Chapter 18
"Well," Cooper sighed heavily about an hour or so later, walking into what had once been one of the finest suites at the Montecito Resort and Casino, but was now serving as his own personal residence: complete with personal bowling alley. Hearing the other man's voice, Ed looked up from where he was sitting. "I just faxed over the last of the paperwork, so the funds should be transferred over here pretty soon."
"Good." Ed nodded, absentmindedly grabbing the empty mug in front of him and swirling around the dregs of coffee still left inside. "The sooner, uh, the sooner we can get that little girl out of these guys' hands, the better."
"Yeah." Cooper agreed, sitting down next to Ed.
"I appreciate your help, Cooper." Ed continued, looking at him. "I mean, you could, uh, have easily said no."
"Not when there's the life of an innocent little girl on the line." Cooper shook his head, "You know, I had a wife and kid myself once."
"Oh, yeah?" Ed raised his eyebrow in interest, "I never heard that."
"Well, I don't really talk about it much." Cooper replied with a pained gleam in his eyes. "I lost them both to a drunk driver."
"God." Ed said sadly, imagining how he would feel if he lost both Jillian and Delinda. He physically turned towards the man sitting beside him. "I'm sorry, man."
"It's all right." Cooper waved off, "I guess that it is part of what drove me to go off the grid those four years. You could say that I had a lot of time to learn to live with it if there is such a thing."
"Couldn't say that I blame you." a sympathetic Ed nodded.
"Besides," Cooper grinned, "it would have been awfully hard for me not to get involved in this whole ordeal."
"Yeah?" Ed chuckled, "I guess this mess does have some of your employees tied up at the moment, doesn't it?"
"Not just that." Cooper continued to smile, thinking about the time he had spent with Danny, Delinda, Sam, Mike, and Piper. "You know, it's funny in a way. I never expected to get close to anyone again after the accident, but now? Well, I can see why you refer to them as your kids."
"They have a way of growing on you." Ed nodded, knowing from experience what Cooper meant.
"Is this your idea of a joke?" Sam demanded, bargaining into the room with a stack of papers in her arms and an apologetic Mike following in her wake. As the confused Cooper got to his feet, Marquez shoved the papers into his arms and chest. "Despite what you might think, I really don't have time to waste…"
"Wait a minute." Cooper interrupted, looking from one of the documents to the woman, still confused. "Samantha, didn't I tell you to—"
"Deliver these to Danny?" Sam raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, you did, but you know what's funny? You failed to mention that Danny wouldn't be home!"
"What do you mean he wasn't at home?" Ed exclaimed, immediately getting to his feet. "Where in the hell is he?"
"What in the hell are you doing here, McCoy?" Jack asked immediately after opening the door to find Danny waiting on the other side. The taller, younger man must have driven directly from Vegas to L.A. after he himself had finished talking to Ed. "Even Ed's not THAT good!"
"Ed doesn't know that I'm here." Danny admitted, stepping past Keller and into the house. "As far as he knows, I'm at home asleep and, as far I know, he's still with Cooper, trying to get past all of the red tape. It could still be a while before they get the money."
"We don't have a while!" Jack exclaimed, slamming the front door. "Damn it! There's no telling what those monsters will do to her!" He paused from his tirade and looked at Danny quizzically. "So, why ARE you here then? Didn't Ed tell you that—"
"They don't want you to help us out." Danny nodded, "Yeah, he told me that. Did they give you any way to contact them when you do get the money?"
"Yeah." Jack replied, "I'm supposed to call this number they gave me and arrange the trade." Thinking he knew what Danny was leading to, he sighed heavily and shook his head. "I already tried, kid. The line's untraceable."
"Figured that they'd cover their tracks." Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. As it had during his drive to L.A., his mind began to wonder about the sanity of the plan he had devised. "There is a reason why I drove here straight form Vegas, Keller. I have an idea on how to get your daughter back safe and sound."
"Don't waste my time, kid." Jack dismissed with a chuckle, "I know for a fact that you don't have the kind of cash that these guys want just laying around."
"Be nice if I did." Danny shrugged, "But there is something else you can offer these bastards in exchange for your daughter."
"And that would be?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Me." Danny replied solemnly, "I want you to call these guys and see if they'll trade you Catarina for me."
"No." Jack shook his head, "No way in hell! Listen, Danny, I appreciate the gesture, man, but there's no way in God's green earth that I can—"
"It's not ideal, Jack." Danny agreed, determined to get the older man to listen to him. "Hell, none of this is! But this is the only card we have to play right now. I mean that there's no guarantee that Ed and Cooper can even get the money these assholes want!"
"Speaking of them, have you, uh, told Ed about this plan of yours?" Jack asked, even though he was sure that he already knew the answer.
"I told you that Ed thinks that I'm back at my apartment asleep." Danny replied, hoping that Keller wouldn't call his former partner. "Besides, do you really think that he would let me go through with this?" A small smile crept its way onto his face. "If you're that worried about Ed, you can just tell him that I held a gun to your head and forced you to do this, or something."
"In the remote possibility that I would let you get close to do that, kid," Jack smiled back, reaching into his pocket and taking out his cellphone. "Ed would probably tear you a new one about not blowing my brains out when you had the opportunity."
"There's no freaking way that you already have the money, Keller." Leo lazily greeted, leaning back in his chair as he answered the phone. "You know, my boss isn't going to be happy to hear about any unnecessary phone calls."
