Reign of evil, p.26
Reign of Evil, page 26
Advancing like the military troops they were, they took position, preparing to open fire on my people. I dropped the gun and rose from the ground as my power streaked through the air like lightning through the sky.
Wave after wave pulsed through me, my rage feeding my powers until there was nothing left. It was over. No Demons left standing. The danger past.
“He’s outside!” Sterling yelled in my ear. “He’s heading to the river.”
“Where’s Rivers?” I barked in frustration. “We need air-lift. Jimmy’s been hit.”
“It’s on the way,” Trinity answered. “Rivers is still a good five minutes out.”
“Go get him, Boss,” Jimmy moaned, his breathing labored. “I’ll be all right.”
“Stitch…”
“I got this.” Stitch tossed the assurance over his shoulder as he pulled an IV bag from his medical pack. “There’s nothing you can do here.”
I closed my eyes, torn in indecision. Stitch was right. There was nothing I could do for Jimmy — except stop the man who was responsible.
“Trinity, tell Rivers I went after De LaRue. Which way, Sterling?”
“He’s heading south, further into the swamp. Looks like there’s a path of some sort. Probably has a boat hidden back there.”
Great. I needed to get to him before he got to a boat, or we’d lose him for sure — and there was no way to accomplish that in heels.
“Mac, secure the building. Get Jimmy evac’d and fill Rivers in. I’m going after the Roi.”
I kicked off my shoes and took off at a run for the swamp, refusing to think about the slime squishing under my feet or the creatures lurking in the murky waters nearby. The sound of boots pounding the earth behind me spurred me on. It was Talon, doing his job, and this time I didn’t object. Not one little bit. I spotted the path by the river and poured on the speed, fearful we’d arrive too late to stop De LaRue’s escape.
The sound of the boat motor starting up greeted us as we entered the clearing. There was a dock with a lone pole topped by a dim light. De LaRue was on an airboat, the giant fan gaining speed. I raced down the dock as the boat pulled away, unable to reach it in time.
“Stop!” I slid to a halt and grabbed Talon’s arm to keep him from jumping in to the dark, roiling water in pursuit. “You can’t stop the boat.”
But I could. Pulling that boat back wasn’t any different than pulling that gun. Or a fork. Or a shaker of salt. Just focus. And pull.
I reached out with my mind and grabbed the boat, barely catching it before it disappeared around a bend in the river. I pulled, using all my power, and it slowed, but it didn’t stop. I pulled harder and it came to a standstill, then it slowly began to come back toward the dock.
De LaRue saw what was happening. Thinking he was caught on a sandbar or a snag, he frantically searched the water, looking for an escape. Coming up empty, he looked at me, standing on the dock in the dim light, and in that moment he knew — knew that I was the Sword and justice had come for him.
Panicked, he increased power to the fan, locking us in a-tug-of-war. I pulled harder and felt the blood begin to flow from my nose. I was pushing too hard. It was only a matter of time before I lost consciousness.
“I can’t hold him much longer,” I shouted to Talon. “You’ve got to stop him.”
He nodded and took off, sprinting back down the dock before disappearing into the moss-covered trees. He needed to hurry. De LaRue was winning the battle. He was going to get away…
My knees buckled, and I went down on the dock, struggling to keep the boat tied to me mentally, but refusing to give up. Shots rang out from somewhere nearby. I prayed it was Talon. That he had accomplished what I couldn’t. Unable to keep the connection any longer, I let the boat go and slipped quietly into the blackness of the void.
26
The smell was strong and familiar, the scent of him cutting through the darkness in my mind like a knife. I kept my eyes closed, drawing in a deeper breath as my senses slowly became aware of my surroundings.
I was lying on my side — my head propped on a rock. A flat rock, but a rock none the less. I was strapped down — the heavy weight of the binding around my ribs holding my back against a wall. There was no way I could move, no way to escape. But then again — I didn’t want to.
