Sinner

by Minx Hardbringer

  “Oh, shit. That’s a badge.” Lilith says and then swallows hard.

  Adam

  Back at the church, Lilith protests when I want to tie the man up.

  “We cannot tie up an FBI agent. Ian Laughlin.” She says as she reads his badge and ID.

  “What else are we going to do? We can tie him up, or we can hold a gun to his head. Neither of those options is very appealing, but we can’t let him run off before we talk to him.” I say.

  “Let’s let him wake up. You hit him on the head with your gun, but you thought he was Italian Mafia. We should at least give him the opportunity to have a conversation with us sans ropes. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll tie him up.” She says and puts her hands on her hips. Mrs. Morgan used to do that, and that’s how I knew there was no room for negotiation.

  “Fine. We’ll try it your way first, Peaches. I just hope I don’t have to hit him in the head again.”

  “Adam!”

  “I’m kidding. Mostly.”

  Ian wakes up, and Becks gives him a bag of frozen strawberries for his head, two Tylenol, and a diet soda. He actually thanks her and doesn’t make a run for the door.

  Special Agent Laughlin, Ian, apologizes for taking Lilith at gunpoint. He thought she was working with the Russian mob too. I apologize for hitting him with my gun, and I start to realize that Lilith is much better at diplomacy than I am.

  It turns out that the FBI has been investigating Tom and Vladimir this whole time. On this case and others as well. That also means that the three of us have been impeding a Federal Investigation. They were even watching when I shot the Italian in the alley, but since they could clearly see that I was shooting to defend Lilith, they let it go for the time being because they didn’t want to impede the investigation. They did retrieve the body, though, and that’s why Tom just thinks the Italians backed out.

  He is just days away from the Italians coming after him because they believe that he has something to do with the mysterious disappearance of one of their made men. Tom’s bought himself some time by going to China, but Ian needs to wrap this up before it all implodes. And, before they start sending Sophie back to me in pieces. Everybody is getting desperate, and we need to calm down and find a solution before one of us blows it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lilith

  “So, what are we going to do?” I ask when everyone falls silent.

  “Well, I should be taking all three of you in. You’ve impeded a Federal investigation along with a laundry list of other crimes.” Ian says, but he doesn’t move to stand.

  “But, we can get you, Vladimir. Then, you’ll have Tom Hunt and Vladimir Mikhailov. Surely, a boss in the Russian Mafia has to be worth something to the FBI. We can still go to the exchange, and the feds can swoop in and seize him. We’ll get Sophie back, and you’ll get two high-value targets.” I can see the wheels turning in Ian’s brain.

  “I think I can get you a deal if you can get me, Vladimir. I’m not sure if I can get no prison time for Adam considering he’s wanted for kidnapping, but I’m certain that we can get a light sentence considering the foster parents he fled from are in prison for abusing kids now. I’ll get a team ready to take down Vladimir and his men for the exchange. Adam, I’ll have to take you in right after. I might not have to arrest Rebecca and Lilith if you take full responsibility for everything. It was all you after all, wasn’t it?”

  “It was,” Adam says without hesitation.

  “That’s good. Lilith, I’m going to write this all up as you gathering information for me. Rebecca, as far as I know, you just lived in the church with Adam. Rooming with an old friend. I have no evidence of your involvement in anything. If you ever want to fight the bad guys with the FBI, we have programs that rehabilitate people with your particular skills and turn them into information specialists.” Ian says.

  “You mean you’re inviting me to hack for the U.S. Government.” She says and smiles slyly. Becks is trying to play it off, but I can tell Ian has piqued her interest.

  “Yes, something like that. Let me know if you’re interested. I’d get a hefty bonus for recruiting someone like you. We could split it.” Ian says and smiles at her. If I’m not mistaken, I think I see a spark of something pass between the two of them. Imagine that story. The brilliant hacker going straight for the roguishly handsome FBI agent.

  After we confirm the rest of the plan, and Ian calls it in, he goes back to his office to set up the team. The three of us have to wait a few hours for the exchange, so we start discussing lunch.

