Oath of Honor

by Lynette Eason

  “Mick? Really?” Gabby stared at her brother as though she’d never seen him before.

  He rolled his eyes. “Shut up about things that don’t concern you.”

  Gabby snapped her lips shut and dropped her gaze. She walked back into the den and sat down next to Izzy.

  “Gabby,” Izzy whispered, turning to her friend, “why were you meeting with Tony Bianchi?”

  She frowned and handed Izzy the cold bottle of water she’d removed from the refrigerator and uncapped. “Who?”

  “The man in the warehouse the night Kevin got killed.”

  “I was picking up some money that he owed Mick. Mick asked me to go get it for him, so I did.”

  “That wasn’t money Bianchi owed him. It was a payoff,” she whispered.

  “What? For what?”

  “I’m not exactly sure, but it has to do with the election.”

  Izzy heard Freeman speaking to Mick and tuned in. “Text the guys and make sure they’re ready.”

  Guys? How many people were involved in whatever was going on? And why weren’t they asking her about helping them escape?

  Because they didn’t need her help. They needed a hostage later, after whatever it was they were planning. Gabby stood and walked over to the table.

  A chill swept over Izzy. “Was my father ever in any danger?” she asked.

  Freeman laughed and shook his head.

  “Gab?”

  “I don’t know.” She bit her trembling lip. “Probably. If you didn’t do what he wanted.”

  “Yes. He was in danger, but now that you’re here, he’s not,” Freeman said. “That what you need to hear? Now shut up and let us work.”

  Mick turned back to Freeman, who shoved something in front of him. “Two guns come from the right and two from the left. Four from behind the stage. More Bloods will be here and here.”

  Freeman tapped the item in front of him and Izzy realized Mick was looking at pictures.

  The night of Kevin’s death came back with clarity, then her mind jumped to the security footage where Bianchi was talking. “Get the pictures and get out. Understand?”

  Then Louis’s last words to her. “I’ve got some pictures for you.”

  He’d been killed for those pictures. “What are the pictures of?”

  Freeman slammed a fist onto the table. “Oh, for the love of … put some tape over her mouth, will you?”

  Gabby flinched and shot Izzy a frightened look. Mick spotted his sister’s face and he shot to his feet. “What happened to you?”

  “He hit her,” Izzy said.

  Toby spun in his chair and aimed his weapon at her. “Shut up or I’ll shoot you!”

  “Or maybe I’ll shoot you,” Mick shouted. He lifted his hand toward Toby and the weapon cracked.

  Izzy dove to the floor and rolled when another shot rang out and Mick yelled. She turned to see a red stain spreading across Mick’s chest. Vaguely, she noted Gabby’s screams as she rushed to her brother. Mick sank to his knees, eyes glazing over.

  Izzy’s throat tightened, even as it registered that Mick could never hurt her again.

  “They said I could have you,” he whispered. “That was the deal. We were supposed to get the money, then I was going to take … you … away …” His eyes never closed as he landed facedown on the floor.

  Gabby’s sobs now reached her. Izzy looked up to see Toby tuck his gun into the shoulder holster he wore. With a sigh, he walked over and pulled Gabby to her feet and tucked her against him. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry.”

  “You killed him!” she wailed.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, he just … I thought he was going to kill me. And you.”

  She sniffed. “Me?”

  “Yeah, babe, I couldn’t let him do that. He was crazy, shooting at everything.”

  “One shot is shooting at everything?” Izzy asked.

  When he turned to her, Izzy wished she’d kept her mouth shut. He stomped over, picked her up, and threw her on the couch. “One more word out of you and you’re dead. You have other siblings that will be just as effective as a hostage. Like your sister the doctor.”

  He meant it.

  Izzy nodded that she’d be quiet, then leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes. Within just a couple of minutes, Freeman had settled Gabby at the table and removed Mick’s corpse from the floor. He didn’t bother to clean up the blood.

