Always Watching
Chapter 15
Stacy Keibler could feel her body shaking as Lieutenant Porter continued to hold the gun to her temple. Authorities from a station not to far from the one they were at had shown up. She wasn't sure how they knew, but she knew it was the doing of one of the officers before her. Maybe they had gotten the call in discreetly without Porter knowing, she didn't know. The blonde tried to think positively about the situation, but it was impossible. There were tons of police officers surrounding her, but they couldn't do anything without endangering her life. She could sense Porter getting increasingly nervous. He kept shifting his grip on the gun-nearly giving her a heart attack every time he did-and his hands were sweating. His voice was loud, and it was clear that he was panicking.
"Release the hostage, and we'll see that you don't spend the rest of your life in jail." The sound of the negotiator's voice over the 'safe phone' reached her ears. It was lying only two feet away, the receiver on the floor so they could hear.
Lieutenant Porter wiped the sweat off of his upper lip, his eyes darting across the room to the unarmed, tense officers. Where the hell was Dean? He had thought it would be so simple, the way Malenko had explained it to him. Take the $10,000 dollars now, and make sure no one made it to the hotel around six. When the job's done, he'd be wired another $10,000. Porter figured the guy was crazy, but he was offering a lot of money.
"Please...let me go," in his arms, the pretty blonde whimpered. He looked down at her and pushed the gun against her head with more force.
"Shut your mouth," he hissed, and she fell silent. 'God damn it, where's the page? The job should be done by now...' He knew, though, page or not, he needed to find a way out of the mess, now. Porter grabbed Stacy's waist with his other arm, making his way out of the door, essentially using her as a shield. "I'm coming out! If anyone tries to stop me, she dies!" he shouted, and stepped out sideways, immediately backing against a wall. There were about ten police cars, and twenty officers.
Stacy wrapped her hand around his forearm that held the gun weakly. Her eyes fell on the officers, standing behind the car doors, their guns pointed at Porter. Stacy swallowed. She knew that if she didn't move fast, there was a good chance that she would end up getting hurt.
She didn't know if the move she made was out of sheer panic, or out of some instinct, but it saved her life.
Stacy threw one of her legs up backwards, her shoe hitting him in the groin. She used all of her body strength in her arm, pushing the gun away from her. His finger wrapped around the trigger squeezed.
The gun fired, the bullet hitting the door. Stacy dived away from Porter, and the officers immediately descended on Porter. An officer rushed to help Stacy, asking if she was all right. Stacy nodded numbly, her eyes watching as Porter was pushed against the wall and handcuffed. Suddenly, a thought hit her.
She was safe.
Edge looked in the rear-view mirror, and frowned. It had been stupid, he knew, to ditch the officers watching him. But he couldn't help it.
He had been sitting in the parking lot of the hotel, getting ready to step out and go inside, when Matt Hardy's car had gone veering past him. That in itself wasn't that odd—Matt wasn't particularly the best driver around in the company. Edge had seen Lita sitting in the seat next to him, and he had immediately changed gears, following in pursuit of the car.
Lita had no reason to be in a car with Matt after what he'd done to her. Edge couldn't help but think, with all this stalker business, could Matt be the culprit? He knew it could turn out to be something entirely different, maybe they made up, but...
He didn't know how to explain it. He'd had this feeling, all day, that something was wrong. He was pretty damn sure that this was it.
So maybe it was something else, but Edge couldn't take it if something happened to his friend because of him. He was sure by now that Moceri had been informed of his absence. In the other man's eyes, that would just seal his guilt as the culprit. Edge shook his head, his eyes focusing on the road as he circled it again. He had been driving the same roads for at least twenty minutes now. It seemed to be the same thing everywhere he turned—dark, shadowed trees and a black paved road lit by his headlights.
Edge took out his cell phone, dialing Moceri's number quickly. The phone picked up immediately.
"Where the hell are you?"
"I'm in my car—"
"You purposely lost your surveillance team!"
"Shut up and listen to me!" Edge yelled, surprising and silencing the captain. "I saw Matt Hardy leave in his truck with Lita. I tried to follow them, but I lost them. I'm by the Greenwood Lake."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"I'm Lita's friend, God damn it! I know it seems like I have a part in all of this, but I don't! I swear to you that I would do nothing to hurt Lita, nothing. She's one of my closest friends."
He could hear Moceri's hesitation. "Keep looking. I'll send some people," he said, and then hung up. Edge tossed the phone onto the other side of the car, frustrated. It was painfully obvious that Moceri didn't trust him. He wouldn't take this well normally, but when Lita's life depended on it, that all changed.
"He could be lying to us, taking us on a wild goose chase," Captain Moceri warned as Benoit pulled out in his car, Moceri sitting beside him in the passenger seat. "He could be Dean's accomplice, and we could be dooming Lita—"
"Listen, Moceri," Benoit ground out, his tone furious. "I know what we're dealing with, okay? Lita's like my best friend. I know the stakes more than you ever will. I'm making the decision to trust Edge now. He wasn't lying to you when he said he wouldn't hurt Lita."
Moceri was silent as Benoit guided the car through the traffic, looking out for the exit that they would take. "The speed limit is sixty."
"So?"
"You're going eighty."
"What are you going to do about it?"
Moceri paused, "Nothing," he admitted finally. They continued to drive in complete silence as they pulled onto the exit ramp. The silence was shattered by the insistent ringing of Benoit's cell phone. Cursing beneath his breath, Benoit flipped it open.
"Yeah?" he asked into the phone, and the reply nearly sent him swerving off of the road.
"Chris, it's Lita! He's trying to kill me!"
Author's Note: Hope you guys like this chapter! Please review!
