The Kiss after Midnight (The Midnight Trilogy) (16 page)

A shotgun shell destroyed their rear window and they ducked. As the shotgun rounds continued, they slid across the road, narrowly avoiding a collision.

When they returned to the right side of the road, Annabel took a sharp right and dialed the same number on the phone. “We’re in trouble, you’ll have to—”

An unseen car smashed into the passenger door at an intersection, sending the Mustang skidding toward a building smothered in scaffoldings, where it came to a stop.

Seconds later, Tobias felt moistness in his eyes and mouth—blood. His hands were covered with it, and he couldn’t move. Beside him, Annabel had a cut near her right eye. She seemed to be shouting at him, but he couldn’t hear her. He tried to move his legs but felt a sharp pain, causing him to scream.

He felt something crash against his head and soon realized it was Annabel hitting him. “We’ve got to go now,” she screamed.

He looked past her, his vision steadily clearing, and saw the silver-haired man on foot, approaching with a shotgun. Three men walked beside him, all armed with semiautomatics and shotguns.

“Can you move?” Annabel shouted, her voice trembling.

He lifted his right leg and felt excruciating pain. His face tensed and he pushed harder and harder until he found himself on the ground. Looking up, he noticed a deserted street ahead of them and wished God would give him the strength to run down it.

The sound of a gunshot came from out of nowhere, followed by a thud—the sound of a body hitting the ground. Automatic gunfire followed as the sound of police sirens filled the air. Annabel crawled to his side and lifted him to his feet. She dragged him to a corner and they watched the carnage unfold.

At least six unmarked cars with blue flashing lights and two squad vehicles blocked the streets as police exchanged gunfire with the people who had been chasing them. Their pursuers had taken cover behind their cars.

“Am I gonna—” Tobias began.

“Shh.”

“Am I gonna die?”

Annabel shook her head and pulled out her phone. “Neither of us are dying today. I promise.”

He smiled and watched her dial someone again. This time he didn’t hear the conversation as he drifted out of consciousness.

“Hold your fire,” Tom shouted upon seeing the last assailant drop to the ground. He held his left hand up and inched closer. There was movement near one of the shooters, who wriggled on the ground beside the bullet-riddled SUV. Police and FBI vehicles continued to arrive, and pedestrians crowded the blood-splattered scene.

Tom turned toward Emma and pointed to the smashed Mustang a few yards away. “Check on them,” he said.

Emma walked to the wrecked car and peered inside. Meanwhile, Tom made his way toward the struggling man while keeping an eye on Emma. He stopped when he reached the pavement behind the SUV, where he found three motionless bodies with multiple bullet wounds to their chests and heads. The man closest to his feet, however, continued to shake violently, blood covering his forehead and chest.

The man’s long silver hair was covered in blood. He tried to mumble a few words and winced in agony. Tom struggled to hear him.

“Where’s that ambulance?” he shouted to the law-enforcement officers around him. A thin policewoman put a radio to her mouth and ran outside the perimeter of the crime scene, which officers were cordoning off.

“They’re gone,” Emma shouted and ran toward Tom, navigating through a sea of police officers.

Tom motioned for her to remain quiet as he knelt beside the gray-haired man, who struggled to face him. He stammered some words, blood spewing from the side of his neck where he had been shot.

Tom placed his right hand over the wound. “Who sent you?”

The man continued his struggle to speak and started to lift his right arm.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Tom leaned his head closer, but he still couldn’t make anything out. “Where’s my ambulance?” he shouted again.

Emma ran to the policewoman and spoke with her for a moment before returning to Tom.

He raised his palms. “Well?”

“They’re five minutes away. That’s all I’ve got.”

Tom nodded and turned back to the bleeding man. Emma squatted beside him, and they continued listening to the man’s attempts to communicate. After a few moments, the man lifted his hands in the air, urging Tom to come closer.

“What? What are you trying to tell me?”

A narrow smile formed on the man’s face before he uttered the words “Fuck you.” He coughed out some laughter before his body started to convulse. Blood squirted from his mouth and from between the fingers that Tom was holding against the man’s neck. The man’s head slumped to the side, his eyes still open.

