Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“I looked ahead,” I say. “I saw her dead. That’s what I saw. Chocolates with poison. Threatening notes with her name on them. A fucking live grenade, Falcon.”
He hears it. He doesn’t pretend not to. Byron wanders to the far end to handle a tab.
“Rein it in,” he says finally. “Put your head back on.”
“You want to be the pot or the kettle?” I ask. “You almost died for Savannah.”
He nods once. “I did.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No,” he says. “Not even slightly.”
We sit with that. It’s heavier than the whiskey. It should be.
“There’s already an unconscious guy in the barn,” he says. “Let’s not add names to the list.”
“You think I’m not aware?”
“I think you’re past caring.” He tips his head. “That’s not you.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” He looks at me hard. “I am.”
I look away. The bar mirror throws back a distorted version of me. The man in the glass looks like a stranger who borrowed my face to do things Hawk Bellamy would never do.
“You’re not yourself,” he says again. “And don’t tell me this whole thing isn’t frightening to you.”
Why lie? I swallow down a lump of emotion. “I’m fucking terrified. Of losing Daniela. Of losing myself.”
Falcon nods. “There it is.”
We let that sit. It doesn’t get easier, but it gets truer.
“What does she want?” he asks.
“For me to stay out of danger. Hire a PI. Do things the right way.”
He punches my shoulder. “That sounds like the Hawk I know.”
“I’ve gone too far the other way.” I rub at my forehead. “I keep seeing pieces on the floor and the broom’s in my hand before I know I picked it up.”
He shrugs. “Then pick a different tool.”
I roll my eyes. “You got one in mind?”
“Yeah.” He counts on his fingers. “Listen to Daniela. Get a PI. A lawyer. Please.”
“Please?”
“Yeah, please.” He finishes his second drink. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? I’ve done time. I know what it’s like in there. I did it to save Eagle, and I’d do it save you too, Hawk. But you’re scaring me. I’m not sure I can save you now.”
I almost smile. “Did you rehearse that?”
He tries to hold back a smile, but he can’t. “Fuck you.”
“Tell me straight,” I say. “You think I’m wrong.”
“I think you’re right and wrong at the same time,” he says. “You’re right that someone’s after her. You’re wrong about how you’re going after them.”
“I’ll hunt them all,” I say. “Every name. Every ghost.”
“You’ll bury yourself doing it.”
“I don’t care.”
“You say that now.” He leans in. “You care about one thing.”
“What?”
“Her.”
“I never said I’m in love with Daniela,” I say.
“You don’t have to,” he says. “It’s in your eyes.”
Fuck. Is it that obvious? “I… I can’t lose her,” I say.
“Then stop acting like losing yourself is collateral you can afford. Don’t you want to be someone worthy of her once all this is squared away?”
I laugh, though it’s forced. “You sound like a therapist.”
“Man, I’m so far from that.” He tilts his head. “But what the fuck… You want to make a list?”
“Of suspects?” I tap at my temple. “It’s already in my head.”
“No. A list of how to do this on the up and up.”
I take a deep breath, center my thoughts. “Reyes doesn’t get to walk. Not until I figure this out and have some leverage over him.”
“I agree,” Falcon says. “You’re already in too deep with him. But you have leverage. What he did to Daniela.”
“My word against his.”
“True.” Falcon pauses. “But he doesn’t have to know that. Maybe Agudelo kept photos. Videos.”
I smile. “Yeah. Maybe he did.”
“Good.” Falcon rubs his forehead. “You still think Haynes is a plant?”
“Yes.”
“By who?”
“Could be Reyes trying to misdirect,” I say. “I’m still not completely convinced he’s clean on this. Or he could be someone using Reyes to distract me. Or he could be the pawn of someone else.”
“Gordon Brown?” Falcon asks.
I shake my head. “Vinnie’s gut. Maybe. Dani doesn’t remember the name. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t there. A lot of those men probably used aliases.”
“Okay,” he says. “Here’s what we do.”
I wait.
“You call a PI. Today. You have him scrub Jordan, Reyes, Brown, and anyone else Vinnie flagged. Quietly. Legal enough to pass a sniff test.”
“Legal enough,” I echo.
“You have Peter keep Haynes off any official docket he can, and if it lands anyway, it doesn’t land with your fingerprints on it.”
I nod.
“You talk to Vinnie about Reyes,” Falcon says. “About how we unwind that without blowing us up.”
“He’ll tell me to let him go.”
“And you’ll say ‘not yet’ and give him twenty-four hours to give you a plan that doesn’t end in handcuffs.”
I rub my temple against the ache springing up. “And Dani?”
“You call her. You tell her the truth she asked for, and then you shut up and listen. You don’t argue. You don’t justify. You say you heard her. You say you’re pulling back. Then you actually do it.”