Flawed (The Mercenary Series Book 3) Page 14

  “So go and get her.”

  He turned around and nodded to one of his guys. I wanted to go with him, but I needed to stay and guard the money. If Giovanni took it, I’d have nothing left to get Vee back with, and he’d have no reason to give her back to me.

  The man vanished inside the cabin. So they did have her locked up inside that rickety thing. Maybe they’d tied her up, or she was unconscious.

  Giovanni and I eyeballed each other, and we waited for his goon to return. Every muscle in my body was tense, my senses on overdrive. I wondered where Mickey and his men were. Were they watching this whole thing? At what point would Vee’s father decide to act? I was worried, at some point in the very near future, Mickey Five Fingers would become a bigger problem for me than Giovanni Bianchi.

  The man Giovanni had sent in to get Vee burst out of the cabin, breathing hard. “She’s gone!”

  Giovanni spun around, facing him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Exactly what I said. I checked, but she’s not there.”

  “Impossible. We’ve had someone on the door the whole time since her last little attempt at escape. You just didn’t look hard enough.”

  “I did. I swear, boss. She’s not there.”

  My brows drew down in a frown of confusion, my mind swimming. I hadn’t expected things to take this turn of events. Was this some kind of trick?

  “If you’re pulling a fast one,” I warned Giovanni, “don’t think for a second that I’m going to let you get away with it.”

  He scowled at me. “I’m not. She’ll be there. She must be hiding.”

  I was unsure how to proceed. Should I go and look with him? Was Mickey hearing all this?

  “I’m going to look,” said Giovanni. “Don’t move.”

  His men stood in his place. I waited, thrown by their obvious confusion. Giovanni vanished inside the cabin, and all I could do was stand and wait for him. I glanced back at the truck, hoping to spot the cases, irrationally worried someone might have sneaked up behind me and stolen them out from under my nose. This whole thing was putting me on edge. Giovanni’s men watched me, and I noted both of them were armed.

  Movement came at the door of the cabin, and Giovanni walked out, shaking his head and frowning. My stomach sank. This wasn’t going to go to plan.

  “He’s right. I don’t know what to say. But she’s gone.”

  “Gone?” I snapped. “Gone where?”

  “I have no idea, I swear. She was locked in, and I had Dean here watching over her.” He turned to the man who’d apparently been on guard. “Did you do something? Did she talk you into letting her out?”

  He lifted both hands in defense. “I didn’t, I swear I didn’t.”

  “What did she offer you, huh? Money, sex? Did she suck your cock and so you let her out?”

  “Hey!” I yelled, not liking how he was talking about her.

  The man, Dean, was looking panicky. “Honestly, boss. I didn’t do a thing. I didn’t—”

  But Giovanni didn’t let him get any farther. He lifted his gun and shot Dean in the head. The man’s words cut off and he flew backward, hitting the rickety porch, and crashing through the banisters.

  “You can’t get the staff these days,” Giovanni muttered.

  His other guy was staring at the body of his friend, clearly wondering if the same thing was about to happen to him.

  I drew my own weapon and aimed it at Giovanni. “Tell me where Vee is.”

  He noticed the gun. He still had his own in his hand. His sidekick lifted his own weapon and pointed it at me. I was outnumbered, but what was I supposed to do? Had Vee managed to escape, and we had never needed to go through this farce of trying to have her released? If that was the case, why hadn’t she tried to contact me? I still had my original cell phone in the glove compartment of the truck. She could have called me on it to let me know she was safe. I couldn’t imagine that she would just take off and forget about me. She must have known I would be coming to try to rescue her.

  No, Vee wouldn’t do that. She loved me and would have done everything she could to stop me walking into danger. I couldn’t fall for Giovanni’s bullshit. Something must have happened. Giovanni was lying.

  “I already told you, I don’t know.”

  “You’re not getting your hands on this money until I find out.”

