Fierce Defender: Book 2, Hard to Handle trilogy (6 page)

None of the guards were present in the kitchen. She didn’t know who Señor Heston had called upon to arrange their security, but this gang of thugs they hired were not what she expected. Even in the basement where they had been staying, she could hear them driving up on their motorcycles and partying at all hours. She shuddered to think of what they had done within the nice house they were using. She called out for the only one of them that didn’t frighten her.

“Pablo,” she summoned.

Instead of Pablo, a young man with a white T-shirt that fell to his knees and baggy pants that somehow held up despite the force of gravity came into the kitchen. He smiled at her, and when he did, the tattoos he’d gotten around his eyes the last time he’d been in prison looked like long wisps of eyeliner coming off his lids. His name was Enrique, and if anyone ever forgot it, they need look no further than his neck. That had been his first prison tattoo, and not long after he’d gotten it, he had beat the artist, his cellmate, to death with a hammer he’d made of scrap metal collected on the yard over a period of two years. He had been sentenced to death for that one, and by Texas standards, should have been executed by now. As it turned out, however, one of Texas’s most brilliant young attorneys seemed to have an affinity for defending young gang bangers. She had not only gotten the charges against him reversed on a technicality, she had gotten him released. God Bless the U.S.A.

“Hola, Marcella,” Enrique said. He looked at her breasts when he talked to her instead of her eyes.

“Enrique,” she said, holding her head high and trying to speak with the authority that Señor Heston had vested her with. “Señor Heston needs a new phone.”

Enrique went over to one of the large pantries on the wall and unlocked it. Marcella almost gasped aloud when she saw that it was filled with guns, ammo, and cell phones from floor to ceiling. He took out one of about a hundred phones and then turned and held it out to her. She was hesitant to get close enough to him to take it; however, she knew that Señor Heston waited for her downstairs. She walked over to where she could just about reach it and quickly grabbed the device from his hand. As she pulled it back, Enrique let his middle finger caress her wrist and palm.

Marcella didn’t tell him that his touch made her want to vomit. She knew this band of street thugs wanted to please “The Boss,” but she was smart enough not to disregard their innate potential for violence. Instead, she issued a polite, “Thank you,” and went back down to be with Vincent, where it was safe.

******

Sutherland Springs, Texas

Wednesday Morning, 6:35 A.M.

With Eva, Gray, and Lewis by his side in the living room, Zack waited impatiently for Hank to come back from the bathroom. Hank had been in there for quite some time, and he knew Gray was getting edgy. Gray had a lot on his plate these days. The man wanted to turn Hank over to the Marshalls as quickly as possible so that the least of his present worries was taken out of the equation.

Zack shot Eva a look of concern. Hank had gone down the hall towards the bathroom to “take a piss” over thirty minutes ago. She’d checked in on him a few times, mostly to make sure he hadn’t escaped through the bathroom window, but it was time they tried again. This time, Zack went with her.

Eva knocked on the door once and asked Hank if he was okay.

“I’m fine!” he snapped at her.

They returned to the living room and sat on the couch. Displeased, Gray tapped his fingers against the side table while Lewis folded his arms across his chest. They were not happy.

Smiling sweetly at their guests, Eva said, “He’ll be right out.”

When Hank finally emerged, he didn’t look much better than he had going in, except that he wore a pair of sweat pants over his boxer shorts. At least it was something. He poured himself a cup of coffee from the table and said, “Let’s get this over with. I need a nap.”

Gray began by telling him, “We have reason to believe that Vincent Heston is still in Texas.”

Upon hearing this, Hank choked on his coffee. When he finished coughing, he said, “Fuck! He’s going to kill me!”

“That’s what we’re here to prevent,” Lewis assured him.

Hank looked at him distrustfully. “What is it that you’re suggesting?”

“Witness Protection,” Gray said. “Like we talked about before. The U.S. Marshalls are ready. All they’re waiting for is our call.”

Hank glanced nervously at Eva. “Is that my only option?”

Zack slammed his cup down on the table in front of them hard enough to make a loud noise in the quiet room. Hank’s whiney attitude was rubbing his last nerve raw. They were all trying to help him get out of a situation that he, himself, had gotten into. Directing his attention at Gray, he asked, “Can I field this one?” He knew he risked pissing Eva off by asking.

