Paradise Falls (52 page)

She sniffed. “How do you know?”

“Because exactly zero of your positive qualities come from that harpy.”

Jennifer looked up at him, scowling.

“She’s still my mother.”

He shifted in the seat, cupped her head, and brought his lips to her forehead.

“She doesn’t deserve you. Or Katie.”

Jennifer broke out in softer sobs again, and pressed her face against his neck.

“I got snot on your shirt,” she whimpered.

“I’ll buy another one.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Go back to the hotel. Get cleaned up. I’d go back to Paradise Falls right now but I need a clear head. So do you. We’ll get some rest.”

She nodded, rubbing her cheek against him. Faisal gave him a look in the rear view mirror. It wasn’t a long drive to the hotel. Jacob took a tissue and wiped Jennifer’s face, and led her inside while Faisal played interference, keeping anyone else away from them. In the room, Jennifer plopped on the bed and plunged her face in her hands.

“Hey,” he said, sitting next to her. “Let’s get cleaned up and get some sleep. Come on.”

She kicked off her heels and stood up. Jacob stood with her, arm around her waist, and led her into the bathroom. She pulled her braid aside and tilted her neck, and he took the signal and pulled down the zipper and peeled her out of her dress, pushing it down her shoulders. She wore nothing but a pair of underwear beneath. He didn’t look at her that way, though. He gathered up the dress as she stepped out of it and folded her arms over her breasts, covering herself.

“Don’t go,” she murmured.

He didn’t. He took off his jacket, tossed the phones on the bed, undressed the rest of the way while the big soaking tub filled with hot water. He put his hands on her sides and she nodded, and he pushed her underwear down, running his hands over the soft skin of her hips and thighs until they fell to the floor. Jacob could not help but look at her, at her body. She was amazing, perfect. He guided her over to the tub and she grabbed his arm, and motioned for him to get in with her. He sank into the water and watched her step in and settle between his legs and lean back. Her hair floated in the water, darkening the red in it as it grew wet. She leaned back on his chest, too his wrists and put his arms around her.

“I don’t want to talk about anything,” she said. “Just hold me for a while.”

He did, until the water started to cool. Jennifer’s head rested on his chest, rising and falling with his breath, until she turned around and splashed some water on her face, and stood up. Her wet hair layered over her back. As she stood on the mat next to the tub and turned to look at him, a weak smile forming on her lips, she was a goddess, glowing. Jacob stood up and wrapped her up in a fluffy robe, and pulled one on himself. Then he guided her back to the bed. She was shivering in minutes, and slipped under the blankets.

Jacob laid down beside her.

“I know you’re hurt,” he said.

She took his hand.

“There’s something really big here,” she said, and squeezed. “I can’t… I’ll deal with it later. What do we do?”

“The weapons,” said Jacob.

Jennifer sighed. “They’re using the drug money to arm terrorists.”

“Right,” said Jacob, “For something big. Huge. I think they’re going to use it to further his campaign. That’s why Al Naab was there. James Katzenberg is a puppet. He said as much himself.” His voice tightened. “This goes back years. They’ve been manipulating him for a long time. God knows how this started.”

“What do we do?”

“Go home. Take out that weapons depot. Give everything we have to the media, anybody who will listen. This isn’t just about James anymore. I can’t let my anger blind me to the bigger picture. People will…”

He trailed off.

“Wait,” he said. “Why would they store the weapons outside of Paradise Falls? That doesn’t make any sense. Why not ship them straight to the freighters or whatever they’re using to transport them.”

He sat bolt up right. Jennifer shifted and rose next to him.

“What… she trailed off, softly. “Oh my God. They’re not shipping them out, they’re shipping them
in.
The money isn’t to buy weapons here, it’s to buy weapons
overseas
and bring them back.”

“They’re planning something here,” said Jacob. “We have to go. Now.”

Jennifer nodded. She got up, slipped out of the bed, totally unconcerned by her nudity. Jacob would have felt flushed with attraction and even pride of he wasn’t so busy dressing. Jennifer spread open her suitcase and was already suiting up in black.

“We’ll get the vests when we get to the car,” he said. “Come on.”

