Catch Him

by Doyle, S

  They made it to Jillian’s room and Jillian headed directly for a walk-in closet. She came back with a duffel bag she tossed on the bed and opened. It was filled with guns. Different models, different calibers. Big. Small. Medium.

  Jillian was not messing around. She pulled out a Sig Sauer P220 and tossed it to Sinead.

  Sinead looked down at the weapon in her hand and smiled. “Nice.”

  “It’s an elegant weapon with a lot of power. Should serve you well enough.”

  Sinead cocked the chamber, checked to see that it was loaded and made sure the safety was on. “Level with me. Is Garrett Huntley a real threat?”

  “Yep,” she answered. “To slightly framed trusting wives. Not to Declan.”

  “Then let’s go kick a little ass.”

  * * *

  “Dude, you know you lost that argument,” Flynn pointed out. They were still sitting in the study, going over the plan one more time.

  Declan grunted. “If I had any real concerns, I would lock her up somewhere and let her get pissed at me later, but I’m trusting you and Jillian to have my back.”

  “Nothing will hurt her. I promise you that.”

  “Good.”

  Flynn hesitated for a moment and then decided he needed to say something. Mary might be annoyed with him, but that wouldn’t be much of a change to how she’d been treating him since the attack. He didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t know how to get through the ice.

  She was his friend, beyond being Dec’s sister. What she’d said that morning had been shitty and she knew it. Even if he understood why she said it. Eventually, she would come around. She had to, because he couldn’t lose her.

  “Can we talk about Mary for a second?”

  Declan raised an eyebrow.

  In that small motion was everything anyone needed to know how Dec felt about his sister. Protective. Defensive. Mary had lived with that layer of protection her entire life.

  Flynn wondered if at times that blanket might have been a little suffocating.

  “What do you want to discuss?”

  “I’m worried about her,” Flynn admitted. “Physically she’s healed. But you and I know he did more damage than that.”

  Declan sighed. “Of course I know it. The bones have mended. The rest… I don’t know how to get through to her. She blames herself for not seeing it. I blame myself for letting it happen. We’ve gotten to the point, I hope, where we know we both need to let it go. Only time is going to fix that.”

  Flynn didn’t want to talk about where he felt the blame really resided. Or more importantly, where Mary did.

  “I think she needs to see someone. Talk to someone.”

  “A therapist?” Declan asked.

  “Maybe. Someone beyond Jillian. Jillian is a friend, but she’s…”

  “Hard,” Declan acknowledged.

  “Right. And Mary is nothing but soft. Too damn soft.”

  Declan blinked. “That sounded a little harsh.”

  Had it? He hadn’t meant to sound angry, but that was how he was feeling. “I don’t know that we’ve done her any favors by protecting her from everything and anything. I don’t think we gave her the skills to even see a guy like Huntley coming.”

  “We?” Dec asked, clearly putting emphasis on Flynn’s use of the word. “Mary was mine. My blood, my remaining family, mine to protect and care for. If you’re questioning how I raised her, then say what you have to say. You’ve been friend enough to both of us to have that right. But don’t mistake whose responsibility she is.”

  That pissed Flynn off too.

  He and Dec had grown tight after working a three-month-long assignment in Afghanistan. Circumstances required mutual trust, something neither man had been familiar with at the time. They had learned quickly they could count on each other.

  More than that, they understood each other.

  It seemed a natural progression to join their efforts on future assignments. Flynn had the military contacts Dec needed. Dec had the financial assets Flynn wanted.

  Then one day Dec sprang a secret sister on him. Something he’d never told anyone else. Declan had decided to bring her to the States for high school, and he needed someone he could trust with her security should something happen to him while working.

  The first time Flynn met Mary, he’d loomed over her like a massive beast. Just back from assignment, he’d still been in his kill-or-be-killed head space. His edges so damn hardcore, he was fairly certain she peed her pants when he offered her his hand. But she’d shaken it. Tilted that little chin of hers up and gave him a firm single pump.

  From that moment, she’d been his too.

  “This isn’t about me critiquing your big brother skills. I get how you are. Hell, I treated her the same way. She’d gotten a raw deal. No father, no real mother. Neither one of us wanted to see her hurt any more than that. I’m just saying maybe we were both a little overbearing. Maybe we should have let her fight a few more of her own battles. Toughen her up for what life was going to throw at her.”

  “That’s where we disagree, brother. I don’t want anything thrown at her.”

  Flynn shook his head. “That’s my point! It already happened.”

  “And she survived,” Declan said tightly. “Now I make sure nothing else happens again. You need to prepare that things are going to change for me. With me and Sinead, I’ll imagine we’ll begin to settle down. Less assignment work. More focus on other aspects of the business. Mary can come live with us or stay here. Either way I’ll make certain she is protected at all times. Even if I have to assign a damn body man.”

  He wasn’t seeing it, Flynn realized. Too damn blind to his weakest spot.

  “I don’t think that’s the right way to handle this,” Flynn said as his last words on the topic.

  “I don’t care.”

