Ник Картер - The Code

“We had a hard time finding you, doll, but now that we’re back together again, it’s going to be fun and games. Do you still love me?” From the scuffle of feet and the sound of Sheila spitting like a cat, I guessed that the man had touched her. Laughing, he said, “You’ll get friendlier. Before the night’s over, you’ll be a lot friendlier.”

It sounded like a threat.

“I helped you to surprise him. Doesn’t that count for something?” Sheila asked.

“Don’t con me, doll. You played that sexy little scene to perfection because you knew any slip-up would have got your boyfriend a big hole in the gut.” His voice grew more serious. “You hung up on him? You dig the citizen, doll?”

“No. I just don’t want him killed for nothing.”

She was still playing a role, gambling for my life.

Cautiously I shifted my narrowed gaze, trying to locate the big man’s companions. I spotted one of them to my right, squatting on the floor. Like the big man, he wore dark clothing and sneakers. A stocking was drawn over his head, distorting his features. I remembered that Hawk had said the killers I was looking for were cold, efficient professionals. This man and the giant with the gravel voice certainly warranted the description.

They had come to the house prepared to enter it without alarming the occupants. Except for the one faint sound I’d heard, the sound I’d been unable to pin down, they had succeeded. I assumed they’d come in through the bathroom window, probably slitting the screen and lifting it out. They’d seized Sheila when she entered the bedroom and then they’d forced her to strip off her clothing, and ordered her to lure me into the bed and off guard.

The man squatting nearby had searched my pockets and dumped their contents on the floor. He combed through them with his hand, pushing aside what failed to interest him. He looked my AXE lighter over and shoved it into his trousers pocket. Flipping open my wallet, he examined my identification. He appropriated the money and tossed the wallet over his shoulder. “Hey, Moose, catch.”

“Ned Harper,” the big man said, reading my driver’s license. He chuckled. “According to this, he’s a truck driver. How many truck drivers pack Lugers in shoulder holsters?”

I analyzed the conversation. These men didn’t know I was an AXE agent, so they weren’t associated with the assassin at the hotel. For the same reason, they probably weren’t responsible for Meredith’s murder. That confirmed my theory that I was dealing with two different sets of antagonists.

Sheila said, “I can’t tell you why he carried a gun. I only met him today. He talked to me in the restaurant. I liked his style, so I let him bring me home.”

“Needed a little sex, did you?”

“I haven’t had any lately,” she told Moose defiantly. “I’ve been too busy running from you to live a normal life.”

I wriggled my arm furtively, seeing if I could disengage the stiletto up my sleeve. No chance. They hadn’t pulled my jacket down far enough to reveal the knife’s hiding place, but they had accidentally succeeded in blocking its use.

“This bird’s no truck driver,” said the man squatted near me. “All this stuff says he is, but I’ll lay you odds he’s not. You saw how he handled himself.”

“Maybe the Mob sent him. That would be a laugh.” The big man walked over to me and leaned down. He turned me over and rocked my face with slaps.

Gasping as though I was just regaining consciousness, I opened my eyes wide. I saw a face masked by a stocking, wide shoulders, a neck like a bull’s. The hand that grasped my shirt front would have made two of mine and mine weren’t small.

The stocking bit had puzzled me at first. Why did they conceal their features when Sheila obviously knew them well? Then I’d realized that they hadn’t known who else they would encounter when they broke into the house. The masks were another precaution that labeled them as experts at their trade.

“How you feeling, stud?” the big man asked me.

My hair was damp with blood seeping from a cut near my ear and my head was throbbing with pain. When I spoke, my swelling lip made my voice sound as though I wore a boxer’s mouthpiece. “I feel great.”

The big man reached inside his coat, pulled his gun out of his belt, and rammed it against my Adam’s apple, causing me to gasp. “I’ve got a crowded schedule and I can only spare you a minute. Are you a hit man? Did the Mob send you here with a contract on the blonde?”

Struggling to draw an even breath, I glanced toward Sheila, who was huddled in a chair, still nude but with the remains of a ripped sheet clutched to her, partly concealing her body. Her fragile face was pale, the dark eyes filled with fright. She was worried not only about herself but about me.

“Speak up or you’ve had it,” Moose told me.

“Yes,” I said hoarsely.

Moose nodded and released my shirt front, let me fall. “Hear that, Sheila? You’re in trouble with the Mafia.”

“You’re the one who murdered Abruze.”

“But they don’t know that. They only know you were there and you didn’t get killed, so you must have fingered him.” Moose laughed loudly.

The third man appeared in the bedroom doorway. He was dressed like the others. “I pulled all the blinds and made a quick check of the house. The money doesn’t seem to be here.”

“If it is, she hid it well. Sheila’s a bright girl. Aren’t you, doll?”

“Too bright to cross you. I didn’t steal the money. I’ve told you that.”

“I left it with you. You were responsible for it.”

“Moose, if I had it, I’d give it to you. Can’t you see I’m scared to death?”

“You’re scared, all right, but people will go through a lot for $200,000. Who knows that better than me?” He gestured to the man in the doorway. “Go down the road and get our car and bring it to the house. We may be here for most of the night, but Sheila is going to give us what we want.”

“What if she doesn’t talk?”

“Sid, I hate for a man to look on the dark side of things. We’ve spent months trailing the girl and now we’ve found her. What does it take to get you to realize that matters have taken a turn for the better?”

“Two hundred thousand bucks would help,” Sid said.

“If she doesn’t tell us, by God, we’ll backtrack her through five states. We killed four men for that two hundred grand and it’s ours.”

Moose snatched the sheet away from the cowering girl. Then he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her out of the chair.

The last I saw of her, they were dragging her from the room.

I heard Sheila cry out and then her voice choked off. They had her in the kitchen. I didn’t know what they were doing to her, but I could imagine.

I had to find something to cut my bonds. I remembered the broken lamp that had fallen to the floor when I wrestled one of the killers against the bedside table. By rolling over, I could see under the bed to the other side. The shattered lamp still lay there. I rolled to the bed and under it. When I rolled out the other side, I was within reach of the lamp.

One piece of the lamp’s base looked sharp enough to cut the sheets binding my hands. I got up on my rear and squirmed around and felt for the jagged hunk of glass. Since I couldn’t see what I was doing, I’d probably slice up my hands, too, but that couldn’t be helped.

I was sitting there sawing away when one of the men came back.

“Look at you,” he said. It was Sid, the one Moose had sent after the car. “You stupid jerk. It would take you an hour to get loose that way.”

I heard Sheila cry out again, pain and terror in her voice. I clenched my teeth and worked at my bonds with the piece of glass clutched in my bleeding fingers. As long as the man in the doorway didn’t stop me, I’d keep trying to get free.