The Perfect Murder by Kat Martin
THIRTY-THREE
Reese hated waiting almost as much as Bran. Forty minutes had passed and still no email from Rick. Then Kenzie’s cell phone started ringing, not the disposable, which meant it could be DeMarco or one of his men.
Kenzie checked the caller ID. “Blocked,” she said, pressing the phone against her ear. Reese moved into position beside her.
“This is Kenzie.”
“So I guess you two don’t like following orders. Or maybe you just want me to put a gun to the kid’s head and pull the trigger.”
“No!” Kenzie started shaking. “No, please. Please don’t hurt him.”
This time the call was not distorted. It was a man’s voice, deep and raspy, like a smoker. Reese took the phone out of Kenzie’s hand, put it on the table, and hit the speaker button. “I’ve set everything in motion just the way you wanted. The deal will be canceled before your deadline.”
“Why are you in Shreveport? By the way, Eddie says hello.”
Reese softly cursed. He glanced at his brothers. Chase looked resigned. Bran’s features had gone iron hard.
“I asked you a question,” the caller said. “Why are you in Shreveport. Who’d you talk to that led you here?”
Reese considered his answer. Best to stay as close to the truth as possible. “Griff is Arthur Haines’s grandson. We figured Haines had the most to gain from taking over the Poseidon deal. We looked into his background and figured he owned you a big-ass gambling debt, thought maybe you were the guy in charge. Which meant you probably had the boy stashed somewhere in Shreveport. We wanted to be close by when you let him go.”
DeMarco chuckled, a grating sound that zipped up Reese’s spine. “If you think I’m buying that, you’re dumber than I thought. Who’s the big guy? I warned you not to drag your brothers into this.”
Hawk.“He isn’t my brother. Just a friend who owed me a favor.”
“All right, here’s the deal. Now that you’ve figured all of this out, you may as well assign your position in the purchase directly over to Black Sand Oil and Gas. And since you decided to play detective, you’ve got a new deadline. Get this done by ten o’clock tomorrow morning you get the kid back alive. Fuck up again, he’s dead.”
Kenzie’s face went bone white. Reese held on to his control by a thread. “Fine, we’ll do whatever you want. But we’ll still need proof of life before I sign the final documents.”
“One more phone call. You talk to the kid, but if the deal isn’t closed, the kid disappears without a trace and there’s no way to prove who killed him. You understand?”
Reese’s hand tightened into a fist. “I understand.”
“You’d better.” The line went dead.
Kenzie walked away from the phone into the bedroom and Reese could hear her crying. He wanted to go to her, tell her everything would be okay, but it was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep.
“It was a fairly long phone call,” he said. “Think Tabby can trace it?”
“No point,” Chase said. “He’ll be using a disposable and we already know where to find him.”
A penthouse apartment above the casino. It was common knowledge in Shreveport.
“You’re right,” Reese said. “It’s Griff’s location we need to find.”
“Wherever Griff is,” Bran said, “now that DeMarco knows Reese is in Shreveport, he’ll beef up security around the boy. We’ll be going up against a small army.”
Reese flicked a glance toward the bedroom, saw Kenzie wiping tears from her cheeks. He forced himself to focus. He phoned Derek Stiles and told him what he needed him to do. Black Sand Oil and Gas would be substituted in the contract, taking over the purchase of the platform. Whatever it took, the deal needed to be completed by tomorrow morning.
Derek wasn’t happy, but he would do what Reese asked.
When the call ended, he checked Kenzie’s computer screen, felt a rush when he spotted an email from Rick Holloway.
Did a little digging. Found a piece of property in Loggy Bayou owned by DeMarco’s grandfather. Attaching an assessor’s plat map and deed description. Hope this is what you’re looking for.
Reese clicked open the attachment and examined the map. He felt Kenzie moving up behind him, caught her hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Holloway found a piece of property in Loggy Bayou owned by DeMarco’s granddad. Got to be where they’re holding Griff.” A least he hoped so.
He felt Kenzie’s pulse accelerate, pounding in the delicate bones in her wrist. She looked down at him and managed a worried smile. “Let me in there. I’m better at this than you are.”
Reese smiled back and felt a sense of longing. How had this woman managed to get through his carefully guarded defenses?
“You’re right,” he said. “You are better.” He slid out of the chair. “Help us figure out what we’re up against.”
This was Kenzie’s domain. Handling problems, coming up with solutions. Blocking thoughts of Griff and the kidnappers’ new deadline, she brought up Loggy Bayou, overlaying parcel map details with the angles of meandering streams and what looked like dirt lanes. She cross-checked, using the legal description on the deed, along with longitude and latitude coordinates on Google Earth.
Finally satisfied, she leaned back in her chair. “There it is, guys. I’ll bring up the satellite image.”
