Raia leaned against the doorframe and smiled a predatory smile. “You know bloody well what I’m talking about, ma chérie, and you have about three seconds to give it to me.”
Pleasance stared at him, blinking. Now what?
He stood up and started walking toward her.
Stupidly, she backed toward the bed. It wasn’t as if the extra inches would matter to the bullet as it spun toward her heart. She reached behind her as the back of her knees hit the mattress and her hands hit something she’d thrown there. Her extra pepper spray.
She’d lost the one in her purse when Raia’s men had picked it up but fortunately she’d had a spare in her bathroom and had grabbed it along with her toothpaste.
Her fingers closed around it and she sat down, holding it close to her thigh. “Look, Jon-Luc. I’m not sure how you and I got on different sides of this…”
“Save it.” His pretty, effeminate face didn’t look so harmless all of the sudden. “Detective Muldane already told me that you’d…what is the crass euphemism you Americans use? Spilled your guts? It’s too late for you to redeem yourself.”
Pleasance bit her lip. Ookayyy. Plan B. “Alfric will stop you, you know.”
Raia’s pretty eyes hardened to blue glass. His jaw worked his teeth as if he was trying to chew through them. “Don’t mention that man’s name to me!”
Pleasance forced herself to smile. “Why? Still mad he didn’t melt when you made a pass at him?”
Raia lifted the gun.
Pleasance shrieked and let loose the pepper spray.
It shot out and hit him in the face, causing him to jerk and swear.
The room exploded as the gun went off and pain blossomed in Pleasance’s head, sending her to the floor.
She lay there, shrouded in a gauzy grey haze, and tried to make her mind work. Her eyes felt like someone had glued gauze to the surface of them and something heavy and warm dripped from her forehead into her eyes. Her mind struggled to figure out what had happened, refusing to believe she’d been shot.
Next to her on the carpet, someone was making a god-awful ruckus, and writhing around as if his feet were on fire.
Pleasance knew she only had moments to get out of there before Raia worked through the worst effects of the spray and was able to stagger to his feet.
She pushed her hands into the floor and tried to shove herself upright. Her palms ground against something granular and crunchy but her head felt like lead and wouldn’t lift off the floor. She pressed her lips together and shoved harder.
Her head barely cleared the ground and crashed back down.
Pleasance dug the toes of her sneakers into the carpet and pushed from both ends at once, finally managing to push herself semi-upright and then to her hands and knees. She squinted at Raia and saw that he was crouched on the floor too, wiping at his streaming eyes with one hand while he tried to shove himself to his feet with the other.
They were quite the pair.
Pleasance used the bed to pull herself upright. Her head screamed in outrage and her vision blurred behind a constellation of stars.
She worked her way along the bed, holding onto the mattress to keep from falling over, and scooted past Raia.
She’d almost made it when a hand clamped around her ankle, pulling her back to the ground.
Her head hit the carpet again and the light faded slowly from the room.
Brita hit the freeway and pressed the gas until her ancient car started to shake. Alfric held onto the dash and the door and threw her a look. “When are you gonna get a real car? My lawn mower has more power than this thing.”
Brita threw him a glare. “Not everybody’s independently wealthy, Honeybun.” She suddenly grinned, “Besides, I happen to know Warwicke souped up your riding mower so he could beat the neighbor in a mower race.”
Alfric chuckled. “That man is a competitor through and through.” He shook his head and looked out the window, trying to get his heart to slow down in his chest. No matter how many times he told himself she was okay, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Pleasance could be in real trouble.
And he wasn’t there to save her if she was.
Qamra slid out from under Raia’s Porsche 911 and brushed his slacks off, looking around to make sure he hadn’t been observed. Fortunately, Ms. Roberts lived in a quiet, corporate neighborhood that basically emptied out in the morning and didn’t come back to life until six o’clock at night.
It gave him lots of latitude as he prepared to blow her and the stupid Frenchman into mist. He returned to the limousine, parked under a mature shade tree a couple of blocks away, and slid into the back seat to await the show.
Unlike Raia’s untrained boobs, he never left the scene until the deed was done. If you want something done right…
He perked up as a door opened down the street. At first, he thought it was the artist woman’s door. But instead a small, elderly woman stepped out onto the landing and stared down the street toward him. For an uncomfortable moment, he thought she was looking at him.
But then she shook her head and went back inside her house. Qamra sighed. He’d have to take care of her when he was done with the other too.
Nothing was ever easy.
Pleasance heard water running in the distance. She forced her eyes open and tried to sit up. A sledgehammer took up residence in her brain and she barely suppressed a groan.
Maybe she’d lie there for just one more second. From her current vantage point, flat on her back, she could see a huge chunk of plaster missing from the ceiling above the bed.
Apparently, Raia’s gun had misfired into her ceiling and that had been what hit her. At least she didn’t have a bullet in her brain.
Small consolation since the Budweiser Clydesdales were doing the two-step on her frontal lobe.
The water in the next room stopped and footsteps approached. She smelled Raia’s cologne when he was still ten feet away. It smelled like something her mother would wear.
Nancy boy.
