“Evrry conzerd in Mnhattn,” he mumbled, his vision going a little dark.Unconsciousness would be great right now.His team was coming for him—he knew they were—and Joey would be leading the charge, but he’d lost track of time a little, and he wasn’t sure if he’d still be here when they showed up.
“Sir?”
The voice from the top of the stairs sounded poised and unflappable—Gideon had heard it before, keeping Stevie updated on whether or not they had visitors.A butler, probably—or a flunky—but nobody with the paygrade to watch Stevie beat Gideon to death.
“Yeah?What’s up?”
“Your employee watching the road just called.There’s two black SUVs approaching from the main entrance—”
“You been watching that back entrance?”Stevie demanded.“Little bastard must be coming in through there.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Have you been?”
“Yes, sir, I have been.”
“Hasn’t that Gray motherfucker been helping you?”
“Sir, he… he seems to have disappeared.”
“The gamekeeper disappeared?”The surprise in Stevie’s voice might have been comical, but it wassocomplete.Gideon’s people were obviously in the SUVs, but the fact that the gamekeeper had disappeared—the one that Gideon knew from Joey’s reports had been leaving holes in the cameras from the back of the property—was worth not passing out for.
“Sir, I was watching the feed, and I looked up and he was gone—”
The butler’s voice echoed from the top of the steps, but even Gideon could hear the fear.Stevie just waved his hand, though, as if shooing a fly.
“He does that,” he muttered.“He does that.He… he said he would tend the game until my end….I thought….”He shook his head.“Doesn’t matter.Doesn’t matter.He’ll be back.Fucking mountain lions.I….”Stevie shuddered, and Gideon felt stupid.The word snuck into his consciousness, buffeted about by pain and confusion, but once it was there, it stuck.
Decompensating.
Oh yes.Stevie Carlyle had suffered some setbacks, some business problems, and all the things he’d thought he could control were spiraling out of his grasp.And in the middle of it was his son… his intractable, infuriating, perfect killing machine of a son….
And Steviewantedhim, wanted him under control, wanted his DNA under Stevie’s roof, wanted the skills he had, the connections he must have forged through the SCTF.Wanted him,neededhim, to comply.
If only, if only Joey Carlyle would come and be Stevie’s perfect little soldier, all the other things would be fixed.Stevie knew it.
So he’d seized upon Gideon—and while Stevie’s grilling had never indicated he knew about their relationship, he was still madly, insanely jealous.
Gideon, it seemed, had some pull over his son that Stevie didn’t understand.Gideon needed to call Joey Carlyle back into the fold.Gideon needed to fuckin’ die, but not before Joey watched him.
He thinks it’ll break Joey.Thinks the fight’ll go out of him if he sees the one person he’s connected to die.
Because that’d worked so well with Joey’s grandfather.
Without warning Stevie turned his body—powerful, like a boxer’s—and yeeted his plastic water bottle to the back of the basement.It clattered there, knocking something over that Gideon couldn’t see, and Stevie turned toward him with renewed fury.
Oops, sorry, Joey, know you’re coming for me, but I think you just broke his restraints.
“Sir!”cried the butler, sounding like he’d gone somewhere and come running back.“They’verun through the gate!”
The next sound he heard was the clatter of Stevie’s booted feet as he pounded up the old wooden steps that connected the basement to the kitchen.Gideon remembered the kitchen envy, but Stevie’s footsteps….
Ohnice!SCTF had arrived!Thank you, Clint Harding!
And probably Joey, coming around the back.A conversation they’d had tickled the back of his brain.Something about knowing the compound, knowingthis basementin particular.Joey was coming for him.Joey was coming.Well, good.So they were coming for him.
Gideon just had to wait—
