Flawed (The Mercenary Series Book 3) Read online

  The roof of the tunnel pressed down upon my shoulders and the back of my head. Beneath my body, the cold water continued to flow, though I felt it had gotten deeper behind me, as my body blocked the way.

  Had Giovanni noticed that I’d gone yet? I wasn’t sure how long I’d been crawling through the rock for now—an hour, maybe. I imagined how furious he would be to go down into the cellar and find it empty. Would he figure out what had happened, or would he blame one of his men for letting me get out again? Even if he was able to figure it out, none of the men would be able to follow me. The space was far too small for them, and it wasn’t as though they’d know where the underground waterway came out either, if I even made it through.

  The tunnel had grown narrower the farther I’d crawled. Was it going to emerge somewhere, or was I heading deeper and deeper into the mountain, perhaps only to find myself in some big underground reservoir? I’d imagined the waterway taking the shortest route and coming out somewhere on this side of the mountain, farther down than the cabin had been. But I could have it completely wrong and it was actually heading deeper into the mountain, going in completely the wrong direction. It was impossible to tell if the water had veered off course. I was in the pitch black, and utterly disoriented.

  Despite all of this, I kept moving forward, knowing what was waiting for me if I tried to go back. Terrified thoughts ran through my head …

  You’re going to get stuck down here …

  You’ll wedge into the rock and no one will ever find you …

  You’ll get hypothermia and pass out and drown in a couple of inches of water …

  Negative thoughts tried to crowd out my courage. The air had grown thin and I felt lightheaded, my limbs numb from the cold. I smacked my head against a piece of low hanging rock, and lights flashed in front of my eyes.

  The tunnel pressed in on me on all sides. Terror squeezed the air from my lungs so I was forced to breathe in tiny gasps, the noise too loud in the confined space.

  Just keep going, keep going.

  I could go back, wriggle backward until I’d reached the place where I’d entered. But then I’d have achieved nothing, and I wasn’t a quitter, even when it felt like everything was going from bad to worse.

  Then my shoulders jammed.

  Fuck. I was stuck. I’d managed to get my head through the narrow gap, but it was the point where my body was the widest that I’d gotten wedged. I wriggled onto my side, trying to dislodge myself. I tried to go back, but that didn’t work either—this particular outcropping of rock digging into my shoulder blades. They’d always been the widest part of me, though I’d have preferred that to have been my hips. Not that it mattered now, and I could barely believe these thoughts were even going through my head. I was close to hysterical. I couldn’t lose the plot down here. It would be the death of me.

  But I was wedged in. My clothes had soaked up the water, making them fatter than before.

  I held in place, breathing fast, trying to think. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, blood rushing around my veins. This was the exact thing I’d been scared of, getting stuck down here. No one would ever find me. I’d have to drown myself. Better that than die a long and painful death of cold and hunger. But then I realized my body had entirely blocked the hole, and the water was building up behind me. I was a human dam, and even if I’d wanted to drown myself, I couldn’t because beneath my face and chest there now ran only a trickle of water.

  Moving the small amount I was able to, I pulled my elbows in under my body, rounding my shoulders forward. The water behind pushed, its strength amazing. I felt like someone was giving me a shove from behind. Then like a cork, I popped.

  The water rushed behind me. I was carried in its flow a short way, bumping against rock, side to side. I jarred my bad hand and cried out.

  Finally, I came to a stop and I took a moment, catching my breath and trying to center my thoughts. I was okay. I wasn’t stuck anymore. I also knew I couldn’t go back now. That had been a tight squeeze for me to get through head first, and there was no way I’d fit going backward and working against the flow of the water. No, I had no option but to keep going and pray I didn’t come across another part of the tunnel that was too narrow for me to get through. If that happened, I was done for.

  I would die down here.

  Gathering my remaining strength, I continued forward in a commando crawl. I’d forgotten how it felt to be able to see, so used to nothing but the black pressing against my eyeballs. Perhaps I had gone blind down here and I didn’t even know it.