Bran and Chase moved closer to Reese, who looked over her shoulder. The bayou landscape was forbidding, nothing but green for miles, a huge mass of swampy land cut by overgrown creeks, heavy thickets of trees, and dense, leafy foliage.
Kenzie went to Google Earth and zoomed north and south around the property. It was mostly a sea of green.
“Looks like a big bunch of nothing,” Bran grumbled.
“The map shows a couple of hunting camps in the area,” Kenzie said. “You can see a few buildings here and there, but none of them are near DeMarco’s property.” She zoomed in as close as possible.
“Looks like there’s some kind of structure on the land,” Reese said. “But it can’t be very big.”
“You mentioned hunting camps,” Chase said. “Maybe that’s what this is.”
Bran started nodding. “A cabin the old man built for hunting. Got to be plenty of game out there.”
“White tail deer, otter, turkeys, skunks, turtles, bobcats, opossums, and just about everything else,” Chase said.
“Not to mention alligators and snakes,” Bran added glumly.
Kenzie suppressed a shiver. “How can we be sure that’s where they’re holding Griff?”
“Nolan’s last call came from a tower in Loggy Bayou,” Reese said. “No more calls since then. I think he’s there.”
Chase and Bran exchanged glances. “Then let’s go get him,” Bran said.
Kenzie’s heart raced. The men were going after Griff.
“We need supplies,” Chase said.
“Weapons and clothes,” Bran agreed. “We brought most of what we need, but going into Loggy Bayou isn’t the same as blasting our way through the halls of a casino.”
“We’ve got tactical vests out in the rented SUV,” Chase said. “But we need one for Reese and some miscellaneous outdoor gear. And we could use a couple of pairs of night vision goggles.”
“We need an army surplus store.” Brandon took out his cell and started searching. “Bob’s Army/Navy. That ought to do it. Toss me the car keys.”
“I’ll go with you,” Chase offered. “Might see something else we need.” He looked at Reese. “Anything special we can pick up for you?”
“I could use a pair of cargo pants. New boots are a bitch, so I’ll make do with the ones I’m wearing. Make sure we’ve got face paint and plenty of ammo.”
“Will do,” Chase said. He and Bran disappeared out the door. Reese walked over to the living room window and stood with his back turned, hands braced on his narrow hips.
Kenzie came up behind him. Sliding her arms around his waist, she rested her cheek against his back. “I know we have to do this, but I’m scared. I’m terrified of losing my son, and the prospect of you being shot or killed—”
Reese turned around, wrapped her in his arms, and silenced her with a kiss. In a matter of heartbeats, it went from a way to make her forget the danger to something hot and desperate. Kenzie wanted the kiss to go on and on, wanted the heat building inside her to push away her terrible fear. She whimpered when Reese pulled away.
“We’re getting him out,” Reese said, keeping her in the circle of his arms. “And none of us are going to die.”
Her eyes welled. “You can’t know that.”
“Not for sure. Nothing is ever completely certain. But my brothers are both former military. Brandon was a special ops soldier, Chase an army MP. They know what they’re doing.” He tipped her chin up and softly kissed her lips. “And I’m fairly capable myself.”
It was true. She knew he practiced martial arts. She had watched him fight the big burly Sea Titan mechanic, seen the way he’d handled Eddie Fontaine. Reese was in amazing physical condition. He was tough and he was smart.
“You never talk about your past,” she said. “You know all about me and my family. About Lee. What happened in the past to make you the way you are?”
His features closed up and his mouth thinned. “You mean cold and insensitive? I know that’s what people say.”
Her heart melted. She reached up and cupped his cheek, felt the roughness along his jaw that made him look like the hard man she knew he could be. “You aren’t cold and insensitive. You’re the most caring man I’ve ever met. For some reason you just don’t want people to know.”
Reese sighed. He sat down on the sofa and drew her down beside him. “I know I keep most people at a distance. It’s good business practice, but it’s also a defense mechanism. It’s just easier not to let anyone in.” He flicked her a sideways glance. “No way for me to get hurt.”
Kenzie frowned. “But you always seem so self-assured.”
“I know I’m good at what I do. I’ve got plenty of confidence when it comes to business. It’s relationships that give me trouble.”
She processed that. They were in a relationship of sorts, but it was mostly brought on by circumstance. Or was it? She wanted to believe it was more. “What about me? Surely you aren’t afraid I’ll hurt you.”
His beautiful blue eyes fixed on her face. “You could,” he said softly, surprising her.
She glanced away, afraid of the emotion rising inside her. She didn’t want to get hurt, either. “You’re close to your brothers,” she said, shifting the conversation in a safer direction.
“I owe my brothers everything. When I was a kid I was always in trouble. I got involved in a teenage gang, ended up in juvenile detention. If it hadn’t been for my mom and my brothers, I’d probably be dead by now.”
