From Manhattan With Revenge Boxed Set (29 page)

CHAPTER TW
ENTY-NINE

“I see them,” Jake said.
 
“They’re coming around the corner.
 
Spocatti has his cell in his hand.
 
Now at his ear.”

Babe craned her head so it was closer to the passenger-side
window.
 
The street was dim but with
some effort, she could see them.
 
“He must be calling Katzev.”

“Likely.”

“To get inside.”

“Obviously.”

“I’m concerned about the alarm.”

“Everyone should be.”

“What do you think happened?”

He shrugged.
 
“I’ve
been forced out of the loop on this.
 
No idea.
 
I hope they can
handle it on their own.”

The clipped tone of Jake’s voice made Babe McAdoo turn to look
at him.
 
As dim as it was in the
car, she could see him watching Carmen and Spocatti intently.
 
Though his features were neutral, she
sensed anger brimming beneath he surface.
 
In her life, she’d dealt with too many men and women in this profession
to take that anger lightly.
 
He felt
slighted.
 
Could he contain those
feelings?
 
If not, what then?
 
She chose her words carefully.
 
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said.

“You don’t know what I feel, Babe.”

She offered nothing more.
 
Best to back off, though tension in the car was high.
 
She turned to the window and noticed
that Spocatti and Carmen were standing outside one of the garage doors.
 
Spocatti was on his cell, talking.
 
Carmen was a step behind him, looking up
and down the street, and also up at the windows of the buildings surrounding
them.
 
A sniper could be in one of
them.
 
Her hands were buried in her
jacket pockets, gripping her Glocks should she need them.

When the shrill of the alarm began to lessen, Babe rolled down
her window an inch and listened.
 
Earlier, she assumed it was just one alarm going off.
 
Instead, it was several alarms, which
now were being turned off one by one.
  

“Do you hear that?” Babe asked.
 
“I thought it was just the alarm for the
warehouse.
 
But listen.
 
A number of alarms are going off.
 
Or were going off.
 
Like car alarms.
 
He must have cars in there.”

When he replied, it was as if he was speaking to a child.
 
“That’s right, Babe.
 
They were car alarms.
 
If it had been an alarm for the
warehouse, knowing Katzev, it would have been silent and gone straight to the
syndicate, which would have deployed a small army comprised of those assassins
not considered end-of-cycle.
 
I
don’t know what set off the alarms or what’s happening in there now, but Katzev
obviously found his keys and is shutting them down now.”

He didn’t even try to conceal the chill in his voice.
 
She knew he was angry that he wasn’t
asked to join Carmen and Vincent since he himself had been targeted by the syndicate,
so she sat there, watching the warehouse, until the final alarm was
silenced.
 
After a moment, one of
the garage doors lifted and they were allowed inside an entrance that was in
pitch darkness.
 
She tried to see if
anyone was there to greet them, but it was too dark to see.
 
The garage door slid shut behind them
and they were gone.

“They’re in there now,” she said, more to herself than to
him.
 
She was worried for them.

“So, they are.”

“Why was it so dark?
 
What do you think will happen?”

“Who knows?”

Given his tone, he might as well have said, “Who cares?”
 
She decided to ignore it and stay on
track.
 
“So, we wait for Chloe.”

“Babe,” he said, as if he hadn’t heard her.
 
“Why do you suppose Spocatti didn’t want
me in there with them?
 
We’ve worked
together several times over the years.
 
He knows I’m more than competent.
 
He also knows the syndicate wants me dead.
 
Why would he cheat me of having my
moment to join Carmen in taking out Katzev?”

“Those are a lot of questions, Jake.
 
And I’m not Vincent.
 
I can’t answer for him.
 
But I know he supports you fully.
 
He knows you’ve joined us in helping to
bring down the syndicate.”

“He’s always been an arrogant son of a bitch,” Jake said,
ignoring her.
 
“Comes in on his
white horse and takes over.
 
How did
that happen?”

“It just happened.”

“But how?”

“People respect Vincent.
 
You know as well as I do that he’s the best.
 
Nobody is as good as he is.”

“According to whom?
 
Where did he get that reputation?”

He was starting to make her anxious.
 
“You know how good he is.
 
Everyone does.
 
He earned it.”

“Who decided he earned it?
 
Have I earned anything?
 
Why
do you put him on a pedestal like that?”

She turned to him.
 
“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m just looking for answers.”

“I’m giving you what I can, but I don’t have all of them.”

“Then, what good are you to me?”

Her right hand dropped to her side, where in her pocket was the
gun he gave her earlier.
 
