by Tl Reeve
“Keep still,” he whispered. “I’ll only kill you quicker if you fight, and I intend to play with you all night, mouse.” His lips covered hers. The taste of aged scotch and masculinity burst on her taste buds, and she pulled back, biting his bottom lip hard. His chuckle filled the room as he dabbed his lip. “Feisty. I like that, little mouse.” She could feel the evidence of his liking brush her belly.
Sabine gagged. “Fuck you, Steffen,” she spat. The crack of his palm hitting the side of her face rang in her ears and left her reeling. Pain exploded across her cheek and jaw. For a moment, Sabine saw stars as everything went fuzzy around her. Her hand instantly covered the area while tears sprang to her eyes.
“I told you, mouse,” he warned her. “Sit down. We have business to discuss.”
She didn’t have anything to discuss with him. He was a murderer. He had kidnapped her and the other women. Why in the world did he think she would talk to him about anything? “Thanks, but I think I’ll stand.”
Steffen roughly grabbed her by the arm and jerked her over to the table then shoved her down into a chair. “I said, sit down.”
Sabine snatched her arm out of his grip, narrowing her eyes. Every expletive she wanted to call him sat on the tip of her tongue. “You shouldn’t frown like that, Miss Babineaux. You have such a pretty face.”
“I’m sure you say that to all your victims before you gut them.” She refused to touch anything on the table. All thoughts of her hunger had fled the moment his lips touched hers.
He tsked and shook his head. “Such crudeness. We’ll be training your mouth to speak properly.” She didn’t even want to begin to wonder how he’d do that. Draping the napkin over his lap, he went right back to his meal and poured himself another glass of scotch.
“Is there a point to his meeting, Steffen?”
“There is.” He smiled at her. “We have a dinner guest tonight. I probably should have waited to eat, but I’ve had a busy day.”
“I’m sure,” she said sarcastically. “Killing people can be very stressful, what with all the, ‘Is he dead? Did his arm just move? Shit, did I get blood on my suit?’ worrying you have to do.” She rolled her eyes.
“Keep going, mouse, and before long you’ll find that mouth filled.” The threat was subtle, and she had no doubt he would go through with it. But Sabine didn’t care. She was tired of being afraid and tired of being messed with. If he was going to kill her, he needed to do it and stop talking about.
“You have issues,” she snorted.
“I call it decadence. You will, as well, soon,” he murmured while his heavy-lidded gaze stroked across her flesh.
Sabine shivered and turned away from him. “So who’s our guest?” She would give just about anything right now to keep him eating and talking. She had a feeling the minute he stopped doing both those things, he would kill her. Wouldn’t that be a bummer?
“You’ll see.” He grinned. At the same moment, another man dressed in black entered the room and walked over to Steffen. He leaned down and spoke rapidly in another language then stood up and waited. “Well, our final guest has arrived. Send him in.” The man in black nodded and headed back the way he came.
A few moments later, his guest walked into the room, and she gasped. Time hadn’t been kind to her father. His clothes hung off his rail-thin frame. His skin was ashy gray. She stared at his withered features and dull, lifeless, blue eyes. Her father was a shell of the man who had raised her.
Now she knew why he hadn’t been in the public eye lately. She had wondered what was going on with him, and, at one point, was going to call him, but had thought better of it.
“Dad?” she whispered before she snapped her attention to Steffen. “Is this some sick fucking joke?”
The Master laughed and shook his head. “Did you know that children really do have a price?” He stood up and helped her father to a chair near his. “You cost me a little over six hundred thousand dollars. A drop in the bucket, considering.”
Sabine couldn’t believe a word she was hearing. Her gaze cut from her father to the Master and back. “Is that true?” She wanted her father to say no. She wanted him to say he was forced, that Steffen had said he would kill him, or worse yet, her, if he didn’t. Anything right now would be better than having her father sit quietly. “I said is that true?”
“Yes,” her father whispered. “I-I-I had to. I needed the money.”
