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Corey: In place.
I hoped that meant what I thought it did. I turned the sound and vibrate off of my phone.
There were voices outside the unit. I stiffened as the sounds of the lock scraping against the door echoed.
The door rolled up, letting in sunlight and fresh air. From my angle, I caught the top of three people. I could see the grille of a black Hummer outside, too.
I couldn’t see if he brought reinforcements, but it sounded like there was another car pulling up.
The lead man in the trio stepped inside the building: Henry.
He turned his head, scanning the unit and then settled on Fred. “At least you didn’t piss yourself this time.”
I wanted to spit on him.
Fred only glared at him.
“Last chance,” Henry said. “Come with us quietly. Do what we say, or you’ve got a date with Alligator Alley. We’ll let the monsters deal with you.”
Fred started shaking his head.
“Don’t think we can?” Henry asked. He moved forward, kneeling well out of range in case Fred tried to kick out. “Stop thinking. Just do what I tell you.”
Fred jerked his head, and then mumbled through his binding.
Henry reached out, tugging the gag back down. “What?”
“Where’s Luanne?” he asked.
Henry smirked. “All this time, you’re asking about her?”
“Do you have her, too?”
He was framing Luanne as part of this. Good guy! I stretched out the phone toward them, wanting to capture every word.
“Who do you think came up with the plan?” Henry asked. He rose. “What, you think she didn’t know?”
“She didn’t…” Fred said. “She wouldn’t…”
“She came to me,” he said. “Wondered if I could help her. At first she wanted help getting her girls the only escort service in town the cops wouldn’t invade.” Henry tilted his head and I could see the smirk. “What was it like being married to an escort?”
“It’s why we divorced,” Fred said. “I found out.”
“You shouldn’t have,” Henry said. “Hell, she makes a killing at it. She doesn’t care if you’re fucking around as long as you don’t do it in front of her. You were an idiot giving that up.”
“Does she have Sara?” Fred asked. He looked at Henry dead on. “Tell me she’s safe; that’s all I care about.”
Henry pulled out a cell phone. He fumbled through and then held it out. “Took this one yesterday morning.”
I couldn’t see the picture, but I imagined it was Sara and Luanne.
Fred’s lips twisted and he shook his head. He started breathing heavier. “Don’t hurt her,” he said. “Please… please don’t. She doesn’t need to be around all that.”
“She asked you for more support money. She asked nicely. You should have listened to her.”
“She demanded more than I could afford,” Fred said. “I was the one taking care of Sara, and she wanted every last penny I had. When that wasn’t enough, she wanted me to ask family. I made the mistake of listening to her, and asking my parents, my grandmother but it still wasn’t enough.”
“Should have worked harder,” Henry said. He stood up. “But this is your only chance. We take you in, you go to jail for a while, lose your rights to Sara, and we might leave you with some visitation. Supervised. Look at the bright side. Sara’s safe. You don’t have to worry about her. She’ll be out of your hair. Luanne’s off your back. It’s win-win, right? But it only happens if you come quietly. What are you going to do?”
Fred swallowed again and sighed. “I’ll go.”
“Good man,” Henry said. He stood and backed away. He snapped his fingers and pointed to one of the goons. “Unlock him.”
The two men moved forward together. One lowered himself so he could free Fred. The other kept his hand on the gun on his belt. He was steady, with his eyes focused.
My heart was pounding so much. This was it, but now I realized my problem. I had no idea where the others were. I had no idea how many there were. I was depending on Corey and Blake to actually carry out the rest.
Unless I wanted to jump down and get shot at.
I forced the impulse back, especially when Fred stood, wobbled forward. His clothes were stained with sweat, blood and other fluids. He limped as he walked, a goon on each arm, toward the door.
I closed my eyes for a moment but then forced them open, needing to pay attention.
As soon as the group was at the door, my phone lit up.
Blake: Make a distraction. Lure one of them back into the unit.
They needed me to separate them so they could get to Fred.
