He said to Bernie, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay, I just feel really stupid.”
“Shut up,” Victor said. “I don’t want you two talking, you got that? Sit down next to him and don’t try anything.” Victor pointed his gun right at Savich as he slowly eased down against an oak trunk, stretching out his wounded leg in front of him. He eased his belt loose, studied the wound. It had stopped bleeding. He pulled the belt off.
“Why’d you bring him here, Lissy? Why didn’t you just put a bullet through his head where you found him?”
“Big boy here tells me he’s got lots more juice than poor Bernie with the two little kids, says we need a hostage cops will listen to and he’s the only one who can get us out of here. What do you think?”
Victor looked from Savich to Bernie, then back to Lissy. “I don’t like it, but I gotta admit, he does have more juice. Maybe he could get us out.”
She cocked her head to one side and stroked her long, graceful fingers over her jaw. “When he does get us away, well, then, maybe you should be the one to put a bullet between his eyes, Victor. I’m thinking you need the practice. Remember you didn’t have the balls to kill that highway patrol cop, even after I told you to punch her between the eyes?”
Victor’s fist shot out so fast Lissy didn’t have a chance. His fist smashed into her jaw. She reeled back, falling. Savich was halfway to his feet, his leg on fire, when Lissy screamed, “You sit back down or I’ll put a bullet in Bernie! You got that, Mr. Special Agent? He’ll be dead and it’ll be all your fault!”
She was lying on her side, her gun aimed right at Bernie.
Savich eased back down, closer to Bernie this time, maybe close enough to get the duct tape off his wrists.
There were tears streaking down Lissy’s cheeks. Victor leaned over her, his voice all soft and concerned, his fingers lightly touching her hair. “You shouldn’t have said that, Lissy; you shouldn’t have made me feel less a man. Look at what you made me do.”
She worked her jaw with her fingers, her eyes never leaving Savich’s face.
“You hurt me, Victor. You’re lucky my jaw isn’t broken.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll be okay, you won’t have to go to the hospital again. No matter what you say, no matter how bad you insult me, I don’t want you to have to go back to the hospital.”
“I’m gonna have a big bruise.”
“Not bad, I don’t think,” Victor said. He looked over at Savich. “You really brought this FBI agent back here as a hostage? Then you expect me to kill him? I could kill him, I could, if I wanted to. He doesn’t look so tough all laid out there. We’ll see, after he gets us out of here.” He gave her a hand up.
Lissy continued to work her fingers over her jaw. “You could pop him right between the eyes? I could take care of Bernie. Then we’d be free and away from this hick town. We’ll find us a car. I want to go to Montana.”
“Montana might be good. I wonder how long it takes to drive there.”
“We’ll take five days, take it easy.” Lissy looked up to see Bernie speaking low to Savich. “Shut up, or I’ll shoot your heads off! Victor, before Super Cop takes us out of here, I’ve got an idea. Hand me his cell phone. I want to look at his speed dial.”
Victor pressed the muzzle of his gun against Savich’s throat as he pulled his cell phone out of his shirt pocket. Victor jumped to his feet and took two steps back and handed Lissy the cell. She flicked it to his stored numbers. “Isn’t this a kick! The very first name, it’s Sherlock.”
“What kind of name is that? I wonder who he is.”
“Probably a stupid nickname,” Lissy said. “Let me place a call, see who this Sherlock is.”
Bernie sent Savich a look, saw his face was perfectly still, expressionless.
The cell rang once, then a woman answered. “Yes?”
“Hey, is this Sherlock?”
“Yeah, I’m Sherlock. Who wants to know?”
“Smart mouth, aren’t you? This is Lissy Smiley. I got me two big federal agents right here. Special Agent Savich, and Special Agent Bernie with two little kids. You’re Savich’s partner, right? You’re the one with all that red hair?”
“That’s me.”
“You’re really not sleeping with him? He said he didn’t even like you much. Still, why wouldn’t you want to get in his pants?”
“Why are you calling me, Lissy?”