In Love and Rescue: When love is the perfect rescue... (31 page)

“I answered your question, now talk,” Desmond threatened. “When I’m really ready to kill you, trust me, these two won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Gano glanced between the three men. Out of the four men in the room, he was only the largest by girth. He, Desmond, and the blonde man all stood on the same height with Agent Wright falling about a head shorter. Although his girth gave him an advantage, the mere fact that he was weaponless and handcuffed left him powerless in a room full of armed men. The look in Desmond’s eyes also told him that he wasn’t bluffing.

“He talked a few times about this log house that he liked to go to. He said that it was about three hours away from Milwaukee and he went there whenever he needed to clear his head.”

Doug pulled out a pen. “Three hours in which direction?”

“I don’t know,” Gano answered. “You don’t have a map? Go three hours in all directions and when you come to a secluded place, that is probably it.”

Every word that came out of Gano’s mouth felt like sandpaper across Desmond’s skin. At that point, if it weren’t for the fact that Gano was the only person that might know where Larke was located, he would have killed him already.

Suddenly, a second agent burst into the room. “We might have something,” he breathlessly announced. “The defense attorney’s widow just got a call from a friend of hers that lives in a town called Birch Creek, Wisconsin. They own a cabin up there and the friend, noticing that the lights were on, called Mrs. Croft to see if she wanted to get together thinking she was in town. Mrs. Croft thought it was unusual because no one was supposed to be up there, and called us.”

Desmond moved across the room. “Birch Creek, where is it?”

“It’s about a three hour drive north of here,” the agent answered.

“Let’s go,” Desmond ordered. “And pick him up. He’s coming with us.”

William and the second agent picked Gano up from the floor, but before they exited the room, Desmond stood face to face with him.

“If we drive up there and she’s not there, believe me when I say that I will leave you there to rot while these three gentlemen turn their backs. They need Jarvis. I don’t. All I need is an alibi.”

Then he was out the door with Doug on his heels, William guiding Gano close behind.

Chapter Thirteen

Dark, billowing clouds cloaked the faint glimmer of moonlight
in the sky, and casted an eerie darkness on the space surrounding the log cabin. Doug and Desmond sat in the front of a tinted black SUV, Doug with a pair of binoculars to his face as he scoured the premises for any signs of movement. There were no lights on in the front of the house, however Desmond wasn’t going to turn back until he’d fully searched the interior and checked through each nook and cranny to ensure Jarvis hadn’t stuffed pieces of Larke into them.

His stomach turned.

As much as he despised those intrusive thoughts, he had to accept that they were still a possibility. Larke had eluded Eddie for too long for him not to be upset enough to kill her on the spot. But, in order to keep his sanity, Desmond willed himself to believe that Eddie had been the kind of kid that liked to play with his chewing gum between his fingers before he threw it away.

Gano and William were seated in the back, their attention equally as focused on the house. He’d had his doubts before, but now that they were right outside, Gano could sense that Eddie was inside the cabin. The immense structure’s architectural beauty was something that Eddie would have admired, and it reminded him of a house that had stood by itself way up in the mountains in Jamaica that Eddie used to point to and say would one day be his.

“I don’t see anything,” Doug whispered, changing the zoom on his binoculars. “None of the lights are on. There’s no movement. There’s nothing.”

Desmond continued to look over the house. “That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t. It took us close to three hours to get up here. Anything could have happened between when the neighbor saw the lights and now.”

“Yeah, anything,” Gano grumbled, alluding to the fact that Larke might have already been killed. Desmond lifted his arm to connect his elbow with the center of the man’s forehead, but William put up his hand to block his path.

“I still think we should call for backup,” Desmond suggested.

“On an empty house?” William asked. “The agency doesn’t have the resources of your private agency, Harding. I’m not calling anyone until we’re sure that there’s a reason.”

Desmond ignored him and put his hand on the door handle.

“What are you doing?” Doug asked.

“I’m going to get a closer look.”

Doug held up his binoculars. “And what do you think I’m doing?”

“You and I both know that there’s only so much that those things will show you.”

“But they keep you alive too,” Doug asserted. “You know what? Go ahead and run in there without knowing what we’re dealing with. Obviously, you have learned nothing about Jarvis this entire time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had active landmines strategically placed around the premises.”

Ignoring his plea, Desmond pushed the front door open. “And since when has that ever been a problem?”

He grabbed a shotgun from the back before creeping across the street to hide behind a giant elm that sat in the middle of the yard next door. Doug blew out a frustrated gust of air before leaving the vehicle and joining Desmond on the grass.

“No offense, Harding, but if you don’t tone it down with these ‘acts of defiance,’ you’re going to get yourself killed one day.”

Desmond cocked the shotgun. “Words to live by.”

They stealthily moved across the neighbor’s yard and hopped the fence partitioning off the front of the cabin with the wooded backyard. They then moved deeper into the woods until they were crouched behind a row of trees that stood directly behind the defense attorney’s cabin. Desmond spotted a soft flickering light in one of the windows and the illumination looked as though it was coming from a candle sitting on top of a structure right beneath the glass.

“And we have light,” Doug announced. “And it’s candlelight. So, I guess we do have someone in there.”

He raised the binoculars once again. Although he could see a shadow moving around in the room, he couldn’t make out if the figure was Jarvis. It also didn’t help that there were no outdoor lights to assist them, and the wooded area rose up into an awkward slant populated by dozens of tall trees.

“I can make out a body,” he whispered. “Someone’s in the room, but I can’t tell if it’s Jarvis.”

