The only sound was Hershey. Mac went to the bathroom and let the dog out. Hershey leapt on him and continued to bark.
The dog was unharmed, but Em was gone. Her purse lay abandoned on the coffee table and her new cell phone on the kitchen counter. He picked it up and dialed the last call Em had made.
“Hello,” a female voice answered.
Mac took a stab. “Hi, is this Brenda?”
“Yes, it is. Who’s this?”
“I’m Mac, Em’s friend. Her phone shows your number as the last one she called. What did she say?”
“Well, she mentioned you. Said she was safe, but she didn’t tell me where she was. She called to let me know she was fine, that’s all.”
“She’s not safe now, Brenda. I’m at my apartment and Em is gone, and Hershey was locked in the bathroom.”
“What! Emily said she had no intentions of leaving until you returned. Is her car there?”
“Yes, parked where she left it.”
“What are you going to do? Do you think the men who blew up her house found out where she was hiding?”
Mac didn’t know what to say or think. Em in Marino’s hands scared him so much he could hardly breathe.
“Oh God no!” Brenda shouted. “It was her dumb-assed sister, wasn’t it? That bitch with the fake boobs and big mouth?”
“I’m sorry, Brenda, but you might be right.”
There was a wrenching sob on the other end as Mac blinked back tears himself.
“Okay, Mac, you go get Emily. Give me your address and I’ll pick up Hershey and bring him here so he’ll be safe. But I’m telling you right now, I’m going to Victoria’s and Stanley’s and I’m kicking some serious ass. I’m about to rock their sick, twisted world.”
Mac liked Brenda. She was the kind of friend Em needed. One willing to stand up and fight when other ‘fair weather friends’ hid behind silence. After telling Brenda how to get to his place with the code to the gate, and a promise to leave his apartment unlocked, Mac and Brody went hunting.
Mac dialed Jake. When Jake answered, Mac said, “Go to the office and find out from Bruno where Em might be. We don’t have a single clue to go on. None of my neighbors saw a thing.”
“Got it,” Jake replied.
“Don’t be nice. Em could die any minute.”
“You can count on me.”
“I know, Jake. That’s why you’re the one I called.”
***
Jake made it to the office in record time. He went downstairs and kicked in the door to the interrogation room. When he saw Bruno, he pulled out his weapon and laid three loaded clips on the table.
Long, unbroken lines of sweat streamed down Bruno’s face. His shackled hands shook and fear bulged his black eyes. He stuttered and stammered, unable to form a complete word. Bruno’s crumpled face revealed his certainty that negotiations were over.
Jake fired a bullet and took off the lobe of Bruno’s left ear. The next shot clipped his right shoulder.
Bruno screamed in pain as tears fell from his eyes and the stench of his fear filled the room. Jake cocked the gun again and fired. Bruno lowered his head as the bullet creased his temple. Stomping his feet he tried to yank free of the cuffs that held him bound to the metal table.
“Please stop!” Bruno cried. He hunched his shoulders and squeezed his eyes shut.
Emily Richards was the only thing Jake thought about at the moment. Bruno had made a lot of bad choices in his life, and now the devil was here to collect his due. Jake didn’t care how much he hurt a man who tried to kill an innocent woman. All he wanted was results.
“Where did Marino take the girl, Bruno?”
“I swear I don’t know.”
Jake shot his right ear off. “School is closed, Bruno, and I don’t play nice. If I don’t find out where Emily Richards is right now, I’m going to kill you piece by piece. It’ll take an army of crime scene investigators to clean up this fucking mess when I’m finished. Now start taking.”
“I swear...”
Jake shot him in the left shoulder. “Try again.”
Bruno screamed at the top of his lungs. He cried, he pleaded, he begged. None of it mattered to Jake. All he wanted was Emily’s location.
“I don’t know what to do.”
Jake cocked his weapon and shot Bruno in the left kneecap.
“Wait! Wait!” Bruno screamed.
Jake released the trigger. “I’m listening.”
“I can reach him by phone. Maybe I can call him and he’ll tell me where she’s at.”
Jake walked around the table where Bruno sat in a chair pooled in blood. He reached inside his pocket and took out a phone. He put it on speaker then slid it toward Bruno.
