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“And?” she said, arms folded and eyes narrowed.
“And… he’s a general with the Brotherhood.”
“He was a client assigned to me by the court. That’s all.”
Corbett watched her face. She was looking him in the eye and gave the impression she was telling the truth, but he still got the feeling that she wasn’t telling him everything.
“Will you be my lawyer?”
“What?” Now she was looking at him as if he had grown a second head. “No, you’re crazy. I don’t want any part of this… whatever game you’re playing.”
“You think this is a game? My partner is in the hospital recovering from getting the shit beat out of him. I’m sleeping three feet away from a general in an organization responsible for more deaths behind bars than any other. The reason we’re doing it is that we’re trying to catch a drug dealer and a murderer, who, by the way, has kidnapped an innocent woman and either killed her or kept her hostage for the past month, and God only knows what indignities she had to suffer either way. So no, little girl, this is not a game.”
Naomi didn’t speak for a long time. When she did at last, she simply said, “What are your charges?”
Stockdale, Texas
Late Monday Afternoon
“You look wellfor a man who has been in the trunk of a car for twenty hours,” Vincent said with a cruel smile.
Hank didn’t speak; he knew better. Every time he’d tried to say anything, it had been greeted by a backhand to the mouth. He had a tendency, one might say, to learn things the hard way, but eventually he did learn.
“I trust the drive was a pleasant one?”
Hank still didn’t respond. He was soaked in the sweat and dust of two thousand plus miles, as well as just a little bit of his own vomit. He hadn’t pissed his pants, thanks to the kindness Armando had doled out on him… an empty Gatorade bottle. His hair had something sticky in it that he didn’t even want to chance a guess at, and he was so hungry that he thought the acid in his stomach might, at this very moment, be eating through the outer lining. He had nothing good to say, so as the phrase went… he was saying nothing at all.
Vincent Heston continued to taunt him. At first, Hank hadn’t even recognized him. He had never looked very Hispanic, with his fair skin and green eyes; but now, looking at him with his fake blonde hair and blue eyes, Hank felt like he was looking at a completely different person… until the son of a bitch opened his mouth.
“I like this little town,” Vincent was saying. “I’m thinking of perhaps settling down here. I know you have family in this area, any suggestions?” he said.
He wanted him to bite; Hank knew that. He had come a ways since he’d been the guy who’d run here to hide behind his sister’s skirts. He wasn’t going to grovel to this bastard, that was for sure. At least, that’s what he thought, until the next words came out of Heston’s mouth.
“I found the nicest little bakery here in town. I originally went there for the bear claws, but the service turned out to be so nice that I just had to keep going back. It’s surprising how you’re just going about your business one day, and then… wham! Out of the blue, the one you’ve been waiting for walks into your life.”
Hank’s already torn up stomach began to churn violently as he thought about Heston being that close to Raven.
“What do you want from me, Vincent? I don’t have any money,” Hank finally said. He knew he was defeated. If they killed him, at least maybe they would leave Raven alone to get on with her life.
Vincent smiled again. “I thought that I wanted to kill you. I already have the box I was going to put your head in,” he said. Hank could feel his insides convulse. Then Vincent went on. “Then I met your sweet sister. She was the one that I had planned on sending the box to. But after meeting her, I decided that I just couldn’t do that to her. She seems so delicate.”
“Vincent, please…”
“Please what, Hank? I’ve already disclosed to you that my intentions are not to kill you, and I can swear to you on my own mother’s sacred grave that I have only the most honorable of intentions towards your sister.”
Armando looked confused when Vincent said, “My mother’s sacred grave.” Hank knew Vincent’s mother was probably as healthy and spry as ever. His intentions were never honorable.
“Raven has a boyfriend. She’s in love with him. She’s started a new life here, Vincent. I’m the one that screwed up… badly. Please don’t make her suffer for it.”
“Oh, but I have no intentions of making her suffer,” Vincent told him. “Quite the contrary. You see, that house that she lives in with that military man is… unsuitable for a woman of your sister’s caliber. I can offer her a palace, make her my queen. She would never have to dirty her hands in that bakery again. She would have anything her heart desired. How would that be making her suffer?” he said, giving Hank a look that said he better give the right answer. “Are you insinuating that I’m so repulsive your sister wouldn’t want to be with me?”
Hank was sweating again. He could feel it rolling down into his eyes. His hands were behind his back, fastened with Flexi Cuffs, so he couldn’t wipe it away. He tried to keep his voice steady as he said, “That is not what I am suggesting at all… sir. I just wasn’t aware that you knew she was already involved with someone.”
“See, now there’s the key,” Vincent said. “A smart guy doesn’t try and come between them. If she chose me over him, well then, she would be a cheating slut and not worthy of wearing my crown. But… if the one she was involved with were to somehow be taken out of the equation... well then, the road to destiny is paved.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
BROKEN DREAMS
