Connections: Conexiones (Mercenaries Book 3) Page 16

  Simmons nodded and said good-bye. “Call me, Emidio. We’ll have lunch.” Emidio gave her a weak wave of agreement.

  “Now, Emidio, why did you show up here? Are you opposed to the sale?”

  “I told you, Frankie called me.” The tic was back in full force, and his breathing was speeding up.

  “Calm down. I really can’t put that together in any sensible way. Frankie works for who?”

  “Samuel Goldfarb. Donato’s attorney.”

  Beckie stifled her gasp. “His attorney?” Emidio nodded. “What’s his interest?”

  The man shrank back into himself, almost cowering. “There was a… a fight here about a month ago. Donato lost several men.”

  “If you’re not working with him, why’d he tell you this?”

  He paled even more. “I asked. There were reports—”

  Beckie snorted involuntarily. Yeah, I guess there were. When “lost” means dead. “Sorry. Why were you talking to Goldfarb? Or even know him?”

  The silence loomed; Beckie waited. She wouldn’t put easy words in his mouth. Or more likely, the wrong words.

  Emidio rubbed his face; his breathing sped up again as his eyes opened. He stared at Amy, sitting on the sofa across from him. When Beckie cleared her throat, his attention snapped to her, as if he’d forgotten her. “I do not deal with Donato, especially while he is…”

  Yeah. Always nice to be abandoned by your family in prison. Of course, I suppose he might deserve it, too. “So you talk to his lawyer rather than him?”

  “Exactly.”

  “What else did he say?”

  The man was shaking. Beckie thought about trying to relax him, but decided it’d be quicker this way. “What else?”

  He looked up at her. Not gonna respond to that look.

  “I was foolish,” he said.

  Beckie still didn’t react. “Goldfarb had… severe injuries to his… face,” Emidio continued. “They appeared to be knife wounds…”

  “And you asked him to explain?”

  “I asked, yes… And he told me of a girl… He said the girl had knives… She killed people.” So that’s the reason he’s scared of Amy. He threw his head back against the cushion, away from them. “Please!” His exclamation came in a whisper. “I never… hurt you…”

  “Relax,” Beckie said. She turned to look at Amy and mouthed “Abby.” Amy nodded, though her face was tight with both shock and fear. “I’m gonna get some water,” Beckie said. “I don’t think he’ll…” She waved at Emidio, still goggling at Amy.

  In less than a minute, she was back. The tableau was unchanged. She offered a glass to Emidio before saying to Amy, “Go get yourself a drink, okay?” Amy stood a little shakily; she stumbled once on her way to the kitchen. Beckie addressed Emidio again. “Tell me more about the girl and what she had to do with… with anything.”

  “Goldfarb said she is the same girl who testified against Donato. That she could get him off. She visited him early in September, but he got nowhere. They tracked her to a motel near New Haven, but before he could speak, she’d killed his two… guards.” He straightened a little, but shied away as Amy returned with a glass. “Anyway, she killed them and attacked him, cutting his face. He wouldn’t say any more about that. He did say he believed she orchestrated the attack here.”

  “So that’s her. Why were you and Goldfarb so lovey-dovey?”

  He shrank back away. “I hoped to… I need to have Donato free.”

  “Why do you want him free? If what Rosa Simmons said is correct?”

  “It is. But… he has something, Donato, that my mother and sister wish returned.”

  “He stole the family jewels, huh?”

  Emidio looked at her, eyes wide, eyebrows cocked.

  “He took something away that has value to… Never mind. What was it?”

  Emidio wiggled on the sofa. “He… May I stand?”

  Beckie stood before nodding. She watched him stay well clear of Amy, who still held Abby’s knives in view. “Okay, what did he take?”

  “A family Bible.”

  “A what!” Beckie blurted. “For this much trouble, it must have been printed by Gutenberg.”

  Behind her, Amy gasped, but Emidio just stared for a moment. “No,” he finally said. “It is a simple King James. However, within it are family heirlooms.”

  “Oh. That makes better sense. Are the ‘heirlooms’ intrinsically valuable, or just to the family?”

