She smiled. “He might think you’ve become the same same but different.”
“Ha, ha.” Jake checked over his Glock and made sure it had a round in the chamber. Then he counted the rounds in the two extra magazines. Back in the day he wasn’t a big fan of the Glock, but over time he had gotten used to the boxy look over their practical usefulness. The Glock was nearly thought-proof. And they came out of the box firing small groups. With no safety, they were simply point and shoot.
Alexandra had done an equal assessment of her own Glock.
“Together we have over a hundred rounds,” Jake said.
“We might need every one,” she reasoned. “Did you catch the two guys in the lobby?”
“Three,” he corrected. “The third guy sat at the bar with his back to the front desk, checking us out in the mirror behind the alcohol.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep. A lefty, though. Carries his gun on his left hip.”
“Nice catch. Okay, so that’s three that we know about. There has to be more up on the penthouse floor.”
Jake guessed the same thing. “Right. And the hotel elevator requires a special key card to get up there.”
Alexandra shoved her gun into an inside-the-pants holster on her right hip and covered that with a black cotton shirt. Everything else she planned to bring with her was stuffed into multiple pockets on her black cargo pants. “So what’s the plan?”
“We need this guy alive,” Jake declared.
“That makes it much harder.”
“I know. But we need to clear up the motivation behind Remington. Something just isn’t right with how everything went down.”
She nodded agreement.
Jake had insisted at the front desk that they be assigned the highest floor in the hotel. He specifically requested the penthouse, but that was already taken — which he guessed to be the case. So the desk clerk had offered a suite on the floor just below the penthouse.
“Do you suppose they have fire codes in Cambodia?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, but the stairwell will probably be locked to the top floor. They can get out, but we can’t get in.”
Jake smiled as he closed in on her. He released a button from her blouse, exposing a nice cleavage. “This should unlock a door or two.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said, “especially after the same same but different club tonight. Maybe you should show off your chest. They might like that more here.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s a niche club. I’ve been watching how the locals look at you. Most still want what you have to offer.”
She ran her fingers up to the side of his short hair and scratched at his temple. “And you?”
“You know how I feel about you.”
“Do I?”
Jake had a terminal problem verbalizing his feelings. He liked to think he showed those he loved through his actions, but he knew this was a flaw that had kept him single for all these years. Well, that and the fact that he never stayed in one place long enough to really establish and solidify a relationship.
“It’s hard for me,” he had to admit to her.
“I know. We all thought you would get back together with Toni. But now she’s gone.”
“And she died before she could tell me about my son.”
“Have you been able to spend any time with him?”
Jake shook his head. “No. We met for five minutes. I have since run a background check on him. He seems like a fine young man.”
“You’ll have time to catch up after we’re done here,” she assured Jake.
“Assuming we don’t get killed.”
“There’s always that.”
“Come on. Let’s show off that nice chest of yours.”
They both looked over the room one last time to make sure they could live with what they left behind. Then they headed out toward the stairwell. Jake checked out the security cameras at the end of the hallway and hoped they weren’t being actively monitored.
Getting up through the stairwell to the top floor, Jake checked the door. It was locked. He pulled his gun and stepped behind where the door would open.
Alexandra adjusted her breasts to expose more flesh. Then she started to knock on the metal fire door. Not too loud, but noisy enough to get some attention from an alert security guard.
When Jake heard footsteps coming, he grasped the door handle with his left hand and kept his Glock along his right leg.
As the door opened and Alexandra could see who it was, she pled to the man in German, saying she was running from her husband and needed help.
Before the security guard could say a word, Jake opened the door and shoved his gun at the man’s face. The guard ran, yelling something in Chinese.
Jake rushed into the private hallway, his gun pointing his way ahead. Alexandra was right behind him.
The first bullets whizzed by Jake, striking the window at the end of the hallway. Jake narrowed his signature with a one-hand hold on his Glock, firing three times at the two men ahead. Both men scurried behind a service cart.
Jake took that as a sign to rush forward, closing the distance in a dead run. When the men poked their heads out, Alexandra, who was prone on the low carpet, shot four times, dropping the man on the right side of the cart.
With a final push, Jake slammed his right foot into the metal cart, crashing it into the one who had answered the door.
As the man hit the floor on his back, Jake was on the guy in a second, kicking the guy in the face and knocking him out.
Turning to see Alexandra approaching, Jake raised his gun toward her. She hit the floor a second before Jake shot twice at a man behind her, dropping him in a crumpled ball onto the floor. It was one of the men from the lobby.
Alexandra shook her head as she got up and walked toward Jake. “That was close,” she whispered. “Is that one dead?”
“No.”
Just then the elevator bell dinged and the light above the door lit up.
“Crap,” Jake yelled. He looked at the penthouse door and realized they were trapped. The other man from the lobby would show up either in the elevator or the staircase.
When the elevator door opened, Jake was ready with his gun. Bullets struck the wall next to his head, but he just ducked and fired three times, hitting nothing. Jake pulled himself out of view across from the penthouse door. Then with a rush he flung himself at the double wooden doors, hitting the structure right next to the handles. He hit the floor with a thud, the wind nearly taken from him.
Alexandra covered for Jake, shooting toward the elevator.
Recovered now, Jake got up and slammed his left shoulder against the door. It gave but didn’t collapse all the way.
Now Alexandra turned and shot twice more toward the stairwell emergency exit. “One more time, big guy,” she yelled in German.
Jake backed up, his gun ready to fire, and he hit the door one last time with his shoulder. The door collapsed and crashed inward. Jake rushed in, his gun aimed at anything that could be a target.
Alexandra was right behind him, taking a position at the door.
Hurrying through the large penthouse, Jake cleared every room while Alexandra kept firing.
“I hear sirens,” Alexandra yelled. This time in English.
Jake came back to the front door and said, “The place is empty.”
“Are you sure?”
Nodding, Jake said, “Yeah. I checked everywhere.”
“Probably out at the same same but different bar,” she joked.
Not answering, Jake went out to the hallway and shot twice toward the exit and twice toward the elevator. Then he grasped the security guard he had knocked out and dragged the man back into the room.
“Hold them back for a minute,” Jake said.
“You got it, boss,” she quipped.
Before Alexandra could shoot again, gunfire erupted out by the stairwell, the blasts echoing through the building.