Emily Kimelman - Sydney Rye 03 - Insatiable (15 page)

Ana Maria followed me into the hall. She looked at the man on the floor and asked, “What do we do now?”

“Run.” I dropped the towels and rod next to the semi-conscious man and hurried back the way we’d come. The hair at the back of my neck was at full attention and every nerve in my body vibrated.

At the gangplank I stopped for a moment, shielding my eyes against the bright sun. I looked out over the abandoned mall to Frenchtown. I couldn’t see our hotel but it wasn’t far. Obviously it was time to move on. I just hoped that everyone back there was OK. And then I saw him. That Mickey Mouse motherfucker was just exiting the dead halls of the mall.

“There he is,” I said, pointing him out to Ana Maria. His head was gone and so were his gloves but there was no mistaking that body. His hair was a light brown and that’s about all I could see before he disappeared into the small streets of Frenchtown.

“Do you think he knows where we’re staying?”

“He followed us onto this boat; unless that was just coincidence I think he knows where we’re sleeping.” I didn’t have a phone so couldn’t call my friends and warn them. Easy was in the room with Blue. Dan was in town buying equipment. I figured Easy and Blue were the targets but only an idiot would go after that girl and dog without at least a gun.

I ran down the gangplank. Ana Maria’s feet pounded right behind my own. The dead mall seemed full of life. Everywhere I turned a shadow was moving, a Disney character was lurking. I picked up my pace, sprinting through the decaying center of commerce. One guy was selling T-shirts and as I flew by him he offered, “Ganja?”

It felt good to be running. Passing houses with their storm shutters open and the smell of frying foods floating out of them, I took a deep breath. This guy, whoever he was, held some answers. Maybe he could tell me why I was in this mess. Tell me why Alejandro had to die. Why Ana Maria was so willing to take down her own parents.

She was right behind me. Keeping up with my fast pace. I admired her as I listened to her heavy breathing. She was a tough girl. I thought her love and admiration for her cousin unique and not unlike the relationship that my brother and I shared. But would I ruin my parents over it? Maybe, I thought, as air burned in my lungs. I was willing to kill a man.

We reached the hotel out of breath. I stopped in front of it and grabbed onto an electric pole to help support me while I recovered. We didn’t pass Mickey so either he wasn’t at the hotel or was related to Speedy Gonzales. I looked up to my balcony and saw Easy sitting there. I waved to her and she waved back.

“She’s safe,” I said to Ana Maria.

“Yeah, I see that. Where do you think that guy was going?”

I shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t know where we were staying. Or he’s decided to change before another attack.”

“Who is he?”

“Don’t know. But I want to find out.” I watched Easy stand up and go inside.

We climbed the steps to the lobby. There was no one behind the front desk. We ducked into the cool stairwell. It was a relief to be out of the sun. My run from the ship left sweat on my forehead and pooling on my back. Ana Maria’s face was red with exertion and we climbed the steps slowly, enjoying the shaded path.

Our door stood slightly ajar. I leaned against it to open it more, but it stopped six inches in. My heart started racing. Where was Blue? Why hadn’t he greeted me yet? I jumped back, knocking into Ana Maria as a piece of wood smashed into where my head had been. “Ana, run!” I heard her feet racing back down the steps as a man stepped through the door. He looked like a boxer. His nose was so mashed that it looked abstract. His forehead was small, a patch of white between his brown hair and his dark eyebrows. His eyes were sunken and black. They looked like the eyes of a rodent, a mouse.

I held my fists in front of my face preparing for a fight. He swung his board of wood at me, I ducked under it. The furry costume was slowing him down. On the balls of my toes, I stepped to the left and struck at the side of his face. I hit his ear. He turned to look at me, but I was already back in front of him. I struck at his lip this time and stepped around again.

Blood pooled on his split lip and mixing with saliva, journeyed down his chin. I went in low with a right hook and put all my weight into his stomach. It was like punching a stuffed animal. He grunted, recovered quickly and I felt the breeze the wood made as it missed my face by less than a millimeter. This guy was slow-moving. He wasn’t as good as me.

Blane knew my training; Ana Maria’s parents wouldn’t be so stupid to send an amateur after me. He swung again and this time I caught the wood, twisted it against his thumb and wrenched it from his hands. He looked surprised as hell when I went to bash him in the face but stopped a half an inch short. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

His eyes rolled in their sockets away from the wood to my face. “I was gonna bring you in.”

“How about you answer some questions instead?” He nodded his head. “Firstly, where is my dog?”

MICKEY MOUSE INTERROGATION

He didn’t know where Blue was. “Easy?” I asked. He looked as confused. “The woman occupying this room?”

“Oh, she’s in there,” he said, smiling, happy to help.

“Easy!” I called.

Mickey’s face fell into a frown. “I had to wallop her one.”

“Wallop?”

“Just knock her out so she wouldn’t warn you or nothin’.”

I motioned with the piece of wood for him to step inside. He moved backwards into the room. “Sit on the bed,” I told him. A groan came from behind the door. I took my gaze off Mickey for just a second to check on the sound. Easy was behind the door, on her side, holding her head. “Your trademark?” I asked.

Mickey shrugged. I looked around the room searching for something to tie him up with. The strings from the curtains caught my attention. “Hey,” I said to him. “Pull down those cords.” I motioned to them with the wood.

Mickey got off the bed and ripped the whole window treatment off the wall. He smiled at me sheepishly and I saw that he was missing a few teeth. Blood was drying on his chin and he looked almost like a kid. A kid who’d spent his time in the womb boxing. “All right, lie down on the bed with your hands behind your back.”

Ana Maria came in as I was tying his hands with my knee in his spine. “You’re OK,” she said, a big smile on her face.

