Read Frostbite Online

Authors: Eric Pete

Frostbite (5 page)

BOOK: Frostbite
11.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
I rushed to catch her in case she fell. Held her shuddering body close as I whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I had to do it,” I pled. “Talk to me.”
“You ... you ... son of a bitch,” she stuttered as tears ran down her face.
“Yeah,” I calmly answered. “You’re okay?”
“Did it work?” she asked. “Did you get it?”
“Probably,” I said. “Needed enough juice to be certain.”
“Good,” she said as she exhaled heavily. “’Cause if you do something like that again, I’ll rip your nuts off with a rusty butter knife.”
“Fine. You can have my nuts later. But now let’s get back to the room. I have a backup phone and some of my gear I need to grab. Then we’re on the next plane outta here.”
Just as I slammed the hood shut on the truck, a group of black motorcycles with riders equally shrouded in black zoomed up Collins Avenue, their motors on full rev. Followed by a slower-moving black Audi sedan. I cut my eyes at Sophia.
She’d seen it too.
Looked more afraid at the sight of them than of my impromptu shock session. It wouldn’t be long before they realized the signal was lost. And would double back.
Right about here.
“Is everything all right out here? Trouble with your truck?” the man inside the store asked, fully out the 7-Eleven’s door this time. “Or with your girl?” he added after a pause.
“Uh ... yeah, it’s all good,
mane,
” I said, adopting a Spanglish accent to make him think I was recently in this country. Luckily, he wasn’t paying much attention before. “Me and my girl was jus’ playin’ ’round and she got shocked. But that truck there is a piece of shit. My brother Manny? He promise to fix the transmission and it go poof,” I spat, feigning disgust at the vehicle that wasn’t even mine. “You think you can give me and my girl a ride back to the hotel? We want to party some more.”
Just then, as his eyes trailed to Sophia, she turned up her sexiness—eyelashes batting, hips wiggling ’n’ all. As he stayed fixated on her, I placed my hand firmly on his shoulder. “You wan’ to party wid us?” I asked, a foul chuckle escaping me that I didn’t know I had.
5
 