  “Both.”

  Beckie nodded. “What are the chances it’s here, in this house?”

  He gave her a bright smile she didn’t think was too fake. “It is not here. We have investigated, and Donato told our mother it was not.”

  “But he didn’t say where it was?”

  Emidio nodded in agreement, but with a frown. “He refuses to speak with her again while… Until he is released from prison.”

  Beckie returned what she hoped would be a sympathetic smile. “So, that’s why you want him free, huh?” He bowed his head. “Well, if the sale goes through and I find it later, I’ll return it. I don’t need it.” He nodded and sat again. “I think we should all get out of here.”

  Beckie exchanged phone numbers with Emidio, then walked with him to the door.

  Amy shrank into the corner of the sofa while Beckie walked Emidio to the door. When she returned, Amy hadn’t moved, trying to decide how to bring her concerns… Yes, damn it! I’m scared.

  Before Beckie’d crossed the room, Amy stood. As she refastened her belt, she said, “Let’s go back to the hotel. We need to talk.” Good! Amy thought, staring at Beckie. That’s another uncertain smile she’s got. I wish I knew how to tell her how much she scares me! And how much I hate it!

  Now anxious to be out of the dark, musty place, Amy helped by peering though the windows for unfriendly activity. Outside, she watched Beckie lock the back door and test it. She waited in the car while Beckie spent another couple of minutes checking the car, “for tracking devices we don’t want.”

  In the hotel, Amy trailed Beckie to the desk where she asked for the use of an empty room. “I’m a little worried,” Beckie said, “after the shit this afternoon someone could have bugged our room. I should have brought some electronics, but who’d have thought this trip would need that?” She took the chair against the back wall. “Okay. What’s on your mind?”

  Amy walked to the window and stared at the iron-grey clouds above the parking lot. “Is it s’posed to rain? Kinda looks like it.”

  Beckie joined her, checking her phone. “Sixty percent chance of rain. Now…”

  “I’m gonna take a walk.” Amy took small steps toward the door. “We’ll talk when I get back.” We’ll see if she’ll let me go.

  “Change into something that looks different… And wear my leather duster over it.”

  Beckie watched Amy stomp off toward their room through the not-quite-closed door. Not gonna leave her alone… Even though that’s what she wants. And maybe needs… well, to think she’s alone, anyway.

  Once the girl had disappeared behind the landscaping, Beckie slipped out of the room and headed to the lobby, where the view from the large windows allowed her to see the front of the building Amy would have entered. As a bonus, the windows also overlooked the parking area, and the MINI.

  The wait for Amy to reappear wasn’t as long as she feared; the girl walked out with the leather coat over her shoulders. At the car, Amy flipped the coat off and over the front of the car, then stretched and ran.

  Beckie watched her until the bushes hid her, but then in a couple of minutes, Amy’s fuchsia South Beach sweatshirt shone through the branches as she followed the parking lot in front of the upper buildings.

  The next half hour was boring. Beckie used her phone to check e-mail while keeping an eye on the bright shirt flashing through the landscaping. She clicked off the phone when Amy stopped and then did a cool down.

  Then, Amy grabbed the coat and bent down to retrieve, something. The keys! Da
mmit! I left the keys in the pocket. What… Before Beckie could vocalize the objection, Amy’d started the car and turned onto the road fronting the motel, off to who knew where!

  Well, this is why I wanted to link her phone. If she even has it!

  The next half hour was equally boring, but also thrilled Beckie with the fear—not that she was stuck here, she could get out with no difficulty—the fear Amy would end up in deep trouble, not least from the police, who would ignore the car’s registration in her name in favor of her lack of a valid driving license.

  I don’t want to call her… and if she has her phone, what would it ringing while she’s driving do? I’ll give her a few more minutes, she thought, once she’d asked at the desk about rental car availability. “No more than three miles up the road; shall I call them for you? I think they’ll drop off…”

  Beckie’d waved off the offer for the time being, and plopped herself in a comfy chair facing the window.

