by Julie Miller
The dispatcher was reading her a reminder that making false 9-1-1 calls was a finable offense.
Think, Riley. You’re a survivor.
Another chime vibrated through the floor.
“Here.” She handed the distraught Mary Sue off to Megan, and waved the other women down to the far end of the hall. There was no time for comfort, no time for consolation or explanation. “Find a fire escape. We need to get outside. Take this flashlight. Break out a window if you have to.” Keeping her eyes on the stairwell door, Riley followed. “Lady?” She cut off the dispatcher’s warning. “I’d like to report the kidnapping of twelve women. Now you turn on your GPS or call your tech guys and have them track down this phone. That’s my location. And when you get Detective Kemp on the line, you tell him to get his ass over here.”
Then she set the phone down on the floor and ran after the others.
* * *
Josiah flipped the kickstand of his Harley into place and knelt down to inspect the multiple tire tracks cut through the layers of crumbling concrete dust and dirt leading into the basement parking garage beneath the old Whitfield Building. That looked like a whole lot of traffic for an old set of offices that had been abandoned in favor of newer, taller construction. Then he stood and looked above the horizon of buildings to see the convention center’s rooftop shining like a beacon in the night sky.
The cell phone on his belt rang. Recognizing the number from KCPD Dispatch, he answered. “Kemp.”
“Be advised of a possible multiple kidnapping incident at…” Josiah read the street sign at the corner as she gave him the address and nodded. “The woman who called it in asked for you specifically, Detective.”
A wave of relief surged through him. Riley. She was still alive.
His relief dissipated in the next breath. Alive didn’t mean safe. And he’d promised her safe. “Relay the same message to A.J. Rodriguez and send backup to the address. I’m already here.”
He silenced his phone and pulled out his Glock before stealing through the parking garage’s archway and heading down the incline to find a way inside the building. He recognized Slade Russell’s limo as well as a couple of the vehicles he’d made note of in After Dark’s private parking lot the past couple of weeks. There were a good fifteen more cars parked down here—and all would be completely hidden from any passersby on the street.
Midnight. He could hear the chimes sounding in the distance. Only, there were no clock towers in this part of the city near the river, no churches with steeples to sound out the hour. He glanced up. That muted sound had come from inside the building. And was that music? Sounded like a disco was running a couple floors above him. There was definitely electricity connected to the building. Even though there were no lights visible from the outside, there would be plenty of interior office and common space where guests could gather without anyone on the outside world knowing they were there. Oh, yeah. This was the right place.
The two weaselly wannabe tough guys in the blue-and-black security uniforms proved it.
Josiah stuck his badge out of sight inside his pocket. Then he tucked his gun into the back of his belt and crept up on the two guards lounging outside the basement entrance. “Staying awake, Danny?”
“Kemp. How the hell…? What are you doing here?” Danny pushed away from the railing where he’d been leaning and flicked aside the cigarette he’d been smoking.
“Ow! Damn it, man.” Startled, Oscar spilled his coffee on his pant leg and jumped to his feet on the concrete loading platform where he’d been sitting. “Call it in.”
While Josiah climbed the steps onto the loading dock, and Oscar brushed at the stain on his pants, Danny pulled his radio off his belt. “Danny here at the basement entrance. We’ve got intruders at the gate. Repeat. We have intruders.”
“It’s just me, boys. Do you really need backup?” The two men stood side by side in front of the double glass doors into the building. Static crackled over Danny’s radio and the two men looked at each other, exchanging an oh yeah, we can handle this rube look.
“What do you want?” Oscar asked.
Josiah’s demands were simple. “I want to know where Doreen Riley is.”
Danny chuckled. “You’re gonna have to get through us before you can get to your girlfriend.”
“Okay.”
Josiah’s quick jab to Danny’s face broke his nose and wiped that cocky grin right off his face. Dropping that smart ass felt good, but there was no time to savor the victory. Oscar reached for his gun, but Josiah was faster. He pulled the Glock from his belt and pointed it at the guard’s chest. “Drop it.”
