Dictator s Daughter (27 page)

Ryan parallel parked directly in front and
Sean jumped out and entered the bank.

“I need to transfer money between two
accounts, please.”

The young female bank teller gave him the
form to fill out with account numbers. He did so, but he didn’t
know what amount to write down for the transfer. He knew Eliwese
had cashed out her forty thousand and deposited it in his account
earlier that morning, but he didn’t know how much her father
transferred.

“Would you tell me the balance of this
account?”

“One-hundred million and forty-thousand
dollars, sir,” the girl replied calmly.

“Pardon? Did you say one-hundred million?”
His stomach lurched into his throat.

“Yes, sir.”

Eliwese was right when she said his family
wouldn’t ever worry about money again. No doubt she imagined the
Cutlers basking on the pristine beaches of the Caribbean, but Sean
had another idea.

It took about ten minutes to complete his
banking. Due to the excessive dollar amounts being transferred and
withdrawn, the bank manager was called for approval. He immediately
recognized Sean from earlier and approved the withdrawal. However,
the transferred money would remain pending until the next
morning.

Sean tucked the envelope of cash in his
pocket and turned toward the exit. His eyes nervously scanned the
area for black suits or Riley or anyone who might be looking for
him. He exited the bank and was on his way to the car when he heard
a nearby voice say, “Steve! Hey, Steve!”

Someone touched his forearm and he jumped. It
was Jacquline. He had forgotten he’d given the name of Steve at the
lounge the night before.

“Hi, Jacquline. What are you doing here?”
Sean’s eyes glanced up to the rooftops; no snipers, yet.

“Robbing the bank,” she stated jokingly. “I’m
kidding. I thought you were from out of town.”

“I have an account here.” Sean looked
nervously to the right and the left as if at any second he expected
Riley or Victor to approach him and force him to transfer the money
back.

“Are you alright?”

“Sure, I’m just a little pressed for time.”
If not already, he would soon be hunted by the entire army of
Rendier once Rawlings figured out his money was gone. Sean had to
figure out where to hide his family, and he had to figure it out
straightaway. An idea came to him as if someone switched a light
bulb on above his head. “Jacquline, see that car over there?”

“Yes.” She followed the direction of his
finger.

“That’s my family and we need help.” Sean
noticed Ryan was wearing his disguise; a blond wig, short &
straight, large designer sunglasses and bright pink lipstick. His
mother and sister were not dressed up yet.

“What kind of help?”

“We need a place to hide,” He leaned closer
to her ear and said, “our lives are in danger.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widened with apprehension.
“Who’s after you?”

“Victor Rawlings and Riley Stone.” He saw the
doubt flash in her eyes as he’d expected. She’d never known either
of those two men to be anything other than gentlemen and other than
being rather disgusted with the thought of going out with Riley,
she had no other reason to dislike him.

“Come over here and meet my mother.” Sean led
her to the car all the while his eyes searched the area. He knew he
didn’t have much time to get his family out of sight. He opened the
back door and watched the horrified look spread across Jacquline’s
face as she took in Lyndee’s and Sara’s injuries.

“Oh my! What happened to you?”

Sean was about to introduce them but before
he could say anything, Lyndee said one word in answer to
Jacquline’s question.

“Riley.”

Sean watched realization blossom in her
expression. “Jacquline, we need to hide and we need to do it
now.
Can you help us?”

“Yes. There is a private entrance to the
hotel in the back alley not monitored by cameras. I can get you in
and up to my room without anyone knowing better.”

Sean was genuinely surprised. “Alright.”

They both climbed in the car with Jacquline
in the back and Sean in the front.

“Everyone, this is Jacquline. She is going to
help us out.”

“My name’s Ryan.” Ryan said over his
shoulder. “Which direction do I drive?”

Jacquline’s eyes widened again with the shock
of hearing a man’s voice from the cute blonde driver. “Um, take a
right at the light.”

Sean turned in his seat to face her. “Just so
you know, my real name is Sean; this is my mother, Sara, and my
sister, Lyndee.” Sean saw blankets stretched over their legs.
They’d obviously chosen to simply hide versus altering their
looks.

She nodded to everyone. “So, how do you know
Riley Stone?”

