Backstreet Hero

by Justine Davis

  Maybe he was simply losing his mind.

  But then something else struck him, that he hadn’t entered quite all the data he’d collected. He got up, went over to the half-packed suitcase, where he’d tossed his jacket. He dug into the pocket for the small notebook he used to scribble notes in. Primitive, yes, but for some things he still preferred media that could be literally burned afterward.

  He found what he’d been looking for, entered it into the program, made one more call for one more date and entered that. Then he ran the program again.

  In moments, a single line of data in common appeared in the search box. A single line consisting of a date, a time and a place.

  A single line that changed everything.

  Chapter 24

  The anger he’d felt when confronting Joe Santerelli was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. Stan Chilton’s betrayal was so much worse, because he’d been Redstone.

  Tony would be willing to bet you could count on one hand the number of bad apples that had slipped through since the founding of Redstone. Josh’s instincts about people were rarely wrong. It was part of what had changed him from a young man with nothing more than drive and a plan into the head of a multinational corporation that dwarfed most privately held companies in the world. He’d built Redstone into something that to those who didn’t understand seemed impossible: even a total stranger was family if they were Redstone.

  And Stan Chilton had turned on that family.

  He was where he belonged because of it, but that wasn’t good enough for Tony right now.

  When he was brought out, Chilton took one look at Tony and stopped. He tried to tell the guard he didn’t want this visitor, tried to turn back, but the man was already gone. The Redstone name reached even here; Josh believed fully in supporting his local police. And since Redstone was just about everywhere, that was a lot of support.

  “Who are you?” Chilton asked, a quaver in his voice.

  “Redstone,” Tony said simply.

  Chilton drew back, eyes widening as he gave Tony a fearful look up and down. Tony knew he had him then. And it was a matter of only minutes before he had the confirmation he needed.

  Next stop, Chino, he thought.

  When he was face-to-face with Daniel Huntington again, Tony realized that he’d long ago surpassed anger. He was enraged. He wanted the pure, physical pleasure of his hands around this man’s throat. And he didn’t bother to hide it as the urbane, elegant man clad in the baggy jumpsuit sat down. He had the satisfaction of seeing a touch of wariness mar Huntington’s supercilious expression. And although Huntington’s words belied it, Tony didn’t forget it.

  “Well, well. If it isn’t my wife’s pit bull.”

  Tony didn’t rise to the bait this time. “I don’t work for your ex-wife.”

  Huntington lifted a brow. “No? Then who? Whoever’s screwing her at the moment?”

  Tony grinned, knowing it would infuriate the man. “It must really humiliate you to realize you weren’t man enough for her.” He remembered the man’s own words. “You’re less than nothing to her.”

  Huntington swore crudely, cracking the smooth facade for a moment. And with a sudden flash of insight, Tony realized something about the first time he’d seen this man. He remembered the moment when he’d seen fear flicker in Huntington’s eyes. The moment when he’d seen Lilith, in her purposefully chosen pose, seated as relaxed and casually as if she were sitting in a friend’s living room. As if he didn’t bother her at all.

  That flash of fear hadn’t been of him. It had been of Lilith.

  Because she hadn’t been afraid of him anymore.

  And Tony knew he could break him, here and now.

  “Of course,” he said with a laughing contempt he knew would rankle beyond anything else, “any man would be more man than you are, you twisted, useless—no, wait. I’m sure you have your uses in here.”

  “We’re done,” Huntington snapped, starting to rise.

  “Like hell we are,” Tony said. “Sit. Down. Like the bitch you are. And if you think I can’t make sure you’re used like one by half the inmates here, think again. All your money won’t save your sorry ass.”

  Huntington was naturally pale, but Tony didn’t think he was wrong in thinking the man just went a shade lighter. And he sat.

  “Who are you?”