  “Who wants pizza?” Becks asks and opens up her laptop to order.

  “I don’t know if I can eat, but I’ll try,” Adam responds and goes to the fridge for a drink.

  “I’m in. I like olives and mushrooms.” I say, and Becks goes back to clacking away at her keys.

  “Coming up.” She says and smiles.

  That’s about the time I hear a bang and swearing coming from the kitchen. It sounds like Adam dropped his can of soda and possibly on his foot.

  “I uh. I got a text.” Adam says and walks out of the kitchen looking as white as a ghost.

  “What is it?” I ask, but my blood is running cold, and the ringing in my ears is so loud that it’s almost painful. I’ve never seen Adam look so frightened, and it’s chilling me to the bone.

  “It’s Vladimir. He says I have to meet him with the hard drive by the abandoned dam on the south side of town in fifteen minutes or Sophie dies.” He says and shoves his phone in his pocket while picking up the keys to his bike.

  “Adam wait. You can’t just go alone. We have a plan, and we should at least call Ian to see if he can do anything.” I plead.

  “Peaches, we can’t do that. It takes ten minutes to get to the dam, and I’ve already wasted two. I have to go now. If I have to die to save Sophie, then so be it. If that happens, Becks can you look after her?” He says and grabs me.

  Adam pulls me into his arms and kisses me hard on the lips. It feels like he’s trying to fit a lifetime of kisses into that one moment. It feels desperate and heartbreaking. I can’t speak when he walks away, but I won’t just sit around and let him walk into this alone. It’s a trap, and I can feel it.

  “Call Ian and tell him what’s going down,” I say and bolt out of the church before Becks can protest.

  Adam is speeding away on his motorcycle before I can get to my car, but that’s okay. I’ve lived in this city for a long time, and I know where the abandoned dam is. It’s a terrifying place to hold the exchange because there’s no way for Ian and his team to sneak up on the exchange. It’s also completely secluded, and there won’t be any witnesses.

  It doesn’t matter. I keep going. When I arrive, I send Becks a text with the location confirmation and ditch my car on the road so Ian can find us. It’s probably unnecessary, but I feel better leaving a trail of bread crumbs.

  Early growth woods are surrounding the abandoned dam and its buildings. I try to sneak through them as quietly as possible. It’s hard to move silently when there are sticks and leaves on the ground, but I step on as few of them as I can. Once I get close enough to see and hear the exchange, I stop. There’s no reason to move any closer because I can’t help, and getting caught will only complicate the matter. I’m not sure why I’m here, but I guess it will be good for there to be a witness if everything goes south.

  “I’ve got the drive. Adam says as he approaches Vladimir and the men who are holding Sophie. Now give me my sister.”

  “Change of plans, Adam the Sinner. I’m taking the hard drive, but I’m throwing in a bonus for my boss back in Moscow. Your sister will fetch a high price from someone who likes young, cute virgins. And your girlfriend is too old for men who like the young girls, but she’ll make an excellent maid for the bosses household.” Vladimir says and directs his people to put Sophie back in the SUV.

  “You’ll never get Lilith, now let my sister go.” Adam barks as he pulls out his gun.

  “It’s a pi
ty you brought that,” Vladimir says and shoots Adam before he even has time to aim. “And I will get your girlfriend. Come on out, sweetie, or I’ll have to kill you too.” He points at me and Adam’s eyes go wide with distress.

  “Lilith no. You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “I’m sorry. I call out and start to walk towards Vladimir.”

  “No, Lilith. Run.”

  “If you run, I’ll shoot him in the head. I might shoot him in the head anyway if you don’t hurry up.”

  I rush to Vladimir, and he grabs me by the arm. Adam tries to get up, but he grabs his side and groans loudly. He can’t get up, and all I can do is look back and watch him bleed on the pavement while Vladimir shoves me in the van.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Adam

  I wake up and try to take a swing at the person stabbing me in the side. Strong hands push my shoulders down, and I realize it’s Ian. There isn’t anyone sticking me. Becks is cleaning the gunshot wound to my torso.

