Cold Blooded (17 page)

“You’d better believe it, kid.” Nick hugged her back. “C’mon, I want you three to walk out of the garage and go in through the front entrance. Go straight upstairs with your Moms, and stay there until I tell you to come down, okay?”

Kelly and Garth nodded silently at the near stranger. Jean twisted around in Nick’s arms.

“I told you the Terminator would save us,” Jean claimed happily as Nick put her on the cement. “C’mon, we have to go in the front.”

Nick watched Jean help Kelly from the van, and then Garth. When they were around the corner, running to the front, Nick picked up the weapon from under the van. He went inside the house to relieve Rachel. Nick took the Taser from her. She ran into the living room to scoop Jean into her arms, crying in relief. Suzan sat with her arms around Kelly and Garth on the couch, holding them silently, rocking back and forth. When Jean saw Nick standing at the kitchen doorway, she whispered in Rachel’s ear. Rachel set her down, nodding in agreement.

“We have to go upstairs for a while,” Rachel told Suzan, motioning the woman up from the couch.

After Rachel, Suzan, and the kids were upstairs, Nick checked on Joe and Craig. When he was satisfied neither man could do anything, Nick put Joe’s silenced automatic into his gym bag, along with the Taser gun. Nick then went out to trigger the garage door closed. He rooted around until he found bleach and paper towels. Nick placed them on the Dodge’s passenger side front floorboard before moving to and opening the rear doors of the van. Craig and Joe had emptied the back, expecting to transport bodies.

In the kitchen, Nick found Craig beginning to roll around in pain, groaning under the duct tape. Nick flipped Craig over and dragged the man out by his legs, down over the three steps, and across the garage floor to the Dodge’s rear doors. Nick managed to work Craig’s upper body onto the van’s cargo floor. After taking a couple deep breaths, Nick flipped the man’s legs into the van.

“Damn Craig, you weigh a ton.” Nick breathed heavily but smiled when he heard muffled noises. Craig’s body rolled side to side.

Nick joined Joe in the kitchen. He helped Joe swallow two more OxyContin. Nick tore off four more strips of duct tape. From behind Joe, Nick cut the shoulder and waist tape.

“I’m going to slice the tape away from your wrists, Joe. Put your hands behind your back immediately. If you don’t, I’ll push you forward, right on your knees, understand?”

Joe nodded. Nick sliced the tape away from his wrists. Joe leaned forward, crossing his hands behind him. Nick put two of the strips around Joe’s wrists. Nick sliced the tape off Joe’s ankles and duct taped them together.

“Okay, Joe, time to go in the van. I’m going to ease you forward onto my shoulder and do a fireman’s carry out to the van. Don’t make this hard, or I’ll throw you on the floor and drag you out by your knees.”

Nick pulled the man over his shoulders, lifting with his legs to a standing crouch, and slowly trudged out to the Dodge van. He eased Joe inside the cargo area. Nick retrieved his duct tape and wrapped each man two full times around their chests and arms, immobilizing their upper bodies. Craig’s eyes verged on insanity. Nick patted his cheek.

“You’re lucky I don’t have time to play with you, Craig.”

Nick closed the van doors. An hour later, Nick had bagged all the men’s personal items, and cleaned the living room and kitchen meticulously. His gym bag was repacked. One black garbage bag was tied closed near the front door. He walked to the staircase.

“I’m sure you all are hungry and thirsty, so come on down,” Nick called out.

When they were all sitting in Suzan’s kitchen, drinking sodas, and eating chips Suzan had served, Nick waited until they were through before speaking.

“Rachel, Jean, and I have to leave. I have a couple more errands to run. Tomorrow’s Sunday. Rachel and I would like to have you all over for the barbeque we missed today. Once we leave, this bad stuff will all be in the past. We’ll talk tomorrow, Suzan. Talk to no one until then.”

“I won’t,” Suzan promised.

“What if those guys come back?” Kelly asked.

“They won’t be coming back,” Jean told her with exasperation. “Are you stupid?”

“Jean!” Rachel rebuked her daughter. “You apologize right now!”

“Sorry,” Jean sighed. “I didn’t mean that, Kel.”

“It’s…it’s okay.”

“Can we go tomorrow, Mom?” Garth asked Suzan.

“Yes, I think we should,” Suzan answered, exchanging glances with Nick and Rachel.

