CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Tom Hanson

Oh he was going to be pissed off when he woke up. Cops weren't supposed to play dirty, friends weren't supposed to play dirty and lovers weren't supposed to play dirty… but I did. I usually didn't but this time I had a good reason – I had to end all of it. I had to find Calvin, arrest him and his wife and end all of it.

I waited a few moments after the sedative took Doug under, just to make sure he was asleep. I waited for a snore, then another one, and then I walked out of the room. I told Fuller I was going to the 7-11 to get a slurpee and wait for Judy to show up (she was due to arrive within the hour). The sedative would knock Doug out for a while and it gave me a nice head start.

I wanted to get to the warehouse as soon as I could so I could save Ioki. Then, once Ioki was safe, I could relax a little. I couldn't relax until he was safe. It was impossible for me to even think about relaxing or taking it easy. Doug and Fuller wanted to take this one step at a time; they kept telling me Ioki would be fine. After all, the fugitives at hand did not kill any of us so far, just the person early on by our RV. I knew they were probably right, that Calvin wouldn't let Ioki die, but I couldn't handle the fact that he could die.

I should have been the one taken hostage. It was my ex-girlfriend they wanted to pay back. It was me they wanted to take captive and it was Ioki that was in my place. It was unfair. All of this had escaladed into a huge fiasco and I felt that it was my fault. If I did not date Mandy, Calvin would not have come after me; he would not have kidnapped my friends, he would not have taken Ioki, and Doug would not be in the hospital. All me. All because of me. And I wanted to see there was an end to it and I was going to go to any lengths to see all of this ended.

I took a taxi to Montgomery and then walked the rest of the way to the warehouse. There actually was a warehouse; Frizz was not lying about that. It was small for a warehouse and looked like no one had been in it for centuries. Vines and mold covered the outside walls and bordered the windows. Spider webs hung everywhere it was possible for webs to hang. It looked old, abandoned, and the perfect place to keep someone captive. However when I walked inside I noted something very odd: no one was in there.

A few chairs were in the room along with empty cartons from a Chinese restaurant. Bottles of water, half empty, were sitting in the corner and one of the windows was open. It looked like if they had been in the warehouse but left. And the departure seemed sudden… spur of the moment. When someone is on the run it is more than likely they will continue running, but before running they make sure no tracks are trailing behind them. The cartons and water were tracks. It was clear they were not the best fugitives, they were new at crime, but even new fugitives would at least clean up. …Unless they were in a hurry. Someone had to have notified them that we were coming. And there was only person I could think of.

"Hey there, sugar."

Bruno.

I pulled out my gun and before I had a chance to turn around and face him, he came up from behind and shoved my body against the wall. He was a big guy with big muscles, so the collision into the wall obviously hurt. It knocked the wind out of me and I was left wide-eyed for a second. While it was only a second, it was long enough for Bruno to snatch the gun from my hand. He turned me around and clocked me with his fist. Then he pinned me to the wall with one arm and held the gun to my head with the other.

"You listen here, sweetheart," he flamed. "No one ever, EVER crosses Bruno, you got that?"

"Where are they?" I asked. "Where's Calvin?"

"Shut up!" Bruno yelled. "You just shut up, I'm doin' the talkin'. Whatcha think I am? Some kinda idiot? You ain't even a woman, you're a cop, ain't ya? Undercover. Tryin' to bust Cal for what he's done. For what I've done. Let me tell you something, kid, I knew damn well you'd be coming up here for something and I'm seeing to it you get something alright." He pressed the gun harder against my head and I placed my hand around his wrist. "Get your hand off me."

"Tell me where they are."

"It ain't no use now, son, they're long gone. They might have grits for brains but they knew to run when I told 'em to. Now I'm gonna make sure you don't talk."

"Let me go." I ordered as I tried pushing his arm away. He pointed the gun in the air and pulled it. A shot ran and pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground.

"Don't play with me, boy, you think I'm playin'? You think I won't just shoot you in the damn head and be done with you? Cause I will. Hell, I thought I already took care of you and your buddy in that car of yours."

The car. The explosion. It was Bruno! We could have died because of Bruno. And for a second I stared at him, motionless and contemplating my next move. "You got all quiet on me, sonny. Tell me, did I strike a chord? How's that pal of yours? I hope he felt hell when those flames hit him."

That was it. I was done with this guy. I grabbed onto the gun and snatched it from his hand. Then I pressed it in his chest.

"You listen to me!" I heated. "Back against the wall." Bruno stared at me with a silly smirk on his face. I held the gun to his forehead. "BACK AGAINST THE WALL!" His smirk faded and his eyes grew wide. Doug was right, I lost it. There was too much on my mind and I was letting it all go to my head. I pushed Bruno against the wall. "You put us through hell the last few weeks. It's all been because of you hasn't it? You supplied Calvin with the money, the supplies, and everything they needed because of some sick and twisted reasoning going on in that sick and twisted head of yours. And you know what, Bruno? I'M SICK OF IT. I'm sick of having to chase you down, chasing your friends down, all to get my friend back and you're going to TAKE ME THERE. You got it? YOU GOT IT? Or I will be the one to shoot you in the head. YOUR GODDAMN HEAD."

"What makes you think I'll-"

"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!"

Bruno jerked, startled, and placed his hands on my shoulders. He pushed me back and held onto my hand that was holding the gun.

"Son, you better just calm yourself down."

"Tell me where they are."

"I'll tell you, alright? Just hang tight. Let me something from the other room and we'll be on our way."

"I don't believe you." I said as I watched him walk into the other room. "I don't believe you at all." I cocked the trigger and aimed it at him. "You take another step and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna shoot."

Without another moment of hesitation, Bruno pushed me against the wall and pinned my arm back. Then he took the gun from my hand and while holding onto the barrel, slammed it over my head.

"Just gotta calm down, son," he said as he watched me fall to the ground. The room was starting to get dark. He sat on top of me and started pulling something from his backpack. "You just gotta calm down." And then there was darkness.

My hands were tied behind my back and my feet were tied together. There was darkness. My eyes were open but I couldn't see. I tried sitting up only for my head to hit a ceiling. Movement. There was movement. I was in the trunk of a car.

"Hey!" I screamed. "Hey, let me out of here!"

"Mornin', son!" called Bruno from the other side. "You're in for a real treat. Not only do you get an escort to where you wanna go but…" I heard the sound of a door opening. "But you get to go for a nice swim too! See you on the other side, sucker!" I felt the car hit nothing but air and after a brief moment of flight it crashed into a body of water. I heard the splashing of the waves. I couldn't move my hands so I started kicking the roof of the trunk with my feet. I didn't know how much time I had, but I knew it wasn't plenty. I had to get out and I had to get out fast.