Ripple Effect (The Extractor Series Book 5) Read online

  2

  “Boss, he should’ve been back by now,” one of the guards said.

  Bridge laughed. “Told you. He found my partner and now he’s dead. I told you what would happen, but you didn’t listen to me.”

  The boss walked over to Bridge again and slapped his face. “Tell me who’s out there.”

  “Or what? You’ll hang me upside down? Oh wait…”

  “Tell me or we’ll commence with the Butcher right this second.”

  “Yeah, yeah, do what you gotta do, dude.”

  The boss looked at one of his men. “Get me the Butcher and bring him here.”

  “Uh-oh,” Bridge said.

  “You will tell me what I need to know or you will be without several of your limbs very quickly.”

  “You’re gonna do it anyway, so… nah, I’m good.”

  “You really think you can withstand the punishment?”

  “Listen, man, I think a little five-year-old boy scout troop could give me more punishment than you could. I doubt you could even put enough pain on a…”

  “Enough! You, my friend, are going to die extra slowly.”

  “Is there any other way to go?”

  “Amusing to the last minute, eh?”

  “Canadian now?”

  The guard came back over to the boss. “I still can’t get him.” He held his phone out. It just kept ringing.

  “Go check on him.”

  The boss motioned to two of his men to go look. Less than twenty seconds later, there was a knock on the door. Another of the guards went over to answer. A large, burly man walked in with two equally large duffel bags. Bridge closed his eyes and said a prayer. He didn’t have to be told who that was. His appearance gave it away.

  “Whatcha got for me, boss?” the large man asked.

  The boss smiled and held his arm out, directing him to Bridge. “What we have is a man that I want to die painfully… and slowly. As slowly and painfully as possible. Do you understand?”

  “I got this. No worries.”

  “I never do with you.”

  “If I could just make one suggestion,” Bridge said.

  “No more talk from you,” the boss said.

  As the Butcher took out a few grisly looking tools and walked towards Bridge’s hanging body, he knew he had to try every possible thing available to him to prevent himself from losing any body parts.

  “Uh, but if you kill me now, or dismember me, you won’t be able to bargain.”

  The boss grabbed the Butcher’s arm to stop him from cutting too early. “Bargain for what?”

  “Well, if my partner’s still out there, then he’ll have taken your statue by now, which means you’ve lost it. Maybe you could still get it back.”

  “How?”

  “You have me to trade.”

  “Are you saying I could trade your life to get the statue back?”

  “If that’s what it takes to prevent any fingers from flying off, then yeah.”

  The boss looked like he was genuinely contemplating the proposition. It appeared to be a hard decision for him. Finally, he stopped moving around, looking like he had come to a decision.

  “Well, Mr. Whoever You Are, I understand your terms.”

  “Great,” Bridge said with a smile, thankful to have made a deal. “Just cut me down from here, and we’ll start figuring out the exchange.”

  “Unfortunately for you, I reject them.”

  “What?”

  “Boss, that statue was a lot of money,” the Butcher said.

  “Over a million dollars,” another guard said.

  “Inconsequential,” the boss said. “It’s only money. It’s only a statue. I can get another one.”

  “But you worked for six months to get that one.”

  The boss smiled. “And all the hard work in obtaining it, all the hard work in keeping it, all the money I have spent to get it, the value I’ll have lost for it… it will all be worth it to see you taken apart piece by piece.”

  “That’s not how this was supposed to go,” Bridge mumbled.

  “You see, you have irritated me so much to this point that there is no money imaginable that would stop me from the immense pleasure I will get out of watching you bleed.”

  “Uh...,” Bridge knew there was nothing else he could say to stop the painful execution he was about to face.

  “Commence.”

  “Boss, should we wait till the boys get back, just to be sure?” the guard asked.

  “Sure of what?”

  “About the statue?”

  “No, it’s irrelevant at this point.”

  Nicole noticed two men dressed in suits coming down the hallway toward her. She slipped back into the darkness of the closet as they passed. She peeked out the door and watched them go into the office. She retreated back into the closet again, waiting for the men to speed past her again. Within a few seconds, the two men, along with the one she had previously taken care of, came running down the hallway, zipping past her.

  Nicole immediately exited the closet and started following them. They turned a corner, went down another hallway, then knocked on a door at the end of the hall on their left. The door opened and they were quickly let in. After making sure there was no one else in the hallway, Nicole went up to the door. She set her bag down on the floor, then reached inside and pulled out two pistols. Knowing that there were at least four people in the room, and likely more, she readied herself for action. She kept the pistols lowered by her legs as she took one last look around.

  With no activity in the hallway, she knocked on the door. The door opened. It was one of the men she just saw walking in the hallway. With no time to waste and no games worth playing, Nicole took the pistol clenched in her left hand and smashed it in the man’s face. As the man dropped to a knee and put his hand on his face to ease the pain, Nicole kicked the door wide open and rushed through it. She saw a man in front of her reaching for a weapon. She fired, putting the guard down. She turned to her left to see a large man with some type of object in his hands coming after her. Nicole took a few steps back and fired a couple of rounds into the man’s midsection, putting the Butcher down. She spun around to see if there was anyone else who was interested in trying her. No one seemed to be, though. Including the boss, there were four other men, all of whom were frozen, with their hands in the air. She then saw Bridge hanging there.

