[B.S. #2] Bound to Cyn (20 page)

“How did you like the nice cold beer with your pizza last night?” James asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“You asshole. You spiked my drink last night, didn’t you?”

“I did and I’m not sorry. Cyn will need you today and you have to be at your best. I knew you would stew all night. The guys and I had it covered, so we decided, all of us”—James held his hand up as Angel made a move toward him—“that for Cyn’s sake we would let you sleep, knowing we had your back and you couldn’t do anything anyway.”

Angel backed down from James, his hands clenched at his side, almost breaking the binoculars he held in one hand. “That was my decision to make, not yours or the guys.”

“Well you can get up our ass about it later, when this is all over. Right now we have to concentrate on Cyn.”

James’s cell phone rang. Picking it up, James started to listen to Brad until an impatient Angel grabbed the phone away from him.

“Is Cyn OK? I need to know what’s going on.” Angel started with the questions as soon as the cell reached his ear.

“Cyn’s fine, Angel, she just looks a bit dazed. Howard took her into her old hut and they are just sitting at a table. He seems to have some papers in front of him and pointing at something on them. He is making Cyn look at them. Nothing is going on, other than that. If he makes a move on her, I will be in there before anything happens. I won’t give him time to make a second move.”

James grabbed the phone back from Angel. “Can you tell what they are looking at?”

“Give me a sec. This small scope is not the best, I miss the one on my rifle. I’m in a tree beside the next hut. I couldn’t get any closer. Howard now has men stationed at the front door of the hut. I tried to walk by but was hurried on my way by the men. They might look like hippies but they both have shotguns now. I can’t see it really clear. Howard keeps getting in the way, but it looks like a map of the commune. I can just make out the garden and the huts alongside it. He keeps pointing at different places and Cyn just keeps nodding no. He seems to be getting a bit agitated but is not doing anything to harm Cyn. Now one of the women has joined them in the hut. She seems to be bringing tea or something. They are just all sitting now at the table and having tea or whatever. Hey, is that Clay I see behind a hut two down from me?”

“Yes, it probably is. Clay was stationed just outside of the gate. He probably made his move when the guard was distracted. Give me a sec. Angel is looking ready to explode. I’m going to update him. If anything changes let me know.” James closed the cell. Angel was now pacing back and forth on the balcony, every now and then looking through the binoculars.

“Sorry for that, but we have to keep our heads. We have to know what is going on and we have to concentrate on Howard and now the men with guns at the door. We know Cyn is OK and Brad won’t let anything happen to her. I know it’s hard but we also have to give them time together in the hut. We need to figure out what was so important that he would try and grab Cyn at the club, to bring her here. It’s got to be something big for Howard to take the risk.”

“Yes, I know, but I feel useless standing here while the others are out in the field. She’s my woman. I should be out there, not them. If that Howard or any of them touch Cyn, I will personally tear them to pieces. I really don’t care what they are after.”

James grabbed the glasses from Angel “I see movement at the gate. Grant is now speaking to the guy. That’s our cue. Let’s go.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Angel and James hurried out of the apartment and to the elevator that was now working. In a few minutes they were in front of the apartment building and hurrying toward the commune a few blocks down.

Reaching the gate, they were just in time to see Grant take the guy out with a left hook and lay him out on the ground. Lance and Chase were starting through the gate. Angel ran and caught up with them. “What’s going on?” he asked Grant.

“They have moved outside of the hut and are making their way to the back of the commune. Brad and Clay are shadowing them. That’s all I know.”

Inside the gate, they were surprised that there was no one milling around. It seemed too quiet. Skirting around the huts, they hurriedly made it to the last one where they found Clay looking around the back corner of it toward the back property line of the commune.

“How’s Cyn?” Angel asked as he sidled up to Clay.

“Cyn looks like she’s crying. Howard shook her up a bit.” Clay reached out and grabbed Angel by the back of his T-shirt as he started to go around him and held him back. “Wait just a damn minute. He just shook her, nothing too physical. We have to give them time. Brad has a bead on him in his gun’s scope. Nothing will happen or Brad will take him out.”

