Dateline Matrimony (Hot off the Press! 3)

Teresa and Riley both moved instinctively to intercede, Teresa’s face flushing with anger that someone had dared touch her child.

The gun seemed to appear from out of nowhere. Teresa went still, her heart seeming to freeze in her chest.

Brannon held the weapon in his right hand as he gripped Mark with his left. He wasn’t pointing the gun at Mark, but he got his point across.

“Where are O’Neal and Hightower?” he asked Riley quietly. Menacingly. “Tell me now, and no one here gets hurt.”

Chapter Fifteen

Riley had never considered himself a violent person. But seeing Carl Brannon’s hands on young Mark and the fear in the boy’s eyes and on Teresa’s stricken face made a surge of fury go through him. If—when—he managed to get his hands on this guy, he wasn’t sure what he would do to him.

“Please,” Teresa said, her voice shaking. “Let my son go upstairs with his sister. He’s just a little boy.”

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Brannon said. “Not if your friend here tells me what I want to know.”

“I don’t know where Bud is,” Riley insisted, trying to keep his tone mollifying. “He didn’t tell me where he was going. I assume he and R.L. are together, but no one around here knows where they went.”

“I don’t believe you. They wouldn’t leave without telling someone. Their families, their friends. The cops.”

Riley shook his head. “I’m the only family Bud has in this town. If he’d told anyone, it would have been me.”

“I don’t believe you!” the other man shouted. “They wouldn’t just disappear. I’ve looked everywhere for them, waited hours outside Hightower’s house and your uncle’s crappy trailer. I kept figuring they had to come back. They live here, damn it.”

Riley help up both hands in a gesture meant to calm the guy. “What do you want with them?”

“That’s none of your business. Just tell me where they are.”

Mark tried to move toward his mother, who hadn’t taken her eyes off him since Brannon grabbed him.

Brannon tightened his grip, making Mark wince in pain. “Be still!”

Teresa reached out instinctively toward her son. “Please let him go,” she begged. “You’re frightening him.”

“Let the boy go,” Riley added. “You won’t get anything this way.”

“Tell me where they are!”

He was facing a man who had gone over an edge, Riley realized sickly. Dan would have known how to handle this situation. But Riley didn’t have a clue. He knew only that Mark was on the verge of tears, Teresa was terrified, and it was up to him to do something.

“Let the boy go,” he repeated. “I’ll go with you to my apartment, and we’ll talk. You can keep the gun.”

Teresa tore her eyes from her son to glance at Riley, violently shaking her head. He made a motion with his hand, assuring her he knew what he was doing. Which was, of course, a blatant lie.

Brannon’s hand was starting to shake—not a good sign. Riley balanced his weight on both feet, ready to spring forward at the first opportunity. His heart was beating so fast he thought it might burst. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to get Mark away from this guy—but he was petrified that he would do something wrong and somehow make everything worse.

He moved experimentally, and the barrel of the gun was suddenly pointed directly at his chest. He took another step forward, his eyes locked with Brannon’s.

Reacting to the determination he must have seen on Riley’s face, Brannon tightened his grip on the weapon, his hold on Mark loosening. “Stay where you ar

e.”

Riley moved a step closer. He heard Teresa gasp, but he kept his full attention focused on the other man. He was close enough that he could dive forward and grab the gun before Brannon could turn it on Mark. What he couldn’t guarantee was that he could grab it before Brannon pulled the trigger.

If only he could make sure Mark and Teresa were out of the way. “Let’s talk, Brannon.”

“You’re the only one who’s going to talk,” Brannon insisted, extending his arm in Riley’s direction. He seemed to have almost forgotten the boy. “Tell me where they are.”

From the corner of his eye, Riley noted that Teresa had inched closer to her son, and he knew she was as poised to act as he was. “Now, Terry!” he snapped, and made his leap.