Chasing Luck (20 page)

“This area is for authorized personnel only,” he says.

I nod and move away. “Wrong way I guess.” I shrug and walk in the opposite direction. I walk down to the next section and inside toward the seats. Malerie has to be somewhere nearby. I swing a leg over a rail and drop into the section below.

Sections are graduated and I’m able to look up and see the section above me and a box section above that. Five or six people stand at the front of seats in the box. My shoulders sag in relief at what I see. She’s here.

“Malerie,” I yell, but she doesn’t hear. She doesn’t look anywhere but straight ahead. I can see she’s looking around for something and I need to get her before she disappears into a crowd somewhere. It’s already noisy and the lights are dimming. I check my watch.

I grab hold of the edge above me, pull myself up to the bars and climb up into the next section. Two teenage girls gape at my intrusion, and then smile. There’s no way I can get Malerie’s attention because she doesn’t look down. Two young guys stand to her right.

“Hey, can you help me?” I ask the girls. To my left, a security guard has probably noticed my ascent up the railings as he is heading my way with a stern, unwavering stare.

The girls nod. “Sure,” they answer in unison.

“That girl above us? See the boys beside her? Can you get their attention so she’ll look down here?”

One of the girls who can’t be older than thirteen throws her tiny purse up to hit the guys above us. Not exactly what I had in mind. The purse hangs halfway into the box seat section and Miss Ingenuity follows it with a wolf whistle.

Again, I have to give the kid props.

Malerie glances at the guy beside her holding a purse, follows his gaze down, and
score
. She sees me. Shock blossoms on her face and she checks her phone. I know she’s looking at the time. She frantically shakes her head and motions for me to leave. I point at her and mouth, ‘You.’

A firm grip on my arm lets me know the security guard isn’t happy with my current position, hanging on the wrong side of the railing. He pulls me along the edge and through a gate to his side. I struggle to peer around him since I’ve lost sight of Malerie.

The guard, a guy with hand muscles like vice grips, pushes me into the outside corridor. “You can’t go through the seats like that again or I’ll have to throw you out.”

“Mal!”

She stands several yards away at another seating entrance. People mill around her but she doesn’t move.

“Why are you here?” Her voice breaks before she runs at me and shoves me. “You can’t be here.”

“I need to tell you something.”

“There’s not time.” She bites her lip. “Please.” Her voice breaks. “Oh please. If you care about me at all. Just go.”

I grab her arm and pull her up to me. “I more than care. I’m crazy about you. I should’ve told you last night. And if you think I’m letting you throw yourself in front of any bullets or into fires, you are out of your pretty head.”

I swing her up into my arms. She tears at my shirt. “Let me down. You don’t understand,” she sobs. “You don't know what’s going to happen. My mother died because of me. JT died. I can’t let you and all these people die. I know something is going to happen below that section, and I have to stop it. I saved people last night. And I didn’t run away and no one died. No one.”

“Sorry,” I say to the security guard walking up to me. “She hasn’t had her medication today.”

“Let me go, you asshat!”

The guard walks with me. “Are you going willingly with him, Miss?” the uniformed guard asks Malerie.

“See, sweetheart,” I say to Malerie in a calm, conversational tone, “this guy is going to arrest me if you don’t stop.”

“I’m going to strangle you.” Malerie kicks her feet.

“She’s threatening,” I add as the guard opens the outer exit doors for us. “I’m taking her out of here.” I push through the door and can see the guard is glad not to deal with us.

Collin stands outside. I set Malerie on her feet, and she promptly tries to free herself from my arms. She swings at my face and a blow glances off my cheek, cutting me with her nails or a ring.

“Hold on to the little MMA fighter. Might get her to your car. Something’s wrong in there.” I nod toward the building. “Meet me at the hotel,” I say to Malerie and put a finger under her chin. “You’d better be there.”

“You can’t do this. Stop,” Malerie screams and Collin winces.

“Yes, I can. I love you, Malerie,” I say and lean over to kiss her cheek. I barely miss a head butt. She begins to cry and kick Collin.

“Settle down, Malerie. People are going to get the wrong idea,” Collin says. “She loves you, too. That’s what she means to say, brother.” He smirks and almost loses his grip on her.

I look at them one last time, Collin visibly restraining Malerie and Malerie looking like she might put some major hurt on Collin before it’s over. I shake my head and re-enter the building through security once more.

