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

let me and my sister go,” she said, “and we’ll disappear out of your life completely.”

He laughed. “Too late for that, bitch,” he said. “You made your choice. Now you’ll have to pay for it.”

“Surely we can talk about this,” Astra said fearfully.

“No,” he said. “And you sure as hell can’t offer me enough money to backtrack on what I’m doing here. That’s not worth my life.”

“Killing people who have nothing to do with anything?” she asked.

“Yeah, exactly,” he said.

“How did you lose Gregg in the first place?”

“We didn’t lose him,” he snapped. “I told you that.”

“Right. Why did the other guy betray you and let Gregg go then?”

“He didn’t let him go,” he said. “He moved Gregg. Big difference.”

She nodded slowly. “I guess,” she said. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a double-crossing asshole, I imagine,” he said. “I don’t know why else he’d do it.”

“Unless he had sympathy for Gregg.”

“I don’t give a shit how much sympathy he had for him. He had a job to do. That’s all there is to it.”

She nodded slowly. “I guess, but it’s kind of sad.”

“Not sad at all,” he snapped. “It is what it is.”

“I just don’t understand what it would take to have somebody go against all this, knowing that his life would be in danger.”

He scratched his face and said, “Honestly I don’t know either. It makes no sense to me.”

“Okay,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll both get some answers.”

“Not likely,” he sneered. “The only answers you’ll get are the ones you don’t want to hear.”

“Such as?” she challenged.

“Such as what’ll happen to you,” he said.

“And we’re back to that again. I can pay you.”

“You just finished telling me that you couldn’t pay for your sister.”

“Yeah, I can hardly pay to set my sister free, if I’m here. You’ve taken both of us. I would pay for her, and she would pay for me, but, with both of us here, obviously we can’t do either.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re an idiot.”

She stayed quiet, wondering who the hell the idiot in the room really was. But no point in arguing with him. She just smiled and said, “It’s not the first time I’ve been called that.”

“Usually that’s the term reserved for me,” Amy said.

“Not so bad though, was it?” Astra said.

“It was terrible,” she said. “You were always the brainy one. You were the one everybody loved. I wanted everyone to love me, but we weren’t alike at all.”

“No,” she said. “And we still aren’t. I am much calmer, more reserved, whereas you are a little more naive, and a whole lot more about the fun in life.”

“But I have heart,” her sister argued.

And, at that, Astra looked at her, smiled, and said, “You do, indeed. We have to remember that, no matter how this all turns out. We have to remember that heart is what’s important.”

“Spare me the sob story,” the guy snapped. “Nobody gives a shit.”

Amy just smiled, a little teary-eyed, then reached across and grabbed Astra’s hand. “Please tell me that we’ll make it through this.” Her gaze fell to her belly.

“I’ll tell you what. We’ll do everything we can together to make it through this,” Astra promised her. “We both deserve a happy future.”

Amy sat back and sighed. “I just want Gregg,” she murmured.

“Got it,” she said. “You don’t mind if I pick up Garret then, do you?”

Amy looked at her in surprise and then started laughing. “Oh my,” she said. “You know what? That makes so much more sense, when I think about it.”

“Right, you’ve no idea how jealous I was way back when.”

“You should have said something,” Amy said. “Because, oh, my gosh, that would have been so much better for him too.”

“Well, you saw him first,” she said. “So I kind of had to wait until it was over with.”

“Are you two serious? Are you fucking serious? You’re sitting here talking about your boyfriends?” Their kidnapper stared at them in shock and disgust.

“Why not?” Astra asked with a smile. “Is that something we can’t talk about?”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You know you’ll fucking die in the next couple hours, right?”

Amy gripped her fingers really tight.

Astra glared at him. “You don’t have to upset my sister like that,” she snapped.

He shook his head. “Get a grip,” he said. “This isn’t a bloody tea party.”

She looked at her teacup, smiled, lifted it up, and said, “Actually it is. So here’s to us and to whatever the future brings.” With that, she had a big sip of tea.

*

Garret had come up to the house, was at the back door to the kitchen, while Kano was doing a search around the outside. Garret wasn’t sure what he saw. Both Amy and Astra sat close together, almost too close for comfort in normal circumstances, and yet Astra had a smile on her face, and she appeared to be talking to the man at the window. And it was a monster of a man at that.

When Garret felt the buzz of his phone, he pulled it out to see a note from Kano, saying he’d taken one down. With that, Garret swore under his breath. They hadn’t seen anybody else here, but it made sense that a guard would be outside somewhere. Garret could only hope just one guy was inside the house. At the moment he didn’t know if anybody else was being held prisoner in there, besides Amy and Astra. His brother being here would be too easy. But Garret sure as hell hoped he was.

Just then another vehicle pulled up, and he heard the engine slowing down. He frowned at that, sent Kano a quick message, and waited, studying the kitchen layout. The big guy straightened, when he heard the noise, and strode to the kitchen window, but he turned and pointed an admonishing finger at the two women. Then he disappeared from sight.

Garret slipped inside immediately, cut their bonds, pulled them out the back door, and whispered, “Head to the trees in