“Just do me a favor. Get Marie to a nice hotel, okay?”
“Can’t do it, old buddy. Tell me what you’re going to do.”
I clicked off.
The answer I’d been mulling over, how to come up with the money, chose that moment to flutter down out of the gauzy fatigue.
Of course, how simple.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I shimmied into my pants, put on shoes, grabbed my shirt, and headed for the door. I went back for the two cell phones and the Glock under the pillow. I needed the gun. What I needed more was to slow down and think. When fatigued, I made too many mistakes. I stuck the dirk in my sock and the derringer in my back pocket.
My mind automatically shifted to the problem at hand. If Mack drove to LAX to pick up Marie, the fifty-minute drive there added to the fifty-minute drive back-that’s if she waited at the curb when he got there-gave me an hour and forty minutes. Plenty of time to do what needed to be done and get away. I stopped at the door. But if Marie flew into Ontario, that was fifteen minutes there and fifteen back.
I opened the door to darkness. Where had the time gone? When you wanted time to slowly ooze through your fingers it never obliged, and when you wanted time to hurry on past it-
Out in the parking lot, a Yellow Cab pulled up and stopped. Marie stepped out. She saw me. Her face broke into a huge smile.
I’d been cut short on my plan. At the moment, I didn’t care one whit. I caught her contagious smile and smiled back. Hers glowed warm with affection. We had not been apart one day in the last nine months. I had missed her terribly, and didn’t realize how much until I saw that smile. I met her halfway, picked her up, and twirled her around. I kissed her long and deep.
I set her down and held on.
She looked up with her green eyes telling me how much she loved me. “What?” she said. “Did you stop off at the deli to get a turd sandwich? Because your breath smells like it.”
Her way of saying she was mad for flying thousands of miles to save my ass, but at the same time didn’t want to scold me.
“Hey,” I said, “I’m the one that should be mad. You were supposed to stay home with the kids and take care of Dad.”
She socked me in the shoulder and smiled. “Things like these are fluid, you have to roll with it.” Words I’d given her in the past, ricocheting back.
“I guess I have to quit telling you the details of my old capers and how they worked.”
“You better not. And the kids are fine, and so is your dad.”
“When’s the last time you talked to them?”
“Why? What’s happened?” She’d read my tone.
“Nothing. Everything’s fine.”
Wu walked up. “Hey, Leon, how come you’re not out working, chasin’ down leads on the third kid?”
He must have been out of the information loop. He hadn’t heard about or seen the mall cam video where I grabbed Jonas. Or that the shot-callers in the FBI wanted the blunder kept under wraps. The well-being of the children stood in the balance. Sure, that had to be the reason, or he would have thrown down on me and taken me into custody. This time luck had landed firmly on my side of the fence. I had to be more careful. I should’ve visually cleared the parking lot before going out. I wouldn’t get many more chances. I leaned over Marie and fought the urge to turn around. Without the ball cap and glasses, Wu might recognize me anyway. “Just taking a break to be with my girl,” I said.
“I can see that,” he said to my back. “What is it, that ‘three-week thing’? You two only been together for three weeks, or something like that? Still in that mushy love phase?”
“That’s right,” Marie said. She’d caught on to my fear and held me close.
Wu came closer, only to get a better look at Marie. I spun her around on the outside closest to Wu and headed to the room. Marie had the curves in all the right places, and Wu would be not be looking at me.
We’d made it to the door when Wu said, “Hey, we’re putting a bag together with a GPS for the drop tomorrow night. There’s a briefing in forty minutes at Montclair PD.”
I waved my hand over my head and, with the other, I unlocked the door. Wu said, “Make it a quickie, huh? From here, it’s a twenty-minute drive to Montclair.”
Marie turned. “That leaves us twenty minutes, enough to do it three times.”
Wu yelled as I closed the door. “For sure, that’s the three-week thing talkin’ right there. You lucky bastard.”
I got the door open and the both of us inside. I flipped on the light. Marie kissed me again, reached around and flipped the light back off. The threat of a lifetime in prison tended to intensify emotions, particularly love. We tore at each other’s clothes. Once naked we heated up the sheets, took a break, breathing hard, and then heated them up again. We didn’t have the time. Wu might be briefed at any second and say, “Hey, I just saw him going into a motel room.” The FBI could be surrounding the place any minute. Or, they might wait for the outcome of the children, keep my involvement as an ace in the hole, a scapegoat to blame along with all my other alleged crimes.
I dressed quickly in the dark as the sweat cooled and dried on my skin. I reached over and turned on the bed stand light to see my lovely girl. She stared up at me with adoration, something I couldn’t comprehend. I was nothing special to look at. I didn’t know what I did to deserve her. “I have to get out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
I stopped tying my shoe, reached over and put the back of my hand gently against her cheek. “I have something I have to do.”
She read into my words and sat up, her eyes turning from sated to concerned. “I’m going with you, and you know that.”
I shook my head and looked away.
“Bruno, I didn’t come all this way for you to hide me away in some sleazy motel room. I’m here and I’m going to help.” She held her finger up, “And that’s it, end of discussion.”
“Okay, get dressed.” She jumped up and slid into her clothes almost as fast as she’d taken them off. I watched for the opportunity and stuck the Glock in the back of my waistband when she wasn’t looking.
She had her back to me as she tucked her breasts into her bra and hooked it in the back. “I saw that. Why do we need a gun?” She turned around to look me in the eyes. No one could tell me women didn’t have eyes in the back of their heads. I took the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s badge off the nightstand and hung it around her neck. The gold star hung down over the cleft of her breasts and came off strangely erotic. I put my hands on her shoulders. “You can’t come with me, but I can’t do this thing without your help.”
“Oh, no, I am coming with you.”
She saw the shift in my eyes, held up her finger. “Bruno, no.”
I leaned down and kissed her naked shoulder. She arched her back. I gently turned her around and unhooked her bra. “Bruno, no.” This time, her “no” lost its finality. We commenced to reheat the sheets. Halfway through, she whispered in my ear, “It must be that three-week thing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I cut the electrical cords from the lamps in the room, wound them up and shoved them in my pocket, while Marie asked, “Are you sure this is the only way? This idea is really crazy. I mean, really crazy.”
I took her in my arms, kissed the top of her head, and hugged her tight. “We have less than twenty-four hours. Can you think of any other way to get a million dollars? No way is Jonas going to fall for that fake bag trick. He’ll be watching for it. He’s been way out ahead of us every step of the way. Our only chance is for me to show him the money, just a taste, and then I trade the children for the money.”
“I would rather you have the FBI handle it with the fake bag.”
No she didn’t, not really. She wanted the best chance for the children. I pulled her away and looked into her eyes. She nodded as she fumbled with the sheriff’s star hanging around her neck. I let her go with no illusions, maybe for the last time ever, and went out the door to the parking lot, head down under the ball cap, walking fast.