Blind Trust (26 page)

Chapter 26

HAL TRIED TO fight the rising nausea as the room came back into
focus. Somewhere nearby he could hear screams and gunfire. Had he left the TV
on? When had he fallen asleep? Reaching out to fumble for the controls, he
frowned when he felt something warm and gooey cover his hand. The bed was rock
hard like he was on the floor. Wait . . .

The realization sent a jolt through him, which only caused the
nausea to erupt and he retched. He heard a man laughing at him.

“Hal!” he heard Marie plead. “Hal, please get up . . . please.”

The man bellowed in another language.

Hal heard Marie scream and thud to the floor. He found his
strength from somewhere deep and crawled over to her. Her cheek was bleeding
and it shot rage into every part of his body. “You sick—”

The gun pointed at his head stopped him in his tracks.

More firing continued, the guy had two guns. How did he have two?

“Take the woman.” He sneered down at Hal.
“Unlock the door
. . . now.”

Hal fumbled for his keys, seeing the blood coating his fingers as
he looked down. Panic hammered its way through him until he saw Brad Jewel’s
lifeless body on the floor.

“
Allez!
”

Hal pulled Marie with him toward the front door, using the cover
of the firing to whisper to her.

“At the back of the cells is another stairway . . . it’ll take you
to the second floor,” he said, making a show of searching for the key. “There’s
a fire exit . . .”

“I won’t leave you,” she said, gripping his face. “I won’t.”

Hal felt something warm fill him like he’d downed a shot of
whiskey. He felt fuzzy. More gunshots snapped him out of the daze.

“You have to,” he said. “Marie . . . for me.”

“
Allez, allez!
”

Hal glared in the direction of the manic gunman. He recognized him
as the man that Aeron’s friend had shot but other than that, he had no idea why
or what his deal was.

“Any longer and I shoot her!”

The threat sent a shudder down Hal’s spine and he jammed the key
into the lock. The door swung open.

“Inside . . .
maintenant
!” The gunman shut the door behind
them, pulled Marie into his grip, and held the gun to her head. “Activate the
lockdown. Do it. Then take me to your prisoner.”

Hal snapped the door security bar in place and led them down the
corridor, past the desk, and through the back offices to the cells. The man
discarded a gun—
his
gun.

“In the cell.”

“Which one?”

The man laughed. “
Her
cell.”

Hal shivered at the sound of the intent in the man’s voice. He
looked at the fire extinguisher on the wall—

“One move. I pull the trigger.”

Hal was shoved hard from behind and fell into the bars. His feet
and legs felt unresponsive, feeble, he could just about focus. The stairs were
too far away for Marie to run without risking the gunman shooting her. He
opened the cell door and the gunman motioned for him and Marie to go inside the
cell. The gunman stepped in after them.

Serena sat on the cot, staring straight ahead, not hearing, not
seeing.

“Lock her to the bars.”

Hal took hold of Marie’s hands and, under the scrutiny of the
gunman’s glare, he had no choice but to do as told.


“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll get you
out, I swear it.”

The gunman laughed. “You will not be so lucky.”

He motioned with the gun for Hal to go to the opposite side of the
cell next to the washbasin.

“Move and I shoot her.”

“You sound like you’ll do that anyway.”

The gunman smiled. “Ah, but you will have to watch her bleed.”

He pulled the trigger.

Hal felt his left ankle explode in agony. He toppled onto the
floor as the tears blurred his vision. The pain and pressure inside his
pounding head made him retch again. Marie was screaming but the room faded in
and out until he registered the metal bedpost hitting his chin as the room went
black.

I WAS THANKFUL I brought my gloves as I tried for the third time
to grip hold of the ledge above me. The metalwork was so cold that it felt like
it would sear my fingertips off, even through the thick padding. I had a jacket
on but the snow was falling thick and fast. The wind had whipped up and it
danced around my shivering self. I looked around the alleyway for something
that would help but there was nothing but white mush.

“Need another layer,” I muttered.

I was half ready to take my t-shirt off to use until I remembered
that I had a hanky. Nan had instilled one odd quirk and that was carrying
hankies. It wasn’t much but it would do.

