Avenging Alex (17 page)

John moved swiftly from the window to the door directly beside it as Lorraine unlatched it and threw herself into his arms. “Oh, my God, I'm so glad you found us.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, I'm fine. John, it was Harley. He's the one who brought me here.”

“I know all about it. I handled it.” He then stepped over to Gil's body and checked for a pulse. “Is there anyone else here?”

“There was a woman. I don't know where she went, but she took Adriane Sullivan's baby with her.” Lorraine turned and pointed. “Janette Sullivan is in there. John, she's very sick.”

John followed Lorraine inside and found Jamilah cowering in the corner between the bed and the wall. Despite her weakened condition she was overcome with emotion when she saw John. He slipped his gun back into its holster and went to her.

“John, they murdered Ade,” Jamilah cried. “He was a part of all this.”

John nodded. “I know.”

“That woman took Cerena.”

“Can you tell me about the woman?” John asked.

“She was Hispanic,” Lorraine injected.

“Her name is Pilar,” Jamilah added. “John, you have to get Cerena back before they hurt her.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Where is—”

“She's safe.”

Jamilah cupped his face. Her hands were cold and shaking. “Thank you.”

“It's not over yet,” John confessed. “I got to get you both out of here. Are you able to stand up?”

Jamilah nodded and gripped his forearm and pulled up. Lorraine moved to her other side to help.

“There's an SUV just up the path.” John looked at Jamilah. “Can you make it that far?”

She nodded again, leaning the full weight of her body against him. Her knees buckled when she stepped off the porch and John swept her up in his arms and carried her. Lorraine stayed close.

Sticks and dried grass crunched under their feet as they walked circumspectly toward the SUV. John surveyed the field where he was sure he'd taken Donovan down. Lorraine climbed into the front passenger seat. After securing Jamilah into the back, John pulled his Glock from its holster.

“Where are you going?” Lorraine shrieked.

He ignored her and took a few steps back toward the trail that they'd all just come from. He stopped and listened; there was nothing. No sound. No Donovan.

“John?”

He turned back to the SUV. There was no time to continue the search for Donovan. He needed to get the women to safety. He swept broken glass from the driver's seat, jumped in, and drove off. His thoughts ran to the timeline that he'd given Alex before she was to call his stepfather. He opted to text her instead of calling: No need to call Hank. I found your mother. Everything is all right. See you soon. Stay put.

“That was her, wasn't it?” Lorraine whispered, looking out of the corner of her eye.

Beset by a strange mixture of guilt and accountability John shot her a side-glance. “She needed to know that I have her mother.”

Lorraine turned around to see that Jamilah appeared to have drifted off. “What are you going to tell her about the baby?”

John didn't answer. He placed a long overdue call to his chief inspector.

“Inspector Chase—”

“It was Harley Donovan.”

“What?”

“He's been in on this with Rivera from the very beginning. You need to get to his loft. You'll find everything there.”

“John—”

“I don't have time to get into details right now, but you've got to move on this right now. You should also send a team to this old farmhouse thirty miles west of the Pomona Freeway off Crossroads Parkway South, Route 10; that's where Janette Sullivan was being held.”

“Was? John, what the hell is going on?”

“One more thing, Chief; Donovan's been shot. I shot him, but somehow he got away. My guess is it was the woman helping them, or Rivera himself. The woman's name is Pilar Vélez.”

“Goddammit, John—”

John disconnected the call before allowing his chief's response. He pulled up outside the entrance to the ER of Huntington Hospital in less than an hour where he was met by a female attending. Lorraine looked on as they helped Jamilah out of the SUV and into a wheelchair. John took note of the doctor's ID badge.

“What do we have here?” The doctor gave Jamilah a perfunctory spot exam, checking her pupils. “Her pulse is weak. Her breathing is shallow. What happened to her?”

“She suffered a severe asthma attack, and she's most likely dehydrated,” John responded.

“Ma'am, I'm Dr. Anderson. Can you tell me your name?”

Jamilah swallowed against the soreness in her throat and glanced up at John. “J . . . Janette Sullivan.”

“Ms. Sullivan, are you in any pain?”

Jamilah closed her eyes. “Head hurts.”

The doctor stood up to address John. “Are you a relative?”

John showed the woman his badge. “I'm Inspector John Chase from the US Marshal Service.”

“Inspector?”

John knelt beside Jamilah and held her hands. “The doctor's gonna take real good care of you. I'm going to take care of everything else. I promise.” He stood and gave the doctor a card with Milton Toliver's name on it. “This is the number of the chief inspector of the US Marshal Service Pasadena office.” He dashed back to his truck. “Call him. Tell him that Janette Sullivan is here. He'll take it from there.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” the doctor protested. “You can't just leave her here like this. There are forms . . .”

