Page 77 of Lost
A quarter of a million dollars. If Lysander hadn’t been gagged, he would have choked on the air around him. And if the way that Alfonzo shuffled forward ever so slightly was any indication, he liked the idea of that much money just sitting on the floor for the taking. It wasn’t millions, but it was a start.
Lysander wasn’t sure that this much money could vanish from a bank without attracting unwanted attention from the law. He dared to hope — but it would hardly help them when they were already in the snake’s pit.
“Two fifty,” Alfonzo repeated, trying to sound thoughtful. It probably sounded convincing to Zack, but Lysander had known the idiot longer than his father. “Well, that’s a lot of money.”
“And more to come,” Zack reminded him, “but only if you let my son go.”
Alfonzo’s two friends didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were laughing at Zack’s terms. But Zack ignored them, choosing to focus instead on Alfonzo — the clear leader of the group. The only one not laughing. Lysander wondered if Zack had figured out who the guy was, or whether he thought he was just some random nut job. He hoped for the former. He wanted his father to know that he was staring into the face of his daughter’s killer.
“Do you think we’re stupid, Mr. Bennett?”
“You must be,” was Zack’s retort. “Why else would you have kidnapped both of my kids?”
So hedidknow.
“If we were to let Lysander go,” Alfonzo went on, choosing to ignore Zack’s previous question, “you’d just take him and run. Leave the state. Leave thecountry, probably. And we’d never see the rest of that money, would we?”
Zack didn’t respond. There was no reason to — they all knew this was the most likely outcome, whether he admitted it or not.
“I was prepared to accept your offer. I was going to say fine, bring us the rest of the money in time. But Lysander would have to stay with us until we had every last cent of it. That’s just how business works, you understand. You don’t get the product until you’ve paid for it in full.”
Zack’s eyes narrowed. “My son isnota product.”
“But since you decided to insult our intelligence by putting out your ridiculous offer, we’re going to have to decline.”
The bag checker closed the bag once more, picked it up, and carried it back to his former position behind Lysander. Zack watched the exchange with little interest. The only thing he seemed worried about was his son, for which Lysander felt bad. The end was coming; he could feel it.Run,he insisted with his eyes.Get out of here before it happens.
“We’re still taking the money,” Alfonzo assured the man, “but since you didn’t meet our demands, Lysander has to die.”
Please leave,he thought at his father.I don’t want you to see this.
“Please.” Zack was begging now. “Anything you want, I’ll get it to you. Just put the gun down and let Lysander go.”
“It’s too late for that, Mr. Bennett.”
Zack was pale. Paler than Lysander had believed the man could get. If Lysander could have just one last wish, he would wish for the gag in his mouth to be removed so that he could tell his father that it wasn’t his fault, that Alfonzo had planned to kill them both all along, that he shouldn’t feel guilty. He tried to convey it all with his eyes, but it just wasn’t the same. That, and he couldn’t deny that he was scared — and that was no doubt what truly showed in his eyes.
I don’t want to die.
Alfonzo cocked the gun; Lysander squeezed his eyes shut and hoped for a painless death.
The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the warehouse.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Zack’s heart pounded.
The scene was one he would have expected out of a movie — old, empty warehouse in a quiet, out-of-the-way part of Orange County; three men, barely out of their teens by the looks of it, with guns and eager expressions on their boyish faces; his only son gagged and bound to the single chair in the middle of the room. Had the circumstances been lighter, he might have laughed at the stage Alfonzo had set for his final scene to play out. But the circumstances were not light. There were lives at stake here.
Lysander’s life was at stake.
Alfonzo had pulled a gun from the back of his baggy jeans and had pressed it to the boy’s temple. Zack’s heart had nearly stopped at the sight of it, but he’d reminded it to keep beating. He’d known there would be guns involved. He should have known that either he or his son — or both, as it turned out — would become targets early on in the negotiations. If you could even call it that.
Zack couldn’t take his eyes off his son. Lysander looked as strong as ever, defiant despite the trickle of fear in those magnificent blue eyes. Zack’s thundering heart swelled with pride. He wished he could open his mouth and tell his son that, let him know before anything happened, but he was frozen. Unable to move. Shell-shocked.
The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the warehouse.
It was louder than Zack had expected, and he jumped. So did Alfonzo’s two companions, though he didn’t pay either of them any mind. His eyes drifted over the new scene in front of himself, all in slow motion, the scene with blood splattered all over the concrete floor. The one that made his blood run cold and his heart stop. The one he knew he would never be able to forget, not given all the time in the world.
