36. Kavanaugh

36

KAVANAUGH

Blood still stained my hands as I kicked down the door of the high-rise apartment in New York City. Screams rippled through the air as Red and Eli burst in behind me, guns drawn with the one stipulation that they weren’t actually allowed to kill anyone. I needed answers, and the men in the van led us here.

“Down on the ground!” I shouted at the man who Isla had interviewed with just days earlier. I still didn’t understand the connection, but I was about to find out.

With a snarl, he dropped to his knees, his hands in the air. “What’s the meaning of this?”

I took a few steps closer, keeping my distance even though I wanted to tear out this guy’s throat. “Where is Isla?”

“Your boss?” he sneered.

“My girlfriend. But you already knew that. Where the fuck is she?” Hatred gleamed in this man’s eyes, but I couldn’t figure out why. “This can’t be because she turned down the job offer.”

“Of course it’s not,” he spat. “Still don’t know who I am, do you?”

We found out who took Isla and came right over here. Digging into their pasts had been cursory at best. There was no time to waste when we found out that these bastards had ordered a couple of guns-for-hire to snatch them and bring them to a meetup location. But they didn’t know what happened to them after that.

“Does it fucking matter?”

He smirked at that. “You haven’t changed a single bit, have you, Bradford.”

He knew my name. This was about me. “What did you do?”

“It’s called payback. Of course, if it had worked out the way I had planned, you’d be in there right now with her instead of that other guy.”

“What the hell did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you!”

He barked out a sharp laugh and Red stepped forward, slamming the butt of his gun into the man’s head, shutting him up instantly. I turned to the wife, hoping I could get something out of her.

“I need to know where they are.”

“You need,” she sneered. “You always need.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You and your whole family. You screw over whoever you want and move on with life. You don’t care who you hurt or what happens to anyone else.”

“I am nothing like my family,” I snapped.

“Then why did I see you on the campaign trail helping out your father?” she asked. “Talking about how wonderful he is and what he’ll do for us. Your father ruined my daughter’s life!”

I paused at that, my anger leeching away in an instant. I didn’t doubt for a second that the senator had done something to royally screw over these people enough to make them so angry they would go to the extreme for revenge. I lowered my weapon and realized that the only way to connect with this woman was to be completely honest with her.

“The senator was a means to an end. I needed information to save a lot of innocent people, and the price was to work with him. I did what I had to, but I can assure you, I am nothing like him.” She looked like she wanted to believe me, so I continued. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

Her lip quivered as she held her head high. “Leanne Brown.”

Leanne. That name rang a bell, but I couldn’t remember—And then it hit me. “Leanne was the girl my brother hit with his car.”

Her nostrils flared in anger. “She lost everything because of your father. Everything! And then we lost her!”

Overwhelming guilt hit me like a sledgehammer. Her daughter was gone. I hadn’t known that. “I’m so sorry.”

“She didn’t deserve what your family did to her. She was just a kid. She had her whole life ahead of her and then your brother ruined everything!”

I nodded, understanding where all this hate was coming from. I got down on my knees in front of her, handing my weapon off to Red. “I know. I know he did, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am that he hurt her. But, Tish, no matter what the senator did, Isla has nothing to do with this.”

“She was supposed to be with you,” she cried. “It was supposed to be you two together—so you would know what it’s like to know you’re going to die and there’s nothing you can do to stop it!”

“I know,” I whispered, feeling like my heart was being torn out right now. I hated that the senator had done this to her, filled her with so much hate that she would actually take another person’s life over it. Nobody deserved that.

“Tish, I’m begging you, please tell me where they are. If you do this, the only person that wins is the senator. You’ll go to jail for murder and the senator will twist this around and make it all about two parents who took matters into their own hands because of unfounded hatred.”

“It’s not unfounded!”

“I know that and so do you, but no one else knows that. This won’t do anything to bring justice to your daughter.”

Tears filled the woman’s eyes as she stared at me. “Then you do it for me.”

“Do what?”

“Make the truth known. Promise me you’ll tell everyone what he did.”

“And you’ll tell me where they are.”

“Once you make the statement.”

I grabbed her hand, pleading with her. “Tish, there’s no time. I need to know where they are. As soon as I have them, I swear to you, I will tell the truth. I will bring the senator down and make him pay for what he did to your daughter.”

“Why should I trust you?” she cried.

“You shouldn’t,” I sighed. “You have no reason to believe I’ll keep my word. But what you don’t know about me is the minute I found out what the senator did to your daughter, I walked out the door and I never looked back. I can tell you that I think he deserves this more than anyone, and…and I don’t want Isla to die because of what he did.”

I stared into her teary eyes, praying more than anything that she would tell me what I needed to know. She was already hurting, and I didn’t want to make things worse by getting Fox in here. But I would do it if I had to.

“The shipyard,” she said quietly. “I’ll take you there.”

“Thank you, Tish.”