I pressed back against the wall behind me, getting as close as humanly possible. The strap that was wrapped around me tightened, pulling me in even more.
“You’re awake,” Lars whispered in my ear. His lips brushed my neck, sending shivers of delight down my spine. He was here. Holding me — and all was right with the world. Or was it?
“Where are we?” I gasped, as my mind suddenly snapped back to reality. “Where’s De LaRue? Jimmy? Is Jimmy okay?”
“We’re in your suite at the hotel. Jimmy’s at Stone Hill. Jenny has him.”
“How bad?” I asked, bracing for the worst. The fact that Lars didn’t answer spoke volumes. I tried rolling away from him — no easy feat since he wasn’t inclined to let me go and I couldn’t use my power on him to force the issue.
“Calm down, Taylor.” He moved the rock-hard arm that had been serving as my pillow and wrapped it around me, holding me close. “It’s bad, but nothing time and Jenny can’t mend. It’s your condition that has us worried. Especially Talon.”
“Talon? What’s he got to be worried about?” I tried pulling away again, and this time, sadly, he let me go.
“He’s never seen you like this. He’s convinced you’re going to die. It’s rattled him.”
“Good. He needs to be rattled.” I struggled to sit up, nearly falling over with the effort. It had been so long since my last collapse, I’d forgotten about the dizziness that followed these episodes. That and the intense hunger.
Flinging the covers off, I slid my legs off the bed, surprised to find I was still wearing my little black cocktail dress. My bare feet were wrapped in bandages, and my legs were covered in red blotches. Lars rolled off his side of the bed and came around to steady me as I struggled to my feet. I immediately realized my mistake and sat back down on the side of the bed, waiting for my head to stop spinning and my feet to stop throbbing.
“What is this?” I asked, pointing to my legs. “How long have I been out?”
“Not long. For whatever reason, it’s different this time. It’s only been a few hours since you collapsed, and during that time, you’ve been in and out of consciousness several times. Incoherent and confused, but conscious,” Lars answered, before gesturing at my feet. “As for the bandages, they’re a result of you chasing De LaRue barefoot through the swamp. Bones had to put in a few stitches, and the mosquito bites will be itchy for a while, but all things considered, it’s not too bad.”
“Bones is here?”
“I brought him with me. Jenny thought he might be needed.”
“Jenny sent him?” My brain, like my equilibrium, wasn’t working quite right. “I don’t understand. What are you doing here, Lars? Not that I’m not happy to see you, but this wasn’t part of the plan.”
“It wasn’t part of your plan, but it was part of mine. Mine and Abby’s. A plan B in case things went south.” He was being cagey, and I narrowed my eyes at him to let him know I knew it. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not keeping anything from you. I’ve explained this to you before, Taylor. You just don’t remember. You were pretty out of it at the time.”
“Then explain it to me again.” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration at my lack of memory, only to encounter a head full of dirt and leaves. More souvenirs of my time in the swamp. “What was this plan B of yours, and what did Abby have to do with it?”
“She was worried, Taylor. We all were. We knew this was a high-risk operation and the chance of success was low. We also know you and your refusal to accept defeat.”
“Most people consider that a good thing.”
“Not in your case,” he snorted at me. “She said the odds were that you would toss caution to the wind and end up getting yourself hurt. I knew I couldn’t stop you from coming, but I could make sure I was here to deal with the fallout. I just thought I would be protecting you from De LaRue. Not from yourself. You and Devon were lucky to get out of the hotel last night without incident, and then you compounded the situation by touring his operations without any back up to speak of.”
“There wasn’t time, Lars. Everything was moving so fast, I had no choice but to follow my instincts. You know that. It’s how I work. ”
“Yes, I‘m well aware that’s how you work. It doesn’t mean I like it or that you can’t take a few precautions before you act. Fighting it out mentally with an airboat was not a wise move. You pushed your abilities too far. Again.”