He could tell that Gray was trying to keep from laughing when he said, “Sure, go for it.”

Turning to Hank, Zack gave him the same intense stare that had made Hank want to piss his pants when he’d first met him. Now… well, he hoped it still made him want to piss his pants.

“You want to know what your other options are?” he asked. “Okay then, let me be the one to share this with you. You messed with some bad dudes here, Hank. Did you miss that part when they tried to kill you, or when they kidnapped your sister? Your choices are as follows: Witness Protection or death.” He smiled and said, “You pick.”

Eva shifted in her seat. Zack ignored her, so she elbowed him softly in the side. When he finally turned her way, she gave him a look that said,
“Why are you being so mean?”

“I…” Hank looked from one man to the next, and then at Eva. With wide, pleading eyes, he said, “I don’t want to leave my sister. She’s the only family I really have.”

Zack sighed. “By staying, Hank, you’re putting your sister in as much danger as you are in. I know that you don’t want that. I remember how upset you were when they took Eva.”

“I have a question,” Eva said. “Will he be able to leave Witness Protection once these guys are caught?”

Lewis and Gray glanced at each other, and then Gray said, “It will ultimately be up to him and the Marshalls. But, you have to remember that the reach of someone like Vincent Heston extends beyond the walls of a prison. If Heston is alive, and you’re on his list, you’ll likely stay there.”

Zack knew Gray was trying to explain it in terms he thought Hank would understand. Finding Hank and getting rid of him, Carl, and the others who, in Vincent’s opinion, were to blame for the collapse of his operation was a priority. Hank’s inflated sense of having things his way was getting in the way of him fully grasping that.

“Where would he go?” Eva asked.

“The U.S. Marshalls would handle that part of it,” Lewis told her. “Once he’s gone, we wouldn’t even know where.”

“So I would never be able to see my brother ever again?” she said, the reality of it setting in for her.

Neither man said anything, and that alone spoke volumes. Zack could see the tears forming in Eva’s eyes.
Shit!
he thought.
This idiot will never stop hurting her
. He reached for her hand, but she slid it back in her lap. He failed to understand how he always ended up being the bad guy when it came to Hank.

Sighing, he looked at Gray and said, “Are you guys anywhere near catching Heston?”

“He’s been a pro at avoiding us so far,” Gray said. “The reality is that it may take us years to find him, and once we do, more years to build a case against him. If and when he does go to prison, I don’t doubt that would make him want to reach out even more. I’ve seen cases where witnesses started to drop like flies as soon as the kingpin was taken down.”

But Vincent’s not an actual kingpin, not the way his father was, Zack thought. He’s more of a pretender to the throne.

Eva looked anxiously at Zack. It broke his heart to see her like this, but he held his ground. “Eva, you came to me and asked for help keeping Hank alive. I went to Gray and asked for the same thing, for you. We’ve done that, but now you and I have a life to get on with, and Gray and the rest of the DEA have other jobs to do. No one will be able to follow Hank around and keep him safe for the rest of his life. This is his best option.”

***

Eva knew Zack was right. She wasn’t mad at Zack or Gray or Lewis. She could never be. If it weren’t for them, Hank and herself wouldn’t be sitting here today. The entire situation just felt so hopeless. She had told Hank she would back him up on his decision to stay, and he sat there now, waiting for her to do just that. But she wasn’t sure she could follow through. She would have an empty place in her heart if she was never able to see her brother again, but knowing he was alive and safe would ease her heartache. If he died because she had encouraged him not to go away…

“Can I talk to Hank alone for a few minutes?” she requested.

Gray looked at Lewis and Zack and said, “I don’t know about the two of you, but I could use a cigar.”

The men got up, and Zack led them out the back door, leaving Hank and Eva alone.

“Evie…”

“Hank, wait,” she said. “Hear me out.” She didn’t want him to have a chance to weaken her defenses. “You know that I love you. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t have stuck all of this out for so long. Because I love you, that is why… I think they’re right, and you really have no choice.”