The dark-haired guard glanced over at his buddy writhing on the concrete, holding his bloody nose, and realized he was alone in this fight. Holding up one hand in surrender, he set the gun down at his feet.
“Kick it off the platform,” Josiah ordered. Once Oscar’s gun was well beyond his reach, Josiah issued another command. “Get your cuffs out and handcuff yourself to that railing.”
By the time Oscar was out of commission and Josiah had holstered his weapon, Danny lurched to his feet. “I always knew you’d be trouble, Kemp. No wonder Mr. Russell never promoted you to the back of the house. What the hell is it with you and that redhead, anyway? You aren’t her type. You got a crush on her?”
Something like that. As Danny pushed himself up against the wall, Josiah advanced. “You put your hands on Riley. You damn well could have killed her.”
Please do it. Please pull that gun you’re reaching for.
“Yeah,” Danny boasted, practically licking his lips. “I had them all over her sweet body.”
A punch to the gut and the uppercut that followed laid Danny out flat. The gun skittered beyond his reach and Josiah kicked it off the loading dock. Then he pulled his badge and knelt down beside the cursing, whimpering man. He waved the badge in front of Danny while he yanked the handcuffs off Danny’s belt and hooked one end around his wrist. “I’m arresting you for assault and for whatever else I find inside this building. Kidnapping? Human trafficking?” Then he dragged Danny across the concrete and handcuffed him to the railing beside Oscar. “I’ll break your fingers if you ever touch Riley again. Not that you’ll ever get a chance to. Now, where is she?”
Oscar was the one who answered. “Locked in one of the rooms on the fifth floor. Opal and Rocky brought her in. Mr. Russell said he’s going to auction her off first and make sure Wojtalewicz gets her so he’ll ship her out of the country.”
Ignoring the twin blades of fear and anger piercing his heart, Josiah set aside his feelings and remembered he was a cop. There was more than Riley’s life at stake here. “How many other guards are there?”
“Four more,” Danny answered the moment Josiah leaned in. “Two watching the girls upstairs and two at the auction on the second floor.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Josiah smacked the pout off Danny’s cheek, then stood to include Oscar. “You two need me to read you your rights, or are you going to stay here and be good boys?”
Once both men cowed to the inevitable, Josiah took their radios, phones and keys, and tossed them out into the garage with their guns. He quickly called A.J. to update the situation and location of their suspects, and confirmed that KCPD forces were arriving at the scene and setting up a perimeter. Then he gripped his own weapon between his hands and went inside to find Riley.
He followed the sound of a gunshot and found her on the fourth floor.
“Enough! Now get back in here.”
Josiah charged through the stairwell door and flattened his back on the opposite wall before peering around the corner. Ah, hell. He quickly drew back, silencing his deep breaths, assessing his options. There was nothing but a long, wide-open hallway between him and the standoff near the busted window at the opposite end of the hall. He saw Riley facing off against the gun Opal had just fired, while Rocky Calibrisi pinned her arms. A younger, paler version of Riley was sliding back through the fire
escape window, her hands raised in surrender. That had to be her sister, Megan. Any gunfire under these conditions might end up with the wrong people getting hurt.
“We’ll keep these two as hostages until we get out of the city,” Opal ordered.
Rocky sounded less convinced of her plan. “Where are we gonna go? If Slade doesn’t kill us for losing those girls, one of those customers downstairs might. And they’re damn sure gonna want their money back.”
“Do I have to think of everything, you idiot?” There were a few moments of huffs and curses before Opal made a decision. “We’ll head down the fire escape where the others went. The guards will be focused on recapturing them. We can drive out of here in Slade’s limo. All the way to Mexico. Our share of the money is still in the trunk. We can live for years on that. Just like we planned.”
“I don’t know, sugar. I don’t think Doreen here is going to cooperate.” There were more struggling sounds and Josiah knew he had to act fast.
“Let my sister leave,” he heard Riley offer. “I’ll go with you—without any fight—all the way to Mexico if you want.”
