Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 67: Security
THE WALTHER P22 wasn’t loud, but it was enough to draw the attention of a security patrol walking the grounds not far away. He turned to see the kidnapper let go of a child as he fell back against the car and slid to a sitting position on the ground.
Henry ran to scoop Paul up in his arms as Germaine stood over the kidnapper.
“Don’t! Don’t shoot! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We weren’t going to hurt him!” the guy yelled.
The door on the other side of the car flew open and a woman jumped out and ran up the drive. The security patrol radioed the front of the resort to prevent the woman from leaving and to call in police and an ambulance. He didn’t approach the car because he was unarmed and wasn’t about to get between Germaine and the guy on the ground.
“Poopy pants!” little Paul screamed.
It might have been directed at the kidnapper, but it was also an announcement of what was happening in Henry’s arms as he spoke. Grace ran up and took Paul from Henry. The kidnapper kept looking at Germaine’s steely gaze and the barrel of her gun.
“Please lower your gun and step away!” the security guy yelled from what he considered a safe distance.
Henry knelt by the kidnapper and quickly checked for weapons, then pulled him around to examine the tidy little hole in his right shoulder. It was so compact it wasn’t really even bleeding that much. Henry nodded to Germaine. They stepped back to where they’d fired the gun, ejected the clip and the round in the chamber, and placed the gun on the ground under their foot.
The security guard approached cautiously, looking at Germaine and verifying they were now unarmed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“This guy grabbed our son and attempted to take him away,” Henry said. “Our bodyguard stopped him.”
“Please! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I’m wounded. He didn’t say anything about an armed guard. We were just supposed to snatch the kid and deliver him to the parking lot at Publix in Sanibel.”
“Who was it?” Henry demanded.
“I don’t know the name. Looked Cuban. Gave us $1,000 and promised $10,000 more on delivery,” the kidnapper cried.
Lisa puffed up carrying both babies and Chastity hauled all the beach equipment behind her. Grace had already left with Paul to change his pants and clothes in the cottage.
“Okay. We all need to just stay calm and quiet,” the patrol said. “Police and an ambulance are on the way. Your bodyguard is going to need to stay right there until they arrive. Shit! I’m glad you gave us the alert when you got here, Ms. Karol. I’d have turned around and run otherwise.”
Sirens could be heard approaching the resort and about five minutes later a police car, followed by an ambulance and a firetruck, rolled up beside the cars. Henry and Lisa had retreated to stand on either side of Germaine who simply stood quietly with her foot on her gun.
After a quick check, one policeman stood over the kidnapper as the ambulance crew came to attend to him. The other officer approached Germaine.
“We’ll have to take you in. Please stand still while you’re cuffed. Any effort to resist will be deemed cause for force,” the officer said. “Where’s the gun?”
Germaine scuffed their foot to uncover it as the officer cuffed their hands.
“Wait! It’s not their fault!” Henry yelled. “That guy was trying to kidnap our son. They fired in self-defense.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Where is this son?”
“He’s in the cottage having his clothes changed. He was trying to make it to the bathroom when he was grabbed.”
“How old is this kid? He can just go into the house by himself and change clothes?”
“He’s with his nanny,” Lisa said. “Look, just collect the gun and release our other nanny.”
“What? You said this was your bodyguard. Now she’s a nanny?”
“She’s both,” Lisa said. “Thank goodness!”
An unmarked car with a flashing light pulled up beside the ambulance and a detective approached. He paused briefly to give directions to the uniformed officer by the kidnapper and then came to where Germaine was still standing between Henry and Lisa, but back a step from where she’d dropped the gun and magazine.
“Is this the shooter?” the detective asked as he approached. Then he looked directly at Germaine. “Sergeant?”
“Retired, Higgins,” Germaine said.
“I got out after my hitch was up and went back to police work. Why’s she cuffed?” Higgins demanded of the cop.
“Standard procedure, detective,” the officer said. “Active shooter.”
“Really? She was holding a gun?”
“No, sir. She was standing on it.”
