Noble Intentions: Season Three (16 page)

“That’s the guy from the restaurant
too,” Leon said. “The manager who gave you a hard time.”

Jack grabbed the remote, muted the
TV.

“The guys that killed Thornton,” he
said.

“What about them?” Leon said.

“That’s who did this.”

“Why?”

“They talked about an RDD.”

“This was simple explosives and
firearms, though.”

Jack nodded. “I get that.”

“So why do you think it was them?”

“Because this wasn’t a terrorist
attack,” Jack said.

“You’re not making sense, Jack,”
Leon said.

“He’s right,” Dottie said from the
behind.

Jack turned and saw her standing in
the doorway. Dark tear tracks lined her cheeks. He said, “They had a target.”

“Who?” Leon said.

“Jack,” Dottie said.

Leon turned his head and stared at
Jack. Said nothing.

Jack shook his head, dropped the
remote. “It was me they were after, Leon. Someone set me up, and I have a good
idea who it was.”

“Who?” Leon said.

“I’ll make some calls,” Dottie
said.

Jack nodded. He walked over to the
window, glanced outside. His view of the street was obstructed by the high
hedges in the middle of the yard and the tall fence surrounding the property.
All that could be seen was the gap left for the driveway.

“What kind of monitoring system do
you have here?” Jack said.

“A good one.” Leon said.

“You have the back covered? Angles
that cover the street?”

“Yeah, we do,” Leon said. “Now you
want to clue me in on what the bloody hell is going on?”

Jack pushed past the man, said
nothing.

“I have contacts too, you know.”

Jack stopped, turned around. “Then
get on the phone and find out what they know about that bombing. Just act like
you’re concerned about your safety. Don’t mention my name. Not yet. We’ll see
what intel they have first.”

“Got it.” Leon pulled his cell
phone out and placed a call.

Jack walked to the kitchen. Mia
smiled at him. Erin looked up, a worried expression covering her face. Hannah
had joined them at the table and shared in Erin’s worry.

“I don’t think this was a terrorist
attack,” Jack said.

Erin looked at Mia. “Hannah, why
don’t you take Mia out back for a few?”

“No,” Jack said. “The other room.
Not outside.”

“Why not?” Mia said.

“Come on, Mia.” Hannah led the girl
out of the room despite Mia’s protests.

Jack and Erin remained quiet for a
minute.

“What’s going on, Jack?”

“I’m positive that explosion was an
attempt on my life.”

“By who?”

Jack shook his head. There was a
delicate balance at work here. He couldn’t tell her too much.

Erin said, “You don’t know? Or you
don’t want to tell me?”

Jack said, “Both.”

“Do you think that they believe
they were successful?”

“Without a positive ID on a body?
No.”

“Do you think they can trace you
back to here?”

Jack lied. “No.” He didn’t think
she believed him.

“Jesus, Jack. What did you do? What
did you come here for?”

Jack saw something out of the
corner of his eye. He pulled his pistol out and moved toward the window. His
stare darted around the backyard, scanned the woods. The scene was tranquil.
The yard and woods appeared empty.

“Jack?” Erin said, her voice a
little less venomous.

“I came here for a job, Erin. My
last job.”

“So that’s why they tried to kill
you? Revenge for whatever you did to complete the job?”

Jack shook his head. “I never
completed it. These guys had it taken care of for me.”

“Then why come after you?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure
out.”

“You think it’s because they know
that you know they did it?”

He shrugged. “Not exactly. They
wanted me to know they did it. I think they planned on having me killed at the
same time.”

“How come they didn’t?”

“It’s complicated.”

“So, something you did in the past
then? Maybe you did something to one of them, perhaps?”

“Possibly. One thing I know for
sure, you and Mia need to get out of town now.”

“I’m not going anywhere unless you
give me some information here.”

Jack shook his head. “Still
stubborn, aren’t you? What do you want to know?”

“Who did this? Who wants you dead?”

Jack returned to the table. He
stood two feet away, looked down. He waited a minute, then said, “Terrorists.”

