Of All the Luck! (9 page)

The door opened once again, but she couldn’t turn her head to see who had come into the room.  The person simply stood there for what seemed an eternity before Angela felt the jab of a needle into her right buttock.  “The price of betrayal is death!” were the last words she heard.  The poison spread through her system quickly, causing excruciating pain!  Death, when it came, was a blessing.

Xavier entered the interrogation room after giving Angela some time to think about her situation.  His men reported to him that her butt and upper legs were welted and flaming red, and he hoped the fear of more punishment would serve to loosen Angela’s tongue and it wouldn’t be necessary to use the wooden paddle he had in his hand.  It was an unpleasant task, but one he couldn’t delegate to someone else.  As soon as he glanced at Angela, Xavier knew she was dead.  He quickly felt for a pulse, but there was none.  Angela was dead, and now he knew for certain that another one of his agents was in the employ of General Weatherby!

* * *

The smell of cooking food brought Ian from his bedroom.  “Something smells wonderful.”

“Breakfast is almost finished,” Victoria told him with a smile.  “I made a fresh pot of coffee, too.  Help yourself.”

Ian didn’t need to be told twice.  He was well aware that his cooking skills left a lot to be desired.  Even his coffee was terrible.

“Victoria is an excellent chef, Jacobson.  Best of all, she loves to cook; but that means we get stuck with the cleanup afterwards.  I’d say it was worth it, however.” Griffin smiled as she put a platter of bacon on the table.  Next came scrambled eggs and hash browns with onions and red and green sweet papers mixed in.  Toast and orange juice were also part of the basic meal.  “This looks wonderful, sweetheart.”

“You’d better help yourself, Jacobson, before Griffin eats everything in sight.”  She grinned to show she was teasing.

Ian wasn’t shy, and he helped himself to hefty servings.  The food tasted every bit as good as it smelled.  “This is really good, Victoria.  Thank you.  It’s been a long time since I had two home-cooked meals in a row.”

“What happened to your wife, Jacobson?” Victoria couldn’t help asking.  She sensed the younger man was hurting and she wanted to help if she could.

Ian bowed his head, but finally answered.  “She died of ovarian cancer, Victoria.  She was diagnosed and less than three months later she was gone.  Julia was only twenty-five years old at the time.”

“I’m so sorry,” Victoria told him, reaching over to touch his hand.

“We loved each other as intensely as the two of you love each other.”

“And when you heard us last night, it caused you to remember… and that’s why you couldn’t sleep,” she deduced.

He merely nodded, and then turned his attention to breakfast by giving her another compliment.  “These potatoes are delicious.  Would you show me how to make them while we’re here?”

“I’d be happy to.”

“I think we need to leave this place,” Griffin suddenly stated.

“No!  I am not riding in that van today!  I couldn’t tolerate it, and I told you that last night!” Victoria was adamant.

“I don’t have a good feeling about staying here,” he insisted, and in the next instant they heard a gunshot!

Xavier had the two agents brought to him, having come to the only conclusion he could.  “You are both working for General Weatherby and you both played a part in killing his granddaughter.”  One of the agents pulled a gun and motioned for Xavier to stay where he was.  When the other man moved in his direction, he shot him dead.

“Graves wasn’t your partner, Oscar?”  Xavier knew he had to keep the other man talking or he would be as dead as Graves and Angela.

“He fancied himself in love with me, and I will admit I encouraged the fool.  Pretending to be gay brought about a level of trust and loyalty that I couldn’t have achieved in any other way.”  He leveled his gray eyes on Xavier.  “Where is the woman, Xavier?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me.  General Weatherby wants answers and he wants them now.  You might tell yourself you are giving in to a man’s dying request.”

“Not when the man is General Weatherby.  Tell me, Oscar, why are you working for someone of his reputation?”

“Very simple… Money.”

“Okay, I’ll give you even more money.  I’ll double what he is offering.”

“Nice try, Xavier, but I accepted General Weatherby’s offer.  If I switched sides now I would lose my credibility and my value would be greatly reduced to whomever wishes to hire my services next. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.” Xavier lied.

“Too bad, Xavier.  I will have to test you to see if you are speaking the truth.”

Xavier knew he was in deep trouble.

* * *

The gunshot was followed by another and Griff quickly pulled Victoria down and placed his body in front of hers.  “Griff, you are blocking any shot I might have!” she complained.

“Hush!” Jacobson ordered in a harsh whisper.  “I’m going to try and get a focus on where the shots are originating, Griff.  Keep Victoria down.”

There were two more shots, and then they heard excited shouting outside.

“Hunters,” Jacobson whispered in relief.  “Just hunters.”

“Hey, look at this neat cabin.  Oops, we might be trespassing, guys.”

“Let’s go inside and check it out.  No one will ever know.”  Victoria felt Griff tense, and Jacobson gave him a solemn look before he made a decision he didn’t know if he was going to regret.

“What the hell is going on out here so early?” he growled, mussing his hair and trying to look like he’d just crawled out of bed.  He fumbled with the locks on the door and stepped out into the early morning sunlight to see three hunters standing there.  One look told him that they weren’t really hunters.  “Could you guys keep it down?  Too much partying last night and my head is pounding.”  He made an effort to look miserable.

“Sounds like you need a hair of the dog, friend.”  One of the men tried to get closer to him and Ian reacted immediately.  Two of them were dead before the third realized they were in trouble.  Ian dispatched of him, too, and he hurried inside and locked the door.

“You were right, Griff.  We need to haul ass, pronto.  General Weatherby knows where we are and he’s probably sending more people this way as we speak.”

“Noooo!  I don’t want to ride in a car again today,” Victoria complained.  “Won’t they expect us to run when these bozos don’t call in to say they don’t have us?”

