Command Indecision (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (27 page)

"Who?" Footsteps sounded, the footfall
s
heavier as they approached the office. I counted two sets of feet.

"They're going to kill us." She choked back a sob.

"No thanks, didn't sign up for that."

"There's something else," she said quickly. "The next shipment is coming in early tomorrow morning. When they get it off base, they'll bring it here.
More h
eroin.
Millions.
"

"I think I know how it's getting here," I said. "And it's not getting off base."

Roxanne started to say something, but at that moment, the door creaked open and my captor stepped inside. He moved to one side, allowing the second man to step into the light. Which was right about when my mouth dropped open.
“Kevin?”

"In the flesh,"
my now least favorite bartender said as he
raised his gun.

I shrank back. Beside m
e, Roxanne did the same when he point
ed the gun towards her. Then he laughed and lowered it. "I'm not going to shoot you," he said, his bright smile at odds with the nasty look in his eyes. "Not if you're good girls anyway."

"You'd have a hard time explaining two dead women killed with your gun," I told him.

He shrugged. "This isn't my gun. Borrowed it. Second, I'll be having a real hard time on the beach in Brazil. If it comes to it, I'll have a Mojito in your memory. I might even have a moment of remorse. Then I'm going to get over it."

"Charming."

"It's business." Kevin
shrugged.

"You're calling drugs a business?"

"It's supply and demand. I've got the supply on the way and the demand has always been there. All I need is to keep you two out of the way until I get what I want."

"And then you'll let us go?" Roxanne asked, still hopeful.

Kevin
smiled, but it wasn't a nice one.
Somewhere behind him, a sound I couldn’t quite place started up.
"Sure," he said. I didn't believe him for a minute. "But I need some information. And Lexi here is going to give it to me."

"What information?"

"Who are you?"

There was no way I was giggling this time. "Lexi Solomon," I said.

Kevin
shook his head, frowning. "See, I don't think so. You and that guy who's supposed to be your husband have been doing a lot of snooping lately. It's almost funny watching you poke around, but you've kind of been getting in my way. And him? He's so damn stubborn.
Doesn’t give up, even after a friendly warning.
"

"You're the one who jumped him?"

"Me and my buddy here."
Behind
him, our other captor grinned. "So who are you?"
Kevin pressed.

"No one," I said.

"Liar. Maybe you need an incentive?"

"Maybe I have nothing to say," I countered through gritted teeth.

"Then I guess we'll just have to help you remember." He raised the gun, pointing it at me, then at the last moment, he pointed it towards Roxanne and squeezed the trigger. I screamed and Roxanne went limp. After a moment, she opened one eye, then the other and looked at me, fear etched across every inch of her face. I scanned her for a wound, or blood, but saw nothing. In horror, I glance
d
down at myself.
Surely I would have felt…
Nope. Nothing.
Whew!

"Next time, I won't miss," Kevin warned
, waggling the gun at me. "Who the hell are you?"

"I told you," I yelled. "I'm Lexi Solomon." I didn't s
ay anything about the snooping.

"I don't have time for your lies," he shouted, his face cracking into angry lines. "Tie her up
, Ritchie
."

His friend stepped forward, reaching for me and I scrabbled backwards. As he grabbed my sweater, Roxanne lunged at him, kicking wildly with her legs, the fight
again
alive in her eyes. It took one click of the gun to subdue her and me. The
dark-haired
man
I now knew as Ritchie
pulled a plastic tie from his pocket and folded my wrists, one over the other, before securing the tie around it, making sure it was tight enough to cut into my wrists.
As he did so, I looked over his shoulder and got my second shakeup as I took in the blond man just outside the doorway. I knew I’d recognized the stance of the man I’d glimpsed. Sergeant Jack Hoag. What the hell was Mr. Clean Cut doing mixed up in all this? As if he saw me looking, he stepped back, into the shadows.

"Remember what I s
aid about being good girls," Ritchie said as he made for the door
. "In a few hours, all this will be over."

Well, whoopee-dee.

They left and I scrabbled closer to Roxanne. "We're going to die," she wailed.

I patted her shoulder awkwardly. "It's going to be okay," I assured her. "I'm going to get us out of here. I'm going to look around. Maybe there's some way out."

"There isn't. My dad used to bring me here when the factory was open. This room was the manager's office and it's sealed off. There's no exit except that one." She nodded to the door.
“We’re on the first floor so we would have to make it through the whole floor to get to the exit doors."

Great. "
The blond man here.
I know
him. His name is Hoag
. He's dating Gretchen," I told her as I sat again.

Roxanne glanced at me in surprise. "Gretchen from Jillian's office?"

"Yep."

"That must be how they're getting the drugs from the plane and off the base.
I thought if I could find the manifests on my sister’s computer, I could prove what they had been doing.
"

"The plane?"

"That's how it comes in. They got Jillian to help the first time. She had to sign off some packages, but she got suspicious when they didn't show up in the manifests.
That’s when they started putting money into her account and made her come out here.
"

"It's on the plane with the incoming troops?"
Of course it was. I’d pretty much already guessed that.

"Yeah. They buy it over there,
or steal it, I don’t know,
ship it on an inbound plane,
surrounded by returning troops. No one even knows the heroin has
been through Fort Charles. Then they sell it here."

