Finders/Keepers (An Allie Krycek Thriller, Book 3) (7 page)

“I don’t know the answers to any of those questions, either,” Lucy said, “but she didn’t have to give you my number. And yet, from what you told me, she took a big risk doing it. She wouldn’t have done that without a reason.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yes, I do.”

“How?”

“I know Allie.”

Hank didn’t reply. He looked out at the darkness instead.

Somewhere out there, two of his brothers were dead. They weren’t his brothers by blood, but that didn’t matter when you wore the same uniform. He wondered if he knew them or their families. Cops tended to breed cops; it was either a storied tradition or a vicious cycle, depending on your perspective, and it wasn’t unusual to have the kid of someone retired show up and assume the old man’s locker.

He glanced over at the small girl standing next to him. She barely came up to his chin, but she looked so much older than the first time he saw her standing at the motel door, greeting him.

“What is she, an ex-cop?” Hank asked.

“Who?”

“Allie.”

Lucy seemed almost amused by the question. “No.”

“Ex-military? Some kind of ex-government spook?”

“No, nothing like that. She’s just someone who cares.”

“Kid, you don’t do the things she’s doing if you’re just a civilian who just happens to care too much. Even if you are independently wealthy like you’re telling me she is. Bruce Wayne in the comic books, sure, but people like that don’t exist in real life.”

The girl smiled back at him.

“What?” he said.

“I’m just shocked you know who Bruce Wayne is.”

“Batman’s been around, kid. I know it’s hard to believe, but there
are
things out there older than me.”

“You’re right,” Lucy said, “that is hard to believe.”

He grunted. “Smart ass.”

T
he alternate plan
took them to an old drive-in movie theater, surrounded by thick woods, about half a mile off the interstate. The place hadn’t seen a customer in years—maybe decades—and weeds had begun breaking through the concrete parking lot, or at least the parts that she could see as their car’s headlights swept across them. It was dark when they pulled up next to a lone, abandoned building in the middle of the place and stopped in front of a sign that was missing all of its letters.

They climbed out of the Ford, leftover debris
crunching
under Allie’s shoes. She looked over at the semitrailer as it rumbled loudly through the driveway that connected the clearing to the road. She couldn’t make out the interstate beyond the thick trees, but the staccato blinking of headlights on the other side was hard to miss. They were, for all intents and purposes, hidden from the world back here, which was the reason Reese had chosen it as his backup location. It was a perfect spot to regroup.

“How long are we staying here?” she asked as they watched the semitrailer’s headlights splashing across them as it neared.

“We need new transportation, along with a new Vanguard,” Reese said.

“He’s being his usual paranoid self,” Dwight said. “We don’t need new transportation. They’re looking for a white van. Full stop. There’s nothing that ties us to the shooting.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Reese said. “There’s no point in risking it.”

“This job’s already taking too long…”

“Something that’s worth doing is worth doing right, my friend. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?”

“Among other things,” Dwight grunted, but didn’t continue the argument.

Reese walked forward and waved at the approaching semi, then directed it to a spot nearby. As she watched the big rig come to a lurching stop, she couldn’t help but think about Sara and the other girls crammed inside the vehicle’s narrow metal walls.

Not yet, not yet…

Reese jogged over to the semi, climbed up the step outside the passenger-side door, and leaned in through the window. He said something to the driver, who shut off the engine and turned off the bright headlights.

“What about the girls?” she asked Dwight, who had remained behind at the Ford with her. Was that on purpose, she wondered, to keep an eye on her?

“They’ve been riding around back there for four days now,” Dwight said. “A few more extra hours won’t make any difference.”

You think so? I’d like to shove your ass in there and see how you like it after four days.

Reese had walked back to them. “I need to call in, let them know we’re going to be delayed.”

“You gonna tell them about the shooting?” Dwight asked.

“I have to. Start lying now, and we won’t be able to stop.”

“They won’t like it.”

“
I
don’t like it, but it is what it is.”

“I know exactly what they’re going to tell you: ‘Push on through; don’t wait for replacements.’”

“And I’ll tell them what I’m telling you: It’s all under control, as long as everyone stays calm.”

Dwight smirked and said to her, “If you haven’t grasped it yet, ol’ Reese here’s a stickler for caution. You would think the guy used to be a CPA or something in a previous life.”

Reese ignored his partner and put some space between them before taking out a cell phone from his pocket. Allie didn’t move and was hoping to hear something—maybe some details about who
they
were—but Dwight ruined that, too.

