by C. M. Sutter
J.T. was unrecognizable, and I’m sure my expression showed my shock. His face was so swollen that it looked as if it would burst. He was also cut, scuffed, and black and blue. Stitches covered a two-inch space above his left brow. I took in a deep breath and sat on the chair next to his bed.
“J.T., my God. I can’t imagine.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
He tried to force a smile but couldn’t—his face was too swollen.
“Does it hurt to talk?”
“No. Nothing moves except my lips. Can you understand me?”
“Yeah, well enough. What did they say about your ribs?”
“Bruised but not broken.”
“That’s a relief.”
He reached out and squeezed my hand. “Have you seen Julie yet?”
I nodded. “I stopped in her room yesterday when you and Cam were getting X-rays. She’s scuffed up but physically okay. I don’t know what kind of emotional toll this will have on her, J.T. This isn’t what she deals with on a daily basis. She’s a caregiver, for Pete’s sake.”
“I’m worried about her, Jade.”
“I know. She may need counseling. Maria is here too. She caught a rifle graze to the calf. I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Damn it. The team is going to be down three agents.”
“Don’t worry about that right now. We can report to the downtown office until all of you are back to work. We need your statement, J.T. Sorry it’s so soon, but we have to apprehend Carden Vetcher.”
“He got away?”
“We did our best to catch him, but he carjacked a woman and sped off while we were still trudging through the woods after him. We were no match against his AK. What was going on with that, anyway?”
“The part where I was standing in the road?”
“Yeah, with an assault rifle pointed at us.”
“It was empty. I didn’t have a vest on, either, and this huge goon, Antonio, was hiding in the brush with his AR-22 pointed at my head.”
“The Pirelli brothers, Anthony and Antonio.”
“Pirelli? As in the crime family based in Chicago?”
“None other.”
J.T. reached for the cup of ice water and pressed the straw against his teeth. He took in an awkward suck and dribbled water down the sides of his mouth. “Damn wired teeth.”
I handed him a tissue. “Were you guys transported Friday night?”
“I think so, but I lost track of the day of the week. We were either traveling or handcuffed in rooms by ourselves. For a while, I was in a cage of sorts next to Curt—”
“We know about Curt, and Hopkins took care of going to Waukegan to inform his mom. His brother is flying in from Omaha to help with the arrangements.” I shook my head. “I’m so sorry, J.T.” I paused to think of the sadness that had to be taking over the hearts of the Belmont family. I continued. “At any time were you in a house?”
“Yeah, that much I remember. I was chained to a beam in the basement, and it was definitely a house, but I have no idea of who it belonged to or where we were.”
“Do you remember how long it took to get from Portage to that house?”
“We stopped for a while, maybe an hour or two, then continued on. I know we pulled into a garage that was big enough for the van Julie was in and her car. I heard one voice I didn’t recognize, so it must have been the homeowner.”
“Good.” I wrote down everything J.T. said. “Do you remember hearing anybody say the name Zack?”
“Not that I recall, but I don’t recall a lot, anyway.”
“Okay, I’m going to step out for a minute, update Spelling, and grab a coffee in the cafeteria. I’d offer to get you something, but you’re on a liquid diet.”
“Yeah, but I’ll take a chocolate milk.”
I grinned. “At least your humor is intact. I’ll be back in ten minutes with two chocolate milks. That sounds way better than coffee.” I peeked out the door and saw the guard enter the men’s room at the end of the hall. I turned back to J.T. “The officer at the door should be back any minute. Looks like he just went to relieve himself.” I handed J.T. the remote. “I think your favorite soap is on.” I gave him a wink and walked out.
Chapter 64
He sat inconspicuously in one of the visitors’ chairs lining the wall. He flipped the pages of a magazine and kept his head low. He heard the door close to room 302, the one he’d been eyeing, and cautiously looked that way. A woman walked out and turned left toward the bank of elevators. He listened for the ding and the sound of the doors parting. There it was.
The nurses’ station stood thirty feet away, and several lab coats hung from the coatrack next to the counter. He waited for the right moment and looked down the hall. The officer was still in the men’s room. His eyes followed the only nurse in the area when she rose from her chair, walked away, and entered a patient’s room at the end of the hall. The moment she was out of sight, he sprang from his chair and removed one of the lab coats from the rack. He slipped it on, entered room 302, and made sure to close the door behind him.