John sped away.

“Are you sure you should have just left her?” Lorraine asked.

John glanced into the rearview mirror and then pulled over to the side of the road. Wanting to avoid another round with Chief Toliver, he pulled out his cell phone and opted to text him: Just brought Janette Sullivan to Huntington Hospital. In bad shape. She needs protection immediately. Look for ER doc Carrie Anderson. He continued after sending the message, hoping that Toliver would take decisive action.

“I can't believe Harley Donovan was involved in all of this. I was sure he was going to kill me. If you hadn't shown up . . . He threatened the kids, John.”

“Are you all right?”

Lorraine rubbed her bruised wrists. “Other than the fact that I might need a rabies shot after biting that man, I'm just a little sore. I just want to get home to John Michael and Chloe. I need to be sure that they're all right.”

“I called Madeline earlier and told her to pick up the kids and keep them with her.”

John's cell phone continued to ring and text messages kept coming from Alex inquiring about Jamilah and the baby. He only responded to her text telling her to stay put and that he was on his way back there. Once he ditched the SUV and retrieved his truck from the alley two blocks from Donovan's loft he proceeded to take Lorraine to her parents. He called Sam McFarland and told him what happened and asked if he could arrange for a unit from the Pasadena PD to be sent to the Reardon home. His tab was quickly adding up. Milton Toliver called again. John ignored the call. It gave him some comfort to see a patrol car parked on the other side of the street in front of his in-laws' house by the time he and Lorraine drove up.

“I suppose it would be pointless to expect you to come in to check on your children,” Lorraine said.

John rubbed his face. “I'll be back as soon as I can.”

Tears welled up in Lorraine's eyes and she shook her head. “In all the years that you've been doing this job that you love so much I never felt your family was in danger until you brought that woman into our lives. You're right . . . sometimes when something is broken you should probably leave it that way.”

Lorraine got out of the truck and John watched until she'd made it inside.

 

Donovan threw his head back, perspiring and cringing, and pressed the blood-soaked towel against his right shoulder.

“Try not to bleed to death before I can get you the help you need,” Pilar said.

“I'm just glad you came back when you did,” he responded without the slightest hint of the Southern drawl he'd perfected.

“What the hell happened?”

“Chase got the jump on me. You need to take me back to my place.”

“What the hell for?”

“I've got to clean it out.”

“Please tell me you weren't stupid enough to leave proof lying around for anyone to find.”

“Not everything. But it's enough to incriminate me . . . and you.”

Pilar sneered. “
¡Increíble!
”

“Just take me there.”

When Pilar pulled up to the intersection of Donovan's building they could see a squad of agents swarming around outside.

“My father is not going to be happy about any of this.”

Donovan glanced over his shoulder to the blanketed floor of the back seat. “You took the damn baby, Pilar. That wasn't part of the plan. What do you think Xavier will have to say about that?”

“At the very least we still have leverage to draw Alexandra Solomon out of hiding. If you had listened to me in the first place none of this would have been necessary. You underestimated Inspector Chase. Why do men have to make simple things so complicated? Perhaps my father recruited the wrong agent after all.”

Donovan scoffed at the scathing comment. “It's not over yet.”

Pilar shot him a side-glance and smirked. “The situation is getting messier and more problematic by the minute. It very well could be over for you.”

John drove into the parking lot of the Comfort Inn and sat in his truck, staring up at the fourth-floor window. He closed his eyes and braced himself, preparing for Alex's reaction to all that had transpired. His cell phone rang and startled him. It was Alex. He concluded that the only thing to do was deal with it head-on. “Hey, I'm on my way up.”

He gave each door a cursory glance as he walked down the corridor toward the room. He rapped lightly on their door.

“John?”

“Yeah, it's me.”

Alex anxiously opened the door, grabbed him, and clung to him. “I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again.” She inhaled the smell of denim and sweat from his shirt. Just as suddenly and as fiercely as she held on to him she pushed him away. “You scared the shit out of me. Why didn't you answer your phone?” Her gaze narrowed, trying to read the expression on his face. “Where's Mama?” She moved past him and peeked out into the hall. “Where is she, John? You said you had her. You said she was with you.”

John took hold of Alex's arm and pulled her back into the room. “Alex, c'mon.”

She jerked away; her breathing bordered on hysterical. “Where is she, John? Where's my baby? What the hell is going on?”

“Alex, we need to talk.”

Alex shook her head and shoved him. “You lied to me. You said she was with you.”

“I didn't lie,” John defended. “She was with me.”

“Then dammit where is she? Where's my baby?”

“Can you just wait a minute? Your mother had a really bad asthma attack. She wasn't in good shape when I found her. I had to get her to a hospital.”

