Willing Sacrifice (Knights of the Board Room) (46 page)

All these years, and she’d spared no thought to Jorge, blocking him out of her mind, trying to get ahead of the horror he’d inflicted upon her, trying to keep it contained. Perhaps they were right, that love opened unexpected rooms in one’s heart, because for the first time, she gave an ounce of her compassion to the man he might have been. To the mother who bore him, the hopes she’d harbored for him. She also lit the candle as hope that maybe there’d be a day when every heart would embrace love over hate.

She couldn’t go further with it than that, but it was far more than she’d ever given. She also asked forgiveness for taking a life. She couldn’t have done it differently, wouldn’t have, but she could feel regret over the act itself.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured to the still air. Sorry could cover a lot of things, and it felt better saying it, as if a small weight was lifted off her heart. Yes, falling in love could suck. But it could also bring better things.

“Janet?”

Swiping away the small tear that had escaped her eye, Janet turned to see Dana at the entrance to the sanctuary, her fingertips resting on the doorframe. “I’m here.”

Dana came down the aisle, sweeping her cane ahead of her, comfortable enough with the surroundings that it appeared mostly a precaution. “This is an unexpected surprise. Were you getting too much work done without them underfoot? You needed spiritual counseling to handle the shock?”

“Pretty much.” Janet laughed. “No, I thought it was a nice day to be out, and I figured I’d stop by and—”

“See if Max was here. Since he’s not, you’ll tell me you came to talk about the wedding so he doesn’t find out you’re stalking him.”

“You know, I’m starting to understand why Rachel pinches you all the time.”

Dana grinned, gesturing to the pews nearest them so they could both take a seat. “Max was here earlier this morning, repairing the basketball goal, but he headed out about midmorning. One of the kids said the goal’s not fixed yet, so I assume he needed another tool and got tied up with something else. Since he’s picking me up this afternoon, he’ll likely come back in time to finish the goal and take me home.”

“Most likely.” Yet Janet glanced down at her phone, her brow furrowing. Max often sent her texts throughout his day. She hadn’t had one since he’d left her bed this morning. She’d gotten busy with the guys, had thought about sending him one on the trolley, but figured if she was going to be seeing him… She admitted part of the reason she hadn’t sent one was she enjoyed the messages he devised to coax her to text him back.

Quelling the desire to send him a clingy text like
Where the hell are you? I haven’t heard from you every hour on the hour, just like a cuckoo clock
, she turned her attention to her very valid reason for being here. Even if it was an excuse.

“I wanted to touch base with you about Marcie and Ben’s wedding, to see if you’re going to need anything from Ben regarding the ceremony or the vows. That way I know when to start badgering him, make sure he has it done.”

“Good idea.” Dana beamed. “I spoke to Cass the other night. She’s doing the big-sister thing. She isn’t really sure if it’s good for Marcie to get married so young, but the fact they’re waiting until spring helps.”

Janet suspected Cass worried that Ben hadn’t yet made enough progress in dealing with the debris of his past to make a good husband, but he would be. He was an impossibly strong-willed man, but all five of the K&A men were. They were also incapable of ignoring their primary imperative—the well-being of the women they considered theirs.

“We all expected they’d marry,” Dana continued, “but I wasn’t sure if they’d be the type to go on for years before making the decision. I expect Ben would have done just that, he’s so new to all the relationship stuff, but Marcie probably threatened to date other guys if he didn’t marry her within a year of her moving in.”

Janet could well believe Marcie would pull such a move. What had Ben said? “She made me agree to marry her”, not “I asked her to marry me”. Ben was the most hardcore of all of them, a sexual sadist definitely not for the fainthearted submissive, but Marcie embraced and even craved that side of him. “I think she’d better remember he has the resources to create an actual dungeon beneath his house.”

“That would only excite her,” Dana said, confirming Janet’s thoughts. Since the minister didn’t wear her sunglasses in the church, Janet saw her pale green eyes twinkle. Then Dana put a finger to her lips, a self-admonishment in deference to their surroundings. “But anyhow, yes, there are a few things you can put on his calendar. They’ve agreed to a series of sessions to discuss the significance of marriage with Reverend Morris, and then—”

“Reverend Dana? There she is. Yo, Reverend Dana.”

