32. Slider
32
SLIDER
I flinched at her words, knowing she was right. I had shoved her away, so what right did I have to be angry that she didn’t tell me about this? But damn…this was something that I needed to know for the job, as well as for myself.
“We all needed to know it,” I argued, choosing to take the safer route. I was struggling to maintain my anger. My whole body was shaking as I stared at her, wondering just how bad her vision was and if she could even see me.
“Know what?” Thumper asked. “What the fuck happened?”
“She’s blind,” Rae blurted out.
“You knew?” I snapped. She was in there, but the way she said it…
“I suspected. That’s not the same thing as knowing she was blind.”
“Not blind,” Audrey corrected. “Going blind.”
“Holy shit,” Thumper muttered.
“We should have fucking known. That’s something that could have put us all in jeopardy,” I argued.
“I didn’t let anyone know,” she snapped.
No, that wasn’t right. Now that I thought back, there was one person who knew. It all made sense now. How Spencer held her hand whenever they went somewhere. Why he was always barging into the room and checking up on her. He knew about her condition and that she would need help, and since no one else was aware of what was going on, he was there to hide it for her like a dirty little secret.
“You both knew,” I said, tempering my anger. “He knew the whole fucking time that this was going on. It’s why he held your hand whenever you went somewhere.”
“We’ve gotten along fine for years.”
“And why you want him to move on,” I continued. “He’s been around for too long, taking care of you and doing movies with you. How the hell did you even pull it off?”
Spencer sighed heavily, rubbing his hand across his forehead. “Can we table this until later? We have bigger things to worry about right now.”
“Bigger than our client being blind and not telling us?” Rae snapped.
“We couldn’t tell anyone,” Audrey argued. “The studio doesn’t know. There was too much at risk. There are things we need to do before?—”
I checked out as the radio burst to life. “Check your six. Check your six!”
I spun around, my eyes widening when I saw three vehicles barreling down on us. “Thumper, put your foot down!”
We jerked forward as he wove in and out of traffic. Fox was driving the other vehicle and swerved behind us, blocking us as best he could. We needed to get off this highway and find a place to hide out until we could figure out who the hell was after us.
I pulled my gun and checked the magazine, slamming it home when a thought occurred to me. “The studio…”
“What?” Thumper asked.
“The studio. Ginger talked to Woody. He wanted them found because he was losing money every day they were gone.”
“But why would he kidnap them?” Rae asked. “That wouldn’t make sense.”
“Because our lawyers got us out of their contract,” Spencer answered, his head flopping back against the seat. “The studio tried to pull some shit with us, and our lawyer was able to get us out of our contract after the next movie. It would cost them millions of dollars.”
“More than that,” Audrey whispered. “And Ginger helped them find us.”
“She probably didn’t know what was going on,” I tried to reassure her.
They wanted to kidnap them for the publicity. Sales would skyrocket when news got out that two superstar action heroes had gone missing. They needed to get their money back somehow, and this was how they planned to do it.
“Get on the phone with Lock. Tell him we need a safe house now!” Thumper ordered.
Rae was already on it, calling in for help. Fox was protecting us as best he could, but unless we got off this road, there was nowhere we could hide. We were sitting ducks. He jerked the wheel at the last minute, taking the off ramp. With any luck, it would buy us a little time.
The tires squealed as we took the ramp a little too fast, fighting to stay on all four wheels. I realized Audrey wasn’t buckled in and quickly pulled the strap, snapping it in place.
“Get your belt on!” I shouted at Spencer, grabbing my own. I twisted, looking out the back window again just in time to see Fox ram one of the vehicles off the ramp, but another swerved around him, hitting the gas and flying right at us.
“Punch it!” I shouted. “They’re gaining on us!”
“Shit, shit, shit! Hang on!” Thumper shouted.
My head snapped to the left just as a truck ran through the light and slammed into the front end of the vehicle, spinning us around like a top. Thumper did his best to correct and get us moving, but we nearly rolled.
I grabbed Audrey and tucked her into my side just as the chase vehicle slammed into us from the other side, hitting us so hard that the SUV went flying onto its side, rolling once before it fell onto the passenger side with a crushing groan.
Shaking my head, I blinked away the fog filling my vision and jerked in my seat, wincing at the pain in my leg. Fuck, something was pinching my thigh.
“Audrey,” I whispered, turning to find her. She was leaning against Spencer, her eyes closed as they both rested against the door. I pressed my fingers to her neck and felt a steady pulse.
