Determined: To Win (Determined Trilogy Book 3) (16 page)

“Hey,” Eve said, standing to give Kate a hug.

“Hey guys. Sorry I’m late.”

“Where’s Greg?” I asked.

“He said he couldn’t come. Said he was going to be busy all day. He was kind of an ass about it.”

I had a hard time imagining Greg as a jerk, so I was sure he had a legitimate excuse. “That’s okay, I mean, he didn’t really know Curtis. I’m just glad you are here,” I offered.

“Thanks. I still can’t believe this is happening. It’s so surreal,” Kate said as she surveyed the room. We all nodded as a woman dressed in a suit stepped to the front of the room and a hush came over the crowd.

~

The service was pretty standard, at least according to my movie-watching definitions. Curtis’s sister shared a eulogy, a man sang “Ave Maria,” and friends and family were invited to share stories and anecdotes. The stories were touching, and I tried my best to stifle my crying, as my wire transmitted over the airwaves. As much as I wanted to go the podium and tell the room how much Curtis meant to me, I couldn’t. I was glued to the chair, my eyes puffy and red, and in denial, somewhat, of what was actually transpiring that afternoon. Part of me wasn’t ready to let go of Curtis yet. That could come later.

After the service, we filtered back to the lobby for refreshments. I grabbed a hot chocolate and stood around with Kate, Carrie, and Eve for a while, chit-chatting and sharing memories of Curtis. Now that the service was over, my distraction was growing. I kept noticing Elliot surveying the crowd. I was actually disappointed we hadn’t seen Brian. Not that I wanted an altercation at the service, but who knew how long it would be until we had another opportunity. I was eager to be over and done with this chapter of my life. I wanted to get back to David and me, sans distractions.

“Sam? Sam, are you okay?”

I whipped my head around. Kate, Carrie and Eve were all staring at me. “Sorry, what?” I said.

“I was just asking if you remembered the time Curtis thought he was going bald,” Eve repeated.

I chuckled at the memory. “Yeah, we were both like, ‘uh, Curtis, you’ve had a receding hairline for a while now. It’s not new.’ He was horrified.”

“Classic Curtis,” Eve said.

We all nodded and smiled. I pulled out my phone and checked the time. It was a quarter to five. It looked like Brian had decided to skip the service. I exhaled inwardly, somewhat relieved to be done playing Samantha Sharp, P.I.

I turned to my friends. “Guys, I think I’m going to head out.”

“Hot date?” Carrie joked. We were all grateful for the attempt at levity.

“Something like that.” I smiled halfheartedly. If only they knew how complicated my life had become. I couldn’t get into it now, though, the timing and the place were both wrong. And if they had any idea that David’s issues with Brian were somehow related to Curtis getting killed, well, I wasn’t even going to go there. It was time to go. And if the agents were going to be disappointed well, too bad. All I wanted to do was go home, take off these black clothes, and soak in a bubble bath. “I’ll see you guys next week? Try to find out what they are going to do with the gallery, if you can. Carrie, I’ll see you tomorrow?” We had made plans to work on packing up my studio.

“Yep,” Carrie said, and I reached out to hug her good-bye. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay, Sam? You seem off.”

“I’ll be fine.” I said. “Just a crazy day, you know?”

Carrie looked at me and cocked her head to the side. “Okay. Call me later if you want to talk.”

I nodded just to appease her. There was no way I would be able to explain everything that was going on. Besides, Carrie would kill me for having kept all this from her. I said good-bye to Eve and Kate and headed for the exit with Elliot.

Outside, Elliot glanced down the street and then back at me. “Piedmont Avenue is going to be jammed. I’m going to pull the car around the front so we can leave in the opposite direction. You stay here, Sam. The plainclothes agents can keep an eye on you ‘till I get back.”

I glanced around, still wondering who the agents were, but I agreed. As Elliot walked away, I tried to see if anyone was looking in my direction, but it was no use. Damn, these guys were good. I pulled out my burner and texted David.

Heading back. Service was good. See you soon.

27

David

I looked down at my phone and then back up at the agents. “She’s headed to the car.” Agent Callaghan glanced over at one technical specialists who was monitoring Samantha’s feed and nodded. “You guys better be right about this,” I said.

