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

the far corner.” Both of them took off without any argument, and, for that, he was grateful. He sent Kano another message, as Garret eased farther into the kitchen, closer to the front room.

He looked for anything that could be used as a big weapon to help take down the big man. He had his handgun, and that would do to a certain extent, but he’d seen guys with multiple bullet holes in them still plowing forward. He heard the big monster heading down the front porch steps, yelling and snarling at whoever had just arrived.

“About fucking time you got here,” he snapped. “What the hell?”

“We’re here. We’re here,” he said. “Shut your hole, and don’t get your panties in a twist.”

The big guy snorted. “You should be damn lucky if I do because, right now, I want to twist your heads off. You left me with those two little bitches.”

“Hey,” he said. “That was the easy job.”

“Well, did you find the asshole at least?”

“Hell yeah, we got him,” he said.

Garret stepped back and shifted, so he could look at the vehicle to see who they were talking about, and, sure enough, his brother was being unloaded from the car by one guy. Garret stared at Gregg and swore under his breath. Gregg wasn’t moving on his own power; his face looked like it had taken a beating, and his leg was dragging behind him. Not cool. On top of that, two more men had arrived with him, accompanied with a lot of raucous shouting. So the odds now were four to two.

He really wanted Kano to stay with the women, but he also knew that Kano wouldn’t. And neither would the women let him. The problem was, if the women got into the midst of this mess, they would never know who was where.

Luckily the driver got back into the car and took off. Three to two were better odds. Still, he sent a quick message to Kano with an update and asked him to make sure the women stayed in the trees.

After that, Garret slipped into one of the closets alongside the hallway, hoping for a place to hide where he could listen in and see just what the hell was going on here. As soon as he was in position, the front door slammed right beside him, and the guys talked among themselves.

“So this guy had him out in a shed, where he used to work. Damn near took us forever to find him.”

“Well, you got him,” said the big man from the house. “That should save our butts.”

“Maybe,” the first guy said, with a little less joviality in his voice.

“She’s a hard-ass bitch,” said a third man.

“Any idea why they wanted him?”

“No, and I don’t give a shit. Our job was to grab him, to keep him, and to move him back to France.”

“Not going to be so easy,” one guy murmured.

“It never is, but we don’t have any other options right now.”

“Did you send a message, saying we had him? When do they want him moved?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to hold him here. Apparently she needs to take care of some other interference.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t affect us.”

“No, but we need to get paid.”

“Damn,” he said. “I want this over with and this asshole gone, before somebody else tries to spring him loose.”

“Yeah, well, just think about it,” he said. “We’ve got the two women, and we got him, so we’ll pass them all over, and they can deep-six the whole lot of them. I don’t give a shit, as long as it keeps us free and clear.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said. They were sitting in a living room, with Gregg sitting slumped on one end of the couch. Garret studied his brother’s face through the crack in the closet door, but it was hard to see how badly hurt he was or whether he was putting it on.

Just like Garret, his brother knew exactly how to play the game. If the bad guys thought you were more injured than you actually were, they eased up security. At least that’s what Garret hoped was going on, but it was all too possible that his brother was severely injured as well. And that would just make Garret even angrier.

“Do we know anything?”

“I already told you,” he said.

“I just want to get paid,” the second man said, in a tone turning whiny.

“We all want to get paid,” the huge man said. “It’s the only reason we’re doing this.”

“Yeah, did you ever think about that? You know? Whether or not there’s some guy up at them pearly gates, looking down at us, and saying, Hell no, you’re not coming in here. Look at what you did in your life.”

“No,” the big man said. “I sure as hell don’t think about that at all.”

“Don’t you start having second thoughts on us,” the other guy snapped. “It’s bad enough that Frank had his major freak out on us regarding this.”

Frank, Garret thought. The guy guarding Gregg in the first place and who then moved him.

“I still don’t know what got to him about this guy.”

“I don’t know either,” he said. “Frank’s always been a bit of a fruit loop anyway. Especially since having his kid, and then his wife and kid took off on him.”

“Yeah, but come on. That was clearly the smart thing for her to do.”

Garret stood still in the closet and wondered about that. Had his brother managed to convince Frank that Gregg was a father and that his kid needed his father? If Gregg had any idea that his captor had that kind of a history, he might have played that card. Who wouldn’t have?

Settling in to wait, Garret knew it was all about picking the right moment because, once they realized the women were gone, all hell would break loose. He didn’t want to be the one taking the heat, but, if they all took off out of the house, that would be even better. Maybe