Chapter 42 #2
I buzzed down the window. “Get that fucking traitor away from me!” I yelled. “That lying son of a bitch sold us out!”
“We know,” Jed said. “He confessed. He offered his help, and we needed all the help we could get with these assholes. But we don’t have time for that now. What’s the status of your surveillance? Is Nicole’s team watching you right now? And how?”
“We had a video call going on the tablet, so she can hurt Holly and make me watch in real time,” I babbled.
“She’s following the trace on the dash, but the connection broke, and I know she’ll think I did it.
I have to do what she says, Jed! She has Holly, and she will hurt her.
She’s not bluffing. They have Ethan, too. ”
“He went in of his own accord,” Jed said. “The Drakes and Frey are at the facility, doing what they can. Cross your fingers for them. Go on, get the hell out of that van. We’ll take it. Mick is using a signal jammer, but she won’t buy it for long.”
“But…but I—”
“Now, Kat!” Jed jerked open the door, grabbing my arm, and pulling me out. He reached inside, prying the tablet and router and the trace off the dash. The light turned green and cars began to honk and blare behind us.
Mick followed, continuing to hold the jammer near the router as Jed swiftly situated it onto the dashboard of the van they had been driving, and an understanding of the switcheroo they had planned finally sank into my mind.
Along with a thousand horrible images of what would happen to Holly and Ethan if the Drakes and Freya failed. If I proved to have failed them, too.
I stared into Mick’s eyes. “You are a piece-of-shit traitor,” I told him.
“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to fix it. That’s all I can do now.”
“The gum on the bottom of the trace won’t stick to the dash, but it was next to the screen, so Nicole shouldn’t notice,” Jed said.
“It’s lying on the seat next to you. There’s also a security badge that we found in the van when we took it.
I hope it’ll get you inside the conference center garage without any trouble. ”
“But…but what do I—”
“Buy us time,” Jed said urgently. “Drive this to the conference center, park where she tells you, look beaten, look scared, make her feel like she’s in control. Buy us all the time you can. We need every fucking second. Go!” He shoved me toward the van.
I got in, and took off. The cars had continued to beep and blare angrily, and by now they were veering around us, giving us glares and middle fingers.
I gave the car gas and lurched forward. In the rearview, I saw the other van pull a fast, illegal, extremely hazardous U-turn, causing still more braking, still more beeping and general consternation.
I speeded up. The phone flickered on just as I saw the dangling rabbit’s foot and religious medals dangling from the mirror. I snatched them up just in time, looped them over the mirror so that they wouldn’t bounce and sway in front of the video camera.
Nicole looked furious. “What the fuck happened to you? Your connection broke! You’re fucking late now, you lying bitch! What are you trying to pull?”
“Nothing!” I wailed “I didn’t do a fucking thing to it myself, I swear!” That assertion had the advantage of being literally true, so I hoped she felt my sincerity.
“You braked!” Nicole said, her voice accusing.
“Well, yeah! I braked to avoid rear-ending a car that slowed down in front of me, and the engine stalled,” I explained, slowing to a stop at the red light.
“So why the fuck are you stopping again now?’’ she demanded shrilly.
“The light’s red, Nicole!”
“Just run the fucking light, you dumb cow! You need to get to the conference center right now! It’s not like you’ll ever have to pay the traffic ticket!”
Huh. Whatever. I accelerated, right out into the stream of ongoing traffic, weaving back and forth.
Brakes screeching, cars skidding, horns blaring.
I heard the crunch of at least one accident behind me.
They’d be cursing my name back there, if only they knew it, and I was sorry, but hey. Extenuating circumstances and all.
When I reached a straight stretch and edged my way back into my lane, I floored it and drove like a bat out of hell, leaving the noisy mess far behind me.
The shiny new conference center loomed in the distance.
I had a bad moment at the entrance to the parking garage.
Everything depended on whether the most recent theft committed by Jed and Mick of the Orgoglio & Delizia Fine Catering van had been noticed and remarked upon yet.
But the guy just looked at me, the van, glanced at the security badge I held up, and waved me through.
“I’m inside,” I said to Nicole.
“I can see that,” Nicole snapped. “Listen carefully. Park in the E Section. Next to the inner wall.”
I followed the signs, found a parking spot in the area Nicole had directed me to, and pulled the van to a halt. My heart raced, my head spun, and I wanted to vomit.
On the screen, Nicole had flung her arm around Holly.
She was smiling triumphantly. The moment of truth was fast approaching.
My own personal version of hell. Any second now, my ability to play for time would end.
Everything was completely outside of my control now.
Then again, it probably always had been.
Tears ran down my face. Ugly-crying on camera for Nicole’s entertainment was the last thing I wanted, but I couldn’t stop.
I wanted to stay strong for Holly, but I couldn’t nail down my feelings anymore.
I’d lost the ability. I was just one big naked beating heart, now, shrinking away from all the fresh pain that was about to be inflicted.
Vincent appeared on the screen. He also looked excited, bright red spots on his cheeks. “Nicole, show Kat her lover one last time, so she can say goodbye,” he said, his voice affable, as if doing me a favor. “It’s the least we can do!”
The camera image swirled and spun in a dizzying arc, and then centered on Ethan.
I gazed at him hungrily. He was harnessed, chained, wearing some kind of diabolical collar.
It stretched a tiny wire across his throat that had already sliced into his skin.
His neck and chest were red with blood, but he was alive.
And he didn’t look frightened or defeated.
He looked pissed.
Ethan’s eyes burned into mine. No tender goodbyes from that quarter. He was looking at nothing but pain, slavery, torture in his future, but he hadn’t given in.
The rage in his eyes heartened me. After all, this guy was wicked smart.
Smarter than those pinheaded assholes could even imagine.
Ethan Masters’ engine ran on pure rocket fuel.
Theirs ran on pond scum and festering shit.
If he could just stay alive somehow, he would eventually outsmart them, and save Holly. I was dead sure of it.
“Well, Kat?” Nicole prompted sweetly. “Say goodbye, Kat. It’s time!”
I looked straight into his eyes. “I love you,” I told him. “Holly, too.”
Ethan didn’t respond. I couldn’t look away from him. The eye contact was like an electrical connection, and it was all rushing through my brain, the brilliant aliveness I’d felt these past few days since I met the guy. Since my life blew up.
No regrets. Even if he thought I was a demented terrorist, I was glad I knew how it felt to feel again. To love again. It was all worth it. “Goodbye,” I whispered.
Vincent held out a flip phone. “He’s started the keynote speech,” he said to Nicole. “And he sounds very pleased with himself. Want to do the honors?”
“I’d be delighted,” Nicole purred. She started punching in numbers, sparing me a triumphant grin. “Bye-bye, Payback Bitch! Let’s get this party started!”