Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 03 - Of Dark and Bright (20 page)

The negotiator’s voice was calm. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt in all this. That includes you and Mr. Russert.”

 

“I never said it was Mr. Russert,” Richard protested.

“No, you didn’t. But we’ve been listening for a while now. Not through the cell phone. Through the walls. As you said, we have some impressive equipment out here.”

“And we’ve got some impressive advantages in here. You may not care about my daughter, but… what the fuck?” There was a pause, and the indistinct sound of voices, and then Richard came back on the line. He sounded incredulous. “Bitch’s water just broke. Looks like it won’t be long before we have
three
hostages to play with.” Then the line went dead.

“The primary hostage is still Tatiana Kaminski,” Bill said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “She is the only innocent victim here, and she needs to be our priority.” He sounded like he was making a speech, trying to persuade people. But it didn’t look like he was doing a great job with Sam Dekay.

“We need to get the mother to a hospital,” he said. “Medical crisis trumps healthy victim.”

 

“How long’s she going to stay healthy with a psychopath holding a gun to her head?” Evan demanded.

 

“It’s his only grandkid,” Dan said softly, and Dekay turned to look at him.

 

“What?”

“Krista’s baby. That’s the only grandkid Richard’s got. Maybe the only one ever; I’m sure not likely to produce any. And he’s got a huge ego. He was a terrible father—couldn’t handle the day-to-day shit at all. But he liked the
idea
of it. He was always going on about how he could see things about himself in each of us. The good stuff only, of course.” Dan had a quick rush of uncertainty; he was in way over his head with all this, acting like he actually had a contribution to make. But Dekay was listening to him closely, and Dan forced himself to continue. “You could play it up that way. Even if he’s pissed at Krista, he still wants that baby to be healthy. Because it’s his grandkid, the next step in the line down from him.”

Dekay nodded slowly and looked over toward the negotiator. “You got that?” he asked. “Think you can work with it?” The negotiator nodded. “Yeah. I think I can.”

E
VANcouldn’t decide how to feel. Of course he wanted Dan’s sister to get out, and of course he wanted the baby to be safe. But Bill was right: Tatiana was the primary hostage here.
She
was the one they should all be focusing on. Instead, she was apparently forgotten as everyone bustled around trying to set up for Krista’s anticipated extraction. And Tat was lying in there on top of a felon with a gun held to her head.

The negotiator was working on Richard, but Evan wasn’t sure how it was going. It all seemed to come down to math for him. He wasn’t going to lose a hostage, no matter what. He said once there were three, they could talk about letting the baby go, but he wasn’t going to sit in there with only one person to protect him. Evan heard the negotiator offer to send in an officer to replace Krista, and hope flared until he heard Richard’s rough laugh. He had no intention of letting one of the enemy into his stronghold. The call ended on that note.

Evan wasn’t sure he could stand any more of this. He pulled the headphones off and strode ten steps away down the road, then stopped. He wanted to howl, to fight, to attack and tear and destroy. Thousands of years of instincts told him that was what he needed to do. He wasn’t sure he was civilized enough to ignore all that, to sit around and let the experts handle all of this while he just waited. He wondered what would happen if he just stormed toward the building. He’d push the agents out of the way, and they wouldn’t shoot him. He could shoulder the door open… and watch as the asshole holding onto his baby sister splattered her brains all over the wall. Jesus. This had to end.

He looked over to find Dan deep in conversation with the negotiator. That was weird. Dan was being useful, sure; the negotiator probably would have come up with the whole “remind him of his grandchild” line on his own, but Dan had sped things along. And he’d had a few other insights too. But nothing that seemed to justify the intensity of the conversation he was involved in right now. Then the negotiator handed his souped-up phone to Dan, and Evan realized there was more going on than he’d been aware of. He pulled his headphones onto his ears in time to hear the phone ringing, and then Richard’s gruff voice.

“You got a better offer?” he demanded.

“Yeah,” Dan said. His voice was quiet and confident, practically businesslike. “It’s Danny, Dick. I’m jealous of you spending all this quality time with your other kid, and I think it’s time for you and me to bond a little. I think you should send Krista out and let me come in instead.”

