Operation Date With Destiny (33 page)

“
Johnny,
”
she whispered. He was far too quiet for her liking. She hated this feeling of helplessness.
Damn it!

She could see his chest moving—shallowly but still moving. She looked around the room, a renewed desperation as she
realized
time was quickly running out.

“
Johnny,
”
she called louder this time and fought back a surge of panic
when
she wasn
’
t sure if his chest was moving at all. It was almost impossible to tell for sure from where she sat.
She needed to get closer.
In a very ungraceful scuttle along the floor on her butt, she eventually managed to shimmy her way to his side to find his chest was indeed moving…just.

She
ran her gaze over him to search for obvious injuries,
but
couldn
’
t see any wounds—his face was battered and bloodied, and his shirt was torn, but it was the damage inside she was concerned about. He
’
d obviously been badly beaten and there could be internal injuries she wouldn
’
t be able to see
.

Growling in frustration, she cursed the fact her hands were tied behind her and she couldn
’
t touch him.
He needed to wake up—now.

“
Damn it, Tupperoni, now is not the time to flake out on me, buddy. I need you—
”
she stopped as the words froze on her lips.
She needed him.
“
Johnny,
please
—wake up. I can
’
t do this on my own…
I don
’
t want to do this on my own
…please wake up,
”
she pleaded softly.
“
I love you.
”

The eerie silence that followed was so unnatural—Johnny Tupperoni was never this quiet—ever and it scared the hell out of her. She suddenly couldn
’
t imagine life without him in it. Hot tears ran down her face and she let her head drop to his chest, uncaring that her tears had turned to sobs now and she couldn
’
t do a thing about stemming their flow.

Then after a few minutes,
she realized his breathing had changed
, and she lifted her head to see Johnny silently watching her from behind a blood smeared face.

“
Johnny?
”
she whispered, tugging futilely at the rope that bound her hands.

“
Do you know you even look hot when you cry?
”
he managed to croak through a cracked lip.

Relief surged through her
at his ridiculous words
.
“
How bad is it?
”
she asked, her gaze darting all over him.

“
I don
’
t know—maybe a rib or two broken…I think my spleen is up around my throat somewhere. Any idea where we are?
”

“
Not a clue. I have no idea how long we
’
ve been out for either.
”

“
Turn around and I
’
ll see if I can untie your hands,
”
he said, wincing and holding his breath as he tried to move
.

Destiny quickly spun her legs around until she had her back to him and craned her neck to try and see what he was doing. His hands were also smeared in blood and there were cuts on his knuckles. Just when she was positive that they weren
’
t getting anywhere, he gave a satisfied grunt and she felt the ropes loosen around her wrists. Shaking them off, she immediately reached for the ropes on her ankles, before turning to
Johnny
and freeing him.
“
Do you think you can stand up?
”
She really hated moving him at all—but there was no other option. There was no way she was leaving him here alone.

She helped him into a sitting position,
and then had to
let him rest as he struggled to catch his breath with
the
effort to get that far.
“
This isn
’
t going to work. You need to go,
”
he said between breaths.

“
I
’
m not leaving you here
,
Tupperoni,
”
she snapped, more from fear of the mere
thought
of leaving
him
behind, than anything else.
“
On your feet, Marine,
”
she barked in her best Drill
S
ergeant voice. It worked, or he was simply
humoring
her, but either way, he slowly got to his feet leaning heavily on her for support, and bracing himself against the wall.

“
Did I mention you
’
re kinda
’
hot when you go all Army on my ass too?
”
he said weakly.

She ignored him, making her way across to try the door—which she found wasn
’
t locked. She had no idea where it led to and the fact that it wasn
’
t locked probably suggested that was because there was no reason to. She opened the door a little, peering through a small crack, to find a hallway
leading up to a set of steep stairs
. There was no way to know where it led to.

“
There
’
s a
staircase
,
”
she told him, easing back into the room.

“
Don
’
t like it,
”
he managed between breaths.

‘
Me either—but there
’
s not a whole hell of a lot of choice about it.
”
She scanned the room once more and
saw
it must be some kind of storage area. It felt like a basement, there were tiny windows at the front and the rear of the room both placed up high—too high for Johnny to
maneuver
through in his condition and only the one door that led out to that corridor
.

