The Candidate (Romantic Suspense) (The Candidate Series) (26 page)

 “Smith? That’s his name? Not so original.” Ben grabbed Too Tall by the chest and dragged him to the back of the car. But before shoving him into the trunk, he scooped the man’s cell phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Fred. “Smith told him to text after the ‘extermination’.” The word sent a shiver up Ben’s spine.

 Fred trotted over to Shorty, heaved him over his shoulder, then walked back to the trunk and tossed him in as well.

Ben jumped into the passenger seat. Despite the throbbing pain in his hand, he felt elated. He would have hugged Fred if he wasn’t afraid his friend would drive into a pole. 

Or punch him.

Then he remembered Abby.

 “Fred, they’ve got Abby! They’re holding her at Maddy’s place—”

Fred stared at him. “You mean, that wasn’t Maddy at the funeral?”

Ben shook his head. “It was Maddy who….who died with Andy. They were having an affair.”

Fred didn’t say a word.

Ben slumped down. “You knew, then.”

“Not exactly. I knew they were an item, years before his marriage.” He shrugged. “Just before I met Abby, Andy swore me to secrecy. He told me that what was in the past was just that: old news, history. He didn’t want to cause a rift between the sisters. He told me Maddy wanted it that way, too. She tried not to show it, but anyone who’d known them before could see it.” Fred hesitated. “I presume Abby knows, too?”

 “Yes. She took it pretty hard. She loved both of them, so of course it was quite a shock.” Ben frowned. “They’re holding her, at Maddy’s place. These goons were supposed to take me there, so that they could stage a murder-suicide.”

“If we had time, we could do the same to them. They’d make quite a tableau.”

“We don’t. At least, not according to the plans you downloaded into the thumb drive. Operation Flamingo is set to go off in Las Vegas, New Year’s Eve, just as the clock strikes midnight.”

“So, Digits was able to decipher the damn thing?”

“Yes—and just in time, too. Abby and I escaped with it, but unfortunately they got him. Smith mentioned they’ll be planting Digits right in the middle of Operation Flamingo.”

“Not if I can help it.” Fred turned onto Dupont Circle. “So where is it now?”

“With Norm, at the Two Bits Shoe Shine stand, in the South Capitol Metro Station.” Ben turned to face him. “How did you come across the intel?” 

Fred shook his head. “I don’t like to divulge my sources.” He pulled over to the curb.  “We’re here.”

Ben looked out the window. “No, we’re not! This is some pizza joint.”

“No, it’s not just ‘some pizza joint.’ It’s Pizzaria Paradiso. The best in Dupont Circle. I’ve already ordered a Siciliano, a couple of bottles of beer, and one of their signature caps. While you’re making the delivery at the front door, I’ll enter through the back.”

“You’ll find the key over the door ledge.” The memory of Maddy jibing him about hidden spare keys came back to him.  It seemed like a million years ago.

Tell whoever answers it was paid for in advance, and be sure to give the guy some shit about your tip. That’ll give me time to make my move.”

 “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

“Let’s hope so. By the way, I hope you like eggplant.”

Chapter 53

At first, the ghost wouldn’t open the front door. 

And yet, he was right here, just on the other side.

Ben hadn’t heard his footsteps but he had tuned his ear to the creak of the loft’s floorboards.

The last one stopped right in front of the door.

There was no light coming through the peephole.

Smith’s ghost was right there, on the other side.

What had taken him so long? What had he been doing to Abby?

Ben banged frantically on the door, He rang the bell, over and over. He slammed his fist on the door, as hard as he could. “Dude, you bitch when we don’t deliver hot, and we live to please, remember?” he shouted, desperately. “I don’t want you pissed at me, like last time, for leaving before you got off the john…or whatever—”

The door opened, but only as far as the security chain allowed. The man on the other side of it—bulky, mid-height, with curly hair—stared out at Ben. “Fuck off.”

Ben tried hard to smile. “A large Siciliano and two beers. You already paid for it. You might as well take it, right?”

He prayed the bead of sweat rolling down his forehead would get sopped up by the
Pizzaria Paradiso
cap before rolling down his nose. 

The man’s eyes narrowed. He shrugged and shut the door.

If Ben had been quicker, he would have stuck his foot in the door and barged his way in.

He didn’t need to. The thought of free pizza and beer must have gotten the better of Smith’s man because a moment later the door opened wide, freed from the chain that kept Ben from Abby.

But before Ben could take a step forward, the man positioned himself in the center of doorway and held out his hands. 

Ben smiled and handed him the pizza box, but out of the corner of his eye he watched as Fred inched his way out of the kitchen. 

As if sensing Ben’s distraction, the man’s eyes turned slightly.

“No anchovies, and pecorino, just like you asked,” Ben murmured with a smile. “We were out of Anchor Liberty, so we upgraded you to Avery Out of Bounds Stout. Is that okay?”

The man gave him a wary nod. “Yeah. Now, fuck off.”

“Well, you know we live on our tips—”

The man shoved the pizza box onto Ben’s chest. “Oh yeah? Well, here’s a tip. Get lost before I cram one of these bottles up your ass—”

Ben shoved back.

Bad move. Fred’s shot, aimed for the guy’s head, hit the door frame instead.

When the man rolled out of the fall, he had a gun in his hand. His first shot winged Fred’s shoulder. Fred groaned and jumped back into the kitchen.