“Doreen, no!” That must be the sister protesting.
“As long as I know Megan is safe.”
“Hey!” There was a painful cry.
“Megan!”
Opal Cunningham laughed. “I think this girl is the only way to control you.”
“Opal, please.” There was no effort to negotiate in Riley’s voice now, only a desperate plea. “Let her go.”
It sounded like Opal’s gun was in play again. Josiah inhaled one last breath and straightened. Decision made. No one was going to hurt either one of those Riley women again.
He stepped out from behind his cover, his gun raised. He quickly adjusted his aim to bring Opal’s platinum-blonde hair into his sights.
Opal had Megan around the neck, with the gun pointed to the teenager’s head. “You think you can single-handedly screw up my retirement, bitch?”
Green eyes met his down the length of the hallway and the desperation on Riley’s face strengthened into a blend of confidence and hope. “Not single-handedly.”
Josiah put his finger to his lips, warning her not to announce his presence. He moved swiftly, silently toward them while Riley turned her full attention to Opal’s condemning tirade.
“I knew I should have gotten rid of you that first night. We had a smooth operation going. Everything was in place. Slade had all our investors lined up. I had all the girls. Rocky was running the perfect cover for us. No one could follow our money trail.” The blonde was practically spitting her contempt for Riley. “And then every man in the club got distracted by you instead of listening to me. They started messing up even the simple jobs they were supposed to do. You’re bad news, Doreen Riley. We could have all been out of the country and the cops never would have been the wiser.”
Riley smiled. “Oh, the police knew the truth about After Dark.”
Josiah was in position, his gun pointed squarely at Opal’s head. “KCPD. Put down your weapon.”
Opal spun around, swinging Megan between them. “Josiah?” She instantly turned the blame on Rocky. “You hired a cop?”
He was fighting to keep Riley in his grip. “I didn’t know.”
The crazy party music suddenly stopped, and he heard a bullhorn from the floors below. “KCPD. The building is surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air.”
“Shit.” Rocky peeked out the window, instantly alarmed. “There are cop cars everywhere down there. We have to get out of here now, sugar.”
Josiah made his intention clear. “You two aren’t going anywhere.”
“Well, screw that. I never should have let you talk me into this scheme, Opal!” Rocky shoved Riley to the floor and dove through the window.
“You bastard.” Opal backed toward the window, pulling Megan with her. “Come back!”
Rocky scrambled to his feet. “You’re on your own, sugar.”
“Rocky, stop! Or I’ll shoot.” Rocky didn’t. Josiah pulled the trigger, hitting him in the leg and dropping him to the landing outside the window.
“Rocky, are you all right?” Rocky held his knee, rolling back and forth over the iron grating, bawling in pain. Josiah moved forward, his eyes on Opal now. She faced off against Josiah, holding Megan in front of her like a shield. “You take another step toward me and I will shoot this girl.”
Lacking a clear shot, Josiah halted.
But a fury of red and white launched herself from the floor and tackled Opal. “You do not threaten my sister again, bitch!”
Josiah grabbed Megan and dragged her to safety behind him. When Opal’s gun skittered across the floor, Josiah scooped it up and tucked it into his belt. There were grunts and curses and pulling of hair as the two women rolled across the marble. Finally, Riley landed on top. There was a slap, a gouge, then a punch to the jaw that split Opal’s lip.
He stepped around the fray to secure Rocky by stripping off the man’s belt and strapping his hands together. When Josiah turned back, Opal was flat on her back, blood trickling from her nose and mouth. She held her hands above her face in surrender.
Riley sat on top of the other woman, breathing hard. The scratch on her cheek oozed blood. Even he might reconsider approaching Riley with her nostrils flared and her eyes hard and cold like emeralds.
But he approached anyway, kneeling down beside her and dangling the handcuffs he pulled from his belt. “Let a man do his job?”
Her eyes softened the moment she looked up at him. Then she caught his face between her hands and pressed a quick, hard kiss to his mouth. “Yes, Detective.”
