by Byrne, Wendy
After everything Gabriella had been through in the last week, she no longer was one of those people who let others take care of things. She was a strong black woman, and wasn’t about to let Shane go at this alone. “You wait out in front for Patrick. I’ll go inside. Then I’ll have to play it by ear. How long before we get there?”
“It’s about a block away.” Donna pointed toward a crowd of people spilling out of an old gray stone building.
Traffic was at a standstill as people walked across the street, against lights, around cars, with a single-minded kind of focus. As the car inched along at a snail’s pace, her nerves started to pop one at a time.
She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Shane had been gone nearly an hour. He had to be inside by now. They could be waiting for him. It could very well be a trap. Unable to sit inside the car one second longer, she threw open the door. “I’m going.”
“Gabriella, wait for—”
That was all she heard as she slammed the car door shut. Determined to help, she sprinted through the hoards of people spilling into the street. They came in waves, cresting and receding in a rhythmic pattern.
Her heart bumped inside her chest as if it wanted out, but she kept on running. While she wasn’t in the best shape, it wasn’t exertion that made her chest squeeze tight. It was pure, almost overpowering fear.
She struggled against the flow of people. No one seemed to be paying attention as she fought her way toward the enormous iron doors with ‘Union Station’ engraved across the top.
Almost there, she felt a tug on her arm, then the cold tip of a gun against her back. “Ms. Santos, you’re under arrest.”
He held out his badge to part the crowd. “Chicago Police. Make way.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
After making a quick stop, Shane took a circuitous route to his destination. While he was fairly certain no one was following him, he couldn’t be positive. If the e-mail had somehow been intercepted, the video might be gone. Then again, they probably wouldn’t be going after him so hard and so fast if they’d been able to destroy the evidence.
He pulled the car to the curb several blocks west of the train station. After plunking some change into the meter, he readjusted the knit cap on his head and zipped up the sweatshirt to hide the gun tucked into his waistband.
Normally his sixth sense warned him if he was being watched. He didn’t feel the resultant twinge. The people around him seemed lost in thought as they headed to work on a Monday morning. No one even gave him a second look.
If things went according to plan, he should be able to get in and out before anyone was the wiser. Then he’d have to figure out what to do with the evidence. Who could he trust? If he asked Gabriella, no doubt she’d offer up Patrick as a possibility. As far as he was concerned, the jury was still out on that one.
Sooner or later, he’d have to enlist help from somebody. It wasn’t as if he could walk into the station blindly and hand over the evidence. But then again, Garrett would be home this morning. Garrett had a friend he trusted in the department. Maybe that might be the way to get the matter cleared up.
Excitement hummed through his body the closer he got to the train station. At eight-thirty, it was close to the height of the rush hour. This whole thing might actually be over with soon.
Then what? He’d no longer have an excuse to be around Gabriella. And more than likely, even if she were talking to him after the scene this morning, she’d soon be heading back to Florida. Why did that leave him with a sick feeling in his stomach?
He drew in a deep breath. Right now he needed to focus. Thinking about Gabriella wouldn’t help.
Then he spotted her. But he had to be wrong. He’d taken the key.
It couldn’t be Gabriella. But it was. And who was that guy walking close behind her, acting like a cop, even holding up what looked like a badge?
Shane’s heart pounded as he pushed through the crowd and took off running. No way, no how would he let anybody hurt her.
“Gabriella,” he shouted. Given the noise level, he didn’t think she’d heard. “Gabriella,” he tried again as fear quickly gave way to panic.
Maybe she did hear him this time but before she could turn her head in his direction, she was pushed into an awaiting car. Everything inside him seemed to break into tiny little pieces as he stood there helpless, unable to do a damn thing about it.
* * *
Wishful thinking or was she going crazy? Gabriella could have sworn she’d heard Shane calling her name. But when she tried to turn around, Stu stuffed her inside the car.
“Where’s Shane?” With a gun pressed into her side, she had no choice but to follow, but she also needed to know he was still alive.
“Inside, where he’s no doubt becoming acquainted with a few of my friends.”
“You’re arresting both of us?” Gabriella knew Stu had no intention of taking her to the station.
He laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”
She could only hope Donna had spotted what had happened. Either that, or she wasn’t hallucinating and that was Shane’s voice she’d heard. “How did you know?”
“On my last visit to your friend’s house, I planted a listening device. It’s amazing what they can do with modern technology. As soon as I heard your voice, I knew my gamble had worked.”
On top of everything else, she’d led them straight to Shane.
“You’re not really arresting me, so what are you doing with me?” She glanced around to see if she could open the door and get out quickly enough.
“We wait until we hear from my friends. Once everything’s taken care of, I get rid of you. You’re the last loose end.”
“That’s what you thought when you got rid of Annie. She knew what you were doing, didn’t she? What happened? Did she say something to Vanessa? And what about Tony? Vince? Walt? They’re still alive as far as I know.” She poked around looking for answers. “You can’t get rid of everybody.”
