Obsessed (The Lizzy Gardner Series) (28 page)

CHAPTER 69

Just as they had seen on the computer screen earlier, perimeter fencing had been installed around the boundary of the property. Once they got through, there would be another fence around the main building. The outer fence was definitely higher than they’d thought, though. The fence was ten-foot-high chain link, the kind of fencing you would see around a tennis court, except the top of this particular fence was lined with razor wire.

“At least it’s not electric,” Tommy said before he knelt down and used heavy-duty wire cutters to cut through the chain link. He held up a section and waited for Hayley to crawl through before he did the same.

If she looked straight up, she could see the sky blanketed with stars. The only sounds, other than the crunching leaves beneath their boots, were the occasional hoot of an owl and a trickling stream in the distance. When they got to an area that had been cleared of trees, they had to tread carefully over rotted tree stumps and dead branches.

Moving at a slow but steady pace, Hayley followed Tommy, absorbing the weight of her body in her knees, staying low to the ground, crouching under low-hanging branches as she moved along, concentrating on the terrain and her environment. Eyes focused on the ground, she watched for anything that might make too much noise: crackly sticks and brush.

They both saw movement ahead and stopped, neither she nor Tommy so much as flinching as a figure walked past no less than twenty feet away from the copse of trees concealing them. As planned on the ride to the mountains, Tommy headed after the man. It wasn’t long before she heard a
thunk
.

She headed that way and found Tommy fast at work, covering the guy’s mouth with duct tape. The man was out cold. Hayley helped drag the body to a tree. While Tommy secured him, Hayley kept an eye out for anyone else who might be patrolling the area.

Tommy took the two-way radio clipped to the guy’s belt along with his cell phone before they headed off again. Another twenty feet in, they heard voices.

Hidden behind a grouping of trees, Hayley saw three figures on the other side of the chain-link fence. One of them was leaning against an SUV; the other two stood nearby, sharing a smoke. At the sound of grunting, she looked over and saw Tommy and another man rolling around in the dirt just a few yards away from her, legs and arms flailing.

Shit.
Staying low, she pulled out her stun gun and ran to where they wrestled in the dirt. Almost dragged into the scuffle, she jumped back and out of the way.

Grunts and moans echoed off the trees. They were being too loud.

After Tommy got the guy in a choke hold, keeping the guy from shouting for help, Hayley saw the other guy’s fingers wrapped around his radio, his thumb trying to find the switch.

It was now or never. Hayley moved in and pumped the guy with an electric charge. His body twitched.

Tommy pushed the guy off him and held up his hands. “You could have shocked me.”

“Nope. Not how it works. Taser is designed to go from one point to another—I’ll explain later.” They made quick work of fastening the man to a tree in the same fashion they had handled the other guy. When that was done, Tommy took hold of Hayley’s shoulders and said in a whisper, “I’m going to go in and take out those three. Keep your eye out for more stragglers.”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said in a low voice. “You’re not taking those guys out on your own. That would be a suicide mission. You stay here and watch my back. I’ll do it.”

“I know you want to get Brian,” Tommy said. “I want you to get Brian, too, but you’ll be dead before you ever get to the guy.”

“But you won’t be? This is my problem . . . my mission, not yours.”

“Look, you’re going to blow this thing. I’ve got this. Let me go in and do my thing. Then you get in there and take care of Brian.”

She didn’t like it one bit. “We need to be patient and wait until we know if there are any other men patrolling the area.”

He shook his head. “It’s too risky to wait any longer. Once Brian, or whoever is inside the compound, catches on that they’ve got two men not responding to their calls, they’ll be scouring the grounds and you’ll never get inside that building.”

Hayley exhaled.

“I know you’re perfectly capable of taking all three of those guys on your own, but I’ve got this.”

She watched him walk off. What choice did she have? She needed to get in that building. Moments later, she held her breath as Tommy cut into the second fence and crawled through. This fence was also chain link but without the razor wire.

This was ridiculous.

What was she doing standing there watching him? Three armed men against one. She never should have let him go off alone. As she stood tall, she saw Tommy, his back against the backside of the building as he sneaked closer to the three men. His gun was drawn. No tree covering. It was a suicide mission. That’s when she saw the unaccounted-for figure sneaking up from behind Tommy. She wanted to shout to him, but that would only serve to alert the other three men.

Once again, Tommy was rolling around on the ground, fighting. It felt like forever before one of them stood up. The man started shouting to the other guys.
Shit.
She saw Tommy struggle to get to his feet.

