Celia's Puppies (20 page)

She moved to hit him with the open champagne
bottle. He stepped aside easily and yanked the bottle from her
hands. At that moment, as if she was standing right next to her,
Jill heard Alex Hargreaves’s voice.

“
Remember, he’s strongest
when you first meet. He’s spent hours getting pumped up for this
action. Go against him then and you’ll only get hurt. Give in. Make
him think he’s winning. Make your move at the transition. He’s
weakest at any transition.”

Jill blinked. Trevor was drinking the
champagne from the bottle. His eyes were glassy, as if he was high
on something. She forced her lips into a smile.

“
I didn’t know you were
here,” she said. “Do you like my new dress?”

Taking a cue from Delphie, Jill smiled coyly
while she twirled back and forth. The dress’s movement allowed her
to press the panic button in the hidden pocket. Alex’s team would
be alerted that she was in trouble.

“
You look amazing.”
Trevor’s eyebrows shot up.

As she had for so many years, Jill faked a
seductive smile. He scooped her up and began devouring her
lips.

“
Good girl.” She heard the
Alex in her head encourage her on.

“
The kitchen’s clear and
MJ has the kids,” a woman’s voice said from the landing below.
“Come on. You can have her later.”

Trevor stepped back from Jill. Jill smiled
in such a way as to make him believe she was excited to be had by
him. His face flushed with longing. She gave another coy smile.

“
Come on!” His bride
growled. “Bring the bitch.”

Trevor grabbed Jill’s elbow. He forced her
back down the stairwell. Just as Trevor pushed her into the kitchen
in front of him, Honey ran in from the house.

“
OH MY GOD! JILL! NO! NO!”
Honey screamed. Turning quickly, she moved to toward the door to
the party. “HELP! HELP!”

And her sister was on her.

Jill and Trevor stood in shocked silence as
the sisters fought. Trevor’s bride was bigger but Honey was
stronger. The step-whore’s fierce cruelty was no match for Honey
Lipson.

“
GO NOW!” The enraged
woman screamed at her husband.

“
KNIFE!” Jill screamed
when she saw the flash of a knife in the woman’s hand. She heard
Honey scream and what could only be the sound of a sharp knife
penetrating delicate flesh.

“
Go.” Trevor pushed her
forward. Made wild by his wife’s actions, Trevor spoke in rapid
tones. “That bitch betrayed us all along. She told the cops
everything we planned. Every step of the way. She deserves what she
gets. She KNEW better than to get involved. We WARNED her. Stupid.
Stupid. Stupid.”

He yanked Jill through the kitchen. Jill was
too horrified to say anything. They were almost to the back porch
when MJ met up with them. He was carrying Katy and Paddie. The
toddlers seemed sound asleep against him.

“
You have to take them,”
MJ said.

“
You’re backing out NOW?”
Trevor asked.

“
Your crazy wife just
killed her sister. There’s blood everywhere and she’s off cleaning
up. I’m not getting involved in any murder. No way. No way,” MJ
said. He thrust the toddlers into Trevor’s hands. “You want to do
this? Do it yourself.”

MJ stalked off toward the upstairs
apartments leaving Trevor holding the children. Out of instinct,
Jill reached for her baby, her Katy, but Trevor thrust Paddie into
her arms. With Katy in one arm, and holding Jill with the other
hand, they started across the back porch.

~~~~~~~~

“
They’re out of the
house,” Arthur Rasmussen said into the team’s ear bud receiver. He
was sitting in a room above Mike’s studio with two other soldiers
watching a bay of video monitors. “Trevor has package A, B and
C.”

“
It’s on,” Alex Hargreaves
voice cut in the feed. “I repeat. We are live. Game is
on.”

“
In motion,” six men’s
voices reported.

“
In place.” Came the
report from three other men.

“
The wife is with them
now,” Rasmussen said. “She’s trying to get Package A from Roper.
Roper isn’t giving him up. They are arguing. Looks like it’s time
to move. Damn Roper’s good. We should hire her.”

~~~~~~~~

Delphie rushed toward the tall red-haired
man standing at the doorway to the back porch. He was so intent on
what was going on in the backyard that he hadn’t noticed her.

