A New War

Chapter 25

Tuck needed to get to Amanda before she left with Vince Jr. that night. And in reality, he wanted to keep Amanda from leaving with him at all. He and Danny had already gotten all the information they needed to stop these men from ever doing this again; they had no reason to stick around and no reason to have Amanda do this.

The problem was, he couldn't find her.

"Listen, I want another night with Mandy," Tuck told Vince Sr. "I had a really good time with her last night."

The three men were out in the open area and another one of the girls was dancing on the stage. The strobe lights that were pulsating to the music and were likely to cause someone a seizure.

"I'm afraid that's a no-go," Vince Sr. said. "My boy has arrangements with her tonight. You heard him. I doubt he's gonna wanna share."

"I'm willing to make it worth your while," Tuck said as he pulled a large wad of money held with a clip out of his pocket.

"There isn't enough…"

Tuck pulled the money from the clip and handed the clip itself to Vincent Sr.

"It's 24 carat gold inlaid with platinum. I won it in a poker game off a billionaire in Morocco. It's worth a hundred grand easy. It's yours…if I can have Mandy."

"She must really know what gets you goin', kid," Vince Sr. said as he inspected the clip. "Platinum, eh?"

"It's totally legit; I had it checked out," Tuck said.

Vince Sr. stared at Tuck for a minute before calling over one of the guys. He whispered something to the guy, who was built like a brick wall and the man nodded to his boss.

The brick wall looked at Tuck and Danny and then headed back into the dressing room area of the bar.

Vince Sr. was still admiring the money clip that was offered as payment. It was gold and the 'platinum' was a highly sophisticated alloy created to behave just like the clip, there lay an almost-unbreakable GPS transmitter. Tuck was lucky he'd packed that particular gadget.

A few minutes later, Amanda was being pulled out by her elbow.

"What the hell?" she said. "What about Vince?" she asked.

"You let me take care of him," Vince Sr. told her. "You just take care of my pay, James."

Amanda looked up through her eyelashes at Tuck.

"No problem, Mr. Caputo," she smiled.

"That's what I like to hear," Vincent Sr. said. "You know what?" You go with them," he told Danny.

"Huh?" Danny said.

"You, Timmy, you go with James and Mandy. I promise you'll enjoy yourself," Vince said.

"I don't know. I'm more of a one on one kind of man," Danny said. "Besides, he's the one who paid."

"Yeah. I don't think I want to share," Tuck said. He roughly pulled Amanda to him and let his hand wander down her body. "I know I don't want to share," he smacked her ass.

Amanda had no idea what was going on. She was at a loss while the men around her talked about her like she was a steak.

"Take him upstairs," Vince Sr. said. "You know where," he told Amanda.

Amanda nodded. She did know where. But it made her want to throw up. The room upstairs was a 'private' room that had two-way glass that benefitted the people on the other side.

Tuck could tell by the way Amanda was hesitant in her movements that this was not a good place to end up. He tried to read her to get more information, but it wasn't happening.

"Get a move on," Vince Sr. said. He reached out and smacked Amanda on the ass next. It was so hard that she almost yelped in pain. And Tuck almost reached out and grabbed the man by the throat. However, he restrained himself and made a mental note to hurt him later.

"Come with me," Amanda tried to say as sexily as she could.

She took his hand just as Vince Jr. walked into the room.

"What the hell?" he shouted at both Tuck and Amanda.

"Uh…" Amanda stuttered.

Vince's face was red and sweaty. And he was pissed as hell.

He pushed Amanda out of the way and launched at Tuck. Tuck let him land a nice punch before he came back with a hit to Vince Jr.'s gut.

He hit again and connected with Vince Jr.'s chin. He fell to the ground with a loud moan and an equally loud thud.

Vince Jr. continued to lay on the ground while the rest of the club cheered.

Tuck grinned until he turned around and looked at Vince Sr. He was not finding this amusing.

"You punched my son. And now there is a grown man laying on the ground," Vince Sr. said. "What makes you think you can just come in here and do that to my family? To my blood? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"He started it?" Tuck offered?

Vincent narrowed his eyes then kicked his son. "Get your ass up," he told him. He turned back to Tuck. "Sometimes it is so painful to call him my son. He's such a wuss."

