Confer, Lorelei - Deadly Deception (Siren Publishing Classic) (26 page)

“Did you take care of Joe like I told you too?”

“Yes, sir, you don’t need to worry ’bout him no more.”

“Good. He was a no-good nobody from the start. I shoulda never hired him to do this job.” Then he shifted his attention back to Isabella. “I’ve got a big surprise for you, little lady, wait’ll you see.”

“What is it, Boss?” Sam asked.

“None of your goddamn business,” Spike said as he handed Sam a fat envelope. “I’m done with you.” He raised his hand, which had been holding a drink but now held a gun.

Isabella and Sam saw the little white pistol appear at the same time. Sam quickly pushed her away, and she fell. She heard a blast, heard Sam moan as he hit the floor and then silence.

She lost her breath as she hit the floor. She breathed deeply and opened her eyes to the red brick of the fireplace hearth. She cautiously sat up, looking over to where Sam had been standing. She saw Sam lying nearby on the floor, not moving. Expecting to hear Wyatt’s footsteps at any moment, she looked back at the door, but she only heard the labored breathing of Spike as he waddled toward her.

She looked around for somewhere to hide. She tried to crawl behind a nearby chair but couldn’t make it. Spike was on her like a rash, hauling her to her feet.

“Now for your surprise,” Spike said pointing a finger.

She followed Spike’s fat finger to a stairway leading to the second floor. Her knees buckled. She couldn’t breathe, her fear so great. Spike held her tighter so she wouldn’t crumple to the floor.

Chapter 46

“Michael,” she stuttered, “what, what are you doing here?” She stared in disbelief. She’d hoped to never see him again.

“Hello, baby. Wasn’t sure you’d remember me,” Michael said as he slowly ambled down the stairs with a drink in his hand. “Did you miss me? I missed you. I waited since high school to get you in my bed. Yeah, that’s right. If your old man hadn’t gotten in the way, I would have had my way with you then. I would have been your first. But no! Your old man had to mess everything up. Can you believe he had the balls to threaten me with statutory rape if I even came near your sweet little virgin ass? And he wouldn’t stop. He had the local cops dogging me day and night. So I had to take things into my own hands and kill him off. Yeah, that’s right.”

Isabella started to scream. “No, no, I can’t believe it. You killed my father? Why? What did he ever do to you? How could you do that?” Isabella struggled, trying to free herself from Spike’s strong grasp.

“He gave me no choice. He was in the way anyway. I couldn’t have you, so he had to die. I had to leave the country for a few years and lay low till my friends got it covered up real good, but then I came back and got you anyway. I finally got what I wanted.

“And then what’d you go and do? Move out and stiff me, that’s what you did. So now, it’s payback time for you. I’ve already paid all I’m going to pay for you. Especially after you ran off and left me with all the bills to pay just because me and Tiffany got a little thing going. So now I have some payback to replenish my coffers, so to speak. So when I got in touch with Spike, he agreed to help fix us both. I need money and you need to be taught a lesson.

“Spike and I go way back, actually met him in
Guatemala
, ain’t that right, Spike? And he’s paying me real good for someone like you, a real good-looking gal with big tits, that’s what he likes. And now you get to learn your lesson. You’re his, see. You belong to him. You’re his slave, all day and all night long. You do
what
he tells you,
when
he tells you, and you get to live. No options and there’s nowhere to hide from him either. See how your lily-white prissy ass likes that now.” He walked his way toward Spike and Isabella.

“Well, now that you’re both reacquainted, let’s wrap this up,” Spike spoke up, while still holding a trembling, speechless Isabella.

He picked up the fat envelope from the floor where it had dropped from Sam’s grip as he fell to the floor. He handed it to Michael.

“Here’s the money, just like we agreed. Now get out of here. I don’t want to hear from you again, ever,” Spike bellowed.

Michael made the mistake of looking in the envelope, leading Spike to believe Michael suspected Spike of foul play. Or thought he would cheat him out of his fair share, which, naturally, set Spike off into a murderous rage.