“
Michael, there’s nothing
more you can do now,” Delphie said.

MJ’s head jerked down to look at Delphie.
His blue eyes searched her face.

“
We have to let it play
out,” she said. “Will you help me?”

“
Yes ma’am,” MJ
said.

“
Sam’s putting pressure on
the wounds like you told us,” Delphie said. “She needs a
medic.”

MJ nodded. With one last wistful look toward
the backyard, he followed Delphie to where Honey lay fighting for
her life. Without hesitation, the medic in him took over.

“
Sir, press right here.”
He pointed to specific spot on Honey’s back. Crumpled, Honey landed
on her right hip with her facedown on the wood floor. She seeped
blood from at least six deep knife wounds. “The wounds are too deep
for the coagulant. We need to get this bleeding
stopped.”

“
But her spine!” Sam
exclaimed. “It’s...”

“
Severed, yes,” MJ said.
“She won’t make it if we don’t get this bleeding stopped.
Mike!”

Mike walked into the landing.

“
Grab her legs. Very
carefully. 1, 2, 3.” MJ guided the men to straighten Honey’s broken
body. “Great. Mike, I need the med pack I gave you.”

“
It’s right here.” Mike
reached into a lower cupboard in the kitchen. He gave MJ the
pack.

“
I’m offline but we’re on
camera here.” MJ nodded his head toward the ceiling. Looking up, he
said, “I need a MedEvac.”

While Sam, Delphie and Mike stood around
him, MJ dug in the pack until he found packet of saline. With quick
efficient movement, he began setting up an IV. Glancing at Mike, he
said, “You know what to do.”