No one answered and Sean took pity on her for
being in the awkward situation. “We had a run-in with Riley and
Rawlings over at the mall.”

“He beat you up at the mall?”

“No,” Sara replied, “My boys picked us up
there.”

“Ryan, up on Reeser Ave. take a right.”
Jacquline advised him and turned back to Sara. “Where have you been
and what happened?”

Sean turned around and spoke before his
mother did. “Jacquline, I can’t begin to tell you how much we all
appreciate what you are doing for us. But before we go in the hotel
with you, you must understand your life will be in danger because
of helping us. If any shred of information gets out that you are
assisting us,” he nodded toward Lyndee, “you’ll be lucky if that’s
all Riley does to you. Do you still want to help?”

She considered carefully and, one at a time,
looked at each family member, she nodded her head and said, “Yes, I
want to help. Ryan, turn right into the parking lot and drive to
the other side where the alley runs along the backside of the
hotel. About halfway down is a door without a handle.”

Once the car stopped completely Jacquline
opened her door. “Stay here while I make sure the area is safe.”
She used her key to enter the hotel.

“She’s cute,” Ryan stated with a smile as if
it was his duty to recognize beauty.

“How do you know her, Sean?” Sara asked.

“I met her last night in the lounge. She
lives here. Her father operates the hotel.”

Ryan’s eyes watched the rear-view mirror.
“Shit, shit, shit, Sean put on your wig. Cover up back there, we
have trouble. Shit!”

Victor Rawling’s cavalcade was coming up
behind them in the alley. Ryan put the car in gear and started
rolling forward to leave the alley and hopefully not draw
attention, but a black sedan pulled in from the other direction and
stopped. Two black suits got out of the car and approached
them.

“Uh oh, what do I do Sean? Shit!”

“Just stay calm. They don’t have their guns
drawn. Roll your window down.”

Ryan stopped the car and depressed the window
button.

The man on the driver side pushed his jacket
opened a bit to expose his gun. “Miss, this is a secured area.
Drive on.”

Ryan’s girlie voice replied, “Oh, I didn’t
know, I’m sorry.” The man waved Ryan on and Ryan gladly obliged. He
rolled his window up as he pulled forward past the black sedan.
“I’m going to need to change my underwear.”

Sean chuckled. “Me too, Ryan, me too. You’re
doing great, pull off in the driveway to the left. We can hide
behind the large bushes.”

Ryan positioned the car with a good view of
the alley. Lyndee and Sara sat up and removed their blanket. They
all watched as Eliwese was ushered in through the private door
along with several other people. Soon after, the cavalcade of cars
moved out and drove away.

A few more minutes went by and Jacquline
exited the door and looked up and down the alley. Ryan flashed his
lights and caught her attention and she waved him over.

“Is this a good idea?” Sara asked.

“It’s all we’ve got, Mom. Go ahead,
Ryan.”

They pulled up to Jacquline and Ryan rolled
his window down. “I don’t know how you managed to slip through his
fingers right there, but wow. We must hurry while the coast is
still clear. Leave the keys in the car and I’ll move it later.”

Sean helped Lyndee and supported her weight
to help her walk. Ryan gave aid to his mother. They followed
Jacquline into what appeared to be a stock room. Tall stacks of
boxes created a hallway which they walked through. They came to
another door and Jacquline turned to them. Sean noticed right away
she was sweating.

“Through this door is the laundry, I excused
all the workers for a ten minute break and I disabled the cameras.
We will enter the service elevator and take it up to my floor.” She
opened the door and led them through the abandoned laundry
room.

Once inside the elevator, Ryan glanced up at
the camera in the corner. “What about that one?”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s a fake. It keeps our
maids from stealing.”

“Wait,” Ryan said to Jacquline as the doors
slid opened. “What about the hallway camera?”

“There’s only one and I can erase it easy
enough. Let’s just get to my room first, alright?” She crossed the
hall and unlocked her door.

She had the equivalent of two suites put
together which created a space with a living room, kitchen, bedroom
and bathroom. Her furniture was not the usual hotel variety,
although this particular hotel had rather fancy furnishings, hers
had exquisite style.

