Lone Star Christmas Mission (Hard Justice #9.5)

Chapter Five

Hell. Cash had hoped they’d have more time, that Harvin would have a cooling off period from his last kill. A cooling off that would give Ruby and the Maverick Ops’ search team a chance to find the asshole and stop him before he could murder anyone else.

But Harvin apparently wasn’t taking a break.

Worse, the sonofabitch wanted everyone, including Kayla and him, to be witnesses. Of course, Harvin intended for them to be much more than mere observers. This live feed was no doubt his way of throwing down the gauntlet. The challenge for Kayla and him to surrender .

“Are you willing to talk to Harvin?” Ruby asked.

“I am,” Cash said, glancing at Kayla. Of course, she nodded. “We’re both willing,” he amended.

“Figured as much,” Ruby muttered. “I’m sending you the link for the live feed now,” she explained. “The techs are already examining it to try to determine location.”

Maybe the techs would get lucky with that, but Cash was betting that Harvin didn’t intend to stay in this place for long.

“When you click on the link, block your video,” Ruby instructed. “No need to give a killer a visual on Kayla or you.”

Yeah, no reason except Harvin might demand it. But Cash would deal with that if and when it happened.

The link popped up on his phone, and Cash had a quick debate as to how to handle this. If he viewed this on the small screen of his phone, he could maybe exclude Kayla from seeing the worst of it.

Or seeing it at all.

He wanted to try to talk Kayla into just keeping her eyes closed, but one look at her face and he knew he would fail at that.

“I want to watch it,” Kayla insisted. “I need to hear what he has to say.”

Cash did a whole lot of silent cursing and hoped he could undo any damage Kayla would experience from looking at this nightmare.

He went ahead and sent the link to his monitor. The huge Texas landscape painting over the mantel faded, the feed replacing it. Like the other footage, this one was grainy and dark. Not a warehouse this time but rather the interior of a rustic log cabin.

The camera that Harvin was using appeared to be stationary, either sitting on something or on a tripod. The angle didn’t shift even a little, an indication that no human was holding it. But clearly a human had focused it—Harvin—and he had aimed it right at him and his stupid grinning face.

The man in the Santa suit sure as hell wasn’t smiling. Even with the thick white wig and fake beard, Cash could see the terror in his expression. He was on his knees with Harvin behind him. Like victim one, Harvin had put a gun to this guy’s head as well.

The Santa’s wrists had also been zip-tied. Probably his feet, too, though Cash couldn’t see them. He also had a swatch of duct tape covering his mouth. Had Harvin done that to make sure the guy stayed quiet and wouldn’t alert anyone if he started yelling? Or maybe Harvin had known what his father had done to Kayla and was mimicking that.

“Ah, is that the murdering bitch and Maverick Ops’ fucker who keeps saving her? Hard to tell since I’m looking at a big-assed blank screen.” Harvin taunted. “Tell me if you can hear me.”

“We can hear,” Cash replied.

Harvin’s mouth twisted into a sneer. “And the bitch? Speak up, killer, so I know you’re not tucked away in some corner, boo-hooing your eyes out or pissing your panties ’cause you’re too damn scared.”

Kayla hiked up her chin, and Cash saw the fire in her eyes. Hell. This was better than tears or panic. Even better than fear. But Cash didn’t want the anger controlling her emotions now. They both needed to keep a cool head.

“I can hear you,” she said, enunciating each word as if chewing them up and spitting them out. Her fury came through loud and clear.

Probably aware that he had pushed her buttons, Harvin laughed and just kept on pushing. “Cowards, both of you not to even show your faces when I’m showing you mine. And his.”

Harvin gave the Santa a hard jab in the temple with his gun, causing the man to make a muffled cry in pain.

“Focus on us, not him,” Cash insisted. “He’s just a tool you’re using to get our attention. Well, you have our attention so you don’t need him.”

Harvin laughed again, but there wasn’t a drop of humor in it. “I need him and others like him to get you two to fully cooperate. Yes, this is a start, and we’re nowhere near the finish line.”

“Get to the point,” Kayla snapped.

The laughter stopped, and Harvin’s eyes narrowed. “The point is I’ll be burying my father before New Year’s, and you, bitch, are responsible for that.”

“I don’t have to remind you that your father tried to kill Kayla,” Cash was quick to respond.

“Noooo,” Harvin said, stretching out the response. “He tried to avenge his brother. My Uncle Virgil died in prison.”

Kayla huffed. “Here’s a history lesson. Your Uncle Virgil murdered my sister while he was trying to abduct us.”

Harvin muttered a “Yeah, right” as if he didn’t buy any of that. “Bitch, if you hadn’t teased my uncle and led him on, he would have never made a play for you.”

Shit. What a warped sense of logic, but there was no telling what stories Alvin had spun to his brother and what had gone on that horrible night.

“I didn’t tease your uncle,” Kayla insisted, the fury in her voice. “He was a dangerous piece…” She stopped, no doubt realizing that if she pushed Harvin’s buttons, then he might just pull the trigger.

Kayla took some deep breaths, making a visible attempt to rein in her emotions. Hard to do with this delusional asshole, but she managed it.

“What do you want?” Kayla asked instead. “How do we stop you from murdering innocent people?”

Harvin got a flash of anger, too. Probably over that murdering comment, but he stared right into the camera.

“We’ll get into specific location later,” he said. “I need to set a few things up first before I’m ready for you two. For now, here are the rules.” He held up one finger on his left hand. “Wherever I tell you go, you two come alone. A-l-o-n-e,” he spelled out. “If I get a whiff anyone is with you, then you’ll get to witness a blood bath. In fact, you’ll be a central part of that.”

Cash’s gut twisted. This SOB was going to involve more than just this one unlucky Santa.

Harvin held up another finger. “Rule two. Bring no guns, and I’ll know if you’re carrying because I have some nifty equipment to detect that sort of thing.” He paused. “But I want the bitch to bring a knife. One big fuckin’ knife.”

“Why?” Kayla wanted to know.

Harvin grinned. “That’s for me to know and you to find out. Oh, and FYI, you’ll be finding out the hard way, bitch.”

Cash silently cursed. Harvin was going to try to kill her the way his father had died. Of course, he wouldn’t let that happen, but without details of the location and the set up, he wasn’t sure how he was going to stop this sick game that Harvin had set into motion.

“Gotta go for now,” Harvin said in a syrupy sweet voice. “I’ll be chatting again with you very, very soon.”

A split second before he shut down the feed, Cash heard something that he sure as hell hadn’t wanted to hear.

A gunshot.