The GPS coordinates lead me to a door underneath the box where Malerie stood minutes earlier. A guy in a security T-shirt stands in front of the door, and gives me a once over.

“Excuse me. Can you tell me the time?” I gauge the probability that the guy knows anything about what might happen tonight.

“I don’t have the time,” he answers without taking his gaze off me. I glance down and notice a black watch wristband. He’s sweating worse than I am.

I narrow my eyes, stand to his side like we’re old buddies, and wait for inspiration. If I knock him out, there’s a chance that either a) I’ve picked the wrong guy out of this prophecy henchman lineup or b) I’m right on target because this guy looks like he’s placing hundred-dollar bets with only a pair of fives.

“This is a secured area. You’ll have to move along,” he says. “You can’t stand here.”

Fifteen minutes is not enough time to dick around in case this guy has a bomb or bullets or whatever doomsday device he’s brought. He gets more nervous every second. I need a full house of security guards. Pronto.

If it’s a bomb, I might need him conscious. I slam the guy into the door with such force, his head pops against it with a loud boom.

He blinks rapidly and his mouth drops into an oval-shaped angry grimace, teeth bared like a cornered animal. “You’d better move away from me.”

“What are you going to do about it?” My positive ID that he’s up to something manically crazy is reinforced when he doesn’t try to call for some help.

“Leave. Or I’ll shut your mouth. Permanently.”

Positive ID of a psycho. Security staff at concerts don’t threaten to dim your lights for good.

I draw my right arm back to fake a hook, drop it, and rotate my body with an uppercut to his jaw. He grunts loudly and falls back, only to shake it off and lunge forward. He slams a fist into my face. The impact jolts my balance, but I recover.

There’s the sound of shoes slapping against concrete as people run away from us.

He backs up and I’m surprised to see the gun he’s pulled while I blinked away the stun of his hit to my face. The black barrel of the semi-automatic points at me, steady as his unwavering eye contact.

I can handle beating this guy down, but I’m helpless with the gun pointed at me. My mouth goes dry and my brain tells me to get the gun out of his hands. Do it. Do it.

“Drop the gun,” yells a commanding voice in the periphery.

Will a cop put a bullet in this guy faster than he can blow my brains out? Maybe or maybe not.

The guy looks me straight in the eyes, and I know he’s going to pull the trigger because he doesn’t give a shit if he lives or dies. It’s not just me and this guy with his gun. He’s guarding that door for a reason. He has something bigger planned only minutes away.

He hasn’t shot me yet because he’s stalling.

I want him distracted for a second. Only for a second and I can get that gun out of my face. The bass
ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum
of my heartbeat booms in my head.

“You a Jelly Bean fan?”

His eyebrows move a fraction lower and I rush him, running straight forward like I’ve got a battering ram. We’re up against the door. With one hand on his shooting arm and my forearm pressing on his windpipe, I hope I’m stronger than he is.

I slam his wrist repeatedly against the door and the gun discharges. I hope no one was within range. Another hard slam.

The gun slings out of his fingers and two cops appear, pulling me away and taking the guy to the floor.

“He’s got something in the room. You’ve got to get into that room. Now.” I’m struggling to sound rational, but I know we’re almost out of time.

An officer opens the door, turns to a guy in a suit. “What’s in this room?”

The suit guy answers in a low voice and I can’t hear what he says. He types something into his cell and there’s a frenzy of activity.

The crazy guy on the floor is held down and cuffed. He turns his head to make eye contact with me and smiles. I’m being pulled away by a cop like I’m the bad guy.

Sirens sound as the cop escorts me outside.

We pass a guy with a buzz cut who looks like he eats nails with his Cheerios breakfast. I hear what he says into his cell. “Yeah. We’re evacuating.”

The crowd pours out of the concert area and the cop still has my arm. I wonder if he’s going to cuff me.

“I need to see some ID and I need to take you to the station for some questions.”

“You arresting me?” I ask even though it’s the least of my worries. Malerie isn’t inside the building and that’s all that matters.

“No.” He doesn't elaborate and takes the ID I pull out for him.

People herded out of the concert arena are unruly and upset. I stare at the building, waiting for some explosion of movie proportions.

Nothing happens.

The officer opens his car for me. Great. Nothing like the shitty feel of riding in the back of a cop car. At least I’m not cuffed. He gets into the front and calls in with my ID.

