Diana led me outside by pointing my pistol at my back. The barista had abandoned her post at the coffee shop, and the elderly women who had been drinking the overpriced brew were gone. Diana and I weren’t alone, though. There were three men behind the building. Two were large and rough looking, while the third was older and thin. A duffel bag over his shoulder threw his balance off so that he walked with an odd tilt.
“I’m here, and I’m cooperating,” I said, glancing at Diana. “What happens now?”
“Alonzo will cuff you, and then you will climb into the rear seat of the Oldsmobile. He will sit beside you. I will be in the passenger seat. Mr. Gibson will be our driver. Once we reach a safe destination, we will allow you and Captain Green out of the car. You’ll be able to walk away to safety, and you’ll never see me again.”
I looked to the third man, the one who hadn’t spoken.
“What’s his role?”
“He’s none of your concern,” she said. “You won’t see him again after today, either.”
“Let me see Julia.”
Diana shook her head. “If I wanted Julia dead, she’d be dead. You would be dead, too. You’re still breathing. That should tell you something.”
I held my breath for a moment, hoping to hear a siren in the distance. Diana’s crew must have gotten to Julia before she could make the call. This was bad. Diana may have promised to let us go, but more than likely, she planned to drive us to the middle of nowhere and knock us off outside the prying eyes of any neighbors. Still, the longer we were alive, the better our chances were of escaping.
“Did you hurt her?”
“I used chloroform,” said Alonzo. “She’ll wake up with a headache, but she’ll be fine.”
If they had wanted, they could have slit my throat or strangled me by now. They might not kill me if I cooperated, but if I did that, they’d get away. I looked to Diana.
“You tried to keep me safe,” I said. “You tried to keep Christopher away from me.”
“I did,” she said, nodding, her eyes closed. “I’m ashamed of what happened to you beneath my roof. That shouldn’t have happened.”
“Were there others you didn’t keep safe?”
She blinked a few times and considered before speaking.
“Christopher had a list of girls I thought were special. He wasn’t allowed to touch them.”
“What happened to girls who weren’t on that list?”
“I never asked,” she said.
I nodded and felt my face grow hot.
“So they were fair game.”
She walked toward me and tilted her head to the side.
“You may not approve of the things I’ve done, but I was a businesswoman. Sometimes businesspeople have to do disreputable things to stay in business. I was saving you so that you could go into business with me. You could have lived like a princess. I would have given you a wonderful life.”
“And what would I have had to do?”
She looked at me up and down. “You would have used what God gave you to make men happy. In return, they would have paid us as if they had been fucked by a queen. Now get in the car. I’m tired of talking.”
It was about what I had expected to hear. Everyone had blood on his or her hands. I couldn’t let any of them get away, but I couldn’t let them hurt Julia, either. Unfortunately, that didn’t leave me with many options. I walked toward the Oldsmobile and then felt a strong hand grab my elbow. It was one of Diana’s thugs.
“Hands behind your back.”
I did as he asked and then felt a pair of metal handcuffs dig into my wrists. They were secure but not so tight that they’d cut off circulation. I could move my hands a little. The thug opened the door, and we piled into the vehicle. The creepy guy with the duffel bag disappeared.
I didn’t have a plan, but any first step required me to take off the cuffs. Police-issue handcuffs had a ratcheting lock with teeth held in by a locking bar. If I could get something between those teeth and the locking bar, the lock would disengage and the cuffs would slide wide open. I had done it before with a special tool, but if I were to have any chance of getting out of this alive, I’d have to make do with the paperclip I had taken from her desk.
“You’re quiet,” said Diana, turning and looking over her shoulder as I straightened my paper clip into a wire.
“I don’t have much to say,” I said.
“You know, we could have been friends,” said Diana. “You and I are a lot alike.”
“Oh,” I said, nodding. “Did you once live with a psychopath who wanted to protect you from her husband only so she could turn you out as a high-end prostitute, too?”
Her smile slipped from her lips.
“I never knew my parents.”
