Diesel Read online

  Diesel swept the two women forward into the back seat of the car, as Jerricho jumped into the driver’s side, and Diesel too landed in the front seat.

  “Is this your car?” Eva asked from behind them.

  “No,” Diesel said, with a grin. “Not sure whose getaway car it is at all.”

  “So how do you know it’s safe?”

  “We don’t,” he said cheerfully.

  “Jesus,” she muttered.

  “You want to stay there and discuss it?” Jerricho asked her in surprise.

  “No,” she said. She looked at him and frowned. “Did you get him? The man who killed Paul?”

  “I did.”

  “Good,” Marge said passionately. “Paul didn’t deserve that.”

  Diesel looked at Jerricho and shrugged.

  “What do you mean by that?” Eva asked him.

  “By what?”

  “That look.”

  “Something was going on with Paul that I didn’t understand,” Diesel said.

  “Like what?”

  Diesel sighed and said, “It crossed my mind that he might have been a spy. He might have been making his life a little easier by tattling on whatever conversations you guys were having in the lab.”

  Eva just stared at him blankly.

  Marge cried out, and then, in shock and anger, she said, “He wouldn’t do that.”

  Diesel looked at Eva and asked, “Would he?”

  She stared at him wordlessly, considering his question.

  He nodded. “Think about how long he’s been here. Think about what his future looked like. Think about what the hope of actually being released would do for him.”

  Eva nodded slowly. “Paul was very conflicted, and we never quite understood why.”

  “You can’t surely believe him,” Marge said, motioning at Diesel.

  “I don’t know what I believe,” Eva said, turning to look at the older woman. “You know Paul better than I do.”

  “Of course I do,” she said passionately, “and he wasn’t the kind to do that.”

  Eva nodded. “And again, in your case, would you have done something like that?”

  The older woman looked at her in horror.

  “Think about it. If you were promised to get out of here in a couple days or a couple weeks, would you have reported on our conversations?”

  Marge stared at her, and her shoulders slumped. “I would have,” she admitted. “And honestly I would be very angry right now if that’s what Paul had had for a deal, and he hadn’t shared it.”

  “He couldn’t have shared it,” Eva said.

  “I hope he didn’t have that as a deal,” she said, “because then that freedom was taken away from him as well.”

  “It’s pretty hard not to think about a deal like this,” Eva said to her.

  “I really liked him,” Marge whispered.

  “So did I, and I certainly wouldn’t judge him for trying to end this hell.”

  “No,” Marge said, tears appearing in the corner of her eyes. “He was a good man. I refuse to believe anything different.”

  “You don’t have to,” she said gently. “Even if he did whatever he needed to do to get out of here, we can’t hold that against him. You and I both know how terrible it was in there. And we haven’t been here as long as Paul was.”

  Marge nodded slowly. “It was so awful.” And she started to cry softly, her tears painful in the silence.

  Jerricho turned to check the rearview and side mirrors.

  “Are we being followed?” Diesel asked.

  “No,” he said, “nothing that I can see.”

  “What a mess,” Eva said.

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting the Russians,” Diesel said.

  “We need to get the word out,” Jerricho said.

  Diesel pulled out his phone and sent Shane a message. We are out plus 2. Gunfire in lab building. Probably Russians cleaning house. Need safe house. He turned to Jerricho. “What do you want to tell him?”

  “That the Russian kidnapped scientist died a couple weeks ago.”

  Diesel turned to Eva. “Do you know any of the details?”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t.” She looked at Marge, but she still sobbed in the corner.

  “I’ve asked for a safe place for the night,” Diesel said, quickly reading the answering text.

  “Good,” Jerricho said. “We need a place to rest, and I don’t know if the women need medical attention.”

  Diesel looked at the other two. Eva shook her head, but then she nodded toward Marge. “Marge, are you okay physically?”

  She looked up with tears washing her cheeks, still experiencing heavy sorrow. “I’m okay. If I can get out of here, I’ll be that much better, and I will recover,” she said a little more robustly. “It’s just so very sad to think that something like this is allowed to happen.”

  “And, if you had a place to go home to, would you go back to Australia or home to the US?”

  “Honestly right now, back to Australia, but I don’t know if that’s even feasible.”

  “We’ll do what we can,” he said. He looked at Eva. “You?”

  “The US,” she said, “Boston.” He raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. “That’s family.”

  “Got it,” he said. At that, he sent off several more messages and waited for a response. While he waited, he checked the roads around them. “Still so empty.”

  “I know. It’s like the calm before the storm.”

  “Don’t say that,” Eva said from behind them. “The last thing we want is any more attacks.”

  “Doesn’t matter what we want,” Diesel said. “Chances are, it’s in the works.” There was silence behind him. He twisted, looked at Eva, and asked, “You okay?”

  Fear was in her gaze, but she nodded slowly. “Does this ever end?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Are you working for a private company that’ll sell your research?”

  “Maybe,” she said, “but I’m a contractor, and part of my stipulations for working with them was that a certain amount of my work would be allowed to go to the public for free.”

