The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1) by Diana Xarissa (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“Let me have it,” Tony said.

Janet hesitated and then pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was still ringing.

Tony reached for it and then hesitated. “Answer it,” he told Janet. “Put it on speaker mode.”

Janet took a deep breath. Her hands were shaking as she pushed the buttons to answer the phone and switch on the speaker.

“Hello?”

“Janet? Where are you?” It was Mr. Jones and he sounded angry.

“I’m in Bobby’s suite,” she answered.

“Who else is there?” was the next question.

Janet looked at Tony.

“I’m here,” Tony said. “I don’t know who you are, but I’ll guess that you’re Janet’s husband. You won’t have any idea who I am, but my name is Tony Hart. Theodore Bradley and I will be walking out of the hotel in five minutes. You need to arrange for there to be a car waiting for us at the entrance.”

“I’ll see if I can get a taxi for you,” Mr. Jones replied.

“I don’t want a taxi. I want a black limousine,” Tony countered.

“That may take more than five minutes, but I’ll do my best,” was the reply.

“See that you do. I’d hate to have to hurt Janet,” Tony snapped.

“There’s no need for you to hurt anyone,” Mr. Jones told him. “I’ll arrange for a car for you as quickly as I can.”

Tony took the phone out of Janet’s hand and pushed the button to end the call.

“Time to leave,” he told Theodore.

“I hope you have a plan,” Theodore replied.

“Of course I have a plan. How much have you taken from Bobby’s accounts?”

“I don’t know the exact number, but six or seven.”

“That’s more than enough for us to live on for years and years,” Tony replied. “We’ll get the car to take us to the airport and then get a flight to the Maldives.”

“The Maldives?” Janet repeated.

“They don’t have an extradition treaty with the US,” Tony told her. “But that isn’t really where we’re going. I’m not dumb enough to tell you where we’re actually headed.”

Janet nodded. If he wasn’t revealing their real plans, maybe he was going to let her live.

“You should have demanded a plane,” Theodore said. “Once we get out of the car at the airport, they’ll just arrest us.”

“Not if we have hostages,” Tony replied. “Go and get Bobby. He’s coming with us.”

Theodore nodded and left the room. A few minutes later, he emerged, pulling Bobby along with him.

“What did you do to him?” Theodore asked Tony.

“He got a dose of the same drug that I gave the security guy. Bobby drank his in a glass of wine. I stuck the security guy with a syringe full of the stuff,” Tony replied.

“He’s like ninety per cent asleep,” Theodore said, nodding at Bobby, who was slowly swaying back and forth.

“That’s probably for the best. Just keep him on his feet,” Tony replied.

“What now?” Theodore asked.

“It’s time to go.”

“I need some things from my room.”

“No, you don’t.”

“But, Tony, I have pictures of Mom and her letters. I can’t leave them behind.”

“We’re leaving everything behind. We don’t have a choice. If you’d done your job and killed Bobby back in Texas, none of this would be happening.”

“You didn’t kill him either. At least I stole seven million dollars from him.”

“And I would have gotten a good deal more once I’d dragged Lucy down the aisle. Let’s not argue about that now. We have to go before anyone decides to call the police and they simply storm the room and let the hostages die.”

Janet swallowed hard. Mr. Jones wouldn’t do that, would he?

It was clear that Theodore wanted to argue, but after a moment he nodded. “Okay, whatever,” he muttered.

Tony looked at Janet. “We’re going for a walk,” he told her. “You just keep doing exactly what I say and you might just get out of this alive.”

Janet nodded. “I’ll do whatever you say,” she said flatly.

He grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the door. When they reached it, he stopped and slid his other hand into his pocket. After struggling for a moment, he pulled a gun out and waved it at her.

“Just in case you think I’m simply playing games,” he said. “It’s very real. It’s loaded. And I will shoot you and then myself if we get stopped.”

Blinking back tears, Janet forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply. Everything was going to be fine, she told herself. She’d be safer outside of the hotel room than she was at the moment, anyway.

“Come on,” Tony told Theodore. “And don’t forget your hostage.”

Theodore pulled Bobby towards the door. When the pair was right behind Janet, Tony opened the door and looked up and down the corridor.

“Let’s go,” he said, waving with the hand that still held the gun.

Janet tried not to look at the blood on the floor. There seemed to be far too much of it, more than Edward could have lost and survived. She forced herself to stare straight ahead at the lift doors. If Edward didn’t survive, she’d never forgive Mr. Jones. Focussing her anger on him, she counted backwards from ten to one and then waited. Tony and Theodore were incompetent at best. She knew she’d have a chance to get away. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity.

The lift doors opened and Tony pushed her inside. Theodore dragged Bobby in after them.

“How come you get the woman who can walk and I have to drag Dopey here?” Theodore asked as the lift slowly descended.

“Because I have the gun,” Tony replied, waving the thing yet again.

“You should probably put it away,” Janet suggested. “I know you have it, but you may not want everyone else to know.”

Tony