I relaxed my feet, letting my flip-flops drop to the ground.
The slap and clatter of flip-flops against the concrete, echoing off the bare walls and metal roof, sounded louder than I anticipated, but it did capture their attention.
“Get him in the car,” Henry shouted. He ducked his head back into the unit alone, scanning the area.
I readied, needing to take him out. I needed to do it before the goons could get Fred in the car and join Henry again.
Growing up, Wil and I used to brawl. The only problem was, even though I was the older sister, once he hit puberty, he was taller and stronger than I was. It made wrestling him tougher on me, but at the same time, I learned a few tricks. It helped later with taking our dad down when he went on his drinking and fighting binges.
Henry moved forward slowly, a hand pressed to his hip. I couldn’t see well, but I thought he might have a gun strapped there. Or maybe a Taser or something.
He spotted my flip-flops on the ground and stared at them. He started looking up.
I jumped, aiming my heels for the back of his legs, hoping to get the back of his knee.
My foot made contact, and I dropped hard on him, dragging him down with me.
He hollered and the impact of his knees hitting the hard surface radiated through my body, making all my bones shake. I couldn’t imagine what it felt like to him.
But I could hear it in his howl.
I moved quickly. My back was exposed to the opening. I fished for his pocket, feeling the end of a Taser gun. I yanked it out, rolling to the side, out of thrashing reach of Henry.
Henry wasn’t getting up. There was blood at his knee. He covered it, screaming. His eyes were wide and wild. As much as he cursed and cried out, he wasn’t getting up right now. He was trying to retreat, protect his knee, and get out of range.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to look out the opening.
I saw the grille of the Hummer. It hadn’t taken off yet. Where were the goons?
There was shouting outside. I checked Henry again; he was hanging on to his knee. I shuffled forward slowly, holding up the Taser toward him as I risked a glance outside.
A black SUV was stopped to block off one part of the exit for the Hummer, the other way was blocked off with a bright red Montego.
Behind the Montego, using it like a shield, were Marc and Raven. They stood side by side, each holding a handgun aimed right at the Hummer.
Axel was on the roof of the next storage building, rifle trained at the same area.
The Hummer was running but wasn’t moving.
I couldn’t see anyone else, but my heart soared. Future did more than deliver Sara. She armed the boy
s.
Did we win? Were we going to take Fred now? I couldn’t believe it. We were going to make it.
I checked back on Henry. He was still covering his knee. He was shouting something, but with the echo, I couldn’t tell what he was saying. He wasn’t getting up, though. I wasn’t sure he could stand with that knee being busted.
A crash further down the unit lot sounded. What was that?
Axel turned his head, looking like he was sweeping the area, and then lifted the rifle, aiming it at the Hummer.
Before I could think, he fired.
From my angle, I couldn’t see where his shot landed. I ran out. The Hummer lunged, nudging the rear end of the SUV.
As soon as Axel started shooting, so did Marc and Raven. They shot together, taking out the tires. Axel was putting holes in the engine block.
The Hummer jerked back like it’d been put into reverse.
One more shot by Axel, and the Hummer stopped altogether. The engine popped and rattled but the wheels weren’t turning.
A black Mercedes came barreling down the last row of units. It swerved hard, did a spin and parked with the butt toward the unit I was in.
Both doors opened, Blake jumping out the driver’s side, while Corey dashed out of the other.
Blake stumbled toward the Hummer first, favoring one leg and gritting his teeth. He stopped, turned to look at me and then barreled right for me, so fast I thought he was going to tackle me.
“Get down!” he shouted.
I ducked out of instinct, but walked sideways a little, looking out toward the guns. They were shooting out there, not in here. Were there ricocheted pieces flying around?
Blake dove in past me.
I turned to see him knocking Henry down. I was surprised to see he’d gotten up and had a knife. Henry had crawled toward me while I was distracted. I hadn’t heard him over the gunfire.
I leapt back and let out a yelp as I got caught by the waist by Corey. He hauled me toward the Mercedes.
