What should have taken me four hours took me only three and a half. When I arrived there were at least a dozen cars parked in the circular driveway of the address Ryder had given me. Pulling to a stop behind a white Audi, I got out and made my way to the front door.
Rage and bitterness consumed me as I approached. I hadn’t seen Krull in years. I didn’t like him then and I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing him now.
I pounded on the door and waited.
A blonde wearing nothing but a floral bikini answered the door. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Krull Karter. Is he here?”
Her gaze drifted up and down my body. “Who’s asking?”
“LAPD,” I stated, holding up my badge.
That wiped the desire and curiosity right off of her face. “Wait right here.” She closed the door.
A few seconds later Karter returned, looking exactly the same as I remembered. Dark skin. Black hair. Cold, hard eyes. The only difference between now and then was I hated him more for killing my best friend and putting Cassidy in danger, and that only fueled my heated blood.
His lip curled in disgust. “You’re a little out of your jurisdiction, don’t cha think?”
Seeing him again resurrected so many bad memories, and with it came an onslaught of regret. I should have tried harder to keep Bodie away from him.
Maybe if I had tried harder, he would still be alive.
“Need to ask you a few questions.”
He cocked himself against the frame of the door, his confidence pissing me off. “As in?”
“Did your father hire Vinny to kill Bodie?
He laughed and my patience snapped. I threw him up against the door, pressing my forearm to his throat.
“I could have your job for this. You have no idea who you’re fucking with,” he said.
“No, it’s me you don’t want to fuck with. Answer the goddamn question.”
“I’m not telling you shit. I don’t owe you a goddamn thing.”
“You fucking owe Bodie. He trusted you. He thought you were his friend and you sold him out.”
“No, he sold himself out. I didn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do. I tried to warn him he was in too deep but he wouldn’t listen. The stubborn motherfucker wouldn’t listen to anyone.”
Well at least we could both agree on that.
“You can blame me all you want but the bottom line is Bodie did this to himself. He made a choice. There were consequences.”
I landed a fist across his nose. The bone cracked beneath the blow, blood splattering across my gray shirt. “You don’t breathe a word about him. You have no fucking right. Now tell me where your father is.”
“What the fuck, dude?” he garbled. “You broke my nose.”
Fisting the back of his head, I gave his hair a hard yank. “Good. It’s only a fraction of the pain I’m going to inflict if you don’t start talking.”
I released him with a shove and he stumbled backward. “I’m not telling you shit, you fucking pig.”
“One way or another, we will find him, and when I do, the pain I deliver will be far worse than this.”
He spat a wad of blood at my feet, a sadistic grin taking over his face that made my gut flare with suspicion. “Yeah, you go find him, pretty sure you won’t be disappointed in what or shall I say,whoyou find, Detective.”
My heart raced as I pulled into the driveway. I barely had it in park when I bailed out, Cassidy’s cries for help still crawling around in my head, squeezing my heart in agony.
