Operation: Endgame (30 page)

Cassie tried to summon her acting skills to smile at him and gritted her teeth as she uttered, “Thank you, Ricky. I do appreciate it.”

It was up to her to get Chris out of here and she would do whatever it took to do just that. After Ricky left and she heard the lock click from the exterior, she rushed back over to Chris’ bedside. She brushed the hair off his forehead, gave him a kiss on his cheek, and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to take care of everything. Don’t worry. I love you Chris and I’m going to get us both out of here.”

Chris lapsed in and out of consciousness all night long, without ever being very cognizant of his surroundings. Cassie sat in a chair at his bedside and dozed with her head laying on his mattress with one hand on his arm at all times. She still couldn’t quite believe he was really still alive so she needed that physical contact as reassurance.

As she felt him stir again, she stood up and looked at him with bleary eyes. She could see the relief in his eyes that reflected her own every time she realized he was lying there, alive. His eyes looked less feverish today than they had last night and, as she pressed her hand to his forehead, she was relieved to find his fever seemed to have cooled some.

He grabbed hold of her hand and held it still with incredible strength considering his physical condition. “Cassie,” the urgency in his gravelly voice sent ice down her spine, “you’ve got to get out of here. If you see an opportunity to run, you need to take it.”

Cassie shook her head. “I’ve thought you were dead for six months. If you think I’m going to leave you now, you don’t know me at all. If I leave, we leave together. I’m not going to leave you here. Your fever feels like it’s gone down some. How’re you feeling?”

“Better, but there’s no way I can run. Physically, it’s just not possible, Cassie. Even if I wasn’t sick and weak, my left knee has been broken too many times. It simply doesn’t work anymore. I’ll just slow you down.”

Cassie looked down at his leg buried under the covers. She’d tried to assess his physical condition during the middle of the night, but didn’t want to hurt him so she hadn’t done much more than check his head, chest and arms while he’d been unconscious. He had fading bruises everywhere including all the shades of the rainbow across his ribs which meant some of them were probably broken or cracked. He also had the remnants of a nasty looking knife wound across the lower half of his stomach. She knew he was in absolutely horrible physical condition after his beatings, but there was nothing he could say which could convince her to leave this place without him, so it was time for something harsh. She couldn’t have him giving up at this point.

“I’ve known you my entire life, Chris, and I’ve never known you to be a quitter.” She took a breath and took a hard look at him, trying to convey disappointment, when the truth was, her heart was breaking for all he’d been through. “So that’s it. You’re just going to roll over and let them win?”

Chris’ eyes hardened and she saw more life there than she’d seen in the last few hours. “Dammit Cassie, there’s no way you’ll be able to escape if you’re dragging me along with you.”

“Let me worry about that, but for now, I need some answers so I can figure out how to get us out of here. You said your knee’s a mess. What else is wrong with you physically that we have to work around?”

Chris shut his eyes in frustration as he leaned his head back against the pillow, but she could see she was convincing him to see things her way. When he looked back up at her, she could see the anger and frustration boiling in his eyes, but he replied, “I’ve had a fever off and on for a few weeks so I have the lingering weakness from that. I think I have a cracked rib on my left side, but I’m pretty sure it’s not fully broken. The real issue is my knee. It’s completely useless at this point. It won’t hold me at all. It just collapses if I try.”

“Okay,” Cassie struggled to swallow the bile threatening to rise at the thought of what Chris had been through, but she couldn’t get them out of this if she dwelled on that right now. “What about the knife wound on your stomach? It doesn’t look infected, but can you tell if you have any internal damage from that?”

Chris shook his head, “No, it’s healing fine.”

“How long have you been here?”

Chris looked confused. “I’m not really sure. I think for about a week. Where are we? The last time I knew my definite location was before my jet crashed and that was Columbia.”

Cassie’s eyes filled with tears as she saw him swallow hard. “Believe it or not, unless they moved me further than I know last night while I was drugged, we’re in Lubbock. The guy who kidnapped me is Ricardo Ramirez, although I’ve known him for the last few months as Ricky. I just thought he was a nice guy who worked at The Mocha Mermaid. God, I’m so stupid. I can’t believe I never guessed he was the one who was stalking me. I should have listened to Jake, but I just thought he was jealous. From what Ricky told me last night, he’s head of a drug cartel that shot you down in Columbia. He has a fixation on me from that damn videogame. I’m so sorry, Chris. Everything you’ve gone through is my fault.”

Chris immediately started shaking his head. “No, his obsession with you has kept me alive. Otherwise, I would have simply been an American soldier for them to torture and kill as an example. I’ve been kept alive purely because I’m your brother. This isn’t your fault.” He reached over and grasped her hand.

Cassie reached up and dashed the tears off her face. “Okay, enough of that. We may not have much more time together so we need to plan as much as possible.” She looked around the sparsely finished room. “We’re locked in here, but a nurse seems to check on you and your IV’s about every two hours. Is there anyone else who checks on you regularly?”

Chris nodded, “Yes. A doctor comes in every morning to assess and adjusts my medications and fluids.” He gestured towards the I.V.

“Why hasn’t he casted your knee?”

“It’s too badly damaged. Casting won’t help it at this point. There’s a modified brace under the bed they put on me when they need to move me. It locks my knee for limited mobility.”

Cassie looked under the bed and then did another quick perusal around the room. “What about crutches?”

Chris shook his head. “They don’t leave them here because they don’t want me to have a weapon.”

Cassie gave a quick nod. “Okay, we can make do without them if we have to. Do you have any idea about the layout of the place outside of this room? I was unconscious when I was brought in. All I saw when I found you is we appear to be in a basement and there are stairs that way.” She pointed down the hall the direction where she had seen the stairs.