  Giovanni looked at me, and then between the two weapons aimed at me. “I’m not sure you’re going to have much of a say in the matter.”

  From behind him, Mickey stepped out from the bushes. He lifted his weapon and calmly shot Giovanni’s other man, who slumped to the ground. I hoped he wasn’t about to shoot Giovanni as well. We still didn’t know what had happened to Vee.

  “This is a fucking joke,” Mickey said to me. “I hope you didn’t have anything to do with this cock-up.”

  I stared at him. “Do you really think I do this kind of thing for fun?”

  Giovanni stared at the new arrivals, and then down at his dead men. “Who the hell are these people? I told you to come alone!”

  I pointed my gun again. “And I told you I wanted Vee back, but you’ve somehow managed to lose her. Looks like neither of us stuck to our side of the bargain.”

  “I didn’t lose her. She’s escaped.”

  “Bullshit. She escaped from a locked room and none of you noticed? How stupid do you think I am? What happened? Did you accidentally kill her, and you thought I would fall for some stupid lie? Did she die from blood loss after you cut off her finger?” Grief and rage were soaring through me in equal measures; I could feel myself close to losing it. To going mad with loss and shooting every man here.

  But I had to know what had happened to Vee.

  Mickey moved around to stand in Giovanni’s eye line. “You’re not getting your hands on my money if you don’t have what you promised in return.”

  Giovanni squinted at him. “I know you, don’t I?”

  “Mickey Five Fingers. I run Brooklyn.”

  Giovanni nodded. “That’s right.”

  “And do you also know that the girl you took is my oldest daughter?”

  He laughed, but it sounded full of bravado. “Yes, she may have mentioned that fact to me. Last I heard, the two of you weren’t getting on so well, though. I almost thought you’d be thanking me for taking care of her. Or was it the knowledge that you’re going to be a grandfather that suddenly made you change your mind about her?”

  My heart sank. He knew about Vee being pregnant, and now so did her father. It was a rare occurrence to see Mickey Five Fingers lost for words, but this was one of them. He turned to me. “Is this correct, X? Verity is going to have a baby?”

  I nodded, wondering which direction this conversation was going to take.

  “And does that mean we should also be congratulating you?” he continued.

  “I think considering the circumstances, any congratulations should probably be saved for after we find Vee safe and well.”

  “Yes, I guess so.” He exhaled a breath. “Well, that was news I didn’t see coming. A grandfather, huh?”

  I didn’t say a word. Considering how he’d treated his daughters, I would die before I let him anywhere near the baby after it was born, and I figured Vee would feel the same way.

  Mickey turned his attention back to Giovanni. “Now, where is my daughter?”

  Giovanni shook his head. “I told you, I don’t know.”

  I’d had enough. I lifted my gun and stormed forward to stand directly in front of him. I jammed the weapon between Giovanni’s eyes. Mickey reached out and relieved him of his gun. We were unlikely allies, but for the moment, we both wanted the same thing.

  “Tell me where Vee is,” I demanded.

  He’d lost his cocky attitude. He shoulders rounded in, his stance shrinking. “I told you. I don’t know, I swear. She was right there.”

  “If you don’t know, there’s no reason for you to stay alive.”

  I pulled the trigger, and
the shot cracked around the forest, sending roosting birds crashing from the tree tops and into the night sky.

  Giovanni’s legs buckled beneath him and he toppled to the forest floor. The bullet hole was a smart circle in the middle of his forehead, stippling from the gunpowder around the entrance. The back of his skull was a different matter—most of it missing, blood and brain matter shiny and glinting in the truck’s headlights.

  Mickey stepped back and looked down on him. “Let’s hope he wasn’t just holding out on information.”

  “He wasn’t. We need to go and see where he was holding her.”

  Perhaps I should have been watching my back with Mickey right behind me, armed and obviously willing to kill, as was I, but I was too focused on figuring out what had happened to Vee. Was what Giovanni said true? Had she really escaped without them noticing?

