Coincidence, I told myself as I climbed into Rinaldo’s car and screeched out of the parking area.
All other thoughts were pushed from my head as I focused all of my energy on getting to Lia as quickly as possible. If this Davies guy touched her, I wasn’t sure what I would do. Just the thought of something happening to her was causing my heart to thump audibly in my chest and a cold sweat to form on my palms.
I dumped the car in front of the apartment without even bothering to turn off the ignition. I pulled my Beretta out as I raced up the stairs to the second story unit, which was where my blood went ice cold.
The door was smashed in.
Nothing could have terrified me more.
Chapter 19—Incredible Loss
“Lia!” I screeched as I rushed to the door.
There was no answer.
Inside was a disaster with all evidence pointing toward a struggle. The end table was upended, and the lamp that had been sitting on it was smashed against the floor. The bags Lia had neatly packed had been opened, and their contents strewn about the floor. As I looked around, it appeared as though everything we had planned to take with us was dumped out. My eyes moved toward the next room.
“Fuck...no, no, no…”
Blood.
It was on the floor near a pile of things from one of the suitcases—a long streak of dark red, leading back into the bedroom. I couldn’t breathe as I approached the door. The adrenalin in my veins moved my muscles quickly, but my mind couldn’t catch up. Several possibilities were running through my head at top speed, and none of them were good.
If anything, the bedroom was worse than the living room.
I looked around and tried to keep myself from hyperventilating by forcing air in and out of my nose, but I still couldn’t think straight. Every drawer had been pulled out, its contents dumped and strewn about the floor. Another table and lamp were knocked over, and the blankets and sheets on the bed were a mess. I couldn’t even tell what everything on the floor was—it was all a big blur of mess.
A barely audible whine came from the floor behind the bed, the exact location marked by the trail of blood.
Odin.
He was lying partially on top of his dog bed, looking like a large lump of white fur. The dog bed was upside down amidst a pool of blood. The blood was soaked into his paws and on his side though I couldn’t see a wound at first glance.
I dropped to my knees and reached out to his shoulder. He whined softly again, and his tail thumped once against the bedroom floor.
“Odin…buddy?” I leaned in closer and wrapped one arm around him to turn him a little. Two round, bright red spots on the front of his chest oozed blood into his white fur. I tried to look him over as carefully as I could but couldn’t find an exit wound. I tore off my shirt and held it to the wounds I could see, and blood quickly soaked it.
Odin tried to lift his head, but he couldn’t do it on his own. With effort, I pulled him up against my chest and looked down into his soft, brown eyes. He reached out with his tongue and lapped at the side of my face.
“That’s disgusting,” I whispered as my voice cracked.
Odin snuffed at my neck, let out a long sigh, and was still.
“No…no, Odin! No! Don’t…don’t…”
I squeezed my eyes shut and held his head against my body as I shook and tried to hold in the scream I wanted to let out.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t part of the plan—the vision. Odin was a part of all of it. He was supposed to come away with us.
Us.
“Lia!” I screamed again, but I knew there wasn’t going to be an answer. I lowered Odin’s head gently to the floor and checked the rest of the apartment, but there was no sign of her. I did find the assault rifle Gavino had given me months ago, so whoever it was obviously was not looking for weapons. I went back to Odin’s side and pulled his head into my lap again.
I was frozen, shaking, and completely unable to think or move or act.
I had no idea how long I sat there and just held him. Nothing else around me even registered as his body cooled beside me. I knew I needed to move—I had to find Lia—but I couldn’t.
All of this was my fault.
Odin had been the only constant in my life since I left the convent. He was with me through sniper school and every assignment I was given all over the country. Even when I was deployed, he was cared for by volunteers at the base in Virginia, waiting for me to return.
Without him, I would have been completely alone.
No matter what I might have done, he was always there waiting for me when I got home. He didn’t judge, and he was never afraid of me. When I was too lost in thought, he would always be there to bring me out of it. He was always, always there when I needed him. He was my companion and my friend.
“He’s gone.” My voice echoed around the empty room.
With my eyes closed, I leaned over to place my forehead against his. For a moment, I thought he moved, but I realized it was just my own body shaking. I tried to tighten my muscles to make the trembling stop, but it didn’t work. I took a long breath, and when I glanced up, someone was standing in front of me.
The kid with the bombs strapped to him.
He was closer to me now than I had ever seen him in the past. On his face, I could clearly see the path of every tear, and on his clothing, every grain of sand. There were wires sticking out from under his shirt and leading up to his hand, which was wrapped firmly around a detonator.
“What do you want?” I cried at him. “I can’t take it back! I can’t fix it! You’re dead, and now he’s dead, and I can’t fix any of that shit! What the fuck do you want from me?”
He continued to stare at me with dark, sorrowful eyes. I couldn’t look away from him—all I could do was stare back and ask inane questions of a ghost from my past. His eyes drifted to Odin and then back to mine.
