Fierce Defender: Book 2, Hard to Handle trilogy (12 page)

“Well, that’s a relief,” he said. “If he wants to kick my ass, and he’s counting up what I owe him, he’s feeling okay. What the hell happened? Did he get made as a cop?”

Gomez laughed. “No, actually, that’s the funny part. The big dude who kicked his ass was from Freeman’s old neighborhood. The guy was a crack addict and his wife was somewhat of a…”

“Loose woman?” Gray said, phrasing it nicely for him.

“Yeah. Anyways, this guy’s out scoring some crack one night, and Freeman, who was just out of high school at the time, hooks up with the wife. Big guy walked in on them but was too high to do anything. Freeman said he dodged him a few more times before he got the hell out of the neighborhood and headed to the police academy. He forgot about him until the other night.”

“Small world, isn’t it?” Gray said. He was really going to owe Freeman for all this.

“How are you doing?” Gomez asked. “Are you ready for me to pull the plug?”

“No,” Gray said in a tone that left no room for argument. “I need to see Danielle Thurston, though. Can you see if she’s in court and get her in here?”

“Thurston? Isn’t that the public defender you can’t stand?”

“Yeah, she can’t stand me either, so try not to tell her it’s me you’re bringing her in to see. Tell her it’s someone that Ayden referred and see what she does with that.”

Gomez nodded and started to rise, but then Gray said, “What about Tammy? Have you guys heard anything?”

“No, the director’s got Sam playing the part still. Tapped all of his phones, though, and has him being watched twenty-four-seven so he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Gray nodded and watched Gomez leave. He didn’t know what he was going to say to Danielle, but for some reason, he had to know what her fascination was with these guys.

Fifteen or twenty minutes went by, and Gomez came back in, followed by Danielle. She had her long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail at the nape of her neck and was wearing a pair of glasses with frames the same color as her eyes. Gray noticed how pretty it made her eyes look, but since he didn’t want to think nice things about her, he told himself it was probably part of her strategy to win over the jury.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Gray and then glanced at Gomez and said, “I guess all of you DEA agents have a tenuous grasp on the truth.”

“I’m sorry,” Gomez said. “He didn’t think you would come if I told you it was him.”

“This is a sentence you won’t hear me say twice, but he was right.”

“Danielle,” Gray said. “Give me five minutes, please.”

She looked at her watch and said, “Five minutes… go.”

“Do you want to have a seat?” he asked.

“You just wasted thirty seconds,” she said.

Gray sighed. He wanted to throttle the woman, and he had never so much as thought about hitting a woman in his life. “Okay, tell me what your relationship is to the Aryan Brotherhood.”

Danielle’s jaw dropped. “How dare you. I am an officer of the court. A public defender at that. I don’t pick my clients; they’re assigned to me.”

“My cellmate, Ayden Styles, referred you.”

“And?” she said, arms folded and eyes narrowed.

“And… he’s a general with the Brotherhood.”

“He was a client, assigned to me by the court. That’s all.”

Gray watched her face. She was looking him in the eye and gave the impression she was telling the truth, but he still got the feeling that she wasn’t telling him everything.

“Will you be my lawyer?”

“What?” Now she was looking at him as if he had grown a second head. “No, you’re crazy. I don’t want any part of this… whatever game you’re playing.”

“You think this is a game? My partner is in the hospital recovering from getting the shit beat out of him. I’m sleeping three feet away from a general in an organization responsible for more deaths behind bars than any other. The reason that we’re doing it is because we’re trying to catch a drug dealer and a murderer, who by the way has kidnapped an innocent woman and either killed her or kept her hostage for the past month, and God only knows what indignities she had to suffer either way. So no, little girl, this is not a game.”

Danielle didn’t speak for a long time. When she did at last, she simply said, “What are your charges?”

******

Stockdale, Texas

Late Monday Afternoon

“You look well for a man who has been in the trunk of a car for twenty hours,” Vincent said with a cruel smile.

Hank didn’t speak; he knew better. Every time he’d tried to say anything, it had been greeted by a backhand to the mouth. He had a tendency, one might say, to learn things the hard way, but eventually he did learn.

