Bluegrass Undercover (26 page)

Annie heard the men stop. One tried to creep quietly forward but was about as quiet as a buffalo. She watched the doorknob turn and knew it was time to protect Cade once again. It always seemed like he was getting in trouble.

The door swung open and Larry and Curly came busting through. Annie heard the sound of Cade’s knife tearing through Larry’s jacket. Curly looked to his injured friend and Annie swung away. The contact with the back of Curly’s head reverberated up her arms. Annie didn’t have time to smile as Curly crumpled to the ground, landing on top a moaning and bleeding Larry. Two down, five to go.

Moe and one of the roid triplets tried to fight their way in, but they both couldn’t get over their two downed comrades. As the hairless ball of muscle made his way through, she decided Cade could have him. He was really big. A girl does need to recognize her limitations after all. Anyway, she wanted a reunion for her and her Three Stooge partner who was having trouble trying to climb over his friends.

“
Long time no see.” When he looked up from trying to untangle himself, she smacked him with the bat. His nose wasn’t straight anyway. Maybe they could finally fix that in jail.

Moe went tumbling backwards as the blood gushed from his nose. He stepped backwards and into, well really more like onto, the unconscious Curly. Moe’s arms pinwheeled as he lost his footing. Annie watched as he lost his fight with gravity. He collapsed against the door, his head smashing into the frame. Annie watched him for a second, but he didn’t move. He had been knocked out when he had fallen.

“
Jesus Christ. Do I have to do everything? Just kill her for crying out loud. How hard can it be?” a Scottish accented voice said.

“
Gaylen, is that you? You know, if you wanted to come for a visit, you could have just called.” Cade walked to one side of the pile of downed thugs, wiping the bloody blade of his knife on his Beardie boxers. Too bad, blood was hard to get out and those were really cute boxers.

“
You know why I came, Davies. You leaked our operation to the cops and as a result we were raided. I told you not to cross the Boss. You knew the price of betrayal when we started our partnership, so we’re here to collect. Doug, hold him down while we kill her.” Annie’s grasp on the bat slackened as the reality set in. They weren’t here to rough up Cade, they were here to kill her in retribution for the raid.

A beast of a man came forward and easily took a large step over the still moaning Larry pinned down by an unconscious Curly. He went right for Cade, but before she could take a swing at him, the last of the triplets came at her. He stood easily at six feet and was nothing but hulking muscle.

“
Get her, but just hold her. I want to have this pleasure.” Trevor Gaylen stepped forward into the room. He was handsome in a dangerous way in his black suit, his red hair slicked back, but it was the cold of his eyes that worried her.

Annie had seen enough to know she was in trouble. She didn’t dare take her eyes off of them, but heard Cade in a battle with Doug the Beast. She tightened her grip on the wood bat. Her slick palms slid over the smooth wood as she brought the bat up and swung with all she had at one huge, shiny, bald head.

It was a great swing. She felt it arching through the air, the momentum of the bat twisting her body. Suddenly she was yanked off her feet. The bat had made contact, but not with his head as she had hoped. He had grabbed the bat with his bare hand and jerked it forward. She was powerless to stop herself from falling forward as he pulled the bat towards him. She lost her balance and fell forward, right into his muscle-bound chest. Strong arms wrapped around her, crushing her to the point of not being able to even shout to Cade. One of the vices called an arm moved from around her back to grip her hair as she was thrown to the ground.

“
Annie!” Cade screamed. She heard the smack of a punch hitting the mark and then Cade cursing.

“
Well, now we get to be properly introduced. My name is Trevor Gaylen, and I will be your executioner tonight,” he purred in his Scottish brogue. He pulled out a knife from behind his back.

Annie fought for all she had. She pulled until she felt her hair tearing out of her scalp. She tried to kick, punch, bite, anything, but was held unmercifully by Baldy. Pain shot down her shoulder as he kept her on her knees. Trevor walked forward, the knife held casually and confidently at his side until he stood before her.