The agent lay in bed, his eyes focused on the television. He briefly glanced at the male nurse who had entered his room then went back to watching TV.
The man approached J.T. and moved the roller cart out of the way. He closed in and leaned over the bed.
“How are the ribs today, Agent Harper?”
J.T.’s eyes darted back to the man. The voice alarmed him, and his face was vaguely familiar. “Do I know you?”
The man grinned. “You certainly do.” The crunch of his fist against J.T.’s cheekbone knocked the agent senseless. Carden ripped the pillow out from behind J.T.’s head and covered his face with it.
J.T. thrashed, and his arms flailed wildly as he tried to find the call button. Carden pushed the pillow down harder and held his weight against it as he suffocated the agent.
The door swung open, and the woman’s voice on the other side of the curtain called out.
“I bought you two chocolate milks since I knew one wouldn’t be enough.” She chuckled and pulled the curtain aside. The milk cartons fell to the floor.
Jade was on Carden in two strides and jerked him backward. Carden stumbled and hit the roller cart as he fell to the floor. The hard kick to his midsection knocked the wind out of him and gave Jade just enough time to draw her weapon.
“You make one move and I’ll shoot your head off.” She yelled for help as she reached across the bed and pulled the pillow off J.T.’s face.
The commotion alerted everyone, and within seconds the room was filled with nurses and security personnel.
“Hurry, Agent Harper needs help! This man was smothering him with the pillow.” After she jammed her knee into Carden’s back and secured him, Jade holstered her gun. She held his wrists together and looked over her shoulder at the security guard behind her. “I need some cuffs and the hospital police right away.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jade looked up. Two nurses were tending to J.T. and checking his vitals. “Is he going to be all right?”
“He’s breathing on his own, but we need to get him out of this room so the doctor can examine him. The stitched areas have come apart. He’s bleeding again.”
Jade leaned in against Carden’s ear as he lay on the floor. “You’re going down, asshole, and you’ll never see daylight again. Consider this your lucky day—you lived through it.” When the hospital police entered the room, she turned and looked over her shoulder.
“What’s going on in here?”
“I’m FBI Agent Jade Monroe. This man just tried to kill a federal agent and is already wanted for murder and kidnapping. Get him the hell out of my sight.”
Carden was pulled to his feet and taken away. Jade stood and brushed off her knees.
“J.T., can you hear me?”
He nodded weakly.
“You’re going to be okay, partner. The doctor will make sure of it.” She looked at the nurses who were wheeling J.T.�
��s bed out of the room. “Where are you taking him?”
Libby, the charge nurse, spoke up. “He’s going back downstairs to the emergency wing, Agent Monroe. Dr. Franklin will give him a thorough examination and secure those broken stitches.”
Jade left the room and took a seat in the hallway. She scrolled to Spelling’s number and hit Call.
“Hey, Jade, what’s the latest?”
“I got him, boss. Carden Vetcher is finally in custody.”
Chapter 65
J.T. remained in the hospital the longest—five days in all—and was scheduled to be released that day. Julie, Cam, and Maria had gone home on Monday, and both agents were on a two-week medical leave. Julie decided to take time off too.
For now, our group would be stationed downtown, and we’d work with that division until our entire team was healthy again and able to go back to work at our Glendale office.
With some digging, we were able to go back to 2014 and pull up Zack Kenny’s bank records. We found a large cash deposit had been made to his account at the time of the armored truck robbery. His current statement also showed a larger than normal deposit, likely an advance on the diamond heist Carden and the Pirelli brothers thought they would get away with. With a warrant in hand, our agents searched Zack Kenny’s house. They found a map showing the truck route for the diamond transport and the time it would take place. He was arrested and taken into custody, where he spilled the beans on Carden Vetcher for a reduced sentence. He and Vetcher had worked together—along with Sam Dunbar, Carden’s brother—in four bank and armored truck robberies in the past.
We sat around the conference table, finishing up our paperwork on the case.