“Well,” I said, slipping the tip of the paper clip into the handcuffs. It wouldn’t go in very far, but I had expected that. “Aside from the psychopath thing, I guess we do have a lot in common, then.”
“Your attempt to deflect uncomfortable conversations with snide remarks doesn’t reflect well on you.”
“It’s a character flaw I’ve been working on,” I said, pulling my wrists together so I could squeeze the rings. The ratchet clicked as the cuffs tightened, drawing the paper clip inside a little more.
We drove for about half an hour before pulling off the interstate. I didn’t know where we were, but we couldn’t have been too far outside St. Louis County. About ten minutes after we turned off the interstate, we crossed the Meramec River at a bridge I didn’t recognize. After that, we turned onto a side road that led to a wooded area. I didn’t like this at all.
“Are we going camping?” I asked.
Diana smiled and shook her head but said nothing before her phone buzzed. She didn’t take her eyes from mine, but she answered the phone and spoke quickly. I couldn’t hear what the other party said, but she said she understood. She was getting orders, probably from Mr. Mendoza. I didn’t know Diana’s end game, but we had to be getting close to it. There was nothing out here.
As the road grew rougher, I heard something banging inside the trunk.
“Sounds like Julia woke up,” said Diana, turning to glance over her shoulder. I squeezed the handcuff tighter and felt it click once more. My locksmith training had included little work with handcuffs. I hoped my paper clip trick was working because I couldn’t keep squeezing much longer.
“The moment she gets out, she’ll try to kill you,” I said, squeezing again. The locking bar clicked once more, biting into my wrist. I could feel the bone compress. The paper clip was stuck. It had to be almost there. “Please don’t hurt her.”
Diana looked over her shoulder again and held up my pistol. “No guarantees, but you’ll be there to calm her down. She’ll listen when she sees a gun pointed at your head.”
For emphasis, she pointed the weapon in my direction before turning around again. I drew in a deep breath, straightened my back, and then coughed. The noise covered up the sound of my handcuffs ratcheting once more. The metal bit into my flesh, but then the ring went slack as the paper clip blocked the ratcheting lock.
My hand was free, but that didn’t improve the situation much. Even if I could get the gun away from Diana, I’d only have one or two shots before the other guys around me reacted and pulled their own weapons. I had to make this count.
“What did Mr. Mendoza want?” I asked.
“He wanted to hear how we were doing.”
“It sounded like he was giving you orders,” I said, eyeing the man beside me. He winked and then pursed his lips as if he were giving me a kiss. I slid on my seat to the left as if he scared me. He snickered and looked out the window. Diana rolled her eyes.
“You don’t need to worry about Mr. Mendoza. I have you now.”
“You won’t let him hurt me, will you?” I asked, allowing a tremble into my voice.
“Not if you’re a good girl,” she said, still pointing that weapon at me. She turned and looked at the road ahead of her. I had been waiting for a mistake like that.
I pulled my hand out of the cuff but kept both hands behind my back. Diana’s grip looked tight, but she kept her finger outside the weapon’s trigger guard. It would take about half a second for her brain to respond to a threat and a split second longer to move her finger to the trigger. That didn’t give me much time.
But I didn’t need much time.
I waited for the man on my right to look out the window. That was my moment.
God, please let this work.
I whipped my hands from around my back and lunged forward. Diana must have sensed something because she whirled her gaze toward me at the same instant my fingers touched the frame of her weapon. I twisted the barrel as hard as I could, but she fired before I could wrench the weapon from her hand. It didn’t matter who held the gun, though. I just needed to bend her wrist enough to move the barrel and point it at the driver.
The gunshot was deafening. A curtain of blood coated the driver’s side window the instant after the round pierced his skull. One down.
Before the man to my right could react, I yanked hard on the weapon again. Diana fired once more, and this time, the round shattered the window to my left. The now deceased driver slumped to the right, dragging the steering wheel with him.