“Make the call, Bruno, and hope you learn where she’s at because if you don’t, I’m going to take four hours to kill you.”
Jake’s phone was programmed to put out a tracer, record the conversation and determine the person being called.
Bruno dropped the phone several times before he managed to dial the number. “Yeah, Marino, where are you?”
“Where are you Bruno? With the fucking Falcon bitches?”
“No, no I got away. When the shooting started, I ran out the back into the field. I made my way to a local store where I stole a car. I’m on my way to meet you.”
“Why do you want to find me, Bruno? You have done nothing I have asked you to do. I don’t need you anymore. I have Diaz. He is a man who gets results. Not you, Bruno.”
“But, jefe, I’ve...”
Silence. Bruno dropped the phone on the table and lowered his head. “He hung up.”
Jake left the room and took the stairs two at a time. He walked into Frank’s office just as he picked up the phone. Jake went to the console set up by the NSA and read off the message. “Marino is at 1206 Mockingbird Lane in Southlake.”
“Did you hear that, Mac?”
Frank put the phone down. “You’re back-up. Get going.” Jake turned to leave.
“How bad did you leave Bruno?”
“Alive.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Emily struggled to breathe. Every stitch of clothing clung to her sweat-soaked body. Her feet burned like fire ants had feasted on them. The smothering dark hood forced her to control her breathing or hyperventilate. Panic riddled her mind as terror spiraled down her spine.
Surrounded by darkness, not knowing where they were taking her, Emily tried to chew at the tape across her mouth with no success. She stubbornly blinked back tears and thought of Mac. He was out there hunting for her, and he wasn’t one to quit.
Earlier in the apartment she’d hung up from Brenda when Hershey started barking. Thinking he needed to go outside, she foolishly opened the door without checking the security screens. Three men with guns pushed inside. They threatened to kill Hershey if she didn’t keep him quiet. A short, stocky man followed her to the bathroom where she had to fight with Hershey to get him to stay.
Then they grabbed each arm and pulled her from the apartment. She lost her sandals in the struggle. As soon as they cleared the door Emily screamed like a crazy person. She kicked, squirmed and tried to bite the man on her right. She managed a solid kick to the ankle of one guy, and the other got a jab in the ribs. Then before she knew their intent, they smacked a piece of duct tape against her mouth.
Following Mac’s instructions, she dug in with her bare heels and squatted down. They yanked her up, but she struggled backwards, stalling for time. Hoping someone would hear her plea for help, or see the abduction.
Angrily, she twisted, kicked, pulled against their tight grip and continued to dig her feet into the hard cement. She didn’t get much for her efforts, but she got the satisfaction of refusing to give up easily.
Finally, the two men grabbed her legs, and threw her into the backseat of a car. With one on each side they shoved her onto the floorboard. Moments later they squealed out of the apartment compound then made a left. Leaving her only sanctuary behind, the guy next to the window covered her head with a black canvas bag. He propped his feet on her shoulder and hip. The hump on the floorboard in the back of the car dug into her side.
From that moment on, Emily was helpless. She didn’t know where they were taking her, how long they drove, or their intent. But something told her this would not end well.
The car came to a stop. The men yanked her out of the car with more force than necessary. The soles of her feet were so raw she stumbled forward when released. They removed the hood and shoved her through the open door of a large, two-story brick house.
With her eyes still adjusting, Emily fell several times before she came to the living room where a tall, handsome man greeted them. The coldness in his eyes twisted a knot in her stomach. Without being told she knew this was Marino. The man determined to kill Mac. Obviously, she would play the part of a pawn.
Emily knew with all her heart that Mac would come. The confident smirk on Marino’s face told her he also had no doubts.
When they ripped the tape off, she licked her lips and asked. “What do you want with me?”
“You will see,” he replied smoothly. “You are McKinsey’s lover, are you not?”
His blatant remark gave her pause. Were they lovers? To this point she’d never considered their relationship or lack thereof. She cared a great deal for Mac, but at the same time she knew he wasn’t the settling down type. Besides, with her luck in the romance department, she wasn’t about to hold on to any hope.
“No, we are not lovers. I represent Falcon Securities as their attorney. I barely know Mac. I was in Russia and he came to my hotel room needing a lift to the States. That’s all there is to it.”