“Is…is she gone, too? Did you see her here? Did he kill her?”
He didn’t respond.
“She’s…she’s all I have left. If something happened to her…if that guy killed her…nothing else will fucking matter anymore!”
His head slowly shook from side to side.
“Why are you here?” I screamed at him.
He blinked several times, and his mouth opened.
“Don’t you see it?” I knew the voice was my own. Even though it appeared as if the kid was talking, I still knew it was me. As soon as I heard the words, I knew what he meant.
“Lia’s like you,” I whispered.
“I didn’t want to be there,” the kid said in my voice. “Forced into a war I didn’t want any part of and didn’t understand. I followed because I was told to follow. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
One of his hands moved down and rested against the shape of the explosives wrapped around his waist.
“I killed you.” My hands were still shaking, and I tried to hang onto Odin’s body to make them stop, but it didn’t help. The rest of me was shaking hard enough to shake his body as well.
“She’s the same.”
“I didn’t make her come here,” I said as I rapidly shook my head. “She…she wanted to…to be here…”
“She wanted you. She didn’t understand the consequences. How could she?”
“But I told her everything!”
He didn’t have anything to say about that, only looked at me pointedly.
“Did I kill her, too?”
He didn’t answer.
I stood up and pointed the Beretta in his face.
“Did she fucking die here because of me?” I screamed at him.
He didn’t have any more words, so I shot him.
The noise echoed through the apartment, and the bullet blasted a hole in the wall of the bedroom. I shot three more times, and the kid slowly faded away into nothingness.
Dropping to my knees, I took Odin’s head in my hands one more time.
“I’m sorry, buddy…so fu
cking sorry…”
I squeezed my eyes shut, told myself to get a fucking grip, and pushed away from him. I stumbled out of the bedroom, holstered my Beretta, grabbed my SIG and the assault rifle, and ran back outside to Rinaldo’s car. I broke every traffic rule in existence to get to Rinaldo’s office in just a few minutes.
“She’s gone,” I said as soon as I walked in. “I went to the apartment, and she’s not there.”
Rinaldo’s eyes tightened, and he glanced around at the other men in the room before looking back to me.
“I was afraid of that,” Rinaldo said with a nod. “He’s not answering my calls, either. I sent him a message that the hit was called off, but he didn’t reply. Where the hell is your shirt?”
I glanced down at my bare chest for a second before I looked back to Rinaldo. I should have been cold, but I didn’t feel anything.
“Soaked in my dog’s blood,” I replied. “He killed Odin.”
Rinaldo’s eyes closed briefly, and he shook his head. His throat bobbed before he spoke again.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Davies knew where we were living.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you before all hell broke loose,” Rinaldo said. “Davies went to get her—said he knew right where she was but didn’t tell me how. He’s a new guy, and I honestly thought he was bluffing, but if she’s gone, he almost certainly has her.”
“Is she already dead?” I didn’t want the answer to the question, but I had to ask.
“I don’t know,” he responded. “I would think if she was, he’d tell me so I could pay him for the job. I don’t know if that counts as hope or anything, but it’s a start.”
I flinched.
“Where would he be?”
“At the warehouse, mostly likely. That’s where he’s been staying.”
The warehouse. The combination drop-off site and living quarters near the school bus yard where I’d killed Lenny Yates and his companion some months back. It was a good twenty-minute drive from Rinaldo’s office. I turned and started out.
“Hold up,” Rinaldo said.
I turned to glare at him.
“Here you go.” Rinaldo reached down behind his desk and pulled out the bipod and silencer for my Barrett. “Found these in a truck near the rail yard. I figured they were yours.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I reached for them.
“Anything you need?”
“Depends on what I find,” I told him. “If she’s gone, I’ll have to call in that favor you once promised me.”
“What favor is that?”
I looked up at him, and all I could think was that he could have been—should have been—my father.
“I’ll need you to put me down, sir.”
*****
During the drive to the northwest side of town where the warehouse was located, I used every relaxation and focusing technique I’d ever learned as a sniper to control myself and focus my energy. The panic in the center of my stomach wasn’t helping me think, and I had to push it down if I had any hope of finding Lia and getting her away from Davies.
I pulled up to the building and slowly drove the car around to the back and parked it right next to the corner of the building. There was a small back door partially hidden by a dumpster several yards away at the far end of the building, but I didn’t want to be too close to it.
A bullet slammed into the windshield. It was stopped by the special glass but still left a mark where it bounced off. The shot hadn’t come from the doorway but down near the fence that separated the warehouse from the school buses. I slipped the shoulder strap of the assault rifle up one arm and around my neck. I looked around the outside of the building as I climbed out of the car and crouched behind the door but didn’t see anyone.
Was this Davies guy shooting at me?
It didn’t have to be him—any of Rinaldo’s guys who hadn’t received the message could be gunning for me. I looked off to my left where the line of trees next to the river darkened the area, which would have been a perfect hiding spot as the ground sloped down to the water’s edge.
