Nope. She wasn’t going to wait for him to make a move. Without waiting any longer, Evelyn fired off a round, but Easson charged her. He was on her in a flash, shoving her back against the shelves. She tried to aim the gun at him, but he slammed her head back into the metal beam Luke had just been tied to.
As bright lights flashed behind her eyes, Easson twisted the gun out of her hand, ejecting the clip and letting both clatter to the floor. Evelyn gritted her teeth and tried to get ready to go at him again, but he punched her full on in the face before she could move.
This time, the lights flashed brighter as unconsciousness tried to take over.
~~~~~
Longineu jerked his head to the side, signaling the men around him to clear out, far enough away to give him and Luke some privacy but close enough to let Luke know he wasn’t in the clear.
“So why don’t you tell me what you think you know?”
“I know that you’re a bad, bad man.” Luke looked over the man he was about to bring down. Longineu had taken off his suit jacket somewhere and was in a blue button-down and black trousers. The sleeves were rolled up and top few buttons undone, as though he were lounging at home instead of trying to wrangle another investor into the Thirteen Stars. “Had a rough day?”
“The old Farrell bastard effectively shot me down.” Longineu crossed his arms over his chest. “So I’m excited to hear how you plan to ruin my night so I can tell you exactly how you’ll fail.”
“Well, I know about Bella.”
Longineu was stone-faced. “I got that from your delightful phone call. But to be honest, I couldn’t care less about what you know. Exactly how much can you prove?”
“It was suspicious, you know. That Joslyn had something on you that petrified you into paying whatever she demanded and then was mum once she got into prison. And we threw everything we could legally throw at her. The best interrogators, all of our family visited her and yet she didn’t give one word about what she had to blackmail you.”
“As your delightful cousin, Emma, informed my people, Joslyn was full of shit. Like I suspect you are.”
“The electronic copy of the birth certificate she claimed she had didn’t exist,” said Luke.
Longineu narrowed his eyes. “So you got Joslyn to talk?”
“Well, once we exhausted all the legal options, I tried some illegal ones.” And Colin Carter had plenty of resources for Luke to use. “It wasn’t too hard to find a guard who would help with scaring the hell out of her.”
“You have a strange way of treating your family.”
“I’d do anything for my family. But Joslyn separated herself from us years ago. You, on the other hand, have gone pretty far out of the way to hurt your family, haven’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Prison isn’t nice to people who hurt children, you know.”
“And I’m still waiting for that proof.”
“Bear Creek.” Stark fear covered Longineu’s features and Luke knew he had struck a nerve.
“Where did you hear that from?”
“From a long line of gardeners, landscapers, nannies, old police files, and various other associates of yours who you’ve managed to piss off since then.”
“What do you want me to do? The people I work with aren’t going to just let you and your girlfriend walk free.”
“This isn’t about me walking free. I’m going to be getting out of this no matter what. This conversation is about your future.”
Longineu strode up to Luke and shoved his finger in Luke’s chest; it took everything in Luke to hold off from punching him in the face.
“No,” said Longineu. “I’m going to tell you how this conversation is going to go. You’re going to turn around and walk away and I’ll pretend you were never here, or you can keep talking and I’ll have my men throw you off the balcony.”
Luke glanced down at Longineu’s hand, still pressed against his chest, and backed up. “Before you throw me off the balcony, do you want me to show you the exact spot you buried the daughter you murdered? Or do you want to keep on thinking I’m bluffing?
“So let me tell you what’s going to happen.” Luke grabbed Longineu’s hand and twisted it off his chest, making sure to add enough pressure to make the grip painful. “You’re going to turn yourself in and you’re going to tell the FBI everything they want to know.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’d agree to that.”
“And in exchange, I won’t tell them that you murdered Bella. You know, white-collar crime prison is much nicer than child-killer prison. And you also know I’m angry enough to do it.”