He carried the case with all their gear and weapons, left the door to the hotel room standing open, and rushed with her for the elevator. There was nothing inside he cared about keeping. Jennifer shoved into the elevator with him and they rode down in silence, Jennifer shifting on her feet and glancing at him. She braided her hair with deft fingers on the way to the car. Jacob tipped the parking attendant and ran up the ramped garage, threw their things in the jump seat behind Jennifer, and started up the car as she strapped in.

“Four hours to home. Three if I push it.”

“Push it,” said Jennifer.

He nodded, pulled out. Driving in DC was maddening. On the surface streets he couldn’t risk speeding, and the Aston Martin was a cop magnet even if he kept it five under in broad daylight, much less two in the morning. It wasn’t until they were properly on the interstate that he sped up, but still kept it around seventy. If they got pulled over with all that gear in the car… It might not matter. James could surely ensure they were pulled over, anyway. No highways. He turned on the GPS in the dash and had it plot a course home.

Then he dialed for Faisal.

He answered after two rings. He sounded groggy.

“Faisal, get home. We have work to do.”

“On my way, sir.”

“What are we going to do?” said Jennifer.

“Arm up my tank and blow that weapons dump to hell.”

“What about that girl? I don’t think Maya is her real name.”

“I think if she’s going to be involved in this, she’ll find us.”

Jennifer nodded. Jacob kept his eyes on the road.

“No matter what happens,” said Jennifer. “I’m glad I’ve known you, Jacob. I’m glad you found me. I mean it. I love you.”

He risked a look at her.

“I love you, Jennifer. Get some rest. Sleep in the car. You’ll need it.”

“What about you?”

“Maybe I’ll pull over and let you drive,” he lied.

As she shifted and put her head on his shoulder, he smiled a little. His father did that to his mother on every trip, no matter how far. He’d always promise to pull over and let her drive after she took a nap, and without fail he and Jacob would be talking quietly at three in the morning while his mother and Candy snoozed the rest of the way to wherever they were going. Jennifer was snoring in ten minutes, snorting loudly every time a bounce or turn almost roused her from sleep. Jacob ran through scenarios in his head.

They found a lot of weapons.

Damn him, damn his arrogance. If he’d found allies sooner, exposed this, they might have a better chance. Whatever was coming, whatever James alluded to, it had to be soon, and it had to be serious. Serious enough for a Senator to ride a wave of sympathy and support into the White House. It had to be stopped.

Finally he made it to the surface roads. Jennifer was exhausted, barely stirring even when he took a sharp turn.

Every glance at her was like cold water on his face. His life would be nothing without her. Bitterness. Fury. Blindness. He would be an empty, shell, a living dead man. Soon they would be home, get some rest, ready themselves, and take the fight to the enemy. He’d get what he could from James’ computer, if he could, and put it together with what they already had. Ruin James’ campaign chances, disrupt whatever attack was coming. Fix this. It was all as clear as crystal, and then something slammed into the Aston Martin’s side and spun the car around.

A great metal shriek stung Jacob’s ears, blending with Jennifer’s cry as the airbags tripped and exploded in their faces. Jennifer flailed as Jacob grasped the wheel in both hands, but the tires weren’t gripping and the wheel was spinning. The car turned three times before it stopped. Jacob pulled at his door handle, but the door was stuck, tented in. There was a gash on his head and he didn’t remember getting it, a sting of hot blood in his eyes. Jennifer didn’t appear to be hurt, until her window shattered and a gloved hand reached in.

Jacob twisted, pulled at the case behind her seat. It opened and he got his hand on the grip of a pistol and pulled it, but as he did the window behind his head shattered, spraying him with safety glass. An arm looped around his neck, and pulled. He couldn’t shoot, he’d hit Jennifer.

Something hotter than hell jammed into his back and pain ripped through his body. The gun in his hand went skittering away when his fingers flew open and his teeth clenched until he thought they’d explode in a flash of pain.

Part of his brain was aware enough to realize where they were. One more stop sign, and then the hill. Ten minutes from home.

Jacob slid out of the car and fell on the pavement. He heard voices. Rolled onto his side, but the red-hot sledgehammer hit the small of his back again and he spread out on the ground, his body rigid and tight as wires.

