Deadly Questions (Hardy Brothers Security Book 8) Read online

  Peter looked up when he heard everyone approaching. His hair was disheveled, and his ashen face looked ten years older than the last time Grady had seen him. “Any word?”

  Grady shook his head. “No one has tried contacting me. They went straight for you.”

  “Because he’s the one with the money,” Mandy said.

  Peter forced a tight smile onto his face as he greeted the blonde court clerk. He was fond of her, and her presence was calming. James had tried to talk her out of coming, but arguing with her was going to take too long, so he’d finally acquiesced. Quite frankly, he knew there was no safer place in the world for his wife right now than Peter Marconi’s house.

  “How much did they ask for?” Grady asked.

  “Five million.”

  Grady stilled. “Do you have that?”

  “I have it.”

  “In cash?”

  “We’re trying to get our hands on the funds right now,” Peter said. “I have two million in the safe upstairs. The rest is tied up in other stuff. I’m calling in some markers. I’ll get it.”

  “And you’re really just going to hand over five-million bucks?” Jake asked.

  “I would hand over everything I own for Sophie,” Peter replied grimly. “Once she’s safe, though, all bets are off. I’ll hunt this animal down to the ends of the Earth. No one – and I mean no one – touches my family and lives to tell the tale.”

  “We have some information on that,” James said.

  Peter listened as James related their evening, frowning when he got to the end of the story. “Well, this makes so much more sense now.”

  “It does?”

  “I knew there was something wrong with Lily,” Peter said. “Sophie was so insistent, and Emma was worried about Finn’s dislike of the girl. I just let their big eyes convince me to take in that … harlot. I should have followed my gut.”

  “If you had, she might have gone a different route,” James said.

  “Such as?”

  James slid a worried look in Finn’s direction before continuing. “I think her initial mark was Emma.”

  Finn balked. “What?”

  “I think she had Emma in mind when she approached her at that modeling gig,” James said. “Emma’s past makes her look like an easy mark. No one would miss her. She has no family.”

  “I would miss her,” Finn said.

  “Maybe that’s what made Lily change her mind,” James said. “Or, maybe when Emma didn’t believe her story, Lily wrote her off. I don’t know. All I do know is that Sophie and Emma dumping Lily here changed things for her. She realized this was a whole new ball game.”

  “I thought she was under the impression that Peter distributed purses?” Mandy interjected.

  “Only an idiot would believe that,” Peter said. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I thought she was. I didn’t look at her hard enough. She was cold and calculating, and there were signs. I purposely pushed them out of my mind because I wanted to make Sophie happy.”

  “That’s what a good father does,” Mandy said.

  “Not at the expense of his child,” Peter replied harshly. “And look what I’ve done to Sophie.”

  “I don’t understand how Lily got her,” Grady said. “Lily didn’t know where we lived.”

  “She took her from the newspaper,” Peter said. “I sent my men out after I got the call. Sophie’s car was at the newspaper. Her purse and keys were on the ground by the door. I had it all transported back here, by the way.”

  “Sonofabitch,” Grady muttered. “Why did she go there?”

  Peter shrugged. “I have no idea. She said she was working on missing-person files from Detroit. She said she felt like she was drowning. I think she was … obsessed.”

  “She always gets obsessed when she’s on a big story,” Grady said.

  “This was different,” Peter said. “She also seemed distracted.”

  Grady exchanged a quick look with Mandy. “Did Lily let you talk to her when she made the call?”

  “I did not talk to a woman,” Peter said. “It was a man.”

  “You’re sure it wasn’t just a voice-modifier?” James asked.

  “I think I know the difference,” Peter said.

  “So, you didn’t talk to her?”

  Peter shook his head. “I demanded proof of life. They let me talk to her briefly. It was only two sentences. She didn’t have time to send me a message.”

  “A message?”

  “I instilled certain … skills … in Sophie when she was a child,” Peter said.

  “Like how to use a gun,” Grady said, his mind wandering to a few weeks before when Sophie had held off ten armed thugs with nothing but a handgun and her mouth.

  “Yes.”

  “You taught her how to talk in code in case someone took her?”

  “I did.”

  “And she didn’t this time?” Grady’s heart clenched.

  “She didn’t have time,” Peter said. “She said she was fine. I believe her. She sounded pissed off more than anything else.”

  “That sounds like her,” Grady said, running his hand through his hair. “She’s going to be okay, right?”

  “Of course she is,” Peter said, clenching his jaw. “She’s the strongest person I know. I will not let anyone hurt her, and I will kill anyone that tries.”

  “You’re going to kill Lily?” Mandy asked.

  “I’m going to send a very distinct message,” Peter said. “No one touches my family and lives. Only an idiot would try something this … stupid. No one in the actual game would do this.”

  “Lily must have realized that we were going to find out the truth,” James said. “That’s why she changed her plan. She knows Peter has money. She’s smart enough to know he doesn’t distribute purses, but she’s obviously too stupid to realize what she’s gotten herself into. She’s hoping to get enough money to run. She’s just going to abandon her operation here.”