When the agents first proposed using Samantha as bait I said no. Flat-out, hard-stop, no. But after the recent incident at the gallery, we had all become anxious to put this case to rest, and I reluctantly agreed to this plan. It was clear Brian wasn’t going away, and at least this way I’d have control of the outcome once he showed his face.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Keith. They can only go one of two places. Tiburon is much farther, so our money is on them bringing her back here.”

Here
was Greg Calvin’s house, across the street from Samantha’s studio. Agents had been on the street in an unmarked van, monitoring the apartment since this morning. Greg had finally left around three, which is when I joined them. Now, his house was set up with recording equipment and special agents in riot gear were disguised in the bushes around the perimeter. He was in for a surprise when he got back, that much was sure. And I couldn’t fucking wait to put this to rest.

“Can I write back to her?” I asked, still gripping my phone.

“Better not. We don’t want to distract her. This is the crucial time. We need her to get in that SUV.”

28

I kept looking down at my phone, waiting for a response, but nothing came. I wasn’t too worried about it. He was probably still in that stupid
‘can’t miss’
meeting. As I looked up, I spied our black SUV pass and double park a couple of spots down from me.

I walked to the car and climbed inside, grateful to be in the familiar warm cabin. I sat back in the leather seat and buckled my seatbelt as Elliot started to pull away from the curb. As we merged into traffic, another car swerved, almost hitting us. The other driver was very
generous
on the horn.

“Careful, Els,” I said as I checked my phone again for a text from David. “You don’t want to mar your perfect driving record.”

“I don’t think Elliot is going to be worrying about that anymore,” a husky female voice growled next to my ear, and a pair of hands reached from behind me, pulling my forehead back against the headrest.

I knew that voice. I had been spending a lot of time with that voice.

“Gina? What the—” I tried to turn around, and felt a sharp metal edge at my throat.

“Relax, Sam. Don’t move,” she ordered.

I stilled, stunned. “Els-” I said, trying not to move my jaw.

A smooth southern accent came from the front seat. “Hey Sam, I’d listen to her. That knife is pretty sharp.”

“Greg?” I gasped, the edge of the blade bumping my throat.

29

Greg turned halfway around in his seat. “It’s good to see you, Sam. Sorry I couldn’t make it to the service this afternoon. I didn’t have the heart to tell Kate I was busy getting ready for a date with you, babe.”

“What the hell is going on? What do you want?” I said through my teeth, trying to put on a façade of strength. The truth was, I was spinning, my heart pounding. Greg started to cut through town, headed north. “Where are we going? Stop the car or I’ll scream.” I remembered the wire and hoped to God someone was still listening in. I shifted in my seat a little, trying to angle the transmitter, my palms sweating.

“Scream? Sam, do you
really
think you are in a bargaining position?” Gina laughed and pressed the knife against my throat a little more. “Why don’t you try to relax and enjoy the ride? We aren’t going to hurt you. Someone wants to see you first.” She reached around the seat with her free hand and tossed my purse up to Greg. “Check for her cell phone,” she barked.

We stopped at a red light and Greg went through my purse. He found the burner phone David had given me and broke it in half before tossing it out the window.

30

David

“Burner is dead.” The specialist looked up from his monitoring equipment.

“Shit,” Agent Williams reacted with alarm and went over to the specialist.

“What the hell does that mean?” I said, looking over at Callaghan.

“We were using the phone to isolate her location. It’s okay. We can reformat the signal from her transmitter to do the same.”

“Jesus,” I said, looking over at Callaghan. “How long will that take?”

“A minute. Maybe two.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, exasperated. “I told you not to underestimate him. Can you please put everything on speaker? I want to hear what is happening. You can turn it off when they get closer.”

Agent Callaghan looked at me for a moment and then gave a quick nod to the specialist, who flicked a switch.

31

I looked out the window as we continued, trying to make sense of where we were going when Greg’s phone rang.

“Go,” he said as he answered.

I stared at him as he took the call, trying desperately to listen in on the conversation. It was no use. I couldn’t hear anything over the hum of the SUV.

