“Left ankle.”
He doesn’t move an inch or utter another word as I frisk him. And I find the small unmarked revolver strapped exactly where he said it would be. I collect them and place them on top of the trunk, picking up the sound of sirens way off in the distance.
“What were you doing in the car, Talon?”
I don’t need to threaten him with violence to get what I want and need. It flows from him freely, like the trail of blood soaking my skin.
“I’m knockers.”
Where I come from we’d say fettuccini, but nark works just as well. An easy excuse though it does, if true, make sense.
“Sit up, Talon, glue your fucking palms to the ground but look at me while we are speaking.”
He moves easily but also is careful to do exactly what I want.
“Now why don’t you explain exactly why you are as you suggest, knockers?”
“You have to ask why I’ve been deep undercover for the past three and a bit years, Jesus-fucking-Christ.” He snaps, and I appreciate his tone more than I can convey. Because in just a few words he exposed truth in his passion, except life is never as clear cut as it should be.
“I’d like to hear you explain it. Because, Talon, while she is a beautiful reason, it doesn’t add up. The timings are off.”
“Not off. I was lucky. The opportunity basically fell in my lap. But I can read people, and the person I met could read me. He also learnt very quickly I had little to no fear when it came to the Anders family because they’d already done their worst.”
“And their worst was?”
“You want me to spell it out?”
“It seems I do,” I muse. Now that Raney’s mine, and safely back in my arms, the need for answers here and now I thought would have been a given.
“They hurt Raney!”
“They did. But why was it your problem to solve?”
“Because I couldn’t stop it from happening!” he screams. His anger is sudden and deep, and he reeks of remorse and conviction. His campfire scent smelling like a raging bushfire. “The way they thought they could get away with what they did to her because of their influence and money was like acid in my veins. And being angry made me focus and choose a side. I made it a mission to track down every person the Anders family got help from so they too could be held accountable.”
“How admirable. Does Hayes know of your duplicity?”
“Of course, he does! He knows everything, like I know everything about him. It’s how it had to work. And without him I would have thrown the towel in way before now.”
“You know everything about Hayes?” A wicked fury blinds me for a moment, because of course the second Raney was taken, Hayes was telling me what she’d told him, and exactly how we reacted.
The quiet alpha will get a stern talking to about fucking my omega for the entire world to see. Later. Right this second, not much else mattered but sorting the endless piles of bullshit out. I was hoping I wasn’t about to break my promise of killing again today.
Talon’s irritation at my question makes the blue of his eyes dull out in his attempt to lock out the challenge in them, but not fast enough.
“For the record, you do not know everything about Hayes. Now I want more information on who you work for.”
“I can’t share that with you.”
I squat down in front of him. I literally don’t give a shit about what he thinks he can, and can’t, share with me.
“I want a name, Talon. You get why, right?”
“Of course I fucking do. But he’s a good cop.”
“You remember the first time we met and I told you I don’t ever keep my woman waiting, well she’s currently doing just that. I’m sure I also shared how much it fucking infuriates me to make her wait. Time is a ticking.” And this time I make my threat obvious. I lay my gun on the ground between us and hand him my phone. “Three minutes to write the name of your good cop, plus the name of every person you have been investigating, since you are having issues answering my questions vocally.”
He cracks before we reach eighteen seconds. Snatching my phone off the ground, his fingers fly over the screen like a teenager’s on a Saturday night. Under the stress of the moment, Talon keeps inserting name after name into my phone. He pauses, his fingers hovering on the screen as I wait for that last name.
