Girl Undercover 10 & 11: The Abduction & Dante's Inferno Read online

  “Adler, not Adele. Yeah, probably. I actually don’t know if they’ve come up with a way to make sure all their product is straight, but it makes sense that they’d prefer them to be hetero. Surely being gay would be considered a flaw in their twisted minds.”

  “Either way, they can both be trusted, so don’t you worry about them. Where are we gonna put the doctors? You have a place in mind?”

  “Not yet. But I’ll think of one. Unless you know of a good one?”

  Dante scrunched up his face, staring out over the road before us that had filled up with more and more cars the closer to Santa Monica we got. “How long are we gonna keep them?”

  “Potentially almost six months.”

  Dante snapped his head around, staring at me instead. “Six months? That’s a long fuckin’ time.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s hope it won’t be for that long, but it could be. The coups are supposed to take place New Year’s Eve and that’s five and a half months’ away. But hopefully Ian and I will have found a way to stop them long before that, and then we don’t need to keep the doctors any longer. I’ll be able to stop pretending I’m with my mother—who’s gonna turn out to be an incredible challenge for them to cure.” I sighed as I envisioned my conversations regarding this issue with Jonah. He’d be in for some tough news. This time around, his father’s amazing doctors would not only fail to cure my mom’s cancer in a week or two, they would fail to cure her at all. And all the while I’d have to make them come up with new plausible reasons as to why they kept failing. To say it would be a challenge was a gross understatement, actually.

  “If we need to keep them for that long, we should put them in an apartment or a house somewhere they’ll be hard to find,” Dante said. “And from where they’ll have a hard time escaping in case they try.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably best. Know of any of those?”

  “Let me sleep on it and I should be able to come up with one. You wanna come to my house or are you going to your old apartment?”

  Just the thought of going back to the apartment where I used to live with Nick made me shiver like I was naked in Iceland during winter. I’d gone there once to pick up clothes and other stuff to bring with me as I prepared for my trip to New York, having taken a boatload of anti-anxiety pills to dull my senses prior. But I didn’t think I’d be able to do it again, no matter how numbed out I was, not to mention sleep in the bedroom where I’d found my husband’s brutalized body.

  I cleared my throat and pushed away the jarring images of that fateful day. “Actually, I had planned on sleeping at the W in Westwood.”

  “Are you kiddin’ me? You’ve booked a hotel room in your hometown? I can see why you don’t want to go back to your old place, but why not stay with your parents? Or me? Ricki would love it if you came over.”

  “Well, the reason I’m not staying with my parents is ’cause I’m not ready to deal with all the questions they’ll bombard me with. You know how they are. The hair alone is enough for them to think I’m struggling so much with my grief that I’ve transformed into another person. Not to say I haven’t struggled with grief, but I’m not in the mood nor do I have the time to discuss it with my parents. And I’d love to see Ricki and my godson, but I honestly think it would be wiser if we kept mum about my return to the city for now.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. If we’re gonna keep those two hostage for six months, there’ll be plenty of time for you to see your godson and everyone else anyway.”

  “Exactly. So take me to the W.”

  “Okay. Have you told Brady yet?”

  When Dante went to visit my captain a second time, he found out that Brady had been released from the hospital due to having improved drastically. I received an email from my boss only hours after Dante had texted me he was gone. In the email, Brady apologized for taking so long before he got back to me, explaining that he’d suffered a massive heart attack and had been hospitalized, but was now fully recovered, though not back at work yet. He also mentioned that he’d been wrong about the two suspects, who had been cut loose after being interrogated. He ended the email with a wish that I was happy in Hungary and that he was still confident Nick’s killers would be found despite the misstep.

