Daniel (9 page)

“Get up again and I’ll think you’re well
enough to help me with my problem from earlier.” He bit her earlobe and she
moaned. “Behave.”

“I for one want to tell you what a good
boy you are, young man. It’s commendable of you to want to protect your aunt
that way and to stand up for what you believe in.” Then Mrs. Hunter pointed her
finger at him. “You should also know that I don’t care for impertinent
children. But in your case I’ll accept that you’re under a good deal of stress.
Doyle, tell us what you know.”

Reilly looked over at the large man
she’d not seen until that moment. He grinned at her, then winked. He handed her
a thick file, then one to the rest of the people in the room. Daniel curled up
on her bed behind her and held open the file with her. She wanted to tell him
to back off, but the first thing in the folder made her heart stop.

“I asked the young Harlequin here if he
wanted to not see the pictures. He said he’d…he told me that he saw his momma
getting beat up that day and he thought these pictures couldn’t hurt as bad as
the real thing. He looked at them and after he had a few minutes to himself, he
decided to help me.”

“Help you?” Reilly looked over at her nephew.
“Help him how? You never wanted to talk about this before. Why now?”

Reilly tried not to let the hurt show,
but she knew she wasn’t doing so hot at it. He sat on the chair next to her bed
and took her hand again. He showed her the first picture, the one from the
hospital when she’d seen her sister in all that blood.

“Because he might do this to you. And I
can’t stand to lose you. You’re…you’re all I got, Reilly. And…and I don’t want
to….” He looked at Daniel, and she wasn’t sure what had passed between them,
but Benny nodded. “I love you, Reilly. I know I never told you that before, but
I do. I think I loved you before that night you took me away. I can’t let that
man do what he did to my mother to you.”

“He won’t. Not if I have anything to say
about it.” Doyle told them to open the file to the last half. “This is all we
have on Humberto Carver. He goes by the name of Berto to most of those who know
him. He has a house in Florida where up until about ten years ago your sister
lived with him. She moved out around the time you were supposedly giving birth
to this young man. From Paris. And he was born in North Dakota.”

Reilly flushed. “I, as you know, didn’t
have Benny. I didn’t even know he existed until I was called to her bedside,
and she told me that I had to go pick up something she’d left me. She told me
it was where I’d found her once before. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought
it was going to be…honestly, I didn’t have a clue, but a boy wasn’t it.”

“How did you know where to go?” She
looked at Curtis when he asked. “The doctor wrote in his report that she was
out of her head on something and that she was in a great deal of pain. He
didn’t even mention you in his report to the police. And the cop, a…let me see,”
he referred to his file. “Nickolas, Officer Nickolas, wrote in his that no one
had been with her when she’d died.”

“I made it, but I’d only just made it.
She told me that I had to go where we’d met when I was sixteen. And when I
started to mention the name, she’d cut me off, as if she didn’t trust who
heard. I can see now that she was probably right.” Reilly looked at Benny as
she continued. “She told me to keep it safe. Made me promise.”

“We’d been practicing. She’d tell me to
go and get myself a piece of pie or something when he came over to her. She
never let him see me, but I saw him a few times. When the men came to the house
the last time and asked her about some money, she’d not had time to get me out
the window. I hid in the closet near the door. I could hear them, all of them
asking her where it was and why’d she taken it. Then the man came in and…. After
they left I waited and climbed out the window to the fire escape. I stayed
there until I saw them leave with her in a bunch of our towels. When they was
gone I jumped down and went to the diner like she told me to do if anything
happened to her.”

“Christ. You were in the room with her
when they did this to her?” Royce asked. Benny nodded. “You’re a hell of a kid.
I don’t think I could have…what happened to the money? Do you know if it was
ever recovered?”

Benny shook his head and said nothing. Reilly
knew he was lying, and she was pretty sure that at least Daniel knew it, too.
She didn’t say anything then and decided the first opportunity she got she was
going to ask him about the backpack.

Chapter
9

Daniel was at the hospital the next
morning when she was being checked out by the doctor. She didn’t say anything
to him, but he didn’t care. He was going to win this battle with her, because
possession was nine-tenths of the law. He grinned when she asked if a cab could
be called. Daniel nodded to the doctor as he left the room.

“I have your ride. And the nice policeman
that has been keeping an eye on you for me will help me carry your things out
to my car. Benny is at school, so we have plenty of time to get you settled.” He
took the pillow from her when she looked like she was going to hit him with it.
“Once we get you home, we can play then if you’re up to it. But for now I need
you to get dressed.”

“I’m not going to your home. I have a
perfectly good home that I own. I thank you for your time, but fuck off.” She’d
said it so sweetly that he found himself laughing.

“No, my dear, I want to fuck you. Hard,
fast, slow, on the table, on the floor, anywhere and everywhere we can.”

Her mouth snapped shut. He wasn’t sure
what she was thinking, but he was reasonably sure that it involved body parts,
mostly his and lots of blood. He helped her to the bathroom with as much
touching of her as he could and stood outside the door when she insisted that
he go away.

