When his plane touched down, Hawk ordered the driver of one of the two SUVs waiting at the private airfield to transport Janita, Von, and Shelly to his parents’ home while he and Lassiter handled Donnally.
But Janita wasn’t having it. She insisted she go too. He might have ordered that ambush on her and Von. He had her arrested for what she knew were trumped-up charges. She wanted to confront Donnally too.
Hawk didn’t like it, but he agreed to let Janita come with him and Lassiter. But Von, who wanted to come too, was a hard no for Hawk and Janita. He and Shelly went in one SUV. Hawk, Janita, and Lassiter went in another one.
And when the threesome walked into Donnally’s beautiful home, no doubt thanks to all the bribes he had no problem taking from otherwise law-abiding citizens, Hawk was pleased to see him tied up and two of his own police officers standing guard. They, too, had no problem with bribes. And nobody paid better bribes than Matty.
But Hawk wasn’t wasting time on this bastard. He wanted him to talk and talk right away. He went up to him and put his gun to his throat. “How do you know Greta Jacobs? Let’s start there.”
“I don’t know her.”
Hawk pressed the gun harder against his throat. “She knew a friend of mine. He told me she wanted to avenge her son’s murder. And I helped her out.”
“By doing what? Kidnapping my mother?”
“I paid Kemberly and her brothers to take you out,” Donnally said. “That’s what she wanted. She wanted you gone.”
“For money?” Hawk was surprised. “Kemberly did it for money?”
“Everybody does everything for money,” Donnally said. “Haven’t you heard?”
He was still his old arrogant self. Janita couldn’t stand him. “What about what happened to me and my brother?” she asked him.
“That too,” Donnally said. “Kem’s brothers hired some bad dudes to take you out. They thought they had done just that when your SUV overturned. But their asses were wrong I see.”
“But why me and my brother? What did we have to do with it?”
“That was a Kemberly thing. She thought you was Hawk’s woman. She wanted you dead.”
Hawk looked at Janita. He would have died himself if that bitch would have harmed either one of them. “Who did you hire to kidnap my mother?” he asked the chief.
“That wasn’t me. But did I plant that gal’s fingerprints on that false door? That I did. Yes, I did that. And almost got away with it. Until you showed up with the money bag. Because like I said, everybody does everything for money.”
Hawk looked at Janita. But Janita was looking at Lassiter. She was keeping her eyes, and her gun, trained on him because she wasn’t at all convinced he was on their side.
But Hawk was still confused. “Why would you do all of this?”
“How many times I got to tell you? Money honey. I did it for money.”
But somehow that didn’t ring true to Hawk. “You went all the way to L.A. to help Greta for money?”
“Yes! He finally gets it. And I recruited Kemberly to do the job because she hated your ass too. And her brothers did whatever she told them to do.”
“Do you know where they are now?” Janita asked.
“No.”
Nobody believed him. But that was beside the point. Because that million-dollar question still needed to be asked. Hawk had thought that the answer would lie with Donnally. Now he knew he was just another conduit too. “Who paid you to pay them?” he asked him, and everybody looked at Donnally.
But Donnally was hesitant. Which said a lot to Hawk. That was why he took his gun away from Donnally’s throat, and placed it up against his penis. “Who paid you?” he asked again.
It was a hard press. So much so that Donnally hesitated no longer. “It was Dobson. He paid me,” he said.
Hawk frowned. “Dobson? What Dobson?” Then his eyes stretched. “You meanShelly? Are you talking about Shelly Dobson?”
“He’s the only Dobson I know,” Donnally said. “And that’s his mama’s maiden name, by the way.”
What did his mama have to do with this, Janita wondered. But Lassiter was floored. “You’re saying Shelly Dobson is behind all this?” he asked Donnally. He could not believe it either. “Shelly Dobson?”