“Not very active then.” Higgins released the cuffs and threw them at the officer, none too gently. “Sorry about that, Sergeant. If you are all in that cottage, we can come in to talk to you in a little while. This guy has given a lead on the person who hired him and an officer at the front gate has detained a woman alleged to be his partner. We’ll have to process the gun. Why such a small weapon?” Higgins pulled his jacket aside to reveal a hefty nine millimeter in a shoulder holster.
“I quit killing,” Germaine said. “All I needed was to stop him. And you know that if he’d been armed, I could have taken him down with this as well as any larger bore weapon.”
“That’s true enough. We’ll talk more when we get to it. For now, we’re going to roll to Publix and take this guy down.”
“We’ll be here,” Germaine said. They immediately picked up the gear Chastity had been struggling with and went into the cottage.
“We’re all okay,” Henry started when he connected a call to Luke. “We had a little incident, but Germaine took care of it.”
“What kind of incident?” Luke asked.
“Somebody tried to grab Paul,” Henry said. “Germaine was with him and stopped it on the spot. We will have to talk to the detective when he gets done processing the criminal and tracks down the guy who paid them.”
“So, we don’t know who hired him?” Luke asked.
“Not yet. Offered a total of $11,000 from what the kidnapper said. He was very talkative after Germaine shot him.”
“Shot him! While he had Paul?”
“Paul was never in danger. You know Germaine is very careful. The detective who came to investigate already knew her. He said there wouldn’t be any charges filed unless the resort wants to sue for discharging a weapon on the grounds. That’s not likely.”
“We’ll leave and come to join you,” Luke said. “Can you ask Chastity to get a flight for us?”
“Luke, it’s really all okay. You and Izzy should stay there and enjoy Felipe’s game Saturday. We’ll be leaving then and will be home on Tuesday. Maybe Monday night,” Henry calmed his friend. “And at the moment, Chastity is still on the phone with our security company. She’s having another guard sent down to share driving and watchfulness. I think she’s planning additional support for you, as well. I suppose we need a company-wide security review again. This attack was on my family, but your son. I don’t think we’re clear of being targets.”
“Shit! Okay. I’m only going to tell Izzy the basics. She’s been good this week, like she hasn’t a care in the world. I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible,” Luke said.
“Take care, bro.”
It took about five minutes for Detective Higgins to verify the details of the incident when he arrived at the cottage that evening. They’d arrested a suspect in the parking lot and in processing him in, discovered an outstanding ICE warrant for his detainment.
Then Higgins and Germaine sat with the family and talked about their days in the Marines.
“I couldn’t believe you stayed in after what they did to you,” Higgins said. “How could they deport US Citizens? While their daughter was on active duty in the Middle East?”
“It was a notice to self-deport,” Germaine said. “They were given thirty days, so they managed to pack nearly everything and get refugee status in Canada. My poor grandparents never did understand what was going on. They weren’t citizens and didn’t speak English.”
“Still sucks. How many stars and commendations did you receive?”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll deport me now. I shot someone.”
“They wouldn’t, would they?”
“You know the only reason they didn’t try to extract me directly from the barracks is because I’m white,” Germaine said. “They arrested Ahmed on his way out of the base when he was discharged.”
Henry, Lisa, and Chastity sat in the room with the two retired Marines with their mouths open in amazement. They had no idea Germaine’s parents and grandparents had self-deported to Canada. And Germaine was apparently a pretty highly respected sergeant in the Marines. They were absolutely not going to let her be deported if there was anything they could do about it.
“So, Mr. Pascal, you’ve been shooting that little P22 for a while now. You were pretty confident when you fired at this fellow, Askins,” Higgins said, turning to Henry.
“What?”
“Higgins!” Germaine said. The other Marine waved her down.
“Yeah. It was a well-placed shot in the right scapula. Just enough to get him to let go of your godson so you could rescue him.”
Henry understood what the detective was doing. He’d just sworn to himself he wouldn’t let Germaine be deported.
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