“And I was a commodity to you?” Sabine shook her head. She couldn’t believe what he had said. “So you sold me?”
“No,” he answered quickly then qualified it with, “Not exactly. It’s complicated.”
“How complicated can selling your only child be?” Disbelief laced her words. “Did you even think at all about me when you struck up this deal?”
“Sabine,” he pleaded. “I had to. You don’t understand. I’m sick. I needed the money.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand, Dad.” Anger course through her with each second that ticked by. “You could have come to me, and I would have helped you. Why? Why would you do this to me?”
“I watched you for six weeks while you worked in my bar,” Steffen chimed in. “Every day, you moved around the bar acting like you didn’t have a care in the world. I followed you around for a couple of days, just to get closer to you, but you never paid me any attention. So I had to figure out a way to get you closer to me. For weeks, I planned and plotted. I actually went to your father, and—wouldn’t you know it?—he was going to call me, too. You see, dear old dad has a bit of a drug debt he needs to pay to yours truly, and he ran out of time. So I made my own proposition.”
She didn’t need to hear any more. “I should have known.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “So now what?”
A sinister smile curled Steffen’s lips. “Now you’re mine…forever.”
Chapter Twelve
Three days and no luck. Between the patrols and the internal investigation of the takedown leak, Kyle and Stuart had barely slept a wink. They were running on adrenaline, coffee, and anxiety. Sabine was gone. No other text messages showed up after the first. A trace of the phone came up with nothing as well. They knew the Master had taken her, but all subsequent checks of the warehouses showed nothing out of the ordinary.
“He couldn’t have gone far.” Kyle walked back over to their desks, handing Stuart another cup of coffee and a stale pastry. By the time they found their girl, he would be pissing coffee and shitting sugary confections. His stomach turned.
“This afternoon, we found out our buddy James Claymore owns three houses in the Garden District and four more in Dallas, Texas.” Stuart took a bite of the pastry. The sugary confection spiked against his tongue, and his pancreas whimpered in defeat.
“We know Rutherford likes taunting his victims. From the file I got from NYPD, he sent the wives and girlfriends of the officers he killed flowers and get-well cards. The bastard on CCTV was seen milling around the cemetery where the officers were buried. If I’m right, we can expect the same here. Not only that, but Steffen has gotten comfortable here. From everything we’ve gathered on him, he’s made New Orleans his base of operations. In doing so, he’s made friends and not the good kind. He’s got to be in one of those buildings.” Kyle grabbed the printouts of the four dwellings in the area. “I think we should start with these. Go address by address. I’ve already got warrants waiting for the judge to sign off on so we can get utility records. I know he wouldn’t be stupid enough to turn shit on in his name, but we’ve got to try.”
“We’re doing this alone.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“That’s the plan.”
“We could die.”
“It’s a risk we have to take. We have to find Sabine,” Kyle said. The expression on his partner’s face spoke volumes.
“Hell, yeah, we have to risk it.” Stuart grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Kyle picked up the folder filled with housing documents. “Good. We s
hould have the warrants in twenty minutes.”
“Great. While we’re waiting, we’ll stalk the residence.” Stuart flashed him a brilliant yet devious smile.
“Remind me to never leave you unattended from now on. You seriously get off on this detective shit.” Kyle laughed.
“You can chew my ass later over a beer.”
“Roger that.”
“Speaking of which, have you seen the chief?” No one had seen hide nor hair of the man since the takedown had gone wrong. It still pissed him off that Gomez and Maco had paid with their lives. It also still bothered him that the mole hadn’t shown his face.
Kyle shook his head. “Nope, no one has. Last I heard, he had taken a leave of absence. From what the talk is, he felt personally responsible for Maco and Gomez’s deaths. The mayor’s office approved the leave only hours after the takedown.”
Stuart stopped. “Do me a favor, bud. Ask the judge to add a name to those warrants. Then look up Granger’s home address and see if it matched any of the homes we have listed here in town.”