Glass was shattered all around us and metal was contorted and gnarled as steam rose from the engine. Rae was fighting to get out of the wreckage and Thumper was hanging from his seat toward Rae, his belt the only thing holding him in place. I had to get out of here and find the fuckers who hit us.
Gritting my teeth, I looked down at the metal piercing my thigh. It looked like it was just in the muscle, even if it did hurt like a bitch. There was no time to wait for a medic. I gripped the metal and yanked, biting back a curse as I tossed it to the ground.
I released the buckle and caught myself before I could fall on top of Audrey. “Rae, you good?”
“I’m almost out,” she grunted. “You?”
Voices just outside the vehicle interrupted me. Friendly or not, I wasn’t waiting to find out. I slammed my elbow into the already cracked window twice, ignoring the bite of pain as glass embedded in my arm. With my gun in hand, I popped up, ready to fire, and nearly had a heart attack when FNG stood just a foot away from the vehicle.
“Whoa, don’t shoot,” he grinned. “You may not like my face, but I swear, I’m a friendly.”
“Fucking hell, FNG. Are we clear?”
He nodded. “Fuckers bolted. Fox is running ‘em down with Max.”
“Crazy fucker,” I muttered. “Where’s IRIS?”
He jerked his head to the other side of the vehicle. I turned and spotted him at the front of the vehicle, helping Rae out. “Check on Thumper,” I ordered FNG.
Ducking back inside, I carefully stepped around the glass and braced myself on the seat to get in a better position to help Spencer and Audrey.
“She okay?” Spencer muttered, barely moving.
“I think so,” I answered, never taking my eyes off her. I wasn’t sure if I should move her or not. FNG was the medic, but he was dealing with Thumper right now, and he took the majority of the impact when that truck slammed into the driver’s side. Luckily, I could hear sirens in the distance.
Audrey stirred, her eyelids fluttering as she winced. “What the hell?”
“Audrey,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you hurt?”
She was quiet for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. Sore.”
“Well, you were in a car accident,” I muttered. “What is that, two now?”
“Maybe three, but who’s counting anymore?”
I chuckled and leaned down, pressing my lips to her forehead. “Do you think you can move?”
“I would really appreciate that,” Spencer muttered. “Not to break up this beautiful moment, but I am being crushed against the door by your fat ass.”
“Who are you calling fat?” Audrey griped.
“If you’d do yoga with me?—”
“Alright,” I cut him off. “Let’s save the bashing for another time. Maybe when both of you are safe.”
“Hey, Baldy?” Audrey said, looking up at me, her eyes drifting shut.
“Yeah?”
“This is the worst vacation I’ve ever had.”
My lips twitched at her humor. “I’ll make it up to you when you retire.”
She sighed heavily. “So, soon, then. Because I’m technically blind, so I’m pretty sure the studio won’t want to make movies with me anymore.”
My chest tightened at her admission, but now wasn’t the time to get upset over what she hadn’t told me. “Lucky for you, I think I have some time off headed my way.”
“I want to go to the beach,” she said, her voice drifting off.
“I would settle for getting out of this vehicle,” Spencer grumbled. “Again, smashed into a door here.”
I could hear the sirens rapidly approaching and stood to look out the window. They were just arriving on scene. We’d get them out of here and then to a safe house, but news would spread that they’d been in an accident. It’d be a fucking circus.
“FNG, how’s Thumper?” I called out.
“Not dead,” Thumper retorted.
“Is your leg still attached?”
“For the most part,” he grumbled.
“Well, that’s really the most important part.”
FNG spoke up. “I’m alright, too. In case anyone was interested.”
I chuckled, resting my head against the frame of the vehicle. Audrey intertwined her fingers with mine and squeezed. It was a clusterfuck, but we were all okay.
I looked at Audrey and swallowed the fear threatening to choke me. We were okay, right?
“Sir, you’re bleeding all over the floor. If you don’t let me take care of that, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the nurse said, her no-nonsense attitude cutting through the room like a knife.
“Would you just let her take care of you?” Audrey sighed. “We’re both fine.”
“Speak for yourself,” Spencer grumbled. “You weren’t crushed against the door.”
Audrey leaned over and punched his arm, ignoring the way he moaned like a baby. “Serves you right. You should never call a woman fat.”
“Sir—”
“My leg is fine. They need to be checked out now.”
“The doctor will be in any minute to assess?—”
“I don’t want them to fucking assess. I want them taken care of right fucking now. That woman is fucking blind and she hit her head!”
“Slider!” Audrey gasped.
