The Lawless Kind by Matt Hilton Read Free Book Online

you.’
    She didn’t move.
    ‘Let me rephrase my question: what are you?’
    ‘Someone prepared to help. Do you need to know more than that?’
    ‘And the old man?’
    ‘I think it’s better that he tell you himself.’
    ‘Walter Conrad,’ she said, pouting at the name. A childhood memory came to her. She’d been visiting with her grandmother and had snuck up to the bedroom and eavesdropped on a telephone call. She didn’t understand what the conversation was about, but she recalled how her grandmother had signed off. ‘I love you, Walter.’ Kirstie had forgotten that conversation, but now it came crashing down on her in a moment of epiphany.
    ‘Is he really . . . ?’ She couldn’t finish the sentence.
    ‘Like I said, it’s best that he tells you everything.’ Hunter held out his hand again. This time the image of a killer’s hands had disappeared and she saw the strength as something else entirely. She allowed him to lead her from the bedroom.
    The room they entered was still clean and neat, but it now smelled of coffee, and the fan struggled against the heat of so many bodies. Back in her bedroom she hadn’t dialled up the A/C because she was hot, but to move around the stale and cloying air. Here the men who’d made the room their temporary home hadn’t thought to do so, but had sweated through their plans while downing strong coffee and deli sandwiches. Kirstie registered the smells, but did not dwell on them; she was too busy examining the men gathered round her.
    ‘Where’s Walter?’
    ‘He won’t be joining us,’ Hunter said. ‘In the meantime I thought it best that you get to know our friends here, seeing as you’re going to be spending some time together.’
    The newcomers were a middle-aged Latino with gel in his slicked-back hair, wearing a loose shirt over chinos and sneakers, and a slightly older, grey-haired guy in a sports jacket and slacks, who had ex-cop stamped all over him.
    ‘Raul Velasquez and Jim McTeer, they’ll be looking after you while the rest of us fetch Benjamin.’
    Kirstie was still holding Hunter’s hand. Gently she extricated herself. ‘What do you mean, “looking after me”? I’m going with you.’
    ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be coming to Mexico with us. Once we have Benjamin out of Jorge’s hands we’ll need you to take care of him. But you can’t be in on the actual snatch. You’ll be at a safe staging area with these guys. If all goes to plan, and we get the boy back, then it’s important that he’s with his mother. Otherwise there’s no way we can bring him across the border without raising suspicion.’
    ‘You’re assuming that Benjamin will be at Jorge’s house. If so, I obviously can’t be involved, but that might not be the case. If he was elsewhere, say a public place, then it makes sense for me to be there. It would be easier for me to get to him than you guys.’
    ‘Kirstie,’ Hunter’s eyes were cold chips of ice. ‘If Jorge’s men are as capable as you say, then you won’t get within a hundred yards of Benjamin. He’ll be heavily protected, I’m guessing, with operatives watching out for him at all times. They might not even bother warning you this time, but just shoot you dead at the first opportunity.’
    ‘What’s to stop them doing the same to any of you?’
    ‘We’ll be shooting back,’ Hunter said.

Chapter 7
     
    As we barrelled towards the Mexican border, Kirstie travelled with me and Rink in the rental car I’d collected from the airport, while Harvey, Velasquez and McTeer followed close behind in the van. Now that we were on our way, Kirstie had fallen silent, and in the rear-view mirror I occasionally caught her chewing her lips or tapping her tongue on her teeth as she frowned out of the window.
    In hindsight, perhaps I should have chosen my words with more care. Kirstie was fearful enough of her child’s welfare without my suggesting there’d be a firefight over him. But I was never one for offering false