A bitter, ugly laugh bubbled from his throat. Pointing a mean finger at her, he said, “You play me for a fool?” He stepped forward and tilted her chin. “Or, are you the fool, Miss Richards?”
“I don’t know what you mean and I have no idea why you want to harm me. I don’t even know you.”
“But you know McKinsey. The one I am after. The one I will kill.”
It took every muscle in Emily’s body to keep from reacting to Marino’s statement, but she managed, barely. “Then I suggest you go after him and let me go. Are you blind? I’m not McKinsey.”
In a breath, Marino slapped her so hard she fell to her knees. Blackness swelled and blinded her. With the metallic taste of blood in her mouth, Emily shook her head. Refusing to remain on the floor, she shoved herself up. Rage brightened his face.
With his feet spread wide, he squared his shoulders. Madness glistened in his eyes. He pointed at her. “You are not him, but he cares about you. And now I am going to kill someone he loves like he did to me.” Marino thumped his chest. “I promise he will watch as I slice you into small pieces while your heart still beats”
Emily stood on wobbly legs and shook her head to get her hair out of her face. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth and no doubt Marino’s hand imprint on her face, would be added to her other bruises, but still Emily couldn’t resist. “I hope he kills you for the animal you are.” Then she spit in his face.
A horrible growl erupted from his mouth and he lunged for her with both hands. Before he could reach her, a small man shot between them and warned, “Jefe, we need her alive. Dead she’s worthless.”
The two kidnappers forced her into a large bedroom. Without a word, they cut the hand restraints and slung her on the bed before banging the door shut. She rubbed her wrists and lay quietly, waiting. The bolt slamming home from the other side echoed in the sparsely furnished room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Moscow
A loud thumping on his hotel door brought Tony to his feet. He picked up his smart phone to see who waited on the other side. Tony never left anything to chance. A tiny camera across the hall showed the back of Nicholas Belskavia. He was alone. Clicking off his phone, Tony opened the door and waved the Russian in.
“Glad to see you came to your senses. So, Marino gave you fugazi?”
“I do not know what that means, but the money is no good.” He threw his hat on the chair and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m going to kill that fucker. He thinks he is safe in America. Wait and see how long is my arm.”
Tony strolled further into the room. He opened the mini bar and poured his guest and himself a glass of vodka. “Be smart, Nicholas. Get legal. In today’s world w
ith all the technology it’s hard to get away with much.”
“I think maybe after I kill Ramón Marino, I will retire to the countryside. My wife hates Moscow. My son is in the army and my daughter is married to an engineer and they live in Kiev.”
Tony leaned against the wall and crossed his ankles. “I’ve known you for years, Nicholas, but I never took you for a family man.”
Nicholas tilted his glass and chuckled. “I have been married to the same stupid woman for a million years.”
“Giving up crime is a move in the right direction. You’re too old for all this.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “Dah, I’m too old for all this killing.” He looked at Tony. “So, what is your plan?”
Tony shrugged his left shoulder. “Kill Marino.”
Nicholas took a drink of his vodka. “I like it.”
“How much money did you lose?”
Nicholas stood and paced the room. “Not as much as you might think.”
Tony raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“You see,” Nicholas said. “Those weapons I sold him? The nuclear ones that he could make into bombs?”
“Yes.”
“Well, they’re not exactly nuclear. If you know what I mean?”
“You old son-of-a-bitch.” Tony laughed. “What a pair the two of you make. Now, I don’t know who to kill.”
“I do. That fucker screwed me good. That was my retirement fund.” Nicholas stared out the window. “It will be a matter of honor. I go teach Ramón Marino never to double cross a Russian before he thinks.”
“I need a favor, Nicholas.”
Nicholas stood and walked to the large window overlooking Red Square. “I owe you nothing, Archuletta.”
“I turned you on to the counterfeit money.”
Nicholas shrugged. “I would have eventually found out on my own.”
“Right, but it would have taken you time and I saved you a lot of embarrassment. You try using that money and people will think you’re an idiot.”
Nicholas rubbed his bristled chin. “You are right there. And I could have been arrested. Not good for a man my age.” Nicholas finished his vodka and helped himself to another glass. He turned to Tony. “You tell me what you want and maybe we can settle on a price.”