  “That doesn’t mean she won’t set it up someplace else,” Jake said. “There are a lot of different border crossings.”

  “She won’t get the chance to do that,” Peter said. “She’s not leaving this state.”

  “Peter,” Grady warned.

  “No,” Peter snapped. “We’re getting Sophie back. We are. As soon as she’s safe, though, Lily is a dead woman.”

  Grady exchanged a look with James, who could only shrug in response. His message was clear: What else could they do?

  “I HAVE to say, I’m impressed,” Sophie said, fixing Lily with a hard look as she watched the blonde woman pace in front of her.

  They were in a fleabag hotel on Detroit’s south side. Lily hadn’t bothered blindfolding her, which made Sophie nervous. That seemed to indicate Lily either didn’t care about Sophie knowing her identity – or she didn’t think it would be a problem because she planned on killing her. Sophie was banking on the latter.

  Lily ceased her relentless movement. “Why? Because you thought I was an idiot?”

  “I didn’t think you were an idiot,” Sophie corrected. “I did buy your story, though. You fooled me. Very few people can do that, so bravo.”

  Lily took a seat at the small table by the lone window in the room, crossing her legs as she regarded Sophie. “You’re pretty full of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re surprised I bamboozled you,” Lily said. “You’re one of those people who thinks she knows everything, when you really know nothing.”

  “I don’t think I know everything.”

  “Of course you do,” Lily said. “You’ve got your important job, and your pretty boyfriend, and your mansion in the richest suburb of the state. You’re just so … special. You have no idea what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.”

  “Is that how you see yourself, like an outsider looking in?” Sophie asked. She knew she had to keep Lily talking. She hadn’t been bound, and Lily wasn’t armed – although
she’d placed a handgun on the table within reaching distance – but from her spot on the bed, Sophie knew she was still at a disadvantage. Lily hadn’t been alone when she approached her outside of the newspaper building. If it had just been her, even with a gun, Sophie would have fought back. The two men with her had given Sophie pause, and the reporter knew those men were outside of the hotel – within hearing distance – even now. Running would be a mistake. For now, Sophie had to keep Lily talking. She needed time to form a plan.

  “I’ve always been an outsider,” Lily said. “Always.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

  Lily narrowed her eyes, suspicion flitting through their green depths. “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because it’s going to take Peter some time to put five-million bucks together in cash,” Sophie replied.

  “I’ve seen that house,” Lily said. “Five million is pocket change to him.”

  “He has assets,” Sophie said. “That doesn’t mean he has that much cash in his house. It takes time to liquidate.”

  “Well, he’d better hurry,” Lily said. “I’m running out of patience.”

  Sophie pursed her lips, an idea starting to form. “Well, we have nothing but time right now,” she said, shuffling herself back on the bed so she could rest against the headboard. “Why don’t you tell me something true about yourself for a change.”

  “You just can’t stop being a reporter, can you?”

  “No,” Sophie said. “Plus, if this is going to be the end for me, I want to know why.”

  Lily sighed. “Fine. I guess it can’t hurt. Where do you want me to start?”

  Sophie dug her cellphone out of her pocket, keeping it hidden beneath the pillow behind her as she made a big show of getting comfortable. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  “WE’VE received a call,” Peter said, marching back into the arboretum. “They’ve set up a meet for five tomorrow morning.”

  “Where?” James asked.

  “Riverwalk Park.”

  “Why not until then?” Grady was desperate.

  Peter shrugged. “I told them I could have the money by midnight, but the man on the phone insisted on the place and the time.”

  “I don’t like it,” Grady said, pacing. “Why would they tell us where the meet is when there’s so much time between now and then?”

  “Because they’re going to change it at the last minute,” Peter replied.

  “What? How do you know that?”

  “Because it’s the smart way to do it,” Peter said. “For an amateur.”

  “You’re going to have to explain that,” Mandy said, grabbing Grady’s arm to still him. “You’re making me dizzy. Sit here next to me.”

  “I don’t want to sit next to you,” Grady grumbled.

  “I’ll have you know that people from all around the world want to sit next to me,” Mandy said. “You should feel lucky.”

  Grady rolled his eyes, but he took the open spot on the couch anyway.

  “They set the meet so early because they expect me to take all of my men and stake out the park,” Peter said. “They probably already have someone watching it. Then, twenty minutes before the meet, they’re going to change the location to a place my men have no chance of getting to in time. Then she’ll ambush me there and try to kill me.”

  “I guess this isn’t your first rodeo,” James said.

  “No,” Peter said.

  “So, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to let her think she’s winning,” Peter said. “I’m going to send five men to the park to do just what they expect me to do.”

  “You said that was a waste, though,” Grady said.

  “I have a lot more than five men,” Peter said. “In fact, I don’t even plan on sending my men to the park. I have an associate in that area. He’ll send his men to keep up appearances. My men will be with me when they call with the real location.”

  “And where do you think that will be?”

  “I have no idea,” Peter said. “If I did, I’d have Sophie now. We just have to wait.”

  “They won’t be expecting you to come alone,” James said.