“Run,” she said under her breath.

The other three men were headed their way, everyone shouting at once.

A shot rang out and then another. Tommy fell to the ground.

No.
Hayley stared in disbelief. Fury swept over her in one giant wave, snapping her out of her stupor. She reached over her shoulder for her gun, ready to charge in, when a hand clamped over her mouth and dragged her back into the wooded area. She bit at the hand, twisted and kicked, tried to get away.

“Fuck. Knock it off,” her captor said. “We’re here to take care of Rosie, same as you.”

She stopped fighting long enough to see that there were five guys hovering over her. They were dressed in camouflage pants and dark shirts. She recognized two of them as part of Wolf’s entourage. “Is Wolf here?”

The guy in front of the pack shook his head and asked her to fill them in on what all the gunfire was about. It rankled to know that these guys weren’t much better than Brian, but she needed their help. She needed monsters to fight a monster. In fact, she never should have allowed Tommy to get involved. It had been a selfish move on her part.

But these guys? These guys were expendable.

Without wasting another second, she told them how many of Brian’s men she’d seen. She also told them about Tommy, described what he looked like and told them he’d been shot and needed help.

They would take out the men outside, while she planned to head inside the building.

She led the pack, crouching low and making little noise as she moved along, showing them the way.

CHAPTER 70

Jessica opened the door, surprised to see Magnus, a DEA special agent, standing on the other side.

She frowned. Two years ago, she’d fallen for the guy. Fallen hard. And then he’d been called away to work on a case in El Salvador. She’d called and e-mailed but it wasn’t long before she could tell she was cramping his style, so she’d stopped. And hadn’t heard from him since.

He was wearing gray corduroys and a black sweater. His hair was dark and much longer than the last time she saw him. His jaw was unshaven. The fact that he looked sexy as hell unnerved her. “It’s been a while,” she said.

“Too long. You look great.”

“What’s going on?”

He raised a questioning brow.

“Why are you here, Magnus?”

“Ah,” he said. “You’re angry with me.”

She crossed her arms. “Why would I be angry?”

“Can I come inside? Just for a moment?”

She let him in, watched him look around her apartment for a moment before she realized she was acting childishly. Magnus wasn’t the first guy who had disappeared after she’d made her feelings for him clear, and he wouldn’t be the last. She followed after him and offered him something to drink, decided to show him she was a big girl now: confident, secure, all grown-up.

When he turned around, she was right there next to him. He reached out and took hold of her waist, pulled her close so that they were chest to chest.

He smelled amazing—just like she remembered—but she pushed him away. “You can’t just come in here and start cuddling me as if there’s something going on between us. I haven’t heard from you in almost a year.”

“Three hundred and ten days, sixteen hours. But who’s counting?”

Nice touch.

“We screwed up,” he announced.

“
We
didn’t screw up.
You
screwed up.”

He rubbed his jaw. “We should have made rules before we parted ways.”

“Rules?”

“Relationship rules,” he explained. “One call or e-mail every week, rain or shine.”

“I tried that,” she said. “It didn’t work.”

“You’re right. I suck at long-distance relationships. Maybe we can try to work on a short-distance relationship.”

“Your timing sucks, Magnus. I was accepted into the academy. I’m moving to Virginia in a few weeks, right after Lizzy Gardner’s wedding.”

“I know.”

“You know what?”

“I know you got into the academy. I’ll be your instructor. Or at least one of your instructors.”

She plunked a hand on her hip. “Are you serious?”

“I knew it was fate the moment I saw your name on the list.”

“Fate?” She shook her head in disbelief. “You believe in fate?”

He lifted his palms up. “What else could it be?”

She laughed. “You’re a jerk.”

“I know.” He stepped closer.

“You could have called before you came.”

“You might not have opened the door.”

“True.”

He reached for her again.

Her cell phone rang. She turned away and picked up the call. It was Kiki, Wolf’s girlfriend. Jessica had visited her in jail and given her her number, told her she would get her out of jail if Wolf cooperated. The girl was talking fast. Something big was going down, Kiki told her, and she figured she owed Jessica a favor for getting her out of jail, which Jessica had had nothing to do with, but whatever.

Jessica told Magnus she’d just be a minute. Then she went to her bedroom and shut the door. “Slow down,” she told Kiki.

“A chick named Hayley came to see Wolf. She’s intent on taking down a guy named Brian Rosie.”

“How did you know I knew Hayley?”

