Daniel

Daniel

The Hunter Series

Book 4

By

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing, LLC

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed
as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright
© Kathi S. Barton 2013

ISBN:
9781939865977

First
Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC September 15, 2013

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover:
Karen Fuller

Photos:
Shutterstock

Editor:
Eric Johnston

Chapter
1

She made phone calls as she raced across
town. Reilly was running for her life, or the life of her sister. The airport
was holding the ticket for her. All she needed to do was show up and pay for
it. She looked at her watch again. Fifty minutes. It had only been fifty
minutes since the phone call and now….

Her ringing phone brought her to the
present.

“Hello, this is Harlequin.” She moved
into traffic as she heard the person on the other end of the line talk with
someone else. She hated when people did that. “I’m hanging up if you don’t
answer me.”

“This is Officer Nicholas. I think I
spoke with you earlier about your sister?” Reilly closed her eyes and knew he
was going to tell her it was too late. “She was asking me to call you and ask
you if you remembered your promise.”

Reilly could hear the irritation in his
voice. She had to smile. Her sister could persuade anyone to do anything if she
wanted it badly enough. She brushed away the tears as they fell.

“Yes. I remember. Tell her to hold on,
that I’m coming.” He spoke to someone else. Then she heard the loud silence at
the other end. She knew he’d gone into a room and closed the door.

“Miss Harlequin, she’s very agitated about
something. She won’t…she’s in bad shape, ma’am. They don’t know if she’s going
to make it.” She heard him take a deep breath and knew that she needed to know
whatever he thought he needed to soften for her.

“Officer Nicholas, I’m well aware of my sister’s
habits and the kind of company she keeps. I also know that it was only a matter
of time before she was killed. It doesn’t mean I’m not upset, but it was a foregone
conclusion that someone or something was going to take her life sooner rather
than later.” She parked in the space for long-term parking and hailed down the
shuttle with a harsh whistle. “Give it to me. Give it to me like it’s a bandage
you’re going to tear off.”

She heard him sigh heavily. “All right
then. She’s been shot nine times. Most of them hit her in the chest, and there
is one in her head. The doc here thinks maybe she was raped, repeatedly, but can’t
be sure with all the other wounds. Then when whoever had done all they thought
they could to her or with her, they rode through the entrance of the emergency
room and rolled her out and into the doors without stopping. She’s high as a
kite. On what, we can’t tell. Whatever it is, it’s keeping her from feeling
most of what is happening to her. She keeps screaming for you. Then in the next
breath, she’s cussing you blue. I’m sorry, but your sister has been on our list
for some time.”

“No doubt,” she said as she stood in
line to the ticket counter. She shoved her luggage, one overnight, through the
slot, and took her ticket. She was then rushed to a waiting cart to take her to
the other end of the airport. “I’m going to be boarding my plane in fifteen
minutes. As soon as I land, I’ve set up a rental there. I should be there in
just over an hour.”

The silence made her close her eyes. She
knew it was a long time. When he’d called her over an hour ago, he’d told her
they’d already lost her twice. The only reason he’d agreed to call her at all
was because he’d heard of her.

“She’s probably not going to make it,
Miss Harlequin. Like I said, she’s in bad shape. I’ll let her know you’re on your
way. It might make her…nobody can believe she’s hung on this long.”

She closed her phone and hopped off the
cart as it still moved. She tossed money at the driver and thanked him as she
raced to the open door.