“Don’t worry. You won’t see me again. I’m headed to parts unknown,” Michael lamented.

Spike raised his arm, still holding the little white revolver, and took aim at Michael.

“Yes siree, Bob, you sure are.” Spike smiled as he pulled the trigger.

Michael groaned and fell in a heap to the floor. He didn’t move again.

Isabella’s teeth chattered as she shook. She could hardly breathe. She stood still, staring at where Michael had fallen, unable to move. Where the hell was Wyatt? Why hadn’t he come for her?

“Vancouver, Vancouver,” she yelled as loud as she could, until Spike slapped her hard across the face.

Spike roughly grabbed her arm to keep her from falling to the floor and started hauling her up the stairs. “Shut up, you bitch. Ain’t nobody gonna come runnin’ just cause you’re screamin’. I got Kid and Max at both doors, and they won’t allow anyone in unless I tell them, so you’re wasting your breath. Ain’t nobody gonna save you now.”

She kept waiting to hear running footsteps following them up the stairs but only heard the grunting and heavy panting of Spike dragging her along.

Filled with horror, a bitter taste of her blood in her mouth, she kicked with her legs and tried to grab hold of the stair railing with her feet and hands to forestall or at least slow his progress. But Spike overpowered her and dragged her up the stairs.

* * * *

Watching and listening in the car, Wyatt and Dave saw Spike shoot Sam, heard Isabella scream, and saw Sam fall to the floor.

Wyatt thought Isabella might be hit as well so pulled out his gun, ready to go in when Michael appeared on the screen.

“Stand down, everyone, I said stand down,” Wyatt said into the radio.

Wyatt and Dave watched, listened and waited as Michael admitted murdering her father and explained her destiny with Spike, how he and Spike had met, how he got paid, and what he had done for it. Ready to move in they saw Spike’s gun and heard the shot simultaneously.

Wyatt jumped out of the car and ran toward the house. Just the thought of that pig putting his hands on his Isabella made him sick. He had to get to her and get her the hell out of there. Then he would take care of Spike himself.

He heard Dave yelling for him to wait for backup and to not go in alone but it fell on deaf ears.

As Wyatt ran toward the house, he thought quickly. He had come alone. He hoped and prayed he would not be too late. He thought about where she might be? How badly was she frightened? Was she hurt? Had he touched her? He gave no thought to rules or regulations or for the safety of his own life, his only focus right now was on getting her back.

Dave put the team into action and quickly took off running after Wyatt. But Wyatt was out of sight already in the house.

A young kid stood inside the front door Wyatt flung open. He look at him, and Wyatt raised his fist, sending one blow to the jaw. The kid fell to the floor in a heap. His gun drawn and at the ready, he cautiously opened the inner door and looked around. He saw Sam lying on the floor, quickly ran to him checking for a pulse. He sighed with relief when he felt one. He had been shot in his left shoulder and would probably be okay after some recuperation.

“I’m okay, just go get her,” Sam mumbled.

“Just relax, Dave’s on his way. We’ll get you out of here, just hang in there a little bit longer,” Wyatt assured Sam.

Wyatt looked toward the stairs and saw Michael lying in a pool of blood. He walked over, checked his pulse, looked at Sam, and shook his head. Michael was dead.

When he heard Isabella screaming upstairs, he quickly stepped over Michael’s body and ran toward the sound of her voice.

Reaching the landing at the top of the stairs in record time, he stopped to listen, looking around at a set of double doors slightly to his left and two single doors to his right. He heard some shuffling and murmurs as if Spike had tied something or stuffed something into her mouth muffling her screams. He crept toward the double doors and pushed one open with the barrel of his gun. Wyatt saw red. His outrage burst through him and exploded like a firework on the Fourth of July.

Isabella was lying on a huge bed covered in white, on her side with a sock in her mouth, her hands tied behind her back. Spike lay half on top of her, trapping her between him and the bed. He had unzipped her jeans and pulled up her shirt and was rubbing his corpulent hands over her bare breasts.