It felt like someone had thrown a bucket of icy water in Evan’s face. His entire body rejected what he’d just heard. He couldn’t think clearly, couldn’t respond with anything but a powerful, emotional
no way
. No way he was going to allow this. He already had one of the people he loved locked in the damn cabin; there was no way he was going to let another one go in. Krista could rot in hell, and if her baby had to join her, that was a loss Evan would accept. He would
not
risk Dan. He started toward the spot Dan where was standing, intent on ripping the phone out of his hands, but he was intercepted by Bill Albanese and a few others. Bill caught him in a tight grip and spoke directly into his ear, as if hoping the path to his brain would be shorter from there. “It’s not all about Krista,” Bill said furiously. “Dan’s fit and capable. We can’t get a cop in there, we can’t get one of our guys. But if the perp will accept Dan, we’ve got an in. We’ve got a better chance of getting Tat out safely.”

“No,” Evan growled. “Find another way.”
“We’re using
all
the ways,” Bill said firmly. He relaxed his body just a little as Evan stopped fighting him. “We’ll still negotiate. We’ll still try to make this work. But having someone inside to help— that could be huge.”

“Can they even do this?” Evan demanded. “The FBI? Can they trade people like this?”

“I think they’re bending the rules a little,” Bill acknowledged. “But the primary rule in hostage negotiations is ‘do what works’. So that’s the rule they’re trying to follow.”

Evan tried to listen to the conversation over the earphones. It sounded like Richard didn’t want Dan to go in, and Evan clung to that hope. Richard wouldn’t want him, Richard would say no.

Then Dan said, “Damn. I knew you were a shitty father and a general asshole, but I didn’t know you were a pussy too.” Evan couldn’t believe that Dan was taunting the man with the gun. He couldn’t believe the negotiator was letting him, was standing there watching as if he thought Dan was doing something other than being his infuriating self.

“Fuck you, boy. I’ll show you who’s a pussy.”

“Yeah, you’re a real man, holding a fucking gun on a teenage girl and your pregnant daughter. Whatever. You’re too much of a pussy to deal with your own son, even though he’s just a prissy cocksucker.”

“You are a mouthy little faggot.”

“And you’re a fucking pussy. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?” Evan wanted to shake Dan, wanted to cover his mouth and shut him up, but everyone else was listening as if they thought this was all acceptable.

“You think I’m
scared
of you?”

“I guess.” Dan sounded annoyingly nonchalant, every bit the insolent teenager he must have been the last time his father had seen him. “I can’t think of any other reason you wouldn’t make the trade. You could save your daughter and your grandkid, but you won’t. Why not, if you’re not scared of me?”

Richard’s laugh was ragged. “You really think this is going to work? You think you can fucking
dare
me to make the trade?”

“I don’t give a good goddamn if you make the trade, you worthless piece of shit. I just figured there’s some stuff I’d always wanted to say to you, and this seemed like as good a time as any.” Dan actually stretched his arms above his head, as if he were leaning back in a chair and taunting a parent. And his Texas drawl was sneaking back into his voice, making him sound even more infuriatingly relaxed and cocky. He brought the handset back down and said, “I figured it was a good time to make it clear to both of us that you’re fucking nothing. You couldn’t do right by us when we were kids, and you sure as hell ain’t doing right by Krista now. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I could see that.”

“Fuck you.” Richard sounded truly enraged. “Get your ass in here. We’ll make the goddamned trade.”

“Yeah, sure. Like you’re not going to pussy out on the deal. You can’t be trusted, can you? I mean… I don’t know. I’ll hand the phone over to the negotiator guy, and maybe he can figure out some way to make it work. But I doubt he can. He’s not a fucking magician, right? He can’t wave a wand and turn you into a stand-up guy.”

“I’ll send Krista out first,” Richard said. “As soon as I see you walking toward me, I’ll send her out. You come closer, and you strip the fuck down, because I don’t need them sending in wires or weapons or whatever the fuck else they can dream up, and then you come inside. I’ll have my gun on you the whole time, but the door will be open, so the cops will be able to see me. I shoot you, and the pigs will shoot me. And as much as you deserve a fucking beating, I’m not looking to get killed for shooting you.”