We arrived back at the Crowne Plaza in Sunrise courtesy of our new wheels. Had left our unfortunate Good Samaritan laid out in a Dumpster behind a Publix supermarket in Hialeah on the way here.
“You know the routine. Blow and go. I’ll give you five minutes,” I yelled, activating my backup cell phone as Sophia freshened up and changed in the bathroom. “The block is hot down here. Gonna switch our flight to an airport farther north. Maybe Orlando or Tampa,” I called out as I retrieved my travel app on the phone to rearrange our exodus.
But she didn’t comment. All I heard was the rushing water from the shower.
So much for this taking only five minutes.
I sighed. Decided to wash my face in the sink rather than venture within five feet of her. I turned the tap, felt the stream come out warm then adjusted it until it was at its coldest setting. Then I closed the drain, waiting until the sink was filled to the top. I set my backup phone on the counter then plunged my face beneath the water. I stayed there, counting the seconds as the cold revived me. Was difficult putting it out of my head that I’d almost drowned back at that pool, but I still kept my face submerged.
When I withdrew my head from the sink and came up for air, it took a moment to refocus my sight. Took a washcloth to my face and wiped my eyes. And in that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone. In the mirror, as I lowered the towel, I saw a blurry form standing behind me. Silent. Must’ve been hiding in the closet. They’d probably tracked us to the hotel first. Then, finding some of my gear, left someone behind on the off chance that we’d return.
I felt the stabbing pains that racked my body first. Kidney punch. When my legs buckled, he bounced my head a single time against the same sink where I’d been dunking my face. Felt something crack in my nose. Then before I could call out or react, he yanked me backward.
My feet went skyward as the back of my head slammed into the cheap hotel carpet with immense force. With him fast atop me and possessing all the leverage, I saw he wore a tailored suit like the others. A stylish death sent to claim me. From the sudden, abrupt ferocity of the moves, guessed he knew Krav Maga. Never got around to learning it. Not that it mattered. I was weary and outclassed.
As I flailed along on the floor, trying best to block his vicious attack, he rained down harsh elbow strikes to my midsection. Hurt like a motherfucker and got me to lower my guard. Finally knocking the wind out of me, he then delivered a sweeping elbow strike to my temple. Dazed, I fought back. Brought a leg up to kick him in his head, he easily blocked it with his forearm. Then he snagged my ankle, twisting it to where I almost yelped in pain.
I was sloppy. And he’d broken me down easily. As he jumped back to his feet, he clocked me with the butt of his newly revealed pistol to further keep me in check. Wanted me alive to know I was powerless.
That I was beaten.
That he could do whatever he wanted.
As he stood over me, I reached out to the nearby table leg to pull it over. Warn Sophia of what awaited her outside the bathroom. But he placed the silencer-tipped pistol to my forehead and smirked as I froze.
“Call her in here. Like normal. No surprises or maybe I decide not to listen. And neither of you leave this place.” English was his second ... or maybe third language, but there were no communication problems. I was no longer the wildcard like I was back at the hotel. He planned to kill me once he had Sophia in hand.
“Aswad, could you come see?” I calmly called out just as the shower finished running. Since she was known only by that name to him, he failed to recognize the significance of it.
I was warning her.
After a moment of silence, nothing happened, except the barrel of the gun being pressed more firmly into my head.
“Aswad?” I called out again.
“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” she growled, finally emerging from the bathroom.
To my surprise, she was fully clothed. A plain olive-green top and matching bottoms she wore with brown sandals on her feet. Minimal jewelry and her hair tucked beneath a colorful scarf, her eyes hid behind a pair of cheap plastic glasses. Except for the glint in her eyes, her sexiness was down to a negative two. Had her looking like a nondescript tourist. Taught her well.
She gasped when she saw our company. Maybe was too hurried or preoccupied to pick up on my warning by calling her “Aswad.” She removed her glasses and bit one of the temple tips as she cautiously eyed the two of us. Focused on the gun the longest. Then my eyes.
“Um ... okay,” she chuckled weakly. “How are we gonna resolve this?”
“He wants you back. And the access to those accounts,” the arbiter of my fate told her. First time I’d heard of accounts. A vein in my forehead throbbed.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Hasan,” Sophia said defiantly. She knew him by name. This motherfucker was about to kill me and she was on a first-name basis with him. Another game was afoot. That’s why she was dawdling rather than getting the fuck outta here. “The prince has to choose. ’Cause his days of locking me away are over. I thought my friend here proved that.”
“How much did you pay this one?” he asked, tapping the gun barrel dismissively across the forehead of
this one
who didn’t appreciate it in the least. He didn’t know much about me. Thought I was just a simple pawn of Sophia’s. Maybe he was right.
“Doesn’t matter how much I paid him,” she replied. “He got results. Unlike you.”
“I told you to give me time. I ... I was going to free you,” he stammered. The skilled fighter found himself fumbling in Sophia’s ring.
“Fuck you!” she said, letting loose a swift slap that startled me almost enough to make a move on Hasan. But I waited. Wanted to see this play out a bit longer as I caught my breath and got over the smarting from my worked-over body.
“They radioed me before you returned. Said they lost your signal,” he said smoothly as if her slap were too insignificant to acknowledge. Finger was still resting on the trigger though. “I haven’t told them I found you. Yet,” he teased.
And that’s what I needed to hear.
His gun didn’t move. But I did. Jerked my head aside as fast as I could. When he squeezed the trigger, the shot rang out, barely missing me. As he tried to fire again, I grasped his other wrist and yanked him downward toward me as I leapt up. Suddenly off balance, he wasn’t prepared for the jarring motion on his arm and shoulder. Spinning my hips, I brought my left leg up and wrapped it over the back of his neck, cinching my thigh against his carotid artery. On the other side, I clamped my right leg over my left ankle to complete the triangle choke. With his head and shoulder pinned, I yanked on his head with my free hand, pulling it even closer to me. As he tugged to free himself, I held on while struggling with one arm to keep his gun hand angled away from me. Trying to catch me off guard, he tried to roll out of the submission move, but only found himself cinched in tighter to the prison formed by my legs.
“Get ... the gun!” I yelled at Sophia as she stood, frozen with panic and indecision. Didn’t know how much longer I could get by choking him with only one hand available to hold him. When she went to bend over to reach for the pistol, the man she called Hasan must’ve sensed it. I could keep him from angling it toward me, but when he twisted his wrist away I was unable to stop him from aiming at her. Fortunately, Sophia saw it as well and dove aside. His next shot missed her, striking the hotel wall instead.
I strained my leg muscles, hoping for some sign of him quitting as we continued our struggle on the hotel floor. Then I felt it. That sudden lack of fight in his body as the decreased blood flow to his brain kicked in. He knew it was almost over as well. I just wish it had come sooner.
A final shot rang out before he lost consciousness, the gun finally slipping from his grasp after the discharge. Sophia scampered over on her knees, quickly snatching up the weapon. Just to be certain, I kept the triangle choke applied a full minute longer. Can’t say I wasn’t worried that Sophia might try to put a bullet in my head while vulnerable.
When I released my chokehold, Hasan slumped over then spilled onto the floor beside me.
And my worries about Sophia seemed more apt than ever.
She grabbed a pillow from off the bed and came over. Looked down at both her potential victims without revealing her intentions. Then, her decision made, she dropped the pillow atop the face of the unconscious Hasan.
Just before emptying the remainder of the clip into the pillow, killing its intended target beneath with an absence of splatter.
Gun at her side and still smoking, but not pointed at me, Sophia nudged her former bargaining partner with her foot just to be certain of the results. “When did you learn to be so flexible with your legs, Kung Fu Panda?” she joked, smiling as if she’d just bought an ice cream rather than having committed murder.
“Research for one of my jobs,” I replied, recalling a prior dangerous circumstance in my life, as I tried to take to my feet. But a sudden searing pain in my side halted my progress. Must’ve been from the kidney punch he’d inflicted or one of our falls we’d taken when fleeing the hotel back at South Beach.
“Are you okay?” Sophia asked as she helped me up.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, taking to my feet. But after one step, I knew I wasn’t. Adrenaline had masked it. Now the intense burn was evident followed by the dizziness I was experiencing.
“Oh Lord!” she gasped uncharacteristically. Her eyes drew my attention to my side. In the end, Hasan had gotten lucky with his final try. A circled pool of crimson had soaked through my shirt from underneath.
And it was growing.
I’d been shot.
 