“Can I call my girlfriend? Let her know I’m okay?” I ask.

“Go ahead.”

I pull out my cell and speed dial Malerie.

“Ace.” She says my name in a breathy whisper before I can say anything. Her voice melts my bones. The girl could work a phone sex hotline.

“Wanted to tell you everything’s okay. You with Collin?”

“Yes. We’re still in the parking lot. He took my pass from me so I couldn’t get back in. But I wouldn’t leave you.”

I laugh at the image of the fight that must’ve been. “I’m going with a cop to answer some questions, but don’t worry. Go on to the hotel. Please, sweetheart. Let Collin take you, and I’ll be back at the room later. I promise.”

“Why are all the people coming out of the arena? What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you everything when I get to the room.” I don’t tell her that I need to get off the phone and call an attorney. Even innocent people can say the wrong thing in a police station, and the truth will have me turned over for a psych evaluation.

I’m distracted by the noise from the cop’s scanner as we pull out of the lot. Something big is going down here. I hear the words ‘bomb squad’ and know my hunch was right. He puts on his blue lights and drives around the line trying to exit the parking area.

“We’re both alive,” she states as if she can’t believe it.

My mind flashes back to that gun in my face.

“Ace?” Malerie’s sweet voice brings me back to her.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

I grin like an idiot in the back of the cop car. “You’d better, sweetheart. Because you are stuck with me.” I wait a beat, take a deep breath, and leave my fears behind. “I love you.”

“
T
he great divide
between truth and illusion is seldom clear.”~ Jelly Bean Queen

“
G
ood stuff
,” I say, sniffing Mal’s perfume and nibbling on her ear. “But I like how you smell all the time.” Malerie’s bed bounces when I inch closer and rub her shoulder.

The house is quiet. Malerie’s dog, Tom, lies across her bedroom threshold as a sentry. It’s a domestic heaven—far away from Chicago—and I feel lucky.

“Shh… I want to hear this part.” Her head is on my chest and she reaches up to grab the television remote control. “Did you know flax has some cyanide compounds?”

“You’re obsessed,” I grumble. The Chicago bomb squad discovered cyanide canisters in the room at the arena. Crazy man had planned a release of the poisonous gas into the ventilation that would have effectively killed thousands of concert goers.

The news reporters make me out to be a security expert and some kind of hero, an uncomfortable status to say the least. I only want to be Malerie’s hero. Since the reporters also dissect the life of the crazy guy, that puts my own fame in perspective. Me and crazy guy share news airtime.

I smooth one slick strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m going to check the system for the night.”

“I don’t know why you do that. There’re alarms.” Mal doesn’t look away from the television. “A lot of good a security system does if you have to constantly check it.”

“Doesn’t hurt.”

She watches television a lot now and I’m glad. In the past, she wouldn’t watch because she only saw tragedy and now she sees the world and events and people.

I walk downstairs to the monitoring panels I set up in the spare room. First though, a sandwich. I flick the kitchen lights on and dig through the refrigerator until I find turkey, cheese, and the brown mustard Gertrude makes from scratch.

I’d marry that woman if I didn’t plan on marrying Malerie someday.

I give Tom’s head a pat as he waits to see if I’ll share my snack with him. Both dogs rush from the kitchen to the front door. I pause. The sound of a turning key startles me and I slide the sandwich supplies onto the counter beside me, pull back into the shadows, and look around for a weapon. The alarm warning starts to beep.

“Malerie?” It’s only Billy and I exhale. I lean over to a hidden panel in the kitchen and press the door alarm code in to deactivate it.

“Hey, Billy. I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow and—”

“Hello, Ace. I’m glad you’re here.” Billy stands in the kitchen doorway looking very healthy and nothing like the last time I saw him in the hospital.

Tom and Jerry trot over to his side. The dogs stand at attention and look past Billy. “Stay,” he commands.

Tiny warning bells go off in my head. Two guys step into view behind Billy. Both wear black leather jackets, gloves, and guns.

“Ah fuck, Billy.” I’m frozen to the spot beside the refrigerator door. The alarm’s deactivated, and we’re screwed. I knew I didn’t trust him, and I’m thrown back to my revelation on the plane when Mal and I talked about her dogs. The dogs didn’t attack the shooter because they knew him.