Dan still sounded nonchalant. “Yeah, okay. I mean, if the FBI says it’s okay, that works for me.” He handed the phone back to the negotiator and sauntered out of the clearing. Evan followed him around behind the nearest van, and he was there to catch him when Dan slumped against the side of the vehicle and turned gray.

“Jesus Christ, Danny,” Evan said. He kissed the top of Dan’s head, slid down to his face and kissed his lips, wrapped his arms around him and tried to hold him there, safe, forever. “What are you doing? You can’t go in there.”

Dan’s fingers were gripped tight around a handful of Evan’s shirt. “Yeah, I can. I’m the only one he’ll let in.” His free hand was shaking as he brought it to the back of Evan’s neck and pulled him down for a fierce kiss. “I can help. If I’m in there, I can get between… between whatever they do and Tat. I can try. Even if it’s just letting her see a friendly face, that’s important. But maybe I can do more. And it’s good to get Krista and the baby out.” He pulled away far enough so they could look into each other’s eyes. “I may have been a shitty brother, but that doesn’t have to keep going forever. I can change. I’ve changed other stuff, and I can change this too.”

“You’re not a bad brother,” Evan said. “It was a bad situation, and you got the hell out of it. You were a kid, younger than Tat is now. You did the right thing.”

“I brought this mess into your life,” Dan said. “If it wasn’t for me, you never would have met Krista, and none of this would have happened, and Tat would be safe.”

“No,” Evan started, but Dan cut him off, looking to the side where Sam Dekay was waiting impatiently.

“It’s going to be okay, Evan.” A quick kiss, and then Dan was stepping away. “And if it isn’t—tell Jeff that I love him, okay? And get him to tell you that I love you too.” Dan’s smile was only a little crooked, and then he pulled his shoulders back and straightened up. His face lost its desperate expression, although it stayed gray. He turned and started back toward the cabin, and all Evan could do was watch him go.

Chapter 16

D
AN tried to breathe deeply. It wasn’t easy. He was standing in the middle of the clearing in front of the cabin, stripping off his clothes as his father held a gun on him and his sister struggled down the stairs to the waiting paramedics. They slapped body armor on Krista as soon as she was close to them, but there was no protection for Dan. He could almost feel the bullet coming from the gun, could feel the way it would tear through his chest, destroying his heart and lungs and leaving a gaping hole in his back. Or maybe Dick would go for the headshot. Dan had no idea how good the guy’s aim was.

He pulled his shirt over his head and looked at Krista. He tried to burn the image into his memory. He wasn’t religious, but it was hard to believe that there was absolutely nothing after death, so he’d come up with his own little theory, one where the last moments of your life got stretched out and replayed over and over. Whatever you’d been feeling when you died was what you felt forever afterward. It was a doctrine that had tortured him ever since Justin’s death, thinking of Justin being confused and afraid and in pain forever. He’d told himself that there was no justification for the belief, no support whatsoever. But he’d never been able to shake it, not entirely, and now he found himself wanting to focus on Krista, wanting to make the sense of accomplishment he had from helping her be his forever-memory. He thought back to the kiss with Evan, tried to forget about the desperation and focus on the intensity, and he hoped there was enough room for him to repeat more than one memory. He pulled his boots off, and then his jeans, and he thought about Sunday mornings at Evan’s house, Evan, Jeff, and him curled around one another in that huge bed, and then shambling down to make breakfast with Tat. Yeah, if Dan had to repeat one memory forever, that would be a good one to choose.

He shoved his jeans down and stepped out of them, then looked up on the porch. “You want the full show?” he asked. “You wouldn’t be the first man to want to see it all… and you wouldn’t be the first man I’ve shown it to.”

“Get in here, you little faggot,” his father growled, and Dan left his clothes behind and stepped forward. He tried not to think about the wire woven through the waistband of his boxer briefs, tried to walk as if he wasn’t broadcasting every sound to the crowd outside.

He stepped inside the cabin and paused to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. But Dick wasn’t interested in giving him time. He kept Dan between himself and the door until he could get behind the heavy wood and slam it shut, pushing the bar down to lock it.

“That’s a fucking serious log you’re closing us in with,” Dan said. The agents had said to describe the interior as well as he could without being obvious about it. “You guys must have been planning this for a while, to get the place all set—”