Wait for Morning (Sniper 1 Security #1) (31 page)

Sunday morning

Seven
people arrested, all linked to a string of popular downtown Dallas nightclubs
and topless bars. Authorities state that these seven people are charged with a
variety of crimes including money laundering, racketeering, distribution of
narcotics, and sale of unauthorized firearms. Based on information recently
obtained from a popular Dallas-area political blogger, the U.S. Attorney’s
office has announced that more charges are underway.

The
Adorite family, including Samuel Adorite, the patriarch of the family who
rocketed to the top of Dallas’s wealthiest entrepreneurs in the last two
decades, appears to be at the core of the recently uncovered use of the family-owned
businesses to launder nearly one hundred million dollars as well as the
unlawful distribution and sale of narcotics and firearms.

Although
the Adorites have been indicted on multiple charges in the past, the family has
never been found guilty of a single charge. However, court documents indicate
there is an eighth suspect, unrelated to the Adorites and unnamed at this time.

Casper thrust his hands through his hair
as he stared back at the computer. He’d read the article RT had provided him
and Bryce with several days ago more than once. Hell, more than twenty times at
this point, yet he was still at a loss.

For the better part of the morning, he’d
been at war with himself, trying to see what they all seemed to be missing. It
was making them all neurotic in their attempt to bring this man to a halt, to
get Marissa out of danger.

At this point, he half expected Bryce to
explode, and rightfully so. His only daughter was the target of a vindictive
killer: the unnamed suspect.

Yep, that was the angle Casper was
following after talking to RT a short time ago. Apparently RT’s meeting with
Max Adorite had gone as he’d expected, with the other man revealing nothing
more than his own innocence. Although RT seemed to think that there was more
information in what Max hadn’t said. The longer Casper thought about it, the more
he agreed.

Especially since… Shit, he wasn’t sure he
even believed it.
 

Had it not been for the mention of the
unnamed suspect in the article, Casper wouldn’t have thought much of it. Aside
from that, the authorities had once again attempted to nail the Adorite family
for the long list of crimes they’d been involved in since the dawn of time. But
that wasn’t news. Especially not to Casper.

They’d had a few dealings with the family referred
to by the media as the Southern Boy Mafia, a family of good ol’ boys—
yeah, right
—who had taken the reins
years ago as Dallas’s biggest crime family. In Casper’s humble opinion, there
wasn’t anything good about the group. It would take a hell of a lot more than a
meddling journalist to bring them down, regardless of whether there was a RICO
case against them or not. The breaking news of their most recent takedown that
had rocked Dallas last year hadn’t even crossed his mind once because it was an
all-too-common phenomenon. How the Adorites managed to evade authorities still
stymied Casper, but he wasn’t interested in how they ran their business.

Money laundering and drug trafficking
weren’t the worst of the evil deeds that went on around them each and every day,
but Casper wasn’t all that worried about that. His concern was with the unnamed
suspect mentioned.

And how the hell had Marissa been pulled
into this? He seriously doubted it had anything to do with her contribution to
the story as the article had suggested.

Casper had read her articles. He’d seen
most of what she dealt with, which truthfully was almost amusing at times. It
wasn’t surprising that she’d stumbled upon a story such as this, but honestly,
he was floored that she’d been practically named in the article.

It didn’t take much to put two and two
together.

There was something still missing, though.
Something big. He feared that it was right there in front of their fucking
noses, as Max Adorite had suggested, practically written in bright lights that
flashed along to music, yet they still couldn’t see it.

“Got a minute?”

Casper looked up to see Hunter standing in
his office, glowering at him.

“What’s up?” he asked, closing the Internet
browser before leaning back in his chair.

Hunter stepped into his office, his hands
thrust into his pockets. Casper would’ve offered for his son to take a seat,
but he knew Hunter. The man was strung tight, and, well, he almost couldn’t
blame him.

“I need an assignment,” Hunter said in a
rush.

Casper narrowed his eyes, practically
seeing the tension radiating off Hunter’s bunched shoulders. “And you’re coming
to me why?”

It wasn’t like Casper handed out the jobs.
Hell, he’d been practically retired for the last few years, taking a huge step
back so that RT and Hunter could take the lead. They’d done a phenomenal job,
working alongside TJ and growing the company by leaps and bounds. Far more than
what Casper and Bryce had done in the initial years of the company. If anyone
knew of the assignments that needed to be addressed, it was Hunter, not him.

“I…” Hunter trailed off, walking over to
the window and staring out for a long moment.

When Hunter finally turned back to look at
him, Casper saw the devastation on his son’s face. There was only one reason
his boy ever looked like that, and unfortunately, her name was Danielle
Davidson.

Casper sighed. Love could be a brutal
bitch at times, he knew.

“I don’t think I can be here when she
comes back, Dad.”

Hunter’s honesty shocked him, only because
Hunter hadn’t said two words about Dani in nearly two years.

Casper pushed to his feet and headed
toward his office door. Closing it with a gentle click, he turned back to face
his son, sliding his hands into his pockets. “What did you have in mind?”

“Shit, I don’t know,” Hunter huffed, his
voice tortured. “Anything. Shit, I’ll go overseas. Anywhere but here.”

Casper knew Hunter was still devastated
after Dani had walked out on him, leaving him at the altar on what had been the
most anticipated day of Hunter’s life. It had been absolutely no secret that
Hunter had been head over heels in love with Dani. And until that day, they’d
all thought she felt the same.

For whatever reason, she’d bailed, and as
far as Casper knew, no one had ever learned why. She’d merely skipped town,
refusing to provide Hunter with an explanation.