Taser. They’d tased him. Had to move.

Jennifer.

Jennifer screamed.

A boot hit his head.

Fade to black.

Shock Waves

1.

Jennifer Katzenberg looked at Jacob with an absolute, crystalline certainty that lifted her heart and swirled dread in her stomach all at once. Her feelings were a betrayal, of herself and her lost husband, but she felt so light, so free. Before Jacobs’ touch she never knew what love was. Oh, she was loved, and loved in return. She loved her father, and her sister, in a way her mother for all her abuse and torment, but this was different. He was part of her, the other half of her soul. This was meant to be. When she saw the same look in his eyes in a casual glance in her direction, she knew.

Then the look in his eyes turned from adoration to horror, his focus shifted from her to the window behind her head and she turned in time to see headlights flash and paint everything white and the world spun as something slammed into the side of the car.

Jennifer cried out and grabbed at the dashboard only to lose her grip as the airbags blasted open threw her back in a white-hot moment of shock. The car continued to spin, throwing her against the door. It felt like forever until the shrieking of the tires stopped and she managed to sit up against the sharp pain in her back and the heavy shock in her limbs.

Jacob lolled to the side. He’d hit his head. His eyes shot open in a panic and he reached behind her seat for the case with their weapons inside. Jennifer clawed her seat belt open, but in her haste she did not see the figure outside the window.

A tire iron crashed through the cracked glass next to her head, spraying the safety glass all through the car, and before she had time to react a massive arm looped around her neck and pulled. The windowsill scraped her back as the arm squeezed her throat and the world turned into a black tunnel. Her legs kicked in the night air and she hit the asphalt.

An arm grabbed hers, just below the shoulder, fingers digging into her flesh.

She cried Jacob’s name. He was out of the car on his hands and knees. His shoulder wound was open. She could see the blood soaking his shirt. He looked at her and started to rise only to take a boot to the head, and that threw him against the side of the ruined car from its force. He hit the side of the car so hard he dented the body work.

Still, he got up, thrashing wildly, throwing a mis-aimed punch that hit nothing but air. He stumbled and she saw two men grab him. He twisted and turned and she heard a scream and it wasn’t his, somebody bellowed,
 

“
He broke my fucking hand!”

…and behind him another man raised a clunky-looking gun and pulled the trigger, but it wasn’t a gun. It fired two wires into Jacob’s back and his body locked up in a rictus of agony and he dropped to his knees. Another kick to the head and this time he went down and didn’t move.

Jennifer screamed and kicked and clawed at her attackers’ arm but it was like battering a tree, useless. As her vision cleared she came to know the man that kicked Jacob.

He was big, broad, and he was Michael’s -Blondie’s- father. He came around the ruined Aston Martin to eye her, his face twisted in an feral grimace that was almost a grin. He reached behind his back and came around with an enormous bowie knife, and terror shot through Jennifer’s body like the first lightning of a new thunderstorm. He approached in silence as Jennifer struggled in vain, the arm locked through hers too strong to break loose.

The big, gray-maned man seized her braid in his grip and yanked her forward, bending her at the waist, and twisted her neck, turning her to the side. Her hair strained and pulled at her scalp, and she whimpered almost silently as she felt the blade saw through her hair. The braid came free, and hung loose in his hand like a dead snake. She was made to stand again, pulled upright. The other one had her, the big man with the long, dark, lanky hair. Taller than Jacob. The top of her head barely reached his chest. He must have weighed three hundred pounds.

The older one, the leader. He walked around and kicked Jacob again, hard in the ribs. Jacob was not awake but he responded anyway, curling up. The way the knife bobbed in the old man’s hands, Jennifer was sure he’d turn it like an ice pick and plunge down and stab Jacob in the back. Instead he came back and sheathed it behind his waist again, still holding the braid.

“Cuff her.”

The big man shoved her forward and bent her over the back of the Aston Martin, held her down with one big hand on her back while he worked handcuffs around her wrists.

Handcuffs
.

Jennifer felt them close, felt the jolt of the lock snapping into place shoot up her arms. By the elbows, the big man dragged her back to her feet and spun her around.