She inched back in her chair.

“And British Intelligence.”

“Oh my God. You think they are working
together?”

“As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s
the only thing that makes sense.”

It didn’t take long for police to
dismiss Bear as a suspect. The desk clerk told the cops that every square inch
of public space had cameras on it. The short cop went inside the office. Twenty
minutes later he returned and told Bear to stay put in his room, they’d get a
statement from him later. They still wanted to know why the argument occurred
outside his room.

Bear had no idea, though. Random
dudes. He told them that upfront.

His large frame had done a good job
of protecting the apartment from the carnage. So as soon as he handed over his
blood and brain covered clothes, they allowed him to close the door. No sooner
did the door click shut did Bear head toward the open window.

He stuck his arms and head through
the opening. He waved his arms while scanning trees for movement. Mandy emerged
from the woods. He waved her toward him. She took two steps, stopped. Reached
into her bag and pulled out the gun. She held it away from her body like it was
a stink bug. She shrugged, scrunched up her face.

Bear jabbed his finger toward the
area behind her. She nodded then disappeared behind the trees again. When she
came back into view her hands were empty.

The fact that he had just asked an
eleven year old to hide a weapon caused his stomach to turn.

She ran across the open field. Her
slender frame bounded gracefully through the waist high grasses. She jumped up
and grabbed hold of the bottom rung of the fire escape. Her momentum carried
her forward, then backward. She jerked her right shoulder back, reached for the
next rung. It took about fifteen seconds for her to make the climb. Bear
realized that she had dropped about six feet in order to reach the platform she
now stood on.

“Wait there,” he told her. He
pulled the sheets off the bed and dropped one out the window. “Grab hold.”

She wrapped the sheet around her
right wrist and grabbed it with both hands. Bear began to pull. Mandy used her
feet to scale the wall. He could have pulled her straight up, but Bear didn’t
bother to tell her that. Anything to build a little confidence, he figured.

A few seconds later he hoisted her
over the windowsill and set her down on the table. She slid her legs over the
edge and dropped to the floor where she let out a loud exhale.

“I’m sorry about that, Mandy.”

She shrugged.

The awful feeling crept up again.
This life appeared to seem so normal to the girl. It was only months ago that
she lost her mother. Now he half-expected her to ask him for a beer.

“How were the woods?”

“Not bad. There was a nice breeze.
Lots of squirrels and birds. It was kind of relaxing. Better than sitting in
here.”

“You didn’t miss your Gamer Boy?”

Mandy laughed. “Game Boy, Bear.”

Bear nodded, said nothing.

“How were the cops?” she said.

“Short.”

She giggled. “Everyone’s short next
to you.”

“Not Andre the Giant.”

“Who?”

“No one. The cops were OK. The guy
that runs this place caught everything on camera. They know we weren’t
involved.”

Mandy became sullen. She retreated
back in her chair.

“What?” Bear said.

“Did a man die?”

Bear hiked his shoulders an inch or
two in the air. “Not sure. They took him away in an ambulance.”

Mandy chewed on her bottom lip. Her
stare remained locked on Bear’s.

“I’m sure he’ll be OK, Mandy.”

She nodded. “OK.”

He couldn’t tell her the truth. No
point in doing so. It’d only upset her. He felt confident that he’d be paying
for therapy for the rest of her life. Once they settled down, of course.

“So, when can we leave?” she asked.

Bear wondered that himself. The
longer they stayed in the motel room, the greater the chance of something
happening. Whether it be the cops figuring out who he was, or someone else
showing up with the intentions of silencing Bear. He wanted to get out of there
more than Mandy.

“Tired of being cooped up in here
with me?” he said.

She nodded. “And a bit creeped out,
too.”

“I’m sure. So am I. But the cops
told me to hang around for a bit in case they needed to ask me anymore
questions. I played as dumb as I could, but they saw the video. Saw me standing
there when the guy went psycho on his friend.”

“Are we going to stay?”

He shrugged, tapped the tabletop
with his thick fingertips.
One-two-three-four.
“Maybe, maybe not. I’ll
decide that when I see they’ve left.”