But Babe
McAdoo was too late.
 
Jake pulled
his gun on her and pointed it at her face.
 
There was a silencer at the end of it.
 
He pressed the trigger just slightly and
a tiny red laser beam pierced the narrow distance between them.
 
It found its place in the center of her
forehead.
 
She stared openly at him
in shock.

“You’re in my way,” he said.
 

“I’m not—”

“You should be supporting me.”

“I do support you.”

“I should be in there.
 
They sent two men to kill me.
 
Katzev sent them.
 
One
probably would have killed me if he wasn’t run over by a truck.
 
Why should I be denied the right to see
him die?
 
Why shouldn’t I have a
hand in his death?
 
Why am I
considered so inferior that I can’t be part of this?
 
That wasn’t the deal.
 
I came in to be part of this.
 
I never expected to be some fucking
bystander.”

“You’re taking this too personally.”

“No, I’m not.”

Regardless of her quickening heart, she managed to keep her
voice steady.
 
“Here’s what’s
personal,” she said.
 
“You have a
gun held to my face.
 
A laser
shining on my forehead.
 
That’s as
personal as it gets.
 
Would you
please put that away?
 
I’m not
against you, Jake.
 
I told you.
 
I support you.”

“How do I know that?
 
You know what I look like, Babe.
 
On a whim, if you wanted to, you could identify me and turn me in.”

At that moment, she realized how little she knew about him
since she brought him in to surprise Carmen and assist her.
 
During their time together, he’d given
away practically nothing about himself, with the exception that Katzev had used
his men to try and kill him.
 
She’d
been so caught up in trying to help Carmen that she hadn’t paid much attention
to him or to his behavior.
 

“I know what many of you look like,” she said.
 
“I opened my home to you and offered you
safe haven from Katzev and the syndicate.
 
I agreed with you that Spocatti shut you out of this, which is why we’re
here now.
 
We’re doing something.
 
We’re waiting for Chloe.
 
We’re going to save her.
 
I’ve only ever helped all of you.”

“You sound desperate, Babe.”

“You haven’t lowered the gun.
 
I have good reason.”

“I think I’ll take care of this myself.
 
Starting with Spocatti.
 
I never liked him.
 
It’s time he knows that he’s not King
Shit around here.”

Her eyes filled with sorrow.
 
She knew what was coming and she knew
well enough that she was powerless to stop it.

“Jake,” she said.

“Shut up, Babe.”

“I would never betray you.”

“I don’t know you.
 
I don’t believe you.”

“I’m here for you,” she said.
 
“Please rethink this.
 
I’ve devoted twenty years of my life to
helping your people.”

“
My
people.
 
What does that mean?
 
That
I’m not a McAdoo?
 
That I’m not one
of
your
people?”

“That’s not what I meant at all.”

“I think it is what you meant.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Survival.”

Before she could lift her hands to protect herself, he fired
two shots into her face, her head slammed against the passenger-side window in
a bloody yellow smear, and Babe McAdoo of the famed McAdoo family, which was
long known and celebrated for its variety of seasonings, particularly during
the holiday season, when everyone seemed to use them, mostly for turkey or
roasted chicken, which were improved by them, was dead.

CHAPTER THI
RTY

Carmen and Vincent had their guns drawn and poised in front of
them the moment they saw that the warehouse was in darkness.
 

The door was opened manually.
 
Whoever opened and closed it hurried
away.
 
The room smelled of smoke and
something else Carmen couldn’t define.
 
A fire extinguisher?
 
Made
sense, only the reason it was used made no sense to her at all.
 
She scanned the darkness for
Chloe—for anyone—but she couldn’t see anything.
 

“We’ve been set-up,” she said to Spocatti.
 
“They could be wearing goggles.
 
Infrared.”

“Let me deal with this.”
 
He took a step forward.
 
“Turn on the lights, Katzev.
 
Don’t fuck with me.
 
You’ll
lose.
 
Turn them on now.”

At the rear of the room came a flicking sound followed by a
tiny flame igniting in the gloom.
 
Carmen squinted and could see the faint outline of Katzev’s face.
 
He held the lighter out in front of him,
which cast unflattering shadows upon his face.
 
She’d never seen him before, but this is
how she’d come to view him in her mind.
 
With the shadows curling around his jaw and beneath his eyes, he looked
demonic to her.
 
Evil.

“Settle down,” he said.
 
“We don’t have lights because Carmen’s girl shot the breaker box after
killing one of my men.
 
Nothing I
can do about it.
 
You’re lucky
there’s a manual override on that garage door so we could let you inside.”