  “Well, if you did that in this case,” he said, “nobody would have to kidnap you for your research, would they?”

  “I don’t know if the company went through with it.”

  “Or your kidnapping didn’t give them a chance,” he said.

  “How many people have to die for this to be something that others can work on too? Monetizing these cures,” she said, “that’s where the big money is and where too many focus, instead of saving people.”

  “I get that. I still want to understand how these drugs cost what they do because it seems like it’s ripping off the little guy at the end of the day. However, if you keep creating breakthroughs, then this problem may never go away.”

  “Great,” she muttered.

  “Or you make it part of your next contract where maybe you give your newfound drug cures to the poor for free. But, for sure, the company must be required to supply security.”

  “I hear you. I don’t know what that would be like, after having guards at my back for the last ten days in that lab.”

  “No, and there’s never an easy answer,” he murmured.

  “I get it. I just wish that we had a better system.”

  “Well, think about it,” he said. “Come up with an idea that would make you happy over all this and present it to your company. And let’s hope your company isn’t involved in some way.”

  She winced at that. “I don’t even like to hear you say that. I don’t know why they would be. They are already in on my research.”

  “Right, but this breakthrough gives the company an awful lot of publicity now, doesn’t it?”

  “I hope not,” she said, staring at him in shock.

  “Why?”

  “Something like this isn’t ready for publicity.”

  “But didn’t the stocks go up?” he asked in a dry, sarcastic voice.

  She
sagged back. “I don’t think I like the way your mind works,” she murmured.

  “Maybe not,” he said, “but it’s usually the reality of things.”

  Chapter 4

  Eva still reeled from the thought that Paul had been killed. It hurt to consider he might have turned against them. Did she blame him? No, she didn’t because she hadn’t been there very long, yet her captors had been horrible. To even consider this was a lifetime sentence, she probably would have grabbed at any opportunity to change it. But it hurt seeing Paul murdered like that and knowing how distraught Marge was. It was easy to see just how downhill everything was going right now.

  Still Eva was damn grateful to be out of there. She couldn’t imagine the endless anguish Paul must have faced, being stuck there in captivity for over a year.

  As she sat here in the growing darkness, she wondered just where she would end up. She leaned forward and asked, “Is there any way to tell my father that I’m out?”

  He looked at her in surprise. “Does he know you were kidnapped?”

  “Probably not. He went underground after a big upset a while back,” she said quietly. “He lives in a cabin out on one of the Wisconsin lakes. At least I hope he still does.”

  “Do you have a number for him?”

  She nodded and gave it to him.

  He quickly typed the number into his phone and called it.

  When it rang continuously, she stared at it in surprise. But then a familiar voice came through the phone. “Hello.”

  She snatched the cell from Diesel’s hand. “Dad?”

  “Eva,” her father shouted.

  “Hi,” she murmured.

  “What are you calling for?”

  And then she realized he had no clue. “I just wanted to hear your voice,” she said, catching Diesel’s look, as he shook his head.

  “Well, I’m always happy to hear from you,” he said. “Normally you don’t sound this worried. Are you coming to visit soon?”

  “You know what? I think I will,” she said. “I don’t exactly have a date just yet.”

  “That’s fine. It’s good to hear from you,” he said.

  “How is the fishing?” she asked, tears coming to her eyes. She wiped them back, trying to keep her voice clear, as the tears clogged her throat.

  “It’s perfect,” he said. “The best decision I ever made was to move out here permanently. You should come and fish a bit.”

  “I think when I come that I’ll stay for a few days.”

  “In that case, something’s going on in your world,” he said worriedly.

  “No,” she said, “I just realized I’m in need of a break.”

  “Great,” he said, sounding relieved. “Let me know as soon as you can, and I’ll set up some of the best fishing spots, and we can go out.”

  And she smiled because she knew that, for her dad, these days really meant spending all his time on the lake fishing. But that was okay too. “You got any new friends?”

  “Maybe,” he said, with a cheeky tone. “What about you?”

  She smiled, looked at Diesel, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “No, still single, Dad.”

  “You can’t work all the time,” he said gently. “There’s more to life than that.”

  “I know,” she said, “but I’ve lost an awful lot in life too.”

  “And you can’t have your mother’s death be what drives you.”

  She heard the grief in his voice. “If I’d done that,” she said, “I would have gone into gun reform.”

  “I know you love her, but don’t let this mark your entire world.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice?” she said. “Anyway I just wanted you to know that I love you.”

  “And I love you too,” he said.

  After ending the call, she gave the phone back to Diesel and whispered, “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “What happened to your mom?”

  She winced. “A break-in. He entered and shot my mom in the kitchen to get some food,” she said. “I was seven, upstairs, hiding in my room.”

  “Oh, my God,” Marge said, beside her.

  She nodded. “It’s one of the reasons why the kidnapping was particularly difficult for me,” she said. “I never really realized how much your history wraps around your psyche and hits you where it counts.”

