Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) (47 page)

THEY’D ONLY BEEN driving a short time when the metal dividing panel slid open, and the man sitting shotgun next to the driver dropped the handcuff keys through the mesh wire.

Black fumbled for them on the van’s metal floor, then used them to unlock every chain on his wrists and ankles.

“There’s clothes, under the bench,” the same man grunted, motioning towards the left side of the van. “Leather bag. They said they brought things that should fit you, Mr. Black. I was told to tell you that everything in that bag is yours, if you want it.”

Black frowned, seeking out the bag with his eyes. He held onto the wall as he made his way back there, then dragged the bag out from under the padded bench.

Inside, he found clothes, shoes, an envelope with a few thousand dollars in it, two large bottles of water, a road map of Louisiana, a bag of dried peaches, a bag of beef jerky, a smaller bottle filled with apple juice, and a compass.

He dealt with the clothes first, stripping off every piece of the prison gear he wore and putting on flannel boxers and a pair of jeans, both of which might have been his. They were definitely brands he had in his closet in San Francisco, and they fit, which wasn’t easy with his height. He didn’t let his mind dwell on that for long, however.

Pulling a dark red T-shirt over his head and down his chest, he crouched down to rummage around the bottom of the bag a second time and found his watch, the same military watch he’d worn since it had been gifted to him over ten years earlier.

Snapping it back on his wrist, he sat on the bench, frowning.

Strangely, the clothes made him feel the most normal he had since this whole thing started.

After he put on socks and the brand new running shoes, he turned his attention to the food. Deciding to go with the apple juice first, he cracked the seal and downed half of it without taking a breath. Lowering it briefly, he called out to the two men through the open panel.

“Where are we going?” he said. “Can you tell me that much?”

Neither of the two men answered him.

Black drank down the second half of the bottle in a matter of seconds, then reached for the beef jerky. After he ate through all the food and drank one of the bottles of water, he laid down on the bench, closing his eyes.

He must have dozed off.

“HEY! BLACK! WAKE the fuck up!”
 

The voice jarred him out of a dreamless sleep, bringing him violently up to a seated position. He stared through that open metal panel, feeling a coil of sickness in his gut when he recognized the twin faces staring at him through the metal mesh.

The truck had stopped.

It was completely dark out, that blackness visible through the windshield behind the men’s heads, and Black could hear cars going by, fast, a lot of them, so they had to be near a highway or a freeway.

“Door’s open,” the guy sitting shotgun said, his voice grim. “You’re free to go, Mr. Black. I recommend walking to the truck stop... about a mile north of here.”

“Where the fuck am I?” Black growled.

The man just gave him a flat-eyed stare.

Realizing he didn’t care, Black climbed to his feet. He grabbed the envelope with the money and the map, sticking both in the back of his pants under the shirt, and walked to the back door. When he hit down the bar to open it, it stuck for a few seconds, just long enough to get his heart hammering again. He leaned more of his weight on it, and jerked down on the bar again.

...and it opened.

Black nearly fell out onto the ground when it did. He managed to catch himself well enough to land on his feet, mostly by catching hold of the hanging door.

Once he was standing more or less upright, he shut the door behind him.

Immediately, the truck screeched away, the back wheels spinning on the gravel as it peeled out into the road. Black saw the back end of the van fishtail as it hit the asphalt.

He couldn’t feel the men inside the truck, but something told him they were afraid of him.

For the first time in awhile, it occurred to him that they should be.

Only then did he look around.

He was standing on the side of a freeway.

Lights flashed by him as he raised his arm, looking in both directions. From the stars he could barely see, high in the dome of sky above him, he determined north was straight ahead.

He began to walk.

Twenty-Five

THE LONG JOURNEY HOME

I SAW HIM first.

I kept staring in that direction as we sat in the lot, although I didn’t think about why, or even really notice I was doing it. When the lone form walked into the circle of light emitted by a tall, parking lot pole, I grabbed Dex’s shoulder through the open window between the back and the front of the limousine, gripping him hard.

“There,” I said, pointing.

He was so small from that distance, I couldn’t be sure, but I
was
sure.

I knew it was him.

My heart pounded painfully in my chest.

Dex was already starting the car. Putting it in gear, he didn’t wait, or even glance at Kiko, who sat in the passenger seat next to him. I hadn’t let anyone else come with us. I couldn’t handle the thought of anyone else being there if he never appeared.