  * * *

  Mary stood just outside the doorway to the study. She’d stopped when she’d heard Flynn say her name. She considered it the worst sort of behavior to eavesdrop, but as she was the subject matter she didn’t think she could be blamed.

  Quietly she backed away from the room before either man found her. She thought of everything they had said, and in the end she agreed with Flynn.

  Her brother’s idea wasn’t the right way at all to handle this.

  Chapter 19

  Early Morning, Middleburg, Virginia

  There was a misty heat that covered the green rolling hills of northern Virginia as dawn broke. A sedan pulled off the side of the empty road. Everyone in the car got out.

  Garrett looked to his father, who had insisted on coming with him. Insisted, Garrett knew, because he didn’t trust his son to do the job.

  “You should have gone to a hotel,” Garrett said. “I’ve got this.”

  “I wasn’t taking any chances,” his father replied, confirming his lack of faith.

  “Then at least wait in the car.”

  Garrett Huntley, Sr. turned his steel-blue eyes on his son. “Is that concern for me, son? How utterly ridiculous.”

  They stood the same height, shared the same build. And much of the same appearance, though his father’s hair was now completely gray. Except the eyes. Garrett Jr. had inherited his mother’s eyes, and for that he was grateful.

  Quite frankly, his father’s eyes scared the shit out of people.

  The two men stared at the gate. Both with completely different objectives. The mission obviously had changed. The picture was no longer of consequence. The goal now was the live capture of Lucifer. The people interested would pay nearly any price for him alive.

  Failing that, proof of death would also come with a fairly significant bounty.

  More importantly, Garrett would have what was his back. He wouldn’t be angry with her for leaving. For not taking his father’s offer. He knew he’d been too rough with her. She was small. Tiny. He would promise to be more careful in the future.

  No, Garrett didn’t give a shit about the elusive Lucifer h
is father was keen to capture.

  His wife was beyond that gate. That was all that mattered.

  Lucifer had misjudged Garrett. Thought him stupid. As if he wouldn’t see that the GPS had stopped at this location for nearly twelve hours before being moved to another only a few hours ago. This was where the cop had spent the night. He looked over his shoulder at the two men his father brought with him.

  “Can you get through the security?”

  The man to his right stepped forward and examined the gate. Then the access panel affixed to the brick wall adjacent to it.

  “It’s sophisticated, but it can be bypassed. I’ll get my tools.”

  Garrett nodded as the man headed back to the sedan that had been waiting for them at the private airport. Using his father’s jet, they had been able to transfer all the weapons and equipment they would need without security concerns.

  Two fully qualified lethal professionals and the element of surprise. That’s what Garrett thought he would have in his court. The element of surprise, however, was somewhat compromised.

  They found the tracker on the car, but their deception had failed.

  Advantage to the Huntleys.

  The man, whose name Garrett didn’t even know as he had spoken to neither of them on the four-and-a-half-hour plane ride across the country, rolled out a tool kit and started to take apart the access panel.

  Two minutes later the gate was sliding back.

  “You both understand,” Huntley Sr. said to the men. “If at all possible, we take the target alive. Any shots fired should be to disable only.”

  The two men nodded.

  “Let’s go,” Garrett said, although the two men were already jogging through the gate. Each armed with a semi-automatic assault riffle, a side arm and blade.

  They looked lethal, and Garrett had to trust it wasn’t just an appearance.

  He imagined someone with the moniker of Lucifer would be equally deadly. He couldn’t fathom how someone like Mary would ever come to know such a man.

  Personally, Garrett thought the best plan of action, the smartest thing to do, would be to kill him, collect Mary and take the bounty. Trying to bring Lucifer in alive was a risk. Who the fuck cared what his father wanted?

  All Garrett had ever wanted was his wife back.

  It’s why he’d told his father about the wedding album in the first place. How Garrett thought it was a good sign that Mary called wanting it back. How it might mean there was still a chance he could find her. Garrett had wanted to use the firm’s investigators to stake out the post office of the PO box number she’d given him.

  The next thing he knew, his father was barging into his house as if it was his, demanding to see his freaking wedding album, then telling him to buy the most sophisticated safe money could buy.

  None of that meant anything to Garrett. Only Mary mattered. Now she was more than likely inside the sprawling white clapboard farmhouse in front of them, and he was minutes away from having his wife back.

  Yeah, Garrett thought. Fuck his father. The second he had a chance he was going to change the order. Let these guys kill Lucifer and he’d go get Mary.

  The man in front made a gesture with his hand, a signal for them to turn to the right of the front door. He crouched just under the window that looked out over the farm. The other man took the left side, and Garrett followed behind him. His father moved to the right.

  Garrett was carrying a weapon, but he had no delusions about his ability to storm a house and take out a professional killer. He was lawyer, not a hit man. He’d leave that work to the experts.

  “Remember,” he said quietly to the man in front of him. “Nothing happens to the small blonde. And forget what my father said. You find anyone with her, shoot to kill. I’ll make it worth it to you.”

  The only response was a head bob.

  The two professionals communicated with a signal. There seemed to be a count down. Then the man across from them took out his gun, attached a silencer and aimed it at the lock on the door and fired.

