Chapter 10
Nick circled the block twice, then turned to enter the parking garage. He drove slowly beneath the fluorescent tube lights on the low ceiling, scanning every vehicle, peering around every support column. The place seemed as still as a graveyard. The hair on the back of his neck bristled in anticipation. He could feel that he was being watched. His fear made him more careful than he'd ever been. Not fear for himself, but for the woman in the seat beside him, crouched low as he'd instructed. He was afraid he’d lose her. The cycle had repeated itself again today, just in case he'd forgotten the way things worked. Taranto had Carl. There was a grim certainty in Nick’s gut that he wouldn't see his best friend again.
He nearly drove past the stairwell, he was so focused on seeing into every shadowy recess. He pulled up close to the heavy door, shut the car off, pocketed the keys. It'll be all right, he told himself. Harry must have a half-dozen men in the building, a dozen more outside, if he was true to form. Nothing could happen to Toni. He wouldn't let it.
He opened the door and stood for a moment, every sense attuned. He saw no one, heard nothing but the normal traffic noises and a car squealing on a level below. The place smelled of exhaust and hot pavement. He glanced down at Toni, nodding once. She slid across the seat and got out his door, staying bent low, just the way he'd instructed. With his body blocking her from view on one side, the car on the other, she hurried to the open door of the stairwell. Her running shoes made no sound. She moved through the doorway, pressed her back against the inside wall and waited. Nick closed the car door and moved in beside her. He pulled the heavy stairwell door closed. The place echoed like an empty church. If anyone opened the door, he'd hear them. Then again, anyone already here would hear him, too. Any sound would echo through the cool, hollow stairway. He pressed a finger to his lips to remind Toni of that.
He pulled his weapon from the holster under his left arm, held it barrel-up, and began to move up the stairs, keeping Toni close behind him. His caution doubled when he reached a landing. He pushed her flat to the wall behind her and peeked around to the next flight, taking his time to be sure it was safe before urging her to come along. It seemed to take forever to reach the fourth floor. In reality, it took less than ten minutes.
Nick glanced through the small square of glass, criss-crossed with wire between the panes, before he opened the door and stepped into a tiled corridor. Toni came out behind him. Her tug on his jacket brought his gaze around fast. She frowned at the gun in his hand and shook her head. Okay, she was probably right. He'd draw some attention sneaking through the corridors of an apartment building with an automatic in his hand. He slipped it back inside his jacket.
Trying to walk causally through the hall was the toughest thing he'd done in a long time. Moving steadily beneath the lighted ceiling panels, between the doors that lined both sides—doors that might swing open at any second to reveal a hard-faced man with an automatic.
He swallowed. It wouldn't happen that way. Taranto still trusted him. Carl wouldn't talk, no matter what they did. Besides, Harry was here, somewhere, with an armed entourage.
They came to a T and went left. Three doors down, they stopped in front of Toni’s apartment. Their gazes locked for a moment, and that unspoken thing passed between them—that connection he couldn't acknowledge and didn't recognize.
He pulled his gaze away and looked at the door, taking out his gun. Toni was quicker, already lifting her key to the lock. But when she touched the door, it fell open without a sound, and she jerked away from it, eyes wide. It hadn't been locked. It hadn't even been closed properly. Someone had been there. Maybe they still were. He pushed her to the wall and mouthed the word, “Wait,” then let his gun lead him into the apartment.
His stomach clenched when he saw Carl in the middle of the floor. He wasn't sure he'd have recognized him except for the familiar clothes he wore. A slip of paper on his jacket had the word “Cop” penciled on it. His face varied in shades of crimson, blue and purple. His eyes looked like two fat grapes. From the looks of it, he would never open them again. There was no doubt in Nick's mind that Carl was dead. His training helped him push his paralyzing grief aside, allowing only the cold certainty that Lou Taranto would pay dearly to remain. He let the experience of years on the job take over and quickly checked each room of the apartment. When he was certain no one else was there, he went back to tell Toni it was safe to come inside.
She already had. She was on the floor beside Carl, tucking a blanket around him. Nick recognized the throw that had been on the couch and then the matching pillows she'd placed under his friend’s feet.
“We have to get him to a hospital, Nick.” Toni's voice trembled.
Nick looked to see that she'd already closed the door, then he knelt opposite her, over Carl. He couldn't believe his eyes when Carl shook his head slightly left and right. “No...hospital.”
“Jesus, he’s alive.”
Nick’s gut twisted and guilt flooded in, right behind the rush of relief. This had been his obsession. It should have been him lying on the floor, his face encrusted with dried blood, barely able to form a single word. It should have been him, not Carl.
The battered lips moved again. “Nick?”
Nick gripped his friend's shoulders to let him know he was there. Carl couldn't open his eyes to see for himself. “I'm right here, pal.”
