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“The fuck?” Thunder's tone is lethal. The kind of tone that's usually the last thing you fucking hear in your life before he ends you. “He wanted you to kill his own daughter?”
“On the honeymoon. The sick fuck wanted pictures of it. I wouldn’t have let her suffer. I’m not a monster.”
“If you fucking touch that trigger,” I say in my calmest, deadliest voice. “You'll be dead before you can draw another fucking breath. Let her go.”
“And you'll let me go, right?”
I glance over at Thunder, and he nods, not even needing to look my way. Twin power and all that bullshit. I nod back, knowing he'll catch it in his peripheral.
“Put down your gun, and let Harper walk safely to us. Do it without fucking around, and we won’t shoot you. But if we ever, and I mean fucking ever, come across you again, deal’s off. Got it?”
He looks between us, unsure.
“Tick tock,” I say. “This is your one chance, because you know that if you hurt a fucking hair on her head, you're already dead.”
“Okay, fine. Letting her go.” He lowers his gun, slowly, nervously. But when he stands up, just as slowly and his hands up and showing his palms, he takes a step back. Harper is looking right at me, terrified and waiting.
“It's okay, Harper. Just come over here, nice and easy.” I've got my barrel aimed right at Devin's face, while Thunder covers the other two guards.
The moment I can put my arm around her and squeeze her close, I'm so fucking tempted to squeeze the trigger. This fucker doesn’t deserve to live.
“You got her?” Shadow asks, voice deadly calm.
“Yeah.”
He raises his gun, aims it right at Devin’s head and fires. Blood, brains and hair explode all over the wall. “Amateur. Didn't make me promise shit.”
The guards run.
Thunder grins.
“Harper, you okay?”
She clings to my torso like a monkey to a tree, but she nods. “Yeah. I think so. I can’t believe he…” Her head starts to turn, but I stop her.
“I don’t think that’s something you need to see.” I put away my gun so I can embrace her fully, hugging her against my chest until she stops shivering and settles. Thunder strokes her hair and presses a kiss to the top of her head. “We're here, honey.”
“Mom! He’s got her! We have to find her. Vincent's crazy.”
“Mesner got away on the chopper. Carnell's gone after them and took his guys. We weren't going anywhere without you.” Outlaw nods his head towards the elevator. “We should get the fuck outta here too. Then we'll figure out what next.”
She nods, but doesn't look convinced.
I'm about to encourage her, but Outlaw, of all people, beats me to it. “We're gonna get her, Harper. We'll make sure both of them are safe.”
Both of them?
31
CARNELL
“Nathan, you ran out of favors a long time ago. I've got enough IOUs from you to last me a lifetime.” Chief Bramden's voice sounds tired and sick of my shit.
But this is Eileen that's in trouble. “Chief! It's an active hostage situation. This is life and death. If we don't—”
“Nathan,” growls the Chief. “We've been through this before. You come here, you present your case, you get a warrant, and then we act. You know this. You've thrown so many accusations around against Mesner that I'm sick of it. The judge is sick of it. It's never panned out, and just turns into a drain on our budget and me having to make a fucking public apology.”
Jesus. I try not to slam the phone into the cruiser dashboard. Gibbons, who's driving, gives me a sidelong glance, but I know I can rely on him. His daughter was killed by one of Vincent’s men in a drive-by. The bullshit Chief is giving me is the damn reason why I've picked my closest men very carefully. But, it’s worth one last try. “This is an active fucking situation, Chief. There's no time for a warrant.”
Is he in Vincent’s pocket? I don't think so, but sometimes I wonder. It's more likely that he’s just too cautious and afraid of wasting his precious budget. And backing me up would make political waves in a city where the mighty dollar is the strongest argument.
“Stand down. That's my last word, Nathan. Don't ruin your career over this. You’re up for promotion in a couple weeks. Just keep your head down and let someone else deal with it.”
Promotion. I’ve fallen for that particular carrot before. “Alright. Standing down.” I hang up on him.
“We are?” asks Gibbons.
“Fuck no. Get to the Oasis.”
We pull into Vincent’s casino just as the rest of my men catch up and park behind us, taking up the whole valet area. I get out before the car is even fully stopped, immediately followed by my men spilling out of the other cars. “Special Investigator Nathan Carnell. Police business,” I say and hold up my badge. The doorman backs up immediately and my men cover me as we charge into the lobby. I don’t want to give Mesner enough time to mobilize all of his security.
