Luke
Luke
L uke sat in the hard kitchen chair and stared down the tall guy in front of him. They had taken turns punching him in the face and he was pretty sure that not only was his nose broken, but his jaw was dislocated. The only thought that kept him going was the fact that Ruby had probably made it to Ranger and Luke knew that his friend would keep her safe.
“This can all be over if you just tell us where Won’s family is,” the tall guy promised. Luke was sure that it would all be over for him if he actually knew where the guy’s family was. They’d have no problem killing him once they got the information they were after.
“I’ve told you; I don’t know where they are now,” Luke said. “I heard a rumor that they were being held in North Korea when I was stationed over there, but that was five years ago. I have no clue where they are now. You’re wasting your time.”
“We don’t believe that you don’t still have connections,” the other guy said. “You could find them if you really wanted to. Maybe we should get your little girlfriend back and then, you’ll cooperate.”
“No,” Luke shouted. “We made a deal.”
“Which you aren’t upholding. Did you really think we’d just let her go? We put one of our guys on her. He followed her back to an apartment complex nearby. One phone call and we can have her back here to help encourage you to give us the information that we’re looking for.”
Shit—Luke was worried about something like this happening. Why did he believe that they would just let Ruby go? He knew better but he was blinded by hope that the woman he loved, and his unborn child might make it out of this mess—the mess that he created by dragging Ruby into his life.
“Make the call,” the tall guy insisted.
“No,” Luke said. “I’ll find them for you. Just give me some time to make a few calls.” He wasn’t sure who he could call, but stalling was his only option. One thing was clear, they weren’t going to leave him or Ruby alone until he found the answers that they were looking for.
Luke watched the two idiots holding him at gunpoint, hoping that they’d believe his lies when the kitchen door opened. He looked back to find Ranger standing in the doorway, wearing his easy smile. What the fuck was he doing? He just walked into the house and was basically handing himself over to the bad guys.
“It’s about fucking time,” Luke grumbled. “Although handing yourself over to them isn’t a plan that I would have gone with.”
“I’m doing what I need to do to save your fucking life, Luke,” Ranger growled. “I know where Won’s family is. I’m the one you two idiots should have been tailing all these years, not Luke. I’ll tell you what you want to know once you let my friend go.”
The tall guy chuckled, “We’ve already made a deal with this one,” he said, nodding to Luke. “Now, you want for us to let him go so that you can sit in his place and tell us the same lies?”
“It’s not a lie,” Ranger said. “I have the clearance necessary to know where Won’s family is. Luke doesn’t. You want your answers, you let him go. I’ll tell you where to find his family—today, right now. Luke might be able to give you information from five years ago, but we all know that won’t help you today.” The two guys looked at each other as if trying to silently decide what to do, and Ranger rolled his eyes. “The offer expires in sixty-seconds. How about you two come up with a plan—and fast?” Ranger asked. If Luke’s fucking jaw didn’t hurt as much as it did, he’d bust out laughing at his friend. Ranger was an asshole to the two guys holding guns at him, and wasn’t that just his way? He didn’t give a shit about the way things should be—Ranger made and lived by his own rules.
“We have a counteroffer for you,” the tall guy said to Ranger. “We won’t kill him just yet, and you give us the information that we’re after.”
“How is that a counteroffer?” Ranger asked. “I mean, usually you give something and get something back in return. But you two seem to only want to take from this situation. I don’t find that to be very fair.”
“We’re also the one holding these,” the tall guy said, waving his gun around as if proving his point.
“Well, I’ve got one of those too,” Ranger admitted, patting his shoulder holster.
Luke groaned, “Jesus, man,” he said. “You had to go and tell them that? You don’t want to get out of this alive, do you?” he asked. The other guy walked over to Ranger and held out his hand, silently ordering him to hand over his weapon.
“I’m just trying to help them out. I mean, they can kill both of us and go back to their boss empty-handed, or they can take me up on my offer, let you go, and I’ll give them the information that they need.” Ranger stared down both of the guys still pointing guns at them.
