Duke (33 page)

“
Those are my choices? Talk here, or let you take me home?”

He nodded and Gen said, “We’ve had this talk before. You’re being a bully, taking advantage of the fact you’re bigger, stronger, and faster than me.”

Duke smiled. “I am.”

Gen didn’t smile back, but looked back to the ground to center herself again. Without looking up, she said, “I don’t like you very much right now.”

He touched her chin and she looked up. “I know, and I’m sorry. We need to talk. You’re doing a good job of holding it together, but I can smell your grief. Your pain.”

Gen had spent a lifetime learning how to appear strong when she felt weak, but she’d never had to worry about what
pheromones
she was releasing. There had to be a way to keep from letting those out, she’d just never had to think about it.

“
Yeah, I’ve never had to figure out how to hide that before. Give me time and I’ll figure that out, too. Meanwhile, here’s my offer to
you
. Take me home and force me to have this conversation now and you aren’t going to like how it goes. Let me go home, chill out, handle my client, and then talk to me tonight? Maybe the conversation will have a different outcome.”

Duke looked at her a handful of seconds and turned his head to the wall beside them. “Anyone want to volunteer to bodyguard her until time for her appointment, so I can get some sleep?”

He looked back at her and said, “I’ll walk across the street, give the cabbie some money for his time. You can ride back to your place with whoever walks out the door, set them up downstairs with the TV remote, and ignore them until time to go. He’ll follow you to the hotel you’re picking her up at, hang around across the street to watch the two of you drive off together, and then you’ll be on your own until you drop her off. You’ll be close, so I’d appreciate it if you come here when you finish.”

Tiny walked out and lifted his chin at them, and Gen looked at Duke. “Sheila’s okay with me riding on the back of his bike?”

Duke nodded. “For this, yeah. For a joyride? Never.”

Gen met Pebbles and Jiminy Davidson in the restaurant attached to The Chattanoogan Hotel, where they discussed the fact Chattanooga probably made the most sense for them to relocate, since Jiminy’s business interests had him travelling all over the southeast. They were considering both Chattanooga and Atlanta, as well as a few places in between, but Pebbles liked Chattanooga best.

Gen liked Pebbles from the start, even if she did look like a well-dressed prostitute. She had boobs out to her elbows, a teeny-tiny waist, and a beautiful bubble butt. She wore a two-thousand dollar dress, and fifteen hundred dollar shoes.

It wasn’t often a client’s clothes cost more than Gen’s, but today she wore a sixteen hundred dollar suit, and nine hundred dollar shoes.

In spite of the fact Pebbles oozed sexuality, her smile was genuine, her laughter was happy, and Gen had a feeling her husband only smiled when he was around his wife.

When they finished lunch, Jiminy walked them to the parking garage, saw them into the vehicle, and told his wife to be safe and come back to him in one piece.

Gen thought it an odd way to say goodbye, and Pebbles gave a little bit of an explanation as they pulled away. “He usually makes me go out with a bodyguard when I’m not with him, but I convinced him no one knows us here and I’ll be safe looking at houses with a Realtor.”

“
Does he have a dangerous job? Why would you need a bodyguard?”

Pebbles shook her head and changed the subject. “Sorry to make changes to what you’d planned to show me today, but Jiminy was right about the locations that won’t work. Also, I’m glad he changed his mind about only wanting something on the mountain. I really liked the pictures of the house you showed me on the Tennessee River.”

“
Good, hopefully my assistant will be able to work it out so we can view it today, but if not, I have a few hours early tomorrow morning, if you’ll still be in town. I have an eleven o’clock appointment, but I’m free until then.”

As they pulled into the driveway for the fourth house of the day, Gen’s assistant let her know they could view the house on the river in two hours.

“
How are you holding up?” Gen asked her client. “If you need to stop for something to eat to get some rest, just let me know.”

“
Oh I’m just fine. My personal trainer works my ass off, so I can go all day if I need to. This one’s probably the most hidden of any so far. How much land belongs to the house?”

