Just Bob (Assassins Inc. #1)(29)

Wait.

I didn’t have a job anymore.

“Is that why Mrs. Staudemeyer fired me?”

Mr. Staudemeyer folded his hands together and let them dangle in front of him. The man’s pose was one of someone relaxed, but there was a twitch around his eyes that gave his nervousness away.

“Mrs. Staudemeyer acted without thinking. You never should have been fired.”

“No,” Sinclair spit out, “because you were going to kill him.”

“It really didn’t have to come to this. I merely wished to ascertain if Bob had worked on the file or not. It was supposed to be handled by Mr. Bixby himself, and only Bixby. How it ended up on Mr. Mill’s desk, I will never know.”

“Oh, I know,” I said. “Mr. Bixby got sick so all of his accounts were temporarily handed off to me since my numbers are usually spot on. That’s usually what happens if Mr. Bixby is out of the office for more than a day.”

“I see,” Mr. Staudemeyer replied. “Well, that explains it then.”

Great.

“Can we go, then?”

I could hope.

“I’m afraid that ship has sailed, Mr. Mills.”

I was afraid of that.

When Mr. Staudemeyer walked past me to go to the door—more than likely to let his two thugs in so they could kill us—I kicked out with my feet. No one was more surprised than me when both feet connected and Mr. Staudemeyer dropped to the floor in an unconscious heap.

“Shit!” Sinclair exclaimed.

Right?

“I can’t believe that worked.” I was shocked, in fact.

Now what?

I glanced up at the ropes hanging me from the ceiling. They were tied tight around my wrists, but I had chaffed enough that there was a solid ring of blood coating the rope. I stood on my tiptoes as much as possible and started wiggling hands back and forth.

It hurt like hell.

Little by little, I could feel my hands starting to slip through the circle of the ropes. When I suddenly dropped to the floor, I let out a small cry. I was really glad I had been on my feet. I would have hit the floor otherwise.

I stepped over Mr. Staudemeyer’s prone body, grabbed Sinclair’s wheelchair from the corner, and wheeled it over toward him. I looked up from his dangling legs to the ropes holding his arms up in the air.

I winced when I met his eyes. “This is probably going to hurt.”

“I’ve had worse.”

Yeah, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know when. I stood up on my tiptoes and reached for the ropes. My fingertips barely brushed them.

“Well, this won’t do.”

I settled back on my feet and glanced around the room. There just wasn’t much here. I could stand on Sinclair’s wheelchair, but I was afraid the damn thing would roll away with me. I knew it had breaks of some sort, but I didn’t want to take the chance.

I did have another idea, though.

I couldn’t help but smile as I grabbed Mr. Staudemeyer by his arms and dragged him across the floor. It seemed almost suitable somehow when I rolled the guy onto his stomach and then stood on his back to reach the ropes around Sinclair’s wrists.

With the added lift, I was able to easily wiggle the rope free. I grunted as I caught Sinclair as he fell. The man was not as light as he looked. I carefully maneuvered Sinclair into his chair. Regretfully, I stepped off of Mr. Staudemeyer’s back.

“What should I do with him?” I asked as I gestured to the unconscious man on the floor. I had few ideas.

“Search him,” Sinclair replied. “We need a phone.”

I shrugged before squatting down to search through Staudemeyer’s pockets. I found a wallet filled with credit cards and cash, a white fabric hanky, a set of keys, and weird looking antique key, and a cell phone.

I carried it all over to Sinclair. “This is it.”

Sinclair grabbed the phone, typing out a message with his fingers so fast, I could barely keep up with them. I certainly didn’t text that fast. It was insane.

“There, that should do it.”

“Do what?” I asked.

“I sent a message to Stone and the others, telling them where we were.”

“I thought you already did that.”

“I told them we were council headquarters. Now, they know exactly where we are being held. We can’t fight those two guys outside. Our best bet is to hold up in here until help arrives.”

“And when they try to come in?” I had no doubt that they would.

“Hopefully, we’ll get rescued before that happens.”

I wasn’t betting on it.

I glanced around for something to defend myself. There really wasn’t anything much. Except for the ropes that dangled from the ceiling, the room was kind of vacant.

There was a body on the floor, however.

I smiled as an idea began to form in my mind.

“What?” Sinclair asked in a cautious tone.

I grabbed Mr. Staudemeyer’s hands again and dragged him toward the door. Once there, I pushed the man into place right in front of the door, pushing him up against it. I grabbed the edge of my shirt and pulled until I was able to rip off a good length of material.

After carefully tying Mr. Staudemeyer’s hands behind his back, I moved back to stand next to Sinclair. “They won’t keep them out for long, but it should give us a little extra time.”