My scalp was on fire and my toes were barely touching the floor because of how he was holding me, but I refused to give in. I smirked at him. I was sure I looked a little maniacal. I probably had blood covering my teeth. “Do your worst,” I said slowly.
He dropped me suddenly, and I wasn’t prepared for him to let go. He kicked me in the chest and then stormed out of the room. When he was out of sight, I winced at the pain in my chest, but just moments later, I was hauled off the ground and dragged back to the other room. I had no idea why I had been moved. The only thing I could think of was that Dennick wanted me manhandled to intimidate me. He didn’t get what he wanted the first time or this time, which made me wonder what he had in store for me next. I prayed that I was strong enough to handle it. I didn’t bother praying that someone would come rescue me. The chances of that happening were slim.
I curled into a ball, trying to make myself as small as possible. My body ached everywhere, but I knew the worst was yet to come. I needed to prepare mentally for what was coming. I couldn’t allow the negative thoughts into my head. I knew what I was doing when I ran from the FBI, and I knew that eventually I would get caught. But whatever was really going on was way too important to let anyone drag information out of me. I blocked out the pain as best I could and reminded myself why I had to stay quiet. I wouldn’t let Dennick win. I made a promise to myself right then that no matter what they did to me, I would keep my mouth shut. And I didn’t intend to break for anyone.
Chapter Four
Senator Cortez
“We cannot kill the man’s family!” Senator Burke shouted.
He had the balls to put this whole thing together, but he wasn’t doing what was necessary to make sure that we achieved our goals. We needed to eliminate those threats and move forward with our plan.
“I agree. We’re not barbarians,” Senator Samuelson agreed.
“Aren’t we?” I asked. “Consider what we’re doing here today. Think of all the men that we’ve blackmailed into doing what we needed. We have ruined lives over this, and it’s going to get worse. We’re talking about one man and his family. Eliminate them and achieve the bigger goal.”
“And you really think this is still worth it?” Senator Brunswick asked.
Maybe he was too idealistic for this job. I thought with his connections that he would be a great fit, but I should have taken the hesitation in his eyes for what it was. He wasn’t strong enough to do what had to be done.
“Everything is worth it to achieve the end goal. Don’t pussy out on us now,” I snarled. “We all agreed going in. If you think you’re going to take us down, you’re wrong. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to make sure this is done.”
The threat hung in the air until he finally nodded. “Regardless of my feelings about the morality of this, we can’t just walk in there and take his kids. I’m telling you, this is not something we can do.”
“Then we send in a bigger force,” Senator Allen said. “We have the resources. Let’s take down the whole company then. We have enough of us involved that we could fabricate something against them. Hell, they have this Knight guy with them. We can say that it’s a terrorist threat.”
There were a few nods, but I could tell that not everyone was on board yet.
“Look,” Burke said, “we’ve already gone off the rails. We were never supposed to take the wife,” he said, glaring at me, “but now that we have her, we have to wait him out. Let’s give him a few days to stew in this. Right now he’s looking for his wife. He’s running scared. We need to capitalize on that and give him the push he needs. We let him sweat it out for a few days and if we still don’t have anything, then we put the pressure on.”
I didn’t agree with any of it. These guys weren’t the leaders I had hoped they were. They were thinking like this was a gentleman’s war. It wasn’t. This required someone to be callous and unfeeling. Hell, I needed a guy like Knight. When the meeting adjourned, I called up my assistant. It was time for him to take his place beside me.
Chapter Five
Knight
Meet at Old Woody Bridge outside of town. One hour.
I traced the message on my phone, but it came up as a burner phone. I tried pinpointing where the message was sent from, but it was too broad to tell me anything. I knew where the bridge was, and I knew why whoever this was wanted to meet there. It was an isolated area of the country. There wasn’t much traffic on a good day, let alone in the middle of the night. I headed for my SUV. If I was going, I was taking as much firepower with me as I needed. Most likely, this was going to be a one on one meeting, but there was always the chance that this would be bigger than that. And based on what was going on, I wouldn’t put it past them to bring all the weapons they could.
“Where are you going?” Pappy asked, walking up behind me. He had been following me around since Kate had been taken. I knew he was fucking worried about what I would do, and he should be. Nobody took my wife and walked away alive.
“Meeting.”
“With who?”
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll find out when I get there.”
I walked around to the driver’s side and got in. The passenger door opened and Hunter climbed in, sitting down beside me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m not letting you go alone. You know this is a world of shit that we’re in. It would be idiotic for you to go anywhere by yourself.”
“I can take care of myself. I’ve proven that many times.”
“But you’re worried about your wife right now. You’re not thinking clearly.”
“Oh, I’m thinking just fine. I know exactly what I need to do.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. You’re gonna go shoot someone before you can get the information you need.”
“Pappy, the only person I’m going to shoot right now is you if you get in my way.”
