Ted went and hugged Lynda. Then he went to the bed and wiped his fingers across Tasha’s brow. She opened her eyes and looked up at Ted. Ted smiled at his daughter. “Hi. Daddy is here. Momma is going to go sleep for a while.”
When Lynda left she was not very alert. She totally missed the face that watched her as she left.
The man smiled. He waited five minutes, then left and went to his hotel. He now knew their schedule. As soon as Ben was in the hotel room, he took off his clothes and went straight to bed. Elaina wanted to talk. Ben was quickly asleep. She sat and watched him sleep. She knew that she should have done the job herself. She moved slowly across the room. She pulled out her cell phone. If Ben would not do the job, she would get someone who would.
Ben woke up to Elaina singing. She was just out of the shower and was singing in the bathroom. He smiled to himself. She was a beautiful, rich young woman, and she had married him.
Ted sat at the end of the bed and watched the door. He felt useless. He pulled out his cell phone and called Tom. He told Tom what was going on and what was needed. Tom said that he would get back with him shortly.
A few hours later, Ted’s phone rang. He answered, “Hello?”
Tom said, “You were right; there is no attorney by that name listed in the States or Mexico. I would say that he is a con.” They talked for a few more minutes, and Tom offered to send Bobby and Marilyn to sit a shift.
Ted replied, “Not yet. Right now, Lynda and I have it covered. But we need the week off, maybe more.”
He hung up the phone with a tight smile on his face. Tasha was watching him. He got up and went to the bed and sat on the side of it and kissed his daughter’s other hand.
Lynda slept ten hours, then hurried back to the hospital. She was alert this time, but there was nothing to see. She went to the door, and knocked softly. She did not want to scare Ted.
He opened the door with his hand on his gun.
They switched places and Ted went to the CIA office. He sat at his computer and ran back through the files that they had each worked on. He found nothing useful. He went home and went to bed.
Lynda called Bobby. She asked him to run some checks on people. He came to the same conclusion that Ted had. Nothing seemed to fit. Maybe it was a coincidence, she thought.
Elaina went with Ben to the hospital. She went to the waiting room, while Ben located Tasha. Ben went to Tasha’s room and knocked on the door. Lynda opened the door with her hand in her purse. Ben did not miss this.
Lynda told Ben how Tasha was doing, and they talked for a few minutes. She did not tell him that she knew that he was not an attorney.
Ben left and went to Elaina. He said, “Elaina, they know something. She is too inquisitive.”
Elaina said, “I have called my cousin Jesus. He will be here tomorrow and take care of this for us.”
Ben was secretly glad; he knew that Ted and Lynda were too good and smart for himself or Elaina; she was too hot-tempered. Ever since her father had died, she had been a different person, all moody, and so negative. He did not think she would ever get over Michael’s death. The only hope was to kill these three people, at least the woman and the little girl.
Ben and Elaina went back to the hotel and waited. The next day, Jesus arrived. He was worn out from the long drive from Mexico. He took their bed and slept for twelve hours. They waited almost patiently. When he woke up, he showered and dressed, then went to the hospital with Ben and Elaina. Ben showed him the room. They did not knock or enter this time.
Jesus would do anything for his cousin Elaina, even for her wimp of a husband. He owed her father, and this was his way of repaying him. It did not matter that he was now dead.
He sat and talked with Elaina and Ben. They decided that a three-pronged attack was best. Jesus would steal a white coat and clipboard and go into the room late tonight. He would distract whoever was there. Then Elaina and Ben would come in and shoot the woman and the young girl. Jesus would disarm the woman if he had to.
At two in the morning they slipped into the dressing area of the hospital. Jesus found a doctor’s coat that would fit him. He took a stethoscope and a clipboard. They went to the sixth floor and hid in a broom closet. Something was not right. The door to the room was open. Ben said that he would go check it out. He went to the room and peeked around the door edge. The room was empty. Ben stopped a nurse and asked her, “What happened to the little girl in this room?”