“Very nice, Jacquline,” Ryan complimented as
he helped his mother to a couch. She gave him a smile and nod of
her head. He’d already removed his wig but his lips still had the
bright pink lipstick.

Sean had already helped Lyndee lay down on
the opposite couch.

“I’ll go down and move your car and take care
of the video in case it caught us in the hall. Stay very quiet.”
Before Jacquline left the room she caught Ryan’s eye and pointed to
her own lips to throw him a hint.

“Can we trust her?” Sara asked.

“I hope so.” Sean pulled out the envelope
from his pocket and removed the cash. He sorted it into four equal
piles. “Eliwese and I set up a bank account this morning. She moved
this money to the account.” Sean handed each of them their portion
of cash.

“What’s this for?” Ryan asked wiping his lips
with a tissue.

“In case we get separated.”

Lyndee’s eyes opened wide.

Sean continued. “Eliwese had my name placed
on her account, giving me authorization to transfer money. The
money Victor Rawlings transferred to her account has now been moved
to mine where he can’t get his grubby fingers on it.”

“That was clever,” Ryan said.

“How much money?” Lyndee asked.

“Eliwese wanted him to move five-million,”
Sara and Lyndee gasped at the amount, “but he moved a bit more than
that.”

“Well, go on, how much did he transfer?” Ryan
asked hastily.

“One-hundred million.”

“Holy shit!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Ryan!” Sara chastised Ryan then turned to
Sean. “You can’t be serious.”

“Yes, he can,” Ryan answered excitedly. “I
heard Rawlings and Eliwese during their discussion. She asked for
five and he became arrogant. He didn’t believe her threats so he
said ‘this is how confident I am you don’t have another DVD’ or
something like that. But one-hundred mil; I’d say he’s not just
arrogant, he’s stupid.”

“I didn’t know how much the transfer was
until the bank teller told me the balance of the account.” Sean
pulled out his cell phone and thumbed through the saved phone
numbers. He found the one he was looking for and pressed send.

“Who are you calling?” Ryan asked in a hushed
voice.

“The other courier…Ah, hello, Frank…it’s me,
listen closely, do NOT deliver the disk. Again, do NOT deliver. You
need to break it in half and throw it away. Your life is in danger,
Frank. They killed Dr. Randall… and they killed Suzzette and took
her disk…Yes…I can’t tell you where we are… we got Mom and Lyndee
but they took Eliwese … Oh and Frank, destroy the cell phone too.
They can track you down if they link us to you. Good luck.” Sean
closed his phone.

“What do we do now?” Lyndee asked.

“I’m not sure. Victor Rawlings is going to
want his money back, that’s for certain. But I want Eliwese back,
so maybe he’ll trade.”

“Yeah, well I want to get the hell out of
here. I say we keep the money and go get Dad and skip the country,”
Ryan said without thinking.

Sara lost all the color in her face as the
thought of her husband being beaten and then killed in front of her
flooded back into her mind.

Sean noticed his mother’s countenance change
immediately. He also saw Lyndee’s chin drop to her chest. Sean knew
that what he was about to tell them would make their day. No, it
would make their year.

“Mom, Lyndee, Dad’s alive.”

“What!? No, no I saw him get shot in the
head.” Tears instantly sprung to Sara’s eyes. “He can’t
possibly…”

“It’s true, I saw him. He’s ok. He had some
kind of a metal plate in his head and the bullet glanced off it and
saved his life. Dr. Randall…”

And there it was.

Dr. Randall had died. Sean had been avoiding
thinking about it, hoping maybe it wasn’t true. He had done so much
for the family. He donated his time and supplies to help multiple
crossers. He had helped Paul after being shot and took care of
Eliwese too. He had gone above and beyond the call of duty many
times over and now he was dead. The silence that had fallen over
the room told Sean everyone was thinking of him.

Sean continued. “Dr. Randall fixed him up. I
saw Dad when I left the cabin to get Dr. Randall’s car. Dad didn’t
suffer any long term injuries at all. He is himself, completely.”
Sean looked over to his mother who was taken with relieved grief.
She sobbed quietly and Lyndee tried to sit up on the couch to give
her comfort. Sean helped her up and turned to find Ryan holding his
mother in an embrace, comforting her. Sean and Lyndee joined
them.