Dancing with Deception (27 page)

“Whatever you’re having.” She wasn’t an avid drinker. Maybe she could get drunk enough that she could die without fear or pain. Or at least she wouldn’t care enough to know the difference. She wouldn’t think about how utterly unfair her life had turned out to be. That when, at last, someone cared about her and loved her for herself, she would die.

Anger took precedence over fear and she welcomed it. She choked back vodka and waited to die.

Chapter Sixteen

With
Aphrodite
docked out of the way, the three
men
walked up the pier
and toward the shore
. Gideon saw his boat immediately. There seemed to be no damage to her but he would have to wait until later to look her over. Right now, he had someone more important to see.

The warehouse stuck out like a sore thumb
against the waterfront businesses around it
. It looked to be an abandoned building. Knowing it was only a disguise, the men searched for an entrance. The chain link fence was high, but easy enough to climb. They chose a dark spot, shadowed by the trees and scurried over.

Gideon shined his flashlight at an empty dumpster behind the building. Above it, there was a frail looking staircase that would have served for a fire escape. The door at the top of the three flights of stairs seemed to be boarded up, but the window beside it had shimmers of yellow light coming through one side of the board.

He snapped his fingers to get his brother and father’s attention. Without a word, he hoisted himself up on the edge of the dumpster. With his flashlight between his teeth, he grabbed hold of the black iron and swung himself up on the staircase.

It creaked and swayed but felt secure enough. He kept his pace slow and tried to balance his weight. If it collapsed, he would at the least break a bone.

When he reached the top of the fire escape, he glanced down and watched his brother climb up the same way he had, then his father followed suit. After looking at the window, he handed the flashlight over
to Colin and dug out his pocket
knife. Paint had dried the window shut and he spent precious minutes digging it out of the cracks.

Hoping it wouldn’t screech, Gideon push
ed the window up enough so
he could climb through.

“Got it,” he muttered under his breath. He pushed the board back as far as it would go. Graceful as a cat, he climbed through the opening. He took the flashlight from Colin and held the board back so he could slip into the room. While Colin made sure
their father
got in, Gideon scanned the tiny room.

His stomach clenched when he saw her white sweater balled up inside the doorway. “She was here.” He picked it up, saw the blood, and cursed viciously.

“That’s not much blood, Gideon. Calm down.” Colin’s quiet voice had Gideon spinning around. “Chill. You won’t be any help to her if you give up our position.”

“Think, son.” His father
took the sweater from Gideon’s iron grip and laid a hand on his shoulder. “How do you think the board came loose on that window?”

The red veil over his vision lifted slightly. Still, the thought of Rebecca hurting herself trying to escape pissed him off. She should have been safe in his bed. She should have woken him up when she realized those bastards were there.

“All right. Dad, go ahead and get the police on the phone. Tell them to be damn careful because they’ll have a possible hostage situation. If we don’t have her out by the time they show up, maybe they’ll be the distraction we need.”

“I think Dad should stay up here,” Colin added.

“Like hell,
”
his father grunted.

“He’s right, Dad. Work on that window.” He pulled his knife out of his pocket and handed it over. “Stay on the phone with the cops so they can get the location. Just be quiet.”

“I’d rather—”

“We know. But we need you up here.”

Jaw clenched tight,
his father
nodded. “We get out of here, we’re buying some guns.”

“That’s a deal. Let’s go.
”
Gideon motioned for Colin to go out.

The small office room opened into a narrow hallway with old, red carpeting. The soft floor helped to muffle their footsteps as they made their way to the stairs.

Gideon shoved his flashlight in his pocket and took the stairs one at a time. There were no guards on the top floor
,
but he didn’t think they’d be so lucky the farther down they went.

The second stairway was hardwood so Gideon slowed his steps to mute the sounds. He heard men talking in hushed tones behind a set of wooden double doors. Their conversation was over a college football team and one of them snickered over something the other one said.

When he met his brother’s gaze, Colin nodded, and Gideon pulled the gun out of his jeans. He wouldn’t use it. The sound would only alert everyone else and all hell would break loose. But it would come in handy if he had to knock them out. He opened the door to an enormous room full of wooden crates.

The men they’d heard through the door were sitting at a card table, smoking and playing what looked like a friendly game of poker.
There were only a handful of them.
Over their own laughter, they hadn’t heard Gideon or Colin enter the room.

Gideon pulled Colin to the side and they slipped behind a stack of crates. They waited there, crouched down behind the
wood and listened to the idiot’s conversation
go from football to women.

He didn’t know what he was waiting for. Rebecca wasn’t in the room, but they’d never make it anywhere with the men sitting right there. They each had a gun holstered at their hip.

Gideon was mentally routing their way through the room when the conversation at the card table turned interesting. He signaled for Colin to listen.

“You hear any
more on Roman?”

“He’s lucid and pissed. That bitch really fucked him up with that rock,” a younger voice answered. He hooted out something about upping the ante. “I bet the boss keeps her around so Roman can stick it to her.”

“I’m the one who had to drag her to the boat.” The older man sounded insulted. “And look at these friggin’ scratch marks.”

“You ought to go get a rabies shot.”