Annie couldn’t hear Cade struggling to get free as the cold knife blade was brought to her neck. It tickled as he slowly ran it along her throat, the hot blood warming the blade as it trickled from the shallow cut across her throat.

“
No need to look so terrified, at least not yet. That was just me saying hello,” Gaylen laughed as he wiped the bloodied blade across her white t-shirt.

Her head swam as her stomach flipped. Her heart was beating loudly, blocking out almost all other sound. All other sound except heavy panting? She strained her ears to block out Gaylen’s threats. There! She heard it again, this time accompanied with a low growl. It was coming from the corner of the room behind her. The sound of large paws running across the hardwood reached her as she saw Gaylen’s eyes widen.

She pulled with all her strength against Baldy. He held tight and twisted his hand around her hair, tightening it even more and pulling her to her feet. She was jerked back against him and spotted Cade for one brief moment. He was pinned on the ground by the Beast, fighting to get free. She may just be able to save him yet.

The growl that came from behind her was now near. Baldy finally noticed it and twisted around, sending her crashing to the floor. Her head was yanked violently back as Baldy raised his arms to shield off the imminent attack. Justin, teeth bared, purple bow bobbing, leapt into the air. His hairy jowls were pulled back to show an impressive amount of teeth, his hair flowing behind him as he sailed through the air.

Annie felt the moment Baldy released her hair. His arms came up defensively as Justin bit down on his arm. His momentum sent Baldy sprawling to the ground, screaming as Justin continued his assault. Annie didn’t waste any time. She vaulted forward and tackled Gaylen in the midsection.

The knife flew out of his hand and slid along the floor until it bounced off the baseboard as they crashed into the door and landed on the floor. Annie fought to gain the upper hand, but Gaylen beat her to it. She clawed at anything she could and was rewarded with cursing in Gaelic when she raked her nails down the side of his face. The sound only motivated her to continue fighting.

She kicked, bit, and hit anything she could. He managed to roll her so he was straddling her. She felt his full weight on her hips as he brought back his hand to punch her. She lifted her bottom off the floor as fast as she could. It wasn’t enough to toss Gaylen off of her, but it was enough to cause him to fall forward. She wrapped her arms around his chest and rolled to her left until they rolled into the wall, neither of them willing to give up control.

She was aware of noise behind her but didn’t have time to focus on it. Arms were tangled and legs were intertwined as they fought. Annie felt his breath on her neck and the smooth material of his suit on her legs as she tried to get on top of him.

Suddenly she was free, warm hands were under her arms pulling her off the ground. Baldy! She lashed out with her legs and connected with his knee. “Ow, I’m trying to save you here.”

“
Cade!” Annie finally let the blinding rage die down and took a look around the room that was now filled with people.

Noodle was cuffing a battered and bloody Gaylen. EMT’s were seeing to Larry, Moe, Curly and one of the steroidasaurus men. Justin was lying on the bed, his back legs stretched behind him, his head resting on his front paws, his purple bow dangling off to the side of his head as he watched the action going on around the room.

Annie looked around and found that Baldy was backed in the corner, begging Dinky to get him away from that dog. Justin raised his head and cocked it to one side. “Woof!”

“
That’s it. I’ll tell you whatever you want, just get me out of here safely. That dog is the devil!” Justin grinned, his pink tongue licking his lips before laying his head back down on his paws.

“
Where’s that beast of a man you were fighting with?”

“
He’s already loaded up in the cruiser. He was very conveniently tossed through a window. Landed right in front of my SUV,” Cole said as he strutted into the room wearing his navy blue FBI jacket and black cowboy hat.

“
Agent Parker? This isn’t your jurisdiction, is it?” Annie asked. She felt her feathers become ruffled at the idea of him moving in on her case.

“
No, I’m just helping out the Sheriff’s department. The Sheriff is down with a kidney stone so when the 9-1-1 call came in, the switchboard operator called her grandmother Edith, who called Miss Lily who lives next door, who then called Marcy, who in turn called Paige, who told me to get over here, or she’d make the incident with the vacuum cleaner seem like a piece of cake.