Tom pulled his hand back and wiped it clean with a white cloth an officer had passed to him. He stood looking at the man’s body for a moment. “Fuck!”

A number of officers gave him bemused looks and quickly looked away.

“How the hell did this happen?” Tom shouted. He walked toward the other plainclothes FBI agents. “How? How did we lose them?” He slumped to his knees, hands over his head. His head throbbed and his nose twitched. He looked toward the heavens in frustration.

Emma knelt beside him and rubbed his shoulders. “You okay?”

Tom shook his head somberly. “I don’t get this. None of it makes sense. Why would Juan or even Antonio create this kind of carnage? Aren’t they supposed to be super discreet?”

Emma tugged at her hair. “What if Tobias really has something on Juan?”

Tom nodded. “That’s what I’m starting to think. This almost smells of a desperate man. He doesn’t want us to get Tobias, and he’ll do whatever he has to.”

Emma looked beyond the police barricades. “We need to start talking to these witnesses. Someone must have seen something.” She stood up.

“You’re wasting your time.” She looked at him inquisitively as he also got to his feet. “Think about it. What are they going to tell you? That they saw Tobias and Annabel? We know that.”

“But we can find out who their attackers were. We might get lucky.”

“Oh, really?” Tom shouted. His eyes swept the crime scene, where the crowd of spectators had grown considerably. “You don’t think Juan or even Antonio are so stupid to have used important people in the family, do you?” He pointed at the corpses being put into body bags. “Even after we ID them, I bet they won’t come back linked to the family in any way.”

“Then what?” Emma said. “You saying that we can’t even touch these guys?”

“I don’t know anymore. I always thought Antonio was the key, but maybe it’s Tobias.”

“Really? Now you think he killed Penélope?”

“No, but the family wants him for something. I want to know what it is.” He studied the men in the crowd. “They’re here.”

Emma’s eyes widened.

“Juan’s men—they’re here. They’ll want to see how bad it is and whether we took Tobias into custody or not.”

“But where do we start? There are hundreds of them.”

Tom took a few steps back, hands on the back of his head. “First we need to find out what Tobias and Annabel were doing here. We’ll need to see the surveillance footage at the parking garage.” He paused. “Think about it. They hadn’t shown their faces anywhere in the city, and just like that they turn up at a Third Avenue parking garage. They were up to something or meeting someone.”

“They have only one real play here, don’t they?”

Tom nodded and smiled. “Bingo.”

Emma pulled out her cell and dialed the office.

***

Jorge avoided Juan’s glare as he returned the cell to his pocket. He walked to the park bench and sat beside the
gobernador
.

“We’re losing control of this,” Juan said.

Jorge nodded. “We need to re-prioritize. Hector is still on standby. He’ll fly over once we send word.”

Juan rose and puffed on his cigar. He looked at his two daughters, who were playing with two other young girls and their mother a few yards away. “What do you think this guy has on me?”

Jorge stood next to him. “It might be everything or it might be nothing. The one thing I do know is that without Annabel, we would have gotten him a long time ago. She was the best in her group at the academy. I hear she went on all sorts of military training while she was in Mexico. For him it’s like having his own personal bodyguard.”

“So what’re you saying?” Juan snapped. “That because of one woman, our guys can’t take this guy down?” He raised his voice. “I’ve taken down people stupid enough to call themselves untouchable. Politicians think twice before slandering me, and now you’re telling me that some punk will be the one to bring me down?”

Jorge remained quiet and returned to the bench. Juan turned back toward his daughters, who were giggling and rolling on the ground.

“What do you want to do?” Jorge asked.

“Maybe we’ve been doing things in the wrong order,” Juan said. “I think we’ve overlooked a few things.”

***

A high white ceiling greeted Tobias when he awoke. He tried to turn onto his side but felt a sharp pain. A door to his right burst open and Annabel charged in. She wore a tight black sweater and jeans and had a glass of water in her hand.

Tobias smiled at her until the pain returned and he winced.

“Lay still,” Annabel said. She rushed toward him and turned him onto his back. She rolled back the blanket that covered his body and studied his injured leg. “It’s getting better, but you need a fresh one.” She walked out for a few seconds and then returned with a square silver box.