  Now the two of them sat at the table, and while Gabby’s sobs broke Izzy’s heart, she had to come up with a plan just in case Ryan didn’t figure out the bullet was missing.

  They’d mentioned neutralizing people? As in killing them? But who? The names on the list? How were they planning to do that? A bomb? Multiple shooters with automatic weapons?

  Things had just gone from worse to disastrous. She’d witnessed Freeman kill a man. Technically, she might actually consider it self-defense. Mick had shot first. But she knew it didn’t matter. She didn’t have much longer to live unless she acted.

  Their words drifted to her as she tried to visualize a way out, tried to devise an escape plan. She had the duct tape worked so that one good rip would get it going and she’d eventually be able to get free. But it would make noise and grab their attention.

  “I need a potty break. It’s been a while.”

  “No.” Freeman didn’t bother to look up.

  “Seriously?” She shrugged. “Whatever. It’s your couch.”

  Freeman jerked his head at Gabby, motioning for her to tend to Izzy. “But keep your mouth shut.”

  Gabby nodded meekly and stood. But when her gaze touched Izzy, her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.

  Interesting. So she wasn’t quite as docile as she wanted the man to believe. Good. Maybe she was ready to fight back.

  “Use this and bring it back to me.” He handed her a pocketknife and glared at Izzy. “If you try to take it from her or escape in any way, I’ll kill her. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  With shaking hands, Gabby cut the tape holding Izzy’s ankles together and returned the knife to Freeman. Izzy then followed Gabby down the hall to the full bath on the right.

  “Give me your hands,” Gabby whispered.

  Izzy waited while her friend loosened the tape around her wrists. “Hold on to that,” Izzy told her.

  “Why?”

  “Because if I don’t find a way out, you’re going to have to wrap it back around my wrists. Just loose.”

  “Izzy, I didn’t know all this was going to happen. I thought I was helping Mick. He was at the house when you called and rushed us out of there. He said you were going to find a way to put him in prison. And then we got here and he was furious that he didn’t get the iPad. He thought it was in the bag with the computer.”

  “So he came up with a plan to get me to bring it to you.”

  “Yes. He said something about a guy named Young who was supposed to be a professional. But he’d failed to get you.”

  “No kidding.”

  “I’m sorry, Izzy. I didn’t mean to get you wrapped up in all of this.”

  “You didn’t. My involvement started with Kevin’s death.”

  She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes. “I can’t believe I was so stupid, so blind. I thought he liked me, but he was just using me.”

  “Stop. Let’s go out the back right now. We’ll find a window and get out.”

  “I … I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t leave.”

  “Why not? He’s in there.”

  “I know, but …”

  “But what?”

  “He’ll kill my mother if I leave.”

  “How?”

  “He’s got her bed at the assisted living place wired with a bomb. If I don’t do what he says, he’ll set it off.”

  Oh no. So that’s how he was keeping Gabby under control. Freeman was so confident that Gabby wouldn’t buck him or do anything to help her friend because he held her mother’s life in his
hands.

  A bomb at an assisted living home. Izzy didn’t want to even imagine the mass casualty that could be.

  “Do you know the plan? Have you overheard anything?” Izzy kept her voice low, making sure Freeman couldn’t hear her.

  “Nothing that makes any sense to me.”

  “What do the Bloods have to do with this? Are the Crips involved too?” The fake tattoos. No, if both gangs were involved, there wouldn’t be a need for fake tats. And there was no way they’d band together for any amount of money.

  “I don’t know. I promise, if I knew anything I’d tell you. This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered. “You weren’t supposed to get hurt. No one was supposed to get hurt. I was just helping Mick!” she ended with a whispered shout.

  They were out of sight of Freeman, but he had to be listening for them. Izzy lifted a finger to her lips and Gabby pressed a hand to her mouth.

  “So do something,” Izzy said.

  “Like what? What can I do that won’t get my mother and all those people in that building blown to bits? You tell me and I’ll do it, but I just know that I can’t leave.” Tears dripped down her cheeks and off her chin.

  “Hurry it up back there!”

