Chapter 19
—You always have a choice.—
As she watched through the two-way mirror, Skye couldn’t help but admire as her husband got ready to interrogate Steve Barclay, all-around douchebag.
She hated having to sit this one out, but she understood why she couldn’t be the one to question Barclay. Once they were done with him they were going to basically giftwrap him for the Feds, and if he ever decided to talk about being questioned by some random guy who kidnapped him, it was better that it was a masked man. And not a woman. The three guys had done rock-paper-scissors and Colt had won.
Probably better, too, considering the guy had been planning to kidnap Brooks’s sister. Even though the cowboy had wanted to take point, and he’d once been a stone-cold sniper, Barclay had still planned to kidnap his baby sister. Brooks had no business questioning the guy because he would likely lose his cool and Barclay would remember that later. They didn’t want anything linking back to them.
“I want to be in there,” Brooks growled.
Skye simply looked at him.
He lifted his shoulders. “I know it’s good that I’m not in there. I’m just making a statement.”
“So…I was thinking that instead of giving Barclay over to Hazel we should give him over to Agent Darius Moore. We can do it as an anonymous delivery.”
Gage and Brooks were silent for a long moment, and Gage was the first one to speak. “Are you going to let him know the gift is from us?”
She snorted. “No, but if we ever need to call in a favor or if he ever figures out we were the ones to kidnap him in Miami, maybe this will give us some goodwill.” They’d sort of kidnapped a DEA agent a few months ago. They’d only done it to save his life—and save Olivia and Savage’s cover during an op. They’d been masked at the time and Skye was pretty sure that if Agent Moore dug hard enough he could figure out who they were. But he’d gotten credit for a huge bust because of them. The kind that made careers. Still, she felt a little bad about what they’d done, so giving him a present like this would ease her conscience.
Brooks shrugged. “I don’t care who we give the guy to. But we do need to get Barclay out of my sight soon before I change my mind and kill him.”
Skye wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not so she simply nodded. Turning back to the two-way mirror, she adjusted the volume on the speakers so she could hear what was going on better.
She knew Colt didn’t like to torture. No, he preferred psychological warfare. If she had to guess how Colt was going to play this, he’d end up threatening with torture in a subtle way. Back when they’d been in the CIA together, she’d watched him work and he was a master.
Barclay was now zip-tied to a chair and hooked up to a high-tech lie detector that synced with Colt’s laptop.
“The machine doesn’t lie, dumbass. Do you know who hired you, yes or no?” Colt’s voice was deceptively casual.
“No. I already told you.” He struggled once against the bindings.
It was clear the guy was lying from the spike on screen.
Colt shrugged, and shut his laptop. Then he lifted the small duffel bag he’d kept on the floor next to the table between him and Barclay. Casual as fuck, he unzipped it and pulled out a small rolled bag that reminded her of a makeup bag Mary Grace owned. When Colt popped the button and unrolled it to reveal a plethora of torture devices, the man strapped to the other seat shifted slightly, pulling at his bindings.
“I don’t like torture,” Colt said casually. “It’ll get the job done, but you’ll be in a lot of pain by the time I’m through and I’ll have blood on my clothes. It’s annoying.”
The guy’s eyes widened slightly as he shifted again, not so subtly struggling now as the chair scraped against the flooring. They’d bought this place months ago for this very reason—because Skye liked to be prepared—but it wasn’t attached to their actual consulting building. On the outside, this place looked like a kept-up townhome, but they owned all of the attached townhomes as well. Under a bunch of shell corporations that would never trace back to the company. Because Gage was a genius.
“I don’t know why you’re bothering to protect the guy who hired you. Do you think he’d take torture for you? This is just a job, not top-secret bullshit. I seriously don’t get why you’re not talking right now.” Colt lifted a shiny pair of pliers and inspected them under the light.
The guy cleared his throat. “How do I know you won’t torture me after I tell you?”