Dex did probably forty across that parking lot towards the lone figure walking towards us. By the time we were close enough that I could see his face, I couldn’t breathe. I gripped the separator between the two sections of the car and I fought with the scream that wanted to come out of my chest. I was still staring at him, fighting the emotions crashing over me, when Kiko squeezed my arm.

“It’s okay, doc,” she said softly. “He looks like he’s okay.”

“He’s lost weight,” Dex muttered, adjusting the wheel to bring the car closer as they closed the distance. “...A lot of it.”

“He looks fine,” Kiko said to him, her voice warning.

“We need to take him to a doctor,” Dex said.

“We
will
, Dexter. Now hush.”

I barely heard either of them. I was looking over every inch of Black as he walked, from the way he held his body to the slowness of his gait. He looked exhausted to me. Pale, angry, and exhausted. And like Dex said, he’d lost weight. Too much weight.

Biting my lip, I stared at him through the glass as we pulled up next to him.

I saw him see me, too. As soon as he did, his eyes widened.

Then relief flooded over his expression, so visible it brought my heart to my throat all over again. Something about that relief didn’t seem aimed at himself, for being “rescued,” or even a relief that we’d found him. It seemed aimed at me, at the fact of seeing me alive.

When the car came to a stop, all three of us opened our doors.

But Black shocked me. He held up a hand, his voice rising to a near-shout.

“No!” he said. He pointed at the back door, the one I’d been coming out of, the one I now stood behind. “No, goddamn it! Get back in the
fucking
car, Miriam.”

I stared at him, feeling myself pale. I didn’t speak.

“Get back in the car. Now, Miriam! I mean it! Shut the fucking door!”

I did as he said, moving mechanically, my mind utterly blank. Sitting back on the leather seat in the back of the car, I shut the door.

I could still hear them through the glass. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, either.

Black’s face contorted into an angry scowl, unlike anything I’d ever seen on him before. As soon as the door closed behind me, he turned on Dex.

“What the
fuck
has been going on?” he snarled. “I gave you
one fucking job
if anything ever happened to me... one job! That was to protect her. Protect
her
. What the
fuck
have you been doing? Because you sure as hell haven’t been doing that...”

Dex and Kiko stared at him, both of them pale.

Dex stepped slightly in front of Kiko, almost like he was shielding her.

“Boss, you told us Dr. Fox was in charge when you weren’t there...” When Black started to speak, Dex spoke over him calmly, holding up a hand. “You said
Miriam
was in charge. That
she
called the shots. Remember? You told all of us that, that you’d changed the company structure, that the two of you were business partners now...”

“She’s not my fucking business partner!” Black’s eyes flashed as he took a step towards the other man, causing Dex to step back. “She’s my
wife
. Do you get that? She’s my goddamned
wife
. You let my
wife
run an op against these motherfucking assholes? The same ones that got the drop on me? What is the matter with you?”

“She was
looking
for you––”

“Bullshit!” Black snapped. “He said they made some kind of deal. He said he made a
deal
with my goddamned wife... he told me how
hot
she looked in person, so I know they had at least one face-to-face. What the fuck did you do? Stand around and serve fucking
tea
while she sat in a room with that piece of shit?”

“Mr. Black, please.” Kiko stepped out from behind Dex, holding up her hands. “Please hear us on this. Miriam was only trying to––”

“Excuse me?” Black turned on her, his arms flexed, his fists clenched. “I’m not talking to my wife right now. I’m talking to
you.
I should fire both of your asses right now... do you hear me? I can’t believe I ever trusted either of you!”

At that, my jaw hardened. Feeling my resolve harden too, I slid over abruptly on the leather seat and popped open the door. Standing up, I gripped the car door without getting out from behind it.

“Black,” I said angrily. “You’re not firing them. Either of them.”

“Get back in the fucking car, Miriam! I’ll talk to you in a minute.”

“Black!” I raised my voice louder. “You’re not fucking
firing
them, do you hear me? I won’t allow it. Now get in the goddamned car.”

“Get away from me right now, Miriam! I’m not asking again! This has nothing to do with you, so stay the
fuck
out of it––”

“Hey.” Dex’s face turned bright red, even as he held up a hand to Black, his voice shaking with a low anger. “You can’t talk to her that way, Mr. Black. I mean it. You have no fucking idea what she’s been going through these past few weeks...”

Black turned on him, his gold eyes flashing under the street lights.