  Izzy let her gaze linger on her traumatized friend, at a loss as to what to tell her.

  “Come on,” Gabby whispered. “He’s getting mad.” She wrapped the tape around Izzy’s wrists leaving enough room for her to slip out when she was ready. Then Gabby hurried into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. Izzy heard the water running, then Gabby returned to her side.

  Back in the den, she took her spot on the sofa once more. When she glanced at Freeman, he was watching her with narrowed eyes. She lifted her chin and glared at him, and he scowled and turned his attention back to the object he’d been studying. A picture. An 8½″ x 11″ picture.

  And Izzy’s blood ran cold. She knew that place. The place where the newly elected mayor would give her speech.

  And everything fell into place.

  Terror exploded through her.

  The list that Derek had found was a list of cops, all right, but they weren’t dirty. They were the security for the mayor’s speech.

  The fake tats now made sense. She could picture it clearly. They were going to launch an attack during the speech, using a fake gang war in order to take out the cops who were the first line of protection and defense.

  But why? And who was the target?

  Even before the question finished forming in her mind, she knew the answer.

  Her mother.

  33

  Ryan watched the clock. How much time did he have? Did Izzy have? Ryan’s phone rang. Linc. “Yeah?”

  “You find her?”

  “No, but we’ve got a lead and are following it.” He explained about the missing GPS bullet.

  Linc let out a short laugh. “Clever girl.” Then he sobered. “I’m really scared for her, Ryan.”

  “That makes two of us, but we finally got a chopper in the air, heading that way to give us some recon.” He glanced at the clock. “And we’re fifteen minutes away.”

  Linc went silent a moment. Probably controlling his emotions. Ryan understood that.

  He cleared his throat. “On the good news front, we got Bianchi,” Linc said.

  “What? How?”

  “Traced him through a number on Gabby Sinclair’s brother’s phone. He called Bianchi one time from his personal phone. I imagine he got raked over the coals for doing so, because he never called him again from that number. It was the only number in his contact list that we had trouble tracking, but our tech guy managed to finally get a hit and then it was legwork from there. We connected him to another dummy corporation, found the office, and nabbed him while he was doing a deal.”

  “Mick Sinclair is involved in this?”

  “Yeah, we got a warrant for his phone info, hoping it would track us to Gabby and Gabby to Bianchi. There was no communication between Gabby and Bianchi, but definitely between her brother and Bianchi.”

  Relief on Bianchi’s capture filled him in spite of his worry about Izzy. “I really hope it wasn’t a pleasant experience for Bianchi.”

  “He’s got two bullets. One in the shoulder, one in the stomach. He might make it, he might not.”

  “Okay … and Mick Sinclair.”

  “Why do you keep saying that?”

  “Izzy told me about him. Now I’m really scared for her. I’d almost rather her be in Bianchi’s hands than Sinclair’s.”

  “She told you?”

  The pure shock in Linc’s voice raised Ryan’s brow. “Yeah.”

  “Wow. She doesn’t share that with just anyone.”

  “I know.”

  Linc cleared his voice. “All right, well, more good news. In addition to the two million in cash he had getting ready to buy another load of weapons, we picked up a lot of evidence that will be used against him should he live to see the inside of a courtroom. He’s going away for a long time. If he lives.”

  Satisfaction bloomed. A happy ending on that score. Now, to make sure Izzy got one too.

  “And Ryan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “One thing of note,” Linc said. “We found pictures of Izzy meeting with a guy known as Louis Harper.”

  “He’s her CI.”

  “And Harper is now on a slab.”

  “Bianchi found out Harper was feeding Izzy information and killed him,” Ryan said. He told him about the incident in the cemetery.

  Linc gave a low gasp.

  “So, while Bianchi might be out of action, the people working for him aren’t. We need to find Izzy before she winds up like Harper.”

  A helicopter passed overhead and Izzy couldn’t help the slight leap of hope her heart gave. Had someone found the jammed GPS launcher?

  “Helicopter’s here,” Freeman said.