“You’re telling me you have no emergency lighting in this
joint?
 
Bullshit,” Spocatti
said.
 
“I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it.
 
The
building is old, Vincent.
 
When she
set fire to one of my cars, even the sprinkler system didn’t work.
 
Otherwise, we’d be doused and the fire
and police departments would be here.”

Carmen processed the information quickly.
 
Somehow, Chloe got hold of a gun.
 
She killed one of Katzev’s men.
 
Probably shot several cars, which would
explain the sirens she heard earlier.
 
One of the bullets created a fire.
 
For a period of time, she had them all scrambling while she likely found
a place to hide.
 
Smart girl
,
she thought.
 
Reckless, but
smart.
 
Now, where are you?

“Where is Chloe?” Spocatti asked.

“No idea,” Katzev said.
 
He stepped forward and as he did, Carmen saw in the aura of light around
him that a man with a rifle was leaning over the hood of one of the cars.
 
The rifle was braced against his
shoulder and pointed at them.
 
“The
murdering little bitch disappeared.
 
She’s in here, somewhere.
 
And don’t worry about the lack of light.
 
I’ve got that covered.
 
It’s coming.”

“With more of your men?” Carmen asked.

“That’s how the light is getting here, Carmen.”

“Why do I feel that’s awfully convenient, Iver?”

He paused at the mention of his real name.
 
She could almost sense him bristling at
the sound of it.
 
That she’d even
dare to use it in his presence and in front of his men.
 
“Think what you want,” he said.
 
“But it’s your girl who created
this.
 
Now, it’s up to me to fix
it.
 
Otherwise, we’re all in the
dark.”

“Which is how I feel right now,” she said to Spocatti in a low
voice.

“Not that the lighting situation is difficult to fix,” Katzev
said, flicking off the cigarette lighter.
 
“Turn on the lights.”

In rapid succession, headlights from every car that hadn’t been
damaged by Chloe started to turn on in such a way that they raced from where
Spocatti and Carmen stood down to the very end of the warehouse, where Katzev
stood.
 

For a moment, Carmen couldn’t see anything—the headlights
were on high, which in the wake of the absolute darkness she was just in,
blinded her.
 
She held up her hand
to shield her eyes, and noticed that Spocatti simply stood there, squinting
into the light as he stared forward.

“What happened to just him and another guard?” she said to
him.
 
“We’re surrounded.”

Car doors opened and slammed shut.
 
Footsteps sounded on concrete.
 
Armed men walked around to the front of
each car in which they were sitting, guns and rifles now trained on her and
Spocatti.
 

They were being ambushed.
 
Why wasn’t Spocatti saying anything?
 
And where was Chloe?
 
Beneath one of the cars?
 
Probably.
 
Hopefully somewhere more discrete.
 
But regardless of where she was, in this
light, Carmen feared it wouldn’t be long before they found her and possibly
killed her given that she killed one of their men.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Katzev said.
 
“So many men.
 
But when your Chloe broke our deal, I
had no choice but to bring in all of my men to get things back on track.”

“She knew nothing about our deal.
 
How could she?
 
If she killed one of your men, it was
only because she was trying to save herself.”

“Murdering one of my men will only end with her own death.”

“No, it won’t, for reasons you and I have already
discussed.
 
With the exception of
you and your guard, which we agreed upon, I recommend that each of your men put
down their guns, shove them under the car they’re standing in front of and
leave immediately.
 
That was our
agreement.
 
Stick to it or there
will be consequences.”

But Katzev ignored him.
 
He started to walk forward, galvanized by the fact that he had at least
twenty of his own men guarding his back.
 
“Do you know why you’re here, Carmen?”

Due to the way the lights were shining, she could only see a
shadowy figure walking toward her.
 
She couldn’t see Katzev’s face.
 
He still was an enigma to her.

“I assume it has to do with Alex?” she said.
 
“Whom you murdered.”

“And for good reason,” Katzev said.
 
“Alex was a rogue agent.
 
He learned things about the syndicate
that we’re certain he shared with you, which is why you also were targeted for
elimination.”

“What things?”

“You tell me,” he said.
 

“Alex shared nothing with me, Iver.
 
I don’t know what you’re talking
about.
 
All I can tell you is what
I’ve learned about you and the syndicate on my own.
 
And it’s a lot.
 
If you don’t stand down and let Chloe go
free, the world will know everything about all of you.”

“You don’t intimidate me, Carmen.”

“Then let me be more clear.
 
I wonder if my knowledge of Hera Hallas
would intimidate Ms. Hallas enough to suffocate your ties to the
syndicate?
 