  “It’s a flesh would ya big baby.” She says and takes a big gauze bandage out of a black plastic case.

  “Rebecca wouldn’t let me call an ambulance. She told me she could handle it, and that we’d lose Vladimir and the girls if you went to the hospital.” Ian says through gritted teeth. He strikes me just now as the type of man that isn’t used to being ordered around by a woman. The really strange thing is that there seems to be some sort of spark between them, but Becks told me she was gay.

  The sharp pain in my side from her taping the gauze down lets me know that I’ll have to continue those thoughts later. Becks hands me a sports drink and two Tylenol.

  “You really love this stuff, don’t you,” I say, but I’m grateful for whatever pain relief I can get.

  “I do, and drink all that Gatorade. You’ve lost some blood, and I don’t want you getting dehydrated.” She says and watches me swallow the pills.

  “Yes, Mom. But, I’m not entirely sure that’s how it works.” I say and take another swig of the sweet, blue liquid.

  “Shut up and drink it. We have to figure out how we’re going to get Sophie and Lilith back.” She says and stands up.

  “I really need to call it in, guys. This whole thing has gone off the rails big time.” Ian says and runs his hands through his short hair.

  “Vladimir will be calling me soon,” I say and chug what’s left of the drink.

  “Yeah, Adam and I had a backup plan for this,” Becks says and puts her hand on Ian’s shoulder. The gesture is more affectionate than purely consoling.

  Gay huh?

  “What do you mean?” Ian asks.

  “I had a dummy drive on me too. This is the real one.” I say and pull out the hard drive. “I thought he might pull something, so I took one of Beck’s patented destroys your shit forever drives. It’s got a virus on it that will spread like wildfire once he attaches it to his computer. It will destroy his files, his computer, and then jump to any equipment and servers connected to his network. That includes his phone. It even worms it’s way into already sent emails. Becks is the only person who can shut it down, and she’s not going to do that until we have Lilith and Sophie back.”

  “Wow,” Ian says looks at Becks with total admiration.

  “Yep. Russian Mob boss brought down by a computer geek.” She says and high-fives me.

  Ouch.

  Adam

  My heart is racing even though I know Vladimir has to give me my sister and Lilith back. I still don’t like that their lives are on the line. He could go crazy and kill them, although if he does, he’ll be responsible for losing the money and destroying all of the family’s computer systems. Vlad is dangerous, but he’s not stupid.

  We’re all sitting in Ian’s car waiting for my phone to ring. The Tylenol is barely taking the edge off the pain, but I’m holding on to the discomfort. It’s keeping my mind sharp. I can get something stronger once this is all over, and my sister and Lilith are safe.

  An hour that feels more like an eternity goes by, and I start to wonder if Vladimir did kill them and is now planning to ambush me and take the drive since he wouldn’t have any bargaining chips left. Pure dread starts to creep from my stomach out to my extremities. Just when I think I’m about to burst, my phone rings.

  Vladimir.

  “You’re brilliant. I did not see this coming.” He says in a much thicker Russian accent. His façade is crumbling, and he’s nervous.

  “All you have to do is give them back unharmed, and my associate will shut down the program that’s eating your computers alive right now.” I hiss into the phone.

  “I have many connections. What if I just shoot your little girlfriend, and I find someone else to shut it down. Just give me the drive, Sinner.”

  “If you could find someone to do that, you wouldn’t be calling me right now. My guess is that you hooked that drive into your computer twenty minutes after you left, and you’ve spent the last…” I look at my watch. “forty-five minutes trying to figure out how to stop it. You’ve had the best hackers the family knows contacted, and they’ve all told you there’s nothing they can do. That’s because the best hackers the family knows aren’t the best. I’ve got the best, and you’ve got one move. Give my sister and Lilith back or you lose.”

  “We’ll meet at the dam again in one hour,” Vladimir says, but some of the confidence I thought was unshakable is gone from his voice.