  No, I had to stop thinking such things. It was as though my brain was working against me, trying to sabotage my efforts. I had to ignore all the bad thoughts that kept popping into my head.

  The tunnel had opened up now, at least giving me a little breathing space—though the air was still thin—and I kept going.

  I noticed a difference, a slight change in the air—the cloying damp smell not sitting so heavily in my nostrils and the back of my throat. I was also able to breathe more easily, as though there was more oxygen in the atmosphere.

  Slowing down, I frowned. Could I make out the walls surrounding me? I couldn’t say there was light coming in from anywhere, but I was sure I wasn’t surrounded by the total black of before.

  My heart picked up pace again, but for a different reason this time. I moved faster, ignoring the pain and my numb limbs. The possibility of this all being over made me giddy with joy. I kept commando crawling, moving arm over arm, pushing with my toes and knees. I could barely feel anything in my extremities, but I didn’t care. I’d deal with whatever damage had been done when I got out of here. I was pretty sure you couldn’t get frostbite just from being cold.

  I felt a breeze against my skin, and then realized when I looked ahead I could see a change. It wasn’t rock anymore, or nothingness. It was the outside world. The reason I hadn’t spotted a bright light was because it was night time.

  “Oh, thank God.”

  It had been years since I’d last cried, but the relief of knowing I’d soon be out of these damned tunnels caused a painful lump to ball in my throat. I choked it back, forcing myself not to give in to emotion. Emotion made me weak. I couldn’t afford to be weak, not now. Not when I was so close to freedom.

  I reached the end of the tunnel and tumbled out, splashing into a small body of water, too small to be considered a lake, more like a pool. The water was freezing, and I was soaked through. My whole body shook, but I couldn’t stop now. I pulled myself to the edge of the bank and up onto dry land.

  I fell onto my back, staring up at the pinpricks of stars which peeped and winked at me beyond the swaying branches of the trees. I couldn’t believe I’d done it. A huge part of me had thought that wasn’t going to end well, though I hadn’t allowed myself to believe it fully in the moment.

  My body shook violently. The night was cold and I was wet. I had nothing to change into, but I knew if I lay there much longer I’d end up dying of hypothermia. I couldn’t allow that to happen when I’d gone through so much to get here. I had to get up and start moving around; it was my only choice.

  I remembered my plan of reaching the main road and intercepting X before he made it to Giovanni. Problem was, I had no idea whatsoever which direction the main road was in. Perhaps if I knew more about navigation, I’d have been able to figure it out from the position of the moon and stars, or what side of the tree the moss grew on, but I was a city girl and knew nothing about that kind of thing.

  Struggling to my feet, I stood, holding my wet hair out of my face. I turned a slow circle, trying to figure out which direction I should head in next.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  X

  An expanse of trees stretched away from us on both sides of the road. In the daylight, they would have been beautiful—a myriad of orange, yellows, and reds—but in the dark looked like the black of an endless ocean. We hadn’t seen another vehicle for a while. This part of the Catskill Mountains appeared to b
e more remote than the area around the cabin where Vee and I had stayed, and there certainly didn’t look like there were any signs of civilization nearby.

  We approached the turnoff as directed in the instructions Giovanni had texted to the disposable cell phone. He had no way of knowing when I would arrive with his money—I could still be in New York trying to get my hands on such a vast amount, for all he knew. In order to be certain he’d be there when I arrived, he must be staying at the location, which meant he was also keeping Vee there.

  Aware that continuing much farther may alert Giovanni to our presence, I turned down the road, and then signaled to pull over. I drove the truck off the side of the road, and bumped and jolted across the rougher terrain, before parking it between some trees.

  Mickey Five Fingers followed suit, pulling his Mercedes in behind me. I climbed out, followed by Large, and so did everyone from the Merc, including Nicole. I hoped Mickey didn’t think we were taking her any farther. She’d be a liability. I couldn’t watch out for her at the same time as trying to get Vee back.

