The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (130 page)

Hennessey again shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair, ‘she’s not like you and me, Lando, we’re used to guns and violence and death, she’s not, these things are strange and repulsive to her.’ He looked over at Adela who had risen from the couch and was standing staring at a picture on the far wall. ‘She’s going to need
someone; I hoped it would be you. Or that at least you’d see to it that she got some kind of help, you’d know where to find that better than I would. But you’ll probably just go on as you have been, avoiding responsibility, walking away from those who need you and hiding yourself away like a hermit, like the uncaring, unconcerned guy you want everyone to think you are. But yeah, walk away just like you did from the other woman in your life.’

Lando’s jaw clenched so tightly that Hennessey thought it would crack. His eyes were like two laser beams pointed directly into Hennessey’s as again he took another step forward, this time raising the gun he held in his hand.

Hennessey stood seemingly unconcerned but had to admit to a certain unease; he didn’t know Lando and was not sure how he would react to what he’d said. Maybe he shouldn’t have said it but he hoped to shame him into helping the woman after he himself was gone. He took in Lando’s combative stance and considered either apologising or trying to take the weapon from Lando’s hand when the stand off was abruptly ended by the sound of his phone ringing.

Both men continued to stare at each other for a moment until Lando said, ‘don’t you think you should answer that?’

Hennessey reached into his pants pocket and took out his phone. He put it to his ear and listened looking at Lando as he did so. He said into the phone, ‘you’ve done really well kid, your country is very grateful to you. I’ll see that you get a mention in my report to the president.’

Lando rolled his eyes and turned away. Hennessey listened some more then said, ‘no, Sammy, you find somewhere safe and stay there, okay. You’ve done your part; let us take it from here. And thanks again, kid.’

He was smiling as he switched off the phone but the smile vanished as he looked first at Lando then at Adela who was still standing where she had been but was now looking at the two men her hands clenched tightly in front of her, her pale face now ashen.

Lando followed Hennessey’s gaze then looked back at him and said, ‘well?’

‘They're on their way, ETA, ten minutes.’

Lando moved first. He strode over to where Adela stood, opened a cupboard door and his tone firm and brooking no argument said, ‘get in there and stay down, and don’t come out until one of us gives the all clear, okay?’

Like a sleepwalker she let him thrust her inside. He snapped, ‘and for the love of God, lady, this time do as I say.’

She neither consented nor contradicted but just stood wide eyed as he shut the door, but just before he clicked it shut he could have sworn that once again he heard her say, ‘please be careful, Mr. Lando.’

Again that warm feeling enveloped him and he stood a moment looking at the closed door. He checked his weapon before turning to Hennessey who was looking out of the window making sure he could not be seen by anyone who may be out there.

He tur
ned as Lando approached, ‘there’s five of them according to Sammy, but there might be more joining them. They’ll come from all sides so we’d better split up, you take the bedroom.’

Lando didn’t appreciate being told what to do in his own home, and he had been a cop so was not new to this kind of situation, but now was not the time to argue. Hennessey looked at him as though he knew what he was thinking but admired the way he just did as he bid without argument, the mark of a good cop and a sensible man.

Lando in the bedroom first checked on Dante, he was still breathing but it was obvious he was very sick. Gathering the top sheet around him he very gently picked him up and moved him into the bathroom where he laid him down in the bath. He stroked Dante’s head thinking; well at least unconscious he won’t be upset by all the gun fire there was going to be before this was over.

He stood and took one last look at Dante before leaving the bathroom; he put his gun down on the bed and holding his rifle in his hand began his wait at the broken window. As he waited he thought about what Hennessey had said about the woman and about him. He had sounded very sincere when he had asked him to see that the woman was taken care of, as though he genuinely cared. But then he had fooled the woman with his earnest declarations of concern and affection. And what had he said about him? That he had walked away from another woman, obviously he had meant Adrianne. But you can’t walk away from a dead person can you? Or can you?

He knew that some if not all the problems in their marriage had been because of him, or more to the point because of his job. Adrianne had hated it with a vengeance. As she had hated this place. He had brought her here several times during their first year of marriage and at first she had liked it, she had called the cabin quaint and the wild animals cute. But she had soon tired of it, and the quaint had become ramshackle and the animals dirty.

He often asked himself, and her, why she had married him, after all he had been a cop when they met. He realised only much later that she was one of those women who thought they could change a man, that once they were married she could persuade him to leave the Alabama P.D and get another more lucrative, better paid job, preferably as an investigator with her father’s law firm. When he had just laughed at her suggestions she had accused him of having no ambition. He knew he had driven her to do what she

had, she wanted the things she had been raised with, money and influence and power but instead she had ended up with a low paid, overworked, work obsessed, absent husband.

She had never wanted kids and when he had approached the idea she had fallen backwards onto the bed in shock then had laughed fit to burst.

So why had she married him? As a challenge? Because he was different than any man she had hitherto known? Because he been the only one in her life up to then to say no to her and that had seemed exciting and romantic? For a while anyway. Then when she had become bored with that and had gotten angry at being left alone so often and for so long, she had strayed, not once but many times. He had overlooked it at first, because he had loved her, or at least that’s what he’d told himself. But if he was honest it was because he didn’t really care that much, while she was having her flings she was happy and would leave him alone and cease her constant nagging. But mostly because he didn’t love her, he was not sure he ever really had.

So that was the real question, why had
he
married
her
? Because she was beautiful? Oh God was she beautiful. She was glamorous and elegant and sexy as all get out. And the sex had been phenomenal, at least at first, then it had become ponderous and lazy and more of a chore than an enjoyable act. 