  “No,” I replied to Dante’s question. “But I will talk to him soon. After we’ve abducted the doctors. Since I’ve yet to inform him about the conspiracy, I don’t think he’d be okay with what we’re going to do. We are after all about to break the law. In a big way…”

  Chapter 3

  Dante and I were standing in one of the recently built conference rooms in the terminal at the Van Nuys Airport, gazing out at the dark evening sky through thick glass walls. The walls were divided into several smaller squares due to lots of steel grating, which made me feel like I was in a high-tech prison.

  “There it is,” Dante said, pointing at a tiny shape approaching us. In silence we watched how Stenger’s jet grew bigger and bigger in the sky, then landed on the long runway outside. A myriad of small red and orange lights outlined the landing strip, making it easy to see what was on it. There was no doubt this plane belonged to The Adler Group—the company’s name was painted in large, bright letters on the aircraft’s body, impossible to ignore.

  I turned to face Dante, who was dressed more conservatively tonight, in a white, long-sleeved dress shirt and a pair of dark slacks. His hair was slicked-back with hair gel to keep his unruly locks in place, giving him the look of a professional driver. There was nothing that could be done about the tattoo at the side of his neck, but hopefully the doctors wouldn’t peek at my “driver” too closely.

  “You’re sure they will have no problem following our car?” I asked him, referring to Dante’s two trainers. They were sitting with Jose in a black, nondescript sedan parked a block away from where our own was, the exact same type of car. Neither Dante nor I had thought it was a good idea to use his Vette when picking up the doctors to bring them to the UCLA Medical Center. The flaming red convertible was much too attention-grabbing and the last thing we wanted tonight was attention.

  Dante squeezed my shoulder. “Stop worrying so much, querida. Jose is a great driver. Even better than me, goddammit.” He grimaced good-naturedly.

  I exhaled, watching how the jet outside came to a full stop. “Sorry. I guess I won’t be able to relax until we have those two safely tucked away in the apartment.”

  “It’ll be okay. I promise. It’s not the first time we’ve done an abduction.” He gave me a lopsided little grin.

  I smiled back at him, not doubting his words. Dante had told me many stories of his years as a member of the Latin Devils; kidnappings had been one of various common tasks for the gangbangers. Even so, if something went wrong tonight and we failed, Jonah would kill me. Literally. At least try, and that would seriously hamper our resistance efforts.

  We lapsed into silence as we watched the doctors leave the plane, then were escorted by airport staffers to the conference room we were in. It appeared the two men had only brought hand luggage, because I couldn’t spot anyone unloading the plane for suitcases. They must believe they’re here for a short stay, I thought. Well, they’re in for a rude awakening.

  As they neared the glass doors, I smoothed out imaginary wrinkles on my shirt, adjusted my neat ponytail and squared my shoulders. It’s all going to be okay, I told myself. I could handle this.

  The airport staffer opened the glass door and motioned for the two doctors to enter. Dante and I walked over there. I pulled my lips into a polite smile as I extended my hand to the first doctor, a middle-aged, chunky man with a hook nose, pasty skin and a double chin. He wore a gray, expensive-looking suit and carried a shiny black briefcase in addition to his hand luggage.

  “Hello, I’m Jamie, Jonah’s girlfriend,” I said to him as he took my hand and gave it a firm shake. “Thanks so much for being here on such short notice. We’re all so grateful.”

  “It’s our pleasure,” the doctor responded, revealing a set of fake-looking caps when he smiled back at me. “My name is Dr. Kelly. Andrew Kelly. Nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise.” I turned to face the other doctor, a skinnier, taller man who was also somewhere in his late forties and dressed in professional attire. He had a huge Adam’s apple and a balding head that he was trying to hide by combing what little hair he had across the bald spot. I learned that his name was Dr. Jarek Juback when I shook his hand.

  “How’s your mother doing?” Dr. Juback asked in a soft yet commanding voice.

  Automatically, I began to wring my hands across my chest, making myself assume a deeply concerned expression. “Oh, it’s not good. We should probably head over there right away so you can take a look at her. I… I don’t think she has much time left.”