There was a grassy area to the left just before the line of trees, and I ran in that direction, dropped down to the ground on my stomach, and aimed the assault rifle at the trees. Several shots rang out as the butt of the weapon pounded against my shoulder.
Another shot rang out and hit the dirt near my boot. Considering where I was, it was too dangerous to stay. My enemy had the advantage of cover, and I had the disadvantage of needing to find Lia immediately. Instead of continuing the firefight I was destined to lose, I moved back behind the edge of the building.
With the shooter at the rear of the building, I decided the back door wasn’t the way to get myself inside. I ran along the edge of the building to the front where there were several windows boarded up. The end of the AR broke through the boards and shattered the glass behind them easily enough, and once I’d made a big enough hole, I pulled myself through it.
I kept the AR at the ready as I moved to the first room’s door and shoved it open. I looked in both directions down the hallway but saw no one. There was a door to the left with music coming from the room behind it, so I moved in front of it and kicked the door in with my boot.
“Holy shit!” The guy inside was in his early twenties with black, curly hair and dark eyes. I recognized his face, but didn’t know his name. Drug trafficking was most likely his occupation, but I didn’t care enough to find out who he was.
I kept my rifle aimed at his face.
“I’m looking for a girl,” I told him. “Davies might have brought her here. You want to live? Tell me where she is.”
“You’ve got a price on your head,” the idiot informed me.
I turned the rifle to the little clock radio that also served as a docking station for his iPhone and blew it to pieces. With the music silenced, I turned the weapon back to his head.
“No shit.” I took closer aim. “You seen her?”
He swallowed and nodded his head.
“You gonna kill me?”
“Maybe,” I responded. “If you don’t answer my fucking question in the next three seconds, yes.”
“She’s in the corner room,” he told me. “She’s tied up, but she ain’t hurt or anything, I don’t think. I didn’t touch her.”
My hands trembled a little. I didn’t know what to feel first—relief that she was still alive or rage that he had obviously considered hurting her or he never would have mentioned it.
I backed out of the room slowly.
“Don’t move a fucking muscle,” I said. “You hear?”
He nodded quickly.
I didn’t see anyone else as I raced to the far end of the building. I paused only briefly when I caught the exterior back door of the building in my vision. I kept the rifle pointed at it as I moved past and found a locked room in the hallway nearby.
The door was metal and not one I could just kick in. I took out my Beretta so I could easily aim downward at the lock without endangering anyone who might be close to the door—like Lia. Once the lock was out of the way, I kicked the door open and pointed the gun around the room.
It was one of the larger single areas of the warehouse—one that usually held a lot of crates and packages of heroin or guns. At the moment, there were no crates or skids—just a single wooden chair in the middle of the room. On the chair was Lia.
She was tied down, blindfolded, and gagged. Her arms were behind her, and her wrists were bound with plastic zip ties. She sat, slumped forward with her head lolled to one side, and for a moment, my vision went red and I couldn’t move.
The air in my lungs seemed to freeze along with my legs. I widened my eyes to watch her body carefully for any signs of movement and tightened my grip on the Beretta.
If she was dead, I’d just go ahead and turn it on myself.
No, I couldn’t. First I’d have to find the fucker who did it.
Her chest rose sharply with a
deep breath, and I nearly lost my ability to stand. A moment later, I ran forward, and her head turned toward the sound of my footsteps. As I dropped down and grabbed for her, she began to struggle and scream behind the gag.
“It’s me!” I said as I pulled the blindfold and gag from her. “It’s just me, baby. You’re all right. Jesus Christ, you’re all right.”
I cut the plastic ties from her wrists with my knife, and her arms came up around my neck. I wanted to do the same—just pull her close to me and promise her I’d never let anything happen to her again—but I knew I couldn’t. I needed to get her out of here as quickly as possible. Whoever had been shooting was more than likely still out there.
Hell, Davies could have come back in the building, assuming he was the one who took her.
“Where is he?” I asked. “Where is that fucker who took you?”
“He knew you were coming,” Lia said. “He ran off.”
Lia grabbed my shoulders tightly and looked up at me as tears began to fall.
“Oh, Evan! Odin…he tried to…he tried to save me.”
I gripped my left hand into a fist briefly, closed my eyes for a moment, and looked back at her. The actual circumstances of what happened to Odin hadn’t really entered my thoughts, but I couldn’t hear any of that now.
“Let me get you out of here and somewhere safe,” I said. “Then you can tell me what happened.”
I got the rest of the ties off of her and then helped her to her feet. She continued to cling to me, and I was perfectly fine with that. We moved swiftly down the wall at the far side of the warehouse interior and to the back door.
“Stay close,” I said.
As soon as I opened the back door, a bullet ricocheted off of it, and I found myself thankful that at least this guy was a shitty shot. I aimed my Beretta in the general direction of the trees and shot twice before I peeked around the edge.