In The Cut (24 page)

“Olivia! Please, just listen. I couldn’t call Grace, she would’ve freaked out.”

“You’re freaking me out.”

“Who is that?” Grace asked again. Olivia waved her off.

“The men who are sitting next to you and Grace are Mr. Seeger’s men.”

“What’s going on?”

“There are some men in the building… Marion’s men.”

Olivia turned around and stared at the man she caught looking at her earlier. This time, he didn’t avert his gaze. Olivia turned back around.

“I need you to remain calm and most importantly, keep Grace calm.”

“Does this have something to do with S—”

“Don’t say his name!” Glenn told Olivia everything that was currently going on. She listened without looking at Grace, afraid that her facial expression would make Grace panic. “Just remember what I said. Stay calm, and don’t leave your seats for any reason.”

Olivia started to say something, but Glenn hung up. She looked at the man sitting next to her and noticed that while his arms were folded on his chest, his right hand was inside his jacket. She imagined it wrapped around the butt of a gun hanging from a shoulder holster.

“Who was on the phone?” Grace asked, getting irritated.

“Nobody.”

“Nobody? You did a whole lot of talking to a nobody.” Grace folded her arms. “Fine, if you don’t want to tell me who he is, that’s your prerogative.”

“He?”

“The one you’ve been seeing on the low. I didn’t want to press the issue when I walked in that morning and saw you knocked out on your couch in your office. I just figured you needed time to tell me.”

“There is no he.”

Grace’s eyes lit up. “It’s Clayton, isn’t it? He came back.”

“No!” he didn’t. “And keep your voice down.”

Grace looked at the man sitting next to her. “Check this out, I don’t care what Mr. Seeger told you, but y’all are going to have to find some place else to sit.”

“Maam—”

“Maam, my ass,” Grace said standing up. “You and your friend need to step off before it gets real ugly up in here.”

Olivia turned around and saw the two men stand up. “Grace, sit down, and leave them alone.”

“What?” “Whose side are you on?”

“Grace, please, just sit down and let’s enjoy the show. The last thing Glenn needs is to see you causing a scene.”

Grace rolled her eyes at both men and plopped down into her seat. Olivia folded her hands together to keep them from shaking. She turned around and saw that the two men sat back down. Just as Olivia started to calm down, Grace jumped back up.

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom.”

“Wait! Do you have to go now?”

“Yes, I have to go now.” The man sitting next to Grace stood up.

“I know, you’re not going to follow me to the bathroom.”

Olivia turned around and saw the two men stand back up. “C’mon,” she said, standing up. “I’ll go with you.”

“I’m not going with these dudes following us.”

“Then just sit down, please.”

Grace could see the worry in Olivia’s eyes, and then realized that something was going on that she didn’t know about.

Chapter 14

“Mr. Claude,” Roberts said, entering the study. “One of my men spotted the officer’s truck.”

Marion’s lips trembled involuntarily. “Wh-where?”

“It’s a couple hundred yards away. He tried to conceal it with fallen branches and leaves. I sent three of my men to check it out.”

“Just three? Are you out of your mind?”

“They’re well-trained, with orders to shoot anything out there that moves.”

“Idiot! Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been telling you about this… Saint?”

“With all due respect, Sir, he’s just a man.”

Marion, Roberts, and Jean flinched when they heard a shotgun blast. It was quickly followed by automatic fire, and then there was silence.

Marion got up in Robert’s face. “I suggest you take ten of your men out with you to that truck. Take a good look at the remains of those three men you sent to their deaths, and then you tell me if he’s just a man.”

Roberts took ten of his men out to where the truck was spotted. “Jesus.” His men formed a perimeter around the truck as he tried to piece together what happened. The truck’s driver side door was open. Attached to it was fishing line. He followed the end of it to the shotgun that was propped under the truck. He now knew how the first man’s feet were blown off. The other two were laid next to the first, but he could tell they weren’t killed there. He followed the blood trails where the men were obviously butchered and then dragged to the first one.

“Their weapons and ammo are gone, Sir,” one of Robert’s men said.

“Yes, I know, but that’s the least of our problems.” He radioed into Stevens, his second in command, who was in the estate. “We have three men down. I repeat, three men down.”

“Copy that, Sir.”

Marion closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Stevens,” Roberts barked. “You’ve got five men with you. You know who they are, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” Roberts said, as he stared at the led man’s naked corpse, “cause our ghost may be wearing one of our uniforms.”

Marion ran his hands through his hair. “Did he say what I think he just said?”

“Don’t worry, Sir, everything’s fine.”

The living room turned pitch black.

Marion screamed when Jean screamed. Ten seconds later, the lights came back on.

“What the fuck!” Marion was looking around deranged. Jean had darted into a corner and hugged herself as she cried. “I don’t want to die, Marion.”

“Neither do I, you stupid bitch.” He turned to Stevens. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know if it’s the storm or our ghost, but the main power went out. The lights are back on, but their dim which means we’re getting juice from the back up generators.”

“It’s not the storm. Tell Roberts to get his ass back in here.”

“Be there in five.” Roberts looked around the dense landscape. He could feel Saint staring at him. He felt raindrops beginning to pelt the top of his cap.

“Sir,” one of the men called out.

“Grab them up,” he said, referring to the three men. “We’re heading back in. Keep the formation tight, and—” Roberts eyes widened as his men lifted one of the dead off the ground. “Grenade!”