“
Window,
”
Johnny said quietly, looking up.

Destiny shook her head.
“
There
’
s no way you
’
d fit through there even if you didn
’
t have broken ribs.
”
The thing was—Destiny was getting more and more alarmed with each passing moment. Judging by his
labored
breathing he had quite a few cracked ribs and moving around could very easily puncture his
lung…or
worse
…his heart
. He needed to lie still and get medical treatment…neither of which were doable in this situation.

“
Stop arguing woman. Go. There
’
s no other way.
”

God she hated when he was right
. One of them needed to go for help and fast. She looked around at the room and saw a few old pieces of furniture in the corner and helped him across.
“
You need to stay under here and not move. You hear me? No playing the hero and causing a distraction or any of that crap, okay?
”

“
Don
’
t know where you get the idea I
’
d be a hero.
”

“
I mean it Tupperoni. If anything happens to you—
”
She stopped mid-sentence, unable to form the rest of the words.

“
Yeah, I know…you
’
ll came back and kick my ass.
”

“
Exactly. Now stay there and shut up.
”

She stacked some boxes around the table and double checked he couldn
’
t be seen before picking up the ropes and dropping them beneath the rear window. She dragged over a crate which she used to stand on in order to reach the window. The hinges were stiff with age and obviously hadn
’
t been opened in quite some time. She struggled on for a few more moments until it finally gave and she could push it as far as it would open. Sticking her head out to take a look she saw that it opened into some kind of courtyard at the rear of the building. She eyed the narrow looking space doubtfully, and hoped she could squeeze through. She pulled her head back inside and relayed what she could see, before getting ready to leave.

“
Hey.
”

Destiny paused.

“
I love you
,
too.
”
His words drifted to her soft and muted from beneath the junk she
’
d packed around him.

For a moment she couldn
’
t move, she didn
’
t dare, feeling too fragile to open her mouth. She hadn
’
t thought he
’
d been able to hear her earlier when she
’
d said it to him…and wasn
’
t
that just typical of
him
to get the last word in like that!
“
You just better not do anything stupid while I
’
m gone,
”
she warned again, before hoisting herself up and through the tiny opening.

It was a tight squeeze and for a moment she wasn
’
t sure she was going to fit, and then with some wriggling and a whole lot of cursing, she fell through on the other side, and made her way along the hedges planted in front of the windows, until she could regain her bearings.

She hoped that leaving the window propped open and both sets of ropes just below it—when they came back into the basement they wouldn
’
t look too hard, and assume that both Tupper and her had escaped through the window. She was counting on them being too eager to find them to bother double checking the room.

She kept to the edge of the small, overgrown looking yard
placing
her hands on top of the wooden fence and jumped
,
swinging herself up and over the other side, handing in a crouch and hoping there were no vicious dogs waiting on the other side. Thankfully there were not
.
She made a dash for the
neighbor
’
s
gate and quickly let herself out, running along the back laneway behind the building. Counting the houses as she went, she came out onto the other side of the street and located the apartment she
’
d c
ome
from. She looked a sight, dusty and filthy from being tied up on the floor, and she had no idea where she was. They
’
d taken her phone, and she didn
’
t have any money on her.
Think Damn it—calm down and think!

She knew the name of the lawyer Tate had
trusted, Cartwright
…but how had Rothman known where they
’
d been staying? The only thing that made sense was that someone in the
lawyer
’
s
camp had tipped him off. But what choice did she have? She didn
’
t
have time to waste—Johnny
needed to be in hospital—and she wasn
’
t sure how long he
’
d last down there before they decided to search the basement and find him. She slipped into the first phone box she found and asked for directory assistance, then placed a collect call and hoped to God whoever picked up on the other end didn
’
t turn her away.

****

Destiny remained close to the building she
’
d escaped from. It was situated in
the Upper East Side, and even though this was a rather affluent area—she knew things worked here
much the same kinda way as it did back in
Brownsville
. As long as you fitted in—dressed the same—lived the same lifestyle, then nobody would look twice at you
—o
r intervene
for that matter
. Rothman was a man who had gotten used to the high life and obviously blended in with this crowd…too bad he was really just a low life drug dealer beneath his expensive suit and fancy town house
.