I wrapped the cotton around my stronger right hand and leapt for
the ledge once more. The cold still jabbed through like blades but I hoisted up
my body weight and clambered up the rest of the way. Thank cotton for Ursula
Franken-Frei and her punishments. No way I’d have been able to lift my
considerable frame up that far before boot camp.

After smacking my elbow on the framework, I scrambled over to the
door and looked at the keypad. Then I glanced down at the empty alley. The fire
escape swayed in a gust of wind and I held onto the wall and tried not to think
about the whole thing crashing to the ground. Logic would state that the
engineering would keep the structure in place and safe but I was feeling
anything but logical.

I punched in the code McKinley had given me. The door released and
I clambered inside. My jaw clattered and chattered as I shivered and quivered,
trying to calm my shuddering breath as I headed down the corridor. I had to get
a handle on my body. Yannick could probably hear my teeth from here.

I stopped and closed my eyes. I focused my energy on warmth and
felt the cold slowly seeping out of my body as my temperature and my breathing
returned to normal. Renee needed me calm, focused.

My experiences back in Oppidum had taught me a lot. One of those
things was rushing head long into a lunatic’s clutches was going to do nobody
no good.

Eyes still closed, I felt Renee’s presence somewhere below. It was
faint, much more so than the last time I had been in the station. I was losing
her. I swore I was going to keel over with the pain that gripped my heart. I
couldn’t lose her.

“I’m comin’, Renee,” I whispered. “Just hold on.”

I got to the stairway and something in me told me to stop. It
wasn’t a vision or a sense . . . it was just like I
knew
I had to.
Yannick would be down those stairs, I couldn’t see what danger was down there.
Walking into a hail of bullets was not gonna help nobody.

Think, think!
What had Franken-Frei said to do in this kind of position?
Come
on . . .

“What can you use to make the invisible seen?” I mumbled. Frei had
meant mirrors or something, I was sure, but bar from ripping them from a toilet
stall, I didn’t have any such devices to hand. I grinned. I had something
better.

“Nan,” I whispered. “You there?”

The gust announced her arrival.
“What’s up, Shorty . . . Your
grandpa is on the ropes, he’s got no chance so I—”
Her voice cut off as she
took in the sight of me and, I guessed, the situation.
“What you need?”

“Can you see what’s going on down there?” I whispered. “Renee is
in the cell but I don’t know where Yannick is.”

“Now, Shorty,”
Nan said.
“You know that you shouldn’t mess with—”

“It’s Renee,” I cut in. “If you don’t help me, I’m gonna go
tearing down them stairs anyhow.”

Nan’s sigh made the hair on my arms stand up and dance as the
breeze tickled them.
“Guess you got your mother’s knack for blackmail.”

I felt her leave me and wondered if I should go and look for the
ammunition cache that McKinley had mentioned. It was one step too far for me. I
wasn’t cut out to fire nothing.

“The creep is in there,”
Nan said to me.
“There’s a fella with a bad head and leg,
kinda weedy, and a woman tied up to the bars.”

“And Renee?” I asked.

“
The woman looks unhurt pretty much but she got a shiner comin—”

“And Renee.” This time my voice was almost a growl. The panic
thudded around my body and a burning pain seared through my face. I gripped
hold of it, wondering what had hit me until I lifted my hands away and saw
nothing.

There was only one person I cared for enough to feel her pain.
“Renee!”

I didn’t care if Yannick had an Uzi, nothing was gonna stop me
getting to her.

YOU STROKE HER mousey blonde hair and trail a finger across her
cheek. Tess thinks that by hiding inside she can stop you finding her. Silly
girl to think that she could go anywhere without you. Does she not realize that
you own every inch of her?

The deputy stirs to your left. He will live until you pull her
from hiding. It’s no fun if she can’t witness your greatness.

“Hal . . . Hal . . . are you alive . . . please be alive.”

The woman tied to the bars has done nothing but whine and wail.

“Whining, crying, complaining . . . It is all that you do. You are
pathetic!”

She squirms as you flick the scalpel through the air.

“Silence!”

You turn back to Tess, your Tess. “You were so special to me. We
had so many good times, do you remember?” You hum the tune to her that was
playing. “The night we met she sang so sweetly, her voice so smooth.” You sing
the lines to her, knowing that she will hear it.