  “Always,” Diesel said. “But you seem to have worked through it.”

  “I don’t know about that,” she said softly. “As my father said, I’ve let it dominate a lot of my life. Took me a long time to stand being locked up—as I was in my closet, while it was going on.”

  “And, of course, you heard it all,” he murmured.

  She smiled weakly, nodded, and said, “Yes. I wanted to go into law enforcement for a long time and then realized that I really only wanted to put them in jail. I learned that the killer was high on drugs, and he was on drugs because his family had been decimated by disease. He couldn’t handle the grief. That’s when I decided that there was no point in treating the symptom. I needed to work on the cure.”

  He looked at her in surprise.

  She smiled. “I know. Kind of an ideological way to go through life, but it worked for me. I found that scientific lab work was actually where my heart belongs, and so I’ve been really enjoying it,” she said, “until now.”

  “Let’s keep it that way.”

  “You’re safe now,” Jerricho said.

  “Do you think so?” she said. “Or will we still be looking over our shoulders?”

  Both men stayed silent at that.

  She nodded. “Any chance of food?” she murmured. “We haven’t eaten in a long time.”

  Jerricho nodded. “As soon as we can. We’ll find a safe house first.”

  “Where?”

  “That’s the question,” Diesel said. Just then his phone buzzed. He looked at the screen and said, “Now I have an address.” He held it out for Jerricho, who said, “Pop that in the GPS, will you?” And, once in the GPS, they took a look and said, “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  Jerricho quickly changed lanes, turned around corners, and headed in the right direction for their safe house.

  She sat back. “Ten minutes? I can handle that.” She looked over at Marge, smiled, patted her hand, and said, “Smile, we’re almost safe.”

  She nodded. “Maybe, but it’s only an almost,” she said.

  “We’re not locked up anymore.”

  Marge whispered, “Exactly.”

  Eva caught Diesel looking at Marge, curled up in the corner of the seat, her head against the seat back.

  “I’d just like to be on US or Australian soil,” she said, with a yawn.

  “Food, a shower, and a good night’s sleep,” Eva said, “and everything looks different.”

  Marge smiled at her. “It’ll look different, but it’ll still look Chinese.”

  She laughed at that. “Well, that’s fair, since we are still in China.” She looked over at Diesel. “Thank you, by the way.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

  “Is this what you really do for a living?” she asked, fascinated.

  “Right now, yes.”

  She nodded and said, “It’s just amazing.”

  “What?”

  “That we’re even alive,” she said. “It’s just hard to believe, at this point, that I was locked up in that small room, and now I’m here. It’s like a dream. Or maybe more like waking up from a nightmare.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure that you’ll be locked up in a hotel room next,” he said cheerfully.

  She groaned. “Seriously?”

  “Until we can get you back home again.”

  “At least it’s progress.” She stayed quiet, until they went through a series of turns at multiple corners, and she realized that their behavior was ever-so-slightly erratic, yet controlled. She leaned forward and asked, “Are we being followed?”

  “We hope not,” Jerricho, the driver, said, “but we can’t
take the chance.”

  And, just like that, they dipped into an underground parking lot and parked. She looked at him and said, “Now what?”

  “We’re here,” Diesel said. He hopped out, opened the vehicle, and helped her out. Then he quickly removed the duffel bags that they had and some of the gear that they had taken off the guards. Keeping an eye on her and Marge, Diesel and Jerricho ushered the two women between them, as they led the way to a set of stairs, where they were quickly moved upstairs.

  “Is this a hotel?” Eva asked.

  “No,” he said. “We have an apartment. A safe house.”

  But it was an apartment in a big building, so, as they moved through the hallways, she was surprised that nobody else appeared to be around, and then, just as suddenly, the guys had a door opened, and they were inside.

  She took a step in and noted several bedrooms and a bathroom, all fully furnished. She turned to look at him, smiled, and said, “Now all we need is food.”

  “Not to worry, it’s coming.”

  She nodded, walked over, and took the first bedroom, which had two twin beds. She dropped onto the closest one and closed her eyes.

  “Are you sure you want to sleep?”

  “No,” she said, “not at all. Maybe a shower first but it just looked too inviting not to lie down.”

  “Maybe, yet the food’s coming. So how about a quick shower and then food?”

  She looked over at Marge, who was sitting on the edge of the second bed. “Marge, do you want a shower first?”

  Marge shook her head. “No, I’ll eat, then shower, and then sleep.”

  So Eva got up, looked at the guys, and said, “I guess you can’t magically produce some clean clothes, can you?”

  “I can have them for you by morning,” he said.

  She nodded and headed to the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes, entered the warm flowing water, and scrubbed herself down, top to bottom. By the time she was done, she felt the weariness pulling on her. She put her uniform back on again, and, while busy braiding her hair into a long braid down her right shoulder, she stepped back out and headed for the kitchen.

  There the smells hit her first.

  “I didn’t realize that it had arrived.” She looked at the array in astonishment. “I didn’t hear this arrive, and there’s so much of it.”