The wheels were turning in Gideon’s head. From the way
the bastards
were talking,
Rebecca
was still alive. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had to get to her. He was about to stand from his crouch on the floor and do what, he didn’t know. But he stopped cold when he heard Rebecca’s voice entering the room.

He started to lunge
,
but Colin grabbed his shirt and held him firmly in place. He shook his head and mouthed the word
wait
. Gideon didn’t want to wait. But he couldn’t think past the sound of blood rushing in his ears.

“I’ve had enough.” Blade pulled Rebecca into another room where two men were sitting at a small table smoking and playing cards. His voice echoed off the concrete walls as he shouted out his frustration. There were more crates in this room, the dim light casting shadows from the tall, wide boxes. “Get Austin on the phone now.”

Rebecca stopped in the center of the room, massaging her bicep where Blade’s fingers had dug in.
He’d gone from slightly amused, to anxious, to furious. Austin wasn’t picking up and time was running out until Blade’s next shipment
was due
. He’d let a few little details slip. With each little tidbit her blood
had
chilled more because she knew he wouldn’t let her live knowing what she knew. He bought guns illegally and sold them to dealers on the street. A part from running the occasion con, he had turned into one of America’s most wanted men.

Her father was small change compared to the likes of Danny Blade. And Blade was right. Austin had gone in way to deep this time. Fortunately for him, he wouldn’t be the one to face the consequences.

“You already know he isn’t going to come.” Her temper was shot. She’d tried and failed to keep it under control. Not that it mattered. She was going to die anyway. Might as well go out swinging. “If you think you can do any better then be my guest.”

“Give me the phone.”

She handed it over then crossed her arms to stop them from trembling. He dialed several different numbers before growling. He threw the phone against the wall. Dispassionately, Rebecca watched it shatter to a thousand little pieces.

The small buzz the liquor had given her was gone. She was chilled to the bone again and couldn’t find warmth. She’d also learned from Blade’s rambling that Gideon was still alive.

“Told you,” she antagonized. “So Blade, you have two choices. Shoot me now or shoot me later, but I really wish you’d just get on with it. I’m bored and annoyed and it doesn’t look like you’re going to get your money back.”

“Shut the fuck up while I think.” He paced and muttered to himself. “The senator’s going to be on my ass. He’ll ruin me.”

“And maybe you’ll have learned a valuable lesson from all this. Honest work for honest pay. You’ve screwed people out of thousands of dollars. Karma’s a bitch, Danny, or had you forgotten that?”

“I said shut up!”

The guards who had been sitting at the card table were standing behind her now. She knew in an instant, she could be dead. If she had seen just a flicker of humanity in Blade’s icy blue eyes, she wouldn’t have been taunting him so.

But his cold stare and angry sneer insured her that she would be dying no matter what she said or did. If she had been able to dial nine-one-one on the phone he’d given her, she would have. It may or may not have helped but she couldn’t know now because he’d shattered the phone. He’d been watching her like a hawk before but w
as now swinging around in rage,
muttering to himself.

Rebecca stood and waited, trying desperately to think of something.

Blade had left the gun behind. Whether he felt safe with his armed men around him or whether he had forgotten in his angry state, she didn’t know. But she would have to take care of the men with weapons first if she stood any chance.

“What if I were to send him an ear first? You could live without an ear.”

The calm, offhanded way he spoke sent ice skidding up her back. She felt like a bird in a cage. And Blade was the hungry cat just waiti
ng for her to make a move. T
err
or kept her frozen in place,
her heart hammering in her
chest
.

“So not only are you a con
and you sell illegal weapons, but you torture and murder innocent people?” Her voice sounded strong and cool. She held on to that.

He wasn’t listening to her. He paced the room like a starving tiger on the prowl. “He’d pay a ransom after a couple of fingers.”

She wouldn’t die that way
, she thought frantically. Backed into a corner, she realized the only thing she could do. “Hey, Blade.”

“Hmm?”

“You know my father used you, right?” Deliberately insulting, s
he sauntered over to him. A
look of puzzlement
washed
over his face. “He’d come home from working at that department store and we’d just laugh. You do realize you were just his patsy, don’t you? That he was planning on turning you in when the scam was done?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I may have been young, but I wasn’t stupid. He used you then, he’s using you now. You won’t get your money back because you were a fucking idiot. You gave it to him.”

“Shoot her.”

“You’re never going to see him again,” she shouted.

“I said shoot her!”

Rebecca’s last coherent thought was that if she
were
going down, she’d take him with her.
But then several things happened at once.
Sh
e lunged at Blade and
heard several shots ring out, one after the other. Footsteps echoed off the walls as she clawed at Blade’s face.
She heard men screaming, more shots, and smelt the metallic scent of blood, but she couldn’t stop.

She pulled
Blade’s
hair and pounded his head into the concrete floor. She felt hands wrapping around her arms, pulling. She didn’t care. She heard sirens getting closer and closer.
She
couldn’t
stop.

Finally the hands that grabbed her managed to pry her off him. She fisted Blade’s shirt in her hands and only then realized he’d quit moving.

There was blood on her. It seemed to be all over. She heard Gideon’s voice in her ears and only then did she let go of Blade. He slumped to the floor, moaning. She was lifted off of him and several pairs of hands were pushing at her, checking her.