Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(69)

Her eyes shot to the screen. Frank was holding the warden down on the steel countertop with a knife to her neck, and Gino was between her legs, dragging her pants down.

The moisture in Ava’s mouth evaporated.

Eban Winters was talking to the hostage-takers with his gaze averted from the screen, still pretending he couldn’t see what they were doing. He muted the mic.

Dominic leaned over the table and asked, “What happened?”

“They somehow found some liquor. Got drunk then decided they wanted a little fun. Gino smashed Milo on the back of the head when Frank distracted him. He’s lying on the floor unconscious or dead.”

“They rape her already?” Dominic’s voice was cold, but Ava recognized the emotion in it.

Eban’s skin was pale, and Charlotte reached out and squeezed his hand.

“Not yet. We need to get their attention off of the warden and back onto us, but they aren’t listening to me anymore,” Eban stated in frustration.

“The IC is arranging a helicopter to arrive in twenty minutes. We’re bringing up the timetable, but if they continue what they’re doing, HRT will stage an immediate assault,” Dominic said grimly.

Ava didn’t need to be a negotiator to know if that happened, they probably all died, including the warden.

Eban relayed the message about the helicopter.

Frank yelled toward the speakerphone. “That’s good news.” But he continued to hold the knife to the warden’s throat as Gino pulled the woman’s underwear from her body. Eban kept talking in calm tones reminding them not to harm the hostages, but from the almost feral look of concentration on Frank’s face, and the fact Gino was undoing the front of his prison jumpsuit, they’d both stopped listening to Eban. That they both intended to rape the warden before they made their escape was obvious.

Ava looked through the glass window. The tactical commander of the HRT was watching, obviously about to give the order to stage the assault.

“Let me talk to him,” Ava burst out.

“You’re not trained—” Charlotte snapped.

“I can get Gino’s attention for a few minutes, trust me. It might be enough.”

“How?” Dominic asked, pinning her with a razor-sharp gaze.

“Gino-the-snake is how I got this scar.” Ava touched her brow. “He murdered my father and left me for dead. I testified and helped put the sonofabitch away in here.”

Dominic’s blue eyes held a glint of anger but also of opportunity.

“I might get his attention long enough to get him away from the warden for a few minutes.”

“Stalling for time is the best we can do,” Eban agreed. “We have nothing to lose at this point.”

Tension stretched around the room.

“Put her on.” Dominic nodded. “Make sure there’s a note in the file that the warden is seconds from being raped by Gino Gerbachi.” He looked at her critically. “This might be crazy enough to buy us some time. Do your worst, Ava. Give it all you’re got. We need to shock this guy out of his current mindset. Shake him to his foundations. I’ll be right by your side to coach you through it.”

Ava sat and took the headset from Eban. Charlotte thrust a list of talking points in front of her. Ava took the list, but it wouldn’t help. It was hard to bargain with psychopaths even for experts. She was just a rookie agent with a big mouth.

She looked at the monitor, adjusted the mic so it sat below her lips. “Well, if it isn’t old Gino-the-snake. I can see now why they call you snake, big boy.” She emphasized her Greek accent to sound more like her mother. “I just wonder how the rest of the family knew you were such a big dick?”

Charlotte’s mouth fell open, but Dominic was staring at her with intense concentration.

Gino froze in the act of jacking his dick into hardness and both he and Frank were staring around in astonishment.

“What? You thought we couldn’t see what was going on in there? You haven’t learned by now that the Feds like drilling holes in walls and light sockets? Isn’t that what put you in here in the first place, Gino?” She was taunting the man and knew that wasn’t how negotiators worked, but they were past the time for tact.

“Oh, no, wait, it was that kid, right? That little Greek girl you got too sloppy to kill.”

Gino was standing stock-still in the middle of the kitchen listening to her with rapt attention. Jaws were clenched. Eyes small and beady. He finally put his dick away which was a relief. No one wanted that thing out in the open.

Frank let go of the warden and climbed off the counter. The woman curled into a ball and lay there naked in the fetal position. Ava wanted her off that countertop onto the floor where she’d be safer from crossfire should HRT burst in.

The sound of a helicopter flying overhead and landing could be clearly heard throughout the facility. That got Frank and Gino’s attention.

Suddenly Milo, the convicted serial killer, who until that moment had looked like he was unconscious or dead, rolled onto his side and slowly climbed to his feet. The other hostage-takers didn’t appear to notice.

“You remember her name, Gino? The little girl whose father you shot like a dog because he wouldn’t let you steal his hard-earned money?”

“Emily.” He squinted as he scanned the room, looking for the camera, looking for her.