Chapter Thirty-four – Hero Of The Day #2
The guard spoke into his mic, voice urgent as he rambled away to his administrator.
And while he concentrated on getting someone in charge, I finally moved.
I shoved the inmate up against the wall, surrounded his neck with my hands, and squeezed tight enough to be a threat but not tight enough to prevent him from speaking.
“How much did he pay you to finish his sentence? And where the hell is he?”
Tony grinned, revealing rotting teeth. “I’m dying anyway.
” He showed me his hands. The fingers were bent awkwardly, and the tips were white.
“Scleroderma slowly eating away at me. It seemed a fair exchange. He gets out and makes sure my wife and kid are set for life. I get to escape this hell my body has created. We figured we’d have at least a few months before anyone realized what had happened. ”
“Where is he?!” I shoved the guy against the wall so hard his head cracked against it.
He only cackled.
“If you think he’ll take care of your wife, you’re an idiot.”
Something flashed in his eyes. Worry.
“Tell me where he is.” I shoved my forearm into his throat, and he gasped.
“Ask. Ace.”
The construction company. I’d thought Tony had met Ace through his job, post parole, but Ike already knew him. “How the hell does Ike know Ace?”
“Federal prison, man. Ace was here for that assault on national park grounds.” Fuck.
The piece we’d overlooked. How the hell had we all skipped right over the fact they’d served time together?
“Once Ike and Ace both realized that a Marquess was responsible for putting each of them here—” His eyes drifted to Fallon, and I pushed my forearm tighter.
“Don’t look at her. Don’t even think about her.”
“It focused Ike on getting out. He convinced Ace they’d get payback. With my family taken care of, everybody wins.”
I pushed him away from me with a force that had him grimacing as he hit the wall again.
“I think Ike will have some fun with her tight little ass before he’s done.” Tony sent a grin in Fallon’s direction. My fist connected with his jaw, and he spun sideways, a dark laugh filling the air.
“That’s enough,” the guard said, coming to stand next to me with his baton in hand.
One guard with a stupid-ass baton wouldn’t prevent me from finishing off Tony, but it would ensure I had paperwork to do, ensure we were delayed in leaving.
And I suddenly needed to get the hell out of there.
I needed to get back to Rivers and find Ike Puzo before he did something more than mutilate a cow and burn down a building.
Fuck.
I spun around, strode over to Fallon, and hauled her to the door. I banged on it.
“Our administrator is on his way,” the guard in the room said.
“Good for him. We’re leaving.”
The officer who’d walked us inside opened the door. His eyes jumped from the prisoner to his fellow officer and then to us.
I propelled Fallon past the guy into the hall.
The door banged shut behind us. The guard’s heels clacked on the floor as he caught up. “You need to wait.”
“Fuck that. This goddamn place released a convicted felon—one who has it out for my wife and her family. The last thing I’m doing is waiting around while you all pull your dicks out of your asses and try to figure out what happened.”
As I charged down the hall, Fallon slid her hand into mine, squeezing. I finally looked down into her face. Fear resided there, but it was coated with the same burning anger lighting me up.
A man in a cheap suit and a regrettable goatee met us at the exit doors, blocking our path. It was unnecessary, as we couldn’t leave until someone in the locked security room buzzed us through. “Mr. Steele, Ms. Harrington. If you could be so kind as to join me in my office.”
I leaned toward him, and he took a step back. “No. You figure out what the hell went wrong on your own. My wife and I have more urgent business. We have people to protect because you failed at your job.”
Inside, I was shaking with rage, but my voice was icy and calm.
The man hesitated.
“Our fathers”—my gaze darted to Fallon and back to the man—“both have the governor on speed dial. If you try to keep us here, I can guarantee it’ll put the final nail in the shitty coffin that has become your career.”
The man swallowed and then spun around to the windowed room where a guard sat. “Let them through.”
I didn’t say another word. I just strode through the doors as they buzzed open with Fallon’s hand still clutched in mine.
“Goddamnit, Parker,” Fallon hissed once we were out of the building. The full force of the midday sun in the Nevada desert hit us. Hot. Steamy. Burning like the anger I felt.
Burning like the guilt that knifed through me.
How the fuck had we missed that Ace had spent time with Ike?
They’d been in the same goddamn prison together, and not once had it come up on our radar.
How many times would I fail her? How many times would I fail, and yet she’d still look at me like I was the hero of her story?
I nearly jogged to the SUV with Fallon’s hand still wrapped in mine. Sliding into the vehicle, I ripped my phone out of the glove compartment and started the engine so the air-conditioning would kick in.
