the world according to Jonathan Paxton, anyone who touched a hair on Lucy Kincaid’s head would die.
Right.
But for now, Hunt could live by Paxton’s rules because they had a mutually beneficial relationship. Hunt testified against Paxton’s personal hit man to protect his business interests, and Paxton helped Hunt get out of prison. And it was Hunt who came up with the plan to frame Sean Rogan for that whore Mona Hill’s murder. First, Mona deserved it for leaving Elise high and dry and getting her arrested in the first place. Second, Mona had betrayed him.
No one betrayed Jimmy Hunt.
Paxton’s plan had been more subtle, but without the added benefit of making Sean Rogan the most wanted man in Texas. The geek squad had been working on infiltrating his home security system with the goal of planting evidence of a major hack or some such thing, to get him arrested for espionage. But apparently Mr. Geek wasn’t all that smart—not as smart as Rogan, at any rate—because he couldn’t get inside his computer. At least not fast enough to satisfy Jonathan Paxton.
Though what the rush was, Jimmy didn’t know. According to rumors, Rogan had screwed Paxton over a couple of years ago. Why the rush to destroy him now?
In the end, Jimmy knew he had the better end of the deal. Paxton gave him the resources to go after Kane Rogan and Brad Donnelly. One was waiting for him so he could whack him personally, the other was already dead.
Mrs. Yancey came in with a phone. “You have a call, Mr. Hunt.”
He frowned. “Why are you telling me?”
“This is the emergency line, it’s safe.”
He didn’t know whether to trust her, but answered. “What?”
“Daddy?”
“Elise?”
She only called him Daddy when she knew he would get mad about something.
“What happened?”
“Well … it didn’t work.”
“What is going on?”
“Everything else worked exactly as I planned. Get Donnelly. Check. Get that FBI agent suspended. Check. Take care of loose ends. Check. Restraining order against the psychic fed. Check.”
Why Elise thought Lucy Kincaid was psychic, Jimmy couldn’t figure out. Something about how she could read Elise’s mind. Which was just bullshit, but he couldn’t seem to get that through Elise’s thick skull.
“What’s the problem? You killed Donnelly, right?”
“Well … no.”
Dammit! This was when Elise made him angry. “I gave you explicit instructions.”
“And I obeyed, mostly, except he’s fun. And he deserved to suffer for killing Nicole. I liked her. She was smart, even if she wasn’t fun. I was about to kill him, but that suspended agent came to my house. And he killed Donny. I liked Donny, he did anything I wanted.”
Donny was dead? That was not good news. Clara would be on the warpath.
“Elise, you need to leave San Antonio. Right now. Don’t talk to Clara. Don’t do anything—Donny was Clara’s brother. She’s going to take it out on you.”
“Oh, please. I’m not scared of her anymore. No loose ends, right?”
“What did you do, Elise?”
“It was me or her. Would you rather have Clara alive and me dead? Were you fucking her? I’m your daughter!”
She’d killed Clara. Not ideal, but better Clara than Elise.
“I have to take care of the bitch guard,” Elise said.
“She did her job.”
“And then she showed up at the hospital to see her fuck-buddy! I have people, Daddy, you always told me to have people in all the right places. Lucy can probably read her mind, too, and if she knows that bitch went to see her boyfriend, she’ll know everything, and the little bitch will roll. So I have to find her and take care of her.”
“No. It doesn’t matter, Elise. The FBI is going to figure out she’s involved with Sheffield, and that Sheffield put Rogan on the transfer orders. We have to assume that.”
“Which means doubly she needs to die. Because she’ll rat me out in a blink of an eye and then I’ll be on the run just like you.”
When was his kid ever going to learn? She was already going to be on the run because she lost Brad Donnelly!
“Elise, go to the safe house, as I told you, and stay out of sight. Donnelly is going to report this. What were you thinking? I told you to kill him.”
“I was going to. I was just having fun. Why are you being so mean to me?”
He took a deep breath. “I’m not, sweetie. I’m just worried because I’m your father. I need you to be safe.”
“I am, Daddy. I wish I could kill Lucy, though. I really