The nurse said, “The parents took her home about an hour ago.” She thought she was being helpful to this man.
Ben went back to the broom closet and told Elaina and Jesus the bad news. They would have to make a new plan.
They left the hospital and drove by the house. There was a car parked down the street with two people in it. The two agents ducked down, but Jesus saw them. He recognized that the situation was worse than he thought. He would have to get more help.
Lynda and Ted had taken Tasha home. The doctor did not approve, but did not resist either. They had explained that her life was in danger and that they could protect her better at home. He had given them all the medicine that they needed.
During the daytime, Ted watched the front and Lynda watched the backyard. She kept Tasha close to her. Tasha just had a shoulder bandage and a bandage on her chest. She was up and around and had the run of the entire house. Ted was writing down the license plate number of every car that went by. Most were his neighbors. One car had come by twice and he had thought that he recognized one of the occupants, but he was not sure. He had called for back-up when he thought he recognized Ben in one of the cars. Bobby and Marilyn were now watching the house at night.
Two days later, two cars with a total of ten men arrived. Elaina put them all up in the hotel. They slept for nearly a day, then they made plans for the assault. Jesus would lead the attack. They would take out the two agents in the car, and then hit the house from the front and the rear.
Bobby and Marilyn saw the man walking down the street toward them. He looked drunk or in severe pain. They both had their guns out and were ready for anything. They drunk man fell down not fifty yards in front of them. Bobby thought about calling Ted, but he didn’t.
When the drunk did not get up, Bobby told Marilyn to stay in the car and he would check it out. He opened his door and got out of the car.
Two gentle pops sounded and Bobby went down. Marilyn screamed for Bobby. She pressed a button on the dash and got out her door. Two more pops and she went down. The drunk was up and running for the front of the house. Four men followed him closely.
Ted was in the living room. He had just turned the television off when he saw a shadow cross the window. He yelled, “Lynda, we got company.”
Lynda heard Ted yell, and she grabbed Tasha. She moved Tasha between the wall and bed, where she would be safe. She heard Ted’s gun firing. She heard no other sounds.
She grabbed both her guns off the dresser and headed for the living room. Ted was down on the floor. Bullets were now blasting through the windows. She stopped at the edge of the living room and watched the bullets tear up the walls in her house. She was furious.
Jesus stood in the front yard and sprayed the house with machine gun fire. He pulled out clip after clip and fired. The barrel of his gun was smoking hot. He threw it down and pulled out his two handguns. He went to the front door and kicked it open. He began firing into the darkened house. He could see nothing inside the house.
The six men were at the back door. As soon as they heard the gunfire from the front of the house, they began shooting through the back door and windows. They spread out around the house and began shooting at all the windows. Even the side ones.
Bullets were landing all around Lynda as she hit the floor. She could see an arm sticking through where a window used to be. She fired three shots at the wi
ndow and the silhouette fell. She was concerned about the front door. It had been kicked open. She rolled over in the broken glass shards and fired three times at the open door area. She hit Jesus once. He fell back into the side wall.
When no more shots were being fired from the front door, she crawled on bloody hands and knees to the kitchen door. She saw two men just as they came in the back door. They were spraying the room with automatic gunfire. The bullets went right over her head. She shot both the men twice in the chest.
The first two men had gone in the back door. They did not come back out, so two more went in. They both stumbled over something on the floor and both fell into glass. They both tried to get up and run out the door.
Lynda watched the second two men as they got up. She carefully shot both men in the head. She was wondering how many bullets she had left.
A man ran in the front door and made it to the coffee table. He tripped over the table and fell down. Lynda swung around and shot him as he tried to get up. Her gun was empty. She laid it down and took her second gun in her bloody right hand. She could hear sirens in the distance. She also heard noises in the front bedroom. She hopped up and slipped into the hallway, and found the door to the bedroom open. She saw a figure in the light from the window. He saw her and they both stared at each other. She fired first, hitting him in the