He nodded. “Annie interrupted one of our meet and greets. We couldn’t let her hang around after that. Walt knew about Annie but couldn’t pull the trigger, so we had to take matters into our own hands. Vanessa got thrown into the mix because we had to be sure. So outside of you and O’Neil we’ve got all the loose ends tidied up.” He glared.
“Tony’s not talking. He knows what will happen to those he loves if he does. He heard what happened to Annie, and in case he forgot we sent him a final message in prison: Nobody, nowhere, is untouchable. Mack got stupid, which only made Shane sniff around where he shouldn’t have, so we had to get rid of him.”
“Then there was the matter of the elusive video she told Vince about.”
“That’s getting taken care of as we speak. That and Shane in one nice, neat little package, since I’m sure he’ll resist arrest.”
Her blood went cold but she tried to focus. Shane was a difficult guy to bring down. If Patrick got there in time, there would be two of them. She had to keep thinking positive.
“How did Tony know about the video?”
“Annie stumbled upon what was happening at the Blues Stop and told her old friend Tony Marcos. He convinced her to get proof and she shot a video of one of our…hmm…how do I put this delicately…our informational sessions. The proof did nothing but seal her fate, even with promises of protection from Walt. Tony was stupid enough to think he could blackmail us with Annie’s video. Doesn’t quite work that way.” He glanced at his cell phone on the seat. “If we destroy the evidence, Vince, even if he manages to pull through, can’t prove a case against us.”
“Drugs?”
He gave a cynical laugh. “Drugs are not where the real money is. It’s really so simple. People. The best of commodities. You get paid on both ends that way.”
She shook her head. “What do you mean?”
“Foreign women want entry into this country. We see that they get in. There’s a price to pay, of course. By the time they figure that out, we’ve got them t
oo strung out or scared to do anything but agree.”
“Prostitution?” The word rolled off her tongue like a curse. Bile hung at the bottom of her throat as nausea threatened. Immediately she remembered the note and the spot of blood. Women had been kept there, in her dressing room, at least for a period of time before being sold off to the highest bidder. Her stomach roiled in protest.
“Of course. The best kind. Where you don’t even have to give the women a cut of any kind.”
“You’re sick.”
“And rich.”
Everything about what he said sickened her. She was repulsed enough when she’d thought it was drugs or corruption, but this was a new low.
“Tony and Annie knew each other?”
“They were childhood friends. When she told him what was going down, he told her to get evidence so he could cash in himself.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Marcos used her, then threatened to go to IA if we didn’t give him a cut. Except she’d never given him the video, so it was pure bluff.”
“So you framed him for murder? You had him attacked in prison?” She couldn’t believe it. Everything was interconnected.
“The boy had to learn a lesson. Besides, he was supposed to die. I swear, the stupid kid has nine lives. We bought some time by making him think the state’s attorney was in on the deal and by threatening his family. He has nowhere to go with what he has if we destroy the evidence. Nobody’s going to believe a loser like him.” Stu shrugged.
“But Vince believed him.”
“Vince believed Annie. When Tony got arrested, I guess she got scared and went to Vince for advice and somehow gave him the information about where she stashed the video.” Stu emitted a chuckle. “Getting rid of a junkie and a prisoner is easy. Take down a goody-two-shoes lawyer like Vince Perry, you’ve got to make it look like an accident. It was much easier to discredit Shane. Most guys in the department think he’s an asshole anyway.”
“You have to know you’re going to get caught. Internal Affairs is already suspicious.”
Stu nodded. “Bullshit. That’s a rumor I started myself. Even if it were true, those investigations take a long time, especially with no evidence to fuel the fire.”
“Getting rid of Shane and me is never going to solve your problem. It didn’t work with Annie. It won’t work with us, either. It’s like trying to plug the proverbial leak in the dam. Another hole springs up when you get one plugged.”
“You let me worry about that. Besides, we’re only doing this for another two years. By then we’ll have accumulated enough to retire in style.”
While his logic was faulty, she’d never be able to convince him of that. He was hell-bent on seeing this whole thing through.
“How could you?”
“It’s called making more in a year than I could in a lifetime. The risk is negligible. At least it was until you two started sniffing around.”
For some strange reason she didn’t want to think about, like maybe she’d gone completely loco, she started to laugh. “But that’s the thing. Neither one of us had a clue as to what you were doing. We didn’t even know about the video. You could have gotten away with it.” Saying that out loud brought her back into focus.
“Walt had a good deal going with us.” Stu shook his head. “Walt owed big money to some people you don’t want to owe money to. We helped him out with that, but then he went and got stupid. So if you want to blame anybody, blame him.”
Talk about shifting the blame. This guy played a part in bringing young women to this country on empty promises and then capitalizing on their vulnerability.
“What about Mack? How did he play into this? You two seemed pretty chummy. Why’d you kill him?” As long as he was talking, she figured she might as well hear everything.
“Mack. The stupid bastard, told us Annie gave the video to Shane. But he was lying.” He switched lanes in traffic, but it was still bumper-to-bumper.
“So you killed him.” Life was an expendable commodity in Stu’s world.
