The Russian's Dangerous Game (16 page)

He listened for a moment, looking back to make sure Stu was getting all of this. “How do I know you have her?” he asked. “And how do I know that you haven’t harmed her?”

The man at the other end of the line chuckled. “I wouldn’t mind harming this little lady. But
it’s you I want. Although,” he laughed maliciously, “perhaps once I have you, I might just keep the princess for myself as a toy.”

The line went dead and Rocco glared at Stu, willing the man to give him some news. Rocco refused to think of the words, condemning the man to hell for what he’d even suggested about
harming his beautiful Brianna. “Tell me you got it,” Rocco commanded.

Stu typed something into his laptop, his mouth grim. He’d heard the short conversation as well and his fingers flew over the keyboard, working some sort of magic. “The call originated from this house,” he said, sending the location to
both Rocco as well as the police and FBI. They also received a sound file that contained the audio conversation.

Stu listened
to his earpiece for five seconds, then nodded his head. Turning back to Rocco, he said, “The FBI are on route, but we’re going to get there first. We can land in this location here,” he explained, pointing on his laptop screen to a field that, during the summer months grew rows of corn but was now just a field of browned stalks. “I don’t have a car available for you yet.”

“Can’t you get me closer?” Rocco demanded, looking at the screen and calculating that he was at least a mile away from the house where they were probably going to stash Brianna. “And is the SUV heading towards that house?”

“They are on the same trajectory, but I can’t guarantee that she will be there at the same time we are. The FBI…” he started to say something else but stopped, listening to his earpiece. “Right,” he said. “The police and FBI are still three minutes away from us. We’re ahead of them so we’re going to have to go in alone.”

“I’m pretty sure they won’t agree with your assessment, but I’m on board with it. Just tell me where they are.”

He pointed to another point on his screen. “The SUV is here, heading west at approximately eighty-five miles per hour. The county sheriff’s office is here,” he said, pointing to another car that turned onto what looked like a dirt road, which it probably was. This far out in the Virginia countryside, the paved streets were the two lane roads that connected one town to another with mountains and farmland in between.

The pilot interrupted them as she circled around a wide farm area.
“I’m sorry, sir, this is as close as I can get. There aren’t any other landing sites closer.”

Rocco nodded his acceptance, his mind already moving past the
distance issue to how he was going to get Brianna out of that house. “Fine,” he said and whipped his coat and tie off, tossing them onto the seat while he jumped out of the helicopter. “Give me an earpiece,” he ordered Stu.

Immediately, the piece was handed to him and he shifted it into his ear.
“Got it. Stay here and tell me if the SUV changes locations.”

“I’m coming with you sir,” he countered, already stepping out of the helicopter as well and stuffing an earpiece in his own ear.

“I need you to monitor the situation. Tell me if anything changes.”

“You’re not going anywhere without me. My people back at the headquarters can let me know if something changes.” He tossed his own jacket as well, then turned and glared at his boss. “Let’s hit it,” he said.

Rocco didn’t have time to argue with him. He took the pistol that Stu offered to him, quickly checked the magazine and put the safety on. “Let’s go,” he agreed.

A moment later, both men were sprinting through the woods in the direction of the house where everyone assumed they were taking Brianna. There was some leftover snow but most of the way was mud as the melting snow created a slushy mess. Rocco ignored the damage the mud and snow was doing to his five thousand dollar shoes, focusing only on going as quickly as possible through the woods towards his goal. He didn’t bother checking to see if Stu was beside him, unconcerned with the other man’s pace.
His only focus was to get to Brianna before something horrible happened to her.

When they got to the edge of the woods where the house was
” located, they stopped, neither of them very winded from their one mile sprint but both assessing the situation. The SUV was already there but empty and parked at the front of the house. “It’s going to get dark soon,” Rocco said.

“We should wait for darkness. It will be easier to approach.”

Rocco knew that was probably the best idea, but he kept thinking of the words the man had said, about using Brianna as his next toy. “We’ve got to get in there now. She’s probably frightened out of her mind and who knows what that monster is going to do. We’ve basically taken down his entire operation with evidence to keep them all locked up for the next century. He’s beyond desperate now.”

“The FBI should have picked him up already. Once this is over, I’ll find out why he wasn’t.” Stu was almost as furious as Rocco but he was thinking through the situation carefull
y. The SUV was already sitting out front, they could confirm from the license plate number.

“We could go in from that tree,” Rocco pointed to a large oak tree growing close to the side of the house with branches that grew out towards an upstairs window. “It’s probably wired somehow with an alarm. Do you have any ideas on how to disengage a window
alarm?”

Stu
looked up, assessed the situation and nodded his head. “That will work. And yes, I can disable just about any alarm system ever made.”

That startled Rocco and he looked at the man. “Including ours?” he asked.

Stu returned a look as if to say “Are you kidding me?”

“Right,” Rocco replied
, answering his own question. “Let’s go.” Without another word, the two men sprinted over to the tree, working their way carefully towards the side of the house where they were less likely to be seen. It took them less than five minutes to climb up the tree and about sixty seconds for Stu to assess the window alarm and disable it.

Inside,
Brianna was more irritated than she was scared and her head hurt badly enough that she was angry with the guy who’d thunked her. She knew that she should have reacted differently, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly. It was her first abduction and, even though the self-defense classes she, Rachel and Nikki had taken had shown her what to do, she hadn’t done it. The police officer who had done the self-defense training had cautioned that they needed to practice the moves over and over again, obtain “muscle memory” so her muscles would simply react when under attack. But had she listened? Nope! She’d gone her merry way. In fact, the three of them had stopped after that class and had a martini, laughing about their day and the gruff police officer who’d constantly warned the class about the criminals that were out there and what could happen.