Two teenagers had appeared at the entrance to the nave. The one who’d spoken came down the aisle at a trot, dragging a slighter boy behind him. They were both dressed in oversized jeans and T-shirts, a hoodie flopping off the narrow shoulders of the one being dragged.

“Jimmy, slow down. This is a church, not a gymnasium,” Dana scolded, but she had her hand out as they came to her. “Who’s with you?”

“Terence. He’s got something he needs to tell you, right now.” Janet saw the slighter boy’s cheeks had dried tear tracks. Dana picked up on his distress, because she rose, settling her hands on his shoulders. Despite his age, he was still a few inches taller than her. The other boy towered over them both. “C’mon, man, tell her fast. He don’t have time for you to dick around. To waste,” he corrected himself, casting an apologetic look toward the altar, much as Dana had when she was referencing Marcie’s sexual preferences.

“Your driver, the big dude…”

“Max.” Janet spoke before Dana could, stepping up beside her. That faint unease in her gut was suddenly doing a meringue across her vitals. “What about him?”

Terence’s eyes slid to her. Dana’s hands tightened on him, however. “She’s all right. You can trust her. Tell us, Terence. What’s happened? Is Max all right?”

“He’s totally fucked, is what,” Jimmy said, then winced as Dana sent him a searing look. “Sorry, Reverend D.”

“He asked me to find out something for him,” Terence blurted out. “A few months ago. I almost forgot about it, and I wish I had. But I gave him the info this morning, and he left. But it wasn’t…”

He burst into tears then. It shattered the street toughness, made it clear he was barely in his teens. Even so, Janet had to restrain herself from shaking the rest out of him. Dana caught that vibration, because now she had one hand on Terence, one on Janet’s forearm. “Some guy gave me money to tell Max something,” the boy continued, “but that’s just like Judas, isn’t it? I needed it for my mom, but when I told her how I got it, she said I had to come tell you, and I know it was wrong, but I can’t take it back…”

“Never mind that now. Tell me what happened.”

“Max wanted to know if this particular dude came back to the neighborhood. A Mexican guy called Dino. A long time ago, he used to be hooked up with the 9
^th
Streeters, ferrying their shit to them. He hasn’t been around in a really long time, but he showed back up. I don’t know how he knew I was on the lookout for him, but one of Dino’s guys came to me, told me if I’d tell Max he’d be at this one place, he’d give me a grand in cash. But Max couldn’t know that we’d talked. It had to be like Max would think
he
was surprising Dino, but that means they were gonna be the ones doing the surprising.”

The kid was sobbing. “I knew it was wrong, so I went asking around, but it was too late. He went straight there. I talked to some homeless dudes and they said Dino’s guys carried something out in a sack. Something the size of a guy like Max.”

Janet’s heart faltered, her vision getting skewed, but she dug her fingers into the top of a pew, holding fast as Terence kept talking.

“They’re supposed to hold him somewhere until Dino gets in tonight, to deal with him himself, settle some score he has with Max. Nobody ’round there knew where he’d been taken though. He’s gonna be dead, Reverend Dana. And it’ll be all my fault.”

“Where did you tell Max to meet Dino?” Dana asked firmly, giving him a shake to keep him on track.

As Terence relayed the location of a derelict building in the warehouse district, Janet already had her cell phone out. When the man answered on the other end, she took a breath. “Dale, we need your help. Max may be in trouble.”

* * * * *

Dale came to the church. Marcie arrived about the same time, with a zippered black duffle bag almost bigger and heavier than herself, but the lissome, athletic blonde carried it easily. Dana had called her right after Janet spoke to Dale. Janet had also called Alice, managing to tell her in a calm voice she’d decided to take the rest of the day off to get some errands done. She’d given her direction on FedExing out several contracts and disconnected. She didn’t want Alice involved in this.