  There was more than a touch of wariness in Huntington’s voice now, there was fear along with the confusion. Tony could smell it. He could smell it, with instincts honed on the dangerous streets where smelling another’s fear could be the one thing that kept you alive. This man was an amateur in this world, and a coward in his own.

  “I’m the man who’s going to haunt you until your dying day. You’ll never be free of me. You’ll never again take an unworried breath. Ever. Because I’ll be there. Every time you turn around.”

  He knew he probably looked like Huntington’s worst nightmare. Should have kept the tats, he thought, knowing the sight of spidery gang tattoos would have sent Huntington over the edge a lot quicker.

  But then a sudden memory of Lilith last night, tracing the faintly lighter places on his skin, declaring them badges of honor, shot through his mind. The image of her, delicate, fair, beautiful, in the arms of a man wearing the declarations of the life that would have eventually killed him, was impossible, and he’d never been more glad he’d had them removed.

  Huntington’s fear was rapidly escalating, and Tony pressed.

  “I have resources you can’t even begin to imagine. Your own are nothing compared to mine. And I’ll use them all against you. You can’t hide. There’s no place you can go that I can’t find you.”

  “Who are you?” The fear was uppermost now, above even the confusion.

  “I’m Redstone.”

  Huntington blinked. His puzzlement vanished, but the fear only increased. Good, thought Tony.

  “Yes,” he said. “Be afraid. Very afraid.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Then you should be.”

  “Why? Is my wife sleeping with Josh Redstone now? I always suspected there was more to that—”

  Again, with an effort, Tony didn’t rise to the bait. “You should be afraid because being Redstone makes my life so much easier. I don’t have any of those annoying rules to follow. I don’t have a civilian board looking over my shoulder all the time, no one to scream about brutality, or to care if you end up in the hospital. Or worse. And I have a boss who cares about results and won’t second-guess my methods. But then, you know that.”

  Tony was guessing that Huntington knew quite well the reputation of Redstone, and of their security team. He’d been a mover and shaker at nearly the same level; he’d know how much pressure Redstone could bring to bear.

  “What you don’t know is that I came from exactly where you think I came from. A place where life is cheap and payback is truly hell.”

  “You can’t come in here—”

  “Yet I have. Because the Redstone name will get me in anywhere. And once I’m there, the game is played by my rules.”

  “What do you want?” Fear was gaining the upper hand, Tony noted with satisfaction.

  “My rules,” Tony said in a near whisper, “say you get more than what you ask for. Not an eye for an eye, but an eye for an eyelash. And for attempted murder…”

  He let the words trail off, saw Huntington’s eyes widen, saw him suck in a gasping breath at the clear implication.

  “I owe Josh Redstone my life.” Tony went for that fear. He lowered his voice again. “I would kill for Josh Redstone.”

  A tiny whimper broke from Huntington, and Tony guessed what he was feeling had shown in his face. “Call for a guard, and I’ll do it right here and now.”

  He was trusting the man was scared enough not to realize that a visitor committing murder here was insane. Or that Huntington believed Tony was just that, insane. The man was trembling now, a barely perceptible shiver beneath the urbane exterior, but it was
there.

  “You made four crucial mistakes, Huntington. First, you’re a bigot who assumed anyone in prison, especially if they’re Mexican, had the capacity to commit murder for hire. Second, you chose incompetents—but then, how would you know, when you don’t even realize how incompetent you yourself are?”

  Huntington’s temper flared. At the accusation of incompetence, Tony noted, not of murder for hire.

  “Go to hell.”

  “From where I sit, you’re the one in hell. But where you are now is paradise compared to where you’re going.”

  “You can’t—”

  “Third,” Tony ticked off on his fingers. “You went after someone who matters to Josh Redstone. And he is a man who knows the meaning of friendship and loyalty. A man who wouldn’t hesitate to use every bit of the worldwide power he holds to defend one of his own. He’ll crush you, your reputation, and toss the debris into the sewer where it belongs.”