Or Conrad Bates, who
hates you?
 
Or Marius Albert, who
lives in Paris and feels the same way about you?
 
Or any other member of the
syndicate?
 
I’ve done my homework,
Iver, and I know who all of you are.
 
This has nothing to do with Alex, who kept your secrets, even though he
wrongfully died because you thought he was a ‘rogue agent.’
 
I’m here to tell you that he took your
secrets to his death.
 
He died for
nothing.
 
You stole him away from
me.
 
So here I am, cashing in on my
revenge, which I’ll have—one way or another.”

“You better back off, girl,” Katzev said.
 
But as tough as he made his fake Russian
accent sound, a slight note of concern was wedded to it. Carmen heard it and
seized upon it.
 

“What I’ve learned about you and the others have everything to
do with me and my contacts.
 
Or,
should I say, one very special contact who died this evening, but whose
employee reached out to me moments ago because he decided his employer would
want me to have the information he worked so hard to compile for me.
 
You’ll never know who he is.
 
But because of him, I have intelligence
on you and every other member of the syndicate.
 
Detailed intelligence, such as where you
live, what you own, where you’re invested, in which buildings you keep your
corporate offices.
 
Also, who you’ve
targeted for death throughout the years.
 
I’ve already set things into motion with my contact at the NYPD that if
anything should happen to me tonight, such as my death, the information I sent
him earlier about the syndicate and who comprises the syndicate will be fully
investigated, exposed and made world news for all the wrongs you’ve done, which
I think we’d both agree are plenty.
 
Would you like me to run through the rest of the names, Iver?
 
Yes?
 
No?
 
Because I can, just as I can stop your own family’s deaths, which is
about to happen in minutes, starting with your mother.”

Spocatti turned to her in surprise.
 
She could feel him looking at her.
 
Reassessing her.
 
Now he knew why she used her cell phone
earlier.
 
Now he knew, just as
Katzev knew, that her information was true.
 
Better yet, if he didn’t know it before,
there could be no question now that she was a force to be taken seriously.

“I need your guards to leave, Iver.
 
And I mean to get the hell out of here
and not to wait for us outside.
 
I
need for them to get in their cars and leave.
 
When I’m certain they’re gone, then we
release Chloe, as agreed upon.
 
Someone is outside to pick her up.
 
Then Spocatti and I walk out of here.
 
You will never contact me again.
 
I will forget everything I know about
you and the syndicate.
 
That’s my
promise to you.
 
As for Vincent, if
you want to stay together, that’s between you two.
 
I really could give a shit.
 
But if you ever come after me again, my
contact is sitting on one million dollars, the key to which he’ll only receive
from an unknown source should the syndicate act upon me at any point going
forward.”

“And how will he know that it was us, Carmen?
 
So many would like to see you dead.
 
It could be us.
 
It could be someone else who kills
you.
 
How will he know?”

She hadn’t anticipated this question and thought quickly.
 
“Iver, I know your hand.
 
You show it so well.
 
I always will know when I’m being
followed by you.
 
At that point,
I’ll alert my contact.
 
Should
anything happen to me, he’ll know it’s you, the keys and the money will be
his—as will all the information on the syndicate, which should net him
that fat promotion and publicity that have eluded him for years.”
 

She lifted her arm to check her watch, the mere action of which
caused several of the men surrounding her to lean into position with their guns
and rifles.
 
“Oh, please,” she said
to them.
 
“Stand down.
 
Did you not hear what I just said?”

Katzev lowered his hand and they relaxed.

“Your mother dies in twenty minutes unless my man hears from
me.
 
You’ve seen the video.
 
You know he’s there.
 
None of this is bullshit, Iver.
 
We’re going to have a clean break from
one another.”

“But you’ve already said you’re seeking revenge,” Katzev
said.
 
“So, where is your revenge?”

“Are you blind?
 
Have you not heard me?
 
If
you come after me at any point, the syndicate will be revealed and investigated
at the highest levels.
 
Including
you.
 
That’s
my revenge.
 
It will continue when they bring all of
you publicly to trial and then to prison.
 
It will be a media circus.
 
Your
reputation will be destroyed.
 
That’s
my revenge.
 
But it doesn’t end
there.
 
My revenge also is cheating
you out of killing me.
 
Should you
be stupid enough to do so, face the law.
 
Now, get your men out of here.
 
Tell them to drive far and away.
 
You need to move fast and take this seriously.
 
We find Chloe and let her go.
 
Then Vincent and I walk out.
 
I don’t know about him, but I’ll be out
of your life forever.”