“You’re insane,” Luke breathed. “I think you might just be the craziest fucker on the planet.” Ranger laughed, actually laughed, and Luke shook his head at him. It was almost as if Ranger was enjoying the whole crazy scene.
“Listen,” Ranger said. “All I have to do is make one phone call and you’ll have the answer that you want. I just need some reassurances that you’ll let my friend go once I get you your answer.”
“Make the call,” the tall guy said. “We’ll let your friend go once we have our information.” Luke could tell that Ranger didn’t believe him any more than Luke did, but there was no other way around the fact that no matter how they handled this, they would probably end up dead.
Ranger reached into his pocket and both guys shouted at him to stop. He smiled and slowly pulled out his cell phone. “I’ve already given up my gun,” Ranger assured. “I’m just making that call like you wanted.” The two guys stood by Ranger, taking their attention off of Luke. He wasn’t bound to the chair, and he decided that this might be his only chance to grab the gun that they had laid on the kitchen table earlier. He gently slid it under his thigh and sat back in the chair before either guy noticed that he had moved.
Ranger took his time looking through his contacts to find the number he was looking for. By the time he had the phone up to his ear, Luke was sitting back in his chair as if he hadn’t just swiped the gun from the table.
“Hey,” Ranger said. “I need you to put those hacker skills to good use for me,” he said. “Can you do that?” Luke wondered who he was calling. He tried to think over Ranger’s contacts and who might be the hacker that he was referring to.
“I need to find out who had Joo Won’s family right now,” Ranger said. “I’m looking for his wife and two sons. Okay, thank you,” he said and ended the call. “Now, we wait.”
“Wait,” the tall guy repeated. The tall guy took Ranger’s phone from him and stuck it into his jacket pocket.
“Yes,” Ranger said, “we wait for my contact to get back to me. I’m assuming that you’ll be the one to take the call then.”
“Have a seat,” the other guy said. He shoved Ranger into the chair closest to Luke and the two guys started speaking in Korean again. Luke knew that Ranger was fluent in Korean. He seemed to pick up the language no matter where they were stationed.
They seemed to finish up their conversation and looked back at Luke and Ranger before leaving the room. “What the hell, man?” Luke asked.
“Don’t worry, man,” Ranger said. “It’s all part of the plan. You just need to trust me; can you do that?”
“You know that I trust you, Ranger,” Luke said. “Tell me that you know where Ruby is and that she’s safe.”
“I do,” Ranger agreed. “Your girl called me as soon as she got out of here. Congratulations, by the way. She told me about the baby.”
“Thanks,” Luke said. “But I can’t think about any of that right now. Is she safe?”
“Yeah,” Ranger said. “I sent her to be with Millie.”
“Why Millie?” Luke asked. “I hardly think she’s qualified to keep Ruby safe.”
“Oh, she’s qualified, all right,” Ranger said. “Millie was keeping a little secret from your girl. She’s ex-military and probably the best hacker that I’ve ever met. It’s why I hired her to work at McTavish for us.”
“You hired Millie without even asking me?” Luke asked.
“Yep,” Ranger said. “Like I just said, she’s a damn good hacker and well, she’d just as good making sure that hackers don’t attack our systems at McTavish. Plus, you were a little bit busy running from the bad guys and knocking up Ruby. I didn’t want to bother you with work things,” Ranger said.
“Well, bother me now,” Luke said. “So, Millie is like a super computer spy? Is she the one you called just now?”
“Yes,” he said. “If anyone can find Won, Millie can.”
“But she doesn’t have clearance,” Luke said.
Ranger chuckled, “That woman doesn’t need clearance to find them. She’s like a super ninja with a computer. She’ll get the information that we need and be out of the North Korean’s system before they even know what hit them.”
“So, you think that the North Koreans still have them?” Luke asked.
“Well, they were the ones holding them, to begin with. I’m guessing that they either still have them, or that they’re dead,” Ranger said.
“Which means that we’re as good as dead too,” Luke mumbled.
“Naw,” Ranger said. “You don’t think I walked in here and actually told them about the only weapon that I was carrying, do you?” Luke did, actually, but he wasn’t about to tell his friend that. “Plus, I saw you swipe the gun on the table when I was calling Millie. I think we have a fighting chance here.”