“I trust the drive out was a pleasant one?”

Hank still didn’t respond. He was soaked in the sweat and dust of two thousand plus miles, as well as just a little bit of his own vomit. He hadn’t pissed his pants, thanks to the kindness Armando had doled out on him… an empty Gatorade bottle. His hair had something sticky in it that he didn’t even want to chance a guess at, and he was so hungry that he thought the acid in his stomach might, at this very moment, be eating through the outer lining. He had nothing good to say, so as the phrase went… he was saying nothing at all.

Vincent Heston continued to taunt him. At first, Hank hadn’t even recognized him. He had never looked very Hispanic, with his fair skin and green eyes; but now, looking at him with his fake blonde hair and blue eyes, Hank felt like he was looking at a completely different person… until the son of a bitch opened his mouth.

“I like this little town,” Vincent was saying. “I’m thinking of perhaps settling down here. I know you have family in this area, any suggestions?” he said.

He wanted him to bite; Hank knew that. He had come a ways since he’d been the guy who’d ran out here to hide behind his sister’s skirts. Not far, but a ways. He wasn’t going to grovel to this bastard, that was for sure. At least, that’s what he thought, until the next words came out of Heston’s mouth.

“I found the nicest little bakery here in town. I originally went there for the bear claws, but the service turned out to be so nice that I just had to keep going back. It’s surprising how you’re just going about your business one day, and then… wham! Out of the blue, the one you’ve been waiting for walks into your life.”

Hank’s already torn up stomach began to churn violently as he thought about Heston being that close to Eva.

“What do you want from me, Vincent? I don’t have any money,” Hank finally said. He knew he was defeated. If they killed him, at least maybe they would leave Eva alone to get on with her life.

Vincent smiled again. “I thought that I wanted to kill you. I already have the box I was going to put your head in,” he said. Hank could feel his insides convulse. Then Vincent went on. “Then I met your sweet sister. She was the one that I had planned on sending the box too. But after meeting her, I decided that I just couldn’t do that to her. She seems so delicate…”

“Vincent, please…”

“Please what, Hank? I’ve already disclosed to you that my intentions are not to kill you, and I can swear to you on my own mother’s sacred grave that I have only the most honorable of intentions towards your sister.”

Armando looked confused when Vincent said “my mother’s sacred grave.” Hank knew Vincent’s mother was probably as healthy and spry as ever. His intentions were never honorable.

“Eva has a boyfriend. She’s in love with him. She’s started a new life here, Vincent. I’m the one that screwed up… badly. Please don’t make her suffer for it.”

“Oh, but I have no intentions of making her suffer,” Vincent told him. “Quite the contrary. You see, that house that she lives in with that military man is… unsuitable for a woman of your sister’s caliber. I can offer her a palace, make her my queen. She would never have to dirty her hands in that bakery again. She would have anything her heart desired. How would that be making her suffer?” he said, giving Hank a look that said he better give the right answer. “Are you insinuating that I’m so repulsive, your sister wouldn’t want to be with me?”

Hank was sweating again. He could feel it rolling down into his eyes. His hands were behind his back, fastened with Flexi Cuffs, so he couldn’t wipe it away. He tried to keep his voice steady as he said, “That is not what I am suggesting at all… sir. I just wasn’t aware that you knew she was already involved with someone.”

“See, now there’s the key,” Vincent said. “A smart guy doesn’t try and come between them. If she chose me over him, well then, she would be a cheating slut and not worthy of wearing my crown. But… if the one she was involved with were to somehow be taken out of the equation... well then, the road to destiny is paved.”

Broken Dreams

Sutherland Springs, Texas

Monday Evening

Danielle was finally home. It had been an extraordinarily long day to start out her week. She walked in the door and kicked off her shoes, and then she headed straight for the kitchen and the bottle of chardonnay that she knew was waiting for her in the refrigerator. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but her old neighbors had given it to her as a goodbye gift when she moved. Tonight, she was really glad she had it.

