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

He groaned, as he rolled his eyes at her. “What the hell do you guys think this is? Some kind of Taj Mahal?”

“I guess tea’s expensive,” Astra said apologetically.

He glared at her. “I’m not that broke.” With that, he turned and put the teakettle on the stove.

She watched every move he made. At the same time, Amy stared at Astra, hope in her eyes. Astra looked at her and asked, “What did Rick say to you?”

“Just that I had a bigger purpose.”

“Yeah, they’re trying to find Gregg,” she said.

“Find Gregg?”

Astra nodded. “Apparently they lost him,” she said, adding a certain emphasis to the word lost.

At that, Amy’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God, did they hurt him?”

“I’m not sure they’ve hurt him at all,” she said. “It’s just that he’s disappeared. They had somebody looking after him, but either that person betrayed them or something happened to him. The bottom line is that they can’t find Gregg now.”

“Maybe he got free,” she cried out joyfully.

“In which case, that’s bad news for you,” her captor said. “It’s not like I need you guys, if we can’t get him anyway.”

“Isn’t that the leverage you’ll use?” Astra asked him. “Telling Gregg that you’ve got his girlfriend and her sister, so he would come and trade himself for us?”

“You don’t know Gregg all that well if you think that’ll work,” he sneered. “That’s not the kind of guy he is.”

Her sister glared at him. “He is so. He is very honorable.”

The guy laughed. “God, where does she get this shit from?” he said. “Gregg’s nothing more than a mark, and he works for a company that’s an even bigger mark, and that’s it. The guy is full of all kinds of shit. The fact that he’s actually got you suckered into it just means you’re an easy lay.”

At that, her sister started bawling.

He turned around and said to Astra, “Get her to shut the fuck up.”

Astra immediately pulled Amy into her arms and whispered, “You need to be quiet.”

Amy’s sobs dampened down slightly. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “You told me to stay put, and I didn’t listen.”

“Yes, I did,” Astra said in a wry tone. “But you never were very good at following instructions.”

Her sister sniffled and said, “I’m getting better.”

She didn’t say anything to that, since she hadn’t seen any sign of it. “I get that you just wanted out for a bit.”

“I wanted Gregg,” she said. “I thought for sure Rick could help. They work together. Gregg knows him. Rick knows the guys they worked with in the past. That’s got to be what this is all about,” she said. “It has to be somebody else from an old case that’s after him.”

“Maybe,” Astra said, “but I wouldn’t count on it.”

At that, their gunman turned and looked at her and asked, “What do you know?”

“I don’t know jack shit,” Astra said, with a smirk. “All I know is that he’s missing. I don’t know anything about the work he does. I barely even know this Rick guy,” she said. “Who is he?”

“None of your business,” he snapped.

She nodded and just stayed close to her sister. But he did deliver a cup of tea, strong, black, with no milk or sugar. Astra politely said, “Thank you.”

He nodded, grabbed the loose end of her rope, and tied it to her sister’s chair. “Now you’re not fucking going anywhere,” he said.

Astra just sat here, crestfallen, looking beaten down and upset, so he would think that she actually was. The last thing she wanted him to realize was that Kano wasn’t the only one who had been with her in the car, and she didn’t want anybody to go back outside and finish the job on him. All she had to do now was keep her and her sister both alive and wait for the cavalry or for their own opening to escape.

*

Garret checked for a pulse on Kano’s wrist. He was down as low as he could be to the ground, right next to the vehicle, his gaze constantly scanning the area around him. Even as he checked, he could feel something surging through him, and then he realized it was Kano’s pulse.

Kano groaned.

“Take it easy,” Garret said. “You’ve been hit over the head.”

“Where am I?” Kano said, reaching up to rub his forehead.

“You’re still in the car,” he said, “but I don’t think it’ll be long before somebody comes back to check on you.” He quickly opened the vehicle, helped Kano out, and moved him into the trees. Once in the shadows, he sat him back down on the ground. “Astra’s been taken.”

Kano stared at him in shock.

“I’m not sure how he got the jump on you,” Garret said.

“I don’t know. He came out of nowhere. I’d just turned to say something to her and got clobbered on the head. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Well, I saw her being led into the house, and I heard part of the conversation. They have Amy too.”

“Well, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We’ve got two of them now.”

“Exactly. And, at the same time, they’re still looking for Gregg. Apparently the guy trying to convince the boss to let Gregg go had moved him. He might have known more about what was going on and what they would do with him. Anyway, he moved Gregg, and these guys—who kidnapped Gregg in the first place—can’t find him now.”

“Shit,” Kano said. “That’s not good, … for a couple reasons. Gregg could be someplace where time is running out on him.”

“And it’s possible that we won’t ever find out where he is.”

“We have to track that asshole’s movements,” Kano said.

“Oh, I hear you,” he said. “I’m doing what I can, but, right now, we have to get the girls. I’ve already told Charles, and he’s on it. They’re tracking the dead courier’s life to find out where he could have moved Gregg. Chances are it’ll