My gaze snapped to hers, but I doubted she could even fucking see me. Just another lie to stack on top of all the shit we were dealing with. “Don’t even fucking test me right now.”
The door swung open and the doctor stepped inside, his smile slipping the moment he felt the tension in the room. “How is everyone? I hear we’ve had a bit of an accident.”
“That’s Audrey Leigh. She needs to be examined immediately. She’s blind and?—”
“Hey, Baldy!” Audrey snapped. “Perhaps you want to stop throwing around all my personal information for everyone to hear!”
“He’s a doctor. There are laws preventing him from sharing your medical information. Not to mention that he needs to know this shit. Much like the people who were protecting you!”
The doctor looked from Audrey to me. “Could I ask you to step outside? I understand this is a tense situation, but I would like to examine the patients without all the arguing.”
Maybe staying in here wasn’t the best idea. I was strung tight enough as it was. “I’ll get Rae,” I told Audrey. You’re not to be left alone at any time.”
She shot me a withering look, but didn’t argue. I hobbled over to the door and motioned for Rae to come in.
“I need you to stay with them. Apparently, I’m causing too much tension.”
The pull of her lips nearly had me punching the wall. “You? No, I don’t buy it for a second.” She shoved past me and headed inside while I leaned against the wall and sighed heavily.
“Coffee?” IRIS asked, walking over with a second cup.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t. It was for Rae.”
“She’s inside with the liar.”
He winced, taking a sip of his coffee. “That’s just a tad harsh, don’t you think?”
He’d already been filled in on Audrey’s condition, along with FNG’s team. Somehow, Fox didn’t seem all that surprised.
“She fucking lied to me.”
“It wasn’t personal,” he retorted. “This was about her career.”
“Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“I’m on the side of the sane. You kept saying you didn’t want to get involved emotionally. You pushed her away the whole fucking time we were there until the last few days. Are you really surprised she didn’t want to tell you?”
I hated when he was right about shit. It just pissed me off. “Did I ask you to be logical? Where’s FNG’s team?”
“Posted around the floor. Fox called Lock to fill him in.”
“Poor Lock,” I chuckled.
“Is it really FNG’s team?” IRIS asked, switching gears. “I thought Max was leading.”
“Regretting that you’re not on their team?”
“Nope. Well, not completely. I do wish I got to have more fun.”
“We just had a car chase. What part of that isn’t fun? You got to blow up a house!”
“Yeah, but you didn’t want me to,” he griped. “FNG would have let me. Fox would have let me. Max would have?—”
“Lit the cigar and watched it all burn,” I agreed. “And you’d probably end up dead twenty years before your time. I didn’t realize you were so eager to leave Jane.”
“Are you kidding? Now that IKE is back, all she can do is talk about how we’re best friends,” he snorted. “I really need to get rid of that guy.”
“If you wanted to get rid of him, why the hell did you help him?”
“Good fucking question,” he sighed. “Because he means something to her.”
Thumper came limping down the hall, his head bandaged and a scowl on his face. He’d seen better days, for sure, but he still had his leg. That was a bonus.
“All clear?”
“Sure. What’s our status?”
I skipped the part where he refused to answer the question and moved forward. If he didn’t want to dwell on his injuries, I wasn’t about to press him about it. “They’re getting checked out now.”
“How long until the news breaks?” he muttered.
“Can’t be too much longer. I was hoping we’d at least make it out of here first, but I don’t suppose that’ll happen,” I said, nodding to the nurse’s station where a young woman kept glancing in our direction.
Thumper shot her a death glare, then shook his head. “What the fuck are we gonna do about the director? If he really set this whole thing up, how the hell do we prove it?”
“How do we call it off?” IRIS asked.
I didn’t have any fucking clue, but this didn’t feel like a kidnapping anymore. “That wreck was way too fucking violent for a kidnapping.”
“You think he’s switching tactics?” IRIS asked.
“I don’t know, but something’s been bothering me. When we were with Ginger, she said Audrey shouldn’t have lied to the studio about being blind.”
“Right, because she hasn’t told them,” Thumper answered.
“But what if she meant that she had already told the studio?”
I looked at both of them, wondering if maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe I was just paranoid as hell, but why the hell else would three vehicles not only chase us down, but then slam into us like that and flee the scene?
“If they wanted to kidnap them, why didn’t they take the opportunity after the accident?” Thumper questioned.
“Exactly. At first, I thought it was just because we were all there, but there were three vehicles. They had to have enough manpower.”
