Page 27 of Lone Star Target

Jace immediately recognized Manning. When he’d first bought his house, he’d stopped by to meet the sheriff to let him know he had someone from Maverick Ops living on his turf, and now he made the introductions for Kit and Angel.

Manning kept up the quick pace by ushering them straight back to the interview room, located next to his own office.

“I gave Marvin a refresher of his Miranda Rights,” Manning said. “Just in case he wants to confess to anything. You can watch from in here,” he added to Kit, offering her the use of the laptop on his desk.

Jace could see Marvin on the screen. Alone. Somewhat of a surprise. Jace had thought maybe Marvin would have brought his lawyer with him.

“Angel will stay here with you,” Jace told her, and he gave her a long look, one that he hoped conveyed for her to be careful, before he went next door to the interview.

Marvin jumped to his feet the moment that Jace stepped into the room. He was big and beefy, exactly as his pictures had shown. But what the pictures hadn’t captured was the desperation he saw in the man’s dust-gray eyes. Then again, Marvin had a reason to be desperate since he was facing a lengthy prison sentence. In fact, this would almost certainly be his last day of freedom since the trial was tomorrow.

“Where’s Kit?” the man asked.

Jace pointed to the camera on the wall. “She’s watching and listening. So, let’s not make her wait. Give me the name of the person who wants to harm her so we can all get the heck out of here.”

Marvin frowned, and that desperation in his eyes kicked up a notch. “I thought Kit would be standing in the corner of the room.”

“No.” And Jace made sure there was no wiggle room on that. “If she’s in the room, that could be construed as you meeting with a witness.” He huffed, put his hands on his hips and gave Marvin a bad ass glare. “This sure as hell better not be a way to get her testimony thrown out. Because if that’s the shit game you’re trying to play, I’ll let the judge know, and there’ll be more charges against you.”

Marvin’s eyes narrowed to slits, confirming that’s really what this meeting was all about. If he could have managed to neutralize Kit, then he might have been declared innocent.

Jace went to the table, put his fisted hands on it and glared at Marvin. “Give me a name now. And remember, if this is a wild goose chase, the judge will know about that, too. Think of all the charges you’ll be facing. Attempted bribery and intimidation of a witness. Withholding evidence. Obstruction of justice—”

“Norm Pearce,” Marvin interrupted. He snapped out the name. “He’s the one hired to scare her off.”

Scare her off? It seemed like a lot more than that to Jace.

“Norm Pearce,” Jace repeated, knowing that Angel was already doing a background check on the name. Angel would also forward it to Ruby so she could do some digging as well. “Who hired him?”

“Don’t know,” Marvin was quick to say. “I don’t know,” he repeated when Jace glared at him.

“Then how did you find out he’s the one who’d been hired?” Jace pressed.

He wasn’t so quick on the response this time, and Jace thought it was finally occurring to the man that this meeting attempt was a bad idea.

“I’ve heard talk,” Marvin muttered after several long moments.

“Gossip,” Jace concluded. “Or maybe you had direct knowledge that Norm Pearce is the one because you hired him. Yeah, I’m going to be talking to the judge,” Jace tacked onto that, and he turned to leave.

“Wait a damn minute,” Marvin growled, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “Don’t you dare threaten me.”

Jace did some growling right back at him, and he was a lot better at it than Marvin. “And don’t you dare waste my time like this with some bullshit attempt to get your ass out of hot water. If Norm Pearce turns out to be some name you just pulled out of a hat, then you’ll be facing those extra charges.” He jammed his thumb against his chest. “I’ll personally see to it.”

Of course, if it turned out that Pearce was a hired killer, Marvin could still be charged with withholding evidence and maybe even aiding and abetting. Jace hoped his expression conveyed that as he stormed out.

And nearly ran straight into Angel.

One look at Angel’s face and Jace knew something was wrong. “Is Kit all right?” he couldn’t get out fast enough.

“This isn’t about Kit,” Angel said in a rough whisper. He closed the interview room door and motioned for Jace to follow him back into the sheriff’s office. Angel closed that door, too, once they were inside.

“Hell,” Jace muttered when he saw Kit’s expression. It mirrored Angel’s. “What happened?”

Kit swallowed hard. “I just got a call from Deanna. Brandon’s been kidnapped.”

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Chapter Nine

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