  I turned my attention from Vee’s sister to her father.

  “Whatever the hell this place is that Bianchi is keeping Verity, we should find it another fifteen minutes down this road.”

  “Okay. We’ll go on foot from here. You follow in the truck with the money.” He nodded over to Little, who walked to the trunk of the Mercedes, popped open the trunk, and took out the case containing the other half of Giovanni’s money. He brought it over to me and placed it at my feet.

  Mickey Five Fingers wasn’t done. “If anything happens between here and there—such as you conveniently remember this is all a setup and you and my daughter have lured me here under false pretenses—please know that I will track you down and kill you both, and let Verity know I’ll take out whatever plans I had for her on her precious sister.”

  There was no point in trying to convince Mickey that wasn’t what was going on here. He’d believe whatever he wanted to believe. I glanced over at Nicole. She was standing with her head down. She hadn’t even reacted to what her father had just said. Had he drugged her? Was that the reason she was acting so complacent? This Nicole certainly wasn’t the same girl I’d witnessed back-chatting her sister, and wasn’t the same girl who would go to a mafia don behind her sister’s back while they’d been in Witness Protection.

  I couldn’t speak to her with her father right there, though. And I needed to concentrate on Vee.

  I made sure my weapon was concealed, but within easy access in the waistband of my jeans. I wished I had a second weapon in case Giovanni searched me right away, but I didn’t think Mickey was about to hand one of his guns over to me.

  Would he just shoot me as soon as we had Vee back? I wouldn’t put it past him. I had to remember that getting Vee out of Giovanni’s clutches was my main goal here. I’d have to deal with what happened later.

  I picked up the case and took it over to my truck, placing it on the floor of the passenger side so it sat beside the case I brought myself.

  “We’ll go on foot from here,” Mickey said. “I assume it will be obvious when we hit our location. There doesn’t seem to be much else around here. We’ll stay close to this track, but keep out of view. Give us fifteen minutes so we can get into position then follow in the truck.”

  “What about me?”

  The female voice made us all turn in surprise. It was the first time I’d heard her speak.

  “Get back in the car,” Mickey told Nicole. “Lock the doors.”

  I frowned. “Is that a good idea? She might not be safe.” I didn’t want her coming with us, but I didn’t like the idea of her being left here alone either.

  “We’ll kill the bad guys,” he said, and I wondered what his point of moral reference was if he considered himself the good guy. “And you’re not going anywhere, are you, sweetheart?”

  Nicole shook her head and turned to go back to the car.

  Mickey nodded to his two men. He turned to me in a final warning. “Don’t make me regret this.”

  I couldn’t say anything to that. I hoped he would end up regretting ever seeing my face.

  I watched them vanish between the trees, disappearing like ghosts. Within a minute, I couldn’t even hear the crack of their footsteps as they crunched fallen leaves and twigs underfoot.

  Waiting until they were out of earshot, I turned to the Mercedes which Nicole had shut herself inside of. My fingers slipped under the door handle and I pulled, but she’d done as her father had asked and locked it. She sat on the back seat, with her face turned away from me.

  I rapped on the window with my knuckles.

  “Hey, Nicole. Open up. I need to talk to you.”

  She turned her face toward me and shook her head, before looking down at her hands in her lap. Her fingers knotted anxiously together. She must have realized she’d be in trouble if her father came back and found her talking to me.

  Had her father completely destroyed her spirit? I hated to think how Vee would react when I told her, and I would have to tell her, assuming we both lived through this. How Nicole was now was what Vee had been afraid of. She’d known her father would do this to her sister. That was what she’s been trying to protect her from all this time.

  “Nickie,” I tried again, using the nickname her sister had always used for her. “Listen to me. You can take some of this money and get the hell out of here. Your father is going to be preoccupied for a while. Just take some cash and run. Vee and I will come and find you when things are safe again.”