“Fine, geez, I’ll stay out of your way. I’ll hide in the truck if you want, but I am coming along.”
I sighed and put the truck into reverse. This guy was such a pain in the ass sometimes. We drove to the outskirts of town, just a mile from Old Woody. “You need to duck.”
“What?”
“I’m serious, get down. I don’t want anyone knowing you’re here.”
“Me being here is supposed to be intimidating.”
“And if you’re intimidating whoever this jackass is, I’m not going to get the information I need.”
“You know what pisses me off?”
“No, Pappy, why don’t you tell me?”
“You’re only making me stay behind because you don’t want me to stop you from killing this asshole.”
“If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll wear an earpiece. If you really think I need help or something, you can shout in my ear.”
I heard his scoff, but he got the earpieces out and handed mine over. He mounted a camera on the dash and linked it to his phone. As we approached, he slouched down onto the floorboards.
“You know, this body was not meant to be in such tight spaces.”
“I would think you’d be used to it after your balls are always shriveling up around Lucy,” I said as I stepped out of the SUV. I slammed the door and scanned the area. There was a car on the other side of the bridge with its lights off. A man stepped out and shut the door, then started walking toward me. I couldn’t see any weapons on him, but in the dark, that wasn’t likely to happen.
“Trying to get facial recognition now,” Hunter said in my ear. Maybe it had been a good idea to bring him along.
I took my time hoping that Hunter could get something before I actually had to talk to this fucker. The more I knew about him, the more leverage I had.
“You’re not gonna believe this,” Pappy said in my ear. “He’s a nobody. He’s an assistant to Senator Cortez. I highly doubt he has any idea what the fuck he’s doing here.”
“Suicide mission.”
“No, I’m sure his bo
ss sent him to send a message. Knight, this guy has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.”
“He’s about to find out,” I muttered as I covered the distance between the two of us. I could hear Hunter yelling in my ear, telling me not to do anything rash. I was so fucking far beyond rash, it wasn’t funny.
“What do you want?” I growled at the thirty-something punk in front of me. He was dressed in a business suit, but everything on him was cheap. He was trying to dress the part of an important man, but didn’t have the means to carry it off. Hunter was right. This guy was a nobody, and he was about to find out what being in politics would cost him.
“You should have given them what they wanted.”
“Yeah? And who’s them?”
“If you ever want to see your wife again, you’ll return what you stole.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I think you know what will happen.”
I nodded. “Except, I have evidence that implicates all your…bosses. You touch even a hair on her head and I’ll make sure there’s not a single soul left on earth that doesn’t know the scum you work for.”
“You don’t hand out the orders here,” he snapped. “Who do you think you are? Do you really think that anything you do is going to get them to give in to you? If you want any chance of getting your wife back, you’ll hand over what you have and walk away. These people are powerful and they will bury you.”
“Powerful people like Senator Cortez?”
He didn’t answer, but his face said it all. That prick was pulling the strings and he sent this guy along to clean up his mess.
“You know what? I have a message for your boss.”
“What’s that?”
Hunter shouted at me to stop as I pulled my gun and shot the kid right between the eyes. His body dropped to the ground and his lifeless eyes stared up at the dark sky. I walked over to him and pulled out his phone, dialing the last number in his call list. As the phone rang, I dragged his body over to the edge of the bridge and threw him over.
“Do you have it?” the man asked just as the body hit the water.
“Sorry, were you expecting to speak with your assistant? He can’t come to the phone right now. He’s…getting a drink of water.”
“What did you do?”
“You sent someone to do a job, but you didn’t tell him who I was. You got him killed, and now you’ve pissed me off even more than I already was. You can’t blackmail me, and if you think holding my wife is the right way to go, you’ve made a very critical error. You’ve got one hour to release her, and then I’m coming for you.”
I hung up and walked back to the SUV, slipping inside the driver’s side door. I handed over the phone to Hunter. “I need a trace on the last call as soon as you can.”
“I’ll get Becky on it.”
I put the SUV in drive and headed for Pittsburgh. I didn’t know if that’s where Cortez currently was, but I knew where his house was.
“The phone is pinging at his house.”
He wouldn’t have Kate there. I already knew that they would have her stashed away, somewhere no one could be implicated. But once I got all the information I could out of the senator, I would dig until I found out exactly who had my woman.
“What do you think he’s going to do?”
“I think right about now he’s strategizing. This guy is cocky. He doesn’t think anyone can catch him.”
Hunter groaned beside me. “Why do I feel like I should be calling a clean up crew right now?”
I slowly turned to look at him. “Because you know me and you know it’s going to get messy?”
He sighed and pulled out his phone, making the necessary arrangements. I wasn’t going to bother making this a clean kill. Sure, it would be easier that way. A clean kill would mean that I could manipulate how his death was classified. The way I planned on taking him down, there would be no doubt it was murder.