"I am not a wuss!" he shouted at his dad. "You have never thought I fit in."

"You just got your ass handed to you by this guy," he pointed to Tuck. "You wonder why I don't rely on you?" Vince Sr. said. "I can't rely on you. Ever."

The music stopped and the girls took their chance to dash backstage. What was coming was not going to be pleasant and they didn't want to be there for it.

But Vince wasn't about to let the rest of the people in the club watch the family business go down.

"What the hell does everyone think they're looking at?" he yelled. "We're closed now! Get the hell out!"

The group of men in the club did as they were told and started to file towards the door.

"You!" he pointed to Amanda. "You started all of this shit! You owe my friend, James, a good time. Do whatever you want with her. And she'll accompany us tomorrow morning. It makes the other women more comfortable to see a girl there," he explained. "And you," he said down to his son. "She might just be a hooker, but she's too good for you."

He turned back so he could address Tuck and Danny again. "It's a sad day when a father can't even trust his son to win a fight. I'm ashamed that I raised him. His mother and I must have been too soft.

He shook his head sadly. "But I have to take you anyway. You are the contact person for the women. I wish I hadn't done that…oh, well, hindsight. Okay, we leave at eight. You bring her here at seven-thirty. I'm going to trust you two to have her here and presentable. I'll meet you here and we'll all go to the airport together."

"Sure, Vince," Danny said.

"You do what you gotta do to make sure she's here. If you wanna little security, see Max on the way out. He's my…pharmacist."

Tuck smacked Amanda hard on the ass. "Let's go. I've got plans for this one," he said conspiratorially.

Amanda's eyes went wide when Tuck spoke to her.

…

Once the three of them had escaped the club and it was safely in the rearview mirror, Amanda really started to freak out.

"What the hell was all of that?" she shouted. "And if you ever smack me on the ass like that ever again…"

"Sorry," Tuck half-assed apologized with a slight grin on his face.

"Where are we going tomorrow and why did he suggest that you drug me?"

This time, Danny replied. "Saskatchewan."

"Why?"

"That's where the next batch of women are," Danny told her. "They have some kind of holding facility there."

"I've been here for weeks, undercover, and haven't been able to get info like that. How the hell did you two come in twice and somehow secure yourselves a place in Vincent Caputo's effing court?"

"I had a hunch," Tuck told her.

"You had a hunch," she repeated slowly if she would comprehend it better. "A hunch?"

He nodded.

Amanda reached up from the back seat and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Let me know what's going on next time," Amanda said.

Danny pulled up next to Tuck's motel.

"Pretend you don't hate me, okay?" he told Amanda as they got ready to exit the car. "In case someone followed us."

Amanda narrowed her eyes, but accepted his hand when he opened the car door for her.

"See you in the morning!" Danny cheerfully called from the car.

Amanda latched onto Tuck's arm and smiled up at him as if in a blissful cloud of ignorance and drug-induced euphoria.

He opened the motel room door and held it open for her. She ran her hand over his muscled chest as she walked into the room past him. Tuck checked the immediate area around them before locking the door behind them.

"This is almost as shitty as my apartment," Amanda said as she took in Tuck's room.

"I didn't want to attract too much attention."

"Yet, you're carrying wads of cash and platinum money clips."

"It's a GPS device," Tuck told her. "The Agency will be able to track Caputo as soon as I let them know he has it."

She nodded. "I see. In case the wire you're wearing didn't work?"

It has been barely noticeable. In fact, she had only noticed it when she'd run her hand across his chest a minute ago. And even then, anyone else could have thought it was muscle.

"Interesting choice considering you're wearing such a tight-fitting shirt," she told him.

"I'm going to let FDR know what's going on and then we can start tracking Caputo," Tuck said.

"Do you have hot water here?" Amanda asked.

Tuck's expression was confused. "Yes..."

"Sweet. I'm going to take a shower. I don't have hot water at my place. Guess it costs extra."

He smiled at her. "Give me a sec. I'll be there in a minute."

Tuck moved to dial his phone and Amanda was turning the door knob when there was a knock at the motel room door.

"Room service!" a voice boomed.

Tuck looked at Amanda and shook his head. Both indicating to not go to the door and that this motel didn't have room service.