  The girl continued to look at her hands in her lap, her hair falling over her face. Was she frightened we wouldn’t make it, and then her father would punish her even more? I couldn’t read her mind, but this didn’t look like a young woman who planned on going anywhere.

  I exhaled a sigh and straightened from the window. I didn’t have time to waste convincing Nicole to leave. She was eighteen years old, and I couldn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to. It seemed her father had a monopoly on that.

  Had fifteen minutes gone by?

  I checked the clock on the cell phone. Almost.

  I turned from the car and walked back to my truck. I hoped Mickey and his men had gotten into a good position, surrounding the place where Vee was being held. I tried to ignore the swirling of nerves in my stomach. I wasn’t nervous for myself. The worry came from how I would find Vee, and what would happen afterward.

  Figuring I’d given Mickey and his men enough time, I started the truck again and pulled it back onto the road, leaving the Merc containing Vee’s sister where it was.

  I drove slowly, not edging much above ten miles an hour, staying alert for any movement in the trees on either side of the road. It was fully dark now, though the sky was cloudless, and the moon joined the headlights of the truck to guide the way. On both sides of the road, however, the depth of the foliage blocked out the moon and left only pockets of darkness and shadows.

  I’d reached the end of the lane, tires crunching on stones, leaves, and twigs as I stopped the truck, but left the engine running. The headlights illuminated a cabin with a rickety porch attached to the front. I frowned. This certainly didn’t look like the sort of place that would hold someone like Vee. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but this hadn’t been it. It looked like I could give the walls a good shove and they’d topple over.

  The three little pigs came to mind—a house built with sticks.

  I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in…

  I couldn’t see any sign of Mickey and the other two men, but the light from the truck’s headlights had alerted whoever was inside the cabin, as the front door swung open.

  Giovanni emerged, a couple of guys with him. What was with these mafia bosses? It was as though they couldn’t stand to go anywhere unless they had a couple of bodyguards following them around.

  I wanted to jam my foot down on the accelerator and run the son-of-a-bitch down. Nothing would ha
ve given me more satisfaction than feeling his body bounce off the hood, followed by the bump and crunch of his bones under the wheels. But though he had a couple of guys with him, I didn’t see Vee anywhere. He might have her hidden, and if I killed him now, I might never find out where she was.

  I stopped the truck’s engine, but left the lights on. While I was concerned about returning to a flat battery, I didn’t want to face Giovanni in near darkness. I was also aware that Mickey Five Fingers, and Little and Large, were also lurking nearby, and the more they could see, the better. That was until we got Vee back, of course, then it would be every man for himself.

  Deciding to leave the cases of money where they were for the moment, I climbed out of the truck. I left the door open, in case I needed to make a speedy exit, and rounded the front of the vehicle. Standing in front of the headlamps, I knew my position put me at an advantage. Giovanni and his cronies had to squint into the light, and I most likely appeared more as a dark silhouette than anything defined.

  Giovanni stepped forward. “You were faster than I thought you’d be. I hope you managed to get all of my money.”

  I didn’t answer him. “Where’s Vee?”

  “She’s here.”

  “You hurt her,” I snarled. “I should tear off your fucking face for doing that to her.”

  “Now, now, X. I had to make a point.”

  “You didn’t have to do anything. Her being gone was point enough.”

  He laughed. “Okay, so maybe I enjoyed it a little as well.”

  I growled at him, actually growled in anger. My palms itched, wanting to pull my weapon and shoot the fucker in the face. I didn’t care about the money, but the thought of him hurting Vee made me want to kill him in all sorts of violent ways. “You’d better not have done anything else to her!”

  “Like I said, she’s safe. Now, where’s my money?”

  “You don’t get it until I see Vee. Then we do a straight swap. Try anything, and people are going to end up dead.”

  “I don’t want the girl, X. I only want what you owe me.”