“I don’t want to be alone,” he asserted.

“I know, Hank. But you’re a great guy. You’ll make friends. I’m sure of it. Hank, if you stay here, there is a big chance that you won’t live. If Heston has you killed, then I really won’t ever be able to see you again. You’ll have nothing, not even your life. And furthermore...”

“I’d continue to put you at risk,” he said sadly.

“That’s not what I was going to say, but yes, although that is a risk I’d be willing to take if it was only me we were talking about. But there’s more to this than just us. They nearly burned down my best friend’s home. Zack put himself at risk to save us all. The bottom line is, Hank, we’ve all gone through a lot to keep you alive, and if you refuse to go into the program, it’s almost as if it were all for nothing.”

Hank didn’t say anything. He looked sullen. Eva was afraid he was still going to refuse. She stood and picked up the tray with the coffee pot on it. “I’m going to refill this,” she told him, leaving him time to think. “I’ll be right back.”

He nodded but still didn’t speak. She felt terrible for him, even though she knew that his love of an “easy” buck had gotten him into this mess. He really had never been taught any differently, she thought, even though she knew she had to stop making excuses for him. If was hard. He was, after all, her brother.

When she returned to the living room with a fresh coffee pot, the men were coming in from the backyard. She stopped and looked around. “Where’s Hank?” she said.

The men stopped talking. “Bathroom?” Zack guessed.

Her heart racing, Eva sat the tray down on the side table and ran down the hall. The bathroom door was wide open. Instantly, she knew Hank was gone.

“Zack!” she yelled. But she needn’t have. From the bathroom window, she could see he was already out the front door. When she ran outside, Lewis was standing out by the street looking around.

“There was no sign of him out here, but he couldn’t have gone far. Zack and Gray went in different directions.”

Eva no longer felt guilty for asking him to go with the Marshalls. Now she was just pissed off. How was running away going to help him not be alone? It didn’t make any sense… She was starting to wonder if there was more to his decision to stay than just his fear of loneliness. Either way, if he was going to behave like this, the only safe place for him was in Witness Protection, of that she was now certain.

After a few minutes, Zack and Gray return—without Hank. “He doesn’t have any money, and he’s wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants,” she said. “He can’t get far… can he?”

“It’s doubtful,” Gray told her. “We’ll keep an eye out for him, but since there are no charges against him any longer… I can’t really officially look for him.”

“I understand,” Eva told him.

She went back inside and left Zack to see them off. When he came in, he found her in the kitchen washing up the coffee cups. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Hugging her tight from behind, he asked, “Are you okay?”

She turned around so that she was facing him and put her head on his chest. “I’m okay,” she said. “I’m pissed off at Hank… again. I can’t figure out what he’s thinking.” She lifted her head up to look at Zack’s face and said, “If being alone is what he’s so afraid of, then how does taking off help him?”

Zack looked like he had something specific to say but wasn’t sure if he should. Eva took him by the hand and led him to one of the dining room chairs near the kitchen. “Sit,” she told him. After he had, she dropped down onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. “Tell me your thoughts.”

“Um… well… First, I’d like to peel that robe off of you...”

“Zackary Norcross!” she huffed. “You know full well those were not the thoughts I was talking about.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, when you sat that gorgeous ass on my lap, those were the ones that came to the forefront of my brain.”

Eva could feel the proof of his statement hardening beneath her back side. She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled his face closer. Leaning down, she kissed him, very softly, on the lips. She was upset about her brother’s disappearance. In times of stress, she always found comfort in Zack’s arms. “I’ll take care of those thoughts in a minute,” she said. “Tell me the other ones first, though.”

“I don’t want to,” he confessed.

“Why?”

“Because once you hear what I have to say, you might renege on the other. Let’s get naked first and talk about Hank later,” he pleaded with a grin.

In Disguise

Brownsville, Texas

Late Wednesday Morning

“Enrique!”

Vincent had unlocked the inner door to the basement and was standing in the doorway of the kitchen yelling for him. Enrique strolled in with his chin up and that smug, self-important smile he liked to wear. “Waasup?” he said, as if he were addressing a fellow biker on the street.