Me And Mr. I.T. (Kupid's Cove Book 2) (25 page)

My hand went numb instantly and then began to tingle with pain, but I pushed the sensation away, hell bent on taking care of Lei and Katie.

“Lei, pull him into the room,” I instructed pointing to the guy on the ground. He was twice her size, but she managed to pull him into the room and left him on the floor, going back to help Katie with the guy still fighting the straps that held him tight. “Drag him in there too, in the chair,” I said, motioning toward the room. “We don’t want anyone to see us if we can help it.”

They pulled the chair backward the few feet to the room and once on the carpet, he was easy to move.

“You bitches are going to pay for this!” he kept yelling, spittle flying from his lips as though he was a rabid dog.

“Not before you pay for kidnapping us,” I said, laughing at the stupid look on his face, as if he hadn’t considered the fact that he was breaking the law.

My hand burning, I tied his hands with a constrictor knot, tightening it until there was no give, and never would be. “The only way out of that knot is a knife, buddy,” I told him right before I whipped a piece of sheet across his mouth and let Lei tie it tightly.

“What are we going to do with him?” Katie asked, pointing to the one passed out cold on the floor.

Lei had already tied his hands and feet and I motioned Katie to pick up his legs. “We’re going to tie his feet to our unconscious guy’s hands, that way, neither of them can get free until someone cuts them apart.”

“You’re diabolical,” Lei laughed, “but I love it.”

With my hand on fire now, I barely got the knot tied before I ran to the bathroom, vomiting in the tub. I looked down at my hand, the view not pretty, as the last two knuckles were unrecognizable.

I came back out and had two worried faces waiting for me. “I’m fine. I hurt my hand, but we’ll make it. Lei, gag the unconscious one, we don’t want him yelling like a stuck pig when he wakes up.”

She did as I asked and we dug around in the guy’s pockets for a cell phone, but they didn’t have any, which meant Marcus took them with him wherever he drove off to.

“It’s okay, we should be able to find a ranger station around here somewhere,” I promised the other two as we stepped over the prone prisoner. I had a thought and stopped, turning back to the two men. “Katie, take his shoes off,” I said, pointing at the unconscious one. She grinned, but did as I asked and then helped me get the sneakers on and tied.

I tested them out as the one who was still conscious cussed us out around his gag. “A little big, but safer than no shoes at all,” I said, patting the guy on the shoulder. “Tell your buddy thanks for me.”

I opened the door for the other two and looked left and right to be sure Marcus hadn’t come back, but we all knew he never planned to come back, that’s the funniest part of the whole thing. I shook the brown wallet I had pulled from the conscious one’s pocket. “I will make sure to leave your identifying information with the ranger, so even if you escape, they will hunt you down, and you will pay.”

I slammed the door behind me and we took off at a slow jog to find our freedom.

Chapter Twenty

Mr. I.T.

My phone rang, making both of us jump unexpectedly. I checked the number, but didn’t recognize it. “This is Maltrand Kekoa,” I answered, raising a brow at Gideon.

“Aloha, this is a Park Ranger for the wilderness center. I have three ladies here who say they know you.”

“Oh, god, you’ve got Ellie?” I asked, standing up, Gideon following suit. The line was silent and just as I was about to speak again the voice of an angel came over the line.

“Maltrand, it’s Ellie. I need you,” she cried, tears evident in her voice.

“Tell me where you are sweetheart and we’re on our way. Are Katie and Lei with you?”

Gideon had a hold of my arm so tightly it hurt, but I understood his fear as he listened to a one-sided conversation.

“We’re all here, but we need help,” her voice drifted away as I nodded at Gideon and gave everyone in the room a thumbs up.

The park ranger came back on the line. “I’ve called a rig, but it will take a while to get them out of here. Hang on, I’ll let you speak to Lei.”

“Hi Maltrand, we’re okay, tell Gideon Katie’s okay.” I put my hand over the receiver, “It’s Lei she says they’re okay, but the park ranger called for a rig.”

“Why do they need an ambulance then?” I asked Lei.

“I insisted on it. Katie says her right arm hurts, so I don’t want to risk not having it looked at. I think Ellie hurt her hand when she clocked one of our captors in the jaw.”

I laughed, some of the tension from the last two hours dissipating. “I think I love that woman. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Marcus isn’t very smart. Not only did he leave his two dimwit partners who fell asleep to guard us, but he also didn’t check us for any sharp objects. Ellie had a box cutter in her pocket. Ellie - one, zip tie handcuffs - zero.”

