That’s all you’re worth anyway.”
She clenched the arms of the chair as much as the duct tape would allow. “He’s my husband, asshole.” Probably the wrong thing to say, but she couldn’t stand listening to his mouth.
Bryan’s eyebrows arched. “Son of a bitch! You’re married to the fucker? How’d you sucker him into that?” He laughed, long and hard.
“Poor bastard. Well, maybe I can make him a widower.” He glared at her. “So you’re married to him, but you’re obviously close to that other asshole. I saw you kissing him. What’s the deal with that?” A slow, evil grin twisted his face. “You screwing around on your new hubby already? Or are you fucking both of them? Is that what the problem was, I didn’t share you with my buddies? Kinky bitch.
You’re a little fucking slut whore, aren’t you?”
Clarisse struggled against her bonds. “I’m gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!”
He laughed and raised the gun, the sight of which stilled her movements. “No, I don’t think so.”
Three hours later, Sully and Jason were set up in a motel in Palm Harbor. Sully used a fake name and paid cash for the room. They scouted all the nearby motels close to where the last tracking signal had pinged. When Bryan’s call came in an hour before dark, Sully had the GPS software loaded and logged on, ready to trace the phone’s location.
“Is this Nicoletto?” the man asked.
“Yes. Where’s Clarisse?”
“She’s okay. She’s alive, for now. So, she’s your wife, huh?”
Sully winced. He’d hoped that wouldn’t come out, knowing it would make Bryan want to get more than money out of her. “Yes.”
“I think that ups my price. I don’t mind keeping her safe for a few more days. Two hundred thou, cash. I know it’ll take a couple of days for you to get it together. I also know you’ll want to talk to the Feds.
If you do, she’s dead. Lots of wetlands around here to dump a body, lots of Dumpsters.”
Sully tried for a scared tone of voice so he didn’t sound maliciously pissed. “Please, don’t hurt her.”
“You’re not so tough now, are you?” Sully heard a loud slap.
“What the fuck did you do to her? I slap her and it’s like she’s a fucking deaf mute.”
In the room, Clarisse glared up at Bryan. That did it. She would kill the fucker if she had the chance. If he put the gun down, she would get it, somehow. He had to sleep sometime. He’d cut her free once to let her use the bathroom but kept the gun trained on her the entire time. When he rebound her, he only taped her legs to the chair.
He handcuffed her hands in front of her, in her lap. He’d put more duct tape on her mouth and ripped it off so she could tell him the number to dial on her phone to call Sully.
“No! Please, don’t hurt her!”
“Then get me the fucking money, asshole.” He hung up, shut off the phone, and threw it onto the bed. “You’re going to make me a rich man, baby.”
“Don’t fucking call me that!”
“Well then, how about I call you a cocksucking whore? You prefer that?”
Clarisse watched him, engaged in a staring match. He finally blinked first and shook his head. “I’ll fuck that attitude outta you before I get my money. Just not right now. I might have to move us someplace else tonight after it gets dark. I’ve been here too long.”
Her heart raced. If he moved her, Sully wouldn’t be able to find them as fast. At least she had a fighting chance here. She could only hope Sully understood her clues as well as he seemed to.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sully and Jason ran out the door and down two blocks to stand across the street from another motel. On a quiet side street, the old nineteen-sixties vintage motor court had twenty rooms. Four cars sat in the lot, two with Florida plates, one from Michigan, and one from Virginia.
The men sat on a bus stop bench down the block and looked around like they were waiting for the next one.
“See anything?” Sully asked.
“Nope,” Jason said. “We sure this is him?”
“Pretty sure. We need to know which car.” They watched and waited. Fortunately, no bus came by. As dusk descended, they spotted lights on in four of the rooms, pinpointing where the occupants were in relation to their cars.
“How you want to handle this?” Jason asked. They’d moved to another bench, not visible from the motel, but they could still watch.
“I’m working on it.” They stood to walk toward their motel when a car bearing a lit pizza parlor sign on top pulled in to the motel. The driver went directly to the last room and knocked. They watched as a large man carefully opened the door and stepped out, not allowing the delivery guy to see inside the room.
Sully’s heart pounded, but he forced himself to keep his feet steady as he continued walking. “That’s him. That’s the son of a bitch.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. He’s shaved his head, but that’s him.”
“Let me call in a SWAT team—”
“No, fuck that. He’ll kill her, won’t give a shit then. She won’t have a chance.”
“Then what?”
Sully gritted his teeth. “I’ve got an idea.”
Once out of sight, they raced to their motel and climbed into Jason’s car. The small independent pizza parlor that delivered the pie to Bryan lay three blocks away in the other direction. A different delivery man stood outside smoking a cigarette.
Sully left Jason in the car and walked up to the guy, spoke with him for a moment. Sully reached into his wallet and passed him a few bills. The guy nervously looked around, then took the money before he disappeared inside. He returned a moment later and handed Sully a set of keys, a pizza box, and a shirt.
Sully jumped into another delivery car. Jason followed him back to their motel, where Sully wasted no time returning to their room.
“What the fuck?” Jason demanded.
Sully grinned, devoid of mirth. “I told the kid I wanted to play a practical joke on a friend to get back at the guy. Hey, shit happens.
Accidental double order.” He stripped off his shirt, donned the bulletproof vest, then pulled the pizza shirt on over it. He’d brought in a windbreaker from the car. It bore the pizza shop’s logo. When he pulled it on and zipped it, it hid most of the bulk.
“Go to the motel, check around the back, make sure there’s no rear entrance and that the bathroom window’s too small for a guy to get out.”
Jason raced to do it, returning a few minutes later. “Check. I couldn’t see through the window, it was frosted, but I heard a guy ranting and swearing.”
Sully’s gut clenched. “Could you tell if she’s there?”
“No, sorry.”
“Fuck.” He loaded the 9mm, chambered a round, and checked the safety. He looked at Jason. “When I get there, I’ll go in. You leave your car around back, keys on the floor, and drive the other car back to the pizza joint. Park it around back, leave the keys in it, and meet me at our motel. Have everything packed and be ready to leave.”
“When do we call in reinforcements?”
Sully glared at Jason.
“Oh, fuck, man. No, come on. Neutralize him, get the hell out with her, and then we call for backup.”
Sully shook his head. “You with me or against me?”
“Fuck!” Jason ran a hand through his hair as he paced the room.
“It’s fucking murder! I can’t go along with that!”