“So, Carden and Sam had been estranged for nearly thirty years before they found each other and got reacquainted?” I asked.
Hopkins nodded. “It appears that way. Years back, the mother admitted to Carden in a deathbed confession that he had three siblings she gave up for adoption. Orly James Vetcher, or Sam Dunbar, as he was known when he was adopted, was the only sibling Carden ever found. It turned out they both had records for robbery. That’s when they began conspiring in their crimes and brought in Zack Kenny too. That’s about the time Carden began using the name C.V. Loomis, an apparent joke between the brothers.”
“And Zack Kenny told you all of this?” Bill asked.
“Yeah, for a lesser sentence. He was the lightweight in the bunch, but we told him he would be charged with serious crimes as an accomplice to kidnapping, murder, and robbery if he didn’t cooperate.”
I took a sip of water before speaking. “I bet Cam’s wife was happy to return Ralph to Julie.” I grinned. “Liza said he slobbered everywhere. Kaden was probably getting too attached to Ralph, anyway. This entire case amazes me, though.”
Spelling tapped his pen against the table. “In what way?”
“That J.T. recognized Carden after three years. They were actually face-to-face in 2014 when J.T. interviewed him as the driver of the Branded Armor Transport truck that day. He was in on that heist all along.”
“True, using the name Jeff Peterman back then. I’ll admit, the man is clever.”
I smirked. “He isn’t that clever, boss. Sneaking into a hospital room to try to kill a federal agent because you didn’t succeed the first time—well, that’s just stupid.”
“Agreed.” Spelling looked at the clock. “Isn’t it about time you go pick up your partner.”
“It sure is, and I think the nurses are going to miss him. Even though his teeth are wired shut, they say he constantly gives them the raspberries.”
Bill nodded. “That sounds like J.T., and I’m sure he’s happy to be alive.”
Val agreed. “Amen to that.”
“Just a reminder, everyone. Curt’s service begins at two o’clock. Do you think J.T. will be up for it?” Spelling asked.
“He insists, and I’ll be doing the driving. He’ll be fine,” I said.
Spelling cocked his head toward the door. “Okay, go bail out your partner from that hospital.”
“With pleasure, sir.”
It was only a ten-minute drive to St. Mary’s, but I still had time to relive the past week. It seemed like an eternity ago that I’d sat at the window table at Café Central and waited for J.T. to show up for breakfast—but he never did.
I knew our days would go on as they always had, save a few more bumps and bruises. With heavy hearts, we’d mourn the loss of a good agent, but three violent criminals had been taken off the street and would be caged in six-by-eight-foot cells for the rest of their lives. Another, Zack Kenny, would serve a five-year sentence. It was karma at its best.
I entered the hospital and rode the elevator to the third floor, where I walked the hallway to room 302. J.T. sat in the guest chair next to the bed, looking terrible, yet he wore a smile. I mirrored his grin.
“Ready to get the hell out of Dodge, partner?”
He muttered through his wired teeth, “Sure am.”
I took a seat on the edge of the bed. “You know, J.T., I’ve been doing some serious thinking.”
It looked as if he tried to furrow his brows, but his swollen face couldn’t manage it. “Really? About what?”
“You may not have given this any thought because of the mess you’ve been through. Maybe you aren’t even aware of it.”
“Go on.”
“Your Corolla got torched in the warehouse.” I smiled.
J.T. tried to laugh but couldn’t. “I bet that makes you happy.”
“Actually, it does. You can’t use the lame excuse anymore that you drive a girly car because it gets good gas mileage.”
“I imagine you have something better in mind?” J.T. gingerly stood and pulled the curtain aside.
“Oh boy, do I ever.” I helped him into the wheelchair and pushed it out the door. “This weekend, I’m taking you car shopping.”
THE END
Thank you for reading Leverage, Book 4 in the new Agent Jade Monroe FBI Thriller Series. I hope you enjoyed it!
Follow the complete Jade Monroe saga starting with the Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series. The books are listed in order below:
Maniacal
Captive
Fallacy
Premonition
Exposed
The Agent Jade Monroe FBI Thriller Series follows on the heels of Exposed, Book 5 in the Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series. Currently available books are listed in order below:
Snapped
Justified
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