Accomplice (15 page)

Brandon Kingsbury’s home was a faux Tudor estate
with a sweeping view of one of the most exclusive golf courses in town. It
wasn’t quite as large or impressive as Jessica’s Hollywood mansion, but it beat
the hell out of Noah’s own bungalow.

Noah glanced at his watch. Over an hour had
already ticked by as he gathered what supplies he thought he could use from
home—a knife strapped to one leg, extra ammunition, the last of the pre-paid
wireless phones that he’d bought  on the road with Jessica and never used. He
didn’t keep a bulletproof vest lying around just for the fun of it, but he took
an old motorcycle jacket he’d had since college. It wasn’t bulletproof, but it
was lightly armored to make a biker feel less like road kill-waiting-to-happen.

Noah raised one eyebrow as Tony punched in a code
to the gate at the subdivision entrance. Tony quirked his half-smile and tapped
his forehead. “Saw him use it once. Told you I’ve got a photographic memory.”

“I will try to remember that.” Noah made a mental
note not to take Tony to any ATMs, just in case. On second thought, given the
fine drape of the man’s suit jacket, Tony could probably buy and sell Noah.

How much did private security guards make per year
anyway?

Brandon Kingsbury opened his own door, his polite
smile melting to confusion and then anger as he recognized the two men on his
doorstep. He wore khaki pants and a golf shirt on his aging but still athletic
frame. His reddish-brown hair had artful-looking highlights too perfect to have
been caused by the sun. Noah supposed the man would be considered handsome by
many people. He looked a lot like the photos of Charles Kingsbury’s younger
days that sat in Noah’s files.

“Tell me you are selling thin mints,” he drawled.

“I’m here for the necklace,” said Noah.

“Subtle, Grayson,” Tony’s voice carried a hint of
warning.

“Come back with a warrant,” said Brandon as he
made to close the door.

Tony shoved a booted foot into the door jamb.
“Sorry to be rude, Mr. Kingsbury. We are in a bit of a hurry.”

“Look, Brandon,” said Noah. “There are two ways we
can do this. You and I can sit right here on your front steps and wait for a
search team to arrive. They will sort through every file, turn over every
drawer, and peer behind every painting in your house looking for the necklace.
A couple of photographers might come, too, just to watch the action. And when
they find the diamonds, you will be hauled away in cuffs. I guarantee you that
the paparazzi will be watching then. I’m sure that will do wonders for your
career with the PGA. Don’t they have an ethics clause? Anyway, you will have to
forfeit your entry into several of the tournaments coming up while this all
gets sorted out in the courts.”

Noah watched as Brandon’s face faded from anger to
a sneer.

“Or, you can quietly let us in, hand us the
necklace, and we will be on about our way without any further ado.”

“Are you threatening me?”

 “No one is threatening anyone, Mr. Kingsbury,”
said Tony mildly. “But my friend here does have a convincing argument.”

Brandon’s eyes flicked back and forth between Noah
and Tony. His pupils were wide with fear, and his breath came in short puffs.
“I don’t have it.”

Noah shrugged and reached into his pocket. Brandon
backed away and Noah grinned as he withdrew his cell phone. “It’s not loaded, I
swear. I’m just going to make a phone call.”

“To...to who?”

Noah hit the power button and began thumbing
through his contact list. “Lieutenant Thompson of the LAPD. He is the one
heading up the robbery investigation. Said he would appreciate any tips we
could throw his way. I’d say the word of a FBI agent is enough probable cause
for him to skip the search warrant, wouldn’t you?”

“Wait. Just wait one damned second before you go
dialing anyone. What are you going to do with it if I give it to you? Without  a
warrant, or even proper procedure, it would be inadmissible in court. It would
be useless.” Brandon sputtered.

 Noah raised his eyebrows. “True. But I happen to
know that it’s useless to you, too. You never cracked the code, did you? That’s
why you went after the rest of Jessica’s estate. So you could search through
your father’s belongings for the key.”

Brandon’s jaw dropped a half inch.

“We are out of time, Mr. Kingsbury. What’s it
going to be?”

