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Dragged away from the door, both men were facing off, with her caught in the crossfire. She didn’t get it. Couldn’t get it. Danny wasn’t even looking at her. His focus on the person at her back was laser precise, more honed than she’d ever seen it.
“Son,” the male behind her said, his voice so deep it vibrated against her spine. “Just like old times.”
TWENTY-ONE
HIS DAD! THE MAN WITH a gun to her head was Danny’s father?
“This is no drill, old man,” Danny said.
Except… the voice wasn’t one she recognized. That deep growl, the anger, the determined intensity. Facing his father brought out a new side of him. His father… What the hell? If his father was there… She didn’t understand. If Danny knew the place, why didn’t he tell her about it?
If he hadn’t expected his father…
Hehadknown where he was going. Arriving in that specific room was no mistake. He’d put her in front of him… Danny had set it up. Setherup… The harsh blow of betrayal was impossible to fathom. She didn’t understand what the hell was going on.
“Should’ve known he’d send you. It’s poetic,” Danny’s father said, moving to the side as Danny swayed closer. “Where is he?”
“I’m alone, old man.”
“Right,” Danny’s father said on an exhale of disbelief. Tightening his hold on her, he pulled her higher, stifling her capacity to breathe. “Where’s your brother?”
Danny raised his gun higher, setting his narrow focus right down the sight. “You tell me.”
Yanked back again, the gun was pushed hard against her temple. “You want me to put a bullet in your bitch? She’s fodder, right? That’s what you want me to do. That’s why you brought her.”
“You wanna make my day? Do it,” Danny said, tightening a barb of pain around her heart. She tried to object, to fight, but the guy at her back shook her to shut her up. “Do it… Now. Go! Don’t hesitate, old man. Hesitation gets you killed.”
“You’re just standing there waving your dick around,” her captor said. “You wanna do it? Do it!”
“There ain’t no way I’m pissin’ this moment away.” Neither flinched. A dozen seconds went by, though it seemed like hours. “I thought about this, ‘bout whether I’d tell you before or after… Decided on after. Cruel’s what we do in this family.”
Backing away, Danny’s concentration didn’t waver for even a flicker of a second. Not until he stopped moving near the control desk. The room seemed to be some kind of tech hub. Massive screens angled around a desk that separated into three sections. Danny looked down at the central section and flicked a cover open.
The guy behind her laughed. “That what you came for, Ares? Boy, I taught you better than that.”
“Where is it?” Danny asked, strengthening his grip on the gun.
The laughter behind her trailed off. The captor repeated his statement with a chilling, sinister hue. “I taught you better than that.”
“Oh yeah?” Danny asked, coming closer again. “Taught me to know my enemy too.”
His gun swung an inch to the left. He fired a shot, then snapped his aim back on them.
Tess yelped as the guy behind her swore. “Sonofa—”
“That’s no way to talk about my momma, is it? Wanna tell me again how much you respected her while you’re holding that gun?” Danny stopped closer than he’d been before. “You know we don’t walk outta this room, old man. You know this is the only way it ends.”
“If that’s how you wanted to end it, why’d you bring her?”
Danny didn’t answer. With wild, wide eyes, Tess begged him to look at her, begged him to see the terror, but he didn’t. Whoever that man was, the one pointing the gun her way, it wasn’t Danny, not her Danny.
“You knew I wouldn’t put a bullet in you,” the stranger said. “And you couldn’t put one in me unless I gave you reason. I kill her, makes it easier for you to kill me.”
“No,” Danny exhaled on a slight shake of his head. “Killing her is killing yourself. Do it, I’ll tell you why, then you’ll end us both.”
The gun dug deeper into her head. She grabbed for the hand covering her mouth, but couldn’t budge it.
“You think I won’t?”
