Easy Target (7 page)

He was rinsing the shampoo from his hair and practicing ways he might start the conversation when he heard what sounded like a scream cut short. He jumped from the shower. Not bothering with a towel, he grabbed his gun from the bathroom counter before charging into the bedroom.

A huge man wearing a New York Knicks sweatshirt had an arm around Sassy’s neck, cutting off her oxygen. He wasn’t trying to take her anywhere, he was just trying to kill her right there in the hotel room. But she was struggling mightily. So much so that Bryan couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting her. When he saw her nose bleeding, Bryan pushed down the black rage exploding inside his chest.

Knick’s Fan glanced up as Bryan burst through the door, paying no attention to his undressed state but focusing instead on the .9mm in his hand. The intruder pulled Sassy more directly in front of him to prevent Bryan from taking a shot. At the same time, the man tightened his hold on her windpipe.

But Sassy had learned to fight and wrestle as a young girl, and now she was using all kinds of dirty tricks she’d learned from both Bryan and Trey. She lifted her knee and rammed her foot backward and up, popping Knick’s Fan in the kneecap, causing the man to go down.

Bryan was on him in an instant. Despite his wanting to kill the guy outright for hurting Sassy, using a gun here was not the ideal solution. Besides, Bryan needed to know why Knick’s Fan was after them, and how he’d known where to find them.

Bryan and the man wrestled on the ground, both getting in some good licks. Bryan’s nose was bloody and Knick’s Fan had several cracked teeth when Sassy picked up the lamp on the bedside table and tried to conk her attacker in the head. Knick’s Fan twisted just as she brought the lamp down, and Bryan ended up getting hit instead.

His hold on Knick’s Fan loosened as his vision dimmed. Knick’s Fan got a lethal grip on Bryan’s throat, pressing into the soft flesh beside his Adam’s apple with one hand. Bryan twisted and rolled, then turned and managed to get his hands on either side of Knick’s Fan’s head.

He had to keep this guy alive so he could find out what the hell this was all about. But now Knick’s Fan had a wicked-­looking knife in his grasp. He’d pulled it when Bryan was dazed from Sassy’s unintended lamp shot.

Knick’s Fan drew the knife back to jab at Bryan’s belly, and there was no choice. Bryan jerked his hands to the side and heard the sickening snap of the man’s neck. Knick’s Fan went limp beneath him.

Chapter Seven

B
RYAN LOOKED UP
to see Sassy staring at him with a look of revulsion on her face. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was naked with blood smeared all over his face and body, or because he’d just killed a man in front of her. He hoped it was the latter. As the moment wore on, her expression changed from horror to that of distinct embarrassment. It would have been comical if the situation hadn’t been so dire.

Without saying anything, she pulled the bedspread from the mattress and gave it to him. “Hand me your gun. I’ll call nine-­one-­one while you get dressed.”

Bryan shook his head and bent down to cover the guy with the bedspread, though she would probably prefer he covered himself. He stood and tugged the top sheet from the bed, then wrapped it around his waist.

“I’m keeping the Glock,” he muttered. Covering the body was no panacea for having snapped the guy’s neck in front of Sassy, but it was the best he could do for now.

“Are you okay?” He bent to look at her as she nodded.

Her nose was still bleeding like hell, just like his was. She might not end up with a black eye, but the red marks on her neck alongside the cut from two nights ago in the Casbah would become a large bruise. Fury and nausea roared through his veins, and the visceral reaction over what had almost happened to her took him by surprise. A week ago, he’d thought he was numb to those emotions.

Sassy had stopped nodding her head, but she was struggling not to cry. At the same time, she was staring at the blood smeared on his chest, arms, and belly, all while backing away from him. The back of the mattress stopped her. She sat down on the fitted sheet, holding a Kleenex to her nose and vacillating between focusing on the blanket-­covered body on the floor and Bryan.

“I’m not very good with blood,” she whispered.

Finally she settled on staring at the closed drapes. But it was clear she wasn’t okay. Between the blood all over him and Knick’s Fan under the bedspread, Sassy the “coper” was on the verge of wigging out.

Not that he was surprised. If anything was going to put her over the edge, it made sense that this would have done it. She’d had a helluva week. But he wasn’t going to be able to help her if the sight of him half naked and covered in blood shut her down.

“I’m going to get cleaned up and be right back.” He hustled into the bathroom but left the door open while he climbed back into the still running shower for twenty seconds to rinse the blood off his face and chest.

His nose stopped streaming as soon as he tilted his head back. He hurried out of the shower but didn’t dress, simply wrapping a towel around his waist before coming back to the bedroom.

What the hell?
No one knew they were here. Not even the guys at AEGIS. How had they been located, and by whom?

Clearly talking to Knick’s Fan wasn’t going to be possible, but until he knew what was going on with the AEGIS charges, having the police investigating him for murder wasn’t an option, either. He could end up in jail, leaving no one to take care of Sassy.

