“The blame is already placed. You can deny it all you
want.
It won’t change a damn thing.
But yeah, we did take the kid to get you
here.
Fast.
Without time to plan
or think.
Or get word to your people.
And it worked like a damn charm, didn’t
it?
You came alone.”
The tension is interrupted only by Travis
.
He makes a strange noise and starts
rocking back and forth, tapping his fist against his temple. We all look toward
him and I hear Tommi gasp.
She tears
herself away from my back.
“Travis!”
She streaks by me. I reach for her arm to stop her, but she
shakes me off and runs to Travis anyway.
Barber doesn’t move.
He
doesn’t even watch her, in fact. His eyes are trained on me, not Tommi where
she squats beside her brother.
“Such a shame that you had to involve the girl and her
brother, Mr. Locke.
Now you’ll all
have to die. And I hate hurting kids.
That puts me in a terrible mood.
That’s why I’ll save you for last.
If anybody should suffer for the
pissy
way I
feel, it should be you.”
“Why the hell would you want to hurt Tommi and Travis? They
haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Oh, I think Lance would disagree.
Once he found out you were all up in his
pussy, he looked into you a little deeper.
I mean, what kind of an idiot shit-for-brains moron would mess with
Lance Tonin’s woman?
It seems
there’s only one.
And guess what
Lance found on you.
Cost him a
pretty penny, but he got all he needed.
Spent the weekend getting this place cleaned up for your pig partners,
just in case you’d screwed some information out of Tommi and sent it in. Unfortunately,
that means my friend here,” he says, nodding toward Chaps, who hasn’t said a
word since we got here, “will have to leave town.
Too risky
to keep business running the same way.
We could never be sure how much you’ve
passed on.
It’s a pain in the ass
to shift things around after all this time, but it’s worth it to stay in
business and give you bungling dickheads something to do with your time.
Earn your pay and all that shit.”
I spare a glance at Tommi who is cradling Travis, petting
his hair and whispering into his ear as he rocks.
The eyes that meet mine over the top of
his head are shooting invisible sparks of heartbreak and betrayal at me.
They hit me like tiny dots of fire, burning
their way through my skin and muscle, straight to bone.
This is not how I envisioned my confession playing out, but
I can’t think about that right now. I have to get us out of here.
Alive.
As fast as my mind will work, I race through several
scenarios, searching for the one that’s most effective and will buy me the most
time.
I sent word to my handler
that this is the place Tonin’s shit is kept. I hope to God they send someone to
check it out because I have no choice except to own up to who I really am. That
means that I have one option that’ll do both.
A bluff.
A big one.
I cross my arms over my chest, letting a smile play across
my face. “So that’s your answer then?
To get rid of us?
To kill a woman, a kid
and a cop?
And you think
that’ll make things
better
for you?”
I laugh, as boisterously as I can.
“What you
don’t know
, ass
monkey,
is that this
shit’s coming down.
Your whole crew
is busted.
It’s just a matter of
time.
Of course, a better, more
orderly
take-down
was in the works, but it
ain’t
no thing.
A few minutes won’t matter.
The
end result is the same.
You
dicklovers
.
In jail.
For a
long, long time.
Of course, you can
make it
even worse
if you really
wanna
.
By, oh I don’t know, say, adding murder
to your list of charges.
If that’s
your master plan, then hell!
Be my
guest.”
Barber’s grin worries me. He doesn’t look the least bit
concerned.
“And what, exactly, will
these charges be?
There are no
drugs here.
You have no proof, no
evidence that we’ve done anything wrong.
Travis here could point a finger at Chaps, but he’ll be dead before his
sister’s body hits the ground. So what’s your play then?
You must know something I don’t know,
because we’re clean, five-oh.”
He
takes a step toward me, his eyes flashing.
At last I see some emotion other than smug satisfaction–anger.
“We’re clean.”
All I can do is bluff some more, buy time until I can figure
out how the hell to get us out of here.
I smile, big enough and long enough for him to take notice and narrow
his eyes on me.
“If that’s what you
think, maybe I overestimated you. We’ll see.
But I can tell you what
won’t be
happening. I sure as hell
ain’t
gonna
stand here and show my hand.
If
that’s what you’re getting at, then you’re a dumbass.
No matter what happens
to me or them
, you’re
goin
’ down, cocksucker.”
Barber watches me silently, debating whether to off
us and take
his chances or try to find out what I really know,
what
we
really
know.
“You’d risk their lives for a bust?”
“Look, man, I don’t give a shit what you do with me, but I won’t
lie. I’m in deep with those two.
It’s
gonna
be sweet to watch you
get what’s coming to you.
But so
help me God, if you
are
stupid enough
to lay a hand on either of them, you’ll wish I’d killed you instead.
I promise you that.”
I let my words, the weight and the
sincerity of them sink in before I continue.
“You’re going down either way.
How
far
down you go is entirely up to you.”
“How important is she to you?” Barber asks, nodding faintly
toward Tommi.
I narrow my eyes on him.
“Very.
