Hunt Them Down(37)

Anna questioned whether she’d done the right thing contacting Pierce. Clearly her brother wasn’t ready to see him; she wasn’t sure she was ready either. What she truly wanted to do was hide in a corner. The humiliation she had suffered at the hands of this man, especially at the trial, continued to weigh heavily on her shoulders.

Terrance Davis, the man she had fallen in love with, was ruthless but tender and compassionate at the same time. Pierce Hunt, on the other hand, was a mystery to her. She didn’t know him at all, and certainly anything resembling trust between them had gone out the window when he betrayed her. For months after his treachery, she had been a total emotional wreck. Her appetite gone, she had lost ten pounds within a few short weeks. She thought all this was behind her, but seeing him again, here in her brother’s house, brought back painful memories. A ton of questions popped into her head. Was any of the intimacy they had once shared genuine? Did he really love her? If so, how could he have been so cruel? For her, it would have been impossible to fake the craving she had felt for him.

Good God, I was such a fool.

She wished, in a quieter, more secret part of her mind, that he had truly loved her. That would mean that he would have at least suffered a little when everything fell apart. Not that any of that mattered. Anna took a deep breath and pushed aside her needs and uncertainties. “Can we talk?” she asked.

“I’d like to say something,” Hunt said, “but you’ll have to keep your cool. Especially you, Tony.”

Tony opened his mouth, but Anna beat him to it.

“We’re listening.”

“I was with your father when he died.”

“How—” Tony barked but stopped when Hunt raised his hand.

“Let me finish, then I’ll answer your questions.”

That shut Tony up, but Anna knew there was a fight raging inside him.

“Your father was being transferred to a safe house when his motorcade got ambushed this morning. I was part of his protective detail.”

“The newspapers said you were suspended after what happened in Chicago,” Anna said. She didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Today was my first official day back on duty.”

“You’re DEA scum,” Tony hissed. “Why were you part of his protection detail?”

“Vicente agreed to testify against Valentina Mieles, also known as the—”

“We know who she is,” Tony cut in. “She’s the bitch who kidnapped my daughter—”

“And mine,” Hunt said softly.

“What are you talking about?” Anna asked, confused.

“Leila’s my daughter.”

Anna felt a massive jolt of electricity shoot through her body. For a moment, she forgot how to inhale. Hunt’s words were so shocking that they froze her frame but thawed her heart. Could it be true?

She studied his face for any sign of deceit but didn’t find any. His jaw was set, but his eyes revealed his vulnerability.

I’ll be damned. He’s telling the truth.



Hunt watched the color drain from Anna’s cheeks.

“Un-fucking-believable,” Tony said from the sofa, even though his tone betrayed the fact that he did believe it.

“So, as unreal as it sounds, Leila is Sophia’s best friend,” Anna said.

Everybody fell silent as they realized how awkward this was.

“I was supposed to bake them blueberry muffins, for God’s sake,” Tony said, his voice choked with tears as he raked his fingers through his thick black hair.

Hunt could see Anna had a thousand questions for him, so he said, “Leila’s mother, Jasmine, is my ex-wife. She left me after I testified at your father’s trial. She’s married to Chris Moon now.”

Anna nodded but didn’t say anything for a long minute.

“You had a family while we were together.” It wasn’t a question, more like a statement of fact.

Still, Hunt replied, “I did, and for what it’s worth—”

“I don’t want to know, and frankly, I don’t care,” Anna said, even though they both knew it wasn’t true. “Can we focus on getting our girls back?”

Sensing they had reached some kind of uneasy truce, Hunt sat down in an armchair facing Tony. “If the Black Tosca kidnapped our daughters, it makes sense she’s the one who ordered the hit on the motorcade too.”

Tony rubbed his face and said, “She called me half an hour ago.”

Why didn’t you lead with that instead of picking a fight? Hunt wanted to physically shake some sense into Tony, but he willed himself not to give in to his frustration. That would be counterproductive, to say the least. Instead he asked, “What did she say?”

Tony hesitated.

“Tell him, or I will,” Anna prompted.

By the tense look Tony gave Hunt, it was obvious that whatever the Black Tosca had told him made him nervous.

“She wants my head,” Tony finally said, making a cutting gesture across his neck.

“So your head for both our daughters?” That didn’t seem like a bad trade to Hunt. Tony probably disagreed. Or maybe not.

“As much as I fucking hate you, Hunt,” Tony said with a disarming sincerity, “I’d be willing to do it to save them.”