“Really?” she said, with a smile. “I don’t think so.”
He looked at her, confused. “Why are you not worried?” he asked.
“What’s to be worried about?” she said. “I trust Diesel.”
Diesel looked at her, seeing the relaxed, almost too relaxed, attitude in her stance and heard the ever-so-slight owl call behind him. “You know something?” he said, looking over at her boss. “I don’t even remember what your name is. But, considering that your wife is close by, are there any last words you wanted to say to her?”
“What are you talking about?” he said irritably. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Oh, you are,” he said. “You just don’t know it yet.”
“That’s BS. I’m the one with the gun.” He motioned at him. “Get back into the cabin right now.”
“And if I say no?”
The gunman lifted his gun and said, “I will shoot you right now,” he said. “Enough of this. Go back inside.”
Diesel looked over at Eva, smiled, and said, “Three, two, one.” And she dashed back inside, and he dropped to the deck.
A single shot fired out, and, as Diesel watched, the gunman stopped and stared, even as a red circle appeared in his forehead, and then he crumpled to the ground. The boss didn’t even fire his gun, his finger never even clenched the trigger. It was all over in half a second.
Diesel bounced to his feet and kicked the handgun away. He immediately called out to Jerricho, “The wife is the other half of the team, and she’s probably at the driveway.”
Jerricho disappeared.
Diesel raced inside and asked Eva, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Eva said, shivering. “I contacted Jerricho.”
“Perfect,” he said. “You did right.”
“Oh, my God,” she said. “If I had gone back to work …”
“They would have taken you out, yes. We’ll get the whole story as we investigate further,” he said, “but the wife’s brother’s also involved. He’s been doing this for a while. You didn’t tell me that Paul used to work with you.”
“Well, yes, he did a long time ago.”
“You have any idea how long Paul worked for your boss? Both Paul and Marge worked for the same company.”
“Oh, my God,” she said. “Marge, too?”
“Marge used to work at your company too,” he said. “The boss has been sorting through his employees and choosing who would go to the Chinese lab.”
“And it was all for what?”
“Money,” he said. “They didn’t have enough money to keep this company going. He figured China would be better, and, if he didn’t have to pay any wages, it would be better yet again.”
She stared at him in shock. “Kidnapped just … just to save him money, save him business expenses?” she said, hopelessness in her voice.
He opened his arms, and she raced into them. “Yes,” he said, “just for money.”
She burst into tears, and he held her close. “I had such high hopes,” she said, “when I went into this industry.”
“And there’s no reason,” he said, “that you have to give up on that either.”
She nodded, and he saw that it would take a toll on her. She looked up at the main cabin and said, “Do you think my father’s okay?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” he said, “but we can go check on him.”
She smiled, nodded, and said, “We need to make sure that we catch the other half of that lovely relationship,” she said.
They heard another owl call at that time, cutting through the silence, and Diesel said, “And that’s Jerricho saying that he’s got her.”
Eva raced inside, pulled on some clothes, and, as she reached out and grabbed his hand. “It’s too unbelievable. After everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been through,” she said, “to even think that this was possible?”
“I know,” he said, “and I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “It’s … None of it’s your fault.”
“Well, it isn’t, but it is,” he said, “and the end result is, it’s all good now.”
“As long as my father’s okay,” she said. And, as they walked up, Jerricho held on to the woman being forced to come toward them. Her gaze was wide, huge, and she wore a tight gag, and her hands were tied up behind her. Jerricho looked over at Diesel and said, “I’ve put a call out for a pickup.”
“Good,” he said. “I’ll go check on Greg.” He walked into the cabin, found Greg sound asleep, but, as it was almost five o’clock, chances were he wouldn’t stay asleep for long. Diesel returned to join Jerricho and said, “Let’s take them up to the road and have the pickup there. Let’s keep the ugliness out of here, as much as we can.”
Eva looked at him, smiled, and said, “Thank you for that.”
“You got it.” With Jerricho’s help, Diesel picked up the dead gunman, and Jerricho picked up his wife, and they carried the two of them to a small pullout. With the woman and her dead husband, they waited. It wasn’t long before a vehicle arrived. Both, the dead husband and living wife, were collected. One team went down to the smaller cabin and did a quick sweep, cleaning out anything as needed, and then they were gone.
As Diesel walked back into the main cabin, Jerricho at his side, Greg sat with a pot of coffee on the back deck.
Greg looked up, smiled, and said, “You know when you said you were early birds, I didn’t think you meant it,” he said. “But if you’re raring to go fishing this badly …” And he wrung his hands together with joy.
Jerricho chuckled. “I could do with some fishing out in that lake,” he said. “Something to remind me about Mother Earth and all the good things in life.”
“You got it,” Greg said. As he walked past his daughter, he reached down and gave her a big hug and said, “You do know how to bring home good men.” And, with that, he disappeared.
Diesel walked over, picked her up, held her close, and said, “It’s over.”
She looked up, smiled, and said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “It’s been a
