Breath of Hell (Harry Bauer Book 8) by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

I climbed out of the car first, keeping my weapon concealed in my jacket as I opened the door for her. I could see her eyes searching wildly as she climbed out. She was searching for a way to escape, and that drove home for me the painful fact that this was no misunderstanding, no double bluff or clever rouse. She, like Charlotte and Marianne, belonged to Gabriel Yushbaev.

We pushed through the doors into the lobby and crossed to the elevators. I kept a tight grip on her and let her feel the cannon of the P226 in her side. I smiled down at her and whispered in her ear: “You know me well enough to know that I will do it, Colonel. There is a better way out. Don’t make a mistake.”

She pressed the elevator button and searched my face with her eyes.

“Is there?”

“Being cryptic and feeling sorry for yourself will not help you. We are going to talk now, and you are going to tell me everything.”

I was aware as I said it that all feeling had drained from my eyes. It was a lack of feeling I recognized. When you are behind enemy lines, when you are in the immediate presence of death, sometimes you have to do things the require you to lose your humanity, if only for a while. When that happens to a person you can see it in their eyes. They shut down their empathy and their compassion and they look at you differently. She saw that in my gaze and she recognized it. I saw her go pale and pasty. The elevator doors slid open and we stepped inside.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“That depends on you.”

“Are you going to torture me?”

I felt myself falter inside. “I have never tortured a woman or a child.”

I let the ambiguity stand and we stared at each other until the elevator came to a halt. We stepped out and I led her to my door. I slipped in the card, the light turned green and I shoved her inside. As I closed the door behind me I said, “You have a choice, strip naked or I take your clothes off. One way or the other you take off your clothes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Take them off now.”

She stripped, I took her clothes and threw them in the bathtub, with both faucets open full. If there was any kind of bug or listening device in there, now it was dead. Then I called reception.

“Mr. Bauer, what can I do for you?”

“My wife has joined me unexpectedly and I need a transfer to a suite. I need it to be immediate and I need it to be completely confidential. I don’t care how much it costs, I do need it to be in the next five minutes.”

He said, “Oh,” a few times, then gabbled, “The, the, the Terrace Suite is available, Mr. Bauer. It is…um…”

“I don’t care how much more it is. Reserve it for me now for a week.

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