  “Yes, but they won’t expect me to have an army either,” Peter said. “I’m bringing an army.”

  James nodded, absentmindedly reaching over and rubbing Mandy’s shoulders as she tried to keep Grady still. “I’m glad we have someone who knows what they’re doing in this situation. We would’ve fallen for the first drop.”

  “As you said, this isn’t my first rodeo,” Peter said.

  “Hey, I have something,” Finn said, walking into the room.

  Everyone turned to him.

  “I had Maverick track Sophie’s phone.”

  “How did he do that?”

  “And what made you think to do it?” Peter asked. “Only law enforcement has access to those records.”

  “They still do,” Finn said. “Let’s just say that our computer geek knows how to hack law enforcement, and leave it at that.”

  “He found her?” Grady asked, getting to his feet.

  “He found her phone,” Finn cautioned. “It’s at a hotel in Detroit.”

  “Let’s go,” James said, moving around the couch. “Let’s get her. Hey, blondie, you’re staying here.”

  Mandy paused. “But … .”

  “No,” James said. “I know you want to help Sophie, but I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you. You’re staying here. I know you’re safe here.”

  “He’s right, my dear,” Peter said. “We’ll call you the minute we have Sophie. I promise.”

  “But … .” Mandy jutted out her lower lip.

  James gave her a quick kiss. “You’re staying. One member of this family in danger is all I can take right now.”

  Mandy crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, but you’re going to owe me later.”

  “One shark hunter coming up,” James said, giving her another kiss. “I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

  Twenty-Seven

  “My mother was a prostitute,” Lily said, beginning her story with a grim detachment that Sophie recognized in herself. The story was real, but the emotions associated with it were buried.

  “Actually, she was a stripper before I was born,” Lily said. “She had a plan. She was going to seduce a rich patron and get pregnant. She thought the money she would get from that would get her out of the life.

  “Unfortunately for her, the man she picked only lied about having money,” she continued. “When she told him, he pleaded poverty. So, there she was, a woman who used her body to make money, and the baby who ruined everything. She never let me forget about that.

  “She tried to go back to stripping after I was born, but her body was never the same,” Lily said. “That was my fault, too. I ruined her future. That’s what she told me. She didn’t have a lot of options. She’d never graduated from high school, and she wasn’t meant for the service industry – at least the kind of service associated with restaurants and hotels. So, she became a prostitute.”

  “That’s terrible,” Sophie said, keeping her face neutral.

  “Even when she was a garden-variety hooker, she still thought she was going to make it big,” Lily said. “She saw some show – one of those Dateline things – where a woman worked her way up to being the top prostitute in New York or something. She had high-end clients. She was bragging about making a million bucks a year. My mom thought she was going to do that.

  “I’m sure you can gather how that went,” Lily said. “Each year, that dream became dimmer and dimmer in her eyes. Each birthday I had made my mother realize she was losing time. The older she got, the less attention she got. She was never going to get to the level she thought she deserved to get to.

  “That’s when she got another idea,” Lily said, her eyes vacant.

  “She sold you, didn’t she?” Despite herself, Sophie felt pity for the woman. She was a product of the circum
stances she’d been raised in.

  “I was nine years old,” Lily said. “I was almost too old to fetch top dollar for that market, but she found an interested party. She sold me for twenty thousand dollars – and a vintage convertible. She didn’t even tell me goodbye.”

  Lily’s story was like a punch in the gut to Sophie. “Who did she sell you to?”

  “His name was Harland Bennett,” Lily said. “He owned a big house on the east side. He lived there with his two sons. They had a nice living room, a satellite dish, a big-screened television, and I was chained in the basement.”

  Sophie was horrified. “Chained?”

  Lily rolled up her pants, revealing her left leg. She pulled down the black sock so Sophie could see the scar that wrapped around her ankle.

  “Oh, God,” Sophie said.

  “He didn’t touch me for a week,” Lily said. “He’d come down once a day and put a plate on the floor. He wouldn’t give me utensils. He was worried I would try to stab him with a fork, so I had to eat with my fingers – or like a dog.

  “He started to condition me,” Lily said. “If I was nice to him, he was nice to me. If I cried, he was mean. If I was angry, he was mean. He rewarded me for good behavior, and he punished me brutally for bad behavior.

  “He started by making me give him blow jobs,” she continued. “This went on for weeks. Good behavior got me rewards, like candy or a television of my very own. After a time, he decided that wasn’t enough and he … well, I’m sure you can imagine what he did.”

  “I can,” Sophie said. “I don’t need to hear the details.”

  “Good, because I don’t want to talk about them,” Lily said. “Anyway, I spent three years in that basement. By the time I was thirteen, I was too old. He decided to make me his adopted daughter after that. He moved me to a room upstairs and treated me … with absolute disinterest.”

  “Did he enroll you in school?”

  “Yup.”

  “How?”

  “He just said he was my father and he never knew I existed,” Lily said. “He said my mother showed up on his doorstep and dropped me off. No one questioned him. My life was better after that. I didn’t exist at home – except to clean and keep the house up – but it was better than being chained in the basement and raped every day.