“I know that, Lars, but what choice did I have? I couldn’t let him get away. I had to stop him.” I paused as the realization that I might have failed in that endeavor floated through my brain. I hadn’t stopped him. I hadn’t been able to hold the boat, but… “Talon. I sent Talon after him. There were gunshots. I remember hearing gunshots…”
“Talon shot at him, Taylor, but he didn’t hit him.”
“He missed?” I asked in total disbelief. “The deadliest man you know and he misses his target? How is that even possible?”
“For one thing, it was dark. He only had a handgun, and he had to wade through knee-deep mud and swamp water to get close enough to even venture a shot. That he managed to get off a couple of rounds in an attempt to stop him at all was nothing short of a miracle, but the boat was too far away. He couldn’t stop him. All he could do was stand and watch as De LaRue escaped — which is why he saw the crash.”
“What crash?”
“The airboat.” Lars paused, looking for some form of remembrance from me, but there wasn’t any. I had no idea what he was talking about. “De LaRue crashed the airboat.”
“How?”
“The official version of the story is that Talon got to the dock just as De LaRue was pulling away and fired off a couple of shots at him in an attempt to stop him. De LaRue panicked and opened the engine to full speed, barreling through a swamp rife with hidden sandbars and underwater snags. It appears that he ran into one or more of these obstacles and lost control of the airboat, flipping it over several times before driving it deep, nose first, into the murky depths of the bayou.”
“And De LaRue? Is he in the murky depths as well?”
“We don’t know, but we assume so. The wreckage is visible, but there’s no sign of De LaRue or his remains. Not that they’ve been able to conduct a thorough search yet.”
“Why not?”
“Gators, Taylor. They like to hunt at night. The search parties won’t go out until the sun comes up, and by that time, there’ll be little if anything to find.”
The picture he painted was one that I knew would haunt me forever. Not because De LaRue deserved a better death, but because his fate could have just as easily been mine. In my desperation to catch De LaRue, I hadn’t stopped to think about the danger of what I was doing. I’d been worried about spiders, snakes, and an endless variety of creepy-crawlies. The thought of alligators hunting their supper hadn’t even entered my head. I’d been lying unconscious on the dock, right next to the river — a tasty and easy meal for any reptilian creature that cared to take a bite.
“How did I get back to the orphanage?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“Talon carried you out. You were unconscious at the time — a repeat of your past performances. You came around in the car on the way back — confused, but talking.”
“Talon carried me out?” Lars nodded, and I closed my eyes against the image that must have been. Me, slung over Talon’s shoulder, covered in blood, mud, and little else. Thank goodness I didn’t remember that. I was, however, beginning to remember a few other things.
“I let go of the boat when I blacked out. De LaRue had gunned it to full power, trying to escape, and I let go. That’s why it flipped.”
“That’s Talon’s take on it as well,” Lars said in agreement.
“He didn’t shoot from the dock either,” I went on. “I was alone there when I heard the gunshots.”
“I said that was the official version,” Lars reminded me. “Talon couldn’t very well tell them the truth, but he needed a story to explain De LaRue’s reckless behavior and provide him a decent amount of space to get his speed up before the crash. Being shot at, and leaving from the dock filled the bill. Talon even brought the spent casings and tossed them into the swamp nearby. The feds will find them if they bother to look. It’s a good cover, Taylor. Close enough to the truth to be believed while keeping you and your involvement out of the mix. Rivers is happy with it.”
“Rivers is? He’s there?”
“He is. Along with numerous representatives of the NOLA branch of the FBI and the NOPD.” He gave me a smile and then turned to a cart I hadn’t noticed before. He lifted a bright silver dome covering a plate filled with an omelet and hash browns, releasing a whole new array of aromas into the room.
“You could have said there was food,” I informed him as he popped the plate into the microwave.
“I wasn’t sure you were ready to eat. You were looking a little green around the gills there for a while.”
The microwave dinged, announcing the imminent arrival of sustenance. Lars handed me the plate, along with a fork, and I dug in with gusto.