“A man could get a real complex hanging
around you.” He was putting her things in the overnight bag he’d brought for
her when the door opened. He wasn’t sure how it had happened but he was on the
floor and his head hurt while it seemed as if O’Reilly was flying through the
air. He laid his head on the cool floor and closed his eyes. There was
something very wrong here.

“I said are you all right?” He must have
dozed off. Yes, that was it. What other reason would O’Reilly have for smacking
him around? “Wake up, you moron, I don’t know if there is anyone else coming to
kill us.”

That woke him up. He was standing up
again when he realized he was hurting. “Christ, I’m bleeding.” The blood on his
shirt was starting to make him dizzy again, and he felt his chin being jerked
up.

“Look at me. Now I’m going to take us
into the hallway, but I want you to…please don’t faint on me again.”

“I did not faint. I merely settled on
the floor to keep it from hitting it overly hard when I needed to fall.” That
didn’t even make sense to him, and he’d said it. “I don’t know what happened.
Did you fly?”

“Yes. I flew. And the Easter Bunny is
coming to visit you.” He didn’t think there was reason for her to be snarky,
but he did stand up. “I have to make sure she’s dead. Can you hold onto the
door for me?”

Dead? He looked down at the woman, a
nurse actually, and saw that her head was on her shoulders oddly. He stared
just long enough to get it.

“Her neck is broken.” He was feeling
slightly sick now, and when his phone rang, he couldn’t seem to make his
fingers work. “Here. Tell them I’m sick.”

The floor was shifting again when he
heard her speak. There was something wrong with his hearing now. Tunnel, it
sounded like they were going down a long tunnel. He pulled O’Reilly to him by
cupping the back of her head and leaning his head against hers.

“Your brother is coming. I’m so sorry.
You shouldn’t have been here and you wouldn’t have gotten shot.” He was
surprised by that. He’d been shot? “I’m going to let your brother come for you
and you’ll be fine. They don’t want you, but Benny and me. You’ll be all right
until he gets here.”

He couldn’t let her go. He knew if he
did he’d never see her again, and he wasn’t sure why that hurt him so much, but
he couldn’t let go. He told her he was sorry, too, and pitched forward. He knew
he should have thought it through better, but it was all he could do in a
pinch. When he landed on her, the last thing he heard was her screaming.

Daniel opened his eye and looked around.
His brothers were there and no O’Reilly. He tried to get up, but there was
something holding him down. He looked down at the restraints on his wrists.

“Let me go. What the hell are these
things doing on me anyway?” He jerked on them again when Royce was suddenly
there. “Where’s O’Reilly? Something happened to her and she was leaving.”

“You were shot and she probably saved
your ass. What happened? Do you remember?” He rubbed his hand over his belly
and felt the padding there. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The bullet
just grazed your right side and went through and through.”

He remembered now. “A nurse came in the
room and asked me where Mrs. Harlequin was. I said bathroom. Then she pulled
out this gun and it sort of…O’Reilly came from nowhere and grabbed the nurse
and…Christ, she killed her.”

“That’s pretty much what Reilly said.
She said she tried to get you out of the room to somewhere safe but you were losing
blood and talking off your rocker, her words not mine.” He looked from Royce to
Jesse when he picked up the story.

“I called and Reilly answered. She said
that there was a dead woman in her room and that you were shot. She told me
that she was going to move you. Then before I could get her to tell me more, I
heard you talking. Man, you were really out of it. Then the screams.” Jesse
scrubbed his hand over his face as he continued. “That was the most terrifying
moment of my life when I couldn’t get an answer and all those screams coming
through the line.”

“I was in the hospital,” Curtis started.
“And heard the code called. I knew the room number so I took off running and
calling you at the same time. When I came around the corner from the elevator,
the nurses were trying to get into the room. I shoved the door open and saw
what appeared to be a nurse with a broken neck and had them call for the
police. I could see you two. Reilly was trying to reach the phone and you were
out.”

“Where is O’Reilly then? And Benny? Please
tell me he’s okay. I know I hurt her back when I fell on her, but she was going
to leave me, and I….” Daniel looked at his brothers. “Christ, you’ve no idea
what it felt like knowing I’d never see her again.”

They grinned before Royce answered.
“She’s down the hall. There are a couple of police officers outside her room
and one in. She’s sort of under arrest until we can figure out who the woman
she killed was. She wasn’t employed here. Benny is at my house with the women.
He was pretty scared when he heard someone had come here for her. Kylie is
afraid he plans to split without telling his aunt. He had his backpack with
him.”

“He always has that thing. And don’t
touch it. I think it might have stuff from his mom. He hangs onto it like it’s
his lifeline to her.” Daniel tossed off the covers and sat up with the help of
his brothers. He was pulling on his robe someone had brought in when his mother
walked in.

“Good. Go and talk some sense into that
woman. She just threw me out of her room and told me that I needed to be down
here, not sitting around annoying her.” His mom kissed him on the cheek. “I
like her. She’s going to be a lot of fun.”

He was being pushed down toward her room
when he thought about O’Reilly and looked over his shoulder at his mom. He didn’t
want her to get any permanent ideas about O’Reilly.