  “No. We meet where I say and when I say. And don’t try anything stupid this time, Vlad. Becks can turn that virus back on at any time for any reason. We will meet in an hour, but at the Grove. “

  “Fine,” Vladimir growls. He hangs up before I can say anything else.

  “Can we get your men there in an hour?” I say when I hang up.

  “They’re already on their way. Good choice, by the way. That old orchard is perfect for the extraction.” Ian says, and then pulls his ringing phone out of his pocket.

  He takes the call, and Becks and I just wait. There are a lot of “uh huh” and “I understand” before he gets to “Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.”

  “What is it?” I say when he hangs up.

  “There’s an asset inside of Vladimir’s operation that even I didn’t know about. He’s been in deep cover for years. The people higher up the food chain have decided that he’s coming out after this bust. He’s going to help us make sure that we get Vladimir.”

  That’s when I remember the man taking care of my sister. He’s FBI. I feel much better knowing that we have a real ally on the inside.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Vladimir’s men move us into a holding cell in the back of a fishery. We’re just up the river from where the exchange fell apart, and I’m terrified because I don’t know what’s going to happen to us next. The front part of this place looks like a place where they process fish, but the back looks like swanky business offices. I guess that this place is some sort of cover for nefarious activity.

  I don’t realize how badly I’m shaking until I lift up my hands so that the huge man leading us into the cell can take off my wrist restraints. Seeing Adam get shot has rocked me to my core. Sophie is sobbing violently, and the man puts a comforting hand on her head after he takes off her restraints.

  “It’s okay, little bit. It’s almost over. Your brother will be okay. You’ll be home soon.” He coos.

  “Your accent is gone.” She says to him completely astonished.

  “Things are not always as they appear, little bit. Sometimes there are good guys in bad places.” He winks at her and then locks us in the cell when he hears more of Vladimir’s men coming.

  When he’s gone, I turn to Sophie. I’m concerned because she looks very pale. She takes a seat on the concrete bench in the cell and holds her chest.

  “Are you okay, sweetie?”

  “I’m alright for now. I’m out of my medication. My chest is a little tight and sore, but I’ll be okay as long as I get my medicine soon.”

  “I’m Lilith, Sop
hie. I’m friends with your brother.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Lilith, and it’s comforting to have someone with me. I’m sorry for you, though.” Sophie says, and her breath sounds shallow and laborious.

  “It’s good to meet you too. Although, I wish it was under better circumstances. Hopefully, Adam, Becks, and Ian will get us out of here soon.” I say and sit down next to Sophie. I’m not sure what I can do for her, so I just try to rub her back soothingly.

  Within minutes her skin is even more ashen, and Sophie’s lips have a slight blue tint. She looks like she’s in terrible pain, and I’ve got to do something.

  “I’m going to call for help. Surely the man who put us in here will help.” I say and go to the bars enclosing us.

  “No, it’s okay. I don’t want to draw attention to us right now. I’m sure I'll be good for a while longer.”

  “No. You need help.” I’m about to call out, but I hear Vladimir’s angry voice in the distance.

  He’s coming this way and shouting at his men in Russian. In moments, he’s in front of me. Vladimir’s eyes are wild with rage, and I think we’re done. This is it, he’s here to kill us both.

  “Get them out. We’re going right now.” He barks at the man who is familiar with Sophie.

  The look of relief on his face is quickly replaced with dread when he sees Sophie’s condition. He goes over to her and scoops her up. “I’ll carry her. This one is sick, boss.” He says in what I assume is his fake Russian accent.

  “Whatever. Let’s just go.” Vladimir says and shoves me forward.

  “What’s going on?” I ask when we’re in the SUV speeding towards our destination.

  “You’re lover boy gave me a fake drive, and the one I got is destroying everything. Looks like you’re going home after all.” Vladimir says, and I can tell the words taste bitter in his mouth.

  It makes me smile a little despite my continued peril. I’m flooded with worry all over again when I see Sophie leaning up against the man who carried her to the car. She’s almost unconscious, and her breathing is very shallow. Vladimir doesn’t notice because he’s so enraged, but the man is holding Sophie’s hand and whispering in her ear.