Tobias leaned his head up and looked at her. “What happened? One minute we’re in that crash and the next I’m here. What’re we doing back in Staten Island anyway?”

Annabel lifted his right leg, eliciting more stabbing pain. He noticed a thick white bandage over most of his right thigh. “How does that feel?” she asked.

“It hurts like hell.”

She put his leg back down and opened the box. She took out a fresh dressing and a bottle containing a dark purple substance he guessed was iodine. When she lifted his leg again, his face tightened and he resisted the urge to scream. “We had no choice,” she said as she removed the bandage. “You practically passed out after we escaped from the car. I had to carry your heavy ass down the street.”

He forced a smile, still struggling with the pain.

“Afterward, my guy came to get us.”

Tobias lifted his head. “But how did we get past the police?”

“The trunk.”

His eyes widened. “You’re kidding? We got in the trunk?”

Annabel paused and laughed. “No. You got in the trunk. I laid covered up in the back.”

“So I take it no more Panama then?”

She smiled at him and continued unwrapping his dressing. He laid his head back on the bed. When she had finished undoing the bandage, he stared at a deep, long wound across his outer right thigh. “How the hell did I get that?!”

“The car did hit your side. You’re just lucky the glass didn’t hit any major arteries.”

“Oh my God. It’s all coming back now. How did we even survive?” Suddenly, it felt as if his legs had been set on fire, and he couldn’t keep from screaming. He wriggled his leg, almost hitting Annabel in the face.

“Hold still,” she said. “I’m almost done.” She continued dabbing iodine on the wound.

With sweat covering his forehead, he bit his tongue and tightened his face. The pain soon subsided, and with the new dressing in place, he took deep breaths as Annabel lit a cigarette.

“Can I have one, too?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, mister. I’m your nurse now. No smoking for you.”

He frowned playfully. “Can I at least have a drink?”

She nodded and headed for the door.

“Not orange juice, a real drink.”

She stopped and took two drags on her cigarette. “I guess you do deserve one after all you’ve been through.” She returned a few minutes later with a bottle of whiskey. They each drank a shot.

Dark clouds formed and rain started pelting the window. Annabel got into the bed with him, her hands caressing his abdomen. “I was so worried for you,” she said softly. “I didn’t think you were going to make it.”

He raised his head and looked at her in surprise. “You actually cared? Wow.” He laid his head back down.

She increased the force with which she was massaging his stomach, slowly reaching toward his chest. His heart beat faster. “It’s been hard for me,” she said. “With Penélope dying, I’ve been pretty messed up.”

He looked at her, sure he was witnessing a moment of vulnerability, a moment of reflection. Annabel was finally showing her emotional side.

“Look,” he said, “if not for you, I’d probably have died back at my place. It doesn’t matter if you don’t smile with me or act all girly. But I appreciate everything you’ve done. I really mean that.”

She moved her face toward his and stared into his eyes, their lips almost touching. Then she kissed him on the forehead.

***

Juan stopped talking when he heard the study door creak open. His sister-in-law stood by the entrance with a smile on her face. She looked fabulously understated in jeans and a white shirt.

Jorge rose and approached her. He kissed her on both cheeks and handed her a small wrapped box. “Happy birthday, Miriam.”

She hugged him. “Aw, Jorge, you shouldn’t have. What is it?”

He motioned for her to open it, and inside she found a sterling silver case. She opened it to reveal a white Hublot watch with a red strap.

She fluttered her eyelashes at Jorge and embraced him again. “You really didn’t need to do this. It’s amazing. You’ve all been so nice. I don’t know what to do with all these great presents.”

Jorge nodded and returned to his seat. Juan then walked toward his sister-in-law and gave her an embrace of his own. “You look beautiful. It’s a great event you’ve organized.”

Her expression became somber. “You would think my son would be here, too.”

“Antonio will be here,” Juan said.

“Well, I just came up to tell you that the food is ready.”

Juan nodded and headed back to his seat.

“Oh,” Miriam added as she walked away. “Eduardo and Andrés just arrived.”