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25
TANK
I threwthe kid in the chair in Bear’s office before turning my back to him and running my hands through my hair. I needed a minute to keep myself from beating the hell out of this guy. He hadn’t said a goddamn word during the whole drive back, and after a while, I quit asking.
Bear walked in behind us and closed the door. The kid stared at the floor, but I’d seen the fear in his eyes when he heard the door close and looked up. Facing off with Bear, Ritz, Bull, and me had to be intimidating.
“Where is she?” Bear asked.
He slowly lifted his head. “Told him, I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Okay.” Bear sat on the edge of the desk. “We can do this the easy way, kid, or…”
“Or the hard way. Yeah, I get it,” he answered sarcastically. “You can beat it out of me, but you still ain’t gonna get what you’re looking for. I don’t know anything about a girl.”
Bull grunted, and with one glance, I could tell he admired his answer. He was scared, but he wasn’t backing down.
“What’s your name?” I asked, and he stared at me. “Just give us a first name.”
It took a minute, but he finally conceded. “Leo.”
We were finally fucking getting somewhere. “Where are you from?”
“Why the fuck does that matter?”
“Got Indiana plates on your truck.” Ritz crossed his arms over his chest. “That where you’re from?”
He shrugged. “Moved around a lot.”
“What brought you here?”
He refused to answer, and I was getting more and more impatient. Pissed, I leaned down. “An innocent woman’s been abducted. She has a bounty on her head that we can’t pay, and her daddy doesn’t love her enough to pay, so if we don’t find her, he’ll kill her. And that’s on all of us. Including you.” I stood up. “Can you live with that? Because I know I sure as hell can’t.”
He watched me closely but then shook his head. “Don’t know anything about the girl.”
Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair, pissed that this was another waste of time, but then he started talking. “But I might know who has her.”
Bear pushed off the desk. “Who?”
“Don’t know his name. He found out I was asking around about someone and said he had some information. Called and told me we could help each other out. I just got to town when he called and told me to forget it, so I decided I’d do shit on my own.”
Bull narrowed his eyes. “Why’d you agree to help him?”
“Promised to get me a vehicle so I could get here.”
“What information did he have that you wanted?” I asked.
He hesitated, but then I could see the change in him. Almost as if he knew he no longer had the upper hand and we weren’t playing. “He knew where my dad was, and I wanted to know. Promised to help me get to him.”
“You wanted to meet him?” Bear asked.
Leo stared at Bear. “No, I wanted to fuck with him. Make him miserable. Hopefully teach him a lesson about what happens when you abandon your kid.”
“Who’s your dad?” Bull asked.
He took a deep breath and shook his head before lifting his eyes to meet mine. “You are.”
My head jerked back, and I felt all eyes in the room land on me. “Not sure why he told you that, but I don’t have any kids.”
