covering up, whether she meant to or not.”
“Well, don’t kill her until you’re sure she meant to,” Jack warned him. “And what about the girl who’s with her? If she’s one of the bad guys, why would she bring a possible witness in with her?” Jack spun around his chair, ignoring the screens for the moment.
Ryder considered it. “Maybe Soledad is part of the whole mess as well. Just because she looks like a Madonna doesn’t mean she’s not evil.”
“You don’t trust anyone, do you?” Jack said.
“No. Not if I have even the slightest reason to doubt them. And Parker’s been just a little too busy with the refugees to satisfy me. We know there’s at least one person at this end that we haven’t caught yet. It may or may not be Parker, and I’m not giving up on her until I’m sure.”
“And if you find out she’s the local connection . . . ?”
“I suppose it depends what Peter Madsen says. He can make the hard decisions—it comes with the territory. The smart thing to do would be to get rid of her,” he said coolly. He could do it, of course, if ordered to. It wouldn’t matter that he didn’t want to.
Jack shook his head. “How do you think her family would take to that?”
“You think I don’t know how to make people disappear? I’ve never been squeamish about any of the less savory parts of my job, and that’s not about to change,” he said quietly. “Either Ms. Jenny Parker is a bleeding-heart liberal who enjoys throwing her time and money into a lost cause, or she’s a member of a ruthless cartel that traffics in women and children. All she has to do is slip up, just for a moment, and I’ll clean up the mess.”
Jack shook his head. “She doesn’t give off that kind of vibe.”
“You haven’t even met her face-to-face. I have and I still can’t read her.”
Jack watched him out of quiet eyes. “You ever made a mistake?”
Ryder froze. “What kind of mistake?”
“You ever killed an innocent?”
“No one’s innocent,” he said flatly. “If she’s the target then someone had a reason to shoot at her, so she must have pissed someone off, big-time. Apart from me.”
“You gonna tell me why she pisses you off?” Jack said, spinning back to look at his computer screens full of data.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“I think there’s more going on than you’re aware of, and I don’t want you jumping to conclusions just because she makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“If I were the type to jump to conclusions, she’d be out somewhere in the bayou, served up as alligator food.”
“You’re a sick bastard, Ryder. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yup,” he said.
Jack punched in a few numbers on the computer before turning back. “Look at it this way: the Gauthier family has enough enemies—she might just be the target of a mob war. Taking out a relatively innocent member of the family could always deliver a crippling blow.”
“Maybe. The big-eyed waif with the mysterious background might have been the target as well. After all, Parker’s looking for protection for her, so there must be an interesting story behind that Madonna expression and passive demeanor. Either way, with the two of them in the house I’ll figure out what’s going on. If it turns out she’s innocent, I can push her off to Remy or even one of the junior operatives—it’s a simple enough issue compared to what I usually deal with. Speaking of which, where is Remy?”
“On his way back from Oklahoma City,” Jack said briefly. “Weapons transport.”
As usual the information was succinct, without any human interaction. As far as Ryder was concerned, Jack was part machine himself, no emotions, no social niceties. It made work more efficient—right then Ryder thought he’d be happy if all his coworkers were the efficient, deadly machines Jack was.
“Emery, Johnson, and Duvall?” Ryder demanded of his favorite machine.
“Emery’s downstairs in
Shauna Rice-Schober[thriller]