by Jonas Saul
Sarah jerked her head back and tried to knock over the chair, but it didn’t budge more than an inch. Eduardo wrapped a firm hand over her forearm and without missing a beat, eased the needle into Sarah’s arm. She felt the needle’s release enter her bloodstream and turned to glare at Eduardo.
“That is the last time you do that to me.”
The feeling of hopelessness, the loss of freedom, tied down, secured, made her feel weak. No matter how much she thrashed there was no moving, no getting out of the chair. She was subject to the will of another human being completely. The man wanted her dead. He was definitely the kind of man who played with his toys before he killed them.
She glowered at Enzo as her mind was lost to her. He offered a warm smile in response.
Vivian. Why?
Her sister remained silent.
“Are we finished, Eduardo?”
“Yes, sir.”
The man beside her packed up. Sarah rolled her head from him to Enzo and back. The pain in her ribs was subsiding again and she couldn’t hold herself up too well.
She giggled. “Good thing I’m in a chair. Like this,” she said. “You know. Or I’d fall.”
Something was wrong with her speech. She couldn’t figure it out. Unless she thought about it hard enough. Maybe.
“What does Vivian do?” Enzo asked.
Elated to hear Vivian’s name, Sarah smiled and let her heavy head rest downward.
“She talks to me. She’s so special.”
“What does she talk about?”
“Oh, you know. Things.”
“Explain these things.”
“Bad things.” Her voice turned stoic. “Harsh things. She tells me about bad men like you and then I kill ’em.” She giggled and wondered why she had the urge to giggle when they were being serious.
“You kill bad men?”
She tried to remain serious. “As often as I can.”
“Do you want to kill me?”
She nodded, bobbing her head up and down so hard she saw stars, then tried to focus on him.
He looked at the watch on his wrist. Sarah noticed a tattoo by the watch for the first time.
“You have an hour or so left.”
“For what?” she asked. “A car ride? Lunch? A nap? Tell me. What happens in an hour?”
Eduardo finished packing up his briefcase and headed for the door.
“Bye bye, dickhead,” she said.
He didn’t look back.
Enzo snapped his fingers to get her attention. “In one hour you will cease to exist. I am going to kill you in one hour, Sarah. Then you will be with your sister. Would you like that?”
“I would like to see my sister. Yes. But,” she shook her head, “I don’t want to die to do it. Not yet, anyway. Pretty sure about that.”
“Where do the mercenaries stay while in Tijuana?” Enzo asked.
“A cabin.” She said it before she could stop herself. What did it matter? He couldn’t find one cabin in all of Mexico.
“Where is this cabin?”
“Somewhere in Mexico,” she said, then laughed. It felt so good to laugh.
“Be more specific.”
“An hour from here. Maybe less.” There’s no way he could find it. No way. She added, “Nice place, too. Comfortable.”
“A nice breeze?” he asked.
Nothing about its location. Good.
“Yes, each afternoon. A salty breeze. Sit out on the deck, you know.”
“I do know.”
He lifted his cell phone and spoke into it. “You got that?” he asked.
A man on speaker phone replied. “Roger that.”
It sounded like he was in a car on the road, window down.
“Within a forty-five minute drive of Tijuana, near the water. A cabin. Check ones recently rented out. Study satellite images. It’ll be secluded enough that neighbors wouldn’t be able to see much. It narrows it down to probably a dozen buildings or less.”
“Roger that. The research should take thirty minutes. Our team is assembled. My guess is we locate the cabin and launch an attack within one to two hours.”
“Make it faster.”
“On it.”
Enzo set his phone down.
“What are you doing?” Sarah asked. Her eyes were so heavy, she kept them shut now. It was too difficult to fight them anymore.
“Killing everyone you know today. I have patience. I’ll wait until your parents are released from hiding. I’ll get them later.”
A violent paranoia surged through her. She started to cry. Her bottom lip quivered.
What did they give me?
“You can’t do that,” she said.
“I am doing it.”
The phone rang as she cried harder and began chanting the word no over and over.
“Speak,” Enzo said into the phone.
“Your men are clear of the hospital.”
“You will be rewarded handsomely.”
“Thank you. Just thought you should know.”
“Send my regards to the missus—wait.” Enzo stared at the ceiling. Sarah had opened her moist eyes and watched his face.
“Sir?”
“You said, men.”
“Yes, sir. Two men entered the hospital and took the patient Benjamin out. A man tried to stop them. He was stabbed and left behind. They drove away in the BMW you said your men were driving.” The man on the speakerphone cleared his throat. “Did I do something wrong, sir?”
