Desperate

by Daniel Palmer

  Again Roy didn’t speak. I prompted him with a quick punch into his side, which dropped Roy to his knees with a grunt. I pulled him back up to standing by his shirt. “Let’s try again. Where is Nicky? Where is the owner of this place?” I suspected that Jack Hutchinson also owned a warehouse space down by Eagle Square.

  “He’s not here,” Roy said, panting, breathing hard.

  “Anybody else here?”

  Roy shook his head. “No, it’s just Lily and Anna upstairs.”

  Brad took a step forward, bringing Jorge with him.

  “What’s going on here, Gage?” he asked.

  “Brad, these guys are con artists of the highest order, all of them—Roy, Lily, Nicky Stacks, the Moreno brothers. They set me up to steal the product plans for Olympian. I’m sure those plans are worth a lot more than the million dollars Roy told me we could get for them.”

  Brad did the equivalent of a silent film double take.

  “It was set up from the very beginning, wasn’t it, Roy?” I asked.

  Roy kept quiet. I wanted to press him for a confession, but I could smell the smoke down in the basement and figured we didn’t have time for lengthy explanations. Besides, I needed to get Anna and we needed to get out of here. I didn’t need Roy to tell me what I had already figured out.

  “Let’s secure him,” I said.

  I kept a gun on Roy while Brad went to his toolbox and fashioned another pair of wire handcuffs. I took great pleasure seeing Roy’s arms wrenched behind his back, those muscles flexing futilely against his restraints.

  Brad assessed his handiwork and seemed satisfied. I took the leftover wire, thinking I’d do the same to Lily when the time came.

  “Take me to Anna,” I said, pushing the gun into Roy’s back. “Call up to Lily and tell her not to try anything stupid.” I figured Lily would listen to Roy more than she would me.

  Brad stayed downstairs to keep watch over the Moreno brothers while I forced Roy upstairs, using the gun as a cattle prod pushed into the small of his back. “Tell Lily not to be stupid,” I reminded him. We climbed the darkened stairwell, passing the exit to the second floor on our way up to the third. The stairwell walls were made of thick concrete, constructed during a time when things were built to last, so I wanted Roy to be loud and heard.

  “Lily, it’s me. I’m with Gage,” Roy called. “He’s got a gun and he wants Anna. Don’t try anything. Okay? He’s coming for Anna.”

  “Repeat it,” I said.

  “Don’t try anything,” Roy called out, his voice echoing.

  “You did good.”

  We exited at the third level, which was a replica of the lower levels with the same fake green grass covering the floors, same thick concrete walls, same rows of storage units with heavy steel doors.

  “If you try to run, I’ll shoot you,” I told Roy.

  Roy glanced over his shoulder, showing me his distressed look. He stopped walking and turned around. His arms were secured behind his back, so I didn’t view him as a threat. I raised the gun and pointed it at his face.

  “Take me to Anna,” I said.

  “I’ll cut you in,” Roy said. “We’re talking big money, Gage. Really big. A Chinese company is paying me over twenty million for those plans. That’s a huge score.”

  “Who are you?” I asked. “Who the hell are you, really? Because your name isn’t Roy Ripson, is it?”

  “What does it matter?” Roy replied. He leaned toward me, but the gun in my hand kept him at a safe distance. “This is what I do. I get and sell information any way I can, and I’m good at my job. I’m really good at it. We’ve got a big score here. We can still pull this off.”

  “You picked me because you had to use someone on the Security Breach Team, didn’t you. You needed someone who could access all the data.”

  “Two million. That’s what I’ll pay you.”

  “Why me?”

  I needed to get to Anna, but I also needed this answer.

  “You were the weakest link,” Roy said without any hint of emotion, as if I were a business transaction. “We could get you to do what we needed and there’d be no trace left behind.”

  “No trace meaning no bribe, no overt blackmail. I would become a willing participant, is that it?”

  Roy said nothing, which to me said it all.