Her heart squeezed. “They helped you turn your life around.”
Something moved across his features. Clearly there was something more. “They were a big part of it. But something else happened. Something I’ve never told anyone...not even Chase and Bran.”
Kenzie stayed silent, afraid if she spoke he wouldn’t go on. But her gaze held his, urging him to continue, telling him without words he could trust her.
His glance cut away. “I’d just gotten out of detention. Still finding my way, I guess. One of my buddies talked me into going out drinking with him. We were both underage, but that just made it more exciting. We got reeling drunk. I knew Billy shouldn’t be driving, but he was more afraid of his dad than having an accident. It was three o’clock in the morning when the front tire blew on his dad’s Buick sedan. Billy swerved and hit a tree at sixty miles an hour.”
“Oh, Reese.”
“Billy died instantly. I wasn’t even hurt.” He sighed into the quiet. “I checked to be sure he was dead, but his head was split open. There was no doubt. I climbed out of the car and walked away. No one ever knew I was even there. Billy’s death was the real reason I changed.”
Kenzie slid her arms around his neck and held him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Reese blew out a shaky breath. “I shouldn’t have been drinking in the first place.”
“The tire blew. That wasn’t your fault.”
“I know. I tried to stop Billy from driving, but he wouldn’t listen. In the end, his death made me realize how tenuous life can be. And it made me want to make the most out of mine.”
Kenzie’s thoughts went to the danger he and his brothers would be facing. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Reese. Asking you to go in after Griff—”
Reese caught her chin and softly kissed her. “You aren’t asking me to do anything. Your son is in danger. We can’t bring in the police or they’ll kill him. We’re doing what we have to do.”
Noises sounded in the hall. There was a two-and-one rap on the door the instant before it opened and Chase and Brandon strode back into the living room. She noticed they both kept their gun hands free, and each carried a big plastic bag he tossed up onto the sofa.
“Let’s get dressed and do a little recon,” Chase said. “DeMarco’s given you until tomorrow morning. We need to have Griff safe before the deadline.”
Reese started pulling stuff out of the bag. He dragged out a pair of camouflage cargo pants and a long-sleeved camo T-shirt. Kenzie didn’t have to be a soldier to know the swamp wasn’t a friendly place for exposed skin.
He grabbed a couple more items and disappeared into the bedroom. Kenzie followed, giving Chase and Bran privacy to change. She was wearing her skinny jeans with a navy blue T-shirt and black sneakers, her hair pulled into a ponytail. It would have to do.
When she and Reese returned to the living room, Kenzie stood transfixed as she watched the men in action, moving with the same ease of purpose she had noticed in Reese.
Brandon crossed to the hall closet, reached in, and pulled out a couple of canvas bags the men had apparently brought with them. One was big and bulky, another long and narrow with a zipper that ran full length. Bran tossed it up onto the sofa, unzipped it, and pulled out an assault rifle.
“AR-15,” he announced. “Converted to full auto.” He handed it to Chase, then pulled what looked like another assault rifle out of the bag. “Pneu-Dart G2 X-Caliber. Gas-based remote delivery projector. Otherwise known as a tranq gun.”
His blue eyes flashed to Chase, then to her. “I figured my brother wouldn’t be happy if I just ended the bastards.”
Chase’s mouth edged up. “No. At least not unless we have to.”
Bran turned to Reese. “You’re the man when it comes to handguns. You’re carrying your Nighthawk, right?”
“That’s right.” Reese’s mouth curved into a sexy smile. “You got a good look at it when I walked in this morning.”
Brandon grinned.
Reese slid the gun out of the holster at his waist, checked the load, then slid it back in with an ease Kenzie still found unsettling. “Where did you learn to handle a gun the way you do?”
“High school. Not that I’m proud of it.”
“Maybe not,” Chase said. “But at fifty feet, you’re the best pistol shot I’ve ever seen.” Chase fetched a canvas bag from behind the sofa, pulled it open, and tossed Reese a second weapon.
“Beretta nine mil,” he said. “That .380 I loaned you makes a good ankle gun, but for what we’re getting into, you need a backup weapon with some muscle.”
Reese nodded. “Thanks.” He checked the pistol, made sure the magazine was full, then shoved it into his waistband at the back of his cargo pants.
Chase held up a square black plastic case. “Satellite phone.” He smiled. “‘Don’t leave home without one,’” he said, parroting the American Express ad. “And last but not least, there’s a little toy out in the SUV your brother was determined to buy.”
“What is it?” Reese asked.
Bran flashed a cocky smile. “A drone.”
Reese actually grinned. “I like it.”
“All right, fine,” Chase said, sounding like a typical big brother. “If you two are ready to try out your new toys, let’s go see what’s out there.”
