Page 10 of His Sweet Torment
Enver leaned forward. “What it is?”
“Probably nothing, but Dale and I and the rest will do a sweep. I’ll come get you as soon as we give the all-clear.”
She stepped out of the helicopter, but Enver grabbed her hand. “Stay safe,Principessa,” he whispered, and she nodded.
Padme and Dale entered first, guns drawn, torches on. Padme flicked the lights on at the main switch, and the whole house lit up. There was silence. “Chaley? Chaley Sanders? Gary Holder? Kevin?”
There was no answer. Padme peeled off to search the living room while Dale took the bedrooms. Silence hung heavy over the whole compound and Padme could only hear her heart beating heavily. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her bones.
“Agent Kaur! We have two men down, kitchen area, repeat, two men down.”
Fuck.Where the hell was Chaley? She turned into the study and flicked the lights on.
She recoiled immediately. The furniture in the room had been pushed to the sides of the room, except for one chair in the middle of the room. Tied to it, a bloodied and unconscious – Padme hoped – was Chaley. Padme darted to the young woman’s side and felt for a pulse. Still alive – just. She saw the vicious stab wounds in the young woman’s abdomen, and her heart ached for the sweet young assistant.
Padme drew her gun and fired two shots into the roof, causing plaster to drop down on them. Dale and the other agents burst into the room as Padme untied Chaley and picked her up. God, she was tiny, probably less than a hundred pounds. Dale took her from Padme as Padme saw a note had been placed under Chaley’s limp body.
“Let’s get her to a hospital now,” she ordered, as outside she saw the helicopter carrying her love take off. Relieved, she followed Dale out to the car and sat in the back, cradling Chaley, who was coming around, pressing her hands down on Chaley’s wounds to keep the blood loss to a minimum.
“Chaley? That’s right, sweetheart, stay with me. Keep breathing, we’re getting you to a hospital right now, darling.”
Chaley opened her eyes and looked up at Padme. “Pad?”
Padme smiled. “That’s right, sweetie, we’re taking you to get help.”
“They told me it wasn’t personal. Don’t let them win, Pad, don’t let them hurt him…”
Padme moaned as Chaley’s head fell back, and the girl went limp in her arms. “Dale! Fucking step on it!”
Dale got them to an emergency room in super-quick time, but it was too late. The emergency room doctor declared Chaley dead on arrival. He was sympathetic, but matter of fact with Padme and Dale. “She didn’t stand a chance, I’m afraid. Her abdominal artery was severed in multiple places. She simply bled out.”
Padme felt hollow. Over the few weeks she’d known Chaley, she liked te young assistant very much – she didn’t deserve to die like this.
“Fuck,” Dale said, his face pale. “Fuck.” Padme followed him out the ambulance. Dale put his head in his hands and then screamed. “Fuck!”
Padme sat down on one of the benches outside and felt herself grow numb. Chaley had been murdered, and their safe house was blown. Enver had been spirited away – and now, she felt, she didn’t know if she could trust the people who had taken him. She remembered the note under Chaley’s body, and now, Padme pulled it out of her pocket, wincing at the blood that soaked the paper. She smoothed it out and read it.
Dale rubbed his hands on his head. “So, they know where we were keeping Enver. Someone must have blabbed…but who the hell else knew apart from a very few of us? They knew about the house!”
Padme looked up at him, her face pale and she held up the note. “And they know about me.”
Dale took the note from her and Padme watched as his eyes widened as he read the message on the paper.
Next time, we’ll gut your pretty Indian girlfriend.
Padme sat in Henry’s office. It had been two days since the murder, two days since she’d seen or spoken to Enver. After they had read the note, Dale had pleaded with her to tell Henry about the threat.
“You don’t have to say anything about your relationship with Enver. Just, take this threat seriously. If what happened to Chaley ever happened to you…I could not live with it, Pad. Neither could Enver.”
So, she was here, waiting for Henry to tell her what her next steps were. She had decided she would tell him everything, take her punishment. Ask if she could be put with Enver.
“Well,” Henry came into the room, shutting it behind him. “I guess we now have two people to protect. The threat on that note was very real, Padme, the Ingles won’t think twice about killing you to get to Enver Toscano.”
“How did they know about us? I mean, Dale and I being Mr. Toscano’s protection detail?”
Henry’s face was stern. “We are looking into it – believe me, when I find them…” He sighed. “So, assuming that you don’t want off this case, I propose we take you to the same safe house as Toscano. You’ll keep your badge and gun, but for all intents and purposes, you’ll be a protectee also.”
Padme sighed. “The babysitter being babysat.”