“My sweet love, you were more wonderful than anything in Paris
that night. Do you remember how I pursued you, how I gave you flowers and sang
our song beneath your window?”

You sing the tune once more but she does not respond and your rage
bubbles over.

“You told them I followed you!” The blade touches her cheek and
you slice into it.

“You lied!”

You slash her other cheek.

“You were meant to be mine.”

You cut her chin.

“You are mine.”

You stare down at her face, a mess, blood oozing from her gashes.
Serves her right.

“Hal . . .” The woman tied to the bars whimpers again. Has she no
intelligence?

“You won’t come to me,” you whisper to Tess. “I will make you
listen to her scream.”

With that you turn to the sobbing wench. She cowers as you walk
toward her.

CHARLIE SUCKED IN his breath as he hurried onto the station’s
portico, sliding in the blood on the concrete. Brad Jewel’s blood coated
everything and Charlie swallowed. At least it would have been quicker than the
doctor’s fate.

“James, where is he?”

McKinley’s frown lowered his already prominent brow. “In the
cells. Aeron has used the fire escape so I’m hoping she can cut down the back
stairs.”

“Aeron?” Charlie peeked through the glass. “She have a gun?”

McKinley shook his head. “He’s jammed the door too, can’t get it
open.”

Charlie walked to the fire extinguisher and took it off the wall.
McKinley stood aside, gun at the ready. Charlie took aim and slammed the metal
into the handle. It didn’t budge an inch.

“Again,” McKinley said.

Charlie tried but the handle was immovable. “Damn security door.”
He looked around. “What about one of the fire axes?”

McKinley shook his head. “Blast proof door.”

“What about the fire escape?”

“Not unless you can pull yourself up,” McKinley answered. His coat
was covered in dust. He had a nick on his right arm and his boots were covered
in Brad’s blood.

“Guess the glass took your bullets too.”

McKinley shrugged. “You said reinforcements . . . any idea on
ETA?”

Charlie shook his head. Lilia hadn’t mentioned when her people
would arrive but he prayed that it would be soon. All he and McKinley could do
now was wait. Wait and pray that Aeron could take on Yannick alone.

Chapter 27

URSULA FREI PUSHED the team’s pace as they hit the steep incline
that led into the little town. She could see the lights twinkling through the
thickening white all around them.

“You two, take the left flank.” Two of the men hurried ahead.

“Take five—seal the perimeter.”

Ursula switched to her radio link. It was useless outside a few
hundred yards in this forsaken storm but it would do to address the team for
now. “This is an SOS order, I repeat an SOS order.”

Her jaw flinched as she saw Ewan come toward her. She was not
explaining herself now.

“Ma’am,” he said, lowering his voice. “Shoot on sight?” He glanced
at the other CIG members. “You know what Lilia said after Oppidum.”

“Lilia isn’t here.” Ursula had issued the same order back in
Oppidum. Lilia had taken issue with it but Ursula stuck by her decision. It had
been the right one, the mess with Yannick proved it.

“Ma’am,” Ewan tried again. “You know our protocols. We start
dropping suspects, the government starts asking questions and they will pull
the op.”

“Yannick is a serial killer,” she snapped. “He has more kills under
his belt than you have years of service.”

Ewan flinched. She was reminding him of his inexperience and he
knew it.

“That guy has a gun, a knife, even his bare freaking hands and he
is going to use them.” She glared at Ewan. “So, if you see him,
drop
him.”

Ewan sucked in a breath. The guy had a heart of gold. He was a
damn fine agent and she liked him but there was no time for nice. No, nice,
legal, and neat had gotten Yannick locked up in a facility that he’d talked his
way out of. Nice had gotten five victims since his breakout and that was before
he got to this little town.

“These people don’t stand a chance,” she said, hoping that her
softened tone would ease the sting to Ewan’s ego. “There’s three civilian
police officers and that’s it.”

Three ready packaged victims.

“But they have Renee,” Ewan said.

Ursula swallowed the rising bile. None of the other CIG members
knew of Renee’s state or her past with Yannick Boucher. If they did, none of
them would hesitate to pull the trigger and that was why she had kept it from
them.

If they killed Yannick, she wanted it to be a clean kill, a simple
doing their duty. The minute the words “vengeance” and “justice” came into the
psyche, their days as a CIG member were numbered.

