Catch Him(60)

Personally, Garrett thought the best plan of action, the smartest thing to do, would be to kill him, collect Mary and take the bounty. Trying to bring Lucifer in alive was a risk. Who the fuck cared what his father wanted?

All Garrett had ever wanted was his wife back.

It’s why he’d told his father about the wedding album in the first place. How Garrett thought it was a good sign that Mary called wanting it back. How it might mean there was still a chance he could find her. Garrett had wanted to use the firm’s investigators to stake out the post office of the PO box number she’d given him.

The next thing he knew, his father was barging into his house as if it was his, demanding to see his freaking wedding album, then telling him to buy the most sophisticated safe money could buy.

None of that meant anything to Garrett. Only Mary mattered. Now she was more than likely inside the sprawling white clapboard farmhouse in front of them, and he was minutes away from having his wife back.

Yeah, Garrett thought. Fuck his father. The second he had a chance he was going to change the order. Let these guys kill Lucifer and he’d go get Mary.

The man in front made a gesture with his hand, a signal for them to turn to the right of the front door. He crouched just under the window that looked out over the farm. The other man took the left side, and Garrett followed behind him. His father moved to the right.

Garrett was carrying a weapon, but he had no delusions about his ability to storm a house and take out a professional killer. He was lawyer, not a hit man. He’d leave that work to the experts.

“Remember,” he said quietly to the man in front of him. “Nothing happens to the small blonde. And forget what my father said. You find anyone with her, shoot to kill. I’ll make it worth it to you.”

The only response was a head bob.

The two professionals communicated with a signal. There seemed to be a count down. Then the man across from them took out his gun, attached a silencer and aimed it at the lock on the door and fired.

It sounded like a cough but the lock exploded and the door swung open. Silently the two men entered the house.

Both Garrett and his father stayed in position on either side of the door, leaving the work to the men they had paid to execute the plan.

Garrett sat tight and thought of Mary. How he might win her back. Maybe jewelry? Something shiny that said I’m sorry so they could start over again. His first objective was going to be getting her pregnant. It would be harder to leave him if they had a child together.

All these thoughts were running through his head when the two men returned.

His father stood. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s empty.”

“They’re not here?” Garrett asked.

The other man shook his head. “No. Completely empty. No people, no furniture. Just the house.”

It took all of two seconds for Garrett to realize what that meant when the sound of rifle fire met his ears.

The blood of the man standing to his right splattered on his shirt. The blood of the man to his left got in his hair.

Their bodies instantly crumbled to the ground and Garrett could see the dark matter oozing from the holes in their heads.

Dead center in the forehead. For both of them.

Garrett looked at his father. He too was covered with splotches of blood. But as always seemed calm and unruffled by this turn of events.

“You failed,” his father said simply. “Again.”

Just then a car pulled up to the front of the house. The doors opened and a man and two women exited the car.

Garrett recognized the cop. And the man, more from the picture than the actual wedding, which had been a blur. Lucifer. The cop was obviously working with him.

“Bitch traitor.”

She pouted. “Oh. That really hurts my feelings.”



* * *

Declan pulled his gun smoothly out of his jeans and aimed it at Huntley. While Sinead kept hers on Huntley Sr. Jillian providing coverage if needed.

How easy, he thought. How easy would it be to end both of them right here. Bury them somewhere on the sprawling twenty-acre farm and call it a day.

Except Mary didn’t want him to kill. Mary didn’t want him to be responsible for cold-blooded murder.

Mary was soft. Too soft, Flynn had said.

Dec hoped she always stayed that way.

“Did you just call my girlfriend a bitch?” Dec asked Garrett as he and Sinead approached him and his father. “That’s not very nice and makes me a little angry. I don’t think you want me angry. Now I’m certain the two of you are smart enough… well, at least your father is smart enough… that if you want to get out of this situation alive you’re going to both pull your guns slowly out of your pants, drop them on the ground in front of you and kick them towards me.”