Hooked

the Dell woman, neither of them will see the inside of a courtroom either.”
    “I don’t give a shit about any of them. I’d kill them myself if I could get away with it.”
    Linc felt Harry’s hand on his shoulder. “I know. We’re not giving up here. Colin’s plates are on the airwaves. Russo’s, too, although we’re not sure which car he’s driving. The whole city’s on alert. Something will break.”
    “Right now I feel as useless as I’ve ever felt. It’s the middle of the night, and I have no idea where to look for her. Don’t even know if she’s still alive.”
    * * * * *
    M ario smiled weakly as Tawny stood fro zen outside the door, her heavy breathing audible in a night as soundless as a forgotten graveyard. The sky, dark and foreboding, matched Mario’s expression―the one she had seen for the first time tonight. It confirmed he was everything the media claimed. Then his countenance changed and became fatherly again, and she saw the man she had known all those years.
    “I can’t let you go, Tawny,” he said with a short, ragged breath. He looked tired and sick, but he squared his shoulders as Reggie flung open the door so hard, he almost unhinged it. Colin, right behind him, stopped short at Reggie’s back.
    “Can’t you two do anything right?” Mario said. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “Can’t hold on to a woman for more than an hour without her getting away?” He rubbed his index finger down the side of her cheek. “I have no doubt she would have lost you two idiots and found a way back to the city. Even with her hands secured behind her back, the first car that came by would have stopped for a prize like Tawny.”
    “Sorry, Mr. Russo,” Colin said. “She took us by surprise.”
    “That’s why she’s smart and you two are stupid. A smart man never lets down his guard.”
    “It won’t happen again,” Reggie said.
    Mario said something under his breath Tawny couldn’t make out, but from the tone, she figured Mario agreed with Reggie. It wouldn’t happen again.
    “You, Reggie, wait outside for now; and Colin,”―he said the name with distaste―“go upstairs. We’ll be there in a minute.” The two men followed Mario’s directions like obedient c hildren.
    He guided Tawny inside and up to the musty room. They were alone. She felt sure she had minutes to live. “You can’t kill everyone, Mario. Cooper will talk like a parrot on speed.”
    “Most of what he knows is hearsay, except for the night with Rick. And that only matters if he’s around when the case gets to court. He won’t be. Neither will that whore wife of his. I almost fell over when I learned Eileen was the one calling the shots in their operation. She put out the hit on Sarah Marshall and that pretty-boy, Hansen. And those two did the dirty work. Who’d have thought?”
    Tawny tilted her head, scowled. “Is that what you called me, too? Whore?”
    Mario shook his head. “You were special, Tawny. For ten years. That’s why your betrayal is so disappointing.”
    “What should I have done? Go to prison? Besides, if Benny was killing off his girls, snitching on him wouldn’t have bothered me one bit. But I never mentioned you to the cops, and I wouldn’t have.” She wondered if that sounded believable. Even if it did, Mario wouldn’t trust her. He wasn’t conditioned to believe anyone he perceived as a threat.
    But she would have turned in Rick Martell without a second thought when she found out he’d killed Cindi Dyson and walked away without remorse. Mario knew that about her. Her action would have brought him unwanted attention. Any way she looked at it, she was screwed.
    “It wasn’t killing the girl that turned you against Rick, was it, Mario? There was more to it. Was he stealing from you? Is that what his death was all about?”
    “You always were the smartest of my women, Tawny. Rick was screwing me over, embezzling millions. I suspected, but I wasn’t sure until I brought someone in to go over the accounts. Rick funneled money out of the country with unparalleled brilliance, and it took someone with his ingenuity to track it down. He betrayed me, and that is an unpardonable sin. No, Rick was going down anyway, but this was such a perfect setup I couldn’t resist. Those two”—he gestured with his head in two different directions—“would do anything for money.” He leaned in, close to her ear. “And they’re dispensable, but don’t tell them I