Tot rolled onto her side, and they both looked at her.
“Heck of a situation, a baby landing in the middle of this.”
“Yes, sir, it sure is.” It’d be one thing for him to face annihilation because of his choices, his decisions, but for little Tot, who hadn’t even lived long enough to decide one single thing for herself?
So small.
Her hands were tucked under her chin, the cutest thing he’d seen in probably his entire life.
The door thumped open.
Cullen turned, but the gun stopped him.
“No moving,” the newcomer said. A mild East Coast inflection colored the word. Dark hair, dark eyes, expensive haircut, neatly shaped brows. Nico, the guy from thenewspaper clipping. He kicked the door shut behind him, the revolver in his gloved palm. “Hands showing and sit. Both of you.”
Archie and Cullen did as instructed. How had they missed his approach? They’d not seen a vehicle. And where was Nico’s partner?
Cullen’s mouth was bone dry. Kit would return any moment, walk right into the ambush.Stay where youare,Kit,he silently pleaded.
“Didn’t see you coming,” Archie admitted.
“That was the idea, old man.”
Cullen craned to see any sign of Nico’s second in command. Was he going around to confront Kit? “Where’s your buddy?”
“He’s my brother, Simon. He’s on another assignment.”
Another assignment.Okay, so second SUV guy was Simon, the brother. Not Kyle, not the guy on the motorcycle. He was still an unknown entity. But what other assignment? Targeting the runaway Annette? Stalking Kit?
Cullen started to speak, but Nico cut him off by waving the gun at the baby. “I’m not here to chat. This has stretched on too long already. Unbelievable that Annette got you all involved in this in the first place. You stopped to help the trucker, and now here you are. Rotten for you. If everyone had minded their own business, none of us would be here right now. Where’s Annette?”
Good. He didn’t have her. Yet. Cullen clamped his jaws together. Not gonna get any info on Annette from him. Not that he had any. Archie’s look was pure defiance too.
“Macho men, huh?” Nico waved the gun. “Not important. That problem can wait. I want her stuff.”
Cullen kept his expression neutral. “What stuff?”
“Her luggage, backpack, a phone. Whatever she was carrying with her when she hitched a ride from the trucker.”
Cullen kept his gaze away from the door. “What’s your interest in Annette?”
Nico’s eyes narrowed. “She’s mine. That’s all you need to know. What happens to her isn’t your business.”
Fury flamed in his gut. “You trafficked her, didn’t you? Forced her to work for you when she ran away from home at seventeen?” Cullen could not keep the disgust from his voice. “What kind of big man entraps a child?”
Without warning, Nico slammed his fist into Cullen’s cheek, tumbling him off the chair to the floor. Lightning pain sizzled through his skull. When Archie moved to intervene, Nico jammed the gun against Archie’s forehead.
“She was a desperate runaway, and she would have starved to death if I hadn’t stepped in. I’m perfectly willing to kill you both, but I don’t have what I came for yet.” He stared at Cullen. “You’re going to give it to me because you don’t want this old man to get a bullet in the brain. Or the girl truck driver.” He darted a look around. “Where is she? Bathroom?”
Cullen felt a thrill of hope through the red-hot agony in his cheekbone as he sat up, warm blood flowing down, seeping into his shirt collar.
Nico didn’t know Kit’s whereabouts either. The longer they talked, the greater chance Kit would have of hearing them, becoming alert to Nico’s presence. “She left.” The words felt thick on his tongue, and he had to press them past the wall of pain. “Took off because she got tired of baby care. Figured she had a better chance of making it on her own.”
Nico kept the gun pressed to Archie’s brow. His friend’s eyes brimmed not with fear but with rage.Stay cool,Archie.
“That smells like a lie to me,” Nico said.
Cullen blinked hard to clear his vision, felt the blood drip from his chin in a steady stream. Nico’s finger tightened on the trigger.