“A hospital? And you just left her there?”

“She's being taken care of.”

Alex grabbed her purse from the bed. “You have to take me to see her.”

“I can't right now.”

“Why the hell not?”

“You know why not.”

“John, if they got to her once, they can get to her again.”

“No, they won't. Not this time. I notified Chief Toliver—”

“To hell with Chief Toliver. How do you know you can even trust him after everything that's happened?”

“So, what do you wanna do, Alex? Donovan and Rivera are still out there somewhere. You wanna run out of here and go to the hospital and take the chance of being caught or killed?”

“It's better than sitting around here with my head up my ass doin' nothing!” Alex looked into John's tired, haggard expression, huffed, and turned back into the room. She threw her purse onto the bed and screamed, “Goddammit!”

John closed the door, carrying the weight of the day and its burdens in his back and shoulders. With his head bowed he slumped down in a chair next to the bed and pressed the palms of his hands against his face.

Alex turned to him, her face stained with tears. She was eerily calmer. “Where is my baby?”

John shook his head. “I don't know. She wasn't with your mother when I found her. Your mother said a woman had taken her just before I'd gotten there.”

“A woman? What woman?”

John pulled out the pictures he'd taken from Donovan's safe and handed them to Alex. “The man's name is Gilbert Mosley, the woman is Pilar Vélez. Do you recognize them? They were working with Donovan.” Alex shook her head and eased down on the bed. John continued. “Your mother and Lorraine were being held in an abandoned farmhouse about an hour outside L.A.”

“This bitch has my baby?”

John sighed heavily. “I went to Donovan's apartment after I left here earlier. I found these pictures and a lot of other things that proves he's been working with Rivera this entire time.”

“He's been watching us?”

“There were other pictures of your mother and the baby. Places the both of you had gone. People you were with.”

Alex wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “They took her to get to me, right? They're trying to lure me out and they're going to use Cerena as bait.”

“More than likely.”

Alex's countenance flashed with hope. “Then she's still alive. She has to be, right?”

John couldn't answer.

Alex combed her fingers through her hair, and paced the floor. “This just keeps getting better and better. I'm so fuckin' tired of being scared. I'm sick of looking over my shoulder, waiting for that son of a bitch to do something else. If he wants me then it's time to give him what he wants. My life for Cerena's life.”

“Alex—”

“I'm done with this, John. I need to talk to my mother. I need to hear her voice and see for myself that she's all right. If I can't talk to her then I'm walking out of here and I'm going to find her on my own. I mean it.”

John sat pensively and rubbed his hand over his face. “I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

He picked up his baseball cap, put it on her head, and stuffed her hair underneath. He handed her his marshal jacket to put on. “Put this under your shirt,” he instructed, picking up a pillow off the bed. She looked like a badly disguised heavyset woman. “It won't work,” he concluded.

“It has to work,” she insisted. “We have to make it work.”

John thought more. “Put these on.” He handed her his sunglasses. “It's late. By the time we get back to the hospital visiting hours will be over. There shouldn't be too many people around.”

“What about guards? If they recognize me they're not gonna let me anywhere near her.”

“Let's just go. Hopefully by the time we get there I can think of something else.”

 

 

Alex slumped down in the cab of John's truck as they made their way to the hospital. John flashed his badge and a smile and engaged in a brief flirtation with a duty nurse in order to ascertain what room Jamilah was in. Slipping into a supply closet he absconded with a pair of scrubs and a discarded lab jacket for Alex to change into. He was glad that Chief Toliver still trusted him enough to have an agent posted outside Jamilah's door. He knew the agent and was sure that he'd been given orders to be on alert for Donovan or Rivera, and most likely him and Alex as well.

“You're going to have to go in on your own,” he told Alex. “Cover your face and keep your head down.”

“What are you going to do?”

John shrugged. “I'll pull the fire extinguisher if I have to.”

Alex started walking toward the room. The hulking agent looked up as she approached. “I need to see your ID,” he barked.

Alex patted her pockets and nervously looked around. “Uh, I must've left it in my locker.”

“Then you need to go back and get it,” the man pressed. “I can't let you in without it.”

John stepped up from around the corner. “Hey, Carl, what's up, man?”

“John? What are you doing here?”

John titled his head toward Alex who continued into the room as he distracted the agent. “You're in a lot of trouble, dude. Toliver is mad as hell.”

“Five minutes, Carl. That's all I'm asking.”

“John, what the hell's goin' on with you and Donovan, man?”

“He hasn't been here has he?”

“I haven't seen him, but both you guys are in some deep shit.”

“I know,” John conceded. “I had to come by.”

