Page 100 of Danger Close

“Special Agent In Charge Raymond Clark was doing something at the Mexico-Arizona border at the time, and took a couple days furlough around Tucson that same weekend.” My nostrils flared at her words, my fists clenched. “As you know, when you have been tracked, it becomes very difficult to beuntracked.”

She was fucking right. Once someone finds your breadcrumbs, it becomes really, really hard to cover your trail. Once ourtargets were locked in, they were rarely able to shake us again. Especially if no one was around to teach her how to do it.

“What I got from these three scumbags is that for the past ten years, Raymond Clark has been psychologically torturing Teresa Guerro, occasionally sending random people to send her amessagein the form of a mugging, or…”

Norkus stopped talking, as if she just ran out of steam. As if what she was going to say would be harder than everything else she’d already told me.

“He’s been on a campaign to make her miserable, and continue his abuse. He and his friends make a game of it, because they don’t think women should have the right to defy them. So you have federal flunkies who abuse their power, and are, in essence, red-pill fuckwads as well.”

She’d lost all mirth and playfulness. The biting sarcasm was absolutely gone.

While anger spiked in my veins, she was filled with nothing but sorrow.

“Is there anything else?” I finally said, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“Teresa never told her daughter about any of it. She sheltered your kid. I…” She swallowed too, getting choked up. “I really admire that about her.”

She let out a long breath, as her words sunk in.

Trinity hated her mother. She hated her for leaving a stepfather she loved. A stepfather that was hurting her…Fuck!

“Raymond Clark is here, in town. I guess he found out about Trinity’s wedding through the papers, since her in-laws took out a full-page spread in the society pages. I put a tracker on his car.” She pulled a small device out of her pocket that linked to the tracker, giving me a ten-digit military grid coordinate, which was accurate within ten meters. “I’d suggest you go find him, because he’s going to go after your wife. These three knew that she’d been seen in a car, and at the bar, with a man—I’m presuming you—and he didn’t like that one bit. He’s scared of losing his favorite plaything, and he’d rather destroy what he loves rather than let someone else have it.”

I plugged the coordinates into an app I had on my phone. “What are you going to do with these three?”

“Oh, I called your brother to come pick them up.” She smiled big, as if she’d just revealed she had exciting afternoon plans. “I promise, I won’t kill them until you have your chance.”

Then she winked at me, and smiled. She gave mea girly finger wave, then put her hands into the form of a heart as she chipperly called, “Happy hunting!”

Chapter 44

Power

Teri

He had a gun. He had a badge. He had the power.

Trinity sat in the front seat, her hands in cuffs behind her back. She didn’t have her seatbelt on, and I spent the whole time fearing that one car accident would kill my baby right when she was on the cusp of happiness. I fought against the ties that kept my wrists behind me.

“Ray…” Trinity said, her head still forward, slightly bowed.

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Ray said, biting that thick lower lip that I had once considered handsome. “Your mom knows the score, don’t you, babe?”

Babe. Baby. Bae.

I’d hated those fucking names from him. He treated me like a child.

I clenched my teeth. “I’m sorry, Trinity.”

“It’s okay, Mama.” Her voice was calm, and cold. God, I didn’t know what to think. What to say. I didn’t know how to protect her! “Everythingis going to be okay, Mama.”

He drove us in silence. He didn’t even allow music, probably listening for either of us to attempt an escape.

“Where are you taking us?” Trinity asked, her voice as cool as cream.

“Oh, just a little place I found, not far from here.” Vague as always.

My heart was pounding in my ears.