  Before she could work herself into another dither, the MINI rolled around the turn and made the left into the parking lot. Amy didn’t open the door, though, and Beckie couldn’t see what she was doing. Finally the girl cracked open the door and Beckie watched as she swept the parking lot with her gaze before running to the room.

  Well, what was all that about? Better get back where she expects me.

  Amy’s short trip ended back in the parking lot, uneventful. Heaving a sigh of relief, she took the key from the ignition. Before she opened the door, motion off to her right took her attention; she shrank down in the seat to scrutinize the scene.

  That’s the SUV with those guys in it! She convinced herself it was the same one once the driver turned toward her, checking on-coming traffic. She slid even further into the footwell, peeking over the door. When the SUV drove off, she opened the door and ran for their room.

  Inside, she backed up against the door gasping for breath. When she finally calmed enough to move, she stepped into the bathroom and saw herself in the mirror. She felt, first her lip, then behind her eye where the skin was puffy. Her mind slowed, allowing her to pick ideas out. Still tender, but not bleeding. Headache’s almost gone. She fluffed her hair. I can fix this. She rummaged in her bag.

  In three minutes, she tossed eight to ten inches of brunette hair in the trash can and spent more than a minute staring one-eyed through the peephole. Heart again pounding, she cracked the door and looked more. She ducked behind the door before realizing the people coming along the hallway were a mother and her two pre-teen children, making their way to a room further along.

  Amy made a fist and slammed it into the door. Since that did no good, she knuckled incipient tears from her eyes and stepped through the door. The man passing by shied out of her path and continued on his way. She paused a second to allow her heart to slow again, then found the room where she’d left Beckie.

  She knocked after again checking in both directions; tapped so softly she knew no one could hear. Even me, she thought as she tried again.

  After a fifteen minute wait, Beckie took a deep breath and forced calm on herself. She was scrolling through her contacts when she heard a faint knock at the door. Amy was visible through the peephole. Show time, Beck; make it good.

  When the door began to move, Amy shoved it open, spun away from Beckie’s grasp, and rushed in to stop against the wall about halfway to the window.

  Beckie swallowed her heart as soon as she confirmed no blood or obvious injuries. “Something happen out there?”

  “Did you know this place backs up to Talos’ property?”

  “I knew it was close; we left the Escalade over at that restaurant.” She waved in an indeterminate direction, mostly along the building’s axis. “Why?”

  “I thought I saw one of them… The guys you said what’s his name sent off.”

  “Here, or over there?”

  “Here. I hid before he noticed.” She threw keys on the table next to Beckie’s computer. “I took the car down the road.” As Beckie stared at her, she continued, “I filled up the gas and got a shake at the Red Rooster. Pretty good.”

  “No use… Maybe I should spank you?”

  “Why?”

  “Disobeying the law?”

  “I don’t think so. Not after you tried to put that guy’s eyes out. Don’t talk to me about fucking laws and stuff!”

  “What?”

  Amy rattled around the room before throwing her coat across a chair and sitting on the floor with her back to the wall and her legs out straight. She snatched the ball cap off her head and flipped it toward the chair with her coat, then let her head fall so her chin rested on her chest.

  Astounded, Beckie let herself drop to the floor, sitting cross-legged by Amy’s knee. She reached out to touch Amy’s hair, chopped off short, shorter than Abby’s had been.

  “What? What’s going on, Amy?” She tried to lift the girl’s chin, but Amy was having none of it. “What’d you do to your hair?”

  Amy unfolded in a snap motion; before Beckie could blink, Amy was on her hands and knees, in another second she was standing. “What the fuck do you think I did?” Beckie’d never heard anger and emotion in Amy’s voice like this before; she sat, a statue. “I cut it off! Maybe no one can tell I’m a girl, now. Or weak. Or law abiding. Or in love with a girl who kills people. Or abuses or tortures them. Or…” She collapsed on the floor, shaking and crying, much quieter than her ranting had been.

  The spell broken, Beckie popped to her feet and knelt by Amy. “I can’t lift you, girl, you’re gonna hav’ta help me,” she whispered in Amy’s ear.