Billy removes his gloves. “Making yourself at home?” He glances at the counter.

“Yeah. Late night snack.”

“Malerie upstairs? Are you tucking her in these days?”

I’m so angry, my hands vibrate with tension. “I can get you what you need. Leave her alone.”

“All her money is my money. And you may think it will be yours if you can be patient, but you’re wrong.”

“I don’t want her money.”

“I put some funds in your account, so that should help the authorities to see you’re just a grifter who was out for poor Malerie’s money. Of course, then you’ll kill her as well. The young are so greedy. Love doesn’t conquer all.”

My eye twitches. “You won’t get away with it. You’re on video and the feed goes to a hard drive not in the house,” I bluff.

Billy regards me with interest. “I’m sure you’ll give up the hard drive when Malerie begs us to stop hurting her.”

The anger I feel turns to fear that trickles ice cold down my body.

Billy nods as if he sees that the threat has called my bluff. “There’s one last thing I need. That box.”

“You mean the one JT gave her.”

“Yes, yes,” he says in an exasperated tone. “The combination to the safe in the basement has to be in the box he gave her. By the time I realized I needed it, she’d taken the gift bag from the closet.”

Can Billy be right? That JT’s only intention was to give Malerie a safe combination?

I take a step and his two henchmen step forward until Billy holds up a hand. He turns to the one at his right, a man with gray curly hair who’s built like Andre the Giant.

“Go fetch Malerie from upstairs.”

“I said to leave her alone.” I grab the jar of Gertrude’s mustard and sling it across the room, duck and run for the opposite door. Wood splinters in front of me as I make it through the kitchen’s second entrance and into the dining room. I don’t make it across the room before one of Billy’s guys tackles me like a linebacker. We crash into a cabinet of china and the noise is enough to wake anyone asleep within a mile radius.

Or to alert Malerie watching television upstairs in her room.

My breath comes in long draws and my chest heaves. It’s possible the guy has cracked my ribs.

I wince as I pull up to a sitting position. I roll the guy off my legs.

He’s not moving. “Hey Billy. Something’s up with your man in here.”

If Billy is walking up those stairs, I have to stop him.

Fear has a hold of my heart and jabs a bony finger inside. “Billy.” There’s only silence and I force myself to get to my feet. “Billy.”

I place one hand against the wall and push away, run up the stairs to Malerie’s room. Inside, Billy stands with the box in his hands. His goon grabs me by the shirt and presses his gun to my head.

“Why Billy? Malerie would’ve given you anything.”

“Hmm.” He makes a disgusted sound deep in his throat. “I don’t want what Miss Malerie thinks I deserve. She’s not right in the head, you know. Never has been.”

“What’s wrong with you, man? You’re the one who’s crazy.”

“Maybe I am. I’ve waited too long. I thought having you take the fall for killing Malerie would solve everything and then she ran into the woods. That entire thing put a strain on my heart. Almost killed me. That was real, you know.”

Billy looks down at the box and I slide a look over to Malerie’s closet door and the secret compartment from the dumb waiter built inside. She’s never tried it without me.

Oh, Mal. Please be locked up in the panic room.

Billy removes the lid from the top box. He flips the inside toward me. “Combination to the vault in the basement.” His smug smile makes me contemplate a suicidal lunge where my fists meet his face.

“Where is she?” Billy nods at his thug and he shoves me into the wall, slamming my head against it with a vicious thud.

I stare ahead at the wall. She can call for help inside that room and she’ll be okay as long as she doesn’t come out.

A siren sounds in the distance, but I know it’s coming this way.
Good girl.

Billy’s brow furrows. “Give me the gun.” He holds his hand out.

A deafening cacophony of sound fills my head and it takes a moment for me to realize what’s caused it. Malerie has set off every alarm in the system at once.

Billy’s thug takes the gun from my head and tosses it on Malerie’s bed. “You’re on your own,” he says and backs away. I realize he’s running down the hallway and leaving.

“He doesn’t trust you either,” I yell over the sound of the alarms.

I glance at the gun on the bed and know Billy is doing the same. I run at Billy and drive my fist into his side. Something heavy slams into my temple. Blood drizzles down into one of my eyes. I blink to clear my vision.

Someone loops an arm around my neck and pulls me back from Billy. A gun is at my head. It’s the guy from downstairs, not quite out for the count after all.

