Page 53 of Danger Close (Mourningkill #3)

Do I Have Your Attention?

Cobra

Daria and I parked half a mile from the radar ping. We found the car Raymond Clark used—with fucking government plates and all—and were able to trace his steps to the blue barn. We cleared the big barn first, rifles at the high ready, making sure that he had no back up.

Norkus had gotten his three accomplices, but you could never be sure.

With that settled, we silently crept around, and made a plan. I approached the house alone, a pistol tucked into the back of my jeans like a fucking amateur. But it couldn’t be helped.

The door to the attached dwelling was ajar and I swerved my body to get through.

The door to my right was shut, and before I stepped through it, I checked for booby traps, hearing the voices on the other end.

“She always likes it rough…” the muffled male voice said with an arrogance that made my blood boil. “I was just giving your mom what she wanted.”

Clear of booby traps, my fingers twitched. Raymond Clark. This was it.

I took a deep breath, savoring the moment before a fight. There was only one thing that tasted better than the moment before a kill… that was my wife’s lips.

“Your mom is a kinky bitch…”

I opened the door, slamming it shut behind me. I thrust my chin up. An open window with thread bear curtains was to my right, open to the woods that surrounded the field.

A small glint of a scope winked at me. My backup was in place.

The wire taped to my chest hair was uncomfortable, but necessary, and I didn’t have time to shave. The pain I’d feel when we pulled that tape off would be nothing compared to what Raymond Clark would feel in a moment.

I didn’t know what I expected to see when I finally confronted this man. I knew better than to believe that bad guys have ugly exteriors. That often wasn’t the case. Devils have angel’s faces, after all.

But I wasn’t quite prepared to see a Brad Pitt lookalike. Brown hair with natural honey highlights and crystal blue eyes.

“So this is what you left me for?” Clark said, waving the gun in his hand with a recklessness that told me he was more of a Hollywood fighter. No professional would have such disregard.

He started laughing, bending in half at the waist as my daughter and wife were on their knees in front of him, their hands zip tied behind their back.

“This fucker?” He kept laughing like a maniac and I wondered if he was high as fuck.

When his whooping laugh died, I finally introduced myself. That was just good manners, after all.

“I’m Joaquin Guerro.” My eyes hardened, as my nostrils flared. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”

The place smelled like dust, dirt, and crumbling dry wall.

“Joe,” Teri’s whisper-soft voice cut into my head like a knife, but I had to ignore her. For now, at least. “No…”

Her tears were falling again. I could count them as they dripped from her chin, to the ground. I kept a running tally in the back of my mind, seeing each one in my peripheral vision.

“Oh yes.” Clark’s eyes appraised me, as I stepped forward.

He clicked the safety off the gun, put his finger on the trigger, and pointed it at Teri.

I froze.

I knew that at this angle, Daria didn’t have a clear shot from the window. I guessed that she could only see the tops of Teri and Trinity’s heads. I wouldn’t want her to take that shot anyway. That was danger close.

“That’s right. I’ve heard of you. The fucker that abandoned his wife and daughter.” He sneered, his smile hiding a secret. The secret of how he had broken my marriage. “It was for the best. A spy, right? That’s what you told her.”

He laughed again. I kept a wary eye on his finger in the trigger well. If I had to jump up and catch a bullet, I would. I was ready.

No… No, I wanted him alive. Alive was best.

“No one’s ever heard of you. I fucking checked. You don’t show up in any database, you arrogant, lying sack of shit.” He cackled like a hyena. “Or did you believe him?”

He looked at Teri and laughed in her face.

“Fucking adorable. You’re so adorable!” Clark ran forward, and I flinched.

I stood still. He put the gun to my wife’s forehead. My nostrils flared, my heart beat against my ribs, threatening to jump out and I swallowed the fear as he brought his face right up to Teri.

“So fucking cute and stupid.” He laughed in her face. “Though you have let yourself go.”

He looked down at her body and sucked in a breath through his teeth, as if she wasn’t a complete knockout. Let herself go, my ass. She was perfect. She always had been. Was that his thing? Negging? What a beta-cuck-twat-waffle.

“Thank God that pussy of yours stays tight.” He leaned down, taking her mouth in a kiss.

I saw red. Murderous red.

When he let her go, she blinked at him, her lips pulled down in a frown, lips tense like she held in vomit.

Then she shut her eyes. I wanted to reach out to her. To grab her in my arms. To protect her, but I stood, fucking impotent to do a damn thing as he assaulted my wife.

When she opened her eyes, her face was impassive, her eyes empty.

“Teri…” I said under my breath.

“You’re right.” She looked up at Clark like he was the only man in the world. “You’re right. About all of it.”

Clark’s face changed, the pressure with which he held the barrel to her forehead eased.

“I ran because I hated sharing you with others. I wanted your attention. I wanted all of you.” She lurched forward, and planted her lips on his, and he kissed her back.

Bile rose up my throat, and I fought the unbelievable urge to yank her back by the throat and break his face. But that fucking gun! That fucking gun!

He was one twitch away from blowing her brains out.

I’m not an idiot. I knew what she’s doing. I knew she was playing with his emotions to buy us time. To buy us another chance at getting the fuck out of here. All of us. Our whole family.

But the caveman in me, my lizard brain, just saw something that was mine being violated by Raymond Clark.

“Do I have your attention now?” Her voice was dripping with sensuality.

Clark smiled. He fucking smiled. He was as enraptured by her as I was. He might, in his own twisted way, even love her. At the very least, he was as obsessed with her as I was.

“You know no one can fuck me the way you can.”

Her words cut me like a fucking knife as she murmured the words against his mouth.

“I knew you were a kinky bitch.” He looked so fucking pleased with himself.

“No one knows me like you do, baby.”

“Yeah? Even when I saw you in Phoenix?”

“You know I liked it.” She was playing her role well. “It showed me that you wanted me.”

“Did he fuck you the way I did?” Clark’s head tilted to me. My eyes on that fucking Beretta. “Did he make you cry? Leave his marks on your skin, just the way you like it?”

“No one else could do that to me the way you do.”

She’d better be playing a role.

She’d better be…

“I’ll fucking tie you to the bed, and use you like the good little slut you are—”

A gunshot rang out.

Plaster rained down from the ceiling.

Trinity fell to the floor.

Teri’s hands were covered in blood.

Teri was covered in blood…