He dialed his cell phone with one hand and searched the guy’s pockets with the other. Leland answered on the first ring.

“It’s Hollywood. We landed in New York earlier tonight and couldn’t get a flight out of town till tomorrow. We just had some company. Any idea what’s going on?”

Speechless until now, Sassy had been watching him search Knick’s Fan’s body with wide-­eyed astonishment. “What are you doing?” she squeaked. “Aren’t you calling the police? Aren’t you going to get dressed?”

Leland’s voice was filled with humor. “Sounds like your ‘company’ interrupted something.”

Bryan snorted a sad laugh.
If only.
“Hang on a minute.”

He didn’t muffle the receiver. “Sassy, take it easy. This guy is . . . not going to bother you again. And I’ve got to find out some things before we get the police involved. Go into the bathroom and get dressed.”

“Me, get dressed? What about you?” But she didn’t stay to argue her point. Instead, she stomped to the bathroom and slammed the door. Seconds later the door opened. But only her arm was visible as she tossed his dirty jeans and shirt onto the floor and snapped the door closed without a word. Her message was clear.

Get some clothes on.

Bryan was glad to see the feisty side of her back, as opposed to the stark fear he’d witnessed moments ago. If she’d been assaulted on that truck from Niamey, surely she’d be more shaken up now about this hotel room attack?

He filed that thought away and focused on the conversation with Leland as he pulled some sweatpants from his duffel bag and slipped them on. “Okay, I’m back.”

“What’s happening?” Leland’s Southern drawl made it sound as if they had all evening to chat, but Bryan knew better.

“A guy broke into the room. No idea where he came from. He’s dead.”

“Any ID?” asked Leland. “Tats, anything.”

Bryan bent over to check the guy’s arms and chest. The chest was clear, but when he pulled up Knick’s Fan’s shirtsleeve, Bryan almost dropped the phone.

“Shit,” he hissed under his breath.

“What?” Leland’s radio announcer tone sharpened.

“There’s a scorpion tat wrapped in barbed wire on his forearm, just like the one on the shooter who came after Jennifer Grayson in Niamey. The same kind worn by lieutenants in the Vega cartel.”

“But Ernesto Vega is dead,” said Leland.

“I know that,” said Bryan.

“So where did this guy come from?”

“Hang on a second.” Bryan snapped a photo of the tattoo and the man’s face with his phone and forwarded both to Leland. “I’ve no idea. But this has to be mixed up with that cluster.”

“Clearly,” muttered Leland.

“I can’t figure out how anyone found us here. Did they follow us from the airport? Are my credit cards being tracked? What?”

The original plan of flying out to Memphis and then renting a car and driving Sassy to her mother’s home in Mississippi was not looking like a great idea. And how could he trust Sassy to stay out of trouble once he did get her to a safe place? It’s not like she was going to quit working to find answers for Trey. The more he thought about it, the more Bryan realized he couldn’t leave her on her own. He might not be getting away from her nearly as soon as he thought.

Jesus.
Trying to keep his hands off of her might just kill him if the guys coming after them didn’t do it first.

“Have you heard anything from Gavin?” asked Bryan.

“No word since he put you and Sassy on the plane. That’s just as well, ’cause there’s no good news on the investigation. My sources are telling me that Gavin’s about to be ‘upgraded’ to a terroristic threat because of his ties to the embassies overseas.”

“What?” Bryan couldn’t wrap his head around the idea. It was too over the top.

“I know. It’s all bullshit. But someone, somewhere, is pulling some heavy-­duty strings. Everyone associated with AEGIS is going to ground. I have heard from Nick. He and Jennifer are back in the U.S., but I’m not sure where. He was very closemouthed about their plans.”

Bryan sighed. “That’s not a surprise.”

“Given the situation, I told Nick I didn’t
want
to know where they were,” said Leland.

“Ask him to call me the next time you two talk? He had to toss his phone in Africa. I doubt he’s gotten the same number if he’s trying to disappear.”

“Will do,” said Leland.

The last time Bryan had spoken to Nick, he’d been cautiously optimistic about Gavin’s innocence. Bryan and Leland were assuming their boss was being set up, but you didn’t endanger the ­people you loved on assumptions. You made damn sure.

After speaking with Gavin in the hotel in Constantine, Bryan was now damn sure the man had been set up. But he couldn’t ask anyone else to risk their loved ones based on his own gut feeling. Bryan was loyal, but he wasn’t crazy. Afghanistan had taught him that unhappy lesson.

Leland had to consider his own new family—­Anna Mercado and her teenaged son, Zach, who was still recovering from a heart transplant. Bryan knew they were tucked away somewhere safe, but he had no desire to know where Leland’s safe spot was. He just wanted to get Sassy to a safe place of her very own and out of all this uncertainty and chaos.

“For tonight, I just need to get us out of this hotel, or at least somewhere with no paper trail. Plus, I’ve got this dead body.”

