Page 36 of Assassin's Prey
“I’m fifty-three years old,” Bryant said grumpily. “At my age a scratch can kill me.”
“What the hell happened?” Remi asked, turning to give Bryant a close look.
The detective returned the favor. “You’re one of the brothers, aren’t ya? Can’t miss that resemblance.”
Remi scowled and kept his mouth shut.
Bryant shook his head. “Drive-by,” he croaked. Then cleared his throat. “A couple blocks from that lawyer’s office. Chadwick. The one in charge of your dad’s estate. We were going to check out the will and trust.”
My narrowed eyes met Remi’s.
“Black SUV came out of nowhere. No plates. I caught that much as I hit the pavement.” Bryant shrugged his left shoulder. “After that I was too busy yelling into the phone and keeping pressure on Benny so he didn’t bleed out in front of me.
“I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. The fire targeted you and your girl. My partner and I were asking questions about your parents’ estate, and ten minutes after we leave the squad room, where four or five people know who we’re going to question, we get gunned down? I’m not a patrol officer facing gangbangers every day; no way was this a coincidence,” he repeated.
“It’s too much like the bank,” Remi said.
It was.
“What bank?” Bryant asked.
I noticed him swaying a bit, his eyes glazing even more—pain meds getting the better of him—but didn’t mention it. “We had a similar incident earlier this week, before the fire. At a meeting set up by Abby’s lawyer, Lance Heinz.”
“The one who’s dead?”
“Yeah, that one.”
Bryant’s brow furrowed. “Definitely not a coincidence, then. Is it possible he knew you and Abby were connected somehow? Were you dating before her father died?”
The likelihood that Heinz had known, had possibly been involved in hiring me in the first place, was high. And after Roslyn had tracked me down through Remi, well, we hadn’t had the option of disguises in the hospital. Facial recognition on my brother could’ve given them enough to go on.
“Anything’s possible.” And the chances were high that the two lawyers had somehow compared notes and made connections.
And because of those connections, a cop was lying in the hospital, knocking at death’s door.
“Have you ever heard of Hacr Technologies?” Bryant asked.
The name was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I glanced at Remi, who shook his head.
“It was our father’s tech company,” Eli said in my ear, startling me. I’d known our father was involved in communications research, but had never felt the need to investigate further. Obviously Eli had.
When I passed the information along, Bryant nodded. “Haven’t seen the paperwork yet, but I do know your dad founded the company and was a majority shareholder. Other than his inheritance from his father, there’s nothing else in his background that might account for whatever the hell is going on here.” Bryant shifted in his seat, and blood drained from his face. He needed to get out of here and get more pain meds soon. “My uneducated guess is something in the trust involves that company.”
I’d say his uneducated guess was right based on my gut. But I knew Remi and Eli would be researching the second we got back. Hell, Eli was probably already on the computer, digging.
Bryant’s faded blue eyes locked with mine, his intensity burning bright despite the wearing of age. “They want to make whatever this is go away. They came after you, and now they’ve come after me. They want it all to die—the questions, the trust, everything connected with your name. They can’t keep the contents of the trust secret unless you and anyone else who knows about you are gone. It’s the only way to protect whatever it is they want.”
I wasn’t worried about me, or even my brothers, really. Rathlin’s army be damned; Chadwick wouldn’t be able to get to us, not now that we knew what we were up against. But if Bryant’s partner died? I might be an assassin, but I still had a conscience. I’d carry that stain forever.
“The question is, how do we stop them from going after anyone else?”
“The only person with access to the intel we need is trying to kill us,” Remi pointed out. “It’s hard to put the puzzle pieces together without the pieces.”
“Right.” Silence settled between us until I heard a click in my ear, then Abby's voice.
“Levi?”
“What?”