He handed the binoculars to Desmond. Having never come face to face with Jarvis, Desmond used what memory of him he had walking in and out of the courtroom to compare to the shadow that paced every few seconds across the window. From what he gathered about Eddie, the man was calculated and precise and any deviation from his plan was reason for termination of the product, activity, or person. He wouldn’t be the type to pace aimlessly across a room as though ruminating on something.

“I don’t think it’s him,” Desmond
concluded. “I don’t think he would stand in front of the only lit window of his hiding place. This place is tied to his attorney, so I’m pretty sure that he knows we’d eventually end up here, just not tonight.”

Doug raised both brows. “You think we can catch him off guard?”

“I’m not sure,” Desmond honestly replied. “And that’s the tricky part.”

They continued to watch the shadow for a few more moments to see if it did anything else, but eventually the candle was blown out and the figure disappeared. A few minutes later, the lights came on in the kitchen and through the back sliding doors, they made out Dr. Lindholm.

“The doc’s here?” Doug asked, surprised. “I figured Jarvis would have done away with him by now. You know, tie up loose ends.”

Desmond shrugged. “I would think so too. I mean, he’d only keep him around if he thought he
was useful, but now with their scheme blown wide open, what else could he possibly need him for?”

The doctor turned and they noticed that he had a phone to his ear.

“Do you think Jarvis might be ill?” Doug asked.

“Mentally? Yes,” Desmond answered.
“But physically, I don’t think so.”

A loud crack erupted in the air in the direction of the SUV. Dr. Lindholm’s head shot up in reaction to the noise and he shut off the kitchen lights before disappearing from sight. There was another loud crack, and both Doug and Desmond knew the sound almost too well. It was the sound of a bullet sizzling through the air before it exploded against the stillness of the night.

Doug detached a radio from his hip. “Will, is everything okay?”

There was dead silence for about five seconds before Will came through.

“Somehow, he grabbed my gun and shot me,” He forced out. “Gano is on foot and running towards the house.”

“Hold on, buddy,
” Doug insisted. “We’ll be around to help you out.”

William groaned. “No, no, it’s okay. We lost the element of surprise. You guys have to go in. I’ll radio for backup.”

“Are you sure, man?” Desmond asked.

“Don’t pret
end to be concerned, Harding. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

Knowing that they were on borrowed time, Desmond and Doug split up, both each taking an entrance to the cabin. The sound of blood rushing through
Desmond’s ears drowned out the chirps and cries of the wildlife that resonated through the trees. He neared the entrance to the sliding doors where they’d spotted the doctor.

Flattening
himself against the wall at the edge of the sliding doors, he sucked in a deep breath. The sound of more gunshots ricocheted through the air and he expended a few rounds in the glass door, pulled it open and quietly slipped inside.

Chapter Fourteen

Desmond kept his back against the main wall of the kitchen as he looked out into blackness that he guessed was the living room. Running his hand along a wall, he found a light switch and flipped it on. As his eyes focused, he gave the kitchen another look over. Neither the doctor nor the phone that he’d been using were anywhere to be found.

The front door squeaked as Doug made his way into the living room. He flipped on the lights to reveal the upstairs loft area and the bed in the space which looked awkwardly out of place. Desmond carefully made his way up the stairs to investigate and when he arrived at the top, the bed was empty, however the covers were wrinkled, and didn’t have to lean in close to smell the familiar light hint of coconut of Larke’s hair.

He made his way back down the steps and nodded to let Doug know that she’d been there.

They continued to search the house, Doug flanking him as they pulled open closets and peered around corners, until they came upon a long corridor that led down the middle of the cabin to where the bedrooms were located. As they entered the narrow hallway, an agent emerged from an open bedroom door with both hands firmly grasping a shotgun. As he drew back on the pump, Desmond and Doug retreated and took cover. Bullets ricocheted off the stone surrounding the fireplace, the marble on the kitchen countertop, and exploded against the thick wooden walls.

Desmond silently counted the rounds. When he heard the agent pause to
reload, both he and Doug fired, and the agent crumpled to the floor. Only a beat passed before a second agent, one that they recognized from the safe house as Michael Vargas, entered through the front door firing a standard issue glock. Doug fired multiple rounds at Michael to keep his attention trained on him while Desmond fired from a different direction, hitting him the chest and wrist. He fell to the floor and Desmond ran over to press his shoe into the wound.

“Where’s he keeping her?” He demanded. Michael’s face turned beet red as he cringed in pain, but he offered no response. Desmond ground his foot in deeper.

“Really? You don’t think I’ll kill you?”

The sound of a gunshot in the air caused both he and Doug to turn back towards the corridor. Eddie was standing there with
Dr. Lindholm, Gano, who was sporting an arrogant smile, and a very healthy looking William.

Desmond followed the length of Eddie’s arm to a rope
that he gripped in his hand, and Eddie stepped to the side to reveal Larke on the floor with the rope fastened around her neck. Relief flowed through Desmond when he saw that she was alive, however, his relief was replaced by anger when he noticed that she’d been badly beaten. There were fresh bruises to her face and the area around her left eye was swollen. Her knuckles were crimson and her hands bled from grasping the rope to stop it from cutting into her neck. There were scratches along her legs from where she’d most likely been dragged across the floor, and he had also stuffed one of those same foam rubber balls in her mouth.

William
lowered the gun from the air and pointed it at Larke’s head.

“She has a mouth on her,” Eddie began. “She was driving me crazy. I hit her, she didn’t shut up. I tied the rope around her neck, she didn’t shut up. Finally, I just had enough. Did she talk you to death
during the time you lived together?”