Thrill Ride (Black Knights Inc. #4)(71)

Chapter Nineteen


R.D. frowned at the number on the cell phone’s screen.

Why is he calling? They’d agreed to sever ties unless The Cleaner showed up and—

The Cleaner…Oh, shit.

“Hello?” R.D.’s hand was shaking. Just the thought of what that man was capable of, combined with the fact that he’d gone missing soon after Rock’s Burn and Delete notice went out over the wires, made R.D. incredibly wary.

No, wary wasn’t the word. Maybe downright terrified was a better turn of phrase.

“My guy didn’t kill Babineaux,” the CIA agent said, disregarding a salutation.

For a long moment, R.D. was speechless. Then, finally, “What? What do you mean he didn’t kill Rock? I thought you said—”

“I know what I said,” the agent spat. “But I got that information from the CIA, not the actual man in the field. My guy called me not five minutes ago to say he wasn’t the one to make the kill. That it was the other guy.”

Now R.D. was really confused. “What the hell are you talking about? What other guy?”

“The other shooter,” the agent stressed, and R.D.’s heart stopped. There wasn’t supposed to be another shooter. Unless…

Could it have been The Cleaner?

But why? Why would The Cleaner go after Rock? Unless the man had heard of the charges leveled against Rock and wanted to make sure he actually took the fall for them. But that didn’t jive with what R.D. knew of the man…

“What did he look like?” R.D. demanded. “This other shooter? Did your man get a look?”

“Nope.” There was heavy disgust in the agent’s voice, and R.D. could picture the man frowning fiercely. “He said he was already in the process of pulling the trigger when the first three shots hit Babineaux mid-chest. He said his round only glanced off Babineaux’s ear because Babineaux was already stumbling back like a drunkard from the other shots. Then, according to his story, he had to hightail it outta there or risk The Company boys coming down on his head. So he didn’t have time to get a look at the other triggerman.”

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Other triggerman? What did this mean? What did—

“Do you…” R.D. had to swallow before trying again. “Do you think it was The Cleaner?”

“Why? What purpose could the man have for going after Babineaux?”

“To make sure Rock took the fall for the murders, of course.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and R.D.’s pounding heart caused blood to rush hot and fast. Then, finally, “If that’s the case, then he’s probably looking to tie up all the loose ends.”

Yes. And that was exactly what R.D. was afraid of…

***

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Becky cut into the question Boss was poised to ask, and Rock turned his attention toward her. She was frowning around the lollipop sucker protruding from her mouth. “Why’d somebody have these guys killed? I mean, I understand why they needed to be killed…” And Becky didn’t know it, but that simple phrase helped alleviate some of Rock’s trepidation. “…but if you got them to confess, and you had it recorded, couldn’t your contact, this Rwanda Don person, just turn them and the tape over to the police? Let them face a judge and jury?”

“No way in hell,” Ozzie answered before Rock could. “A confession coerced from a man under duress would be nothing more than empty words. I mean, how would the police know whether Rock had tortured the guy or not, forcing him to admit to whatever Rock told him to admit to?”

“You didn’t torture them, did you?” Becky turned to him, dark eyes wide.

“Non. Of course not.” He hadn’t needed to use any physical force, because the CIA had taught him ways of peeling back the layers of a person’s mind, of wheedling and picking and prying until the individual being interrogated almost begged to confess.

“So let me get this straight,” Boss interjected. “Are you telling me this Project,” he made the quote marks with his big fingers, “was a government-sanctioned endeavor that assassinated those American criminals who were either too slippery or too careful to be caught by standard police methods? Is that what you’re saying?”

“In a nutshell. Although, like I said, I didn’t know about the assassination part until after I was burned.” But he hadn’t looked very hard. Truth was, after delving into their degenerate minds, he’d tried very hard to forget they existed. “Sometimes these guys didn’t die until months, even a year later.”

“Fuck me.” Boss shook his head at the same time Ghost grunted and Ozzie let loose with a string of profanities.

“What?” Becky asked, glancing around the table. “What’s so bad about that? I mean, if there’d been a way to prove their guilt, and depending on what state they lived in, they’d have likely ended up with a needle in their arm so—”

“Posse Comitatus is a document forbidding the use of Federal troops inside the U.S.—which Rock certainly was when he was part of the SEALs.” Boss explained. “Then, of course, there’s our Constitution, which prohibits the government from taking action against any individuals outside of what can be proven by law.”