“He got your text. He also got a call from this doctor a couple of hours ago. He stormed over here and gave me strict instructions to let him know if you or Adriane Sullivan showed up.”

“Carl, man, I need you to do me a solid and cut me some slack. Go get a cup of coffee or something. Nobody has to know.”

“That was her, wasn't it? Look, John, I'm not getting my ass chewed out over this.”

“Just a few minutes, Carl. Please.”

Jamilah's color had returned and her face lit up when she saw that it was Alex behind the disguise. The two embraced.

“Omolola, how did you get here?”

“John. He's right outside.”

Jamilah reached out and wiped Alex's tears.

Alex took her hand and kissed it. “This is not the best way for you to spend Mother's Day, huh? I'm so sorry for all of this. If you had died I don't know what I would've done.”

“Shhhh . . . I'm right here. And I told you before you didn't get me into anything I didn't know I was gettin' myself into.” She pulled tissue from the box on the rolling table next to her bed. “Here, blow your nose. Did John tell you about Cerena?”

Alex nodded.

“Listen to me, she's going to be all right. You can't give up hope.”

“We have to be realistic, Mama. Xavier Rivera won't stop coming after me until I'm . . . If we don't end this there will always be another Ade going through you to get to me. I need you and Cerena out of harm's way. If... when we get Cerena back I want you to go back to Nigeria and take her with you. “

“What?”

“I'm the one he wants. You don't have to keep this up.”

Jamilah ran her hand over Alex's hair and smiled sadly. “I am your mother and I love you. I will never turn my back on you. You are my baby. We stand together, Omolola. Is that clear? When you met Raymond and you got into this drug business I looked the other way. Your father was sick and we needed the money, so I found a way to justify it all. I should have never let you get in this deep. If anyone is to blame it's me.”

“Mama, you didn't have anything to do with this. It was my choice to marry Ray and it was my choice to align with Rivera after he died.”

“I didn't raise much of a protest to stop you. I will go to my grave regretting that, but I won't leave you.”

John tapped at the door and stuck his head inside. “We need to get going.”

Jamilah held her hand out, beckoning John to her side. He stepped into the room. “You care for my girl, don't you?”

Alex grimaced. “Mama, don't.”

Jamilah scrunched her nose, shook her head, and waved Alex away. “Don't you, Inspector?”

“Yes, ma'am,” John whispered. “I do.”

“Then you better make sure nothing happens to her.”

“I'm doing everything I can.”

“Mama, we have to go. I'll try to come back soon.”

“John, catch the people who did this, and bring my granddaughter home.”

Alex hugged and kissed Jamilah good-bye. John thanked the agent guarding the door on the way out and asked him for his discretion. Instead of chancing the elevator, they took to the stairs.

Anguished tears streamed down Alex's face as they made their way back to the hotel.

“This may not be a good time to tell you this, but I looked up Tirrell Ellis,” John offered.

“What did you find?”

“Not a whole lot since his shooting a couple of years ago. His brother's a DA now. There was some mention of his grandmother.”

Alex wiped her face in the palms of her hands. “I'm pulling you deeper and deeper into this mess.”

Thinking about Hank's forewarnings, everything Lorraine had said, and all that it was costing him John tried to sound reassuring. “You're not pulling me anywhere. I came into this with my eyes open. Besides, my days as a marshal may be over, but I could always go back to school and get that law degree. Who knows, I could be the next Johnnie Cochran.”

Once they got back to the hotel John announced that he was going to take a shower. He stripped out of his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. Alex sat staring at her cell phone, willing it to ring, hoping for any word on Cerena. Every nerve ending in her body tingled with thoughts of the inevitable. She needed relief from the stress that consumed her. She took off her clothes, went into the bathroom, and stepped into the shower. John washed the soap from his face and smiled. The only thing Alex wanted at that moment was to have him inside her. She brushed up against him and the water cascaded over their bodies.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“We may never get another chance,” she responded.

John brushed her wet hair away from her eyes and cupped her face. “I'm going to find your baby, and I'm—”

“John—”

“Let me finish, all right? I'm gonna get you out of this. When this is all over you'll be on your way to a new city with a new identity and you'll have a chance to start over again.”

“I don't want to have to start over without you.”

They stared a silent knowing into one another's eyes as the water pelted them like rain. John pulled Alex into him and kissed her passionately. She felt the swell between his legs. He gripped her buttocks and pressed her into the tiled wall, licking and sucking her yielded breasts. She wrapped her arms around his neck and opened up, allowing him inside her, fulfilling a yearning and momentarily masking heartache. It was an extraordinarily poignant moment. Her body was imbued by his fervor. Neither could be sure what lay ahead, but they knew they were connected and they would face triumph and even death together.