“My fever was pretty high when they brought me in and it was night, but from what I can remember, we’re in the basement of a house. The house is big and built around a center atrium. I think most of the business is done on this level though. I’ve seen one other room down here. It’s an office, right next to the stairs. It has an exterior entrance. I saw the door, but don’t know where it leads. I would guess it and all the other rooms on this level stay locked.”

“Okay,” Cassie started going over plans in her mind. “I know Ricky’s probably going to be coming to get me soon. He acted like I was only going to get to stay with you overnight. Somehow I’ll make sure that I’m back in here with you tonight and we’ll get out of here before whatever he has planned for tonight goes down. Jake’s in town and I’m sure he’s frantically looking for me. We’re not in this alone. We just have to somehow get in touch with him.”

Chris was starting to wear out and Cassie knew she needed to let him sleep while he could. She would need him rested up if they were going to make it out of here. He was so pale and gaunt. Her nightmares gave her an idea of what he’d been through, but the reality had to be so much worse. She only hoped they could reverse the effects after they got him out of here. In the meantime, she had to do everything she could to ensure he had the best care available.

She heard a key jingle in the lock and turned towards the door in time to see Ricky stride in with the doctor and nurse close behind.

Ricky was dressed in a custom made suit which fit his hard body impeccably. He’d let his raven black hair get longer over the last few weeks and it curled up over the edge of his collar. His dark eyes were victorious when he spotted Cassie across the room. This man was the player who looked at her life as a game for his entertainment and had terrorized both Chris and her for the last half of this year. She gritted her teeth and tried to hide her anger.

He reached a hand out to her. “It’s time for breakfast. Come with me and let them work on your brother.”

She gave a quick nod before she turned to the doctor. “Is he going to recover okay?”

The doctor looked to Ricky for permission to speak which he gave with a slight nod. “He’s been fighting an infection, but we have him on some powerful antibiotics so it should come under control soon.”

“What about his knee?”

The doctor pursed his lips and looked towards Ricky again before proceeding. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for him there.”

Cassie started to ask more, but Ricky interrupted her. “That’s enough. Our breakfast will become cold. Come with me. You may talk to the doctor more later.”

Cassie leaned down to whisper in Chris’ ear. “Stay safe and I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Cassie squeezed his hand before turning to join Ricky in the doorway.

As Cassie followed Ricky out the door, two large men joined them, one walking in front of them, one walking behind them. They walked down to the end of the hall and headed up the stairs. As they walked, Cassie tried to take in all the details of where they were being held. The downstairs appeared to be vast. There was a whole network of doors down the main hall, all closed. But there were also two other hallways which veered off to both the left and the right leading to even more closed doors.

Ricky led her up the stairs to what looked to be a normal upscale suburban home. The house was indeed built around a central atrium. When they crested the top of the stairs, Cassie looked up to see a huge bank of windows that looked out over an immense jungle garden. There were stone paths, surrounded by foliage, several fountains, and even a small waterfall. She gasped in surprise at the beauty of it, which was in such complete contrast to the stress of her situation.

Ricky turned to her and smiled, “It’s beautiful, is it not?”

The smile on his face turned her stomach, but she gritted her teeth and smiled back at him. “It is. It’s so serene and peaceful looking and so lush and green for West Texas. I would have a hard time going anywhere else in the house when I could be out there.” Cassie tried to glance surreptitiously around what she could see of the house, but unfortunately, besides the central atrium, there wasn’t much to see besides more hallways.

“Excellent. We’ll dine on our breakfast out there this morning.” He gave a slight wave to the man who was preceding them down the hall and he moved further into the house, supposedly to redirect their breakfast onto the patio.

The lush garden patio was surrounded on all four sides by floor to ceiling windows. As Cassie followed Ricky down the hallway, she couldn’t see any doors leading out into the area. They continued down the hall and turned left. This hall was obviously leading to more of the “living” part of the house as Cassie spied more open areas and doorways. There were several along this hallway. They passed one which obviously led into a living area, but the windows were shuttered so Cassie couldn’t see anything about the neighborhood where the house was located. The décor was retro modern with a nod towards the 50’s design of the house. There were low slung couches, metal and glass tables, and a large stone fireplace surrounded by a plethora of painted built-in bookcases. It looked like some of the rooms inter-connected by other doorways besides just the hallway they were traveling down which made it impossible to judge just how big the house was.

Suddenly Ricky stopped in front of one of the large glass panes in the hallway and reached up to the metal frame. Hidden within the metal was a handle, which Ricky now pulled out and twisted. As he twisted the handle, the large glass pane swung inward into the house. This large window was actually a doorway out to the atrium area.

Ricky led her along a stone path that meandered through the lush foliage. The roofline was open to the elements, but Cassie spotted space heaters disguised as statuary and stone urns along the edges of the paths. They came to a low stone wall and as they came around it, Cassie was surprised to see it hid a fireplace and several tables. One was filled with a buffet of breakfast foods. Another was filled with drink choices. Then finally, there was a quaint circular table which had been set up to serve two people for eating.

Ricky reached the edge of the table and pulled out a chair for Cassie to sit down in. As he sat in his chair, he gestured to an older man standing in front of a coffee machine. He promptly brought over a cup of coffee for Cassie. Ricky gave her an indulgent smile, “A venti non-fat latte, just like you enjoy.”

Cassie murmured her, “Thanks,” as she took a sip. It tasted just like her lattes she bought almost daily from Ricky. Although it twisted at her guts to do so, she gave him a soft smile. “It’s delicious. Just like you always make.” She knew she needed to play up to his ego.

He answered, “If I’ve learned nothing else on this little adventure, I’ve learned how to make a good cup of coffee.”