Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two)

by Morgan Kelley

  “I do need to know one thing.”

  She waited for it.

  “And it is?”

  “How do you feel about a man with a child? He’s a package deal.”

  She stared at the little girl and she didn’t even know the beginning things about relating to children.

  “I will certainly fuck that up.”

  Grace laughed even more.

  “My son is a master thief. I won’t be casting any judgment on anyone over parenting skills. I can’t wait to see him with more kids. That will be my revenge.”

  She stared at her in horror.

  “Slow that one down. I wanted to date him. I don’t think we should be talking about…”

  Who the hell was she kidding? She wanted to be part of his life, and she’d be a mother to be with him. That was exactly how she knew she was in love. Never before had she ever considered being anyone’s mom. Now…she was considering it. The option was on the table.

  Grace was curious.

  “Question.”

  “Yes, Ms. Ravenscroft.”

  “Grace. Let’s use first names. I would really like to get to know you better, and have you realize that this,” she said, mimicking Cordelia’s earlier hand wave, “Is not all there is to me.”

  “Okay. I can do that.”

  “Do you know how to shoot a gun really well?” she asked, staring at hers.

  “Well, we all have to pass recertification every so many months to stay active. Why?”

  Where was this going?

  Cordelia had no clue.

  “Is it hard?”

  “Not really. I can do it in my sleep now,” she admitted. “It becomes natural.”

  “Can I hold your gun?”

  WHAT?

  Yeah, this woman was a wild card. She had bad news for Grace. Cordy knew where her son got it from.

  “Uh, I’m not supposed to give out my sidearm to anyone, and that makes me really uncomfortable that you suddenly want my gun—you know…since the criminal card may not have fallen far from the criminal tree.”

  Grace was enjoying her company.

  She laughed at that.

  “I haven’t killed anyone, so you’re safe, Cordelia. I ask because I’m curious. I’ve always been curious as a child, and now, as an old lady.”

  She thought about it.

  “Please?”

  Cordelia pulled her gun, popped the clip and discharged the round from the chamber, and then she handed it to her.

  Grace held it.

  “It’s heavier than you’d think.”

  “Yeah, it is. You have to compensate for that when you’re firing it.”

  “I don’t think I could hit anything. I’m old.”

  “Well, here’s the secret.”

  She leaned forward, and Grace was intrigued.

  “Point, aim for the middle of the body and then shoot. Keep pulling until it clicks. When in doubt, in lieu of accuracy, go with unloading a cap in someone’s ass.”

  She roared in laughter.

  This woman was something.

  “Oh, Cordelia. Thank you for that. I seldom get to have fun anymore.”

  “I am sorry to hear that. Sometimes, a girl just needs to cut loose and live a little.”

  Wasn’t that the truth?

  She patted her cheek and handed back her gun.

  “Well, if you want fun, I’m your girl. Just give me a call, and we can rob a bank together.”

  Grace had a better idea.

  “Can you take me to a firing range? I would really like to learn and maybe get a gun. If my son is doing illegal things…”

  Was this woman for real?

  “Right now?”

  Grace nodded.

  “Well, if you’re not busy. I know you have a job to do, but I keep asking my son, and he puts it off. I have cancer, and I might not have months. I may only have a short time.”

  Cordelia had this overwhelming need to give this woman a good day where she could have fun. She’d taken a shitty day—or the potential of one—and gave her a gift. Cordelia wasn’t intimidated by this house, or the woman, anymore.

  “It’s on my bucket list.”

  Well, it wasn’t like she was working officially. She could take a few hours and make her happy.

  “I’m free, but the child can’t come. That’s all kinds of wrong. I’m sure Rogue doesn’t want me bringing his daughter to a firing range.”

  “She has a nanny.”

  Cordelia was uncomfortable with that.

  “That freaks you out?”

  “Yeah, it does. I’m more a simple person. I can’t hire anyone to do my laundry, let alone drive me around.”

  She saw that.

  “I have an idea. Since I don’t drive anymore, can you drive? We’ll ditch the limo, and then after you teach me how to put a cap in someone’s ass, we’ll have lunch.”

  She was going to regret teaching her that phrase. Cordelia knew it.

  “On one condition.”

  “What?”

  “You let me buy you lunch. I know this place, and they make the best burgers. They have bacon, avocado, and so much cheese it’ll kill you.”

  Grace laughed.

  “Well, I am a time bomb.”

  “Don’t go off in my car. I can’t afford detailing. I am a civil servant.”

  She laughed again.

  “I like you, Cordelia. Whether or not you start something with my boy, it was a privilege to meet you. You made my day.”

  “Oh, Grace, you haven’t seen anything. There is a gym across from the burger place. The men work out topless and all sweaty.”

  “Sold. I haven’t seen a topless, sweaty man in years unless you count the gardener, and he doesn’t get my knickers wet.”

  Cordelia laughed her ass off.

  Yeah, she knew where Rogue got it from, and she was going to enjoy this day. It was going to be awesome.

