She didn’t want to cry, but it was so hard. Thank God, Zayn’s family was giving her support. She didn’t feel nearly as alone. They each had placed one of their hands on her back and shoulders to show they had her back.
“The moral of the story, Stella, is that quickie marriages don’t last. You think they will because it’s infatuation. Then, that dies, and you lose the ones you love. They walk away.”
“He won’t leave me.”
Danforth laughed. “Yeah, he will. He’ll get tired of being married, or he’ll take a bullet to the head when something goes wrong. He’ll leave, and you’ll be alone.”
That’s when the tears began. Not because he’d choose to leave, but because he’d die.
That was her only weak spot. He found it and zeroed in on it for maximum damage.
“You’re a dick,” Zayn said. “I can see why your first wife would rather die on a boat trip than be with you.”
Stella couldn’t do it.
She had to get away from him. Her father…he wanted her to bleed, and he’d gotten that.
He’d done the damage.
“I’m leaving.”
“That’s what he’ll say, and then you can’t come home. If you don’t annul this, Stella, it’s over. I see I’ve already lost my one daughter. I’ll have to search for my girl, Mercedes.”
She kept walking.
“Kiss that money goodbye!”
Zayn was pissed. He was balling his fist, and he was going to break the man for what he did to Stella.
But first…
“I quit,” he said, staring at the man. “I am no longer YOUR mercenary. What I am is your very angry son-in-law. How dare you look down on the people who got her back for you? We found Stella. We are working on finding Mercedes. You think you’re better than us?” he asked.
The man glared at him.
Rogue, Dakota, and Sarah moved closer to their friend. This spontaneous joining a few days ago had created bonds. They were a family now, and this ‘employer’…he was an asshole. Killing wasn’t easy.
It killed a part of your soul.
“Did you marry her for the money? Is that it?” he asked. “Do you want to get rich fast? Well, I’m her beneficiary. I’ll never let you see a penny when you kill her.”
Rogue had to grab him. Zayn nearly went over the desk to reach the man. The look on the Native’s face said it all. If he got to the man, he was dead.
Then he’d be dead—since there were paid security guys behind him.
Dakota and Rogue were trying to save his life.
Then again, they were more than likely saving Danforth’s life.
There was mad, and then there was verbally abusive, and Danforth Harrington had crossed a line.
The tension grew, and the man’s security moved closer to flank him. They didn’t look happy, but they were being paid.
That was the difference.
Rogue, Sarah, and Dakota weren’t. They were doing this to get closure in their own lives.
“For the record, I don’t need her money. What I need is her love.”
“Well, you won’t get any of it. I’ll have my attorney revoke her trust fund. I’ll have it drained so fast that your head will spin.”
“It’s sad that you went there. That you can think so low of me and say it in front of your child. We’re bad? No. You’re the animal. Oh, wait. I’m not allowed an opinion. You know how we low-life mercenaries are.”
The men around him, again, didn’t look happy.
“If you’ll excuse me, DAD, I’m going to go help my wife get over the shit you dumped on her in anger. I can tell you one thing. As long as I’m alive, you’ll never see her again. You’re dead to her.”
Zayn headed out, and it took all he had not to pull his gun and shoot the man in his big, yapping mouth. He had no morals? Zayn wouldn’t hurt a woman like her father had.
When he was gone, it wasn’t done.
Not by a long shot.
Danforth, lost in the anger, picked the next closest and handiest targets.
The people he wanted helping to save his other daughter.
“Did you know they got married?” he raged.
They stood there.
“ANSWER ME!” he said, clearing his desk with his arm in anger.
“No, we didn’t,” Dakota stated.
He began pacing back and forth. They could all see he was losing it. His family’s abduction, his wife’s murder, and now his daughter’s impromptu marriage was driving him to the edge.
Some of it was expected.
The rest…
“How do I get rid of him?” he asked suddenly. “I need to take care of him!”
No one went there.
In fact, the three-people working with the man looked horrified he’d even ask. Could they kill someone they’d come to respect?
NO.
No, they could not.
“Okay, let’s sweeten the pot. I’ll pay someone a million dollars to get rid of him.”
The one mercenary raised his hand when the money was offered.
Clearly, he didn’t get it.
“I’ll do it. When and where?”
Sarah, Rogue, and Dakota all pull their guns at the same time and pointed them at the man with his hand up.
“I suggest you head out before I put a bullet in your very small brain,” Rogue said.
“This is one job you want to pass on,” Dakota stated. “I was a US Marshal, and I’ve seen you. You just offered to take money for a killing.”
That freaked them all out.
No killer wanted to be identified—let alone by an ex-fed in their midst. That was the straw for them.
The man headed out, flipping them off.
“You can’t fire my help!”
