Fire and Ice (Guardians) (9 page)

"People at conferences love to party. It'll be the perfect excuse to show up at Addison's" Maia said.

Viktor's eyes gleamed. "Actually, Ezra Crows is playing at the opening night of the conference. If you get Lee to notice you immediately like he did the first time, then that'll be good."

"I'm not sleeping with him, that'll be disastrous."

"Did I say you have to?" Viktor said curtly.
 

"I don't see why we need him. We can get into the hall—heck you can even buy VIP passes if you want to." Viktor was looking at her blandly and Maia suddenly got it.

"You sonofabitch," she whispered. "You are using me as bait. If I get a local rock star interested in me, I'll be in the limelight and you can draw Reznikov out. It'll be an
 
in-your-face challenge, he'll suspect it's a trap but since I've got what amounts to a bull's-eye on my back..."

"Maia ..."

"That's brilliant!" she exclaimed, excited.

"That's my girl," Viktor said, exhaling a sigh of relief obviously not sure how Maia was going to react to his manipulation.

"I really do not want Lee involved in this. He might get hurt."

"He's your shield actually, Reznikov won't harm the best draw to the Music Hall. Guardians will be swarming."

Maia nodded solemnly and Viktor signed off.

***

Maia let her fingers sift through the flour as she worked in cubes of semi-frozen butter to form flattened walnut-sized pieces. Adding some ice water and vinegar she quickly shaped the dough, divided them in two and flattened them into discs to chill in the refrigerator in preparation for rolling them out.

Grace had already left for the weekend as she usually worked half-day on Saturday. She had baked an herb-crusted rack of lamb and a potato gratin dish and left instructions for Maia for reheating and finishing it off.
 

It was 4pm; The trick or treaters would be stopping by in two hours. The bowls of candy were ready. She didn't have a costume, but she vamped it up with the makeup, smoky eyes and very red lips.

She started peeling and slicing the apples. Her foster mom had taught her that to prevent the soggy-bottom crust from apple pies, it was necessary to let the apples macerate for a while and then boil down the juices until it was syrupy. It was extra work but well worth the effort to have that crisp bottom layer. After all, the pie is all about the crust.

Leaving the apples to macerate in the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, she checked for emails from Viktor.
 

Nothing. It looked like her boss was enjoying the weekend, so she could too.

The phone rang. Jack.

"Hey."

"Hey, babe, what are you up to?"

"You mean you don't know?" Maia teased.

Jack chuckled. "I'm not a stalker." Then in a soft voice. "You owe me for last night."

"Apple pie. I'm baking you apple pie," Maia said.

"I must say, you are the master of evasive answers," Jack replied dryly. "I don't have much time to talk but I just wanted to let you know that I'll be in around 10 pm."

Maia frowned. A nagging panic gripped her. She did not want men to be accountable to her for their time specifically if it meant she was going to have to extend the same courtesy. She was going to nip this in the bud.

"Jack, I'm uncomfortable with you having to tell me your schedule. It implies accountability and ..."

"Look, I got it," Jack cut in, mildly exasperated. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want you shooting me accidentally when I walk through the door."

Maia laughed. "You have a point."

"Gotta go, babe. Don't forget the vanilla ice cream." He disconnected.

Derek Lockwood observed his friend finishing off the phone call with Maia, his lips twitching, trying very hard to control a grin.

"Not a word," Jack warned. Derek had tried talking his friend out of calling Maia but would he listen? What Jack had to realize was that Maia came and went as she pleased and she expected people around her to do the same. She allowed this freedom in her daily routine to make up for the precision required when on the job.

"We're still awaiting the results from the tracking serum. It appears to be working as expected but there are some blood samples needing further processing," Derek said.

"DoD is very pleased with the results of the carbines and we've been promised an order in a few weeks," Jack said. "They've already budgeted for this but after seeing the preliminary results I was informed that they might divert excess budget from their Ordnance allocation to purchase more carbines."

"Whew, glad that's almost over. With the stuff that came up with Brett at the same time being in the middle of negotiations with the DoD, it's been a riotous few months," Derek observed.

"So take a vacation," Jack shrugged.

"I wouldn't know what to do with it," Derek retorted.