“Spencer said they got out of the contract and it was costing the studio millions. If Ginger did tell them that Audrey is going blind and she can’t do another film, maybe they decided to cut their losses and just get rid of both of them,” Thumper thought out loud. “How much would the current film bring in upon release if they were dead before the premiere?”
“Not to mention all of the backlist movies they’ve already done for the studio,” I agreed.
“But this is all theory. We need evidence,” IRIS pointed out.
I rubbed my thumb across my lip as I considered all our options. “Rae can dig into the money. There has to be a trail.”
“And until then, he’s going to continue sending men after them. We need to get to a safe house and fast,” Thumper said, checking his phone. “Have you heard from Fox yet?”
“Nothing,” I answered.
“He’s supposed to check in after talking to Lock,” IRIS told him. “We should know something soon.”
Thumper nodded. “I’ll check in with FNG. IRIS, you stay here. Slider, get your fucking leg checked. You’re bleeding all over the fucking floor.”
I glanced down at my leg and grimaced. “It’s a paper cut.”
“Fine. Get your paper cut stitched up so we can get the fuck out of here. We leave in an hour.”
As he stomped away, I turned to IRIS. “You know, he’s always crankier when Fox is involved.”
IRIS slowly turned and looked at me. “Yeah, it’s that and not the fact that his head was nearly bashed in.”
The door swung open and Rae poked her head out. “You’re up.”
“Me?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, the other guy dripping all over the floor.”
Scowling, I shoved the door open and followed her inside. The doctor finished up with Audrey, then left without filling me in as to how she was.
“What the hell was that?”
“What was what?” Rae asked.
“The doctor. He just left.”
“Because he has other patients to see.” Rae grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Can you handle this? I have work to do.”
“Of course I can handle this.”
“Are you sure? Because I can send IRIS in.”
I wanted to smack the smirk off her face, but that would only prove her point. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good. Everyone’s clear, so you can stop your fussing.”
“Clear how?” I asked as she headed for the door. “Minor injuries? Sprains? Lacerations?” The door swung shut and I still didn’t have any answers. I turned to the nurse, who was still scowling at me. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me anything.”
“You could just ask the patients,” she said sweetly. “Now, how about you hop up on that bed so I don’t have to drag you off the floor when you pass out from blood loss.”
“Like I would pass out,” I muttered.
“I can make you sit down if you prefer to do this the hard way.”
“You know?—”
“Jesus, Slider!” Audrey shouted. “Just sit down!”
My anger immediately quelled as my eyes slid over to where Audrey rested on the bed. She looked worn out and ready to fall asleep. What she needed was some rest, and she wasn’t going to get any of that if I stood here arguing with the nurse.
I stepped back and sat on the bed, hoisting my leg up for the nurse.
“You’re going to have to remove your pants,” the nurse said, pursing her lips at me.
“Just cut the fucking pants.”
Her nostrils flared as she stared at me with contempt. “Sir, this would be easier if you would just comply.”
“It would be a lot easier if you would just do your fucking job so I can do mine.”
She gasped at my foul language, but I didn’t give a shit. Things were spinning out of control and I was trying to get ahead of the storm that was brewing before we all landed in body bags.
“You could try to be nice,” Audrey muttered.
Sighing, I rubbed a hand over my eyes and swung my leg off the bed. I moved quickly, undoing my pants and shucking them from my body so the nurse could work on me. As soon as I was back in position, the nurse got to work cleaning my wound. I tried my best not to look over at Audrey, but my eyes gravitated to her no matter how hard I tried. Her lips were tilted up as she watched the nurse work on me. She was fucking laughing at me, but at least she wasn’t dead, so I’d take it.
I ignored the jabs from the local anesthetic and looked away as she stuck tweezers in my leg to remove any debris left behind by the metal. It felt like hours passed as she worked on my leg. By the time that was done, I still needed to be stitched up. Fucking hell, if I was at home, I would have dosed it with alcohol and slapped a bandage on it.
“You’re very grouchy when you’re injured,” Audrey said.
I had been lost in thought, staring up at the ceiling while the nurse worked on me. Now, I could only watch Audrey as she rolled to her side and curled into a ball. Spencer was snoozing on the bed next to hers, completely oblivious to everything going on around him. It was like it was just the two of us.
Then the nurse jabbed me with the needle and I flinched. Okay, not exactly just the two of us.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I grumbled.
She nodded, her eyes roaming around the room. I wondered if she could see me. Was I a blur to her? Could she see me at all? There were so many fucking questions and not nearly enough time to talk about it with someone trying to kill her.
The door swung open and IRIS stepped inside. “We’ve got a safe house.”
At least one thing was going right for us.