“Got it.” He shut the phone off abruptly, without so much as a goodbye, and glanced back at us in the rearview mirror. “Change of plans,” he said, and immediately made a left turn, heading west.

It was dark now and had started to rain, but I could tell we were headed into the industrial part of Oakland. Since it was after business hours, there wasn’t much traffic. Just a series of commercial warehouses, cyclone fences, and parked trucks. We pulled onto a side street and then hung a right, stopping outside a big gray building with a couple of rollup doors. Greg got out of the car, and we waited inside until he came around to our side. I looked out the car windows, hoping one of the agents had managed to follow us, but there was nothing but rain and the dim yellow lights of the parking lot.

“Come on, Sammie, nice and slow. We don’t want to hurt you.” Gina eased the knife off my throat so I could get out of the car, and as I stepped down, something in Greg’s hand caught my eye.

“That gun seems to say otherwise,” I quipped, stepping down out of the SUV. Once safely on the ground, I glanced around, trying to give clues to our location. “Where are we? What’s this warehouse? This is the port, isn’t it?”

32

David

“The Port?! Why the fuck are they at the Port?” I threw my fist against the side of the van, exasperated. “I thought you said you had this handled!” I was fuming. I thought these people were professionals, but it’s seeming more and more like they’re a bunch of amateurs.

As I closed my eyes and visualized Samantha, frightened and confused, my whole body felt numb. I hadn’t felt this way for years, but I recognized it. It was helplessness. And I did not like the outcomes I associated with that feeling.
No
, I resolved,
I am not going to allow this to happen again.
I clenched my fists and let out a low growl. “I swear to God, if you let anything happen to her…”

“McGeary, do you still have eyes on the SUV?” Callaghan said into his cell phone. “Yes. Yes. No. Stay back. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. We are sending back up.” He put the phone down and looked at me. “Mr. Keith, try to relax—”

“Don’t tell me to fucking relax, Callaghan! Fix this.”

“We have them. They are down at a warehouse at the Port. We have visual and GPS confirmation. If we leave now we can get there in ten minutes. HRT is already almost there.”

I stood there and glared at him for a moment, trying to calm myself. “Then what the fuck are we waiting for?”

33

“Shut up and stay still!” Gina barked as she forced a blindfold over my eyes. The already dark night turned pitch black. She tugged my hands together behind my back, fastening them with a zip tie, and started walking me towards the building. I heard a door open and noticed the ground shift from asphalt to linoleum as we passed through the threshold.

I felt like we were walking for a long time, but it was impossible to judge distance without being able to see. Each step I took was tentative. The ground started to slope downwards, and I paused, not sure if it was safe to walk. I felt the nose of the gun push into the small of my back.

“Keep going,” Greg hissed.

I hesitated. I was trying to stay calm but honestly my heart was about to tear out of my chest. “I can’t see. I don’t want to fall.” I knew that falling was the least of my troubles right then.

“Go!” he snapped, pushing me with the gun again. We kept walking.

The noises of our feet started to echo, and I could tell we were moving into a larger, more open space. Then their steps slowed, and suddenly Gina spun me around and pushed down on my shoulders so that I fell onto a hard, plastic seat.

“Don’t move.”

I obeyed, again wishing I could see. The mix of rage and fear was acute, and I sat still, my heart pounding, not wanting to provoke them. I had already violated what Carrie had told me time and time again was the number one rule of a kidnapping: Don’t let them move you. I said a silent prayer that my sweater was still covering the waistband of my pants.

“Where are we?” I asked again, holding out hope that someone, somewhere was listening.

“Why? It doesn’t matter. It’s not like loverboy is going to be able to save you,” Gina scoffed, her voice low and even, as she fastened my legs to the chair with more zip ties. I started to feel a little pale and sick.

“Look, David’s a rational guy. Just call him. Trust me, he’ll talk to you.”

Gina laughed. “Oh, it’s a little too late for that, Sam.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, David’s already played his hand. We’re familiar with his games. It’s clear he doesn’t have much interest in being reasonable.”

I cringed for a moment and another voice boomed from across the room. “Is that her?”