Wayne said, “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
“By all means.” Eric Stroud was far too relaxed. “How’s this?”
Wayne was still doing a one-handed wipe of his face and getting used to the fact that Tatyana’s ex-husband sat at the poolside when Jerry came around the side of the house. The former cop looked very glum and held his hands higher than the lawyer.
Which was hardly a surprise, since he had a pistol jammed between his shoulder blades.
“Who woulda thought,” Jerry said. “Thirty years’ practice and I still get blindsided by a limo guy hiding in the shrubs.”
Wayne said to the lawyer, “This is your one and only chance.”
He knew something was seriously awry when Eric leaned back in his chair and laughed. “Excellent line, Mr. Grusza. But it happens to belong to me.”
Wayne motioned with the pistol at the two approaching shooters. “Call off your dogs.”
“By all means.” Eric asked the driver covering Jerry, “Did you show him?”
Jerry answered for the driver. “They got Tatyana, man. In the trunk.”
“Bind their hands.”
Wayne knew they expected him to resist. He saw the glimmer of metal as the second shooter stepped to a firing angle, one that would let him get off a shot without risk of hitting his mate. Wayne held himself perfectly still. The man behind him dripped on his arms as he fitted the plastic tie and drew it tight enough to pretty much halt the flow of blood.
When they tied up Julio, he yelped. “Ow, man, not so tight.”
“Take it easy on the kid,” Jerry said.
A voice replied, “I’ll give you easy.”
The man turning out Wayne’s pockets used the process to get in a few quick punches. The limo driver searching Jerry said, “Hey, Mr. S., this guy’s packing a badge.”
“Let me see that.”
“That’s right,” Wayne said. “You’re actually ready to kidnap an Orlando police officer?”
“Retired.” Eric slipped the leather wallet into the pocket of his jacket. “If they were the least bit interested in what this grandfather had to say, they’d have paid more attention at the gate.”
“Who says they didn’t,” Wayne retorted, and heard how lame it sounded before the words were even formed.
Gold fever. Wayne recognized the glitter in Eric’s eyes. He had seen it often enough before. Guys trained in every conceivable form of violence, facing the terror of a tomorrow when their only skills became outlawed. They could dump it all in a carryall and hide it under floorboards in a closet, or they could pretend it was all just over and done. Or they could turn rogue. A lot of Wayne’s former buddies had talked the dream. Joining the mercs and taking on a major score. Night-times in the desert had been good places for such tales. Wayne had seen a lot of other eyes show that same feverish gleam, as the ultimate questions were finally asked. How much would it take? And what would they do to get it?
No question. Eric’s number had come up on the screen. And his response was locked in the trunk of his limo.
Eric turned to the shooter still covering Wayne and said, “Go get Tommy.”
The guy Wayne had laid out still wore grass stains on his face. “He’s just coming to.”
“I didn’t ask how he was. I said get him.” He turned to Neally. “Up.”
The board member had observed the entire scene with a look of helpless tragedy. Wayne said, “They nabbed your family?”
“Borrowed,” Eric corrected. “I’m an attorney. I prize proper syntax. We borrowed them. Temporarily.”
Wayne asked the silent, defeated man, “You believe that?”
Eric said, “I could gag you if you want.”
Wayne asked, “What is it you’re after?”
“That is no longer your concern. Not that it ever was.” Eric picked up Wayne’s phone from the glass-topped table and dialed a number. “You have two choices. You can tell the man what has happened, or I will have the gentleman you dunked shoot you in the knee. I will hold the phone while you scream. Then I will say the words. It hardly matters.”
Wayne knew before the phone was pressed to his ear that Easton Grey would be on the other end. He said, “They have us.”
“Wayne?” The man sounded weak with confusion. “Triton has just made a ridiculously low offer to buy my company.”
He felt the pistol barrel drill into the point where his jaw met his ear. “Me, Jerry, Julio, Tatyana. They have—”
Eric took the phone away. “Do what is required, Easton. And all this will go away.”
He tossed Wayne’s phone into the pool and said to the driver, “Put all three of them in the trunk.”
“It’ll be a tight fit.”
“Good. Fit this one in close to my ex. They were so chummy at the club. I wouldn’t dream of keeping them apart for an instant longer than necessary.” He did not smile at Wayne so much as reveal what lay beneath the surface. “If this one gives you any trouble, break something.”