 
Sophia was pacing at the foot of the bed when I came to. I didn’t let her know I’d awakened as she mumbled something to herself. Looked as if she’d been crying. If I remembered correctly, we were at Westside Regional Medical Center. Recalled a series of red lights whizzing by on Broward Boulevard, all the while Sophia’s voice repeating that she was sorry.
We had to scramble to the nearest hospital before I bled out. Sophia cooked up the story that we were robbed and that I got beaten and shot when I tried to protect her. Story would hold for now. But we’d left a mess back at the hotel. No time for clean up if I wanted to live. Between that and the fiasco down in South Beach, someone was going to connect tonight’s dots. Especially once my gunshot was reported by the hospital to the authorities.
Was hard to focus through the haze of medication following my emergency surgery. Face was swollen, too, causing me discomfort when I moved my jaw. The lights seemed to flicker in and out. But I knew it was just me.
“Why does the prince want you back so bad? What do you have of his?” I asked her, announcing my return to the waking world. She quickly turned her back to me so as to wipe her eyes. When she turned back around, the façade was in place—a big-ass smile and doe-eyed relief. “No bullshit or subterfuge this time,” I stressed wearily before any bullshit or subterfuge could escape her lips. “What ... do ... you ... have ... of ... his?”
“Access,” she replied coldly. “He pissed me off when he wouldn’t let me go. So I gained access to several of his accounts one night. Changed passcodes ’n’ shit. Froze him out and put them under my control.”
“What ... what’s in those accounts?” I pushed, while trying to reposition myself in the bed and paying the price in pain.
“Money. Money transfers ... ’n’ stuff,” she offered, her voice trailing off as I struggled to remain conscious. Had to think. But was so hard.
“Stuff,” I repeated, chuckling lazily. Stuff to a powerful man like him was much different than what ordinary folk kept under wraps. Nothing silly like photos of his dick or porn. The prince probably had secrets that could bring governments down. Or that governments wanted. No wonder he’d tagged Sophia with a tracking chip.
And she kept me in the dark. Had me flying blind while she stuck around town in the hopes of working a side deal and still cashing in.
The nurse, a tall glass of chocolate Bahamian goodness, entered the room. She smiled in my direction, but seemed less than thrilled with Sophia. They’d probably sparred while I was in recovery. “Ma’am,” she said, “your husband needs his rest. And I need you to complete the insurance information up front. Also, the police need to speak with you about the assault on your husband.”
“Can you give us a moment? Please. Then I promise to rest,” I asked of the nurse, mustering a smile as best I could. With some consternation, she agreed.
“I know what you’re about to say. And I’m not leaving,” Sophia said as she sat at my side. She placed her fingers across my lips as she rested her head next to mine.
“Yes, you are,” I said, moving her hand aside. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“I ... I’m not leaving. We’re like magic together. And it’s been too long. You’re going to need me now more than ever,” she countered, that voice of hers dropping an octave. Now it was getting weird in here. Sophia’s irrational need to have a man controlling her. Could be me this time. Other times, the prince. Or someone else from her past.
BOOK: Frostbite
11.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Debt of Honor by Ann Clement
Hot Prospect by Cindy Jefferies
1945 by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, Albert S. Hanser
The One Addicted by Alexandra North
Ladies in Waiting by Laura L. Sullivan
Timbuktu by Paul Auster