“Is this what you all want?” Rogue asked. “He’s called us the help. You work for me as much as him. If you don’t head out, I’ll spread the word that you aren’t trust worthy. You’ll lose commissions, and I’ll let my brother here start making sketches of all of you.”
That was all he had to say.
They needed to work and going to jail…no, thank you. They headed out much to Danforth’s dismay.
When they were gone, Rogue moved toward the man. It was time for a come to Jesus talk.
“How dare you?” Danforth hissed.
“Shut it, pops. It’s time to discuss this situation. We are done being your whipping boys and girl.”
“What are you saying?”
“That if you dare call out the dogs on Zayn and Stella, I’ll make sure I come back here and end you.”
“I’ll get security.”
He laughed. “First of all, the security company that screwed you wanted my help. What does that tell you about what I can do? Secondly, I’m a killer too. Don’t let the calm deceive you. I will come back in the middle of the night when you least expect me, and I’ll put a bullet in your brain.”
He laughed.
“You think I’m kidding?”
It was Rogue’s turn to laugh.
Then he pulled his gun again and shot so close to the man’s head that he went pale and grabbed his ear from the bullet grazing him.
“That’s your warning. Trust me. You don’t want me waiting for you one night while you’re in bed. I’ll make sure you pay.”
He sat.
Dakota made the choice. It was this group or his chances to catch Bonnie.
“Oh, and we quit too. You can find your daughter on your own. Hell! Pay the ransom for the rest of your life.”
He didn’t bother to tell him the girl had likely gone under anyway. If she was in Chesky’s hands…
“You can’t do that!”
All three laughed.
“We low-lives can’t be trusted,” Rogue said.
“The second you tried to hire someone to kill Zayn, the line was drawn.”
“I should have known better than to deal with mercenaries. I’m going to make sure the world knows the feds put me on
to this crazy train!”
Dakota laughed.
He knew the man would have a world of hurt if he went there. If he took one swing at Ethan Blackhawk, his whole world would collapse around him.
“You can’t intimidate me!”
Oh, he had no idea.
“For the record, we know where they disposed of Maia. They fed her body to an alligator. You don’t want to know what they have planned for your daughter. Then again, you’ll only have to wait a few years to get richer off her death, right?”
“What?”
Dakota was done messing around. “If Zayn gets hurt, you’ll never find out if Mercedes is alive. Hell! We’re the ONLY ones who can find her. If you send anyone after him, I’ll kill Stella first, and then when I find Mercedes…”
Danforth was horrified.
“Adios, Mr. Harrington.”
They headed out.
“You won’t kill Mercedes,” Rogue said. “And you certainly wouldn’t kill Stella. You like her.”
Dakota was amused.
“You know that, and I know that, but clearly, he hasn’t a clue.”
They laughed.
No, Danforth Harrington didn’t have a clue…at all.
And maybe that was for the best.
“Now, let’s go talk to some employees before the man boots our asses out of here.”
Yeah, they were going to have to work fast.
As soon as they were gone, he made a phone call. He’d been right from the start. He didn’t trust the Indian. When the half-breed offered his security, he had his own guy tailing his child.
He wasn’t an idiot.
She’d just been abducted, and she was at her weakest. He was going to make sure of a few things.
First, being that his child was safe with that animal, and then that Zayn Thundercloud, his unwanted son-in-law, had an accident that no one saw coming.
Oh, that Indian may have married her, but he’d get the last laugh. As soon as his daughter had to live in poverty, she’d come home. She was just like her mother.
It was all about the money.
The best colleges.
The designer clothes.
That was all well and good until she turned on him. Now he wanted his money back.
In the form of the Indian’s blood.
When the man answered the phone, he hoped he’d been successful.
“Do you know where he hides my girl?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the main part of the city. Here’s the address.”
Danforth scribbled it down with a gleeful chuckle, and then he offered up the man an even bigger paycheck.
“Follow her. Make sure she goes there today. Then call me. I want to make sure I can find her.”
“My money?”
“I have to transfer some funds later. You’ll get yours. You know I’m good for it.”
“Yeah, you are. I’ll keep you updated.”
He hung up.
Oh, his daughter didn’t know one thing about him. He’d been burned by her mother, and there was no way in hell he was falling for that trickery again.
He’d hoped Stella would be different, but now he saw that she was just like the woman.
Once burnt.
Twice shy.
He always knew where Stella was, and now, Danforth could smoke the rat out of the hole—and put a bullet in his head.
Goodbye, son-in-law.
He may be a mercenary, but where he failed…he didn’t know that his opponent would do anything to win.
Including kill.
Just ask his first wife when she left him. Killing her, well, that had been her fault and his daughter’s husband?
He definitely had it coming too.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
When he found her, she was sitting in his vehicle, a tablet on her lap, and tears in her eyes. As he got in, she glanced over at him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking her hand so he could leave a kiss on her knuckles.