Okay, so the man had been right! She should have
practiced; she should have listened more carefully. If she had, she might not be in this predicament now. She could be on her way to Rocco’s office, her newly purchased handcuffs in her purse and not around her wrists and she would be smiling as he discovered all the other items she’d purchased.

The only saving grace in this whole thing was that they had dug into her purse
, trying to see if she had any weapons. They were actually stupid enough to be using the handcuffs she’d just bought at the mall. They were toy cuffs but the two men who had kidnapped her were chuckling over the fact that they’d locked her up with her own cuffs. What idiots, she thought as she sat in the cold closet, trying to figure out how to get out of this situation.

The door was suddenly opened up and she blinked as the watery light from the kitchen poured into what she now realized was a pantry instead of just a closet.

“So you’re the little lady that means so much to Antoniv, eh?” the enormous man said. His belly was so large, he wouldn’t be able to see his toes if he looked down. “I’ll admit, you’re much prettier than I was expecting.”

Brianna’s stomach clenched in fear, but she forced her shoulders to appear unconcerned by this man’s presence.
“I’m so pleased not to have disappointed you,” she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She wanted nothing more than to kick this man in his enormous gut but she was on the floor while he was standing. She could also see several men peering over the man’s shoulder so even if she were to take the disgusting one down, she’d have several more men to deal with afterwards. Better to wait for less of a crowd, she told herself.

“You have a mouth on you, eh?” he chuckled. “I like spirited women. They are so much more interesting to break.”

The man behind him said something in a foreign language and the fat man nodded his head, his jowls jiggling with the motion. “We’ll see you again very shortly, my dear,” he said, his heavy accent making the words harder to decipher.

Brianna stayed where she was until she heard the heavy footsteps moving away from the door and out of the room. It felt like she was in an older house and by the smell of the pantry, the wood was damp and rotting slightly with age. That was all good, she thought as she pressed the button on the handcuffs and her hands were instantly free. She hadn’t bought real handcuffs, just toy cuffs to tease Rocco with. The
idiotic men couldn’t even tell the difference.

It was odd because, in the movies, the mafia criminals seem
ed to be much smarter with more street sense but here she was, being restrained with toy handcuffs.

Of course, they weren’t stupid enough to leave the
pantry door unlocked, which she discovered quickly. She bit her lip and felt around with her hands. When she found the light switch, she flicked it on and the small pantry was suddenly filled with light. She blinked slightly until her eyes adjusted, then looked around, trying to find a way out of this mess. Her head still hurt painfully, but she’d worry about that after she got away. She had to hurry, afraid that they were trying to use her to get to Rocco. She didn’t want him in any kind of danger. But she was stumped on how to get out of this pantry.

There wasn’t much to use unless she could figure out how to
build a weapon from flour or sugar. Or perhaps oatmeal. The rest of the pantry was filled with junk food, a few bags of rice, store bought cookies and mixing bowls. She wasn’t really sure what to do. Crouching down, she tried to figure out what they’d used to lock her in. The lock seemed very old. If she could find something that could be used as a pick, maybe she could get out of here. Kidnapped people in the movies always were able to pick their way through locked doors, weren’t they?

She sighed and surveyed the pantry once again. It might
appear to be easy, but they also had a magic pin that they’d stuck in their hair or in their shoe for just such an occurrence. She didn’t have either. In fact, she didn’t even have both shoes, one having fallen off in her fight to get free from those goons. She couldn’t count on someone saving her since probably no one knew she’d been taken and even if they did, they wouldn’t know where she was.

“Okay, think Bri! What would Nikki do?” She looked around one more time, getting desperate now. She had to get out of here. Every moment she was here was one more second that they had time to reach Rocco. She knew he’d come for her but he
wouldn’t know what he was getting into. Stu would help, but what could the two of them do against all these men?

She lifted one of the vinegar jars, hefting it in her hand. Yes, it had enough weight to probably knock someone out, but she’d still have to get out of the closet first.

Brute force? She looked around. A plan was coming to her. She poured flour into one of the stainless steel mixing bowls, sugar into another, and placed several bottles nearby. With that in place, she went as far back as possible, took a deep breath, and then kicked her foot just under the door’s lock. She’d read somewhere that just underneath was the most vulnerable spot on the door. She had no idea why, but in this case, it wasn’t true. The next time, she kicked right on the lock. Nothing.

Okay, try it until it works, she told herself firmly. She had to get out of here and contact Rocco. With that thought in mind, and his smile, she kicked one more time. This time, miraculously, the door burst open. Unfortunately, the noise she’d made kicking in the door the first few times had roused the notice of several of the men. Without thinking twice, she grabbed the bowl of flour and tossed it right in their faces. The trick worked! The flour blinded both men who were probably expecting guns or something along those lines, but flour wasn’t really one of their anticipated weapons. So they stood still for several moments, trying to figure out what she’d just done.

Brianna didn’t hesitate. She took the vinegar bottle and the jug of olive oil, smacking each of them over the head. Shockingly, they both went down like a dead balloon.

She stood there for a long moment, dusting off her hands and congratulating herself. Then she leaned over both men and took the guns from their hands. Remembering other movies, she searched their bodies and both men had a
gun on their ankle and several knives in a leather pocket of their suit jackets. She took all their weapons, then hurriedly tied them up with the twine that was in the pantry. She made sure to wrap the twine around them several times, not sure how sturdy it was. She suspected that old twine would rip relatively easily. She thought about pulling them into the pantry, but after tugging at one man’s leg for a moment, she knew she didn’t have the strength to pull them anywhere. Nor did she think she had the time.