But I think I’ve made that pretty
clear.”
“You have.
But I
think you’ve forgotten that we can make her suffer without ever laying a hand
on her.”
“Is that right?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Do tell.”
“Lance has a certain dead brother’s body on deep freeze.
Even if she were allowed to live, she’d
spend her life in prison, mourning not one brother
but two
. She’ll never be free unless he
allows her
to be free.
Stupid bitch didn’t know who she was
fuc
–”
I interrupt with a scoff.
“Aw hell!
You think she’s worried about that? I
know the whole story.
She won’t go
down for that.
And believe me, I
would know.
Cop, remember? If
anybody knows the law, it’s me.
In
fact, if she’d told me sooner, I could’ve helped her get away long before now.
She just had to trust me.” I turn my
eyes to Tommi at the last, meeting her heartbroken eyes with the strength and
steadiness of my own. She looks away.
But not before I see the betrayal, the hurt, the distrust she’s still holding.
Ties my stomach into a damn knot.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go.
“Oh, I can pretty much guarantee she’ll never trust you
again, cop.
For what’s left of your
life, that is.”
Barber straightens and takes a gun out of the back of his
pants.
He jacks one in the chamber
and levels the barrel of the
Glock
at me.
We’re down to brass tacks now.
He’s made up his mind. He’s calling my
bluff.
And something’s
gotta
give. I’ve got one chance to
save Tommi, to save us all.
It’s
balls out and
go
big or go the hell home.
I start walking toward Barber, arms outstretched, every bit
of bravado I can muster playing from my fingertips.
“It’s go time, big man. Bring that shit
on!
With my last breath, I’ll be
laughing, thinking about you taking it up the ass in a cell next to Tonin’s for
the next twenty-five to life.”
His lips thin and the only sign I see of his indecision
is
in the faint tremor of his hand.
But it’s enough.
I’ve got him worried.
And that’s
all the
opening I need.
I move no faster, just keep pushing my cockiness to keep him
off kilter.
“What’s it
gonna
be?
Don’t
have all day,” I say.
Barber stiffens his arm, like he’s trying to find the
resolution to just do this and trust in his instincts rather than letting my
words get in his head. I take the half-second opening while he wavers and I
make my move.
Ducking, I throw my body at Barber’s middle.
I hear the weapon discharge and I reach
up blindly for his gun hand, grabbing it and jerking toward the ground as hard
as I can.
I feel the cool metal of
the grip against the outside of my last finger just as we topple over the table
and go skittering across the slick concrete floor.
Moving as quickly as I can, I throw all my weight onto
Barber’s chest, pinning one arm with my knee while I twist his hand to at least
aim the gun at the other side of the building, away from any human
targets.
The instant he’s subdued,
I blast my elbow into his face.
Almost as an extension of the motion that brings me back around, I yank
the gun from my waistband and turn to level it at Chaps, who’s still scrambling
to get his own pistol out and aimed.
He hasn’t quite made the arc all the way to Tommi when I pull back on
the hammer of my revolver.
The muted
click echoes through the room like the warning shot of a cannon.
He stops dead.
“Don’t do it, Chaps.
I’ll drop you where you stand.”
His eyes are wide and a fine sheen of sweat is dotting his
brow. I see the indecisiveness on his face.
I meet it with the sheer
gravity
of my words.
“Don’t believe me? Try it.
Try it, you son of a bitch.
I
will
kill you if you point that thing at Tommi.
I
will
end your life if you so much as whisper a threat against her.
You don’t deserve to live and I’d thank
holy God for the chance to send your ass straight to hell.”
One heartbeat. Two.
Before the third thump vibrates in my chest, indecision becomes hesitation,
and hesitation becomes fear. I see it flood the dull gray of his glare.
If he had more time to think, he might
choose differently, but I’m taking that away from him, forcing his hand.
He’s backing down.
I’m sure that on some level he knows there’s still a chance
for him.
Lance Tonin is who we’re
after. He’s the big fish. If Chaps talks, he could make a deal.
And I’d say
he’ll
do just that.
As
long as we can keep Tonin from getting to him before then.
It’s hard to hide from a man like Lance
Tonin, especially in a brick building full of criminals with nowhere to
go.
“Be smart, man,” I add, tipping the scales even though I
know he be shooting anyone now.
Chaps
lets
the gun drop upside down
and swing around on his trigger finger, pointing harmlessly at the wall. Carefully
and quietly, I let out the breath I’d been holding.
I nod at him and he pales, like what he’s done is just now
sinking in.
He gave up his only
real advantage.
The only leverage
either of them had on me was Tommi and Travis.
Now I’m in control.
“Throw the gun to me. Get on the ground, face down, hands
behind your head.”
Resigned, the
teacher does as I say.
I feel
Barber start to squirm again beneath me, no doubt waking from the elbow to the
face he got less than a minute ago.
With my knee, I kick him in the ribs.
Then, as his body folds in on itself, I
meet his face with my elbow again. Blood spurts from his wrecked nose and his
head lolls to one side.