“Did you give them your name?”

“What else would I have given
them?”

“Bear, I know you have, like, ten
fake IDs.”

“How do you know that?”

She shrugged, tried to change back
to the original subject. “I just want to leave. Maybe we can try to go to
Florida again. You have a friend there, right?”

Bear watched her for a minute.
Decided to let the fake ID comment slide. There’d be plenty of time to question
how she came to know that. Although, he wondered how she knew the term in the
first place.

“Can I turn on the TV?” she said.

Bear nodded, and Mandy got up and
grabbed the TV remote. She switched the television on. He noticed the
exaggerated movement of her arm every time she changed the station. A moment
later she groaned.

“What?” he said.

“Every station is showing the same
thing,” she said.

“What are they showing?”

“Look.”

Bear rose and moved to a spot where
he had a view of the screen. He flinched at the images he saw. A smoky street.
Bodies on the ground. Panicked people running in every direction. A building on
fire. The reporter’s terrified expression. Then, the building crumbled.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Bear said.

Mandy gave him a puzzled look.
“What is that, Bear?”

“An expression.”

“Not that. What are we looking at
on TV?”

“Looks like a terrorist attack.”

They remained silent for five
minutes while the images streamed on the screen in front of them. The
reporter’s voice was nothing more than background noise. Bear didn’t need her
to tell him what he was looking at. He’d experienced it first hand before.

Bear’s cell began to ring. He
answered without thinking.

“Bear, this is Brandon.”

“Brandon?” He paused for a moment.
“How did you get this number?”

“I can get anything I want. You
know this.”

Bear said nothing.

“Anyway, turn on your TV.”

“It’s on.”

“You watching this, Big Man?”

“I am.”

“You know where that is?”

“Ticker says it’s London.”

“You know who’s in London?”

Bear thought for a minute. He did
know. “Jack.”

Mandy looked at him. He forced a
small smile. She didn’t look convinced.

“That’s right. And that’s his
hotel.”

“You gotta be kidding me. Oh,
Christ.” His gut clenched. His eyes watered over.

“You know why he was there?”

Bear cleared his throat. Took an
extra second or two to compose himself. “Not exactly.”

“Yeah, well, I do. And it shouldn’t
have resulted in this.”

“Can you tell me anything?”

The line went silent for a minute.
Bear wondered if Brandon was debating how much he could divulge over the phone.

Brandon said, “Not yet, man. I’m
working on it though. I gotta figure out who all is involved in this.”

“Do you know how to reach Jack?”

“No. How would I?”

Brandon should have left it at no.

Bear said, “You knew how to reach
me and I’m one of the hardest people on the planet to get a number for.”

Silence. Then Brandon’s breathing.
“Yeah, you’re right.”

Bear asked the question he wasn’t
sure he was ready to learn the answer to. “Do we know if Jack was in that
hotel?”

“As far as I know he never checked
in. I checked his name, which the moron was stupid enough to fly under.”

“You’re friggin’ kidding me.”

“No, I’m not. I also checked his
aliases, at least the ones I know of. No reservations or walk-ins under those.
He had a reservation under his name, though.”

“I need his number,” Bear said. “I
need to reach him.”

“I’ll call you or text you his
number later.”

“No, now.”

“I have to find some things out
first, Bear.”

“Brandon.”

Brandon didn’t answer. The line was
dead.

“Dammit,” Bear said as he tossed
his phone on the bed.

Mandy approached from behind,
hopped up on the bed so she could place her hand on his shoulder. She didn’t
say anything. Didn’t need to. Bear’s reaction was enough to tell her that
something wasn’t right.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m going to
London.”

She nodded. “What about me?”

“I can’t take you with me.”

“Why not?”

“Too dangerous.”

“It’s more dangerous for me to be
somewhere without you.”

“Mandy…” Bear paused. She had a
point. Anytime she was left alone or he got comfortable, bad things happened.

“If they went after Jack, they
might know about me and come after me. You can’t leave me, Bear.”