The Deadliest Secret (The Deadliest Series) (37 page)

“Thanks,” Darrien left the bodega and hailed the cab, it looked like the weather was about to change. He laughed to himself about the old adage that if you did not like the weather in New Orleans wait five minutes.

The café did have a line, but since he was putting in an order to go he was sent to the front so he could do so.  He put in his order for two large chicory coffees and two orders of beignets then sat on a stool nearby. The café was full of couples canoodling over a sugarcoated breakfast of champions.  He thought of Gwen and wondered if she would ever do this with him? Did she truly want to be with him after last night? He stopped his thoughts, he was sounding like a woman, he needed to turn off the vagina and put a dick on.

              Soon after he changed his thoughts his order was called up.  The beignets then called to him, the sweet smell wafting from the kitchen and the bag. He left a tip on the counter and started back to the hotel. He ascended the forty-three floors in the elevator quickly, it was a jolt when the elevator stopped and pinged announcing his arrival at his destination. He exited the elevator moving with his normal lithe strides, the power coursing in his legs.  He nodded a polite nod to two twenty-something ladies walking down the hall, he could laugh because when they spotted him they pushed their breasts up in an obvious attempt to be sexy. He ignored the attempt and walked to the room, it wasn’t until he got closer he saw the marks on the door.

             
The door looked like a fuse blew while he was out; there were black marks along the wooden frame, liquid dripping from it. Darrien’s stomach started to clench with worry and his hands failed him dropping the coffee and the beignets to the floor they scattered at his feet. Darrien removed the gun from his holster; he knew something was wrong because the door was ajar. Gwen doesn’t like leaving the bedroom door open when she sleeps she never would leave it open if she were asleep or just in the room. Darrien kept his back to the wall and slowly investigated the common area of the hotel room, he could smell chemical in the air, but he could not place it, the strength of the pungent stench stung his nose. 

He inched closer and closer to the bedroom, the sheets were tousled and on the ground, his heart was suddenly in his throat.  Darrien rounded the corner and pushed the bathroom door open and felt sick. Gwen wasn’t in there. Gwen was gone, as was the shower curtain; Darrien couldn’t help the snarl that bubbled up from the pit of his stomach. He punches a hole in the plaster of the wall near the door, he whipped out his cell phone and called the police first with the news, he explained who he was, who Gwen was, and why they were in New Orleans. He paced, barely able to speak through his gritted teeth. His lack of urgency led to Gwen being hurt, he would never forgive himself, and he needed to get her back. The next call would be to his superiors, and that call would be dreaded.

             
Kody schlepped Gwen over his shoulder after he registered himself at the cabin-motel on the lake.  The motel was run down and very secluded it was perfect for his needs.  He needed to re-educate his love. Kody opened the door and expected to see cobwebs strung from corner to corner of the ceiling, it was clean, quiet, and decorated in navy blue and white color scheme.  It was plain, he didn’t care; the oak bed was solid which was a plus. He laid her carefully on the thread worn duvet cover.  Her gaze was peaceful, she wasn’t over thinking; was unconscious which was the only time her guard was ever down from when they were together before, he cheated, lied, and downright was mean to her but he had changed and with his change he wanted her back for good this time.

             
Carefully Kody brushed the hair from Gwen’s soft features. He had given her a lot to keep her subdued; he did not expect her to wake any time soon.  She was nude to him; Kody was not a complete savage he left her with dignity. He got out his leather binds and wrapped them around the bedpost securing her left hand then her right. She murmured something in her rest, it sounded like “Darrien” but Kody wasn’t sure, he was enraged at the thought it could be another man’s name, but she was unconscious, she did not know what she was saying. Kody was more violent with her legs, his anger not completely suppressed from her murmurings. He tied the leather tighter on her legs, she was spread eagle presented to him. Kody was still angered from her discretions and she would have to be cleaned when she was awake, she needed to feel the pain he caused her. This behavior was not allowed from his woman. He covered her with the blanket and left the room for a moment, he needed a fix before he confronted her.

              Darrien slammed down his phone after his boss reamed him for losing possibly the key to giving Kody McQueen the needle. Darrien didn’t know everything about the man but it would be a dream-come true if he could inject the prick with the needle himself, or was the one who made Kody McQueen meet some other violent end. He was pacing for a moment, he could barely articulate let alone call the chief of police and start making demands. He decided his first call would be to call the hotel security, and hotel manager. He needed to get information from all of the cameras on the premises.

             
Due to Darrien flashing his badge and the anger permeating the air around him the staff of the hotel saw fit not to argue with his demands. The security team escorted him down to the security office where they held all of the footage on multiple screens, he instructed the unnecessary security in the room to shut down the hotel and start searching from room to room, only people allowed in would be his team and the local police department, they nodded their acquiescence and left the room to start on their tasks, Darrien was skilled at commanding the attention.  He soon started to review the tapes starting with the ones from the floor his and Gwen’s room was located on.

             
Darrien paused the tape when he exited the room, the hallway camera facing the emergency exit showed a glimmer of movement at the end of the hall. Darrien’s back was turned and he watched himself walk off of the camera towards the elevators, he knew how he felt then the mood was light, cheerful he was feeling hope for the first time in months. Only moments, mere seconds later the emergency exit door opened again, no alarm sounded of course, he was seething. He recognized Kody from the file picture, he never gave much more thought to the man, the bureau was on the hunt for him and Darrien expected the trial to have been started or at least given a date by now but now he knew, this guy was volatile. 