“Lou... watch—watching,” Carl managed. His slurred speech had Nick more worried about brain damage than about Lou.
“To see if I help you,” Nick finished for him. A white rage unfurled inside him.
“We should call an ambulance,” Toni whispered.
The tightness in her voice brought Nick's gaze back to hers. There were tears brimming in her eyes. She leaned closer to Carl, keeping her voice soothingly low and soft. “We're going to take care of you,” she was telling him. “You'll be okay.”
It reminded Nick of the way she'd spoken to him the night before, when the fire in his thigh had burned bright. Funny, he'd barely felt the pain since arriving in this building. Adrenaline was a great anesthetic. “If Lou's watching, Toni, he doesn't intend to let Carl out of here alive. There's no way he'll let an ambulance crew into the building.” Frustration gnawed at him. He had to think! Carl needed serious help and he needed it fast.
“Didn't...tell...him,” Carl stammered, “anything.”
“I never thought otherwise. And I know what you're getting at. My cover's intact. You're thinking I should leave you here and keep it that way. I'm not going to do that, so shut up and let me think.”
Nick felt Carl's hand close around his with surprising force. “He'll...kill you...both.”
“Not if I can help it, he won't. And if we can get out of here in one piece, he's going down. Turns out Toni had the goods on him all along.” He glanced up at Toni. “Get that evidence, will you?”
Nodding, she got up and hurried into the room that was her office. He heard her moving around in there at the same time he heard the apartment door opening. He yanked his gun out. The door swung open and Nick saw the barrel of a .44 Magnum staring him in the face. There was a small blond woman attached to it. She seemed vaguely familiar.
“What the hell—”
“Put that gun down and tell me what you've done with my sister, or I’m gonna splatter you to hell and gone!”
Nick realized who she was. Somehow he wasn't surprised. He lowered his gun slowly and laid it on the carpet. “Come on in and close the door.”
Toni chose that moment to emerge from the office with a thick folder in her hands. The two women spied each other at the same moment, and a second later both the .44 and file folder were on the floor as they embraced.
“You've had me worried to death,” the blonde accused. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” They pulled apart, and Toni seemed to drink in her sister's face. “I'm so glad you're okay. When they said you didn't get on that flight, I—”
“You didn't expect me t
o just fly off and leave when you were in trouble, did you?”
Toni shook her head. “Not really. Where on earth did you get that cannon?”
Joey glanced down at the gun on the floor, then at the man who lay barely alive a few feet past it. “My God, what happened?”
“He's a federal agent, sis. They both are. Taranto found out.”
“How did you get into the building?” Nick asked when there was finally a long enough break.
“Through the front entrance. Why?”
Nick blew a sigh and shook his head. “This is a real high-security place you picked, Toni. What the hell do you do with all that money your books earn you?''
“She hoards it away like a pack rat,” her sister inserted with a mock scowl. “Saving it for some rambling Victorian house and a sheepdog.” She glanced at Nick and offered him a tremulous smile. “Thanks for keeping her alive to spend it.”
There was affection in her pretty eyes. “Nick Manelli,” he told her.
“Josephine Bradshaw. Sorry about the gun before.” Joey looked again at Carl on the floor. “Shouldn’t he be on his way to a hospital?”
“Taranto is watching,” Nick told her. If we try to take him out of here, there's a chance we'll get him killed.”
She frowned and shook her head. “What are you going to do?”
“I haven't figured that out yet.”
“I have,” Toni said.
Nick looked at her fast. He hadn't liked the slight waver in her voice, and he saw now the unnatural paleness in her cheeks. She was scared. “Tell me. I can see you don't think I'm going to like it.”
“Doesn't matter if you like it. Carl needs help, Nick, or he won't make it. So we’re gonna give Taranto exactly the show he’s expecting. I'll wrap myself up in a blanket. You can carry me down to the car, and we'll leave. Taranto will think I'm Carl and come after us. You just said he wouldn't let Carl make it to a hospital alive. He'll come after us. When he does, it will be safe for my sister to get Carl to an emergency room.”
Nick rose from Carl's side, took Toni's shoulders in his hands and gazed into her bottomless eyes. “Listen close, Toni Rio, 'cause I'm only saying this once. No. It isn't going to happen.”
She stood straighter. “Then I assume you have a better idea?” Her chin jutted, and her eyes flashed with determination that overrode her fear. “We'll be all right, Nick. You know your boss Harry and all his men are out there somewhere. They'll be right behind Taranto when he comes after us. We'll be fine.”
His hands tightened. “You're offering to act as a decoy, Toni. A target. What am I supposed to do if Taranto manages to catch us? Stand there and watch him give the order to put a bullet in your head?”
“Are our chances any better by staying here? They aren't and you know it. The longer we argue about this, the closer Carl gets to having no chance at all.”
