“That means my wife and I will be living at the Quality Suites for a few years then.”
“What does that mean?” Greg asked, offended.
“Unless you’re planning on killing the Fuccini family boss, we will never be free,” Darwin said and stepped from the car.
“Wait!” Greg shouted.
The men from the car that had tailed them ran up.
“Don’t get out of a vehicle without an escort,” one of the men said.
Darwin ignored him and looked at Rosina. “Come along, darling. Let’s check in and go have a nice dinner.”
They didn’t have to check in as the rooms were all ready. Darwin couldn’t believe how nice the rooms were. It was like a small apartment. The bedroom was separated by French doors. The room had a small fridge and a mini kitchen area with a coffee maker.
“Looks like we’ll be here for some time,” Darwin said. He looked at Rosina. “You okay?”
She glanced at him and offered a thin smile.
“Rosina, I need to hear it. What happened in Rome was tragic, but we survived. That part is over. We’re alive and healthy. I need to know you’re still with me.”
She walked over to the small couch and sat down. “I’m still with you Darwin. I’m sorry. What you did in Rome…” she hesitated and looked out the window. “What you did in Rome was so romantic. I love you for everything you are and everything you became. I just thought it was over. I saw what those men did to that cop who tried to comfort me. Thinking about your poor father and what he’s going through and that my parents are facing the same treatment if they get taken, it just really shakes me up. This isn’t over. You’re right. It’ll never be over until either we’re dead or the Fuccini family is dead.”
Darwin sat beside her, wrapping his good arm around her shoulder. “I know, and I’m sorry, baby. I brought this all on us. It’s all my fault.”
She grabbed his lapels and yanked him around to face her. “Don’t you ever say that. Don’t you ever. You did nothing wrong. Actually, you’re the only one doing anything right. If you had waited until the police negotiated a release for me, I’d be dead. They weren’t going to release me.”
She started to cry again. A shudder went through her shoulders.
“What were they going to do?” Darwin asked.
“Horrible, unspeakable things. What stopped them was the call that you had escaped from a guy named Big John. They said that no one could touch me until you were caught. It was so scary. I saw these people for what they are and I think Greg is wrong here. The police aren’t prepared to execute them. So it’ll never be over. I’m just really scared.”
“I know, baby, I know,” Darwin said as he pulled her closer. “All I can tell you is I will hunt them down and kill them. I will kill them all, and no amount of police will stop me.”
#
Dinner was brought up to the room. They ate in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
The whole time they hung around the hotel room and ate their food, Darwin planned. He needed to have something to do, so he planned. This had to end. If not for his own sanity, for his wife’s. Whenever she was in a mood, it affected him. Her current mood was bringing him down. He needed to end this and get her out from under the threat of murder. Staying in police protection like this wasn’t going to cut it.
He put his plate on the edge of the little sink and threw away the plastic utensils. They’d brought real cutlery, but he made them go back down for plastic. He used the bathroom, then walked over and opened the main door.
“Darwin, what are you doing?” Rosina asked.
“I don’t know. Something, anything. We can’t stay here, cooped up in a hotel room, brooding. This has to end.”
An FBI agent stepped up behind him. “Do you need anything?”
“Yes, to leave.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“So we’re, like, prisoners now?”
“Not exactly. You are not a prisoner. We’re here to protect you. This is for your own safety.”
“No, we’re prisoners by every definition.”
The FBI man stared without speaking.
Darwin shut the door. “What are we going to do? We’ve been in Toronto all of six hours and we’re already going stir crazy.”
The phone rang.
They looked at each other.
“No one knows we’re here but the police,” Darwin said before he answered.
“Darwin?”
“Yeah,” Darwin said as recognized Greg’s voice.
“Good. I was hoping it was you who picked it up. I couldn’t tell Rosina what I have to say.”
“Go ahead.” His stomach dropped. What now?
“It’s Rosina’s parents. We had them protected. Six officers on the detail. Four of them are dead and two are missing. There is no sign of her parents. I’m sorry, Darwin, we did everything we could. We lost good men today. I’m sorry.”
Darwin hung up the phone and turned to look at his wife.
Chapter 10
No one had visited them since dinner, the phone hadn’t rung again, and now it was midnight. Rosina had fallen asleep on the bed, after crying for two solid hours. He’d waited until she’d fallen asleep. He was wide awake from his long rest on the plane, and he was bent and bound to do something about the threat that had befallen his family, his wife.
He got up, put on his shoes, and walked to the door. When he opened it, a new FBI man stood there.
“Do you need anything?”
Darwin stepped out into the hallway. “Actually, yes,” he said, and closed his door behind him.
“Sir, don’t do that. You’re not supposed to be in the hallway. Can I have your room key please?”
“Oh, damn, I left it inside.”
“Okay, stay here. Don’t move. I’ll radio down and have another one brought up. In the meantime, I’ll keep you behind me while I watch the hall.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Sir?”
“I’m leaving.”
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that.”
“Well, you don’t really have a choice, do you? I’m not a prisoner. I’ve broken no laws. Well, at least none that I’ve been charged with. So that means I’m free to go. Now, please step aside.”
The FBI man crossed his arms. “Sir, I have orders to keep you in your room with your wife.”
“What’s your name?”
“Special Agent Trent McMahon.”
“Listen, Trent. How did they get to Rosina’s parents? They were under police protection too. Six officers, as far as I understand it. How many do we have here? Now, of course, I appreciate the thought, but there’s been enough bloodshed. It’s time I meet with these people and end this. I won’t stay in the same room with my wife, endangering her further, while these people are free, running around, conspiring to kill me and everyone I know. Are we clear?”
Trent stood back. As Darwin delivered his speech, his voice had grown more and more intense. The Rome side of Darwin was coming out. He didn’t mean it, but what had happened in Rome had changed him, and he could never go back to the way he was pre-Rome.
“I understand what you’re saying, and I sympathize. But I have orders. I intend to follow them.”
Darwin had been prepared for that, but he also knew the FBI man wasn’t going to shoot him.
He looked past the cop’s shoulder, widened his eyes, and pretended to see something horrible. He ducked and yelled, “Look out!”
It was beyond the oldest trick in the book, but Trent ducked anyway and spun on his heels, reaching for his weapon. By the time he turned back around, Darwin was running down the hall, halfway between Trent and the door to the stairwell.
When he hit the stairs, he looked back and saw Trent speaking into his wrist.
Darwin ran down the stairs two at a time. Fourth floor, third, second and finally the ground floor, his shoulder wound aching a little at the raised heart rate and extra movement.