“What did they say before they left the room?” Luke asked.
“Oh—that they were going to give us ten minutes and then kill both of us. They also said something about finding the woman that they let leave earlier—I’m assuming that was Ruby.”
“Shit,” Luke growled. “How are you so calm about all of this?”
“Because they took my phone,” he said.
“I’m not following,” Luke said. “You’re happy that they took your cell phone?”
“I am,” he said. “Especially since I’ve rigged it to explode when it rings. Well, it will be less of a ring and more of a vibration and then—bang.”
“Your phone is going to explode in that guy’s pocket?” Luke asked.
“Yep,” Ranger said. “I’m betting that it will take out both guys since they seem to be joined at the hip.”
“And what happens if they’re in here when it detonates?” Luke questioned.
“I’m betting that won’t happen,” Ranger said. “They went out to smoke and said they’d be coming back in ten minutes.”
“So, we have about eight minutes left until we blow up with the Korean guys. Do I have that right?” Luke asked.
“Kind of,” Ranger said. “Except I forgot to tell you the part about Millie saying that she’d call me back in five. So, actually, we have about three minutes until they blow up out in the driveway. At least, that’s where I’m assuming where they’re having a smoke.”
“Jesus, man,” Luke grumbled. “You’re a bit more ruthless than I remember. Still, it’s cutting things close, isn’t it?”
“Nope,” Ranger said. “You see, Millie is an overachiever and she’ll actually call back in three minutes, not five. That means that my phone should go off any second now.”
Luke felt as though he was holding his breath, waiting for the sound of an explosion when he realized that Ranger knew a bit too much about Millie. “You slept with her, didn’t you?” Luke accused.
“What?” Ranger asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Luke said. “You slept with Millie, didn’t you? Shit—working together is going to fucking suck.”
“Fine,” Ranger said. “I slept with her, and yeah, working with her now isn’t a picnic, but we’ll find a way to make it work.”
“You’re an idiot,” Luke insisted. The front door opened and before he knew it, Ranger was flying across the kitchen at him, knocking him off his chair and onto the floor under the kitchen table. Their world seemed to explode around them and when he looked out from under the table, at the dust and debris that were still flying around the kitchen, he realized that he couldn’t hear. Ranger looked like he was shouting at him, but he couldn’t hear anything but his muffled voice. Luke pointed at his ears as if signaling that he couldn’t hear him, and Ranger pointed to the back door. He practically pulled Luke from under the table and out to the backyard. Ranger gave him the thumbs-up sign and Luke nodded, even though he felt anything but okay about what had happened to him today.
“Did it get both of them?” Luke asked. He was sure that he was shouting, but he couldn’t help it. Ranger gave him the “stay here” signal and he nodded as he watched his friend take off around the corner of the house. Luke collapsed onto the grass, suddenly feeling very tired, and moaned. He closed his eyes and knew that he was damn lucky to be alive, given the way everything seemed to hurt. When he opened his eyes, he saw one of the Korean guys stumbling into the backyard. He was still holding his gun in his right hand, but his left arm was gone. It must have been blown off in the explosion. He was shouting at Luke and when he pointed his gun at him, he knew that nothing was stopping the guy. This was it—his final seconds, and all he could do was close his eyes and pray that it would be quick. Ruby’s face flashed through his head, and he smiled, knowing that she got out—she and his baby would be safe and that was enough for him now. He could die knowing that they were safe.
A shot rang out and for just a second, he thought that he could feel the pain of the bullet searing his skin. Luke opened his eyes and looked up to find Ranger standing over him, the Korean guy lying face down next to him on the ground, a pool of blood around his chest.
“You okay?” Ranger shouted into his ear.
“No,” Luke breathed. “I’m not.” He knew that he was going to pass out, but that was fine with him. Luke welcomed the darkness. He’d love to feel numb, if only for a few minutes. He closed his eyes again and this time, he allowed the darkness to consume him as Ruby’s beautiful face played through his mind again.