Kyle’s attention snapped to his, and, without question, they made their way back to their computers. Sitting down at the desk, Kyle pulled up the city website and went to work. He added the address and the chief’s name. In a matter of moments, the blueprints and a copy of the deed appeared on the screen. “I’ll be a son of a bitch.”
“Bingo.” Pieces of the case started fitting together. “That’s where we’ll find our girl. I know it.”
“Let’s go.”
***
An hour later, Stuart silently made his way through the shrubbery surrounding the plantation-style home. Kyle, on the other hand, was inching his way along the side of the house. Security for the place was lacking. But, then again, anything out of the ordinary would draw the neighbors’ attention. The place was really unremarkable, ordinary to anyone who walked by. Inside, though, it held a secret. Corruption. Greed. Slavery.
Stuart pushed the mic button at his chest and called out to Kyle. “This is the place.”
“Yeah,” he answered.
“What do you mean, yeah? I thought we were going in on three,” Stuart asked.
“Well, I was, but the front door was open.”
Stuart shook his head. “This is going to be a cluster fuck, isn’t it?”
“On the count of three,” his partner said.
“Fucking hell.”
On one, he broke down the back door while Kyle ran through the front door. The kitchen and dining room were completely empty. Meeting up with his partner, they began the methodical task of clearing the rooms. “I don’t know, man. I feel like this could be a trap.”
A creak in the floorboards above them had Kyle placing his finger to his lips. “Upstairs.”
Stuart nodded. They backed out of the parlor and walked to the staircase. They tiptoed up the stairs one at a time until they came to the landing. The door to the second room on the right was open, and Kyle signaled Stuart to check it out.
“Detective Renwick. Detective Novak. How good of you to join us.” Rutherford stepped forward, his gun trained on both of them.
“I’m sure, asshole. Where’s Sabine?” Stuart asked..
“Tut-tut, Detective. Is that anyway to great the host of this little party?” Rutherford snapped his fingers. In a matter of moments, Sabine and her father were brought into the room. His girl was naked, and a gag had been placed in her mouth. Her father’s eyes were heavy lidded as he stumbled then listed to the side. Stuart saw red. “Drop the guns, detectives. Or else the girl dies.” Rutherford grabbed Sabine by the arm, pulling her to him.
“Bullshit. You won’t kill her. She’s your ticket out of here.”
“You’re right,” he grinned. “Say good-bye to Daddy, mouse.” The crack of gunfire bounced off the walls, causing Sabine to jerk in his hold. He rolled his neck and a merciless smile tugged at his lips. “I feel so much better now.”
Sabine’s father gasped and fell to his knees. His face was slack, his body limp, as blood poured from his chest. In slow motion, he fell face first onto the wood floor. She screamed, and her anguish tore at Stuart’s gut. All he wanted to do was console her, but he couldn’t move. He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
She struggled against the man holding her. “Let me go, you son of a bitch,” she screamed. The bastard smacked her hard across the face, dropping her to the floor.
Stuart took a step and was stopped by Rutherford pointing his gun at her. “Don’t do it, Renwick. I would hate to kill her next.”
Stuart gritted his teeth and fisted his hands at his sides. “I’m going to have fun killing you.”
“Such violence.” Steffen sighed. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll kill you first. That way you won’t have to watch me fuck your girl and slit her throat like the little bitch she is.”
Stuart exchanged glances with Sabine and Kyle, getting a small nod from his partner. “Go ahead. She doesn’t mean anything to us. Her father was just paying me to get her back.” There was a cool nonchalance to his tone. “Her pussy is nice. Kyle and I can attest to that. I didn’t get to use her ass. But I am sure it’s just as hot.”
“Do you think I’m a fool? I’m not stupid, gentlemen. I know she means something to you both. I know she has been living with you since she escaped. I know both of you fucked her.” Steffen leveled his gun at Kyle and pulled the trigger, hitting him in the shoulder.
While Rutherford’s attention was off Stuart for a split second, the detective raised his gun and shot the mobster twice in the chest. “Fuck you.” Stuart spat on the bastard and ran for Sabine, pulling the gag out of her mouth. “Are you okay?”
