Absolutely apoplectic, Jamal strained to get near Nick, his eyes bulging, and mouth forming words it took a moment for him to get out. “You! You will pay! No matter how long it takes… you will pay!”
“Got that too.” Higginson shook her head in wonder. “I’ll keep this recorder on all the way to the station. Goodnight, folks.”
Dialo shook hands with Nick while guiding the twisting Jamal out the door. “I’m sure glad this came out the right way. We will not forget that Gutierrez angle.”
“Thank you. Goodnight… or good morning I guess.”
Rachel leaned into Nick, her arms wrapping around him. “You surviving that mess made me horny. Want to go cash in on your good fortune?”
“Oh baby. I’ll lock the doors, set the alarm, and we’ll check on Jean and Deke, then I think I need to get a taste of you.”
Rachel kicked the front door shut, locked it, and hit some buttons on the keypad near the door. She then yanked Nick toward the stairwell. “I want you so bad, I think I’m dripping.”
“Um, um, good,” Nick replied, staying as close to her back as humanly possible without causing an accidental fall. “You seem more at ease living with a cold blooded monster lately.”
“You don’t seem to mind I’m five months pregnant. It’s all good,” Rachel replied, still dragging at Nick while ascending the stairwell. “Good Lord, there’s no use in hiding it. You’ve corrupted me almost to the point I only trust your right and wrong. Hell… I don’t think I care anymore what’s right or wrong.”
“I’ve turned you to the dark-side. My mission is completed,” Nick intoned in bass tones.
“Not yet it’s not,” Rachel said breathlessly.
*
Nick looked out the window of Gus’s car at the throngs of media people with amusement. “Maybe the Terrorists didn’t win, Gus.”
“Oh… you think this is funny.”
“What the hell? I’m an author. Notoriety and name recognition is what we thrive on. It makes me wonder how the heck these jokers found out I was coming in right now. The cops must have a leak. Let’s do this. Put on your mean face, and play Kevin Costner for me.”
Gus made gagging noises. “Don’t even go there as a joke, you prick!”
“Jamal Kader sure made my morning when he mouthed off. It didn’t take long after waking this morning to find him with the picture I took from my phone. He’s a bad one… a true acolyte of Uncle Naseer. I’m wondering if Dimah might not be the only Kader worth saving.”
Gus eyed his partner with absolute attention. He knew assuming Nick would not kill every name and associate tied in with the Kader name was a mistake. He didn’t pretend to know the inner workings of a man, so dangerous it would be folly to comment in a haphazard way about anything of a violent nature. “Look… Nick… let’s get through this debacle with Saif. If you can make plans with your publishing people for a road trip after - then great.”
Nick glanced over at his partner with a realization he figured was funny to him alone. “You think if you make a mistake in the way you say things in front of me I’ll go off the deep end and erase a bunch of innocents, huh?”
Gus assumed a solemn composure. “I’m your brother. Fuck blood. I do not fear you, but I know what you’re capable of. If I don’t interject my thoughts in this, then what the hell do you keep me around for?”
“Noted, my brother. Your take on things is invaluable to me. Just so we don’t have to do this dance again, is there anything else bothering you, or that you want of me, we need to discuss?”
“Yeah! Don’t you dare kill off Jed!”
“Done. Anything else?”
“No… you asshole… you have me so entranced in fiction I’m embarrassing myself to keep a fictional character alive.” Gus pounded on the steering wheel to Nick’s amusement.
“That’s what fiction is all about my good man. I’ve been getting e-mails from fans who think there should be a gay character in my series. I’m thinking Jed might be the perfect one to come out. What do you think?”
By then, Gus was in a trancelike state, his frozen death stare and tight lipped grimace only a slight indication of the violent thoughts running through his head. “Every cell in your body is rotten, Nick! Every cell!”
Nick’s smirking look of achievement disappeared. “Well, well… there’s Flo the reporter arriving with cameraman in tow. She ought to be inside the station answering questions. The wheels of justice do grind slowly. I guess having her name on the lips of two would be murderers didn’t hurt our plucky reporter at all.”
“I’m ready. We better get out there before they start attacking the car like a herd of zombies.” Gus opened his door and stepped out and over to the walkway with Nick at his side. “Why not make these suckers wait until you come out?”
“We’ll tease them a little before we make them wait for our grand exit. I’ll play the outrage card, and you can follow my act by strong-arming our way into the station.”