Garret's Gambit by Dale Mayer (book club books .TXT) 📗

a handgun. She stared at it in shock. “Ah, Kano?” but he’d been knocked out in the front seat. “Shit,” she said. She looked at the stranger, grinning at her. “Who the hell are you?”

“Your sister’s looking for you,” he said.

She stared at him in shock. “Have you got my sister?”

“I do,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go. I’ll put the two of you together.” As he dragged her from the car, she tried to look back at Kano. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing compared to what we’ll do to Gregg,” he said. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“I didn’t want to come,” she said, desperately searching for answers that would get this guy to understand why she was there. “We’re looking for my sister though. She said that Rick had her.” She studied the goon. “I don’t think you’re Rick though.”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “Rick is my brother.”

“Right, that was the only connection we had.”

“Of course,” he said. “My stupid brother just couldn’t keep me out of it.”

“Well, there weren’t a whole lot of choices in this instance,” she said. “Do you have my sister?”

He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I just say that?”

“Maybe,” she said. “I’m desperate to find her.” Rick’s brother shoved her toward the house, and Astra could only hope that Garret saw her.

Her gunman asked, “What were you guys doing here?”

“I wanted a chance to see the house, to see if I should call the police,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Well, that ain’t going to work,” he said.

“Apparently not,” she said. “I still don’t understand what you want with her.”

“It’s actually her boyfriend we want.”

“Well, he’s missing,” she said, giving him a hard look. “Are you telling me that you don’t have him?”

“No, we don’t, but that’s the end game.”

“I still don’t understand why. Why does anybody want him?”

“Hard to say,” he said. “It’s all about information.”

“So you just won’t tell me?”

“Why should I?” he said easily. “For all I know, you’re wired.”

“Wired?”

Just enough puzzlement was in her tone that he groaned. “You and your sister are two of a kind.”

“Somehow that doesn’t seem very complimentary,” she snapped.

He chuckled. “No, it sure as hell isn’t. Nothing but dumb broads, … both of you.”

Inside, she was elated because, as long as he thought that of her in that way, he wouldn’t put too much stock into anything that she might do. And, as she’d already learned, there wasn’t a whole lot she wouldn’t do to protect those she cared about.

As they walked closer to the residence, she said, “Wow, this is a gorgeous house.”

He jerked her arm, hard, and said, “It is, and it takes an awful lot of upkeep to keep it that way,” he said. “It’s been in the family for generations, so I won’t let it go now.”

“Ah,” she said. “You need money.”

“Doesn’t everybody?” he snarled. “And you’re worth money.”

“Wrong. No, I’m not,” she said. “I don’t know who told you that, but I’m really not.”

“Oh, I think you are,” he said. “I just have to find out who’ll pay.”

“Well, I’m the only one who would have paid for my sister, and there’s nobody else to pay for either of us, if you’ve got us both,” she said in a reasonable tone.

He didn’t even comment on that.

“Besides, it’s not money for us you want anyway, right? It’s actually her fiancé, isn’t it?”

“Are they actually engaged? God, he is welcome to her. All she does is complain.”

Astra hid her smile at his comment because that was such a perfect description of her sister. “That doesn’t mean she’s not terrified,” she said.

“Oh, she’s terrified all right. All she wants is him.”

“Well, of course she does. She loves him, and she’s been worried sick about him.”

“Well, he can have her, if we can find him ourselves.”

“And that’s where the trouble lies. So you weren’t the ones who kidnapped him?”

“Yeah, we were, and we stashed him with somebody, only that somebody moved him.”

Her eyes widened at that. “Ouch,” she said. “Betrayed from within. That sucks.”

“In a big way,” he said. “Now would you just stop talking.”

She was silent for a few moments, until they entered the big house.

He twisted her arm and said, “Wait here.” And he let her go. She stood here, rubbing her sore wrists and easing the pain in her shoulders. She looked around; the house had very little in the way of lights on. She didn’t know if that was because of the cost of the power or if it was part of the ambient mood he was trying to maintain. She turned and realized he hadn’t left; he’d just been standing behind her, looking for something. Something he then looped around her hands.

She looked at it in dismay. “Is that really necessary?”

“Don’t want you to do anything to get away,” he said. “One sister’s bad enough to look after. I’m not chasing around after the two of you.”

He dragged her forward into the kitchen, where her sister sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. Astra stared at her sister and asked, “Amy, are you okay?”

Amy hopped up, only her hands were tied too, and so were her feet. She looked up at her sister and started to cry.

“Oh, Amy,” Astra said. She walked over to her sister and, even though her hands were tied with a rope hanging off of them, she lifted them over her sister’s neck and just held her close.

“I trusted Rick,” Amy said.

“Remember that thing about trust?”

“No, you’re the one who never trusts anybody,” Amy said. “I’ve always trusted everyone.” She wiggled out of Astra’s hold and sat down again.

Astra didn’t say anything to that because it was true. It’s just that she’d always wished her sister wouldn’t trust everyone so easily. She sat down beside her sister and asked again, “Are you okay?”

Amy nodded and looked at her guard. “Not that he cares,” she snarled.

Astra was surprised to see that kind of spirit in her sister in this situation, but it was a good sign. She looked