Amanda slipped silently into the bathroom to turn the shower on while Tuck readied his gun and stood where he would be hidden behind the soon to-be-opened door.

"Room service!" the voice called, more impatient this time.

"Coming!" Amanda sing-songed.

She steadied herself and opened the door. It was Vince Jr.

"Vince!" she said, pretending to be surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He pushed into the room and looked around. Everywhere but behind him.

"Where is he? Where is the asshole?"

"Showering," Amanda pointed.

He took another step into the room.

"Good. I can surprise him."

Vince took another step and Tuck was able to bring the barrel of his gun down into Vince's skull. The man's eyes rolled back into his head while he fell to the floor in a heap. He was totally unconscious.

"I think I might like hitting him a bit too much," Tuck said while he kicked the motel room's door closed.

"What if he hadn't come alone?"

"He came alone."

"What if he hadn't?"

"He was going to come in here and kill me. He's drunk and angry and he hates me. He wanted to prove some things to his dad."

"Oh, okay," Amanda replied sarcastically. "So now we have a hostage. What do we do now?"

"Never kept a hostage before?"

"Not a 250 pound hostage," she replied. "He won't be out forever. What do we do when he comes to?"

"We have to tie him up," Tuck told her.

She offered him a 'duh' look in reply.

"Okay, then what?"

"He can stay here. The Agency can come get him and take him in."

"I had been hoping for a decent night's sleep in a semi-comfortable bed," Amanda said, pouting slightly.

"Oh, you weren't going to have one anyway. We have to plan and coordinate our day tomorrow," Tuck told her. "You forget how this all works?"

"Too much glitter in the brain."

Tuck smiled at her and then opened one of his suitcases. A variety of tools and gadgets were inside, including zip-ties and a set of noise-cancelling headphones.

"What the shit?" she asked holding up a blindfold. "What would you have said if you were stopped when flying?"

"I would have asked them if they'd ever heard of Fifty Shades of Grey," he smirked.

Amanda slapped his bicep slightly. "You aren't funny."

"I thought it was good," he said. "Anyway, we can blindfold him and put the headphones on him. We'll have to gag him, too. So he can't scream. And he won't know our plans."

"I know I should have expected this from you, but it kind of freaks me out."

"You don't have a bag of tricks like this?" he asked while he began zip-tying Vince's hands together.

"Um, I usually travel with my gun and handcuffs. Not a bag of torture devices," Amanda explained as she unceremoniously snapped the headphones on Vince's head roughly.

"Although, the taser is a nice touch," she said as she admired the rest of the contents of the case.

"It comes in handy more often than you'd think."

"I only tased a guy once. Then had to explain to his family why he was foaming at the mouth and why he'd pissed himself," Amanda said.

"You hit him hard," he observed.

"He made me mad," Amanda grinned.

"Noted," he replied.

Vince was beginning to come to and was staring at both Tuck and Amanda with wide, watery eyes. But he hadn't said anything yet, because he couldn't hear a sound that they were saying.

"Oh, look, he's starting to freak out," Amanda said. "Don't worry," she said as she bopped his nose.

"Really?" Tuck asked.

"Yeah, really. Look, honey, he's all confused," She laughed.

"He can't hear us, of course he's confused," Tuck told her.

"Are you guys Feds?!" he shouted.

Amanda leaned down and pulled back the headphones.

"No. Worse…CIA," she said. "You should make sure he doesn't have a tracking device on him."

"You should call Ed."

Amanda grinned. "Ed Deline would love to see you, Vince. He's a big fan of you and your dad."

"Holy shit!" he shouted as Amanda found her phone.

Tuck let the headphones snap on his head once more.

"Who are you really getting?"

"An armored car to come get him," Amanda said. "We can move him out the bathroom window in case anyone is watching the front door."

"We?"

"Yes, we," Amanda said. "Like it or not, you and I are in this mess together, Mr. Hansen."

"Oh, I definitely like it," he said as he ran a hand down Amanda's arm.

"Cut it out," Amanda said, pulling away. "We've got work to do first."

…

Author's Note: It's almost the end! Hope everyone is still with me.

Also, I don't own the characters Danny McCoy, Ed Deline or Delinda Deline…they are characters from the tv show Las Vegas, and I just wanted to mention it. Thanks!