In Love and Rescue: When love is the perfect rescue... (30 page)

He froze.

“I doubt your mother’s still alive, but if she is, I don’t know how the shame of what you have become hasn’t killed her. If she was roasting marshmallows outside with her seven-year old son and his friend, I can tell you, she was every bit of human as I am. Just like me, she was a marshmallow. Just like
you
. You act as though you’re above everyone else. As if you’re some sort of superhuman. And you may have fooled all of those trolls who worship you like a God, but not me. Your insides are blood and guts just like mine. You bleed when you’re cut. You’ll bleed when you die.”

Eddie turned on his heels and rushed up the stairs, covering the space between them in only a few seconds before he was standing over her. His chest heaved and his jaw clenched, and although terrified, Larke realized that she was mildly pleased with herself for rattling the man who always kept his cool.

“I’m the only person that can get to you, aren’t I?” She continued to provoke. “The only person who doesn’t fall for your gangster charade.”

As much as Eddie wanted to take both hands and snap her feminine neck, he refrained. It would only be exactly what she wanted, to alter his plans. She was as reluctant to relinquish her power as he was eager to consume it. She might be assuming that she had balls, but he was going to show her exactly what made her a member of the weaker sex.

He willed his anger to subside and walked away, trotting quickly down the steps to avoid giving her a chance to continue her bantering. Walking across the living room, he tossed another log into the fireplace before disappearing from sight.

Larke waited a few seconds to make sure that he was gone before falling backwards onto the mattress. She had no clue how he managed not to kill her, and she was even more baffled as to where she got the strength to challenge him. But all of his talking revealed one important thing: she had several h
ours left in the United States, which meant that she had until daylight to try to escape or somehow get in contact with law enforcement. Unfortunately, Desmond and his contacts weren’t there to help her this time around.

*****

Desmond clenched and unclenched his fists. An entire hour had already passed with Agent Wright interrogating Delgano in the small room and yet, Wright was the only one that had said a word the entire time.

“You alright there, man?” Doug asked, noticing Desmond’s agitation.

Desmond shot him a look. “Alright? Every second that we waste on this man is another second Larke’s still missing. “

Doug nodded in agreement. “I understand, but we’ll let Will work for a little bit longer. He’s been doing this for a while. They say he’s one of the best the bureau has. Personally, I believe that Gano is itching to talk and won’t be able to hold out for much longer.”

Desmond shook his head. “Well, if he’s the best…” his thoughts trailed off. “Doug, imagine how you would feel right now if it was Alisha that was missing. Or even worse, if it was Tandi and the only person that could lead you to her was the man sitting in that room.”

Doug didn’t even want to imagine his wife and child being the target of a madman like Eddie Jarvis.

“What do you want to do?” He asked, turning to face Desmond.

“I want to talk to him,” Desmond suggested, “but I’m not going to go in there doing the whole ‘guns blazing’ thing. The least that I can do is try to get him to talk to me.”

Doug knocked on the glass and Will looked up before excusing himself from the room, appearing in front of Desmond and Doug with his hands at his waist. “What’s the problem, fellas?”

Doug flicked his thumb at Desmond. “Let Harding have a go at him.”

Will grinned and chortled a laugh. “Guys, I’ve got this.”

“No, you really don’t,” Desmond countered.

“And what do you know about interrogation, Harding?” Will argued. “I mean, I respect what you did for our country when you were in the service, but, and no offense, interrogation isn’t your specialty. If anyone is going to get Delgano to tell us where to find Jarvis, it’s going to be me.”

Desmond clenched his jaw to temper his rage. “Well, I need him to tell me where to find
Larke
.”

William closed his eyes and stretched the muscles his neck. When his eyes landed on Desmond, he sighed. “Look, for all we know, he could have already had her killed and tossed her body in an open field somewhere. We need to concentrate on finding Jarvis so—”

Ignoring anything else that he had to say, Desmond pushed past William into the starkly furnished interrogation room. William started after him, but Doug grabbed him by the shoulder and closed the door behind Desmond. When Delgano spotted his new visitor, he grinned.

“The
military man,” he greeted, his smirk growing to the width of his face. “I would have never thought that I would see you in here.”

Desmond flopped down into the metal chair across the table. “They almost didn’t want to let me in.”

“Why?” Gano asked. “They think you will kill me? Not in this country. Right now, I am too valuable to them. I am like the largest diamond in Africa.”

Desmond feigned fascination. “I would have to agree with you.”

Just as he thought, Delgano loved to talk. William’s technique wasn’t going to work on him because Gano and Jarvis were the type of men who would automatically defy an authoritative figure.

“I said this before, but you look very familiar,” Gano added. “From the first time I saw your picture, I thought that. I just can’t put my finger on it, you know?”

Desmond shrugged. “I grew up in Jamaica.”

Delgano’s eyes widened in surprise. “Jamaica?
Eh eh
. Which part?”

“Trelawny.”

His eyes opened even larger. “Small world, I tell you. Look at us. Two little runts from the islands doing big things in the States.”

Desmond cupped his chin in his hand. “Can’t say that I’m anything like you though, Gano.”

“How so?”

“Look, I’m not going to act like I didn’t come in here for information.”

Gano shifted in his chair. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know where Larke is.”

“The woman? That’s it?”

Desmond let a beat pass before he responded. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Bullshit,” Desmond immediately came back. Gano sucked air through his teeth and diverted his gaze to the wall on his right.

“You’re not getting out of this,” Desmond explained. “You have so many charges against you right now that you’ll never see the light of day again.”

Gano shrugged,
and fell silent again. Desmond curbed his frustration and stood, moving to the far corner of the room to lean against the wall.