  Bridge smiled. “Hey.”

  “You done just hanging around?”

  Bridge laughed. “Amusing. Took you long enough to get here. I was just about to lose a few digits.”

  With her gun pointed at one of the guards, she motioned to Bridge with it. “Get him down.”

  The boss tried to interject. “I would caution you against…”

  “Shut up,” Nicole said. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say. And the next person who opens their mouth will get a bullet through it. Everyone understand?”

  Afraid of saying anything now, all the men just nodded. One of the guards looked at their boss, waiting for direction. They were ready to fight, or stand down, on their boss’ orders. The boss just nodded at Bridge’s body, letting them know to get him down. He wasn’t ready to lose any more men, including himself. The guards grabbed a ladder and went over to Bridge to start cutting him loose. As the one started undoing the rope around his ankles, Nicole wanted to make sure that Bridge wasn’t hurt on the way down.

  “Slowly. If he drops… so will you.”

  Another guard grabbed Bridge around the shoulders to prevent him from falling as his restraints were removed. Once the ropes were untied, the guard caught Bridge before he fell, gently bringing him to the ground, where he then undid the ties around his wrists. Bridge wasted no time in getting back to his feet and then scurrying over to his girlfriend.

  “Are you ready to get out of here?” Nicole asked.

  “Uh, yeah, I’d say so.”

  “Everyone down on the floor and take your clothes off.”

&
nbsp; “What?!” the boss replied.

  “What’d I say about not talking?”

  “This—”

  Nicole pointed her gun at him, letting him know she would use it, not that there should’ve been a doubt with the dead bodies on the floor. With an expression that could have killed, the boss reluctantly motioned to his men to comply while he did the same.

  “Nic, you really think now’s the time for that?” Bridge asked. “Aren’t I good enough?”

  Nicole rolled her eyes. “They can’t chase us if they're naked.”

  “Who says?”

  “Well, they’d have nowhere to hide their weapons.”

  “Is that a play on words?”

  Nicole laughed. “Eh, I doubt they’d have any secret weapons.”

  “You get the statue?”

  “Yeah, I got it. Of course I got it.” It wasn’t long before all the men had their clothes off. “Go round up their stuff.”

  As the naked men sat up against the wall, spread out across the room, Bridge collected their belongings and retreated back behind Nicole.

  “Are you planning on something special with these?”

  “See if one of them has a lighter or something,” Nicole answered.

  “What are you gonna do, burn them?”

  Nicole only responded with a smile. That was her intention. Bridge quickly rifled through the pockets of the clothes, putting them on the floor when he was done with each piece. After going through half of them, he finally came across a lighter. He threw the rest of the clothes onto the pile.

  “Would you like to do the honors?” Bridge asked.

  “No, that’s OK. It’s all you.”

  Bridge lit the first article of clothing on fire and stood there, watching it slowly spread.

  “I won’t forget this,” the boss said, ignoring the orders to be silent.

  “For your sake, you better,” Nicole said. “Because if we ever see you again, you’ll be the next one to catch a bullet. Just forget all this happened and let it go. Because you won’t find us, anyway.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Once the stack of clothes was firmly on fire, Bridge was ready to go. “I think now’s a good time.”

  Nicole agreed. “Grab the bag.”

  Bridge picked up the bag and went over to the door, slowly opening it as he stuck his head outside. The coast was clear. “We’re good.”

  Nicole backed her way over to the door, making sure nobody was too quick to follow. They left, then flew down the hallway toward the back exit where their getaway car was waiting.

  The boss looked at the guards. “What are you waiting for?! Get us some clothes!”

  The guard got up and looked at himself. “But…”

  “No excuses. Just get it!”

  As Bridge and Nicole got into their car, they quickly started it and sped off. They checked for the next few minutes to see if they were being pursued, but they weren’t.

  “Man, that was way too close,” Bridge said.

  “Well, not for me. I mean, I had my part down.”

  Bridge looked at her with a cynical eye. “Uh-huh.”

  “I did. I wasn’t the one hanging upside down.”

  “My job was to keep them busy. And I did.”

  “Your job was to make sure they were occupied, so I had time to get the statue without them walking in on me.”

  “Well, I did that.”

  “You weren’t supposed to get caught in the process.”

  “Well, you know, things happen.”

  “Once again, I have to save you. Maybe they should start calling me the Extractor.”

  “Don’t start that again.”

  “What? I’m just saying.”

  “Don’t start.”

  Nicole then looked out the window. “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “Airport.”

  “Why? Thought we were lying low for a few days.”