  “Shall we, Miss Grace?” she asked, holding out her arm.

  She looped her arm through hers.

  “We shall, Miss Cordelia.”

  “Well, then. Let’s go.”

  And they did.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Arielle Newman’s

  Home

  She was on Zayn so fast, he couldn’t move for his gun. She was about to stab him in the neck when Dakota cold-cocked her with his gun.

  The woman fell to the floor.

  “You’re off your game,” he said, as he grabbed zip ties to bind her hands.

  Rogue rushed in.

  “What happened?”

  “She tried to stab him while shouting ‘kill the pig’!” he stated.

  “How nice. She thought you were a cop. Can we silence that dog?” Rogue asked. “It’s going to give us away.”

  “Handle it,” Dakota stated, as he dealt with the unconscious madam.

  Rogue headed off.

  When they got Arielle into a chair, they were working on their game plan. She began moving, alerting them that it was just beginning.

  “Hey, Arielle, wake-up,” Dakota stated.

  The woman opened her eyes. “If I get out of this chair, I’m going to fuck you up.”

  Yeah, she’d try, but they’d silence her with a bullet. They were done messing around. She’d come close to cutting Zayn, and they wouldn’t tolerate that.

  “Where’s Rosemary?”

  She closed her mouth.

  “Come on, Arielle, you’re not walking away from this. We know about how you are the one shipping the girls to her. We know that you are the first step in the process. Give her up, and we won’t torture you.”

  She spit on Dakota. Right in the face.

  He wiped her spittle from his cheek and had enough. The last thing he wanted was hooker diseases. Dakota had enough shit going on in his life. So, he showed her he was NOT fooling around.

  He hit her.

  HARD.

  Even Zayn was surprised. He’d thought Dakota didn’t have it in him. Well
, he was wrong.

  Her head nearly swiveled off her shoulders.

  Shit!

  “I’m done fucking around. I suggest you give me something to save your ass. We already got Danny Boy. We already took Jake and his drug supply. We handled Chesky’s right-hand thug, Elliot. We’re getting close. Make it easy, or I swear to God, on everything that is holy, I’ll take you apart and enjoy it!”

  “I won’t fucking give you jack shit. I used to spend my days being hurt by men. Rosemary gave me an out, and I’m not betraying her.”

  Rogue came into the room.

  “I handled the dog,” he said, holding a bunch of emails that he’d printed out from the woman’s laptop.

  “You had better not have hurt Precious!”

  “I didn’t hurt him.”

  She relaxed.

  “I just drowned him in a bucket, cut off his balls, and watched him bleed,” Rogue said. “I doubt he felt anything at all.”

  She went nuts as she was bound to the chair. Both Zayn and Dakota stared at him like he had three heads as they tried to shut the woman up.

  Rogue killed something?

  “Anyway, I found some interesting shit on her laptop. I found a schedule.”

  “Of…?” Dakota asked.

  “It seems to be the parties, and I know how my father got involved in this,” he said.

  “How?” Zayn asked.

  He showed him.

  “He runs backroom gambling parties. There’s one tomorrow night. Here’s the location.”

  The woman was kicking and fighting as she tried to get free from the chair.

  “Can you just shut her up?” Dakota asked Zayn as he tried to listen to Rogue.

  “Sure.”

  He twisted her neck so hard, it broke. The popping of bones was horrendous, and it told the tale.

  But…

  There was silence.

  “I was thinking knock her out again. What if we needed to ask her some questions?”

  He laughed.

  “Specifics matter. You, of all people, should know that, brother.”

  Yeah, he was aware.

  At least they had the emails that Rogue had pulled from her laptop.

  Dakota kept reading until he heard a bark.

  “Uh, I thought you killed the dog?”

  He looked horrified.

  “Are you kidding me? Who kills a dog?” Rogue asked. “What kind of animal…?”

  Zayn raised his hand.

  “And there you go.”

  “Okay, so tomorrow, there’s a backroom party. How do we get into it?”

  Rogue smiled.

  “Well, these things have tickets.”

  They stared at him.

  “Are you fucking serious?” Dakota asked. “Where the hell do you get tickets to a backroom gambling party?”

  “The dark web.”

  Well, that made perfect sense to a man who couldn’t figure out how to set the alarm on his fancy phone. Dakota didn’t know what the dark web was, nor how to access it.

  “Don’t stress it. I’ll handle it. We’re going to a party, and I am willing to bet that Chesky will be there too. You know how he was a fan of the river cruises.”

  Yeah, he was.

  And it made him think of Sarah.

  His heart stuttered in his chest at the thought of not going with her.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, shaking it off. Now, he had to focus.

  “We have one more person to focus on, and this time, it’s personal,” Rogue said. “I need to find my father.”

  Dakota needed to clarify one thing.

  “Uh, Rogue, your mother can’t meet him. He’s a bad dude. He’s actively participated in raping women, and likely Storm too. You can’t think he’ll be good around Grace.”

  He grinned.

