He shook his head violently.
“Do it!” I snapped.
“No!” he said in a harsh whisper.
The woman continued knocking. “Mr. Travers, we agreed to nine o’clock, no exceptions!”
“Answer it or I’ll kill her,” I threatened. “Get rid of her or you both die.”
The man finally reached for the door and opened it a crack. “Ms. Parks, I’m sorry-”
I nearly pulled the trigger when the door suddenly opened wider, but it wasn’t the woman who entered. A little boy no more than five or six years old squeezed through the narrow crack in the door. My instincts kicked in and I grabbed him and dragged him to me, covering his mouth with my hand before he could scream. The man at the door gasped, but the woman he was talking to didn’t seem to notice that his attention was no longer on her.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Travers. We had a deal. You want me to watch him longer, you have to pay me for longer!”
I heard footsteps hurry off, but the man staring at me in horror didn’t move or even shut the door. “Please don’t,” he whispered as his eyes fell on the kid who was squirming in my grasp. And that was when I knew I had him.
I kicked the door shut and stepped forward. The man automatically stepped back.
“Where is he?”
“I swear to God, I don’t know who you’re talking about!”
“Your father!” I shouted.
The man was so caught off guard that he lowered his hands. “My…my father?” he stuttered.
The kid was furiously trying to escape me and it was a struggle to maintain my hold on him without hurting him. I also didn’t know what the fuck to do with him – he hadn’t been part of my plan. I hadn’t even once considered the possibility that the younger of my wife’s murderers might be a father. And no way in hell was I hurting a kid…I’d use him to get what I wanted, but I wasn’t so far gone in my hatred that I’d actually follow through with my threats.
“I…I haven’t seen my father in years,” the guy said desperately. His eyes shifted back to the little boy. “It’s okay, Matty. Daddy’s here. Just be real quiet for a few minutes, okay,” he said gently, his voice surprisingly even.
The boy quieted in my hold.
“No loyalty among murderers, huh?” I said.
“Murder?” the man whispered.
My fury was so intense that I released my grip on the boy and he ran to his father. “Get him here now!” I ordered.
“Jesus,” the man cried as he grabbed his son and put him behind him. “You’re looking for Denny!” he said.
“What?”
“I’m Tate. You’re looking for my father and Denny, my brother.”
Chapter 1
HAWKE
“You’re lying,”I snapped even though in my gut, I knew he wasn’t. I couldn’t explain how I knew, I just did. And I’d learned long ago to trust my instincts, even when my head was telling me not to. But I kept my gun pointed at the man – Tate – because I also knew he was my only link to the men I was looking for.
“I swear, I’m not,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Daddy,” the little boy whispered with a tug on his father’s shirt.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Tate murmured as he reached behind himself to put his hand on his son’s shoulder. But his eyes never left mine. “Please,” he begged.
But I didn’t just hear his plea. I heard hers too. How many times had the same word fallen from her frightened lips as she was being brutalized? And it just hadn’t been her life she’d been begging for…
