Chapter Twenty-Eight

 

There's no way to express how Josh feels about Mitch Queen. Not to anyone in the world. Maybe he could get them to understand his feelings by showing the world his knuckles, but that's hardly the same thing.

The question now is, how is he supposed to manage to keep himself in check when he's walking into this thing? It's not hard to figure out what's going to happen. What's going to happen is, Mitchell gloats about his bullshit, hints about what he did.

There are plenty of questions left in the detective's mind. Why is it that the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing, for example.

One thing that isn't in question for a second is that Mitch Queen is involved. More than likely, he's at the very center of the whole thing.

The guy gets instructions, and then someone else exactly copies those instructions but apparently isn't the original set of kidnappers? There's a precious short list of people who could be responsible for that. A list of about five or six people.

Anna's one of them. Josh is a second. The Queens are two more. The lawyer. It's always possible, Josh figures. Not likely. You look at likely suspects.

Who is it that hasn't been concerned, hasn't been upset one time? Who's the one who's been pushing back against trying to get any of this shit taken care of? Who's the one who's been surprised by any of the twists and turns of this entire thing? Who's the one who knew, in spite of being several hundred yards and in poor light, that his father had been taken?

When you take everything as a single unit, it becomes a lot easier to figure out who's responsible. It's all pure circumstance, of course. Nobody could possibly prove any of it in court. Not yet.

But it's not hard to figure out who's responsible.

And now, in spite of the fact that he knows better on just about every level imaginable, he's walking right into the guy's plan.

They're putting themselves at great risk, and for what? For nothing. So that he can yank their chains some more. If he could have talked Anna out of it, then he would have. But that isn't possible.

So he pulls into the parking spot, puts the car in park, and pulls the parking brake too for good measure.

"You ready?"

The place isn't packed. It's crowded enough that punching Mitch Queen in his mouth won't lack for witnesses. Which means that he'd better keep himself under control, regardless of whether or not Mitchell deserves it.

Anna nods. She doesn't look ready, but he's not going to call her on it. In fact, he shouldn't get out of the car. He should stay here, and he should wait for her to get back with whatever the hell information she's going to get from him.

He unbuckles his seatbelt and leans across to press a kiss against Anna's forehead.

"Just stay calm, okay? Everything's going to be fine as long as you just stay calm."

"I know." She doesn't look like she knows.

Everything is upside down in her world, and as much as Josh wants to fix it all by himself, he knows that it's not going to work that way.

They can wait a few months and get beat to hell and back by the best lawyers money can buy until Mitch Queen gets custody of a child he never wanted. Anna's whole world falls apart, but they stood up to Mitch Queen.

Or they go to this meeting, let Mitch make some stupid demands and spit on her one last time, as just in case there's some new way to demean her that neither of them has thought of yet.

And as unpleasant as that will be, as much as it will hurt, it's not going to hurt half as bad as letting it keep going more and more sideways.

Josh pushes open his door and steps out. He puts an arm around Anna, his hand guiding her to go ahead of him. She doesn't go any further than his hand, pressed a little way above her ass.

In a way that makes him think very specifically about that ass, a way that he shouldn't be thinking right before going to try to keep himself under control with a son of a bitch who absolutely doesn't deserve him being under control.

Anna slips easily into a charade of being in good spirits and control of herself as they near the hostess' stand.

"Hi, we're supposed to be meeting someone?"

"I know exactly the one. Follow me, right this way."

The woman is small and Asian and pretty-ish. She starts off in a hurry that belies her tiny frame. Josh guides Anna along behind. It doesn't take long to see Mitchell.

He looks like he's had an interesting night. An interesting night that doesn't seem to have ended yet. His collar's open three buttons down, to the point where his chest is about hanging out. He's got dark glasses that don't look like much, but probably cost more than any single thing that the detective owns.

He puts on a smile that serves to accentuate the cut on his cheek. Josh wonders who put that there, and feels a swell of pride when he answers to himself that he knows exactly who it was.

"Nice to see you two. How are you both feeling? You came together. That's sweet. Isn't that a conflict of interests, though?"

"I'm suspended. Case has been handed off to the F.B.I. No conflict at all."

"Oh, well, that's too bad, I guess." He smiles. "I'm kidding. Happy for you two. Such a cute couple."

Josh pulls out a chair, his jaw already tightening. This kid could be a real charmer when he wanted to. Knowing how slimy he could be makes it real easy for that impression to sour.

Anna folds her hands in her lap and leans into the table. "Get to the point, Mitch. What do you want exactly?"

"I wanted to see my new friends for a nice brunch. You two haven't eaten, have you? Oh, you have. No problem. So did I. We'll just have a light brunch, then."

"Get to the point," Josh chimes in, echoing Anna.

"You two are real kill-joys, you know that? 'Get to the point,' 'get to the point,' like a broken record. No, I want to eat. It's not such a long wait."

Josh closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath.

"So how's that apology coming, by the way? You got it ready yet? I mean, it won't count now, of course. We've got cameras set up for the event and everything, but I have to say, I'm really looking forward to it. Can I have just a sneak preview?"

"You must hate Christmas, huh?" Josh leans heavy on his hands, pressed into his knees. "Having to wait to get the presents. I guess you'll just have to stay in suspense until next week."

Mitch's face sours a little bit. "No, you're right. I can't stand waiting. That's true."

"Well, you're just going to have to get used to it. Just this once. I know it's probably a big imposition, but… oh, well. Shit happens, I guess."

"I guess it does," he says.

His face is pinched into a frown that Josh doesn't feel bad about at all. "Oh, I did order for you two. You don't mind, do you?"

"What, am I supposed to recognize that you're the alpha male now?"

Mitch's smile comes back, like a rash you can't quite get rid of. "Not at all, Detective. It still hurts to chew, you know? I can't imagine that there's anything about you that isn't up to those standards. You're as tough as they come, no doubt about it."

"Good to know," Josh says.

He's past tired of this conversation, and it's only just beginning. How lovely. He takes a deep breath. This is going to be every bit of the challenge he had hoped it wouldn't be.