  As she grasped Amy’s shoulders, the girl rolled over and struck out blindly with both hands and feet. “Get offa me! Leave me alone. Killers!” She threw herself away, ending up against the wall with her face against the baseboard.

  Beckie rocked back on her heels, rubbing her cheek where one of Amy’s blows had found its target. Well, she thought, that’s a change. She got up and found a chair, and waited until Amy’s breathing became regular again.

  Amy rolled over onto her back just before Beckie ran out of patience. “I give up, Beckie.” She dropped an arm over her eyes. “I just give up.”

  “Not gonna let you off that easily,” Beckie said. “Talk to me.”

  “Or what? You’ll stick your thumbs in my eyes? Or take my knives to hold at my throat? What?”

  “Okay. None of those things. But…” She rose and walked the few steps to stand beside the girl. She licked her lips, squatted down and grabbed Amy’s bra between her breasts. Before Amy could react, Beckie dead lifted her from the floor, pinning her against the wall in preference to dropping her.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Amy scrambled to get her feet beneath her.

  “Now, will you talk to me?”

  “What are you gonna say? That’s it’s okay when we do it? That Abby should’ve—”

  “Stop!” Beckie took a deep breath, forcing her hands to her sides instead of raising them. “Just stop. Since you don’t want to talk, how about listen?”

  “No, you listen! I don’t know how to get over Abby’s death, especially when she dies to… to exact revenge because I was stupid. Two stupids don’t make a smart any more than two rights make a wrong.” She stopped to breathe and pull her clothes back into position. Beckie was smiling at her. “You know what I mean. There’s no place to sit here; let’s go back to the room.”

  In the room, Amy sheered off to the bathroom while Beckie dropped her computer and the duster beside the desk. She sat on the end of the bed waiting until Amy reappeared.

  “Sit on the sofa,” Beckie said with a wave at the piece of furniture. Amy dropped the sweatshirt she’d been wearing and threw herself down. “Go ahead,” Beckie said. “I’m ready.”

  Amy rolled onto her belly, folding her arms under her head. “I miss the hell out of Abby. I know, you thought maybe Dylan would… fill in for her? Something like that? He’s nice, but honestly? He’s not gonna be very much more available t
han Abby, is he?”

  “Abby and Dylan aren’t the problem, though, are they?”

  Amy nodded her head, which Beckie understood to mean she agreed.

  “So,” Beckie said, “I disappointed you big time today, I guess. I’m sorry for that, but not for doing what I thought was the best thing to protect you. And me.”

  “But…” Amy was talking into her arm; it muffled her voice. “But he was just another guy… no threat, no… no guts, even. He pissed his pants, you scared him so bad! How can that be the right thing to do, the right way to act? I understood Abby killing those guys. I cried about it, not just because she didn’t come back, but because she couldn’t find a different way to protect… me. And herself, too. But I kinda understood it, you know?” She rolled her head to peek over her wrist into Beckie’s eyes. “But what you did was just so… I can’t even find the word!”

  “Egregious, probably.”

  “Egre… What’s that?”

  “Outstandingly bad, shocking.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, that’s it exactly.” She dropped her eyes to stare at the cushion. “How could you do that?”

  “Today was action in an abundance of caution. I saw two guys beating up on you while a third waves a gun around. While I’m waiting for a chance, a new guy shows up. Soon as he does, he’s ordering those three around. You missed that part.

  “I wasn’t going to take the chance he wasn’t what he seemed to be. You were lying on the couch, out cold. Maybe you didn’t notice…” When she held her hand over her head, Amy stifled a grin. “… but I’m not such a big person. Since I didn’t have a weapon, I acted to give us the best chance of surviving with no more injuries. I won’t apologize for that.”

  “But…”

  Beckie slid off the bed and sat beside Amy on the sofa. “Budge over,” she said with a light-hearted note in her voice. “No buts.” She rubbed Amy’s back through her tee shirt. “Elena and Sam gave a lot of their summer last year to teach me. I’m willing to use that to protect you. To protect the team.” She leaned over and kissed the back of Amy’s neck.