Never mind the fact that they’d all been
suspicious of her disappearance. Her leaving him on their wedding day had been
so far out of character for her, Casper was pretty sure they’d never fully
understand.

“Do you think it’ll help?” he asked
Hunter, standing a few feet away.

Hunter looked up at him, his face once
again expressionless, his bright eyes cold. “Nothing will ever fucking help.”

Casper could only imagine.

When they all thought Hunter would’ve
shaken off the anger that had clouded his world since Dani had left, he’d
proven that it wasn’t that easy.

Casper understood to a degree. From the
moment he’d met Elizabeth, he’d been head over heels in love with her,
insisting almost immediately that he would be spending the rest of his life
with her. That hadn’t been as easy as it sounded because he’d actually been
dating Emily at the time. What he’d thought was a tragedy had actually righted
itself when he’d learned that Liz had felt the same for him and that Emily,
bless her sweet little heart, had actually felt something more for Bryce. Their
lives had worked out the way they were supposed to.

He wished he could say the same for
Hunter.

Just as Hunter had attempted to do with
Dani, Casper had done with Liz. Once she’d admitted her love for him, he’d made
her his wife, and from that very day, after more than thirty-four years of
marriage and four children between them, he couldn’t imagine a day without her.

“What do you want me to do?” Casper asked
now, not sure he could help but wanting Hunter to know he’d do what was
necessary if that was what Hunter needed.

“I don’t know what else
to
do,” Hunter said, glaring back at
him. “I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’m not going to be here when
she gets back.”

Casper considered that for a moment. “Do
you think you’ll run into her?”

Hunter gave him a
get real
expression and Casper fought the urge to laugh. It wasn’t
funny, but it was clear that Hunter’s willpower where this woman was concerned
was nonexistent.

“I need answers,” Hunter exclaimed. “I
need a good fucking reason why she left, and I know myself, Dad. I’ll go
looking for her. I want her to look me in the eyes and tell me that she didn’t
love me and that’s why she left.”

Casper knew that wasn’t the case. Dani had
loved Hunter. He’d seen it. She’d been young, only twenty-two at the time and eight
years younger than Hunter, but the two of them had never seemed to have an
issue with their age difference. Or at least he hadn’t thought so.

Before he could say anything, Hunter was
heading for the door. Casper hid his shock well, choosing not to question
Hunter or force him to open up. He knew it had taken a tremendous amount of
guts for Hunter to admit what he had already. Of all of his children, Hunter
was by far the most closed off.

“Let me know what you decide,” Casper
called after Hunter.

“Yeah.” Hunter’s single-word answer was
punctuated by the sound of the door slamming behind him.

□«»□«»□«»□

Ryan was staring at the article on his iPad,
his breath lodged in his throat. How had he missed this? How had
any
of them missed this?

When he’d first had the niggling thought
that he’d missed something in the original article, Ryan had scoured the Internet
for more information. From the time he’d stepped foot in his parents’ house
yesterday morning until now, he’d thought of little else. He’d spent hours
reading various articles, and that was when he’d found a second article written
by the same journalist: Douglas Forthnet. The title:
Gun running: Could it be a coincidence?

And here they thought they were some world-class
investigators, yet the most obvious reason for this nightmare had been right
under their fucking noses and no one had noticed?

Max had been right.

Ryan leaned back on the couch, shifting
his gaze to the blank screen of the television. He was exhausted. His brain was
almost as tired as his body, yet he still couldn’t sleep.

From the moment he had walked into his
parents’ house a short time after leaving Trace’s yesterday, he’d been consumed
by the need to come up with something that would lead him to the man who had
set his sights on Marissa. Actually, Ryan had initially been more interested in
trying to find a way to prove that someone at Sniper 1 was
not
involved, that they weren’t leading this bastard to her
doorstep at every turn, but in the end, it was all for the same reason. Finding
who was after her.

That had been yesterday.

Two hours of sleep last night hadn’t been
enough to sustain him, but his brain had woken him, unable to shut down. He’d
snatched his iPad and started combing the Internet. That’s when he’d stumbled
upon the additional article that he was almost certain tied back to Marissa in
some way. Only he hadn’t quite connected the two yet. Worse, he still wasn’t
convinced that someone at Sniper 1 wasn’t directly involved, and he was even
more inclined to believe that Isaac Rhames was the man they needed to sit down
with.

Damn it.

Ryan’s cell phone rang and he closed his
eyes. He didn’t want to answer, didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment.
Except, shit, it was probably Z calling him back at Ryan’s request. Only now, Ryan
wasn’t sure he was ready to pull the man into the fray because he was pretty
damn sure he knew exactly what shit storm Marissa had brought down on herself.
And it was a big one.

“Talk to me,” he grumbled when he finally
caved, hitting the talk button and putting the caller on speaker.

“Hey, RT.”

Ryan’s heart rate suddenly sped up as he
heard the deep, throaty rumble, but he pretended not to notice. Trying to
disguise his body’s untimely response, he answered with a casual, “Thanks for
callin’ me.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly callin’ because
you asked me to. I need to talk to you. Got a few minutes?” the demanding male
voice echoed through the phone’s speaker.

“Sure.”

“Can you meet me?” Z asked.

Ryan closed his eyes again as he inhaled
deeply.

Zachariah Tavoularis, probably the most
single-minded operator they had employed at Sniper 1, just happened to be the
absolute most intense man Ryan had ever laid eyes on. He was the one man Ryan
fantasized about these days, and the one man who, without a doubt, he shouldn’t
want anything to do with, outside of a business relationship.