“So explain to me why we’re not calling the cops?” Marcie asked, putting down the bag. They’d moved to an activity room at the back of the church where it was quiet. Dana had sent Terence and his friend to talk to the minister, so it was just the adults now.

“Beyond the fact we don’t have a location at this point, when we do, if the bad guys hear sirens, they’ll just kill him and cut out. There are also too many questions that’ll be raised about why they took Max in the first place. There’s a reason Dino has laid low as long as he has. He knows Max took out two of his buddies and has been on the lookout for him for a while.”

Dale spoke bluntly, but Janet had told him everyone in the room could be trusted. The fact he took her at her word meant he’d gauged her character at their one meet and found her to be someone he could trust. Any other time she’d been flattered by it, but all she felt was a pounding urgency to get moving, to do something. But she had to trust him as well.

“That’s kept him scared enough to stay in the shadows, but time blunts fear. There’ve also been some power shifts happening in his cartel, so that’s probably why Dino popped back on the grid. He’s ready to move back into the limelight with the 9
^th
Streeters, capitalizing on his old contacts with them. Max is a loose end in the way of that.” Dale propped a hip on a table. “I’ve already gone by the warehouse where the kid sent Max. Saw evidence of the scuffle, but no one’s there. If they put him on a boat, we’d likely be screwed, but my guess is they’re not going to take him far. It sounds like Dino has a vested interest in making the kill here, so he can reestablish his power base.”

Janet parsed the words, boxing up “kill” so it had nothing to do with Max. She concentrated on Dale’s information, on what needed to be done. Dana had made a good call with Marcie. Though the young woman blinked at the information, pressing her lips together, she held firm.

“I have feelers out to figure out where they took him,” Dale said. “Shouldn’t take long. Wherever they hold him, it will be a defensible position, with lookouts outside, anticipating any trouble, and more watching him inside. Some crews like the impressive show of numbers, but I’m hoping we’ll luck out and it will be more low key than that.”

He tapped the cellphone on his hip. “I have reinforcements coming. Four operators are near enough to be called into action. They’re on their way. Once they get here, we’ll figure out a way to get eyes on the inside, create a distraction, and then make our move from there.”

“What evidence?” Janet asked. When Dale’s gaze turned to her, she firmed her chin. “You said there was evidence of a scuffle? Blood?”

“Yeah, blood. Broken crates, what looks like a fist plowed into the wall of the warehouse.”

Blood. Why had she asked? Max’s face, his torso, all those perfect lines of muscle, flashed through her mind. An empty corpse, lying in a pool of blood.

“But no body, Janet.” Dale gave her a hard look. “Keep that in mind.”

“I’m fine,” she said shortly. And she was. Ice was flowing through her veins, a simmering rage. At Max, at Dino, at Dale, at the whole situation. She needed to get a grip on it. She could tell Dale registered her tension, and she couldn’t be less than invincible right now.

“I’ve got surveillance equipment to help with the eyes inside stuff,” Marcie spoke. “And I stopped at your house to get the things you wanted.” She directed that to Dana. “It was tough to leave the assault rifle behind. That was sweet.”

“Yes, but it’s hard to conceal,” Dana said dryly. “As long as you have the handguns and the Tasers, we’re good.”

“My guys will come geared,” Dale said.

“It’s not for you,” Dana responded. “You need eyes inside and a distraction, right? If you’re right, there’s only one thing that’s going to get you through the outer perimeter and inside, and it’s not a bunch of strapping guys who are obvious military. If you pose as a homeless derelict stumbling into their lair, they’ll shoot first and dump the body.”

“So what are you proposing?” Dale raised his brow. “If you think I’m taking civilians into an op like this…”

“I believe we called you, so technically it’s our op.” Dana’s expression hardened. If Janet hadn’t known of Dana’s military background before, she’d have been forcibly reminded of it now, because her expression mirrored Dale’s. “I’m a combat veteran, Marcie is MMA trained and has used it—more than capably—for her job in corporate investigations. She also knows her firearms.”

Marcie nodded. Her brown eyes were cool, her hip cocked and arms crossed.