Lilia didn’t make exceptions to that rule.

As they approached the town, Ursula slowed and watched her men for
the all clear signal. It came in seconds, and she strode up the main street and
stopped outside the police station. Broken glass.

“In there.” The team regrouped around her. “You two, climb the
escape. Someone has popped that door and I don’t want him leaving by it.”

“Ma’am.”

“Ewan, you’re with me. Everyone else, eyes trained on this
building. No one in or out until I give the word.”

She didn’t wait for the response, but ran up the steps. Two
officers were hammering away at the blast door. “He in there?”

“Yes,” the older of the two answered, his receding hairline
glistened with sweat. She assumed he was the sheriff. “Aeron has gone through
the back. Deputy is in there, one woman and your agent.”

“Why can’t you override it?”

The younger man grunted. “He’s done something to the damn lock.”

Ursula looked at the bullet-proof glass, two bullets jutted out.

“He was standing behind it,” the younger man explained.

Ursula ignored him and looked at the bullet, something on the
other side was reflecting light onto it. A red LED. Typical. “Ewan, get
everyone back.”

“What?” the younger officer asked.

She gritted her teeth and turned to Ewan. Why did she need to
explain herself all the time? “IED on other side of the door.”

Ewan muttered a “Ma’am,” and tried to get the two officers to
leave. They wouldn’t.

“One of ours is in there,” the younger man said. “I’m the damn
sheriff . . . If I don’t at least try—”

“Sir, there is nothing you can do. We need to handle this from
here,” Ewan explained.

Ursula didn’t deal with people when she could help it. Instead,
she pulled a pack from a box in her pocket and started to check up and down the
walls with her hands.

“What is she doing?” the sheriff asked, fending off Ewan’s
restraint.

Ursula stopped where she knew the wall was structurally weak but
enough away from a supporting beam, and the rigged door. She attached the
plastic to the wall and set up the explosive’s detonator.

“Aeron isn’t armed,” she heard the older man say as she worked on
the wiring. “She only has a ski-jacket on.”

He sounded concerned. A part of her smiled at the fact Aeron had
gained respect here. The woman deserved a break.

“Let us handle this,” Ewan urged the two officers.

Ursula walked past them to the steps.

“Where is she going?” the sheriff asked.

Ursula simply held up the transmitter for them to see.

“Oh hell, she’s gonna blow the damn thing!”

The three men hurried to hide behind her.

“On three,” she said.

Ewan and the other men plugged their ears. “Read—”

“Three.” She hit the button and the wall exploded outwards.

YOU MARVEL AT the sight of her fear. The moment when a victim
realizes just how powerful and masterful you truly are. Her eyes are wide as
she pleads and begs with you. You motion to her face with the scalpel. “Time
for a remodel.”

“No . . . please . . . no.”

“Marie!”

The scalpel clatters to the floor. You’re shoved into the hard
iron bars. Your nose splits on them, blood gushes into your mouth. You turn and
thump the imbecile. He drops back to the floor where he belongs. You kick his
bloodied leg and laugh in his face as he grunts in pain.

“Pathetic . . . you think you could hurt me?”

You laugh again and grab the woman he is so obsessed with. Ah, so
she holds his heart.

“
C’est Parfait
,” you tell him. “You will not love her when I
have finished with her.”

“No.” He tries again and you smack him to the floor.

Tess murmurs and you leave the wretch and go to her side. Yes, she
could never resist the pain of others.

“That’s it, my love,” you tell her. “I will find you . . . you
will watch—”

“Aeron?”

Her voice so soft, so gentle, full of hope and affection. It
ignites fury in you. Never once did she sound so welcoming to you.

“Who is Aeron?” you demand.

“Aeron?” she mumbles again. “Aeron, please.”

You slap her torn features. “You are alone. Do you hear me. Always
alone. There is no one to save you!”

You slap her harder, the rage so vivid that your eyes blur from
it.

“Where is your Aeron now?” You sneer into her face. “Where is this
Aeron?”

You feel a hand on your shoulder. You turn to hit the deputy once
more but you are staring at a broad chest. Your gaze travels upwards, up, and
up, until you meet the ogre’s narrowed muddy eyes.

“That would be me.”

The last thing you see is her sizable fist speeding toward your
face.