Author's Note:
this is the final installment of
Love On the Run.
I hope you have enjoyed it. As always I sincerely welcome comments/feedback. You'll note, particularly in Chapter Sixteen, mention of the kellners of Chicago. Sebastian Kellner's story is told in
Out of the Past
also available on here. If you enjoyed this story, I recommend checking that one out.
Chapter Thirteen
Jessie had spent years preparing for this. Life on the run meant she'd spent every moment studying and planning her life around every dark possibility. She was always prepared for a dark shadow to grab her in an alley, for an invader to come through a window, but not this. Agent Soto was someone she trusted, a woman who'd always come off as a solid and trustworthy agent.
Soto had zapped her, so she wasn't going to die right away. Probably Soto worked for Diego, making a double agent who'd discovered there was more money working for the drug lords than fighting them. If anybody on the crew was that kind of rat, Jessie would have put money on Klein.
Her muscles twitched as she lay there, trying to listen to hear f they hit an expressway, or anything familiar. The seemed to be in traffic, slowed, and Soto put on the radio and turned it up, screeching Tejano music. This could only mean in the heat windows were down and cars were close. She could try screaming for help, but that might just get her zapped again, and Jessie wanted to avoid that.
Her hands had been tied behind her back, and Jessie didn't even remember it happening. Getting stun-gunned was a highly unpleasant experience, to say the least. Steadying herself, the tried to think on what to do. What she knew was that if she didn't try to fight back, for every inch they moved forward her chances of living went down. Wherever Soto was taking her, Jessie wasn't expected to survive.
She wasn't truly sure if she could change her fate, but live or die, Jessie was going down swinging. Her hands were cuffed by a zip line, so she settled for trying to get the mask off. It was a pillowcase, she realized, so using just her lips, tongue, and teeth she began to work it forward.
It moved along but snagged on her ponytail. Cursing silently Jessie shook her head hoping Soto was distracted. Suddenly the car jerked to a halt and Jessie was thrown forward. She hit the back of the front seats, her nose smacking into the leather, and then was wedged down into the foot well.
"Mierda!" Soto yelled. In rapid Spanish she cursed another driver's ancestors and then slammed on the gas. It wedged Jessie further down, and it jerked the pillow case free. Though it hadn't been blocking her air she still gasped, and let her eyes readjust to the sunlight.
There was no way to get the cuffs off, but there was a trick she'd spent hours perfecting in her life on the run. It wasn't easy flung into the tiny foot well, but quickly enough Jessie had passed her legs through the loop made by her cuffed wrists so now her hands were in front of her.
She had to get Soto to stop and escape, get word to Julian. Taking a deep breath Jessie slowly pushed herself back to the seat. Once she was settled she lunged and drew her cuffed hands around Soto's neck, choking her.
The agent wheeled onto a side street, gasping, and the car sped into a parked car at the side of the road. Jessie was thrown forward, sliding between the seats her head hit the dash hard enough she saw stars. She was still cuffed around Soto's neck and the force wrenched her left wrist.
Soto immediately went from her pocket. Dazed Jessie fought her, slinking back to the backseat she grabbed Soto's head. The other woman clawed at her but Jessie fought like a tiger. Multiple times she had faced certain death and never once had Jessica Andrews ever given in, she wasn't going to start now.
Weak and bloodied, the two women struggled. Jessie did all she could to keep Soto from going for the stun gun or anything else, but it was hard. Her feet scrabbled at the window for purchase and as Soto bit her Jessie kicked and the window shattered, held together as it was safety glass. Two more kicks and it was gone.
Jessie began to scream for help as the struggled, calling out fire in English and Spanish, knowing that would be the most likely way to get a stranger to call emergency services. Soto slipped her hand free of Jessie's clutch and the next thing Jessie knew her arm was buzzing and once again she went limp.
As her eye closed, heavy-lidded, she heard Soto murmuring "c'mon, c'mon" as a the muffled sound of a line being rung filled the car. "It's me. We're in trouble. She woke up, chocked me, I hit a car. What do I do?" Soto paused. "All right. See you in a moment." She hung up and Jessie felt the pillow case being worked back on her head.
"You little bitch. I don't like doing this, you know? But my mom is sick, I gotta pay the bills somehow. They're not going to kill you, you know? You know exactly what's in that locker, don't you?"
If Jessie could have spoken she would have cursed a blue streak, but all she could do was moan.
"You really fucked up that night, kid. If you hadn't popped Jimmy Juarez he would have been dead the next day, same as Johnny Bones. And instead of living hand to mouth in the countries that make up the Earth's ass, you could have been living the high life. But you can't leave well enough alone, can you?
"And now, once more, you've ruined it all. If you'd gone with me to the meeting site, I might have protected you. But bitch, I hurt, my sister's car hurts. I'm turning you over to someone who has every reason to make sure you don't live any longer than you have to."
Jessie just moaned. What the hell was going on?
"Fucking Julian," Soto continued, her speech hurried and nervous. "If he'd just left well enough alone it would have been fine, the money would have kept flowing. But the fucking boy scout had to ruin it all. Fuck, if you hadn't made those stupid calls to Johnny Bones, he wouldn't have figured it out, and it still would have been fine. But no, you had to go behind everyone's back, make that second call, and fuck everything up. Ah, good."
The sound of a car door sounded very close, then Soto's opened. A strange man greeted her in Spanish, which Jessie understood perfectly, even the Cuban dialect. They were discussing where to meet, a warehouse miles away from the meeting spot or the bus lockers. And the strange man whose voice seemed vaguely familiar.
The tingling was lessening in her limbs, but Jessie knew it would be long minutes before she could move. Both Soto and the stranger grabbed her, roughly pulled her from the BMW and dumped her into what Jessie realized was a trunk. As the lid slammed shut she heard the stranger promise Soto Jessie would die, as soon as they got what they wanted.
She knew they meant what they said, but she wasn't dead yet, meaning there was a chance. Jessie took a deep breath, calmed herself, and began flexing her fingers. What scared her most was not knowing where Julian was. From the things Soto had said, she had no doubt they meant to kill him too.
***
"This smells funny," Agent Klein said into his hidden microphone, covering it by leaning down near a garbage can.
"You're sniffing a garbage can at a bus station," Julian said.
"I meant the op," Klein retorted. "I'm going for a smoke." He stormed outside and fished the soft pack from his shit, pulled one out and lit it. Pulling out his cell phone he pretended to speak into it, though he was talking to Julian and the rest of the team. "Something's up. What's Helen's nine on the meet?"
"Just a moment." Julian turned the band over on his receiver and tried to raise the older agent. There was radio silence. Switching back to Klein and their team he cured. "You might be right, something's up. I can't reach Helen."
Klein looked right at the window where they were assembled and sighed. He jiggled his cell phone. "Join the fucking twenty-first century, will ya?"
Julian barked at one of the younger agents along as support. "Call Helen, anyone on her team. I want contact!"
Turning back to the binoculars Klein has his radio off and was talking with an employee. "What the hell is he doing?" Julian asked the youngest agent near him, a girl who looked like she'd been recruited straight from high school. Where did they find these kids? He'd never been that young, Julian was certain of it.
Klein had fished the key out and was motioning with it. The employee took Klein back into a small office as they watched. "Um, sir, I think Agent Klein is figuring out which locker the key opens."
