Page 16 of The Beachside Cafe 3
Jaymee followed Cameron in. The place was empty other than debris and old furniture. And a man, hanging by the neck, all the way on the other side near the water wheel.
“Good Lord,” Jaymee cried. She and Cameron raced to the man. Once there, Cameron wrapped his arms around Russo and lifted, taking the tension away from his neck.
“Hold him there while I get him down!” Jaymee grabbed a chair that was on its side and set it up under Russo’s feet. She used half of it to climb up and remove the noose from around Russo’s neck.
“Is he alive?” Cameron asked from below her. She touched her fingers to the side of the man’s neck and waited for a pulse.
“He has a pulse!” she announced. “It’s barely there but it’s there. We gotta get him to a hospital! Come on!”
TEN
The café was buzzing. Jaymee looked around, satisfied by the smiles and cheerful chatter she heard around her. She took a big tray of drinks to her table and set it down on the edge, taking a glass and setting it in front of each of her friends.
“Here you go. And you. And you. And especially you.” She set the last cocktail down in front of a recovering Carmine Russo, who hadn’t left them alone since they saved him from certain death two days before.
Alex, Cheyenne and Cameron had joined him at the Saltwater Café to celebrate his recovery.
“Thank you so much, Jaymee,” Russo said, lifting the glass and saluting her with it. He took a large gulp from it and set it down with a content look. “That is delicious. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” Jaymee set the tray on an empty table nearby and slid into the booth to sit next to Cameron. “I’m just glad you got out of all that with only an arm in a sling and some bruises around your neck. They must not have really been trying to kill you. Maybe they just wanted to scare you.”
“I don’t know but I’m grateful to the two of you for finding me.”
“So you didn’t see who took you like that?” Cheyenne asked curiously, taking small sips from her martini.
“Nope. Unfortunately I didn’t. I don’t even know how it happened. I got home and saw that place looking like that and got jumped from the back.” He looked at Jaymee. “You say whoever did this called Lianetti and that’s what led you to where I was?”
“Yep. He left the address imprinted on the piece of paper below the one he wrote on. It was Cheyenne who found that, you know.”
“And there was another one of those vials in your apartment, too,” Cameron added.
“I didn’t get stuck by anything,” Russo said. “No needle marks. Didn’t feel anything. Got a bump on my head, though.”
“Do you know what’s in those vials?” Jaymee asked.
They had taken the vial they found to Alex, who said that it was yet another strain of the concoction of the other two, with slight changes. He couldn’t tell them how it had been administered to Russo without injection but somehow they’d managed to do it.
“All I know is that those clear bottles were used in all the experiments. Some had placebos in them. Some had a drug of some kind. Maybe a narcotic. Maybe a hallucinogen. Could have been anything.”
“So the tests weren’t just physical. They were mental, as well. They were testing how people would react when they weren’t given anything at all but were told they had been.”
Russo nodded. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I worked there as a researcher. But the company destroyed me. They took everything from me and turned me into a lab rat along with all the others. It was to keep me quiet. When Doug started blackmailing me, Lianetti said I was no longer an asset and threw me out on the street. That’s how I got to be where I am now.”
“Do you know what they were searching for in your apartment?” Jaymee asked.
Russo shook his head. “Not a clue. I guess they might think I’ve got some documents hidden or something. I said I did in my lawsuit.”
“Do you?”
Russo snorted. “Of course. I’m not stupid. But that also means I’m not going to keep them in that stinking apartment. I’m much better off with those papers being in a nice safe, secure place. They won’t be found, that’s for sure. But now I can’t go back to those apartments. I can’t go back to my place. They’ll just come for me again. I’ve been staying at a hotel but I really don’t have the money for that.”
“Well, I’m moving out of the house soon,” Cheyenne said. Jaymee’s eyes shot to her daughter’s face, chills racing over her skin. “Maybe you could be a roommate for my mom.”
Russo’s mouth fell open in surprise. He turned his gaze to Jaymee. “I met your mother two days ago. I don’t think she or Cameron would be agreeable to a situation like that.”
“Actually,” Jaymee said, an idea forming in her mind. “There is a small sort of apartment attached to the north side of the house. I don’t see why you couldn’t move in there. I would charge a reasonable rate. But you’ll have to get yourself a job.”
Russo looked around the café. “You hiring?”