"Well, I'm taking off for two weeks at least," Jack announced. His friend cocked a brow to this. "I'll be in contact with the office the whole time in case the DoD has some questions, but I can easily handle inquiries from Westcove."

Derek stared at his friend, morbidly fascinated, as if watching a particularly gruesome train wreck about to unfold.

"I sure hope you know what you are doing, my friend," Derek said. Since Maia and Jack were both his friends, and he knew what a volatile combination they would make, he chose to keep quiet and stay out of the line of fire. The less they confided in him the better. He had already had a conversation with Viktor who was already foaming at the mouth waiting to see how this particular match-up would turn out.

"Fucked if I know," Jack muttered.

Oh hell, Derek thought to himself. As he suspected, Jack was in over his head.

It was 8pm, and the last of the trick or treaters had just left, so Maia turned off the porch lights. The oven timer had just dinged and she walked back to the kitchen to check on the pie. The filling had started bubbling through the slits on the top crust, a sure sign that it was ready. Maia pulled the pie out of the oven and transferred it to a wire rack to cool. She loved this kitchen. It had everything you needed to cook and bake: top of the line all-clad cooking pans, Le Crueset cast iron pots for stews, even a Kitchen-Aid mixer.

Then Maia remembered the ice cream. You can't have apple pie without vanilla ice cream. She quickly punched the number for the Westcove grocery.

Kyle answered the phone.

"Hey Kyle, it's Maia."

"Evening Miss Pierce. How were the trick or treaters?"

"I think they're disappointed that the stonehouse wasn't haunted."

Kyle chuckled softly.

"How late are you guys staying open tonight?"

"Until 10:00pm."

"Good, I'll stop by around 9:00 unless you guys run out of vanilla ice cream."

"Nope, we're well-stocked with it."

"Great, see you in a bit."
 

***

Maia pulled up beside Kyle's pick-up truck in the parking lot of Westcove Specialty Grocer. Jack had quite a collection of cars in his garage. She had her pick of a really sporty Mercedes convertible but decided to try out the sweet-looking vintage 1969 Z28 Chevy Camaro. Jack had not informed her which cars she could use. He hadn't expected her to stay home the entire time he was gone, had he? She would just explain the broken key cabinet later, after all, vanilla ice cream took precedence when it was a question of apple pie.

She walked through the double glass doors into a well-lit grocery store. The long counter was right in front of the doors and had two cash registers mounted on them.
 
Kyle was behind the counter with a woman who bore a close resemblance to Grace. She surmised that this was Betty, Kyle's mother.

"Hi, Kyle."

"Good evening, Miss Pierce. Glad you made it in tonight," Kyle said and then turned to the woman beside him. "Ma, this is Maia Pierce, she lives at the stonehouse where Aunt Grace works. Miss Pierce, this is my Ma, Betty."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Betty said graciously. "Goodness, Grace wasn't kidding when she said you are the prettiest little thing."

Maia smiled and lowered her eyes. She could easily brush off compliments from men but when it came to middle-aged grocery store owners, she could apparently get a little embarrassed. "Um, thanks. I'll just go grab the ice cream."

"The freezer section is all the way to the back," Kyle offered.

As Maia made her way down the aisle, the door chimed and someone walked in. She took a peek at the security mirror installed by the front wall ceiling and saw a guy in a Frankenstein mask.

"May I help you find anything, sir?" Betty called out.

The guy mumbled something unintelligible but the voice sounded eerily familiar. The back of Maia's neck began to prickle.

The door chimed again. This time a guy in a Michael Myer's hockey mask and a second man in a skull mask walked in. The last guy pulled out a cord and tied it around the door bars sealing everyone in the grocery in.

"What the hell is going on?" Kyle's angry voice thundered.

"Show some respect, boy," the guy in the skull mask warned as he whipped an AK-47 out from under his trench coat. Maia, who was quickly making her way to the front of the grocery, heard a sickening thud, a grunt of pain, and Betty screaming.

"Leave my son alone! What do you want?" she shrieked.

Frankenstein mask hauled Kyle from behind the counter. "Show me where the surveillance cameras are. Mrs. Banning, keep your hands up. You push the button to call 911, you'll be burying a son."

