Page 22 of When He Hunts

Kurt Vail yanked a hand over his face as he stared at the crowd on Bourbon Street. Dancing and laughing and drinking. The people in New Orleans truly did party all night long. He could sure as fuck go for a drink.Hadbeen drinking actually, until the boss called.

And, of course, the boss hadn’t bothered with any greeting. He’d jumped straight to business. “She is.” He’d seen the deal go down himself. Part of him even wanted to take credit for the kill because there was so much money at stake but…

I know who that big bastard was.Ronan Walker.

He’d seen the snake tattoo on the inside of the guy’s left wrist. For a brief moment, when the lighting had been just right.When he was taking my ass down.

“How did she die?”

Hunching his shoulders, Kurt turned from the crowd.

“Did she tell you everything she knew before you stopped her cries?”

There hadn’t exactly been a lot of cries. The boss wouldn’t like to hear that, though. He always went for pain with his prey. “Someone beat me to the punch.” Not really his fault. The boss shouldn’t have offered so much crazy money for the kill. “Told you not to bring in other hitters.”I could have handled her. My team was ready to go.

“You were taking too fucking long. I needed to chum up the waters.”

His eyes rolled. The boss loved to go shark fishing. Always used stupid sayings about fishing and sharks and…Hell, I know the real deal, boss. I know you dump bodies out there. I know you take people out on your boat in the Gulf, and you chum up the waters with their own blood.Kurt swallowed. “Consider them chummed.” He personally hated fishing. Got seasick.

“Who took her out?”

“Ronan Walker.”

A grunt. “He always gets the job done.”

Give the man a giant cookie.“He also beat the crap out of me and my crew.”

Laughter. Right. Like he should have expected anything else from the boss.

“Sounds like Ronan.”

It sounded to him like the boss was impressed with Ronan. Whatever. “Guy is damn creepy. He kissed her, and he killed her at the same time. Never seen twisted shit like that before.”

Ronan had a reputation for up close kills. Yeah, everyone knew that. But…

The woman never even realized what he was doing.

“Where is her body?”

Another sore point for him. “He carried her away. Heard on the police radio, though, that some college kids saw her being dumped into the back of a car.” But that was all he knew. “You’ll have to talk to your superstar Ronan and find out where he buried the body.”

If he’d even buried it. Maybe he’d tossed her into the Mississippi. That had been Kurt’s plan, after he’d finished interrogating her. “Thought you wanted answers from her,” he muttered. “Ronan didn’t exactly give her a chance to talk.”

“I wantedyouto get answers. I don’t trust Ronan enough for him to know my business. When it comes to hits, his reputation puts him at the top of the pack. But he doesn’t get to learn my secrets. You do. You’re family.”

Kurt’s shoulders squared a bit. The boss wasn’t talking some mafia family BS. They were related by blood.

“It would have been helpful to make sure she hadn’t talked to any Feds.” A sigh drifted over the phone. “And to be sure she hadn’t hidden anything that could incriminate me anywhere but…our drama teacher is dead. There is only so much damage that the dead can do.” Satisfaction purred in his voice.

Kurt didn’t think the dead could do any damage at all. “Time for me to come home?” He was a little sad on that point. He liked New Orleans. The beignets were damn tasty.

“Not yet.” The boss had turned thoughtful. “I may have one more job for you. Stand down until I contact you again.”

Hell, yes.Let the good times roll.But curiosity pulled at him. “What’s the other job?”

“You may need to kill Ronan Walker.”

The phone fell from his fingers. And fear slithered down his spine.

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