Bobby POV
We had plenty of evidence on Quarles, and now all we needed was to get Slater to implicate himself as well.
Quarles was lucky that I had pulled Logan off of him in the stairwell. In fact, he was lucky that I hadn't started in on him, too. When I saw him standing there holding a gun on Alex, I wanted to just blow his damn head off. But then I saw her face. And she was calm. I knew she had her pocketknife in her hand, and I knew I could get the bastard talking.
I never used to feel such powerful urges of violence before. In the old days, like maybe a few weeks ago, I would've blamed it on my parentage. This new found penchant for aggression, I mean. But now I recognized it for what it was. Just a fierce protective response to Alex. I only felt those urges when someone threatened her. And she had convinced me that it was a normal side-effect of being in love, so I was fine with it as long as I was able to control it.
I let Logan drag Quarles up the stairs and into the hall. Carolyn and Alex were in front of them and I was behind.
"We need to get Slater talking," I told the others. "He's got a huge ego, and I think he'll want to show off."
"We definitely don't want to get into a gunfight. I've seen too many kids around this hotel."
"If the guns come out, we'll have to get creative," I agreed. I wanted to hurry up and get to our room so we could be ready for Slater.
But then the elevator pinged, things went into slow motion.
Slater stepped off the elevator with the huge security guard right behind him. A third man, equally large, followed them both out into the hall. All of them were armed.
Alex and Carolyn pulled their weapons. Logan threw Quarles face first into the wall and held him in place with one hand while pulling his gun with his other. I got mine out as well, but I tried to get my mind working. We didn't want a damn shootout. We wanted a confession.
"Oh, hey there Dick," Logan said in his wiseass tone. Slater shifted his gun so that it was pointed at him, which was probably Mike's goal since it had originally been pointed at Carolyn.
"I thought you had this shit under control, Jack," Slater said to Quarles.
"Jack can't talk right now," Logan continued, shoving Quarles' face harder into the wall. "If you want to leave a message…"
"Why don't we all put our guns away and go into the room," I suggested. "We can talk about this."
"There's nothing to talk about. I want the fifties that you took from Walker's room."
"The counterfeiting is going to be the least of your worries," Alex spoke up. "We know about the murders. It's over."
"Murders? I don't know anything about that," he replied slickly. "You boys know anything about any murders?" he asked, turning to his sidekicks. Both men smiled and shook their heads.
"Hey, I remember you," Carolyn said smoothly, nodding her head at the big guard from the casino. "I bet you still have a bruise on your throat, don't you?"
"That's the chick that slammed you into the wall?" the other guy asked his associate. "She's like, this big." He laughed and held his hand out at chest-level in reference to Carolyn's height.
"You think you could do better?" she challenged.
"Carolyn," Mike warned.
"No, I want to see if he-man over here can do better. Put the gun away and bring it on."
I didn't know what the hell her plan was, but I was the one who had suggested creativity. And now the tension in the hall had eased quite a bit and itchy trigger fingers were not such a threat.
"I'll even sweeten the deal," she continued. "If I kick his ass, you confess. If he takes me out, we'll give you back the fifties."
"Barek," Logan said, this time a little sharper. He clearly didn't like the offer.
"Jack, I can see why you were so obsessed with her. I love a woman with attitude," Slater said with a grin. He put his gun down by his side.
"But see, that wouldn't be a fair deal, because I have nothing to confess."
"Then why do you want the fifties back?" I asked.
"What do you care? None of you has any jurisdiction here anyway. A couple of New York cops and a couple of nobodies. I could confess to everything and you can't do a damn thing about it."
"You're right. But the Secret Service will care," Carolyn told him. "And I called them about twenty minutes ago. So the way I see it, you can wait around in a standoff until they get here and they'll haul your pretty-boy ass to prison. Or you can take me up on my offer."
I knew Carolyn hadn't called the Secret Service, but damn was she a good liar. Slater visibly paled at the mention of prison.
"I could just shoot you all right now."
"You could, but you'll never make it out alive. Four guns on three, and we'll all aim for you first," Alex told him.
"I'm serious," Carolyn said. "No catch. He kicks my ass, you get your fifties. I figure you've got about five minutes before this place is full of suits."
Slater looked Barek over carefully and then jerked his head to the side.
"Take her out, Wally."