  “Take us to her and we’ll see if we can’t make her well again,” Dr. Juback said with authority.

  “Thank you, thank you,” I said with a grateful smile. “My driver, Dante, will take us there immediately then.”

  The two men gave Dante a nod. My friend made a sweeping motion with his hand toward the conference room’s exit and the four of us headed over there.

  Dante walking right behind us, the doctors and I engaged in polite small talk as we continued over to the black sedan parked close to the airport terminal. We were soon seated in the car, Dante and I in the front and the doctors in the backseat.

  I was delighted to learn that neither of the doctors were familiar with Los Angeles. That should make our task easier, as they would have no idea if we were actually driving toward Santa Monica where the UCLA Medical Center was situated. Instead, we would be heading toward Downtown L.A. and one of the new high rises in that area. We would keep the doctors in a two bedroom-apartment there. The place belonged to Sammy,
one of the trainers Dante had recruited, who wasn’t really using it because he stayed with his boyfriend in Malibu most of the time. After some discussion, Dante and I had concluded that the apartment was our best option, much easier to guard than a house as it only had one entrance. Of course, the fact that it was a residential building might complicate things, despite that Sammy claimed the walls were virtually soundproof and the apartment on one of the top floors.

  Not even when we drove our car into the apartment building’s underground parking lot and parked our car there did the doctors seem to worry that we weren’t actually heading to see my dying mother.

  Still chatting politely about meaningless stuff, we left the car and walked alongside other parked cars toward a bank of elevators. Taking the elevator directly from the parking area up to the apartment instead of entering via the street entrance enabled us to avoid the building’s overly friendly concierge. It was only as we waited for the elevator to come down that the doctors began to realize that maybe we weren’t inside UCLA Medical Center after all. I could instantly tell by the way Dr. Kelly’s relaxed smile seemed to have frozen in place on his round face.

  Because I’d seen Jose and his two companions park their sedan a few spots away from ours in one of the rearview mirrors right as we were about to exit, I felt confident everything would go as planned. So I smiled at Dr. Kelly and asked him if everything was okay.

  He cleared his throat, not looking well at all. Still, he managed to say, “Yes. I’ve just never seen a hospital that looks quite like this.”

  “It’s a very private hospital,” I replied congenially. “All the patients have their own apartment.”

  Dr. Kelly gazed at me like he didn’t buy that for one second. “Is that so?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly how it is,” I replied. The elevator arrived in that moment and an Asian girl with a dog came out of it. She smiled big at us and said a perky “hi!” before walking around us and continuing deeper into the parking lot.

  The two doctors exchanged looks, clearly not comfortable with the situation. Dr. Juback was about to say something when I cut him off, calling out a hello to Jose and the two trainers. They were quickly approaching us now.

  “Good timing,” I told Jose, who flashed me a conspiratorial grin. Unlike Dante, Jose, a short, slightly built man in his early thirties, wore his regular, casual outfit—a pair of baggy jeans and a big T-shirt that said I don’t need Google, my wife knows everything. Flanked by the muscular trainers, also casually dressed, he looked smaller than usual. The three men joined us, forming a wall around the doctors and us that effectively blocked out potential interference by tenants having parked their cars and wanting to use the elevators. Not that any were.

  “What is going on here?” Dr. Kelly asked, pearls of sweat having formed around his hairline. “You’re not taking us to your mother, are you?” The question was directed at me.

  “Nope,” I said, having placed one foot inside the elevator to stop it from closing. “We’re going upstairs to an apartment where we’ll hang for a while. Talk a little about life. Get inside the elevator.”

  “What if we don’t?” Dr Juback said sharply, not about to be ordered around as easily as his colleague seemed to be.

  “Please don’t make this any harder than it already is for us,” I said to him in an undertone, mindful of the fact that at any given moment other people could join us and they may not be as easy-going as the dog walker had been. “There is nothing you can do but follow our orders. Not unless you want a bullet between your eyebrows.”