“She is nothing more than a woman I’d
like to have sex with, Mom. And you know that I don’t do kids.” He heard her
sigh as he continued. “I know you don’t like what I said, but I have no
intentions of ever marrying. I just want to have some fun and live vicariously
through my brothers and their wives.”

The wheelchair stopped, and he turned to
look at his mom. Her face was flushed, and he knew she was upset. He didn’t
know what to say to her and turned around in the chair when she started moving
it again. He was coming around the end where his room was again when he
realized she’d brought him back.

“Mom, I thought—”

“I’m sure you did. But that woman
doesn’t need you sniffing at her skirts like some overgrown teenager. Leave her
alone if you just want to…want to toy with her. And that young man? He was
beginning to look up to you. A blind man could see it. How do you think he’s
going to feel if you simply leave because you’ve had enough sex with his aunt?”

“I’m not going to hurt the kid. He’s
been around the block a few times. I’m sure he know all about the birds and the
bees.” He winced when she hit him in the head. “Hitting me doesn’t negate the
fact that the kid’s mom wasn’t a nice person. And I’m pretty sure his aunt has
dated a few times since he’s been living there.”

He shifted in the wheelchair at that
thought. He had no idea why that bothered him, but he refused to think about
what it meant. She was a woman, he was a man. End of story. He realized she’d
been talking and turned to his mom.

“…right here until you figure it out. I
told her I’d come by and say goodnight. She didn’t seem all that thrilled about
it, but I keep my promises. They’re supposed to either charge her or let her go
in the morning.”

“Charge her? With what?” Then it
occurred to him that she had killed that woman. “She should have a lawyer. I
should go and see if I can do anything about—”

“I think she has one. Her agent, Reilly
said, was very resourceful. I hope so. It would be a shame if after saving your
life she had to go to jail.” His mom huffed away, leaving him sitting in the
middle of the hall as she went down the hall. He realized then that he had no
idea what her room number was.

~~~

Reilly watched the door open and almost
wished it was someone there to finish her off. The stupid man falling on her
hurt her worse than when she’d burned herself in the first place. She rolled to
her side to see who it was and groaned. She’d just gotten rid of one Hunter.

“I’m not in the mood for visitors
tonight. So whatever you want I don’t. Now go away.” When Royce sat in the chair,
she closed her eyes. Ignoring him seemed to be the best way to deal with him.

“You saved my brother today. I owe you.”
She peeked at him and wondered if he’d simply pay her off by going away and
leaving her alone. Then he answered her unspoken question. “I’m not going to
let you out of my sight until we catch the bastard who tried to kill you two.”

“It was probably some person your
brother lost a case to and he’s seeking revenge any way he can.” She didn’t
think so, but it was as good as reason as any other.

“Nah. Daniel has never lost a case. He’s
pretty savvy about the law.” He grinned at her. “Good try though. I would have gone
for something like it was a jilted lover or a woman he messed with that had a
husband in the background.”

She snorted. “Your brother doesn’t
strike me as the type to dally with married women, nor does he look like the
type of man whose lovers wouldn’t be his best friend after it was over.”

She was startled by his bark of
laughter. He leaned back in his chair and pulled out a dark cigar. He didn’t
light it but simply stared at it and inhaled it deeply before putting it away
again.

“Daniel says the same thing. He doesn’t
like kids either, or so he says. He gets along with my son. In fact, Lee seems
to look forward to him coming over. Lee is our son. You should see him,
spitting image of his mom. Anyway,” he pulled an envelope out of his jacket
pocket and took out some paper. “This is from an investigator. He says that
Berto Carver is looking for something. He said that your sister took it one
night and he’s going to find it. The Feds have someone on the inside and
they’re waiting to see what it could be that’s missing.”

“It’s Benny. I’m sure of it. That’s why
as soon as I’m out of here we’re going to run. I know that sounds melodramatic,
but that’s all it is when you get right to it. I’m afraid and I’m going to run
away.” He was shaking his head. “You can disagree all you want, Mr. Hunter, but
you really can’t stop me.”

“Sure I can. Money talks. And while I
know you have plenty, you don’t have the resources that I do. Nor the
manpower.” He put the papers on her lap. “That’s a subpoena. You can either
play by my rules or I tell them you refused it.”

She picked up the blue-covered document.
She read enough to know that it was from the FBI and that they were demanding
that she turn over everything she had on her sister and the man named Humberto
Carver. She tossed it back at him.

“I don’t have anything. Unless of course
you mean her son.” Reilly crossed her arms over her chest carefully, mindful of
the pain in her back. “You can try to take him, but I want you to know that I
will kill you before you get within five feet of him.”

“She will too. She has the training.” Reilly
looked over at her trainer. She grimaced when he sat down next to Royce Hunter.
“Hello, darling. How’s the workouts going?”

“Doyle, you know her?” Reilly looked
from one man to the other, then laid her head back as Royce spoke again. “You
have been leading us a merry chase all along.”

“No. When I met her, she was calling
herself Dawn O’Reilly. I didn’t put the two together until this morning when I
was in her room. I hadn’t thought of you in years,” he said to her. “So I was a
little slow on the uptake until I heard Daniel call her by her given name.”