 He then turned toward Ben, who had leaped over the high-backed couch. He yanked the table lamp onto the floor with him, so that the only light in the room was coming from where it had landed, illuminating Maddy’s sculptures upward so that they loomed out of the shadows. Their sharp points appeared to have tripled in size.

Two of her metal statues also fell. One—just a foot long, with a small square base that rose to a sharp point—barely missed his head, piercing a throw pillow instead. Ben prayed the man didn’t see the cloud of downy feathers rising around him.

He needs me, she thought. Just like I need him.

She’d passed out when she’d fallen against Preston’s coffee table. When she came to, she found herself in Maddy’s bed, naked. A strange man had just finished tying her, spread-eagled, to the bedposts with silk stockings that must have belonged to Maddy.

“You’ve got quite a collection of whore couture,” he said with a smile. He leaned in so close that she smelled cigarettes on his breath. When he hefted one of her breasts in his hand and tweaked it between his thumb and forefinger, she shuddered despite the fact his hands were gloved. “I’d take a go at you myself, but I’m only allowed to fondle the merchandise. Can’t leave any DNA around, you know.”

She spit in his eye.

Angered, his arm went back. He was just about to backhand her across the face when the doorbell rang. 

At first he froze. Then he took another stocking and wrapped it over her mouth. He yanked it so tight that she almost gagged. “I guess my buddies are here with your boyfriend. When I get back, we’ll have a little fun with this dildo collection of yours. We’re going to make it look like your sweetheart got a little out of hand.” He yanked open the bedstand drawer. 

Abby looked down, then turned away. 

He laughed as he ran down the stairs.

I’ve got to get out of here, she thought. She strained against her bindings, but they held tight. Panicked, she twisted her wrists and kicked her legs. 

The voices below were getting louder, more anxious. She recognized one as Ben’s—

Then she heard the gun shots. 

He’s outnumbered. I’ve got to help him, she vowed.

Because he can’t die. I don’t know what I’d do if he died.

I couldn’t live without him.

Because I…

I love him.

That realization set her free, right then and there, from Maddy and Andy’s ghosts.

Freed from her anger, and her jealousy. 

She forgave them for loving each other more than they’d loved her. 

Ben loved her. She saw it in the way he looked at her. And she knew it from the way he looked after her.

He was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for her.

Just as Maddy had made the ultimate sacrifice for Andy. 

At least they were together at the very end, Abby reasoned. And Ben will be with me.

But it will not end this way for us. Not if I can help it.

She struggled with all her might. Suddenly she noticed that the stocking around her right wrist had snagged itself on one of the metal finials on the headboard. She jerked it as hard as she could—

Until it ripped.

Quickly she untangled her hand from the stocking, then untied her other hand and her feet, and shot out of the bed. She looked around for something to throw at her assailant, anything at all—

The mirror. 

It hung over Maddy’s vanity. Despite its heft and bulk, she lifted it off the wall.  It could shield her from bullets, if it came to that.

If she couldn’t protect Ben, she’d die trying.

She ran to the loft railing with the mirror, and looked down.

 “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Pizza Boy,” Smith’s man declared as he circled the room. 

From there on the floor Ben could look out between the couch legs. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the shadows. 

The only one moving belonged to Smith’s man.

He hadn’t thrown a javelin since his high school track and field days. Even back then, his aim was usually shaky enough that the spear wavered when airborne and rarely hit the designated target, sailing right past it instead.

This time, though, he couldn’t afford to miss.

Not with Abby, now naked and carrying a huge wall mirror and staring down at him from the balcony.

Her shadow also caught the attention of Smith’s man. He turned and swung his gun up and around, but he hesitated when he saw his own reflection staring down at him.

 Ben realized this was his chance. He leaped up. Grabbing the sculpture, he yelled, “Beer coming your way!”

When the man turned to face him, Ben hurled the pointed sculpture as hard as he could.

Smith’s man gasped when it stabbed him in the gut.

As he toppled backward, the gun dropped out of his hand.

Abby threw down the mirror and ran down the stairs, into Ben’s arms. 

It suddenly dawned on her that she was still naked, but that didn’t stop her lips from seeking out his.

From covering his face, his neck, his chest, with her kisses as she sobbed.

“Bullseye.” They were interrupted by Fred’s faint croak. He was crouching on the floor and breathing heavy.

Together Abby and Ben lifted him up. “Pick up the gun,” he muttered to Abby. “And while you’re at it, you might want to put on some clothes. Oh yeah, and grab the pizza on the way out.”

They let him eat it on the way to some doctor he had on call for, as he put it, “little incidents like this.” Remembering Ben’s remark about Smith, he took Too Tall’s cell phone out of his pocket. Smith’s ID was, simply, Boss.

Fred texted
PROBLEM SOLVED.

“I guess that buys us a little time,” Ben said.

Wishful thinking, each of them thought, but no one dared to say it out loud.

Chapter 54

The lunchtime line at Pete’s Carry-Out, was moving pretty quickly. Too quickly in fact, for Ben. He glanced down at his watch for the umpteenth time, wondering what was taking Norm so long to get there, when the man behind him growled, “How’s the egg salad in this joint?”

Ben heaved a sigh at the sound of his friend’s voice. “Word of warning: too much mayo.”

Norm chuckled. “I’ll take that as the password that the coast is clear.”