No More Mr. Nice Guy (29 page)

It had been at least a day since I was kidnapped. The man who I'd obviously pissed off the first day hadn't shown up again, but I had figured out that there were two other men guarding me on a steady rotation, because their footsteps were different. Whoever these people were, I could only assume they were holding me hostage because they were trying to flush out Niles. Why else would I still be alive? The only time that I had ever kidnapped a person was to get to whoever pulled the strings. In this case, they were probably trying to get to the person that they thought killed Rodney.

I was sure that Niles—and, I would hope, the people from Dynamic Defense—were already searching for me. I just hoped Jonathan didn't fuck this up with his extravagant ego and incompetence.

The door opened and I heard footsteps, two sets to be exact.

“Take it off,” I heard one of them tell the other.

I felt someone touch my face then the sudden pain of the duct tape covering my eyes and eyebrows being ripped off.

It took me a few seconds to get past the pain and become accustomed to the light, but I still couldn't identify them, because they were wearing masks.

“Mmm! Mmmmm!” I tried to speak, but I was still gagged.

The door swung open, and I swear time stopped for a minute. I had to be dreaming—or maybe having a nightmare—because there was no way that what I was seeing could be real. His appearance left me feeling even more disoriented than I had been.

He moved across the room and took a seat directly across from me. I tried to squirm out of my seat, my eyes blazing with rage, but Jonathan simply smiled in that smug way I had seen way too many times.

“Why, hello, Bridget. I must say I'm really enjoying your predicament. You see, with you it's always been difficult to get a word in.”

“Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmm!” I struggled to get out all the motherfuckers, assholes, and limp-dicks I wanted to.

He laughed at me, enjoying this way too much. “I'm sorry, but I'm having kind of a hard time understanding you.”

“Mmmmm! Mmmmm!” I said in response. I didn't give a shit if I couldn't form the words. I was sure he knew exactly what I was saying to him.

“Oh, you want to know why you're here? Of course. Well, aside from you being a huge bitch who believes the world revolves around you . . . Oh, and aside from you thinking you are always the smartest person in the room. Yes, that can all be quite grating, but it's not those things. It's actually quite simple. Me and my guys have decided to expand our retirement funds.” He laughed, exchanging looks with the two masked men, who joined in.

“Mmmmm! Mmmmm!” In a perfect world, the roles would have been reversed, and I would have just shot him dead.

“You see, me and my team are sick of watching you and your golden boy get rich and take the glory while we get shit.”

Fucking asshole!
I couldn't say it out loud, but I sure was thinking it.

“Remember that case a few years back where you recovered almost five million dollars? Well, I removed more than a million, and guess who is going to take the fall for that?” he bragged.

“And that's not all. Now that your boy has taken down El Gato, we picked up even more. After your boy Niles did our dirty work, my men cleaned out his coffers and netted another fifteen million in cash. And guess who I linked it to? You!” he said, sounding almost gleeful. “I'm such a genius . . . but you wouldn't know that, would you, because you think you're the only smart one.”

He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “If you had really played things smart, though, you wouldn't be in this position right now, Bridget. When I dreamed up this whole plan, I thought you were going to be the woman by my side. I was going to cut you in on the whole thing. I was really in love with you, and I thought you were falling for me, too—until that pretty boy came along and you stopped giving up the goods to me.”

My eyes went wide as I came to the realization that not only was Jonathan a thief, but he was also fucking crazy.

“Don't give me that look,” he said. “You knew I would have done anything for you. But once you started fucking that rookie, your disloyalty needed to be punished.

“You know, you probably should never have opened that offshore account of yours, or at least you should have hidden it better. It was way too easy to find, and now that I've deposited a couple million in there, it was so easy to build a paper trail that makes it look like you are a low-down, dirty thief.”

“Mmmmmm!” I struggled against my restraints, wanting to break free and strangle him. After all the years of hard work I'd put in for the agency, I could not go out with my reputation shot to hell by this psycho.

“Ah, but I haven't even told you the best part yet.” He smiled, enjoying my panic. “You're sleeping with your operative, which makes him the perfect patsy to take the fall when they find your dead body. Crime of passion and all that. Remember, I did warn you that he had a bad temper. I'm thinking murder/suicide would be a nice touch. Us regular-looking guys don't need competition like Niles around anyway, you know what I mean?”

