Richard nodded. “We got this. We’ve all been shot at before. But I gotta warn you, they start shooting to kill, my boys won’t leave them alive when this is done. You okay with that?”
“You have no idea.”
“No, what I mean is, are you gonna publish that? ‘Cause, you can’t really put murder in that book. It would fuck with our reputation again.”
“I know, I know. I got it. Everything in the book will go past you first. I won’t publish a thing without you approving it.”
“And my picture still goes on the cover?”
“Yes, Richard, your picture.”
“H. Call me H and consider your debt to my biker club paid when you write that book.”
“Get me out of here alive tonight so I can write it and I’m indebted to you, H.”
“ In debted? What’s that?”
One of the bikers shouted from off in the woods to their left.
“This is it. You know what to do.”
“We got this,” H said. He grabbed his bat and hustled off, disappearing in the darkness behind a line of trees.
Darwin adjusted the flashlight and headed for the hangar. As soon as he entered, a pair of headlights came up the road slowly. Darwin watched and waited.
As it drew closer, he tried to see make and model. It looked like an FBI car. One of the same kind of Crown Victorias Greg drove.
It slowed and stopped on the road near the entrance.
The driver honked his horn.
Is this a trap?
Darwin stared at the vehicle. No one moved to get out. It was so dark already, he could barely tell if anyone sat in the backseat.
Dad?
He leaned out the door a little, his stomach a ball of nerves again as the end of the whole Fuccini ordeal was coming to a close.
The driver rolled down his window a little and shouted something.
Darwin couldn’t hear him too well.
“What’s that?” Darwin yelled back.
“Get in the car.”
He heard him perfectly this time. But that was insane. He wasn’t about to get in the car.
“Are you alone?” the driver yelled.
Of course, they want to know if I’m alone. This is a trick. I get in, the car explodes. Easy fix. Done deal. Well, no fucking way.
“Get in the car or I drive away and you’ll never see her again.”
Her?
Darwin stepped closer. There just wasn’t enough light to see inside the back of the vehicle.
The driver must’ve seen him bending over and glaring at the back window. He turned on the interior light.
Rosina sat in the rear of the vehicle, abject fear on her face, shaking her head back and forth.
“You have thirty-seconds to decide if you ever want to see your wife again.”
He had no choice. He could play hard ball with Fuccini, but not when his wife was involved.
Is this a test? Are they seeing if I’ll come out into the open so a sniper can pick me off?
No, impossible. H’s men would have warned him if a sniper was close enough to take a shot.
He stepped closer.
“Ten-seconds to decide. If you do not get in the vehicle, I will explain to Fuccini that you weren’t interested in meeting him. Your father and your wife will be murdered in the most brutal way possible. Then Fuccini told me to tell you that he’ll mail you their body parts for months to come. So, save us all a lot of trouble and get in the backseat beside your wife. I’ll drive you to where we’re meeting Mr. Fuccini.”
That’s it. Everything he had planned, gone in a moment’s decision. How could he think that he could deal with a man like Fuccini? Why did he ever feel that he could match the man with wits and acumen regarding the dealing of human lives? Fuccini would always be more ruthless, more vile.
Darwin, against everything he had set out to do at the hangar, stepped forward, one foot in front of the other.
He was in a daze. He was walking to his certain death. He had condemned his wife and he was going to die for it. His father would be collateral.
It was over and he was powerless to stop it.
As he reached for the back door’s handle, it clicked to unlock. He opened the door and got into the seat beside his wife. He barely had the door closed when Rosina fell into his arms, crying and asking him through her tears why, why did he get in the car.
The driver locked the doors and skidded the tires in the dirt as he performed a U-turn and raced away from the hangar.
“Rosina, I had to. I couldn’t leave you to die alone. I started this. I have to pay for it. It’s all my fault.”
She put her head on his stomach and let the sobs shake her apart as she gripped him.
Darwin turned his flashlight on his face as he listened to the driver on the phone. He needed to see if the driver would reveal a location. Maybe Darwin could use his disposable phone to call the police before they got there.
“Yes, I know. No, no,” the driver said. “I got him. Yes.” A pause, then, “No, he came willingly. There was no one here but him. I know because I drove right up to the hangar. I flashed my headlights into the main door. He’s alone. I’d know. I would’ve been told if the FBI were supposed to be here. I got him and I’ll be there soon.”
The driver looked in the rear view mirror at Darwin and then said, “I know, the guy’s crazy. He was actually gonna trade himself in. Brave, if you ask me. Okay, okay.” Then the driver closed his phone and tossed it on the seat beside him.
He looked back at Darwin and said, “You are one crazy dude. I gotta say, I’ve never met anyone like you. Wish you were on our side-”
Something hit the side of the car. It swerved so violently Darwin felt they were going to flip. The driver screamed like a girl as he tried to correct the spin.
Another bang vibrated the car, which spun even faster. The force of the spin caused Darwin to lean hard into the side door, Rosina up against him.
After what felt like five minutes, even though it all happened in ten seconds, the car came to a stop by the tree line. At the moment it stopped, the driver’s side window busted, tiny diamond-sized pieces of glass cascading everywhere. Rough arms yanked the driver out.
It all happened so fast, Darwin could only stare dumbfounded as their would-be kidnapper was lifted out of the car, protesting all the way.
Something clicked beside him. The door he was leaning on opened, and Darwin fell out backwards.
“I gotcha,” H said, his hands wrapped in Darwin’s underarms. H helped him out and Rosina followed.
“What happened? What’s going on here? Who are these men?”
Darwin couldn’t believe it. The driver moaned on the other side of the vehicle.
“This is H. H, this is my wife, Rosina.”
“H?” she asked. “What’s an H?”
“His name is Richard H, but we call him H.”
“Yeah.” H stepped in and extended his hand. Rosina took it.
“We heard about what happened in Rome and it pissed us off. We’re here to help and Darwin said he’d write a documentary about us.”
Rosina looked at Darwin. “You did?”
He nodded.
She shook herself, let out a long breath and stepped up to H. Then, with both arms wide, she hugged him and