"Wally? That's your name?" Carolyn asked with a laugh as she put her weapon back in its holster. She looked over her shoulder and gave me a wink. "I bet you got your ass kicked on a regular basis. This will be old hat for you."
"I'm going to hate to mess up such a pretty face," he retorted as he approached her in the middle of the hall.
As for me, I was stunned. We were turning the hotel into a damn UFC arena. But Carolyn was smart, and I trusted her. And she had gotten all of the men to quit pointing guns at us. Logan was tied up holding onto Quarles, so if it turned into an all-out brawl, it looked like it was going to be up to me and Alex.
Carolyn took her time taking off her coat. It was a good move because that way the recorder wouldn't get damaged. It also looked like it was making Wally nervous. Even thugs like Wally probably didn't make a habit out of hitting women.
She finally stepped up to him, toe to toe. She barely came to his chest.
"You ready?" she asked. Wally looked at Slater, and as he turned his head back toward Carolyn, she went at him. It was over almost before it began.
A jab to the throat sent him backwards a step and an uppercut to the nose bent him over. She then grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled her knee up repeatedly into his face. A minute later, she let him go and he fell to the floor.
As she stood up and took a breath, the other body guard made a lunge toward Carolyn. Alex, who was closest to him, intercepted him by taking his foot out from under him and he went sprawling. She dove on him and held him in place with a knee to his back and a gun to his head.
Slater raised his gun, but had a moment of hesitation, not sure which woman to shoot. In that split second, I aimed for his shoulder and fired off a round. It caught him in his shooting arm and spun him backwards into the wall. I threw myself at him and pinned him to the wall. He dropped his gun without much of a fight.
"You're going down for this, Dick," Carolyn said, picking up Logan's usage of the nickname. "You're involved in at least six murders and an elaborate counterfeiting scam."
"You can't prove a thing."
"Oh, but we can," Alex said. "Your buddy Jack confessed to everything. And it's all on tape."
Wally was still groaning and bleeding on the floor, but he spoke up.
"It was all Slater's idea. We didn't want to kill them boys," he moaned. The other guard piped in.
"Yeah, it was Slater. He made us take Pete out to Pisgah, and then when we couldn't find the money he'd stolen, we had to take care of his roommate, too."
"Shut the fuck up, you idiots!" Slater yelled.
"Too late," I whispered, still holding him flat against the wall. "We didn't have you for any of the murders, but we do now."
"I'll fucking kill you guys," Slater told his guards.
"A good looking guy like you might want to keep them as friends," Logan said. "You guys can share a cell in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. Maybe they can protect your virtue."
"I think I should probably call the Secret Service now," Carolyn said. She had managed to sit Wally up against the wall and she held her gun on him with one hand while pulling out her phone with the other.
"And the Cherokee marshals," Alex added. "They'll be interested to hear how Jack dumped a couple of bodies onto their land earlier today."
We made a few calls, and then managed to get all of the men into my hotel room. Slater was bleeding quite a bit, so Alex jammed a hotel towel on his wound and wrapped her belt around it to hold it in place. Carolyn gave Wally a bag of ice for his face while Logan teased him mercilessly for getting his ass kicked by a woman.
Due to their close proximity, we had also called the Haywood County Sheriff's Department. They arrived after about twenty minutes, and I was happy to hand over the four men. I gave them one of the recorders. I was going to save the other for the Secret Service, along with the fifty dollar bills.
As soon as they left the room, my phone rang. It was Ross. I answered, and he just started talking.
"I got a call from a Sheriff Barger. He said he wanted to confirm the identity of two of my officers."
"Yes sir." Was that a question?
"He said you had called him to pick up four men on murder charges."
"Yes sir."
"Is there anything you want to add to that?"
"No sir."
"So I guess you were able to rescue Carolyn?"
At that, I had to laugh.
"No sir. She rescued herself."
"Can I expect you and Eames back in the office on Monday?" I closed my eyes and ran my hand over my face. Going back in the office was about the last thing I wanted to do. And that was funny, because a few months ago it was all I ever wanted to do.
"Yes sir. We'll be there."
I disconnected and tossed my phone on the dresser. Alex raised her eyebrow at me.
"He just wanted to make sure we'll be at work on Monday."
"Nice to know he's so concerned," Logan commented. Alex came over to me and wrapped her arms around me.
"Maybe we'll call in sick."
"That'll go over well," I replied.
"I don't think I care. Do you?"
"Not one damn bit."
TBC...