  It sounded like a cough but the lock exploded and the door swung open. Silently the two men entered the house.

  Both Garrett and his father stayed in position on either side of the door, leaving the work to the men they had paid to execute the plan.

  Garrett sat tight and thought of Mary. How he might win her back. Maybe jewelry? Something shiny that said I’m sorry so they could start over again. His first objective was going to be getting her pregnant. It would be harder to leave him if they had a child together.

  All these thoughts were running through his head when the two men returned.

  His father stood. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s empty.”

  “They’re not here?” Garrett asked.

  The other man shook his head. “No. Completely empty. No people, no furniture. Just the house.”

  It took all of two seconds for Garrett to realize what that meant when the sound of rifle fire met his ears.

  The blood of the man standing to his right splattered on his shirt. The blood of the man to his left got in his hair.

  Their bodies instantly crumbled to the ground and Garrett could see the dark matter oozing from the holes in their heads.

  Dead center in the forehead. For both of them.

  Garrett looked at his father. He too was covered with splotches of blood. But as always seemed calm and unruffled by this turn of events.

  “You failed,” his father said simply. “Again.”

  Just then a car pulled up to the front of the house. The doors opened and a man and two women exited the car.

  Garrett recognized the cop. And the man, more from the picture than the actual wedding, which had been a blur. Lucifer. The cop was obviously working with him.

  “Bitch traitor.”

  She pouted. “Oh. That really hurts my feelings.”

  * * *

  Declan pulled his gun smoothly out of his jeans and aimed it at Huntley. While Sinead kept hers on Huntley Sr. Jillian providing coverage if needed.

  How easy, he thought. How easy would it be to end both of them right here. Bury them somewhere on the sprawling twenty-acre farm and call it a day.

  Except Mary didn’t want him to kill. Mary didn’t want him to be responsible for cold-blooded murder.

  Mary was soft. Too soft, Flynn had said.

  Dec hoped she always stayed that way.

  “Did you just call my girlfriend a bitch?” Dec asked Garrett as he and Sinead approached him and his father. “That’s not very nice and makes me a little angry. I don’t think you want me angry. Now I’m certain the two of you are smart enough… well, at least your father is smart enough… that if you want to get out of this situation alive you’re going to both pull your guns slowly out of your pants, drop them on the ground in front of you and kick them towards me.”

  “Where is Mary?” Garrett asked.

  Declan looked to Sinead, who still had her weapon focused on Huntley Sr. “I don’t recall that being a direction.”

  He fired a warning shot at Garrett’s feet, making him jump and squeal like the pig he was.

  “Idiot,” his father hissed. “This is over. Do what he says.”

  “See? I told you the father had all the brains. Weapons out and down on the ground.”

  “This isn’t over. My father knows people. Scarier people than you,” Garrett said even as he and his father complied with the order.

  Declan shook his head and turned his gaze to Huntley Sr. “Yes, I know. But it would appear your days of dabbling in international terrorism are over.”

  “I have a respectable law firm,” Huntley Sr. insisted.

  “But you and I know better. You see, it’s early on the west coast, but in a few hours FBI agents are going to be showing up at your firm with a subpoena in hand. They are going to find a lot of evidence that links you to known terrorist groups. Quite detailed paper trails of how you both laundered money for them and provided them with avenues
of funding.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Garrett said.

  “You’re bluffing. There is nothing there,” Huntley Sr. concurred smugly.

  Declan smiled. “Maybe there wasn’t. But there is now. All the evidence anyone would need to put you in jail for a very long time.”

  “The lawyers,” Sinead muttered. “All day with the lawyers.”

  Declan smiled as his clever girl understood what he’d been doing with his time out in San Francisco after he had retrieved the picture.

  “I told you I hate them,” he reminded her.

  “You won’t be able to make phony evidence stick.” Garrett shouted.

  “Oh but I can. You would probably be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t as he’s your father, how much of it is actually legit. I hate to break this to you, Garrett, but your father is a not a very good man. And you, Mr. Huntley Senior, I think you’ll find federal prison quite a holiday, because once it’s known to your merry band of terrorists that you failed to provide the picture or me, they probably will have you killed. I however, could not take that chance. You sealed your fate the moment you tried to pay Mary to return to your sick and twisted son.”

  “Something I never would have done,” said another voice.

  Dec stiffened as he watched his sister walk out of the house, standing behind Garrett and his father. Too close. Too close to both of them.

  Garrett wheeled around at the sound of her voice.

  “I told myself I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t face either of you,” she said softly. “But I could. I have.”

  But Declan could still hear her. Could hear the fear in his sister’s voice as she confronted the man who abused her and the other man who sanctioned it with money. He lifted his gun and took aim at Huntley’s head when he felt the pressure of Sinead’s hand on his arm.

  “Don’t,” she said. “Let her have this.”

  “Mary, please,” Garrett said, actually physically getting on his knees. “All of this, everything I did was just to get you back. I know I screwed up. But I’ll make it up to you. We can take a trip. Start over. Like none of this happened.”