“Okay, go on,” I mumbled between mouthfuls. “What is it you’re not telling me?”
He sighed and sat down on the bed beside me. “The local feds aren’t happy with what went down last night. They’re feeling a little left out. Rivers is claiming he got a tip from a confidential informant about De La Rue and his questionable business practices. He needed some form of corroboration before turning it over to the locals, so he sent the CI back in to get some proof while he maintained contact in the background here in New Orleans.”
“Which explains why he was on the scene so quickly.”
“Exactly. It was supposed to be a fast in and out. A regular recon mission. Once they had confirmation it wasn’t just a big goose chase, he was going to turn it over to the local field agents. It’s a story that holds water. De LaRue is a powerful man in this town, and if they investigated him for child trafficking and couldn’t prove it, there would have been repercussions from the top rung to the bottom.”
“They have confirmation now.”
“They do. And Rivers is letting them take all the credit for breaking up De LaRue’s organization — a gesture for which they are very appreciative.”
“I’ll just bet they are.” The food was helping. The wheels of my brain were starting to turn, and I suddenly remembered Rivers’s other ace in the hole. “By the way, Rivers was right about Chastain. He is selling arms on the black market. De LaRue confirmed it.”
“He knows,” Lars assured me. “Trinity told him, and he made a deal with the locals. They don’t hunt for his CI, or ask too many questions, and he hands over the information he has on both kingpins.”
“And they went for that?” Lars nodded. I scooped up a pile of hash browns. They were salty and crunchy, which — after my sojourn in the swamp and a night without dinner or even so much as an appetizer, for that matter — tasted like heaven. “What about my team? How did Rivers explain their presence at the orphanage? Or mine, for that matter?”
“He told the truth or a pretty good version of it. He said they were a privately owned group hired to find a missing girl. The trail led them to De LaRue and put them in contact with Rivers’s CI. They decided to join forces in a joint effort to get the goods on him and Chastain and deliver proof to the feds all tied up in a nice little bow. That was the plan anyway. Then things escalated with the development of the shipment going out, and it was decided to intervene, resulting in the carnage on the front lawn and the disappearance of De LaRue. As for you? They don’t even know you were there.”
“How is that possible? The kids saw me, Lars. The Demons saw me. And there was this nun…” My voice faded out, my mind distracted by a sudden, more urgent need. My hunger slaked, I eyed the room service cart, looking for coffee. A latte was in order. Hot, frothy with foam, and topped with cinnamon, but I was willing to settle for a plain, black cup of joe. “I don’t suppose there’s any coffee, is there? One of those machine things?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Coffee’s a stimulant, and you need to get some rest. You still seem a little out of it.”
“I’ll be fine, once I get some caffeine in my system,” I snapped at him. He took the hint, obvious as it was, pulled out his phone, and started texting.
“Your fix will be up in a few minutes,” he informed me. “Mac’s bringing it.”
“Mac’s here? He’s not at the site?”
“I wanted him here in case you needed him.”
“What about the others?”
“Jace is on site, representing McPherson’s company. Talon’s there as well, keeping tabs on the search for De LaRue — which should be well underway by now. I sent the others back after they gave their statements to the feds.”
“Lars…”
“It’s all right, Taylor. They have legitimate positions in a legitimate company. You’re the only one who needs to fly under the radar.”
“The kids saw me. And I used my power, Lars. They saw that too.”
“Kids are unreliable witnesses. They have no idea what they saw — just that there was some woman in black. Could have been a nun, or simply a figment of their imagination. Five terrified, panicked kids equals five versions of what happened, each one a little more far-fetched than the last. As for the nun you took out? She never knew what hit her.”
“Security tapes?”
“Sterling and Travis wiped them clean. There’s no evidence of anything happening other than De LaRue’s people opening fire on a bunch of kids and your people trying to protect them.”
“My shoes… I had a bag. My phone…” I closed my eyes, racking my brain for anything that would lead the FBI to me and then on to Stone Hill.
