Chapter Six
ACER
Everything about the trip so far had been uneventful. The only hiccup had been when I called Brax to let him know. As expected, he questioned me about my decision. I was brief in my response, saying that an FBI agent was accompanying me and it was their request that I go. “Just a quick there and back and I’ll see you either late tonight or in the morning.”
“Fine. Just be careful. I never did like that friend of yours.”
“I know. And I will.”
We landed on time and picked up our rental car. Paulie lived in Brooklyn so it wasn’t too bad of a drive to his place.
“We’ll circle the block, but when we do, I want you to lay low,” Isla said.
“Why?”
“If there’s anyone doing surveillance, they might recognize you.”
Then I remembered something. “Hey, we can go in the back door. There’s an alley we can park in.”
She gave me a quick glance as she was behind the wheel. “I don’t like the sound of that. Any number of people could be hanging out back there. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had cameras on the place too. That goes for the bureau as well. We want to look like two friends who are coming to pay him a visit.”
That made sense. “You’re the brains behind this, so I’ll go with whatever you say.”
She told me when to get down as we neared his place. After we made the first pass, she said, “We’ll have to go in on foot. His place is covered. I spotted a van and two cars with people in them.”
“Do you think they’re the FBI?”
“The van probably is but I have no idea on the cars. I’ll park and we’ll walk from there. A heads-up. Once they figure out someone is inside, we won’t have much time and we’ll have to run back here, so be ready.”
It was early December and cold, so I put my hood up over my baseball cap. She wore a coat and hat too. We got out and walked the couple of blocks over, approaching from the back. The alley was dark and before we entered, we checked it out to see if anyone was back there. Sure enough, there were two more cars.
“What do you want to do?” I asked.
“Our plan was to check on him so that’s what we’re going to do.”
“Then let’s go.” We entered the dark alley and a sense of apprehension hit me like a truck. Up until now, I hadn’t felt the danger, but it reminded me of what I experienced waiting for Reynolds to pick me up at that dark rest area. When we got to the back door, it looked the same as the last time I was here. There were bushes lining the building and a bunch of junk back there. Paulie wasn’t the neatest guy in town. I went behind the shrubbery and found what I was looking for. It was a stack of empty plastic pots. The first time Paulie had shown this to me I laughed because he was the last person who would ever plant anything. In one of the empty pots, that were now filled with frozen slush, a key was stashed. I found it as Isla let out a quiet chuckle.
“That helps.”
“It sure does.” I slipped the key into the lock and went to open the door, but her hand stopped me.
“Better let me enter first. Just in case.”
I waved my hand and said, “After you, ma’am.”
Once inside, I went to flip on the lights, but she stopped me again before I had the chance. “You’ll bring everyone running if you do that.”
“They know we’re here anyway.”
“True, but this way, if we can get out, they won’t get a clear look at us with it being so dark.”
The if we can get out part set me on edge even further than I was.
As we advanced into the home, I was shocked at what I saw. The place had been turned upside down. His couch was flipped on its side with all the stuffing ripped out. The same thing had been done to the chairs.
“Jesus, someone was certainly searching for something,” I said.
“They sure were.”
The kitchen was just as bad and I was afraid when I got to the bedroom, Paulie would be back there dead, but he wasn’t anywhere inside.
“Whoever did this knew what they were looking for and didn’t find it.”
Then I spied a cell phone on the floor. “Look.” I reached for it, only she grabbed my arm.
“Wait. It may have fingerprints on it.” She put on a glove then dropped it inside a baggie.
That’s when we heard footsteps running toward the front. After a quick glance at each other she said, “Let’s go.”
We both sprinted out the back door, not waiting to see who came in, and ran to the car. Not wasting a second, we jumped in and drove off.
We made it a few blocks away when I heard a weird popping sound. She yelled, “Get down! They’re firing at us.”
“Firing?” My brain didn’t register.
“Gunshots.” Just as she said it, the back window shattered and she jammed down on the accelerator. “We’re being tailed.” She grabbed her weapon and handed it to me. “Fire back at them.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
How was I going to do that when I didn’t know what I was firing at? “What if I hurt someone?”
“That’s the idea.”
“No, someone innocent.”
“You won’t, just aim out the back window and fire. They’re right behind us. Hurry. You can’t miss.”
I let off several shots. I hadn’t fired a gun in ages so those bullets could’ve gone anywhere.
“You must’ve hit something because they’ve backed off.” She sped up even more. “We need a plan.”
“Agreed. Maybe one that doesn’t involve guns in a high-speed chase.” Even though the inside of the car was freezing, I was sweating profusely.
“They’ll be looking for this car. We need to ditch it and grab a taxi.”
I glanced around to check out our surroundings. It wasn’t exactly the place you’d find a cab and we couldn’t afford to wait for an Uber. “Keep driving. We need to go somewhere more crowded.”
I pulled up the GPS on my phone and found an area close by with some restaurants. I directed her there and she parked the car. “Come on. No time to waste,” she said.
We both jumped out, ran about a block away, and hailed a taxi. There were plenty of people around, but I was still scared they’d find us. They knew us but we didn’t know them. I didn’t feel remotely safe until we boarded the plane back to Atlanta.
“What will you tell the rental car agency?”
“I’ll have our travel department handle it,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Does this stuff happen a lot?”
She gazed at me for a moment and then laughed. It was a tension breaker. “No, not like that. We usually have to hunt people down, but getting your rear window shot out isn’t routine.”
“Honestly, I didn’t think we’d get out of there alive.”
“What? You didn’t have confidence in me?” She smirked. It was sexy as hell.
“Nah, it wasn’t that. I didn’t have confidence in my shooting skills. It’s been ages since I fired a gun.”