I struggled and failed to hold back tears at the mention of Niles, as I thought of the life I'd been envisioning for us—the life we wouldn't have if I couldn't get out of there. Jonathan must have seen my distress, and he had the balls to get up and kiss me on my forehead. Then he actually removed the gag and kissed my mouth before I could stop him.

My words came out in a rush. “You don't have to kill him, Jonathan. Just leave him out of this,” I said. “You and I can be together, and no one ever has to know about the money. We can disappear together.”

He frowned. “See, you really do think you're smarter than me, don't you? You expect me to believe that you want to be with me, but that you also want to save Niles's life? I like the old, cold-hearted Bridget better, the one who didn't give a fuck about anyone but herself. She would never have tried to save Niles. But this new Bridget wants to save Niles for only one reason: You're in love with him.” He spat the last few words like they tasted poisonous in his mouth.

Damn it! I had let my feelings speak for me, and it might have cost me dearly this time.

He turned to the other two guys, who had been standing behind him the whole time. “Oh, please. Will you take off those silly masks?” he said. “You might as well let her know who you are. She's never going to get the chance to tell anyone.”

At this point, I wasn't surprised at all when they removed the masks and I saw that it was Frank and Lance. I should have known that if anyone else from Dynamic Defense had been in on it with him, it would be those two.

“I'm going to kill you, Jonathan,” I growled at him.

“I doubt that,” he said, turning back to give Frank and Lance instructions. “Tomorrow, take her to the suite he keeps in Manhattan and kill her brutally. I'll take her boyfriend out right after I goad him into killing the director.” He started heading up the basement steps, stopping halfway to look down at me one more time. “This whole thing is working out like a dream. Tomorrow I'll take over the director's job, and from there we're going to be beyond rich. Thanks, Bridget.”

“I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you, Jonathan!” I screamed as he left. I didn't know how, but I would make good on that threat if it was the last thing I ever did.

By the time I headed out of Debra's house, Pooh was just pulling up in his Escalade, with Majestic in the passenger's seat. Eddie was there too, waiting in my Navigator. I jumped in the Nav and pulled out, with Pooh following behind me.

“How was the pussy?” Eddie asked as I drove down into the winding roads of Huntington.

“It was better than you'd expect.”

“So you not gonna hit it again?”

“Nah, man, I got what I needed from that old bitch. As far as I'm concerned, she's as good as dead,” I said with a smirk.

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, and Majestic feels the same way about her daughter, too. She back there at his crib with Li'l Frog guarding her until we get back. I don't know if he's gonna let her live this time, Bruce.”

I shrugged, not interested in talking about Keisha or her momma anymore. We rode the rest of the way in silence, until I pulled the Navigator in front of a relatively new colonial house set back on a quiet, tree-lined street.

“This where that motherfucker lives?” Pooh asked when he got out of his Escalade.

“Yeah,” I answered. “Right after I called you, I made a couple other calls. I talked to my man who works at PSEG, and he said the only electric account with the name Niles Monroe on Long Island was at this address.”

“Let's go,” Majestic said, coming up behind Pooh.

They followed me up to the front door, and I rang the bell. I knew we were at the right place when Keisha's BFF, Tanya, opened the door. The bitch hated me and Majestic so much she could barely fix her mouth into a smile whenever she saw us. Now she couldn't hide her disgust, or her shock.

“What are you doing here?”

Ignoring her, we pushed our way inside. She tried unsuccessfully to block our entrance as we fanned out across the living room. An older lady who was sitting on the couch watching television got all agitated when she saw us come in. She tried to stand up too quickly and fell back in her seat.

Tanya rushed over to her and grabbed her arm, trying to comfort her.

Majestic stepped toward them, and the old lady spoke.

“Oh my God, Tanya, I think it's the Incredible Hulk, 'cept he's not green.” She stared at him, bug-eyed.

“What are you doing here. Majestic?” Tanya asked.

“We're looking for someone.”

“Well, there's no one here but us,” she said, “so y'all can just go.”

I stepped forward and got up in her space. “Niles Monroe. Where the fuck is Niles Monroe?” I hissed in the kind of tone that should be answered immediately. Tanya's ass wanted to act all big and bad, though, so she refused to say anything. The old lady looked like she started to open her mouth to say something, but Tanya squeezed her arm real hard, until all she said was, “Ouch!”