Reilly was settling into her seat when
she thought about her sister and what had kept her from her all these years. Drugs
and money had been the straw that had broken the connection between them. In
the past nearly ten years, she’d only heard from her step-sister four times.
Each time it was to borrow money, or to have Reilly bail her out of jail. Then,
a few years ago, she’d told her she was clean. The calls and the cards had
stopped after that. Meagen Harper had seemingly fallen off the planet until
today.

~~~

The hospital was busy. She’d been told
by the cop that he’d meet her at the doors. There were several officers there,
most of them drinking coffee or simply standing. She had known which one was
Officer Nickolas the moment she’d gotten out of the rental. He was the biggest
cop she’d ever seen.

She was rushed in, with him speaking as
she went. Little to none of it was getting through. She was trying to focus on
the fact that she was there to see her sister. When they entered the small area,
she only saw the blood.

The floor had been covered in it. There
were bloody towels scattered across the floor, and something resembling large
clots of blood in the dark liquid. Someone had tried futilely to clean up the
mess. She moved closer to where the people were standing, and when they parted
to let her nearer, she had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from
screaming.

Meagen’s face was nearly gone on the
left side. It looked as if someone had taken something to it and ground it off.
Her eye socket was empty, and someone had covered where her ear should be with
gauze. It didn’t matter, the blood had soaked through it and Reilly could see
that it simply wasn’t there. The other side of her face didn’t fare much
better. Her cheek was crushed, and it made her face not fit her. Her forehead
had a large gash in it from ear to ear across her forehead. It had been
stitched up, but still bled profusely.

The sheet over her was red, as was the
pillow beneath her head. Reilly was glad when someone grabbed her, for she was sliding
away.

“Steady now. She’s breathing on her own,
yet I’m not sure how. There is so much internal damage that she should have
been….” She looked at the man and realized he was a doctor. “I’m not sure
she’ll wake for you, but until she says whatever it is, she won’t go
peacefully. Let her tell you what she needs, miss. It may not be anything more
than she forgot to pick up her dry cleaning. Her body is shutting down. Do you
understand what I’m telling you?

She nodded and went to her sister. “Meagen?
It’s me…O’Reilly. Can you hear me?”

Meagen was the only person in the world
who’d called her by her first name. Her mom hadn’t, and since she’d never known
her father (he’d died when she was little), her stepfather called her simply
Reilly, as well.

Meagen’s eye opened, and she looked
toward her. Reilly doubted she could see out of the blood-filled pocket, but
grabbed her hand when she reached for her. Meagen’s hand felt soft and
sickening, and Reilly started to pull away for fear of hurting her.

“Go to where you found me when you were
sixteen. Remember? Go there. I left you something. You have to take care of
it.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Reilly heard her.

“You mean the—”

“No!” she screamed. “No, don’t say it.
You remember. Go there now. Don’t come back here or they’ll—” Meagen started to
cough. Copious amounts of blood poured from her mouth. Her ear began to bleed,
too. “Don’t come back. I’m dead. You know it, too. Take care of it. Keep…keep
safe. Please…promise me. Safe.”

“I will. I can’t leave you, Meagen. I
won’t have you dying alone. I won’t.”

The smile tore through Reilly’s heart. It
was both endearing and sad. “I’m dead, but you have to go before…before it’s
too late. The letter…the letter will….”

Every machine in the room went off.
Alarms and buzzers on small screens with waving lines that now were flat across
it were beeping. Reilly was shoved away as a cart came in with five people
seemingly attached to it. She moved back out of the curtained area and into the
waiting room, sat down for a moment, and then stood. She saw the cop standing
there and went to him.

“She’s gone. She told me that I was
never…I never meant anything to her, and she was glad that I’d wasted my money
on this trip. I’m leaving.”

“She wasn’t in her mind, miss. She’d
been in so much pain that—”

The tears were real, but the words…they
were the ones they’d practiced when they were teenagers to keep her from ending
up in jail with Meagen. Someone had to bring the bail money. She put up her
hand to the cop to stop him before she broke down.

“You said so yourself that she was bad. I
only thought that…that after all this time she’d be reasonable. I can’t…I have
to go. I can’t take this any longer.” She was nearly to the car when she
realized she couldn’t drive like that. She was sick to her stomach and needed
something, anything to get her over this…if anything ever would…so she detoured
to the vending machine in the lot and selected a cola. It was all she could
make out on the buttons before she had to sit down. She drank it as she walked
to the car.

Reilly had been there twice before to
see Meagen. Once was a long time ago when Reilly had only been sixteen. The
next time, the following year, she’d vowed never to return. Now at twenty-two,
she was back and knew this time she’d never return. She headed to the small restaurant
on Tenth Avenue, to where her sister had directed her to go. Reilly couldn’t
imagine what the restaurant had for her, but she had made a promise.

