Treacherous Intent (12 page)

A brief silence fell between them. Liam looked back at the closed front door and sobered. “Brady, is everything okay with Debra?”

Brady’s eyes became chips of blue ice. “Everything’s fine,” he said in a clipped voice.

“Brady...”

“It’s between me and my wife. I’m not talking about this with you, Liam.”

He could respect that. “It’s not a problem for us to stay here?”

Brady’s mouth softened. “It’s never a problem to spend time with you, bro.”

Liam kissed his nephew’s soft hair, then clasped Brady’s shoulder in a warm grip. “We’ll be back in a few.”

As he headed toward the car, he saw Elisabeth’s eyes on him. There was a strange expression on her face as she regarded him, then Brady. Bleakness flashed over her face, then was gone.

He got into the passenger seat just as her phone rang. She frowned as she saw the caller ID. “That’s the number for the shelter. Hello?”

Her perplexed expression melted to worry. “Are you sure?” she breathed.

“What is it?” Liam leaned closer to her.

“O-okay. Thanks.” She disconnected the call, then turned to him. “It was the shelter. They said that Joslyn called them.”

NINE

E
lisabeth stared at her cell phone. Everything in her wanted to help Joslyn, and yet...too much didn’t add up.

“What did she say?” Liam looked as flabbergasted as she felt.

“According to Kalea, Joslyn said that she spotted Tomas and needed my help. Then she hung up.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “She didn’t say where she was?”

“No. And she knows I don’t know where she is. We were in the process of figuring out where she should go, but she left the shelter before we finalized any plans.” Elisabeth hefted her cell phone in her hand. “And why did she call the shelter?”

“Does she have your cell phone number?”

“I change it pretty often, but I have an answering service that I check regularly. That’s the number I give my clients.”

“She might have forgotten the number.” But even as he said it, Liam looked suspicious.

“That’s possible...”

“Or it’s a trick by the Bagsics to get you to find Joslyn and lead them to her.”

That had been her second thought. Her first had been concern and worry for Joslyn, if Tomas really had found her.

Liam took her cell phone from her hand. His touch was light, but she felt calluses on his fingertips where they brushed against her palm. “If it’s really Joslyn, she’ll call the shelter again,” he said.

“I know you’re right, but—” she swallowed “—I’m worried about her.”

“We’ll bring Tomas to justice, and then Joslyn won’t have to run anymore.”

His confidence made her feel steadier. He seemed to always have that effect on her. She didn’t understand why.

And she didn’t want to get used to relying on it—or him.

She started the engine. “Where to?”

“Back to Sonoma, to Nathan’s house.”

Elisabeth glanced at the gas gauge. Her old car didn’t have great gas mileage, and her tank was low. “I need to stop at a gas station.”

“There’s one on the way to Highway 101, off a side road.”

It was a short drive to the gas station. She was about to swipe her credit card at the pump when a fast-moving figure caught her attention. She turned around to see a Filipino man leaning on the passenger-side window, which was open, saying something to Liam in a low voice she couldn’t catch.

Her heart blipped, and she was about to head toward them when a man’s voice sounded in her ear. “Don’t move.” A hard object was shoved into her ribs.

He was close enough that she could smell cigarettes and a spicy, flamboyant cologne. She turned her head and saw a Filipino man next to her, his face familiar, his dark eyes hard as flint.

“Walk.” He punctuated the command with a jab of the gun held against her side. “Toward the back of the station.”

She walked, every movement stiff. She looked around to see if anyone had noticed them, but no one was looking their way. She could shout to the convenience store attendant, but that might get her—or worse, the attendant—shot. Or Liam.

She turned the corner toward the back of the building and spotted the SUV parked there. It was the same one from the parking lot of her apartment building, with the fancy scrollwork detail along the side.

These weren’t Bagsics.

“How did you find us?” She tried to sound frightened, to make the man let down his guard.

“I didn’t think your boyfriend would visit his brother way out here, but the boss said to scope out the house anyway. Wait’ll I deliver you to them.” There was a nasty smile in his voice.

