At last, Thaddeus shuddered and straightened as his black dog retreated. Then it was finally a man who crouched there in the dirt, on his hands and knees, in torn jeans and a plain black T-shirt. His gaze locked for one helpless moment with his wife’s before he moved to stare at Alejandro and, still in his grip, the boy.
Ezekiel gave Alejandro an odd look, not quite pleased. “Picked up Grayson’s little trick, have you?”
Alejandro had no idea how to answer that.
But Thaddeus turned at once toward Ezekiel. For an instant he looked into the Dimilioc verdugo’s face. Then, dropping his gaze, he said, his deep voice rough with terror and fury and the remnants of battle, “Please. Please. Whatever you do to me – damn you, you son of a bitch! Do anything you want to me, but don’t hurt my wife or son!”
Ezekiel relaxed. He straightened his shoulders and smiled. Despite the blood oozing from the cut across his shoulder, he looked for all the world as though he’d just concluded a civilized conversation with the man, not fought a roaring battle with him that might well draw the more foolhardy neighbors and maybe the policia. He did not seem worried about either possibility. He said, “How kind of you to offer. Another time, you might try that first, do you think? However, this time I’m not hunting. I’m merely a messenger. Grayson wants to see you himself.”
“Oh, God,” said Thaddeus. He rubbed his big hands over his face and was silent for a moment. Then he looked up again, met Ezekiel’s eyes for an instant, and bowed his head again, bowed his whole body down. It took an obvious effort. “I’ll come. I’ll come with you – I won’t fight you. Just don’t… Please. I don’t know why Grayson Lanning gives a shit about me, all these years, all he’s got to have on his plate right now, you’d think… but if it’s me he wants, let them go. Please.”
“You know that’s not the way it’s going to be,” Ezekiel said, still smiling.
Sádico son of a bitch, Alejandro did not say. All black dogs were more or less cruel, but a man tried to be decent despite the pressure from his shadow. He said sharply to Thaddeus, “Do you think the Dimilioc Master would hurt a Pure woman?”
The man laughed harshly, a sound almost like a snarl and almost like a sob. He did not try to get up, but the muscles of his back and shoulders bunched and his big hands closed into fists. “Fuck, kid. Oh, God. Do you think I don’t know what Grayson Lanning will do with a Pure woman? He’ll tell his little bastard of an executioner to pin me up as an example, and then he’ll pass my DeAnn to one of his black wolves. He’ll murder my son to clear the way for her to bear a pup from one of the Dimilioc bloodlines–”
“He will not!” snapped Alejandro – then stopped, surprised at the anger in his own voice.
Ezekiel, from the ironic lift of his eyebrows, had caught Alejandro’s sudden uncertainty. But he only said, “Well, we’ll all find out, won’t we? Because we are all going to get in this SUV and drive back to the airport and get in my plane and fly back to Vermont. No one is going to fuss or cry…” He glanced at the silent boy in Alejandro’s grip, who was now standing on his own feet. The child was shivering, but no longer struggling. He mostly kept his gaze on the ground, but flicked quick little glances at his father – black dog instinct kept him from looking at Alejandro, far less Ezekiel.
“Or try to run away, or cause a scene,” Ezekiel continued, lifting an eyebrow at the woman, and then finished, straight to Thaddeus. “Or let his shadow up so we can enjoy another little tussle like this one. You’ve lost the fight, Thaddeus. Don’t start another. Hear me?” Staring hard at the black man, he added in a much quieter tone, “Because Grayson told me to bring you and your wife, but he didn’t say a word about your black pup here. Do you understand me?”
Everyone understood him. Only Alejandro doubted he would carry out that threat, and then only because he realized Ezekiel knew that Grayson would want the boy alive.
“Good, then,” Ezekiel said briskly. “We’ll be moving quickly, but let’s tie up a few loose ends first. You, woman. DeAnn. Get that silver knife and put it in the car. Alejandro, bring that pup here to me and then get my kit out of the car. The black bag,” he added impatiently when Alejandro hesitated.
That wasn’t why Alejandro had hesitated, but he nodded and said quickly, “There are two more knives. They each had one, even the niño.”
Ezekiel clicked his tongue. “Of course they did,” he said, sounding annoyed. He looked Alejandro over quickly. “You cut?”