Page 88 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

Don’t stop. Don’t look at them or you’ll lose your nerve.

Her heart hammered as she took the last few steps to the massive wooden front door of the house. Two cameras were tucked into the underside of the portico. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand, readying to knock, when the door swung open. A man stood on the threshold. One she’d never seen before. He was tall, towering over her, and built like an ox.

He opened the door wider and stepped aside for her to enter. As she did, he looked past her and grunted. “Harley said you wouldn’t come alone.”

The door shut behind her and the deadbolt slammed home, echoing in the marble-tiled foyer. The place might be plunked down in the middle of rural New Jersey, but Boss Vincent Mangano had spared no expense.

A wide staircase with elaborate wrought iron railings swept gracefully to the second-floor bedrooms. Two spacious rooms flanked the base of the stairs, a living room to the left and a den with floor-to-ceiling bookcases on the right. Long hallways cloaked in shadow ran along either side of the staircase, leading to the back of the house. There were several closed doors, one most likely leading to the kitchen, the others perhaps to a closet or a pantry. According to old FBI intel reports Dayne had pulled on Mangano, there was also a basement that many informants had speculated was a repository for stolen goods.

The door adjacent to the right side of the staircase swung open. Tess’s heart beat painfully against her ribs, and she held her breath. A man came through the door.

Mark Pritchard.

The breath she’d been holding left in a whoosh. Her hands trembled. She’d been dreading her “reunion” with Harley but being near Pritchard again was equally as frightening. The last time she’d seen him, she’d done a bang-up job of racking his balls. He’d make her pay for that.

Thick-soled boots clumped as he came to stand in front of her. She thrust her chin out, wishing she were more courageous than she actually felt. Oddly, he didn’t say a word, but his gaze raked over her body in a way that made her shudder.

“Well, Pritchard?” she asked, wanting Eric to know who else was there with her. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

Pritchard’s eyes narrowed, then he yanked up the hem of her shirt. She opened her mouth, about to scream, when someone else’s hand clamped over her mouth. Pritchard grabbed her wrists, yanking them over her head. She struggled, but he was far too strong, holding her arms high enough that she had to stand on her toes or have her arms torn from their sockets.

His eyes widened, then he ripped the microphone from her bra, yanking off the wire and transmitter taped to her back.

A door creaked. Vaguely, she registered a third man in the foyer then a piece of duct tape replaced the hand over her mouth. She tried screaming, but it was no use. The sound that came out barely registered.

Pritchard yanked her arms down. The third man quickly bound her wrists in more duct tape. She twisted and squirmed, trying to free herself when Pritchard backhanded her across the face. Pain exploded in her head. Her vision blurred. Only the other man’s arm around her waist kept her from hitting the tile.

Pritchard glared at the man standing behind her. “For fuck’s sake, Russo. Can’t you control one little bitch?” He hitched his head behind him. “Get the kid,” he said to the other man.

Tess breathed heavily beneath the duct tape, barely able to suck in enough air. The side of her face throbbed, and she shook her head to clear it.

Jesse came through one of the doors in the back of the hall, stumbling as he was shoved into the foyer. His mouth and hands were also duct taped, but that wasn’t what had her heart nearly stopping. Over his shirt was a vest. Strapped to the vest were wires and narrow briquettes of what could only be one thing.

Explosives.

She began shaking her head in disbelief. Silent sobs rose in her throat. No. Please, no. Every ounce of fight she’d been about to unload fled.

“That’s more like it.” Pritchard smiled. “Now that I have your attention, baby brother is wired with enough C4 to blow his head into the ceiling and paint the walls with his intestines. So, you’ll do exactly as I say.” He pulled a slim device—a detonator—from his back pocket. “Or bye-bye Jesse.”

Jesse’s face was pasty white, and his chest rose and fell unsteadily. He wasn’t well, that much was clear. Uttering a soft cry beneath the tape, she nodded.

“That’s my girl.” Pritchard grabbed her breasts, squeezing them so hard she cried out, but the sound was more of a muffled squeak. “Always knew you’d grow up to have nice tits. Tonight, we’ll have more time together. Alone.” He grinned then gave her breasts one last squeeze.

Tess swallowed the rising bile in her throat. If this was any indication of things to come, she and Jesse were in desperate trouble. But with Eric and the other officers right outside, there was no way Pritchard would get away with this.

“Let’s move.” He hitched his head to the back of the staircase.

Two of the men shoved Jesse through one of the doors. Russo propelled her through the same door, then down a flight of stairs into the basement.

A full-size pool table stood in the center of the room, with an elaborate chandelier hanging directly above it. To the side was a full bar with rows of top-shelf whisky and vodka lining the wall. Expensive leather sofas took up the other side of the room, with a giant flat-screen TV on the opposite wall. Shiny hardwood floors gleamed, as did the matching floor-to-ceiling paneling.

Tess estimated that only a few minutes had passed since she’d gone into the house. There were still more than ten minutes before Eric would come in after her, but he’d have to know by now that the body wire had been found. They’d expected that, so it wouldn’t be enough for them to come after her. Yet.

None of this makes any sense.

The two men whose names she didn’t know now had pistols in their hands, but to what end? It didn’t matter that they were in the basement. The small army of cops outside would still hear the gunshot. Shooting her and Jesse would land them in jail for the rest of their lives. What were they going to do, dig a hole to China?

A soft click came to her ears, followed by the rush of air past her face. One of the panels on the wall popped forward, creating a two-foot-wide opening. Pritchard went through the opening. A click, then a light came on.