As she pulled open the bottle, she remembered that she hadn’t unpacked her wine glasses yet. She looked around the kitchen; it was full of cardboard boxes. She had no idea which one they were in. Sighing, she pulled a paper cup out of the cupboard and poured herself a drink. As she took the first sip, she willed the warmth of the golden liquid to course quickly through her body and rinse away the stress.

She had been at the courthouse for exactly three hours before Special Agent Gomez had approached her. She had already been given two new cases and had been heard on one parole violation and on two other bail hearings. When she had finally gotten a break, she was going to run out and grab a much needed latte, until Gomez caught her.

“Good morning, Miss Thurston,” he’d said.

Danielle thought he looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place where she knew him from. “Good morning,” she replied with a smile, hoping to continue her rush to the Starbucks across the street.

“Could I speak with you for a moment?”

Danielle looked longingly at the front door of the courthouse. She had been so close…

“What is this about?” she asked, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice.

“I’m not sure if you remember me?” he queried. When she didn’t respond right away, he explained, “I’m Special Agent Antonio Gomez with the DEA. We met on a few court cases over the last year or so.”

“Yes, of course, Agent Gomez. What can I do for you?” she asked reluctantly.

“I have a… prospective client for you in conference room number two. I was wondering if you had just a few minutes to meet with us.”

“This is a bit unusual,” she said. She should have just said, “No,” and walked away.

“Ayden Styles referred him,” he added.

Shit!
That name haunted her wherever she went these days. She looked at her watch. “I have a few minutes.”

And then he had led her to
him
! That arrogant, self-worshipping, mass of muscle with very little brain, Grayson Alexander. She wished she could get just one do-over, and never get out of bed that morning.

She carried her wine glass into the living room. Searching amongst the boxes, she found the remote control and turned on
Nancy Grace
. As Nancy’s self-assured voice droned on in the background, Danielle cleared a spot on the couch and sat down. Taking another sip of her wine, she thought about Ayden.

She had lied to Gray. Ayden was more than just another client. She often wished that wasn’t the case, and she prayed for the strength to cut ties and walk away someday. Grayson Alexander, however, would probably be the last person on Earth who would understand her motivations for not doing so.

Danielle, Dani, as her friends called her, had been raised in Texas. She had a fairly normal childhood with a daddy who first worked in and then owned a motorcycle shop and a mama who stayed home and baked cookies. She was an only child for the first six years of her life, and then her brother had come along, uninvited as far as six-year-old Dani had been concerned. Dani had been sullen throughout her mother’s pregnancy. Suddenly, all conversations and activities any adults in the house undertook seemed to be about the new baby. He wasn’t even here yet, she had thought, and already he was stealing all the attention. She was sure she wasn’t going to like him at all.

Danielle reached for the scrapbook on the table in front of her. It had been the first thing she’d unpacked when she moved into the house. She opened it to a picture of Justin. He was only eight or nine months-old in the picture, but he already had that disarming smile that sucked her right in.

Despite her reservations at first, Dani had quickly fallen in love with her little brother, and he with her. Dani’s mom had given birth to her at the age of thirty-five. She and Dani’s father had tried to get pregnant for years before, and about the time they gave up, Dani had come along. She was their first miracle; Justin was their second. But by the time Justin was born, her mother was forty-two, and the pregnancy had been high risk. He was born premature and had a lot of health problems as a kid. Because of that, he was abnormally small for his age and wore thick, coke-bottle type glasses. He was shy and withdrawn with people other than Dani, and he didn’t have many friends. Dani found out later in life that he had been bullied… a lot. He hadn’t ever told her, and her parents had only found out by accident. Then he wouldn’t talk about it; he had just internalized it.

Dani loved her family, but her dream throughout high school had been to go to college in Boston, at Harvard. She wanted to major in political science and, with hope, be a U.S. Senator someday. She had worked hard and found out towards the end of her senior year that she had gotten a full academic scholarship. Justin had freaked out when she’d first told him. He had cried and begged her not to leave, telling her that she was the only one who loved him, the only friend he had.