Riley pushed to her feet and went straight to her sister to make sure the teenager, who clung to the wall and watched everything with big green eyes, was all right.
Josiah rolled Opal over and cuffed her hands behind her back before hauling her to her feet. “Opal Cunningham, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of…”
He rattled off the necessary cop speak, but his ears were half attuned to the conversation between the two sisters.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Riley asked.
“Are you okay? I never knew you could fight like that.”
“There’s a lot about me you probably don’t know.”
Josiah pulled Opal to the window and unlocked one wrist of the cuffs. He slid it through the iron grating and locked the couple together on the fire escape.
Megan pointed to him. “What’s the scoop on that guy?”
“He’s a friend.”
“He looks kind of scary. Do you trust him?”
Josiah turned, more anxious to hear Riley’s answer than he cared to admit.
“He’s a good guy, Megan. I trust him with my life.” She hugged her sister tight and smiled over Megan’s shoulder to Josiah. “I trust him with yours.”
Chapter Twelve
Riley left the Yankee Hill Road shelter where she’d donated all the tips she’d earned at After Dark and drove over to the club. She pulled into a parking space and turned off her lights and the engine, sitting back to count the number of police cars and CSI vans in the side parking lot. Uniformed officers unrolled yellow crime-scene tape and kept reporters and curious onlookers at a distance while KCPD packed up computers and camera footage and searched through the back rooms.
Twenty-four hours earlier, she’d left a similar scene back at the Whitfield Building when she and Megan had been driven away in an ambulance to be checked out at the ER. There’d been numerous arrests, and eager family reunions as the missing women, including Mary Sue English and her friend, Janis, fell into the arms of their parents, children and friends.
Riley had spent the day answering questions from lead detectives and the district attorney, packing Megan’s things and moving them into her apartment, and letting her mother know that she was welcome to come visit—or leave Sal and move in with them—anytime.
She’d checked in with the temp agency where she normally worked, got h
er missing assignments from her classes, slept for a couple of hours and put on some shoes that didn’t kill her feet.
But there was one piece of business she still needed to take care of.
The officer at the front door didn’t need any feminine persuasion to let her pass the yellow tape. He simply gave her a friendly warning not to touch anything, and directed her to the back of the club.
She found Josiah back in the security office, giving some instructions to the crime scene investigator there. He needed a shave and a good night’s sleep and a smile to soften the hard angles of his face.
But he let her lead him out the back door to the trash cans and broken bricks and private sanctuary she’d come to think of as theirs. “Come here often, big guy?”
He grinned at the come-on line, but pulled his fingers away from hers. “How’s your sister?”
“She’ll be fine. She’s going to be living with me for the rest of the school year. Until she goes off to college.”
“Good. She’ll be safe with you. And your mom?”
Really? She’d come to see if anything they’d shared was real, and he wanted to do polite chitchat?
Riley shrugged. “I’m still trying to convince her to leave Sal.”
“If you like, I could introduce myself to him. Tell him I’m your boyfriend or something like that. Make him think twice about hurting you or you mom again.”
“You don’t have to protect us, Josiah.” Although she kind of liked the boyfriend idea. She reached out and fingered the badge that hung from a chain around his neck. “But I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I’m good for. A man likes to have a purpose. Be a cop, protect people. It suits me.”
“Josiah Kemp.” She tilted her face up to his, a little ticked that he was so ready to dismiss the fights and the kisses and the lovemaking by doing this whole noble, you-don’t-need-me-now act. “I know you’re one of the good guys, but what about us? What about this week?”
“It was awesome. Ah, that’s a stupid word. It was…” He brushed a wave of hair off her cheek, then twirled the strand around his fingertip before letting go. “It was intense. This case, and you, thinking I was going to lose you—definitely the longest week of my life. I’m glad it’s over, but…thank you.” If he didn’t sound so damn sincere, and that deep voice didn’t do such funny things to her pulse, she might have been offended by the fatalistic turn of this conversation. “Without you, we never could have gotten the evidence we needed to make those arrests. At least not before those kidnapped women disappeared for good.”
