your puta! Listen to her...”
Jack heard the sound of a woman’s voice and then saw one of the men yank Vicki into view by her hair and drag her to the top of the bank where she kneeled on the ground. At the same time, another man yanked Katie into view and placed her beside her mother.
“It’s Vicki and Katie!” whispered Jack. “One guy is holding a cellphone up to Vicki’s face. They both look like their hands are tied behind their backs. Ankles bound too.”
“We’re too far away to get the drop on them ... there’s four of them,” said Laura.
“I’ll call for backup,” said Jack. “We can just sit tight until —” Vicki’s scream interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up in horror as he saw one of the men yank Katie’s head back by her hair. A flash of light reflected off the blade of a knife on Katie’s throat. Vicki screamed.
“Police! Drop it!” screamed Jack, leaping to his feet. The men looked up in surprise as Jack sent a bullet zinging above their heads and into the river bank on the opposite side.
Two of the men reacted by pulling out their own pistols as Jack and Laura ran towards them, trying to use some of the bridge pillars as cover. The men fired a volley of bullets that thunked into trees and ricocheted off the cement pillars. The distance was too great for a handgun to be really accurate, but fear instinctively drove the Colombians to fire rapidly.
A couple of the men crouched behind the pillars as Jack and Laura came closer.
“Die, you bastards!” screamed Jack, as he and Laura let loose with their own volley of shots. Shots that quickly improved in accuracy as the gap narrowed.
Jack stumbled over an old firepit, skinning his hand, but then regained his footing and raced ahead to catch up with Laura as she crossed the final few steps of the clearing.
One of the men yelled something at them in Spanish, then turned and pointed his gun at Vicki while looking back at Jack and Laura for a response. His meaning was clear. The response wasn’t what he expected. Instead of backing off, Jack stopped, took aim, and fired. The man leapt backwards as the bullet zinged past his ear.
“Vamoose or you will die!” screamed Jack. “Run and we let you go!”
“Locos!” yelled one of the other men to the others.
That’s right, I probably am crazy, thought Jack.
One of the men yelled at a colleague in Spanish. They violently shoved Vicki and Katie, causing them to scream as they tumbled down the bank and into the river where their screams coldly stopped. The four men bolted through the pillars to the far side of the bridge toward a path that would lead them back to their van.
For Jack and Laura, the choice was obvious. If they pursued the men, Vicki and Katie would drown.
Damien heard the scream and then the sound of shots as both phones went dead. “No!” he cried in anguish. “No!” he yelled again, and then he kicked Leitch hard in the ribcage. Leitch choked and gasped in pain.
Lance was quick to shout instructions into his own cellphone. Seconds later, the striker left his taxi and moved into position. Ray was just calling another taxi to take him to the airport as Rellik’s crew arrived.
Twenty minutes passed before Ray, blinded, bound, and gagged with duct tape, was dragged back into the car wash. Perhaps knowing what was in store for him, he risked being shot and put up a fight when he was approached. It did little to delay his capture but did result in a blow from a steel pipe that broke his arm.
Ray, again stripped naked, was being tied face-down to the railing when Damien knelt in front of him and ripped the tape off his eyes and mouth.
“You couldn’t do it, could you?” said Damien. “Let my wife and my daughter live. You could have just walked away and released them. But no, you had to kill them!”
“It wasn’t me,” pleaded Ray. “My brother ... he is sick. I would not have hurt them. Please. You must believe that!”
“And was it your brother who cut off my wife’s finger?” yelled Damien.
“His idea. Yes! It was all Carlos!”
“But Carlos wasn’t here, was he?” screamed Damien. “It was you who did it!”
“No. It was men who work for Carlos. Not —”
“And who do you work for?” snarled Damien, picking up the roll of duct tape.
Ray’s eyes bulged as Damien wrapped the duct tape around his mouth. He then shut his eyes tight as Damien ground his foot into his broken arm. The resulting scream could be heard through the tape.
Damien looked at Leitch and said, “And who do you suppose gave Carlos that idea?”
Leitch mumbled through his gag and vehemently shook his head from side to side. Two of his ribs were broken and breathing was painful.
Damien’s cellphone rang. He paused, then looked at his men. “Carlos ... wanting to gloat. He can fucking wait!” he roared, while walking back and kicking Leitch in the face. Blood splattered from Leitch’s broken nose onto Damien’s shoe.
“Wrong phone,” said Lance, as the ringing persisted.
“What do you mean?” yelled Damien, while stooping to use Leitch’s shirt as a rag to wipe the end of his shoe.
“It’s not the phone Carlos sent you. It’s your private one!”
Surprise registered on Damien’s face and he quickly took the phone from his pocket, then held it in the palm of his hand and stared at it as it continued to ring. For a moment, he was afraid to answer. Afraid of what he would hear ... but he had to know.
It was Vicki. She was hysterical and crying but said that she and Katie were alive. Then she cried, “They were going to kill us! We were saved by —”
The phone went dead and Damien stood in a stunned silence for a moment, then turned to his men and said, “That was Vicki. They’re alive!”
“Where are they?” asked Whiskey Jake.
“I don’t know. The line went dead,” he said, as the arrival of hope coincided with the return of panic.
“They let them go!” said Lance.
Instantly Ray’s eyes portrayed his relief and he mumbled a prayer.
“Maybe,” replied Damien. “She said they were going to be killed, but then weren’t. Then the line went dead.”
A moment later, Damien received a text message on his BlackBerry: They’re both okay. We’re on our way to VGH. -JT-
Damien looked at his men. He felt his knees tremble and it took him a moment to comprehend.
“Damien?” asked Lance. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“They weren’t let go,” he said simply. “They were rescued by a cop ... Jack Taggart. They’re on their way to the hospital.”
Bile immediately flooded into Ray’s mouth. He choked and swallowed rapidly to keep from suffocating.
“Taggart! How the fuck did he get his nose into this?” growled Whiskey Jake.
“Yeah,” quickly added Lance, wondering who was talking with whom. He glanced down at Leitch and Ray and felt a wave of fear.
“Whiskey Jake, you come with me,” ordered Damien. “Rellik, you find out everything these two fuckers know. What they know about each other, Carlos, The Toad ... how many guys are working for them ... everything!”
“Will do, boss.”
“But keep them alive until I come back,” added Damien,