Nick stood up. “C’mon you two, it’s almost dark. I’ll go out through the garage and get the van out of Suzan’s way. I packed an extra soda, and the Oxy, Suzan. I’ll bring back what’s left.”

“Keep them.”

Nick went out to the van with the garbage bag and his gym bag. He heard the loud grunts and groans from Craig as the man now thrashed around the cargo area. Nick opened the rear door. He used the stun gun on Craig until the man vibrated. Nick made a silencing motion with his finger to his lips for Joe, who was staring wide-eyed at him. Joe nodded his head energetically. With the trash and gym bags up front, Nick started the Dodge and backed it out to the street. He then put it in park and walked over to the Escalade driver’s window. Rachel had already opened it.

“Follow me. When you see me turn off into the dirt, stay where you are by the street. I’ll hike out to you. It won’t take me long.”

“Okay, Nick.”

“Don’t get caught speeding, Nick,” Jean called out from the back.

“Oh…Jinx! Thanks a lot, Jean.”

Nick waved and went to the Dodge. Half an hour later, Nick had driven the van out into the desert on the East side of Las Vegas until the wheels stuck. He took the garbage bag, gym bag, and cleaning supplies out of the van. Nick put on Nitrile gloves from his gym bag, and went to work with the bleach and paper towels, working around Craig and Joe in the back when he finished with the front. Satisfied the van was clean, Nick took out Carl Brewster’s weapon, which he had already packed earlier, wiped it off, and set it aside. He repeated the process with both weapons taken from Craig and Joe. With his stun gun and Joe’s weapon, Nick went in the back. After leaning the squirming Craig up into a kneeling position against the side of the van, he stunned Craig senseless. Nick crawled around behind Joe, helping him up so he was seated, leaning into Nick. Nick cut Joe’s hands free. Joe cried out as Nick forced his numb right hand up and wrapped it around Joe’s gun.

“Ready, aim, fire,” Nick joked, triggering the silenced auto with Joe’s numb finger twice. “Nice shooting, Joe – right between the horns.”

Nick propped Joe against the passenger rear seat after taking the weapon back. He used the old tape to bind Joe’s hands behind his back once again. Nick went out and brought back Brewster’s silenced auto. He cut all the tape off the deceased Craig, balling it up and putting it aside. Nick positioned himself behind Craig’s corpse, fitting Brewster’s weapon into Craig’s hand and aiming it at Joe.

“Say cheese, Joe, c’mon big smile now.” Nick fired two shots into Joe’s head with Craig’s finger. “Man, you two guys can really shoot.”

Nick left Brewster’s gun in Craig’s right hand and added Craig’s own Glock into his left hand, allowing them to rest on the dead man’s legs. Nick repeated the process with Joe, wadding up all the tape, and makeshift knee bandages, leaving Joe to stare off into eternity with his weapon in hand. He closed and locked the van after a final cargo area wipe down. With his gym bag in one hand and the garbage bag in the other, Nick jogged at a slow pace out to the road, nearly two miles away. When he reached the Escalade, he walked in front where Rachel could see him. He heard the doors unlock. After dropping his bundles off in the rear, Nick hopped into the front passenger seat. He took deep breaths and enjoyed the air conditioned air. Jean was fast asleep on the back seat.

“You look like you could use a beer.”

“Absolutely,” Nick said, leaning back with a sigh.

“It doesn’t get as cool in the desert at night as I thought it would.” Rachel handed Nick an ice cold mug. “I’m surprised you’re out here in the backyard.”

“There’s a breeze,” he replied, hanging on to her hand for a moment after taking the mug. He kissed her palm. “I like looking at the stars out here. Jean never stirred when I carried her to the bedroom. She was really out.”

Rachel sat down in the chair next to him, her own mug in hand. “We’re not going out in the desert at dawn tomorrow are we?”

“No, I think we should stay in tomorrow and wait until we talk to Suzan. I’ll check out Jim Benoit, then go through those bozos’ personal effects for names and addresses. We need to keep watching the news for updates on the roadside intervention I pulled in Bakersfield. We’ll stay apprised of any dead bodies being discovered around here too. I should be doing it now, but my batteries need charged.”

“You were amazing today. How many times have you done something like that?”