  He stood and Izzy’s hope crashed. She couldn’t let them get on that helicopter. Freeman’s weapon was on the table.

  “Could I have something to drink?” she asked.

  Freeman slid his weapon from the table and palmed it. “Nope. Time to go.”

  “Where?”

  “To make my first million—or the rest of it.” He winked at Gabby. “She just picked up the down payment. As soon as this assignment is finished, the money is wired to my account in the Caymans and I’m set for life.” He shrugged. “Or until the next million-dollar deal comes along.”

  “What about the money you promised Mick?” Gabby said.

  “He was never going to be alive to collect it. He was useful because you told him every detail of the election. But now …” He turned the weapon on Gabby. “You’ve been very useful, but it’s time for us to part ways.”

  “Gabby, run!” Izzy launched herself at Freeman just as his finger squeezed. The gunshot echoed around them and Gabby screamed.

  Izzy and Freeman went down and she rolled, yanking her hands from the tape and leaping to her feet just as he did the same. She spun and threw a hard punch to his face, but he ducked and lunged. Izzy pivoted, trying to move out of his reach. Only she was too slow. His fingers snagged the hem of her T-shirt, yanking her off-balance. She stumbled and fell to the ground, rolling and kicking out. Her foot landed against his shin.

  With an angry yell, he swung. Izzy saw it coming and rolled again. She dodged a direct hit, but his fist grazed her temple, hard enough to stun her. “Get up!”

  Without waiting for Izzy to do so on her own, he grabbed her by the arm and shoved her toward the door. When she stepped outside, the wind whipped her hair into her eyes. She shoved it away as Freeman jammed his weapon into her lower back. The chopper blades pounded the air around them and, instinctively, she ducked against the wind.

  The rain had held off so far, but the moisture hung heavy in the air. The pilot had the doors open as a concession to the unseasonably warm day or to help with the speed of things, she didn’t know which. Probably the latter.

  “Get in th
e helicopter.”

  “Tell me how to save my mom!”

  “Get in or I’ll shoot you and you won’t have a chance to save her!”

  Izzy thought fast, rolling visuals of escape options through her mind at warp speed, while the left side of her head pulsed in rhythm with her heart. She had to find a way to warn her mother. There would be a radio on the helicopter. And what about the pilot? Did he know who he was working for? She had to assume so.

  “Fine.” She climbed into the helicopter as best she could. Now was not the time to free them.

  From the corner of her eye, Izzy thought she saw movement. Dark sedans, police cruisers, and more pulled into the drive of the house.

  “Izzy!”

  She heard Ryan’s shout over the sound of the blades. Freeman shoved her and Izzy fell onto the open deck of the chopper. Medical supplies clearly identified it as a hospital helicopter. Freeman climbed in. “Go!”

  The pilot looked back. “Get that gun off my chopper!”

  Freeman jabbed the weapon toward Izzy. “You want her to die?”

  The man’s eyes went wide. “What?”

  “I’ll shoot her if you don’t get us in the air!”

  “It’s too windy. I need to wait for the wind to die down. And what are you doing anyway? This wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “And shooting you wasn’t either, but I will if you don’t get us airborne!” Freeman grabbed the set of headphones and slipped them over his ears one-handed.

  “I said it’s too windy!”

  “And I said go!” For a brief moment, Izzy thought Freeman might pull the trigger. The pilot obviously thought so too, since he shook his head and obeyed. “And if you land anywhere other than our agreed upon destination, she dies first, then you die, understood?”

  “Understood.”

  The helicopter lifted, swaying in the rough wind. Freeman’s weight shifted to keep him from sliding off the seat. The nose of the gun dipped and Izzy kicked out, landing a solid hit to Freeman’s gun hand. The weapon spun from his grasp and fell to the chopper floor.

  With a yell, Freeman lunged for the gun and Izzy dove after him.

  She managed to clamp down on the man’s wrist just as Freeman’s fingers closed over the grip. “You’re done, Toby!”