Every man had wanted her, including himself, although he had not shown it. In fact he had been dismissive of her and showed her nothing but contempt and disdain. He had laughed at her lifestyle, and called her spoilt as well as selfish and self centred, something very soon into their marriage she had started to call him. They were both right. They should never have married and once they were they should have ended it as soon as they had realised that they had nothing in common, which was very early on.

If they had divorced she would not have been driven to find excitement and adventure with other men. Or maybe she would. Maybe that was part of it, the sneaking around, the danger of discovery, and with his best friend too.

Or perhaps she had just gone through most other men in town and now was working closer to home. Maybe she had wanted him to find out, had wanted him to care, to be jealous enough to get angry and screwing his best friend was a way of accomplishing that. Perhaps she thought that he would react at last to his discovery of her affair with his friend, and he had, but not in the way she had envisaged and not for the reasons she had hoped. Even in that he had let her down. But he lived every day with the knowledge that if they had just stopped playing games and gotten divorced she would be alive today, he would still be a cop and he wouldn’t be here right now.

This got him thinking about the woman again, something he had not wanted to do. He knew that Hennessey’s comments and innuendoes were designed to get a reaction from him and admit he felt something for her.

He realised his initial animosity towards the woman was because he knew she had money and this was confirmed when she had offered those two guys six million dollars. She was like everyone who has money; they think it can buy anything, that they could pay their way out of any situation no matter how bad.

Adrianne had been like that; she flashed her cash and her credit cards thinking that was the way to happiness. Well she was proved wrong wasn’t she, just as the woman had.

Yet the woman was nothing like Adrianne, in fact she was the antithesis of her.

Although she was elegant and smartly dressed, well usually anyway, she was neither beautiful nor glamorous. But neither was she mean minded and petty and self indulgent. She might be wealthy but she was not spoilt and condensing and a snob as Adrianne had been.

She was not unmindful and uncaring of the feelings of others, on the contrary, she was maybe
too
caring, that was why she was in this trouble now. She was not loud and in your face, but quiet and somewhat shy. Until she got angry that is, but even then her anger was not as Adrianne’s had been, it wasn’t about yelling and hurling things. The English woman’s anger was quiet and restrained as though she was uncomfortable and embarrassed by her show of temper. Although if the situation called for it she let you have it with both barrels, but even then she spoke, not loudly and nastily, but with frankness and truth.

And she had spoken the truth to him as she had seen it, and she had seen him as Hennessey had, as someone who ran and hid from his problems, someone who buried, not only his head but his entire body in the sand, including his heart. But when she had suspected she had gone too far and hurt him she had been mortified and had apologised even in the midst of her…and he had to admit it…justified anger.

She was also the only person who had made him smile in almost eight years, although he had fought to hide it. But her humour, unlike Adrianne’s, was not cruel or cutting or vindictive but gentle and teasing.

No, she was nothing like Adrianne had been, not beautiful in an obvious way, but pretty and sensitive and she oozed warmth. And sexy? In an understated, refined, unconscious way, yes, she was. Fuck, what was he doing, he was letting Hennessey’s jibes and probes get to him.

He was brought out of his reverie by a movement in the bushes and drew back quickly from the window but peeped out from behind the curtain. He gripped his rifle tightly in his hand then waited maybe twenty seconds before he saw the movement again. Then he saw a figure dart from one tree to another crouching low. He just hoped Hennessey was seeing this too.

He waited some more and sure enough the man was joined by another. To his right another movement caught his eye. Three so far, where were the other two. There was no back door to the cabin so there was no threat of anyone taking them by surprise that way and the bathroom window was too small for a grown man to squeeze through.

He cast his eyes from left to right but still saw only three men, he wondered if Hennessey’s vantage point gave him a better view. Just then the man to his left crept from the tree he was crouching behind and ran towards the cabin something in his hand, not a gun. Lando knew what it was immediately, a flash bomb. He knew these could cause severe pain in the ears and even render a person unconscious. He knew how bad they were from first hand experience and wasn’t about to experience it again. He raised his rifle aimed and fired; the man went down never to get up.

Lando looked to his right and saw another guy peep out from behind the tree. He aimed his weapon and fired, the man went down unfortunately only nicked in his shoulder but it was enough to make him draw back behind his cover.

Suddenly another man stood and from his cover behind the tree hurled another flash bomb; Lando watched it fly through the air aimed right at the living room window. Lando was about to take cover behind the bed and cover his ears, not that that would have done any good but it was instinctive, when the flash bomb suddenly exploded in mid air. Lando was amazed, fuck, but the guy was good. But why not, he’d had enough practise. But still, he hadn’t learned
that
killing people up close and personal. The guy who'd flung the bomb went down screaming his hands over his ears. Lando took a grim satisfaction out of that. Just then another guy hitherto unseen crept from under cover of the trees and made his way to the side of the house, probably looking for another way in. Hennessey who was nearest fired a volley of shots at the guy but hit only trees. Then the other man who Lando had wounded stood and worked his way around to the other side. He waited and watched for more movement then suddenly he heard a noise overhead like rain fall on the old tin roof. He looked up and the sound came to him again.

Hennessey appeared in the doorway just as Lando smelled the unmistakable stench of Gasoline. Hennessey said, ‘they're on the roof, they’re going to set fire to the house.

It was on the tip of Lando’s tongue to say, you don’t say, but felt sarcasm was a little inappropriate right now. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and picked up his gun as Hennessey said, ‘get Miss. Faraday out of here and into the woods.’