“
It sits in the middle of twenty-three acres, and there’s supposed to be a waterfall on the property. There are also horse trails and stables, as the previous occupants owned horses and regularly rode the property.”

Gen unlocked the door and followed Pebbles in, then followed her through the house.

As they reached the bedroom she saw Pebbles launch forward and hit the floor a second before someone grabbed her wrist with one hand and elbow with the other arm, and a half-second later Gen’s arms were zip-tied behind her back and she was pushed to the floor. Her ankles were brought up behind her, attached to her wrists with more plastic strips, and then she was forced to watch Mike put Pebbles into the same uncomfortable hog-tie.

Pebbles spoke plain and calm, telling Mike, “You have to know if I’m hurt my husband will take you apart. He’ll pay to get me back, and if you play it safe and leave the country you’ll probably be able to spend what you get if I’m unhurt. But if you hurt me, Jiminy will track you to the ends of the earth.”

“
Not here for you, bitch,” he snarled, and turned back to Gen.

Gen closed her eyes, concentrated on how things smelled, and thought of Duke. Then she thought of him smelling what she did. She didn’t know if it worked, but she did it every way she could think of, hoping he’d realize she was trying to contact him.

Her phone rang and Mike grabbed it from her purse, ripped the back off, and tossed the battery. At that point, Gen knew even if she hadn’t been able to get through to him, when her phone dropped off then whoever was in the control room might notice it, and tell him where her wallet and car were located.

Now she just had to stall Mike.

“
This isn’t how you go about winning me back, Mike.”

“
You cost me my job, my reputation, my friends, fucking
everything
. And you went from my bed into Duke’s! What the fuck, Gen! You saying that lowlife is better than me?”

“
I’m sorry about you getting suspended, but how is that my fault? You were
spying
on me!”

“
You knew we were being recorded. You knew the RTMC as well as the officers in the room could hear every word we said.”

“
Yeah, okay, that wasn’t cool. Tell you what — I’ll pay you three years of your salary. Will that help make things okay? That should be around two hundred thousand dollars, right? With a little extra for you to pay for your own health insurance and stuff? Give you time to figure out what you want to do next?”

He paused, considering her offer, and she thought she might be in the clear, but then he suddenly looked even more ticked off as he barked, “You can just write a check for two hundred grand, just like that? Pay me off like I’m fucking lint on your fucking suit jacket? No, Gen. You ended my life, so I’m going to end yours. If I can’t have you, neither can he. We’ll be together for eternity, you and me.”

Panicked, Gen closed her eyes and tried to send what she could smell to Duke, though she had no idea if it worked.

Suddenly, she smelled exhaust and felt Duke’s presence — he was letting her know he was on his way. Her shoulders tried to slump in relief, but the hog tie wouldn’t let them.

Gen thought of other ways to stall, and said, “You have to untie Pebbles before you do it, maybe just before the end, at least one hand, with a cellphone nearby so she can call for help? This house is empty and it’s only been shown once in the past six weeks. She could die of dehydration and starvation before anyone finds her.”

Mike shook his head. “Your assistant knows all the places you were coming.” He nodded to Pebbles and said, “Her husband’ll send out a rescue team five minutes after he realizes he can’t reach her.” He looked towards the other woman and snarled, “Not that she deserves to live, but the justice system will take care of her and her husband before much longer.” He looked back to Gen. “You did a good job of protecting your computers, and your assistant’s, but I still have access to the feeds coming from the surveillance of her and her husband, so I knew every property you planned to take her to.”

He lifted Gen to the bed, pulled her Sig off her right hip and put it on a side table. “I knew you’d have it, so I had to take you down fast.”

Gen still had the three-eighty under her arm, but it did no good with her wrists bound behind her back.

“
Gonna fuck you before we die, and you’re gonna like it with me as much as you do with Duke.”

Terror spiked through her veins, and she spoke without thinking, “Over my dead body.”

“
No, that’s after. First, you’re gonna be very lively, and if you aren’t, I’ll hurt your new friend here.”