"Bite me, Broder." Jack replied, slightly alarmed at not hearing any noise in the background. "How's my daughter?"
"She fell asleep while watching cartoons." Leo reported, glancing at the dark-haired, little girl curled up on the nearby sofa. The dark-haired man's usual tough demeanor faded at the sight and he sighed heavily. "Look, man. Just hurry up and get the money, will you? I HATE involving someone's kid like this!"
"That's why I'm calling." Jack nodded, glancing himself at Danny, who was standing nearby. "I need you to do me a favor and ask your boss and his friend if they would be willing to accept something other than the money."
"That something had better be pretty damned good." Broder raised an interested eyebrow and sat up in his chair. "What do you got?"
"How about Danny McCoy?" Jack offered, "Idiot came straight to me when he found what had happened."
"Damn!" Leo chuckled, texting Henderson on a different phone. "The Professor knew that he would try something like this! Any idea if Deline knows?"
"He doesn't know." Jack confirmed, "Kid was smart enough not to tell him; he thinks he's still asleep back in Vegas."
"All right." Leo smiled, receiving a reply to his text. "Looks like my boss finds your offer acceptable! I'll send you the coordinates to meet me as soon as possible. No funny business, Keller! I'd hate for something to happen to your little girl."
"We'll be there." Jack promised before hanging up the phone. Sighing, he turned towards Danny, who was leaning up against a nearby wall. "Well, no turning back now. Sounds McDougal thought you might do this, so they were prepared. They've agreed to your stupid ass idea."
"I thought they would." Danny nodded, standing up straight. He mentally cursed himself for playing right into the Professor's hands yet again; doing exactly what he expected him to do. However, like Jack said, there was no going back.
"Christ!" Jack exclaimed, rubbing his brow wearily. "Ed is going to murder me with his bare hands for this! There is NO version of this where I don't incur the wrath of Ed Deline!"
"Traffic control spotted Danny going west on the freeway about an hour ago." Mike reported as he walked back into Cooper's suite a few moments later; Ed, Cooper and Sam were still gathered around in the main sitting area.
"Just a little after I left to come here." Ed nodded, trying to put the pieces together in his head.
"Where in the hell is he going?" Sam wondered, looking between Ed and Cooper as one of them usually had the answer for any question. "You don't think that he has some sort of clue as to where—"
"Nah," Mike shook his head, "Danny would have told us if he knew something."
"Not if he didn't want to us to know what he's up to." Ed disagreed, kneading his brow wearily as he tried to analyze his protégé's behavior and what could have possibly taken him out of Las Vegas that night. The only answer he could think of was that McCoy had gone behind his back and was going to offer himself as a potential sacrifice; something Ed would let happen over his dead body! "I'm going to kill that kid."
"You might not get that chance." Cooper sighed heavily, prompting Ed to look up at him. His eyes were shut tightly and a disapproving frown was on his face leading Deline to believe that he had come to the same conclusion as Ed himself had. "I think we all know where Danny's gone. Didn't you say something about Keller living in L.A.?"
"All right, there they are." Danny pointed to Leo and Catarina as Jack pulled the Camaro into a deserted, dimly lit parking lot. The bright beam of the headlights hitting her prompting the little girl to look up from where she had been picking blossoms off of a nearby shrub. A relieved smile crossed McCoy's features as she appeared to look just fine. "She's beautiful, Jack."
"Thanks, but she obviously didn't get it from me." Jack remarked, smiling himself as he stepped out of the car almost immediately after putting it in park. "Catarina!"
"Daddy!" Catarina exclaimed, running into his waiting arms. "Guess what? Leo let me watch Barbie! And he also said to tell you to buy me some ice cream because I was a really good girl! Can we get some, Daddy? Please?"
"Oh, Leo did, did he?" Jack replied, picking up the little girl as the dark-haired man walked over to them.
"Yeah, she wasn't any trouble at all." Leo chuckled, "Worth extra sprinkles at the very least, in my opinion." He nodded towards Danny, who had walked over himself. "And thanks again for picking up my buddy here for me. I know it was kind of last minute."
"Not a problem." Jack replied, glancing at Danny nervously.
"Daddy," Catarina asked, oblivious to the tense situation around her. "Do you think that Leo can babysit me again sometime? I really liked him!"
"We'll have to see, darling." Jack said, narrowing his eyes slightly at Broder. "Right now, what do you say that you and I go get that ice cream and then get you home, all right? It's getting close to your bedtime."
"All right." Catarina agreed as Jack started to carry her away. "Bye Leo! Bye Leo's friend!"
"I got to hand it to you, Broder." Danny remarked as the two men watched Jack carefully load Catarina into the backseat of the Camaro before getting in himself. "All of this time, I didn't think that you had a shred of kindness left in you, but you played that really well."
"She's a sweet kid, and she'll grow up soon enough." Leo shrugged as the Camaro pulled out of the parking lot. An evil gleam reappeared in his eyes as he turned to face McCoy next to him. "Just don't expect the same treatment, GI Joe."
"Wasn't going to." Danny shook his head, seeing Leo pull a syringe out from an inside coat pocket as a non-descript white van pulled into the lot and headed their way. "I'm going to assume that's our ride?"
"Yeah." Leo nodded, shoving the needle into side of the other man's neck with ease: Danny didn't attempt to fight back. "Not that you'll remember any of it."
To be continued...