“Wolf said something about the two of you being friends. She’s your friend, isn’t she? Because if she isn’t, there’s no reason for me to be telling you any of this.”

“She’s my friend. You did good.”

“So if I tell you the rest, we’re even, right? You got me out of jail and I help you help your friend.”

“That’s right,” Jessica said, wishing the girl would just spit it out already.

“It seems your friend wanted Wolf and his guys to help her take out Rosie.”

“Did Wolf agree to help?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Did they say anything about where Rosie is?”

“Placerville. That’s all I know.”

“Why would Wolf care about Brian Rosie?” Jessica knew why, but she wanted to see how much Kiki was willing to tell her.

“I’d rather not say. I’m just letting you know that if you want to help your friend, you might want to find out where she’s going so you can call the cops on Brian Rosie.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Kiki obviously thought she was helping Wolf by calling her, figuring Jessica would hunt down Brian Rosie and that would take care of all of Wolf’s problems.

Jessica had no problem calling the police. But first she needed to know where they could find Brian Rosie. “Where is Hayley now?”

“She left a little while ago. Someone’s coming. I need to go.”

Jessica’s heartbeat kicked up a notch. She needed to find Hayley and talk her out of doing anything crazy. She also needed an address so she could let the feds do what they did best.

She gathered her coat and her purse, then ran into the other room. Ironic, she thought, that there was a DEA agent standing right in front of her, but she didn’t have time to explain everything to him. If she didn’t find Hayley, it would all be worthless information anyway.

“You’re leaving?”

“Sorry, gotta go,” she told Magnus. “Lock up when you leave, will you?”

CHAPTER 71

Hayley led Wolf’s men to the area of the fence where Tommy had gone through. Single file, they made their way to the other side. Hayley watched Wolf’s guys cut away from her to the left, toward the side of the building where Brian’s men had taken Tommy.

Hayley wanted to check on Tommy, but there was no way to get to him. She had no choice but to trust Wolf’s thugs to take Brian’s men out. She watched them disappear around the corner. Within seconds, she heard gunfire rip through the night.

She had to work fast.

Following the outline of the building, she located a back door. She’d figured it would be locked, but she hadn’t counted on the door being made of galvanized steel. She removed her backpack and pulled out the explosive device that Kitally had made from materials she’d accumulated from the Bay Area demolition company her father co-owned. Hoping it would be powerful enough to get the door open, she pressed the claylike body of the explosive under the gap in the door, then set the detonator and wires just as Kitally had shown her. Then she unraveled the wire, ran back into the woods and crouched down behind the trunk of a tree, and hit the remote.

Seconds felt like hours.

Boom!

The door flew open, bounced off the outside wall. Pieces of metal framing crashed to the ground. The main block of steel dangled from one bottom hinge.

Hayley was on her feet, gun drawn, ready to fire as she moved in. Finding the stairwell inside the door quiet, she moved to the top of the landing.

Another door.
Shit.

Pissed off and revved up, she pulled out a semiautomatic and pulled the trigger four times before the lock busted through and the door opened. Gun aimed straight ahead, she headed inside.

A television was on. Two empty glasses on the table in front of a black leather couch. Johnny Cash was displayed on the sixty-inch screen. Dressed in black, he played the “Folsom Prison Blues.”

She could go right or left. She went left. Taking quiet steps around the room, she checked closets and looked behind furniture as she went.

A picture on the wall reflected movement in the kitchen where she was headed. Someone was waiting.

The figure moved.

She dove to the floor, somersaulting across the floor.

Gunfire exploded around her. The glass table shattered next to her; chunks of wall blew up around her as she ran in the other direction and threw herself through the first door she came to. It was a bedroom: a dresser, bed, and a nightstand. No windows. She ripped open her front pouch, pulled out a smoke grenade, released the lever and tossed it in the other room.

Within minutes, the gunfire stopped.

She pulled a gas mask from her pouch and fitted it to her face just as she heard coughing in the other room.

Not wanting to give the shooter time to regain control, she crawled toward him beneath the thick fog of smoke until she could see his legs. As he hacked and coughed, she Tasered him in the calf muscle. He dropped, writhing, to the floor.

As the smoke began to clear, she saw a slight figure on the other side of him go for his gun. Hayley lunged for it, too, ramming her elbow into her opponent’s jaw as they fought over it, the blow hard enough for her to gain control of the weapon and draw a bead on the figure’s chest. It was a woman. Hayley told her to lie on the floor, face down. Instead, the woman ran past her and exited through the back door.