  I made some conclusions of my own: Matt Simons was too committed to his ego for Roy and his crew to trust him. They’d probably done some serious psychological profiling, using whatever we put out on social media. Maybe they were monitoring his e-mails—or mine, for that matter. They could have hacked into that part of our network far more easily than the parts where we kept the truly sensitive data about Olympian. Roy had probably found nothing he could use about our other member, Mamatha—no leverage, no fulcrum on which she could be pivoted into doing his bidding.

  But then there were Anna and me, the newly married couple looking to adopt a baby, with a profile on ParentHorizon.com. I was Roy’s perfect target, a guy whose life could be taken over by a crying woman on the curb outside a Chinese restaurant.

  A muffled sob came from down the hall.

  Anna!

  “Let’s go,” I said, motioning with the gun. My clenched teeth were all I had to hold in my rage. “Bring me to Anna.”

  “Three million,” Roy said.

  Something inside me snapped. I smashed the gun into the side of Roy’s head, pistol-whipping him like Lucas did that night in Eagle Square. I wondered if the two of them had practiced how to do it without inflicting much injury, how to make the strike look authentic. I didn’t have any practice, and I wanted my blow to hurt. A lot. Maybe it was the memory of Lily holding up the silver necklace and locket with a tiny picture inside, the bits of broken mirror scattered all around, or Roy vowing to mail me vials of Anna’s blood via UPS that drove me to violence. Or it could have been Roy’s bullshit story about needing money to pay off a cigarette smuggling debt, or the staged murder of Jorge Moreno, or a fake heavy named Nicky Stacks, or any number of the deceits levied on Anna and me.

  Whatever it was, I got tremendous satisfaction and a twisted feeling of relief as I watched Roy’s head snap sideways and blood spurt from a gash I’d opened on his face.

  Roy slammed against the wall. I heard the breath leave him as he slid along the wall, using it to stay upright before he crumpled in a heap onto the floor. In obvious agony, Roy managed to get to his knees, where he remained for a few moments, stunned. Blood poured down his cheek, but I wasn’t about to give him a bandage. I felt nothing, not an iota of concern.

  “Bring me to my wife,” I said.

  I hoisted Roy back to his feet. Because he was handcuffed from behind, Roy could only press his cheek to his shoulder to stymie the flow of blood. Still, drops fell everywhere, leaving a crimson trail on the fake grass lining the floor.

  “You don’t understand who you’re screwing,” Roy said. “These people will hunt you down. If I don’t deliver, they will find you, and they will kill you. They won’t leave any loose ends, nothing that can be tied back to the company who hired me. You will be eliminated. We’ll all be killed. I’m not lying to you this time. I’m not. You’ve got to believe me. You won’t be safe.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that,” I said.

  We walked the length of a long hallway and I glanced down the corridors branching off either side. Closed storage units lined the walls, and I wondered which one held my wife.

  At the hallway’s end, Roy turned to his right and I followed. He came to a stop in front of the only storage unit with an open door.

  Emotion swelled inside me as I rushed to look inside. On the far wall was a small table with a radio on it, turned off, and some water and food. It looked like Roy and Lily were set up to wait out the six-hour timetable he’d given me.

  I saw Anna in the center of the cubicle. Her mouth was gagged and her hands were bound using nylon rope. She was sitting cross-legged with Lily standing behind her. Lily held a knife to
Anna’s throat. It was a massive, nasty-looking blade, the kind a hunter might use to gut an elk.

  I put the gun to Roy’s head.

  “You tell her to let Anna go,” I said. “Tell her!”

  The force of my voice made Anna cower. She was beyond terrified, almost catatonic. I pushed the gun hard against Roy’s temple. “Tell her,” I said with a snarl.

  “Do it, Lil,” Roy said. “Let her go. We don’t have a choice.”

  “Where are Lucas and Jorge?” Lily asked.

  “They got them both. Let her go, Lil. Let Anna go.”

  Setting down the knife, Lily undid Anna’s rope restraints, then her gag.

  Anna let out a slight sob while rubbing the red and raw marks on her wrists. She rose shakily to her feet, stunned, disbelieving she was finally free, before rushing to my side. She clutched my shoulders with trembling hands as though I were a life raft on an otherwise vacant ocean.