Carl moaned low as if to punctuate her words. His body shuddered once, then went still. Joey tensed beside him, pressing the pads of her fingers to his throat. She sighed and took them away. “Toni’s right. He can't stay here. Every minute is pushing him closer to death.”
“We'll leave the evidence here,” Toni said quickly. “Joey can give it to Harry when he gets to the hospital.”
Nick shook his head. “You give it to Harry. I'll try and lead Taranto away myself.”
“If you do, Nick, I'll get in Joey's car and come after you.”
He closed his eyes slowly, opened them again. He felt like a projectile had lodged in his chest. She was offering him a way to save Carl, his best friend since he'd been no more than a smart-mouth kid. Carl—whom he loved. But Toni’s offer put her at risk. Toni, the woman who'd handed him the ammunition to put Taranto away. Toni—whom he...what?
He damn well didn't love her. It would be stupid to love a woman he knew he'd lose in the end. Stupid!
“You wanna tell me why you're being so stubborn about this?”
Her gaze held his as a magnet holds steel. “You'll have twice the chance of getting away if I'm with you, Nick. Look, this might be your case—your vendetta, but it's my evidence. Whether you like it or not, we're in this together. I'm not going to walk away and let you take the heat alone just because things are starting to get dangerous. Taranto might not follow you if you leave alone.”
Carl began to shake again, violently this time, his legs stiffening as his heels jostled off the pillows and tapped a beat on the floor. Toni pulled from Nick's restraining hands, disappeared into the bedroom and returned a second later with a blanket draped over her shoulders. She bent to pick up the gun her sister had dropped.
Joey got to her feet, wrapped Toni in her arms and squeezed. “Be careful.”
To his shock, Joey stepped away from her sister and turned to fold him in a powerful embrace. “I'll take care of Carl. Don't worry about him. And don't keep questioning yourself the way you’ve been doing. You’re right, this is risky. But it’s also the only way.”
Nick frowned, sending Toni a questioning look.
“Trust her, Nick. My sister knows things.”
Toni had to remain limp in Nick’s arms as he carried her through the corridors and into the chill of the stairwell. She'd much rather have wound her arms around his neck and hidden her face against him. Shivers of pure fear rushed through her when she thought about what they were doing, so she tried not to think about it. There was no alternative, no way she could’ve stayed behind. Her feelings for Nick had grown very powerful, very quickly. The thought of staying behind and allowing him to face this alone had been unacceptable. She hadn't been able to consider it.
She told herself that it was because he'd done something so precious to her by making her see what had driven her all this time. Recognizing that the emotion behind her recklessness had been a form of survivor’s guilt over her father's suicide was a major step toward overcoming it. He'd opened the shutters, spilling brilliant light in the shadowy corners of her mind, and forcing her to see what was there. Now she could begin to sweep away the cobwebs and dust that had built up for so long. She owed him for that.
Still, there was more than gratitude in her heart. She recognized that he had some musty, sealed-off rooms in his mind, too. Rooms he rarely allowed himself to enter. She knew the wound in his soul he'd allowed to fester since his brother's death. She knew that being abandoned by his parents had injured him deeply, and she knew he refused to admit that. She wanted to help him clean out those cluttered rooms and then fill them with warmth and happiness.
It was amazing how well she'd come to know Nick in such a short time. It hit her hardest whenever he looked into her eyes. It was palpable, whatever passed between them then—as if they were touching souls. She wondered if he felt it, too. He kept himself so closed off, it was hard to tell.
She felt his body tense and shook herself. They were at the entrance to the parking garage. As he carried her through the doorway, she tensed, but he moved fast, lowering her onto the passenger seat faster than she would have believed possible. She kept the blanket over her face, let her body sag limply to one side, and clutched the textured walnut grips of the huge handgun he’d given her. He was behind the wheel in an instant, gunning the motor and speeding away. She knew when they left the underground garage and turned onto the street
“Is anyone following—” She began to sit up a little as she spoke and flipped the blanket away from her face. Nick pushed her down again. Her backside was on the seat, but her head was pressed to his rib cage. He held her for a moment, his arm around her like a steel band.
When it came away, she saw him adjust the rearview. “Oh, yeah. They're coming, all right. Where the hell is Harry with our backup?”
Toni felt the car jerk and heard the squeal of the tires when he took a sharp corner, then another. She wished she could see his face. She heard the grim tone in his voice, though. “No cops. No sign of Harry. I can't believe this!” He took another corner, drew a breath. “Something must've happened to him before he
could get back to HQ. I think we're on our own.”
Toni tried to make her voice level. “What—what could've happened to him?”
“Don't worry about it now. Listen, I'm going to take a few quick turns, see if I can lose them for a second. Just long enough for you to get out. Slide over by the door and get ready—”
“I told you we're in this together, Nick.”