“Need you inside the trailer, Alice in Wonderland,” the man said, holding out a Maglite he had retrieved from the Ford’s glove compartment.

“Why?” she asked.

“To do your job and make sure the girls are okay.”

“I thought you didn’t care.”

He shrugged. “I don’t, but they pay us by the head. And a busted one just doesn’t pay nearly as much.”

Asshole
, she thought, but took the flashlight and headed for the trailer.

The two men in the semi had climbed out of the cab and were milling around. They both wore jackets, and despite the semidarkness, with only small pools of light emanating from the Ford and semi’s ceiling lights, she could just make out the shapes of pistols in holsters behind their backs.

“I need to open the trailer,” Allie told them.

They met her halfway, one of them fishing out a key ring from his pocket. Allie flicked the flashlight on and off to check it, then stood back and waited as the two men unlocked the twin doors—

“Hey!” a male voice shouted, coming from behind them.

The two men froze and looked back at her, but Allie was too busy turning around just as a lone figure emerged out of the shadows from across the parking lot. A flashlight bounced up and down in front of the man, and Allie quickly turned hers off and pocketed it, then let her right hand drop to her side.

“What are you guys doing here?” the figure shouted as he picked up his pace toward them.

Allie glanced back at the two men. They were still clinging to the door handles, as if unsure what to do. “Leave it,” she said.

They let go of the doors and stepped away, but she noticed they had left the lock unlatched. All it would take was for someone on the other side to give a push and the doors would swing open. Sara was a small girl and weak from the “four days on the road,” but all it would take was one or two more of the other girls to lend a hand…

No
, she thought, looking back across the parking lot.
Not yet.

Besides, there was just one man, and he could have been anyone from a cop to an unarmed civilian. Either way, he wasn’t going to be very much help to her against Dwight and Reese and the two behind her.

Not yet. Not yet…

“You’re not supposed to be here!” the figure shouted.

Neither Dwight nor Reese had answered the man. Reese had casually put away the phone he had been talking into and walked around the Ford while Dwight remained standing next to the driver-side door. They were just twenty yards from her, but she thought she could make out Dwight’s body stiffening noticeably at the sight of the lone approaching figure.

Reese was the exact opposite. The man remained calm and she thought,
Jesus Christ, he must have ice water in his veins. Either that, or he’s some kind of goddamn tin man robot.

“Hello!” Reese shouted back, though he probably didn’t have to because the stranger was less than thirty yards from them now. A beam of light hit Reese in the face and he flinched a bit, but he managed to smile through it anyway. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re the one trespassing on private property; you tell me,” the man said.

She could make out a shock of white hair on a long, lanky body. The man was wearing black (or was that blue?) slacks and an equally dark windbreaker. There was some kind of embroidery on his shoulder, but it didn’t look like any law-enforcement shield she’d ever seen. As he stepped into the Ford’s ring of lights, she could just make out the word
Security
stenciled across his jacket’s left breast pocket.

“We’re just parking for a while, to rest a little,” Reese said. The security guard walked right up to him, no doubt drawn to Reese because he was the only one speaking (probably just as Reese had planned, too). “It’s been a long trip, and everyone was tired.”

The guard shined his flashlight on the Ford, then at Dwight, who squinted and looked away. Dwight’s right hand, Allie saw, didn’t drift away from his hip. Like the rest of them, including her, Dwight had a gun holstered behind his waist. It was the most effective way to hide a weapon from a curious pair of undiscerning eyeballs, like now.

The security guard’s light finally made its way to Allie, then the two men behind her, before resting on the side of the black and red trailer.

“All of you together?” the guard asked. He had turned in her direction, and in doing so gave her a good look at the belt around his waist—he had a radio on one hip and a revolver on the other.

So he wasn’t unarmed after all, which made the odds slightly better.
Slightly
, but not by a whole lot. However she wanted to look at it, it was still two guns against four, and what were the chances the stranger wasn’t going to react badly when he saw
her
drawing her sidearm?

Not yet. Not yet…

“Yep, we’re together,” Reese was saying to the guard.

“What’s in the trailer?” the man asked.

“Furniture.”

“You guys movers or something?”

“Just those two,” Reese said, nodding at the big rig’s drivers. Then, without missing a beat, “We didn’t know this was private property.”

“You didn’t see the sign across the entrance?”

“Afraid not. If we had, we wouldn’t have thought it was okay to park here for the night.”