***

At least they were going to let her die clean.
Jessica scrubbed the grime of her captivity off with a bar of cheap perfumed
soap. Harry had presented it to her with a shy, sly smile that made her skin
crawl. Earlin had untied her wrists and shoved a towel, a bottle of shampoo,
and a toothbrush at her before sending her into a tiny bathroom tiled from top
to bottom in sea foam green.

“Don’t bother trying any funny business, or I’ll
send Harry in to help you out,” warned Earlin before shutting the door.

The air smelled vaguely like rotten eggs, and a
ring of rust surrounded the drain to the matching green bathtub. Her stomach
turned, way too empty for such a vile smell, and she fought down a wave of
nausea.

She turned on the water and made as quick and
quiet of an inventory of the place as she could. The sink was just a porcelain
bowl bolted to the wall, without even a cabinet below it. Inside the tarnished
mirrored medicine cabinet, she found only dust. Quietly she lifted the heavy
lid of the toilet tank. Most of the parts were rusted from years of use, but
she managed to loosen a screw that held the lever to the flushing mechanism and
hid it in her towel.

 Footsteps approached on the floor outside the
door, and she undressed as fast as she could, barely getting under the spray
when she felt the cold breeze of the door opening. She backed toward the far wall
of the shower, clutching the shampoo bottle in one hand. It wasn’t much of a
weapon, but soap in an eye might at least slow the intruder down.

“Hurry up in there, will you?” Earlin sounded
annoyed.

Heart racing, Jess stuttered “Sorry.”

She heard fabric rustling and then the door closed
leaving her in peace. She looked around the curtain. Her towel hadn’t been
disturbed, but Earlin had removed her dirty clothes and left a plastic bag on
the floor next to the toilet.

She scrubbed and shampooed, nose wrinkling at the
soap even while she was grateful for it. She wished for a razor for her underarms,
but her captors hadn’t been dumb enough to give her a blade. She also drank
several gulps of water fresh from the faucet, and massaged parched lips and
bruised wrists.

After staying the shower as long as she dared, she
wrapped up in the towel and bent to open the bag that had been left. Inside she
found one of the ugliest and trampiest outfits she had worn outside of some of
her seedier photo shoots. She found a pair of thong underwear in a horrid pink
leopard print, a pair of stretch leggings designed to look like jeans, a
low-cut tank top that stretched thin over her breasts and provided no support,
and a black lace loose-fitting shirt obviously meant to go over the tank top,
and pair of flip flops. Still, everything was brand-new and clean. She threw on
the clothes, tucked her one tiny weapon into the strap of the underwear on her
hip where it would be covered by the hem of the shirt, then brushed her teeth.

She was still rubbing her head with her damp
towel, trying to dry her short hair as much as possible when the door opened
again. Harry whistled appreciatively, and Jessica flushed and crossed her arms
over her chest as she waited for his eyes to finish cataloguing every inch of
her.

“Come on, love, no need to be shy. You’re just as
beautiful in person as you are in print.” He twirled a finger around in the
air.

She glared.

His eyes narrowed and he took a threatening step
forward. “Now, now, no need to play coy with me. Let me see what my money
bought, mmm?”

“Cut it out, Harry. We’re leaving,” said Earlin
from the hall.

Jess shrank back into the bathroom as Harry took
two steps toward her and snatched her by the arm. His fingers bit into her
flesh as he yanked her and pulled her up against the fleshy length of him. He
towered over her, stinking of cigarette smoke. “Don’t be running away, you
hear. I told you I’d take care of you.”

With a jerk, he spun her around and grabbed her
other arm, jerking her shoulders painfully, then tied another plastic tie
around her wrists. He pressed her forward until her chest was against the
bathroom wall, the cool of the tile wall a scant inch from her cheeks. His
hands traced up her bare arms and then down the small of her back.

Please, just let it end.
Jess squeezed her
eyes shut, as Harry’s hands roamed over her, down her hips, cupping her butt.
His foul breath was hot on her ear, coming in short gasps as he grabbed her
hips and pulled her up against him, shoving his crotch at her tied hands. She
tried to struggle away, tried to ball her hands into fists to move them away
from his erection.

“That’s right baby, come to papa.” His hips were
grinding against her, and her struggling seemed to excite him more. His hands
reached around her sides and down the front of her top to squeeze her nipples.