I laughed, shaking my head with wonder at how I got so lucky. “I know I love that woman. We’ll meet you at the hospital.” My eyes met the Captain’s who was motioning for the phone. “Hang on, Lei, the detective wants to talk to you.”

He took the phone from my hand and spoke. “We’re going to swoop in and pick you up. We don’t want word getting back to Marcus that you’ve escaped. We want to nab him at the drop off.” He was silent for a minute and then responded. “That’s good, if he left the two low end flunkies there, he never planned to go back and get them. He planned to take off from Honolulu once he picked up the money.” He waited again while Lei spoke and he nodded. “Can you give the park ranger directions to where you left them?” He paused. “Okay, my guys will be there momentarily, there was a search party already going out. I’ll have their husband’s meet you at The Queens.”

As Gideon and I raced from the room, I realized it was the second time in a week I would be in an ER with the woman I loved.

When we pushed through the doors of The Queens, it was after two a.m. and the emergency room was empty, except for a very familiar figure pacing the room.

“Lei,” I said, grabbing her shoulders to stop her, “are you okay?”

Gideon pulled the icepack off her face, his frown deepening at the gigantic purple bruise that marred most of the right side of her cheek. “You don’t look okay.”

She put the icepack back on and pointed to the front desk. “I’m fine. I just got in the way of a fist. Ellie and Katie are in the back being examined.”

“What happened?” we both asked in unison, both of our voices sounding petrified.

“I want to see my wife,” Gideon said heading toward the reception desk, but Lei stopped him.

“Boss, the doctor said he would come get me when Katie was back from radiology. She’s having a CT scan.”

Gideon put his hand in his hair. “Why the CT, is she hurt?”

Lei pointed at a seat and he took it before she spoke. “Marcus tied our hands in front of us with zip tie handcuffs. Not a big deal to you and me, but they put a lot of odd pressure on her leads. Her arm was sore by the time we got to the ranger station, so they’re checking to make sure she’s not bleeding internally, since she’s on blood thinners.”

Gideon put his head in hands. “I shouldn’t have brought her here. I shouldn’t have involved any of you in this.”

I sat next to him and kept a reassuring hand on his back. “Gideon, you had no idea Marcus planned to do any of this. It seemed straightforward to me when we planned it. We couldn’t predict this.” I turned back to Lei. “How is Ellie and why is she back there?”

“Ellie is a rock star, Maltrand. Seriously, don’t let that girl get away, she will do anything to save a friend.”

“Trust me, I don’t plan on it. Did she get hurt?”

Lei nodded. “When we got our cuffs off we were able to walk around the small room and figured out we were in an old motel off one of the trails in the garden. The two guys who grabbed us in the parking garage were outside, and we could see them sleeping in their chairs. We planned to jump them and tie them, so we could get away. Things didn’t go as planned and one of them got a punch off and knocked me down. Ellie had finished tying the other one up when my guy took her by surprise. She socked him in the jaw so hard he went out cold immediately. Unfortunately, I think she broke her hand in the process.”

I shook my head a little bit and couldn’t help but laugh. “First the Frisbee Warrior and now she actually is Mike Tyson. That woman is really something.”

“That’s not even the half of it, Mr. I.T., errr Mally,” she stuttered and I brushed my hand at her.

“Mr. I.T. is fine. It’s a title I’m proud to wear.”

She smiled and did a little fist pump then went back to her story. “Katie was woozy and was having a hard time walking on the uneven ground. We knew we had to move quickly in case they got themselves untied, I mean, it was unlikely considering that your…” she paused and grimaced a little. “She told us you aren’t actually married.”

“Yet,” I winked.

She grinned. “Okay, then your ‘soon to be wife if she says yes’ trussed those two up like turkeys. You never want to cross her.”

“I don’t plan on it,” I said, still laughing.

“Anyway, we had to carry Katie a good part of the way. Ellie was hurting, her face pouring with sweat, but she wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t put Katie in danger by making her walk. When we came across the ranger station we put Katie down and Ellie passed out cold.”

I jumped up, the room small and airless. “You told me she was fine. I have to see her.”

Gideon put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down. “Let Lei finish.”

“She’s fine, now. She was exhausted and the adrenaline gave out once she knew we were safe. Her hand is in bad shape and they’re x-raying it now.”

It was my turn to put my head in my hands. “I never should have left you two alone when you said there was a problem. That should have put my radar on red alert. Things could have turned out so much worse.”

Gideon patted my back the same way I had done for him earlier. “They’re going to be okay. I, for one, am going to look at this as a big wakeup call.”

I turned my head to look at him. “What do you mean a wakeup call?”