  The bluster vanished. Huntington was starting to look like the cornered rat he was. Tony got up and walked around the table. He sat down next to Huntington, who tried to scuttle away sideways on the bench. Tony clamped his fingers on the back of the man’s neck, wondering if he would have the willpower not to break it.

  “But your worst mistake,” he whispered, so close to Huntington’s ear, “was crossing me.”

  Huntington whimpered again, trying to pull away. Tony tightened his grip, thinking how easy it would be to snap the vertebrae beneath his fingers. But death was too clean, too easy for this man. He deserved worse.

  His worst nightmares come true.

  “I have brothers in this place, pendejo. Lots of them. And unlike the bumblers you hired, they have killed. They’re in for life already, and they have nothing to lose.”

  “What do you want?” This time the question was a plea, and Tony knew Huntington was crumbling. But he didn’t stop.

  “You’ll never know which ones they are, or when I’ll tell them to strike. And they won’t kill you right away. They’ll just torture you. And I don’t mean that pansy-ass stuff you people think of as torture. I mean the real thing.”

  “What do you want, damn you? A confession?”

  “I’m not the police. I don’t need a confession. And your partners already rolled on you. Not only did you pick incompetents to try to kill her, you chose cowards as your accomplices. Santerelli and Chilton couldn’t wait to toss it all in your lap.”

  “Santerelli?” Huntington looked genuinely blank, but Tony had expected that.

  “The other incompetent Stan Chilton sucked into this. After you had your little chat with him while he was awaiting transfer to Camp Cupcake west.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “You did. You were on the work detail in the yard when he was waiting for the bus. You heard him swearing to get even with Redstone, with Josh. And offered him a way.

  Offered him any personal information he needed to get to the woman who’d taken his place. Even though she had nothing to do with taking him down.”

  “The bitch had it coming,” Huntington spat out, giving up the pretense at last.

  Tony’s grip tightened, and for a brief moment, he truly wondered if he was going to be able to stop himself.

  “All right, all right!” Huntington yelped. “I did it. Just back off.”

  With one of the greatest efforts of his life, Tony released his grip.

  “You think this makes any difference to me?” Huntington sneered. “I’ll deny all of this. You’ll never prove a thing.”

  “And who’s going to believe a convicted felon?”

  Huntington paled further; he obviously still hadn’t accepted that.

  “Besides,” Tony went on, “who said anything about proof?”

  Huntington blinked then. “What?”

  “I told you, I’m not the police. I don’t need proof. You’re mine now, Huntington. Until I get bored with toying with you. Then I’ll decide which of my brothers gets the honor of putting an end to your misery. And believe me, you’ll be begging for it long before then.”

  “But…you got what you wanted!”

  It was small of him, perhaps, but Tony took great pleasure in seeing this man’s fear escalate to terror. The terror of knowing that all his money, all his social standing, couldn’t save him now. It made him smile. That it wasn’t a pleasant smile was made evident by the cold sweat that broke out on Huntington’s forehead.

  “I told you what you wanted to know. Call the guards, the cops, whoever, but leave me the hell alone.”

  “And where,” Tony said in that deadly casual tone, “did you get the idea this was a bargaining session?”

  “But I gave you what you wanted.” Huntington was whining now. “You have to call them off!”

  “I don’t have to do a thing. I told you, I have my own rules. And I never promised you a thing, now, did I?”

  Pure horror spread over the man’s already pale face.

  “I don’t understand,” he whispered, shaking visibly now.

  “You never did.” With an image in his mind of Lilith facing her worst nightmare, this man, with more courage than this coward had ever dreamed of having, Tony added, “And that will be your fatal mistake.”

  He left Daniel Huntington a broken, terrified man who would spend his future shaking at every turn, forever looking over his shoulder.

  It was almost enough.

  Chapter 25

  “So it was Daniel all along,” Lilith said, feeling more than a little dazed.

  “Yes.”