“That was when we thought we had backup.”
“And now I'm the only backup you have,” she countered. “I'm not going anywhere.”
He drove in stony silence then, never slowing down, his muscles tense. Suddenly he hit the brakes, and she heard him swear viciously. His thigh went rigid under her hand, and she lifted her head very slightly to see what had caused him to skid to a halt.
A car had pulled across the street in front of them. Nick shifted into reverse and slammed the pedal to the floor, turning the wheel sharply. He was crossways in the street when a van skidded to a stop behind them. They were trapped. The only way out was a narrow channel between the vehicles. It would take them over the sidewalk and smack into a mailbox, but—
Before Toni could complete the thought, Taranto’s men were out of their vehicles and Nick was pressing down onto the seat and tugging the blanket over her head. She glimpsed two rifles pointing toward them from behind the car. A frantic glance to her right showed two more from the van.
Lou Taranto's voice came clearly. “Out of the car, Nicky. I don't have time to play with you. I count three and put a bullet in the gas tank. You don’t wanna go out like that. Get out and take it like a man.”
Nick looked down at her, into her eyes, and again she felt that powerful surge of some unknown force linking them together. “Stay down low,” he instructed. His voice was deep and soft. “They still think it’s Carl in here, half dead, maybe all the way. They won’t be expecting it. You count to ten, then shift into gear and put the pedal to the floor.” His eyes shifted, indicating the same escape route she'd recognized.
She frowned. “I don't under—” She stopped, eyes widening when she saw his hand close around the door handle. “No. Nick, you can't go out there!”
“He means it, Toni. He'll blow us both to hell if I don't.” He reached down, threading his fingers in her hair. “Their attention will be on me. When I get far enough from the car, floor it. It's your only chance.”
“No. I won't do it, you can't—”
“Manelli! I'm taking aim! Get out now or burn!”
Nick blinked. He leaned over and touched her face with his lips. “Do it. Don't look back.” He forced a lopsided grin. “For what it's worth, Toni, it meant something with you. It never did before. Not once.”
He wrenched the door open and got out fast. Toni barely restrained herself from shrieking at him, lunging after him, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him back into the car. She slid herself into his spot behind the wheel, still keeping her head low enough so they couldn’t see from outside.
“Move away from the car,” Taranto yelled.
Toni watched through the side mirrors as Nick walked slowly toward the rear of the car, then past it. He stood several yards behind the vehicle, and as he'd predicted, every gun was trained on him. She swallowed hard. This couldn't be happening. She blinked and when she opened her eyes, she saw a man coming toward the passenger side, his gun drawn and ready.
“If Salducci isn't dead yet, finish him.” Taranto's voice echoed in her mind. She turned herself in the seat so she faced that door. She pulled the blanket around her, leaving a crack she could see through and poking the six-inch nickel barrel through another. She thumbed the safety off.
The car door opened, and the tall, dark outline of a man filled it. She watched in horror as his gun barrel lowered toward her. And then she tightened her finger on the trigger, and the big gun bucked violently in her hands. The roar of it was deafening in the car's interior. The man reacted as if he'd been slammed in the chest with a hammer, jerking backward. His face went lax and his body sank limply to the ground.
She had to act fast while the confusion lasted. At the moment, they must think the thug’s gun was the one they'd heard. She jammed her finger on the trunk-release button and shifted the car into reverse, backing up so fast she left rubber and hitting the brakes only when she was about to run Nick over. Gunfire erupted, and the car sank with Nick’s body weight as he threw himself into the open trunk. The window to her left exploded, showering her with glass, but she stomped the gas and sped away, hitting the mailbox hard enough to rattle her teeth, jumping the curb and squealing over a stretch of sidewalk. The car dropped back to the street again on the other side of the parked van, and Toni pushed the pedal to the floor. She couldn’t believe how close the gunshots were! It felt as if those thugs were in the damn car with her!
The lights around her blended into a single blurred haze. The traffic sounds became a buzzing drone as adrenaline surged. They must be chasing her. She couldn't see them now, but they must be. Was Nick hit? Was he even now bleeding to death in the trunk? She'd killed a man. The weight of it dropped on her suddenly and powerfully. She'd taken a life. She hadn't even known him and she'd killed him. Her stomach heaved, and she bit her lip until she drew blood to fight off the nausea. Tears pooled in her eyes, and no amount of blinking prevented them spilling over. She'd never been so frightened in her life! Her hands shook, partly from the force with which she gripped the wheel and partly from the remnants of her terror. She could barely see where she drove now, but she kept the pressure on the accelerator all the same...
...until she careened into an intersection and heard the blast of an air horn. The impact snapped her head back. She heard grinding, bending metal and shattering glass. She smelled diesel smoke and hot rubber. She felt a warm trickle at her temple and then she felt nothing at all.