  “Kick the knife out of the room,” I said to Lily. “DO IT!”

  Lily booted the knife with her foot. It skidded out the door and came to a stop against the wall behind me. I shoved Roy from behind and he lurched into the storage room. In a fluid motion, I dropped my gun and moved quickly to shut the door. Roy lunged, but I had the advantage of surprise.

  “Hold the door,” I screamed to Anna. “Hold it with everything you’ve got.”

  Anna turned around. Wedging her back against the storage room door, Anna maneuvered her feet until they were pressed up against the wall across from her. Using our combined strength, we kept the door closed, even while Roy and Lily pushed mightily to get it open. It was only a matter of time before Lily figured out how to remove Roy’s makeshift cuffs.

  “They’ll come for you, Gage. I swear it. You’re not safe! You need me!”

  I ignored Roy while threading the wire I’d brought for Lily’s cuffs through the unit’s locking latch. I made sure to give it several wraps, enough to hold them for a little while. I checked the durability again before releasing the pressure I’d been applying.

  Finally I grabbed Anna by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Can you walk?” I asked. “Did they hurt you?”

  No response. Her vacant eyes were filled with fear. I stroked her hair and cupped her face with my hands. They had assaulted her. Tormented her. I wanted to kill Roy. I wanted to open the door and use the knife to kill him. Do to him what he’d threatened to do to Anna. I retrieved Brad’s Glock, but left the knife on the ground where it lay. I was too overcome with relief, touching Anna, feeling her skin again, to think about revenge.

  “Anna, sweetie, are you all right? We’ve got to get out of here. Can you walk?”

  She nodded, but in a dazed way.

  I grabbed her by the hand and together we raced down the hallway. Roy and Lily banged against the door, trying to snap the wire holding it shut—apparently Lily had figured out the cuffs. We sprinted down the stairs, our hands interlocked.

  Anna came to a stop at the first-floor exit. “Why?” she asked. “Why did Lily take me? Why did they want to hurt me?”

  “Later,” I said. “I’ll explain it all later.”

  Brad was waiting at the entrance to the stairwell. From somewhere down the hall, I could hear Lucas groaning where we had left him. Jorge was seated on the floor, his hands secured behind his back, duct tape over his mouth, glowering at me. Anna shuddered at the sight and cowered back a few steps.

  “He was there,” she said. “This is one of the men who took me.”

  I steadied her with my hands.

  “It’s okay, baby,” I said. “You’re safe now.”

  Brad and Anna embraced.

  “Lily and Roy?” Brad asked.

  “Secured,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I gave Brad his gun, but he handed it back to me. “You hold on to this,” he said. “Just in case.”

  I took the firearm and stashed it in the waistband of my jeans. I held onto Anna’s hand, and Brad followed us out into the main corridor. From here, I’d go right, out the back of the building, and Brad would go left, out the front door and into his truck. I paused to look at Brad.

  “Where are you going to go?” he asked me.

  “Away,” I said. “I’m going to get Anna away from Roy. I need to figure out our next move.”

  “You don’t have to run now. You’re not a murderer.”

  “No, I’m not,” I agreed. “But there may be a new problem.”

  “What are you talking about?” Anna asked. “Murder? Who did you kill? Gage, what is going on here?”

  “What’s the new issue?” Brad wanted to know.

  “Roy told me we’re not safe. Whoever hired him to get the product plans is going to come after us next.”

  “Do you believe him?” Brad asked.

  “I believe I’m not ready to take any chances. I’m going to get us somewhere safe. Someplace I can plan our next move.”

  Anna was not convinced. “Wait. Are we still in some sort of trouble?” Her voice was full of alarm. “Shouldn’t we go to the police? I was kidnapped! They threatened to kill me, Gage!”

  “Yes, we should go to the police, but we can’t—not yet, anyway. We need to know if we’re in any danger. Roy might be lying, but I can’t be sure and I won’t take any chances. Right now the best thing for us to do is run. Trust me on this, Anna. You’ve got to trust me.”

  Anna thought a moment and nodded.

  “Okay,” Brad said. “Call if you need me.”