“But you already knew that,” he told Delgano. “You knew from
the jump that if someone caught a whiff of you and Jarvis’ scent, you would be taking the fall for him.”

The way his ear twitched told Desmond that he’d gotten his attention.

“You knew,” Desmond continued, “that Eddie had all of this set up to be tied to you. The warehouse in Jamaica, 90-North, all of his business operations…plain as day, they all belong to Delgano Richards.”

William’s eyebrows came together. “What’s he doing?”

“Let him work,” Doug advised, holding up a hand.

Gano shook his head fervently. “That’s a lie.”

“Oh okay.” Desmond reclaimed the seat across from Delgano. “Then tell me this. How did the federal government get a hold of your birth certificate?”

Gano thought for a second before responding. “If I was born here, it would be one of the easiest things to find.”

Desmond stroked his chin and nodded.

“True.”
He motioned towards the glass and Doug entered with a yellow envelope. “But here’s the thing. This envelope was delivered to FBI headquarters three days before you even popped up on the radar as a suspect. Larke and I were still in St. Thomas when this envelope was dropped off and Larke is the only reason your name even came up in the first place.”

Gano’s eyes narrowed.

“And look at this. Details of the exact date and time you would be at the airstrip. By any chance did you know that the same G5 that was waiting to pick you up had been seized by the federal government? Eddie didn’t tell you that he no longer had possession of that asset?”

Desmond
pretended to skim the papers, then exchanged a dubious glance with Doug.

“I mean, it’s p
ossible that he didn’t know,” Doug added, taking a seat next to Desmond. “He and Eddie were exchanging communication by snail mail being sent between a post office box registered to a Clarence Garvey in Jamaica, and the residence of Carol Garvey, Clarence’s niece, in Largo, Maryland. Funny thing is, Carol died what, two years ago? Maybe Jarvis would have told him about the jet if he wasn’t in lockup.”

Desmond tilted his head to the side as though he was considering Doug’s alternative explanation.

“Possibly. But still, this anonymous birth certificate—”

“He is going to defile your woman,” Gano suddenly interrupted. Both Desmond and Doug turned to look at him.

“I don’t know where he took her,” he continued with an edge of disappointment to his voice. “But he told me about the things that he would do to her if he ever got his hands on her. The way that he would restrain her with leather so tight that it would slice into her tender skin. Strap her legs to either end of a bed post, wide open so that she couldn’t refuse him. And then he would degrade her by sullying her supple flesh. Damage her to the point that life seeped from her broken body. Women carry a lot of their power between their legs without even knowing it. They give so much power to their sex.”

A muscle throbbed in Desmond’s forearm that Doug closely monitored.

“Then when he is done with her,” Gano continued, “when he is sure that he has reduced her to a barren, empty, and lifeless vessel, he will kill her. Slowly. Painfully. Almost endlessly.”

Doug didn’t move quickly enough to stop the fist that landed against Gano’s jaw. Gano hadn’t seen the strike coming and failed to brace himself for the impact, so he went flying out of his chair and onto the hard linoleum floor. Desmond was already around the table by the time Gano fell and picked him up by his collar before forcing him into the
concrete wall behind them. One hand found its way around Gano’s neck and his fury traveled through his body and straight to the fingers that threatened to crush Gano’s windpipe.

Doug rushed over to try to tug Desmond’s hand away from Gano’s neck to no avail. Gano felt his head begin to go faint and his vision
blurred. He’d gotten so used to being in charge of everything, having everyone follow his every command, that he failed to realize that he’d never truly been exposed to the prospect of dying. And what would he be dying for? He thought that he’d be dying for his brother, the only family that he’d ever known, but just like that, Eddie had betrayed him. The worst part was, he’d expected Eddie to betray him. He would have never done the same to Eddie, but was it because he was playing the role of the naïve little brother? The entire operation, the entire scheme, had been Eddie’s idea from the start and like always, he was willing to go along with whatever Eddie had suggested. All this time he’d assumed that they were both taking advantage of the fools that worked for them, but he never realized that he was also a fool. Eddie didn’t see him as a brother. He saw him as an associate. Disposable.

William rushed into the room and tugged on Desmond’s arm until Gano was released from his
grasp. Gasping for air, the large man slumped to the floor. He glanced up at Desmond standing over him.

“Now I know where I remember you from,” he squeezed o
ut, his throat aching. William helped him back to his chair, and even though William didn’t completely agree with Desmond’s tactics, at least it got Gano talking.

“I remember now,” Gano reiterated. He closed his eyes and searched his mind for the memory. He remembered the woman with the bruises that had spoken to Eddie’s mother through the gate.
In the back, there’d been a little boy peering out the window. He couldn’t have been more than three years old at the time.

Desmond remained against the wall positive that if he got any closer, he’d kill Gano instantly the next time around.

“Did your parents live in a big white house in St. Andrew?” Gano asked.

Desmond unclenched his jaw. “Why does that matter?”

“If you answer the question, I will tell you where she is.”

“Thought y
ou didn’t know,” Desmond accused, moving towards him again. William blocked his path.

“I might know something,” Gano answered. “Tell me, did your parents live in a big white house in St. Andrew?”

All eyes landed on Desmond.

“Yes,” he gruffly answered.

That was all the confirmation that Gano needed. Standing in front of him was the son of the man who had started it all. The seed of the man that had turned Eddie into what he was today. Betrayal or not, if he brought this man to Eddie, he was sure that he’d get something in return. That Eddie would find a way to get him out of this mess. This wasn’t how it was going to end for him. He wasn’t going to rot the rest of his life away in some American prison.