Reese wasn’t lying. She hadn’t seen any signs, a gate, or anything that would indicate this was private property when they turned into the entrance, either.

“Dammit, kids must have stolen it again,” the security guard said. “They’ve been getting drunk inside the building,” he said, indicating the empty structure next to them. “We found everything from beer cans to half-smoked joints to used condoms in there. That’s why we’re here now, to keep an eye on the place. Owners have big plans for the area; they want to put up some kind of strip mall or something. Last thing they want is some stupid kids to OD or drink themselves to death on the property.”

Even as the man was talking, Allie saw the recognition flashing across Reese’s face: The security guard had said
we
. Which meant he wasn’t alone.

Maybe…

“We had no idea,” Reese said. “Sounds like a real headache.”

“Nothing we can’t handle,” the security guard said with more than a little hint of pride. “But you folks still have to move on. Can’t have people using this place as a rest stop, you understand.”

“I completely understand, but would it be okay if we stayed here for just a few more hours?”

“Sorry, no can do. Like I said, private property.”

“One hour—”

“No, sorry,” the man said, cutting Reese off. His voice rose slightly when he added, “You guys gotta go, or we’ll have to report you. Owners are real strict about this, and that means we gotta be, too.”

Reese and Dwight exchanged a wordless glance. It was very brief—not even a second as far as she could tell—but it was apparently all they needed.

Oh, dammit.

“You guys have to go,” the guard said again. He had casually switched the flashlight over to his left hand while resting his right palm on the grip of his holstered revolver. It wasn’t a very subtle move, an attempt at intimidation if she had ever seen one, and Allie thought,
You have no idea what you’re up against, you poor bastard.

“Are you sure we can’t talk about this?” Reese asked.

“Sorry. I’d let you stay as long as you needed if it was up to me, but it’s not.”

“We understand,” Reese said.

He held out his right hand—for a handshake—and took a step toward the guard, and at the very same instant she glimpsed Dwight reaching behind his back.

No, no, not again.

Allie started reaching for her gun, praying the two men behind her didn’t take that as an indication to do the same. If she could grab a brief moment of surprise, maybe—just maybe—she could find a way to save the security guard and herself, and then Sara and the girls. She might have laughed out loud at the odds against her accomplishing any of those things if she took even a second to actually think about it, but thank God she didn’t have the luxury at the moment—

Bright headlights came out of nowhere and washed over Reese and the guard before it moved over to the Ford and Dwight, who winced at the sudden brightness and turned his body to protect not just his eyes, but also the sight of the gun still in its holster behind him. Allie gripped the Sig Sauer at her back but didn’t draw it, even if her chest tightened.

She turned toward the source of the lights—a golf cart, its motor whirring in the darkness—gliding smoothly across the parking lot floor toward them. The security guard with white hair glanced over his shoulder before turning and waving.

Reinforcements?

She looked back at Reese and Dwight and saw another quick exchange between the two men before Dwight casually brought his right
(gun)
hand out from behind his back. Allie did the same thing, then glanced over at the two men behind her. They hadn’t moved from their spots, and their hands remained exposed at their sides.

Allie looked back at the approaching golf cart and saw a single head bobbing behind the steering wheel. She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, not that it mattered. It was one more gun, which meant the odds had improved significantly.

Or had they?

They were security guards. What were the chances either one of them were ex-law enforcement and had any experience? What were the odds they could stand up against Reese and Dwight in a gunfight? Both Reese and Dwight were killers. Reese, in particular, was going to be a handful.

Kill him first. Then Dwight. Then…the two behind you.

She was wrong. The odds weren’t any better. As soon as she shot Reese or Dwight, the two behind her would open up…on
her.
Could she really count on the two security guards to back her up? Maybe, maybe not. The only thing the guard standing in front of her right now knew for certain was that she was a part of Reese’s group. To him, she wasn’t a potential ally. To him, she would just be a stranger with a gun.

Not yet. Not yet…

The decision was easier for her to stomach because Reese and Dwight weren’t going to act. If there had been just the one guard, they wouldn’t have hesitated. But with two, and potentially more out there somewhere…

“I guess we should get going,” Reese was saying to the guard. “We’ve got a lot of miles ahead of us.”

“Sorry about this,” the guard said, and Allie thought he actually did sound sympathetic. He had also removed his palm from his gun. “But you know how it is—what the bosses say, goes.”

“No worries,” Reese said, and turned around and nodded at Dwight, then over at her.