behind this, there’s something we’re missing. I don’t trust Paxton, but I can’t see him hurting Lucy.”
“How is what’s happening here connected to you and Kane down there?” Megan asked. “What could Paxton benefit from this?”
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “And I don’t understand why Paxton would work with someone like Jimmy Hunt. Hunt was the type of predator Paxton would put on his own hit list.”
“Be careful, Jack. Both you and Kane.”
“We are. Love you, Megan.”
He ended the call and Kane joined him outside. Jack relayed everything he’d learned from Megan, then said, “What would Jonathan Paxton want with you, Kane? Why would he orchestrate this … trap?”
“Isn’t Paxton on some sort of FBI watch list?” Kane asked.
“Yes. He was forced to resign, but the reasons were kept under wraps. Having a sitting senator exposed as the leader of a vigilante group would have had serious repercussions.”
“I think the question to ask is, why did Paxton want Hunt to help him? To what benefit?”
Jack thought about that. “I don’t know. Paxton would have the resources to frame Sean—if that’s what this is about. Paxton would have the resources to set you up as well.”
“But Paxton isn’t a criminal.”
“I beg to differ.”
“What I mean is, his people believe in a cause—they aren’t going to be gangbangers and drug traffickers or gun runners. They’re killers, but they believe they’re doing it for a noble cause.”
“So you think he needs Hunt’s network, his people.”
“Exactly.”
“I ask again: why frame Sean?”
Kane didn’t have an answer. Instead he said, “Let’s assume that Paxton needed Hunt’s help for something. In exchange, Paxton gave him the resources to set me up, to frame Sean, to kidnap Donnelly. Sean helped the FBI seize Hunt’s money; I killed Hunt’s son; Donnelly killed Hunt’s niece.”
“It’s all about Hunt’s retribution,” Jack said. “Still doesn’t tell us why Paxton would work with him.”
Kane concurred. “Why the fuck would Paxton care? I’m not seeing the connection.”
Neither did Jack. Except … “Paxton wants Sean.”
“Why? He frames him for murder then breaks him out of prison? That’s a dumbass thing to do. A lot of things have to go right for it to work.”
“But they did go right.”
“He wouldn’t need Hunt for that. Why would Paxton help Hunt take out his enemies? What does Hunt have that Paxton wants?”
That was an excellent question. Jack didn’t know.
“And Hunt’s son was a fucking predator. He raped dozens of women. Killed many of them. If Paxton knows that—why would he help him?”
Again, Jack couldn’t answer that.
“Something doesn’t add up,” Jack said. “Hunt hasn’t gotten back to Blair. Do you think he figured out Blair doesn’t have you in his control anymore?”
“Possible, but unlikely,” Kane said.
“I have an idea,” Jack said. “We go on the offensive. We don’t wait for Hunt to contact Blair; we go to Hunt.”
“Blair claims he doesn’t know where he was supposed to bring me, that he’ll be told when and where when Hunt’s on his way south.”
“I have an idea there, too. Give me Blair’s phone.”
Kane did.
Jack read through a bunch of Blair’s messages to get a feeling for how he communicated, then he wrote: Situation hot here, have to move ASAP or cut him loose. Need safe house.
It took several minutes, but Hunt replied.
My place in Ebano. Portia is there. Secure the cargo and wait for my arrival.
Jack showed the message to Kane.
“That’s not far,” Kane said. “Not even an hour, driving.”
“Girlfriend? Associate?”
“Blair knows.”
“Can we trust him?”
“He wants to live,” Kane said. “I’ll know if he’s lying.”
Chapter Forty-three
MONTGOMERY, TEXAS
Sean forced himself not to react when he saw Paxton. The former senator had aged greatly in the two and a half years since Sean had last seen him. His age showed. The loss of everything. His career. His reputation. He had been banished to upstate New York, where he was from, lucky that he wasn’t in prison … but probably thinking he deserved a medal rather than having his title, his reputation, stripped from him.
But he still had his money. And that, Sean realized, had given him the ability to enact revenge.
Did he blame Sean for Paxton’s own bad decisions? Or did he blame Sean because Sean caught him in the act? That he’d gone undercover to find the evidence to destroy him? Happily, too, and he’d do it all over again if he had to. Paxton had blackmailed him, forced him to steal for him; he’d held Sean’s past over his head so Sean had no choice. Truly, it was Paxton’s own fault