Long Road Home(53)

“Oh shit.”

“I’ve got to find her. I’ve got to find out what the hell happened here.”

“I’ll get the ambulance rolling. Sit tight, I’ll be right over.”

Manuel flipped the phone closed and knelt by the agents. He lightly tapped one on the cheek. “Come on, man, wake up. I need you here.”

After a few minutes, the agent stirred and uttered a low groan.

“That’s it,” Manuel encouraged. “Wake up.”

The agent’s eyes fluttered open, closed, then opened again. “Damn, my head hurts.”

“Yours and mine both,” Manuel said with a grunt. “What’s your name?”

“Agent Matthews.” He struggled up and then bent to check on his partner. “Come on, Eddie, wake the hell up.” He shook his partner until he uttered a sound of protest.

“Damn bitch clobbered us both,” Matthews said.

Manuel froze. “What did you say?”

Eddie sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. Matthews helped him to his feet.

“The woman you’ve been shacked up with here,” Matthews said darkly. “She pulled a gun on us, led us back here then cold-cocked us.”

Manuel’s hands began to tremble. A multitude of sensations, all of which were unpleasant, coursed through his body with the speed of a locomotive.

“You both should come in and sit down. I’ve called for an ambulance.”

“We’ll sit, but no ambulance,” Eddie muttered. “Embarrassing enough to be taken by a slip of a girl. Guys at headquarters would never let us live down a trip to the hospital.”

Manuel picked up his phone to call Tony. “Cancel the ambulance.”

“I’m almost there,” Tony said. “The agents are all right, I take it?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. I’ll talk to you when you get here.”

He closed the phone. Then he rammed his fist into the wall. He ignored the explosion of pain and hit it again. Plaster rained down on the floor.

“Hey man, cool it. You’re going to break your hand,” Matthews cautioned.

Manuel turned to glare at the two agents sitting on the couch. “Why the hell didn’t you stop her?”

Eddie glared back at him. “She had a gun pointed at us. What the hell were we supposed to do? I thought she was going to kill us.”

“What did she say? I need to know every detail, no matter how small.”

Eddie gave him a disgruntled look. “We were two hours from the next shift taking over. We were tired. Nothing was going on. Then all of a sudden your girl shows up pointing a gun at the car window. She made us throw out the radios and phones then had us get out of the car. She took us around back, forced us to kneel down, then she knocked us out. End of story.”

“She said nothing else?”

Eddie shook his head.

They all jerked around when they heard the door open. Tony walked into the living room holding an array of electronic devices.

“These belong to you guys?” he drawled as he looked over at Matthews and Eddie.

“Yeah, they’re ours,” Eddie muttered.

“Well, except that one.” Matthews pointed at one of the phones.

“Which one?” Tony asked.

Matthews walked over to where Tony was standing and took one of the phones. “This one.”

Tony turned it over in his hand, examining it. He looked up at Manuel. “So what’s going on?”

“She drugged me,” Manuel said bleakly. “She f**king drugged me, knocked out the agents and took off.”

He felt an overwhelming urge to put his fist through the wall again.

Tony had opened the phone and began punching a series of buttons. “Quite a piece of technology. You sure this doesn’t belong to one of you?” he asked the agents.

“No, she must have dropped it when we got out of the car,” Eddie replied.

After several minutes, Tony’s brow furrowed, then he held out the phone to Manuel. “You better read this, man. It’ll explain where your girl was going in such a hurry.”

Manuel took the phone and held it up. He scrolled through the message, rage flowing like a wild current through his body.

“When you’re done with that one, hit the next button,” Tony said. “It gets better.”

When Manuel read the next message and saw the name of the intended target, he nearly exploded. The man who had promised to help, the man who could very well have arranged a normal life for him and Jules, was the man she was going to kill.

He started to throw the phone across the room, but Tony grabbed his arm and retrieved the phone. “I’m not finished with that.”

“I’ve got to stop her,” Manuel said. “Before it’s too late. Call out whoever you need, but get everyone you can to the Ronald Reagan Center pronto. I can’t let her do it. I’m going to have to take her down.”

“I know, man,” Tony said quietly. “And I’m sorry.”

“We’ll go with you,” Matthews said.

“No.”

Tony threw Manuel the keys. “Use my car. I’ll get someone over here to pick me and the boys up.”

Manuel yanked on his shoulder holster then shoved his gun into place. He ran out to Tony’s car and climbed in. Seconds later, he careened down the street, driving as fast as he could.