Wyatt’s heart beat uncontrollably, and his breathing became erratic. His rage, unlike any he had ever felt, consumed his entire being. He had no control over his thoughts or his actions as he crossed the room in two strides to stand before Spike. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, he turned him around to face him with a strength he didn’t know he possessed. He punched Spike in the stomach. When he doubled over, Wyatt slammed his knee, with all his might, into his face. Spike fell backward onto the side of the bed Isabella had just vacated. Wyatt pulled Spike up by the front of his shirt and hit his face again, and again and again….

Someone was grabbing his arm and yelling, “Stop it, Wyatt, you’re going to kill him. Stop it.” Through the red fog in his mind, he recognized Dave’s voice and slowly began to relax and stood still. Spike slumped to the floor. Wyatt looked for Isabella, found her cowering in the corner of the room crying, and raced to her.

She was crying hysterically when he helped her sit on the bed and quickly untied her hands. She threw her arms around him, and he pulled her close. She sobbed openly leaving a wet trail along the front of his shirt.

“I tried to scream
Vancouver
, but he slapped me. What took you so long, Wyatt? I knew you would come, that you would keep me safe. I knew, but what took so long?”

He had found her. He had gotten to her in time. He didn’t want to let her go. He wanted to hold her forever. He didn’t want to leave her to complete all the endless paperwork.

Chapter 47

After a lengthy questioning session by numerous detectives, Isabella talked to her very happy and relieved mother.

“Isabella, your statement’s ready for your signature. You’ll need to be available for any further questioning and possibly for the trial. I hope that won’t be a problem, right?” Dave asked.

“Of course not, Dave, that’ll be the easy part.” She smiled.

“I’ll send Officer Nancy Collier in with it in a minute. Also, I made special arrangements for you to fly back to
Denver
right away. You could be home in about six or seven hours.”

“Can I see and talk to Wyatt before I leave, to say good-bye?”

“Well, since this was his operation, he has to file all the paperwork. He could be quite a while. But I’ll see if I can reach him for you.”

Isabella’s heart jumped into her throat. He had lied to her. He was still a cop.

“Just one more thing, Isabella. I know after all you’ve been through, this may be hard to believe, but you were really very lucky. The last case we worked, a woman a little older than you boarded a plane on her way to spend three months with her boyfriend’s family in his alleged hometown. Her boyfriend had lavished her with expensive gifts and had paid for her plane ticket. To her surprise, when she arrived at the airport, her ‘boyfriend,’ or trafficker as we call him, confiscated her identity, passport, driver’s license, social security card, credit cards, and even all her money. He locked her in a closet without any food or water for days before informing her that she would be working as a sex slave. She had been raped repeatedly, beaten, and threatened with death.”

“How did she get away?” Isabella asked, lips trembling.

“She finally got hold of a cell phone and called the police, and we were able to get to her when we raided the building.”

“How does that make me lucky?”

“You ran into Wyatt.” Dave left the room, closing the door behind him, and onto his search for female officer Nancy.

Chapter 48

Isabella watched the moving company transfer the last few pieces of her furniture into the truck to be taken to storage. With Michael out of the picture she had become very close to her mother again and had decided to stay with her for a few months, during the summer anyway. When school started in the fall, she would decide what she wanted to do then.

She and her mother, after enduring so many traumas separately, wanted the support each could lend the other, especially as the trial approached. When she explained her abduction to her supervisors at school, which didn’t take much since it had been leaked out to all the news media in the country, they were more than happy to offer her old job back. Wyatt had been right. Good things could come from bad experiences.

She had received a call from Dave last week and had found out the investigators determined Matthew Miles had legally dropped his last name of Terrell after Michael had been arrested numerous times. Michael had learned of the name change and had used the name Miles as one of his aliases, to his advantage, as well, and Matthew was in the clear after all.