“
Oh, um, okay?” She had no idea about the vacuum cleaner, but Cade was nodding and clearly understanding the situation. At least he wasn’t trying to take her case away from her.

“
Excuse me,” Cole said as his cell phone rang. He opened it and strode across the room. “Parker. Yes, sir. The FBI will be more than happy to provide any back-up you may need. Sure, I will tell them. Call if there is anything else you need.” Cole shut off his phone and turned to the room. “Okay, men, all prisoners are to be read their rights and transported to the DEA offices in Lexington. There is to be no radio communication about this and no phone calls given. Ask for Special Agent in Charge Romero when you transfer the prisoners.”

The Miranda warning started to echo throughout the room as the prisoners were cuffed and hauled off to various cruisers downstairs. “Miss Hill, if you don’t mind getting dressed, I have been asked to escort you and Cade to the DEA’s office as well.” Cole looked over to Cade and grinned. “Now, aren’t those cute boxers? A big smiling dog face right on your…wait! Is that a tail on the backside?” Cole laughed as a red faced Cade pulled on a pair of jeans.

“
Oh shut up or I’ll tell my sister you are thinking of giving her an iron for Christmas.” The remaining men in the room gasped and Cole went white.

“
That’s not funny. Get in the car, Davies.”

Cade stood next to Romero and some federal prosecutor who thought way too much of himself. He looked through the two-way mirrored glass at a very calm and collected Trevor Gaylen who was chained to a gray metal table. The door opened and Annie walked in. Cade got a lot of pleasure seeing the confusion on Gaylen’s face.

“
Hello, Trevor. It’s nice to see you again. We were so busy the last time we saw each other that I didn’t get to properly introduce myself. I am Agent Blake with the DEA’s office.”

“
Agent? Well, bugger me.”

“
No thanks, I think I’ll just send you to jail and let someone else have that pleasure.”

Annie walked in and took a seat across from him. She was all confidence and Cade couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She came to life in the interrogation room. “Strangest thing, Trevor, Devon Ross was found in a diabetic coma in his cell a little while ago. Luckily he was able to pull through. He told us a lot, Trevor. Funny thing, he wasn’t cooperating until you all decided to try to kill him.”

“
What does this have to do with me?”

“
I’m glad you asked. See, he told us who tried to kill him. We talked to him, and he gave up one of the men arrested with you tonight. Seems Jeremy was the guy holding me down so you could kill me. I talked to him for a bit, and he told me quite a story about you and your boss.”

“
I want a lawyer.” Trevor didn’t look so calm anymore. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and he had turned a ghostly shade of white. Annie, on the other hand, practically glowed.

“
That’s fine. You don’t have to talk. I’ll do all the talking. You just sit back and listen while I tell you a story. It’s a story of an immigrant who is wanted for murder in his home country. Even though his home country hasn’t had an execution since the 1960’s, apparently he managed to piss off all the major gangs and has basically signed his own death certificate if he goes back home. Of course, committing such a crime in the U.S. could result in his deportation if it were brought to the Scottish Ambassador’s attention.”

“
In this story, what does the poor immigrant need to do to stay out of his home country?” Cade watched as she slowly smiled as if she were a cat who had just eaten the canary.

“
I’m so glad you asked! You’re a perfect listener. If the immigrant writes down everything he knows about all the players in his organization, especially his boss, and agrees to testify, we can see about keeping him on American soil.”

“
But as you pointed out, the homeland doesn’t have the death penalty, but you all do.”

“
We’ll take it off the table if and when he chooses to cooperate. The offer expires in thirty minutes.” Annie placed a pad and a pen in front of him as she got up from her chair. “I’ll see you in thirty minutes, and if that pad isn’t full, I’ll call the embassy myself.” Annie stood up straight and walked out the door.