Angel shrugged Clay’s hand off. “OK, but let me look. I have to see for myself.”

Angel watched as Howard pulled a now sobbing Cyn behind him to the very edge of the commune. Two other men were walking behind them. Angel could tell these men were not into whatever Howard was up to as they had their guns pointed at the ground and seem to be too calm to be any kind of hired henchmen. Finally, Howard and Cyn reached the back fence. There just inside the fence was a small tool shed. Howard roughly pushed Cyn to the ground in front of it and seemed to be screaming something at her, waving his hands wildly.

He started walking around her as she sobbed on the ground at his feet. His frustration was obvious as they watched.

Howard suddenly came to a stop in front of Cyn and raising his foot he pulled it back and went to kick her.

His foot suddenly stopped in mid action, not moving forward as his ranting stopped and he fell backward on the ground. The other two men raised their guns and both gasped and dropped their guns, one after the other grabbing their hands that had been holding them.

Angel had seen enough. He raced toward Cyn, who had stopped sobbing and was now looking around her in a daze at the men. Reaching her, Angel slid to his knees and enveloped her in a tight hug. “God, are you OK?” Angel just hugged her tighter and breathed in the scent of his Cinnamon.

Cinnamon squealed as Angel continued to squeeze her. “I’m OK, Angel. I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”

Angel loosened up his hold and brushed her hair gently back from her face and kissed her forehead. “I was so scared that I would lose you.”

James walked up to them sitting on the ground. He squeezed Angel’s shoulder. “Everything is OK. We have it covered. But before we call the Feds or police in, I would like to ask Cyn one question.”

“It’s not the time, James. Can’t you see that? It can wait until later.” Angel got to his feet and was helping Cyn to hers. Now that Cyn was safe, that’s all that mattered to Angel. He didn’t care about anything else and was annoyed that James would bother her right now.

Cyn laid a hand on his chest when he would have hurried her away. “Just a minute, Angel. I think I know what Howard was after. I don’t know why it just came to me now. But let me talk to James.”

Turning to James, she continued. “He kept ranting on about my special garden. I was in such a daze that I couldn’t think with all his yelling. When he went to kick me, but landed on the ground instead, it stunned me. I remember my special garden that I kept just for Ward. It wasn’t anything special and the seeds he supplied me with didn’t grow. The normal ones I purchased at the market did a lot better. Howard just kept on ranting about the garden and Ward’s seeds. Let’s go see what was so important about my garden.” A determined Cyn stepped away from Angel and went to the shed and opened the door and grabbed a shovel.

* * * *

Angel took it out of her hand and grabbed hold of her other one. Holding his hand tightly, Cyn led Angel to the left edge of the property. Chase and Lance both followed, with James walking behind them. Reaching the small overgrown plot, Cyn stopped and spread her hands toward the ground. “This is it. Nothing great to look at now, is it? But back then it was my pride and joy, even if I couldn’t get Ward’s seeds to grow. He never seemed to mind, though.”

James came to her side and took her elbow. “Where did you plant the special seeds? Can you tell us?”

Cyn pointed to the overgrown patch. “The left part of the garden was where I planted them. I kept them separate from the other vegetables that would go to the market. I think you need to dig in that area.” Cyn led them to the left side of the patch. “There wasn’t many seed so I just planted two rows. Right here.” She pointed at the ground at her feet.

Angel pulled her back and took the shovel and started to dig. Nothing turned up but chunks of clay from the ground. After he had turned over the ground of the first row, he turned to James. “I don’t think there is anything here.”

Cyn dropped to her knees. “No, here they are. They still didn’t grow after all this time.” Grabbing a clump of black dirt, Cyn crumpled it with her hands. From the dirt came a gray glassy stone. “See here’s one.” She held it up.

James took it from her outstretched hand. Taking the hem of his T-shirt, he polished the stone. As he continued rubbing, a more clearer stone emerged. Smiling, he held it up so everyone could see. “This is what Howard was after.”

Angel reached out and took the stone from James’s hand. “Is this what I think it is?”