“I sent one man in a BMW. He wore a dark Hugo Boss suit. Is this the dead man left behind?”
Enzo’s knuckles grew white with strain as he squeezed the cell phone waiting for an answer.
“No. The man left behind is a very large UFC fighter or something. He was stabbed so bad in the abdomen that he died within a few minutes.”
“That sounds like my man’s work.”
“I saw the man in the Boss suit.”
“Where?” Enzo asked.
“He was carried out and placed in the trunk of a BMW.”
Enzo lifted the phone and got ready to throw it across the room, but stopped and yelled into it, snapping Sarah fully awake.
“What did the men look like?” he shouted.
“Who?”
“The ones in the Beemer.”
As Sarah listened and tried to stay focused, she heard the caller describe Aaron and another man.
Enzo slowly turned to Sarah. Then he did throw the phone. It bounced off her cheek and smacked into the wall a few feet beside her.
“Ohhh,” she moaned as blood dripped into her mouth.
“I will skin you and Aaron alive. I will pull your eyes out.” Enzo jumped off the sofa and ran at her. She opened her eyes wide to take him in as he rushed at her. She stopped breathing in fear and anticipation. What was happening? Who was this guy? How did she come to be here?
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, then screamed into her face, his saliva mixing with her blood as it ran off her face.
“You will die. You will feel pain. You are going to scream for hours before you pass out, then I’ll wake you the fuck up to die again. Do you hear me?”
Out of nowhere, Enzo’s knee rose up and connected with the side of her head. The chair tipped over. Before it hit the carpeted floor, Sarah lost consciousness.
Chapter 40
Bush pulled up to the cabin and parked. Together they worked on getting Benjamin out of the backseat. During the ride he had remained sedated by all the drugs they’d given him.
Darwin came out to help without asking where Goulash was. Once Benjamin was lying on the ground, Parkman and Alex carried him inside.
“We lost Goulash,” Aaron said.
Darwin gestured at the cabin. “Explain inside so everyone can hear.”
Once inside the cabin, Aaron and Bush explained what happened at the hospital, how they got to Benjamin just in time and how the doctor and hospital security had to have been paid off. Everyone listened as they e
xplained leaving the keys in Goulash’s pants. But the guy in the trunk had keys to the Beemer.
“The guy in the trunk?” Darwin asked.
“Right,” Aaron said, looking at Bush.
“Hadn’t gotten to that point,” Bush said. “Thought we’d bring him along to tell us where the Enzo Cartel hides out.”
“Well then, let’s get started,” Parkman said.
The team headed outside to the Beemer. Forming a semi-circle around the trunk, with the Italians, Mario and Luigi, their guns ready, Bush popped the lid with the key fob.
The hit man in the Hugo Boss suit covered his eyes from the bright sunlight. Darwin and Bush hauled him out of the trunk and dropped him on the gravel.
“He tried to kill Benjamin,” Darwin said. “We’re going to have fun with this guy.” He gestured at Malaka and Beaver. “Get him inside. Mario, Luigi, if he does anything stupid, just shoot him.”
“Yes, sir. Pleasure.”
They dragged him inside by his feet. He twisted and tried to roll up in an attempt to get his shoulder blades away from the ground, but couldn’t. Only faint grunts escaped his lips when they bumped him over the two stairs before the open door.
“We’re running out of time,” Darwin said. “We need to know what this guy knows and fast. Sarah’s life depends on it.”
“I’ve done interrogations in Iraq,” Malaka said. “I can handle it.”
“I don’t want him killed, though,” Darwin added. “He can die later. Information first.”
“Can’t guarantee anything,” Malaka said. “To make him talk, well, let’s just say, it can get brutal.”
Darwin exchanged a look with Parkman.
“Make him talk at all costs,” Parkman said. “That’s my opinion.”
“Agreed,” Darwin said. “Enzo compound location is our primary goal. We leave within an hour.”
“Got it.” Malaka half ran for the cabin.
Clouds rolled in. It would rain soon. A breeze had picked up as Aaron listened to the exchange between the men and began to zone out. More death and torture. Why did Sarah’s life have to be so complicated? Would they locate her in time? Was she already dead? He was still outside when the rain started falling. He was still outside when everyone else had gone inside.
Aaron was still outside when he heard the man in the suit screaming and begging for Malaka to stop.
Aaron let the water soak him, cleanse him, but leave him dirty for it. He would never be clean again.
Then there was more screaming from inside the cabin.