“Had no choice. He was a worthless piece of crap.”
“Did you know he was the one who unlocked the door so Shane could get out?” It was the only thing that made any sense. Besides, she knew telling him that would irritate the hell out of him. Irritated people made mistakes.
His jaw clenched as he said, “I thought it was you.”
“Nope. I guess that means even Mack was smarter than you.”
“Awful big talk for somebody who’s not going to live too long.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” She was desperately trying to channel her inner Shane. After all this quality time together, she should be able to manage that. WWSD. What would Shane do?
The cab up ahead cut in front of Stu, and he swerved into the right hand lane. Opportunity came just that quickly. She pushed on the handle and flew out the door.
* * *
Shane was still staring after the car like a moron when somebody called his name. “Shane. Shane. Over here.”
Looking over, he spotted Donna standing outside her little white car and motioning him over. He started to run but slowed when he spotted Patrick coming up from behind.
He definitely was not in the mood. “I need your car. Some guy just took off with Gabriella.”
“What?” Donna glanced at Patrick, then back to Shane. “Are you sure? She went inside looking for you. I kind of lost her in the crowd.”
Shane shook his head. “The guy had brown hair and drove a blue Cutlass.” He sneered at Patrick. “He had a badge.”
“Stu Holland. I knew that he was up to his eyeballs in this. You two get in.” Shane couldn’t decide which surprised him more, that Patrick hadn’t arrested him, or that he wasn’t acting like a dickhead. Instead of thinking about it too long, he got into the passenger side, while Patrick slid behind the wheel and Donna jumped in the back.
“What’s he after?”
As long as Patrick kept on driving toward Gabriella, he might as well fill him in. “There’s a video of what was going on at the Blues Stop in a locker inside Union Station.”
“I’ll send IAD to secure it.” He got on his phone and relayed the information.
“You actually trust me?”
“Believe it or not I came into the Blues Stop the same night you got beat up. Between Stu being there and Mack acting as nervous as kid on a first date, I knew something was up.”
“And you didn’t automatically assume the worst?”
Patrick laid on the horn and attached his blue light to the roof of his car, but it was still slow going in rush hour traffic. “I’ll admit that was my first thought. But I knew there was no way you’d ever work with a slimeball like Stu.”
“Any idea where he might have taken Gabriella?”
“My guess is he’s got somebody inside the station waiting for you. So that means he’s going to stash her someplace until he knows you’re taken care of. I’m going to make a few calls and see what I can find out.”
* * *
She sprinted down the sidewalk, her heart racing, her legs pumping. Stu was right behind her, his angry shouts getting closer by the second. She spared a quick look behind and switched into high gear.
Bumping and running against the swarm of people, she wove crazily through the crowd. While she didn’t know where she was going, she knew if she got back into that car she’d be dead.
The sound of pounding footsteps behind spurred her on. Her legs pumped twice as hard, twice as fast. Her thighs strained with exertion while she sucked in oxygen.
“Chicago Police. Stop,” he screamed from behind.
She ignored him and turned right at the next corner, hoping to find something, anything that resembled protection, or someplace to hide. Instead she stumbled into a park, a vast open area with few people. But she couldn’t retreat and find a better way without running smack dab into him.
Sprinting hard, she flew past a grassy area punctuated with a fountain and
a band shell, along with a large grouping of trees. She could see Lake Michigan in the distance, along with a four-lane road that separated the park from the lake. If she could somehow make it to the road, she might be able to get lost in traffic or get onto one of the many buses lining the road.
But before she could think about other possibilities, she was tackled from behind and slammed to the grass. Her legs and arms got jumbled up beneath with her right ankle catching the majority of the impact.
“You…bitch…” he panted.
He hauled her up by the arms, nearly dislocating her shoulders in the process, and forced her forward. When her weight came down on her right foot, she buckled. Searing pain shot up her leg, bringing tears to her eyes.
“Problem?” He gave an evil laugh and again forced her forward.
“Let me go.” She hobbled along, trying to focus through the pain.
He simply pulled harder on her arms and held out his badge to anyone who looked at them strangely. “Chicago Police, clear the way. I have a suspect.”
She tried to twist away. “He’s lying…I’m not…a…suspect. He’s…my…abusive husband. He’s going…to kill me.” The words came out in painful grunts. If she could only make people believe her story instead of his.
What she said got people’s attention. He didn’t look like a police officer and people began to give them both a second look, trying to weigh who was telling the truth.
One large muscle-bound man moved in close, standing in their path. “Let me see that badge.”
The vein in Stu’s neck pulsed as he shoved it at the man. “She’s under arrest. Get out of my way.”
“He’s going to kill me.” Her voice sounded weak as pain threatened to overcome her.
“She’s a pathological liar.” Stu cleared his throat as he tried to regain his composure. “I realize how this looks, but we’ve been tracking her for weeks.”
“Please…I swear…he’s my abusive husband. If you let me go with him…” She drew in a deep breath and tried to focus on getting out of this alive. “I’ll be dead by morning.”