“
Mike, you’re a good man. You were a cop and I
know
you enjoyed bringing in the bad guys. I heard your stories, listened to you talk about helping out the victims of crime when you could. I’m not sure what went wrong, and I wish I could go back and change it, but I’m not sure rape and torture are in you. If you’re about to die, is that really what you want your last acts to be?”

“
You obviously never knew me at all. I became a cop for the power it gave me, not because I wanted to do good. And you took that power away, so you’ll
pay
. I know you’re hard headed enough you won’t give me what I want no matter how much I hurt you, so instead, I’ll make you watch me hurt
her
, see if that gives you the motivation I’m looking for.”

The whole room was quiet as they heard a motorcycle on the main road, but it went by and Mike said, “Crotch rocket.” He picked Gen’s gun up and said, “I hear a Harley and I’ll kill us all before he makes it down the drive.”

Oh, God. He was going to kill her with her own gun. She wasn’t sure why this was worse than using his gun, but it was, and it pissed her off.

“
Screw you, Mike. I’ll never be able to enjoy sex with you because you have a skinny penis and you don’t know what the heck to do with it.”

Okay, so the first part wasn’t necessarily true, but the second seemed to be, as he hadn’t been able to get her aroused and excited. She’d never said ‘
screw you
’ before in her life, and it felt pretty good.

Pebbles laughed and said, “God, Gen, I really like you. We get out of this alive and I hope we can be friends. You know, if my husband forgives you for getting me kidnapped, but I’m pretty sure I can talk him down.”

“
Would you two bitches shut the fuck
up
?”

“
Did you know the Chattanooga Police Department had you under surveillance?” Gen asked Pebbles.

“
Yeah, I knew. It’s only for certain kinds of communication though, and I thought it’d be safe to let conversations and emails with my Realtor be a matter of public record. Which means, kind of, that it isn’t your fault we’re kidnapped, but mine.”

Mike cut Gen’s ankles loose and sat on her legs all at once. She felt him connecting first one ankle and then the other to the iron footboard, and wondered if he knew the house was only staged for show and there were likely no sheets beneath the bedspread.

“
Let’s not assign blame, Pebbles. He’s my ex-boyfriend. What does your husband do?”

“
Ummm, assuming we’re gonna get out of here, let’s leave that one alone for now. Okay?”

“
He imports drugs,” Mike said, his voice full of hate and fury. “Decides which gangs get the good stuff, which get the crap. Helps with manpower when someone against drugs moves in and locks out territory.”

Which meant it was highly likely Jiminy and Duke weren’t going to be the best of friends, but Gen didn’t share this with Pebbles. They were being held in an almost three million dollar house, and since Gen held the listing, she stood to make a seven percent commission on the sale. Not that Pebbles would want this one after being kidnapped in it.

One minute, Mike was pulling her pants down past her bottom while muttering about her “lovely ass,” and the next he was thrown across the room and Duke was pulling her pants back up as Brain cut the plastic away at her wrists and ankles.

“
God,” Brain said as he worked, “tell me you didn’t kill him. There’s a civilian here, we’re gonna have to get the cops involved, Duke. You
knew
that.”

“
Not a civilian,” Pebbles said as she stood and tugged her very snug dress back down over her thighs, Dozer’s arm around her for support. “If I can get my phone from my purse, I need to call my husband,” she looked at Duke as if she expected him to recognize the name when she said, “Jiminy Davidson.”

All three RTMC men muttered, “Fuck me,” at the same time, and both Pebbles and Gen laughed.

Mike had ripped the button from the top of her pants, and destroyed the zipper, so while her pants were pulled up, they weren’t going to stay. She sat on the bed, pulled her legs up to hide the state of her pants, and said, “Let her call her husband, Duke. Let’s get this sorted as quick as we can, okay? Someone else is due to show the house in a little over an hour and I’ll need to be sure it’s put to rights before we leave.”

Pebbles’ head turned to Gen. “You lied to him?”

“
Oh yeah. I lied all over the place, trying to figure out how to stall. As soon as he took the battery out of my phone, I knew Duke would come, I just needed to stall him.”