Before Saint left the area, he had taken two grenades from one of the men and placed them under him. He pulled the pins, knowing they wouldn’t go off until someone tried moving the body.

Boom!

Jean yelped at the explosion. Marion grabbed Stevens. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know, Sir.”

As soon as the two grenades went off, Saint popped up from the shallow grave he dug for himself and calmly picked off the disorientated soldiers, one by one, with the MP-5 he’d taken from the lead man earlier. He left one man alive. The one he figured to be the leader. The one who would tell him what he needed to know.

Roberts tried blinking away the cobwebs as he groggily got to his feet. He reached for his sidearm when he saw Saint running toward him. He blinked and he was gone. He wildly fired into the underbrush. The rain was falling in slabs, making it hard for him to see five feet in front of him.

“I know you’re out there,” he screamed. His ears were still ringing from the grenade blasts. He winced and looked down at his right thigh. Shrapnel from the grenades were biting into his flesh. He spun around and started shooting again at shadows, tree trunks, and leaves swaying in the wind until his gun clicked. He groped at the MP-5 hanging across his chest and switched it to full-auto. “Show yourself!” He hiccupped when he felt the blade bite into his neck.

“Careful what you wish for, it just may come true,” Saint whispered against his ear. He felt Roberts tense. “Nah, ah, I will slice through your jugular and windpipe quicker than you can blink.”

Roberts relaxed. Saint cut the shoulder strap of the MP-5 “Drop the gun.”

Roberts let the weapon fall to the muddy ground.

Saint spun him around and swept his feet from under him. His knee landed on Robert’s chest the same time Robert’s back hit the ground. With the knife still in his right hand, Saint used his left to retrieve the officer’s Glock, and stick it under Robert’s chin. “Make no mistake, you are going to die. How painful, will be up to you.”

Robert’s nearly bit through his bottom lip, as he tried looking Saint in the eye.

“How many more men are inside?”

“Two.”

Saint kept the Glock jammed against Robert’s neck turned half way around and stabbed him in his left thigh and twisted the blade.

Roberts hollered. “Kill me, you sick son of a bitch!”

“How many?”

“Fuck you.”

Saint put the knife to his groin.

“Six! There are six!”

“One more thing, and then it’ll be over.”

Stevens radioed Roberts and didn’t get a response.

Marion’s bottom lip started to quiver. He scuttled backwards and fell on his butt as the sudden gust of wind hurled raindrops at the windows, causing them to sound like pellets.

“Calm down, Sir,” Stevens said, trying to remain calm himself.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” He jumped when he heard a door slam. “That’s him! He’s in the house!” Marion dug into his waistband and drew his weapon. A Desert Eagle.

Steven’s radio crackled. “That was one of our men. He said the wind blew the balcony door open and he slammed it shut.”

“Bullshit!” Marion’s hand started shaking as he tried pointing the gun in all directions at once. “He’s in here. He took one of your uniforms. He’s dressed like one of you,” he said, pointing his gun at him.

“Mr. Claude,” Stevens said as calm as he could. “I’m here to protect you.”

“You call this protecting me? In a matter of minutes, you went from twenty men to six.”

“I’ll call the other men to come in here with us.”

“No! You tell them not to leave their posts. I’m shooting anyone who walks in here.”

“Sir—”

“Do it!”

“All units remain in place, until further notice.”

“He could be anyone of your men. I’m not taking any chances.”

Steven’s radio crackled. “Stevens,” Roberts said, coughing, “come in, Stevens.”

“I’m here, Sir.”

“Everyone’s dead, ‘cept me. I got the son of a bitch pinned behind the police vehicle. Send Delta team.”

“But Sir, their the last five—”

“Send them!” You stay with Claude.”

“Send them,” Claude yelled. End this, now!”

“They’re on their way, Sir.”

Saint nodded at Roberts as he put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.

Marion ran into the study and grabbed the phone. He ran back into the living room, punching the numbers in like a mad man. “Kill Lemora’s fiancée. And make sure you kill her in front of him.”

Grace leaned over to Olivia and whispered. “You better tell me what the fuck’s going on.”

“That was Glenn on the phone, earlier. There are two men sitting five rows behind us. One is white, and the other one’s light skinned—”

Grace turned around.

“Why’d you turn around?”

“I wanted to see who you were talking about. I don’t see them.”

Olivia turned around. The men were gone. “They were just sitting there a minute ago.”

“Well they’re not there, now.”

“Something’s not right.” Olivia scanned the whole Theatre.

“What did Glenn say on the phone, and why did he call you and not me?”

Mr. Seeger walked out onto the stage and stood behind the podium. “Good evening, ladies and gentleman. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the man behind the hottest women’s new fashion line, Mr. Glenn Lemora.”

Glenn received a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage. He looked directly at Olivia and then to Grace. He then looked at both the men sitting next to them before beginning his introduction. “Good evening—” Gasps could be heard throughout the Theatre as it went black.

“Hey, Chief,” the dispatcher said. “This is the fifth call I received from the village claiming to be hearing gunshots coming from the Claude estate.”

The chief massaged his temples as he let out a sigh.

“Should I send Jimmy over?”

“Anything on that rent-a-car or the guy that assaulted Enrique and left him cuffed in the back seat?”

“We found the rental agreement in the glove compartment. It was rented to a George Wilham.”

“Why would he cuff Enrique, throw him in the back seat and leave the rental agreement in the glove compartment? It’s like he wants us to know who he is.”

“Or maybe he was in a rush, and panicked.”