Who were these guys? They obviously had bad blood with the Bagsics. Hoping a taunt would trick him into sharing some information, she said, “You Bagsics are all alike.”

The man recoiled in disgust. “We’re Tumibays, not Bagsic scum.”

She hadn’t heard of them, but they must be a gang. The man was dressed in a black T-shirt and leather jacket, with scuffed jeans and boots. She could see tattoos on his wrists where his jacket cuffs had ridden up.

At that moment, the second gang member appeared from around the corner with Liam, whose face was a thundercloud. But his eyes quickly found hers. “Are you all right?”

She nodded.

Liam’s hands curled into fists. “Okay, you got us. Now, what do you want?”

The man with the leather jacket studied Elisabeth. She noticed a pale, almost invisible scar along his left cheekbone in the shape of a large fishing hook.

“We figured Tomas would come looking for his girlfriend,” the man said, “but what does he want with you?”

Elisabeth had to fight to prevent the shock from appearing on her face. What exactly did they know? “How do you know about Tomas and Joslyn?”

“Oh, us and Joslyn are old friends.” The man had a smile on his face that made her shudder. Joslyn was involved with the Tumibays?

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “If that’s true, then you know where she is, right? She’d hide out with her ‘old friends.’”

The man’s smile grew hard. “I’m not going to ask you again. Why are the Bagsics after you?” The barely leashed violence in his stance made it clear that if she didn’t answer, he was ready and willing to resort to violence.

Elisabeth clamped her mouth shut, fighting back the dark memories in her mind. He needed information from them, so he probably wouldn’t shoot her, but he might hit her. She couldn’t afford to flash back to her ex-boyfriend, to the blows she’d received at his hand. She had to keep it together.

The man regarded her curiously. “You know about Joslyn. So that must mean Tomas wants you because you know something about her. Maybe where she is.”

“Or they know about the shipping container,” the other man said.

“Shut up, moron,” the first man hissed.

The shipping container that Tomas had somehow lost? How were the Tumibays involved in that? And did Joslyn have something to do with it?

“Who cares why the Bagsics are after us? What do you want?” Elisabeth tried to make her voice tremble in fear, but she thought she might have sounded too belligerent.

“We want whatever Tomas wants from you. Give it to us and we’ll let you go.” She didn’t believe him for a second. If he got what he was after, he’d either kill them or take them back to their gang bosses.

She needed to separate these two, because that was the only way she and Liam could disarm them. “It’s on my laptop, in the car.” She cast her eyes downward in an expression of defeat.

“What are you doing? Don’t give them anything,” Liam said. She hadn’t expected him to play along with her, but she was glad he was. It made the gang member even more eager to get her laptop.

“Let’s go.” The man came up next to her, his arm around her waist so he could hide his gun against her side.

“Liam...” She looked up at him. He was standing stiffly in front of the other man, who had his own gun trained on him.

“He’ll stay here, safe and sound,” the gang member said.

As she walked to her car, she was more aware than ever of the smell of oil and gasoline. What was she thinking, taking on a guy with a gun in the middle of a gas station?

But this was still her best chance for getting away—now, when there were only two of them. If Liam and Elisabeth were taken back to their bosses, there would be more gang members, and no hope of escape.

She looked again at the gas station attendant, but he was reading a magazine. Even if he looked up, he would only see the gang member with his arm around Elisabeth.

The gang member released her so she could take out her laptop case. She turned to hand it to him, but deliberately held it directly in front of his gun. He automatically shifted the gun to the side.

She released her grip on the laptop case handle at the same time that her other hand struck out at his gun hand, forcing the weapon to fly several yards away. She followed up with a sharp jab to his neck that made him cough and double over.

The laptop dropped to the ground. She flung a punch toward the man’s lowered head, but he ducked and she only grazed his ear. The man grabbed at her, throwing her to the ground.

The cement smacked into her back, forcing air out of her lungs in a sharp “Oof!” The man took advantage and straddled her, trying to restrain her.

Before he could get a solid guard stance, she lifted her hips and flung him sideways, rolling with him and grabbing at his arm. She used her hips as a fulcrum and pulled at his wrist, applying a jujitsu arm bar.