“No, you don’t get to touch me. You let him die.” Her fists balled up, and she beat against Stuart’s chest. He took it. He took all of it.
“Baby, stop. Stop,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“Aw, isn’t this sweet,” Granger said, walking up behind them.
Oy, could he get anymore clichéd? “Granger. Where the hell were you hiding?” Stuart asked, putting himself between the chief and Sabine.
“So much fucking drama,” Kyle moaned from where he lay on the floor. “Can I just shoot him and be done with this shit?”
Granger reached into his pocket and pulled out a small radio. “Ten-One. Ten-One. Officer in distress. I need all available officers at 102201 First Street.” The chief dropped the radio and smashed it beneath his foot. “Now you were saying?”
“Fucking asshole,” Stuart growled. “I should kill you right now.”
“You could try,” he said, shooting Stuart in the thigh. “But taking you apart limb by limb will be so much fun.” He turned his attention to Kyle and put a bullet in his other shoulder. “Drop the gun, son.”
Pain, hot and searing, ripped through Stuart’s thigh. Blood oozed from the wound with each beat of his heart and he knew something was wrong. He shouldn’t be bleeding that much. Outside, he could hear the sirens approaching and knew they were fucked. He glanced back at Sabine, who was still crying over her father, and he hated the fact the man had to die. He gripped his leg and groaned. Son of a bitch, that hurts.
“Fuck you, I’ll kill you.” Stuart’s attention snapped to Kyle as he lay on the floor, his gun pointed at Granger. “Get her out of here, man. Just go. I’ve got this.”
“No, I refuse to leave you,” he shot back to his friend. There was no way in fuck he would leave Kyle behind. “We’re doing this together.” He groaned feeling light headed.
“You stupid motherfucker.” Kyle moaned. “Always have to do this shit the hard way.”
“You know me.” He cursed, sucking air. He turned his attention to Sabine and grabbed her leg. Run when I tell you, please. I’m sorry, he mouthed, hoping she would do as he said. On the count of three, while Granger’s attention was on Kyle, he would rush him from behind. “Hey, Granger.” He waited for the man to turn around. “Shoot him in the head. The fucker owe
s me twenty.”
“Gladly.” The chief laughed, turning back to his partner.
Stuart didn’t wait for three; he charged after Granger the best he could. At the same moment the man leveled his gun with Kyle’s head, he tackled him, ignoring the blinding pain in his leg. They wrestled for the gun, each trying desperately to get into the dominant position. Stuart tried to get Granger’s finger off the trigger, but the chief had a death grip on it. Using his free hand, he punched the chief in the ribs several times, determined to break his hold on the piece. Like a dog with a bone, the man wouldn’t let go, no matter what Stuart did. His strength was waning and if he didn’t do something soon, he was afraid of what would happen. “Give it up, old man,” he gritted out.
“Go to hell,” Granger snarled.
Sabine screamed.
“Get out of here, Sabine,” he hollered, taking his attention off the man below him. Granger hit him with his fist, getting in a cheap shot, and shifted below him. Stuart saw stars. His jaw throbbed and his lip felt as though it had been torn apart. He clawed at his face, trying to turn his head away, but the bastard pointed the gun at his chest. Son of a bitch. Stuart bent his hand back lodging the gun between them.
He felt his finger slip over the trigger as they fought for control of the gun. For a brief second, relief flowed through him before the sound of the weapon being fired rang out in the room. Stuart jerked and looked down at the chief of police. He watched the man’s go wide then slowly his pupils retracted into pinpoints. His brown eyes went dull, and his breath left him in a whoosh.
“Stuart,” Sabine screamed again running at him. “No, no.”
“It wasn’t me,” he breathed. “It wasn’t me.” At the same moment, the house was rushed by dozens of police officers. Stuart put the gun down. “The chief and Steffen Rutherford are behind the kidnappings.” The officers split up and started going through the building. “We need medics and a blanket for her.”