Billy picks up the gun on the bed and points it at me. “Too bad we’ll have to frame Malerie for your murder and not the other way around.” He screams to be heard over the pulse of the alarms. “Either way, it works.”

“Freeze. Put your weapon down.” An officer stands with his gun drawn. Billy narrows his eyes and the gun moves an inch to the right.

Pop.
Billy looks surprised for a beat before he slumps to the floor. The alarm stops and I stare at the dead man at my feet. Blood pools onto the floor.

I put my hands up to show the cop I’m unarmed. Detective James steps into the room and Malerie pushes around him. She runs into my arms and I wince.

“Easy. I think my ribs are cracked.”

“I heard the call on the scanner,” Detective James says. He looks around the room and shakes his head. “I’ve suspected Vandol. We discovered an email to a man connected with the killer who shot JT in the restaurant. I couldn’t get any solid evidence … until now.”

Malerie shoots me a confused look. “Billy sent someone to shoot JT?”

She eases her hold and looks at Billy, lying face down on the white carpet and turns to press her face into my shoulder. “I was so scared for you. Almost too scared to stick with the plan about the panic room.”

“But you trusted me. You did it, baby.” I laugh, a wheezy pained sound.

“Yeah, I trust you,” she says as she walks with me out the door of her room and past the officers. “Trust you with my life.”

I
rake
my fingers through my hair. “Mal. I’ve found something.”

Silence.

We’ve spent days going through Billy’s things in the house and packing things to be sent to his daughter. I read through the letter in my hand for the second time before going to the kitchen to find Malerie. When I do find her, she’s at the table sifting through a box of photos.

“It’s a letter from JT,” I say, handing it to her.

“To Billy?”

“No, the letter’s addressed to his attorney. It’s about giving you the combination to the vault on your eighteenth birthday. You’re supposed to go through some stuff in the vault and choose what you want and the rest goes to a museum. JT said it’s his legacy to you. There’s some stuff here about it being his life’s work.”

“Oh.” She shrugs, places it on the table, and hops up to sit beside it.

“The letter is dated from the day he got shot in the restaurant.” I caress her cheek. “You okay?”

“I don’t want all his stuff. I’d rather have him back.”

“I know. But to me … you must’ve have been pretty important for him to give this to you. The man calls it his legacy. He loved you, Mal. It was the best way he could show it.”

She blinks hard and inhales. “I know you’re right … it’s just … hard.”

I point at the letter still beside her. “You’re not going to even read it?”

“You can tell me what it says. I hate all that legal mumbo-jumbo.”

I huff an exasperated protest. “Baby, there’s an inventory list on page two that lists all these things at a value of $56.5 million.”

She shrugs and gives me a wide-eyed look.

The girl truly has no concept of money. Of how many people she could help with that kind of dough. I shake my head. “I know you want to see what JT left for you.”

“I don’t have a combination. He didn’t give me one.”

I scan the contents of the letter again. “JT says he changed the combination on your birthday to match something he planned to give you, something that he’d originally bought for your mother many years ago. But he never states exactly what the gift is. This explains why Billy wanted the boxes from JT. Maybe he knew the combination before that day, and then JT changed it. He must’ve been desperate to find that combo.”

“Those boxes weren’t about the vault. You still don’t believe Teddy’s dad knew what would happen? After all we’ve been through?”

Malerie picks up the letter and studies it. Suddenly her brow furrows, and she slides off the table. “Wait. That can’t be.”

“What?”

“I’m getting the boxes. I’ll be back in a second.”

She returns quickly and hands both the letter and boxes to me. “Look at the UNIX timestamp.”

“I’ve almost memorized these ten numbers.”

“The letter says it’s a ten-digit vault combination.”

“Let’s go check it out.” I’m across the room when I notice she’s not beside me. “Mal? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” She takes one step. “What’s the truth about all this, Ace? What do I believe?”

I cross the room, set the box down, and put my hands on the sides of her face. I kiss her beautiful mouth and reign in the overwhelming emotions that make me want to forget about going to the basement. There are a dozen better uses for our time.

I rest my forehead against hers and whisper my next words with a ferocity that comes from believing. “The truth is what happened to us. And maybe the truth is also JT’s legacy. The truth is I took this job to save you, but you saved me. Our future together—I don’t need to know any other truth.”