Jess opened her palm, grabbed his dick as hard as
she could, and twisted.

Harry screamed and released her, and she scrambled
away to the only open space: the still damp bathtub.

“Get back here, bitch.”

Jessica climbed out the far side of the tub, just
escaping Harry’s outstretched arm. He caught her by the shirt, tearing it as
she twisted away, trying her best to find traction. Her sandals were flimsy
foam, now wet from the bottom of the tub, and she slipped on the hard floor and
fell to her knees.

Harry was on top of her in a moment. He shoved her
to her stomach, pounding her temple on the floor. Stars lit her vision and she
tasted blood where her teeth bit into the inside of her cheek. She screamed and
kicked up at him, but he outweighed her by double, and he pinned her easily. He
shoved one knee between her legs and tugged at her pants.

The screw she had hidden there fell on the floor
with a ping, and she grasped at it.  Her fingers closed over the metal, warmed
from her own body heat.  She jabbed it as hard as she could into one of Harry’s
hand. He screamed, a sound somewhere between pain and rage.

“You like it rough, little Jessica?” he hissed in
her ear as he slammed her hand down on the tile floor and pried the screw out
of her fingers.

A scuffling of feet and a metallic click barely
registered as Jessica tried in vain to fight her would-be rapist.

“Damnit, Harry, I will shoot you dead right now if
you don’t get your act together.” The voice was Earlin’s.

Harry stopped moving. Jess opened one eye and
found she was staring at a pair of boots. Two more sets stood back on either
side of him.

“I’m just collecting payment for the new clothes I
bought her.” Harry’s voice was breathless, angry.

“Now’s not the time. Stand up real slow.”

Jess held her breath while Harry’s weight lifted
off of her. She heard scuffling and protests as the men dragged him out of the
room. Earlin nudged her with one toe. “Stand up, let’s go.”

Jess let out her breath with a stuttering gasp.
She tried to roll to one side and struggle to a sitting position. She saw stars
again as she made it upright. Her face was wet with tears and she tried in vain
to clean them off with the scratchy fabric on her shoulders because her hands
were still bound behind her back.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he waved it
off, withdrawing a long strip of fabric from his pocket. “Don’t bother. I ain’t
doin’ you any favors.”

***

Noah rubbed at his arm while he scanned the
incoming road for cars. This whole setup made him itch. Tony made him itch. He
wanted to trust Tony, but most of all wanted Cole to arrive before he had to
leave to face the kidnappers.

Kingsbury had opened one of those corny
behind-the-painting safes that he thought only existed in movies. He wasn’t
much of a jewel expert, but the necklace that Brandon produced from a
felt-lined box looked like an exact copy of the one he and Cole had turned into
the CIA.

Tony pocketed the necklace while Noah took his
suggestion to bind his hands and feet to bed post in his room. “Don’t worry,
I’ll send a friend back into untie him. Worst case, the maid finds him in the
morning.”

They found Noah’s car where he’d left it by the club
the night before, and drove to a point just outside town to call Cole.

Noah glanced at his watch again. “I don’t think I
can wait much longer.”

“Five more minutes. Give him five more minutes.”
The big guy looked just as uncomfortable as Noah felt.

It was less than two before Cole’s car turned into
the convenience store lot where Noah and Tony waited, but it took another five
to brief Cole on what was going down.

He shook his head. “No way, Grayson. I’m not
letting you go in there without a bulletproof vest and a wire.”

“No time. I’m already late. Tony and I worked out
the camera phone connection while we were waiting. We will have an open channel
the whole time. Just get the team here.” He turned to leave.

Cole placed a hand on his arm and spoke under his
breath. “This is a bad idea.”

Noah nodded unhappily. “But it’s the best one
we’ve got.”

“I don’t trust him.” Cole jerked his head toward
Tony. “His timing is way too convenient.”

“I’m not sure I trust him either. But he hasn’t
shot me yet. Cole, I’ve got to try. If I don’t show up, she’s dead.”

“Are you sure some starlet is worth dying for?”

Noah shrugged on his motorcycle jacket. “If I let
her die, I couldn’t live with myself.”