Page 73 of Defender

The only advantage to Curtis Harper’s injured state was that his fury no longer directed itself toward Ashton.Harper had a much bigger enemy to hate now: the “partner” who’d left him as bait and planted a bomb directly under his feet.

So Harper was willing to talk to Omega.Wanted to tell everything he knew about hispartnerto bring the other man down.

“He only told me his name was Damien.I don’t know if that was his first name or last.”

Jon Hatton sat at Harper’s bedside, now three days after the explosion.It would be weeks, if not longer, before Harper was in any condition to be questioned anywhere but at a hospital.The man was handcuffed to the bed, although the chances of him escaping right now were almost nonexistent.

Jon was questioning the man, but Ashton watched from where he leaned against the window.He wanted to know everything there was to know about the unidentified man who had almost cost him everything.Cost him the woman he loved.

Jon pulled out a copy of the picture they’d gotten from the security camera last Friday when Harper had been caught talking with the other man.

“Is this Damien?”

“Yes.Bastard.”Harper spit the word out.

“How did you meet him?”

“I was in a bar, a place called Crystal Mac’s.”

Jon nodded.“Yes, I know the place.”

“We started drinking some beers and eventually we got around to talking about our dads.When I told him my daddy had been killed by someone in Omega Sector, Damien mentioned how much he hated Omega, too.”

Ashton’s eyes narrowed.So the unknown man, Damien, wasn’t a garden-variety psycho who just wanted to hurt or kill random people.He was targeting Omega, too.

“He told me he could help me get revenge on Fitzgerald—” Harper’s eyes darted over to Ashton “—for killing my dad.”

“So Damien had the plan from the beginning?”

Harper latched onto the idea that he wasn’t at fault for everything.“Yeah, it was always Damien’s idea.”

“The shoot-out downtown at the florist?”Jon asked.“That was him?”

“No,” Harper admitted sheepishly.“That was me.I followed Fitzgerald.And when I saw him stop at the florist, I knew the office across the street would be a good place to set up my hunting rifle.Just like hunting deer.”

“But you talked to Damien afterward.Once the police got there and you left.”

“Yeah, he caught me and pulled me into a building around the corner.Told me to let him help get Fitzgerald.He’s the one who told me about Summer Worrall’s place.That I could break in there and finish Fitzgerald off before he even knew what happened.”

Ashton turned and looked outside so he could resist the urge to go over to the hospital bed and beat the hell out of an already severely injured man.Killing Ashton was one thing, but Harper had been willing to just rush into Summer’s bedroom and shoot them both, even though she had nothing to do with any of it.

That was why Jon was doing the interviewing and Ashton was a member of SWAT.

“And when that didn’t work...”Jon prompted.

“Then Damien showed me his planning room.Told me he had a plan to help me take Fitzgerald down.Bastard,” Harper murmured again.

But Jon zoomed in on the important thing Harper said.“Planning room?Can you tell us how to get there?”

“Maybe.What will it get me?”

“For one thing, it will get you the knowledge that you helped bring to justice the man who put you in this hospital bed.For another, it gives the District Attorney someone else to throw some blame at once indictments start being handed out.”

Harper didn’t even try to resist; he rolled over immediately.He gave them the address of Damien’s house.Harper had barely finished speaking before Jon and Ashton were heading out the door.

They rode together, calling it in to Omega on the way.This wasn’t a location that could be rushed.Only after the bomb squad deemed it clear—after searching meticulously for any booby traps or explosives—could anyone enter.

Even afterward, Glock in hand, Ashton made sure every room was clear.That no one hid in any closet, bathtub or under any bed.He made extra effort to look for any traps the bomb squad might have missed, anything that might not be an explosive, but still dangerous, but found nothing.

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