“Counting today, once.” He smiled over at Rachel. He could see her watching him, even though it was dark out on the patio. “I trained for hostage situations extensively when I was with Delta, but Delta doesn’t conduct hostage negotiations in the manner I did today.”

“Maybe they should.”

“Oh, you don’t go along with the ‘we have to be better than them’ line of thinking?” He shook his head in a disapproving manner. “By the way, you did exceptionally well today. That was one hard episode for an on-the-job training session.”

“It taught me there really isn’t anything I wouldn’t do if I had to,” Rachel admitted. “I’m not sure I’ll make as good a psycho as you are, but I might make it as an assistant psycho. Besides, you’re a fake psycho.”

“A fake psycho?”

“A real psycho would have dumped Jean and me, and laughed while they were driving away. Now I have a real problem. If I ever left you, my daughter and dog would refuse to go with me…damn it.”

Nick laughed. Deke sat up from where he lay between him and Rachel. She gave Deke a push on the side of his head before petting him.

“The goofy dog even knows when he’s mentioned in a sentence, by name, or not. You really don’t think we should make a run for it?”

“We need some time to pass between our first run for it and our next one,” Nick explained. “I have to get you up to speed on weapons and defense techniques. Joe confirmed the word is out on where the safety deposit box is. I’m thinking we’re going to need a hell of a distraction. I’m working on a simplistic plan where we scout the bank for the usual suspects. We then get very familiar with what they look like and how they operate. They will be expecting helpless Rachel Hunter to saunter into the bank and give them whatever they want. What I want them to get is a Rachel Hunter ready to take out anyone we’ve deemed a potential bad guy, with me as back up.”

“Do you really think I can be that Rachel Hunter?”

“Absolutely,” he patted her hand. “If you’re not, I’ll have a kid and dog to raise.”

It was Rachel’s turn to laugh.

“Okay, okay, but I don’t think a gun battle in broad daylight in Sarasota, Florida would further our agenda,” she commented after thinking about what he proposed.

“No gun battles in the streets, Rachel,” he assured her. “I want you to hustle into the bank from a running car when we’re set, get your business done, and hustle out. They won’t have time to grab you going in. Coming out, you will know the bad guys or gals on sight. When they approach, you pepper spray the crap out of them, and stun gun them with no hesitation. Jump in the waiting car and away you go. I’ll be on a rooftop with a clear view of the scene. Any heavy action, I’ll handle. Any vehicles pulling out after you, same deal. Hopefully, we’ll know all the bad guys’ vehicles. I’ll disable them before you hit the bank. Remember, you’re in the right. If they have someone we didn’t count on in the bank, stun them and call security. Don’t use the spray inside.”

“Oh this sounds really simplistic.”

“The fun part starts when we get the flash drives and they launch an all-out manhunt for our asses in a spiraling search from ground zero out across the states. They’ll be desperate. The kid gloves will be off. That’s where our friends Grace and Tim come in. We need to pass off the drives to someone not on the payroll of this syndicate, who can get them high up the ladder. We’ll have copies of the drives, because they won’t want to deal with some of the folks who’ll just need killin’.”

“This will be a test of Grace and Tim too… won’t it?”

“I’m afraid so. There’s so much money loose on this deal, we can’t afford to trust anyone. I’d also hate to get those two killed.”

“They were the only reason I’m not stark raving mad. Doing a disappearing act is not as much fun as it sounds. I do not want to keep on the run with my daughter for the rest of our lives. I sure envisioned a different kind of day after our…ah -”

“Interlude?” Nick finished for her. “If I told you how many times our interlude flashed into my mind, even while we were all in danger, you’d probably promote me back to full psycho.”

“You Satyr!” Rachel leaped up out of the lounge chair, pointing at him. “I’d forgotten all about when Joe made us strip. You were popping right out of your underwear.”

“What can I say?” He shrugged. “Sometimes my priorities get a bit skewed at inappropriate moments. While you’re up, Sister Mary Rachel, get me another.”

Rachel giggled. She grabbed Nick’s proffered mug on her way inside. When she returned, she wore only a black thong. She handed him the mug over his shoulder. When he glanced back, he nearly ended up wearing the beer.

“I have a kink in my neck. Would you mind working it out for me like you did the other day?” Rachel sipped from her mug while turning the chair she had been sitting in around in front of Nick. She sat down on it with her backside perched out over the edge, leaning with her chin over the chair back.”