Maia held her hands behind her head as she made her presence known. She already knew who these three guys were.

"What is going on here?" Maia asked carefully.

"Well, well, well. Look who has decided to join us," Michael Myers mask man, who sounded like the bald Syd, said.

"Oh, Miss Pierce, please stay out of it..." Betty pleaded fearfully.

"Syd, get back and watch the door," skull man ordered, obviously the one in charge.

Frankenstein guy returned pushing Kyle, who was now sporting a busted lip, with the barrel of a semi-automatic pistol. Maia started fuming.
 

"Cameras are off."

"Great, now we can take these fucking suffocating masks off," skull man said as he tugged off the mask to reveal the brown-haired guy who Maia assumed was Benny. Frankenstein was Tommy, who she already determined was the tall guy from the beach and she was right about which one was Syd.

"All right. Negotiations Mrs. Banning. Our boss's patience has run out."

"Please let Miss Pierce and my son go."

"I'm not leaving you, Ma," Kyle said fiercely.

"Why would I let go of my pawns?" Benny said silkily. "Here's how it's gonna go. We need to store our shit here, and—I repeat—you do not want to mess with the Russian mob, so you do not want to say anything to the cops. They cannot protect you. You don't know how far we've got our hooks into your police boys. And in exchange you get ten grand. Now that's a sweet deal, don't you think?"

"Don't do it, Ma," Kyle said. "We don't want any of that drug money. It is drugs, yeah? That shit you guys are talking about."

"How attached are you to your knee caps, boy?" Benny asked pulling a pistol from the front of his pants and pointing it at Kyle.
 

Betty screamed again. "No, oh please no! I'll cooperate... "

"No, Ma!" Kyle yelled.

Maia decided to act ... hysterical.

"Oh God, don't shoot the boy!" She walked right in front of Benny, wringing her hands.
 

"Are you out of your mind, woman?" Benny shouted at her. "Get out the way."

"Don't shoot the boy," Maia repeated in a shrill voice.

"I think she's lost it." Tommy observed. "Women, huh?"

"Get out of the way!" Benny put away the pistol and backhanded Maia.

"Miss Pierce!" Both Kyle and his mother screamed.

Maia was hoping for exactly this reaction from Benny. She flew back and landed on her ass right in front of Tommy.

"Tommy, lock her in the stock room and take her cell phone," Benny told the taller guy.

"Come on, darling," Tommy said leeringly.

It was then that Maia attacked.

CHAPTER FIVE

Tommy reached down to pull Maia to her feet. Halfway up, she leaned forward and with all her might and making sure she had firm purchase with her feet, cracked the back of her head against Tommy's nose and forehead causing him to crash spectacularly into a row of display racks.

Never taking her eyes off the other two men, she pushed Kyle out of the way at the same time Benny was leveling his AK-47 at her.

"Bitch!" Benny screamed.

Maia lunged forward and knocked the rifle upward, causing it to discharge into the ceiling. At the same time she delivered a palm strike to Benny's nasal cartilage with her right hand, bloodying his nose and stunning him temporarily.

Syd raised his gun shakily at the wrestling pair, muttering, "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Maia instantly swung Benny around towards Syd and with her hand guiding the AK-47—which Benny was still holding—pointed it at a stupefied Syd and blew his head off with a blast from the assault rifle. Then, yanking out the pistol that was stowed in the front of Benny's pants, she kicked the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel, and shot him in the head, execution style.

Tommy held on to his weapon in his fall and started to get up, firing blindly. He could not see clearly as he was tearing up from his bloody nose.

Betty had ducked behind the counter (still screaming) and Kyle dived to the floor for cover. Maia didn't even try to dodge any bullets; she knew Tommy's shots were going wide.

She calmly raised Benny's pistol at Tommy and said, "I'm putting you out of your misery, asshole."

It was over in seconds. Maia walked over to Kyle and asked, "Are you okay?"

Kyle sat up and scrambled away from her asking, "Who are you? What are you?" There was fear in his eyes. He had been courageous throughout the ordeal and now he was afraid of her. She sighed.

"We need to talk," Maia said and hauled him unceremoniously to his feet, pushing him in front his mother who had emerged from behind the counter.