“Yeah,” I looked over at Easy. “Help her, would you?” Ana Maria turned and saw Easy on the ground. Her face whitened.

Once I finished wrapping the curtain cord around Mickey’s wrists, I moved onto his ankles. Ana Maria crouched by Easy’s side. “Her eyes look clear,” Ana Maria said.

I rolled Mickey over and told him, “I should fucking wallop you for what you did to her.” He didn’t answer. “Who are you?”

“Jimmy Toll.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m a bounty hunter.”

“Not a very good one.”

“I done better before.”

“Yeah, who’s got a bounty on me?”

“I don’t know their name. I just know it’s a lotta money.”

“How much?”

“Hundred thousand.”

“What about the girl? Anything for her?”

He turned to look at Ana Maria. “I never seen her before.”

That was good at least. That meant that if we separated no one would be going after Ana, they just wanted me.

“What’s my name?”

“What?”

“Say my name.”

“Sydney Rye.”

“How did you hear about me?”

“It’s just going around.”

“My picture?”

“Online.”

“How’d you find me?”

“I got lucky. I saw you buying dresses and I followed you.”

I looked over and saw that Easy was sitting up. She was rubbing her temples. I helped Ana Maria lift her onto the other bed. I propped her up on a couple of pillows. Ana filled a glass with water and brought it to Easy.

“There was a man,” she said.

“That one.” I pointed at our hogtied guest. He was still wearing the fuzzy body of Mickey Mouse.

Easy looked at him blankly. She raised a hand to her swollen cheek then brought it down quickly. “Ana, do we have any aspirin or anything?” I asked.

She went into the bathroom and I heard her rummaging through our bags. “You all right?” I asked Easy.

She smiled. “Takes more than a punch in the face to stop me.”

I smiled. “Good. Easy? Where’s Blue?”

“Dan took him for a walk right before that guy showed up.”

I let out a breath of air I didn’t even know I’d been holding. “Good, good.”

“Who is he?” Easy asked.

Ana Maria came back into the room with two white pills. “Here you go.”

Easy took the pills and then looking over at me asked again, “Who is he?”

I shook my head trying to clear it. “He’s a bounty hunter.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah, but there’s good news. He’s just after me which means that either whoever hired him does not know or care about the rest of you guys.”

“I guess that’s good,” Easy said.

“Either way we’ve got to move.” I stood up. Easy went to follow but I stopped her. “You rest for awhile. Ana and I will pack.”

She went to protest but then I think her swollen face got the better of her and she laid back down. Ana and I packed quickly and by the time Dan got back we were ready to go. He came into the room all smiles. “Did you get the smart chips?” he asked before noticing the man tied up on the bed. “What the-”

“We’ve had an incident,” I explained. Blue went over and sniffed the bound man. Mickey or Jimmy, whatever his name was, looked scared as hell while Blue gave him the once over.

“Who is he?”

“A bounty hunter. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Hey, Jimmy?” His eyes left Blue and landed on my face. “You tell anyone about me?” He shook his head no. “You didn’t tell anyone I was staying here?”

“No. Why would I do that? Then maybe they get you instead of me.”

“Does anyone else know I’m on this island?”

“I didn’t tell them. Everyone knows you’re in the Caribbean but they don’t know where.” In that case, I thought, we’ve got to get the fuck out of the Caribbean.

The phone rang and everyone turned to look at it. Ana Maria went for it but I was there first. It was Malina. “My girl just left Pedro,” she said. “He was very upset.”

“About what?” Ana Maria was looking at me and chewing on the inside of her left cheek.

“He says that his daughter is missing. He says that he is very worried.”

“Did he say where his daughter went?”

“He would not tell her. But she thinks she has been kidnapped.”

“Really?” I cupped the phone closer to my ear, trying to keep the conversation private in a room full of people.

“He was on the phone and he was very angry. He was yelling at a man. He said…” Malina stopped to clear her throat, “he said ‘she killed my nephew, she kidnapped my daughter.’ What is he talking about?”

“I don’t know.” I looked down at the bedside table. It was marked with cigarette burns that turned the honey-colored wood black. “You are doing great,” I said to Malina.

“He is so sad,” she said. “He misses his daughter very much. He says he loves her and he wants her back very badly. Do you know where she is?”

“I’ve got to go. I’ll get back to you soon.” I hung up the phone and turned to the man on the bed. I was going to ask him again who sent him but I honestly didn’t think he knew. The guy didn’t look like he knew much.

“What was that about?” Ana Maria asked.

“It was Malina checking in.” Ana Maria almost said something but instead she turned away from me.

I chewed on my bottom lip and looked around the room. Easy on one bed holding a cool compress to her face, Jimmy on the other watching Blue with a wary eye. Ana Maria was standing looking out onto the balcony. Dan moved close to me and his nearness felt calming.

“All right, folks, it’s time to move.”

Having a private plane and pilot makes escaping easier. Her ex working in customs and willing to lie about your flight plan helps, too. The bound man dressed up like a mouse who just screams ex-convict hinders things but not so much that it makes them impossible.

Maude did not like it when I dragged him into her office. “What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes huge, taking in the full picture of Jimmy.

“I don’t want anyone to see him,” I said.

“I don’t want to see him.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

Maude pushed herself into the opposite corner of her office.

“Nice poster,” Jimmy said, using his chin to point to the kitten encouraging us to hang in there.

“You need to get out of here,” Maude said.

“I was thinking the same thing.”

Easy opened the door and stepped into the already cramped office. The baggage between the two women did not clear up any space. When Maude saw the bruise swelling on Easy’s face, she stepped forward and asked just above a whisper, “What happened?”