Mike nodded. Taking the stairs two at a
time, he found Jacob waiting on the other side of the door. The two
men ran down the stairs and out into the backyard.

~~~~~~~~

Paddie stirred in her arms but didn’t open
his eyes. Jill sighed. It was all she could do to keep that woman
from taking the precious boy. Who knows what she would do to this
baby boy? Thank God they were pressed for time. Jill refused to
allow herself to wonder about what was going to happen next.

Instead she focused on the warm bundle in
her arms and keeping her footing in these stupid stilettos. Trevor
led the way with Jill following. His wife pushed her forward from
behind. She chuckled cruelly whenever Jill’s heels caught on the
flagstone path.

Passing through the gardens, Jill looked
longingly at the ripening fruit on the trees and the tall corn.
Delphie had promised to let her help in the garden. But Jill had
been too busy for gardening. She took a deep breath of the garden
fragrance – moist dirt, flowering potatoes, ripening fruit. She
wished she had taken more time.

Across the garden, she saw a couple making
love. The man’s back was to Jill and his face was buried in his
conquest’s neck. His conquest’s hands gripped the man’s moving
behind. They were pressed against the privacy fence near the
bees.

Jill sighed. She couldn’t imagine anything
more wonderful than making love among the intoxicating garden
smells and warm night air. She about to say something to the couple
when Trevor’s wife stuck her knife against her back.

“
I’d kill you now, but I
already got a good price for you in Bangkok,” the woman said in a
soft terse voice. “If I lose money on you, I’ll take it out on your
child. I can make top dollar on a three year old
virgin.”

Horrified, Jill snuggled Paddie closer. The
Alex Hargreaves in her mind said, ‘Watch for your opportunity,
Jill. You’ll know it when you see it. You’ll know what to do.’

“
Thanks for wearing the
rocks. I’m going to look great in them,” Trevor’s wife
said.

Jill kept her eyes on the couple to silently
implore them to notice what was happening. The couple was too
caught up in their own fervor. Hopelessness, rising from her very
core, threatened to send her into the black oblivion.

Paddie shifted in her arms.

Not today.

The strength she had only recently found
within herself pushed away the helpless dark. Jill gritted her
teeth. She was ready. She would do everything in her power to
protect her child and this boy. Even if it took her very last
breath.

Her opportunity would come.

And she would act.

Trevor and his wife had taken down a panel
in the back privacy fence. A dark SUV sat running in the alley.
They were almost there.

They had just reached Mike’s artist studio
when, out of no where, a man dressed in black swung down from the
balcony to lift Katy from Trevor’s arms. In a heart beat, the man
was up on the balcony with Katy in his arms.

Jill’s head jerked to her right as a man
slid past her on a wire. He held his arms out and she placed Paddie
in them. Whoosh! Paddie and the man were also on the balcony of the
artist’s studio.

Jill smiled when Katy and Paddie waved from
the balcony. She was pretty sure Paddie wasn’t asleep against her.
They must have been pretending like Alex told them to.

Trevor grabbed Jill by one arm and his wife
grabbed her by the other. Jill felt the knife nick her flesh and
blood begin to seep into her beautiful new dress. Feeling movement
behind them, Trevor jerked them around.

Mike and Jacob came running from the house.
Seeing Jill trapped between Trevor and his wife, they slid to a
stop.

At that moment, Jill felt more than saw the
step-whore kicked in the face. Her head followed the foot that kick
her attacker to see Alex Hargreaves. Before she could say anything,
the woman attacked Alex. With practiced ease, Alex removed the
knife then flipped the women over her hip. The step-whore landed
flat on her back at the feet of Arthur Rasmussen. Art lifted the
tiny woman to her feet and cuffed her hands behind her back.

“
Go ahead, Jill,” Alex
said. Alex’s husband, John Drayson, the man from the love making
couple, came up to give Alex her heels.

Jill lifted her foot and smashed her
stiletto heel into the top of Trevor’s athletic shoe. He jerked
giving her the space to smack him in the nose with her elbow. His
nose broke with a satisfying crunch. Stepping away, she kneed him
in the groin for good measure.

“
Easy girl,” Jacob
said.

Breathing hard, Jill jerked toward Jacob’s
voice then threw herself into his arms.

“
You belong to
ME!”

Trevor grabbed her from behind and threw her
on the ground. Trevor swung his foot to kick Jill. Mike stepped
in-between Trevor and Jill. Jacob smashed Trevor’s standing leg
from behind and crushed his knee. Trevor fell forward to the
ground.

“
Thanks Jake. We’ve got
this,” Alex said. She nodded and a man lifted Trevor and cuffed his
hands behind his back. Trevor glared at Jill with a mixture of
hatred and longing.

Jacob reached down to help Jill up. Her
dress was torn, there was dirt in her hair and a bruise forming on
her jaw. But her smile shined brighter than the moon.

As Alex’s team began to assemble, Art
Rasmussen started reading Trevor and his wife their Miranda rights.
A tiny girl ran out from the house. Not even five feet, she was
dressed in the latest tween fashion. Jill thought she was a child
of one of the guests.

“
Sir, Sergeant Scully has
stabilized Ms. Lipson,” the girl said. “The MedEvac will be here in
two minutes. We’ll need to get a stretcher in.”

With a nod of Alex’s head, a soldier went to
move the idling SUV.

“
Thank you Sergeant
Peaches,” Alex said. “Please return to your station.”

The girl saluted Alex then ran back to the
house.

“
Marine,” Mike said into
Jill’s ear. “Hard to believe, eh?”

Jill nodded.

The two men who rescued Katy and Paddie
brought them down to Jill and Colin. With Katy on her hip, and
Jacob’s arm around her, Jill was beaming. Katy began the blow by
blow of everything that happened to her AND Paddie AND Scooter AND
Sarah.

Colin saluted Alex. She dismissed him to
bring Paddie to his anxious mother, Julie. They heard a helicopter
land in a nearby parking lot. Two MedEvac paramedics came running
through the privacy fence with a stretcher.

“
You guys have anything
you want to say before we let Denver Police take over,” Alex
said.

Everyone stepped back as the paramedics, MJ
and Sergeant Peaches ran by with Honey Lipson. Sam and Delphie ran
behind the stretcher.

“
You should die, bitch,”
the step-whore screamed. Lunging at the stretcher, she spit toward
her sister. The soldier holding her arms yanked her back to
standing. “I’ll kill you when I get the chance. Die, bitch,
die.”

“
Enough,” Alex said. “Take
her away.”

The soldier pushed the tiny woman out into
the alley where the Denver Police Cruisers were pulling up.

“
This will never be over.”
Speaking in an eerily quiet voice, Trevor’s eyes never left Jill.
“You will ALWAYS belong to...”