"Is the whole unit in on it?" I asked.

Roxanne shook her head vehemently. "No. I think only one or two of them.
Kevin
,
Captain Somper and that other guy. Ritchie, I think his name is.
I don’t know him, just Kevin and Somper. I didn’t see Hoag before, but yeah, I guess, it’s possible.
Somper said they risk their lives for peanuts, so this is payback."

"Some payback!
"

"Was it true what they said about you not being who you said you are?" Roxanne asked.
“Who are you?”

"It's better if you don't know,” I decided, resting my back against the pole Roxanne was bound to while I contemplated my next move. I thought about Solomon too. Solomon, who was probably back from his search of Somper’s office, and wondering where the hell I was with his vehicle. If I were lucky, Lucas would pick up my photo message in the morning and maybe then, someone would come looking for us. Only, by then, it might be too late.

It seemed like hours passed
before I heard the sound of someone
returning
, though it couldn’t have been all that long in reality
. The last of the light filtering through the grimy windows was gone, leaving the room in darkness.

After
managing to get my hands in front of me, though still tied together, and with
a thorough search
in the dwindling light
, I confirmed what Roxanne told me. The only exit led straight into the warehouse where we could hear the men moving about, but every window was nailed shut. The ti
me it would take us to break a
hole large enough
to climb through
would be enough to have them come running. Even if one of us could get out, the other wouldn't stand a chance.
Even the one that escaped would likely be caught quickly in this isolated area.

I picked up the
length of wood
I
’d
found
during my search
and sat next to her again as the tinny sound of a cell phone ringing suddenly blasted into the quiet. Footsteps started towards us.

"You should go," said Roxanne. "
Anyway you can.
I can't. I'm
handcuffed to this stupid pole
."

A thought dawned on me, a thought that would have occurred earlier if my head hadn’t only just ceased throbbing.
"No, you're not!" Scrabbling in my pockets, I found the key Solomon insisted everyone carry. I had no idea why until now. "This is a universal handcuff key," I said, pressing it into Roxanne's hand. "If anything happens to me, you can get yourself free." I pushed the
wooden baton
behind her.

Both men
entered the room. "Get her," Kevin
said, waving the gun at me
with scant disregard for gun safety
. "We're going outside for a chat."

"What if I don't want to?"

"What if I shoot you?"
Ritchie
countered.

"Very persuasive." I got to my feet awkwardly. Ritchie, tucked his gun into the waistband of his jeans and grabbed me by the arm, tugging me outside.
Fortunately, he didn’t say anything about the fact that my arms had moved from being behind me to being in front.
With a backwards glance at Roxanne, tears in her eyes again
as hope ebbed away
, the three of us left the room.

We moved a few paces from the door when Ritchie gave me a hard shove in the back. I lost my footing, sprawling on the floor. Skin scraped off the palms of my hands and I felt the sting of blood.
It wasn’t much of a silver lining when I thought I didn’t have to worry about stinging them with antiseptic. I’d be dead before then.

Cheery.

Just the kind of thought I needed.

"Remember me?"
Somper stepped out from the shadows as I maneuvered to a kneeling position.
"
Who the hell are you and that Solomon guy?”

“No one, really.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Um, Captain McAuley?” My voice pitched upwards.

“Who do you really work for?”

“No one!”

“
My friends call me Somper the Stomper. Do you want to know why?" He came to a stop in front of me, his
huge feet
spanning the width of his hips, as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Um, no?"
Like, why would I? It wasn’t like it made him sound like a cuddly bear.

"Free her hands."

Ritchie knelt next to me and pulled out a blade. He tucked the tip under the plastic tie and with a quick upcut, the binding snapped in two.
I shook my hands and flexed my fingers as the blood returned.

"H
old her down."

"What the hell?" I screamed and
flailed against Ritchie. Kevin joined in, twisting my
arm backwards. I kneed him somewhere soft and fleshy, and he responded with a thump to my jaw that made my head ring as they pinned me down.
With fear ricocheting through me, I wondered if Hoag was going to join the world’s worst party.
I lay
, dazed,
on the floor and cautiously worked my jaw, bar
ely noticing Somper move closer. That is,
until I saw him raise his boot
…
and stomp down
. O
n my arm.

I heard the bone crack a moment before pain exploded through
every inch of me
. I vaguely registered a scream that echoed through the warehouse. I wondered who the hell was screaming, and if Roxanne had seen. Then, as bile rose in my throat, I realized the scr
eam came from me and still echoed through the space. I dimly heard a flutter of wings as birds launched from the rafters, the caws of their disturbance drowning me out.

"That's why," he said, turning away, scanning the warehouse as if he heard or saw something that eluded me. "Go check," he said softly to Ritchie and the man melted into the darkness, his gun drawn. "Now, I'm going to ask you
to think on those questions
again
, Lexi Solomon
. Does anyone know you're here?"

"Yes, everyone," I murmured.

"Funny, I checked your messages. Didn't think to tell your husband where you actually were
,
did you? I don't think he knows at
all." He laughed and held up my cell
phone.
I decided to get pin protection in the future.
"Maybe I'll send him a message saying you met someone else. That you're leaving him. By the time he bothers to look for you, there won't be much
of you
left
t
o find."