  The man called Dean, who Giovanni had shot, had been carrying a flashlight. He’d dropped it when he’d been killed, but the light had remained on. I stooped and snatched it up as I walk by, wiping the couple of drops of blood on the handle off on my jeans.

  The cabin was basic—a couple of bedrooms leading off the main living area and there was one bathroom that had seen better days. None of the rooms had locks on the doors, except for the bathroom, but that had a window Vee could easily have broken in order to escape, yet the glass was still intact.

  “Hey, look here.” I hadn’t noticed a smaller door directly opposite the front entrance. It was slightly ajar, but there was both a lock, with the key poking out of it, and a bolt across the top. “I’ll put any money on this being where he was keeping her.”

  “How about two hundred grand?” Mickey said.

  “Yeah, that would about do it.”

  I pulled open the door and shined the flashlight into the space beyond. A wooden flight of stairs looked like it led down into a cellar. At first glance, it appeared to be a normal cellar—though I thought it unusual to have one in a cabin like this—but then I realize it wasn’t all it seemed.

  My foot found the first tread of the stairs, and I began to descend. The temperature dropped immediately and the rising stink of damp and earth greeted me. Was this really where Vee had been kept for the past twelve hours, or however long it had been now?

  “Vee?” I called out, thinking she might have just been hiding from Giovanni’s men. “It’s me. I’m here now. Everything’s okay.” I wasn’t about to start telling her that I also had her father with me. I had no idea how that little nugget of information was going to go down.

  I listened for a response, but none came.

  Had she really gotten out of this place, with a locked door and someone standing guard? It was crazy. There must have been a mistake. I took in more of the cellar, using the beam from the flashlight to guide the way. I was also aware Mickey could slam that bolt shut right now and lock me in here, and take the cases of money which I’d abandoned outside, but he didn’t. That made me think he wanted to find Vee almost as much as I did.

  The flashlight illuminated more of the space. I frowned and reached out to touch the walls. About halfway into the cellar, the cinder block walls vanished, replaced by jagged gray rock. What I was seeing sank in. The cabin had been built above a natural underground cave. The cellarhad been created to take advantage of what nature had provided. I wondered what it had been used for—smuggling in the olden days? A speakeasy during the Prohibition era? An underground railroad stop for escaped slaves in the 19th century, perhaps?

  “Vee?” I called again, thinking she might still be unsure and hiding in a nook or cranny somewhere. I listened hard, my ears straining. I hoped I’d be able to hear her breathing or a shift of a footstep, or even her heartbeat.

  Instead, I heard something different.

  Was that running water?

  I frowned and listened again, stepping closer in the direction I thought it was coming from. Yes, I was sure I could hear water, like a small brook was running close by.

  Mickey’s voice behind me made me jump. “What have you found?”

  “She isn’t here, that’s for sure. I think I’ve got something, though.”

  Maybe I shouldn’t be telling him, but I couldn’t see how I’d investigate in secret. Besides, if he gave up looking, he’d shoot me and take the money, and then Vee would be lost. It occurred to me that I could turn around and shoot him now, but if I did that, it would be one less person available to find Vee. Plus, Mickey’s men would rush in here and shoot me from the stairs. Despite Vee going missing, there was nowhere for a grown man to hide down here. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

  I got closer to where I thought I could hear the water coming from.

  Unsure, my brows drew together as my brain processed what I was seeing.

  There was a gap between the cellar floor and the cave wall. Between that gap, I could hear water running. I shined the flashlight down and spotted water about six feet below. It was far too narrow for any of us men to get down, but had Vee managed to slip down there?

  The possibility had me shaking my head, though I was filled with pride at her bravery. Crazy woman. She might be stuck underground somewhere now, or be hurt … unconscious, even.

  But somehow my instincts told me otherwise. I’d never met anyone like Vee before. If she was going to get out of this in one piece, she would have.

  Her father stepped in behind me. “You don’t think she managed to get down there?”