“Now, remember,” Hunter whispered from beside me. “Do not kill him before we get all the information we need.”
I bristled in irritation. It was like he thought I was a rookie or something. This wasn’t my first kill, and it wasn’t the first time I had to extract information from someone. But it wasn’t just the kill or the information I wanted. This guy was going to be terrified before I even showed my face. I wanted him to know with absolute certainty before he saw me that he had fucked up tremendously, and now it was going to cost him his life.
I pulled out my burner phone and dialed his number. It rang a few times before he finally answered, sounding just as cocky as he had the last time I talked to him.
“Who is this?”
“Did you find his body yet?”
“You mean my assistant that you killed without a thought? Yes, his body has been recovered.”
“And my wife?”
“I’m not saying a word about your wife until I have what I want. You fucked up. You thought you could intimidate me into giving you what you want, but that’s not going to happen. She’s going to suffer for your mistakes, for your stupidity. And the whole time, you’re going to sit there, wondering if you should have done things differently. And you should have, because I’m not someone you fuck with. You’re just a killer, you’re a nobody, and now you’re about to know what it’s like to go up against someone with power.”
“Cortez, let me ask you one final question.”
“Go for it, tough guy.”
I let silence fill the line for just a moment and then I grinned. “How are your locks?”
I hung up and picked up my binoculars, watching his face as he slowly lowered his phone and walked to the window. He moved the curtain aside and stared out into the darkness, but he wouldn’t see me. He would never see me coming. I nodded to Hunter and he immediately shut off service to Cortez’s cell phone. Then he did the same with his landline.
I watched as Cortez moved around the house, checking all the windows and doors, like that would keep me out. After that, he dialed someone on his phone, pulled it away from his ear, and tried again. He moved across the living room to his landline, but he had the same reaction when he tried using that. He was out of options, and he was just now realizing it.
“Hunter, did you take care of the tires?” I asked quietly.
“What do you think?”
“And the neighbors?”
“All out for the evening. Well, one didn’t leave, but he’s deaf.”
“Then let’s put our plan into motion.”
Cortez ran out of the house and got in his car, backing down the driveway. It didn’t take him long to realize that he wasn’t going anywhere. I watched as he panicked, trying to decide if he should run or head back inside. I knew he had a gun inside, but he would never get to use it. I fed off the fear I felt from my hiding spot across from the house. He knew that something was wrong, but he still wasn’t convinced that I was a threat. He still thought he could find a way out of this. Soon, that fear would be so strong, it would be emanating from his pores.
He ran back in the house and locked the door behind him. He ran to his safe and grabbed his gun, but he didn’t bother to check it. If he had, he would have realized that I’d already been in there and emptied it.
“Kill the power,” I told Hunter, moving out of my hiding spot. The whole house went dark. I walked right up to his front door and kicked it in with one hard boot. Cortez spun around, his gun aimed right at me.
“Stop right there.”
I kept advancing on him, slowly enough that he could feel like he had some control. I didn’t want to take all the fun out of this. His hand shook, and with the moonlight streaming in, I could see the finality on his face that he knew he had been beaten. He just didn’t know how bad it would be yet.
“Where is she?” I asked as I approached him.
“If…” he swallowed hard and his hand shook even more. “If you kill me, you’ll never find her.”
“Who said anything about killing you?” I asked. “The
re are many worse things that can happen to a man that don’t involve dying.”
His eyes widened as I took my final steps toward him. He fired his gun over and over, but nothing happened. The panic on his face brought me so much pleasure, but not nearly as much as I was about to have. I twisted the gun out of his grip and slammed it down on his forehead. He flopped to the ground, but he wasn’t out yet. He was stunned, but still aware of what was happening. I grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him through his house into his kitchen. Hunter was already set up in there. A tarp was on the ground and there was a single chair sitting in the middle. He had even thrown a few tarps over things that blood could potentially land on.
“Extra tarps?” I asked.
He shrugged. “What’s the point in making more work for the cleanup crew?”
I hauled the senator up and threw him into the chair, not bothering to tie him down. I wanted him to feel like he had some power. I wanted him to know what it was like to feel that freedom slipping away. His head wobbled slightly, so I smacked him across the face to wake him up a little.
“Where’s my wife?”
He shook his head slightly. “I’m not saying a word.”
I grabbed his hand and snapped it back, breaking it at the wrist. His screams filled the house, but there was no one around to save him. “Where’s my wife?” I shouted.
“Fuck you!”
I grabbed him out of the chair and tossed him across the kitchen table. The vase went flying, crashing to the floor and shattering. I stalked across the room as he scrambled to get away from me, only to end up cornered.
“Tell me where she is!”
He shook his head as he tried to push himself further into the corner. “Go ahead and toss me around the room some more. Unless you give me what I want, you’ll never see your wife again.”
GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance Page 3