Squeezing her eyes shut she pretended she was still out cold. She could feel him staring down at her. Probably trying to figure out how to move her. He wasn’t exactly the Iron Man and she had big bones…along with a lifelong love of cheesecake in all its forms.
Finally, Raia grabbed her ankles and tried dragging her across the carpet. Her head did a painful boppity bop thing for a few feet before, thankfully, Raia decided to stop and rest.
Raia panted for a moment and then walked around behind her head. Hooking his arms under her armpits he lifted her and swung her around, pulling her through the door into the hallway.
Pleasance started to get concerned because she’d already realized something he apparently hadn’t. A steep, wooden stairway yawned between her and the bottom floor.
This was a problem.
Unless he just planned to throw her down the stairs. Which would solve a lot of his problems.
But it would definitely give her some new ones.
She cracked her eyelids just enough to see where they were. Sure enough, they were only a couple of feet from the stairs. He took the first step down just as the downstairs phone started ringing.
Pleasance really wanted to grab that call. She’d never wanted to answer her phone so badly in her life. But at that moment she had worse things to worry about. He’d lain her down and was moving around to her feet.
He was going to throw her down the stairs.
Maybe it was time to come alive again.
Pleasance counted to three, gritted her teeth against the pain in her head, and swung both legs, hitting him just above his white silk clad ankles and causing him to lose balance.
Raia teetered on the top step for a comic second, his skinny arms flailing wildly as he tried to find something to grab onto. Unfortunately for him, the railing was on the other side of Pleasance.
She jumped up and kicked him on the butt. He flailed one last time and went over, cartwheeling his way down the stairs.
It wasn’t until after he landed that Pleasance realized her problem.
He was crumpled, groaning at the bottom of the stairs and she needed to get out that way. Biting her lip, she made a sudden decision. She’d rather take her chances getting past Raia than continue to be trapped upstairs, helpless.
She forgot about the gun until she was nearly at the bottom of the stairwell and Raia had it pointed at her. “You bitch. You broke at least three bones.”
Pleasance frowned. Only three, he must be made of rubber.
Raia kept the gun pointed at her and climbed painfully to his feet, hobbling toward her with a visible limp. He placed the gun against her cheek and pressed until she squeaked in pain. “I’m tired of screwing around with you, bitch. You give me that sketchpad or I’ll just kill you now and take my chances.”
Pleasance realized her time was up. She nodded and turned toward the living room. She’d placed the sketchpad on her coffee table days earlier and at some point it had gotten covered up by a copy of Architectural Digest. She handed it to him.
Raia didn’t look through it. He just lifted the gun toward her face. “Merci, mademoiselle. Now I can kill you.”
Sirens burst into the silent neighborhood, along with the sound of tires screeching on the street outside.
Raia swore and grabbed her arm. “It appears I’m going to need you a little bit longer, chérie.” He dragged her toward the door and opened it, shoving her outside with the gun against her temple.
Alfric stopped dead in his tracks, his Glock held out in front of him at eye level. From where she stood, Pleasance could see the white across his knuckles, as if he had a death grip on the gun. “Let her go, Raia or you’re a dead man.”
Raia laughed. “Au contraire, mon ami. If I let her go I am surely dead. You don’t really believe I’m that stupid do you?”
Alfric’s deadly blue eyes were locked on the man with the gun.
“Drop it Raia!” Brita stood behind her car with her gun resting on the roof, both hands wrapped securely around it. The magnetic bubble flashed silently from the top of her beat up Taurus.
The Frenchman’s pretty eyes widened and swung between Alfric and Brita. “I’m leaving now and taking the girl with me. If you fire I’ll kill her.”
Something dark and scary slid over Alfric’s face. “I doubt it.”
Pleasance gasped.
Raia tried to laugh but the sound came out sort of strangled. “Don’t doubt me, Honeybun.”
Alfric shook his head. “You won’t kill the girl because then you don’t have cover. So let’s move toward that car, you and I, and you can release Pleasance before you climb in. Because if you harm one hair on her head I’ll hunt you down, dismember you, and cut you in tiny little pieces with my toenail clippers.”
Pleasance grimaced. Ish!
Raia gulped audibly. He took a step toward the car, studiously keeping Pleasance between him and Alfric. When they reached the car he looked from her back to Alfric as if he were trying to figure out how to get her into the little car without getting shot.
Alfric stepped closer. “Don’t even think about it, Raia.”
Finally, the little Frenchman swore and gave her a shove, diving into the car before Alfric could get off a shot. He plunged the key into the ignition as bullets started pinging off the pristine surface of his beautiful Porsche.
He turned the key.
The blast of fire and smoke that followed blew Pleasance off her feet and into Alf. They both went down and Alfric immediately rolled over her, shielding her from the shower of fiery debris with his own body.
The sense of déjà vu was almost thicker than the smoke and fire consuming the tiny car at the curb.
Chapter Twenty-One
“What the hell were you thinking going to your apartment alone?”