  “Got any other explanations of how she got out of here with a locked door and an armed man guarding it?”

  “She must be insane to have attempted that!”

  I resisted making a quip about it being hereditary.

  “Water always flows downhill,” I said instead. “So it must come out somewhere farther down the mountain. Verity knows that, which is why she’s taken her chances. I have no idea if she made it, but if she did, she’ll be wandering through the forest somewhere south of here, cold, wet and probably exhausted.”

  “So you’re saying we might find her wandering around the forest?”

  “Possibly, yes.”

  “And I’m guessing both of us want to be the one to find her first.”

  I held his gaze in the torchlight.

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “And the winner gets to keep her.”

  I didn’t like the idea of Vee being some kind of prize, but I could see the glint in his eye. Mickey Five Fingers was enjoying this, the thrill of the game, of the chase.

  I knew one thing—I had to find Vee before he did.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  V

  I ran.

  At least, I felt like I was running, but I probably wasn’t managing much more than a slow stagger. My legs felt like dead weights, and my feet dragged through the bed of dried fallen leaves. Body heat leached from my skin. I didn’t think I’d ever felt so cold in my life, though I kept telling myself it was a good thing. Feeling cold meant I was still alive, and hypothermia hadn’t set in. I was sure I’d read how a person started to feel warm again once they’d started to suffer with hypothermia. I also knew I had to keep moving. Moving was keeping my body temperature up, even though I was exhausted. If I sat down to rest, it would be the death of me.

  My breath rasped in and out of my lungs, and my passage through the forest sounded like something huge crashing about. I was making a lot of noise, but even so, I tried to listen out for any sign of human life. In particular, I longed to hear the roar of a car engine, however distant, so I knew I’d be heading toward a road. As long as I had a road to follow, I would be found eventually.

  It occurred to me that I should have tried to find another stream or river to follow. At least that would have been a good point of guidance. Right now, I could be stumbling around in circles, and I wouldn’t have known any different. In the moonlight, every part of the forest looked the same. It was all tall trees reaching into the sky, and vast shadows pooled beneath. Occasionally, I passed a familiar bou
lder or fallen tree trunk, and would have sworn I’d passed it already, but there were more than one rock and tree stump in this forest, and, in the dark, I had no way of knowing if it was the same one I’d just seen.

  I tried to keep the moon on my left hand side, but it kept moving. Each time I entered a denser patch of forest, I’d lose sight of it for fifteen minutes or more, and when I emerged again, it would be on the wrong side of me.

  How long did I have until morning? Would things be any clearer then? Would I be able to keep moving that long? My legs ached, my hips hurting. My hand still throbbed, but that had merged with all the other pains in my body, feeling less distinct. I made myself think about X, picturing his face in my mind, the intensity of his blue eyes when he looked at me, how it felt to have his strong arms wrapped around me. He was what was keeping me alive. I couldn’t bring myself to think about the baby. After everything I’d been through, I found it hard to believe it was still alive. Picturing the future I’d been dreaming of only twenty-four hours ago—of me, X, and our child together—might only lead to heartbreak now, and I would be devastated to learn I had lost the pregnancy. But if I had X, if we both survived, we could still have a future.

  We could try again.

  I just had to keep moving.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  X

  I turned and ran back up the stairs from the cellar, taking them two at a time, and burst out of the cabin’s front door and onto the porch. I didn’t bother to explain what was happening to Little and Large waiting outside, Mickey could do that. He was close behind me, but, being older, was moving slower. Ignoring the fallen bodies on the ground and across the porch, I ran for the truck.

  The headlights on the truck were still on, so I paused long enough to snatch the keys from the ignition. The front of the cabin plunged into darkness, and yells of annoyance came from Mickey’s men. The two cases containing two hundred thousand dollars in cash still sat on the floor of the truck, but I couldn’t worry about them now. I didn’t care if they were gone when I got back, as long as I had Vee with me when I did.