“Calling the cops will not help you avoid the paper trail. Given your association with Gavin, most likely it would get you arrested,” said Leland.

Bryan glanced uneasily at the bathroom door. “You think everything about AEGIS is already in the system? I didn’t have any problems at the airport when I was coming back into the country.”

“You didn’t have a dead body with you then, either. My understanding is the new charges on Gavin haven’t been filed yet. But once they are and you’re connected, the cops will turn your life inside out if they come to your hotel room to investigate this intruder. At best, you won’t be leaving New York anytime soon.”

A wave of exhaustion hit Bryan. “That’s what I was afraid of. Got any suggestions for what to do with a body?” He was only half joking and was a little stunned when Leland told him exactly what to do.

“That will buy you some time,” Leland finished a few minutes later.

“How do you know how to . . .” Bryan wasn’t sure how to ask the question without sounding insulting.

Leland’s laugh floated over the phone. “I wasn’t a hit man in a former life. I just worked for the DEA too damn long. The cartel was filled with sadistic SOBs who were quite creative in body disposal.”

Bryan didn’t ask any more questions he didn’t want answers to. He’d seen enough of the same evil in the Middle East that Leland was referring to.

“How many nights are you paid up in the room?”

“Just one,” said Bryan.

“Call the front desk and extend it for three . . . no, make it four more nights. Crank the air conditioning down as far as it will go when you leave. The body will probably be discovered before then, but the AC will keep the decomposition under wraps at least three days. Tell ’em you’re on your honeymoon, whatever. Stress you don’t want to be interrupted. No housekeeping, no nothing. Hang the Do Not Disturb sign before you leave.”

“Right. Got it.” As callous as it sounded, Bryan knew Leland was right. This would buy them some much-­needed time.

“We’ll deal with the police after you two are safe. Risa should be able to help. For now, if we don’t figure out this thing with Gavin, we could all be in jail together on more serious charges than murder.”

That was a frightening but accurate thought. If Gavin was brought up on charges of terrorism, they were all in very deep trouble. “I’ll check us in somewhere that doesn’t require ID for registration.”

Most likely it would be a rooms-­by-­the-­hour kind of dive. Sassy would not like that. But she’d survive. She’d more than proven that she was a trooper.

“Our main problem is how to get out of town without a paper trail. Renting a car is a nonstarter, and I don’t like the idea of a bus.”

There was a pause, and Bryan could hear computer keys clicking in the background before Leland finally spoke. “What if you took a commuter train? I’m looking up schedules right now. If you hurry, you might be able to skip the hotel tonight and catch the 12:15
AM
to Philadelphia.”

Bryan heard the shower kick on as Leland kept talking.

“If you use cash, you won’t have to put any names on tickets. And even if they check your ID once you’re on board, it won’t be a computerized check. You could slip far enough down the commuter line to get out of the city that way. You might even be able to upgrade to a sleeper once you get further south. They aren’t always very consistent about how they check IDs when you upgrade on the train itself.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Bryan. A train wasn’t completely invisible, but it was infinitely more so than renting a car or getting on an airplane. “We need to be as anonymous as possible.”

“How are you set for cash?”

“I’ve got some, but it won’t last long.”

They arranged for Leland to transfer funds online from AEGIS immediately so Bryan could access it from an ATM in New York before they took their train south and disappeared.

“You’re going to need a new cell phone,” said Leland.

“Yeah I know, dammit. It’s going to be tight getting everything done.”

He looked at the bathroom door again. From the shopping bag on the floor, he pulled new jeans and the long-­sleeve T-­shirt he’d just bought. The shower was still running. Getting on a train would be easier than checking into another hotel with Sassy once he convinced her that they were better off not calling the police about their “company.” But first he had to deal with the body.

S
ILENTLY FUMING,
S
ASSY
stood before the bathroom mirror. The logical part of her brain said that anger was a healthier reaction than horror, but right now she didn’t give a damn. She hardly recognized herself. The red marks around her neck made it clear that the man attacking her hadn’t cared if he’d taken her dead or alive.

What had happened to her life? Six months ago she was a freelance writer for local papers; now she was investigating human traffickers and being snatched off the streets of Africa, in addition to nearly being strangled in strange hotel rooms in New York. Everything had started going downhill with Elizabeth’s disappearance and Trey’s arrest.

She closed her eyes. Was Elizabeth still alive, or was this quest to find her all some crazy pipe dream? Visions of Trey in that filthy Mexican prison danced in her head.

No.
Elizabeth had to be alive. There was zero profit in dwelling on any other possibility. For now, the immediate issue was the dead body in their hotel room.

The dead body and Bryan.

Talk about someone who’d changed. Gone was the teenager she’d had such a passion for as a young girl. This Bryan was completely unflappable and fought to the death with his bare hands.

She replayed his battle with the intruder in the hotel room moments ago. While she might not fully recognize the boy she’d grown up with anymore, she was honest enough with herself to acknowledge her gratitude that this man was willing to do whatever it took to keep them safe.