Although she knew perfectly well what Alf was saying, Pleasance pointed to her ear and shook her head, silently congratulating herself on her temporary hearing loss from the blast. She’d wait to explain her motives to Alf when he’d calmed down a bit. The sketchbook had been destroyed in the fire with Raia so she couldn’t give it to them anyway. But she would eventually explain to them about the sketch she’d made of Raia with the man she suspected was one of the people he’d been blackmailing into helping him.
It would have connected him directly to the crime. She’d realized that when she’d been sitting in the police station waiting for Brita and Alf to question the Frenchman. She’d decided she could run home, retrieve the sketchbook, and show it to Alf while they still had Raia in custody. It hadn’t quite worked out that way.
She gave a little sigh. Since Raia was dead it was really a moot point anyway.
“I’ll be happy to hear that explanation myself.” Brita leveled a look on Pleasance.
Pleasance just shrugged.
Sighing, Brita turned back to Alf. “I’ve heard back on two of the sketches we sent out.” She was standing next to the ER bed, where Alfric sat rather than lay as the nurse had ordered.
His face was black with soot, except for the spot they’d cleaned so they could put a hand sized bandage over it. Another bandage decorated his soot-blackened neck and a Velcro and plastic cast was being strapped over his left hand, where he’d cracked the bone when Pleasance had flown into him and thrown him to the ground.
Assorted burns had been dressed on his back and shoulders.
Pleasance stood next to the table, nearly as sooty as he was but with fewer bandages. With her hearing loss, she wasn’t contributing much to the conversation.
A commotion in the outer room announced Edric’s arrival. “My brother called me and asked for clothes. I’m going in!”
The curtains shot open and Edric squirted through the opening. He had a tiny, Asian nurse hot on his heels. Her beautiful almond eyes were spitting sparks.
“You can’t be in here!”
Edric just shrugged and gave her his trademark lopsided grin. “And yet here is exactly where I am.”
The nurse’s pretty, pink mouth flapped helplessly for a moment and then she narrowed her eyes at him and shook a tiny, well manicured finger in his direction. “We. Are. Not. Finished,” she warned him.
He watched her go and turned to Alfric. “Hit me, bro. I want to be admitted to the ER.”
Alf slanted a look toward the still swinging curtains. “I think she’d probably be happy to oblige, bro.”
“Honeybuns,” Brita muttered, shaking her head.
Alf turned back to Brita. “You were saying?”
She frowned. “Two targets were fairly easily identified and they’ve been swept. Both buildings have been evacuated and will be kept under constant guard until we catch these guys.”
Pleasance helped Alfric pull the shirt Edric had brought him over the cast. Alf frowned. “I wish that made me feel better. I’m afraid they’ll just find new targets.”
Brita nodded. “That’s always a possibility of course. But if our suspicions about the kidnappings are correct, it will take some time for them to identify and set up another target.”
Alfric nodded. “If they keep to the original plan. Which seems unlikely as things continue to unravel.”
Edric dropped into the visitor’s chair in the corner and crossed an ankle over a knee. “So what about the third drawing.”
Brita grinned at him. “Now you see, that’s why you’re such an incredible suspense writer. Your attention to detail.”
Edric grinned back. “Hey, can you do me a favor and repeat that when that pretty little nurse comes back?”
Brita laughed. “What makes you think she’s coming back?”
As if on cue, the curtains split and the nurse was back. With a security guard at her side. She stopped in front of Edric and placed tiny hands on narrow hips to glare at him. “If you’ll just follow the security guard out, sir.” She put every ounce of disgust she owned into the word ‘sir.’
It didn’t even come close to denting Edric’s good nature. “Couldn’t stay a
way from me could you?”
The nurse’s soft, pink lips curled and her eyes narrowed. One tiny foot started tapping angrily on the spotless tile. “Don’t make me throw you out bodily, sir.”
There it was again, that word.
Edric grinned and sat forward until his face was mere inches from hers.
To her credit, she didn’t step back. She held his gaze, even as her hands left her hips and formed two small fists.
“I love the way you say bodily. It makes me all tingly.”
Alfric was pretty sure the woman growled.
Fortunately for everyone involved, the security guard stepped forward. “If you’ll just follow me, sir.”
Edric held the nurse’s gaze a beat longer and then winked at her. He stood up, glancing at his brother. “You okay?”
Alfric laughed. “Yeah, get the hell out of here before she hits you over the head with a bedpan.”
The tiny nurse glanced at Alf and one corner of her pretty mouth turned up as if she liked that idea.
Edric chuckled. He did the finger and thumb thing at his ear and said, “I’ll call you,” as he passed the irate nurse.
She jerked and turned to watch him leave. Alf was pretty sure she was growling again as she walked out behind him.
He turned back to Brita. “So. What about that third sketch?”
Brita frowned. “Nobody seems to know what it is. Nobody’s ever seen a brightly colored building like that. At least not in a major city. And the word ‘mom’ under it is really confusing.”
“Mom? That’s strange. How about some kind of maternity hospital?”
Brita shook her head.
“Maternity clothing?”
She shook her head again.
“Toy store?”
“Nope. Nothing in a major city like what that drawing shows.”
Alfric pushed himself off the table and they headed toward the curtain.
Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Honeybun Page 17