“I mean suddenly nothing else matters except for that woman in there. I realize now I’ve been putting her second and third to everything else in my life and I need to change that.”

“Funny that you see it that way,” I said, staring at my hands. “We see everything you do for the business and the employees as putting her first. Maybe it all comes down to perspective.”

“Is one of you Gideon Armstrong?” a male voice asked.

Gideon stood immediately. “I’m Gideon.”

The doctor dressed in scrubs underneath a white coat, shook hands with him. “I’m Dr. Garlicky. I’ve been taking care of your wife since she arrived.”

“How’s her arm?” Gideon asked, poised on the balls of his feet as if he would sprint away.

“Much better than her friend’s fared. I’ve done a thorough check of the leads and the pacemaker and everything seems to be in good shape. Her arm has soft tissue swelling, but if she follows my orders that will resolve in a day or two as well. I understand this was unforeseeable, but she needs to stay on the island for a few days and rest before you fly back. We interrogated her device and she had several episodes of atrial fibrillation, which explained why she was short of breath. It’s a harmless rhythm, since she’s on blood thinners anyway, but her device managed to pace her back into normal sinus rhythm quickly. Plenty of water and rest should see her through this.”

“No problem, Doctor. Can I see her?” Gideon asked and the doctor nodded.

I didn’t want them to leave so I stood and grabbed Gideon’s arm. “What about Ellie? My wife is back there, too.”

Dr. Garlicky reached out and shook my hand. “You must be Mr. I.T., at least that’s who she kept asking for while under some mild sedation when we casted her arm.”

I groaned a little ending in a laugh. “That’s me. How is she?”

“She’ll be fine just like Katie, once she has a few days to recover. If you want to come back with me, they’re sharing the same curtain space. The orthopedic surgeon was just finishing the cast when I left.”

Lei and I followed the two men down a hallway and then turned right, and entered into a space of curtained off rooms with medical equipment and stretchers. The two girls lay next to each other, Katie reaching for Gideon while Ellie had her eyes closed and looked to be in pain.

Gideon gathered Katie in his arms and whispered to her while I approached Ellie’s bed, her right arm in a short cast that included the full length of her last two fingers, the fiberglass still shiny with newness. I stroked her forehead and pushed the hair out of her eyes.

“Ellie,” I called to her, “can you hear me?”

Her eyes came open slowly and she blinked twice at me, as if she didn’t believe I was actually standing in front of her. “Hi,” she croaked, her tongue trying to wet her lips. I held the glass for her and she drank until I had to pull the straw from between her lips. “Don’t drink too much; you might get sick,” I said, kissing her forehead.

“How’s Katie?” she asked, the tone of her voice telling me how scared she still was.

“I’m fine, Ellie,” Katie called from next to her. “You’re much worse off than I am.”

Ellie tried to scoot up on the bed, but encountered the cast on her hand. “Crap, I broke it.”

I chuckled and kissed her lips. “Do you remember anything the doctor said?”

She nodded. “It’s all coming back to me. They gave me something when they fixed my hand. He told me I have a boxer’s fracture of my last two fingers.” She held the cast up and frowned grimly at it. “No more using that great Jacuzzi in our room.”

I heard everyone else in the curtained area snicker at her words. “I’m not letting you out of my arms long enough to use the Jacuzzi. I was scared to death when they took you,” I whispered, leaning in and kissing her lips. “I never want to lose you, and I never want to feel like I did tonight ever again.”

“I’m sorry. We were looking for the missing liquor. We never thought going out to check the van would lead to this,” she said, a tear escaping and falling into her ear.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re all safe now and that’s all that matters.”

“Did they find Marcus yet?” Katie asked. “He has our phones and is expecting one million dollars.”

Gideon kissed her hand and shook his head. “Not yet, but they’re going to go through with the drop. Now that we have you ladies safe and sound, thanks to Ellie’s resourcefulness from what we hear, they will arrest him immediately. The drop is supposed to happen at the Honolulu airport, which means he probably plans on leaving the island by plane. That’s not going to happen.”

Ellie gasped and I kissed her hand. “It’s okay. They’ll get him,” I tried to reassure her, but she was frantically trying to sit up.

“You don’t understand! He has my phone and my mom was going to call me in the morning to see how the party went. If she can’t reach me, she’ll be frantic.”

“Ellie, calm down, please. I called your mom and dad on the base and explained the situation while on the way over here. They should be here within the hour.”

She dropped her head back on the pillow and banged it a couple times. “You called my parents? That’s not a good idea, Maltrand.” She held up her hand with the wedding band and shook it. “I’ve been putting her off because of this. Will you take them off and keep them in your pocket?”