Most of the smoke had cleared. Hayley made quick work of cuffing the guy with his hands behind his back. She didn’t recognize him. It definitely wasn’t Brian. She checked his pockets for an ID. Merrick Waldron. The name meant nothing to her.

She dropped his wallet, left him there and headed for the stairs leading to the top floor.

There were three rooms. Two were empty. The door to the other was locked. It took two bullets to get it open.

Gun raised, she dropped to a knee and ducked her head into the doorway once, twice, and again. It was an office. No sign of anyone in the room, though the mahogany desk or the corners out of sight could conceal someone.

She took a breath, gathering herself. Another exchange of gunfire sounded outside, and she thought about Tommy, although she knew there was nothing she could do for him at the moment.

The office proved empty. A wall of security screens revealed Wolf’s men fighting it out with Brian’s thugs.

There was a closed closet door across from her.

She padded over to it and ripped it open, ready to fire. Nobody was inside.

There was only one place left—the bathroom. She tried the knob. Locked. “Don’t be shy, Brian. You knew this day was coming.”

No answer.

“Don’t make me blow this door open. I’m counting to three. One, two—”

The door came open.

There he was.

Brian Rosie in the flesh. He wore a silk robe. His arms were raised. He was, impossibly, unarmed. It was like a dream for Hayley, seeing him standing there, absolutely at her mercy.

Snap out of it.
This was Brian Rosie. He looked the same. He hadn’t changed a bit. He wasn’t unarmed. Or maybe another shooter hid behind the bathroom door.

It wouldn’t matter. His mistake was thinking she’d hesitate to finish him.

Arms locked before her, she raised the gun and drew a bead on the center of his forehead. She’d show him more mercy than he showed her mother.

“Don’t do it, Hayley!”

What the fuck?
Hayley chanced a glance behind her at the familiar sound of Jessica’s voice before snapping back around and resecuring her aim on Brian’s forehead. “Are you pointing that gun at me?” she demanded.

“Drop the gun, Hayley.” She wasn’t denying it. Jessica
was
drawing down on her. “I’m not letting you spend the rest of your life in jail for killing this piece of shit. It’s not going to happen.”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Jessica would have to pry the gun from Hayley’s cold, dead hands if she wanted it bad enough. She’d come too far to let it end like this.

“I mean it, Hayley. Put your gun down and step away.”

What had been a dream had become some sort of bizarre nightmare. Knowing Jessica had both of them covered, Hayley lowered her weapon and turned toward Jessica, ready to tear her a new one.

“Watch out!”

Hayley spun around in time to see Brian had gone for the gun holstered beneath his robe. Before he could tear it free, Jessica put two bullets into his chest. He staggered back into the bathroom, then went over hard, his head smacking against the tile floor.

Hayley walked over to him, then knelt down and felt for a pulse.

He was dead.

It was over. She turned toward Jessica. “You bitch.”

Jessica’s face puckered. “What did you say?”

“You fucking bitch.” Hayley marched up to Jessica and put a finger on her chest. “Who do you think you are?”

Jessica slapped her hand away and then slid her gun into its holster. “I just killed a man. Could you give me a minute?”

“No. I won’t. Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day?”

“What were you going to do, Hayley? Shoot the man while he stood there with raised hands? You didn’t even know if he had a gun.”

Hayley stabbed her finger at her own head. “Use some logic for once in your life, Jessica. Of course he had a gun.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

A caustic laugh came out of Jessica’s mouth. “Your goal was accomplished. Maybe not by your hand, but who cares?”

“I care.”

“I’ll probably get written up, if that makes you feel better.”

Hayley said nothing, consumed with trying to swallow her anger. It wouldn’t stay down.

Jessica just stood there.

Police used a bullhorn to announce their arrival, telling everyone to come out with both hands raised in the air where they could see them.

Without another word spoken, Jessica turned and walked out of the room.

After watching her leave, Hayley walked back to where Brian lay in a growing pool of blood.

She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her heart beat against her rib cage. Brian was dead, but she didn’t feel any different. Evil swirled around her, a supernatural force, alive and thriving. The coppery, metallic taste in her mouth was still there. As she watched a continuous flow of blood turn his robe red, she realized Brian’s death wasn’t enough. It hadn’t solved anything.

The realization caused her to stiffen with resolve.

She would fight . . . not her inner demons, but every piece-of-shit rapist dirtbag walking the earth.

Until her dying breath, she would fight.