“Yeah, but he crossed a line. Telling me that my mother left me was all about hurting me, and that was cruel.”
“All I’m going to say is that you have only his word for it, sweetness. She’s dead. She can’t defend herself.”
He had a point.
Maybe he was lying.
“Yes, you are right. I don’t know if she could leave me. Isn’t there some bond between mother and child? I don’t know anymore. I don’t know what to expect from him.”
He laughed.
“What?”
“Well, when you left, he tried to hire one of the mercenaries to kill me for one million dollars, and he’s revoking your trust fund. That’s what you can expect from him.”
She stared at him.
He wasn’t proud that he’d eavesdropped outside the man’s door, but it was survival of the fittest.
“That’s not even funny.”
“I have money. You’ll be…”
She stopped him.
“I don’t give a fuck about the money, Zayn! He tried to put a hit on my husband?”
He’d never heard her curse before.
It caught him off guard.
“I’m sure it won’t be the first time he tries to hire someone to kill me.”
“You have to be shitting me. He offered up a job to one of those men?”
“Oh, yeah, when I left I stuck around outside the door. He wants a bullet in my brain. On the bright side,” he began.
“There’s a bright side to that? I want to puke thinking about what you just said.”
He grinned.
“A lot of people have tried to kill me, and no one has managed quite yet.”
That made her even sicker.
“We’ll be fine. I don’t need your money, Stella. I didn’t marry you for that. I married you for the hot sex.”
She wiped her eyes and laughed. “Well, then I have a bright side for you.”
“You want to do it in my ride? Climb onto my lap and let me give you a ride.”
She snorted. “Well, as tempting as that is, we have things to worry about and handle.”
“Like?”
“When I turned nineteen, he gave me my trust fund.”
“Okay, and?”
“It’s more than half of all of his money. He didn’t have Maia sign a prenup. He was worried that she’d divorce him and take his money when he got really old. So he just took money out when he needed it.”
“Okay.”
“With it all in my name, the only thing she’d have access to was the house, the boat, the cars, and he could replace all that.”
She showed him the tablet.
Zayn couldn’t help it. He whistled.
“That’s how much I have in cash assets. He’s removed a lot lately. I’m guessing to pay the ransoms.”
Then she pointed to the bottom.
“He was my beneficiary.”
Zayn stared at her.
Something didn’t feel right about all of this. Wife number one died, wife number two died, child two is sold off by a man who generally dumps bodies left and right, and then Danforth is the sole beneficiary all over again, and then gets life insurance on all of them.
He didn’t believe that Stella was ever supposed to make it back.
It made his skin crawl.
Could a father and husband stoop to that level? Even he, as a mercenary, wouldn’t go there.
“You realize he could use this as an alibi.”
She stared at him but said nothing.
“You did, didn’t you?”
“Yes. By saying I had all the cash, he had no reason to kill me. He gave it to me, his first child by his true love, and he had access to it at any time.”
She showed him all the withdrawals.
He touched her hand.
“Sweetness…”
“You don’t have to say it. I already thought it. I watched him rage and spew all that disgusting bullshit, and I honest
ly began wondering if he’s behind this. He’s the prime suspect—isn’t he?” she asked, needing to know.
Zayn kissed her but said nothing.
“I’m so sorry.”
Well, so was she. There was no way her father was going to hurt her husband.
That’s why she was going to do this.
“What’s your account number?”
“Why?” he asked.
“I want to move our money.”
“That’s your money.”
“No, it’s his, and I don’t want myself accidentally getting killed and him getting life insurance on me. All his assets are tied up, Zayn. If he can’t pay a mercenary…”
“Then we have some time to find who is behind this and locate Mercedes.”
“Exactly.”
He rattled off his account number, and she entered it, making sure it was right.
“Are you sure? I don’t want people to think…”
“Then put OUR names on it.”
“It’s Mr. Yazzie’s account.”
“Well, then Marigold’s name.”
“I’ll handle it as soon as we get back to my place. I want to make sure we’re somewhere secure.”
“Yes, I want to be safe.”
He touched her face. “I’m sorry he hurt you. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to break him.”
“I know, but I knew you wouldn’t.”
It had been a battle.
“My big worry is he gets someone to hurt you,” she said, as she worked on transferring all of her money out of that account. “I can’t let him do that. You’re my family now. We’re going to do this together.”
“Stella, he won’t find us. If he tries, we go under. I’m sorry, but…we’re married. I’m not letting you go no matter who tries—God himself. You’re mine. Until death do us part, we are going to be together. We can fight. We can argue, but at the end of the night, you are mine—and I protect what is mine. I never had more to lose than right now.”
Stella stared into his dark, mysterious Native eyes. “I need a promise.”
“What?”
“If anything happens to me, you take the money and run.”
Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One) Page 33