Colt didn’t stop inspecting his instruments as he said, “You don’t. But I find torture to be a waste of time when you could simply tell me the truth. I don’t care about you, I just want to know who hired you. I was hired by someone else, simple as that. How do you feel about losing your toes first? Or should I start with your fingers? I’m in a good mood so I’m going to let you pick. Usually guys go with the pinky toe first.”
Skye snickered as the guy started panting, his breath becoming more and more labored. “Fine, I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you anything you want to know, man!”
Colt shifted the tools so that they were directly in front of the guy, right in his line of sight. Then he sat down and opened his laptop again. “For every lie you tell me, you lose a body part. If I ask if your favorite color is purple and you lie about it, there goes a toe. Nod if you understand.”
Still breathing erratically, the guy nodded. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good. Take a couple deep breaths, get yourself under control and I’ll start with some basic questions.”
And that was how it was done. Colt really was better at this than her. She’d have probably throat- or dick-punched Barclay by now. “We’ve definitely got him,” she murmured. Next to her, Gage had his laptop open and was ready to start doing whatever sort of voodoo magic he did once he got the name of who’d hired Barclay.
And that was all they needed. A name. Once they had the guy who’d hired this loser, it would just be a matter of time until the threat was neutralized for good. Then Hadley would be safe.
* * *
Hadley sat at the center island in the kitchen with her dad and Axel—who was holding her hand as they listened to Brooks via speakerphone. Her dad had just woken both her and Axel even though it was three in the morning, so whatever was going on was important.
“Things are looking good,” her brother said. “We just delivered the third man hired to kidnap Hadley to a federal agent. Anonymously. He was wanted on a pretty bad federal warrant. He never saw any of our faces so nothing should ever link to any of us. But Gage will be keeping an eye on him if he’s ever released from prison.”
Hadley squeezed Axel’s hand once. That was definitely good news.
“Tell me you know who hired him,” her dad said as he started the coffee maker.
“A man named Barron Fuller. I already know from Gage that you recently bought his business in a deal.”
Her dad frowned. “Are you sure about that? I more or less bailed him out. He was ready to go bankrupt. I did him a favor—and bought the business at far greater than what it’s valued at. And I only did it out of respect for his deceased father. Barron has a cocaine problem. And I don’t know for certain, I still have accountants poring over the last few years, but I think he was skimming money. Probably to support his addiction. I…actually sat down with him, talked to him about his dad and tried to make sure he wasn’t digging such a huge hole he couldn’t get out of it.”
“Well, Gage is sure. He started digging into the guy as soon as we got the name. Gage and I are headed to the ranch, and Skye and Colt are on their way to Miami as we speak. They’re taking the jet.”
“What are they doing down there?” Hadley asked.
“Taking care of the problem,” Brooks said evasively. “I still want to keep you locked down at the ranch for now, until we know for certain that you’re safe, but I think it’s okay to say that you’re out of the woods.”
Relief flooded her system like a shot of adrenaline. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Hadley hadn’t even realized the weight that had been sitting on her chest until it no longer existed. The man might not be in jail yet, but her brother and his team knew who the guy was. Which meant they would be able to stop him. “Thank you.”
“You never have to thank me, little sister. Dad, will you take me off speaker? I need to talk to you.”
As her dad picked the phone up, she turned to Axel and wrapped her arms around him as she buried her face against his chest. “I know it’s not completely over, but it sure feels like it. I feel like I can breathe again.”
He hugged her tight, resting his chin on top of her head as she inhaled his spicy scent. “As soon as this is officially over and you’re free to leave, I’m taking you anywhere you want to go.”
Smiling, she pulled back to look up at him. “Actually, the only place I want to go is to a rescue shelter. Even with my school schedule, I still have enough time for it and I really miss having a dog around the house.” C-4 was adorable, but she was Skye’s dog now and Hadley really wanted one of her own.
He laughed lightly. “Then it’s a date.”
She was almost afraid to feel any relief, and knew that things weren’t settled yet but…she had hope. And her future seemed brighter than ever because of the very sexy man in her arms.