He shouted in pain and yanked at his arm to pull it out of her grip, and she felt one of the bones in his forearm snap. She released him immediately. He rolled over, grabbing his arm, shouting obscenities at her.

“Hey!” The gas station attendant had finally seen them, alerted by the man’s shouts, and he charged out of the building. “I’ve called the police!”

The gang member got up and ran toward his SUV. Elisabeth followed on shaky knees. She had to help Liam.

She turned the corner in time to see Liam landing punches to the man’s torso. Elisabeth’s attacker ran past them, jumping into the truck and cranking the engine.

Liam’s attacker, hearing the truck, shoved hard at Liam. It made him stagger backward right into Elisabeth, and they fell in a tangle of limbs.

The truck jammed out of the gas station with a roar of the engine.

Liam rolled over and grabbed her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. What happened to his—”

“What were you thinking?” His blue eyes were wild as they bored into hers.

She pushed at him. “Why are you always yelling at me?”

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. “I’m sorry. I was yelling at you because you took ten years off my life. I was worried for you.”

Who was the last person who had worried about her? Not her father, not her ex-boyfriend. No one since her mother had died, since she was sixteen.

“I knew you’d be able to take that guy out if you had him alone,” she mumbled. She slowly got to her feet.

The attendant turned the corner. “Are you guys okay?”

Elisabeth waved to him. The adrenaline rush made her arms and legs shake uncontrollably, and she leaned against the side of the building for support.

“The police should be here soon,” the attendant said.

“Where’s the guy’s gun?” Elisabeth asked Liam.

“Gun?” The attendant’s eyes goggled.

Liam pointed to the bushes behind the building. “I’ll call Detective Carter to let him know what happened.”

Elisabeth pushed away from the building to go look for her attacker’s weapon so the police could take it when they arrived. She found the gun, and the sight of it lying on the concrete made her remember fighting the man, fighting for her life.

He hadn’t been a Bagsic. He’d been a Tumibay, an entirely different Filipino gang.

There were not one, but
two
gangs after them.

* * *

The Geyserville police showed up within a few minutes, and half an hour later, Elisabeth saw Detective Carter’s car appear. He spoke to the Geyserville officers, then came up to Liam and Elisabeth. “You guys are going to qualify for frequent customer points.”

Liam gave a weak smile, then grimaced. Bruises were starting to show up on his face from where the gang member had gotten some punches in. Elisabeth wanted to grimace, too, at the pain he must be feeling.

Detective Carter’s face grew grave. “Was it the Bagsics or the Tumibays?”

Elisabeth blinked at him. “Tumibays. How did you know about them?”

“We looked at traffic cameras around your apartment after the Bagsics attacked you and noted the license plate for the SUV with scrollwork along the sides. When I found out about this attack, I was just about to call you to ask you to come to the station to look at this.” Detective Carter showed them a driver’s license photo of a Filipino man with a fishhook-shaped scar on his face. His name was visible—Lamar Garcia.

“That’s one of the guys who attacked us here,” Liam said, “although I can’t say for certain I remember seeing him outside Elisabeth’s apartment.”

Elisabeth nodded agreement. “We only got a glimpse of them. Who is he?”

Detective Carter sighed. “He’s known to be one of the Tumibays.”

“What can you tell us about them?” Elisabeth asked.

“They’re a Filipino gang primarily based in San Francisco. Over the past few years, they’ve been producing meth in labs in the remote areas outside of Sonoma.”

“I should have guessed they’d be meth dealers like the Bagsics,” Elisabeth said.

“A few months ago, the FBI stopped the Tumibays from receiving an incoming supply of ephedrine to the Port of San Francisco, so their meth trade has suffered. But two weeks ago, the Sacramento police intercepted a large shipment of Tumibay meth heading north. They don’t know where the Tumibays got the ephedrine.”

Elisabeth’s eyes found Liam’s, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. Did this have to do with the shipping container that Tomas had lost? But wouldn’t the Bagsics have their shipments come into the Port of Los Angeles, not San Francisco?

“How did the Tumibays find you?” Detective Carter asked.