Chapter 41
Sarah felt the water splash across her face, gasped, sucked in sweet air and woke up. The buzz from the drugs was wearing off. She was awake. A strong urge from her bladder and a dry mouth confused her for a moment. Hunger made noises inside her abdomen.
Why was water splashed in her face?
A red bucket was cast aside by her feet. She scanned the room. Enzo leaned against a wall, tapping furiously into his cell phone.
“Good,” he yelled at her. “You’re awake.”
“Hey, thanks. You could’ve just tapped my shoulder.”
Enzo had the harried appearance of someone frazzled. His hair was askew, jacket gone and shirt unbuttoned. His actions were frantic and seemed rushed.
His cell phone emitted the tinny sound of a ring.
“You can put that thing to your ear, you know.”
He looked at her with red rimmed eyes and shook his head. “Cancer. I don’t want this cell field,” he rolled a hand around the phone, “giving me cancer by getting too close to my head. No fucking way.”
“Hello?” someone said through the cell phone’s speakers.
“They have the BMW,” Enzo shouted.
“So?”
“What do you mean, so? Are you thick? Trace the fucking car. Track it. You’ve done it before. Wherever the BMW is parked is where you will find the men who took him.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Good thinking. I’ll do it now.”
Enzo jabbed at the phone and slipped it into his back pocket. He pushed off the wall and started toward her. “I wanted you awake. Within minutes, my men will kill everyone at the cabin.” He held the phone in the air and shook it. “I want you to hear Aaron scream before he dies. When that’s done, I will spend the rest of the day killing you, softly. No more drugs. No more playing. Just death.” He smirked. “You didn’t have any other plans for the day, did you? I’m not interrupting your busy schedule of attacking and murdering bad guys, am I?”
Sarah tightened her hands into fists and lifted upward, but the duct tape held firm. She met his steely gaze and knew if the odds were evened, she would beat him in a fight. For him to win, she had to be subdued, tied down.
“I have no regrets. Yet I still think I’m the one who will walk away from this, not you.” When she talked she felt a soreness and mild swelling where he kneed her in the cheek bone earlier.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“It’s just the way it is.”
“Cocky bitch, eh? Tell me, why no regrets? Look at you now. You don’t regret being in this helpless condition?”
“I’m not completely helpless.” She thought about her answer more. “The biggest regret people have on their deathbed is that they tried to live the life expected of them and not the life that was true to themselves. I’ve been true to myself. At least since I turned eighteen. So, yeah, no regrets.” She shook her head to flick hair out of her eyes. “How about you? Anything you’d change since you’ll be dead before the sun goes down?”
Enzo laughed hard and loud. At one point he slapped his leg. Only the sound of his phone ringing stopped him.
He pulled it out and smacked the front of it.
“Speak,” he said, a bit of the laughter still evident.
“Located the cabin on GPS. Fifteen minutes out.”
“Good. Call me when you have Aaron. Kill him on the phone. I want this bitch to hear it.”
Sarah tugged at her restraints again but to no avail.
“Sir, we will be leaving evidence behind. We need to get in and get out. I’ll need a cleansing on this one.”
“Done. I’ll have the helicopter filled with the necessary explosives and brought to your location within an hour.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Enzo hung up and dialed someone else while Sarah scanned the room again, looking for anything she could use to break the duct tape. At this point she would toss her hands into fire to burn the tape off if it meant escaping the chair.
Someone picked up on the other end of Enzo’s phone. “Fill the chopper with enough explosives to clear a house,” Enzo said into the phone. “You’ve got forty-five minutes. Be in the chopper and ready to fly as soon as possible.”
He hung up as Sarah struggled against her bindings.
“You won’t break that tape,” he said. “Why try?”
“Because the urge to kill you has become overwhelming.”
“Stand in line. You have no idea how many people want me dead.”
“How’s that for your self-image?” she asked.
He got up from the couch, walked to the front door and grabbed an umbrella. The rain pounded on the roof and front door behind him.
Then he strode back across the room, lifted the umbrella like a baseball bat and swung at Sarah. It stung, and with each consecutive smack, it stung harder. He didn’t stop whacking her with it until the umbrella had broken in half and was useless.
“An hour left,” he said, gasping for air. “One hour left and you start to die.”
“From the moment I was born, I was dying. Today is no different.”
Chapter 42
Malaka stepped out of the back bedroom of the cabin and closed the door. His hands and several parts of his body were covered in blood.
“I wouldn’t go in there,” he said in his strong Greek accent. “Not a good scene.”
Darwin got up from the table and left his coffee cup behind. “What did y
ou learn?” he asked. “Tell me you got something out of him.”