“Victoria, this is not the time to argue.  We are leaving right now.  End of discussion.”  Griff took her hand and pulled her toward the front door and where they’d left the vehicle.

“Let’s go this way, Griff and Victoria,” Jacobson called to them, pointing to the back door.  “I’m sure they disabled the van just in case something went wrong.”

Griff instantly nodded, his respect for the younger man growing with each passing moment.  It seemed as though he thought of everything.  “Let’s go,” he said.

Victoria was not happy.  She had a very sore butt and she was very tired of these people trying to kill her.  General Weatherby was pure scum of the worst kind, and she was tempted to allow herself to be captured so she could go there and put an end to him.  The world would be a much better place.  She resented his fixation on her, and she hated that Griff was in danger because of her.  “Griffin, stop.” She plated her feet and refused to budge.  “I want you to let them capture me and take me to General Weatherby.  I will find a way to take him down.  I cannot bear for you to be in danger because of something I did.  And, I don’t like it that Jacobson is in jeopardy, too.  I can get in and do the job; I know I can.  Running from the man is not my style.”

“When we get out of this damned mess, remind me to spank you until you have no butt left to spank, Mrs. Conway.  The answer is no.  NO!  Do you hear me?” he hissed.  “The only way that sick bastard is going to get his hands on you is if I am dead.  Now you move your sweet butt before I lose what little control I have right now and take the time to paddle your ass in front of God, Jacobson, and any birds and wildlife that wants to watch.  This is not an idle threat, woman.  Move your tush.”  Griff was furious.  More furious than he could recall ever being with his sweet little wife.  She was trying again to protect him, and he wasn’t worthy of that.  She was his woman and it was his right and duty to protect her.  “Damn it, Victoria.  Don’t you even think that way!” he scolded as Jacobson led them as a brisk pace through the woods behind the cabin.

“Griff, you need to shut up,” Ian told the other man.  “I can’t hear with you ranting at Victoria.”

Victoria felt like crying.  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, reaching up to touch him.  “I love you just as much as you love me, and…”

“I know, honey.  God, I know.  Don’t you even think of giving yourself to them.  Promise me?” he begged.

“I promise,” she said the only words that could give him peace of mind.  She loved him, and if it came down to her life for his, she would gladly pay the price.

Ian made them run another three miles through the wooded area around the lake before he came to a van that had seen better days.  “Get in,” he ordered.  “We need to get out of here before those three are spotted.”  Once they were in the van, he started the engine and drove through the maze of gravel roads around the lake until they were on paved road.

“Stop the van in that gas station, Jacobson,” Griffin ordered in a tone of voice that commanded instant obedience.  Once the van stopped, Griff hopped out and searched every inch of the underneath.  He found what he was looking for, and then found another… and still another.  He put all three tracking devices on a semi and then got back in the van and said, “I think I found all of them.”

“Whose?” Ian demanded.

“One was ours, two belonged to someone else, so they spotted the van when they hiked back to the cabin.  General Weatherby is taking no chances and sparing no expense.  I think we need to rack our brains and go somewhere he won’t know to look for us.”

“I have a place that no one knows about,” Victoria spoke up from the back seat.

“Where is it, honey, and how can you be sure no one knows?”

“It doesn’t belong to me, for one thing.  My hairdresser’s boyfriend owns it.  I was a guest there one weekend, and I know where the key is.  Liz wouldn’t mind if we borrowed it.”

“Where is it, Victoria?”

She answered and Ian quickly calculated the distance.  “It will take us a couple of hours to get there, but I’m out of safe places.  What do you think, Griff?”

“I say we go for it.  We should get there before that son of a bitch floods the area with more of his hired mercenaries.”

“They keep the cabin stocked with supplies, so will be fine in the food department.”  Victoria didn’t know how on earth her poor butt was going to survive sitting for the next couple of hours, and this van featured just four captain’s chairs.  They might lean back, but that did not relieve her sore backside.

“Victoria?  Did you hear me?”

“I’m sorry, Griff.  My mind was elsewhere.”

“Don’t be afraid.  I will keep you safe; I promise.”

“I’m not afraid,” she insisted.  “I am angry.  The man is dying; he should be spending time with his family… If he has any family who wants to be with him… Not focusing all his energy on killing me for putting him in prison.  I would love the opportunity to put him back there.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

“This is the last time I run, Griff.”  She meant the words and something in her voice conveyed that message to Griffin.  He turned to look at her and the set of her jaw and the look in her eyes told him she was serious.  She would take a stand if it came down to it, and he prayed that Xavier caught the old man soon.

* * *

“Are you ready to talk yet, Xavier?” Oscar asked.  “Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Xavier continued to lie.  Oscar broke another of his fingers.  Xavier refused to cry out, using the pain to strengthen his resolve.  Just as suddenly as the torture started it was ended.  Two of Xavier’s operatives realized something was terribly wrong when they didn’t hear from their boss when they should have, and they arrived and quickly pinned Oscar to the floor.

“Don’t kill him,” Xavier managed to give instructions through the haze of pain that engulfed him as he allowed himself to feel once more.  “He knows where General Weatherby is hiding.”

“Don’t expect any mercy from us, Oscar.  You are a traitor!” The female operative made sure he was securely tied to the other chair in the interrogation room.  She was devastated to learn the man she’d had an affair with was such a piece of work.  She’d thought herself in love.

“Come here, Sabrina,” Xavier called to her.  When she was close, he whispered, “Let Zane handle this.”

“No… He tried to use me!”

“Yes, but we need to concentrate on the main issue here, which is protecting Griff and Victoria Conway.  Please don’t force me to make it an order, Sabrina.”