  Tony’s voice was flat, emotionless. As it had been through his entire explanation. She’d heard business reports given with more emotion. Even Liana, who had been in her office when Tony and Josh had arrived, gave him a curious glance. She’d told the young woman to stay; after all, it had been her concern that had started all this in the first place, and it would save Lilith repeating it all later.

  Even when Tony had explained what he’d done, what he’d left hanging over her ex-husband’s head, he’d shown no sign of anything personal, no hint that this had ever been anything more than a job to him.

  Of course, perhaps he couldn’t, with his boss standing right there.

  Or didn’t want to, she thought. Didn’t want Josh to know he’d gotten involved with the woman he was assigned to protect? Or did he not even consider what had happened between them involvement? Was he that casual about sex?

  Just because it was life-changing for you…

  She pulled herself together, aware Josh was watching her with that steady look that meant his agile mind was pondering, weighing, considering.

  “I…thank you.” She barely managed to stop herself from saying Mr. Alvera. “I appreciate you sticking with this.”

  When Tony only grimaced, Josh spoke.

  “We’ll piece together a case that will stand up. He’s got good lawyers, but I’ve got better. He’s going to be inside a lot longer than he’d planned,” Josh said. “And he’s going to be terrified for most of that, thanks to Tony. It’s not enough, but…”

  “It’s enough.”

  “Sorry for you it was him,” Tony said, and for the first time since he’d begun his explanation, emotion crept into his voice. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.”

  That jabbed her into a sharper response. “What I wanted was to find out who was really behind it. You did that. Thank you,” she added again, yanking her voice into a formal, business-like tone; if that’s what he wanted, then that’s what she’d give him. Apparently he wanted nothing else from her.

  Including what she’d already given him.

  “Yeah. Great. See you around.”

  Tony stalked out without another word, so abruptly even Josh looked startled. Her boss, the man who’d given her and everyone at Redstone so much, turned back to her, brows raised in inquiry.

  She couldn’t do this now. Damn Tony for leaving her to explain. He had to know Josh wouldn’t just look the other way after an exit like tha
t.

  But she couldn’t do it now. She just couldn’t.

  “Excuse me,” she muttered, “I have to…talk to Ian about something. Now.”

  “Lilith,” Josh began.

  “Later. Please,” she said.

  Maybe she could think up a story by then, something he would believe, something close enough to the truth that she wouldn’t feel as though she was lying to someone she couldn’t bear to lie to.

  But as she walked out the door she heard Josh say quietly, “Liana?”

  And she heard her assistant, still new enough to Redstone to respond with a formality Josh never required, sigh. “Yes, sir. I think I can explain.”

  Let her, Lilith thought. It would only be guessing. Although Liana was very perceptive, and didn’t miss much. She continued her escape, for one of the few times in her life grateful to have someone else do something she should be doing.

  “Wish I could fly you myself,” Josh said. “I could use a long stretch in the air, nothing hammering at me but weather or turbulence.”

  Tony glanced at his boss, who was standing beside him on the tarmac, looking up at the Hawk V, the latest in the Redstone fleet. Tony had seen and heard about the sleek little jet, but hadn’t flown on it before. So far only two had been built, and rumors were running rampant that the Hawk V surpassed its nearest competition in range, speed and fuel-efficiency, thanks to Josh’s design and Ian Gamble’s genius with materials.

  “L.A. to Australia, nonstop,” Josh said proudly as he ran his gaze over his latest creation. “I wish Elizabeth could see this.”

  Tony’s gaze shot to Josh’s face; he rarely spoke about his late wife, and when he did, it wasn’t casually. Tony had always known, instinctively, that it was a pain Josh carried deep inside, and he knew enough of such pain himself that he recognized it in this man to whom he owed so much.

  “Her family disowned her when she married me,” Josh said quietly. “They ranted about what a mistake she, a Hampton, was making, to throw her future away on a penniless drifter with nothing but a dream to his name.”