~~~

He watched the car pull up and held his
breath. An older couple got out of the new car and made their way to the doors
as he watched them. He glanced down at the picture in his hand and then out the
window again. Though he knew who he was looking for, he was afraid he’d miss
her all the same.

Benton pulled his backpack closer to his
body when a man walked by. He was naturally suspicious of everyone, but men
terrified him…especially after today, especially after what he’d seen. He’d
seen what those men had done to his mom, and for as long as he lived, he’d
never forget her screams when they did those things to her.

Another car pulled up, and he watched. A
woman got out, and he nearly stood to go to her when he realized it wasn’t her.
She looked pretty like the woman in the picture, but this woman was old. Not
like the kid that was staring back at him in the picture, but he was thinking
she’d be more like his real mom.

He knew this woman was his aunt, and he
knew that on some level she was not going to be happy that he was her nephew. His
mom had told him that he was her secret, and that no matter what happened to
her, he was to never, ever tell anyone what he knew. And Benton knew a lot.

The woman went to the counter and spoke
to the waitress. When she shook her head, Benton had a feeling that he’d been
wrong. He stood up and went to her as he’d been told to do, and touched her
sleeve. When she looked at him, he knew…knew as surely as his mom was his mom,
this woman was his aunt.

“Are you O’Reilly Harlequin?” She
nodded. “I have something for you from my…from someone. Would you please come
sit with me and I’ll tell you?”

She went with him, and he could see that
she was hurting. He was, too, but this had to be done. He was hoping she’d tell
him to buzz off, making it so he’d be on his own. He knew a lot of six-year-olds
that were making it on the streets, and he knew he was smarter than them. When
she was asked by the waitress if she wanted something, she nodded to him.

“You know me, so the least I can do is
buy you something to eat if you want it.” He shook his head. He wasn’t going to
eat ever again. “I’ll have some water and a couple pieces of toast please.”

The waitress walked away, and he and his
aunt stared at each other. Benton reached into his backpack and handed her the
file his mom had been updating for the past five years.

“It’s supposed to tell you what to do.” She
nodded and opened the file. He waited, knowing that she’d get to the part he
dreaded most of all. When she looked up at him sharply, he nodded. “I’m Benton Harlequin.
I’m your nephew.”

“According to this, you’re my son. It
says here that O’Reilly, not Meagen, gave birth to you.” She closed the file
and glared. “I’m pretty sure that I’d remember giving birth at fourteen.”

“She said for you to read it all before
you jumped up and left. I’m hoping you just leave. That way I can make it like
every other kid on the street does. I’m pretty smart.”

“Not very smart if you think you’ll make
it at your age.” She picked up the file again after the waitress brought her the
toast. “She said that you are very special to some very bad people. Why?”

“I don’t know. When I was little, she
taught me how to find you. Then when I was old enough to come here, she’d make
me practice. I’ve been coming here for a long time by myself. Then I’d go home.
She didn’t want anyone to take me.”

Aunt O’Reilly looked out the darkening
window and he could see her tears. “Do you know what happened to your mom? Did
you know that someone killed her today?”

“Yes, ma’am. I was there. They didn’t
know it, but I was in the hidey hole.” He watched the door while she continued
to cry. “If you don’t want me, it’s okay. I can make it on my own. I got some
money, money she saved up for us to run if we…she told me to take it and come
here.”

“I can’t leave you here. I don’t know
what is going on, but I won’t leave you here. She made me promise.” She looked
back at him and then took out her wallet. “Let’s go, Benny. I have to get out
of here before the shit hits the fan. Your mom didn’t say what, but she said
that you needed to be kept hidden from anyone here. Do you know anything about
it?”