             
Kody was on the screen, his movements, his face searing into Darrien’s memory. Darrien was thinking of a thousand violent deaths, each worse than the last he thought of but not a one was painful enough for Kody, especially if he laid a finger on Gwen.  He watched as moments later Kody walked out carrying a rolled up shower curtain, he knew immediately Gwen was in there and his heart fell. Was she alive? Her dripping blonde locks escaping slightly from the end of the curtain. Darrien’s control faltered again, he was violent and leapt up from his chair. His movements were hurried, but he forced himself to sit back down. He barked an order to the security helping him sort footage.

             
“That service elevator where does it lead?” His sudden order seemed to shock the guard.

             
“It just leads downstairs out the back of the hotel right by the exit for service personnel.”

             
“Do you have footage in the elevator?”

             
“No sir.” The guard was shrinking back from the explosive anger that seemed to consume Darrien.

             
“Fucking show me what you got.”

             
“Yes sir it’s not much, the exit has a camera on it.” The security guard’s words were unsteady

             
“Just bring it up, anything out of the back doors too I need that as well.” Darrien ignored his bosses call, his pocket was vibrating he was not wanting to listen to another ass-reaming from his superior, he would handle that later once he knew Gwen’s fate.  The footage from the elevator exit proved useless, it only showed Kody carrying Gwen, his hands on her body, which made Darrien seethe. This was not how today was supposed to go.

The footage changed from the cameras in the hotel to the exterior, only minutes before Darrien returned to the hotel he watched Kody’s head peek from the abandoned service entrance in the back of the hotel, he looked left, right, then left again before he exited the door. There was a car, all was not lost his trail was not cold. Darrien was having trouble with the image, he watched Gwen get thrown like luggage into the trunk of an older Lincoln.

This was something he could work with. Darrien whipped out his phone his fingers dial the New Orleans police. He spoke with some sergeant he couldn’t recall the name of; he was not interested in learning names he was interested in saving his ass and Gwen’s.

“Look for a tan and any colors that are related to a Lincoln Town-Car, 1999 era reported stolen.” He demanded

The sergeant sounded utterly bored, he was obviously not too keen on his job anymore, the sort of man that should have retired ages ago. Darrien was tiring of speaking with him, but he felt a small amount of satisfaction when he heard the clicking of the keyboard. A few moments later he answered. “We have three in the last week from the surrounding area, one was stolen from the airport park and ride terminal.”

“Name and information on the owner,” Darrien was all business, he thought of the many times Gwen had scolded him for being rude so he tacked on “please”

              The one word tacked on seemed to make the man on the other end of the phone less bristly towards Darrien; he heard more tapping and a heavy sigh before the man spoke again. “The couple is out of town, they probably don’t even know that their car has been stolen, it was reported by the parking garage. I can fax a copy of the report over if you like.”

             
“Yes please do, tell me the license plate information?”

             
The man recited three digits, a dash, and three numbers before he asked. “Anything else?”

             
“No, thanks.” Darrien sapped his phone closed just as the technology team arrived and walked in the room, he stood and acknowledged them one by one as they filled in the remaining space in the room.

             
“SWAT is downstairs, they closed the hotel down.” One of the technologists announce suddenly.

             
“Thanks, this case has become personal and I thank you for the help but why SWAT?” Darrien asks.

             
The female looks at Darrien giving him a look, as if she knew what happened in Gwen and his room last night. “Order came down from the powers that be, we had to bring them, to sweep, this guy that the Fed’s are chasing is mob funded, and he’s into them for a lot of money.”

             
Again Darrien felt his world crash down, he did not bother reading much of the file, he could kick himself for that, he was up against someone with these deep seeded connections, no wonder the agency still wanted him alive. They wanted to try and flip him, part of him wondered if the McNeil Island debacle was planned, if they put him there knowing somehow that they shared a past and this sick bastard now loose and on the run with Gwen was all a set up to get him to flip on his employers? Anger courses through him again, rocking his entire being, his soul. This was not good. Darrien excused himself from the room with gritted teeth. He went outside to catch a clean breath of air while he waited for the team to clean up the image and present him with a clearer picture of the Lincoln that Kody was driving around in.

             
Darrien’s mind was working fast; he was a smart guy but was smart enough to catch up to the ruthless nature of this man that now had Gwen? She had told Darrien stories, she mentioned things about Kody that made his hair stand on edge.  He was thinking of last night in the hotel room, the passion they shared. That is when it hit him. Kody had been watching, he stole a local’s car, he had to have a place to lie low, a place he could hide, a place he could ditch the car if he needed, a place he could dispose of a body if things did not go his way. The last thought burned Darrien the most. Darrien went to the room, the chemical scent, and Gwen’s scent still lingered in the air, he fired up her Gwen’s Mac Book Pro and did a quick search for hotels. He copied the numbers and started calling the front desks of each hotel that came up.

Chapter thirty-one

Gwen’s body was screaming at her. Slowly her mind started to come back to consciousness. She was having a problem remembering where she was, and why she was in such pain. She inhaled deep, her ribs protested at the laborious job. She tries to pull her hands in but met resistance, her eyes snapped open. She was bound to the headboard of some bed. She pulled at her restraints, the duct tape and leather around her wrist twisted and dug into her skin, she cried out in hope someone would come to her aid. Her mind was still foggy, she finally started to remember; she had been in the shower she was washing herself when the curtain ripped open… Kody. Kody had been in her bathroom and he knocked her out somehow. Her entire body clenched.