“Yo, Bruce,” Majestic said. “Check this out.” He was holding up a framed picture he'd taken off the mantel. In the photograph was the lady who was here with Tanya, smiling next to a dude in a military uniform.

“You put that down right now!” the lady cried out. “I love that picture of me and my boy, so you need to take your dirty hands off it!”

Tanya hadn't shut her up fast enough this time, and now we knew something that might help us: This old broad was Niles Monroe's mother. She also seemed to be bat-shit crazy.

Majestic put the picture down and approached her slowly. “No problem, ma'am. I just wanna know where my friend is. You see, we were old Army buddies, and I just wanna know that he's doing okay.”

She tilted her head and stared at Majestic like she was trying to figure out if she should believe him. I thought we might actually be able to get his location out of this crazy lady, but Tanya tried to put a stop to the whole thing.

She stepped in front of Niles's mother to shield her. “Look, we don't want no trouble. Niles isn't here. Please, just leave. This isn't good for her.” Tanya, who stood there quaking in her boots, was begging us to stop scaring the old woman, who didn't look scared at all. In fact, she had a lot of fire left in her.

The old lady focused on me. “You are ugly, and God don't like ugly.”

Majestic started laughing. “You hear that, man? She called you ugly.”

“Shit, I always been ugly,” I said, stepping up to her, “but I would rather be ugly than be your son. God ain't gonna be able to help him.”

“Don't you touch my son, you ugly gorilla.” She was still feisty. “He ain't scared of you, none of you. If you know what's good for you, you won't be here when he gets home. He has a gun.”

Majestic turned to me, still laughing. “You hear that, man? Her son has a gun. Woooo!” I pretended to be shaking with fear for a minute, then he dropped the act and his voice turned deadly serious.

“Well, I have a gun too.” He pulled out a huge .44-caliber handgun, brandishing it right in her face.

This old bird was so fucking crazy that she stared down his gun like it was some kind of toy. “Judas!” she screamed at Majestic. By now, Pooh and Eddie had joined in on the laughter, but Majestic was no longer amused.

“And I plan on killing that piece of shit son of yours with this gun. Shoot him dead like a dog in the street.”

SLAP! That damn lady slapped him right across the face. You could have heard a piece of cotton hitting the carpet; that's how quiet it got up in that house.

“Lady, my momma don't hit me,” Majestic told her with pure hatred in his voice.

She was too dumb, or too crazy, to know who she was fucking with. “Maybe she should have. You look like you need some home training.” Then the old bat hauled off and slapped him again.

“Lorna, please!” Tanya jumped in front of the old lady again, desperate to protect her. She started to plead on her behalf. “Majestic, she's a sick lady. The doctor changed her medication and it's not strong enough. She don't know what she doing. The reason I'm here is because I'm her nurse and she needs her medication.”

Now, I could have told her that she was wasting her breath. After the first slap that lady didn't have a chance in hell, but I decided to stay quiet and let him handle it.

Majestic turned to the guys, who were still in shock after witnessing someone hit him and still be standing there breathing. “Put her in the car,” he ordered. “And tie up her goddamn arms.”

Eddie grabbed Lorna, who was kicking and screaming as he dragged her out of the house. Tanya tried to stop him, but Pooh snatched her up pretty quick, and held her so tight that the only thing she could do was scream out for the old lady.

“Lorna! No! Leave her alone!”

I motioned toward Tanya and asked Majestic, “What about her?”

He looked at her like she was less than nothing. “What about her? She don't have any value. In fact, she's useless. Not even worth a bullet.” With the quickness of a cat, Majestic grabbed Tanya by the neck. Pooh released her from his arms, and Majestic lifted her off the ground above his head. He tightened his grip, and she struggled wildly, trying her best to loosen his grip. Majestic squeezed his hands even harder, and her eyes began to bulge.

“Don't fight it, baby,” he whispered. “Just go to sleep. Go on and take you a dirt nap. Nobody's gonna miss you.”

Together we watched the life leave her body. Then he lowered her, and she slumped to the ground, dead. I did what I considered to be the right thing: I closed her eyes before we left.