The Oldsmobile’s tires crunched as they left the gravel, but then the heavy car hit the uneven grass beside the road. I bounced out of my seat and then slammed forward and back as the sedan careened into a tree. The airbags popped open, slapping Diana in the face. She slumped forward and dropped her firearm. My head hit the back of the driver’s seat with a dull thud, and my vision washed white.
The world spun, but I forced myself to focus. My life depended on it. I looked at the guy beside me. For a moment, I didn’t understand what had happened. Then, like a shot, it came back.
He dove for the gun Diana had dropped, but his seat belt held him in place. I hadn’t worn one, though, so I snapped the gun up before he could touch it. Diana had fired two shots, which meant I had plenty left. My hand wrapped around the firearm’s grip just as a fist slammed into the back of my head. My vision blurred once more, and I felt my hands go weak, but I didn’t drop the gun.
I couldn’t. If I did, I’d die.
The thug reached for my arms and pushed the barrel of the weapon toward the ceiling just as I pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening, but I couldn’t focus on it. I had to get away. I brought my legs up and kicked him in the face while trying to get some distance between us. He didn’t even flinch. His eyes looked crazed and angry. Blood dribbled from his nostrils.
With his left hand forcing my weapon toward the ceiling, he reached for my neck with his right. He had long arms, and my legs weren’t strong enough to push him away. His body crashed against me. I gasped but didn’t let go of my firearm. With his heavy body pressed against mine, I couldn’t move.
Then, my door popped open, and a guttural, animalistic scream filled the car. It was Julia, and she had a tire iron. She whacked the thug on the back of his skull. Every time she hit him, he grunted, but he didn’t move.
Tears filled my eyes as I pushed with my legs. He was so heavy and so strong. With every passing moment, I felt his fingers overpower mine as he tried to pry the weapon from my grip. He was stronger than me, but if I let go of that gun, I was dead. So was Julia. She had risked her life to save me; I couldn’t let that happen.
Digging into some reserve I didn’t know I had, I flexed the muscles of my legs hard, forcing him back. Julia must have seen what I was doing because she hooked the tire iron around his neck and jerked hard. His head lifted, and then I grunted and pushed again, forcing him out of the car.
The thug fell onto the ground outside and eyed me and then my foster mother. I could see the mental calculations in his eyes. He could overpower me, but I had a gun and some space now. He wasn’t going anywhere, so he put up his hands. Julia kicked him as I slid out of the car.
“That’s enough,” I said, looking at them. “Roll onto your belly and put your hands above your head.”
As I said that, the front passenger door slid open, and Diana tumbled out. She looked at me and then rolled onto her belly and ran. I didn’t hesitate before raising my weapon and firing wide to her right.
“I swear to God and all that is holy that I will shoot you in the back, Diana!” I screamed. “Put your hands up and lie on the ground.”
I needed to sound angry and unhinged. I needed her to believe that I’d shoot her in the back. By her tense shoulders and the way she stopped moving, I’d say I had succeeded.
“Back up until you hit the vehicle. Then turn around and put your hands on the hood.”
I shifted to my right, creating space between me and Diana’s hired thug while keeping Diana in my line of fire.
“Julia, there are handcuffs in the car,” I said. “Find them and lock this asshole up.”
She did as I asked and then handcuffed my assailant. I felt better with him restrained.
“What do you want to do about Diana?”
I glanced at Julia and then walked toward the vehicle, still giving the thug a wide berth.
“Diana Hughes,” I said. She looked at me but kept her hands on the hood. “You’re under arrest for the murder of James Holmes and a bunch of other bad shit. You know the drill. I’ll use what you tell me against you in court, the court can appoint a lawyer if you can’t afford one, and you don’t have to tell me anything.”
She looked at me and then to Julia.
“I’ll give you five million dollars cash if you shoot Captain Green in the head and let me and Alonzo go.”
Without thinking, I balled my right hand into a fist and punched her in the jaw. It had been a lot of years since I had last punched someone, and pain lanced down my knuckles and into my wrist. I gasped, but Diana fell back.
“Captain Green is my mom, bitch.”