  “That was before. Best time to get out of here is right now while they’re still looking for some new clothes to wear. If we wait a couple of days like we originally planned, they’re gonna have the airports staked out. You got everything packed, right?”

  “In the trunk.”

  “Good. It’s time to go home.”

  “And what am I gonna get when we get there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I did technically save you, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, I think I should get compensated in some way. I should get some type of reward, shouldn’t I?”

  Bridge laughed and shook his head. He already knew the type of reward she wanted. “And what type of rewards are you looking for?”

  “Oh, I’ve got a few things in mind.”

  “I’m sure you do, Nic. I’m sure you do.”

  3

  Bridge could feel his body shaking as he slept. He turned over, but the shaking continued. His eyes fluttered, looking directly at the light shining in through the window.

  “Hey, honey.”

  “Awe, not now, Nic. Please.”

  “Luke.”

  “Please, I just wanna sleep. I mean, two times last night. Isn’t that enough?”

  “What? It’s never enough.”

  “Just another hour. I promise I’ll give it to you later.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “OK, good.”

  A second later, Nicole shook his arm again. “Nic, I told you I’d give it to you later.”

  “And I’m very appreciative that you offered. And believe me, I will take you up on that.”

  “Good.”

  “But that’s not what I’m here for.”

  Bridge’s eyes opened wide, shocked to hear those words. “You’re not?”

  “No.”

  “But that’s what you’re always here for.”

  “Yeah, well, not this time.”

  Bridge sat up, the sheets covering the lower half of his body. He looked and sounded concerned about his girlfriend’s condition. He put his hand on her forehead to check for a fever. “Are you all right? You feeling OK?”

  Nicole laughed. She supposed he had a right to think something was wrong. “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? I mean… nothing’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. We’ve got a case to start working on.”

  “Oh.” Bridge started to lay down, then jumped back up to a sitting position. “What do you mean we have a case? No, we don’t.”

  “Uh, yes, we do. We’ve been hired. I’ve already vetted the guy.”

  “Awe, no, Nic, c’mon. We just got back two days ago.”

  Bridge brought the sheets all the way up over his head, not wanting to hear anything else about it. Nicole quickly took them off his head.

  “A case is a case and a person that needs help is a person that needs help, regardless of your recovery timeline.”

  “I thought we agreed that we would always take at least a week between cases to kind of recharge our batteries?”

  “My batteries are charged,” Nicole replied.

  “Really? I mean, two days.”

  “You got something else to do?”

  “Yes!”

  “Like what?”

  “I dunno. Stuff!

  “Look, we both know all you’re gonna do is look at your stock portfolio, watch TV, and look at porn sites.”

  “I do not look at porn sites. I don’t need to when I have you.”

  Nicole smiled. “True. But anyway, two days is plenty of time to recharge your batteries.”

  Bridge grunted. He knew it was a lost cause since she took the job anyway, but it was a way for him to vent about it. “What’s the job?”

  “Missing person.”

  “Oh no. I hate missing person cases. You know that.”

  “Well, she’s not exactly missing. She kinda is, but kinda not.”

  Bridge looked at her strangely. “You wanna try that again?”

  “W
ell, they kind of know where she is. General vicinity anyway.”

  “Oh really? And where’s that?”

  Nicole smiled. “Well, we’ll find out when our client gets here.”

  “And when is that?”

  Nicole looked at the time. “Should be about five minutes now.”

  Bridge jumped out of bed. “Five minutes?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  Nicole admired his body as he went over to his dresser to pick out some clothes. “Well, I did tell you sooner. You chose to lay there for a few minutes and pull the sheet over your head like you were a pouting two-year-old.”

  “That’s like, two minutes sooner.”

  Nicole shrugged. “It’s still sooner.”

  “Five minutes.”

  Nicole hated when he rushed to put clothes on. “Take your time. Don’t put clothes on on my account.”

  As Bridge finished putting his clothes on, he had more questions about their new job. “So, do we know where we’re headed or not?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Nic, what kind of answer is that? We either do or we don’t. So which is it?”

  “Well…”

  Bridge was getting the hint that there was something she was avoiding telling him. “Nic?”

  “Yes?”

  “What is it that you’re trying not to tell me?”

  “Nothing, dear. You look good in that outfit, you know.”

  “Thanks. Where are we going, Nicole?”

  Nicole pointed her thumb toward the other room. “Just out to the main room when our client gets here.”

  Bridge gritted his teeth. “Nicole. Where are we going?”

  “The other room. You know, the one we use out there.”

  “You know what I’m asking. Don’t be cute.”

  “But I play cute well, don’t I?”

  “You do. Sometimes too well. Where is this job taking us, Nicole?”

  Nicole took a deep breath, knowing she couldn’t hide it from him much longer. “Well, it’s not for certain yet.”

  Bridge’s shuffled his jaw around from side to side, tired of playing word games. “Nicole.”

  “There is a small possibility, very, very small, like tiny, like extremely miniscule, so small that there’s almost no possible chance that it could actually happen—”