Saint/Sinner (24 page)
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I’m going to shoot you in the leg. Keep being stubborn, and I’ll shoot you in the other leg.”
“I might scream.”
“Sure, you could, but then someone would call the cops, and the cops might run your name through Interpol.”
“Croatia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. That’s why I came here, remember?”
“We both know the U.S. government is the least of your worries.”
He frowned.
“I ran across a couple of them while looking for you,” she continued. “They’re anxious to find you. Like you said, Dan, Gorman and Smith has been dealing with some very bad people. I suspect they want their money back, and you doing a little screaming isn’t going to bother them one bit. Me, on the other hand, I’ll settle for just the money.”
“Well, it’s nice to be wanted,” he smiled. Or tried to. The smugness was gone, though, replaced by obvious desperation. Then he sighed again. “I’ll need my laptop.”
“So let’s go get your laptop,” she said.
*
“They’re on their
way,” the English voice said over the phone. “You’re cutting it close.”
“Plenty of time,” she said.
“Who’s that?” Dan asked.
“No one that concerns you.” She put the phone away and picked up the laptop with her free left hand, then slipped it into her purse. She gestured with the gun in her right hand. “Lie down on the bed on your stomach, and put your hands behind your back.”
He grinned. “I didn’t know you were into that, Allie. You should have told me earlier; we could have had a lot of fun at the office.”
She ignored his comment and watched him do as he was instructed. When he finished, she took out a pair of plastic zip ties and bound his ankles and wrists, and left him lying in the middle of the bed.
“Hey,” he said, when she started walking away. “Hey!”
“I wouldn’t shout too loudly,” she said at the door. “Don’t want your neighbors calling down to the front desk and sending for the cops.”
He said something else—not quite screaming this time—but she had already closed the door by then.
She stepped out of his hotel suite and was halfway down the hall when the two men in suits turned the corner.
As they walked past her, the one with the slicked back hair gave her a sharp look. She didn’t respond, but could feel his eyes on her back even as she turned the corner, moving faster with every step.
*
“Got everything you
needed?” the man asked.
She nodded, watching Apollo bound off the truck bed and run toward her when he spotted her climbing out of the taxi. She crouched and rubbed the dog’s head, and he leaned against her leg for more.
“What time’s the next flight back to the States?” she asked.
“Two hours,” the man said, glancing at his phone. He was in his fifties, English, and his services had cost her the other half of her life savings. “I can get you to the airport in thirty, and you’ll be back in good ol’ America eating hamburgers before you can say, ‘I’ll have the Happy Meal.’”
“We don’t all eat hamburgers, Pell.”
“No?”
“You don’t see me making dentistry jokes, do you?”
He smiled widely, showing perfect white teeth. “I joke because I care.”
“Right,” she said. Then, standing up, she said to Apollo, “Come on, time to go home.”
She opened the truck’s back passenger door for the dog, then climbed into the front seat. Pell slammed his door and turned the ignition.
“What’s in the purse?” he asked.
“Womanly products.”
“It looks bigger than when I dropped you off yesterday.”
“You’re just imagining things.”
He chuckled. “Well, I am getting up there in years, I suppose.”
Pell maneuvered them away from the cliff and back onto the road, just as two local squad cars flashed by them on the next lane over.
“Looks like trouble at the resort,” Pell said.
“Looks like it.”
“You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”
“Nonsense. I’m just an American woman on a last-minute vacation.”
“Of course you are,” he said, and smiled at the road. “So, on a scale of one to ten, would you recommend my services to friends back home?”
“Will you lay off the Happy Meal jokes?”
“Promise.”
“Then, yes.”
“Excellent,” Pell said. “So what’s next for you, Allie Krycek?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She opened her window and mirrored Apollo behind her by sticking her head outside into the cool breeze. “I guess we’ll see where the wind takes me…”
“Hello?”
“Is this Allie? Allie Krycek?”
“That depends. Who is this?”
“My name’s Susan.”
“I don’t know any Susan. Who gave you my number?”
“A friend.”
“I need a name, Susan.”
“Lucy. Lucy gave me your number. Hello? Are you still there?”
“Why did Lucy give you my number?”
“She said you could help me. Hello? Are you still there?”
“Have you tried calling the cops?”
“I’ve tried the cops. I’ve even tried the FBI. They can’t help me.”
“Then what makes you think I can?”
“Lucy said you could. She said you…know how to find people. Hello? Are you still there? Allie?”
“Who did you lose, Susan?”
“My daughter. I need you to help me find my daughter, before she’s gone forever…”
Hello, and thanks for reading
Saint/Sinner!
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Until next time…stay out of the woods!