  I hesitated. “I don’t know when I’m going to see you again,” I said, feeling myself choke up.

  “You take care of each other, understand?” Brad said to us both.

  I made a strained smile, but it was just to hold back my tears. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

  I thought about reaching for Brad’s hand. Who knew when I’d be able to make contact again? The thought of not hearing from Max put a sharp ache in my heart. I resisted the urge, and the three of us embraced in a huddle. Behind me I could hear Lucas beginning to stir.

  “Go,” Brad said, pushing us away. “Hurry. I’ll knock down the board from the alley to let the smoke out. Someone will call the fire department, and then they’ll find these clowns.”

  I gripped Anna’s hand. Together we raced down the carpeted hallway, speeding through the doorway to the back building. Remembering the building plans Brad had shown me, I was able to lead Anna into a massive open warehouse space filled with pallets and boxes. We exited through a back door, stepping into the loading zone, not once letting go of each other’s hands.

  Soon I was in my car, with Anna seated beside me. We looked at each other as my hand caressed her face. I fired up the engine and got the car turned around, sneaking a glance at the dashboard clock. The entire assault had lasted less than thirty minutes.

  We drove past Station Street, where Brad’s van was already gone. A thick trail of smoke billowed from the alley entrance. I accelerated to avoid a red light, and soon we were driving west, away from Brookline and Boston.

  Destination?

  Unknown.

  CHAPTER 61

  Battling the glare of the setting sun, we continued west. My body—muscles, heart, bones—were all buzzing from a deluge of adrenaline in a way that put every Adderall rush to shame. Stealing glances at Anna, I felt grateful they hadn’t beaten her (the only marks she had were from the nylon rope used to bound her wrists), but I wondered how much damage had been done to her on the inside. Her body trembled while her vacant stare, beyond a thousand yards, canvassed the blur of scenery rolling past her car window. Was she in shock? Did I need to get her to a hospital? I prayed not, because of the risk.

  I wondered what was going to happen to Roy, Lily, and the Moreno brothers once the police arrived. Certainly they weren’t going to confess to holding a woman hostage. But was there any truth to Roy’s threat? Would the people who hired him to get the design plans come looking for me? Would they come after Anna? Forget g
oing to the police; would we be safe going to a hospital? The answers would come, I was sure of it, but not until I put some miles behind us, got us someplace where I could clear my head and think.

  Anna turned to look at me, her eyes pale and glassy. “What happened? What’s going on? Talk to me, Gage.”

  Traffic grew heavy as the rush of evening commuters surged home. I didn’t know how to begin explaining everything to her, but I thought of something I had stashed inside the glove compartment. I reached across Anna’s lap, flipped the latch, and let the door fall open. I took out the circular container of pills and set it on her lap. To properly tell this story, I had to start at the beginning. I had to start with Lily. Anna returned a nervous glance as she turned the pill holder over in her hands.

  “These are birth control pills,” she said.

  “Brad found them in Lily’s apartment,” I said. “They belong to her, I’m sure of it. She wasn’t pregnant. She was playing us, Anna. She and Roy, they’re both con artists, part of some crew hired by a Chinese company to go after the Olympian product plans. Somebody was willing to buy those plans for a lot of money—I’m talking millions and millions of dollars—and they needed an inside person to provide them with the goods.”

  Anna’s mouth hung agape. “What? Why?”

  “It would have been impossible for anyone to hack through the security layers at Lithio Systems. There were only three people in the entire company who had the ability to get them what they wanted, and they picked the weakest link to go after. They picked me.”

  “But why you?”

  “They researched me. They researched everyone on the Security Breach Team looking for the best mark, someone they could manipulate and control. Blackmail is too messy for these guys, I’m guessing. They wanted to give someone a good reason to steal the plans and never talk about what they’d done. They knew about the car accident, and they must have found our adoption profile. It was all online. It was public record—there for them to see and to find. To manipulate me, they had to infiltrate our lives. Nothing was happenstance. Lily made sure we found her on the curbside crying. And she didn’t accidently stumble on our adoption profile, either.”