  I nodded toward Jose, who was holding a gun in his hand now and pointing it discreetly at Dr. Juback. Jose might not have big guns, but he was good with guns. Handguns.

  “I always hit my targets,” Jose said with an affable smile on his lips.

  That was all the encouragement Dr. Kelly needed at least, because he was inside the elevator car two seconds later. Staring at his more resistant colleague, he hissed, “What’s the matter with you? Do as they say!”

  Snorting with disapproval, Dr. Juback joined his friend, and the rest of us also walked into the elevator. I pushed the Twenty-Two button and the car began to move upward, rapidly bringing us to that floor. Dr. Juback glared at me and sneered, “Whatever it is that you’re doing, you won’t get away with it. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

  I smiled at him, not about to be intimidated. “Let’s see about that.”

  We exited the elevator and Sammy opened the apartment, all seven of us filing into the dark space. Someone flipped on a light switch, causing everything to suddenly bathe in brightness. We were standing in a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows that gave us a great view of the intricate patterns the Los Angeles freeways formed as a few of them connected in one area like a giant knot. Tons of cars rushed over them in every direction, producing an array of different-colored light streaks. Even though this was a corner unit, I wasn’t too happy about the fact that there was a balcony there. It didn’t connect to a neighbor on either side, but there was a balcony directly under that you could lower yourself into if you were brave enough. Two men who were kidnapped might brave the twenty-two floors above ground in order to escape. Dante had told me not to worry about the easy access the men would have to the outside world; he would have two men watching the doctors at all times—Jose had gotten another dude to join our crew—and his men didn’t make mistakes. On such short notice, it was either this apartment or putting them in a garage somewhere. Given those options, I had chosen the apartment. I didn’t see the point in making the men suffer unnecessarily while in confinement.

  “Please have a seat,” I said to the two doctors, indicating the low white leather couch shaped into an L. There was a coffee table with a glass top and chrome legs in the middle of it.

  The doctors walked over to the couch and took a seat, both of them at the edge of it. I sat down on the square leather stool on the other side of it so I faced the doctors.

  “Do you know who you’re dealing with?” Dr. Juback repeated, glaring at me with his black eyes, arms crossed over his chest and his mouth pressed into a thin line.

  “Yes, doctor, I do know,” I said to him. “We’re dealing with Otto Stenger, the leader of your movement to create a brave, new world. Come on, did you honestly think I didn’t know that?” I raised a brow at him. “I’m dating his son, ain’t I?”

  “Then you also know he’s a man you don’t want to cross,” Dr. Juback said simply. “Whatever it is you have in mind for us, you should think twice about it. We are two of his very best doctors. If he loses us, I can assure you, he’ll make you suffer. Suffer a lot.”

  “Good thing that he won’t be losing you then,” I countered. “Well, only for a short while.”

  “Why have you brought us here?” Dr. Kelly asked then, in a much more agreeable tone.

  “Because it was my only choice,” I told him truthfully. “I lied to Jonah that I had a mother who was dying from cancer. My mother is alive and happy. But I had to get away from him, and that was the reason I used—blaming it on my sick mother back home. I had no idea he would insist on sending you two over here to cure her. Trust me, I tried to convince him my mother would die either way. He would have none of that, and instead accused me of being ungrateful.”

  I thought about Jonah’s reaction, then, “Well, that’s an understatement actually. He got furious and I thought he was going to beat me up. Thankfully, he didn’t. Well, thankfully for me. For you, the story is different. You probably wouldn’t be sitting here if he’d punched me as I would have had to defend myself.” I gave a lopsided little smile that should convey to them that I would never let a man put a hand on me in that way. Or a woman for that matter. “But he pulled himself together at last and here we are.”

  I could tell the doctors knew exactly what I was talking about from the way both of them had instantly tensed up. Their strong reaction took me by surprise.