Angel looked over the stone carefully. In his hand was a nice chunk of raw diamond, almost as big as his thumbnail. He looked at Cyn. “You really did have special seeds.”

James turned to the others. “Let’s grab some more shovels and see what we can find? Cyn, do you remember how many seeds you planted?”

“Ward gave me two bags, but they didn’t look like that when he gave them to me. They were just black hard seeds mixed in dirt. Ward told me that they were just big black bean seeds already starting to spout. So I just planted them, ground and all,” Cinnamon told them.

Lance and Chase walked back to the shed where Clay and Brad were tying up the two men. Howard was still lying on the ground where he had dropped, staring sightless at the sky. There was no hope for him as Brad’s aim had been true and he had a hole right in the middle of his forehead.

Grapping more shovels out of the shed, Clay told them to hurry up with the digging. “People are starting to come out of their huts with all the noise. So we can’t wait too long to call the Feds in.”

Chase, at the lead with his shovel, watched as Clay made sure the man he was holding was tied tight and replied, “Will do, but you could come and dig in the mud with us.”

Pushing the tied-up guy to the ground, Clay told him, “No, you and James can have the fun. Brad and I will stay here and deflect questions from the people I see coming up the path.”

James was already digging and Lance and Chase joined him, being careful to turn over the earth and put aside any large chunks of clay. Angel, with his arms around Cyn, watched them.

Cyn pulled herself out of Angel’s arms with a bit of a struggle. “Let me go. I’ll just go get some water from the hut,” she told Angel as he reached to take her back in him arms.

Angel grabbed her hand and walked to the hut with her. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight for a minute now he had her back.

Bringing a basin of water to the edge of the plot, Cyn knelt down and took the larger chunks and dipped them in the water as Angel gathered them for her.

After a half hour’s work, the basin was half-full of cloudy diamonds.

Clay walked up and looked over her shoulder. “Quite the haul you have there. I called the Feds before the people could call the police. I think you just uncovered the missing millions that the Feds couldn’t account for when they arrested Ward. You got to give him credit. No one would have thought to look in a vegetable garden growing in the back of a commune. He had this stash waiting for him when he got out. He must have trusted Howard with some of the information in case something happen to him. Don’t look now but we are going to be surrounded by the men in black.” Clay turned and raised his hands in the air.

“Hold it. Stop what you are doing and drop the shovels. Hands in the air.” The Feds were now on the scene.

Chapter Twenty-Four

It took a few frustrating and tiring days before they were all gathered back together at the small apartment. It had been a long couple of days spent at the Feds’ headquarters. The Feds had been ruthless in their questioning about their knowledge of the stash of diamonds found at the compound. Questions that had run long into the night.

James walked to the fridge and took out cold beers and passed them around. Even Cyn took one. She joined the guys in celebrating that the worse was over. There would be a trial, but that wouldn’t be for months.

Cyn was sitting beside a quiet Angel on the couch. She could tell something was bothering him, had felt it for days, ever since he had found her. With their busy days with the Feds, she hadn’t had time to ask him what was bothering him. Reaching a hand over, she waited until the guys were all engrossed in a game on the TV and put her hand on his thigh. “What’s wrong, Angel? I’m OK and everything turned out OK. No one is hurt, well, except for Howard. So what’s bothering you?”

Angel put both of their bottles on the table in front of the couch and turned Cyn toward him. “I just feel that I let you down. In the army, and now working in the firm, I can usually sense if something is wrong. But I didn’t have a clue anything was wrong when I left you that morning to go to the club. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me most. Can you forgive me?” Angel wrapped his arms around Cry and pleaded with his eyes.

Cyn just raised both of her hands and wrapped them around his jaw, making him look into her eyes. “You silly, silly man. You were there when I needed you. You arrived when Howard was just starting to go off the deep end. And you had no way of knowing what was in my mind after the last phone call from Howard I received that night. I don’t know how they do it, but my mind seemed to blank out and I just did what they wanted. I thought that would never happen again, so this is all my fault for not going through the full course of therapy.” Angel was just about to speak, when James, who had been watching the game with only half his mind on it, spoke up.