“He’s been out. This whole time!” Fallon’s voice was high-pitched, full of worry and genuine fear. “God. Mom. He went after Mom because Dad wasn’t there…” She frowned. “But Dad was on the ranch for days after we came back from San Diego…” She shook her head, trying to pull it together.
“Ike was likely back East by then. Your dad’s place was broken into, remember? And someone had to bribe whoever killed Adam. Bad luck for Ike that he showed up at your dad’s house, ready to do him in, only to find him gone. That had to piss him the hell off.”
“The first cow was mutilated while Dad was with me. He and Sadie and the kids left the next day.”
“Maybe that was Ace. They’re clearly working together.
Or maybe they’ve been playing a cat-and-mouse game to torment all of you before pulling the trigger.
Ike had to know it would hurt Rafe even more to ruin your name and the ranch’s before he killed you.
Rafe would come running back, and he’d have everyone in one place. ”
My heart fucking gave out even thinking about her being killed. That same terror I’d felt when I’d seen her on the ground after the shooting filled me.
Dad picked up on the first ring. “That was quick.”
As I caught him up to speed, his swearing got worse and worse.
Fallon pulled out her phone and dialed her dad. It was hard to hear with both of us talking, so I stepped out into the hundred-degree heat.
“This explains the timing to some degree,” Dad said. “Meeting Ace in prison encouraged him to act. They had eighteen months to hatch their plan together, and the timing was perfect with Tony coming up for parole.”
“Someone inside let this happen,” I snapped, looking back at the prison.
“It isn’t necessarily someone dirty, Park,” Dad replied. “Even with today’s technology, there are still prisoners who escape using someone else as a cover. It’s a real thing. It doesn’t happen often, but once every few years, it occurs.”
“Or he paid someone—maybe that weasel of an administrator who tried to stop us from leaving.”
Dad’s voice turned dark and protective. “They tried to stop you?”
“Not with violence. They didn’t cuff us, but you could tell the shithead wanted to cover his ass before we screamed from the rooftops what happened.”
“No way this gets covered up,” Dad growled.
“Ace might be Ike’s connection on the outside, but Ike would need to offer the cartel something in return for the cash and fake IDs he would have needed to pull this off. Especially once Tony was supposedly killed, and Ike could no longer use his IDs.”
“Lorenzo was pissed that Tony was working for Lopez, dragging the family name back in with drug dealers. That’s why we assumed he offed Cantori. But...”
Another round of fear hit my gut as Dad’s voice faded away. Another possibility slithered out of the dark recess. “Do you think Lorenzo is really orchestrating this? Has he gone into business with the cartel?”
Dad didn’t respond right away, carefully considering.
“I don’t think so. Everything about Lorenzo Puzo is legit these days.
But if Ike is on the loose, Lorenzo is in just as much danger as Rafe and Fallon.
Ike hates everything his cousin has done.
He blames him almost as much as he blames Rafe for what happened. ”
I opened the car door. “We’re on our way to him. He can answer our questions face-to-face.”
“I’ll call Lance and the team at the ranch as well as Sheriff Wylee,” Dad said. “You want me to tell Lorenzo you’re coming to see him?”
“No. I want to see his reaction when I give him the news that Ike has escaped.”
Fallon hung up with her dad as I slid in behind the wheel.
“Dad is making arrangements to come home.” The fear that had taken back seat to her anger was at the forefront now, and it stoked my rage another notch.
“God, Parker, Dad will make himself a target. He’s trying to leave Sadie behind, but I heard her in the background, yelling at him.
You know she won’t let him come by himself. ”
She shook, tremors rattling her entire body.
I pulled her into my arms, the center console biting into us.
I hated that I kept fucking failing her, hated she was experiencing any of this because we’d missed a crucial piece of information.
I kissed her forehead, running a soothing hand over her hair.
“We’ll find and stop Ike before your dad even lands. ”
She pulled back and glared at me. “How? No one has even caught a whiff of him. No one even knew he was out. Only Chuck has seen him.” Her eyes went wide, more terror filling in. “He’ll kill Chuck. He’s the only one who saw him at the ranch.”
“Chuck couldn’t ID him. The only thing he could say for certain was the guy had sunglasses, a hat, and a bushy beard.” It was an attempt to reassure her, but I wasn’t sure it worked.
Reluctantly, I let her go. I wanted to hold her until I could smooth away all her fears and trembling nerves, but we needed to move, needed to see Lorenzo and get back to Rivers.
“Dad is calling Lance, but call Kurt and Teddy. Make sure they keep an eye on Chuck too.”
She did as I’d asked as we exited the prison lot. I put my pedal to the floor, speeding down the highway toward Vegas and Lorenzo Puzo with fury fueling me.