  “Oh, I’m not going to let her meet him.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to kill him slowly, and then tell her he has been dead for a long time—like any good son would do.”

  Zayn gave him a fist bump.

  Dakota just shook his head.

  They were all insane.

  And beginning to think alike.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Four Twenty Five

  Chartres Street

  The French Quarter

  They were trying to salvage the rest of the book, and it was a bust. The pages were too far gone. Whoever had held it over the gas stove flame had done what he’d set out to do. He’d destroyed the remaining contents.

  Science, and Merry, couldn’t save them.

  “How’s the facial recognition software doing?” Merry asked her husband as Stella made them sandwiches in the kitchen.

  “Well, it’s working. Just not on our people. It keeps doing something weird.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “It’s repeatedly popping up two faces, but they aren’t a match.”

  Merry was accustomed to the software and knew how to work it in her sleep. After a thirty-hour stretch at work in the FBI, she had run it in her sleep. So, she headed his way.

  “Oh, you have the parameters set to…”

  Then she saw it.

  “HOLY SHIT!”

  Boone looked around as his wife shouted that. He fully expected a knife-wielding nut bag to be heading at them.

  “WHAT?”

  “It’s giving you those two faces because it’s trying to tell you that it’s found a match.”

  “With two different faces?”

  “It uses algorithms and all kinds of math. It’s telling you that beneath their skin, their facial structures are identical. They match up.”

  “And that means?”

  Stella knew from being a doctor.

  “They’re related, aren’t they?”

  Oh, yes, they really were.

  That was surprising to Boone, but then again, this whole case was a wild trip of unexpected fun. He didn’t know what the hell to expect.

  “So, Charlotte Shaw and Jasper Hutchinson are related?” he asked. “Really?”

  “Well, they were, since she’s dead, but yeah, that’s a fairly accurate statement based on markers and scientific fact,” Merry stated.

  “Wow,” he stated. “Well, they wanted to know how Charlotte got sucked into this, and this information was a good reason why.”

  Family.

  “You did good work, babe,” Merry stated. “They not only came from the same town but they both, likely, came from the same uterus.”

  “Well, cher, we did good.”

  Yeah, they really did.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  NOPD

  Firing Range

  She didn’t know of any private ranges, so she brought her to where the police practiced. What could it possibly hurt? If they were lucky, the cops using the range wouldn’t even think twice. If they did, she’d make something up, and fast.

  What mattered was Grace was having a good time. She was smiling, there was a spring in her step, and she kept laughing whenever she hit the target.

  It amused Cordelia.

  “Oh, Cordelia, this is so much fun!” she stated, taking off her ear protection and fixing her hair. “I have never done anything like this. In my day, you didn’t do this. It was man’s work.”

  “Fuck that.”

  She laughed.

  “You’re right. Show me how to do it again.”

  Cordy could do that.

  Grace waited until Cordelia got into place, and she watched her form. Her feet were spread, her hands were on the gun, and she was focused.

  She fired off a clip.

  When she turned, Grace wanted to know more.

  “So, my son caught your attention. How?” she asked. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s handsome, but he’s so serious. How did an adventurous girl like you go there?”

  “Uh, because he’s hot with all those tattoos? Is that a legit reason? Who wouldn’t want to go there?
” she asked.

  Cordelia liked Grace.

  She was straightforward, and if she wanted to know something, she just asked. That was always good in her world.

  “So you met him naked, huh?”

  “That would cause mass panic,” she stated. “He definitely likes the ink.”

  “I know, he hides it under his shirt when he comes and sees me. I think he believes out of sight is out of mind. He’s got issues.”

  “We all have issues. I have mommy ones. Oh look, he does too,” she teased.

  Grace found that amusing.

  “Seriously. Why my son?”

  “Well, I think it was his eyes. I really liked them. They’re odd but alluring. When he’s upset, you can see that emotion in them. They are the windows to his soul. Oh, and he loves you,” she said out of the blue.

  “Oh, I know. He’s my only child. He was my all.”

  “He is trying to protect you, Grace. Don’t hold it against him. If you were my mom, I would have done the same thing. No one wants to think their parents wouldn’t be proud of them.”

  “When is your father out of jail?”

  “Well, since I’m a cop, and I get enough flak from that, I hope never. I moved on. When he committed armed robbery, it was done.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Life is what you get and then make of it, right? That’s my motto.”

  “It’s a good motto.”

  She agreed.

  “Can I try again?” Grace asked. “I want to put some holes in that bad guy.”

  She laughed.

  “Sure. I’ll stand behind you and you practice firing until your heart is content.”

  Oh, she would.

  Grace shot off a few more rounds and then squealed, making everyone look over.

  “This is amazing. The power!”

  “The danger…,” Cordelia corrected.

  She laughed at the look on her face.

  “Do me a favor.”

  “What?” Cordelia asked.

  “Fight for him. Even if he does stupid things, and he will since he has a penis, give my son a chance. You’re good for him. I can tell.”

  “Ah, your blessing again? Two in one day?” she teased.