HUNTER
“Don’tyouthinkyou’re going too far?” I asked when Knight stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. The anger blazing in his eyes evened out to a smirk. The more time I spent with the other man, the cockier he appeared. I shouldn’t have agreed to go along with this when he’d called me earlier to share his brilliant plan with me. Confront Cosmo, shake him up, and drive him right into seeing me as his only safety net so he could trust and confide in me.
I would have bought it if Knight didn’t seem to enjoy playing the bad guy so much.
“Too far?” he repeated. “We’ve dealt with criminals worse than this. I haven’t even laid a finger on him.”
I straightened and held out a hand. “Wait a minute. You can’t touch him. That’s going against the rules.”
Knight shook his head. “Don’t tell me you’re the poster boy for law enforcement. Relax, Neely. I promise not to touch a hair on that boy’s head. I don’t need to. He’s a mess.”
“And what the hell is this supposed to achieve again?”
“I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept of good cop, bad cop, and why it works. I’m the guy who drives the fear of god into him, and you are the man who inspires trust and confidence. He’ll turn to you just because he doesn’t have any other options of whom he can trust.”
Knight’s words made sense. Barney and I had used the strategy in the past, and it had worked to a degree. Of course, Barney always played the bad guy, and I’d never had any empathy for suspects before, but something inside me wanted to put a stop to the current situation. Watching Knight scream in the boy’s face when he was cowering in fear had twisted my stomach in knots.
With a stack of pictures in his hand, Knight made a beeline back for the room. “You watch and see, Neely. Tomorrow, when he’s all yours, he’ll be putty in your hands, spilling every secret he knows.”He couldn’t be gullible enough to think everything would be that easy. Muffled cries inside pulled me back over to the wall to watch Knight rough up our captive verbally. He kept his word and didn’t lay a finger on the boy, though, which was a relief.
“Knight is really going at him in there, isn’t he?” a voice full of concern said.
I turned my head to Agent Ellis. He was the one in closest contact with Cosmo besides me.
“It’s for a good cause.” The words came out gravelly.
Knight showed the boy the pictures. Cosmo’s face paled, and his body recoiled a second before he vomited.
I’d had enough.
Ellis’s hand came down on my arm before I could open the door. When I raised my eyebrows, he removed his hand. “I’m sorry, sir, but Special Agent Knight won’t be pleased with you interfering. He’s one of the best in extracting information out of criminals. He’ll have our boy singing in no time.”
Our boy.What the hell was he saying? Cosmo wasn’t ours. He’d only climbed into my lap. He’d only allowed me to feed him.
Startled at the thought that flashed through my mind, I steadied myself with a hand on the wall. What the hell was that? Whether he helped us or not, Cosmo was going to prison. He was likely an accessory to multiple murders.
I stared at the boy, shaking and messy from vomiting on himself. How could he be involved in anything nefarious? The men who’d been killed were hardened criminals. He wouldn’t stand a chance with men like those. Whoever his Daddy was, we needed to find the man fast. The sooner we did, the faster we could clear up Cosmo’s involvement. Maybe he would walk free. We just needed the right man.
Knight marched out of the room. Unlike the smirk he’d worn the last time he came out, now his face was etched in a scowl. He lowered his gaze to his shoes, his vomit-covered shoes.
“Look on the bright side,” I said.
His scowl deepened. “Yeah? What’s that?”
“He could have puked on your expensive suit.”
“This isn’t funny, Neely. Be here early tomorrow morning. I’m tired of this shit, just sitting around waiting for him to talk.”
“What about now?” I asked. “I’m here and can get it over with.” Not that I was in any rush to assume a role I still wasn’t sure I could play convincingly.
“No, he needs a moment to cool off. Let him stew in his own filth for the night. Then he’ll be grateful enough tomorrow when you swoop in and pretend to be a caring Daddy.”
***
“Daddy. Daddy.” A heart-wrenching sob came from the boy shivering on the bed. Cosmo looked up at me with eyes full of distress and fear. “Please don’t let them hurt me.”
I sat on the bed and pulled the boy into my lap. He curled up into me, his hand clutching my shirt and his head resting on my chest. He was so light, so delicate and precious. It was wrong what we were doing to him. Keeping him caged up like a beautiful, wounded bird when he should be set free.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I whispered and kissed his soft hair. “I promise I’ll get you out of here, and you’ll forget all these bad things ever happened to you. Do you believe me, sweetheart?”