“No, but I know where Hart lives,” Benny answered.
“Good,” Cal looked out the windscreen, “we’ll start there.”
“Don’t you think we should start by droppin’ her off at the hospital?” Benny suggested.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” Lindy put in.
Fuck him. A flesh wound.
On his next job application there was going to be the question “What did your father do for a living?” and if an applicant filled in “Marine”, “Police Officer” or “Commando”, he was shredding it.
Benny glanced at Cal and Cal saw his lips twitching.
Then Benny muttered, “I think I’m in love. Where do you find them?”
“Just drive,” Cal growled.
In the distance three squad cars going in hot could be seen, sirens wailing, lights flashing, an early invitation for Cal and Lindy’s captors to get down to business if they already hadn’t done it.
Cal scratched having a word with Pryor on his mental to do list.
The squads flew passed them and Benny kept driving.
“Not to give you bad news on top of what hasn’t been such a good day for you, cugino,” Benny said, “but Sal made a deal with the cops and when I called him ten minutes ago, he told me he was sendin’ them in for the rescue.”
“I didn’t have time for that rescue,” Cal remarked. “They wanted me on my knees.”
Cal watched Benny nod and then Benny spoke. “Let’s hope, they see the mess you left them, they’ll feel lenient seein’ as they wanted you on your knees. I’m a man, most cops are men, we all understand why you wouldn’t wanna be on your knees.”
Cal stared at his cousin. “Benny, they wanted me on my knees so they could drill a round in my skull.”
“Why would they take you all the way up to Chicago to do that?”
“How do I fuckin’ know?”
Benny drove silent for awhile then muttered, “Thank Christ they did.”
“After we rescue your girlfriend,” Lindy piped up from the back, “can I get a coffee? By the time those assholes barged into the office, I was only halfway through coffee numero uno. By this time, I’m usually on coffee numero doce and I need a fuckin’ fix.”
Cal was in no mood to laugh but that didn’t mean he didn’t smile. “Sure, Lindy, we’ll get you a coffee on the way to the hospital after we rescue my girlfriend.”
“No, got my belt on it even though the bullet went clean through and I don’t think it’s bleedin’ anymore. You can just take me home. Dad’ll stitch me up,” she said and Cal closed his eyes and wondered what Lindy’s boyfriend was like. Cal had trouble enough fucking Vi on her back. Even though he knew she liked it like that, she also felt compelled to climb on and Vi was like Keira, a woman but still all girl. What he learned about Lindy that day, she was probably prepared to fight to the death to take the dominate position and ride her man. Cal figured her man had learned to just lay back and enjoy the ride.
He heard Benny chuckling before he heard, “Again, cugino, where do you find them?”
Cal opened his eyes and answered, “Her father’s a marine.”
“Ah,” Benny replied.
Cal was done playing.
“They sent six men after me. I took down two at my offices. Two came with us. Two in another car where I suspect they took Vi.”
“I saw ‘em,” Benny said quietly, “there were two.”
“While you were tailin’, you see anything else?” Cal asked.
“Like what?”
Cal didn’t want to know but he had to know.
“Kate and Keira.”
“I hit your house first, all was quiet, Vi’s car in your drive, Vi behind your security system. I left her there thinkin’ she was safe but there was no car for you so I went to your office to give you the lowdown. When I hit it, they were movin’ you and her out,” Benny jerked his head to the backseat.
“Name’s Lindy,” Lindy introduced herself.
“Hey Lindy, Benny,” Benny introduced back.
“Nice ta meetcha,” Lindy muttered and Cal heard the sudden tiredness in her tone mixed with a bit of pain she couldn’t quite hide. Adrenalin crash. They needed to keep an eye on her.
Cal twisted in his seat to glance at a pale but hanging in there Lindy as Benny kept talking. “I tailed them from your office back to your house. They were there maybe three minutes before Vi ran from the house and got in the car and then your convoy hit the road. No girls.”
That didn’t mean someone else didn’t have them.
“We had protection,” Cal told Benny as he turned to face forward. “It wasn’t steady but there’s a possibility there are more of Hart’s men because, if Colt had men on us, someone had to take those boys out.”
“Saw a man in a car outside your offices. He didn’t look too good. Boys who took you probably took him out. Nothin’ I could see at Vi’s.”