Child chuckled. “Your wife is highly entertaining. I almost wish I didn’t have to kill her.” His eyes hardened to coal. “Put the gun on the floor, Chief.”
Oh, God…
With each pound of Jackson’s heart, he devised a different tactical maneuver. None would work, not without at least one of them getting killed. If he could be sure it would be him, then so be it, but were he to be taken out, that wouldn’t completely rid Kit and Bella from Child’s threat. How on earth had these knuckle bruisers gotten the jump on Kit?
“The gun!” Child barked.
Dread dried his mouth to ash. He was powerless—and there wasn’t a blessed thing he could do about it. He released the hammer and slowly set the gun on the rug.
“Now kick it to me.” Child rapped the tip of his black cane against the floor.
Sweat trickled down Jackson’s spine.
“Do it!” Child roared.
Jackson kicked, hating his impotence, hating even more the scaly-faced man in front of him. Bella whimpered pathetically, each cry boiling his blood.
“Very good, Chief Inspector.” Child swiped up the gun and trained it on him. “I see you are a reasonable man, which will make working out a deal with you all the easier.”
“I don’t make deals with criminals,” he growled.
“You do if you want your baby to live.” He snapped his fingers and the brute holding Bella immediately tipped her upside down. Her little body dangled, all the blood rushing to her head. A fall from that height would crack her skull.
“Jackson,” Kit snarled. “Save Bella!”
She grunted. Blood bloomed a small circle at her waist where the knife bit deeper.
“That’s enough!” Jackson shouted. “What do you want, Child? I’ve done as you asked.”
“I want many things, Chief, but for now?” A smile slashed across his face. “For now, I think leverage will work just fine.”
Bella’s cries weakened. Kit sucked air audibly.
Jackson shook. “Either talk faster or call off your dogs!”
“I will take no commands from you, pig.” Child cocked the hammer.
“Fine,” he spit out the word, barely able to breathe. “What’s your angle?”
“I could kill you all here and now, but like you, I am a reasonable man. And so, I have a proposition for you.”
Terrorising an innocent child and woman, aiming a revolver at Jackson’s heart—these were the acts of a reasonable man? Jackson seethed, the world turning a murderous red. “Get to it.”
“Impatience ill becomes you, Chief. And yet I suppose we should get down to business.” He inhaled, his chest puffing out a full two inches. “Instead of taking three lives, I will take the life of your wife alone. You shall live, as will your daughter, and in return you shall keep the law off my tail as I continue to do business as usual in this magnificent city of opportunity.”
Hah! The man was mad if he thought he’d agree to any such thing. “I will hunt you down, Child, you and your men, and gut you like the animals you are.”
“I think not.” Child shook his head. “For you see, your darling little Bella will be coming with me. This is who she will call papa”—he circled his hand around his face—“and I shall raise her to be twice the mastermind I am. She will own this city, my little protégée…Miss IsabellaChild.”
“Over my dead body!” Kit bellowed.
“Yes, that has already been established. She’s all yours, Gower, only do the deed elsewhere. I do not wish her husband to be distracted, as I am not yet finished negotiating. No, that’s not the right word.” He sneered at Jackson. “Commanding, more like.”
The taunting words cut through Jackson’s resolve like a knife. Just the thought of losing Bella to this monster drained the very blood from his body.
The big man—Gower—lugged Kit from the room. Or tried to. Kit was a wild, snarling animal…and Jackson prayed to God she could hold her own until he could get to her.
Ifhe could get to her.
